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“Diaries of Adam & Eve” by Mark Twain

01 Sep

Dear God, last night, my wife and I attended a “reading” of a play based on Mark Twain’s The Diaries of Adam and Eve at The Tobin Center in San Antonio. It was two people performing a stage play adaptation of Twain’s work. Here is what I experienced last night.

  • We got to see it with a couple of men I’ve gotten to meet through Christian Men’s Life Skills. It was a special treat to get to see it with them, although I didn’t see a couple of things coming that I think made it hard on one of them who is going through a valley in life. More on that in a minute.
  • A weird thing that happened was that, about 20 minutes into the show (about 30 minutes after the stated start time), two caregivers brought in two wheelchair bound women who were…I don’t know the right word to use. They were to the point where they were not seemingly congnitively lucid. So it was quite a disruption to the audience and even the actors on the stage which would have been fine if I thought they were enjoying or appreciating the work, but they weren’t. At least one of them wasn’t.
  • How do I know she wasn’t? At the beginning she seemed scared and/or confused. On stage, Adam was working out his name that he said Eve had given to him in a comedic way: “A Damn? A dam! etc.” But the one woman was calling back another name that was different that Adam but it was almost like she wanted someone with a similar name. It was hard to hear. Again, I had a lot of space for this woman to be who she is in that environment regardless of what it cost me as an audience member as long as I thought it was blessing her. I just didn’t get the feeling it was blessing her. Quite the opposite. The other woman was responseless. It was hard to determine if she was processing anything one way or the other. How do I know all of this, by the way? Well, I was sitting immediately behind them because my two friends had sat in two handicap seats on the floor because one recently had a stroke and the wheelchairs were put right next to them. When the one woman would make noises, I was just praying to you to cover her with your peace. I felt bad for her.
  • A little later, the first woman started saying very loudly, “I want to go home!” It was loud and clear, although obviously the words of a woman who is able to get out few words now. I looked at her caregiver who was just patting her on the arm. I couldn’t understand 1.) why they had come so late, 2.) why they had brought them to the show in the first place, and 3.) why they were just keeping them there when they were obviously not enjoying it and disrupting the experience for everyone. Finally, after about 10 “I want to go homes,” the awkwardly and disruptively took the wheelchairs out of the theater. Shout out to the actors who pressed on and didn’t miss a beat.
  • Ironically, this part of the disruption went down during the “Fall.” I admit I missed part of what was happening on stage because I was trying to figure out if they needed me to step down and help them. They didn’t. And I should say that I’m telling all of the detail on this for a reason I’ll get to in a couple of points.
  • There were many beautiful and poignant parts of the play, but the climax is in the end when (spoiler alert) Eve dies. Adam has a line that is something to the effect of, “Better to have lived with out of the Garden with Eve than to have lived in it without her.” What an interesting statement. Was the “Fall” worth it (not that I’m blaming Eve–Adam was right there–) to avoid human lonliness? It made me think about my life. My wife and I have experienced pain together. There are times now when I annoy her. There are times when she does something that frustrates me. But isn’t it better to be fallen together than maybe a little less annoyed or frustrated alone? To see Adam express his sorrow over losing Eve. Of course, it made me think of my wife and how grateful I am for her, but it also made me think of one of my friends in the audience whose wife is currently on hospice. I don’t believe she has long before death, and they have been married 65 years. And yes, there has been pain and frustration between them. No, life hadn’t been perfect. But he would rather live out of the Garden with her than in the Garden without her.
  • When the who was over, my friend was standing, and then I saw he was crying. I just grabbed him and held him for a moment. I thought it would be the last scene with Adam that had gotten to him (and he told me later that it really did), but in that moment he was crying because of the woman in the wheelchair loudly saying, “I want to go home!” His wife is currently in a nursing home has she dies, and she apparently says that to him all of the time, and it breaks his heart. It was hard for all of us to hear her say that so loudly and emphatically when we could tell she wasn’t completely lucid, but it was especially hard for my friend to feel that sorrow on behalf of his wife as well.

Father, I want you no matter what. I want eternity with your Triune self of you, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. And I also want my wife there. But while we are out of the Garden and living here in this fallen world, I thank you for her. Eve had a line about hoping she died before Adam because he was too much a part of her and who she was for her to live without him. As for me, well, my wife and I joke that our goal is to go together and to go quickly. The odds of that are slim, but it’s hard for either of us to imagine life without the other. But the part of me that wants to care for her wants her to go first only because I don’t want there to be a time in this earthly existence for her that she doesn’t feel like I’m there for her. But all of that is in your hands. In the meantime. Today. I want to enjoy her. I want to enjoy her presence outside of the Garden. I want to sink into the presence of this woman you blessed me to know. And I know our marriage is unique. I know it’s unique to have been together for 37 years and still enjoy each other as much as we do. We have sorrows, to be sure. We have people missing from our lives that is a constant ache. I guess that’s part of being out of the Garden. But for this relationship, I am grateful. And please comfort my friend. Love his wife and be merciful to her as her time out of the Garden comes to an end and she prepares to enter your Garden on the other side of death. Help my friend to feel your love. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Comfort my friend, please.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on September 1, 2026 in Miscellaneous, Musings and Stories

 

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Luke 4:15-30

31 Aug

14 Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit’s power. Reports about him spread quickly through the whole region. 15 He taught regularly in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.

16 When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures. 17 The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written:

18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,
    that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free,
19     and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”

20 He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently. 21 Then he began to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”

22 Everyone spoke well of him and was amazed by the gracious words that came from his lips. “How can this be?” they asked. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”

23 Then he said, “You will undoubtedly quote me this proverb: ‘Physician, heal yourself’—meaning, ‘Do miracles here in your hometown like those you did in Capernaum.’ 24 But I tell you the truth, no prophet is accepted in his own hometown.

25 “Certainly there were many needy widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the heavens were closed for three and a half years, and a severe famine devastated the land. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them. He was sent instead to a foreigner—a widow of Zarephath in the land of Sidon. 27 And many in Israel had leprosy in the time of the prophet Elisha, but the only one healed was Naaman, a Syrian.”

28 When they heard this, the people in the synagogue were furious. 29 Jumping up, they mobbed him and forced him to the edge of the hill on which the town was built. They intended to push him over the cliff, 30 but he passed right through the crowd and went on his way.

Luke 4:15-30

Dear God, I can’t believe I never saw the racial insecurity in this story before someone pointed it out to me a few years ago. The people in Nazareth weren’t upset after Jesus proclaimed he was the Messiah. They were in wonder. No, when they got mad was when he said that there is a role in your Kingdom for Gentiles too. That there were times in history (Elijah and the widow and Elisha and Naaman, the Syrian who had conquered Israelites and taken a Jewish girl as a slave) when you mysteriously showed your favor on a Gentile over an Israelite. That he was there everyone. “When they heard this, the people in the synagogue were furious. Jumping up, they mobbed him and forced im to the edge of the hill on which the town was built. They intended to push him over the cliff…” Wow, he really hit a nerve!

It seems like the theme of my prayers lately have been about the humility I am supposed to represent as your child and ambassador. I’m not supposed to look for more power. I’m supposed to look for more opportunities to love–whether the person is a Christian (or even my TYPE of Christian) or not. In this case, there is a mob mentality that happens. And of these people on their own might have responded to Jesus differently. But together…well, I’m sure that each and ever one of them regrets what they did that day. They tried to kill your Messiah after he said just a few words that they felt insulted them as a collective.

Father, it feels like the tribes that are out there–in America right now that pretty much means conservative or liberal–are trying to get me to join their anger and their fury. I was watching Ted Lasso season 4 episode 4 the other day, and one of the new characters says, “So never underestimate the power of anger as fuel.” It feels like that is the temptation all of the click-bait monsters are trying to offer us right now. But our anger turns into their fuel. And it begats only more anger. Ugly, ugly, ugly. Oh, Holy Spirit, help me to identify when someone is trying to falsely draw me into their anger and when there is something happening that should legitimately make me angry. And then, when the anger is the right thing to feel, guide me in how I respond to it. Let it be in love and compassion. Let it be sacrificial. You gave me four tools to use to impact my world: Prayer, Service, Persuasion, and Suffering. Help me to limit myself to those four tools.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on August 31, 2026 in Luke

 

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Ephesians 2:17-22

30 Aug

17 He brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and peace to the Jews who were near. 18 Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us.

19 So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. 20 Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. 21 We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. 22 Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit.

Ephesians 2:17-22

Dear God, I’ve really been thinking of this idea since my prayer yesterday about the God I know vs. the God another “Christian” might know. And I put quotes around Christian not because they are the supposed Christian, but because one or both of us might not be following you the way we are supposed to.

How much more complicated was this for new Christians in Paul’s time? They only had Old Testament scripture and oral stories of Jesus plus some of them had letters from Paul. I would imagine faith and belief in you are and what that meant for them were all over the place. Hence, the need Paul felt to write these letters. To clarify who you are. Who you and Jesus are. Who you and Jesus and the Holy Spirit are. Who you are as a Trinity–one Triune God.

The only way I know how to learn more about you is to start with the Scripture that has been preserved for me as the Bible, spend time introspectively meditating on it, and then inviting the Holy Spirit to convict me of sin and repenting as I see what I am doing wrong. Or where my thinking is wrong. Or where my beliefs are wrong. I know I’m not right about everything. I know parts of my theology are wrong. But which parts?

Father, I’m about to go to a special church service at a local Lutheran church that is doing a 5th-Sunday Hymn Sing. I’m looking forward to it. I’m looking forward to sitting/standing with other Christians and worshipping you together. I want to see the words and really sing them to you. I want to have memories rekindled of years when I was younger and had a youthful faith that might have gotten a little calloused over the years. Create in me a clean heart, oh, God. And renew a fresh Spirit within me.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on August 30, 2026 in Ephesians

 

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1 Corinthians 1:17-25

29 Aug

17 For Christ didn’t send me to baptize, but to preach the Good News—and not with clever speech, for fear that the cross of Christ would lose its power.

18 The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God. 19 As the Scriptures say,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise
    and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.”

20 So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish. 21 Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe. 22 It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom. 23 So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense.

24 But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.

1 Corinthians 1:17-25

Dear God, how bothered should I be by people who don’t believe in you/Jesus?

First, let me tell you I’m sorry. I failed to be here with you in this prayer format yesterday. And you and I both know that I prayed to you several times yesterday. I prayed for people and friends throughout the day. I read these scriptures yesterday. In fact, I wanted to do this prayer journal yesterday on this scripture. And I know you’re not sitting there saying (mean voice overlaid), “Why didn’t you do your prayer journal yesterday?!?” No, I’m sorry to myself because I think I missed something in my day yesterday by not disciplining myself to take the time to do this. I’m sorry if I missed an opportunity you had for me.

With that said, I was setting up my weekly Parents of the Bible Facebook post this morning when I saw just the first line of someone’s post: “Christians and Muslims do not worship the same God!” Yeah, they’re right. We have the same creator of the universe–you. But the God I know is different than the god they know. Honestly, I don’t know the god they know very well, but my daughter knew a young Muslim man very well several years ago, and as they compared their faiths, my daughter said that Christianity was the only one that offered such grace. The Muslim man said, “That’s too easy.”

So I read this passage from scripture and I think about how few people will find you because of their “wisdom” and “understanding” of how you should work and how life should work. Then they see Jesus talking about loving your enemy, being more pure than the letter of the law, but knowing we will fall and offering us grace for it. Loving our neighbor. Giving our lives for others. Our forgiveness from you being dependent upon our forgiveness of others. We will be persecuted for loving you. Embrace it. All these things are an anathema to a lot of the wise. In fact, I can’t help but wonder how the person(s) behind that Facebook post would describe you. Do they worship the God I know, or are they worshiping a different god who is only interested in their political power and that they would have an earthly advantage over their neighbor who has a different god from them? Even though we both claim the label Christian, would they label me an enemy because the God/god we worship is different?

Father, am I worshiping God or god? Do I know the real you (or as much as I can know you)? Help me to find the real you. I want to know how to love you. I want to know how to represent you to the world. I want to know where I have made unintentional idols and purge them from my life or even my psyche/mind. If I’ve made you something you are not, I am sorry. Help me to till the weeds from my soil. Grow your fruit in me so much that it will overwhelm any weeds that try to grow. Be glorified in my life.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on August 29, 2026 in 1 Corinthians

 

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Matthew 24:42-51

27 Aug

42 “So you, too, must keep watch! For you don’t know what day your Lord is coming. 43 Understand this: If a homeowner knew exactly when a burglar was coming, he would keep watch and not permit his house to be broken into. 44 You also must be ready all the time, for the Son of Man will come when least expected.

45 “A faithful, sensible servant is one to whom the master can give the responsibility of managing his other household servants and feeding them. 46 If the master returns and finds that the servant has done a good job, there will be a reward. 47 I tell you the truth, the master will put that servant in charge of all he owns. 48 But what if the servant is evil and thinks, ‘My master won’t be back for a while,’ 49 and he begins beating the other servants, partying, and getting drunk? 50 The master will return unannounced and unexpected, 51 and he will cut the servant to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Matthew 24:42-51

Dear God, I woke up this morning thinking about the flash floods/avalanches in Nepal and Tibet that I heard about yesterday. I realized I hadn’t prayed for them like I should. I was more intrigued by the spectacle of it than I was concerned about the hundreds of people washed away, missing, killed, or injured. But I was convicted about not having prayed for them or their families. Then when I started to pray, I didn’t know how to pray. Where do I start? Can my prayers for them really change anything? So I just started praying to the Holy Spirit, asking the Spirit to pray for them, which I’m sure he’s already doing. But just joining my little prayer with His. Father, have mercy. Jesus, have mercy. Holy Spirit, have mercy.

I’m thinking about this in relation to this verse because it’s always a challenge to be minding all the details about everything. To be praying for my wife and children. To be praying for my family and friends. My community and country. The world. And to do it all in general and specifically for things. Intercessory prayer, even for those I love the most, is usually the weakest part of my prayer life.

Father, I want to be found faithful by you, but not for my sake. I want to be found faithful in loving others for their sake. I want to be good about praying for my wife not so that you will be pleased with me, but so that my wife will experience the ultimate fullness you have for her in this life. I want the same for my son, my daughter, their significant others, their children, my wife’s and my siblings and their children, my parents, my wife’s and my aunts and uncles… You get the idea. I want to be found praying for them. I had a man tell me the other day that he prays for my family nearly every day. That amazed me. There are few people I pray for nearly every day outside of those related to me. And I don’t know that I’ll ever get where I’d like to ideally be. But I want to be better. So when I think about people, help me to remember to pray for them. And help me to know how to pray for them.

I pray this to you now, in the name of Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on August 27, 2026 in Matthew

 

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2 Thessalonians 3:6-10

26 Aug

6 And now, dear brothers and sisters, we give you this command in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ: Stay away from all believers who live idle lives and don’t follow the tradition they received from us. 7 For you know that you ought to imitate us. We were not idle when we were with you. 8 We never accepted food from anyone without paying for it. We worked hard day and night so we would not be a burden to any of you. 9 We certainly had the right to ask you to feed us, but we wanted to give you an example to follow. 10 Even while we were with you, we gave you this command: “Those unwilling to work will not get to eat.”

2 Thessalonians 3:6-10

Dear God, it is the second half of verse 9 that caught my eye today: “…we wanted to give you an example to follow.”

There are different ways to give an example. First, I can be a hypocrite and do something for show and then not live that out in my private life. For example, never drink or do drugs in public, making a point of how bad those things are, and then doing it in the privacy of my home where no one knows. The same can be true for cheating on my taxes, delving into pornography, or whatever. Last year, it came out that a prominent Christian leader had been involved in a multi-year affair with another woman. Any moral high ground he had was destroyed. In fact, this makes me think of David and Bathsheba. He took the woman, another man’s wife, got her pregnant, and then killed her husband. But when Nathan confronted him with the story of a man who took another man’s prize sheep David was furious. After this incident, David lost the moral high ground with his family and did not have the credibility to deal with it when his oldest son raped one of his daughters.

The second way is to humbly walk with you and actually live the example 24/7, whether anyone is looking or not. It doesn’t mean one doesn’t have a sinful slip here or there. I’m not saying one has to be perfect. But one can also be transparent and vulnerable about their slips and then even use that as an example for others. But what we hide, Satan uses to get leverage on us. It’s the spot in the bottom of the tent through which the camel can get his nose, and before you know it there is nothing stopping the camel. I’ve seen people try to hide secrets and they absolutely destroy themselves, their relationships, and their effectiveness in life. I heard a pastor one time talk about how he had been sexually abused as a child, and he kept that secret until he was in his late 30s. It affected everything about him as he strove to keep that secret. It was only when he told someone about that secret and then the fallout that had happened in his life as a result that he became free. Now, he can’t tell enough people because he finds they have a secret they need to turn loose of as well.

Father, I got off the subject a little, but as I sit here and work through this, I think one of the keys (beyond legitimately pursuing relationship with you) to living a truly good-example life is to be humble and vulnerable with people around you. If there’s no facade at all, then it’s easier to be authentic, by definition. If I have a facade then I’m not being authentic. Help me to be authentic before you, before my wife, family, and friends, and even, as appropriate, my community. And not for my glory, but so that I can point people to you. So that they might be drawn to you and discover you, worship you, and follow you in a whole new way. So they might find the narrow path and walk it.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on August 26, 2026 in 2 Thessalonians

 

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Matthew 23:23-26

25 Aug

23 “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things. 24 Blind guides! You strain your water so you won’t accidentally swallow a gnat, but you swallow a camel!

Matthew 23:23-26

Dear God, it feels like there are things that so many people neglect, including me. I think our media (whether liberal or conservative) has taken the place of your voice within our churches. I met a young woman recently who was looking for a church. She wanted one that would be tolerant of LGBTQ+ people. I told her of a couple of local churches that would be more tolerant than others, but then I also recommended a church that I appreciate because it is probably the most diverse church in town regarding age, gender, and race. It happens to be Assemblies of God, but I encouraged her to check it out. One thing I told her was that she won’t agree with everything there, but there is probably no church where she will agree with everything. I don’t agree with everything from any denomination. And that doesn’t make me right and them wrong. I could very well be wrong. So I encouraged her to find a group of believers who worshipped you and then go from there.

Too many of us are more influenced by the news we read from our “trusted” news source than we are by your still small voice, the voices of your ministers on this earth, or even the teachings of Jesus or from the Bible. The news has told us how to feel, so there are some churches that have decided that part of the virtue signaling as to whether or not we are in line with that church’s ideology is whether or not we believe in climate change. Or whether healthcare in our country should be reformed. Really? Those are the things that are non-negotiable? Or we’ve been told that we have to be tolerant of every life style and never say anything judgmental. And while I do believe in what Paul says in Romans 14 about accepting someone who is weak in faith and giving them some latitude to figure out the path that you have for them, I think there is also a role for relationship and you using us in each other’s lives to guide all of us, including me, to the narrow path.

Father, my point in all of this is that the Pharisees Jesus is addressing had lost their vision of what it means to love and serve you and their neighbors. They were so focused on the dos and don’ts that they lost track of the get tos and opportunities to love and serve. Help me to see the get tos and the opportunities to love and serve today.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on August 25, 2026 in Matthew

 

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John 1:43-51

24 Aug

43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Come, follow me.” 44 Philip was from Bethsaida, Andrew and Peter’s hometown.

45 Philip went to look for Nathanael and told him, “We have found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about! His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.”

46 “Nazareth!” exclaimed Nathanael. “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”

“Come and see for yourself,” Philip replied.

47 As they approached, Jesus said, “Now here is a genuine son of Israel—a man of complete integrity.”

48 “How do you know about me?” Nathanael asked.

Jesus replied, “I could see you under the fig tree before Philip found you.”

49 Then Nathanael exclaimed, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God—the King of Israel!”

50 Jesus asked him, “Do you believe this just because I told you I had seen you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this.” 51 Then he said, “I tell you the truth, you will all see heaven open and the angels of God going up and down on the Son of Man, the one who is the stairway between heaven and earth.”

John 1:43-51

Dear God, I’m going to go a little different way with this pasasge this morning: Nathanael’s prejudice. Jesus calls him “a man of complete integrity” in verse 47, but that doesn’t mean he’s sinless. The first words we get from him are actually really negative. And I’ll just say since Jesus’s earthly father Joseph is one of my favorites, how dare he say anything negative about Joseph! It’s one thing to wonder if the Messiah would come from Nazareth. It’s another thing to wonder if a good man would come from there, and Joseph was a very good man.

It makes me think about the prejudices I’ve grown up with in my life. I was raised in a time when white supremacy was encouraged. But beyond working to overcome those prejudices, I remember having a real distrust of Iranians because I was about nine years old when the Iranian hostage crisis happened. I didn’t understand what was going on. I just knew Iranians had kidnapped a bunch of Americans. Sixteen years later, I was married, my wife was miscarrying our first child in a Houston hospital, and it was an Iranian doctor who helped us. I don’t know how I knew he was Iranian, but somehow I did. I was immediately prejudiced against him. Can anything good come out of Iran? Well, of course it can! What a stupid thing for me to wonder.

Even now, I look around the world: Can anything good come out of Russia? Can anything good come out of Iran? Israel? Palestine? Sometimes, I even wonder about the United States. There are some people who look at the immigrants we have in our country from south of the U.S. border and wonder can anything good come from Mexico, Guatemala, Venezuela, Haiti, or Honduras?

Father, I don’t know why it is, but it seems that all humans, even those with impeccable integrity, have a problem with prejudice. I still do. Even in Texas, we look at Californians who have moved here with a suspicious eye. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for ever thinking that I’m better than anyone else in your creation. Even if they are someone who is hostile towards you, they might just be wheat that looks like a weed. They are worthy of my love. They are likely to have something for you to teach me through them. And they might just be another Joseph of Nazareth. Help me to see each person I encounter today with your eyes.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on August 24, 2026 in John

 

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Romans 11:33-36

23 Aug

33 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
    How unsearchable his judgments,
    and his paths beyond tracing out!
34 “Who has known the mind of the Lord?
    Or who has been his counselor?”
35 “Who has ever given to God,
    that God should repay them?”
36 For from him and through him and for him are all things.
    To him be the glory forever! Amen.

Romans 11:33-36

Dear God, the New Living Translation gives a cross reference for verse 35 to Job 41:11. This is part of your rant to Job (starting in chapter 38, where you have had enough of his self-pity and you tell him to brace himself like a man (Job 38:3). But here’s Job 41:11:

11 Who has a claim against me that I must pay?
    Everything under heaven belongs to me.

Thinking about your awesomeness and how unknowable or non-understandable you are, it reminds me of an interview I heard the other day that Jonathan Frakes and Brent Spinder were doing with Sam Witwer. Apparently he was on a set or something where Mr. T and William Shatner were together. Apparently, Mr. Shatner is not a believer in you, Jesus, etc. and so he challenged Mr. T, who is an ordained pastor to convince him into the Christian faith. Here’s a link to the clip I saw:

It’s a thought that has festered with me since I first heard the interview: What would I have said? How would I have met Mr. Shatner’s challenge?

I think the first thing to remember is that, if in that sort of situation, I should immediately pray to you for wisdom. It makes me think of Luke 12:11-12: 11 “When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, 12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.” So that’s the first answer. Stop and ask you to speak through me. I’ve done that in the past, and I have felt wisdom come out of me that was far beyond what I’ve had thought of on my own.

I think the biggest thing I can think of to make myself seem small isn’t the vastness of space and our insignificance in the universe. It’s what’s happening around me that I have no idea of. There are things in this room that are real that I cannot see, hear, taste, smell, or touch.

  • Different levels of light such as infra-red.
  • Radio signals coming off of my devices (phone, computer, etc.)
  • Static interference from the electrical devices.
  • Sounds beyond my hearing from my computer, the ceiling fan, etc.
  • Radio signals coming into this room from the local radio stations, wifi signals from other homes near me, television signals, short-wave radios, etc.
  • Smells from when I worked out earlier that I cannot smell, but I’m sure my dog can.
  • My own scent.

And those are just some of the things I know are going on, but I cannot sense them. So if there is that much happening beyond my senses that our existing science has taught me exists, how much more is there happening that science hasn’t even discovered yet? It’s very arrogant of Mr. Shatner to just see the interconnected universe as “god” without acknowledging the likelihood that an intelligent designer is behind it all.

As far as Jesus and the miracle of his resurrection, I go back to the same argument I have for believing in the moon landing in 1969: Too many people had to keep the secret and, in the case of Jesus, die for the lie. One or two deluded people might die for a lie, but not many will.

So I start with an intelligent designer, I go to the power of the resurrection as attested to by people who were ultimately killed for their attestation, and then I talk about the personal experience I have with how my life has changed through the grace and mercy Jesus’s resurrection has brought me, and how my life is now an effort to give the Holy Spirit good soil in which you can grow the fruit of your Spirit.

Father, I wasn’t expecting to go there today. And who knows if these words would have impacted Mr. Shatner at all? As Jesus said in Matthew 7, the path is narrow and few will find it. At this point, I have a feeling you’ve presented yourself to Mr. Shatner several times, and he has chosen another path. Father, have mercy. Jesus, have mercy. Holy Spirit, have mercy. On Mr. Shatner. On Mr. T. On Mr. Witwer. On me. And on everyone with whom I will come into contact today.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on August 23, 2026 in Romans

 

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Matthew 23:1-12

22 Aug

23 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 2 “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. 4 They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.

5 “Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; 6 they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; 7 they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others.

8 “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. 9 And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. 10 Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah. 11 The greatest among you will be your servant. 12 For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

Matthew 23:1-12

Dear God, while I was reading this passage this morning it made me think of the boy Samuel in the temple. He was seeing Hophni’s and Phinehas’s bad examples, and you called to him in the middle of the night to warn him that this isn’t what he was supposed to do. I’m sure he was curious and even liking the idea of acting like them when he got older. He was probably a bit hormonal at the time, and the idea of sleeping with the women at the temple gate sounded like fun. Taking the best meat from the offering sure would be tasty. But you warned him in a pretty dramatic way that he was not to follow their example, and that you were going to punish them and Eli for it all.

There is such a big difference between words and actions. Is there a difference between mine? Am I being what you’ve called me to be inside and out? There are certainly times when I have been duplicitous. I can say I’m doing something with one motive, but I really have another one in mind. One of the hardest parts about becoming a nonprofit fundraiser was figuring out how to draw the line between getting to know someone as a donor and getting to know someone because I was truly interested in and cared about them as a person. Was I trying to be their friend, or was I just manipulating them to get money? I had to decide early on that I cared more about them as people than I cared about their donation.

Father, as a husband, as a parent, as a person who teaches in your name sometimes, as a friend, as a son, as a brother, as an uncle, as a member of our community, I don’t want to be a Pharisee. I want to be just like Jesus. I know I’ll never get there. It’s like a mathematical graphing equation approaching zero but never reaching it. Just a little more like Jesus each day. That’s what I want to be. Forgive me for where I fail. Love well through me.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on August 22, 2026 in Matthew

 
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