1 November 2020
Bible Meditations & Prayers (by language)Monthly Bible Meditation (en)Luke 18:9-14 How Can We Stand Before God?To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast (...)
1 October 2020
Bible Meditations & Prayers (by language)Monthly Bible Meditation (en)Colossians 3:1-4 Seeking the Realities that Are AboveSince, then, you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:1-4)
At the beginning of this passage, St. Paul puts two statements together in an interesting way. He begins with something very strong: “You (...)
1 September 2020
Bible Meditations & Prayers (by language)Monthly Bible Meditation (en)Luke 24:50-53 A Paradoxical PresenceWhen Jesus had led the eleven disciples out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And they stayed continually at the temple, blessing God. (Luke 24:50-53)
Although the New Testament speaks of the Risen Lord being raised to the Father’s right hand, it is only Luke, with his predilection for historical stages, who tells explicitly of an (...)
1 August 2020
Bible Meditations & Prayers (by language)Monthly Bible Meditation (en)John 9:1-12 Unfinished CreationAs Jesus went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on (...)
1 July 2020
Bible Meditations & Prayers (by language)Monthly Bible Meditation (en)Philippians 3:12-14Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12-14)
Did you ever have one of those dreams in which you try to run but your legs are heavy and you don’t reach the goal? In (...)
1 June 2020
Bible Meditations & Prayers (by language)Monthly Bible Meditation (en)Isaiah 43:1-3 Hope and Not DespairThis is what the Lord says—the one who created you, Jacob, the one who formed you, Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” (Isaiah 43:1-3)
At the time when these words from the book of (...)
1 May 2020
Bible Meditations & Prayers (by language)Monthly Bible Meditation (en)John 20:11-17 The Light of a New CreationMary of Magdala stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why (...)
1 April 2020
Bible Meditations & Prayers (by language)Monthly Bible Meditation (en)John 19:16-22,25-27 “Here Is Your Son” … “Here Is Your Mother”They took Jesus, and carrying his own cross he went out to the place called “The Place of the Skull” (called in Aramaic Golgotha). There they crucified him along with two others, one on each side, with Jesus in the middle. Pilate also had a notice written and fastened to the cross, which read: “Jesus the Nazarene, the king of the Jews.” Thus many of the Jewish residents of Jerusalem read this notice, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the notice was (...)
1 March 2020
Bible Meditations & Prayers (by language)Monthly Bible Meditation (en)Genesis 32:22-30 Struggling in the DarkDuring the night Jacob quickly took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream along with all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone. Then someone wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he could not defeat Jacob, he struck the socket of his hip so the socket of Jacob’s hip was dislocated while he wrestled with him. Then the man said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.” “I will not let (...)
1 February 2020
Bible Meditations & Prayers (by language)Monthly Bible Meditation (en)John 13:1-7 I Have Given You an ExampleJust before the Passover feast, Jesus knew that his time had come to depart from this world to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now loved them to the very end. The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, that he should betray Jesus. Because Jesus knew that the Father had handed all things over to him, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, he got up from the meal, removed his outer clothes, (...)