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  Listen to today’s devotional James 4:11-12 “Do not speak evil against one another” is hard when they give us so many good reasons. Some people make it very easy to remember and rehearse what they did wrong. Have you ever replayed a conversation over and over, thinking about what you should have said? Then you tell somebody else what happened, and somehow the story gets a little better every time you tell it. At least, your part does. James knows we will have problems with one another. He is writing to people who share a faith and still struggle to share a life. So he does not say, “Never talk about it.” He says, “Do not speak evil against one another.” There is a difference. I may need to tell someone that I was hurt, or speak the truth. I may need help deciding what to do next. But as I do, I can also frame things the way I want because I want someone else to think less of the other person. I can choose the details that make them look their worst. I can say their name with a cer...

  Listen to today’s devotional Matthew 18:1-5 Psalm 78 calls God’s people to tell the next generation “the glorious deeds of the Lord.” We have a responsibility to hand down the faith, to teach children the stories and ways of God. But in Matthew 18, Jesus turns the classroom around. The disciples ask, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Instead of giving them a ranking, Jesus calls a child to the center. Then he says, “Unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” We often say children are the future of the church. Jesus places a child in the middle of the church and says, “Pay attention. Your future depends on what this child can teach you.” In the ancient world, children had little status. So Jesus is not romanticizing childhood. He’s confronting the disciples’ hunger for importance. They want to climb the kingdom ladder, but Jesus points to someone who can’t climb it at all. “Become humble like this child.” I'm trying to fo...

  Listen to today’s devotional Numbers 11:1-3 Numbers 11 says the people complained and God started a fire! Now, many questions remain unanswered in this story. That means there are several explanations for various parts of it. Today, I am reflecting on an answer to one part of the story: The fire's location. The fire started at the edge of the camp. As we see Israel in the wilderness, remember these are not tourists taking the scenic route. In a sense, they were marching like an army. In the ancient world, an enemy would attack the outskirts of the opposing army first. The edges were the most exposed and vulnerable parts. When danger came, people moved inward, closer to the protected center. So, maybe the fire was doing more than punishing their complaints. Maybe it was calling them closer. Now, Numbers doesn't tell us what the people said. But it seems that their complaints revealed that their hearts were moving from the God who had rescued them. Take all that together, and w...

  Listen to today’s devotional Psalm 106:1-8 Some may wonder why we focus so much on love and talk about it so much. Well, Jesus said the greatest commandments are about love. And scripture makes it clear that God is good and God's steadfast love endures forever. That means love is not merely something God does. Love is the deepest truth about who God is. The Hebrew word translated “steadfast love” is hesed . It is a covenant love that is loyal, merciful, and stubbornly faithful. And when the psalm says this love “endures,” it literally points toward forever. That means God’s never expires. It doesn't disappear even when we disappoint God. As the psalmist tells us, the people had forgotten what God had done. Joining the generations of his faith, he confesses that "we" have sinned. But then comes that one little word: “Yet.” Psalm 106:8 says, “Yet he saved them for his name’s sake.” They forgot God, yet God remembered them. They questioned God, yet God rescued them. Th...

  Click here to listen to today’s devotional What God Sounds Like September 16, 20266 Exodus 15:22-27 The Israelites are three days into the wilderness when trouble starts. They find water, but it is too bitter to drink. So they complain. Moses cries out to God, and the Lord shows him a piece of wood to throw in the water. The water becomes drinkable, and then God says to the people, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God…” I read that this morning and thought, "That sounds easy enough if God actually speaks out loud." If a voice from heaven said, “John, here is what you need to do,” I like to think that I would listen carefully. I might even take notes. But most of us don't hear God that way. There is no thunder or burning bush. No divine voice interrupting the devotional. So, how do we listen carefully when God does not seem to be talking? Think of listening to God as less like receiving a phone call and more like learning a language. Over time,...

  Click here to listen to today’s devotional 2 Kings 2:15-22 The prophets recognize Elisha as the new prophet and bow before him. They can see that the spirit that once rested on Elijah now rests on him. But they still want Elijah. They recognize what God is doing now, but still want what God did in the past. Does that sound familiar? So, the prophets ask Elisha to let them search for Elijah. He tells them not to go, but they keep pressing him until he is embarrassed. Maybe he is embarrassed for them. Maybe he is embarrassed because they refuse to listen. Or maybe he's just tired of arguing about it. Finally, he says, “Send them.” Fifty people search for three days. That is a lot of energy spent looking for something that is no longer there. Churches can do that, too, right? We can invest enormous amounts of time, money, and energy trying to recover what used to work. Then we wonder why we keep returning empty-handed. When the search party comes back, Elisha says, “Didn’t I tell yo...