AnotherJohn.Com

  1 Samuel 16:11-13 Listen to today’s devotional It's a meaningful question to ask a congregation after communion: "Has everyone been served?" Our first inclination might be to assume that, yes, everyone has been served. After all, we've seen everyone walk down and receive the bread and cup. The music has stopped, and the pastor has put everything back into place. It seems complete. But the question reaches further than the sanctuary. It stretches beyond those of us seated in the pews and into the lives of people we haven't noticed, the people we haven't named or invited to the table yet. When Samuel came to anoint a new king in 1 Samuel 16, Jesse presented his sons one by one. They were strong and capable. Obvious choices for a new king. And yet, something was missing. "Are all your sons here?" Samuel asked. That sense of incompleteness stirred the question for him. Of course, there was still one more. David. The one left in the field. The one forgo...

  Matthew 22:23-33 Listen to today’s devotional Some conversations aren't really conversations. You can tell when someone has already made up their mind. Not just because they have an opinion, but because of everything that's shaped it. The podcasts they've listened to. The voices they trust. The arguments they've rehearsed. By the time they ask a question, it's not coming from openness or a desire to know someone else better. It's coming from layers of influence that have already settled the answer. In Matthew 22, a group of Sadducees asks Jesus a question that almost sounds thoughtful. There's a sense, though, that they aren't asking to engage in resurrection talk, but to ridicule the idea completely. Jesus doesn't play along because he knows they're not exploring truth. They're simply defending a position they've already decided is right. Now, Jesus responds, but he doesn't chase their argument. Instead, he shows that they've f...

  Ephesians 2:1-10 Listen to today’s devotional It doesn't take long to see where people really walk. I've seen plenty of new or redone public paths that you can tell people put a lot of work into. Still, the concrete and foliage don't keep pedestrians from creating their own worn paths that go where they really want to be. Yes, developers should look at those paths first to establish more useful walkways. But doesn't that show us something about who we are? We want to go where we want to go. The thing about those worn paths, though, is that not everyone who walks them created them. Sometimes, you just step into what's already there. Someone else cut through the grass first. Enough people followed, and now it feels like the obvious way to go. The apostle Paul says something similar about our lives. We were "dead in our transgressions," following the ways of the world just like everyone else. Not always because we were choosing disobedience, but because we ...

  Acts 20:7-12 Listen to today’s devotional How many times have you fallen asleep in church? Younger me would've taken that personally or wondered why someone wasn't more committed to Jesus. Now, I've learned there are many reasons people nod off. Maybe it's been a long week. Maybe their medication is kicking in. Maybe the sermon and music aren't helping either. But what if it was just a late night? In the early days of the church, most people weren't wealthy. There was no middle class, just regular people working long hours to get by. It's not hard to imagine that by the time they gathered to hear Paul in Acts 20, they were already exhausted. Add a long message, a crowded room, and all those candles, and suddenly you wonder how it was that only one person dozed off. This short story is fun to tell. But it also highlights something deeper about the life of the church. There was time for long, meaningful conversations about faith. Not just surface-level stuff...

  Revelation 11:15-18 Listen to today’s devotional How many of us grew up not being allowed to leave the table until we finished our vegetables? We scrapped the rule altogether at our house because I appreciated that someone suggested it was an unnecessary power play. The whole interaction was less about better nutrition and more about control. And that tracks. Parents raise their voices and lose their cool. Kids dig in their heels. The table becomes more of a standoff than a sit-down. And everyone leaves frustrated because there's nothing like dinner-time rage. Now, that got me thinking about something deeper. Rage has a way of showing up when our control starts slipping away. Of course, not just at the dinner table. For a few weeks, I've been reflecting on the question in Psalm 2: Why do the nations rage? It's an ancient question that feels way too current. History is full of it, and history is rhyming again. When we see it, we can diagnose the surface problems as greed, ...

  Ezekiel 1:1-3 Listen to today’s devotional I once read a scholarly article that asked a strange question. Was the prophet Ezekiel on drugs? If you've read his letter, you understand. I'll let you chase that rabbit trail on your own. In the meantime, recall that Ezekiel's name means something like "strengthened by God." And when you step into his story, you can see that is his testimony. Right now, our church is walking through the book of Lamentations. These are five poems written by the prophet Jeremiah, a contemporary of Ezekiel. Our worship series is titled "Hope in the Ashes." Usually, when we talk about hope, we talk about what comes after the ashes. After the grief. After the loss. After the valley. Of course, there is something to celebrate about that. But if we're not careful, that kind of hope always lives just out of reach. It's like something that's only on the other side of what we're going through. Lamentations doesn't ...