'open-minded' Tagged Posts

'open-minded' Tagged Posts

Daily Devotions

Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” vss. 12-13 Philippians 2:5-13 Paul is not telling the Philippians to forget about the grace of God with these profound and insightful words. Not at all! All…

Daily Devotions

But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, ‘Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.’” vs 23 Matthew 15:21-24 For the most part Jesus stayed away from the Canaanites, the original inhabitants of the land. He was a Jew, and the Jews considered these pagan persons to be unclean. He did the bulk of his teaching and healing in towns and villages that were exclusively Jewish. These were the people…

Daily Devotions

for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. Thus says the Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, I will gather others to them besides those already gathered.” vss. 7b-8 Isaiah 56:1, 6-8 As the prophet revisited God’s plans for Israel after the return from exile in Babylon, he realized that the old exclusive vision had to be revamped. Israel’s God had been too small. Now the prophet looked toward a new Israel that…

Daily Devotions

And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.” vs. 14 Exodus 32:11-14 The Israelites believed that their survival as a people had been dependent on great leaders like Moses who were able to even change the mind of the Lord. Their forefathers had deserved punishment for their disobedience, but the Lord listened to Moses and spared them. It may seem strange for us to think of God as a being whose…