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  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 ...

  1 Corinthians 6:1-8 We like to win. because winning feels good. Apparently, the Christians in Corinth thought so too. In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul addresses church members taking one another to court. In the Roman world, lawsuits could involve more than settling a disagreement. Courts operated within a culture shaped by wealth, social status, and honor. The goal wasn't necessarily to find out who was right or wrong. Taking someone to court could be another way to show who had power and who didn’t. Scholars note that many of the conflicts in 1 Corinthians revolve around these kinds of divisions and expectations of social privilege. And Paul tells the Corinthian Christians to stop. But then he says something even more uncomfortable: “Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?” Now, I don't think Paul is suggesting that injustice is okay. He's asking whether getting what we think we're owed has become more important than becoming like Jesus. How does that questi...

Genesis 45:25-28 “Don’t get your hopes up.” That’s something you’ve probably heard before. Maybe it’s advice you’ve given to someone. Usually, we mean well when we say that, because we don’t want someone to be disappointed by how things will most likely turn out. But if you hear it enough, “don’t get your hopes up” can become a way of life. Don’t expect too much. Don’t get too excited. Don’t believe things can change. That way, if things do fall apart, at least it won’t hurt as much. Like many of us, Jacob knew that kind of hurt. For years, he believed his son Joseph was dead. He had grieved him, mourned him, and learned to live with a hole in his life. So, years later, when his sons returned from Egypt, saying, “Joseph is still alive!” Jacob couldn’t believe them. Some translations of the Genesis text say that his heart became numb. He was stunned. Of course, that was something hard to believe, but I also wonder if Jacob had also been hurt too deeply to risk even hoping again. Then he...