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 |  Daily devotions of Christian scripture and encouragement |
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Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. – Colossians 3:15-17 E-mail: ehwharton@Writing.com "TABLE OF CONTENTS"  "KEYWORDS" Whats the meaning behind 'Doves on Distant Oaks?' ▼ What version of the Bible is used? ▼ |
The Man in the Middle November 22, 2024 at 8:04pm
Focus is a hard thing to achieve, and even harder to maintain. Just when we think we have everything under control, our focus slips away. As my father was fond of saying: "Its like trying to nail jello to a tree."
The problem is something we call distractions. We may be in the middle of a prayer, when out of nowhere we remember we need to get the oil changed in our car. We may be in the middle of reading our Bible, when all of a sudden we realize we have just read five paragra... [Read more] Like Roman Soldiers May 2, 2024 at 4:30pm Much has been written about the armor that the apostle Paul suggests we wear to face our enemy, the spiritual Evil ones {Ephesians 6:14-18}. Paul uses the metaphor of a Roman soldier because, of course, that's what a soldier wore during the times in which he lived. However, we can compare it to the modern soldier as well.
All soldiers wear combat gear and equipment depending on their need. Some carry the barest of essentials, designed to move quickly and strike quietly. Others are we... [Read more] Bid Me Come April 30, 2024 at 2:03pm Many years ago, I saw a Christian rock band in concert. The band has since split up because the lead singer decided there was missionary work he felt God was calling him to do. Before he left, though they played wonderful music. They played some softer ballads, but the bulk of their music got the audience jumping with loud rock songs. That's not really my style, through I appreciate the niche they filled by appealing to younger people. I'll raise my hands and sing along … but ju... [Read more] Being Single-minded April 19, 2024 at 7:37pm It's not often I turn to the secular world for insight, but every now and then I find justification for God's will in the writing of mankind. In terms of purity of heart, something that's always on my mind, one of the finest discussions was written by Søren Kierkegaard in Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing: Spiritual Preparation for the Office of Confession . What he suggested was that the heart cannot be divided—that a pure heart was one that set its will on only one thing... [Read more] The Divinity of Christ April 19, 2024 at 7:44pm In Matthew 14:22-33, we find another famous story, the story of Jesus walking on water. There are so many lessons we can learn from this event in the life of Jesus. There's constantly looking toward Jesus in times of trouble, obeying Jesus when He commands, taking the first step in faith, unleashing the power of faith, faltering with fear will sink you, and knowing Jesus will always come when you call out in distress.
I'm sure there are others, because this story contains a... [Read more] Splendor in the Grass April 30, 2024 at 7:20pm The Parable of the farmer sowing seeds is a well-known parable taught by Jesus Christ (Matthew 13:1-23, Mark 4:1-20, Luke 8:4-15). Its meaning is clear because Jesus took the time to explain it to his apostles. There is, however, a verse in all three Gospels that is often forgotten in favor of the more powerful meaning that Jesus was teaching. Still, it is important to the Christian walk.
It has to do with yield from seeds planted on good soil (Matthew 13:8):
But others fell on the g... [Read more] The Good Shepherd April 19, 2024 at 7:55pm The 23rd Psalm is perhaps one of the most well known Psalms, certainly the most quoted from the Old Testament. The author, King David, presents a vivid picture of how God takes care of those who love Him.
Often we hear the same analogy repeated throughout the New Testament by Jesus in his teachings. In them, Jesus becomes the good shepherd watching over His flock, searching out those who have left the fold, and responding to their needs. Certainly, followers of Christ need guidance and pro... [Read more] Calling Down Fire April 19, 2024 at 7:57pm I wonder what it must have been like to be rebuked by Jesus? He did so at times to his disciples and I don't think it was a simple, "Now, now, boys. You know that's not right." If Jesus rebuked them like he rebuked the Pharisees, they probably felt about as small as a baby ant. Funny how one simple word like "rebuke" can conjure up such powerful imagery.
Two disciples, James and John, in particular had a propensity for getting into trouble. Often we think of Jo... [Read more] The Good, Bad, and Ugly of Pride April 30, 2024 at 7:25pm We often think the first sin was committed by Adam and Eve in the Garden, which was disobedience, coupled with their failure to ask forgiveness. But their sin was strictly how sin entered the world. There was a sin that preceded them—the real first sin. It was the sin of pride by Lucifer when he felt he was equal to God.
Perhaps it was pride and not disobedience that Adam and Eve first committed as well. If we consider that Satan convinced Eve that "she would not die" by eatin... [Read more] The Sacrificial Life April 30, 2024 at 7:34pm As followers of Christ, we are called to forfeit our self-centered desires in favor of serving others. This is called the sacrificial life, but what does that really mean? How much, and when, are we supposed to sacrifice? Are we to be like the rich young ruler that told Jesus he had led an exemplary life, and asked what more he needed to do.
Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow... [Read more] You Gotta Have Faith April 30, 2024 at 8:29pm What is faith? The dictionary definition of faith would be the complete trust in someone or something based on expectation rather than proof. The writer of the Book of Hebrews, however, states that faith is complete trust in someone as proof of expectation: "Now faith is the certainty of things hoped for, a proof of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). In other words, our faith is based on a trust that knows, beyond any doubt, that God will act according to His promises.
We can have fa... [Read more] Catch a Wave April 20, 2024 at 3:49pm One of the joys of living in the Philadelphia PA region for a number of years was traveling into the city to watch Phillies baseball games with my family. This was at the old Veterans Stadium that has since been torn down. Other than a number of timely home runs and stunning fielding plays, made by some memorable players like Schmidt and Carlton, one of my favorite memories was being part of the first ever Veterans Stadium wave.
You don't see much of them these days, but back "in th... [Read more] The "Jason Bourne" of the Bible April 30, 2024 at 8:34pm I love studying the interesting array of real-life people in the Bible, especially the obscure ones. The Bible is full of such characters, some good and some bad. At times we get so caught up in the famous people that we forget that they all, no matter how little-known, have something to teach us. And in terms of the followers of Jesus, the one that I find most interesting is Simon the Zealot. He is the most obscure of all of the apostles and has been called "The Mystery Man" of the ap... [Read more] The Fear of Righteous Judgment April 30, 2024 at 8:38pm When I worked in Washington State, I took a trip to see a geologic formation called the Dry Falls. Today, they are just 400-foot cliffs in the scab-lands of central Washington, but twenty thousand years ago, a giant waterfall five times the width of Niagara Falls spilled over them. Ice sheets from melting glaciers that had dammed rivers suddenly broke free and catastrophic flooding caused parts of Idaho, Washington, and Oregon to be under hundreds of feet of water in just a few days. The 65-mi... [Read more] A Flu Shot for the Soul April 30, 2024 at 8:39pm When I was younger, I owned a motorcycle. It was a cheap mode of transportation for a poor college student, even though everyone warned me I was driving a two-wheeled coffin. For safety, I always wore a helmet and kept my headlight on (this was before mandatory helmets). One day, that might have been the difference between life and death.
I was coming home from classes, driving down a narrow street and approached an intersection. Though I had the right-of-way, a car suddenly appeared ou... [Read more] Is it Sympathy or Empathy April 30, 2024 at 8:40pm We all try to avoid going to the hospital, but one time I got so sick I had to go for an extended stay. When they finally released me, I was so happy to be leaving that I could think of little else. Most of us are like that—so glad to be headed home from the hospital that our focus is only on ourselves. But as we were leaving, my wife suggested we stop and pray for those who weren't headed home, who remained in sickness. In the midst of our happiness, we stopped and took their sadness on... [Read more] Planting Turnips April 30, 2024 at 8:41pm As a history enthusiast, I recall a story I once read about Hannibal's invasion of Italy during the Punic Wars. He had surrounded a city called Casilinum and refused to offer any terms of surrender for them. Since a portion of their food supply grew outside the city walls, Hannibal plowed up all the vegetable and other herbage plants that grew there—a sort-of scorched earth policy.
As the wait to starve them out drug on, one day he noticed women coming outside the walls and beginnin... [Read more] Are We Not All Beggars? May 2, 2024 at 4:15pm I tend to jump around from one version to another when I study passages from the Bible. That's because I understand the difficulties of translating from archaic texts. Sometimes it's difficult to translate a Hebrew or Greek word or phrase exactly into English—there may be no word that fits it. So, I like to see how different translations express it.
In doing so, I sometimes come upon words that jump out at me and touch me in a special way. One of those words is "lovingkindness... [Read more] Show, Don't Tell April 30, 2024 at 8:43pm When I was learning my profession at a university, I was fortunate to have been educated under some prominent professors in my field of study. They were not so well-known that the general public would have heard of them, but in their professions, they were giants. Often, years later when I would make a statement, someone would say, "You must have studied under so-and-so, you sound just like them." I never took that as an affront or insult. Rather, I took it as an acknowledgment of the... [Read more] The Philosophy of Linus April 30, 2024 at 8:44pm At one point in Jesus' ministry, the Pharisees came before him and challenged Him with questions, hoping to trip Him up. One pressed Him on which of the commandments was the greatest, testing not so much his knowledge, but his judgment. Jesus showed these religious leaders that the entire Law and the writings of the prophets could be summed up in a few simple sentences:
Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, "Teacher, which is the great comman... [Read more] Tetelestai April 30, 2024 at 11:43pm I often hear people talk, or write, about the mission of Jesus. They say that Jesus was a good teacher, may have even performed miracles and healed people; He’s even someone they look up to and want to emulate. But … thats all. They don’t believe he had any other mission to fulfill during his 33-odd years while alive.
There is a specific word that Jesus spoke from the cross that refutes this belief. That word is tetelestai . It's often translated as "it is finished" an... [Read more] The Walk of Life April 30, 2024 at 11:45pm Do you, or did you ever, have a burden to bear in your life? During the last years of her life, my ailing mother was left without anyone to help her. My father had died many years before, at which point my mother moved in to live with her sister. When my aunt died, my mother was left with no one.
It was at that point my wife and I built an in-law suite onto our house. We moved my mother in to live with us and my wife quit her job to work full time caring for her. It was a selfless act ... [Read more] Muscles of Faith April 30, 2024 at 11:53pm Most biblical scholars agree that Job is the oldest book in the Bible, predating the first five books of the Old Testament written by Moses. They only argue about how old it is, which many think was slightly before the time of Abraham. As such, it's the earliest written record of God's relationship with man.
Just as important, it's the earliest written record of God's relationship with Satan. We see in the book of Job that the Satan is restricted by God with regard to how ... [Read more] Like a Child May 1, 2024 at 9:12am I was thinking today about how to strengthen my relationship with God. What was one act of obedience I can do that might help? There are lots of choices in the Bible, but I kept coming back to one thing.
In a word, humility.
I have been on a quest lately to understand what true humility is and how to grow closer to God through it. Certainly, the Bible is full of verses on the need to be humble, and our Lord and Savior showed what true humility is by washing the feet of his disciples. ... [Read more] Signposts May 1, 2024 at 4:43pm When Christ walked the earth, He performed many miracles. Yet, they were not the reason He stepped down from heaven. He performed them because of his great sadness over the suffering of humanity, but more importantly as signposts. Like any signpost, their only value lay in their function to guide the traveler to some destination. The destination was, of course, the cross.
That means anything that has happened in our lives that point to Christ as our savior, who died on the cross for u... [Read more] |
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