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  Ephesians 6:10-18 Click here to listen to today’s devotional Beginning in the 1700s, early Methodists carried small paper “class tickets.” These tickets weren’t proof that someone was saved, nor were they certificates declaring, “Congratulations! You’re holy now.” They connected people to the larger Methodist societies. The ticket showed that you belonged to a small community of people trying to follow Jesus together. Methodists met regularly to pray, encourage one another, care for each other, and ask how their faith was actually showing up in everyday life. We often make faith very personal. We ask, “Do I believe?” or “Did I go to church?” But John Wesley and the early Methodists asked a deeper question: What difference is your faith making in the way you live? Their three General Rules, do no harm, do good, and stay connected to the practices that keep you close to God, guided their responses to that question. Then they gathered with others who would help them live that way. T...

Psalm 69:7-10 Listen to today’s devotional I always laughed at the old Snickers commercials. Someone would be cranky, irrational, or completely unlike themselves until they took a bite of a candy bar. Then their slogan would appear: "You're not you when you're hungry." If the sermon's ever kept you too long from lunch, you know there's truth in those funny ads. Hunger has a way of revealing what's going on within us. When our stomachs are empty, our patience gets shorter and our tempers get quicker. Those little inconveniences that never bothered us before start to get to us more. Maybe that's one reason fasting has long been a spiritual practice. In Psalm 69, David says he humbled himself through fasting. That means he did not see fasting as a way to impress God or earn God's favor. He wasn't even trying to get God to do something for him. Humbling your soul has a way of creating space for God to reveal what is in your heart. When we fast, we ...

  Ephesians 1:15-23 Listen to today’s devotional I love the book of Ephesians. It is an entire invitation to a new way of life. In the first chapter, Paul prays that the eyes of our hearts would be enlightened so that we might know "the hope to which he has called" us. Paul doesn't want us just to understand this hope or admire it. He wants us to know it, live it, and become it! When I first learned about John Wesley's understanding of Christian perfection, I wondered why I had never heard much about it before. I think, too often, the phrase scares people before they ever hear what it means. Wesley was not describing a flawless or sinless life performance. He certainly would not expect anyone to carry a spiritual arrogance. He was talking about a heart so filled with the love of God that love becomes the ruling desire of our lives. A life being made whole in grace. Do we not hear more about Christian perfection because we don't believe God can truly transform a hu...

  Genesis 33:1-10 Listen to today’s devotional After deceiving his father and stealing Esau’s blessing, Jacob lived twenty years with the assumption that his brother’s anger would eventually catch up to him. So when he hears Esau is approaching with four hundred men, Jacob immediately prepares for disaster. He divides his family into groups for protection. He sends gifts ahead to soften Esau’s heart. Before the brothers ever see one another face-to-face, Jacob has already imagined Esau as an enemy. Of course, the brothers had a history. But fear still has a way of doing that to us. It shapes how we see people and narrows our imagination, convincing us that resentment, division, and hostility are inevitable. The longer distance grows between people, the easier it becomes to believe distorted stories about one another. But the night before Jacob meets Esau, he wrestles with God in the darkness. He leaves the encounter wounded, humbled, and maybe changed. Then the moment finally comes...

  1 Timothy 4:6-10 Listen to today’s devotional Do your best not to reduce spiritual practices to checklists. Pray. Read the Bible. Go to church. Serve others. These activities, what we would also call means of grace, matter deeply to our growing in grace and faith. But they are not just religious tasks to complete. They are habits that shape your heart. Think of it like this: What you repeatedly do forms what you love, and what you love ultimately shapes who you become. J. Robert Douglass writes that a spiritual habit “perfects what we love.” That helps change the way we think about spiritual practices. In that way, prayer is not only about saying the right words to God. Worship is not only about attending a service. Reflection is not only about quiet moments of thought. These practices slowly train our desires. And, over time, they begin to align our hearts with God's heart. Lately, I've been reflecting on this in relation to church ministry and leadership. In ministry, it is...

  Genesis 6:5-9 Listen to today’s devotional Cain's violence should have been a clue to God. The first generation after Eden already shows us what humanity can become. Brother quickly turned against brother, and there was blood on the ground. Of course, the story didn't stop there. Families grew, and cities got built. Somewhere along the way, the violence of Genesis 4 continued, and what should have shocked the world seemed to become something people learned to live with. By the time we meet Noah in Genesis 6, evil is everywhere. The text says that every inclination of the human heart was only evil continually. If the three most important rules of real estate are location, location, location, then what prompts God's regret is also three-fold: Evil. Evil. Evil. As a result, God is heartbroken. That shows us God's relational attribute. We also don't assume that God is surprised. Instead, because this is God's creation, God is grieved. What humanity lives with, God...

  Ephesians 4:25-32 Click here to listen to today's devotional Whether it's right or wrong, it’s too easy to lose someone’s trust and too hard to regain it, so be careful with your words. Your words are not just sounds that come from air pushed through your teeth and tongue. Often, the emotions attached to them carry entire worlds. That's why a careless sentence or single word can live much longer than the moment you spoke it. How many times have you replayed over and over something someone said? Paul’s instruction in Ephesians is supposed to lead us to holiness. “Let no evil, or corrupting, talk come out of your mouths but only what is good for building up.” Now, some of us take that to mean we need to be loud and pressing in the way we tell the truth. But I see it as a call for spiritual responsibility. In a sense, grace is not only something we speak, but it's also the grammar of our living. You and I live in a world that profits from corrupt talk. Social media rward...

  Matthew 9:14-17 Listen to today's devotional The disciples of John come to Jesus with a question about their practice of faith. They want to know why his disciples don't fast as they do. In that question, there is some wondering about faithfulness, discipline, and religious seriousness. But Jesus wants his followers to know more than rules and schedules. They should pay close attention to moments. Jesus says, "he wedding attendants cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they?" In other words, be present to what God is doing right here, right now. That's an idea Amy Oden emphasizes in her book by the same title. She reminds us that Christian mindfulness is not about escaping reality, but about attentive presence. We learn how to wake up to God's activity in this moment, in this place, and in these circumstances. Jesus embodies such an attentiveness. He refuses to let spiritual habits become mere automatic rituals that are detached from lived...

  Matthew 12:33-37 Listen to today's devotional If talk is cheap, words must be a dime a dozen. But not according to Jesus. In one sense, the Lord reminds us there is accountability for the words we use. Do we use idle or useless words? Jesus has a word for that. In a world full of Twitter rants, comment sections, and hot takes, we'd do well to reflect more on what we say. Even throwaway comments can wound or heal long after we forget them. Now, Jesus isn't demanding flawlessness or perfect speech. But he is connecting our speech to relationship and faithfulness. Careless words reveal the deeper currents of our heart. When Jesus said we will have to answer for every useless word, he was speaking to a group of Pharisees. They had just said he was performing miracles by the authority of Beelzebul. In particular, he had just healed someone who was blind and unable to speak. Imagine the power of his words after meeting Jesus. And then the religious leaders use their words to di...

  Genesis 6:1-4 Listen to today's devotional Genesis 6 has one of those stories that most of us would probably rather skip. "Sons of God" and Nephilim read like a strange ancient myth tangled in God's word we're not ready for. One common interpretation of the "sons of God" says that they were angelic beings who crossed boundaries with women they were never meant to cross. That added to the wickedness God saw in humanity that preludes the story of Noah. And that idea works, in part, because it's distant and dramatic, nothing like our everyday lives. But another perspective says the "sons of God" were sons of the powerful, men in authority taking advantage of women because no one could stop them. Now, that reading isn't as outlandish or otherworldly. And maybe that's why it's harder. It's easy to condemn things we'll never be tempted by. We shake our heads at the extremes of violence, drugs, scandals, and corruption in far...

  2 Thessalonians 1:3-7 Listen to today's devotional One of the joys of serving as a pastor is getting to see the small, steady ways God is at work in people's lives. The apostle Paul begins 2 Thessalonians with gratitude for the church. It's not that things were perfect among the congregation. But he could see their faith growing. And when faith grows, even just a little, it is a reason to give thanks to God. I know we often think of spiritual growth as big, impactful, or dramatic moments. But I see faith growing in the simple choices people make. Things like deciding to participate in worship on a regular basis. Showing up to serve even when things are hectic. Praying again or for the first time. When someone forgives when it would feel easier to hold a grudge. These aren't the kinds of things people automatically notice. But they matter deeply because they are signs of God shaping and reshaping our lives from the inside out. As a pastor, I often get to see these thin...

  John 13:34-35 Listen to today's devotional What is accomplished by God’s power is often accomplished through God’s people. God’s love doesn’t just stay inside us. It moves through us toward others. John Wesley once said that love for our neighbor is the proof that we’ve “passed from death to life.” In other words, real faith always shows up in real relationships. Holiness is not just about having kind feelings or private devotion. It grows as we live together in love. Wesley called this _social holiness_. That is the idea that we become more like Jesus not in isolation, but in community. We learn patience, forgiveness, compassion, and service when we walk with one another. For Wesley, this wasn’t theory. Early Methodists visited prisons, cared for the poor, and taught children. Their love for God naturally overflowed into action. But their acts of mercy weren’t separate from their spiritual growth. They were part of it. As they served, prayed, confessed, and encouraged one anothe...