Daily-Devotions

Paul thanks the Lord for the saints of Ephesus and prays for them. Our ascended Lord rules over all things. Since we are His body and He is our head, we are secure under His gracious care and protection.

Jesus ascends into heaven. We will see Him return in the same way when He comes again to judge the living and the dead. The disciples of Jesus choose Matthias to serve as an apostle in place of Judas Iscariot.

It is to our benefit that Jesus has removed His visible presence from the earth. He has gone to take His rightful position of honor and glory at the right hand of the Father, ruling all things for the wellbeing of His faithful people. Furthermore, He will return once more to take us home.

Few events in the natural world are more terrifying than a storm at sea, but our God is more powerful than even the fiercest of hurricanes. Jesus Christ, Who is the Lord, commands the storms, and they must obey.

The world is a different place after the flood. Now the Lord permits man to eat meat in addition to green plants. As He commanded Adam and Eve, so God now commands Noah and his sons to reproduce and to populate the earth. The Lord promises never to flood the whole earth again, and He gives the rainbow as a sign of this covenant.

Jesus promises to send the Holy Spirit to His disciples. Jesus gives to His disciples true and lasting peace. Faithfulness to the Lord consists in keeping His Word.

Peter continues exhorting the faithful to live godly lives. Wives are to submit to their husbands. Husbands are to love and to honor their wives. All believers are to live together in unity, in love, and in peace. All believers are to be prepared to defend the faith and to suffer for the sake of righteousness. The flood was a type (that is, a prefiguring) of baptism, which saves us.

Vexed by the rampant open idolatry in Athens, Paul encounters Greeks who crave new ideas. Paul uses the altar “To the unknown god,” (17:23) as a segue into a sermon on the true God.

Jesus enemies accuse Him of being possessed by a demon. Jesus continues proclaiming the truth. From the burning bush, God revealed His holy name to Moses, “I am who i am.” (Exodus 3:14) Now Jesus claims to be God when He says, “before Abraham was, I am.” (8:58) The enemies attempt to stone Jesus, but His hour has not yet come.

By nature we were enslaved to sin, but Jesus, the Truth, has set us free. Jesus pronounces harsh words against His enemies, who have not believed His preaching and who are plotting to kill Him.

At the Passover, the Lord spared the firstborn of the Israelites. Now the Lord commands that every firstborn, man or animal, be consecrated to Him as a reminder of His gracious deliverance. The Lord leads His people out of Egypt in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night.

Before His betrayal and arrest on Maundy Thursday, Jesus instructs His disciples, to prepare them not only for His death on the cross, but also for His ascension into heaven. God the Father has revealed Himself to us in Jesus Christ, His Son.