The Culture of Hope Founded on Faith
Before the Cross: Comfort and Final Instructions From Jesus
Before He was arrested and taken to the High Priest to be tried, to Pilate to be convicted, to Golgotha to be crucified, and to a borrowed tomb to be resurrected, Jesus met with His disciples one last time to encourage them and to give them final instructions. His talk to His disciples took place after celebrating the…..
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Doing It God’s Way
Isaiah 55:6-9 records a prophetic call to repentance and return to God: “Seek ye the LORD while He may be found. Call ye upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake His way and the unrighteous man His thoughts. And let him return unto the LORD and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. ‘For…..
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Lessons From Behind the Shopping Cart
Shopping has recently become a challenge. Extensive empty shelves loom large in most stores, a phenomenon we in America are not used to. Driving around on less crowded streets is nice, but waiting in long lines to get into a lot of stores early enough in the day to find toilet paper still in stock violates our sense of efficient use of…..
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God’s Personal Involvement, Continued
My husband’s father lost two teenaged sisters during the flu pandemic of 1918, aunts that my husband never got to meet. Right now we are living through another pandemic and find ourselves in circumstances that can sometimes seem to be a worst case scenario. When bad things happen to us or to loved ones, we find ourselves wondering why.
Many times we hear Romans…..
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God Is Personally Involved In Each of Our Lives
I’m sure I have read this passage numerous times over the course of my life. But when I came across Acts 17: 24-28a recently again, I was moved by the action God continues to take on our behalf. He didn’t create us and then drop us off to fend for ourselves.
“The God who made the world…..
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Metaphors of God’s Strength From the Psalms
Romans 15:13 reads “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”
When we talk about God as Almighty and the Holy Spirit as having power, as in this verse, we don’t always think in terms of how that affects…..
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Secure In Salvation
[If parts of this devotional seem to repeat other recent devotionals, it is because I’m in the middle of preparations to speak at a conference with the theme of “Anchored” using, of course, Hebrews 6 as the basis of my messages. This just happens to be what I am studying right now.]
1 John 5:20 gives us some details about our Savior, Jesus Christ, that…..
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Holy Spirit Assignment, Part 2
The night He was arrested and taken to the High Priest, Jesus spoke to His disciples after supper in the upper room. The discourse spans John 13-17. Giving final instructions to His disciples, Jesus’ talk included specific information about the Holy Spirit. Here is what He said about the ministry of the Holy Spirit to believers, including you and me.
The Holy Spirit…
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Holy Spirit Assignment
There is a lot of confusion regarding the Holy Spirit. Different churches preach different things about the third member of the Trinity. But Scripture teaches us that God gives each believer the Holy Spirit who dwells in us (1 Pet. 1:12) and functions in a number of ways within us. Here are three of those functions.
First, He is one of the “two immutable things”…..
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Praying For Public Leaders
It is always painful to watch candidates for office jostling for position during an election year. In this epoch of social media and 24/7 instant news, it is difficult to avoid. The closer elections come, the more mud is slung and We the People cannot help but be polluted by it all.
Nevertheless, it is important that we be praying for our government…..