The Culture of Hope Founded on Faith
Forgiven
In last week’s devotional there is a list of characteristics of who I am in Christ. I did not include forgiven because it is the basis on which every other characteristic depends. There are a number of related terms that the Bible uses with this characteristic – like propitiation, justification, and sanctification – and they are all components of God’s forgiveness. Propitiation is the reason for, justification is the remedy from, and sanctification is the result of forgiveness.
Jesus…..
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Who I Am In Christ
This weekend we will be singing the song “Who You Say That I Am” (Reuben Morgan and Ben Fielding, Arr. Jay Rouse, Word Music), in choir at church. God used the words to begin my thought process about my identity in Christ as a believer:
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Trust and Obey
This week we found out that the two hotspots that showed up in Dan’s early September PET/CTscan were not cancerous. Between medical procedures and diagnostic tests related to events like this, there is always a lot of wait time. We’ve done this enough that we no longer engage in “what if” conversations and it seems these wait times have become just a normal part of our lives, as in “here we go again”. But through all of…..
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Our Spiritual Heritage
When I was a senior in high school, I played the part of Captain Hook in the senior class skit for our Homecoming Pep Rally. Of course the audience booed when I entered, in the tradition of melodramas, because I was, after all, the bad guy. I had a mustache taped to my face and I made the red jacket with shiny gold buttons myself. My mother is the one who taught me to sew and, in…..
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Battle-Ready Promises
In John 16:33 Jesus states, “These things I have spoken unto you that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.” What a delight it is to know that God’s promises are not just hot air. God gave them to us and He will accomplish them in our lives through our faith.
There are many promises throughout Scripture, both in the Old and…..
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When You Pray The Word
Do you remember this fabled prayer form? “Now I lay me down to sleep; I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray my soul to heaven He’ll take…God bless mommy and daddy, brother and sister, Uncle Henry and Aunt Matilda.” I don’t remember using the first part of this child’s prayer when I was a child, but I do remember praying the meaningless piffle of the…..
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Clean Hands
When you pray, do you ever feel like the echo of your own voice is the only response? There are several factors that can hinder our prayers like this, two of which are sin and spiritual warfare.
Psalm 24:3-4 designates the conditions of holiness by which we are able to enter God’s presence in prayer: “Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who shall stand in His holy place? He that has clean hands, and a…..
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Forgiveness
After watching the movie “Overcomer” I found the Holy Spirit prompting me to consider my own unforgiving heart. It began with the drunk driver who caused the collision last summer and left me with a great deal of pain that continues to plague me. It included the Christian friend who revealed unrelenting hypocrisy in her blast at a perceived offense on my part. And it included the parents of a student I had in class one year who unfairly…..
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Discouraged?
There are times that I feel physically ill after reading syndicated news. It is disgusting to routinely hear about the abominable behavior of perverted people, the latest shenanigans of foul-mouthed politicians, and the rationalization of religious persecution. We do, indeed, live in a world full of evil and the Bible tells us that Christians will be persecuted (Jn. 15:20). But we belong to the Kingdom of God. Our focus needs to be on eternity and on serving God where…..
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Remember
This week, seven and a half months after our move to this house, I finally put the last of the pictures up on our walls. I’ve always found that the pictures are the first to be packed in the old house and the last to be unpacked in the new house. This move was no different in that respect from other moves we have made. As I carefully placed each family picture, I remembered the people they represented –…..