Tag: presence

  • Walking With Saints

    Walking With Saints

    Read: Psalm 34:1–10, 22; 1 John 3:1-3; Revelation 7:9-17; Matthew 5:1-12 β€ŒπŸ”Ž Focus β€ŒAfter this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands.…

  • Be Our Guest

    Be Our Guest

    Psalm 111; Exodus 24:1–11; Romans 15:22–33 If you were invited to a US presidential affair, you might be surprised. Unless you roam such circles or are connected to them, usually you won’t have any expectation of being invited to sit at the table with the president, unless, of course, you decide to contribute to their…

  • Tabled Enemies

    Tabled Enemies

    Psalm 23; Jeremiah 10:17–25; Acts 17:16–31 One of the things that will make many Christians fall away from the faith is a weak foundation when it comes to trials. We say many platitudes, and try not to think about what happens where we actually tested. If you’ve ever read anything on the many martyrs of…

  • The God of Where

    The God of Where

    Psalm 123; Jeremiah 7:1–15; 1 Corinthians 4:8–13 The change between Jeremiah and Corinthians cannot be overstated. The clash between law and grace is right there before us. The CEB (the primary translation currently being used to write and to read for this devotional) and NRSV translated Jeremiah 7:7 as, β€œβ€¦only then will I dwell with…

  • Passed The Gates

    Passed The Gates

    Psalm 88; Leviticus 15:19–31; 2 Corinthians 9:1–5 I have long felt this passage in Leviticus to be unfair to women. No, not because of certain cultural influences of today. Perhaps it was the era I grew up in, or because my mom worked as a school teacher. Or in conjunction with that, my dad was…

  • Wrong Thing Vision

    Wrong Thing Vision

    Psalm 52; Ezekiel 31:1–12; Galatians 6:11–18 “When a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound?” That philosophical question is designed around the presence of a human being. β€œSound” being a human word, the implication is that the tree wouldn’t make a sound, as there is no one around to hear. From a…

  • Sighting Evil

    Sighting Evil

    Psalm 74; 1 Samuel 16:14–23; Revelation 20:1–6 Evil spirits or the β€œspirit of evil” has a presence in human culture throughout the ages. Even for those who have no deistic belief, there is an understanding that something is completely evil. There was nothing positive about the Holocaust. In fact, most people would state that the…

  • Loving Presence

    Loving Presence

    Psalm 20; Exodus 25:1–22; 1 Corinthians 2:1–10 β€œβ€¦so that I am present among them.” (Exodus 25:8) It seems like a strange statement to us as Christians. Our theology talks about God’s omnipresence (God is everywhere), so a tent doesn’t really change that. The tent was, however, the place set aside for meeting God. As part…