'New Creation' Tagged Posts
Daily Devotions
The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” vss. 10-11 Romans 6:6-11 Paul has some large expectations for those who have been baptized into Christ and who dare to call themselves his followers. We are not to be content with muddling along in life and blindly following the ways of the world.…
Daily Devotions
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe…” vs. 28 Hebrews 12:25-29 As the writer to the Hebrews continues his argument for the centrality of Christ, he makes frequent references to interpretations of the scriptures that are bewildering to most of us. His images and worldview don’t resonate with what we have come to believe and know. Many times his…
Daily Devotions
For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything!” vs. 15 Galatians 6:11-16 Some of the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem didn’t get what the new life in Christ was all about, and they drove Paul to distraction. Their representatives had followed him into the cities of Galatia and were telling new believers that they needed circumcision–baptism wasn’t enough. This conflict within the ranks of the newly formed Church provoked real anger in Paul, and he didn’t…
Daily Devotions
But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” vs. 27 Revelation 21:10, 21-27 As the book of Revelation draws to a close, its writer describes the holy city of Jerusalem as the center of God’s new creation. The vision brings to mind the great castles of Fantasyland, a place where there is no night, death will be no more, and everything is suffused…
Daily Devotions
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.” vs. 1 Revelation 21:1-4 Events of the past months have reawakened the fear of atomic war in the hearts of people. It seems that even in these “enlightened” times there are those who would willingly wreak havoc and destruction on their fellow human beings. Some believe that as weapons become more deadly, life…
Daily Devotions
From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way.” vs. 16 2 Corinthians 5:16-17 Followers of Jesus love to explore his humanity–they read books about the historical Jesus and have debates about what he was really like. Some go on tours to the Holy Land to follow in his footsteps and see the places where…
Daily Devotions
So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” vs. 17 2 Corinthians 5:14-17 We don’t see many stories of Jesus in the writings of Paul, and there’s a reason for that. He had never known Jesus of Nazareth–he only knew the risen Christ and believed that in Christ all had died and all had been raised. In his words, in Christ there had been a new creation…
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…