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  Listen to today’s devotional Before You Forget September 29, 2026 James 5:13-16 I can't count the times someone has said to me, “Please keep me in your prayers.” Early on, I had to learn to focus myself so I would mean it when I said, "I will." Of course, I was going to pray for them. But then we finished talking. My phone rang. I remembered something else I needed to do. By evening, I couldn't quite remember what I promised to pray about. I thought about this while looking at a church prayer list. We're pretty good at lists, for sure. We collect names, print them, email them, and add new names on Sunday morning. That can be a beautiful way to remember people. But a prayer list can also just be a list. James tells the church to “Pray for one another.” He expects us to bring our lives before God together. As much as we might want to do that, I wonder if sometimes we hesitate because we think prayer needs to sound a certain way. We have to learn the right words, h...

  Listen to today’s devotional Matthew 18:1-5 Psalm 78 calls God’s people to tell the next generation “the glorious deeds of the Lord.” We have a responsibility to hand down the faith, to teach children the stories and ways of God. But in Matthew 18, Jesus turns the classroom around. The disciples ask, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Instead of giving them a ranking, Jesus calls a child to the center. Then he says, “Unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” We often say children are the future of the church. Jesus places a child in the middle of the church and says, “Pay attention. Your future depends on what this child can teach you.” In the ancient world, children had little status. So Jesus is not romanticizing childhood. He’s confronting the disciples’ hunger for importance. They want to climb the kingdom ladder, but Jesus points to someone who can’t climb it at all. “Become humble like this child.” I'm trying to fo...

  Click here to listen to today’s devotional No Silver Bullets September 14, 2026 John 20:19-23 Churches often begin talking about change when they become afraid of dying. They see declining attendance and tired volunteers. They know their budgets are strained, and that younger generations are missing. So, we look for the silver bullet: a new program, a new worship service, a new staff position, or a better communication strategy. But I'm convinced the question of “How do we keep our church going?” is nowhere near as important as “Where is God already at work, and how are we being sent to join in?” After his resurrection, Jesus appeared to the disciples hiding behind locked doors. They were afraid, but Jesus did not give them a plan for protecting themselves. He said, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” That's a reminder that the church was never meant to survive behind locked doors. It was breathed into life...

  Click here to listen to today’s devotional Matthew 21:18-22 Jesus didn’t say faith could move a mountain. He said it could move this mountain. And “this mountain” may have been more than a motivational metaphor. Jesus was nearing Jerusalem, the city built on a mountain and crowned by the temple. Just before this, he had entered that temple looking for prayer and wasn’t happy with what he actually found. Then he left and approached a fig tree covered with leaves but bearing no fruit. The tree becomes a living parable of the religious landscape. It was impressive from a distance, but empty where it mattered. There were plenty of leaves, but no love. Plenty of religion. No righteousness. Then Jesus tells his disciples that prayerful faith can move “this mountain.” Scholars interpret the mountain in different ways, so we should be careful not to claim too much. But within Matthew’s story, Jesus may be pointing beyond a difficult situation to an entire religious system that had stop...

  Click here to listen to today’s devotional Psalm 121 I’m not sold on it yet, but Psalm 121 has me considering putting up a billboard for my church. I’ve thought about it for weeks as I travel over the highest point in town. When you reach our bridge, two digital billboards rise into view and grab your attention. I’ve wondered whether displaying an invitation on one of them would be worthwhile. After all, as you climb the bridge, you have to look up to see them. Why not see a message from our church? That may connect with one reading of this well-known psalm of ascent. The joyful traveler is making the uphill journey toward the sanctuary of God. Along the way, he sees the surrounding hills. Some may have held rival places of worship, each offering its own god, its own promise, and its own invitation. So, the traveler looks at the hills and asks, “From where will my help come?” Then comes his answer: “My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” The hills may advertise ...

  Click here to listen to today’s devotional 2 Corinthians 12:14-18 “You scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours" sounds friendly enough. Helpful, even. You do something for me, and I’ll return the favor. There’s even a familiar Latin phrase for it: quid pro quo. This for that. But if we’re not careful, “this for that” can become the math we use for relationships. I helped you, so you should help me. I showed up for you, so you should show up for me. I gave, so eventually you should give something back. Paul wants nothing to do with that kind of relationship with the Corinthians. In 2 Corinthians 12, he tells them, “I do not want what is yours but you.” Then he uses the parent-child relationship as an example. “Children ought not to lay up for their parents, but parents for their children.” Paul’s not saying children never give anything to their parents. He's describing the direction of mature love. Mature love asks, “What can I give?” before it asks, “What am I getting?” Tha...

  Acts 15:6-11 In my denomination, being ordained involves a process. Truthfully, it can be long and grueling. There are meetings, evaluations, papers, interviews, projects, and plenty of waiting. My process went pretty smoothly, but there are many stories. One criticism I've heard about the process, one I agree with, isn't really about the requirements. It's about an attitude. Apparently, parts of the process used to be even more difficult. And sometimes people who endured the old system want to ensure the next person has an equally difficult experience. You've probably encountered that attitude. Nobody gave me a break, so why should I give you one? Acts 15 describes a different form of this problem. Some Jewish Christians believed that Gentile believers should take on the requirements and customs that had defined their own religious lives. They essentially said, "If you're going to follow Jesus, you need to carry what we've carried." Peter didn't...