DAILY DEVOTIONALS

Jonah 3

Jonah 3 Devotional by Pastor Mark Hudson              In this chapter. Jonah gets a second chance.  That should make us ask why?  Here was a prophet of God who upon hearing God’s call to go to Nineveh paid his way to go the opposite direction “away from the presence of the Lord.”  He endangered the lives of pagan sailors who after throwing valuable cargo into the sea beckon him to pray.  Pagans asking a Jewish…

Jonah 2

Jonah 2 Devotional by Pastor Lawrence The Lord actually speaks to fish!  The big ones as well as the little ones.  Not only did God command the great fish to swallow Jonah and later to spit him up onto dry land, he also commanded the little fish to swallow the shekel before he commanded Peter to catch the fish in order to pay his taxes.  Similarly, he commanded a whole school of fish to swim…

Jonah 1

Jonah 1 by Pastor David Groendyk We continue our tour through the minor prophets with the book of Jonah. Jonah is actually the prequel to the prophecy of Nahum. Jonah and Nahum prophesied to the same city about 100 years apart. Nahum was all about the eventual destruction of Nineveh in the late-600s BC, but Jonah is a totally different story. Nineveh responds to Jonah’s message of repentance and begins worshiping the one true God…

Nahum 3

Nahum 3 Devotional by Pastor Mark Hudson             The note of judgment does not cease in Nahum 3.  O. Palmer Robertson calls this chapter The Surety of Nineveh’s judgment.  A rhetorical question enforces the certainty of what to come in each of the three major sections of the chapter: Where shall I seek comforters for you?  Verse 7 Are you better than Thebes or No-Amon?  Verse 8 For upon whom has not come your unceasing…

Nahum 2

Nahum 2 Devotional by Pastor Lawrence            Even though Nahum’s prophecy is against the city of Nineveh, it is actually written for the comfort of God’s people in Judah who have been harassed by the Assyrians for quite some time.  The Assyrians have plundered them on a number of occasions and have begun to see them as their next prey, adding them to a long list of captured nations.  But the Lord is the defender…

Nahum 1

Nahum 1 by Pastor David Groendyk The first thing that should surprise you as you read Nahum is that it is written about the city of Nineveh (v. 1). Almost every prophetic book is written for or about Judah or Israel, but Nahum is an oracle of judgment against Nineveh, the capital city of the wicked nation of Assyria. You’ve probably heard of Nineveh before. It’s the city that Jonah went to and evangelized. The…

Philemon

Philemon Devotional by Pastor Mark Hudson             Philemon is one of two very personal letters in the NT (3 John is the other).  This brief letter is relatively easy to understand.  Philemon, a believer, lived in Colossae and welcomed the church in Colossae to meet in his home.  His slave Onesimus ran away, possibly stole from Philemon, and somehow met the Apostle Paul in Rome.  Onesimus not only met Paul, but he also became a…

Song of Songs 8

Song of Songs 8 Devotional by Pastor Lawrence Most lovers today would probably not compare their romantic relationship to that of a brother and a sister, for that would seem out of place.  But in ancient times, “PDA,” or a public display of affection between a husband and wife was certainly out of place.  However, a brother and sister could hug and even kiss one another in public, not with any prolonged display of course,…

Song of Songs 7

Song of Songs 7 by Pastor David Groendyk This chapter begins with another one of the man’s extended speeches about the beauty of the woman (vv. 1–9a). Many of these descriptions are repeated from his two previous speeches, but one unique element to this speech is actually what the man says at the very end of 6:13. Like much of the book, this verse is very difficult to understand, but the point seems to be…

Song of Songs 6

Song of Songs 6 by Pastor Mark Hudson As you know, taking this as song about love between a husband and a wife is a minority position in the history of the church.  If you view this allegorically, you are in the majority in terms of the Jewish and Christian interpreters.  You may conclude that this song could not be about two lovers.  How scandalous!  Plus, you may have heard passages from this song that were used to celebrate…

Song of Songs 5

Song of Songs Ch.5 Devotional by Pastor Lawrence             We are not told just how long Adam and Eve dwelt together in the joy of the Lord in the Garden of Eden, but we certainly know how their relationship changed when sin entered into the world and they were cast out of paradise.  If chapter four of Song of Solomon describes the paradisiacal honeymoon, surely, by chapter five the honeymoon is over, for the husband…

Song of Songs 4

Song of Songs 4 by Pastor David Groendyk This is actually the first time in the book where the man has an extended speech. He spoke in brief snippets early on, but now he has the chance to wax eloquent about the woman. Here in chapter 4 is actually the very first reference to the woman being a bride (v. 8), so we might consider this section the actual marriage and perhaps the marriage consummation…

Song of Songs 3

Song of Songs Devotions by Pastor Mark Hudson                Since there are many approaches to the Song of Songs, permit me to provide a brief introduction to how I understand how the book should be approached.  While there are more than two ways of interpreting this book, essentially, we come down to a literal approach or allegorical.  I will take a literal approach.  Literal does not mean how my granddaughter answered my son when he…

Song of Songs 2

Song of Songs 2 Devotional by Pastor Lawrence            At the end of the previous chapter, the young man had declared his love for his betrothed and praised her twice, telling her how beautiful she was in his eyes.  She, then, returned the compliment by telling him how beautiful and delightful he was to her and how she looked forward to making her home with him.  But in the opening verses of chapter two she…

Song of Songs

Song of Songs 1 by Pastor David Groendyk Warning: you might blush when you read this book. The Song of Songs has caused interpreters, commentators, and pastors a lot of difficulty throughout the history of the church both because of its content and its style of writing. I still have the notes from my seminary class where we discussed ten different ways to interpret Song of Songs! By far, the most common understanding of this…

Colossians 4

Colossians 4 Devotions by Pastor Mark Hudson             I would like us to look at vs. 7-18 for this devotion.  I find it so interesting what God has included in Holy Scripture.  I doubt we would have included the many things God did if we were given the task to inspire a book that would change the world.  I doubt we would include sections like we are focusing on.  But there…

Colossians 3

Colossians 3 Devotional by Pastor Lawrence  It is often thought that when one becomes a Christian the battle is over and the war has been won, but it has only just begun.  As much as we may not like it, or choose to ignore it, we are still living in a battle zone and there are casualties of war all around us every day; there are men and women who did not take this war…

Colossians 2

Colossians 2 by Pastor David Groendyk The central verses to focus on in this chapter (and perhaps in the whole book) are the commands and exhortations from verses 6–7: “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” Believers must be rooted and built up in Christ. Growing in spiritual maturity is what…

Colossians 1

Colossians 1 Devotions by Pastor Mark Hudson                The letter to the church at Colossae is a rich, deep theological letter with warmth, true guidance steering God’s people away from heresy.  This city is a bit unusual for Paul to be writing to since He preferred bigger thoroughfares or coastal cities where the pollination of the gospel could be wafted to other cultures, peoples, and languages.  Plus he had never been to this city. …

Isaiah 65

Isaiah 65 by Pastor David Groendyk Isaiah continues to look forward to that great day when the Messiah and Suffering Servant will bring about salvation for his people. The point of today’s chapter is to make a distinction between the destiny of the wicked who do not worship God and the destiny of the servants who do. The former face punishment from God and will be repaid for their iniquities while the latter will inherit…

Isaiah 64

Isaiah 64 by Pastor Mark Hudson                 Is 64 can be divided into verses 1-7 and 8-12.  In this section we are in the last part of the book. The outline I am using has Divine Ability from 63:1-66:24.  Split the heavens and come down is vs. 1-7 and will you keep silent is 8-12.  One of the ways commentators understand this meaning is, ”Oh if you had just broken in on us, shaking…