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  Listen to today’s devotional Remember Your Baptism October 15, 2026 Romans 6:3-4 If you've ever walked into a room and forgotten what you went in for, this is for you. Most of us have had that experience. If not, just you wait! When it happens, you try to retrace your steps. You look around or go back to where you started to see if you can remember. Well, I want to offer to you that there are days when faith feels like that, too. We can get caught up in whatever's happening around us, and we begin reacting in ways that leave us wondering how we got here. Romans tells us that baptism joins us to Christ’s death and resurrection. We are buried with him so that we might walk in newness of life. Walk. That word makes baptism an ordinary movement of a day. Our baptism walks into our conversations, our decisions, and our opportunities. Remembering baptism brings us back to the grace that gives life its direction. We belong to Christ. So, his life is shaping ours. With God's grac...

With babies, it's easy to pour more water over their heads. Oh, you can tell they don't like it. If they're asleep, they're not anymore. If they're already awake, their eyes get laser-focused on this man who just poured cold water on them. I'm a more-water baptizer. I'm not convinced the method is as important as some tell us it is. God can work through sprinkling.  That said, the more water the merrier for me! This weekend, I got to baptize an adult. Of course, I used as much water as I could. You can see it on his shirt. Sorry, James! 😇 And I often tell the church that baptism is one of the most joyful and important things we get to do together. Amen y amen. Stay blessed...john

  Acts 1:1-5 Listen to today's devotional Recently, a group of colleagues and I were asked to reflect on whether we thought racism could ever end. Out of that conversation came the idea that many Christians do not believe it could. Not that it would not, but that it could not. As a pastor, that's disheartening. If we say something is impossible, we're likely to stop worrying about it. We learn how to live with it and maybe even stop praying about it. That leads me to wonder what kind of faith do we think God gives us. Many Christians pray "the prayer Jesus taught us," asking God to deliver them from evil. Is our deliverance only an escape? The biblical story assumes there are spiritual forces of evil. It names injustice, violence, and sin honestly. Again and again, though, God’s people are invited to see a future that does not yet exist. It's the paradox of now and not yet. That kind of imagination is not naïve optimism. It is hope. As an act of resistance, ho...

  Psalm 140:9-11 Listen to today's devotional In my tradition, when someone is baptized, they’re asked: “Do you accept the freedom and power God gives you to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves?” In my years of pastoral ministry, I’ve never heard anyone answer “no.” I’ve also never met anyone who said they doubt those things are real. But I do wonder if we keep some of those words up on a high shelf. As mere lofty ideals, that freedom and power stay there out of our normal use and away from our everyday convictions. We believe in justice in theory, but we don’t always know what to do with it when evil hides behind systems, status or even religion. As a kid, TV shaped my images of good and evil. God looked like a white-bearded man in the sky. The devil wore red, had horns and carried a pitchfork. But real evil is sneakier than that. It doesn’t always come with a costume. It shows up quietly, clothed in lies, inequality, pride an...

Who knew I'd be preaching about Y2K all these years later? I hope that doesn't make me one of them old preachers 😧😂 I will say I didn't call back the looking-out-the-window gesture at the end. The point would've been to acknowledge the church's struggles. Yes, we have struggles and we have faith and we have struggles. So, it would've been a good way to tie together the entire message. Well, that's what happens when you're still learning how to preach. Stay blessed...john Listen on Spotify Watch on YouTube   Day 1: Remembering Identity Devotional Thought: Reflect on your identity as a beloved child of God. At baptism, we receive not just a ritual, but a transformation that envelops us in God’s love and claims us as God's own. This is an identity that we carry throughout our lives, regardless of our circumstances or personal doubts. Reflection Questions: How does knowing you are a beloved child of God affect your daily life and dec...