Archive for May 2022

DAILY READING Psalm 931 Timothy 6:11-12 Fight the good fight. Take hold of eternal life.  These are big visions, big messages, big commands.  The words sound heroic, honor filled, lofty, magnificent, glorious, holy!  Realistically however, these phrases are a call to Obedience with a capital ‘O’.  And that may not mean what you think AND it might be more…

DAILY READING 1 Timothy 6:11-12Psalm 93 1 Timothy 6:11-12 is Paul’s advice as an elder to a young disciple, a member of the next generation to carry the message of Jesus.  Timothy was the pastor of the church in Ephesus and as such, had many ‘church’ issues to manage. He was thought to carry a special gift…

DAILY READING Psalm 23 The Twenty-third Psalm may well be the most recognized, most memorized, most “famous” passage in Scripture. How many posters, greeting cards, and cross-stitch pillows have we seen bearing its famous beginning, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want”? Countless. When I was a child, I heard these words read…

DAILY READING Matthew 5:1-12 One cold November afternoon I was walking around a lake in a beautiful mountain town. I was just coming to the end of my walk around the frigid gray water when I approached an older gentleman carrying a Ziploc bag full of bird seed. He walked down to the water’s edge…

DAILY READING Matthew 15:21-28 Today’s scripture reading is, to me, one of the most difficult passages about Jesus in the Bible. At first reading, it appears that Jesus — the perfect, sinless, all-compassionate Son of God — is being unkind. In his conversation with a Canaanite woman, Jesus appears to be hard-hearted, uncaring, and dare…

DAILY READING Amos 5:4-15 One hot, sticky August many years ago, I was at a retreat center far out in the Tennessee countryside with my colleagues from work. We had spent a long, tiring day in a stuffy conference room. As we wrapped up the evening, one of my co-workers led us in evening prayers.…

DAILY READING Romans 12:1-2 As winter gives way to spring, I enjoy sitting outside on my front porch or patio and watching the changes in nature as the world begins its tilt toward longer days and warmer weather. One spring I observed the leaf-buds on my maple tree in the front yard. I noticed that…

DAILY READING Philippians 4:4-7 One day recently I was riding down the interstate and I noticed a car in one of the other lanes. It was covered with writing on the windows: “Mayo Clinic-bound!” “Please pray for us!” “Praying for healing!” I was touched. Here was a family on a journey seeking healing, driving a…