'hope' Tagged Posts
Daily Devotions
I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.” vss. 1-2 John 15:1-4 It takes considerable skill and expertise to be a successful wine producer. Even the highest quality vines need to be watered, tended, and pruned to get the highest quality wines. Expert viticulturists spend years honing their craft and are in great…
Daily Devotions
Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.” vs. 20 1 John 4:17-21 During these last decades it’s been stunning to see people who claim to be Christians joining the choruses of hate that masquerade as public discourse in our country and around the world. Claiming to possess freedom of speech they…
Daily Devotions
So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.” vs. 16 1 John 4:7-16 When we get confused about the doctrines and creeds of our denominations, and long for a plain description of God, it’s good to reread these chapters from John’s first epistle. For him everything revolves around God’s love for the world, and he even goes so…
Daily Devotions
For dominion belongs to the LORD, and he rules over the nations. To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, and I shall live for him.” vss. 28-29 Psalm 22:25-31 The psalmist had an expansive sense of the Lord’s dominion. In his estimation no part of the universe was outside God’s control and rule. Even all the people who had died, all those who slept…
Daily Devotions
So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’ He replied, ‘How can I, unless someone guides me?’ And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him.” vss. 30-31 John 12:16-18 There has been a Jewish presence in Ethiopia for thousands of years, and some of them regularly traveled to Jerusalem to worship at the temple. Luke here recounts how an official of Queen Candace…
Daily Devotions
I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.” vss. 14-15 John 10:11-15 Even though most of us know very little about shepherds and even less about sheep, there’s something about the image of Jesus as the good shepherd that resonates in our hearts and minds. Put simply, we love thinking of Jesus as our…
Daily Devotions
But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” vs. 33 Jeremiah 31:33-34 Laws have a life of their own. As soon as they are established they begin to be amended and to proliferate. Soon every area of human behavior and enterprise…
Daily Devotions
Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.” vs. 2 1 John 3:1-3 Much to our chagrin, many of us have discovered that as we grow older, we begin to resemble our parents. In fact, it’s not unusual for a person who has known our father or mother, and who…
Daily Devotions
You have put gladness in my heart more than when their grain and wine abound. I will both lie down and sleep in peace; for you alone, O Lord, make me lie down in safety.” vss. 7-8 Psalm 4 The psalmist was content. Even though the people around him were yearning for a glimpse of light and some sign of good, he had all that his heart could desire. The Lord had put gladness in his heart and he was…
Daily Devotions
When Peter saw it, he addressed the people, ‘You Israelites, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk?’” vs. 12 Acts 3:12-16 Many believers have a mixed attitude toward miracles. We will gladly pray for healing whenever asked, but then when healings actually occur we are reluctant to call them miraculous. That wasn’t the case among the apostles in Jerusalem during the…
Daily Devotions
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” vss. 8-9 1 John 1:8-2:2 For some these words are so familiar that we’re almost surprised to see them pop up in a portion of mostly unfamiliar scripture. For congregations that use a weekly service of confession and absolution to…
Daily Devotions
If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true;” vs. 6 1 John 1:5-7 Evidently there were some folks in the communities John was writing to who believed that our behavior as disciples of Jesus really didn’t make that much difference. They reasoned that perfection, walking in the light, was too high a standard and that people shouldn’t beat themselves up if they wandered from…