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  Psalm 23 Listen to today’s devotional This weekend, we sang a worship song that centered on the image of God as our shepherd. We've sung it before, but this time I felt it a little more. The chorus says, "For the Lord, my Shepherd, leads me, leads me and he is all I need." I was a little emotional singing this time because I knew what those words meant for me in that moment. For about a week, I had been sitting with the news that I will have a new appointment this year. As a United Methodist pastor, these moves do not always come when you expect them. This one wasn't on my radar. Still, we offer our lives in service to the church. And we trust our Bishop and Cabinet to prayerfully discern where we are best suited to serve. Underneath that understanding is a deeper conviction that God is leading us through it all. And whether you're moving churches or cities, starting something new, or simply trying to be faithful where you are, that is a comforting thought. But ...

  John 21:4-8 Listen to today’s devotional This is Plan B for the disciples. They had seen what happened to Jesus and knew it was over. So, they go back fishing. For sure, this doesn't feel like a quiet day on the lake to get away from it all. This story is often seen as a return. These followers of Jesus didn't know what to do next. And as many people know, when you don't know what to do next, you often return to what's familiar. That day, then, their fishing wasn't a hobby or a retreat weekend. Still, Jesus shows up there. The Lord meets them while they are in the wrong direction and fills their nets. What a blessing grace is! By morning, their emptiness turns into an overflow. Some of them may have remembered a catch like that before. In both cases, their abundance was not connected to what they understood about what was happening but to their willingness to listen. As they’re witnessing this miracle, one of the followers recognizes what is happening. "It is...

  1 Peter 2:1-3 Listen to today’s devotional There's an old question that pops up from time to time: "Can I be a Christian and not go to church?" Now, I assume there are good intentions behind the asking. So, here's my typical response. It's totally possible for someone to do Christ-like things and even be Christ-like on their own. But it is impossible to live the life that Jesus proclaimed and that the Bible portrays without the church. Can I go sailing without a sail? Well, you can float around, taking in the view. But you won't move forward how you’re supposed to without the wind in your sails. To be sure, the Spirit is the wind in the church's sail. And without the church, we're barely even in the water. That's not anything I haven't said or preached before. But I saw it again in today's reading. Notice the examples that Peter uses in this quick verse about growing into salvation. He says to get rid of malice, guile, insincerity, envy, ...

  1 Peter 1:13-16 Listen to today’s devotional I've seen demonstrations of how you actually go about girding your loins. It's what you do to get ready for hard work, something that requires focus and freedom to move. I can't remember the last time I was in a literal gird-your-loins situation. At least not in that typical sense. The Bible uses that phrase a few times. The Proverbs 31 woman girds herself with strength. God tells Job to gird his loins like a man so that he can be questioned. 1 Peter also uses the idea, but turns it inward. For Peter, the action happens in your mind. A literal translation of 1 Peter 1:13 goes like this: Gird up the loins of your mind. Physically, it meant pulling up your robe so you wouldn't trip when it was time to move. Spiritually, it means to stop tripping over your loose thinking. Holiness is learned. We begin to recognize it as we learn more about who God is. After all, Peter tells us to be holy because God is holy. Yes, holiness is a...

  1 Peter 1:8-12 Listen to today’s devotional As a kid, I had an 8" black and white TV in my room. Because that's what would come through, I watched a lot of news-like programming. I also had a bad habit of waking up extremely early for school. In those days, when I turned on the little TV in the early hours of the day, all that came on were religious shows. Funny enough, I can remember standing in front of the mirror, acting like the preacher I saw. One day, something struck me. Normally, there was a presenter in a studio, but on this day, he was out walking and talking. Understand that I didn’t know what the Holy Land meant. At one point, the speaker stopped, looked over his shoulder, and said something like, "I'm here walking on the same dirt roads that Jesus walked." That didn't sound right. Later in the day, I asked my mom if Jesus was a real person. In my mind, people talked about Jesus. There were stories about him, and all those churches thought he wa...

  Matthew 12:38-42 Listen to today’s devotional Surely, you've asked God for some kind of sign before. Did you feel evil or adulterous when you did? Let's think about when people wanted a sign from Jesus. Remember Doubting Thomas? He wouldn't believe the good news about Jesus unless he could see it for himself. He needed a specific sign. And he got it. A group of scribes and Pharisees approached Jesus once and said, "Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you." In response, he denounced them as part of "an evil and adulterous generation." So, what's the difference? Timing and attitude, I suppose. Thomas had participated in Jesus' ministry and then witnessed the devastation of his crucifixion. He experienced a painful loss that completely challenged his faith. The religious leaders had also seen and heard from Jesus. But they had come up with some strange explanations for it all. Their request for another sign, maybe even a specific sign, wasn’t abou...