Category: Devotionals

This will be my last video for this series, as we move back into a more 'open' season. What can we take away from these unprecedented months? Perhaps Schubert and Psalm 42:1-2 can point the way. I'd welcome your feedback about these devotionals in case the need arises to do something like this in the future. God bless you!

Music today: 'The Day that I Found God', Switchfoot
Jon Foreman has been writing thoughtful music about Christianity for years - this is particularly good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wpm1nLSqyw

'Big Trucks', Pedro the Lion
The best song I know about responding to rudeness with grace.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzWLZtMoJrs

'Home Free (for Peter Joe)', Nate Smith
Just because we could all use some joyful jazz in our lives.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHKULEEChJA

What text would you choose to preach in an unreached tribal village where there are tensions between different ethnic groups? Perhaps the same one that you'd preach in this country, where there are tensions between different ethnic groups. Join me for a few minutes with Luke 4:14-21.

Music Today: Dire Straits, 'Brothers in Arms'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rglymmFZ69Y

Racial reconciliation is hard work that takes a good deal of patience and perseverance. I love the line is this song, 'sometime the cold winds blows/sometimes the wolves rush in/ don't think the battle's over/just 'cause you said 'amen.'
Wilder Woods, 'Someday Soon'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ_7NMwnsio

What's the next step for a white American Presbyterian Evangelical? God put us here and now, and Acts 2 and Revelation 7:9 among others say running away isn't our calling. A couple of ideas from this pastor, which start with more than a little listening, and a dash of courage.

P.S. Jemar Tisby, author of 'The Color of Compromise' is coming out with 'How to Fight Racism: Courageous Christianity and the Journey towerd Racial Justice' in January 2021. He gives us plenty to think about until then.

Music today: 'Strange Fruit', Billy Holiday, 1939. Chilling and essential.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1hm5fxJEkY

'What's Going On', Marvin Gaye, 1971. Both Holiday and Gaye risked their careers to release these songs, some of the most important of the last century.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-kA3UtBj4M

'It's Not Working (The Truth)', Propoganda, 2017.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-kA3UtBj4M

'Let a person examine themselves, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.'(1 Cor. 11:27-29) In the old days, the pastor would provide the exam. Here's a contemporary approach to help us prepare.

Music today: Liz Vice, 'Empty Me Out.' When we recognize we're buried, raised, and glorified with Christ, we're able to pass along a message that's contagious in the best possible way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR1MoY3DCu8
Jess Ray, 'Too Good' - Part of the exam involves recognizing our need in receiving the unbelievable grace Jesus offers us. 'It may be too good to be understood, but it's not too good to be true.'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qihXzKaUN4g

The Lord's Supper: a 'visible sign of an invisible grace.' A great definition for our minds. What about for our hearts?
Let's take a look at Luke 22:14-20 and Jesus' desire to be with his disciples.

Music today: John Michael Talbot, 'I Am the Bread of Life'
Protestants and Catholics can enjoy this beautiful meditation on what Jesus gives us through his spiritual presence at the table.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uhk42nq1jwE