Devotion.al

Feed Your Soul

  • Stones Alive

    Psalm 148, Acts 7:37-53, Hebrews 2:9-13

    …[‘] followers began to shout and sing…” on the King who comes in the of the Lord! in heaven, and in highest heaven!” But some of the Pharisees among the crowd said, “Teacher, rebuke your followers for saying things like that!” [Jesus] replied, “If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers!” (Luke 19:37-40, NLT)

    All of knew and knows the Creator (Psalm 148). Jesus’ walk upon the earth was even transformational for the non- aspects of Creation. Creation has its own part to fulfill, and that was to second what humanity was crying out. In the law, a testimony wasn’t true without at least two witnesses. As a whole, Jesus’ followers were witnesses, and Creation wasn’t going to be silent either!

    In the story of Israel, piles of stones or a single large stone were physical memorials (i.e., witnesses) of what God had done. When Jesus says the stones would cry out it was reminiscent of the stones of witness.

    Stephen (Acts 7:37-53) reminds the Jews of what God had done, sending witnesses (prophets) to remind them of who God is. While they were alive, sometimes the Israelites would listen, but after they died, their hearts were dead stone. In other words, their hearts of stone were unable to proclaim God’s glory, unlike the stones that were on the road that Jesus walked.

    Jesus, who for a time was slightly lower than the angels (Hebrews 2:9), brought the world to , so that Creation (that man too often thinks of as mute) wanted to sing out the redemption of the world.

    • 1/KD) What would you do if a stone started singing (or shouting), “Great is the Lord!”?
    • 2) Does thinking that all of Creation celebrates redemption through Christ how you celebrate?
    • 3) What symbols (e.g., stones) do you use/have that remind you of God’s and love?
  • How to Come Back

    How to Come Back

    1 Corinthians 11:17–33 It’s almost over it seems. The time of being masked and constrained nears its end. On the other hand, already another strain of COVID is showing up, but the reality is that we, as an entire world, are at our limits. It seems great that we’re almost there, except that we really…

  • Future Tensely

    Future Tensely

    Psalm 126; Isaiah 40:1-11; Romans 8:22-25 Have you realized that Advent is weird? I love Advent, don’t get me wrong. However, the world has done a successful job of retraining us on what Advent is all about. Partially, I think, this is because of the image of an unthreatening baby Jesus with lambs, other baby…

  • Seeing Christ In The Lives of Others

    Romans 12:16–21 As part of our college ministry many years ago, we asked our college students to come up with their mission statement. It was coached in a business/organization language; it should have been better phrased as a Rule of Life. Mine was: Seeing Christ in the Lives of Others. Yes, the title was my…

  • A Movement: Of Priest and Temple

    A Movement: Of Priest and Temple

    …if we…focus too much on the outside, the temple comes crumbling down, for the internal structure cannot hold up the facade shown to the world, and we then dishonor God by our fallen temple.