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Top X July 13, 2025 Devotional

by David Joynt on July 13, 2025

Top X July 13, 2025 Devotional

EXODUS 20:13 | 13 You shall not murder.

 

Individual human lives, according to Bible, have an inestimable value. This is so because, in the first instance, we are made in God’s image, and are not simply the result of a long process of Darwinian evolution and competition. In the second place we are begotten and not made, each one as a unique person. There are trillions of genetic possibilities that could shape a single person, and we all have unique experiences, relationships, and stories. Thirdly, we are not simply temporary biological creatures with short lifespans, we are meant to be eternal citizens of heaven. Fourthly, we are meant to have individual callings leading to special roles within our families, communities, and churches. Finally, Jesus was born for, lived for, died for, and rose for the redemption of the world.

 

Why do you value life? How do you value it?

 

 

Gracious God,

Help me to see the value in others, even those who are hard to like, or unkind to me. May I treat people with an infinite regard.

Amen.

 

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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