NorMel House Devotions

Read Isaiah 43:14-19 The prophet Isaiah warned Judah that its sin would lead to captivity by Babylon. Isaiah also predicted the redemption of God’s people, just as He had rescued them from Egypt. Our text is in the middle of a comforting section on the restoration and regathering of the people of Israel. Isaiah 43:16-17 is a reminder of how God delivered His people from Egypt. However, he doesn't want them to dwell on "the former things." Instead, Isaiah is subtly pointing them forward to Christ's coming. Jesus is the way forward. Jesus, Himself, said, "I am the way, the truth and the light" (John 14:6). Our way to salvation is Jesus. We are to see and be thankful for God's forgiveness for our past sins and look ahead to Christ's coming. In the Israelites case, it would have been His first coming. For us, however, Jesus has already come, so we can look forward to His return. Our text not only calls Jesus the way, but He is also the only "water...

Read 1 Corinthians 3:1-9 Paul wrote the letter to the Corinthians to address several problems going on in the church of Corinth. In our text, he addresses their immorality, divisions in the church, and their spiritual immaturity. It is so important that Paul actually writes about it more than once in the same letter. In chapter 1, Paul appeals to the brothers in the church to agree and be united. In order for this to happen, they must stop quarreling over who they follow. The Corinthians were divided into several factions, each claiming to follow different teachers. Paul points out how completed wrong this is. As he says in chapter 1:13, "Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul?" Paul goes so far as to call them "worldly - mere infants in Christ" (1 Corinthians 3:1). Oh, how easy it is for us to follow false ideas! When things like this creep into the church, we need to remember the very foundations of the gospel. Only ...

  Read Romans 5:1-5 Our passage today is a beautiful piece about rejoicing in our suffering, with a theme of faith, hope, and love. Paul tells us we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Faith is what allows us to go through hardship and suffering and still rejoice. We can rejoice, regardless of our circumstances, because we know that God's plan is being fulfilled. We don't rejoice because of our suffering, but in our suffering because we know our suffering isn't meaningless. Our suffering here is meant to build character and produces hope in God, "and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God" (Romans 5:2). We are being built up in faith, hope, and love. God has poured out His love, and because of that, we can have faith in His gifts of grace and hope in the future He has planned for us. "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see" (Hebrews 11:1). Faith, without hope, is dead. We must have faith in...

Read: 2 Corinthians 9:6-11 Paul wrote the second letter to the Corinthians because false teachers were asserting that Paul couldn't be trusted. They said he lied about his plans and wasn't a real apostle. They also accused him of pocketing the collections for the poor. Paul writes the Corinthians to explain why he changed his itinerary, to encourage them to continue in generosity to the poor, and to defend his apostolic authority. In our text Paul is talking about the results of generosity. He uses the analogy of a farmer sowing his crops to show how being generous will bring a generous return. A farmer must sow many seeds if he wants a plentiful crop. As Christians, we should "sow generously" as well. What does that look like? This can be done in many ways. The obvious answer is monetary. We are to give to the poor generously in relation to what we have been blessed with. Another way we can apply this in our lives is that God gives us each different talents and bless...

Read 1 Timothy 4:11-15 Paul wrote to Timothy to warn him about false teachers and to instruct him in church matters. In chapter four, he starts by explaining that there are some in the church pushing false teachings. They were teaching a strict practice of self-denial from marriage and foods (see 1 Timothy 4:3). Paul also warns against godless myths and old wives' tales (1 Timothy 4:7) and tells Timothy to instead train himself to be godly (1 Timothy 4:8). What follows, in our text, is instructions on how to live a godly life. We, too, can learn from Paul's instructions. As Christians, we, too, must set an example for others. One of the ways we can strive for godly behavior is devoting ourselves to reading scripture. Paul tells Timothy he has a gift from God that he must not waste. He urges Timothy to make his spiritual growth visible for others and to preach and teach others to do the same. There's a couple of things we can learn from Paul's instructions. First, we are...

Read Proverbs 1:1-7 The book of Solomon was written to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the young and to make wise men wiser (see Proverbs 1:5). It is a "How to "book on living wisely. Our text is an introduction and sets the tone for the book.  We can expect to see more of the contrast between the wise and the fool, but especially about the fear of the Lord. Verse seven shows a stark contrast between those who fear the Lord and the fool that despises wisdom and discipline. Discipline is immediately set out as a good thing, something we should seek (Proverbs 1:2-3). We can see that the fear of the Lord is going to be a prominent theme throughout the book. Solomon tells us that serving the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Therefore, those who do not fear the Lord can not attain even the beginning of knowledge (Proverbs 1:7). This tells us that not only is the book going to tell us how to live, but how to live in the fear of the Lord. We can read the ...

Read Ephesians 4:17-32 Paul, the writer of Ephesians, wants his readers to live, not as the gentiles do, but rather, live lives of Christian purity. In our text, he gives us a basic guide for how to put off our 'old selves' and not follow our deceitful desires. Paul points out that a life without God can lead to a life of impurity. Purity is essential for Christians. We are to put on our 'new selves' as we were created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:23). What does a life of purity look like? Paul gives us several examples of how we are to behave and what we shouldn't do. In verse 25, he tells us not to speak falsehood but speak truthfully to our neighbors. It is not enough to not lie. We MUST speak the truth. He also tells us that we must not sin in our anger. Not all anger is sin. However, we must not dwell in our anger. Dwelling on your anger gives the devil a foothold in your life (Ephesians 4:27). Paul then tells us it's not e...