DAILY READING Psalm 772 Kings 2:1-18Mark 11:20-25This weekend’s reading:  Proverbs 15:1-7 FIELD NOTES This story in 2 Kings depicts Elisha sticking close to his mentor Elijah throughout a long journey so that he may witness Elijah’s being taken up to heaven. At the end of the journey, the mentor asks his student, “Tell me what…

DAILY READING Psalm 77Nehemiah 9:9-15Romans 14:13-15:2This weekend’s reading:  Proverbs 15:1-7 FIELD NOTES The book of Nehemiah tells the story of the newly returned Israelites from exile. The fragile community suffers under the Greek occupation of their ancestral home, leading to internal strife and division. Governor Nehemiah seeks to restore cultural unity among the people by…

DAILY READING Psalm 77Joshua 3:1-17Hebrews 11:23-29This weekend’s reading: Proverbs 15:1-7 FIELD NOTES When I was a hospice chaplain, one of my patients was a 97-year-old woman from Jamaica named Betty. Talking with her was the highlight of my day. Though Betty was full of joy and laughter, she hadn’t had an easy life. Growing up in…

DAILY READING Matthew 15:1-9Psalm 119:1-8 FIELD NOTES We can do everything right.  We can go through the motions perfectly.  We can obey every rule or ethic code, or whatever it may be.  Yet if our heart isn’t in it, if we aren’t sincere in our convictions, then what we do is shallow at best and…

DAILY READING 1 John 2:7-17Psalm 119:1-8 FIELD NOTES Look, we can all admit that relationships are hard.  People mistreat you.  They gossip about you. They attack your character.  Perhaps even worst of all, they completely ignore you.  And yet, we see in the text that if we hate, we are still “in the darkness.”  Do…

DAILY READING James 1:12-16Psalm 119:1-8 FIELD NOTES “It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out.” The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis God didn’t make us do it.  Neither did the devil.  It was us all along.  We let our own…

DAILY READING John 8:12-30Psalm 119:105-112 FIELD NOTES Scholar N.T. Wright says about Jesus in his book, John for Everyone: “He and his father are giving evidence that he is the Messiah; but if this is so, he is bringing the light that they cannot escape.  As he has come to realize, at the heart of Israel…

DAILY READING 2 Corinthians 4:1-12Psalm 119:105-112 FIELD NOTES Is there anything worse than the feeling of hopelessness?  I am hard-pressed to think of a worse feeling.  And yet, unfortunately, all of us will eventually be in that space.  Eventually, we all find ourselves in a moment where the odds seem stacked against us.  Maybe our…