All Good Things….
Alas. The time has come for the Almost Daily Devotional to say good-bye. After almost 4 years of almost daily offerings, my attention is turned toward new vistas. Thank you for your faithful readership and your many words of thanks and encouragement.
For those looking for a daily devotional, I would recommend The Mockingbird Devotional, easily accessed by this app:
Or check out Mockingbird Ministries’ website for great posts, podcasts, and sermons at mbird.org.
In other news, I’m working with Mockingbird to publish an old school Daily Devotional in book form! We hope to cull the best of the Almost Daily Devotionals and deliver them to your bedside table. So, stay tuned!
Gratefully yours,
Paul
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May 16, 2023
Dear Almost Devotional Readers,
Alas. The time has come for the Almost Daily Devotional to say good-bye. After almost 4 years of almost daily offerings, my attention is turned toward new vistas. Thank you for your faithful readership and your many words of thanks and encouragement.
For those looking for a daily devotional, I would recommend The Mockingbird Devotional, easily accessed by this app: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-mockingapp/id1384129816. (This app only works with Apple Devices.) Or check out Mockingbird’s website for great posts, podcasts, and sermons. https://mbird.com
In other news, I’m working with Mockingbird to publish an old school Daily Devotional in book form! We hope to cull the best of the Almost Daily Devotionals and deliver them to your bedside table. So, stay tuned!
Gratefully yours,
Paul
May 11, 2023
“All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.” (2 Corinthians 5:18-19)
Imagine walking through a prison and having the authority to shout out, “Hey, Everyone! Whatever you’ve done, it’s all completely forgiven!” Or going into the struggling classes of a high school and saying, “Guess what? Everybody gets an A!” Or going into debtor’s prison (do they exist anymore?) and saying, “Everybody out! Your debts have all been paid!”
Well, don’t be afraid of the word “evangelism”. Because that is what it is. That is the “message of reconciliation.”
“Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his steps in the way that leads to eternal life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” (Fifth Sunday of Easter – BCP)
May 10, 2023
“So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.” (2 Corinthians 5:16)
“There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit.”
That is from C.S. Lewis, alluding to the fact that we are people with souls who will live eternally. In Lewis’ view, either in splendor or it’s opposite. We do not that we are all created in God’s image, bearing the inherent dignity given to us by our Father.
Might make a person pause?
“O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we mayshare the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” (Second Sunday after Christmas- BCP)
May 9, 2023
This little nugget from poet Gary Snyder - “Changing the filter, wiping noses, going to meetings, picking up around the house, washing dishes, checking the dip stick, don’t let yourself think these are distracting you from your more serious pursuits.”
Life is little things; life is big things. It’s all just life. It is important and filled with grace at the same time.
“And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” (Colossians 3:17)
“Grant, O Lord, that the course of this world may be peaceably governed by your providence; and that your Church may joyfully serve you in confidence and serenity;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” (Proper 3 – BCP)
May 5, 2023
“Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness!” (2 Corinthians 3:7-9)
Paul calls God’s Law the ministry of death and condemnation. That is because God’s Law demands perfection from you. Because you are “bound” to fail, you will be condemned.
Do you see now that your only hope is to put your entire trust in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? That’s all there is – there isn’t anymore.
“Almighty Father, who gave your only Son to die for our sins and to rise for our justification: Give us grace so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness, that we may always serve you in pureness of living and truth; through JesusChrist your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.” (Friday in Easter Week – BCP)
May 4, 2023
“Where love rules, there is no will to power, and where power predominates, love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other.”
That’s Carl Jung. Jesus agrees. The secular world loves power. (See HBO’s Succession”) But Jesus eschews power. Turns it on its head. Love is the abdication, renunciation of power.
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:3-8)
“Almighty God, whose dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other that the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” (Monday in Holy Week – BCP)
May 3, 2023
“But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44)
Do you have something to forgive in your marriage? Or with someone in your family? Check out Anne Boleyn’s last letter to her husband, Henry VIII, who falsely accused her of all kinds of evil when her only crime was not producing a male heir. When he sentenced her to death, she wrote the following.
"Your Grace's displeasure, and my Imprisonment are Things so strange unto me, as what to Write, or what to Excuse, I am altogether ignorant [...]never a Prince had a Wife more Loyal in all Duty, and in all true Affection, than you have found in Anne Boleyn [...] But if you have already determined of me, and that not only my Death, but an Infamous Slander must bring you the enjoying of your desired Happiness; then I desire of God, that he will pardon your great Sin therein, and likewise mine Enemies, the Instruments thereof; that he will not call you to a strict Account for your unprincely and cruel usage of me.”
Wow!
“O God, the Father of all, whose Son commanded us to love our enemies: Lead them and us from prejudice to truth:deliver them and us from hatred, cruelty, and revenge; and in your good time enable us all to stand reconciled before you,through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” (For Our Enemies – BCP)
May 2, 2023
The vexing gap between the person you are and the person that you wish you were will remain until you die. The doomed and gnawing project of self-justification is the repeated and always failed attempt to bridge the gap. The thing is – it just can’t be done. But, you will literally die trying.
Well, that’s not exactly right. It just can’t be done by you. However, it has already been done by Jesus Christ, who perfectly fulfilled the Law for your sake and imputed His righteousness securely and completely onto you. That would be the you that you are this very minute.
“Christ never sinned! But God treated him as a sinner, so Christ could make us acceptable to God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)
“All glory be to thee, Almighty God, our heavenly Father, for that thou, of thy tender mercy, didst give thine only Son Jesus Christ to suffer death upon the cross for our redemption; who made there, by his one oblation of himself once offered, a full,
perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world; and did institute, and in his holy Gospel command us to continue, a perpetual memory of that his precious death and sacrifice, until his coming again.” (Holy Communion – BCP)
May 1, 2023
“Those who had been baptized devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” (Acts 2:42)
John Prine sings, “Make me an angel / That flies from Montgomery / Make me a poster / Of an old rodeo / Just give me one thing / That I can hold on to / To believe in this livin' / Is just a hard way to go.” The bible confirms that living is difficult and dying is scary.
The newly baptized people in this reading from Acts didn’t decide to get all religious or spiritual. Those terms don’t even come close to applying.
They all knew what we know – living is difficult and dying is scary. Learning the apostles’ teachings (forgiveness in Christ Jesus), being together with fellow strugglers, being reminded of Christ’s death in the bread and the wine, and crying out to God for help in prayer is just the best way to live this earthly life.
“O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people: Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” (Fourth Sunday of Easter – BCP)
April 24, 2023
Dear Almost Daily Friends,
The Almost Daily will be on a short break and will return to your inbox on Monday May 1st. Happy Easter and Happy Spring to you all!
Paul
April 21, 2023
“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)
The poet Lord Byron said, “I am such a strange mélange of good and evil that it would be difficult to describe me.”
That is true for all of us. Nobody is one dimensional, as much as we would like to categorize people as good or bad, us and them. The line between good and evil runs straight through the human heart.
Could this lead to some compassion for others and even for yourself?
“Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins, and give us the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known to us in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and
for ever. Amen.” (Fifth Sunday After the Epiphany – BCP)
April 20, 2023
"My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither but just enjoy your ice cream while it's on your plate." That’s from the indubitable Thornton Wilder. Such good advice, too.
Want the Bible to back it up? “So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 8:15)
Like most things in life, this falls under the category of living your given and creaturely life with an abiding trust in God.
“Almighty and everlasting God, you govern all things both in heaven and on earth: Mercifully hear the supplications of your people, and in our time grant us your peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” (Fourth Sunday After the Epiphany – BCP)
April 19, 2023
Do you have a task, a relationship, a challenge, a grief that you are just not up to? Here is some resonant truth from the Apostle Paul.
“Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.” (2 Corinthians 3:5)
So called self-sufficiency is a recipe for a bad meal; it’s ingredients are smugness, judgment of others, and some form of dishonesty about one’s own weaknesses. Instead, why not taste and see that the Lord is good?
O God, whose blessed Son made himself known to his disciples in the breaking of bread: Open the eyes of our faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Third Sunday of Easter – BCP)
April 17, 2023
“For we live by faith, not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7)
There is no more terse or apt a description of life than that. We simply do not know what is going to happen in the next half hour. What hubris to think that we control anything!
In the words of the enduring hymn, “I need Thee every hour / Most Gracious Lord / No tender voice like Thine / Can peace afford.”
Lead on, most gracious Lord, for we cannot see.
“O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people; Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.”
April 7, 2023
“Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:4-6)
At our Men’s Bible Study on Wednesday, we read the account in John of Jesus’ torture and execution on the cross. When we finished the passage, a silence descended on us. 25 men sat in that silence, many of us with tears in our eyes. Nothing more needed to be said.
“Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” (Good Friday – BCP)
April 6, 2023
“I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.” (1 Corinthians 11:23-26)
Every time you walk up the aisle toward the altar rail, every time you kneel with hands open, every time you eat the bread given to you and drink the wine you have taken to your lips, you are saying, “Christ died for the sins of the world. Christ died for my sins. Christ died for me.”
That is what Maundy Thursday is all about. That is what communion is all about. Really, that is what Christianity itself is all about.
“Almighty Father, whose dear Son, on the night before he suffered, instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood: Mercifully grant that we may receive it thankfully in remembrance of Jesus Christ our Lord, who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; and who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” (Maundy Thursday – BCP)
April 5, 2023
Are you a person who is touchy? Easily offended and quick to self-defense and even counterattack? Worse yet, do you live with such a person?
How about this Wednesday in Holy Week verse from Hebrews?
“Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart.” (Hebrews 12:3) We who are guilty take umbrage, while He who was guiltless went wordlessly to the cross.
“Lord God, whose blessed Son our Savior gave his body to be whipped and his face to be spit upon: Give us grace to accept joyfully the sufferings of the present time, confident of the glory that shall be revealed; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” (Wednesday in Holy Week)
April 4, 2023
“For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength. (1 Corinthians 1:22-24)
Signs = Prosperity Gospel. Wisdom = Dot your I’s and cross your T’s airtight and explainable theology.
Christ crucified = everything in my life and in my head is messy, but God is here with me and all my trust is in Him.
“O God, by the passion of your blessed Son you made an instrument of shameful death to be for us the means of life: Grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ, that we may gladly suffer shame and loss for the sake of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” (Tuesday in Holy Week – BCP)
April 3, 2023
“Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus' feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.” (John 12:1-4)
This is Monday in Holy Week scene is one of the most riveting in the bible. The pound of pure nard was an heirloom, a trust fund, the family IRA. So, there’s that.
But here’s what I like to believe. The fragrance of the perfume clung to Jesus all through his final week, right up to his death on the cross. Even as he cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”, he was comforted by the aroma of the love and devotion poured out by Mary.
“Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” (Monday in Holy Week – BCP)
March 31, 2023
De-Fathering God is a rueful mistake. Obviously, God is not a man. But God – the First Person of the Trinity – is Father. We know this because Jesus called God “Father.” “This, then, is how you should pray: “’Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.’” (Matthew 6:9)
God – whom Jesus also compares to a mother hen (Luke 13:34) re-parents you. Maybe you had a great father, but that father, being human, failed you in some way. I have three grown children whom I love and delight in, but I know I have let them down, just like every other father in the world. Or maybe you have had a traumatic relationship with your father. Then, it is even more important to call God by the intimate name of Abba.
And, God is our Father, and thus we are all connected.
“Most loving Father, whose will it is for us to give thanks for all things, to fear nothing but the loss of you, and to cast all our care on you who care for us: Preserve us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from us the light of that love which is immortal, and which you have manifested to us in your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.” (Eighth Sunday after the Epiphany)