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A Growing Friendship

  Listen to today’s devotional A Growing Friendship October 9, 2026 James 4:4-10 I’ve been thinking a lot about friendship. Around Del Rio, we have a whole lake reminding us of it. Lake Amistad. Friendship. That’s a good word to live near. An even better word to live into. Then James comes along and makes friendship sound dangerous: “Friendship with the world is enmity with God.” Well, there goes being friendly. But before we start making a list of people to avoid, James wants us to look at our hearts. He calls us “double-minded.” That is, we say we want to draw near to God, but we also want to hold on to whatever gets us our way. Do you know the feeling? I want God to shape my life. I just have a few things I want God to leave alone. But friendship means something. The people closest to us have a way of influencing us. We begin to notice what matters to them. Their concerns become our concerns. Shouldn’t friendship with God do something like that? If I’m drawing near to God, would...
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Care Without Control

  Listen to today’s devotional Care Without Control October 8, 2026 1 Peter 5:1-5 I don’t mind giving advice, mostly. It’s when people don’t take it that I get a little frustrated. Especially when I’m sure I’m right, I can't help but wonder why you even asked me to begin with. All I'm trying to do is help. At least, that’s what I tell myself. I can't help but wonder, though, that maybe I really just want to get my way. First Peter tells church leaders to care for God’s flock without lording authority over people. Did you catch the important part there? It's God's flock. The people leaders care for do not belong to them. That’s worth reflecting on even if you’ve never led a church. We all have some influence in someone’s life. Our children. Our friends. Someone at work. People who trust us enough to ask what we think. Yes, that trust means something, but it doesn’t make their decisions ours. The hard part in all this is offering advice and wisdom without deciding eve...
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Faithful Sounding

  Listen to today’s devotional John 11:45-53 Sometimes, I wonder if knowing what to say about God makes it easier to avoid actually listening to God. In other words, I can find a Bible verse and know the church lingo to make something sound faithful. But sounding faithful and being faithful can be two different things. Two very different things. Just listen again to Caiaphas. After Jesus raised Lazarus, the religious leaders recognized that people were believing in him. They worry because they fear Rome’s response. In their discussion, Caiaphas offers what sounds like practical advice to them. He says that one man should die so the nation can live. That pretty much sums up our faith, but he means Jesus needs to go for good. More is happening in those words than Caiaphas understands. Jesus will die for the people. His death will gather God’s scattered children together. Caiaphas says the right thing. But imagine asking him what he actually means. I know I've prayed something like, “...
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Pardon and Peace

  Listen to today’s devotional Psalm 119:49-56 My Sunday School class recently read and reflected on Psalm 1. In some way, I think about that psalm almost every day. Since my first email account back in the late 1900s, I’ve signed off my messages with “Stay blessed.” The blessing I have in mind comes from that psalm, and it is a life rooted in God’s wisdom. Psalm 119 gives us another glimpse of that life. The psalmist finds hope in God’s promise and comfort in distress. God’s word gives him life. That made me think of John 6, where the disciples tell Jesus, "Only you have the words of life.” Then that brought an old hymn to mind: “Wonderful Words of Life.” My attention honed in on one line of that song: “offer pardon and peace to all.” As I read the hymn, God's word offers pardon and peace to all. But I also wonder, as we learn God's wisdom of life, doesn't that mean we offer pardon and peace to all as well? Wouldn’t learning God’s ways mean learning to offer forgivene...
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Rejected, Yet Precious

  Listen to today’s devotional Rejected, Yet Precious October 5, 2026 1 Peter 2:4-8 I've got a lot of stuff in my house that wouldn't impress you. Things you wouldn't buy at my garage sale. Old photos, things my kids have made, and, as you might know, a lot of CDs. Someone else may glance at these things and not think twice about them. But good luck trying to convince me to throw any of it away. There's something precious about the things themselves and what they mean to me. First Peter describes Jesus as a living stone, "rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God's sight." Today, I'm reflecting on that word "yet." Jesus was rejected, yet precious. People dismissed him, yet God chose him. Those realities existed together. But Jesus did not have to wait for everyone to change their minds before he mattered to God. Let me offer a bit of encouragement and say the same thing about you. Jesus knows what rejection feels like. He knows the p...
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What I Thought She Thought

  Listen to today’s devotional Matthew 13:24-30 Years ago, when Gloria and I were first married, we started visiting a church. One Sunday, I sat beside a woman whose purse was between her and me on the pew. Partway through the service, I watched her discreetly move it to her other side. Believe it or not, that was the last time we went to that church. I remember feeling that she had taken one look at me and decided everything she needed to know. Instead of being angry about it, I've learned to use that memory to reflect on how often I’ve done that. Jesus tells a story about wheat growing alongside weeds. The servants see the weeds and immediately want to pull them up. The farmer says no because, in their hurry, they might take out the wheat, too. Of course, he sees what they see, but he also sees the harm their quick solution could cause. I understand the servants. When something is wrong, I want to do something about it now. When I watch the news or worry about someone I love, I s...
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A Prayer in the Wind

  Listen to today’s devotional A Prayer in the Wind October 1, 2026 Matthew 14:22-33 Fear is a storyteller, but it isn’t always a truthful one. Give it one bad possibility, and it will fill in the rest. Once, Jesus told his disciples to cross the lake. So, they got into a boat and went. As they were going, the wind rose against them. During their struggle, sometime before the morning, they saw someone walking toward them on the water. It was Jesus. But their fear took one look at him and called him a ghost. They eventually recognize Jesus, and Peter asks him to call him out onto the water with him. So, Jesus did. And Peter walked on water toward Jesus. We tend to remember what happened next. Peter noticed the wind and began to sink. But before he sank, remember that he walked on water first. As he started to sink, he cried, “Lord, save me!” Jesus reached out and caught him. Before that, Peter and the others had cried out because they thought Jesus was a ghost. Now Peter was afraid ...
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