“For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken (Psalms 62:5-6 ESV). David instructed his soul to wait silently for God alone. Perhaps his soul was feeling impatient and anxious. The two often go

John answered them all, saying, I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. (Luke 3:16 ESV). John the Baptist was the forerunner of Christ and the herald who

“After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions (Luke 2:46 ESV). Twelve year old Jesus traveled with his family to Jerusalem for the Passover festival as they did every year. They traveled with a large entourage of friends and family from Nazareth. It

So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel (Numbers 25:3 ESV). Balaam was unable to curse Israel because they were under Gods blessing. So according to Numbers 31:16 he advised another way to harm them from within by tempting them to worship other gods. The

Ive been following the S.O.A.P. method for writing my devotions for some time, but today I thought Id make it more obvious SCRIPTURE:And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God. (Luke 1:64, ESV) OBSERVATION:In today’s New Testament reading from Luke, Zechariah was made mute by the Lord for

And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us (Numbers 21:7 ESV). There are different types of snake venom. Hemotoxic venom attacks the heart and blood, neurotoxic venom affects the nervous

And the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news (Luke 1:19 ESV). Gabriel, the angel who appeared to Zechariah, was no ordinary messenger. He was one who stood in the very presence of God.

On the next day Moses went into the tent of the testimony, and behold, the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted and put forth buds and produced blossoms, and it bore ripe almonds (Numbers 17:8 ESV). The Lord had the heads of house from each of the twelve tribes carve their

And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, ‘Truly this man was the Son of God!’” (Mark 15:39 ESV) Roman soldiers were expert executioners. They had seen men die in the cruelest of ways. They had witnessed their various human responses to torture and

Please pardon the iniquity of this people, according to the greatness of your steadfast love, just as you have forgiven this people, from Egypt until now (Numbers 14:19 ESV). Moses stood in the gap for the people of Israel, pleading with God to forgive them despite their rebellion. The Israelites had once again doubted God,