DAILY READING Psalm 22 REFLECTION   Never Forsaken By Carmel Elmer “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” I can’t think of anything sadder in all of history than those 9 words spoken by Christ in his greatest moment of agony and here, in the opening verse of Psalm 22 written 1000 years before Jesus cried them out in desperation.    Throughout Psalm 22 we see a profound foreshadowing of Christ’s agonizing death on the cross and the events leading up to his final desperate cry.  As I...

DAILY READING Colossians 2:8-15 REFLECTION   The Head Over Every Power and Authority By Carmel Elmer As a Saturday devotional writer, before I write I like to read the passages for the week in succession and reflect on how they connect with one another and with the heading for the week.   This week’s heading is “In the Shadow of the Cross” and the readings focus on discerning the difference between the wisdom & authority of this world and that of God in the wake of Christ’s sacrifice on the...

DAILY READING Matthew 4:12-17 REFLECTION   A Light Has Dawned By Carmel Elmer “The people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned” Boom!!  Drop the Mic! For centuries, the Jewish people had waited in anticipation for the promised Messiah to come and rescue them.  Generation after generation, they had been oppressed, exiled, returned to Jerusalem, conquered…and the cycle just seemed to continue over and over again.  And...