Posts tagged "Hopelessly Devoted"
Hopelessly Devoted: Matthew Chapter Five Verse Forty Eight
Bible / Law

Hopelessly Devoted: Matthew Chapter Five Verse Forty Eight

by Mockingbird on Jun 17, 2013 • No Comments

If you’re following along with us in your new Mockingbird Devotional, you’ll already know. On Robin Hood and the nature of getting it wrong, today’s reading comes from our co-editor Sean Norris.

You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:48, ESV)

One of the Biblical words translated “sin” is actually an archery term meaning “to have missed the mark or target.” It reminds me of the Disney cartoon version of Robin Hood, with Robin as the cunning fox and the Sheriff of Nottingham as a big ugly wolf. In the movie there is an archery contest in…

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Hopelessly Devoted: Matthew Chapter Four Verses Five through Seven
Bible / Forgiveness / Literature

Hopelessly Devoted: Matthew Chapter Four Verses Five through Seven

by Mockingbird on Jun 10, 2013 • No Comments

If you’ve got a new copy of The Mockingbird Devotional, good! Turn to today, June 10, and you’ll find this meditation from our very own Will McDavid. If you don’t have a copy of The Mockingbird Devotional, well, just read below, and then purchase one for yourself, here. You won’t regret it–at least if you’ve got a little Ruby Turbin in you…

Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels…

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Hopelessly Devoted: John Chapter Twenty One Verse Seventeen
Bible / Forgiveness

Hopelessly Devoted: John Chapter Twenty One Verse Seventeen

by Mockingbird on Apr 22, 2013 • 1 Comment

Coming home from our New York Conference, where many of you picked up the conference edition of The Mockingbird Devotional: Good News for Today (and Every Day), this morning’s devotion comes from DZ.

[Christ] said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.” (ESV)

A quick recap of Peter’s “greatest hits” in the New Testament:

a) When Jesus tells…

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Hopelessly Devoted: Matthew Chapter Twenty Eight Verses One Through Ten
Bible / Death / Theology

Hopelessly Devoted: Matthew Chapter Twenty Eight Verses One Through Ten

by Mockingbird on Apr 8, 2013 • 2 Comments

This morning’s devotion comes from Jacob Smith. A reminder that this devotion (and 364 others) will be released at the Spring Conference in the long-awaited Mockingbird Devotional: Good News for Today (and Every Day).

“…Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said…” (ESV)

This is the account of the first Easter morning. However, on this Easter morning there is no linen, no brass instruments, no baked hams or Easter eggs, and no large lilac hats. Instead, the initial tone of the first Easter morning is…

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Of Wolves and Tax Forms: A Lenten Devotion
Church / Everyday / Suffering

Of Wolves and Tax Forms: A Lenten Devotion

by Lynn MacDougall on Mar 11, 2013 • 2 Comments

“There are wolves at my door, Father. Wolves that exist, and ones I imagine. They want to come in, and rend me.  They snuff at the foot of the door, and paw at the windows. This little hovel I fill threatens to give way to their press. I am never free from them, or from the worry of them. When I sleep, I run from them, and I feel their breath on my face. While I am awake,  I give myself over to thoughts of them. Some of them are real … sickness, pain, fear, hurry, rejection,…

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Hopelessly Devoted: Matthew Chapter Six Verses One and Two
Bible / Law

Hopelessly Devoted: Matthew Chapter Six Verses One and Two

by Mockingbird on Feb 25, 2013 • No Comments

This morning’s Lent-appropriate devotion comes from Jeremy Coleman.

Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.  Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others.  Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward (ESV).

In giving of all kinds—money, time, energy—Jesus here is basically saying, “It must be so pure that even your hands are ignorant of your…

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Hopelessly Devoted: Mark Chapter Ten Verses Seventeen through Thirty One
Bible

Hopelessly Devoted: Mark Chapter Ten Verses Seventeen through Thirty One

by Mockingbird on Feb 11, 2013 • 3 Comments

This morning’s devotion, on the story of the rich young man, comes from Andrew Pearson.

…The disciples said to him, “Then who can be saved?”  Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God.  For all things are possible with God”… (ESV)

Jesus shows an eccentric knack for knowing what’s behind the words. All of us strive for that kind of clairvoyance, but often come embarrassingly short.  I get myself into “foot in mouth” situations all the time, completely misreading what I thought was so obvious. This doesn’t seem to happen to Jesus.

Here he…

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Hopelessly Devoted: Psalm Fourteen
America / Bible / Identity

Hopelessly Devoted: Psalm Fourteen

by Mockingbird on Jan 28, 2013 • No Comments

This morning’s devotion comes from Josh Bascom.

The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; There is no one who does good. The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one (ESV). 

Modernity’s demand for political correctness has created a culture in which we thirst for and command equality. Whether it comes in the form…

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Hopelessly Devoted: Clarkson Chapter Five Verse Three
Bible / Music

Hopelessly Devoted: Clarkson Chapter Five Verse Three

by Mockingbird on Jan 14, 2013 • No Comments

This morning’s devotion comes from Mbird friend Brent Kuhlman:

You gotta love Kelly Clarkson. “Dark Side” - what a powerful song! And the video enhances the song’s message all the more. The dilemma, of course, is whether or not you can love and stay with a loved one or friend who has a “dark side.” It recalls not only our relationship with others but God’s relationship with all of us – how we Dark-Siders stand coram Deo. The song is spot on: “Everybody’s got a dark side” “Nobody’s a picture perfect”. Indeed, not only before each other but also before God.

The intra…

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Hopelessly Devoted: Isaiah Chapter Forty Two Verses One through Eleven
Bible / Christmas

Hopelessly Devoted: Isaiah Chapter Forty Two Verses One through Eleven

by Lauren R.E. Larkin on Dec 24, 2012 • 2 Comments

The following is a devotion I wrote for my local seminary’s advent devotional.

Blind, prisoners, dungeons, sitting in darkness…Stay here where things are dire. Our guilty consciences, our bruised egos, our shame, our failure wants us to move on; “Let’s not talk about this… let’s get to the good news… quickly!” But, in this very last day of Advent, this is where we should be: face-to-face with the dire reality of our situation. Things are no longer “very good” (Gen 1:31) and not even a little good; they are—once again—completely “not good” (Gen 2:18). Because we prefer to dash the…

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Hopelessly Devoted: Isaiah Chapter Ten Verse Twenty Seven
Bible / Christmas / Film / Theology

Hopelessly Devoted: Isaiah Chapter Ten Verse Twenty Seven

by Mockingbird on Dec 10, 2012 • No Comments

In light of Advent, this morning’s devotion lights on our Christmas promise from the book of Isaiah, rendered in the Jet Li vernacular by Ben Phillips.

And in that day his burden will depart from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck; and the yoke will be broken because of the fat.

When it comes to yokes and shoulders, two movie scenes spring to mind. One is from The Mission (1986), the second is in Jet Li’s Twin Warriors (1993). In the first film there is a powerful scene of a man who is part of a Spanish expedition in the…

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Hopelessly Devoted: Leviticus Chapter Twenty Six Verses Forty Two Through Forty Five
Bible / Forgiveness

Hopelessly Devoted: Leviticus Chapter Twenty Six Verses Forty Two Through Forty Five

by Mockingbird on Nov 26, 2012 • 2 Comments

As we enter the holiday season, and all the anticipations and memories that entails, this timely devotion on the biblical nature of human memory, and the foolish memory of God, comes from Bonnie Poon Zahl.

I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. For the land will be deserted by them and will enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate without them. They will pay for their sins because they rejected my laws and abhorred my decrees. Yet in spite of this, when they…

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Hopelessly Devoted: First Corinthians Chapter One Verses Eight and Nine
Bible / Theology

Hopelessly Devoted: First Corinthians Chapter One Verses Eight and Nine

by Mockingbird on Oct 29, 2012 • No Comments

This morning’s devotion comes to us from Aaron Zimmerman.

[God] will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.  God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

The opening to Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians shows both Paul’s deep personal knowledge of the church in Corinth (can you sense his emotional involvement in their lives?) and his abiding concern for theological precision. This first paragraph is dense: Paul gets into Christology, ecclesiology, soteriology, eschatology.

What this means is that, right off the bat, Paul is especially…

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Hopelessly Devoted: Colossians Chapter Three Verses Three and Four
Bible / Death / Suffering / Theology

Hopelessly Devoted: Colossians Chapter Three Verses Three and Four

by Mockingbird on Oct 22, 2012 • 3 Comments

An amazing devotion this morning comes from Lynn MacDougall, who shares a reflection on both the Fall Mockingbird Conference and its cornerstone concept–the hope we find in death. 

“For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”

Since my time at the recent Mockingbird Conference in Charlottesville, I have been thinking about death. A lot.  Suffering was the heart of the matter, but “death” was the “piece de resistance.”   Questions that emerged: What does it mean to live? What does it mean…

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Hopelessly Devoted: Hosea Chapter Three Verses One Through Five
Bible / Forgiveness

Hopelessly Devoted: Hosea Chapter Three Verses One Through Five

by Mockingbird on Oct 8, 2012 • No Comments

This short and beautiful reflection comes from Andrew Pearson.

And the LORD said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.”  So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley.  And I said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days.  You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so I will also be to you.”  For…

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