AnotherJohn.Com

  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...

  2 Kings 2:1-5 Listen to today’s devotional The prophets knew something we didn’t. As 2 Kings 2 opens, the idea that Elijah will be taken up by a whirlwind seems assumed. As a reader, that idea falls out of the sky. But a transition is about to happen, and everyone knows it. The Lord had already told Elijah to appoint Elisha as his successor. Now, the time for that transfer of prophetic power had come. For whatever reasons we might imagine, the younger Elisha does not seem ready. He follows Elijah as far as he can. He tells him three times, “As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” Along the way, other prophets keep reminding Elisha of what is coming. “Do you know that today the Lord will take your master away from you?” Each time, Elisha answers the same way: “Yes, I know; keep silent.” It's not like Elisha is in denial or unaware or unwilling to face reality. If anything, he feels the weight of it more deeply than anyone else. He doesn't need commen...

  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 Peter 3:8-12 Listen to today’s devotional Many of us recognize that much of life today is shaped by suspicion and hostility. Of course, division is not new, but social media and constant online connection have made it impossible to ignore. Political disagreements, once seen as a normal part of life together, now often turn into contempt. Families avoid hard conversations just to keep the peace. Churches divide over politics and culture. News and social media fill our days with outrage, fear, and conflict. We are constantly pushed to see other people not as neighbors but as enemies to be defeated, mocked, or feared. Over time, this changes the way we see one another, as division becomes a habit of the heart rather than just disagreement. We stop listening. We stop showing compassion. We forget the humanity of the people around us. And much of our world encourages this way of living. Outrage keeps people watching. Fear keeps people angry. Social media algorithms feed us more of w...

  Exodus 4:18-20 Listen to today’s devotional When Moses first heard God's command, he had reservations. It took a minute, but God convinced Moses to go back to Egypt. Now, he just had to get permission from his father-in-law, Jethro, to leave the clan. As Exodus 10 tells the story, Moses doesn't explain or share any details about his experience on holy ground. Even his request to leave sounds more personal than what God commanded. I assume that Jethro could have refused Moses' request. He could have leaned on his need for someone like Moses to keep watching his flocks. But Jethro offers Moses a blessing. And this blessing sets in motion the great exodus story of God's people. A 3-word blessing that afforded Moses the chance to fulfill God's purpose for the Israelites: Go in peace. Of course, we focus on Moses as the one called, the one sent, the one who stands before Pharaoh demanding, "Let my people go." But let's not forget Jethro. He is the one who...

  Micah 6:6-8 Listen to today's devotional I always appreciate taking part in the MLK march and prayer service each year. My favorite part comes when the march ends and we finish in worship, entering the sanctuary to sing “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” Every time I sing that song, I remember a couple of things. I see Ms. Joy Turner, my elementary school choir director. In the third and fourth grade, do-re-mi didn’t interest me much, but I could tell something was different about that song. And I didn’t understand then that she wasn’t just teaching us how to sing. She was actually teaching us how to pray, showing us that lifting our voices together could be an act of hope and dignity. Another memory comes from Grandma. I was in high school, sitting at her house, when she called me over. I don't remember if it was something we were watching or just a conversation that got her thinking. But she looked at me and said, “Mijo, don’t forget that what they did to them, they did to us, to...

  Psalm 46 Listen to today's devotional Many of us are familiar with the words of Psalm 46. It's those hopeful words: "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." Notice that the psalmist doesn't say that God will keep trouble away from us. Instead, God will be with us in the middle of it. So, we don't need to deny the reality of our fears or the chaos around us. We simply decide that those things don't get to define us. When everything feels like it's falling apart, it can be easy to suppose that God is far away. Life isn't cooperating with us, and we're sure God isn't either. But Psalm 46 says the opposite. God becomes our hiding place, our sure and steady source of strength. Now, refuge doesn't mean escape. It means that God draws near to us, even before we know how to turn toward God. Many of us know how this psalm opens, and many also know its other great line: "Be still and know that I am God." Today...

Isaiah 60:17-22 Listen to today's devotional Let's rethink peace. For many of us, peace is something to achieve. In that sense, it's like an award you get for pulling through your hard situations or putting up with more than you thought you could. To be sure, you can have peace in those moments. But let's think of peace not as something we arrive at but something that guides us. Isaiah 60:17 offers a hopeful promise: “I will make peace your governor." At first, that may seem more poetic, but it is actually really practical. Remember Israel's history. God's people had long been shaped by instability. They had been led by foreign kings and ruled by fear. God promised their exile would not last forever, and told of a future where God's people would no longer be governed by threats or scarcity. Instead, they would be led by peace and well-being. Imagine if peace sat at the head of your decision-making table. What would change? Many of us are led by somethin...

  Psalm 46 Listen to today's devotional This morning, I watched a video someone sent me. It was the day after Hurricane Harvey hit our area. The electricity had been out, but we had invited anyone who felt safe to come to the sanctuary for worship. By the time we gathered, the lights came back on. The church doors stood wide open because the air conditioner hadn’t yet cooled the building. The video showed us singing _Leaning on the Everlasting Arms_. Between verses, we read from Psalm 46. In that moment, the words were not just familiar phrases in our worship book. They were living truth for us: God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. That day, we were grateful simply to have made it through another storm. Others in our community weren’t as fortunate. We faced the hard work of cleaning up at church and at home. There were things to repair, things to replace. That’s the reality of a storm's aftermath.  But we all know not every storm comes with thundercl...

  Psalm 140:1-3 Listen to today's devotional We've all heard the saying: "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." Wouldn’t it be nice if more people lived by that? It’s simple, practical wisdom. And we’d do well to encourage it more often. But I like to add a follow-up question: "If you don't have anything nice to say, why not?" What’s going on in the heart that makes bitterness or venom feel like the only option? Psalm 140 opens with an urgent cry for help. The psalmist names God as deliverer. That's good because danger is close. Violent evildoers are not just attacking with weapons. They’re scheming with their words. Before the first interlude, the psalmist compares their speech to the venom of snakes. That poison starts long before it’s spoken. It begins in the heart and mind: “They plan evil things… they stir up wars.” That sounds a lot like something Jesus said: "The good person out of the good treasure o...

  Proverbs 3:13-18 Listen to today's devotional "Just remember," Barbara Jordan once said, "the world is not a playground but a schoolroom. Life is not a holiday but an education. One eternal lesson for us all: to teach us how better we should love." I don’t think she meant we’re not allowed to enjoy life. Instead, she had come to value the lifelong process of learning. Not just in classrooms, but in every moment life offers. She saw life as a training ground, one that deepens our capacity to love and expands our ability to serve. When we understand that, we begin to glimpse wisdom. And wisdom, the writer of Proverbs says, is one of God’s great gifts: “Happy are those who find wisdom.” Not because life becomes easier, but because life becomes richer. Of course, life's lessons aren’t always enjoyable. They’re often difficult, uncomfortable and even painful. Maybe that’s why we sometimes distract ourselves with temporary, surface-level things. But the more we ...

  Acts 16:35-40 Listen to today's devotional Roman citizenship afforded Paul and Silas certain legal protections that were ignored when they were stripped, beaten and put into prison. When they were released, the two could have left well enough alone. Their jail story would have still been a powerful testimony. But they used their privileges to confront the injustice done to them. Now, I probably would have called it a blessing from God. Most of us who don't have a lot of social power know the feeling. If my prison walls suddenly collapsed, I would have thanked the Lord and made my way out. But Paul and Silas stayed put when it happened to them. The next morning, the magistrates who had wrongfully imprisoned the pair decided they could leave. But Paul wasn't having it. The authorities shamed them publicly. And now they wanted to dismiss them quietly? "Certainly not!" Paul said. Their potential jailbreak was a story about God's power. What happened the next day...

  Revelation 21:15-22 Listen to today's devotional Bruce Springsteen said his father "was always fixated by money." The elder Springsteen would take the family to look at a big house outside of town. This house represented aspiration. It was a symbol of success, and something better than their blue-collar life. The Boss captured this image in his song  Mansion on the Hill . Do you have a symbol like that? Something that points you to something better or that inspires you to pursue your dreams and goals? Personally, it's the Florida Keys. My stepfather and I always talked about moving there someday. That was our better place. As Christians, we carry a similar vision. Our hearts point toward heaven. "Our citizenship is in heaven," after all (Philippians 3:20). When someone passes, we say they went to a better place: Home. Heaven, then, is our reward. Heaven is also our inspiration. Yes, we believe one day all things will be made new. God will wipe away every t...