'Image of God' Tagged Posts

'Image of God' Tagged Posts

Daily Devotions

Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died.” vs. 6 Numbers 21:4-9 It’s not uncommon for people to wonder why awful things are happening in their lives. And for people of faith the wondering is often accompanied by the question, “Why is God doing this to me?” Behind the question lurks the popular assumption that when we sin, God will arrange for our punishment, maybe not with poisonous snakes,…

Daily Devotions

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations. The Lord is faithful in all his words, and gracious in all his deeds.” vs. 13 Psalm 145:11-14 The psalmist uses royal imagery in talking about God, and his metaphors seem inadequate to people of our day. But for him they worked just fine. The Lord was like the most wonderful king who could ever be imagined, and his kingdom would endure forever. And while we may…

Daily Devotions

The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost.” vs. 15 1 Timothy 1:15-17 Paul wasn’t a half-way sort of guy. By his own estimation he was a brilliant scholar, far more zealous for the law than any of his peers, blameless in all of his words and actions. But after his encounter with the Risen Christ, he came to see that he was also…

daily Devotions

You have not come to something that can be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that not another word be spoken to them.” vss. 18-19 Hebrews 12:18-24 The writer of Hebrews had a deep and profound appreciation for the scriptures, and the ancient stories had been the foundation of his faith. But as he wrote to early Jewish Christians, he…

Daily devotions

Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator.” vss. 9-10 Colossians 3:8-11 Once we have begun to imitate Christ in all that we say and do, it will of course have an effect on our behavior. We’ll put aside anger, malice, and slander and adopt truthfulness as our new…

Daily Devotions

The Lord is king! Let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad! Clouds and thick darkness are all around him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.” vss. 1-2 Psalm 97:1-2 A long time ago, as our faith ancestors began to articulate their image of God they were adamant in claiming that the Lord was greater than all the gods of the nations. They believed that it was foolish for people to worship idols made of…

Daily Devotions

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.” vss. 3-4 Ephesians 1:3-10 There are some who teach and believe that humans have a heritage that stretches back to the very beginning, that we were created as spiritual children of God long…

Daily Devotions

Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord, over mighty waters.” vss. 1, 3 Psalm 29 As this psalmist contemplated the wonder and the power of God, it was completely natural for him to use the imagery of a thunderstorm, a violent hurricane-like storm blowing in from the Mediterranean, ravaging the forests of Lebanon, and pouring vast amounts…

Daily Devotions

Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment.” vs. 4 Psalm 51: 1-5 One of seven penitential psalms this prayer has often been attributed to David after his confrontation with the prophet Nathan, and the whole sorry Bathsheba affair. While its words are appropriate to such a setting, it’s unlikely that David was the author, and more likely that…

Daily Devotions

It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to live in;” vs. 22 Isaiah 40:21-26 The prophet may not have had our cosmology–we’ve pretty much discarded the notion of a three story universe–but he certainly had an understanding of God that defies the centuries. In his estimation the Lord was above and beyond all things and human…

Daily Devotions

John 1:10-14 “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.” vss. 12-13 John the Gospel writer seems to be saying here that people are not the children of God unless they have received Jesus, that only after believing in him do they truly receive the power to…

Daily Devotions

2 Peter 3:8-15a “But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.” vs. 13 Early believers were confident that God wasn’t done with this world after the death and resurrection of Jesus. They believed that there would be a total overhaul, a new creation, and that God’s righteousness would reign. It’s not that this world is so bad! After all the fingerprints of God are all over it, and…
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