2009 Daily Devotions*

(August 30 - September 5) Print

"You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts." 1 Corinthians 3:2-3

In the surrounding context of this passage, Paul describes the ministry of the Gospel, not the vocation he had chosen, but the one for which he was chosen. Approaching the end of his ministry, he reviews the years of hard travel to bring good news to people who didn’t want it, but desperately needed it. He asks, "Do we need letters of recommendation?" And then, with the comfort that comes from long years of doing exactly what you are called to do, he says, "No, you are our letter, the result of our ministry, written on the tablets of human hearts." This is the appropriate measure of not only a career in ministry, but of the Christian life. When we come to the end of it, may we see in our wake, people whose lives have been changed by our passing by.

Monday, August 30 – Acts 10:34-43
Tuesday, August 31 – 1 John 2:1-17
Wednesday, September 1 – 2 Corinthians 3:2-3
Thursday, September 2 – Luke 6:27-36
Friday, September 3 – Luke 6:37-42
Saturday, September 4 – Luke 17:1-6

Sunday, September 5, 2009
Psalm: Psalm 146
Old Testament: Isaiah 35:4-7a
Gospel: Mark 7:24-37
Epistle: James 2:1-17