‘John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”‘ (Luke 3:16 ESV). John the Baptist was the forerunner of Christ and the herald who
“After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions” (Luke 2:46 ESV). Twelve year old Jesus traveled with his family to Jerusalem for the Passover festival as they did every year. They traveled with a large entourage of friends and family from Nazareth. It
“So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel” (Numbers 25:3 ESV). Balaam was unable to curse Israel because they were under God’s blessing. So according to Numbers 31:16 he advised another way to harm them from within by tempting them to worship other gods. The
I’ve been following the S.O.A.P. method for writing my devotions for some time, but today I thought I’d make it more obvious… SCRIPTURE:“And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God.” (Luke 1:64, ESV) OBSERVATION:In today’s New Testament reading from Luke, Zechariah was made mute by the Lord for
‘And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us”‘ (Numbers 21:7 ESV). There are different types of snake venom. Hemotoxic venom attacks the heart and blood, neurotoxic venom affects the nervous
‘And the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news”‘ (Luke 1:19 ESV). Gabriel, the angel who appeared to Zechariah, was no ordinary messenger. He was one who stood in the very presence of God.
“On the next day Moses went into the tent of the testimony, and behold, the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted and put forth buds and produced blossoms, and it bore ripe almonds” (Numbers 17:8 ESV). The Lord had the heads of house from each of the twelve tribes carve their
“And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, ‘Truly this man was the Son of God!’” (Mark 15:39 ESV) Roman soldiers were expert executioners. They had seen men die in the cruelest of ways. They had witnessed their various human responses to torture and
“Please pardon the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt until now” (Numbers 14:19 ESV). Moses stood in the gap for the people of Israel, pleading with God to forgive them despite their rebellion. The Israelites had once again doubted God,
‘But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the LORD’s people were prophets, that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!”‘ (Numbers 11:29 ESV). In Numbers 11, Moses was overwhelmed with the burden of leading Israel, so God took some of the Spirit that was upon Moses and