“Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.” (Luke 6:22) It doesn’t sound like a blessing, does it? Hated, excluded, insulted…why would anyone want to be “blessed” like that? The Master tells it like it is – …
Category Archives: Weekly Devotional
Jesus Calls Us All
Whether you were raised in a church family and never missed a Sunday, or have never been to church and never had a relationship with Jesus, He is calling you. He wants to show you His love and asks you to share it with the whole world. That may sound like a big job – …
Miracles Around Us
Sometimes I think if only we could see some of the miracles Jesus performed, we could have faith like His disciples…alright, their faith was often just like ours, weak and not very effective. Jesus told them “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not yet seen and yet have …
Chosen for a purpose
We are not simply a random bunch of cells that became human and then banded together. We were created intentionally by God to be His people. He didn’t just put us here and say “good luck”, He has a purpose for each and every one of us! The prophet Jeremiah writes “For surely I know …
Guided by God
“When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was.” (Matthew 2:9) Part of our Christmas story recounts Jesus being visited by travelers from the east, who had been led to …
My eyes have seen Your salvation
Most of us are familiar with the second chapter of Luke up to the point that “Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.” (Luke 2:19) While that may be the end of the “birth narrative” as theologians term it, there is much more to the story of Jesus and Mary and …
Saying Yes
When Mary heard what God had called her to do, she said “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). No objections, no requests to find someone else, just a couple of questions. Of all the call stories we hear from scripture, Mary is …
Fruit Worthy of Repentance
In Luke 3:8 John the Baptist admonishes us to “bear fruit worthy of repentance.” That’s a fancy way of telling us we have to make a change in our lives if we want to be saved. Yes, God loves us as we are, if He didn’t why would He reach out to us at all? …
Roadbuilding
“The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness ‘prepare ye the way of the Lord!’ Make straight in the desert a highway for our God!” Isaiah 40:3 I don’t really remember ever reading these words from the prophet Isaiah until my senior year in high school when I did the opening tenor solos for …
Being Prepared
How do you get ready for an important project or activity? Usually there is planning and research, followed by decisions and a timeline. A lot of time and effort go into preparing for a large scale or long term endeavor. Now I ask you, is there anything more large scale than salvation or long term …