'transformation' Tagged Posts
Daily Devotions
Matthew 13:18-23…“But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.” vs. 23 We don’t know if Jesus was thinking of himself as he told the parable of the sower, but it is likely that the story reflected his experience in the course of his teaching ministry. And his point in telling…
Daily Devotions
Matthew 13:1-9…“And he told them many things in parables, saying: ‘Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up…’” vss. 3-4 Jesus didn’t lack for crowds in the course of his Galilean ministry. Wherever he went people gathered, and he taught them many things, often in the form of parables. The one about the sower is familiar and shows how he felt about those…
Daily Devotions
Romans 7:21-25a…“Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” vss. 24-25a Paul had concluded that there was absolutely nothing that he could do to help himself. No matter how hard he tried, no matter what kind of self-talk he used, no matter how many self-help books he read, there was no way he could escape his addiction to sin. It was impossible! And after a…
Daily Devotions
Romans 7:15-20…“I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” vs. 15 It’s not likely that the Apostle Paul played golf, yet his description of his own actions sounds very much like the lament of an addicted golfer. It’s probably one of the most frustrating sports ever invented, precisely because it mirrors the human experience. Even though we know exactly how life should be lived, we…
Daily Devotions
Romans 6:17-23…“For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.” vs. 19b Paul tells the Romans that their choice isn’t between being a slave and being free. Not at all! The choice is between being a slave to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, or being a slave to righteousness for sanctification. No matter which way we turn, we’re…
Daily Devotions
Romans 6:1b-4…“Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” vs. 4 Paul had all the details worked out. He could explain what happened in Jesus from a theological perspective and it all made sense to him. Jesus had died and had been raised from the dead; in baptism we are buried with…
Daily Devotions
I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence.” vss. 12-13a 1 Timothy 1:12-14 Because the Pastoral Epistles (1 and 2 Timothy and Titus) differ in both style and substance from other Pauline letters, some have presumed that they come from an anonymous hand later in the first century. While it’s impossible…
Daily Devotions
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” vss. 16-18 1 Thessalonians 5:16-22 At first glance it appears that Paul is giving the Thessalonians a new set of impossible rules for their new life in Christ, that it would be their duty to rejoice, pray, and give thanks continually. That would be a grim set of directives indeed, a whole new series of things to feel…
Daily Devotions
Then he said to them, ‘Whose head is this, and whose title? ‘They answered,‘The emperor’s.’ Then he said to them, ‘Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’” vss. 20-21 Matthew 22:18-22 Jesus seems to imply that some things belong to the emperor and that some things belong to God. It’s a clever answer to the question asked by the Herodian’s, and they’re puzzled about how to respond to…
Daily Devotions
Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to perish. But we speak God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory.” vss.6-7 1 Corinthians 2:6-12 Even though Paul did not use lofty terms and eloquent language in talking with the Corinthians, he was a learned man and nobody’s fool. But he wasn’t interested in the…
Daily Devotions
Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee… From that time Jesus began to proclaim, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’” vss. 12, 17 Matthew 4:12-17 After John had been arrested, Jesus returned to the area where he had grown up to begin his active ministry. At first his message of repentance seems to be an extension of what John had been saying, and that’s not surprising. In any age, those who…
Daily Devotions
The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing.” vss. 1-2a Isaiah 35:1-4 Isaiah lived in a semi-arid land, right on the edge of the Judean desert, and he annually observed the effects of the rainy season. When the winter rains come in January or February, the desert blooms. Areas that appear to be barren much of the year suddenly are…