1 Corinthians 15:21 (NKJV): For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. The Greek word that is translated “resurrection” means “to stand up again”. It can be used to signify the come back to life from death. It can also be used to mean the moral recovery of a spiritual truth. There are many choices we have to make each day of our lives: what to eat, what to wear, what to say to people in certain situations, etc. Some of our decisions are not life and death. But many of our decisions reflect how we believe in Jesus. Who we think that Jesus is will be reflected in the choices that we make. How are we engaging the person who is treating us badly? How are we engaging the person who is treating a loved one badly? How are we going to react to be unjustly accused of something? We have choices to make each day. Are we making those choices through the power of the resurrected Christ, or are we making those choices by the flesh? If we are making our choices by the flesh, we are not bringing life to the situation. Instead, we are bringing confusion and pain most times. However, if we choose to make our choices through the power of the Holy Spirit, we will bring a newness of life to the situation. When we make choices based on who Jesus is, we make choices based on a truth that is being revealed in us and through us. Today, may we learn to stand up in the power of the risen Christ Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit to the glory of the living God.

Today’s devotional
#devotional

People with preexisting conditions also don’t deserve to die

Each sheep represents the beautiful diversity of humanity, joyfully playing together. It’s a reminder that love doesn’t ask us to hide who we are. It invites us to walk boldly in it. And to have fun doing it. This is choiceless and nonpartial compassion!

I drew this for @thesacredslope.bsky.social

This cartoon print is my favorite interpretation of the good Samaritan.

Galatians 6:8 (NKJV): For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. I have said before that there used to be a time that the agriculture references left me a bit confused. There has been a time or two that I have actually planted something in the hopes that it would grow and produce something. I helped my mother many years ago plant strawberries and was able the next year to eat the fruit of my labor. So, the idea of sowing is not completely foreign to me. What I do find in the use of the idea in sowing is that it is something that requires an intentional act. Sowing a field of strawberries, or whatever, does not just happen. It takes time and a lot of physical effort. It also takes a lot of patience. Sowing is not like microwaving; it requires time to produce. That time requires patience, and I have definitely told you I am not a patient man when I want something. Sowing in the power of the Holy Spirit takes intention and patience. You have to deliberately choose to allow the Holy Spirit to work in and through you. You have to deliberately choose to allow the agape love of Christ Jesus to work in and through you. You have to deliberately choose to not let the flesh take over. Today, may we all intentionally choose to sow through the power of the Holy Spirit, so that forgiveness, love, mercy and wholeness are brought into our lives and the lives of those around us.

Today’s devotional
#devotional

Matthew 5:6 (NKJV): Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. The Greek word that is translated “righteousness” means “equity (of character or act)”. It contains the idea of justice and the idea of to show. The word that is translated filled means to be gorged and comes from the word meaning garden. There are many things that our society tell us that we should be hungering and thirsting for: phones, cars, bigger TVs, etc. We are bombarded with messaging that we should be constantly consuming things. Get this now because it is shiny and new. Get this now because it has been upgraded slightly from the old version. Get this now because it will make you attractive to the people you are trying to impress. It is a non-stop barrage of messaging meant to get us to chase after things we do not really need. When we get caught up in this messaging, we miss out on the call of Jesus in our lives. We let the noise of the world drown out the still small voice of Jesus. We also are never filled up. The world’s message continually leaves us hungering for more and never satisfied. Jesus comes into our lives to alleviate that hunger and thirst. Only Jesus can satisfy our needs. It is only when we start to hunger and thirst for equality and justice that we find that we are full of what we need. But we have to intentionally choose to go after righteousness. We have to intentionally choose not to listen to the other competing voices in the world and focus only on Jesus. We have to be intentional in allowing the power of the Holy Spirit to move us. We have to be intentional in putting God first before anything or anyone else. Today, may we choose to hunger and thirst for the things that put in a deeper relationship with our Redeemer.

Today’s devotional
#devotional

Tonight's an allies night. Join us?

The Song of the Forsaken Jesus Sings the Blues

Here’s the manuscript for a sermon I delivered during Holy Week.

Jesus sings the blues.

Deuteronomy 28:1 (NKJV): Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. For me it always helpful to read verses like today’s verse remembering that this is a specific person talking to a specific people about a specific promise being made to them. This is not a promise that is being made to us in our time and place. So, the question then becomes how we find meaning today in a promise made all that time ago to someone else. If we look at the word that is translated “set you high above” we see that it means “to give”. I think that means for us that there is still the offer of a relationship from the LORD to us. If we enter into this relationship with the LORD, there is still the promise that God will act in our lives. In this relationship, each party has certain ways of acting. Today’s verse reminds us that we are called to obey the LORD, and we are called to wrap ourselves in the protection that the LORD freely gives us. We know that the LORD is going to keep up God’s part of the relationship. We are then asked are we going to keep our part of the relationship? Are we going to learn to obey when we do not feel like and just want to do our own thing? Are we going to learn to live in the protections of the LORD’s words when we feel like letting our pride to take control? Today, may we learn to be intentional in our building the relationship with the LORD our God, so that we can fully live into the promises of love and strength that are offered us.

Today’s devotional
#devotional

To the people complaining these sex abuse cases have created a world where men now have to think 10 times before they touch a woman.

Yes, that's the point.

It's called consent. Welcome to human decency.

Luke 22:19 (NLT): He took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then He broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” I once visited a church on a Sunday that they had communion. I was interested to see how they did it, since it was a denomination that was some what new to me. Growing up United Methodist, I am well versed in the liturgy of that denomination. So, I was looking forward to the new experience. Then, the pastor got up and ruined it for me. The pastor took the bread and said something along the lines of “at that moment Jesus happened to reach over and pick up a piece of bread that was lying on the table”. Lisa can testify that I almost came out of my seat at that moment. To me the ritual of how one takes communion is not that important. There are many different ways to do it. However, when in one sentence, you destroy the significance of what Jesus did then I have issues. When we deny, even unintentionally, the significance of Jesus’ actions, we deny the power of the living God in our lives. The bread that Jesus picked up was on the table for a specific reason. Jesus’ act changed forever the meaning of the bread in our lives. I will leave the sermon about Passover and Jesus’ transformation of the holiday to another time. For me, today’s verse reminds me of the importance of fully knowing who Jesus was and why Jesus did what He did. Today’s challenge: dive deeper in to the story so that you can more completely encounter the risen Christ. Prayer: Come Holy Spirit and guide us today into the presence of Jesus. Help us to come closer to Jesus today. Amen.

Today’s devotional from 2019
#devotional

this maybe difficult to hear but nobody cares about the “male perspective”

Concerning why you murdered your wife…

“What all you was dealing with”

“The pressures you were under”

You lose the benefit of explanation at murder

Isaiah 1:18 (NLT): "Come now, let's settle this," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool." I looked up the words for the colors that are used in today's verse to get a better idea of what this verse is about. Our society now has a very different concept of the use of color images in the way we talk versus the way the people in Isaiah would have used them. This word "scarlet" comes from a word that also describes a bug: coccus ilicis. I had to look up what this bug is about. It is an agricultural pest that has a distinct red coloring to it. So, the color "scarlet" is a reference to something that is destructive and keeps someone from growing in the LORD. The word "white" comes from a word that can also mean "brick". So, sin is destructive, but what the LORD brings into our lives builds us up. The LORD our GOD gives us the tools to reverse the destruction of sin and build a life that is found in God. These tools are also like wool because we just do not go in and out of God, but we stay and live in and with God in our everyday lives. Bricks offer us great protection against the things of the world. Wool gives us a more intimate sense of comfort and peace. Prayer: Come Holy Spirit today and help us to live in the promise of God as our protector and comforter. Amen.

Today’s devotional
#devotional

1 Corinthians 9:25 (NKJV): And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Paul had lived a lot and seen a lot in his life by the time he started writing a letter to the people in Corinth. He knew what it took to live a life that was faithful to Christ Jesus. He knew what it took to live out the Gospel each day. In today’s verse he likens this life of faith as to one who competed in physical competitions that occurred. The athletes who competed had to train for the games. They had to sacrifice certain parts of their lives to be able to compete. They had to take on certain disciplines to become successful in their event. The same is true today of modern athletes. It takes strict adherence to a regiment that trains your body to perform at the highest level. There are certain things that you just cannot do if you want to come in first place. Now, a life in Christ Jesus is not a competition. There is no coming in first or last in the Kingdom of God. But it does take discipline and some sacrifice to follow in the path of Jesus. You do not come to faith in Jesus and suddenly life becomes leisurely and pain free. Life is still life. A life of faith in Jesus takes discipline and choosing to set aside certain aspects of our ego and pride. A life of faith in Jesus is not always easy. Paul knew this and wanted us to know it. Paul wanted to make sure that we did not have clouded judgment when it came to the Gospel. Today, may we learn to set aside the things that keep us from being fully alive in the love of Christ Jesus.

Today’s devotional
#devotional

Exposing a global ‘online rape academy’ that is teaching men how to abuse women and evade detection CNN exposes an online network of men encouraging each other to drug and assault their partners, and swap tips on how to get away with it.

www.cnn.com/interactive/...

Proverbs 19:22 (NKJV): What is desired in a man is kindness, and a poor man is better than a liar. In the KJV the Hebrew word that is translated “kindness” is most often translated “mercy”. It comes from the word that means “to bow (the neck only in courtesy to an equal)”. The root word we have seen before used to describe how the LORD our God interacts with us. If we take that Solomon wrote today’s verse, then we know that a man of extreme wealth and power wrote these words. There are many things that Solomon could have come up with about what someone is supposed to be like in this life. Yet, he does not put any focus on power and wealth. He does not put any focus on anything that is traditionally considered “manly”. What he does choose to tell us is that we need to be more like God. We need to be kind to others. We need to show mercy to others. We need to help ourselves and others find wholeness. Even today, this gets lost in a culture that fixates on power and wealth. Society does not see kindness as a virtue; it sees it as a weakness to be exploited for gain. But that is not how the LORD our God approaches us. The LORD does not come into our lives to exploit who we are. Instead, God treats us like equals who deserve mercy. God treats us like equals who deserve love. God treats us like equals who deserve a life lived in peace and wholeness. Today, may we allow ourselves to be kind to ourselves and to those who are around us; may we allow ourselves to live in God’s love and mercy.

Today’s devotional
#devotional

Ecclesiastes 7:14 (NKJV): In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: surely God has appointed the one as well as the other, so that man can find out nothing that will come after him. I read this verse and had to sit back and take it in. I know what I have been taught: that God determines if the day is bad or not. Yet, after years of developing a relationship with God, I do not think that I was taught correctly. I have come to see that God does not make the day good or bad. No, God makes the day, but it is us that make it good or bad. It is the way that we respond to how the day is going that determines if it is good or bad. God gives us breath each day to live. God gives us strength each day to live. God gives us love and mercy each day to live. What we do with the gift of the day we have been given will determine what the day is like. It might be a day when very good news comes to us. It might be a day when disaster hits us. God does not cause the day to be bad or good. God does cause the day to be. How we live out that day determines if it is good or bad. Today, let us choose to focus on the love and mercy that the LORD our God has given us today and allow ourselves to experience the joy of the LORD no matter what comes our way.

Today’s devotional
#devotional

If attacking Pope Leo online then posting an AI generated picture of himself as Jesus doesn’t convince you that the president has zero respect for Christianity, after all that has happened up to now, I can safely say you do not care about the truth.

Good morning, beloved.

Justice comes & goes where it is taken.

It requires partners.

Today is a great day to overcome evil with good.

1 Timothy 6:7-8 (NKJV): For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. There is a blues song that I occasionally listen to that has lyrics that talk about how the singer has never seen a U-Haul behind a Hearst. When we have left this earth, we take nothing with us except who we were while we were here. So, the question is why do we put so much importance on “stuff”? Why do we allow “stuff” to rule over us? Why do we allow the pursuit of “stuff” dominate our lives? None of that “stuff” is going to last eternally. None of that “stuff” is going to go into the next life with us. I have learned over the years that it is a difficult task to put aside the here and now “stuff” to focus on the eternal things of life. The physical is so easily focused on that we put things off that will be eternal. It is not easy to be loving and kind when you are hangry. It not easy to bring joy and peace when you are in pain. The world will invade our lives if we let it. The power of the Holy Spirit will give us the strength to endure that which seems unendurable. The power of the Holy Spirit will help us to live in love when we feel unlovable. The power of the Holy Spirit will help is to glorify God when we want to curse our lot in life. Today, may we allow the love of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit invade our lives in way that helps us be more focused on the eternal things of life and put aside the physical things that keep us from Jesus.

Today’s devotional
#devotional

Psalm 73:26 (NKJV): My flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. I do not have the time and the space to discuss all the ways that I have failed over the course of my life. I have succeeded at something things, but I have failed at many more things. I can confidently say that failure is a part of life. Failure is something that we are going to do. Failure is something that is going to happen to us. I think part of being more mature and wiser is accepting the fact that the failure is going to happen and learning how to deal with it constructively. For me it became easier to deal with certain failures when I came to learn that the LORD my God loves me even when I fail. When I came to truly understand that I was loved and forgiven even when I fell short, I learned to better deal with my failures. This in turn lead me to better deal with other’s failures. The LORD forgiving me and loving me through my failures helped me to forgive and love others when they failed me. It is not an easy thing to forgive others or yourself after failure, but the work of the LORD our God in our lives will give us the strength and ability to show love and mercy in these times. Today, may we allow the LORD our God to be our portion and our strength, so that we can learn to forgive, love and show mercy to ourselves and to the people around us.

Today’s devotional
#devotional

Keep your buts out of your sermons.

Notice how the most celebrated and successful space mission in *decades* was run by at least 50% “DEI hires”—not all white men? And not even all Americans. Maybe diversity *is* strength . . .

Katherine Johnson working hard at NASA

Dorothy Vaughn NASA photo

Mary Jackson NASA PHOTO

Artemis II are home safe 🥹

Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn, and Mary Jackson would be so proud 💜🌙

Matthew 5:11 (NKJV): Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Over the years, I have seen this verse used as a weapon against people. I have watched people go hunting for reasons to claim that they are being persecuted. You say something they disagree with, then you are persecuting them. You call them out to accountability, then you are persecuting them. You question what they truly believe, then you are persecuting them. Jesus is telling us that we are going to experience some negative things when we fully live into the Gospel. Jesus is not telling us that we are to go looking for confrontation and provoke people into opposing us. Being persecuted is not some Boy Scout badge that we seek out to earn as a rite of passage. Being persecuted is a consequence of living out agape love and seeking justice and wholeness. Jesus is telling us it will happen, not that we are to seek out making it happen. When we are truly living fully in agape love in the power of the Holy Spirit, our reward will become less important to us. When we are truly living fully in agape love in the power of the Holy Spirit, the negative reactions to us will not affect us is a bad way, it will just make us more forgiving and more loving. Today, may we full live out the agape love of Christ Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit in such a way that lives are transformed and the hate ignored.

Today’s devotional
#devotional

Luke 12:6-7 (NKJV): Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. The Greek word that is translated “you are of more value” means “to bear through, i.e., transport”. When I was growing up, I heard it often said that God had better things to do than to listen to the little things in our lives. The implication was that we were on our own for the little stuff, but God would be there for the big things. Then, I grew up and actually started reading the Bible. The more I read the Bible, the more I realized I had been taught wrong. The more of God’s story that I came to know, the more I realized that God is in the small stuff. Jesus did not come into our lives to just show up every now and then like some superhero and save the day at the last moment. No, Jesus came into our lives to live with us down here in the dirt. Jesus came to be a part of every facet of our lives. Jesus came to live with us every moment of every day. We are not left alone for the small stuff. We are not abandoned to get through life on our own. Jesus is here with us every moment of every day. The power of the Holy Spirit is continually in us and moving through us. God knows who we are at all times. You, dear reader, are important to Jesus. The people around you are important to Jesus. Today, may we live in the assurance that the love of Christ Jesus is always in us, and the Holy Spirit never leaves us alone.

Today’s devotional
#devotional

✨spiritual lessons✨ from the dude who refused to salute Herr. H.

No, but actually.

Or: why attending to our inner lives is actually important for fighting fascism.

Proverbs 16:8 (NKJV): Better is a little with righteousness, than vast revenues without justice. I am sitting here with today’s verse and letting it sink in. If we take it that Solomon was the one who wrote today’s verse, then we have a king telling us that great wealth is not intrinsically a good thing. If richest and wisest of the kings of Israel tells us that wealth is not going to bring us justice and peace, why do we still act like it is? All my life I have seen it in our culture that wealth is praised over everything. If you have a whole lot of money, you get pardoned your evil. If you lack money, you are punished for a mistake. Today’s verse is a reminder to us that the way the world works is not the way that the LORD our God works. We may have developed systems in our society that reward hording of wealth, but the LORD our God is generous. We may live in a system that feeds off exploitation, but the LORD our God offers justice and peace. We may live in a system that tries to crush people, but the LORD our God offers love and mercy. There are things we are taught in our lives about the way the world works. Today’s verse is a reminder that the LORD our God works differently. So, today, may we learn to trust and obey the LORD our God and seek out righteousness and justice in our lives through the love that has so been freely given to us.

Today’s devotional
#devotional

II Corinthians 4:17 (NKJV): For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us as a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. I have always found hope to be a funny word. There are times in life when others use the promise of hope as a weapon of control. There are times in life that the lack of hope leads us to dark places that can destroy us. There are times in our lives when hope so fills us that there is no room for anything else. So, I have always thought the word “hope” is both dangerous and essential. Some days I think that the way we few hope in our lives is determined by how we view our relationship with Jesus. Are we in an adversarial relationship with Jesus? Then hope will seem like an instrument of war. Are we in a state of ambivalence towards Jesus? Then hope will seem irrelevant. Are we in close contact with Jesus? Then hope will seem to come to us wrapped in love and warmth. Paul’s writing is a reminder that there may be earthly difficulties, but the agape love of Christ Jesus brings us an eternal hope that does not end. The agape love of Jesus brings a hope that does not destroy or harm but brings a hope that builds and protects. Today, may we learn to live in the hope that brings life to us and to those around us.

Today’s devotional
#devotional

check yo self before you dox yo self

after a quick review of my timeline i feel the need to point to the sign