Tag: speak

  • Unbridled Prayer

    Unbridled Prayer

    Psalm 102; Matthew 6:7–15; 1 John 5:12–15 (read online ⧉) Prayer is mysterious. Prayer is powerful. Prayer is…confusing. The psalmist’s opening is the simplest and purest, hear and listen to me (yes, they are different). The psalmist is miserable. The psalmist wants things to stop being bad. People, food, places, health, well-being are all part…

  • Easy Listening

    Easy Listening

    Jeremiah 26:20–24; Matthew 23:29–24:2 (read online ⧉) The most famous Uriah in the Bible is not the one we read about in Jeremiah. The famous Uriah died because the king slept with his wife. He was…inconvenient for the king. Perhaps being named Uriah isn’t a blessing? Uriah, son of Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim, was also inconvenient.…

  • Silence is Not Always Golden

    Deuteronomy 5:1–31; Matthew 26:57–62; Acts 6:8–15 (read online ⧉) Perjury is a crime. Knowingly providing false witness under oath is a criminal offense, as it should be. Knowing our system, however, perhaps the penalty is not severe enough. People speak “white lies” thinking they are doing the right thing (again, in a court case). People…

  • Holy Night

    Holy Night

    29 April 2020 Devotional Genesis 1:1–19; Genesis 22:17–18; Psalm 134 (read online ⧉) I try to settle, but I just pass throughA rain dog, gypsyA wandering JewAll those homes were not oursThen I slept one nightIn Abraham’s fieldAnd dreamt there was no moonThe night he diedCounting stars from The Orphan by the Newsboys One of…

  • Firmly Wrong

    Psalm 107:1–16; Numbers 20:1-13; 1 Corinthians 10:6-13 (read online ⧉) The Israelites were out of water…again. They complained…again. Yet, there is something different here. It’s subtle. There seemed to be a stronger issue with the leaders (Moses and Aaron), rather than God. Oddly, despite an expressed desire to already be dead, God did not seem…

  • Is It All About the Experience?

    Psalm 19; Exodus 19:16–25; Mark 9:2–8 (read online ⧉) Spend enough time in (at least) Christian circles, and you will likely hear the phrase, “mountain-top experience.” This is usually described as a deeply powerful encounter with God that emotionally and spiritually separates someone from the “real” world. Moses, the Israelites, and Aaron have different experiences…

  • Who Hears? Who Speaks?

    Psalm 22:23-31; Genesis 16:7-15; Mark 8:27-30 (read online ⧉) Ishmael. God Hears. How amazing is that? God—the Creator—hears. Hagar had run away. Sarai treated her poorly to such a degree that Hagar felt that the wilderness was better than staying (initially, at least). Feeling so overwhelmed by life and circumstances is not unfamiliar to many…

  • Deserting or Desserting

    Psalm 77, Proverbs 30:1–9, Matthew 4:1–11 (read online ⧉) If your were present at the Ash Wednesday service or the past Sunday service, you may recall that in Lent we witness and experience a symbolic representation of Jesus’ trial in the desert, and the biblical concept of 40 days as a significant time of transformation.…