When I was in college, I was a member of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. Our staff workers taught me about spiritual disciplines and encouraged me to make un-rushed time with God a priority. They urged me to take occasional retreats of silence, three to four hours without speaking to anyone, set aside to pray and listen…
Tag: Devotions
Love Never Fails
I Corinthians 13:8 begins with—Love never fails. As defined in this same chapter love is: Patient, kind, not jealous, does not brag, is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly, does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account wrongs suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, rejoices with the truth, bears all…
Consider the Claims of Christ this Christmas: the Giver of Living Water
“If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water…Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them…
Consider the Claims of Christ this Christmas: Lord of the Sabbath
Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” Mark 2:23-28 (NIV) The Old Testment laws for the Jews included a required day of rest—just as God rested from his work of creation of the world in Genesis (Genesis 2:2)….
Consider the Claims of Christ this Christmas: He Knows and Reveals the Father
“All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Matthew 11:27; Luke 10:22 (NIV) What a bold claim to say he alone knows the Father, the Almighty God in…
Consider the Claims of Christ this Christmas: He Came to Call and Forgive Sinners
While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But…
Consider the Claims of Christ this Christmas: “The Son of Man”
God’s voice was heard coming from heaven at Jesus’ baptism, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17) God, himself, declared Jesus his Son—the Son of God. But throughout the New Testament Jesus refers to himself as the Son of Man—human! Jesus was God incarnate—in flesh. Paul states Jesus, being in very nature God, didn’t…
Consider the Claims of Christ this Christmas
For the next few weeks leading up to Christmas, I will consider the claims Jesus made about himself. Before I became a follower of Jesus Christ, I knew very little about him—despite the fact I grew up in America and thought myself a Christian. The Bible presents four accounts of the birth, life, ministry, death,…
the natural person
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned… (I Corinthians 2: 14 ESV) Who is the natural person? Normally, I would say a natural person is someone who highly regards nature and…
Blah, Blah, Blah…
As a parent of young adults I am finally learning the importance of choosing words carefully and timing them appropriately. You may think that this is not a lesson that is too difficult to learn, but I beg to differ with you. I have homeschooled my children throughout their elementary and middle school years (and…
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