Devotion.al

Tag: sin

  • Saturday after the Third Sunday of Advent

    Psalm 51, John 3:27–29 (read online ⧉) This Psalm is the result of a person’s sin. This is not to say that the Psalm is about the sin per se, but about a person standing before God after being confronted about the sin. While there is a lot of symbolism in the Psalm the symbols…

  • Anticipatory Expectation

    Romans 8:18–25, Revelation 5:1–10 (read online ⧉) What are we expecting? What are we anticipating? Expectation and anticipation are not always positive, as we often “wait” for the other shoe to drop. It is in this mindset that anxiety can step in and take over us. Creation is personified in Paul’s text. This anthropomorphic thinking…

  • Tuesday after the First Sunday of Advent

    Lamentations 3:16–18, Zechariah 8:18–23, Nahum 1:15 (read online ⧉) In the United States, peace is often perceived as having plenty. Peace, as many of the saints who walked before us learned, is not found in the plenty. It is found in the lacking. This does not mean that lacking, in and of itself, is a…

  • Monday after the First Sunday of Advent

    Micah 5:1-5 ,Haggai 2:5–9, Malachi 2:4–7 (read online ⧉) One of the biggest problems with peace…is us. Peace often does not reside well in our souls. We bear the world’s concerns as if they were our own. It is not that we are not to care about the world, but only God is capable of…

  • Sacrifice of Living

    Isaiah 1:10–18, Psalm 50, Romans 5:20–6:11 The problem with the Law was the human ability to think out the payment schedule, particularly the wealthy. What the wealthy did, it seems, was to commit the sin, then pay the penalty. In other words, the payment for the sin was considered as part of the “cost of…

  • Remember the Gone

    Matthew 22:23–33, 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18, Romans 8:26–30 All Saints Day was established to honor the saints of the church. As we talked about yesterday, it is also a good time to reflect upon those that helped shape your faith. By so doing these people were doing the work of saints. Now, let us be clear,…

  • A Little Tempted

    1 Samuel 25:36–42, Luke 22:39–46, James 1:13–15 Temptation is a tricky thing. It can seem easy to succumb to, and it is. It can also be easy to beat yourself up should you fall to temptation. In many respects, after the failure, it is the mind game you play with yourself afterward that sets you…

  • Binding Ties

    1 Samuel 2:12–17, 1 Samuel 2:22–36, Matthew 10:16–23, Ephesians 6:10–20 Who or what are the dark powers that Paul talks about in Ephesians? Perhaps they are the family members that oppose believers. Perhaps they are the family members the “dress up” in righteous clothing and whose behavior is unrighteous. Eli’s sons Phinehas and Hophni are…