June 14, 2018 DAILY READING Psalm 201 Samuel 9:15-27Hebrews 2:5-9This weekend’s reading: Acts 15 FIELD NOTES Today we pick up the story of Saul from where we left him.  Saul has gone into the town with his servant to find the prophet Samuel to get his help with his missing donkeys.  Samuel is waiting in…

June 13, 2018 DAILY READING Psalm 1081 Samuel 9:1-14Luke 11:14-28This weekend’s reading: Acts 15 FIELD NOTES Yesterday we read about how the Israelite people demanded that Samuel give them a king.  They rejected God’s kingship over them in favor of an earthly king to protect them.  So Samuel is going to give them what they…

June 12, 2018 DAILY READING Psalm 1081 Samuel 8:1-22Revelation 20:7-15This weekend’s reading: Acts 15 FIELD NOTES For the next few days, we are going to explore the passages in 1 Samuel which mark the end of the period of Judges and the beginning of the period of Kings for the Israelite people.  Once the Israelites…

June 11, 2018 DAILY READING Psalm 1081 Samuel 7:3-15Revelation 20:1-6This weekend’s reading: Acts 15 FIELD NOTES For someone who is very much a “head person,” the words of the Psalmist and of Samuel in today’s readings are both a challenge and a relief.  When I say that I am a “head person,” I mean that…

June 9, 2018 DAILY READING Matthew 5:1-12Psalm 33:12-22This weekend’s reading: Hebrews 10:19-25 FIELD NOTES From The Voice translation: “And He began to teach them.Jesus: Blessed are the spiritually poor—the kingdom of heaven is theirs.    Blessed are those who mourn—they will be comforted.    Blessed are the meek and gentle—they will inherit the earth.    Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for…

June 8, 2018 DAILY READING Romans 8:14-17Psalm 33:12-22This weekend’s reading: Hebrews 10:19-25 FIELD NOTES I think of some of my favorite books and movies– how many are underdog stories? The Lord of the Rings is about how the smallest, most inconsequential beings in all of Middle-Earth are ultimately what it needs to defeat evil. In Hoosiers,…

June 7, 2018 DAILY READING Acts 2:1-11Psalm 33:12-22This weekend’s reading: Hebrews 10:19-25 FIELD NOTES In high school, I went on a mission trip with an organization to the Florida panhandle.  We helped fix up a home in a very poor fishing village just outside of Pensacola.  One night, the mission organization invited all of the groups…

June 6, 2018 DAILY READING John 3:31-36Psalm 99This weekend’s reading: Hebrews 10:19-25 FIELD NOTES When speaking of Jesus in his tome, Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis has this to say: “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher,…

June 5, 2018 DAILY READING 1 Peter 4:7-11Psalm 99This weekend’s reading: Hebrews 10:19-25 FIELD NOTES Recently, I heard a story of a woman who could have appeared on the television show Hoarders.  The woman at the center of the story could not move around her house, for it was full of trash, animal waste, and even…