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Author Archives: John D. Willome

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About John D. Willome

I post a blog of daily devotions that are my prayer journals based on scripture.

Matthew 1:16-24

08 Sep
Statue of the Holy Family at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Port Aransas, Texas


16 Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary.
Mary gave birth to Jesus, who is called the Messiah.

17 All those listed above include fourteen generations from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the Babylonian exile, and fourteen from the Babylonian exile to the Messiah.

18 This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. 19 Joseph, to whom she was engaged, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly.

20 As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. 21 And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

22 All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet:

23 “Look! The virgin will conceive a child!
    She will give birth to a son,
and they will call him Immanuel,
    which means ‘God is with us.’”

24 When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife. 25 But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus.

Matthew 1:16-24

Dear God, I saw this statue this past week while I was on vacation in Port Aransas, and I really liked it. I love the idea of Joseph completely covering and protecting this family you gave to him. A wife who must have been scared of what was going on. A helpless baby who was you incarnate. The responsibility you gave him was immense, and yet he seems to have lived up to what you needed from him.

Regarding this statue, I like how small Jesus is represented. He looks more the size of a newborn. What really strikes me is how small Mary looks. It’s another reminder that she was tasked with something unbelievably immense as well.

I’ll confess that I lost some sleep last night as I get ready to go back to work today after almost a week and a half off. I was/am stressed because I have a lot of work to do. I know of about 10 different things that need done and addressed to keep our nonprofit moving forward. And they are all important and have a sense of urgency regarding timing. It’s almost like if I can get through this week then I can get through a lot of it. I mention all of this because I feel overwhelmed right now, but it is nothing compared with what Joseph and Mary were facing in raising Jesus. Relocating from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Running from Herod to Egypt. Coming back and figuring out where to settle down (back in Nazareth). Not to mention raising this wholly unique child into a man.

Father, first, I thank you for people like Mary and Joseph from the Bible. They were good people. Joseph is my favorite Bible character with Jonathan and Nicodemus running a close second and third. Good people, indeed. Help me to learn from them. Help me to worship you well today in my work. Help me to lead today. Help me to offer everything I have to you for the work you have for me to do. And let that start with loving my wife and giving her what she needs from me. What you need her to have from me. And then help me to go one step at a time from there.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on September 8, 2026 in Matthew

 

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1 Corinthians 5:1-8

07 Sep

5 I can hardly believe the report about the sexual immorality going on among you—something that even pagans don’t do. I am told that a man in your church is living in sin with his stepmother. 2 You are so proud of yourselves, but you should be mourning in sorrow and shame. And you should remove this man from your fellowship.

3 Even though I am not with you in person, I am with you in the Spirit. And as though I were there, I have already passed judgment on this man 4 in the name of the Lord Jesus. You must call a meeting of the church. I will be present with you in spirit, and so will the power of our Lord Jesus. 5 Then you must throw this man out and hand him over to Satan so that his sinful nature will be destroyed and he himself will be saved on the day the Lord returns.

6 Your boasting about this is terrible. Don’t you realize that this sin is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old “yeast” by removing this wicked person from among you. Then you will be like a fresh batch of dough made without yeast, which is what you really are. Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us. 8 So let us celebrate the festival, not with the old bread of wickedness and evil, but with the new bread of sincerity and truth.

1 Corinthians 5:1-8

Dear God, one of the hardest things to figure out is where the cut line is on sin. What are the little ones and what are the big ones? Where do I look the other way and say, “Oh, he gossips too much and she is a little selfish and self-centered, but it’s not worth addressing,” and when do I confront them and tell them to stop? Pointing at myself, Where do I draw the line of living a life of complete purity and never allowing anything from society in and where do I allow myself to be exposed to the world around me? Should I remove everything secular from my home (including my cell phone) or should I continue to find a balance each day?

One thing I know about myself that is being underscored today is that I struggle when I don’t have structure. I am on the final day off from an 11-day break/vacation, and I am finding myself to be very unmotivated. I had prepared to do a bike ride this morning, but then I didn’t feel like it so I went back to bed. I have a group party to attend at noon today, and I’m grateful for it because I think I need a place to be. And it makes me grateful to get back to work tomorrow because I know I’ll come good and get myself back in gear. In the meantime today, going back to the levels of sin, I need to get rid of some of this slothfulness and pray to you about what you have for me to do today with this extra time I have.

Father, once again, it’s so easy to point to the sin of others and hard to ask you to examine my heart and reveal my sin to me. I’d just as soon not do that. But here we are, sitting together while I figure out how to get my act together and do my best to worship you. I have a couple of people I know from high school who are going through very difficult trials. One is bed-ridden. How much would she love to have the strength and opportunities I have today? So I offer this day to you. Help me to use it well.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on September 7, 2026 in 1 Corinthians

 

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Romans 13:8-10

06 Sep

8 Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law. 9 For the commandments say, “You must not commit adultery. You must not murder. You must not steal. You must not covet.” These—and other such commandments—are summed up in this one commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law.

Roman 13:8-10

Dear God, I live in Texas, I love you, and yet I am not a fan of Texas putting up the 10 Commandments in the classrooms. I don’t like the State imposing religion on people. And the 10 Commandments are an expecially odd starting place because there are only two of the 10 we have laws against (murder and stealing). The first four deal with revering you as God and observing the Sabbath, the last of which very few of the people who passed the law mandating the 10 Commandments be hung follow. In fact, I believe they ironically voted to pass this law on a Sunday.

I do like, however, what Paul did here. He broke it down the way Jesus broke it down. When asked what the greatest commandment was, Jesus replied, we must love you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Then he added a bonus one and said we must love our neighbor as ourselves. Our lives will not be complete if we do #1 and skip #2. And it will certainly be incomplete if we skip #1 and only do #2. For our purposes here, Paul isn’t saying ignore #1. Not at all. The context of this paragraph is about living in society, and he breaks the commandments down to what Jesus did at the end of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7:12: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Another irony is that I believe forcing non-Christian children to look at the 10 Commandments and for public schools to display them prominently is actually violating the overall principle of loving your neighbor as yourself and doing to them what you would have them do to you. If Muslims were all of a sudden in the majority, Christians would not want their scriptures posted on public school walls. These children need to be loved. They need to be welcomed into worshipping you and loving others.

Father, I’m probably off on a tangent here I don’t need to be on, but it’s just frustrating to me that so many people who call themselves Christians seem to be reaching for the gods of power and coercion instead of love, service, and persuasion. As we enter a political season, a time when I tend to keep my opinions to myself and only discuss them with a select few, please show me, Holy Spirit, what you would and would not have me do. I guess I’m asking that you grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on September 6, 2026 in Romans

 

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Isaiah 58 (Feast Day for St. Theresa of Calcutta)

05 Sep

58 “Shout with the voice of a trumpet blast.
    Shout aloud! Don’t be timid.
Tell my people Israel of their sins!
2     Yet they act so pious!
They come to the Temple every day
    and seem delighted to learn all about me.
They act like a righteous nation
    that would never abandon the laws of its God.
They ask me to take action on their behalf,
    pretending they want to be near me.
3 ‘We have fasted before you!’ they say.
    ‘Why aren’t you impressed?
We have been very hard on ourselves,
    and you don’t even notice it!’

“I will tell you why!” I respond.
    “It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves.
Even while you fast,
    you keep oppressing your workers.
4 What good is fasting
    when you keep on fighting and quarreling?
This kind of fasting
    will never get you anywhere with me.
5 You humble yourselves
    by going through the motions of penance,
bowing your heads
    like reeds bending in the wind.
You dress in burlap
    and cover yourselves with ashes.
Is this what you call fasting?
    Do you really think this will please the Lord?

6 “No, this is the kind of fasting I want:
Free those who are wrongly imprisoned;
    lighten the burden of those who work for you.
Let the oppressed go free,
    and remove the chains that bind people.
7 Share your food with the hungry,
    and give shelter to the homeless.
Give clothes to those who need them,
    and do not hide from relatives who need your help.

8 “Then your salvation will come like the dawn,
    and your wounds will quickly heal.
Your godliness will lead you forward,
    and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind.
9 Then when you call, the Lord will answer.
    ‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply.

“Remove the heavy yoke of oppression.
    Stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumors!
10 Feed the hungry,
    and help those in trouble.
Then your light will shine out from the darkness,
    and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.
11 The Lord will guide you continually,
    giving you water when you are dry
    and restoring your strength.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
    like an ever-flowing spring.
12 Some of you will rebuild the deserted ruins of your cities.
    Then you will be known as a rebuilder of walls
    and a restorer of homes.

13 “Keep the Sabbath day holy.
    Don’t pursue your own interests on that day,
but enjoy the Sabbath
    and speak of it with delight as the Lord’s holy day.
Honor the Sabbath in everything you do on that day,
    and don’t follow your own desires or talk idly.
14 Then the Lord will be your delight.
    I will give you great honor
and satisfy you with the inheritance I promised to your ancestor Jacob.
    I, the Lord, have spoken!”

Isaiah 58

Dear God, this is a challenging word from you. I’d love to point at some people in the American church and say, “Have you read this?!?” But then I can’t help but wonder how much of this is for me too. It’s the Old Testament reading for today’s feast day for St. Theresa of Calcutta. It’s appropriate for her. She loved selflessly and well.

It’s so much more fun to read your “judgment” passages and relate them to someone else and then right your “attaboy” passages and think they are for me. But is my worship of you good? Is it right? Does it lead to enough fruit of me loving and reaching out to others? And some of this stuff is pretty black and white as far as loving and helping others. The part that is interesting is how it talks in verses 9 and 13: “…stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumors.” and referring to the Sabbath in verse 13 “…don’t follow your own desires or talk idly.” It reminds me of what Jesus said about it not being what goes into the mouth, but what comes out of it that can defile. (Matthew 15:11)

Father, help me to watch my tongue. A friend is coming over later today. He’s a great guy, and he does not start gossip. But I don’t want to be the start of gossip or negatively talking about others either. So help me to be your representative. Help me to build him up and my wife up through my words. Help me to see need and respond to it however the Holy Spirit is nuding me to respond. Be glorified in my life, oh, Lord!

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on September 5, 2026 in Isaiah

 

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2 Timothy 1:11-14

04 Sep

11 And God chose me to be a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of this Good News.

12 That is why I am suffering here in prison. But I am not ashamed of it, for I know the one in whom I trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until the day of his return.

13 Hold on to the pattern of wholesome teaching you learned from me—a pattern shaped by the faith and love that you have in Christ Jesus. 14 Through the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us, carefully guard the precious truth that has been entrusted to you.

2 Timothy 1:11-14

Dear God, I wonder what happened to Timothy. He was a young leader. Did he live to be an old leader? I just searched the Internet and didn’t find an answer. I’m going to assume he continued to teach, grow, and lead. I wonder how often he referred back to these letters from Paul. What did he use as his “scripture” when it came to the “pattern of wholesome teaching” he learned from Paul? I’ll bet he read these letters a lot, and then offered them to his people and ultimately the church at large since we have them to this day as our Bible.

There is no way I can appreciate what it must have been like for all of the early church to develop theologically. They didn’t have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They needed them so those men wrote them, but they didn’t have them at first. All they really had was the Jewish faith and then the knowledge Jesus was the Messiah who had lived, died, resurrected, and ascended back into heaven. Even thinking about it now seems overwhelming. “Truth” was being passed through oral history. There must have been a lot of heresy. We get into heresy now with our own interpretations or misinterpretations of scripture and what we want it to say. Prosperity Gospel, for example, is just bad teaching out of scripture, but we want to hear it so we accept it.

Father, I don’t know where all of this is going as far as this prayer time this morning, but it’s a reminder of how precarious the early church was, how dependent it was on your Holy Spirit, and what a great thing Paul and the others did, even from prison (where Paul was when he wrote this particular letter), to make sure Jesus’s life, death, resurrection, and ascension were not just a blip in human history, but a turning point for the whole world. Now, I have a responsibility to do my part to be part of that ripple through time and then worship in eternity. Help me to be exactly who you need me to be for your glory’s sake.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on September 4, 2026 in 2 Timothy

 

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Luke 5:33-39

03 Sep

33 One day some people said to Jesus, “John the Baptist’s disciples fast and pray regularly, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees. Why are your disciples always eating and drinking?”

34 Jesus responded, “Do wedding guests fast while celebrating with the groom? Of course not. 35 But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.”

36 Then Jesus gave them this illustration: “No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and uses it to patch an old garment. For then the new garment would be ruined, and the new patch wouldn’t even match the old garment.

37 “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the new wine would burst the wineskins, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. 38 New wine must be stored in new wineskins. 39 But no one who drinks the old wine seems to want the new wine. ‘The old is just fine,’ they say.”

Luke 5:33-39

Dear God, I think I’ve let the metaphors Jesus uses in this passage distract me from the message Jesus is giving in verse 34. As I sit and think about the disciples of John the Baptist (JTB) and the Pharisees vs. Jesus’s disciples, there is one huge difference I’ve never considered. JTB’s and the Pharisees’ disciples were seemingly focused on themselves and learning. They were serving JTB or the Pharisees, they were studying, and they were soaking in you and the growth you had for them. It makes me wonder what happened to them after JTB died. Or what eventually happened to the Pharisees’ disciples. Did they go out into the world. Did JTB’s disciples become part of The Way? Did the Pharisees’ disciples become part of the persecutors of those in The Way? For all of them, time in fasting would be a way to connect with the unembodied you. Your Spirit.

But as for Jesus’s disciples, they were being prepared for something different. They would definitely have a job to do after Jesus was gone (ascended). They would be responsible for The Way. They would be responsible for building the new paradigm. Selling the new wine, as it were. Come to think of it, I knew of a church in my small town called “New Wine Church.” And after you ascended, they would need to spend some contemplative time in prayer and fasting to connect to you, but while Jesus was with them they had you/him there with them. No fasting required.

As for me, as I sit here now, I have to wonder why Luke took the time to preserve this story for us. Was it to underscore the importance of fasting for us who do not have the embodied God/Jesus with us? Maybe so. Maybe this is my reminder that I need to take these times with you. It occurs to me that the Gospels never depict the disciples as getting alone and praying, but they are continually telling us about how Jesus does it (and maybe meeting with Elijah, Moses, and/or others while he’s doing it). They had Jesus. Jesus was you.

Father, I have a full day of vacation left here. I want to be about doing what you want me to do with it. I need to connect with you. I need to connect with my wife. I need to disconnect from work, which has been very hard to disconnect from this week because of one emergency after another. But here I am. Show me what you have for me. Help me to gladly sink into a time of connection that my spirit/soul needs with you.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on September 3, 2026 in Luke

 

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1 Corinthians 3:1-9

02 Sep

3 Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in Christ. 2 I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready, 3 for you are still controlled by your sinful nature. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren’t you living like people of the world? 4 When one of you says, “I am a follower of Paul,” and another says, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you acting just like people of the world?

5 After all, who is Apollos? Who is Paul? We are only God’s servants through whom you believed the Good News. Each of us did the work the Lord gave us. 6 I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. 7 It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters work together with the same purpose. And both will be rewarded for their own hard work. 9 For we are both God’s workers. And you are God’s field. You are God’s building.

1 Corinthians 3:1-9

Dear God, someone recently pointed out Apollos to me as a significant person in the New Testament church, and, frankly, I can’t believe I had totally missed him. He was apparently remarkable. We first meet him in Acts 18:

24 Meanwhile, a Jew named Apollos, an eloquent speaker who knew the Scriptures well, had arrived in Ephesus from Alexandria in Egypt. 25 He had been taught the way of the Lord, and he taught others about Jesus with an enthusiastic spirit and with accuracy. However, he knew only about John’s baptism. 26 When Priscilla and Aquila heard him preaching boldly in the synagogue, they took him aside and explained the way of God even more accurately.

27 Apollos had been thinking about going to Achaia, and the brothers and sisters in Ephesus encouraged him to go. They wrote to the believers in Achaia, asking them to welcome him. When he arrived there, he proved to be of great benefit to those who, by God’s grace, had believed. 28 He refuted the Jews with powerful arguments in public debate. Using the Scriptures, he explained to them that Jesus was the Messiah.

And now, here is is again, getting name-checked by Paul in his letter to the Corinthians. I wonder if there are writings out there still surviving from Apollos that are not considered scripture but are authentic.

I just searched and saw that there are no surviving writings that are labeled as written by Apollos, but there are some who suspect it’s possible he wrote Hebrews.

But back on task. There are so many things I do not know about…well, everything. I think I know so much. I think I understand so much. But the truth is that I am incredibly ignorant. A new Christian recently asked me about how I got so much biblical knowledge. My first response was to think about how much I feel like I don’t know. But what I do know has just come from time with you. Time in the scripture. Your representatives on earth have planted some seeds in my life. Some have watered and nurtured. But it is your Spirit that has grown any fruit I might exhibit.

Father, I want to be a seed planter and waterer, but I also want to remember my place. First, to be a good planter and waterer, I must first take care of myself and ensure that my branch is attached to your vine. Second, I need to see each person with your eyes and embrace them, care about them, and love them. And legitimately, with your love. Not with my human love that usually wants something in return. With your love. Thirs, I need to vulnerably share my life with them so that they will know that I am just a fellow sojourner through this life with them. Finally, I need to allow your Holy Spirit to do the rest while I humbly walk before you. Help me to do each of those things today. I have a Zoom meeting this morning that is interrupting my vacation, but it is an important meeting. Help me to be honoring in this and do this well.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on September 2, 2026 in 1 Corinthians

 

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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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