Today’s Walk in the Word

By faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.      —Hebrews 11:4 Punch the pause button and stare into space just long enough to name three people who have had a major role in shaping your life. They may have joined the ranks of the dear departed, but death has not ended your […]

Get rid of all bitterness.     —Ephesians 4:31 If you’ve been around a spell, you have been mistreated … by a spouse, a parent, a child, a teacher, an employer, a co-worker, a friend. And you’ve probably been waylaid by an agonizing chapter in your life: divorce, failure, betrayal, illness, loss. The natural reaction […]

By this gospel you are saved.      —1 Corinthians 15:2 Gospel means “Good News.” But before there is good news there is bad news. The bad news is that we are sinners: transgressors and trespassers; derelicts and deadbeats; reprobates and renegades; frauds and phonies. You can’t make us good by giving us a good […]

I have come into the world as a light.                     —John 12:46 Isaiah saw people walking in darkness. So do we. Darkness permeates our world, our towns, the conduct of many who govern, the lives of some we love … and too often our own lives. […]

It is he who made us, and we are his.                      —Psalm 100:3 Jesus left his church in the hands of eleven men. Ornate cathedrals in Europe depict them in stained glass and sculpted marble as seraphic saints. Truth be told they were men of moderate […]

Anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.                        —Luke 14:27 You make some decisions that aren’t life-or-death important: where you eat, what you wear, where you live. And some that are bottom-line crucial; decisions that determine direction and […]

Do not be anxious about anything.                 —Philippians 4:6 How did Paul come up with that Pollyanna line? He was in the pokey when he wrote it, and had reason to be anxious about everything. He wasn’t delusional; didn’t deny that bad things happen. You’re going to have […]

Teach us to number our days.               —Psalm 90:12 Frederick Buechner said it takes about one-sixth as long to write Xmas as it does to write Christmas. “If you do your cards by hand,” he said, “it is possible to save as much as seventy-five or eighty minutes a […]

Even to your old age … I am he who will sustain you.         —Isaiah 46:4 Old age is sort of like living in an old house. The plumbing doesn’t work right; the windows are streaked and hard to see through; there may be a few bats in the attic; the exterior […]

Today salvation has come to this house.                         —Luke 19:9 Zacchaeus was a runt and a crook—a bagman for Rome’s IRS. He swindled tax payers; gave the government their take and pocketed the rest. When people saw him slithering down the street, they quickly […]