'Lent' Tagged Posts (Page 2)
Daily Devotions
For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants…” vs. 16a Romans 4:13-16 Paul is taking great pains to show the Romans the distinction between the legalisms of Judaism and the freedom he had discovered in Christ. He doesn’t believe that what he is teaching is new. Rather, he tells them that the seeds of this understanding were sown in God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah…
Daily Devotions
Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord, and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn, saying that he has done it.” vss. 30-31 Psalm 22:27-31 Sometimes when we see the mess that the world is in and the increasing number of people who have abandoned traditional religious forms, it’s easy to begin to think that believers are like the dinosaurs and about to go extinct. Indeed science has brought new knowledge and things once…
Daily Devotions
Be mindful of your mercy, O Lord, and of your steadfast love, for they have been from of old.” vs. 6 Psalm 25:1-10 The psalmist wanted more than anything to have a solid relationship with God. He wanted to walk in the way of truth and righteousness–but he was wondering if he was going to be undone by past transgressions. Would God ultimately remember the sins of his youth and hold them against him? He’d like God to forget about…
Daily Devotions
Is not this the fast that I choose: to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them…? vss. 6a-7 Isaiah 58:1-12 The prophet imagines a conversation between God and Israelites who are wondering why their prayers aren’t being heard when they have been so faithful in making their temple sacrifices and keeping their ritual fasts. In the prophet’s estimation, God has a different agenda for them–they’ve…
Daily Devotions: ASH WEDNESDAY – March 6, 2019
March 6, 2019 For full passage click: Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 …“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” vs. 21 Today is the first day of Lent, the 40 day liturgical season set aside for reflection on the suffering and death of Jesus. It’s a time for special worship services and maybe even some experimentation with spiritual disciplines. Some of us will be thinking about discipleship and what it really means to take up the cross and…
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…
Daily Devotions: March 8, 2018
March 8, 2018 Ephesians 2:1-5 … “But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—” vss. 4-5 All humans are pretty much the same. We all have strong passions, what the writer of Ephesians calls the desires of the flesh. And those passions aren’t intrinsically good or bad, that’s just the way we’re…
Daily Devotions: March 7, 2018
March 7, 2018 Psalm 107:17-22 … “Some were sick through their sinful ways, and because of their iniquities endured affliction; they loathed any kind of food, and they drew near to the gates of death.” vss. 17-18 The psalmist was a realist. As he looked at his people’s history and saw the way so many suffered, it was obvious that they were reaping the consequences of their careless decisions. That continues to be the way it is for so many.…
Daily Devotions: March 6, 2018
March 6, 2018 Psalm 107:1-3 …“O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever.” vs. 1 As we move on in the season of Lent, it’s good to see how the psalmist regarded God. We spend so much time in speculation about the Lord’s identity that it’s easy to forget the essential truth that is at the core of God’s being. Not only is God omnipotent, majestic and holy, God is good!…
Daily Devotions: March 5, 2018
March 5, 2018 Numbers 21:4-9 … “Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died.” vs. 6 Sometimes the stories that the Israelites told about God reflect a very human understanding of how God operates. In this one from the book of Numbers, the people have been complaining in the wilderness—they even show contempt for the food that God has been daily providing them. So the Lord gets even. We…