Hear this, you rulers of the house of Jacob and chiefs of the house of Israel,who abhor justice and pervert all equity,who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with wrong!Its rulers give judgment for a bribe, its priests teach for a price, its prophets give oracles for money;yet they lean upon the Lord and say, “Surely the Lord is with us! No […]
URC Daily Devotion 6th February
Almost fifty years after Francis Xavier had arrived in Japan as its first Christian apostle, the presence of several thousand baptised Christians in the land became a subject of suspicion to the ruler Hideyoshi, who soon began a period of persecution. Twenty-six men and women, monastic and lay, were first mutilated then crucified near Nagasaki […]
URC Daily Devotion 5th February
Things had been going so well until now; decades of a sort of peace had been marked by dizzingly rising living standards for some and escalating celebrity status for a small number of well-known persons. But now, external threats are darkening the horizon and the internal contradictions and complacencies of the society are being exposed […]
URC Daily Devotion 4th February
Joyfully sing to the LORD, all you righteous;for it is good that the upright give praise.With harp and lyre praise the LORD and make music;with shouts of joy, a new song to him raise. Righteous and true is the word God has spoken;all the LORD’s actions his faithfulness prove.He loves true righteousness, judgment and justice;all […]
URC Daily Devotion 3rd February
And I said:Listen, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel!Should you not know justice?— you who hate the good and love the evil,who tear the skin off my people, and the flesh off their bones;who eat the flesh of my people, flay their skin off them,break their bones in pieces, and chop them up like meat […]
URC Daily Devotion 2nd February
But I will gather you together, all you people of Israel that are left. I will bring you together like sheep returning to the fold. Like a pasture full of sheep, your land will once again be filled with many people. God will open the way for them and lead them out of exile. They […]
URC Daily Devotions 1st February
Alas for those who devise wickedness and evil deeds on their beds!When the morning dawns, they perform it, because it is in their power.They covet fields, and seize them; houses, and take them away;they oppress householder and house, people and their inheritance.Therefore, thus says the Lord:Now, I am devising against this family an evil from which you cannot remove your […]
URC Daily Devotions 31st January
For this I will lament and wail;I will go barefoot and naked;I will make lamentation like the jackals,and mourning like the ostriches.For her wound is incurable.It has come to Judah;it has reached to the gate of my people,to Jerusalem.Tell it not in Gath,weep not at all;in Beth-leaphrahroll yourselves in the dust.Pass on your way,inhabitants of […]
URC Daily Devotion 30th January
The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Kings Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.Hear, you peoples, all of you; listen, O earth, and all that is in it;and let the Lord God be a witness against you, the Lord from his holy […]
The Book of Micah
Dear <<First Name>> The Daily Devotions between now and Ash Wednesday will focus on the short Book of Micah. Just as Amos ministered in the northern Kingdom of Israel when it was threatened by the Assyrian Empire, Micah ministered in the southern Jewish Kingdom of Judah. Like Michah, he ministered in the 8th Century BC facing […]