'gift' Tagged Posts

'gift' Tagged Posts

Daily Devotions

I will not accept a bull from your house, or goats from your folds. For every wild animal of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.” vss. 9-10 Psalm 50:7-15 The psalmist was convinced that the people were misusing the sacrificial system that had been set up in Israel as a way to connect with the Lord. The people had begun to think that their offerings elevated their own status, a concept that has served as a…

Daily Devotions

Christmas Day And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” vs. 14 John 1:1-14 Christmas is the day chosen to celebrate the birth of Jesus, and the name was chosen quite deliberately. It would not have been adequate to call it Jesusmas. Not only would that name have been clumsy to say, it wouldn’t have come close to expressing the…

Daily Devotions

Then what becomes of boasting? It is excluded. By what law? By that of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.” vss. 27-28 Romans 3:25b-28 We know that our salvation is by the grace of God and not through our works, but Paul also says that we are justified by faith, and sometimes that gets confusing. Some folks focus on faith and…

Daily Devotions

For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus…” vss. 22b-24 Romans 3:19-25 For years Martin Luther struggled with his own sinfulness, believing that there had to be some way by which he could, by his own effort, be free from the horrible burden of guilt. But nothing worked, and his anguish continued until…

Daily Devotions

This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” vs. 24 Psalm 118:24-29 Over the last decades praise songs have been slowly making their way into the worship services of most congregations. At first they were resisted by liturgical purists who insisted they lacked the depth of the old chorales. Because of their repeating choruses they were called by some, “the songs without an end.” Often the words for praise tunes come…

Daily Devotions

Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.” vs. 3 John 12:1-3 Mary had gotten her brother, Lazarus, back from the realm of the dead, and her deep anguish had been replaced with overwhelming gratitude. When Jesus came to visit and reclined at her table for dinner, she anointed his feet with costly perfume and wiped them with…

Daily Devotions

All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your faithful shall bless you.” vs. 10 Psalm 145:10-13 Even the most nationalistic of the psalmists knew that the kings of Israel and Judah, no matter how rich or powerful, were nothing when compared to the Lord of the Universe. National rulers may sputter and fume, strutting for the masses in their fifteen seconds of fame, but only God deserves our thanks and our blessings. It really is…

Daily Devotions

 Philippians 3:10-14 … “Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.” vss. 13-14 There are some who believe that life in this world is a kind of qualifying test for the new life that has been promised to us in Christ…