'God' Tagged Posts (Page 5)
Daily Devotions
Psalm 90:1-4 “Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” vss. 1-2 The psalmist’s sense of God was deep and profound, far beyond the silly notions we hear bandied about in our time. There is no hint that he pictured the Divine as anything other than the “ground of all being.” Even before there was…
Daily Devotions
Psalm 46:1-5 … “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” vs. 1 In the 1520’s as Martin Luther was facing increased resistance to his reformation writings and the forces of the Empire were poised to eliminate the fledgling Lutheran movement, he found great comfort in the words of Psalm 46. In fact it became the inspiration for his greatest song, “A Mighty Fortress is Our God,” a tune sometimes called “The Battle Hymn of the…
Daily Devotions: January 8, 2020
January 8, 2020 For full passage click: Psalm 29 … “Ascribe to the Lord the glory of his name; worship the Lord in holy splendor. The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord, over mighty waters.” vss. 2-3 In our time, God is little more than an impotent fictive being for many people. They use God’s name almost exclusively as an interjection and seldom in a prayer. They often espouse a kind…
Daily Devotions: October 12, 2019
October 12, 2019 For full passage click: Luke 17:11-14 … “When he saw them, he said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they went, they were made clean.” vs. 14 The book of Leviticus is meticulous in laying out the ground rules for dealing with any kind of skin disease. Those who contracted the most serious of those diseases, the one known as leprosy, were ostracized from the community and forced to keep their distance.…
Daily Devotions: October 10, 2019
October 10, 2019 For full passage click: 2 Timothy 2:8-13 … “…if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.” vs. 13 People in the early church firmly believed that those who die with Christ will also live with him. That phrase shows up in early hymn fragments and was probably recited at baptismal rituals. But they also believed and taught that if they were faithless, Christ would remain faithful. This simple teaching was at the core…
Daily Devotions: October 6, 2019
October 6, 2019 For full passage click: Luke 17:5-10 … “The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’ The Lord replied, ‘If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea,” and it would obey you.’” vss. 5-6 Jesus’ response to the apostles’ demand that he increase their faith is enigmatic at best. It seems that he’s telling them that faith is not quantifiable. We…
Daily Devotions: September 20, 2019
September 20, 2020 For full passage click: 1 Timothy 2:5-7 … “For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human…” vs. 5 As time passed, the early Christians continued to reflect on the person of Jesus and his connection to God. By the time this letter was written–probably in the late first century, (and most likely not by Paul), there was some agreement that there was but one God, but that…
Daily Devotions: July 1, 2019
July 1, 2019 For full passage click: Isaiah 66:10-14 …“Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her—that you may nurse and be satisfied from her consoling breast; that you may drink deeply with delight from her glorious bosom.” vss. 10-11 Even the prophet knew that patriarchal language was not sufficient in describing the bounty of the Lord’s goodness. He’d seen children drinking from their…
Daily Devotions: May 29, 2019
May 29, 2019 For full passage click: Psalm 97 …“Clouds and thick darkness are all around him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.” vs. 2 The psalmist didn’t wonder in his heart whether or not there was a god. For him such a notion was beyond question. But he also knew that God was cloaked in mystery and was often obscured by the clouds and darkness of our lives. We know that feeling, too. Those of us…
Daily Devotions: May 15, 2019
May 15, 2019 For full passage click: Psalm 148:1-6 …“Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded and they were created.” vs. 5 The psalmist knew that all things in the universe have their origin in God: stars, planets, angels, sun, moon–all things! By the word of the Lord they were created, and in the name of the Lord they offer praise and thanksgiving. Our eyes have become dulled to the connection between God and the stuff…
Daily Devotions: May 3, 2019
May 3, 2019 For full passage click: Revelation 5:11-14 …“Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing, ‘To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!’” vs. 13 We who pride ourselves on our rational thinking and scientific view of the universe, don’t quite know what to do with the…
Daily Devotions: April 20, 2018
April 20, 2018 1 John 3:21-24…“All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.” vs. 24 Scripture teaches us that God is…beyond that there is little that we can know. We can assign attributes based on our highest human values, but those assignments usually say more about us than about God. God is inscrutable and unknowable, a frustrating…