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Favor of Love
Exodus 23:3, Deuteronomy 21:15–17, James 2:1–9 Favoritism generally does not result in good things. By good things, we don’t mean financial gain. The normal “benefits” of favoritism is gaining influence or wealth to the detriment of another, usually by showing preferential behavior to an individual. Most of the time, favoritism is construed as the “weaker”
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Heart and Purpose
Psalm 20, Isaiah 50:7–11, John 3:16–21 “May he give you what your heart desires and fulfill your whole purpose.” Psalm 20:4 What does your heart desire? What is your WHOLE purpose? Those are two questions that humanity has wrestled with since the eyes/hearts/minds of Adam and Eve were opened in the Garden of Eden. What
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Sown
Lamentations 3:25–33, Matthew 13:3–9 For there to be a harvest, there needs to be seed and sower. God’s love is both faithful and abundant. All too often, however, we treat God’s love as scarce. There is a concept called the “scarcity mentality.” This mentality is one that views things as a zero-sum game, and that
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Harvest Days
Genesis 8:20–22, Haggai 1:3–6, Matthew 9:35–38 If you have been reading these devotions with any regularity, you might have noticed that I generally do not put myself into them (e.g., I, me, my). I am making an exception today. I was driving home, and passed a sign at an espresso stand that seeing, “The first
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Godly Disrupting
Genesis 37:2–11, Luke 2:13–19, Luke 2:41–51 Joseph’s dreams were a problem. That the figures in the dreams were readily identified by the participants tells us that the visions were easy to understand, Joseph explained the visions for them, or God also gave Joseph’s brothers and father the ability to understand them. Even assuming Joseph was
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Frameworks
Genesis 35:9–15, Genesis 37:1–2 While the “rest of the story” appears to mostly be about Joseph, it is incredibly important to understand that from a familial perspective, this is the continuing story (in comic book terms, the “origin” story) of Israel, both the man (born as Jacob) and the people (the 12 male descendant lines
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Family Issues Galore
Genesis 29:21–30:24, Genesis 35:16–20 Jacob’s family relationships (as we read yesterday) were already a mess. His Uncle Laban did not help relational stability by setting up his own daughters to have discord in their marriage. The consequence is that sister wives fought over their husband. They also used their servant-women as bargaining chips. From our
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Sibling Strife
Genesis 25:19–34, Genesis 27:1–45 If you have siblings or multiple children, you probably understand the tension that exists between siblings. Often, the tension may seem completely silly, but it is still there. Rabekah’s War in the Womb was definitely a precursor to the strife between the brothers. Twins (or multiples) generally do push and pull
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Were and Being Sent
Luke 9:1–6, Luke 10:1–16, Luke 22:35–38 This series of passages shows a progression of being sent out. The first passage is Jesus’ immediate 12 disciples being sent out. Their mission was to tell about the Kingdom of God and to heal people. Pretty simple goals. Difficult mission. This seems to be the test run, for