Zlatan Ibrahimovic, during his brief stint at Manchester United This is an enthronement Psalm, celebrating God as King (v1). The One who rules the world is none other than God! This is full-blown “shock and awe”: the proper response is to “tremble” (v1); “praise” (v3); “extol and worship” (vv 5,9). This is dangerous stuff for […]
URC Daily Devotion 1st June 2019
In John’s Gospel Jesus spoke about the hour of glory quite often, but plenty of people misunderstand that because Jesus was talking about the Cross. One way of thinking about the Cross is thinking that God was showing us how much God loved us. Some people manage to show quite a lot of that love […]
URC Daily Devotion 31st May 2019
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.’ But he answered, […]
URC Daily Devotion 30th May 2019
And Mary said,‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.His mercy is for those who fear him from generation […]
URC Daily Devotion 29th May 2019
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armour of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic […]
URC Daily Devotion 28th May 2019
Save me means very different things at different times. I’m sure the people trapped in Grenfell Tower meant save me in the same way that the disciples on the boat asked Jesus to save them. Yet the language of saving, being saved, salvation, has wider contexts in church, where we link it to eternal life. […]
URC Daily Devotion 27th May 2019
The prayer also teaches us that if we’re to be forgiven, then we can be forgivers. The one who has experienced forgiveness is the one best able to forgive. Our forgiveness begins as a response to our being forgiven. It’s not so much an act of generosity towards whoever has hurt us, as an act […]
URC Daily Devotion 26th May 2019
I feel that I have grown up with this Psalm, loving to ‘sing a new song to the Lord’ set to one of the great common metre tunes most typically St Magnus. Over time however I began to recognise that this was far more than simply a great sing and a grand hymn of praise. […]
URC Daily Devotion 25th May 2019
Some of us might wish that the prayer said something to God like, “teach us to forgive others, so that we might also be forgiven.” But it doesn’t, because that would put us in control. That would mean that we could be righteous, reaching out in love to those who had injured and wronged us. […]
URC Daily Devotion 24th May 2019
When we ask God to give us our daily bread it’s a daily reminder that our lives, like our bread, are gifts from God. In the middle of all the talk about heaven and God, the prayer now reminds us that we’re ordinary people who need food to eat, and it’s God’s gift to us. […]