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This weekend, we traveled to Corpus Christi to celebrate our son's birthday. Well, that was the excuse to visit our newborn granddaughter.  Knowing I would be spending the day with our kids and driving for 4+ hours later, I needed to make time to do some reading. So, I woke up early Saturday morning and went downstairs to the hotel lobby. There was only one other person downstairs. The crew was still getting breakfast ready. The only real noise was The Weather Channel going on in the background. I wasn't paying too much attention to the TV until I heard something that I thought I had just read. My reading was about church innovation. In particular, a theme of my reading was about nurturing saplings to grow. While I was reading these pages, an apple farmer was on The Weather Channel. He was talking about how some trees grow more fruit than others. Weather conditions can impact individual trees in different ways. Then he said something like, "That's why we plant more tha...

  Click here to listen to today’s devotional Maybe I Was Wrong August 28, 2026 2 Thessalonians 2:7-12 I don’t look at every war, earthquake, election, or new technology and connect the dots to the end times. If it’s the end, it’s the end. Which is probably why I struggle with passages like 2 Thessalonians 2. There’s a “lawless one,” Satan, deception, signs and wonders, all the stuff that can send some of us to the Mystery Machine to start looking for clues. But there is one part of the imagery I love. Paul says Jesus will destroy the lawless one “with the breath of his mouth.” Isaiah 11 tells of a promised ruler who beats wickedness with the breath of his lips. In 2 Thessalonians, after a whole buildup of the rebellion to come, Jesus breathes. Evil tries to put on a show. Jesus barely has to exhale. Then there's the part that really steers me away from worrying about end times. The writer describes people who perish because they “refused to love the truth.” Not people who refused t...

  Click here to listen to today’s devotional Psalm 105:1-6 I'm about two months into a new appointment, which means a new city, a new church, and a new home. The city and church have their things in order. And most things are in place at home, too. But there have been several times when I've had to actually seek something out. That's gotten me turned around in the city, taught me what I don't have at the church, and left me wondering how in the world I lost what I could always find at home. The thing is, when I find what I'm looking for, all I have to do next is not forget it or misplace it. But what about seeking God? Considering the glory of God's name, the psalmist in Psalm 105 tells us to "seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually." Well, is that something we find once and for all? Is it something we can lose? The rest of the psalm gives us a clue. Psalm 105 is basically a long memory. The psalmist starts telling stories: Abraha...

  Click here to listen to today’s devotional Psalm 8 Personally, I've got the wonder and joy of children on my mind. That could be why I've noticed the little ones that walk by my office window each day. Our church has a day school, and each class takes a trip to the playground. Thankfully, my office is along their way. It's early in the school year, but they already seem to know to walk safely in line, one behind the other. One day last week, I noticed something I'm sure I'd seen before. Maybe my new grandparent eyes were kicking in. As each class followed the leader, no one only looked straight ahead. Each child of God seemed to carry a sense of curiosity and astonishment about their surroundings. Their heads turned and swiveled in all directions. Each little step brought them closer to something new or made them tune in even more to something they were getting further from. I wonder if the psalmist looked around before writing Psalm 8. It seems like he looked at ...

  Exodus 2:11-15 Moses had grown up in Pharaoh’s house, but he knew the Hebrews were his people. One day, he went out and saw what life looked like outside the palace. He saw the forced labor, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. Moses knew something was wrong. So he looked around, saw nobody was watching, killed the Egyptian, and buried him in the sand. The next day, Moses saw two Hebrews fighting. He confronted the one who was in the wrong, who then snapped back at him, “Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Uh-oh. “Surely the thing is known,” Moses thought. The sand might not be a great hiding place, after all. Think about Moses for a second. In this moment, he knows what injustice looks like and that his people were suffering. He even knew enough to recognize when one Hebrew was mistreating another. His problem wasn’t that he couldn’t tell right from wrong. His problem was that he didn’t automatically know what to do about it. Isn't that a part of growing up s...

1 Samuel 7:7-11 In 1 Samuel 4, Israel lost a battle against the Philistines. So, somebody comes up with the idea to get the ark of the covenant. Now, the ark represented God’s presence among the people, and when they brought it into camp, everybody started shouting, and the ground shook. Even the Philistines were afraid. Israel had to have thought, We've got them. But they didn't. Israel lost the battle, and the ark was captured. A few chapters later, in 1 Samuel 7, the Philistines are coming again. But this time, Israel can't get the ark, so they tell Samuel, “Do not cease to cry out to the LORD our God for us.” Do you notice the difference? Before, the Israelites treated the ark almost like a lucky charm. It doesn't feel like they were asking what God wanted. They had already decided what they wanted, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. The text doesn't tell us why the battle in I Samuel 4 happened; some have thought the Philistines started it. But it does ...