Romans 8:1-11 (NIV) Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in…

Psalm 130 (NRSV) Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications! If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered. I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his…

Psalm 147:12-20 (NRSV) Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!     Praise your God, O Zion! For he strengthens the bars of your gates;     he blesses your children within you. He grants peace within your borders;     he fills you with the finest of wheat. He sends out his command to the earth;     his word runs swiftly. He gives snow like wool;…

Jeremiah 17:5-10 (The New Oxford Annotated Bible) Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.  …

Psalm 25:6-7 (TLB) “Overlook my youthful sins, O lord!  Look at me instead through eyes of mercy and forgiveness, through eyes of everlasting love and kindness.” Devotion What does it mean to be “kingdom people” in 2019 in Virginia…in the United States of America…and in the world?  How should we live our lives?  How should we interact with one another?  For clear…

Philippians 3:12-14 (NRSV) Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,…

Romans 11:32 (NRSV) For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all. Devotion Save for the closing doxology, this verse ends what is commonly called the Apostle Paul’s “election discourse,” which runs from Romans chapters 9 through 11.  The meaning of this verse has challenged exegetes down through the ages; it is tough to hear that…

Jeremiah 29: 1; 4-14 (NRSV) These are the words of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the remaining elders among the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon… It said: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles…

Jeremiah 26:1-16 (NRSV) Early in the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came from the Lord: “This is what the Lord says: Stand in the courtyard of the Lord’s house and speak to all the people of the towns of Judah who come to worship in the house of the Lord. Tell them everything I command you;…

John 10:1-18 (NRSV) “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit.  The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.  The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by…