Note: I wrote this for my wife’s devotional list for today’s (12/30/05) entry. Jody puts out an e-mail devotional every weekday, and has also created a collection for her book, Daily Devotions of Ordinary People – Extraordinary God. I’ve included an ad (Amazon.com) for the book and a link to subscribe to the e-mail list. We probably only cross over between my blog and her list a half dozen times each year because they have a different flavor and purpose.
5What is mankind that you remember them?
Or human beings that you pay attention to them? 6But you made them a little lower than God,
And crowned them with glory and honor. 7You made them rule over the works of your hands.
You put everything under their feet. — Psalm 8:5-7 (TFBV)
4Now when the time was fully right, God sent his son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5So he could ransom those who were under the law so they could be adopted as children. 6Now because you are children, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts with the cry, “Abba, Father!” 7So that you are no longer a slave, but a child, and if you are a child, you are also an heir through God. — Galatians 4:4-7 (TFBV)
Its coming up on New Years Day, and many of us will be making some resolutions. Some of those will mean a change in our lives. Others will be forgotten within days, or perhaps even within hours. I think the practice of making resolutions is, on balance, a good one. Times of commemoration and renewal are good for us, though it might be better if we had them more often, and were more careful to remember them between.
But the question I want to suggest to you in this last devotional before New Years is this: What kind of resolution is appropriate to a child of the king?
While youre thinking about that, consider something else. Tonight, my wife and I were watching Criminal Minds
In an earlier post on salvation I mentioned that I would try to expand on some of the points I had only briefly mentioned. I have followed up with an extract from my earlier essay A Fruitful Faith. I encountered an excellent example of the grace before law principle in my devotions the other day…
… that I’ve heard, at least, and in my opinion! It’s by Dr. Wesley Wachob. Let me give you the link first: The Strange New World within the Bible. Those of you who are acquainted with Karl Barth will recognize the title. (You can subscribe to the First UMC Pensacola podcast here, or via iTunes.)…
There’s a bit of a change of gears in the second chapter of Leviticus, which contains only food sacrifices. (See Leviticus 1. Abbreviations at the end of the post.) These sacrifices are most commonly not offered because of some sin or impurity, but rather as sacrifices of thanksgiving or for some celebration. I think that…
Or perhaps as the social occasion. Thom Rainer has a post titled Seven Things Church Members Should Say to Guests in a Worship Service. It comes complete with a header picture of people who, to me, look like they’re forcing excessive smiles. I probably see it that way because I’m an introvert. I suppose that…
This is one of those Sunday morning quick posts, because I’m feeling it right now. As a note to my critics, I’ll be off to church in a bit, and that’s partly what got me thinking about this topic. I have been gravitating more and more toward a service at a church downtown that offers…
Bauckham, Richard. Jesus and the Eyewitnesses. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2006. 538 pp. ISBN: 0-8028-3162-1. I would remind my readers again that I am writing some notes on my experience of reading this book and not a formal review. I requested this book via interlibrary loan because it was recommended by a…
In an earlier post on salvation I mentioned that I would try to expand on some of the points I had only briefly mentioned. I have followed up with an extract from my earlier essay A Fruitful Faith. I encountered an excellent example of the grace before law principle in my devotions the other day…
… that I’ve heard, at least, and in my opinion! It’s by Dr. Wesley Wachob. Let me give you the link first: The Strange New World within the Bible. Those of you who are acquainted with Karl Barth will recognize the title. (You can subscribe to the First UMC Pensacola podcast here, or via iTunes.)…
There’s a bit of a change of gears in the second chapter of Leviticus, which contains only food sacrifices. (See Leviticus 1. Abbreviations at the end of the post.) These sacrifices are most commonly not offered because of some sin or impurity, but rather as sacrifices of thanksgiving or for some celebration. I think that…
Or perhaps as the social occasion. Thom Rainer has a post titled Seven Things Church Members Should Say to Guests in a Worship Service. It comes complete with a header picture of people who, to me, look like they’re forcing excessive smiles. I probably see it that way because I’m an introvert. I suppose that…
This is one of those Sunday morning quick posts, because I’m feeling it right now. As a note to my critics, I’ll be off to church in a bit, and that’s partly what got me thinking about this topic. I have been gravitating more and more toward a service at a church downtown that offers…
Bauckham, Richard. Jesus and the Eyewitnesses. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2006. 538 pp. ISBN: 0-8028-3162-1. I would remind my readers again that I am writing some notes on my experience of reading this book and not a formal review. I requested this book via interlibrary loan because it was recommended by a…
In an earlier post on salvation I mentioned that I would try to expand on some of the points I had only briefly mentioned. I have followed up with an extract from my earlier essay A Fruitful Faith. I encountered an excellent example of the grace before law principle in my devotions the other day…
… that I’ve heard, at least, and in my opinion! It’s by Dr. Wesley Wachob. Let me give you the link first: The Strange New World within the Bible. Those of you who are acquainted with Karl Barth will recognize the title. (You can subscribe to the First UMC Pensacola podcast here, or via iTunes.)…
