'hope' Tagged Posts (Page 17)
Daily Devotions: August 15, 2019
August 15, 2019 For full passage click: Hebrews 11:29-40 … “Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised…” vs. 39 The writer of Hebrews was well aware of the proud history of his people. He could recount the stories of judges, prophets, and kings in great detail. And it wasn’t only the notable folks who had caught his attention. There had been countless others, too, who had been faithful to the Lord,…
Daily Devotions: June 14, 2019
June 14, 2019 For full passage click: Romans 5:1-5 …“and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” vs. 5 Paul is able to tell the Romans that people of faith can even boast in their sufferings, not because they are masochists, but because God’s love, the very presence of God, has been poured into their hearts. His insight has stood the test of…
Daily Devotions: April 20, 2019
April 20, 2019 For full passage click: Ezekiel 37:1-14 …“Then he said to me, ‘Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, “Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.”’” vs. 11 The Israelites living in Babylon had given up hope. They and their descendants would die in the land of captivity and they would never know the land of promise. The prophet Ezekiel paints another picture for them. The…
Daily Devotions: March 28, 2019
March 28, 2019 For full passage click: 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 …“So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” vs. 17 Being a disciple of Jesus is far more than believing in him and walking in his way. While those things are important Paul describes discipleship as more of a mystical union, an entering into Christ that allows us to experience the pulsating energy of God that is…
Daily Devotions: March 4, 2019
March 4, 2019 For full passage click: Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 …“Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.” vs. 13b A plague of locusts had descended upon Israel and Joel believed that they were a sign that the day of judgment was near. He pleads with the people to return to God with genuine repentance and not empty ceremonies. He wants them to know…
Daily Devotions: November 26, 2018
November 26, 2018 To read full passage click: Jeremiah 33:14-16 …“In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.” vs. 15 For centuries, the people of Israel and Judah had lived with the conviction that they were children of the promise. They believed with all their hearts that God had brought them to the land they occupied and that God would…
Daily Devotions: October 22, 2018
October 22, 2018 Jeremiah 31:31-34 …“No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.” vs. 34 This is the dream! Jeremiah expressed it well. He was an eye-witness to the fall of Jerusalem and became a refugee in the land of Egypt. In his heart…
Daily Devotions: September 3, 2018
September 3, 2018 Isaiah 35:4-7a … “then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert;” vs. 6 Isaiah hadn’t been reading the latest reports on the long-term effects of climate change–he had something else on his mind. He knew that the people of Judah were frightened and discouraged. Their enemies were very real and their country was on the…
Daily Devotions: June 25 , 2018
June 25, 2018 Lamentations 3:22-26…“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” vss. 22-23 The writer of Lamentations had endured the total destruction of Jerusalem and experienced first-hand the raw brutality of a powerful conqueror. The temple had been destroyed along with all the palaces and fine homes of the city. The people had experienced famine and starvation. The promised Day of the Lord…
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…