Today’s Walk in the Word

It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.         —Mark 2:17 Four men brought a paralyzed friend to Jesus. It took some creative doing to get him into Jesus’ presence, but they got it done. Jesus was touched. Yes, he would heal the incapacitated man. But before healing […]

Rise, let us go! —Matthew 26:46 Crushed with anguish over his approaching crucifixion, Jesus stumbled deeper into Gethsemane to pray. “Stay here and keep watch with me,” he implored his three best friends. And three disappointing times, he came back to find them sleeping instead of watching. Feelings of sorrow and shame must have been […]

Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.         —Matthew 6:21 Here is the shortest course on investment decisions ever presented: “No one can serve two masters . . . You cannot serve both God and Money” (Mt 6:24). This course isn’t one that we encourage our children to sign […]

He being dead still speaks.            —Hebrews 11:4 You know the game. Someone says a word, and you respond with the first thing that comes to mind when you hear that word. Try it. Hitler. Mother Teresa. The first probably elicited contempt; the second, admiration. American poet James Whitcomb Riley wrote […]

You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.     —Psalm 139:1 Reese Kauffman’s mother had a bedtime dictum: every night during Reese’s formative years, she said, “Brush your teeth and read your Bible.” So, every night before lights out, he brushed his teeth and read a chapter in his Bible. In his adult […]

Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.                                    —Romans 12:2 Max Lucado wrote a book which he simply titled 3:16. He knew that most people who purchase religious books would connect 3:16 with John 3:16, one of the […]

The Spirit himself intercedes for us.                   —Romans 8:26 Aphasia: loss or impairment of the power to use or comprehend words (Merriam-Webster) I frequently get stopped in my tracks while writing these essays when I can’t come up with the word I need to describe what I’m […]

I will trust and not be afraid.                     —Isaiah 12:2 News outlets deliver a continuous stream of wild-eyed crazies massacring schoolchildren, shooting up theaters, planting bombs where people work and play. They display nutcase leaders flexing their muscles and annihilating their enemies. This endless recital of […]

Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.                    —Matthew 25:40 In the final judgment, Jesus will say to some, I was hungry, thirsty, a stranger, naked, sick, imprisoned. You fed me, befriended me, clothed me, cared for […]

I will not neglect your word.             —Psalm 119:16 I am impressed with the attention devoted to Bible reading by earlier generations. Cranmer’s Prayer Book lectionary, first published in 1549, presented daily morning and evening prayers that took Anglicans through the Old Testament once and the New Testament twice a […]