'grace' Tagged Posts (Page 18)
Daily Devotions: October 14, 2018
October 14, 2018 Mark 10:28-31 …“Peter began to say to him, ‘Look, we have left everything and followed you.’” vs. 28 It seems that sometimes the disciples were confused by Jesus’ words and wondered if they’d made the right decision to follow him. In this instance, his comments about the impossibility of salvation had made Peter think that their commitments and sacrifices had been pointless. That’s a common reaction to the gospel of grace. If it’s all God, then what’s…
Daily Devotions: September 26, 2018
September 26, 2018 Psalm 19:7-14 …“Moreover by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward. But who can detect their errors? Clear me from hidden faults.” vss. 11-12 Those of us who have been steeped in grace sometimes develop a subtle disdain for the law. We just don’t see the point of all the ordinances and commandments of scripture when salvation comes by grace through faith. The psalmist would have been amazed at our thinking! He…
Daily Devotions: July 13 , 2018
July 13, 2018 Ephesians 1:11-14…“In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit;” vs. 13 It’s likely no accident that the words of this verse remind us of what is said following baptism in many of our congregations, “You have been marked with the cross of Christ and sealed with the Holy Spirit.” From the very beginning…
Daily Devotions: July 5 , 2018
July 5, 2018 2 Corinthians 12:6-9…“Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’” vss. 8-9a People have long wondered about Paul’s thorn in the flesh and have offered countless possibilities ranging from the plausible (eye issues) to the speculative (doubts or unbelief). Of course we really don’t know; Paul says only that he considered it a…
Daily Devotions: June 14 , 2018
June 14, 2018 Corinthians 5:6-10…“For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil.” vs. 10 As followers of Jesus pick and choose their favorite passages of scripture, they often skip over verses like this one from Paul. Those who bask in the grace freely offered by God are troubled by intimations that there might one day be a time…
Daily Devotions: May 17, 2018
May 17, 2018 Psalm 104:31-35…“I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being.” vs. 33 The psalmist felt a calling to continually praise God for the wonder and majesty of creation. Everywhere he looked, from dawn to dusk, he saw the signs of God’s creative and renewing spirit. How often we miss out on the joy of that kind of living! We tend to get so immersed…
Daily Devotions: May 8, 2018
May 8, 2018 Psalm 1:1-3…“They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper.” vs. 3 So who are these folks who prosper in all that they do? According to this psalmist, they are those who love the law of the Lord and who meditate on it both day and night. Jesus said nearly the same thing at the close of…
Daily Devotions: March 16, 2018
Hebrews 5:5-10 “So also Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest, but was appointed by the one who said to him, ‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you’;” vs. 5 In the years before the destruction of the temple by the Romans the office of the high priest, once occupied only by the holiest of men, often went to the highest bidder. Herod the Great and later, the Roman governor would appoint and depose at…
Daily Devotions: March 11, 2018
March 11, 2018 John 3:19-21 … “And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.” vs. 19 The contrast between light and darkness was an important one in the gospel of John. In his prologue he describes the Word as the light of the world, a light which darkness was not able to overcome. In this section, he tells his readers that even though…
Daily Devotions: March 10, 2018
March 10, 2018 John 3:14-18 …“And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” vss. 14-15 We can wonder a lot about the writers of the gospels, who they were and why they were motivated to write. Obviously they never guessed that the simple stories they put together would face the unrelenting scrutiny of Greek scholars around the world. But…
Daily Devotions: March 9, 2018
March 9, 2018 Ephesians 2:6-10 … “For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” vs. 10 God hasn’t given us all of these amazing gifts of grace as an exercise in generosity; but—because God is madly in love with us, and there’s a method to God’s madness. In Christ Jesus, specifically in his resurrection, there’s been a new creation in which we were…