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Genesis 17:15-27. Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?
Abraham is having a hard time believing God. His wife Sarah is ninety, and God claims she will have a child. After years of tryin...
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Psalm 60. O God, you have cast us off and broken us; you have been angry; oh, take us back to you again.
Have you ever wondered why some psalms are in brackets in our Daily Office Lectionary, and therefore in Forward Day by Day? Whole psalms that are bra...
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Galatians 1:11-24. I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin.
Last week we remembered the confession of Peter. Today it is the conversion of Paul. Two very different stories: Peter’s conf...
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John 5:1-18. [Jesus] said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up.”
Read this exchange closely: Jesus asks the sick man if he wants to be healed. T...
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John 4:43-54. Now this was the second sign that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee.
Jesus is back in Cana, the place where he had turned water into wine at a wedding feast. This time he heals an official’s son. The writer of the Gospel of Jo...
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Mark 1:14-20. Immediately they left their nets and followed him.
We often frown on impulsive behavior. Sudden changes of direction in a person’s life are considered suspicious. “Where did that come from?” we say, or “She obviously didn’t put a ...
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Psalm 30. You have turned my wailing into dancing.
The psalms often take us on a roller coaster. A single psalm can go from an angry outburst to words of deep trust and consolation. Wailing can turn quickly into dancing and back to wailing again.
In his...
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Genesis 11:27—12:8. Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.
God said to Abram, “Go.” And what did Abram do? Abram went. It was as simple as that. He didn’t know where he was going. Childl...
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Genesis 11:1-9. Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves.
They thought they were invincible. They built a tower to reach into the heavens. God saw it and destroyed it. The people w...
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Matthew 16:13-19. Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Peter stands out as the first one to proclaim that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God. Because of this Jesus said that Peter would be the rock on which the c...
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Hebrews 5:7-14. You need milk, not solid food; for everyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is unskilled in the word of righteousness.
I remember when I first fed solid food to my infant son. I followed directions, introducing him first to rice...
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Genesis 8:6-22. Then God said to Noah, “Go out of the ark.”
Forty days, and the flood finally begins to subside. Seven days later, Noah sends out a dove. The dove flies back with an olive branch in its beak. Seven more days and he sends the dove out ...
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Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17. For you yourself created my inmost parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I once had my wallet stolen. There wasn’t much money in it, but I had to cancel my credit cards, apply for a duplicate driver’s license, and ...
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Genesis 6:9-22. Make yourself an ark of cypress wood.…This is how you are to make it.
Yesterday I reflected on how the path of life is not always clear. Today, we hear God telling Noah to build the ark. That’s what I want! God tells Noah exactly what...
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Psalm 16. You will show me the path of life.
The psalmist says these words so confidently. It isn’t a plea: “Please God, show me the path of life.” It isn’t said in retrospect: “God showed me the path of life.” It is a declarative statement: ...
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Psalm 16. You will show me the path of life.
The psalmist says these words so confidently. It isn’t a plea: “Please God, show me the path of life.” It isn’t said in retrospect: “God showed me the path of life.” It is a declarative statement: ...
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Psalm 18:21-50. You, O Lord, are my lamp; my God, you make my darkness bright.
It isn’t halfway through the month of January, yet Christmas feels like a distant memory. Perhaps we are let down because it wasn’t what we’d hoped for, or because it we...
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John 1:(29-34)35-42. They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus’ first followers are disciples of John the Baptist. John points to Jesus and says, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” They ...
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Genesis 3:1-24. The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.”
Confronted by the Lord God and asked if he had eaten from the forbidden tree, Adam’s response was immediately to point his finger els...
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Psalm 1. They are like trees planted by streams of water, bearing fruit in due season, with leaves that do not wither.
So writes the psalmist about those “who have not walked in the counsel of the wicked.” I find myself wondering about what those wic...
