The other day my kids and I had a conversation about whether or not they wanted a yearbook. One said yes. One was ambivilant. I always loved getting a yearbook, but all these years later I realize I almost never flip through them. They are on a shelf on my home office. After the conversation I decided to take a look. Slowly I flipped through the pages laughing at the inscriptions made by friends – comments about girls, and grades, and all manner of things that occupied our childhood minds. How such comments seemed to be what life was all about in those days! Now, I can hardly remember anything they reference. Continue reading Day 79: It’s not always easy to tell what’s monumental

Cover to Cover: Acts 5:22-16:5 Key Passage: Acts 10:9-48 Verse of the Day: Acts 10:34-35 Key events in today’s reading: The Choosing of the First Deacons (Acts 6:1-7) Stephen’s Sermon and Stoning (Acts 7) Philip and the Ethiopian (Acts 8:26-40) Saul’s Conversion (Acts 9:1-14) Peter and Cornelius (Acts 10:1-11:18) James’s Death and Peter’s Escape from Prison (Acts 12:1-19) The Jerusalem Council (Acts 15:1-21) Verse that … Continue reading Day 78: As Good as a Miracle

Cover to Cover: John 14:17-Acts 5:21 Key Passage: John 20:1-28 Verse of the Day: John 20:18 Key events in today’s reading: Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit (John 14:15-31) The Vine and the Branches (John 15:1-15) Jesus Prays for His Disciples and Future Believers (John 17:1-26) Jesus Before Pilate (John 18:28-40) The Crucifixion (John 19:17-37) The Resurrection (John 20:1-10) Jesus Appears to His Followers (John 20:11-29) … Continue reading Day 77: The Whole Message of this Life

One of the most difficult things to do in life is just be. Have you ever noticed that? To wait. To continue on with the slow deliberate prodding that bring success. We want things now and in a hurry. Diet and exercise take too long to reduce the inches; we want pills or surgeries that give instant results. We don’t want to work and save; we’d rather win the lottery. Continue reading Day 76: Abide. Remain. Be Still.

Mocking someone else is one of the easiest ways to feel better about oneself. Put another person down and for some odd reason, you feel lifted up. Who knows what our thought process is? “I may be sorry, but I’m not as sorry as you?” Is that what we think? Continue reading Day 75: Be careful whom you mock

In Luke 10, an expert in the law approaches Jesus. In keeping with his professional training as a lawyer, he approaches asking questions. Good questions. He begins with the question of all questions: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus, as any good teacher might, answers with a question of his own. “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” Continue reading Day 74: We have to do more than read well

Luke’s gospel spends a lot of time on people who lived on the fringes of society, like the man with leprosy in Luke 5. The word leprosy was used for a variety of skin diseases in Jesus’ day. Any one of them would have exiled this man to life outside of his community. His request to Jesus, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean” hints at an isolated life. A life in which few were willing to do much of anything for or with him. The law even required him to shout out “Unclean” anytime he approached another soul. Continue reading Day 73: I am willing

Most of us, myself included, have spent much of our life trying to be a success in one form or another. We try to excel at work or in our social settings. We want to make a name for ourselves. We want enough money in the bank to feel secure. We want to do our best with what we’ve been given. Not all of this effort is bad. Success in this world does have the unintended byproduct of making it harder to heed God’s call sometimes. Continue reading Day 72: Two Invited. Only one followed.

What makes something frightening? Some people are afraid of snakes. Others of spiders. I’ve known some people who are afraid of butterflies. Fears come in all forms. Still, I wouldn’t think a man sitting calmly and “in his right mind” would be all that frightening to most people. But according to Mark 9, this man, this normal man struck fear in the hearts of ordinary townsfolk. Continue reading Day 71: When Normal Frightens