Topic: Daily Devotional
Matthew 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 DevotionalMatthew 1:18-25 Naming the Child
Joseph was given the identity of the child through the names drawn from the Old Testament prophecies. This child was Immanuel (“God with us”) and Jesus (“Yahweh is salvation”). In this child so named resided the fulfillment of the great divine promises of the Hebrew Scriptures – that God would dwell with his people (Exodus 29:45) and that God would redeem a people unto himself (Psalm 130:8).
topics :: Daily DevotionalMatthew 1:1-17 Who Is Jesus?
Using the symbolic genealogy containing 14 generations between Abraham and David and 14 generations between David and Jesus, St. Matthew points his readers to the reality of theological perfection in the birth of Jesus...The bottom line is that Jesus is the Savior of the world, because there is no difference among human beings when it comes to sin. We have all sinned and can only be justified through Jesus Christ (Romans 3:22-24).
topics :: Daily Devotional