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  Matthew 8:23-27 Unfortunately, you don't know how much you trust Jesus until you really have to. That’s because it’s easy to sing about trusting Jesus when the boat isn’t sinking. In Matthew 8, the disciples follow Jesus into a boat, and along the way, the weather gets bad. Matthew calls it a “great storm" as waves are crashing over the boat. The disciples are panicking. And not-so-little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head. Now, some of these disciples were fishermen. They knew how bad storms could get. So, the surprise may not have been the storm itself. What frightened them was that Jesus didn’t seem nearly as concerned about it as they were. “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” I wonder how many of our prayers are some version of that. Jesus, don’t you see what’s happening? Don’t you care? Why aren’t you doing something? And Jesus responds with his own question: “Why are you afraid, you of little faith?” Of course, Jesus doesn’t suggest there is no storm. Because of wh...

  Genesis 19: 15-23 Three little words may tell us more about Lot than a whole biography could, and maybe even something about ourselves. “But he lingered.” God had told Lot to leave Sodom. The warning was simple: Get your family. Get out. And don't look back. But Lot lingered. A common interpretation of that is that Lot got a lot more comfortable. So, maybe he lingered because he thought about the house he'd worked for. He thought about the possessions he'd accumulated. There were familiar streets and familiar faces. Come to think of it, Sodom was a mess, but it was his mess. The Bible doesn't tell us why Lot lingered. Maybe that's an invitation for us to fill in the blank with our own answer. But not about Lot. What makes you linger? You see, we tend to think that only bad things have hold of us. But can't good things also be something we're not so willing to let go of? Comfortable things can keep you from being faithful to God's calling, too. That...

  Genesis 37:29-36 Jealousy made Joseph's brothers want to kill him. But they decided, because "he is our brother," to just sell him off. That's interesting because, after they sell him, they dip his special robe in blood and take it home to their father. Then they tell him, “We found this; see now whether it is your son’s robe or not.” Your son. Not our brother. I wonder exactly when that choice of words came to mind. Joseph had stopped being their brother and become Jacob’s son. And maybe that’s how we learn to hurt people. The easiest way to mistreat someone, ignore them, dismiss them, or decide their suffering isn’t our concern, is to put some distance between us and them. We change the nouns. They’re no longer our neighbors. They’re those people. Not our children. Those kids. Not our community. That side of town. Not our brother or sister. Someone else’s problem. We've heard this already in Genesis. After Cain kills Abel, God asks, “Where is your brother Ab...

  Acts 18:24-26 Click here to listen to today’s devotional My grandma wanted to watch a movie with us one night. So, we took her pick and had a blast. As the movie went on, she kept saying she didn't remember certain parts. She didn't remember the movie being as funny as it was that night. Turns out, we were watching the director's cut. The director's cut is the same story, but there are additional scenes added that you didn't know about. New conversations, details, or experiences help develop and make more sense of the story. Apollos had a faith like that. Acts describes him as eloquent, passionate, and deeply knowledgeable in the Scriptures. He boldly taught about Jesus. In other words, he wasn't a beginner. But then Priscilla and Aquila invited him into their home and, as The Message puts it, "told him the rest of the story." Now, they didn't tear down what he already knew. They expanded it. They gave him the director's cut. How many of us ...

  Psalm 105:1-6 Click here to listen to today’s devotional Chances are, your religion is boring. But that doesn't have to keep you from what is exciting. A.W. Tozer once said, "Boredom with religion is conceivable, but being bored with God is not. Those who have encountered God and his mighty, awesome presence could never come to the point of boredom. Religion, however, with all of its tiresome dos and don'ts, sets us up for such boredom. Anyone who tries to follow his religion religiously experiences great moments of boredom in the minutia." I wonder how many of us mistake our boredom with religion for boredom with God. Do you know the feeling? The songs don't move you anymore, and even the prayers feel recycled. Yes, you know when to stand and when to sit. You know the stories and all the church answers. Your faith can become so familiar that you stop expecting to be surprised. But there's no room for boredom in Psalm 105. Listen to the action: "Give th...

  Matthew 15:32-39 Click here to listen to today’s devotional It surprises some people to learn there's another story about Jesus feeding thousands with a few pieces of bread and fish. In Matthew, it happens only one chapter after the more familiar feeding of the 5,000. Why do we tend to remember the 5,000 and forget the 4,000? Maybe we just like bigger numbers. But I've been wondering if Matthew wants us to connect this second feeding story not only to the first one, but also to the story immediately before it. Jesus encounters a Canaanite woman desperate for her daughter to be healed. Their conversation sounds like a debate about dinner. Jesus tells her, "It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs." Ouch. But she doesn't walk away. "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." Touché. Jesus heals her daughter, a Canaanite daughter. Then Jesus keeps walking and soon thousands of peopl...