Nazarene Digital

Hearts and Ashes

📖 Read‌Psalm 32; Isaiah 58:1-12; Hebrews 12:1-14 ‌‌🔎 Focus‌Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Psalm 32:1 ‌The LORD will guide you continually and satisfy your needs in parched places and make your bones strong, and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters never fail. Isaiah 58:11 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.‌ Hebrews 12:4 ‌‌✟ Devotion‌Saint Valentine’s trust was in Jesus Christ. He is reported to have said that Jesus Christ brought the only true hope and promise of ...

Devoted?

🔎 Focus ‌“The one who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and the one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you haven’t been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will entrust you with the true riches? And if you haven’t been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” Luke 16:10–13 NET ‌You cannot serve God and money. Money is the translati...

Narrowed Ways

Read: Matthew 7 ‌‌🔎 Focus‌“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. 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 (NRSVue) ‌‌✟ Devotion‌Depending on the publisher (including online ones), much of Matthew 7 is broken into sections. This is instead of the long speech that it is (including the chapters themselves). Our focus verse (similar to Luke 13:23-30) is often popped out all on its own, leading us to conclude that it stands alone. ‌Thi...

Our Blindings

Read: Luke 13:23-30 ‌‌‌🔎Focus“For human ways are under the eyes of the Lord, and he examines all their paths.” Proverbs 5:21 (NRSVue) ‌‌✟ Devotion‌When you read the passage (Luke 13:23-30), what did you focus on? Did you focus on Jesus’ command to enter the narrow door? Did you focus on its narrowness? ‌While Jesus’ answer is very important, you’ll note he didn’t actually answer the question, at least in any way that is definitive. ‌“Lord, will only a few be saved?” (Luke 13:23 NRSVue) ‌What if the issue is the question itself? ‌“There are no right answers to wrong questions.” Ursula K. Le Gui...

People Past

‌Read: Psalm 25; Isaiah 25:6-9; Philippians 3:20-21; John 6:37-40 ‌‌🔎 Focus‌“This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day.” John 6:40 (NRSVue) Those who have died, that have been a direct part of our lives, they still live. Our hearts and memories hold them close (or far). Their good and bad helped shape us, for good and bad. ‌‌✟ DevotionToday is All Souls Day. The day that is also termed as the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed. However, even those who do not believe that Jesus is Lord an...

Walking With Saints

Read: Psalm 34:1–10, 22; 1 John 3:1-3; Revelation 7:9-17; Matthew 5:1-12 ‌🔎 Focus‌After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. Revelation 7:9 (NRSVue) ‌Saints are often viewed as legendary characters, with lives almost impossible to duplicate. Many of those same Saints looked at themselves and saw nothing but their own flaws. They pursued purity (or holiness) to the degree we often pursue wealth, accola...

Greater or Lesser Than Evils

Read: Psalm 119:41–48, Deuteronomy 10:10–22, James 2:14–26 ‌🔎 Focus‌No one ever accomplishes good by means of evil, because they are themselves conquered by the evil. On the contrary, evil is corrected by good. St. Barsanuphius the Great You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder. James 2:19 (NRSVue) It is a good exercise to ask, what is evil? Why do we categorize certain perspectives, actions, or even people as evil? Often, what we judge as evil is really about what we view as normative, as if normal was automatically good (or evil, for that matter). ‌‌✟ Dev...

Happiness and Joy…or Not

Psalm 44; Isaiah 22:8b–14; James 4:4–10 ‌‌🔎 Focus‌Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? James 4:4 NRSVue ‌…you did not look at the One who did it, nor did you see the One who planned it… Isaiah 22:11 NRSVue We don’t like pain or suffering. We often do anything to avoid it. We can also do anything in an attempt to make it feel better, when we’re suffering from it. ‌It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of everyone, and the living will lay it to heart. Ecclesiastes 7:2 NRSVue Often sitting in our mourning...

Successfully Unsuccessful

Psalm 144; Song of Solomon 8:5–14; John 11:45–57 ISV ‌⁜Focus⁜A great deal of water cannot extinguish love,rivers cannot put it out.If a man were to give all the wealth of his house for love,he would surely be viewed with contempt. Song of Solomon 8:7 ISV “…You don’t realize that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” Now he did not say this on his own initiative. As high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not only for the nation, but that he would also gather into one the children of God who were s...

Reconciling Fruit

Psalm 144; Isaiah 27:1–6; 2 Corinthians 5:17–21 (ISV) In times to come, Jacob will take root,and Israel will blossom, sprout shoots,and fill the whole world with fruit. Isaiah 27:6 ISV All of this comes from God, who has reconciled us to himself through the Messiah and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 2 Corinthians 5:18 ISV Reconciliation: the action of reconciling and/or the state of being reconciled. ‌Reconcile/reconciled/reconciling‌1a) to restore to friendship or harmony‌1b) settle or resolve (differences)‌2) to make consistent or congruous‌3) to cause to submit to or accept so...