'Holy Spirit' Tagged Posts (Page 2)
Daily Devotions
He also said, ‘The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.’” vss. 26-27 Mark 4:26-29 Jesus frequently talked about the kingdom of God in his teaching. He understood it as a present reality in our world and used parables to describe what it was like. Those parables frequently used metaphors about ordinary things that…
Daily Devotions
The righteous flourish like the palm tree, and grow like a cedar in Lebanon… In old age they still produce fruit; they are always green and full of sap…” vss. 12, 14 Psalm 92:11-15 This psalmist had seen firsthand that the righteous flourish in the community of faith. Their obedience and reverence for the Lord brought encouragement to all the believers. In their presence good works were obvious and they never stopped growing, but more than that, and this is…
Daily Devotions
…we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.” vs. 18 2 Corinthians 4:17-5:1 In recent years, some scientists, after generations of observations and calculations, have concluded that there is more to reality than meets the eye. While that notion may seem strange to secularists, it’s no surprise to people of faith, and was very familiar to the apostle Paul. Everything…
Daily Devotions
He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.” vs. 5 Mark 3:1-6 Standing with a crippled man in front of the Pharisees in the synagogue, Jesus asked them a straightforward question, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill?” And the Pharisees were silent.…
Daily Devotions
One Sabbath he was going through the grain fields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, ‘Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?’” vss. 23-24 Mark 2:23-28 There was a time when faith communities encouraged believers to observe the Sabbath by refraining from work on Sundays. Obviously there were some things that needed to be done, e.g. taking care of livestock and preparing…
Daily Devotions
Hear, O my people, while I admonish you; O Israel, if you would but listen to me! There shall be no strange god among you; you shall not bow down to a foreign god.” vss. 8-9 Psalm 81:6-10 When the people of Israel gathered for worship they were regularly admonished by their leaders to avoid worshiping foreign gods. This was a particular problem for the Hebrews because the Lord, their god, was invisible! There was no statue that could be…
Daily Devotions
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.” vs. 26 Romans 8:26-27 Praying can be easy! It doesn’t take much planning or thought to pick a table prayer to use before each meal, and often at other times we have our regular list of people–we pray for them every day, often in the same order. Occasionally we even…
Daily Devotions
But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” vs. 25 Romans 8:22-25 Hope is a big part of the believer’s journey! Because life is not like a novel there’s no way we can look ahead to the last page and see how the story is going to end, and some days that just drives us crazy. It’s not that we haven’t been told what the future will be like–all kinds of scenarios…
Daily Devotions
O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. When you send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the ground.” vss. 24, 30 Psalm 104:24-34, 35b The psalmist understood the basics! All things have come into existence through the Lord and all things are sustained by the Lord. There is nothing whose source of being is not the Lord! For that reason,…
Daily Devotions
In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.” vs. 17 Acts 2:14-21 From the disciples’ perspective what had happened with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit was unprecedented. All the old presuppositions about how God works in the world had been turned upside down, and from now…
Daily Devotions
And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.” vs. 11 John 17:11-13 In this story John pictures Jesus at the end of his ministry, meeting with his disciples for one final moment of communion and instruction. Earlier in the gospel it had been made clear…
Daily Devotions
for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.” vs. 8 John 17:6-10 The gospel of John does a masterful job of connecting the Creator of the Universe directly to Jesus of Nazareth. In his familiar prologue, the gospel writer makes the claim that the Word through whom all things came into being is…