Group of people standing in a circle outdoors at sunrise reading and singing from Bibles

Morning Musing: Philippians 4:4

Leave a comment

“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” (CSB – Read the chapter)

It case you were living under a rock, the U.S. Men’s and Women’s Olympic hockey teams both won the gold medal in this year’s Olympic Games. The women’s team has literally always medaled, winning gold three times. The men’s team hasn’t won gold in 46 years. Their victory was particularly impressive, including one of the greatest performances by a goalie ever. On the news of their victory, the whole country rejoiced (well, most of the country rejoiced; politics got in the way of the whole country’s rejoicing). It feels good to rejoice. That’s part of why Paul called the Philippian believers to rejoice in the Lord always. Let’s talk about why else he did.

Read the rest…

Too Good Not to Share

Leave a comment

It’s common to get to the other side of a major event and wonder a bit about what we are supposed to do now. Easter is kind of like that. There’s all this build up and then…what now? What are we supposed to do in light of this incredible news that Jesus rose from the dead on the third day? As we wrap up our journey through Luke’s Passion Narrative, we are going to be talking about that very thing because that’s the very thing we find Jesus pointing the disciples to in the final conversation Luke records them having. Let’s take a look together at the “now what” of Easter.

Too Good Not to Share (Luke 24:36-53)
April 12, 2026 

Can I meddle just a bit this morning? Most college basketball observers figured that Duke was going to be the National Champion this season. But they didn’t. They actually wound up only making it to the Elite Eight. This is because UConn–who, of course, wound up getting smashed by Michigan in the championship this past Monday—had one of the most incredible, last-second, upset wins of the season. With just four seconds to go, Duke had a 2-point lead and the ball. All they had to do was inbounds the ball and hold it. But instead, a freshman UConn player intercepted an attempted pass at halfcourt. With time quickly ticking away, he frantically passed it to a teammate closer to the basket, but unable to do anything, he threw it back, and from near the halfcourt line, with under a second to go, this freshman threw up a prayer. The whole thing felt like one of those slow-motion moments at the climax of a sports movie even though, again, the whole thing played out in less than five seconds. With just four-tenths of a second remaining on the clock, the ball swished through the hoop and the game was essentially over. 

Read the rest…
Person in hoodie sitting on rock facing ocean sunset

Digging in Deeper: Colossians 3:12-14

Leave a comment

“Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

In my Bible app (I use the YouVersion Bible App which is absolutely worth using if you don’t already have one you like), one of the features is that it allows you to make and save notes about individual verses. Once you have done that, it puts a little blue box around the verse number. This probably won’t surprise you, but I don’t remember every verse I’ve ever written on over the years. I’ve made hundreds of notes in the app and written about many more verses directly on here. Much of my writing, though, comes out of notes I have made on the app. It’s always at least a little interesting when in looking for a verse that captures the heart of something I’m going to write about, I find that it has already served that purpose in the past. That happened this morning as I sat down to write. And appropriately enough, the theme I was writing about a year and a half ago is about the same theme we’re going to talk about today which happens to be conflict resolution. Then it was through the lens of Despicable Me 4. Today it’s through the lens of a great new movie called Green and Gold and yet another episode of Abbott Elementary.

Read the rest…
Group of diverse people holding hands in a prayer circle inside a church with a cross in the background

Morning Musing: Philippians 4:1-3

Leave a comment

“So then, my dearly loved and longed for brothers and sisters, my joy and crown, in this manner stand firm in the Lord, dear friends. I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to agree in the Lord. Yes, I also ask you, true partner, to help these women who have contended for the gospel at my side, along with Clement and the rest of my coworkers whose names are in the book of life.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

A message without application is just information, and people tend to forget information. Paul’s letters are filled with information. But at the end of them, he turns to application. He switches gears to giving his readers some very practical things they can do with all of the information he has been imparting at the Spirit’s direction. For the last three chapters Paul has been encouraging the Philippian believers to stand firm in the Lord in the face of various trials and tribulations. Here, as he begins to draw things to a close, he gives them some examples of what that actually looks like. Let’s take a look.

Read the rest…

Seeing What’s True

Leave a comment

Yesterday was Resurrection Sunday! I hope you were able to celebrate with joy and gladness with fellow brothers and sisters in the church. I hope you were able to give some time to reflecting on the incredible news that Jesus is alive. In this second-to-last part of our series, we are talking about the topic du jour. When Jesus’ followers started learning of the incredible news of His resurrection, they were slow to believe it. It took Jesus’ helping them to finally see them come around to it. The same is true of us today. Let’s explore how together as we talk about seeing what’s true.

Seeing What’s True

Did you ever have one of those Magic Eye books when you were a kid? We only ever had one, but I remember looking through it all the time. Could you ever actually see what was hidden in those strange images? For the longest time, I never could. I would look from every angle and try every trick, I’d try every strategy that was supposed to work, but nothing ever made a difference. Then I finally learned the secret that started working for me pretty consistently. You have to cross your eyes and slowly uncross them. Once I learned that, I was good to go. 

Read the rest…