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1 Corinthians 12-13

15 Sep

12 Now, dear brothers and sisters, regarding your question about the special abilities the Spirit gives us. I don’t want you to misunderstand this. 2 You know that when you were still pagans, you were led astray and swept along in worshiping speechless idols. 3 So I want you to know that no one speaking by the Spirit of God will curse Jesus, and no one can say Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit.

4 There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. 5 There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. 6 God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us.

7 A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. 8 To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge. 9 The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. 10 He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. 11 It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.

12 The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. 13 Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.

14 Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part. 15 If the foot says, “I am not a part of the body because I am not a hand,” that does not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear says, “I am not part of the body because I am not an eye,” would that make it any less a part of the body? 17 If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything?

18 But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it. 19 How strange a body would be if it had only one part! 20 Yes, there are many parts, but only one body. 21 The eye can never say to the hand, “I don’t need you.” The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.”

22 In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary. 23 And the parts we regard as less honorable are those we clothe with the greatest care. So we carefully protect those parts that should not be seen, 24 while the more honorable parts do not require this special care. So God has put the body together such that extra honor and care are given to those parts that have less dignity. 25 This makes for harmony among the members, so that all the members care for each other. 26 If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad.

27 All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it. 28 Here are some of the parts God has appointed for the church:

first are apostles,
second are prophets,
third are teachers,
then those who do miracles,
those who have the gift of healing,
those who can help others,
those who have the gift of leadership,
those who speak in unknown languages.

29 Are we all apostles? Are we all prophets? Are we all teachers? Do we all have the power to do miracles? 30 Do we all have the gift of healing? Do we all have the ability to speak in unknown languages? Do we all have the ability to interpret unknown languages? Of course not! 31 So you should earnestly desire the most helpful gifts.

But now let me show you a way of life that is best of all.

13 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

8 Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! 9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! 10 But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.

11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12 Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.[c] All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 12-13

Dear God, the reading for the Catholic church today is 1 Corinthians 12 starting in verse 12 about one body but many parts. And that was interesting. But then I noticed something. The second half of the very last sentence of chapter 12. Verse 31b: But now let me show you a way of life that is best of all.

Oooo. What is the way of life that is best of all? What comes next? Well, it’s the love chapter. Chapter 13. We can do all the things, but if we do them without love we are nothing. I’ve been given some compliments lately from friends who have told me their significant others met me for the first time recently and mentioned my joy. I told one of them yesterday, “I hope it’s the fruit of the Spirit they are seeing.” And I truly do. I hope it’s you that they see in me. I don’t care how much I accomplish. If I am doing it without love then what am I doing?

Father, I’m a little time-crunched this morning, but you know my heart. I want to continue to purge out the selfishness in my heart and give your fruit space to grow. You know what the problems are. I’m thinking of the sins for which I want to repent right now. I’m not perfect. Not even close. But I want to repent well before you. I want to glorify you in word and deed. I want to be an example of your love in this world. I am grateful to be wanted by you. Now, use me as you will.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on September 15, 2026 in 1 Corinthians

 

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John 3:13-17

14 Sep

13 No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man has come down from heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.

16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

John 3:13-17

Dear God, It’s been about seven or eight years since the first time I really spent time with this speech from Jesus to Nicodemus and went and looked up the Moses story he references in verse 14. Now, whenever I see a cross being marched down the aisle of a church or hung in a church somewhere, I almost always think of this passage and look at it as my Jesus being that salvation. You save me, Jesus. And now, you teach me, Holy Spirit. You are my God. I am even here this morning because of you.

Then there’s the most ubiquitous verse in Evangelical Christendom: John 3:16. It’s easy to forget that it’s part of an overall speech to Nicodemus about what it means to be born again. To be a new creation. To have my soul die and be resurrected in you.

I also never read verse 17 without thinking about my pastor from high school. He would have us recite both 16 and 17 at the end of each service for a year.

Just for fun, I want to look at this whole conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus, as recorded by John:

3 There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee. 2 After dark one evening, he came to speak with Jesus. “Rabbi,” he said, “we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you.”

3 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

4 “What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”

5 Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. 6 Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. 7 So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.”

9 “How are these things possible?” Nicodemus asked.

10 Jesus replied, “You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don’t understand these things? 11 I assure you, we tell you what we know and have seen, and yet you won’t believe our testimony. 12 But if you don’t believe me when I tell you about earthly things, how can you possibly believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man has come down from heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.

16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

18 “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. 19 And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. 20 All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. 21 But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”

Father, this conversation laid the groundwork for Nicodemus becoming, at first, a closet-Jesus follower, and ultimately led to him being one of the two men who cared for Jesus’s body after the crucifixion. Personally, I think he became part of The Way after that because John knows these stories to tell us. I appreciate Nicodemus’s open and seeking heart. He was trying to be cautious. He didn’t want to be led astray from you. But when he saw who Jesus was he embraced him. Thank you for this example. I look forward to meeting Nicodemus, one of my three favorite men of the Bible (I’m looking at you, Jesus’s earthly father Joseph and Jonathan). I pray that I will have the necessary courage to follow you as they did.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on September 14, 2026 in Uncategorized

 

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Matthew 18:15-35

13 Sep

15 “If another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the offense. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back. 16 But if you are unsuccessful, take one or two others with you and go back again, so that everything you say may be confirmed by two or three witnesses. 17 If the person still refuses to listen, take your case to the church. Then if he or she won’t accept the church’s decision, treat that person as a pagan or a corrupt tax collector.

18 “I tell you the truth, whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.

19 “I also tell you this: If two of you agree here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you. 20 For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them.”

21 Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?”

22 “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!

23 “Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. 24 In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars. 25 He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt.

26 “But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’ 27 Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt.

28 “But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars. He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment.

29 “His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time. ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it,’ he pleaded. 30 But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full.

31 “When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened. 32 Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. 33 Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ 34 Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt.

35 “That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.”

Matthew 18:15-35

Dear God, I suppose there is a difference between forgiving someone and accepting them. The Gospel reading today starts with verse 21, but the story really starts back at verse 15. Verse 15 is what prompted Peter’s question in the first place. But the example in verse 15 is not unlimted allowing yourself to be wronged. It’s not, “Make yourself a doormat,” which is how some people interpret verse 22. No, Jesus says we need to have some boundaries, but we also need to let go of the bitterness, hate, and anger, and extend forgiveness because we should remember how much we’ve been forgiven of by you. If someone steals from me, lies about me, or even murders a loved one, that still pales in comparison to what you, my God, have forgiven me of. I should bless them and send them on their way. Or, if they are someone who must remain in my life because they are family, I should love them even though I might put up limits to how much of my life I expose to them.

But here’s the danger in that when it comes to family. Those boundaries have to be drawn carefully. Rarely is it appropriate to just take a line and draw it all the way at the edge and cut off relationship completely. Yes, that might be the easiest, least friction way forward, but I will also likely be losing a blessing you have for me in figuring out how to move forward with that person. Frankly, my wife and I have several family members who have drawn the drastic, all the way to the edge, line with us. Some of them have done it because we have not drawn drastic lines with others in our family. Some have done it because of a perceived wrong we did years ago that cannot be understood or forgiven. And then there’s one who hasn’t told us why. They just walked away. I get the feeling there is a “why,” but it is somehow to shameful to share and so they are letting the secret drive a wedge between themselves and people who really love them.

I’ve had to figure out where to draw these lines with both family and friends, and I haven’t always done it correctly. I’ve drawn lines that were too harsh because I was filled with so much anger and bitterness that I couldn’t bring myself to look at or talk to the person. Through prayer, you worked on my heart. I opened relations again. I still struggle to find my way forward with them, and I don’t always do it right. But I do my best to show love beyond the hurt I’ve experienced because, 1.) it’s good and healthy for me to do it, and 2.) you remind me in passages like this that the debts they owe me are equivalent to the small debt the fellow servant owed the first servant in Jesus’s parable. The debt I owed you is the greater debt, and you forgave me. What right do I have to any debt someone else owes me?

Father, I thank you for forgiving me. Help me to not forget just how much I did that received your redemption anyway. You are a great God. And I pray for the family members who are harboring anger and bitterness towards me. And I don’t pray that they would treat me like I deserve because what I deserve is probably nothing. But I pray for their sake that they might experience healing, release, and peace. I pray that they might hear a word from you about forgiveness and realize that it is for them, not for me. And in the pain that I am experiencing because of this rejection, I pray that you will help me to even take that and grow from it. Use it to refine me int the man you have for me to be.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on September 13, 2026 in Matthew

 

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Two Rich Songs

12 Sep

“Oh, Lord, Your Love” by Caedmon’s Call (and Rich Mullins) & “Step by Step” by Rich Mullins

Oh Lord I give You all I have
But it seems so little
When You have given me so much
I come to You with empty hands
And a heart that’s fragile
You come to me with a wealth of love

Oh Lord your love
Is new with every morning
Your faithfulness
It gets me through the night
You bid me come
You know that I am weary
Your yoke is easy
Your burden is light

And now I sing You songs of praise
But your greatness is beyond me
I know I cannot comprehend
How You ancient of days
Stoop yourself to call me
To be your son, to be your friend

Oh Lord your love
Is new with every morning
Your faithfulness
It gets me through the night
You bid me come
You know that I am weary
Your yoke is easy
Your burden is light

Oh Lord your love
Is new with every morning
Your faithfulness
It gets me through the night
You bid me come
You know that I am weary
Your yoke is easy
Your burden is light

Written by Rich Mullins and Cliff Young

“Step by Step” by Rich Mullins

O God, You are my God
And I will ever praise You
O God, You are my God
And I will ever praise You
And I will seek You in the morning
And I will learn to walk in Your ways
And step by step You’ll lead me
And I will follow You all of my days

Written by Beaker

Dear God, I was in church this evening, and there were two times when we knelt to pray that these songs came in to my head, respectively. The first time, I just had the chorus, “Oh, Lord, your love is new with every morning. Your faithfulness, it gets me through the night. You bid me come. You know that I am weary. Your yoke is easy. Your burden is light.” I don’t know where that came from. The readings were about forgiveness, so it wasn’t really on theme with the scripture or the homily, but there it was.

The second time, I knelt down and just started singing, “Oh, God, you are my God, and I will ever praise you. Oh, God, you are my God, and I will ever praise you. I will seek you in the morning, and I will learn to walk in your ways, and step by step you’ll lead me, and I will follow you all of my days.”

Is it a coincidence that Rich Mullins touched both of these songs (as a write and kind of performer for “Oh, Lord, Your Love” and as a singer for “Step by Step.”)? I don’t know. I only knew “Oh, Lord, Your Love” as performed by Caedmon’s Call. When I sat down to look up a video of the song on YouTube I came across a demo of Rich playing the song, presumably years before Caedmon’s Call recorded it. The notes on the verses are different, and I assume Cliff Young’s writing credit comes from lyric changes on the verses. But the chorus is Rich. Just great. And Rich always used to say about “Step by Step” that it is one of just a few songs (maybe the only song?) he ever recorded that someone else wrote–his best friend, Beaker. Rich later added verses to this simple chorus and changed the name to “Sometimes by Step,” but I wanted to go back to the original. Just pure worship.

So I sit here this evening, Father, about to watch a football game, and I give you my worship. Oh, Lord, your love–your forgiveness, your kindness, your peace, your goodness, your faithfulness, your patience, your gentleness, your faithfulness, and your amazing self-control–is new with every morning. Your faithfulness gets me through the night. To quote another Rich song: “Lord, you’re leading me with a cloud by day, and then in the night, the glow of a burning flame. And everywhere I go I see you!” You are my God, and I will ever praise you. I will seek you in the morning, and I will learn to walk in your ways. And step by step you’ll lead me. And I will follow you all of my days.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on September 12, 2026 in Hymns and Songs

 

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1 Corinthians 9:24-27

11 Sep

Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Dear God, I’m such a self-centered human! I read this passage this morning (part of the New Testament reading for the Catholic Church), and I immediately started thinking about the prominent pastors or national leaders who preach morality and then get found out for some egregious sin–often the very thing they were preaching against. I started harboring resentment and judgment for them. How could they do such a thing?!?

Then I read part of the Gospel reading from Luke 6:

41 “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? 42 How can you think of saying, ‘Friend, let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.

Oh yeah. Jesus warned me I would be tempted to do this. He warned that I would want to find the faults in others without self-examination and repentance.

I have a woman who works with me who has a tremendous amount of compassion. I have to be careful how I say this because of patient privacy issues and I’m praying publicly, but I’ll just say she went way, way out of her way last night for a client of our nonprofit, and I was questioning whether she was giving too much of herself. Was she crossing a self-care line. I wasn’t angry with her or judging her, but I was concerned for her. Then she sent back a report to some of us about how the client was blessed at a deep soul level from her visit. It warmed my heart. It broke my heart. It also made me ask myself if I would have done what she did if I had been in her place last night, or if I would have made the client wait.

Father, my point is that I can judge others for being selfish, when I can be incredibly selfish. I can judge others for being indifferent so suffering when I can be very indifferent to suffering. The list goes on. Let me start with mercy and forgiveness for others. Let me start with grace. Then, Holy Spirit, help me to search my own heart and get rid of the sins that reside and are deeply ingrained. I’m sorry, Father. I really am. I’m mostly sorry that, even when I sit down in these times with you, my first impulse when I read scripture is to judge someone else instead of hearing it as if it were written for me.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on September 11, 2026 in 1 Corinthians

 

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1 Corinthians 8

10 Sep

8 Now regarding your question about food that has been offered to idols. Yes, we know that “we all have knowledge” about this issue. But while knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church. 2 Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much. 3 But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognizes.[a]

4 So, what about eating meat that has been offered to idols? Well, we all know that an idol is not really a god and that there is only one God. 5 There may be so-called gods both in heaven and on earth, and some people actually worship many gods and many lords. 6 But for us,

There is one God, the Father,
    by whom all things were created,
    and for whom we live.
And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ,
    through whom all things were created,
    and through whom we live.

7 However, not all believers know this. Some are accustomed to thinking of idols as being real, so when they eat food that has been offered to idols, they think of it as the worship of real gods, and their weak consciences are violated. 8 It’s true that we can’t win God’s approval by what we eat. We don’t lose anything if we don’t eat it, and we don’t gain anything if we do.

9 But you must be careful so that your freedom does not cause others with a weaker conscience to stumble. 10 For if others see you—with your “superior knowledge”—eating in the temple of an idol, won’t they be encouraged to violate their conscience by eating food that has been offered to an idol? 11 So because of your superior knowledge, a weak believer for whom Christ died will be destroyed. 12 And when you sin against other believers by encouraging them to do something they believe is wrong, you are sinning against Christ. 13 So if what I eat causes another believer to sin, I will never eat meat again as long as I live—for I don’t want to cause another believer to stumble.

1 Corinthians 8

Dear God, reading this passage this morning reminded me of a conversation I had with my wife yesterday. She is teaching a Bible study for the next several months to a women’s group that she is in, and she will be going through John’s Gospel. We were talking about how one of her friends told her several months ago, “I don’t understand John.” My wife replied, “We aren’t commanded to understand. We are just commanded to believe.” I don’t know if she was consciously aware of why she said that, but she spent the next several weeks going carefully through John to see what Jesus called commanded us to do. His commands include believe, eat, and go. But none of them are “understand.” How interesting.

Maybe I miss the boat so often because I want to understand. I expect my little human brain should be able to figure this out. Why is this happening with my family? Why is this happening with my work? Why is this happening with my health? Why is this happening in someone else’s life? And now that I think about it, Job was never called to understand why everything that was happening to him was happening. And it was never revealed to him. He was just called to worship you and believe. Hmm.

Father, help me to find freedom in this today. I said all of this because of how Paul started out this part of his letter to the Corinthians: Yes, we know that “we all have knowledge” about this issue. But while knowledge makes us feel important, it is love that strengthens the church. 2 Anyone who claims to know all the answers doesn’t really know very much. 3 But the person who loves God is the one whom God recognizes. So I want to let go of my own quest for knowledge and just believe. Go. Eat. Worship. Love. I want to do what you actually commanded me to do and then just accept the rest of what it happening around me in peace and patience.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on September 10, 2026 in 1 Corinthians

 

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Titus 3:1-7

09 Sep

3 Remind the believers to submit to the government and its officers. They should be obedient, always ready to do what is good. 2 They must not slander anyone and must avoid quarreling. Instead, they should be gentle and show true humility to everyone.

3 Once we, too, were foolish and disobedient. We were misled and became slaves to many lusts and pleasures. Our lives were full of evil and envy, and we hated each other. 4 But when God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, 5 he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. 6 He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior. 7 Because of his grace he made us right in his sight and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life.

Titus 3:1-7

Dear God, I pretty much read this whole letter from Paul to Titus this morning. It was interesting to see that Paul was focused on encouraging Titus to hold people accountable for being good and moral. He mentions slander a lot. Apparently, these are all people on Crete, and he is treating them distinctly as being from there. He references it a few times. But as I read through this, I was struck by this part of the last chapter. There’s a humility in Paul in verse three. He remembers when he as sinful. He seemingly admits to being a slave “to many lusts and pleasures.” I don’t know if that’s what he intended or if I’ve ever seen him admit to that before, but it’s interesting for him to be that vulnerable. He always comes across as a little more chaste than that.

I guess my point is that I want to always remember what you’ve saved me from. The easiest way for me to offer my own forgiveness to others and your mercy to others is to remember that I am as sinful as anyone. The words to the Charlie Peacock song “In the Ligh” come to mind: “Tell me what’s going on inside of me. I despise my own behavior. This only serves to confirm my suspicions that I’m still a man in need of a savior.”

Father, help me to first live up to what and who you are calling me to be. Forgive me for my sins. When I fail. As Paul put it, for being a slave to many lusts and pleasures. They are all false. They are cotton candy–sweet to the tongue at first, but then gone into a vapor in a moment leaving behind only rot. So I am sorry. Purify me, Lord. And then help me to humbly walk with you, love others, and do the things that will help my neighbors find the narrow path you have for them. And help me to walk that narrow path well too.

I pray all of this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on September 9, 2026 in Uncategorized

 

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Matthew 1:16-24

08 Sep
Statue of the Holy Family at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Port Aransas, Texas


16 Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary.
Mary gave birth to Jesus, who is called the Messiah.

17 All those listed above include fourteen generations from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the Babylonian exile, and fourteen from the Babylonian exile to the Messiah.

18 This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. 19 Joseph, to whom she was engaged, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly.

20 As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. 21 And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

22 All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet:

23 “Look! The virgin will conceive a child!
    She will give birth to a son,
and they will call him Immanuel,
    which means ‘God is with us.’”

24 When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife. 25 But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus.

Matthew 1:16-24

Dear God, I saw this statue this past week while I was on vacation in Port Aransas, and I really liked it. I love the idea of Joseph completely covering and protecting this family you gave to him. A wife who must have been scared of what was going on. A helpless baby who was you incarnate. The responsibility you gave him was immense, and yet he seems to have lived up to what you needed from him.

Regarding this statue, I like how small Jesus is represented. He looks more the size of a newborn. What really strikes me is how small Mary looks. It’s another reminder that she was tasked with something unbelievably immense as well.

I’ll confess that I lost some sleep last night as I get ready to go back to work today after almost a week and a half off. I was/am stressed because I have a lot of work to do. I know of about 10 different things that need done and addressed to keep our nonprofit moving forward. And they are all important and have a sense of urgency regarding timing. It’s almost like if I can get through this week then I can get through a lot of it. I mention all of this because I feel overwhelmed right now, but it is nothing compared with what Joseph and Mary were facing in raising Jesus. Relocating from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Running from Herod to Egypt. Coming back and figuring out where to settle down (back in Nazareth). Not to mention raising this wholly unique child into a man.

Father, first, I thank you for people like Mary and Joseph from the Bible. They were good people. Joseph is my favorite Bible character with Jonathan and Nicodemus running a close second and third. Good people, indeed. Help me to learn from them. Help me to worship you well today in my work. Help me to lead today. Help me to offer everything I have to you for the work you have for me to do. And let that start with loving my wife and giving her what she needs from me. What you need her to have from me. And then help me to go one step at a time from there.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on September 8, 2026 in Matthew

 

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1 Corinthians 5:1-8

07 Sep

5 I can hardly believe the report about the sexual immorality going on among you—something that even pagans don’t do. I am told that a man in your church is living in sin with his stepmother. 2 You are so proud of yourselves, but you should be mourning in sorrow and shame. And you should remove this man from your fellowship.

3 Even though I am not with you in person, I am with you in the Spirit. And as though I were there, I have already passed judgment on this man 4 in the name of the Lord Jesus. You must call a meeting of the church. I will be present with you in spirit, and so will the power of our Lord Jesus. 5 Then you must throw this man out and hand him over to Satan so that his sinful nature will be destroyed and he himself will be saved on the day the Lord returns.

6 Your boasting about this is terrible. Don’t you realize that this sin is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old “yeast” by removing this wicked person from among you. Then you will be like a fresh batch of dough made without yeast, which is what you really are. Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us. 8 So let us celebrate the festival, not with the old bread of wickedness and evil, but with the new bread of sincerity and truth.

1 Corinthians 5:1-8

Dear God, one of the hardest things to figure out is where the cut line is on sin. What are the little ones and what are the big ones? Where do I look the other way and say, “Oh, he gossips too much and she is a little selfish and self-centered, but it’s not worth addressing,” and when do I confront them and tell them to stop? Pointing at myself, Where do I draw the line of living a life of complete purity and never allowing anything from society in and where do I allow myself to be exposed to the world around me? Should I remove everything secular from my home (including my cell phone) or should I continue to find a balance each day?

One thing I know about myself that is being underscored today is that I struggle when I don’t have structure. I am on the final day off from an 11-day break/vacation, and I am finding myself to be very unmotivated. I had prepared to do a bike ride this morning, but then I didn’t feel like it so I went back to bed. I have a group party to attend at noon today, and I’m grateful for it because I think I need a place to be. And it makes me grateful to get back to work tomorrow because I know I’ll come good and get myself back in gear. In the meantime today, going back to the levels of sin, I need to get rid of some of this slothfulness and pray to you about what you have for me to do today with this extra time I have.

Father, once again, it’s so easy to point to the sin of others and hard to ask you to examine my heart and reveal my sin to me. I’d just as soon not do that. But here we are, sitting together while I figure out how to get my act together and do my best to worship you. I have a couple of people I know from high school who are going through very difficult trials. One is bed-ridden. How much would she love to have the strength and opportunities I have today? So I offer this day to you. Help me to use it well.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on September 7, 2026 in 1 Corinthians

 

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Romans 13:8-10

06 Sep

8 Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law. 9 For the commandments say, “You must not commit adultery. You must not murder. You must not steal. You must not covet.” These—and other such commandments—are summed up in this one commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law.

Roman 13:8-10

Dear God, I live in Texas, I love you, and yet I am not a fan of Texas putting up the 10 Commandments in the classrooms. I don’t like the State imposing religion on people. And the 10 Commandments are an expecially odd starting place because there are only two of the 10 we have laws against (murder and stealing). The first four deal with revering you as God and observing the Sabbath, the last of which very few of the people who passed the law mandating the 10 Commandments be hung follow. In fact, I believe they ironically voted to pass this law on a Sunday.

I do like, however, what Paul did here. He broke it down the way Jesus broke it down. When asked what the greatest commandment was, Jesus replied, we must love you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Then he added a bonus one and said we must love our neighbor as ourselves. Our lives will not be complete if we do #1 and skip #2. And it will certainly be incomplete if we skip #1 and only do #2. For our purposes here, Paul isn’t saying ignore #1. Not at all. The context of this paragraph is about living in society, and he breaks the commandments down to what Jesus did at the end of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7:12: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Another irony is that I believe forcing non-Christian children to look at the 10 Commandments and for public schools to display them prominently is actually violating the overall principle of loving your neighbor as yourself and doing to them what you would have them do to you. If Muslims were all of a sudden in the majority, Christians would not want their scriptures posted on public school walls. These children need to be loved. They need to be welcomed into worshipping you and loving others.

Father, I’m probably off on a tangent here I don’t need to be on, but it’s just frustrating to me that so many people who call themselves Christians seem to be reaching for the gods of power and coercion instead of love, service, and persuasion. As we enter a political season, a time when I tend to keep my opinions to myself and only discuss them with a select few, please show me, Holy Spirit, what you would and would not have me do. I guess I’m asking that you grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on September 6, 2026 in Romans

 

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