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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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Resuscitation vs. Resurrection – Skye Jethani

21 Aug

Dear God, I was spending time with a pastor friend of mine recently, and he told me he recently asked his congregation for sermon topics, and one that came back was, “Do we have to be born again?” Interesting question. Some pastors might respond, “Of course! John 3. Jesus and Nicodemus!” Others would say, “That term has some baggage that we now need to get away from. Let’s talk about it in a different way.” I have a feeling the person who sent in the question is likely in the latter camp. They might see people preaching “born again” as fire and brimstone preachers trying to scare people into heaven by selling them fire insurance.

I thought it was probably a topic that was going to fester with me, but then I heard this extraordinary talk by Skye Jethani of the Holy Post (behind a pay wall, but you can get a one-time free listen). He talked about the difference between “Jesus, save me” and “Jesus, transform me.” He told the story of how the writer of the hymn “Amazing Grace” was saved from a storm at sea early in his life after he shouted into the wind, “God, have mercy on us,” or something like that, but that wasn’t transformation. It was just resuscitation. His life was just prolonged. That boat was a slave trading boat, and he went on capturing humans and selling them to others. It wasn’t until later in his life that he considered himself to have been transformed by you. Skye made the point that Newton’s life only got better after the saving on the boat. He eventually became a captain. But after the transformation and he repented of slave trading and started working to abolish it, his life actually got harder. But that’s when he wrote the words, “I was blind, but now I see.” It wasn’t after being saved in the storm. It was after he was resurrected and born again, a la 1 Corinthians 5:17: “If anyone is born in Christ he is a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come.”

The first question is, “Am I born again?” Not, “Am I resuscitated?” Am I changed and am I continuing to be changed in Jesus? I think I am, but there is a lot of chane that still needs to happen.

The next question is, “While I am on my journey, am I selling change to my friends and those I know? Am I selling born again, or am I just selling resuscitation?”

The person asking the original question was probably relating it to getting into heaven. They were probably similar to the rich young ruler who was asking Jesus, “What must I do to be saved?”

Father, I love you. Thank you for giving me not just a prolonged life, but a new life. I am different now than before I started growing in you. I am grateful. I love you. Help me to keep growing. To press on (Philippians 3:14).

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on August 21, 2026 in Miscellaneous, Musings and Stories

 

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Acts 18:24-28 (Apollos)

20 Aug

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.

Acts 18:24-28

Dear God, I don’t think I’ve appreciated Apollos at all. As I read this story, I would love to know the difference between what he knew before verse 26 and what he knew after. What was the difference? Was it the Holy Spirit? Did he only understand repentance and that Jesus was the Messiah, but did they tell him about Jesus’s actual radical teaching: love your enemies, if you think it you’ve done it, etc.

I can be eloquent when I speak. And I like to teach. But am I like Apollos or am I more like Priscilla and Aquila? How much more education do I need? The answer is, “A lot,” I’m sure.

And then there is this lovely couple, Priscilla and Aquila. The investment they made in Apollos rippled through the rest of the New Testament. Paul references Apollos in 1 Corinthians 3, 4, and 16 as well as in Titus 3–all very positive. In a body with many parts, they played a small part, but it was crucial.

Father, someone asked me to pray with them recently about “how big they were supposed to be.” Someone was calling them to be more than they currently are in a ministry, but she wasn’t sure if that was right. I don’t know what is right for them either. But just like you know exactly how big an oak tree is supposed to be when it is still an acorn, you know who this woman is and what her role is in your world. Show that to her. Reveal it to her. Douse any feelings of shame or inadequacy she might be having. I know they are not of you. Please help her to find just her next step.

I pray all of this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on August 20, 2026 in Acts

 

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“Which translation do you use?”

19 Aug

Dear God, I was listening to the Holy Post podcast this morning, and one of the things they mentioned is a common question they get is around people asking them which biblical commentary is the one they can trust. Or they’ll get asked, “Which translation do you use?” Their take was that people are looking for someone they can trust to just tell them the truth. They want certainty in their beliefs.

It reminds me of the pastor in 2020 who, after having just barely survived Covid, said in an interview that he decided through the experience that we’ve made an idol out of certainty. You are the only thing that is the same yesterday, today, and forever, but we will try to put our certainty in our spouse, children, health, economy, bank account, government, etc. I would add our theology to that as well. We want to be right about everything. That’s why we leave churches when someone disagrees with us. That’s why we try to shame others for their sin while we ignore our own. We have a need to be right.

A couple of weeks ago, I asked a friend that if we were to stand before you after we die and we asked you what percentage of our theology was correct while we were here on earth, what percentage do we think you’d come back with. Frankly, my answer was that I’d be really pleased if you told me I had 20% of it correct, meaning I would not understand, be partially wrong, or completely wrong about 80% of it. The problem is, I just don’t know which 80% is wrong and which 20% is right (assuming I’m as high as 20%).

Father, at the end of the day, I know you are there. I am all in on the Jesus virgin birth, life, death, resurrection, and assumption narrative. I’m all in on his being part of you–begotten, not made. I’m all in on the Holy Spirit. Basically, I’m all in on the Nicene Creed. Everything else is a little squishy for me. Even the specific lines that will help me be “saved.” So my choice is to live today. I am going to worship you. I am going to love others. I’m going to work hard. And I’m going to share my life vulnerably so that others might feel a touch of you through me, and so I might feel a touch of you through them. To you be the glory.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on August 19, 2026 in Miscellaneous, Musings and Stories

 

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Philippians 1:20-24

18 Aug

20 For I fully expect and hope that I will never be ashamed, but that I will continue to be bold for Christ, as I have been in the past. And I trust that my life will bring honor to Christ, whether I live or die. 21 For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better. 22 But if I live, I can do more fruitful work for Christ. So I really don’t know which is better. 23 I’m torn between two desires: I long to go and be with Christ, which would be far better for me. 24 But for your sakes, it is better that I continue to live.

Philippians 1:20-24

Dear God, this would be a tough read at a funeral, but perhaps it should be read more. Perhaps, while I would hope it would encourage everyone to wait for natural death and not do anything proactively to bring death, it would be better to plant seeds at funerals in our minds that we shouldn’t be so afraid of death. That we don’t need to do everything we can to live.

When I used to fly a lot 25 years ago for a job I had, I would get a little nervous at takeoff. I would look around at the people as I boarded the plane and think, “These might be the people I die with.” Then, as we would barrel down the runway, I would think, “If this is it, am I ready?” It was weird stuff to be thinking–I think. I don’t know. Maybe others have similar thoughts. But I just imagined closing my eyes for the last time. It was scary.

In my current job, I process a lot of donations that are made in memory of others. I am made aware of multiple people every week who die. It occurred to me several years ago that it really does happen to all of us. None of us get out of this particular life alive. Yes, we might be with you in eternity, but my earthly body’s functions will stop at some point. The whole system will give out, and I’ll be done. I can accept that. If I were to feel a sudden seizing in my heart right now and everything went black, as I died, I think my last thoughts would be of my wife and her care and provision. I think things are set where she will be okay materially. But as far as personal regrets, other than some broken relationships that have yet to mend, I don’t have anything I wish I’d done. No unaccomplished bucket list.

Father, I have a job to do today. I’m going to go to work early to do it. Lots of moving parts. But I don’t wnt to be distracted from living for you. I don’t want to be distracted from being your servant and loving others how you would have me love them. I will give you myself today as best as I can. Use it for your kingdom.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen

 
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Posted by on August 18, 2026 in Philippians

 

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