Daily Devotional August 13 2021
Psalm 102; 2 Samuel 15:19-37; Acts 21:37-22:16; Mark 10:46-52 My Teacher, let me see again. I’ve looked so hard and long at the world’s glittering prizes, and it’s scary terrors, that my moral corneas are starting to etch. Like looking at an eclipse, I’ve done damage to my sight. Not intentionally, but because […]
Daily Devotional Aug 12 2021
Psalm 105; 2 Samuel 15:1-18; Acts 21:27-36; Mark 10:32-45 Can you drink this cup? Can you undergo this baptism? If so, jolly good–but it won’t earn you any special seats in heaven. Jesus here is pointing to something that, in the Church, we call ‘vicarious suffering.’ Can you undergo something unpleasant, maybe even fatal, without […]
Psalm 101, 109; 2 Samuel 14:21-33; Acts 21:15-26; Mark 10:17-31 What must I do to inherit eternal life? ‘More.’ The answer is always, ‘More.’ The rich young ruler who asks the questions thinks that somehow he can obligate God to be on his team if only. If only I get the rituals right, […]
Daily Devotion August 10 2021
Psalm 97, 99; II Samuel 14: 1-20; Acts 21:1-14; Mark 10:1-16 David takes a lot of advice from Joab, because Joab is very, very effective. He’s an astonishing military leader. He’s a great motivator of men. He’s totally loyal. He’s also absolutely amoral and ruthless, and perhaps on that account not such a good source […]
Daily Devotion August 9 2021
Psalm 89:1-18; 2 Samuel 13:23-39; Acts 20:17-38; Mark 9:42-50 Seen anyone–anyone at all–take Jesus literally here? I haven’t, and all my life I’ve been surrounded by people who claim to take every word of Scripture as “God said, I believe it, that settles it.” And yet I have never seen a single person who gouged […]
Daily Devotional August 6 2021
Psalm 99; Exodus 34:29-35; 2 Peter 1:13-21; Luke 9:28-36 The TRANSFIGURATION It’s customary to speak of the ‘veil’ that keeps us from seeing what’s really in front of our eyes all along–like how the disciples hadn’t really seen Jesus for Who He was until the clouds parted, for an instant. But that image makes it […]
Daily Devotional August 5 2021
Psalm 83; 2 Samuel 11:1-27; Acts 19:11-20; Mark 9:2-13 The lectionary (the scheme of daily Bible reading for worship approved by The Episcopal Church) has a clever contrast-and-compare here. David, looking out his window, is dazzled by the very this-worldly beauty of Bathsheba, so much so that he’s willing to put his kingdom, reputation and […]
Daily Devotional August 4 2021
Psalm 119:97-120; 2 Samuel 9:1-13; Acts 19:1-10; Mark 8:34-9:1 Before close of business tonight, some of my Facebook will tell me and 600 of their closest on-line acquaintances that they’re not ashamed of Jesus–and that if I don’t repost their meme (am I using that correctly?) then it must mean that I’m ashamed of Him. […]
Daily Devotional August 2 2021
Psalm 80; 2 Samuel 7:1-17; Acts 18:1-11; Mark 8:11-21 Jesus is on the verge of losing His temper. He has clearly lost all patience. ‘Why do you ask for a sign?’ ‘Why are you still talking about bread?’ ‘Do you not remember anything?’ When you don’t want to hear the truth, you won’t–not even if […]
Daily Devotional August 3 2021
Psalm 78:1-39; 2 Samuel 7:18-29; Acts 18:12-28; Mark 8:22-33 So why would Jesus sternly order the apostles not to tell people He was the Messiah? Um, because they don’t understand what that means, that’s why. They’re right on Him, but wrong on what that means. When He says Messiah, He means suffering servant, paschal lamb, […]
