Category: Devotionals

'A Christian without a church is a Christian in trouble.' Is that actually true in a video-streaming digital world? Join me for a few minutes to see if I can persuade you to come back to in person fellowship using a couple of windows and 1 Corinthians 12:7.

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Music Today: Caroline Cobb,

'There is a Table' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rT3AttiAVI

There is a mountain only the lame can climb
There is a table, only the hungry find
Only the beggar will have the currency
When need is all you need
There is a victory Only the conquered gain
There is a glory that you get, when give up your name
Oh the peace
When you finally yield your fight
In surrender rise
Come with open hands in need
Come hearts broken, bended knee
A gift can only be received
Received
Come to the mountain
He carries the cripple to the feast
Come to the table
Come sit
He has saved you a seat
And come and eat and drink without money and without a cost
He has paid it on the cross
Come with open hands in need
Come hearts broken, bended knee
A gift can only be received
Received
The King bends low to wash our feet
To give himself as an offering
To lead us home to that wedding feast
We taste it now, at last we'll eat
Of that richest food, oh that well-aged wine
The shroud will lift, our tears he'll dry
Come hungry souls be satisfied
Both now and forever
Come with open hands in need
Come hearts broken, bended knee
A gift can only be received
Received

'Behold the man.' Pontius Pilate's famous declaration in John 19:5 about Jesus is worth considering this Good Friday. Who do we see when we look at Jesus? Join me for a few minutes on Jesus, power, and taking a second look.

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Music Today: John Davis, 'The Kind of Heart'.
Davis is a mixture of Beach Boys meeting Dietrich Bonhoeffer. In addition to providing one of my favorite album covers of all time, Davis gives us an algebra problem on theology where "X" is actually the answer!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toFMJIRtUW4

Red fish, Blue fish, Go fish for true fish, who are um, people. Seriously, how does the church present the gospel in a polarized culture? Is there anything beyond life in two colors? Join me for a few minutes with Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount and his Palm Sunday entrance.

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Music Today: 'The Day that I Found God,' Switchfoot
Jon Foreman continues to write thoughtful, challenging lyrics, and this song brings another angle to the joy and surprise that come in a relationship with God through Christ.

'This noose ain't getting any looser
I get so fearful bout the future
I hear the shame of my accuser
But that ain't you
And I found strength but it wasn't what I thought
And I found peace in the places I forgot
And I found riches ain't the things that I had bought
Yeah I found out the day I lost myself was the day that I found God'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfNQNC1aKiw...

'There Is a Mountain', Caroline Cobb
C.S. Lewis said a powerful sign of the truth of Christianity is that no one would or even could create a religion based on a God like this. Here's a beautiful picture of how God turns power on its head.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xR2THytiZUs

Maurice Sendak in Hebrew doesn't make much sense to an English-speaking child. Is our articulation of the gospel heard in the same way in 2021? A little longer today, but join me with 1 Peter 3:15-17 and my new series on Christ and culture.

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Music today: 'His Truth is Marching On,' Michael Doughty

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViDCenk4OA4

Here's an example of verbalizing Christ's Lordship in a musical frame of reference that may be more understandable to someone not all that familiar with the faith. 'Let me know Your enormity and my finiteness. . . ' Doughty was an indie music darling as the lead singer for Soul Coughing for a number of years.

'Sunshine,' Todd Snider

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0Ssjspo5q0

Snider is a songwriter who's wrapped a little differently, to put it mildly. The narrator here is perched on the ledge of a skyscraper wondering about the point of it all. I don't necessarily agree with all the theology here, but joy discovered in the last place you'd expect sounds a lot like Jesus to me.

Bonus - I came across this article today which does a great job of showing Christianity as simultaneously attractive and offensive. 'Do you really want to be countercultural? Then don't abandon Christianity. Stick with it.'

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/.../deconversion-not.../

A seemingly innocuous church sign message. A possibly not-so-innocuous response. What does the future hold in a less than United States of America? Join me for a few minutes in Philippians 4:4-7 as I wrap up our series on God's help for anxiety.

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Music Today: 'Lay My Worry Down,' Sandra McCracken'
Dark is the night/deep is your love/Great is my need/you are enough.' If you haven't discovered Sandra yet, she is a rich treasure store of hopeful music tied to Scripture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0HwDyQI6vA

'Cherry Blossoms,' Andy Squyres
Perfect song for this time of year, for this time of the pandemic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqMSPU8e7Uk

Olafur Arnalds, 'Re:member'
As far as I know, Arnalds is not a Christ-follower, but this piece is a tremendous aural meditation on Phil. 4:4-5. A peaceful opening blossoms into joy. If I could set my alarm to start each day with this, I would!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lN_gcFcI68c