Archive for January 2018

January 11, 2018 DAILY READING Daniel 3:1-30 This weekend’s reading: Daniel 2:1-16 FIELD NOTESArriving to a former church I pastored, a member hugged me and with a big smile said, “I want you to know that I haven’t been back to church since the last Sunday you preached.” What he thought was a compliment, I…

January 10, 2018 DAILY READING Daniel 3:1-30 This weekend’s reading: Daniel 2:1-16 FIELD NOTESShadrach, Meshach, and Abednego chose to listen to God, not to humans. Wallace Chappell, Davis Chappell’s father, was sitting in front of me at a session of our Tennessee Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church. A visiting bishop was preaching one…

January 9, 2018 DAILY READING Daniel 3:1-30 This weekend’s reading: Daniel 2:1-16 FIELD NOTESShadrach, Meshach, and Abednego chose to worship God, not an idol. Every day, we are faced with giving ourselves to potential idols, priorities, and pressures versus worshipping and following God. As members entered the sanctuary for Sunday worship, the altar was covered…

January 8, 2018 DAILY READING Daniel 3:1-30 FIELD NOTES I used to hate being thrown into life’s fiery furnaces. Now, I am more likely to say, “I don’t like this Lord. Because you helped me before, I can’t wait to see how you are going to get me out of this mess.” Shadrach, Meshach, and…

January 5, 2018 DAILY READING Acts 1:1-5 Psalm 40: 1-11 This weekend’s reading:  Daniel 1:1-21 FIELD NOTES “When we attribute the Christian life from beginning to end to the Holy Spirit, we are indexing our lives to a divine personal agent who is capable of speaking, confronting, comforting, inspiring, encouraging, empowering, purifying, and the like.…

January 4, 2018 DAILY READING Galatians 1:6-12 This weekend’s reading: Psalm 40: 1-11 FIELD NOTES “The whole Christian gospel could be summed up in this point: that when the living God looks at us, at every baptized and believing Christian, he says to us what he said to Jesus on the day of his baptism.…

January 2, 2018 DAILY READING Acts 8: 4-13This weekend’s reading: Psalm 89: 5-37 FIELD NOTES Simon the Sorcerer had been captivating the people for some time when Philip rolled into town. Where Simon offered up spectacle, Philip offered something different. Philip came in with healing, miracles, and most of all, the truth of Jesus Christ.…

January 1, 2018 DAILY READING Acts 10: 44-48 This weekend’s reading: Psalm 89: 5-37 FIELD NOTES We see in this passage from Acts that the Holy Spirit has been poured out even on the Gentiles. This came as such a shock to those who had followed Christ, being that they and He were Jewish. God…