Devotion.al

  • Stand On Hope

    Isaiah 26:1–6, Psalm 18:1–9, Nehemiah 6:15–16 (read online ⧉)

    What is ? Hope is knowing deeper than deep that God has got your back. The struggle for us is that having our back doesn’t always mean avoiding or consequences.

    Isaiah’s of Jersualem is that of a city that can withstand whatever the world can throw at it. It will be occupied by a righteous . Characteristics of this nation are righteous, , God-reliant, peaceful, trusting, humble. These are to be the universal attributes of those who themselves God’s.

    God is the rock of hope. This hope is not bound in the world’s hopes of money, things, , or influence, but solely on God’s , , and . As God is everlasting, God-ly hope will not fade away. The world’s hopes, along with the world itself, will pass away.

    God as rock (i.e., foundation) and walls, we can “stand on” God and are protected by God. Often the times we are truly aware of God is when it is only God’s foundation and protective walls keep us safe.

    1) Why is foundation and wall so integral to hope?

    2) What do you think of these characteristics of the nation in Isaiah’s vision?

    3) How are ways you can explain God-ly hope versus worldly hope?

  • Stars of Hope

    Genesis 22:15–18, Deuteronomy 1:10, Isaiah 54:1–10, Romans 4:13–25 (read online ⧉)

    Twice God promised Abraham (and once for Jacob) that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars. Imagine all the stars without our modern lights drowning them out. For Abraham that was a beyond , and certainly beyond anything that God needed to promise for Abraham’s obedience. God made this promise of God’s own free will.

    As inheritor’s of God’s promise, Moses reminded the Israelites of God’s fulfilled promise prior to their entry into the Promised Land. The Israelites were the result of Abraham’s . That God was gave them as they entered the promised land, as long as they listened to God.

    Often keeping the flame of hope going is a challenge while everyone else’s seems to be a huge successful bonfire. The promise of uncountable descendants is extraordinarily painful when one is childless. Isaiah speaks of Israel that has no children. This symbolic Israel is God’s faithful . She has no children of faith, for they have all left the faith. The enemies of and in the world have drawn her offspring away from the Water of Life. God, however, promises the now barren Israel will have innumerable children.

    This is what is referring to as the Promise of Faith. Being the of Nations (Abraham) is no longer an issue of blood, but the fulfillment of the faith that Abraham showed to God and those that put their hope in . Through Jesus, we all become part of “the blood” of Abraham, and part of the “nations” that he fathered.

    1) Why do you think Isaiah used barren as a sign of hope?

    2) Why is important to recall the fulfilled promises of God? What does it do for us?

    FD) Why do you think hope often symbolized by a flame?

  • Deepest Hope

    1 Samuel 1:12–20, 2 Kings 4:8–17, Hebrews 11:32–40 (read online ⧉)

    For many people having a child is the deepest yearning that they have. Not everyone is able to have children. Some have gone through miscarriages. Many more have gone through stillbirths. Still more lose their children when they were young. When dreams of our deepest longings are destroyed, often soon follows.

    Hannah was not able to conceive. This created a trial for her. Her fellow wife made her miserable and used her own children as emotional weapons against Hannah. Hannah’s husband probably felt as lost as Hannah did. While he did have children with his other wife, his hurt for Hannah. It would seem, on its surface, to not have been the best experience between Hannah and Eli. In fact, Eli did not seem to be much of a spiritual counselor, but more like a grumpy old man. Regardless, Hannah took something away from that encounter, and the weight in her heart was cast off. She had hope.

    The Shunammite woman (oddly, never named), too, wish for a child. In an echo of Abraham and Sarah, apparently he (at least) was old. A child seemed out of reach. In the case of Hannah, wasn’t mentioned, implying that she would be unable to explain the situation. The Shunammite woman, on the other hand, had a rationale for her lack of hope. She “knew” that things had passed a point of no . Elisha was able to restore that hope with a . What she had experienced with Elisha is open for thought. Whatever her experience with him allowed her to his words, and to have hope.

    The author of Hebrews is trying to instill this same kind of hope into believers who are feeling under pressure and persecution. The writer, through the examples given, shows that God is of having hope in. Not the weak hope of a wish, but the firm hope of knowing that God is there, and working in and through all things, even when we don’t understand, and especially when it is scary and it hurts.

    1) Have you ever had a hard time you had to have hope in God to make it through? What was it like to have that hope?

    2) What do you think the key to having hope and trust in the darkest parts of ?

    3) Why do you think “ to life” is important concept in hope?

    FD) What do you do to have hope when you are struggling?

  • Hope in Death

    Isaiah 4:2–6, Romans 6:1–11 (read online ⧉)

    If you have been steeped in Christian thinking you can read this passage as an obvious foreshadowing of the Messiah (). Let’s our Christian thinking, and look at this from a beaten and downtrodden people. This passage provided beyond the for them.

    The dark times (exile) could not be avoided. In fact, they were guaranteed. The Israelites had to go through the darkness of purification. It was only going through some sort of refining process that they would be stripped of all that had gotten them to the place of exile in the first place.

    Exile in some respects was indeed a . It was to be the death of all that separated them from God. uses the image of the crucifixion to do much the same thing. There is a definite parallel between the death of Jesus on the cross and the exile.

    It is what is beyond the exile (just as what is beyond the cross) that is the true hope. The place and time where we are restored and all that we have done and left undone is erased. No more being stuck. Moving with God.

    1) Moving forward in hope is the great that God. What hope has God given you?

    2) Hope can be fleeting. What can you do in your , and the lives of , to build up hope?

    FD) Can you explain what hope is?

  • Hope Together

    1 Chronicles 29:14–19, Psalm 31, Isaiah 2:1–5 (read online ⧉)

    It is pretty universal across humanity for people to question their value and their purpose. In the ancient world, the view of gods was often not particularly positive. Much of the activity was done to appease the wrathful gods and to “bribe” them enough to maybe get what was desired. The progressive understanding of the Israelites was that while God required sacrifice it was much more than that.

    David rarely seemed to view himself particularly highly (which have actually been a problem, at times). This gave David an interesting insofar as he knew that while God had him (and his family), he didn’t take it for granted. He was grateful and amazed. In addition, part of his history (and that of Israel) was one of constant strife with the nations around them, and often at the losing .

    It was the non-losing end that remained the underlying story of the Israelites…hope. David understood that while Israel was often in trouble, often through its own misbehavior, with God’s selection of David and his family that there was indeed hope that the people would finally be unified. Through unification, perhaps the people of Israel would finally be strong enough to stand against the forces around them.

    Regardless, for David at least, it all relied on God. While David and his military might could protect the nation to some degree, it was only through God’s mighty hand and care that the nation, and its people, would thrive. In Psalm 31, David calls upon God’s . Foreshadowing a significant event in the death of his descendant, David wrote, “…into your hand I entrust my .” Hope and in God are what allows us to continue in strength when we cannot see in the dark.

    Isaiah’s vision shows us that even then God was looking forward to everyone worshiping God with each other. This would cross national, ethnic, language, and cultural barriers. This hope, of a world in worship of God, is what we have to share with those who don’t know God. Let us take the light of hope forward into our lives.
    1) Have you ever questioned your value or purpose? What do David’s words say to that?

    2) Why is entrusting yourself to God such an important perspective?

    3) There is more than just worship involved in Isaiah’s vision? What else is there?

    FD) What do you think David means by trusting his spirit to God?

  • Peace and Blessings

    Numbers 6:22–27, Luke 10:3–12, John 14:25–30, John 20:19–28 (read online ⧉)

    The Levitical or priestly blessing has been a mainstay for the Jews and Christians for millennia. The pronouncement of blessing, protection, acknowledgment, , , and pretty much sums up what a with God should result in. What makes this tiny passage even more strange, yet intimate and comforting is that God states that this is God’s name. Perhaps not a name in the proper sense, but God’s name nonetheless. God’s name would then be Blessing Protecting Shining (i.e., “I see and acknowledge you”) Gracious Favoring Peace- God.

    When Jesus, therefore, sends out the disciples, they are being sent out on his (God’s) behalf to bestow peace upon . So, think about this…they are to withdraw their peace from houses that do not respond. If peace is there…if God is there. If peace is not there…God is not there. There there is how peace is lived out. The disciples were to go to the first house that welcomed and accepted them. They were to go from house to house to get a better deal (certainly not the way our culture functions). Were they to do this, they would be contaminating God’s peace that they were sent with.

    This becomes even more apparent in Jesus’ bestowing of peace on his 11 disciples on his final night with them (Judas had left at this point of the evening). They were no longer just sent with his peace (as they were before), but now they were bearers of his peace. It sounds similar, granted, but it is different. Similar to baby birds, they went out (previously) and came back. However, now it was time to leave the nest, and they had to carry forth on their own.

    Yet, even on their own, Jesus still has to restore their peace, just as it is with us. They had just witnessed something horrible, evil, and unjust. Then they experience the unimaginable. Now they were, they felt, like without their shepherd. This time, peace is the tranquility in the . Only Jesus can it so deeply. Only when we embrace it do we receive it.

    1) What does it mean to embrace the peace of God? What might it mean to us and the way we live our lives to embrace the peace of God?

    2) is a significant part of God’s peace. What needs to be surrendered for God’s peace?

    3) What has to be surrendered for the world’s peace? What is the difference in surrendering to God and to the world for peace?

  • Valuing the Heart

    Psalm 6, Mark 5:24–34, Luke 7:36–50 (read online ⧉)

    We greatly our doctors and nurses who nurse ourselves and our ones to health. However, what we do today is different than it used to be. Science and medicine have provided us information that is beyond ancient knowledge. Even we untrained people have a far greater knowledge of than was available to the person many years ago. Thus when the for healing, and when healing occurs it is a miracle. This is not to diminish the healing received then or now. However, there is something here in Scripture that is only recently coming into mainstream thinking….

    The woman who touched ‘ cloak was both desperate and had . An interesting combination to say the least. Suffering from an injury/illness for 12 years and bankrupt because of it. We’ve heard stories of or known people who may have not suffered as long but certainly lost everything. Healing was great. Peace was needed too with all that she had gone through.

    Then there was the woman who poured perfume on and washed Jesus’ feet. Obviously infamous among the “clean” and “appropriate” people, she was probably a societal outcast in some form or another. Her entire life was not likely to be a gentle one. She needed peace.

    Neither woman, at the point we them, are doing well in life. Based on context, we can reasonably say that they were the downtrodden of the downtrodden, and they were women. All of this piled together in that time meant that even being healed or being defended by Jesus would not necessarily make their lives easier.

    What Jesus did is justify their existence. He saw them for what they were…children of God. He valued them. By valuing them, and publically doing so no less, he gave them an opportunity to have something they may have never had, or hadn’t had in a very long time…peace.

    Our medicine and science are great. We are doing so well on the “mechanical” side of healing. We aren’t, however, doing as well in healing hearts. In cases of severe health issues, just being healed is only the beginning. There are some forms of emotional trauma that go along with that. Those that have suffered need peace.

    1) The “mechanical” nature of medicine resembles other “mechanical” areas of our society. Why do we avoid dealing with emotions? What does it mean to you that Jesus brings peace in those situations?

    2) Societal healing is painful. Currently, there are a lot of scabs being peeled off and oozing sores finally being treated. Thinking of the above stories, what does that tell us about how Jesus would respond today?

    3) Christians regularly pray for physical healing. Why? What do we miss when we pray for physical healing alone?

  • Herald of the King

    Isaiah 40:3–11, Malachi 3:1–2, Luke 1:39–44, Luke 1:59–80 (read online ⧉)

    It has been said (by Christians, of course) that John the Baptist was the last Old Testament prophet. By that, they meant that (and his , , resurrection, and the subsequent of the Holy ) was the New Testament. In some ways, they are correct. The New Testament is about the life and work of Jesus Christ, and the new work of the Holy Spirit (through the ). John the Baptist was the last one (though not really) to say that God was coming before God actually came. John the Baptist sounded like many of the prophets of old.

    It seems peculiar to John the Baptist, well, the Baptist. According to the Scriptures, perhaps he should be John the Herald. It would certainly be appropriate. It would also call to mind John’s purpose, heralding the coming of God, rather than focusing on his acts of baptism. It’s not that the baptisms he performed were bad, but ultimately they were a to the coming of Jesus.

    That John, in the womb (!), “leaped” at the of Mary is startling (though babies do recognize voices in the womb). Even in the womb, John was heralding the coming king. It is sad, in some ways, that John’s place seems to have been decided from a young age, yet he could have made a different decision.

    Ultimately, John’s purpose was by heralding Jesus’ arrival. Like so many do, he could have opposed Jesus, and many would have listened. He didn’t. By his actions, he fulfilled the words of his father. John guided the people to the only one whose way is the path of peace.

    1) John’s place was definitely one of number 2. Have you ever been a number 2 or lower? How did you feel? Did you just spiritualize your answer?

    2) Why do you think “the Baptist” became John’s title rather than “the Herald” or something else?

    3) What do you think about John going to the wilderness when he grew up? Why do you think he did that? Do you think he was alone?

Devotion.al

Stand On Hope

Isaiah 26:1–6, Psalm 18:1–9, Nehemiah 6:15–16 (read online ⧉)

What is ? Hope is knowing deeper than deep that God has got your back. The struggle for us is that having our back doesn’t always mean avoiding or consequences.

Isaiah’s vision of Jersualem is that of a city that can withstand whatever the world can throw at it. It will be occupied by a nation. Characteristics of this nation are righteous, , God-reliant, peaceful, , humble. These are to be the universal attributes of those who themselves God’s.

God is the rock of hope. This hope is not bound in the world’s hopes of , things, power, or influence, but solely on God’s , , and . As God is everlasting, God-ly hope will not fade away. The world’s hopes, along with the world itself, will pass away.

God as rock (i.e., foundation) and walls, we can “stand on” God and are protected by God. Often the times we are truly aware of God is when it is only God’s foundation and protective walls keep us safe.

1) Why is foundation and wall so integral to hope?

2) What do you think of these characteristics of the nation in Isaiah’s vision?

3) How are ways you can explain God-ly hope versus worldly hope?