Devotional

13 Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. 14 For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it. Matthew 7:13-14 (NRSV) STORY The Didache, which in Greek means “Teaching,” is also called the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles. It is the oldest surviving document that we have that outlines the theology and organizational structure of the church. It was composed by the Apostolic Fathers, who were the core Christian theologians of the early…

Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Luke 14:27 STORY Therese of Lisieux was a sensitive nineteenth-century French girl who was raised in an atmosphere of Catholic piety. On April 9, 1888, she joined the Carmelites a strict monostatic order, who adherents did not wear shoes. After she died at the age of twenty-four from tuberculosis, her writings became well-known, radiating her desire to know Christ and be like him. Because of her piety she is known as the “Little Flower of Jesus.” In her autobiography she wrote: I applied myself especially…

And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. John 8:32 STORY Ukrainian singer Jamala won the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest with her song “1944.” It was a song about Soviet dictator Josef Stalin’s deportation of the Crimean Tatars, a Turkic ethnic group that lived on the Crimean Peninsula. Stalin deported the Crimean Tatars fearful that he couldn’t politically control them during Russia’s war with Nazi Germany. Many died during the deportation. Many of those who did survive the arduous trip starved to death on the barren steppes of central Asia where they were relocated. This…

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went away quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed, and ran to announce the news to his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them on their way and greeted them. They approached, embraced his feet, and did him homage. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.” Matthew 28:8-10 DEVOTION In March of this year, five major world religions celebrated their most sacred events. This is because of the placement of the moon after the spring equinox. I remember being…

Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation. Joel 1:3 STORY In February 2019, the Unicode Consortium, a nonprofit organization that provides standards for text on the internet and oversees emojis, approved 59 new emojis. The new symbols include an otter, a sloth, and a waffle. Though, most significant was that year’s emphasis on inclusiveness. Recent additions also include a hearing aid, a prosthetic limb, sign language, a cane, a wheelchair, a guide dog, and couples holding hands with each having a different skin tone. The dating app Tinder said the…

Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; persevere in prayer. Romans 12:12 STORY Standing on stage before an assembly of student at Fairmount Junior High School in Cleveland, Ohio, was the athlete hailed by sports writes as “the fastest man alive.” Charlie Paddock, a 1920 Olympic Gold Medalist, came to declare that the youth could obtain their goals. Paddock thundered, “Do you know who you are? Well, I’m here to tell you. You are Americans and you have it in you to become what you want, that is, if you will form a goal, if you believe in that goal…

The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.  When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless…

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Surely, we do not need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you, do we? You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by all, and you show that you are a letter of Christ, prepared by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets that are human heart. II Corinthians 3:1-3 STORY William Blackaby was born in British Columbia in 1935. After graduating from Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, he began serving a church…

The word of the Lord came to me: O Mortal, speak to your people and say to them: If I bring the sword upon a land and the people of the land take one of their number as their sentinel, and if the sentinel sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the trumpet and warns the people, then if any who hear the sound of the trumpet do not take warning and the sword comes and takes them away, their blood shall be upon their own heads. They heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take warning; their blood shall be upon…

Psalm 95:1 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Psalm 104:33 I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being. Psalm 105:2 Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wondrous works! Psalm 144:9 I will sing a new song to you, O God; upon a ten-stringed harp I will play to you, Psalm 149:34 Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and lyre! Psalm 150:1-6 Praise the…