Today’s Walk in the Word

Be faithful until death.     —Revelation 2:10 Polycarp was born in Smyrna in 69 A.D. and died there in 155 A.D. The apostle John’s letter to the church in Smyrna—which included the words, “Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life”—was read to the church in Smyrna when Polycarp […]

She found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz.              —Ruth 2:3 You do what you have to do. For Ruth, that meant scavenging the fields picking up grain that the harvesters had missed so she and her mother-in-law could eat. “Now she just happened to end up in […]

Be holy, because I am holy.             —1 Peter 1:16 Jen didn’t have high hopes about her job interview with the technology-consulting firm. She couldn’t write a line of computer code and knew next to nothing about the business. “We’ll get back to you,” they said. She was surprised when […]

Some people ruin themselves by their own stupid actions.        —Proverbs 19:3 Ali, a vibrant teenager, caved in to peer pressure and became addicted to heroin. Intervention brought her to admission, and she entered rehab. In an interview after treatment, Ali was asked what advice she would give to teenagers about drugs. “Just […]

Lord, I want to see.     —Luke 18:41 Last year I was diagnosed with a detached retina in my right eye. For several weeks after surgery, I could see nothing with that eye, and for several months, very little. It awakened my awareness of how blind and deaf I am to many of God’s […]

Love is patient. —1 Corinthians 13:4 In Paul’s inspired definition of love, the first ingredient is patience. Three objects of patience come to mind: Be patient with yourself. By the time you’re twenty-one, you are as tall as you will ever be. But no matter how many candles are on your cake, your spiritual growth […]

People did whatever they felt like doing.                             —Judges 17:6 Micah’s mother was less than a mother should be: she hired a silversmith to cast an idol for her son. Such was the culture of the times. The judges were gone, and […]

Well done, good and faithful servant!                      —Matthew 25:23 Perusing the thirty-two obituaries in last Sunday’s Houston Chronicle, I noticed that every one of the deceased was a saint—not a bad apple in the bunch. I have no quarrel with praising the dear departed’s good points […]

Love never fails. —1 Corinthians 13:8 To the radiant young royals standing at the altar in Westminster Abbey, the presiding Archbishop of York gave this sage counsel: “We wish you happiness, but you will not find happiness by seeking it. You will find it by scattering it. Let each of you make the other happy; […]

Night is coming, when no one can work.                                 —John 9:4 When the Israelites were rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, Nehemiah said they worked “from the first light of dawn till the stars came out” (Neh 4:21). The period between […]