31 October 2026 - assigned seating

Today's Readings
(Audio)

 

“When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet,
do not recline at table in the place of honor.
A more distinguished guest than you may have been invited by him,
and the host who invited both of you may approach you and say,
‘Give your place to this man,’
and then you would proceed with embarrassment
to take the lowest place.

In general it is a good practice to not overestimate our own importance, taking the highest places because we think we deserve them more than others. It is even more important to not try to posture for positions which we know we do not deserve. But there is more to this parable than a general recipe for social gatherings. It is about a wedding banquet, that is, the coming together of God and man in the person of the bridegroom, Jesus Christ, and his bride, the Church. 

Rather, when you are invited, 
go and take the lowest place
so that when the host comes to you he may say,
‘My friend, move up to a higher position.’

Thus, what we must avoid is to attempt to fill the highest places in our hearts and in our worlds with anything other than Jesus Christ. The highest position at the banquet table is meant for him and him alone. If we try to fill it with anything else the best we can hope for is to be asked to relinquish our place. Then, whether do so or not will come down to whether we will humble ourselves before him or whether we take offense at him.

 

Jesus did not immediate come to jockey for the positions which the world, in its pride, had already occupied. He himself came and took the lowest place. It was our host, his Father, who invited him, through the resurrection and ascension, to the highest possible place. He did not come to fight for his place since he knew that was unlikely to do anything but antagonize the prideful and the powerful. Rather, by taking the lowest place he chose a way in which a genuine invitation might be made me to those who needed to change seats. Indeed, it showed them that it was not such a bad thing to have the lowest spot if even the highest man might choose it. But so too, when the Father called him higher, did it demonstrate the validity of his claim to be the one for whom the whole wedding banquet was being held, and therefore vindicated his claim to the highest position. This was how God cast down the mighty from there thrones and lifted up the lowly. Those who clung to their perceived mightiness would not willingly arise to join in the feast. But those who humbled themselves enough to be lifted up by God would enjoy the eternal banquet.

Christ will be magnified in my body,
whether by life or by death.
For to me life is Christ, and death is gain.
If I go on living in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me.
And I do not know which I shall choose.

Paul was an example of one who had previously chosen an exulted seat but responded with humility when God revealed his Son to him. After that Paul let go of his own claims to greatness and no longer felt the need to be have the final say about his own destiny. He was content with whatever path God would give him, even up to an including dying for Christ. But he was not so eager to depart with Christ that he was reluctant to continue his work in the world. He was able to continue that work with the full strength of his heart. But even this complete level of commitment did not imply that he could not at a moment's notice leave it all behind to be with the Lord. Most of us sit on one side or the other. We are either so involved in the world that we can't bare to part with it, or else so ready for heaven that we have become useless to the world. As Jesus recommends and as Paul demonstrates we must let the host, rather than our self-will, determine our direction. We know that, whatever form it takes, end result will be deliverance.

 

Elevation Worship - There Is A King

 

30 October 2026 - discerning what is of value

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Jesus spoke to the scholars of the law and Pharisees in reply, asking,
“Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath or not?”

The fact that he often healed on the sabbath was a common critique of the ministry of Jesus. His opponents implied that this reflected a lack of concern for the law of God and a lack of faithfulness to God's covenant. For them, love of God and love of neighbor were unrelated to the point that they could contradict. What Jesus wanted to show them was that they were excessively attached to an incorrect interpretation of the sabbath. But the scholars of the law and the Pharisees did not hold these beliefs without reason. They no doubt knew about the promises of the prophets for the people if they would hold the sabbath in honor

If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath,
from doing your pleasure on my holy day,
and call the Sabbath a delight
and the holy day of the Lord honorable;
if you honor it, not going your own ways,
or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; 
then you shall take delight in the Lord,
and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;
I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken (see Isaiah 58:13-14).

They were probably even aware that the promises regarding the sabbath were tinged with messianic hope.

If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath,
from doing your pleasure on my holy day,
and call the Sabbath a delight
and the holy day of the Lord honorable;
if you honor it, not going your own ways,
or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; 
then you shall take delight in the Lord,
and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth;
I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken (see Jeremiah 17:24-27).

Jesus's apparent disregard for rigorous regulations regarding the sabbath probably seemed to count against him as a potential messiah. If he were really the one sent by God, wouldn't he be leading the charge of enforcing these rules to the maximal degree? But this was in the end little more than a willful misunderstanding on the part of his opponents. On the one hand, their observance of the sabbath had become more of an excuse for omissions of necessary acts of love and mercy. It was a do not disturb sign on the door of their lives lest they be bothered by the concerns of others, about which they could care less. And on the other hand, it was a convenient critique to level at one whom many were beginning to suspect might be the messiah.

“Who among you, if your son or ox falls into a cistern,
would not immediately pull him out on the sabbath day?”  
But they were unable to answer his question.

Before they could reiterate their criticism of Jesus's typical sabbath behavior he unveiled the flaw in their logic. The sabbath was meant to ensure that all servile work was set aside in favor of enjoying relationship with God. But there was a difference between avoiding servile work and failing to help those creatures, made in the image of God, who were in need. The sabbath, after all, could not merely be celebrated by one individual. It was meant to be the expression of the full people of God thriving in communion with him. It was not what it was meant to be without including everyone who desired to participate. This meant that removing obstacles to such participation, including curing the sick, was not only acceptable, but necessary. There was in fact no better day than the sabbath for Jesus to unleash healing and freedom.

Jesus wanted the Pharisees to learn the skill about which Paul also wrote to the Philippians.

And this is my prayer:
that your love may increase ever more and more
in knowledge and every kind of perception,
to discern what is of value,
so that you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,
filled with the fruit of righteousness
that comes through Jesus Christ
for the glory and praise of God.

And this is what we need as well. Our darkened minds are more than able to twist the word of God into excuses that justify our preferences and prejudices rather, than allowing ourselves to be accountable to the word, and allowing it transform us. Jesus, through his Spirit, teaches us what has value, and empowers us to bear fruit. May we too learn to live "for the glory and praise of God".

 

Songs In His Presence - The House Of God

 

29 October 2026 - not in this vineyard

Today's Readings

(Audio)

  

Some Pharisees came to Jesus and said,
“Go away, leave this area because Herod wants to kill you.”

Jesus wasn't subject to manipulation by fear, threats, or bullies. The reason for this wasn't because he planned to overwhelm them by over-matching them in terms of strength. Rather, he knew that whatever their plans, whatever their threats, those plans were being woven into the larger plan of his Father. At times, Herod might have wanted to kill Jesus. But it was not going to be the decision of Herod as to when, where, or how Jesus would die. The life of Jesus was not taken from him against his will. He freely chose to lay it down for us. In how he lived this out, Jesus demonstrates for us the courage that we too can manifest if we first clothe ourselves with the armor of God. Then, when the devil tries to derail us, as it did him, we too will be able to stand fast.

Put on the armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm
against the tactics of the Devil.

What Jesus manifested naturally and completely in his fearless trust in his Father is something we have to work at gradually and intentionally. Our armor is a gift from Jesus, and, through baptism, it is already our possession. But it is no good to us if we leave such armor in our closet. We have to wear it for it to avail for us. Donning the armor of God is meant undertaken at all levels, including our thoughts, our words, and our deeds. For instance, we must think true thoughts, speak true words, and act in accord with the deepest truth of things. When we put on the whole armor of God the devil will find no cracks or chinks for his flaming arrows to penetrate. 

how many times I yearned to gather your children together
as a hen gathers her brood under her wings

We need the proper motivation if we are to persist in spite of difficulties and opposition. And that motivation is above all the compassion that makes us share the desire of Jesus to gather all people under his wings. Our feet must be shod with "readiness for the Gospel of peace" to a degree sufficient to outweigh our own base selfish impulses.

It is probably no coincidence that Paul goes on from describing putting on the armor of God to explaining the necessity of constant prayer. Prayer is the spiritual posture in which one remains alert and through which one is equipped for the way the struggle against the dark powers manifests day to day. Even Paul needed prayer, including that of his readers, in order to ensure that he too could be bold.

Blessed be the LORD, my rock,
who trains my hands for battle, my fingers for war.

 

 

Maranatha! Music - The Battle Belongs To The Lord

 

28 October 2026 - he chose Twelve

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

 

When day came, he called his disciples to himself,
and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named Apostles

Today we celebrate the spiritual regathering of tribes Israel and the spiritual renewal of a kingdom that was previously mostly an earthly reality. Jesus summoned twelve people to be the foundations of his Church. We know from the time he spent in prayer preceding the choice that it was not trivial for him. It mattered who was chosen. It was not accidental and could not have been just anyone. This was true even though most of the twelve did not leave behind any Scriptures, and even though in the case of some we know very little about their lives. Yet the reality of their importance is not invisible since the Church of today was founded upon the work they did, and would not have been the same without them. The bishops in our own day trace their heritage through a long line of Apostolic succession that had its beginnings when these twelve laid hands on others. It is the case with Simon and Jude that we know little more than their names. And yet at the same time we do also know them better than that since they are the foundations of the reality of the Church to which we now belong, into which we are meant to grow.

Paul tells us that we are "are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets". We are connected to the promises God made to Abraham through the newly transnational and spiritual Israel that began with the Apostles. If Jesus hadn't summoned these twelve and sent them to make disciples of all nations then the nations may never have known the saving message of the Gospel. What was natural to Israel in virtue of the promises made to Abraham was extended to the world precisely through the Apostles. But what does this mean to us? That we should sit back and smugly relax? Far from it. It bespeaks the great potential that we have, potential that we must not squander.

Through him the whole structure is held together
and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord;
in him you also are being built together
into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

Note the passive voice as Paul describes the construction of the spiritual temple of the Church. It is not primarily a work that is done by us. It is meant to be a natural process of growth, as with a body, since we are together the Body of Christ. Switching metaphors, we are not primarily the ones doing the building. Rather we "are being built together", and not for any purpose whatever, but for the exulted destiny of together being the (one, not many) dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Because of our Apostolic foundations we are a part of God's ongoing project of building his Kingdom in our world. The foregoing explains both why we must not stray from these foundations into error and why unity is such a fundamental aspect of the Church. Seemingly these two ideas would be good areas of focus if we are to honor Simon and Jude. We should be thankful and treasure the deposit of faith handed on to us by the Apostles. And we should desire, invite, and welcome the action of God to help us be built ever more perfectly as parts of his Church. When both of these happen the Apostles are honored, we ourselves thrive, and above all, God is glorified.

Their message goes out through all the earth.

 

 

Vineyard Music - Exodus XV

 

27 October 2026 - secret recipe

 

Today's Readings

(Audio)

 

To what can I compare it?
It is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden.

It is important for us to realize that the apparent likelihood of success for the Kingdom does not immediately appear to be that of any overwhelming army. Her troops are few, not many. Her members are not necessarily the strongest, or the smartest. or those whom the world would consider the best. She is more like the army of Gideon than any grand Roman legion. She is meek, lowly, and humble. But this is by design. People would see a large army coming and meet force with force. But the Kingdom takes shape behind the scenes before anyone notices, making it hard to contain or stop. By the time the world realizes that it should have told its yard service about the unwanted mustard bush it is already too late and they have a whole ecosystem of birds taking refugee there. 

 

It is not only the world who underestimates the potential of the seeds of the Kingdom to grow. It is also we ourselves. And this can be a problem. If we don't recognize how the Kingdom starts small and works through weakness we won't commit ourselves to her growth. And while our efforts don't make the Church grow in and of themselves it is through them that God himself works. Our efforts, especially since we don't have the resources of the world, might often seem to yield only failures at first. But God makes all things work together for our good. For us to avail ourselves of this grace we must remain steadfast in our commitment even when success seems humanly impossible. Which is not to say that we must commit to every possible battle, when a particular one seems to be doomed. But we must remain in the fight, moving from one assignment to the next, trusting that God will make good however much effort we place in his hands.

When it was fully grown, it became a large bush
and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches.

The goal of the Kingdom is to become a refuge for the world, a place where all women and men can find shelter in her branches. When we begin, we may wonder how the Church will ever find room for all of the diversity she is expected to contain. But her growth reveals a capacity that is truly universal, enough space for every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. Honestly, even within families we have difficulty managing the diversity of personality and opinion that often exists. When we think about this tree sustaining so many different birds we shouldn't think of it merely in terms of giving each space to not be bothered by the others, as a place where conflict is merely avoided. Rather, as a metaphor for the Church, the tree represents an environment of companionship and close cooperation, with the spiritual resources necessary to sustain such an endeavor. But it does not look this way at first. And it may not feel this way at first when we try to live together within the Church's borders. But together we believe that this is what we will become.

It is like yeast that a woman took
and mixed in with three measures of wheat flour
until the whole batch of dough was leavened.

The hidden growth of the Kingdom has consequences, not only for the members of the Church, but also for the world. In ways that are hidden and hard to see even small numbers of Christians can have a disproportionate leavening effect on the world, making it more loving and more truly human. Much of the compassion that exists even in the secular world actually has roots in our Christian patrimony. We might think that without Christendom this is destined to slip away eventually. But Jesus assures us that if we remain faithful behind the scenes it need not be so. Then we will all become together what Jesus intends for his bride:

that he might present to himself the Church in splendor,
without spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
that she might be holy and without blemish.

 

Newsboys - Secret Kingdom

 

26 October 2026 - wrestling about rest

  

Today's Readings
(Audio)

“There are six days when work should be done.
Come on those days to be cured, not on the sabbath day.”

The leader of the synagogue claimed to be concerned for God's law governing work on the sabbath. Superficially, it might have seemed true to him that the sabbath really did entail only superficial bureaucratic rules about proper scheduling of events. If some otherwise valuable human good needed to wait one more day it seemed to him that God approved of the sacrifice. In the final analysis he seemed to think that the sabbath was made for God. In such a case human concerns stood in potential contradiction to the good that God desired for himself on the sabbath. Yet God did not stand to gain from the sabbath being properly celebrated, but rather his creatures did. Thus the point of the law was never to countenance human suffering. It was to help give his creatures space for relationship with himself, something which they could not fully attain or express when suffering. 

When Jesus saw her, he called to her and said,
“Woman, you are set free of your infirmity.”
He laid his hands on her,
and she at once stood up straight and glorified God.

We can see that because of the healing Jesus performed on the sabbath the woman was able to attain more fully to what the sabbath was meant to be. She "stood up straight and glorified God". We might say that this is something that the leader of the synagogue, metaphorically speaking, could not do. He claimed to be motivated by preserving God's integrity. But his enforcement of his own misunderstanding of rules actually did the opposite of what God intended and what would be for his greater glory. Perhaps he found the woman's presence to be uncomfortable. Or perhaps he got off on aggressively expressing his authority. Or perhaps he was simply hostile to the way Jesus was being intentionally provocative and transgressive by intentionally foregrounding this healing in front of everyone on the sabbath. Maybe it was some combination of the above. But nowhere were God's honor or his law truly in question. 

Does not each one of you on the sabbath
untie his ox or his ass from the manger
and lead it out for watering?

Jesus tried to help those who held a hypocritical view of the sabbath to see the matter more clearly. He pointed out that they themselves did such work as was important to preserve the life of their animals. They would work for animals when it served their interests, but not even for human beings, such as this daughter of Abraham, when they had no personal stake. On the sabbath the hypocrites celebrated bondage and condemnation. But Jesus taught that the true meaning of the day was life and freedom.

This daughter of Abraham,
whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now,
ought she not to have been set free on the sabbath day
from this bondage?

Rather than the hypocrisy of the leader of the synagogue we should do what Paul commends and be imitators of God.

Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love,
as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us
as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.

Sword Of  The Spirit Worship - A New Spirit

 

25 October 2026 - the second is like it

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

 

"Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?"

This test was not so much a trap in the sense that there were no obvious expectations for how he would answer incorrectly. It wasn't a setup where it seemed he could say nothing without upsetting someone or other. Instead it was more of an opportunity for him to make a statement about his basic message. If his basic message turned out to be wildly unorthodox then of course this would make everyone aware of that. If he was really focused on a minor rule or an obscure text people would see how that was not consistent with their religion as they understood it. In fact, if he brought forth something entirely novel that would be a sign in itself that he was not in continuity with what he come before in salvation history. And if there was nothing new about him, why all the fuss? But Jesus was like a master of a house "who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old" (see Matthew 13:52). He did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it, to bring forth the fullness of meaning that it always contained, but which was heretofore hidden by sin-darkened human minds.

You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your soul,
and with all your mind.

The first commandment, also summarized in the Shema prayer, was the obviously correct answer. It was not particularly surprising in itself. The Pharisees certainly might have easily agreed. But the way the Pharisees lived out the first and greatest commandment was often in stark opposition to love of neighbor. The way they obeyed seemed to suggest that that commandment was not at all like our related to love of neighbor. They often seemed to use love of God as an excuse to shirk on what would otherwise be their duty toward those around them. But this kind of division within the law was never what God intended. All of the commandments issued from the same divine heart which was itself undivided. Thus any insinuation that the commandments contradicted was actually an insult to God's heart, as though he himself had competing priorities.

The second is like it:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Jesus understood the mind of God, since he was himself the word that fully expressed it. He knew that love of God would not be complete without including love for those who were made in the image of God. More to it, one could not actually do anything that was a benefit to God. He was already entirely self-sufficient and perfectly happy from all eternity. He had no need for creation. Rather, he made creation out of love. In order to express our own love and gratitude for such a gift we are meant to share his heart, his desire to see his creation blessed and thriving. This does not exclude or diminish the more religious and God-focused aspects of the law, since his creatures can in fact only thrive when they love God with all their heart, soul, and mind. Love for self and love for neighbor means that we want to be ordered toward the one in whom alone we find lasting joy. So it is really not a separate thing to love neighbor and to love God. They are different aspects of a single expression or activity, of which God remains the center. This was how Paul loved the Thessalonians, and why he was so happy to see them discovering God's purpose for them.

And you became imitators of us and of the Lord,
receiving the word in great affliction, with joy from the Holy Spirit,
so that you became a model for all the believers
in Macedonia and in Achaia.

 

 

Bob Fitts - One God