Topic: Daily Devotional
Matthew 5:10 -12 Blessed Are The Persecuted Righteous
Our instinct for self-justification is so strong that Jesus gives us a beatitude to explain a beatitude when it comes to persecution.
topics :: Daily DevotionalMatthew 5:9 "Blessed Are The Peacemakers"
An obedient son does what the father does or wills. It follows that if we are to be true sons of God we need to align our lives with God’s will as he has revealed it to us. When we look at the witness of Scripture we see that God’s work in the world did not avoid conflict, but rather worked through the conflict.
topics :: Daily DevotionalMatthew 4:23-25 Our Model for Ministry
Jesus is the way not only to salvation, but also the way in which we are to live as the community of his disciples. The hallmarks of Jesus’ ministry throughout Scripture are proclamation,elaboration and demonstration.
topics :: Daily DevotionalMatthew 4:18-22 Called As We Are
Before the Disciples, Peter and Andrew had heard the Greatest Commandment to love God and neighbor (Matthew 22:37-40), Jesus gave them the way to fulfill that commandment by calling them to follow him and become fishers of men. They were to allow Jesus to mold their lives back into what God had originally planned for them in his perfect will...But what about becoming "fishers of men?"...In the case of the first Disciples, Jesus was calling fishermen, so it was natural that he put the call into terms that they could readily recognize and fully understand...In short, Jesus called them as they were into a new vocation in terms they could understand.
topics :: Daily DevotionalMatthew 4:12-17 Act 11, Same Play
Ultimately the most surprising thing about God is not what he does, but rather how he accomplishes what he does...In the presence of such a God we would do well to suspend our human expectations and live in faithful and expectant anticipation of the acts of our sovereign Lord in the world.
topics :: Daily DevotionalMatthew 4:1-11 Resisting Temptation
The Temptation of Jesus by the devil was really about an overall disobedience to the will of God,..What empowered Jesus to resist acting out of fear rather than faith, and therefore succumbing to the wiles of the devil, was the state of his spiritual health...Jesus had gone through the discipline to put on the armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-17).
topics :: Daily DevotionalMatthew 3:13-17 Fulfilling All Righteousness
The full Trinity is present and involved in the coming of the kingdom into the world and the deliverance of a people to God forever.
topics :: Daily DevotionalMatthew 3:1-12 True Preparation
In a humility equal to his surroundings, John pointed only to the One who was to come – the long awaited Messiah. Likewise he proclaimed a humble, even humiliating plan of preparation. His call was that the people should repent, not just privately but repent and be publicly baptized.
topics :: Daily DevotionalMatthew 2:13-23 The Familiar Story
St. Matthew goes to great effort to connect the Old and New Testament stories for us. There is one God with one plan for the salvation of the world. Just as he chose one people to be his subjects and witness to the world, he sent his one and only Son to be the one way to reconciliation with him. When we see the parallels between God’s acts with regard to Israel and Jesus, we must not stop there. Rather we need to extrapolate that divine pattern to the present in order to realize what God would have us do as the Church. As Christ’s body we are to be the bearers of the Gospel, God’s Word, to the nations.
topics :: Daily DevotionalMatthew 2:1-12 A Light to the Gentiles
The visit of the Gentile Magi to the Holy Family in Bethlehem was an indication of the universal message of salvation embodied in Jesus, as well as the power of that message to attract the world.
topics :: Daily Devotional