AnotherJohn.Com

  Listen to today’s devotional Faith That Acts October 16, 2026 James 2:14-18 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 grace, yo...

  Listen to today’s devotional Acts 2:1-4 I’ve had some pretty good conversations with people who weren’t there. Don't worry. I'm talking about the thing we all probably do. I’m driving or doing something around the house, practicing what I want to say. In my mind, I know I’ve made my point beautifully. It'll be something everyone understands and will be better for. Then I see the person or get to the meeting and don't get past the small talk. It’s one thing to know what you want to say. It’s another thing to say it when someone is standing in front of you. Especially when you care about them and aren’t sure how the conversation will go. In Acts 2, the disciples are together when the Holy Spirit comes. There’s a sound like a violent wind, something like tongues of fire, and people speaking in languages they hadn’t learned. The Spirit enables them to speak, and people from different places hear about God’s deeds of power in their own languages. It's that last part th...

  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...

  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...

  Listen to today’s devotional Before You Forget September 29, 2026 James 5:13-16 I can't count the times someone has said to me, “Please keep me in your prayers.” Early on, I had to learn to focus myself so I would mean it when I said, "I will." Of course, I was going to pray for them. But then we finished talking. My phone rang. I remembered something else I needed to do. By evening, I couldn't quite remember what I promised to pray about. I thought about this while looking at a church prayer list. We're pretty good at lists, for sure. We collect names, print them, email them, and add new names on Sunday morning. That can be a beautiful way to remember people. But a prayer list can also just be a list. James tells the church to “Pray for one another.” He expects us to bring our lives before God together. As much as we might want to do that, I wonder if sometimes we hesitate because we think prayer needs to sound a certain way. We have to learn the right words, h...

  Philippians 4:10-15 Click here to listen to today’s devotional A lot of us remember Philippians 4 because of verse 13: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." But let's also consider the surrounding verses. They offer a meaningful affirmation of how Christ often strengthens us. Paul talks about learning contentment in abundance and scarcity. Then he pauses to thank the Philippians for sharing in his troubles. And there it is. We admire so-called "self-made" people. We celebrate those who pull themselves up by their bootstraps, as if success were a solo achievement. But let's be real. Paul endured prisons, beatings, and hardships, but he never pretended he endured them alone. The strength of Christ came not only through an inward spiritual resilience but also through the outward faithfulness of God's people. Their gifts, prayers, encouragement, and partnership became tangible expressions of God's care. Looking back over my life and ...

  1 Thessalonians 3:1-5 Listen to today’s devotional Nobody wakes up one morning and says, "Today seems like a good day to lose heart." Instead, life throws in a disappointment here and an unanswered prayer there. Before long, the tiring seasons or unresolved grief settle into a weariness of spirit. Losing heart doesn’t happen in a single moment. So, let's consider a word history. The apostle Paul hopes that the Thessalonian church would not be "shaken" by his and their persecution. The word he uses for "shaken" once described a dog wagging its tail. Not exactly the image we expect when talking about persecution and suffering. But it might be helpful. Paul is not worried that suffering will knock the Thessalonians down. He worries that hardship might slowly sway them, wear them down, and coax them away from their confidence in God. Just like that puppy dog's wagging tail can work on you. And there it is. I don’t think most of us abandon faith all a...

  Exodus 4:27-31 Listen to today’s devotional There's a wonderful reminder tucked away early in the Exodus story. After Moses and Aaron share God's redemptive promise with the people, the text says, "The people believed. Exactly what did they believe? I’m not sure they could’ve imagined what would happen soon. At that point, there was one thing that was sufficient for them. The text says that they heard that the Lord had 'given heed' to them. Their first response is to worship, but it wasn't because God parted the sea. That hasn't happened yet. Moses hasn't even gone back to Pharaoh. So far, there's nothing about their circumstances that has improved. What moves them is the realization that God has been listening. The people of Israel had been crying out. Their prayers may have felt unanswered and unnoticed. Yet God had heard every cry. God’s plan may have sounded great, but the good news that Moses first brought was that God had been paying attenti...