Tag: HopeForToday

 
As with yesterday’s devotion we are in the world of the Exodus and the next footsteps will touch the Promised Land. But before God’s people is a decision, the consequence of which will result in either a blessing or a curse. It is worth noting that the word ‘known’ here suggests an intimate knowledge of someone rather than an intellectual awareness. Other gods do not know God’s people like God does, so the choice should be easy, yes?

Reflection
Our ‘today’ choices will have future consequences.

QUOTE FOR TODAY
All day long we are confronted with news of evil, we are hemmed in on all sides by the word of despair. Yet when the Christian comes to worship, she hears a different word. She enters a community that orients her toward a different future.

(Glenn Packiam, Worship and the World to Come, p. 3)
 

 
Surrounding these verses is the journey of God’s people ‘in the Old Testament from Egypt to Canaan. They were moving toward promised rest, and in the same way we are moving toward promised rest when we will see Christ and be made like him.’ (Sam Perry) As the Exodus people struggled to keep faith, so the early church, and today’s church. Part of the solution is to trust in God and to encourage each other daily in our Christian walk.

Reflection
Today take a moment to pray for someone who needs encouragement.

QUOTE FOR TODAY
Discipleship is … a faithful waiting for the imminent return of Christ.

(Glenn Packiam, Worship and the World to Come, p. 127)
 

 
Psalm 118 is quoted quite a bit in the New Testament and one of these times is Palm Sunday when Jesus rides triumphantly into Jerusalem (Ps. 118:25-26). People on the road recognised that the King, and his Kingdom, they hoped and longed for had arrived as Jesus entered Jerusalem. So ‘today’ was a day to rejoice and be glad.

Reflection
Today reflect on a word or deed of Jesus that stirs your heart to praise.

QUOTE FOR TODAY
Christians sing because we are people of hope.

(Glenn Packiam, Worship and the World to Come, p. 2)
 

 
Welcome to the first of our Advent ‘Hope for today’ devotions, a collaboration between Rev Irene Bom and Rev Graham Austin, with visuals by Irma Gevers.

 
These familiar words from the Lord’s Prayer remind us that we need to turn to God to sustain our lives. Regardless of whether this bread is to be taken literally or spiritually, in either case it is an on-the-day-every-day need that we are to pray for. Note these two things, this bread is a gift of God but also it is given for the community, ‘our’ bread.

Reflection
What ‘bread’ do you require today?

QUOTE FOR TODAY
In the future, it is the presence of God that will renew all things.

(Glenn Packiam, Worship and the World to Come, p. 181)