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  Acts 18:24-26 Click here to listen to today’s devotional My grandma wanted to watch a movie with us one night. So, we took her pick and had a blast. As the movie went on, she kept saying she didn't remember certain parts. She didn't remember the movie being as funny as it was that night. Turns out, we were watching the director's cut. The director's cut is the same story, but there are additional scenes added that you didn't know about. New conversations, details, or experiences help develop and make more sense of the story. Apollos had a faith like that. Acts describes him as eloquent, passionate, and deeply knowledgeable in the Scriptures. He boldly taught about Jesus. In other words, he wasn't a beginner. But then Priscilla and Aquila invited him into their home and, as The Message puts it, "told him the rest of the story." Now, they didn't tear down what he already knew. They expanded it. They gave him the director's cut. How many of us ...

  Psalm 105:1-6 Click here to listen to today’s devotional Chances are, your religion is boring. But that doesn't have to keep you from what is exciting. A.W. Tozer once said, "Boredom with religion is conceivable, but being bored with God is not. Those who have encountered God and his mighty, awesome presence could never come to the point of boredom. Religion, however, with all of its tiresome dos and don'ts, sets us up for such boredom. Anyone who tries to follow his religion religiously experiences great moments of boredom in the minutia." I wonder how many of us mistake our boredom with religion for boredom with God. Do you know the feeling? The songs don't move you anymore, and even the prayers feel recycled. Yes, you know when to stand and when to sit. You know the stories and all the church answers. Your faith can become so familiar that you stop expecting to be surprised. But there's no room for boredom in Psalm 105. Listen to the action: "Give th...

  Acts 2:37-42 Click here to listen to today’s devotional Peter had just stood up to tell the story of Jesus, and then lands his sermon with a sentence that feels like a punch to the chest: “God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.” “Cut to the heart,” the people ask, “Brothers, what should we do?” What do you do when you realize you got something wrong? You believed something you no longer believe. You had an attitude you’re embarrassed to admit. You hurt somebody. You spent years walking in a direction that wasn’t taking you where God wanted to go. Peter told them, “Repent and be baptized.” There’s some holy irony there. Peter has just told them, “You crucified Jesus.” Now he tells them to be baptized in Jesus' name. The name they rejected became the name they were about to center their life around. That’s repentance. We sometimes think repentance means a religious apology. While confession matters, repentance goes further. Repentance is changing you...

  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...

Genesis 29:9-14 Click here to listen to today’s devotional Recently, a Facebook memory popped up and caught my eye. It was of me wearing a hat and jersey representing that NFL team in Dallas. Now, that's not so unusual for people who live in South Texas. But it certainly is for me. So, there must have been something going on. When people surprise you, it's normal to take a second and ask what happened. Why this sudden change? Jacob's name means "heel-grabber," "deceiver," or "supplanter." Up to this point in Genesis, he's lived up to it. He grabbed Esau's heel at birth, grasped his brother's birthright, and schemed his way into Isaac's blessing. Jacob always seemed to be reaching for what isn't his. Then Jacob comes to a well. In Scripture, wells are often places where God changes stories. Abraham's servant found Rebekah at a well. Moses met Zipporah at a well. Wells are often places of encounter, providence, and new beg...

  1 Thessalonians 4:1-8 Click here to listen to today’s devotional The apostle Paul wanted the Thessalonian Christians to learn to please God "more and more." To appreciate what Paul might have had in mind, it's important to recall when he first preached in Thessalonica. The people there accused the believers of turning the world upside down because they said, "There is another king named Jesus" (Acts 17). Caesar was the other king. Living under a king like Caesar, "more" usually meant giving more. More taxes, more allegiance, more of yourself to an empire that always demanded something else. King Jesus is different. Paul's urging the church to please God "more and more" wasn't a call to appease a God who is never satisfied. No, he understood that the more we follow Jesus, the more we become the people God created us to be. We become more human, recognizing more and more the image of God within us. This growth is what we know as holin...

  Romans 15:1-6 Click here to listen to today’s devotional One of the marks of spiritual maturity isn't that nothing bothers you anymore. You just learn to decide what is worth being bothered about. Personally, I took the "pick your battles" advice to heart and have found less interest in fewer and fewer battles. I see this kind of spiritual maturity as a gift of the Spirit. The apostle Paul says it this way, "We who are strong ought to put up with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves" (Romans 15:1). That raises an uncomfortable question to wrestle with. Am I spiritually strong enough to let other people inconvenience me? Sometimes, I think our "standing for truth" is really just defending our preferences. Have you noticed the uproar that can happen when people get frustrated because someone is late, sings differently than they like, asks too many questions, or just doesn't see things the same way? Paul points us to a strength that...

  John 14:25-26 Listen to today’s devotional If life were like a sitcom, the transformation we desire for our lives would happen a lot more quickly. And, truthfully, that's how we like things. Give us the quick insight that changes everything in a moment, or the sermon that fixes us. Many people have been told that there's one prayer that will settle their doubts and the vices they wish they could just let go. But in John 14, Jesus calls the Holy Spirit a teacher, not a spiritual vending machine. We're used to quick downloads and instant upgrades, but teachers do their work over time. Some of us do experience faith moments that seem to flip the switch, but most of us know faith more like learning a language. You have to hear the same words over and over. You practice, you forget, you stumble through your words, and you try again. Then one day, you realize you're better at it today than you were before. The disciples themselves are proof of this slow-learning faith. They...

  1 Kings 8:54-61 Listen to today’s devotional Some moments of worship are more memorable than others. Usually, those are the times when the sanctuary was full of singing. You saw hands lifted in surrender or tears swelling during prayer. Maybe it was Christmas or Easter, or when you remembered the Pentecost fire. Those kinds of worship moments people remember for a long time. And that is okay. Solomon had one of those moments in 1 Kings 8. The temple had finally been completed, and the people gathered to worship. The glory of God filled the place. Solomon offered a blessing to the people that began with an acknowledgment of what God had done. To be sure, that is always a faithful starting point of worship. In his blessing, Solomon tells the people to devote themselves completely to the Lord. I imagine that would have been an easy affirmation for the people to make. After all, they were in such a grand place for worship. But there's a phrase Solomon uses that points beyond that one...