13 July 2026 - divide to unite

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth.
I have come to bring not peace but the sword.

He came to bring the word of God, the sword of the Spirit that is sharper than any two-edged sword. It pierces the division of "soul and spirit, joints and of marrow" (see Hebrews 4:12). We should therefore not imagine that it will spare our personal lives. The pruning that helps those who are on vine to remain there and bear fruit has an internal impact, to be sure. But it has an external one as well, insofar as it is necessary for us to prefer to remain on the vine even if other branches are pruned. We must not jump ship for the kindling pile just because we prefer the company we might have there. 

We could imagine being asked to tone down our expression of our faith in order to appease non-believing family members. But this we must not do. We must not prefer even our most beloved family and friends to Jesus himself. If we do, we are succumbing to the illusion that we can love them better than God himself. But where do we imagine our future with our family is heading if not toward God? Is there anything we can choose apart from him, except that which amounts only to temporary distractions from our mortality? Even when we make choices that seem to be choosing God over and above our family we are actually also choosing our family as well, to love them with a divine love from a supernatural perspective, rather than with an earthly and merely human love.

Whoever finds his life will lose it,
and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.“Whoever receives you receives me,
and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.

We tend to be preoccupied with the search for things we cannot keep. Even if we find life in this way there is no way to hold it indefinitely. It will eventually slip through our fingers like water. This is hard for us to internalize since we are much more aware of the visible and tangible goods of temporary existence than we are of other things that seem more distant and abstract. It's not that we don't value things like truth, goodness, and beauty. Rather, their ephemeral status means that we are too willing to choose lower things instead, at least on what we imagine to be a temporary basis, since they seem more concrete and urgent. But precisely in virtue of being concrete those lower things are subject to corruption and disintegration to a much greater degree than higher things, with God alone abiding forever. The whole hierarchy of being is meant to be an arrow pointing us to God. But when this apparent abstraction impinges on our daily lives it has real consequences. We may in fact have to lose our lives for Jesus in order to truly find them. We must at least have to be sufficiently detached from them that we can lose them for his sake if it is asked of us.

And whoever gives only a cup of cold water
to one of these little ones to drink
because he is a disciple–
amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward.

It may seem that we are being asked to achieve a level of heroic virtue that is, if not actually impossible, at least hugely impractical, and therefore impossible practically speaking. But how does Jesus actually call us as disciples to live this preference for God and for higher things? Is it by our own great accomplishments? Not primarily. Rather it is doing little things, but for his sake. It is not by turning away from unspiritual brothers and sisters that we become pleasing to God. Instead, we are asked to show hospitality, but specifically for God's sake. This is what it means to love a prophet or a righteous man because they are a prophet or a righteous man, more than for, say, their whit or their charm. 

The call of Jesus does not typically require gigantic gestures of piety, but rather small acts of faithfulness. To give someone a cup of cold water is probably an action that is well within our reach. But it gains its true value when we do it specifically because someone is a disciple. Or if they are not a disciple yet, because they, like everyone are at least potential disciples. And thus we become agents of God's plan, "which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth in him" (see Ephesians 1:9-10). Do we see that it is God's love, expressed through his disciples, that helps to bring about this unity? The cutting action of the sword of the Spirit is important. But it is meant to yield one day to a more true and lasting wholeness.

 Jesus Culture - Set A Fire

 

12 July 2026 - sowing practice

Today's Readings
(Audio)

And he spoke to them at length in parables, saying:
“A sower went out to sow. 

The parable of the sower addresses two dimensions of reality simultaneously. It speaks of the world as a whole, and of the many people in it who will not ultimately receive the Gospel in a transformative way. But since it tells of the pitfalls that can prevent one from receiving the Gospel at also addresses itself, albeit more obliquely, to the individual.  

Jesus is not implying that some people should just give up since they are destined to have the word stolen from the by the evil one, to be overcome by tribulation or persecution, or to be overwhelmed by anxiety or the lure of riches. The reason that we are warned about the machinations of the world, the flesh, and the devil is precisely so that we do not succumb to them. 

When Jesus invited the rich young man to sell all he had and follow him it was really possible for him to do so. When that man walked away sad he became a cautionary tale, helping us to realize that the challenges we face cannot be overcome on our own. What is impossible for man is possible for God. Receiving his divine seed even a little leads to a great terraforming of our internal terrain, making it ever more hospitable to bearing fruit. 

Jesus told his disciples not to be anxious precisely because if they let anxiety have free reign in their hearts it could choke the word Jesus was planting in them. He trained them to do, not only without riches, but with almost nothing, so that they would know, with Paul, how to abase or abound (see Philippians 4:12). 

There were a variety of threats to developing a solid understanding of the word. The Pharisees were among such people who would have aided the evil one in stealing it away. But Jesus never let the Pharisees or the evil one have the last word. He always offered at least the possibility of understanding, of choosing belief over confusion and despair. Even the Pharisees themselves were implicitly invited to learn and understand by the very fact that Jesus continued to engage in dialog with them. 

Why did Jesus warn his disciples that they would face persecutions? Why did he tell them that they were blessed if they suffered for the sake of his name? Because then, when it happened, they wouldn't assume that something had gone wrong or that the Gospel had failed. Because, precisely by planning for such things they would develop a sufficient root, which we may see in this case as a sufficient commitment, to endure them when they did arise.

Because knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven
has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted. 

The parable of the sower is not merely describing three types of people predestined for hell and one for heaven. Rather, it encourages in those who hear it the desire to be good soil, to receive the word, and to bear fruit in abundance. If the hardness and barrenness of our soil seems to be a problem we can recognize the deeper reality that baptism has made us new creations, like the flood did in the time of Noah. The Spirit, like a dove, is inviting us to bear the fruits, which are his own gifts, in this new world.

To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich;
from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 

Even just in virtue of hearing this parable we have something, something on which to build. The more we lean into it the more we will have. It has the potential to produce more than it seems, and infinitely more than we could do without it. By contrast, refusing to receive Jesus leaves us without options. The seed alone can be enough. But we must be the soil that receives it. We have ears and the sound waves do penetrate them. But will we really hear? That is the call of Jesus to us today. It is not just a biological process, but a response of faith that makes the difference. 

so shall my word be
that goes forth from my mouth;
my word shall not return to me void,
but shall do my will,
achieving the end for which I sent it.

 

John Michael Talbot - I Am The Vine

 

11 July 2026 - you are worth more

Today's Readings
(Audio)

No disciple is above his teacher
no slave above his master.
It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher,
for the slave that he become like his master.

This meant that the disciples were not to expect easy lives of luxury while there master was slandered and persecuted. If the opponents of Jesus accused him of being in league with Beelzebul they would similarly try to undermine the efforts of his disciples. The disciples were to recognize such opposition as signs that they were becoming like there master, not shrinking from persecution out of fear, but embracing it as a part of the path of discipleship. After all, Jesus had already told them that they were blessed "when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you [falsely] because of me" (see Matthew 5:11).

Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed,
nor secret that will not be known.
What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light;
what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.

Though the Gospel was, in a sense, veiled at first, and made known in detail only in private to his disciples, this was not to be the case forever. There was a time when the fact of Jesus being the messiah was still a card he was keeping close to the vest, lest it start a premature cascade leading to his crucifixion at a time earlier than he intended. But following the resurrection it would no longer be appropriate to keep secrets. The message of Jesus, the Lord of glory, crucified and risen for the world, was meant to be proclaimed from the housetops.

And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul;
rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy
both soul and body in Gehenna.

Just because a time would come when the Gospel ought no longer be concealed from the world, it did not mean the world was suddenly going to have a change of heart vis-à-vis Jesus himself. One could not wait to publicly associate oneself with Jesus until his Gospel suddenly became popular, since this was never going to be guaranteed. Even in Christendom it was often the case that people who took the message of Jesus too seriously were considered fanatics, avoided, or even persecuted. In recent times such ones have sometimes been regarded as Jesus freaks or super Christians. People wish they would use taste and decorum to limit their expression of faith. But we make it our default assumption to err on the side of people who are doing all the can to fully live for Jesus, whether or not doing so may seem cringe to others, or whether it precisely matches our own prudential choices about how we are to live as disciples.

Most of us are not at risk of being martyred for the Gospel. And yet fear still limits what we are willing to say about it. We are afraid of those who can kill our reputation, our social standing, or possibly in particularly bad situations, our careers. We are afraid of losing our status or our influence. Because of these we succumb to the dogmas, not of the Church, but of political parties and other social groups. Our reputations become proxies for our lives, which we are too afraid to surrender for the sake of the Gospel. But how can we become like our master if we are unwilling to share his cross? 

Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin?
Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge.
Even all the hairs of your head are counted.

We are not meant to find our comfort in what the world or those in it think of us. This doesn't mean that we don't care what they think as much as it means that we care much more about what God thinks. If other people think less of us for proclaiming Christ we can take comfort to know how much God himself cares about us. To him we are worth far more than the sparrows of the field. From a human perspective, even with AI it is still impossible to know with precision the number and location of every sparrow on earth. Yet God, who cares about them much less than he does us, knows this with perfect clarity. Not even our hair stylists have more than a vague sense of the number of hairs on our heads. But however many or few those may be, God knows them exactly. Our lives, our concerns, our deepest hearts, are not hidden from him. He knows and understands us even better than we know and understand ourselves. And yet he still says "you are worth more". Do we choose to believe what God says about our value? Or do we listen to the lies the snakes tells us about ourselves? We need to not only tacitly acknowledge that God is probably right, but rather receive it as a personal revelation. Only when we agree with him and really come to believe him will we be free to respond to his call. And we have been called, no less so than even Isaiah. So may the coal touch our lips and cleanse us of whatever of the devil's lies we have internalized and repeated.

“Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?”
“Here I am,” I said; “send me!” 

Vineyard Worship - I See The Lord

 

10 July 2026 - what you are to say

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves;

Christians like to play it safe, keeping themselves surrounded by shepherds and sheep, avoiding the glinting teeth of predators. They don't typically want to upset anyone, much less become the targets of anger and animosity. But Jesus did not envision and Church that would hide in the shadows and only emerge after successful PR campaigns made her sufficiently popular or at lest palatable to society as a whole. Rather, he knew that the Church was always going to be at odds for the world since, "friendship with the world is enmity with God" (see James 4:4). He knew that his disciples would go many places where they would encounter rejection and need to shake the dust from there feet and try again. 

so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves.

The point was not to be so naive as to throw themselves into danger. Rather, they were to be as shrewd as possible while remaining their focused on the mission. Their focus was not supposed to be pulled this way and that, but to be simple, meaning singular. This allowed them to ensure that they maintained dove-like innocence even whilst using such prudence as they had to make the best of difficult situations.

Their simplicity was the overriding necessity, since their cunning would not be enough to keep them from courts and synagogues, governors and kings, and wasn't meant to be. They needed their primary concern to be the witness they could offer, rather than staying safe at any cost.  Sometimes it was an apparent failure itself that would become their opportunity to witness.

they will hand you ... as a witness before them and the pagans

When we discover that we can't necessarily control the results of the mission we tend to try to at least perfect our message and what we say in situations where we face hostility. If we can at least get that right, we believe, we will accomplish our purpose. But while we clearly are meant to say something, we are not to be the ultimate source of the message. Our words are not primarily to be the result of our own shrewdness so much as they are meant to be given to us by God himself. This is important since, however clever we may be, only God knows the hearts of others and what they most need to hear. 

If we want to hear what God is saying in difficult circumstances when his still small voice must compete with the storm of fear and anxiety we should practice beforehand. We ought to regularly set time apart to be with Jesus and to listen to him since he said, "My sheep hear my voice" (see John 10:27). We may protest that we don't hear him often, or clearly, or at all. But how much time do we really spend listening? Even if we have trouble finding that voice during times of prayer we can at least know for sure that we hear it when we read the Scriptures. And this can help us learn what it sounds like so that we may hear and recognize it at other times as well.

How does the voice of the Lord sound? We can do no better in providing a representative sample than this morning's passage from Hosea:

I will heal their defection, says the LORD,
I will love them freely;
for my wrath is turned away from them.
I will be like the dew for Israel:
he shall blossom like the lily;
He shall strike root like the Lebanon cedar,
and put forth his shoots.

Paul Wilbur - Days Of Elijah / Kadosh

 

9 July 2026 - still Baalin'?

Today's Readings
(Audio)

‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’

The Kingdom of heaven arrived because the king had come at last. Jesus was the one who received the throne of his father David and a kingdom without end (see Luke 1:33). This was a fulfillment of what God spoke through the prophet Daniel, when he told Nebuchadnezzar that "the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth" represented the fact that "the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people" (see Daniel 2:31-45). Considering that the dream interpreted by Daniel included the rise and fall of many earthly kingdoms one might have expected the Kingdom of heaven to triumph through means of military might. But from the commission of Jesus to his disciples we learn that it was actually to spread in a different way than any earthly kingdom.

Cure the sick, raise the dead,
cleanse the lepers, drive out demons.

The opponents of the Kingdom of heaven were not earthly kingdoms. There was no such parity. The struggle was not against flesh and blood (see Ephesians 6:12), but rather against the reign of the powers of darkness, of which sickness, death, and demonic possessions were symptomatic. Could a kingdom actually grow in this way without fighting against the majority of humanity that was still hostile to it, enthralled by the dark powers? Could a new and spiritual Israel thrive while a corrupt empire like Rome seemed to possess all power from a human perspective? It would perhaps seem that one would need to target Rome to make space for the Kingdom of heaven. But we learn from the parables of Jesus that the Kingdom does not spread in that way. Rather, it grows in a hidden, immeasurable way, under the surface and behind the scenes. It can grow even alongside evil. It has more to do with the presence of the leaven of the Gospel, the salt and light of disciples, than on power of strategy. Disciples make a different kind of power and the authority present because they bring the presence of the king himself. And wherever he is present the Kingdom grows. He is, after all, no ordinary king, but the one whom Revelation calls "King of kings and Lord of lords" (see Revelation 19:16).

Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.

The promises of the Gospel are precious beyond all price. After all, "what can a man give in return for his soul?" (see Mark 8:37). Yes, we were purchased at a price (see First Corinthians 6:20), but a price we can never repay. But though we cannot repay it we must respond. We must "glorify God in your body" (ibid). Can we then see how applying any kind of monetary value to spreading the Gospel could potentially render the whole message unintelligible, as though it were merely something that could be acquired through our efforts? The point was not to prevent evangelists from making a living through the Gospel, since, according to Paul, "the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel" (see First Corinthians 9:7-14) and since, as Jesus said, the "laborer deserves his keep". The point was that such support must never be seen as the purchase price for the Gospel itself. Cost must never become an obstacle for anyone who needs to hear the Good News. We must instead join the Spirit and the Bride in Revelation and say: "let the one who desires take the water of life without price" (see Revelation 22:17).

The more I called them,
the farther they went from me,
Sacrificing to the Baals
and burning incense to idols.

We may not always find a welcome response to the message of the Gospel. Sometimes indeed it appears to have the opposite effect. Yet we must nevertheless imitate the compassionate heart of God who is not dissuaded by disinterest or even disobedience. His response to the idolatry of his people was to love them still more:

Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
who took them in my arms;
I drew them with human cords,
with bands of love;
I fostered them like one
who raises an infant to his cheeks;
Yet, though I stooped to feed my child,
they did not know that I was their healer.

So let us honor the one who is "God and not man, the Holy One present among you". He does not desire the flames to consume us, though that remains a live option given our free will. He wants to use us to spread the Kingdom in which the water of life, that can extinguish those flames forever, is freely available for all who desire it.

Come To The Water / I Will Run To You - Matt Maher

 

8 July 2026 - apostolic foundations

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Jesus summoned his Twelve disciples
and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out
and to cure every disease and every illness.

Jesus sent the twelve out with authority like his own, to do what he had been doing. He had already modeled for his disciples a heart moved with compassion for the crowds, who were like sheep without a shepherd. That compassion entailed setting people free from unclear spirits, curing diseases, and proclaiming the arrival of the Kingdom of God. But he did not intend to be the only one doing these things. There was an abundant harvest that could only be reaped if there were sufficient numbers of laborers set to the task. Moses did not govern alone, but appointed twenty-five men to help him with judicial disputes and seventy elders to share the burden of leadership (see Numbers 11:16 and Exodus 18:13). The kingdom of Israel was not been governed by Solomon alone. He appointed twelve district governors to supply provisions for the king and the royal household. So there was a strong historical precedent for Jesus sharing his own leadership role in God's covenant family. Indeed his chosen Twelve  would one day "sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (see Matthew 19:28).

Unlike the Pharisees, the purpose of the ministry of the Twelve was not to exploit the sheep that were already within the flock. It was rather to seek out those who were lost, to any degree, and to bring them fully into the flock. They were to do what the Pharisees refused to do and indeed tried to prevent, bringing the people of Israel into the Kingdom that had now arrived in the person of Jesus. They were to guide the people in the transition from worship according to earlier covenants to worship in the new and everlasting covenant that Jesus established at the Last Supper. They were to lead them to a new era of worship in Spirit and truth. The ministry of the Pharisees was often ultimately self-serving. But the ministry of the Twelve was meant to be based on compassion for the troubled and abandoned hearts of sheep, who were lost, and did not know how to respond to God, or live as they were meant to live.

The Church herself is built on the foundation of her apostles, which is why Revelation described the wall of the heavenly city as having "twelve foundations" inscribed on which "were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb" (see Revelation 21:24). This alludes to the concept of Apostolic Succession, in which these Twelve appointed successors who would continue their ministry and authority into the future, as we see with the selection of Matthias (see Acts 1:12-26). Are our leaders always perfect? No. Are they sometimes as corrupt as any Pharisee? To be sure. But they are far better by the King equipped to respond to his desire for his Church than were any leaders before them. Our leaders have been gifted with the Holy Spirit, working within them, moving and empowering them to minister to the sheep with love and compassion. If they don't always do so they will one day have to render and account for squandering such extravagant graces. 

Let us not spend overmuch time critiquing those few Church leaders who stand out for their infidelity and instead give thanks for all of those, ordained and otherwise, who have helped us come to know Jesus and live for him. We in turn are meant to play some part, however small, in sharing Jesus with others. In a world like that of Hosea, where abundance leads to idolatry, and poverty leads to despair Jesus desires everyone to do their part. We are to sow justice and reap piety, saying to the world "it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain down justice upon you". If, then, our world is, as is obviously the case, lacking in justice, may we step up our own efforts first and foremost.

Elevation Worship - There Is A King

 

7 July 2026 - nothing like this

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

“Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.”
But the Pharisees said,
“He drives out demons by the prince of demons.”

There were many sheep that did not know exactly how to respond to Jesus on their own, but were primed to make a response. Yet their leaders, who should have been guiding them to Jesus as the promised messiah, were instead trying to direct them away from him, sowing seeds of doubt among them. Many of these sheep felt an internal pull toward Jesus. But the Pharisees did what they could to prevent them from responding to that impulse. This created feelings of trouble and abandonment in the sheep, leaving them at a loss as to what to do. We ought not take this depth of this inner conflict for granted. It made them second guess their own nascent faith in what God was doing in their midst. The Pharisees were, after all, the most obviously pious and religiously observant among them, at least in an external sense. They had expertise which should have helped them to recognize the messiah when he appeared. But rather than doing so, they concocted excuses for why Jesus could not be the messiah, however his apparent goodness and miraculous deeds made things seem. If Isaiah had proclaimed woe on those who called evil good (see Isaiah 5:20) than how deep was the darkness that was upon these Pharisees. 

They made kings in Israel, but not by my authority;
they established princes, but without my approval.
With their silver and gold they made
idols for themselves, to their own destruction.

Because they refused to acknowledge the one sent into the world by God, the Pharisees had no alternatives except idolatry. In their case it was typically the idolatry of pride and position. They implicitly set themselves up as alternative authorities, rivals to Jesus, whose authority came from God. If only they had been humble they could have submitted their own transitory authority to Jesus, to be used as he wished, for the glory of his kingdom. But instead they used it to attempt to undermine the spread of that kingdom. From this we can learn that rejecting Jesus does not leave one in a morally neutral space, but rather reconfigures him into a servant of rival claimants. And we can see how all rivals to Jesus are ultimately pawns of the devil. They led to Pharisees to reject goodness itself, at least in many particular instances. The more consciously one rejects Jesus the more dangerous the result is likely to be, the more directly Satan can work through it to spread his own demonic kingdom. Idolatry might not seem a live option in our day. But it is, after a fashion, an option so prevalent as to be hard to avoid. All paths but the path of Jesus ultimately lead to it.

Then he said to his disciples,
“The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few;
so ask the master of the harvest
to send out laborers for his harvest.”

The sheep aren't supposed to solve these kind of big problems on their own. They are supposed to ask for help from the one who is himself their shepherd. But they are not then excused to simply sit back and watch things unfold from the sidelines. No. Rather, they themselves must then be open to being called, to themselves being the ones sent by Jesus to address the trouble and confusion of the whole flock. Obviously this pertains primarily to clergy. But we are none of us exempt. Jesus wants to call and to use all of us the help others in ways for which he has uniquely gifted each of us. We should do more than assess our skills and then go out and use them on our own initiative. The risk of being overly self-directed is ending up like the Pharisees, more lost than we began. Instead we want to be responsive, responsive to the call of the master of the harvest. He has better plans for the ways, times, and places we can use our gifts for his glory than we can come up with on our own or in steering committees. This sometimes leads to the risk of discernment paralysis where we never begin to act because we never achieve a sufficiently perfect clarity about how to act. But we aren't suggesting that we wait until we hear an audible voice or receive a message from an angel. We rather suggest that we be open to holy impulses, discerning them through prayer, our own wisdom, and the wisdom of wise elder sisters and brothers in the faith. In general, when something seems inspired by God and no one can recognize an obvious downside, we ought not be afraid to proceed. If it is something that seems wild, like traveling across the globe, it may well still be God, but we should subject it to additional scrutiny before we attempt it. But if we listen at all we will hear a call of some kind. How will we respond? Let us resolve to do so faithfully and zealously.

The house of Israel trusts in the Lord.

John B. Miller - Speak Lord I'm Listening