21 January 2026 - confirmation bias

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

They watched Jesus closely
to see if he would cure him on the sabbath
so that they might accuse him.

Can we even imagine that the Pharisees were actually looking for an (in their view) improperly timed miracle in order to accuse Jesus? We have already seen that Jesus made the case that the his mission take precedence over the normal demands of the sabbath. Rather than taking that argument to heart the Pharisees naturally assumed that this would be an easy place to find fault. They had made up their mind about Jesus in advance and were now looking for confirmation for their bias. It sounds so extreme as to be unrelatable. And yet we too are sometimes guilty of excessively rigid thinking supported by confirmation bias. The Pharisees had the law and the prophets to guide them. Yet they twisted those teachings and inverted the hierarchy of priorities contained therein. It is true that, in Jesus, we have the fullness of revelation, whereas what the Pharisees had was partial.

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son (see Hebrews 1:1-2).

Yet the fact that the Church possesses the fullness of revelation does not mean that her individual members don't twist bits and pieces of it to suit their liking or serve their fancy. In fact, it is easy to succumb to such temptations, since distracting ourselves with the business of others is much easier than focusing on our own growth in holiness. It is easier to exempt ourselves from obligations and instead act as though our gossip about others is accomplishing something useful.

For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies (see Second Thessalonians 3:11).

We sometimes only see the bad done by our opponents, as the Pharisees were able to ignore the intention of Jesus to save a life. The were in fact so fixated on destroying a life, that of Jesus, that it didn't enter into their moral calculus. They were only willing to acknowledge facts that supported their preexisting bias. Thus, their priorities had become inverted. The protection of life, which should have been at the top of their priorities, was now of less importance to them than being seen to be correct. Without consciously realizing it, they had, in effect, made themselves idols, and were trying to make sure they were the ones who received worship, in the form of popularity, rather than Jesus, the true God, worthy of all praise.

In order to pursue the truth we need to hold our own self-image more loosely. We need to be like John the Baptist, ready to decrease so that Jesus might increase. We need to be willing to be wrong so that we can grow in truth. We need to be willing to have imperfect behavior corrected so that we can grow in holiness. It is insufficient to approach these challenges with a negative self-image, however, since that would make us likely to give up. What we need is courage, courage like that shown by David against Goliath.

You come against me with sword and spear and scimitar,
but I come against you in the name of the LORD of hosts

Maranatha! Music - The Battle Belongs To The Lord

 

20 January 2026 - in grained beliefs

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Then Samuel, with the horn of oil in hand,
anointed him in the midst of his brothers;
and from that day on, the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon David. 

Although Solomon was, in a way, the son promised to David, it was true that he was only a partial fulfillment of that promise, and ultimately died in a disgrace. Jesus was the true son of David, the one on whom the Spirit descended at the baptism and remained throughout his life, the one who would truly fulfill God's promises to Israel, and through Israel, to the world.

Have you never read what David did
when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry?

Just as David was destined to be king by the edict of the Lord through Samuel, but was opposed by Saul and his men, so too was Jesus destined to reign as the King of kings and Lord of lords, but was opposed by the Pharisees. This is like what was described in the second Psalm:

Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,
“Let us burst their bonds apart
and cast away their cords from us (see Psalm 2:1-3).

Jesus, even more than David, was on a mission of divine origin. Just as David and his men were permitted to eat the bread of offering for the sake of their mission, the disciples of Jesus eating grain on the sabbath was permitted for the sake of his. The spirit indeed rushed on David from the time of his anointing, as we read in the first reading, but Jesus was the one to whom the Father gave the Spirit without measure (see John 3:33). What David and Solomon both represented in limited and fragmentary ways Jesus perfectly fulfilled. He was, as he said elsewhere, one greater than Solomon. As he himself said he was even greater than the temple, the service of which was itself a valid reason to set aside the usual demands of the sabbath.

Then he said to them,
“The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.
That is why the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”

Jesus, unlike the Pharisees, understood the reason that God had established the sabbath, since he was, as it were, in on the decision. The Pharisees looked at the sabbath and only saw the negatives, every possible 'Thou shalt not' that could be imagined in its regard. They saw the rules as arbitrary, useful for virtue signaling for themselves and damaging the reputation of their opponents. This was actually something that began as a good impulse but that had gone horrible awry. They correctly perceived that God cared deeply about seeing the sabbath honored. But he did not wish to see it honored in the way these Pharisees attempted to do so. He longed to see its true meaning fulfilled. Thus the rest required for the sabbath was meant to create the space for the flourishing of relationship between God and man. And since the mission of Jesus was, in a fundamental way, about restoring that relationship, the sabbath could only become what it was meant to be if he first did what he was meant to do.

The sabbath was not made for man in the sense that the Pharisees could take the idea and use it to criticize the ministry of Jesus. It was made for man fully alive in the sense meant by Irenaeus. It was made for man as measured by Jesus, the perfect man, who alone could unlock its true meaning, and who alone can give the true rest that was its promise.

Phil Wickham - House Of The Lord

 

19 January 2026 - majoring in the minors

Today's Readings
(Audio)

“Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast,
but your disciples do not fast?”

We hear questions derived from similar motivations all of the time. And, if we aren't careful, we perpetuate the problem ourselves. We take something that is frequently genuinely good like fasting and then make a universal law out of it. We take things that are admirable and treat them as though they are required in all circumstances. We establish a rigid order of wonderful practices, but with no room for the Holy Spirit.

“Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?
As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.

That Jesus considered fasting to be a genuine good cannot be in doubt since he himself stated that his disciples too would practice it in the future. But he also considered feasting to be good, and, at times, so fitting as to be virtually required. Such was that particular moment when the bridegroom of Israel had at least come to his bride.

For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you (see Isaiah 62:5)

The revelation brought by Jesus had to be understood on its own terms. The Old Covenant was meant to point toward the time when Jesus would come to fulfill both the law and the prophets. Now that he himself was in in fact in the process of doing so the ceremonies and rituals of the Old were meant to give way to the New Covenant he established. Eventually kosher laws, the Jewish liturgical calendar, the requirement of circumcision, all of these had to give way to make room for a Church begin enough for both Jews and Gentiles.

Good, we think. We've never been at risk of insisting on requiring the practices of the Old Testament. And yet we too stand at risk of trying to fit Jesus into our own preexisting paradigms. This happens when we make our own ideologies primary, and we try to make Jesus and Christianity fit in as best we can. We can see how those in the Liberation Theology movement made him out to be a Marxist. But, closer to home, we do tend to try to fit Jesus into the mold of one political party or another, rather than molding our political parties in line with his teaching. We even risk taking things that Jesus did teach and giving them disproportionate importance, as though he only talked about the social Gospel, or alternatively, as though he was only interested in abstract and spiritual matters. Any time we try to take the hierarchy of goods into our own hands we run this risk. We should instead always be prepared to subject our own apparently good ideas to the standard supplied by revelation.

I have brought back Agag, and I have destroyed Amalek under the ban.
But from the spoil the men took sheep and oxen,
the best of what had been banned,
to sacrifice to the LORD their God in Gilgal.

King Saul thought he had a better idea than God, one which he could plausible state was for the sake of the service of God. These things he was supposed to destroy he would instead offer as sacrifices to the Lord. What could be wrong with that? In this case, virtually everything. Partial obedience in this way was actually disobedience.

Does the LORD so delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as in obedience to the command of the LORD?

The point was not about the things themselves, things which Saul implicitly gave primacy. The point was putting the Lord first, which is precisely what Saul failed to do. He learned the hard way that he did not have a better idea than God about how God ought to be served. The Lord, for his part, then rejected Saul as ruler in order to find someone who more closely shared his heart. David was certainly an improvement. But it was not until Jesus that we would see someone live out perfect obedience to God. Only the priorities of Jesus were perfectly focused on the Father. Thus he is our only viable source if we want to get such things right ourselves.

I will correct you by drawing them up before your eyes.
He that offers praise as a sacrifice glorifies me;
and to him that goes the right way I will show the salvation of God.

Matt Maher - Isaiah 61

 

18 January 2026 - i did not know him

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

I did not know him

However close John was to his cousin Jesus, it was not enough for him to fully grasp his identity. He didn't proclaim Jesus to be the one who was to come just because he seemed, from John's experience, to be a good candidate. Rather, it was on the basis of prophetic revelation that the full extent of the identity of Jesus was revealed. Thus, unlike those people who grew up alongside Jesus in Nazareth, John was able to realize that he was more than just the son of Mary.

Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

When we hear what John said about Jesus we recognize that it was more than flesh and blood could reveal. The fact that he would, in himself, sum up the entire Old Testament sacrificial system, reveal its true meaning, and at last fulfill the purpose toward which it pointed, was not something one could have guessed, however close his proximity to Jesus as he grew up. Those sacrifices pointed toward the need to make of oneself an offering. They were reminders of the fact the people could not practice the unfailing obedience that alone was compatible with God's absolute holiness. Jesus was at last one who was able to offer himself in the obedience as a perfect sacrifice to the Father. But he did not do this merely as a substitute, as animal sacrifices were thought to be. He did it, first for us, so that, by his grace, he could do it within us.

‘A man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me
because he existed before me.’

Even had their been a merely human individual capable of offering the Father perfect obedience it could not have had this transformative effect on humanity. It was, therefore, insufficient. Had Abraham not been restrained by an angel and gone on to offer Isaac as a sacrifice it would have had no lasting effect on human nature. He could have offered something like a perfect sacrifice, but he did not have the power to make that sacrifice universally available. And in this case, that would miss the whole point. It was not anything unless it could be everything. It wasn't about the destruction of anyone, however perfect. It was about the redemption of all, something that could only be accomplished by Jesus himself. Jesus was the one who existed, not only before John, not only before Abraham (see John 8:48-59), but before all creation. He was the lamb slain since the foundation of the world (see Revelation 13:8). Scripture tells us that he is the same yesterday, today, and forever (see Hebrews 13:8). It is for this reason that the perfect sacrifice of one man can be applied to every human individual, regardless of whether they lived before, during, or after his earthly life.

Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them (see Hebrews 7:25).

How does the sacrifice of the lamb of God become efficacious in our own lives? It is precisely through our baptism, in which we receive the Holy Spirit and become, like Jesus himself, sons and daughters of God. The Spirit was unleashed upon the world precisely through his gift of himself on the cross for us. It was then that the flow of living water, coming from the very heart of God, was unleashed (see John 7:38-39, John 19:34) . And it has never stopped. It will never dry up or be exhausted. That's what it means to say that the one who is beyond time has entered it in order to transform it, not just in a partial or incomplete project of renovation, but rather, to make all things new.

I will make you a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.

We share in the identity and destiny of Jesus through our baptism. This means that we too are intended and empowered to live lives of obedient self-gift. It is for this, more than for any more dramatic external effects, that we have been given the gift of the Spirit. It is toward this that all of the many fruits, gifts, and charisms of the Spirit conduce. And it is in this way, by this grace making us to be in this way new creations, that we attain our intended destiny of becoming lights to the nations. Through God's work in us may he draw others, even others from the ends of the earth, to share in his salvation.

 

Matt Maher - Behold The Lamb Of God

 

17 January 2026 - the post-post

Today's Readings
(Audio)

As he passed by, he saw Levi, son of Alphaeus,
sitting at the customs post.

If Matthew had been asked the day before about the possibility of leaving his current life to follow a teacher and healer such as Jesus he probably would have considered it an impossibility. He would likely have assumed he would be unable to leave the customs post to which he was so accustomed. In many ways it wasn't an ideal situation. But it was what he knew. It would be hard to even conceive of a situation which would make him radically upend his status quo. Remaining was safe. Any other option that was different and new was fraught with the danger of a thousand different possibilities for failure. That would have been true even without his reputation as a tax collector, which of itself seemed to close almost any open door of possibility. His friends were all tax collectors and sinners. They certainly weren't offering him any drastically new paths. Both his own self-image and his social standing made it impossible for him to imagine any change in his life, even if a part of him might have sometimes wished for it. And yet.

Jesus said to him, “Follow me.”
And he got up and followed Jesus.

When Matthew accepted the invitation from Jesus he implicitly chose to believe Jesus about the possibility of a new and different future. Up to that moment he envisioned a future that would not admit of doubt or change. But when Jesus invited him it really did open up  a whole new world. Someone other than Jesus inviting Matthew to come along for whatever reason could potentially reassure him, that he was wanted, but he would still have had to say no, since the conditions of his reality were fundamentally unaltered. But with the invitation of Jesus his past no longer needed to determine his future. It was something that only Jesus could offer. He didn't need to spell it out. It was all implicit in the invitation.

While he was at table in his house,
many tax collectors and sinners sat with Jesus and his disciples;
for there were many who followed him.

The invitation of Jesus had the effect of inverting Matthew's whole life. Previously society and his friends were the ones who determined his identity. Now influence flowed in the other direction, from Jesus, through Matthew, to his friends and the world around him. In choosing to be conformed to Jesus he was no longer conformed to the world around him. He was free in a way he never imagined possible. 

“Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 

Where are we this morning? Are we sitting at a customs post that we that we believe we cannot abandon? Or are we rather like the Pharisees who refused to acknowledge that their lives needed to change, unwilling to accept that there was something better than the level for which they had settled? We get free from such things, not by analyzing our strengths and weaknesses and determining our own action plan, but by listening to the call of Jesus, to sharing a feast with him, and by being willing to taste and see the goodness of the promises he offers.

Newsboys - I Am Free (Who The Son Sets Free)

 

16 January 2026 - to be like who?

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Now that you are old,
and your sons do not follow your example,
appoint a king over us, as other nations have, to judge us.

Israel was a nation specially chosen by God, singled out to by his covenant to be a light to the nations. And yet, greater than their desire to embody that destiny was their desire to be like the surrounding nations. Politics was more important to them than their prophetic destiny. The strength of surrounding kings seemed frightfully real while their God seemed more distant. They accepted that a king might not treat them well as individuals or groups, but assumed that he would never neglect the welfare of the nation since to do so was implicitly to neglect his own welfare. 

He will take your sons and assign them to his chariots and horses,
and they will run before his chariot.
He will also appoint from among them his commanders of groups
of a thousand and of a hundred soldiers.

The self-preservation that was natural to earthly kings did not always conduce to the flourishing of the nation. Rather than use their authority for the sake of the population they exploited the population for their own ends. They were not excessively grieved to cause suffering even within the kingdom as long as they remained comfortable. To some extent they often sought popularity, for the sake of self-image, and in order to keep a grasp on power. But this popularity was based more on their ability to keep up a performance rather than on real beneficial results for the people. Even the better kings still had to navigating the conflicting demands of their own desires versus those of the people. God, it was true, had nothing to gain from the people, and made it frightening to rely on one with whom he could not bargain. But he was utterly incapable of being diminished by them as well. His freedom is what made him fully available to act always and only for their good. Their was no chance of him choosing selfishly against them or fearfully to protect himself.

The people, however, refused to listen to Samuel’s warning and said,
“Not so!  There must be a king over us.
We too must be like other nations,
with a king to rule us and to lead us in warfare
and fight our battles.

We can understand their desire to be like the other nations without approving of it. They felt that they had to measure up to the capability of others for violence, lest they live in fear of their own destruction. Even in our own world we often assume that a lack of power is the biggest problem in politics, that if our adversaries have power and we do not than our situation is a lost cause. Without sufficient military strength what is to keep hostile nations from overwhelming us? Without sufficient politic power what is to keep our opponents from suppressing any viewpoint but their own? Do we really believe that God can make a difference otherwise than by giving us power? How would that even work? And yet we know that our God not only can, but that he delights to work through apparent human weakness. As an example, the deleterious political situation in Rome did not prevent the Christianization of the whole world.

After they had broken through,
they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying.
When Jesus saw their faith, he said to him,
“Child, your sins are forgiven.”

How does God cause changes in the world even in spite of the weakness of those through whom he works? He does so primarily by changing individual hearts, rather than by imposing his will from outside on unwilling participants. His is a Kingdom definitionally different from all others since its members are only those who wish to be so. But it is God's own transcendent character that makes it so believable. It must be for our benefit that he acts since he stands to gain nothing himself. And his missionaries embody this by refusing to exploit religion for earthly gains. Paul describes people who misunderstand this when he writes:

He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain (see First Timothy 4:-6).

But he goes on to add that "godliness with contentment is great gain". People who experience that contentment have a lot to offer a world that is constantly searching for the one more thing that will finally make it happy, but never arriving.

Now some of the scribes were sitting there asking themselves,
“Why does this man speak that way?  He is blaspheming.
Who but God alone can forgive sins?”

The external problems of our world are relatively easy to solve, at least temporarily. But only God can do the deep inner work that produces lasting results. They had hoped that Jesus would be a messiah in the way they had hoped to have a king. But his reign was to be of a different kind. Precisely because God alone could forgive sins, and because Jesus was himself God, the real problems that had heretofore been unaddressed could finally receive a solution. This solution was not one more temporary victory, but rather salvation, leading to eternal life.

Blessed the people who know the joyful shout;
in the light of your countenance, O LORD, they walk.
At your name they rejoice all the day,
and through your justice they are exalted.

Hillsong Worship - To Be Like You

 

15 January 2026 - ark enemies

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

Let us fetch the ark of the Lord from Shiloh
that it may go into battle among us
and save us from the grasp of our enemies.

The people didn't understand why the Lord had allowed them to experience defeat at the hands of the Philistines. In response, they decided to take matters into their own hands. If he wouldn't come with them into battle on his own, why, they would force him to come, without first consulting him. This seems like an instance of the phenomenon of religion being co-opted for political goals. It wasn't even necessarily the case that the goals were bad or wrong. They desired to preserve their tribal identity and freedom in the face of opposition from a hostile foreign power. Nevertheless, the involvement of their religion was superficial. First, they wondered why the Lord would allow their circumstances when they hadn't bothered asking him about them until they had already experienced negative outcomes. Second, even after experiencing defeat they didn't actually interact with the Lord meaningfully. Instead, they simply brought the ark, as though it were a sort of magical token that would give them power, rather than the dwelling place of God in their midst. It could not have been the case that this was done with due reverence. God and his presence weren't their primary concern, which was rather that they win the battle that was imminent.

When the ark of the LORD arrived in the camp,
all Israel shouted so loudly that the earth resounded.

The political usage of religion can generate hype and enthusiasm. We feel supremely validated when it seems that even God is on our side. By contrast, when we are primarily concerned to ensure that we are on God's side it necessitates reflection and self-criticism, in order to avoid self-deception by our egos. Such an introspective attitude, one in which individuals are willing to realize they are wrong, is inimical to the mutual hype machine of politics, in which no one will ever concede that mistakes were made, since the political agenda is, to them, unassailable.

The Philistines fought and Israel was defeated;
every man fled to his own tent.
It was a disastrous defeat,
.in which Israel lost thirty thousand foot soldiers.
The ark of God was captured,
and Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were among the dead.

While the hype surrounding the presence of the ark might have seemed to be a useful good in itself in order to rally the forces of Israel for battle it not only didn't help but probably left them in worse shape than they would have been on their own. They imagined they had forced the hand of God in assisting them. When they discovered that they had not they were left high and dry. The hype was an illusion. The only power they had was their own, and it was insufficient. On top of that, the magnitude of the defeat seemed to indicate punishment from the Lord who did not appreciate the way religion had been twisted to other ends that day.

A leper came to him and kneeling down begged him and said,
“If you wish, you can make me clean.”

In contrast to those who thought they could force God to play on their side and aid with their plan was this leper from today's Gospel reading, who left his ultimate fate in the hands of Jesus. He obviously believed in the goodness of Jesus, in the fact that, all things being equal, a cure was not unlikely. But this did not mean he came before him with a demanding attitude, as though his cure was in fact the most important thing in the world. Even in the instance where the woman touched the hem of the garment of Jesus and received healing without first asking, she was in fact still demonstrating utmost humility before him, since to touch the ark of God's presence more directly was fraught with danger.

“I do will it. Be made clean.”

Perhaps part of the discrepancy is that we often try to force God to do what we imagine we deserve. But when we are humble and open to his will we are able to realize that everything we receive from him are free gifts that we have not earned. Why is the Lord so insistent that we keep this aspect of his blessings in mind? Perhaps it is just that he wants us to recognize what he does for us, not as payment, but as love. 

Songs In His Presence - Prayer Of Augustine

 

14 January 2026 - growing in knowing

Today's Readings
(Audio)

When Samuel went to sleep in his place,
the LORD came and revealed his presence,
calling out as before, “Samuel, Samuel!”
Samuel answered, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

A common thread between our readings for today is prayer. Samuel was born into a community that was largely not pursuing an active relationship with God. Revelation of him was uncommon and visions infrequent. We get the impression that if Eli had been more invested in his own relationship with the Lord he would have more quickly recognized the description of Samuel's experiences. But, to his credit, he did eventually discern what was happening, as though drawing on past memories of when his own relationship with the Lord was stronger.

Samuel grew up, and the LORD was with him,
not permitting any word of his to be without effect.

We are meant to understand that this was not a one time encounter that merely set Samuel on a path as an effective prophet. Rather, he was an effective prophet because and to the degree that he continued to revisit the presence of the Lord throughout his life and deepened his connection with him. We might assume that once the Lord decided to make someone a prophet that such a one would no longer need to actively work at developing their relationship with him. But we can see from today's Gospel that even Jesus, who apparently ought to have had no need of it, maintained a regular habit of prayer, even in spite of the fact that he didn't have any convenient free time to dedicate to the practice.

Rising very early before dawn, 
he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.

When we are busy our habit of prayer is often the first thing that falls by the wayside. We tell ourselves, not incorrectly, that God will understand, and that we will pick it back up when we have more time. But, first, when we have this attitude, the enemy works to make it seem as though no time is ever convenient again. Second, it is harder to start again than it would have been to continue. And third, all of the things with which we are busy will also be somewhat compromised since we will not be our best selves. Over a chapel somewhere there is a sign that reads: 'Saints pray more and get more done.' It is not in spite of their prayers that they get more done. It is rather because, after a fashion, God permits no word of theirs to be without effect. 

God does not desire that his people follow him accidentally or without their knowledge or consent. He desires relationship in which he first makes known his will and then allows us to carry it out. He tells his friends what he is about. But this is something that must be practiced and in which we must grow. His sheep know his voice. But they know it well if they have practiced listening. They recognize it readily if they have come to expect that they will hear it. 

He told them, “Let us go on to the nearby villages
that I may preach there also.
For this purpose have I come.”

When our lives aren't rooted in prayer we will usually find ourselves unable to choose between competing demands on our time. Even if we are not at the mercy of our desire for pleasure or entertainment we may still find ourselves bowing to the most loudly shouted demands of those around us. Or, unable to choose, we may be as immobilized as Peter's mother-in-law. But when prayer is a priority we will experience a clear sense of purpose, like the clarity that allowed Jesus to know that it was time to move on, in spite of the fact that there were many who wished he would stay. God has a purpose for us, just as he did for his Son. We should strive to grow in prayer so that he can direct our steps on the path to fulfill it. He doesn't necessarily always immediately reveal some grand eventual destination. But he help us find the nearby village to which we should go next. What would it be like to live our own lives with the clarity of purpose Jesus possessed? Part of the reason he prayed was to be an example to us. And one of the apparent fruits of his prayer was this clarity of purpose. Thus it is probably fair to assume that we too can reach a point of contact with God where we can say of ourselves and what we are about: "For this purpose I have come", knowing that God is with us.

I have waited, waited for the LORD,
and he stooped toward me and heard my cry.

Phillips, Craig, and Dean - Friend Of God

 

13 January 2026 - pour out your hearts before him

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

I was only pouring out my troubles to the LORD.

Hannah was doing what the psalmist would later commend, "Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him" (see Psalm 62:8). She chose to pour out her heart to God rather than accept substitute consolation from the world, such as wine or liquor. Because of this she was open to the sober intoxication of the consoling Spirit of God. Her plea did not immediately find sympathy with many others, even people such as Eli who were God's representatives. But when she met with this obstacle she neither gave up nor gave in to the temptation treat him disrespectfully. He behaved less than admirably, unbecoming of his position, but she still treated him with the dignity befitting his office.

if you give your handmaid a male child,
I will give him to the LORD for as long as he lives;

In her initial sadness about her apparent barrenness she probably had no intention of giving the child to the Lord through something like a lifelong Nazarite vow. The cynical among us might suggest that such a promise was really a last ditch effort to have anything rather than nothing, to settle for less than keeping the child for herself, but more than not having one at all. But perhaps it was rather a sign of growing spiritual maturity, which was caused by a regular habit of making her requests known to God and trusting in his providence. Many of us would likely be happy to receive what we asked, but then take it and run, with no further reference to God. But somehow in the waiting and the praying Hannah's trust in God seemed to grow. She could not control or manipulate the outcome before she attained it, and somehow realized that even if and when she did receive it, the ultimate destiny of her child was better entrusted to God than herself. We may safely hope this didn't mean the child was raised without a mother or anything like that, but rather that God was given a priority in his life that he would not have had otherwise.

What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?
Have you come to destroy us?

The demonic influences within us always suggest that God is against us, and that, if we really give ourselves to him, it will be hurtful and possibly destructive. But the only things God ever destroys within us are our chains, chains of sin and addiction. He does indeed help us to put the old self to death, but only so that we can experience the true life that is his gift. Our ego looks on God with the same suspicion that made Adam and Eve question whether God really had their best interests at heart. But once that suspicious part of us is well and truly dead we our hearts can rest in the peace of knowing God's providence, just as Hannah did. After we know it we may experience a similar change of countenance, after which she "no longer appeared downcast". Let us return to Psalm 62 as an exhortation to us today:

Trust in him at all times, O people;
pour out your heart before him;
God is a refuge for us.

Songs In His Presence - Trust Him (Psalm 62)

 

12 January 2026 - gone fishin

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

“This is the time of fulfillment.
The Kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the Gospel.”

This was a call for listeners to rid themselves of old and dysfunctional ways of thinking. It was a call to transcend ways of thinking based in the selfishness of the ego and instead to learn to see things from God's perspective. It was a call to leave conformity to the present age, and to what the world said was normal, in order to be transformed by the renewal of their minds.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect (see Romans 12:2).

Such transformation could not be real unless it led to action. In the normal course of things thoughts tend toward words which take shape in actions. This is why it is vital to rehearse and ruminate on true thoughts and give voice to true words. But we are also capable of hypocrisy, and thus must guard against it. The point of a Christian way of thinking is that it is meant to lead to a way of being from which good actions follow naturally. The point is not so that we can be part of an in group or have a positive self image. Such things are entirely beside the point.

“Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

Simon and Andrew internalized the call of Jesus in a way that revolutionized their inner lives and allowed them to take radical action for the sake of the kingdom. For perhaps the first time their thoughts were not determined by the limited and narrow vantage point of self but were rather received from a higher and infinitely expansive perspective. The ego would hear the call "Come after me" and respond, 'Forget about it'. But the renewed Christian mind would realize that it was for this that it had been made. The convert would leave behind the story he had been writing about himself in exchange for his part in the story that God was telling. 

The freedom Jesus was able to immediately engender in the lives of his disciples caused them to believe in his capacity to bring freedom to the world. They themselves experienced miraculous transformation and thus believed in the possibility of that transformation at scale. After all, Jesus had rooted himself in messianic prophecy by calling them to be fishers:

Behold, I am sending for many fishers, declares the LORD, and they shall catch them. And afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks (see Jeremiah 16:16).

What do we believe is possible for our world? Are we still seeing things from a perspective warped by this world, or are we relying on the renewed minds that are God's gift to us? Are we still weeping for the things of this world that we cannot keep forever, or have we realized that God can be more to us than all of those things? Right thinking can help us put God first. When we really do this we experience radical freedom from which we not only can serve him, but desire to do so above all else.

O LORD, I am your servant;
I am your servant, the son of your handmaid;
you have loosed my bonds.

Newsboys - The Mission

 

11 January 2026 - to fulfill all righteousness

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

 John tried to prevent him, saying,
“I need to be baptized by you,
and yet you are coming to me?”

Jesus, was the spotless lamb of God, entirely without sin. Thus he had no need of a baptism of repentance. John seemed to say, 'This is not for you. Its for sinners'. But this is not altogether different from when Jesus announced his intention to allow himself to be put to death and Peter responded, "Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you" (Matthew 16:22). He had no need of baptism any more than he was deserving of punishment for sin. But in a way his baptism and the cross were part of one reality. When he was submerged beneath the waters of the Jordan it represented his death. And when he rose up from the waters it pointed ahead to his resurrection. Only Jesus could be the ark that would not be swallowed chaotic flood waters of baptism. Only he was the life that death could not end. Only in union with him could we survive that destruction and live again.

Jesus said to him in reply,
“Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us
to fulfill all righteousness.”

In being baptized Jesus acted with God's own covenant righteousness toward humanity. It fulfilled the Father's saving plan for the world by revealing Jesus as his beloved Son with whom he was pleased. But it also set the stage for us to be made righteous through the sacrament of baptism. Jesus's baptism sanctified the waters that could henceforth be unsealed by his Church. After this it became possible for Christians to experience adoption by God as his sons and daughters, and to receive his gift of the Holy Spirit. As Saint John Paul the Great wrote:

However, through the divine sonship conferred by baptism, it can be said that the Father's words, "You are my beloved son", apply to every person baptized and grafted on to Christ. 

- John Paul II, General Audience, April 1st, 1998

Things that would have remained merely symbolic became sacraments because of their contact with Jesus. It is similar to how the Passover seder was transformed into the Eucharist. He touched realities that were previously merely pedagogical and made them transformative by his contact with them. The reason this was possible was that his divinity meant that such contact was not merely momentary. It was absorbed into the eternity of God. Henceforth baptism and the Eucharist would always allow for contact with Jesus himself, who was present whenever they were celebrated, since the minister of a valid sacrament is always acting in persona Christi.

In our own baptism we were conformed to Jesus Christ. We took on a new identity as little Christs who were so fully the children of the Father that we came to share in the inheritance that is proper to Jesus. As Paul wrote, "if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ" (see Romans 8:17). Yet it seems to be widely the case that many of us don't really appreciate all that we have received in baptism. Most of us have a hard time processing an entirely gratuitous gift with no strings attached. The promises of baptism thus seem overstated, too good to be true, since the attainment of them seems to easy. And yet they could only be gifted, since they are beyond price. One could never pay ones way into membership in a family in any real sense. Yet we are God's children now. One could never afford the price for the gift of the Spirit living in us or the Blood of Christ washing away our sins. Yet these things are ours in baptism.

In spite of the gifts we have received we often live without filial trust in our Father or confidence in the gift of the Spirit living within us. How would our lives be different if we truly recognized that these riches were ours? Since we have in fact received them we can heed the advice of Paul to Timothy to fan into flame the gifts we have received (see Second Timothy 1:6). Then we will escape the scarcity mindset of the world and begin to live with God's abundance.

I came that they may have life and have it abundantly (see John 10:10).

 

Matt Maher - Come To The Water

Jamie MacDonald - Left It In The River

Andy Park - The River Is Here

 

10 January 2026 - he must increase

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

We have this confidence in him
that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 

This implies that there are some things that, even though they are according to his will, may not come about without our prayers. Why take such a drastic step as to put the order and governance of the universe in the purview of famously fallible creatures? Why would God not just always cause his will to come about whether anyone desired it or not? Perhaps the contingent things that may or may not come about are of a lower order of goodness than that of Christians who desire what God himself desires, and that it is to make his children more like him that he shares with them the dignity of his own divine causative power. 

And if we know that he hears us in regard to whatever we ask,
we know that what we have asked him for is ours. 

God knows how to accomplish his plans in the world, and acts within it to bring them about. We can consider it for our perspective in which our prayers are sometimes answered and sometimes not. And from this perspective we can see that he desires to build our own desire to be more like his, rather than to fulfill our every whim. But if one contingent cause or another fails we know and trust that God has taken this into account in the back picture. Thus no failure of an individual or group is able to sabotage his plans for salvation. But from our perspective we may miss out on quite a bit, especially in terms of our confidence in his fatherly care. 

If anyone sees his brother sinning, if the sin is not deadly,
he should pray to God and he will give him life. 

Among the things about which we should definitely pray are situations when we see our brother sinning. John assures us this is exactly the sort of goal that God will help to accomplish. There is, after all, no other reliable way to make an impact in the human heart where such a change is needed than for God himself to work within it to change it. John presumes that such a heart is open to change, struggling with sin, rather than surrendered to it. Such a one desires the supernatural support that Christian brothers and sisters can provide. This is why such prayers are reliably among the most effective we can make. They are in accord with God's will, and the person in question is at least open to healing and freedom. Those given over to conscious, willful sin, that is, deadly sin, are definitionally not open to God. Thus our prayers for them can't function with the same almost automatic effectiveness as our prayers for those in venial sin. We can and should pray for such individuals. But John seems to understand that there are no guarantees in this regard. Whether or not we can influence the outcome or even ever see it come about we should nevertheless entrust those in deadly sin to God's providential care. There is no such thing as a heart so hardened that it cannot be converted, and some of the hearts that were once the hardest went on to become some of God's most fervent followers.

We know that anyone begotten by God does not sin;
but the one begotten by God he protects,
and the Evil One cannot touch him. 

Someone with God's seed within them cannot persist in the practice of willful habitual sin. Nor need he do so, since God protects him. An individual like this is protected by God because he has opened himself to his protection, and chosen to rely on him. However, this means that those who are not begotten by God must contend with the influence of the world and the Evil One by their own strength, strength which is often insufficient. They are still within the world "under the power of the Evil One". Our prayers to keep ourselves and our loved ones from this influence, and our prayers that those now under it be set free, are clearly of utmost importance. Sin inherently compromises our prayer by dissipating our holy desire. But our prayer strengthens us against things that lead to temptation and delivers us from the power of the Evil One. We can move from confidence to ever greater confidence in the Father's love for us.

He is the true God and eternal life. 
Children, be on your guard against idols.

Our prayers protect our connection to God and keep us rooted in his gift of eternal life. This is why we must be on guard against every false god in our own lives. As Dylan famously sang, "it may be the devil or it may be the Lord but you’re going to have to serve somebody". Nothing in our lives is quite as value neutral as we might imagine. It is either properly ordered to God or it is an idol, something to which we attribute value that can only be truly found in God himself. Idols are easier to destroy when they are new and small in our lives, so we should be on guard against them. They never deliver on the their promises. It is easier to recognize this immediately rather than to try to extricate ourselves from an eventual addiction. But if serving idols of frustrating and unfulfilling, there is nothing better than loving the true God.

Sing to the LORD a new song
of praise in the assembly of the faithful.
Let Israel be glad in their maker,
let the children of Zion rejoice in their king.
Let them praise his name in the festive dance,
let them sing praise to him with timbrel and harp.

 

Bob Dylan - You Gotta Serve Somebody

 

9 January 2026 - can I get three witnesses?

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

This is the one who came through water and Blood, Jesus Christ,
not by water alone, but by water and Blood. 

Jesus began his mission when he was baptized in water by John, the Spirit descended in the form of a dove, and the Father spoke, identifying him as his beloved son with whom he was well pleased. In his baptism Jesus sanctified the waters of baptism so that they could be unsealed again and again by future generations, making possible rebirth to a new life in the Spirit for those with faith. The divinity and sanctifying power of Jesus were, however, only a part of the story. The water of baptism was in fact inseparable from the blood of his cross. Baptism itself was a kind of symbolic death, and the emerging from the waters a kind of resurrection. It was powerful precisely because of the historical death and resurrection of Jesus. It was effective because he did not disdain to shed his blood for the world. The cross, on the other hand, was not comprehensible by itself, as though it were an accidental or unfortunate act of violent bloodshed. It made sense only seen as a sacrifice of self-oblation offered by Jesus in order that there could be mercy for all of the sins of the world. It made sense only connected to the water that would take its potency from the the blood, but in particular because of who it was that shed his blood, and the intention and freedom with which he did so. His death led to the outpouring of both blood and water from the cross. We know that the water represented the living water of the Holy Spirit. This came from the cross to signify the source from which baptism received its power. 

The Spirit is the one who testifies,
and the Spirit is truth. 
So there are three who testify,
the Spirit, the water, and the Blood, 
and the three are of one accord. 

The Spirit came down on Jesus in his baptism, and was unleashed by him from the cross. We can see in all of this the importance of the fact that Jesus had to be fully human to accomplish his work. He was able to plug humanity back into to the grace of God because he himself was human. He obeyed where Adam disobeyed and by his cross undid the consequences of the fall. Where Adam chose to put himself first Jesus freely offered himself. Adam did not speak up for his bride. But Christ died for his bride, the Church. The idea of water without blood, perhaps a teacher Christ or a mythological figure, and a baptism that was merely symbolic, was insufficient and ultimately empty. Without the blood shed on the cross no redemption was possible. But we remember too that not just anyone's shed blood would suffice, only the one who gave the Spirit without measure.

Whoever believes in the Son of God
has this testimony within himself.

Belief in Jesus is a different sort of belief than belief in the testimony of merely human witnesses since it is the "greater" testimony of God himself. In other beliefs there is always some small chance of deception. But the testimony to Jesus is something that we receive within us, that actually transforms us from within. It is not just that we share this testimony with others once we have received it. It is rather, or should be, that our lives become a living testimony to him. We will not be held harmless if we refuse to believe the testimony with which God himself tries to persuade us. He is goodness and truth itself. Therefore any motives for disbelief are rooted in our unwillingness allow his light to shine on our darkness. And even we who do believe probably still keep some secret parts of ourselves cordoned off from this light, still keep some parts of our hearts under our own lordship rather than his. 

Who indeed is the victor over the world
but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

If we do not feel victorious, and even feel at risk of collapse and failure, it may be because we haven't fully internalized the testimony of the witnesses God provides, especially the water, the blood, and the Spirit. We might be ashamed to let God see our brokenness. But he already sees it. So let's invite him in. Let's use the grace of our baptism, and regularly reception of his body and blood in the Eucharist, and the Spirit he never ceases to pour out, to allow him to convince us more of his love, that he is for us and not against us. Let us do so until we don't just believe but believe with all of our hearts, so that even here and now we can begin to experience the life that lasts forever.

And this is the testimony:
God gave us eternal life,
and this life is in his Son. 

Lindell Cooley - Let The River Flow

 

8 January 2026 - like father like son

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten by God,
and everyone who loves the Father
loves also the one begotten by him. 

The Father empowers us to believe in the Son who is begotten by him. When we let him teach us, especially about his Son, we become like his children, opening our hearts to trust him. This is faith, leading to baptism, in which he adopts us as his own sons and daughters. But this transformation is meant to prepare us to live as members of his household. To do so without a lot of friction we need to increasingly love what he loves and hate what he hates. At the top of this hierarchy is the love he has for his Son. Thus belief in the Son leads us to the Father, who in causes us to grow in love for his Son. We gradually learn to see in the Son what the Father himself sees in him, which is a reflection of his own goodness, truth, and beauty.

Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Our love of the Son of the Father must extend to those other children of the Father begotten by him in baptism. It must lead to love of neighbor, and even a properly ordered love of self. Failing to love others is also a failure to love icons of God himself. It implies not only a deficiency of love of neighbor, but also a failure to fully appreciate and love God in his entirety. We may come up with reasons why we or our neighbors are not worthy of love. But we cannot imagine that God agrees with us. He himself desires all to be saved, implying that there are none living who are excluded from his love, no matter how we may imagine they have disqualified themselves. Thus our love of others or lack thereof is a valid litmus test for our love of God. We obviously can't do everything everywhere that might be of benefit to everyone. But what do we intentionally omit? Finding our blind spots is a good starting place for growth.

In this way we know that we love the children of God
when we love God and obey his commandments. 

It is true that we demonstrate our love of God by our love of neighbor. But it is by our love of God that our love of neighbor receives its proper definition. Otherwise we tend to call many things love that are not worthy of that name. We encourage others to pursue harmful goals, conceal knowledge that might ultimately by helpful for them, for the sake of protecting their feelings, and allow them to settle for less than God intends for them. In these and a variety of other ways, love that is without reference to the commandments often does more harm than good.

And his commandments are not burdensome,
for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world. 

Helping others in a way that references and is defined by God's commandments is not merely laying upon them a yoke of obligation. It is not just going to make their lives harder as we sometimes fear. It tends rather toward freedom. It leads from being ruled by our disordered desires to the victory over the world that Paul calls the freedom of the children of God (see Romans 8:21). We tend to prefer love that is subjective and sentimental. But only the real love defined by the commandments can have a real effect in our lives. This is what it means to build our lives on rock. We begin with a solid foundation and are therefore able to build a stable structure that is ultimately capable of becoming all it is meant to be. And, what, finally, are we building if not a temple, a dwelling place for the Spirit of God?

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.

Matt Maher - Isaiah 61

 

7 January 2026 - convinced

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

Beloved, if God so loved us,
we also must love one another.

God demonstrated his love for us when "sent his Son as expiation for our sins". In doing so he set us free from those sins, which were always, though in different ways, failures of love. The extreme measures he took to accomplish this make him eminently lovable, as a bridegroom that spared no effort to save his bride. 

No one has ever seen God.
Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us,
and his love is brought to perfection in us.

God is invisible. He is not like a creature where our good behavior may help them and our bad behavior may harm them. Thus, he expects us to demonstrate our love for him by the way that we love one another. This is a valid demonstration because in doing show we show love for what he himself loves. Also, when we do so, it means we allow God to have his way within us, since it is with his own love that we ourselves are called to love. The origin and means of our ability to love is from God. He himself guides us as we seek to love him, showing us how to love others for his sake.

This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us,
that he has given us of his Spirit.

The evidence of the Spirit at work within us takes the shape of lives lived with faith, hope, and charity, grounded in the basic fact "that the Father sent his Son as savior of the world". The Holy Spirit is the origin of our faith, since he reveals to us what flesh and blood cannot. He is the guarantee of our hope, since we possess him as God's love poured out, and the first installment of our eternal inheritance. He is the one who leads us to love, making us bear all the fruits of the Spirit in our lives. 

We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us.
God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.

When we agree with the Holy Spirit and acknowledge the truth, especially the truth about Jesus as Lord and Son of God, we grow in faith. When he convinces us of God's love for us we grow in hope. This is like the psalmists invitation to taste and see (see Psalm 34:8). The more we taste, the more we desire. Knowing the truth and desiring the truth tends toward living for the truth, which means cooperating with the charity God has placed in our hearts, letting it flow out to the world.

In this is love brought to perfection among us,
that we have confidence on the day of judgment
because as he is, so are we in this world.

It is interesting to note that confidence about the day of judgment is not an automatic and unshakable belief that Christians acquire at the moment of conversion. It is something in which we grow as we grow in faith, hope, and love. Then we see that things are working as intended, and it becomes increasingly unlikely, though not guaranteed, that we are free from self-deception. We are not promised an absolute certainty of our salvation. But we can have a moral certainty about whether or not our hearts are alive in charity. This isn't an abstract moral calculus so much as a conviction of the reality of our relationship with God and the transformation he is accomplishing within us. It will in fact look different for each individual. Some may perform highly visible acts of great love. The love to which others are called may be more hidden. Some will struggle in an obvious public way with sin. But even this does not necessary mean they are disqualified or that they are not undergoing transformation. Only God knows our hearts. Hence, only he can give us confidence about their condition. And we can only possess that confidence by growing in relationship with him.

There is no fear in love,
but perfect love drives out fear
because fear has to do with punishment,
and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love.

Fear of punishment is a valid motivation. It is reliably accessible even when we are not experiencing the consolation of God's presence. It is helpful to remember that hell is real and that people may in fact go there apart from the grace of God. This means that even if we don't feel sufficient love for others to help them receive the Gospel we may still be concerned enough for them to do so without the aid of those feelings. But the more we grow in love the less we will have to fall back on such fail-safes. We won't be motivated by our desire to avoid suffering, or because we want to feel certain consolations, or because we want to receive certain gifts from God himself. More and more we will desire the giver rather than his gifts. And the more we realize his goodness, the more convinced we are of his love, the more we will desire him for others as well.

But at once he spoke with them,
“Take courage, it is I, do not be afraid!”
He got into the boat with them and the wind died down.

What begins as a storm of conflicting and unreliable motivations gradually gives way to the peace of being rooted in that which is alone unshakable, where alone we can true rest: God himself.

 

Shane And Shane - Psalm 34 (Taste And See)

  

6 January 2026 - God is love

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Beloved, let us love one another,
because love is of God;
everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.

When we truly love one another we do so by first opening ourselves to the source of love, God himself. Love on this level cannot come from ourselves, but is only possible if we are in filial relationship with him. Nor can we claim to be truly in relationship with him if we don't love, since placing barriers on his love isn't just acting against something to which he assigns special priority and importance. It is rather placing a barrier on himself and his own presence within us. If we truly love him, we let him in. And if we truly let him in, if we become truly vulnerable before his love, we won't resist when he begins to flow out through us to others.

In this way the love of God was revealed to us:
God sent his only-begotten Son into the world
so that we might have life through him.

Our conceptions of love are often too limited and sentimental. Even when they tend toward the good of the other they often do so in a nearsighted way that can only produce temporary effects. But God's love is such that it lifts us up above the limits of our mortal existence into his eternity. It is also true that what we are willing to do for the sake of love is often constrained and compromised. Therefore we cannot measure the true nature of love based on our past experience or any human precedent. Even the best earthly loves fall short. Only in God do we see a love that refused to limit itself or be compromised. He went to the utmost extreme limits for the sake of his beloved. Only in him, then, do we see the full measure of love. He held nothing back for himself but gave everything he had for our salvation. He died in order to share his very life with us.

In this is love:
not that we have loved God, but that he loved us
and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.

John is not merely saying that we must get in line with God by imitating his love. Nor is he saying that we must perfect love in ourselves if we are to communicate with him, as though it were a language we could study, or a skill we could master. Love is not something that we can truly have apart from he who is himself love living within us. That is why the fact that he loved us first always has to have priority in our definition of love. Only his love was able to break the chains of our sins that kept us living in a state of perpetual compromise where our love was only ever expressed in fits and starts.

When Jesus saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them,
for they were like sheep without a shepherd;
and he began to teach them many things.

Jesus saw a people compromised by sin, unable to be all that God intended them to be, and his heart was moved with compassion. Therefore he gave the gift, not just of bread, but of the bread of life, his own Body and Blood, in order to defeat sin, and strengthen us with his very self to make us able to love as he first loved us. Even in the symbolic act of the multiplication of the loaves we see that his love draws others up together with himself into the dynamics of love, both the crowds that contribute the loaves and fish, and the disciples who help distribute them. His Eucharistic feast does even more to draw us into a communion of love, love that is not a mere idea or sentiment, but one which changes first us, and then the world.

Saint Meinrad Schola - Of The Father's Love Begotten

 

5 January 2026 - greater is he

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

We receive from him whatever we ask,
because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.

When we live according to the commandments our lives are well ordered. We recognize that the one who has given us the commandments is good and has done so that we may flourish. Therefore we have confidence to know that our Father desires to give us good things. We also have wisdom that comes from living in the light that causes us to know what good things we request. The law tells us we ought not chase after excesses of power, pride, or sensual pleasure. It tells us that we should pursue love of God and love of neighbor above all. When our goal is to do what pleases God we rise above motives of selfishness and fear that cause us to not receive what we ask "because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions" (see James 4:3). We don't earn answered prayers by accumulating commandment points. While it is true that willful sin can be a hindrance to prayer, answered prayer is always a gift. But normal Christian progress should mean that we grow in confidence about the Father's desire to give us this gift as we come to realize more and more that all that he does is designed to make us thrive.

Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them,
and the way we know that he remains in us
is from the Spirit whom he gave us.

We keep his commandments and thus remain in him. Yet the way that we can be sure that we keep his commandments is not by keeping a meticulous checklist to ensure our fidelity. Rather, it is through relationship with his Spirit who guides us and empowers us that we know that we remain in him. The commandments are not a project for us to complete through effort and gritted teeth. It is instead the Spirit who teaches what we ought to do and also him who gives us the strength to do it. The possibilities for failure when we try it alone are endless, including despair and self-deception. But the Spirit guides us like a personal trainer who has seen every possibility of failure and every hidden secret of success. He knows us better than we know ourselves and is thus able to help us to avoid self-sabotage and to keep us motivated to reach our goal.

Beloved, do not trust every spirit
but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God,
because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

There are, however, other spirits who promise much, but who would sabotage are efforts. These spirits try to masquerade as the Holy Spirit in their efforts to make us believe their bad advice and destructive ideas. Since we have seen how necessary the Holy Spirit is for doing life together with God  we need to be sure that we can remain in contact with the Spirit in spite of imposters. We need to remain grounded in the truth when we are surrounded by a thousand lies.

This is how you can know the Spirit of God:
every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh
belongs to God,
and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus
does not belong to God.

In one way John is simply saying that the Spirit will never contradict the basic core doctrines of the faith. But he is also saying more. He shows us a way to interrogate spirits to determine, not what they say superficially, but their ultimate motivation. Do the ideas they espouse lead to acknowledging Jesus, or not? This is similar to what Paul meant when he wrote to the Corinthians, saying "no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit" (see First Corinthians 12:3). We can thus perform a mental exercise where we imagine whether or not the personification of things we have been discerning would be willing to make this claim, or whether they have other, less noble priorities. This by no means discounts other, more charismatic interpretations of the verse, but is intended for anyone who has yet to find those helpful.

You belong to God, children, and you have conquered them,
for the one who is in you
is greater than the one who is in the world.

The reason we need not be afraid of the spirit of the antichrist, that was in the world at the time of John, and is perhaps even more prominent in our own, is not because of who we are in ourselves. It is rather because the one who is within us is greater than any opposition we could face, physical or spiritual. When we rely on his presence within us there is no force that can take us from his hands and nothing that can prevent us from remaining, from abiding in him.

Peter Furler - Greater Is He