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February 10, 2021 DAILY READING Matthew 19:1-12 Psalm 119:9-16 FIELD NOTES A few years ago, I offered to help a friend who was experiencing some legal troubles. This offer took me all the way to a courtroom in the county courthouse, where I sat in the back row as support while my friend waited for…

February 9, 2021 DAILY READING James 2:1-13 Psalm 119:9-16 FIELD NOTES “…have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?” – James 2:4 (NRSV) I am a person that is constantly making distinctions and judgements. Most of the time, this is a helpful thing—“Has this milk gone bad?”; “Should I eat…

February 8, 2021 DAILY READING Mark 5:1-20 James 1:2-8 Psalm 119:9-16 FIELD NOTES “It turns out the Christian story is a good story in which to learn to fail. As the ethicist Samuel Wells has written, some stories feature heroes and some stories feature saints and the difference between them matters: ‘Stories…told with…heroes at the…

February 6, 2021 DAILY READING Luke 4:42-44 FIELD NOTES Even Jesus needed rest. Throughout the New Testament, we read that Jesus often went away to a quiet or deserted place to pray. Here we see him doing just that, but the crowd follows. His work is never done. He tells them he was sent for…

February 5, 2021 DAILY READING Psalm 138 FIELD NOTES Someone once asked, “If you woke up tomorrow and only had that which you gave thanks for today, what would you have?” I read a study a few years ago that demonstrated the changes gratitude produces in the human brain. When persons in the research trial began…

February 4, 2021 DAILY READING Acts 9:19b-25 FIELD NOTES The lie of the prosperity gospel is that through following Christ, our lives become richly blessed by worldly standards. We are indeed richly blessed in and through our faith, but this doesn’t always look like wealth, power, or prestige. Sometimes it’s quite the opposite.  When Saul…

February 3, 2021 DAILY READING Psalm 56 FIELD NOTES Psalm 56 is a psalm calling for trust in God under persecution. The psalmist proclaims, “in God I trust; I am not afraid.” “By assurance, John Wesley meant a state of mind and heart, not so much dreamy as durable. A sense of absolute trust in God…

February 2, 2021 DAILY READING 2 Kings 5:1-14 FIELD NOTES I was complaining about something that had been weighing on me to a colleague. They looked at me and asked lovingly, “Have you prayed about it as much as you’ve talked about it?” Such simple advice I hadn’t yet tried. But sure enough, through prayer…