In today’s reflection, we finish Daniel chapter 5 and hear Daniel interpret the writing on the wall for King Belshazzar. Belshazzar offers Daniel power, prestige, and a gold chain, but Daniel makes it clear that he isn’t serving God for earthly rewards. Daniel reminds Belshazzar of what happened to Nebuchadnezzar and points out that Belshazzar knew the story but failed to humble himself before God. The contrast between Daniel and Belshazzar challenges us to ask why we do what we do. Are we seeking recognition, approval, and earthly rewards, or are we serving simply because God has given us a calling? Pride leads us away from God, while humility and obedience lead us toward him. As we finish Daniel 5, we’re reminded that the path of Jesus is always the path of humility, faithfulness, and obedience.

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Well, good morning. It’s good to be with you on this Friday morning. I hope you’ve had a great week, and I hope you’ve got some big plans for the weekend.

I know we do. We’ve got a lot going on, and as I mentioned yesterday, we’re excited because it’s football season! Starkville is going to be rocking tomorrow night for Mississippi State versus ULM.

And as you make your plans to come to Mississippi State this weekend—maybe you’re already on the road, maybe you’re coming tomorrow morning—bring your church clothes! Make plans to stay and worship with us.

My joke as I’ve been transitioning to Starkville First has been that my goal is for us to be everybody’s second-favorite church. So if you’re coming to Starkville this weekend, bring your church clothes. We’d love for you to worship with us at 10:00 for our traditional worship service. We would be honored if you’re in town and choose to stay one more night and come to church with us at Starkville First United Methodist Church on Sunday morning.

So bring your church clothes!

Today we’re going to finish up Daniel 5: 13-30, which gives us the interpretation of the writing on the wall that we talked about yesterday.

Daniel is brought before the king, and Belshazzar says, essentially, “Are you Daniel? One of the exiles of Judah whom my father brought here? I’ve heard that you have a spirit of the gods in you, and that you have enlightenment, understanding, and excellent wisdom.”

He tells Daniel that all the wise men and enchanters have been brought in, but none of them could interpret the writing. But he’s heard that Daniel can do it. And then comes the offer: if Daniel can read and interpret the writing, he’ll be clothed in purple, have a gold chain placed around his neck, and be made the third-highest ruler in the kingdom.

And Daniel’s response is great.

He basically says, “Keep your gifts. Give your rewards to somebody else. Nevertheless, I’ll read the writing and tell you what it means.”

I have to admit, because we’re talking about football this weekend, when I read about Daniel being given a purple robe and a gold chain, I can’t help but think about the turnover chain you see in college football. You know, somebody gets an interception or causes a fumble, and suddenly they’ve got this big chain around their neck with some symbol from the school.

I just picture Daniel standing there and the king saying, “Daniel, you got it right. Here’s your turnover chain!”

I don’t know why that amuses me. Maybe it’s just me.

But Daniel doesn’t care about the chain.

He doesn’t care about the purple robe.

He doesn’t care about the earthly reward.

And then Daniel gives Belshazzar the history lesson he desperately needs.

He reminds him about his father, Nebuchadnezzar. God had given Nebuchadnezzar kingship, greatness, glory, and majesty. He had tremendous power. People trembled before him. He could lift people up or bring them down.

But then his heart was lifted up. His spirit became hardened. He became proud.

And God humbled him.

Nebuchadnezzar was driven from human society, and his mind became like that of an animal until he learned this lesson: the Most High God has sovereignty over the kingdoms of mortals and gives them to whomever he wishes.

And then Daniel looks at Belshazzar and essentially says, “You knew all of this. You knew what happened to your father. And you still didn’t humble yourself.”

In fact, you went even further.

You took the sacred vessels from the temple of God and used them for your party. You drank from them. You praised the gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone—gods that cannot see, hear, or understand.

But you did not honor the God who holds your very breath in his hand.

And then Daniel says that line that I think is so important:

The God whose power is your very breath, and to whom belong all your ways—you have not honored.

And so the writing on the wall is interpreted:

Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin.

God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end.

You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.

Your kingdom will be divided and given to the Medes and Persians.

And that very night, Belshazzar is killed, and the kingdom passes to Darius the Mede.

The apple didn’t fall very far from the tree, did it?

Nebuchadnezzar refused to acknowledge God, and he paid the price for his pride. But Belshazzar made an even worse mistake.

Nebuchadnezzar was arrogant, but eventually he humbled himself and acknowledged God.

Belshazzar knew the story. He knew what had happened to his father. He knew what God had done.

And yet he chose the same path anyway.

In fact, he went further by dishonoring the sacred things of God.

Yesterday we talked about what made those vessels sacred. It wasn’t the gold or the silver. What made them sacred was their purpose. They had been consecrated for the worship of God.

And Belshazzar took something that had been set apart for God and treated it as though it were ordinary.

His pride led him down that path.

But I think there’s another lesson here for us.

Look at Daniel.

The king is living in a world of power, influence, and earthly reward. So when he wants Daniel to do something, he assumes he can buy Daniel’s loyalty.

“I’ll give you a purple robe. I’ll give you a gold chain. I’ll give you status.”

But Daniel says, “I don’t need any of that.”

Daniel isn’t doing this for the praise of the king.

He isn’t doing it for the reward.

He’s doing it because God has given him a calling, and he is going to be faithful to that calling.

And I think that gives us a question we need to ask ourselves:

Why do we do what we do?

Why do we serve?

Why do we give?

Why do we care for people?

Why do we come to church?

Why do we do the things we do?

Are we doing them for earthly reward?

Are we doing them for praise?

Are we doing them because we want somebody to notice us?

Or are we doing them simply because God has given us this gift, this calling, this purpose?

I was talking with someone yesterday about how sometimes we all need to hear a word of correction that we don’t want to hear.

I’ll put it this way: we all need somebody in our life who we’ve given permission to call us an idiot.

And when that person calls us an idiot, we need to listen!

The problem with Belshazzar was that apparently he didn’t have anybody like that.

Who thought it was a good idea to bring out the sacred vessels from the temple and use them for a party?

Apparently nobody was willing to say, “Hey, king, maybe this isn’t such a good idea.”

That’s what pride does.

Pride isolates us from the people who might tell us the truth.

And sometimes we need people who love us enough to tell us the truth.

Daniel understood who he was.

He understood where his purpose came from.

He understood that God was the one who gave him his very breath.

He didn’t need the king’s approval because he already knew whose approval mattered.

He didn’t need the king’s gifts because he already knew the greatest gift he had been given was the gift of serving God.

And I think that’s the choice before us.

We have the path of Belshazzar—the path of pride, arrogance, self-importance, and the constant need for approval.

Or we have the path of Daniel—the path of humility, obedience, faithfulness, and service.

And the path of Jesus is never the path of arrogance.

It just isn’t.

It is always the path of humility.

It is always the path of obedience.

It is always the path of trusting God.

So today, as we look at our own lives, let’s make sure we’re choosing the right path.

Let’s make sure we’re following the path of Daniel.

Let’s make sure that what we do, we do not for earthly praise or earthly reward, but because we understand that God is the one who gives us our very breath.

So, hey, thanks for being with us once again.

And if you’re coming to Starkville this weekend, bring your church clothes! Make plans to stay with us and worship with us Sunday morning.

Of course, we’re already in Starkville, but we’d love to have you too.

Have a great Friday, have a great weekend, and I’ll see you Sunday.

In today’s reflection from Daniel 5, we look at the famous story of the writing on the wall and, more specifically, at the sacred vessels Belshazzar took from the temple and used at his feast. That leads us to think about what makes something sacred. A church building, an altar, communion vessels, or even Scripture are not holy simply because of the materials they are made from; they are sacred because they have been set apart for the worship of God. And while we are grateful for sacred spaces, our relationship with God isn’t limited to a sanctuary. Through God’s grace, we can find sacred moments in our homes, our cars, our workplaces, coffee shops, and throughout our ordinary lives. Our souls are longing for the divine, so today we’re invited to slow down, look for those moments, and enter into the sacred presence of God wherever we find ourselves.

Join us for our daily reflections. In 10 short minutes, we’ll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help us better understand God’s Word.

You can read today’s passage here.

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Good morning. It’s good to be with you on this Thursday morning. I hope you’re doing well and that you’ve had a great week. Things are hopping around here. Mississippi State has a home game this Saturday, so Starkville is getting ready for football. It’s back. SEC football is back. I’m looking forward to seeing what life is like with almost 70,000 of my closest friends here this weekend!

So if you’re making your plans to come to Starkville, I’ll talk more about this tomorrow, but bring your church clothes and stay one extra night. We’d love to have you worship with us here at Starkville First.

Today we’re going to be reading from Daniel chapter 5. I’m going to combine two sections because I think they flow together and help us understand what’s happening. We’re going to read Daniel 5:1–12, which includes the great feast and the writing on the wall.

Belshazzar, the king, made a great festival for a thousand of his lords, and he was drinking wine in the presence of the thousand. Under the influence of the wine, Belshazzar commanded that the gold and silver vessels that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple in Jerusalem be brought in so that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines could drink from them.

So they brought in the vessels that had been taken from the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem. They drank from them and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.

Immediately, the fingers of a human hand appeared and began writing on the plaster of the wall of the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote. His face turned pale. His thoughts terrified him, his limbs gave way, and his knees began knocking together.

The king called for the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the diviners. Whoever could read the writing and tell him its interpretation would be clothed in purple, receive a gold chain, and be made third in the kingdom.

But none of the wise men could read the writing or tell the king what it meant.

Then the queen came in and reminded Belshazzar about Daniel. She said there was a man in the kingdom who had been endowed with wisdom and understanding, a man who had served Nebuchadnezzar and had demonstrated an extraordinary ability to interpret difficult things.

In other words, once again, somebody needs to give these Babylonians a to-do list or maybe a few Post-it notes, because they seem to keep forgetting Daniel!

How many times have we seen this already? Daniel has interpreted dreams. Daniel has demonstrated wisdom. Daniel has shown again and again that he has a gift from God for understanding things that other people cannot understand. And yet, when the crisis comes, they seem to forget about him.

This is where we get that famous phrase, “the writing on the wall.”

There are certain stories and images from Scripture that have escaped the Bible and become part of our everyday language. We may not know all the details of the biblical story, but we know what it means when somebody says, “The writing is on the wall.”

We talk about David and Goliath. Every March Madness, somebody is going to be the David facing the Goliath. We talk about Noah’s ark. If somebody is trying to save everything from a disaster, they’re going to joke about putting it all on the ark. And when somebody is facing a difficult situation, we talk about going through the lion’s den.

These biblical images have become part of our cultural language.

And the writing on the wall is one of those images.

Now, we’ll talk tomorrow about exactly what the writing means, but you can probably figure out already that it isn’t a birthday message from God. This is not God writing, “Congratulations! You’ve won!”

Something is happening here.

And I think it’s important to notice what led up to it.

The text tells us that Belshazzar was under the influence of wine. He was not thinking clearly. And in that state, he commanded that the sacred vessels from the temple in Jerusalem be brought into this party.

These were not just ordinary cups and bowls. These were vessels that had been consecrated for the worship of God.

And I think there’s something important here for us to think about when we talk about sacredness.

This sanctuary where I’m sitting right now is a holy and sacred place. But there is nothing inherently holy about the materials that make up this room.

The pews are made of wood. The wood came from trees. The fabric came from whatever fabric is made from. The stained-glass windows are made of glass. The altar is made from materials that, in and of themselves, are just materials.

There’s nothing inherently holy about a pew. You can find pews in all kinds of places.

What makes these things sacred is the purpose for which they have been set apart.

They have been consecrated. They have been given over for the worship of the Triune God.

That’s what makes them holy.

The communion table is sacred because of its purpose. The chalice and paten are sacred because of their purpose. The stoles that clergy wear are sacred because of their purpose. The Scriptures we read are sacred because of their purpose.

These things have been set apart to draw us closer to God, to help us worship, to help us remember who God is, and to help us know and love God more deeply.

And I think we need that in our lives.

We need sacred places.

We need sacred spaces.

We need times that are intentionally set apart for God.

We need moments when we stop and say, “This time is for God.”

When you pray, that time becomes sacred because you have set it aside to commune with God.

When you read Scripture, that time becomes sacred because you have set it aside to listen for God.

When you come into this sanctuary and sit at the altar, there is something powerful about knowing that this space has been set apart for worship.

One of the great perks of working at a church is that my office here at Starkville First is literally about ten feet from the sanctuary. I can walk out of my office, walk into the sanctuary, and pray at the altar whenever I want to.

That’s pretty phenomenal.

But here’s the thing: I can also have a sacred moment somewhere else.

I can pray in a coffee shop.

I can pray in my car.

I can pray at home.

I can find a sacred moment walking outside.

The place itself isn’t what makes the moment sacred. It is the purpose for which I have entered that moment.

And I think that’s important because our souls need sacredness.

Our souls are aching for the divine.

Our lives are longing for places of rest, worship, purpose, and connection with God.

We need places where we can step away from the noise and remember that there is something bigger than us.

And yes, I am incredibly thankful for churches and sanctuaries and altars and all of the sacred spaces that have been intentionally set apart for worship. We need those places.

But through the grace of God, we can also find sacred moments throughout our ordinary lives.

So today, look for the sacred.

Look for the places and moments where you can stop, breathe, pray, worship, and remember that God is present.

Our souls are aching for the divine.

And through God’s grace, may we find it today.

Thanks for being with us. Tomorrow we’re going to look at the writing on the wall and what Daniel says it means.

Have a great day, and I’ll see you in the morning.

In Daniel 4, Nebuchadnezzar finally comes to his senses after being humbled by his own pride. He had become so convinced of his own power and greatness that he forgot the most important truth: God is God, and we are not. In this reflection, we look briefly at the historical questions surrounding Nebuchadnezzar’s period of madness, but more importantly, we consider the spiritual truth at the heart of the story. Pride can convince us that we are in control, that we don’t need God or anyone else, and that we can manage life on our own. But Nebuchadnezzar discovers that humility brings him back to himself. We don’t have to control everything, have everything figured out, or carry everything alone. When we recognize our dependence on God, release our need for control, and live with humility, we can begin to find peace, purpose, and sanity again.

Join us for our daily reflections. In 10 short minutes, we’ll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help us better understand God’s Word.

You can read today’s passage here.

Click here if you’d like to join our GroupMe and receive this each morning at 7:00 a.m. CST.

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Or, if you’d like to read the transcript of the video, keep reading!

Good morning. It’s good to be with you on this Wednesday morning. I hope you’re well and that your week is going well.

I’m looking forward to today. Wednesdays are always fun, especially now that we’re getting back into our regular rhythms with school starting. We have Bible study at 10:00 this morning and another Bible study tonight at 6:00 after our meal here at Historical First. So if you’re around the Starkville area and you’re looking for a good Bible study to be part of on Wednesdays, we’d love to have you.

Wednesday morning at 10:00, we’re studying James. Then tonight at 6:00, we’re studying Matthew. Either way, we’d love to have you as we dig a little deeper into God’s Word.

Today we’re going to finish Daniel chapter 4. Yesterday we read about Nebuchadnezzar’s arrogance and how that arrogance brought judgment upon him. Today we get to see his response to what happened to him.

Let’s read Daniel 4:34–37:

“When that period was over, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me. I blessed the Most High and praised and honored the one who lives forever. For his sovereignty is an everlasting sovereignty, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does what he wills with the host of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth. There is no one who can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What are you doing?’

At that time my reason returned to me, and my majesty and splendor were restored to me for the glory of my kingdom. My counselors and my lords sought me out, I was reestablished over my kingdom, and still more greatness was added to me.

Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all his works are truth and his ways are justice; and he is able to bring low those who walk in pride.”

I want to begin by talking a little bit about Nebuchadnezzar and where this story fits into the historical record.

One of the things I think is fascinating when we study Scripture is biblical archaeology. I’ve talked about this before in Bible studies, and I’ve probably mentioned it here, but I think it’s worth remembering how much historical evidence we have for the people, places, nations, and events that appear in Scripture.

Daniel is an Old Testament book connected to the period of the Babylonian exile. We have ancient manuscripts of the Old Testament, including the Dead Sea Scrolls, that give us tremendous evidence for the reliability of the biblical text.

And Nebuchadnezzar himself is not a fictional character. He was a real Babylonian king. We have extensive historical evidence for his reign and for Babylon.

But what about this particular story? Do we have a historical record outside of the Bible that says Nebuchadnezzar went through this period of madness?

Well, not definitively.

There are some ancient sources that describe Nebuchadnezzar as being unwell or behaving strangely, and there is also an ancient account of a Babylonian king whose story has some similarities to what we find here in Daniel. But we don’t have a historical document that says, “Nebuchadnezzar went mad for seven years and lived like an animal,” exactly as Daniel describes it.

So I think it’s important to be honest about that.

We can’t definitively prove this particular episode from outside historical sources. But neither can we disprove it. There is enough historical context around Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon, and this period of history that we certainly don’t have to dismiss the account as historically impossible.

But here’s the thing: history is not faith.

And I think sometimes we can get so bogged down in proving every historical detail that we miss the greater point of the story.

The greater point is this:

Nebuchadnezzar’s pride had made him lose touch with reality.

His pride unmoored him.

His pride cost him.

His pride embarrassed him.

His pride ultimately brought him down.

And it wasn’t until he humbled himself and acknowledged God’s goodness and God’s sovereignty that his reason returned to him.

I think there is something incredibly important for us in that.

One of the bedrocks of addiction recovery and twelve-step programs is the recognition that we need help. We need God. We need other people. We cannot do this by ourselves.

And I think that’s a pretty good bedrock for faith and for life, too.

Our pride can destroy us.

It can make fools of us.

It can convince us that we have everything under control when we really don’t.

It can make us think that we are self-sufficient when we are actually deeply dependent upon God and upon other people.

There’s that old saying that competition is the thief of joy. Well, I think pride can be the thief of peace.

Because pride tells us, “I’ve got this.”

“I can handle it.”

“I don’t need anybody.”

“I’m in control.”

But eventually life reminds us that we aren’t.

Nebuchadnezzar had to learn that lesson in a pretty dramatic way. Maybe you haven’t been driven out of your kingdom. Maybe you haven’t grown hair like eagle feathers or fingernails like bird claws. Hopefully you haven’t spent your mornings covered in dew eating grass!

But I imagine that most of us, at some point in our lives, have had our pride cause us to act in ways that made the people who love us worry about us.

I know I have.

And I’m guessing you probably have, too.

Nebuchadnezzar shows us a way out of the trap that pride creates.

It’s simply this:

Admit that you are not God.

That sounds simple, but it can be incredibly difficult.

We want control.

I want control.

I want to know what’s going to happen. I want to know how things are going to work out. I want to be able to fix things. I want to be able to make things right.

And sometimes it isn’t until we finally release that control that we begin to find sanity.

We begin to find peace.

We begin to find purpose.

Nebuchadnezzar thought he was God.

And in that misunderstanding—in that arrogance and pride—he lost himself.

But when he finally understood who God was, he found himself again.

And maybe that’s the word somebody needs today.

You don’t have to be God.

You don’t have to control everything.

You don’t have to have everything figured out.

You don’t have to carry everything by yourself.

You can let go.

You can ask for help.

You can trust God.

You can admit that you are not God.

Friends, you’re awesome. You’re great. I love you, and I’m thankful for you. I’m thankful that you spend some of your morning with us in Scripture, and I hope these reflections are a blessing to you.

But you’re not God.

And neither am I.

None of us are God.

And if we think we are in control of everything, we’re wrong.

It is only when we humble ourselves and recognize that God is God and we are not that we can begin to find peace.

Our pride can drive us mad.

But humility can show us the way home.

So today, let’s lean not on our own understanding. Let’s acknowledge God, trust God, and allow God to make our paths straight.

Let’s live today in the power of grace and humility.

Thanks for being with us. Have a great rest of your day, and I’ll see you tomorrow.

In Daniel 4, Nebuchadnezzar has a dream warning him that his pride and confidence in his own power are leading him toward a great humbling. Daniel interprets the dream and tells the king to turn from his ways and recognize that God is sovereign, but Nebuchadnezzar doesn’t listen. A year later, he looks over Babylon and proudly declares that he has built it all by his own power and majesty—and almost immediately, everything is taken from him. In this reflection, we talk about one of the most important lessons we can learn from Nebuchadnezzar: God is God, and we are not. Every good gift we have, including our abilities, opportunities, accomplishments, and even our ability to work hard, ultimately comes from God. We don’t want to spend our lives “kicking against the goads.” Instead, let’s recognize God’s gifts, give God the glory, and live with humility and gratitude.

Join us for our daily reflections. In 10 short minutes, we’ll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help us better understand God’s Word.

You can read today’s passage here.

Click here if you’d like to join our GroupMe and receive this each morning at 7:00 a.m. CST.

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Or, if you’d like to read the transcript of the video, keep reading!

Good morning. It’s good to be with you on this Tuesday morning. I hope you’re doing well and that you’ve got a good day planned. I tell people that we’re in that season now where September has arrived, school is in session here in Starkville, the college kids are going about their daily routines, and we’re getting back into the regular rhythms of life. And as I’ve mentioned before, I’m a man of routines. I like routines. I appreciate knowing what’s coming next. So I’m glad that we’re settling back into the rhythms of this season.

I hope part of your routine is these daily reflections. I hope they’re helpful to you and that they add something to your faith and to your life.

Today we’re going to do something a little different with Daniel chapter 4. There are several sections in the chapter, and honestly, I really want to look at the first three sections together. That’s verses 1 through 33, which is a lot of Scripture, so I’m not going to read every single verse. I’m going to hit some of the highlights and let’s see what’s happening here.

The first part is basically Nebuchadnezzar telling his story. He says, “I was living in peace in my home and prospering in my palace. Life was good. Everything was going great.” And then he had a dream.

He says that this dream frightened him. His thoughts and the visions in his head terrified him, so he called all the wise men of Babylon together and asked them to tell him what the dream meant. And, of course, they couldn’t.

Then Daniel comes in. By this point Daniel is in a position of power and influence because of his previous interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. Nebuchadnezzar says that he knows Daniel has the spirit of the holy gods in him and that no mystery is too difficult for him.

So he tells Daniel the dream.

Nebuchadnezzar saw a great tree in the middle of the earth. It was enormous. It was strong. Its top reached the heavens. It was beautiful, it produced abundant fruit, and animals found shelter under it. But then a holy watcher came down from heaven and said, “Cut down the tree. Cut off its branches. Strip away its leaves and scatter its fruit. But leave the stump and the roots in the ground.”

And then the dream takes an even stranger turn. The mind of the person represented by the tree would be changed from a human mind to the mind of an animal, and seven times would pass over him.

Daniel hears this and is deeply troubled. He tells Nebuchadnezzar that he wishes this dream were about his enemies, because he knows what it means.

The tree is Nebuchadnezzar.

Nebuchadnezzar has grown great and strong. His greatness has reached the heavens, and his sovereignty has extended to the ends of the earth. But Daniel tells him that the tree is going to be cut down. He is going to be humbled. He is going to lose his position and his power until he learns that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of mortals and gives them to whomever he wishes.

And Daniel even gives him some advice. He says, essentially, “Repent. Turn from your sins. Practice righteousness. Show mercy to the oppressed. Maybe your prosperity will be prolonged.”

But Nebuchadnezzar doesn’t listen.

A year later, he’s walking on the roof of his palace, looking out over Babylon, and he says, “Is this not magnificent Babylon, which I have built by my own power and for my own glory and majesty?”

And while those words are still in his mouth, judgment comes.

He loses his kingdom. He is driven away from human society. He lives among the animals. He eats grass like an ox. He is humbled in a profound way.

And I think there is a really powerful lesson here for all of us.

Nebuchadnezzar is the great king. He is powerful. He has accomplished incredible things. He has built Babylon into this magnificent kingdom. And yet he has forgotten something incredibly important:

God is God, and we are not.

That may be one of the most important lessons we can ever learn.

There’s a reason Proverbs talks about pride going before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. Pride has a way of convincing us that we are more powerful, more important, more capable, and more in control than we really are.

We can begin to think that we have made ourselves.

But we haven’t.

If you have worked hard and accomplished a lot in your life, who gave you the ability to work? Who gave you your health? Who gave you the opportunities you’ve had? Who gave you the people who helped you along the way?

If you’re brilliant and you’ve accomplished great things because of your intellect, who gave you that mind?

If you have musical talent or athletic ability, who gave you that talent?

If you’re a gifted administrator or teacher, who gave you those gifts?

If you were born into wealth or opportunity, who gave you the circumstances into which you were born?

James tells us that every good and perfect gift is from above. If there is something good in our lives, ultimately, it is a gift from God.

Even our ability to work hard is a gift from God.

Even the things we think we accomplished all on our own were accomplished using gifts that God gave us.

God is God, and we are not.

Nebuchadnezzar had to learn that lesson the hard way. He had to be humbled. He had to lose things. He had to experience embarrassment and suffering before he finally understood that he wasn’t the one in charge.

And that makes me think of one of my favorite lines in Scripture. In one of Paul’s retellings of his conversion in Acts, Jesus says to Saul, “Why do you kick against the goads?”

The goad was basically an ancient version of the rumble strips you find on the side of the road. You know what happens when you drift off the road and your tires hit those things? They get your attention really quickly.

That’s what the goads did. They were there to keep animals moving in the right direction. If an animal kicked against them, it only hurt the animal more.

And sometimes I think we do the same thing.

We kick against the goads.

God gives us reminders. God gives us opportunities to turn around. God gives us moments where we recognize that we aren’t in control. And instead of listening, we keep kicking against the goads.

Nebuchadnezzar had plenty of opportunities to learn this lesson before he finally did.

So maybe today is a good day for us to learn it a little more easily.

God is God, and we are not.

Everything we have is ultimately a gift. Every ability. Every opportunity. Every accomplishment. Every good thing.

So let’s not take credit for what God has given us.

Let’s give God praise.

And let’s remember that humility isn’t about thinking less of ourselves. It’s about remembering that everything good in us and everything good we have ultimately comes from God.

Nebuchadnezzar had to lose almost everything before he learned that lesson.

Let’s not make the same mistake.

Let’s give God thanks today for all that God has given us, for all that God has allowed us to accomplish, and for all that God continues to do in our lives.

Thanks for being with us today. Tomorrow we’re going to pick up with Nebuchadnezzar coming to his senses, if you will, and we’ll see what happens when he finally recognizes who is really in charge.

Have a great day. I’ll see you tomorrow.

Today we finish the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace and focus on the fourth person who appears with them in the fire. Their story reminds us that faithfulness doesn’t mean we will never face difficult seasons—in fact, sometimes we can find ourselves in the fire precisely because we are trying to be faithful to God. But the promise of Scripture isn’t that we will never walk through the fire; it is that we will never walk through it alone. God is present with us in the hardest moments of our lives, and when we aren’t the ones in the fire, we are called to be willing to walk into it with someone else. We may not be able to fix their situation or explain their suffering, but sometimes simply being present and reminding someone that they are not alone is exactly what they need.

Join us for our daily reflections. In 10 short minutes, we’ll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help us better understand God’s Word.

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Good morning. It’s good to be with you on this Monday morning. I hope you are well and had a great weekend. I hope everything is good as we start this week together. We’ve got a lot of good stuff going on, and I’m looking forward to the week ahead.

And hey, I think this is the week football starts, isn’t it? A lot of college football is getting started this week, so pray for us all.

And if you’re planning your trip up to Starkville for a State football game, make plans to stay the night and come worship with us at First UMC. We’d love to have you. Wherever you’re coming from across Mississippi, if you’re coming to Starkville for the ballgame, come stay the night and come to church with us downtown. We’d love to see you.

Today we’re going to finish the story of the golden statue and the fiery furnace. We’re going to look at Daniel 3: 19-30.

Nebuchadnezzar becomes furious with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego because they refused to bow down to his statue. He orders the furnace to be heated seven times hotter than normal, and he commands some of the strongest soldiers in his army to bind them and throw them into the fire.

The furnace is so hot that the men who throw them in are killed by the flames.

And then Nebuchadnezzar looks into the furnace.

And he sees something he wasn’t expecting.

He says, “Didn’t we throw three men into the fire?”

They say, “Yes, King.”

And he says, “Well, I see four men walking around in the fire, and they aren’t hurt.”

And then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego come out of the furnace, and everybody looks at them.

Their clothes aren’t burned.

Their hair isn’t singed.

They don’t even smell like smoke.

And Nebuchadnezzar says, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who sent his angel and delivered his servants who trusted in him.”

So we have this incredible scene of these three men being thrown into the fire, and yet they aren’t alone in the fire.

There are four people in there.

And there are different traditions about who that fourth person is. Some Jewish traditions understand the figure to be an angel. Some Christians have interpreted it as an appearance of Christ. The text itself talks about an angel, and that’s where I tend to land. I think this is an image of God’s presence with them, God’s angel being sent to protect them and to be with them in the fire.

And I think that’s a beautiful image.

It reminds me of Isaiah 43, where God says that when you pass through the waters, God will be with you, and when you walk through the fire, you will not be burned.

Because that’s the thing I really want us to remember today:

God is with us in the fire.

We don’t always like the fire.

None of us want to go through difficult times. None of us wake up in the morning and say, “Boy, I hope today is really hard.”

We don’t want the opposition.

We don’t want the challenges.

We don’t want the difficult seasons.

But sometimes we make the mistake of thinking that if something is difficult, that must mean God doesn’t want us to do it.

“If I’m facing opposition, maybe I’m going the wrong direction.”

“If this is so hard, maybe God is telling me to stop.”

And sometimes that’s true. Sometimes we need to listen when we’re going in the wrong direction.

But that’s not always true.

Sometimes the hardest thing is exactly the thing God is calling us to do.

God doesn’t always call us to easy things.

In fact, I would say God very rarely calls us to things that are simple and easy.

Think about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

They did the right thing.

They were faithful.

They refused to worship something other than God.

And where did their obedience get them?

Into a furnace.

Their trouble wasn’t because they were wicked.

Their trouble was because they were faithful.

It’s a little bit like Job. Job didn’t suffer because he was some terrible person. In the story, Job’s suffering comes precisely in the midst of his faithfulness.

So we need to be careful about assuming that every difficult thing in our lives is a sign that we’re doing something wrong.

Sometimes life is just hard.

Sometimes we find ourselves in a fire because that’s where we are.

And sometimes the fire is the consequence of doing the right thing.

But here’s the good news:

We’re not alone in the fire.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego went into the furnace, but they weren’t alone.

God was there.

And I think that’s one of the great promises of Scripture.

God doesn’t promise us that we’ll never walk through fire.

God doesn’t promise us that we’ll never have trouble.

God doesn’t promise us that everything will always work out exactly the way we want it to.

But God promises us that we won’t be alone.

The psalmist asks, “Where can I go from your presence?”

And the answer is nowhere.

If I go to the farthest edge of the dawn, you’re there.

If I go into the depths, you’re there.

Wherever I go, God is there.

Jesus promises that he will never leave us or forsake us.

So if you’re in the fire today, if you’re in the middle of something that’s difficult, if you’re facing a trial or a challenge or opposition, I want you to hear this:

You are not alone.

Maybe you’re being tested.

Maybe you’re being persecuted.

Maybe you’re dealing with the consequences of something that happened.

Maybe you’re just in a difficult season of life and you don’t even know why you’re there.

Whatever the reason, you’re not alone.

God is with you.

And here’s another thing I think we need to remember.

If you’re not in the fire right now, chances are somebody you know is.

You’ve got a friend who’s in the pit.

You’ve got somebody in your family who’s hurting.

You’ve got somebody at work who’s struggling.

You’ve got somebody sitting beside you at church who’s walking through something you know nothing about.

And sometimes God sends an angel into the fire.

And sometimes God sends you.

You may not feel very angelic. I certainly don’t most of the time. But sometimes you may be exactly what somebody needs when they’re in the pit.

Sometimes they just need somebody to sit beside them.

Sometimes they need somebody to pray with them.

Sometimes they need somebody to remind them, “You’re not alone.”

So if you’re in the fire today, don’t give up.

God is with you.

And if you’re not in the fire today, find somebody who is and get in there with them.

You don’t have to fix it.

You don’t have to have all the answers.

Just let them know they’re not alone.

Because sometimes the greatest gift we can give somebody isn’t an explanation for why they’re hurting.

Sometimes it’s simply our presence.

God was present with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fire.

And sometimes God makes his presence known through people who are willing to walk into the fire with us.

So today, if you’re in the fire, hold on.

God is with you.

And if you’ve got somebody in the fire, don’t leave them there by themselves.

Go stand beside them.

Let’s be the people who remind one another that even in the hottest, hardest places of life, God is still there.

Hey, thanks for being with me today. I hope you have a great Monday and a great start to your week. We’ll pick up tomorrow with Daniel chapter 4.

Thanks.

Today we continue through Daniel with the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and their refusal to worship Nebuchadnezzar’s golden statue. Even when threatened with the fiery furnace, they demonstrate a remarkable faith—not simply a faith that says God will save them, but a faith that says God is able to save us, but even if he doesn’t, we will still trust him. Their story reminds us that genuine faith isn’t dependent upon God always doing what we want or answering our prayers in the way we expect. It is trusting God because God is faithful, regardless of how the story turns out. Like these three men, we are called to remember who we are and whose we are, especially when the world around us pressures us to compromise what we believe.

Join us for our daily reflections. In 10 short minutes, we’ll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help us better understand God’s Word.

You can read today’s passage here.

Click here if you’d like to join our GroupMe and receive this each morning at 7:00 a.m. CST.

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Good morning. It’s good to be with you on this Friday morning. I hope you are well and that you’ve had a great week. I hope you’ve got some exciting plans for the weekend.

I don’t think we’ve got anything this weekend. Not that I can think of, anyway, which is kind of exciting. Sometimes it’s nice just to be around the house and not have anywhere you have to be. So we’ll see what the weekend brings.

But today we’re going to continue in Daniel, and we’re going to move into one of the stories that probably most of us know from Daniel—the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and the fiery furnace.

We’re going to look at Daniel chapter 3.

Nebuchadnezzar has built this enormous golden statue. He gathers all of the officials and leaders together, and he gives them this command: when the music plays, everybody is supposed to fall down and worship the golden statue.

And everybody does.

Well, almost everybody.

Because there are three guys who don’t.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

And when Nebuchadnezzar finds out, he is furious.

He gives them another opportunity. Basically, he says, “I’m going to give you one more chance. When the music plays, you bow down. And if you don’t, you’re going into the furnace.”

And their response is one of the most powerful statements of faith in the entire Old Testament.

They basically say, “Our God is able to save us from the furnace. But even if he doesn’t, we’re still not going to worship your gods.”

Even if he doesn’t.

I think that’s one of those phrases that we can read over really quickly, but we shouldn’t.

Because it’s easy to have faith when we know exactly how the story is going to end.

It’s easy to say, “God will take care of this,” when we are confident that God is going to take care of it in exactly the way we want.

But what happens when we don’t know?

What happens when we don’t know how the story is going to turn out?

That’s where faith gets real.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego aren’t saying, “God will save us, so we’re not worried.”

They’re saying, “God can save us. But even if he doesn’t, he is still God.”

That’s a different kind of faith.

And I think that’s an important word for us because sometimes we treat faith almost like a transaction.

God, if you’ll do this, then I’ll trust you.

God, if you’ll fix this problem, then I’ll believe you’re there.

God, if you’ll heal this person, if you’ll give me this job, if you’ll make this relationship work, if you’ll answer this prayer the way I want you to answer it, then I’ll know that you’re faithful.

But that’s not really faith.

Faith is trusting God even when we don’t know what God is going to do.

Faith is saying, “I believe God is able.”

But faith is also saying, “Even if God doesn’t do what I want God to do, I’m still going to trust God.”

That’s what these three men are doing.

They aren’t worshiping God because they know they’re going to walk out of the furnace.

They’re worshiping God because God is worthy of worship regardless of what happens.

And I think that’s a really important distinction.

Because sometimes the hardest part of faith isn’t believing that God can do something.

The hardest part is trusting God when God doesn’t do the thing we wanted.

That’s where our faith gets tested.

And I think there’s another thing happening here that’s important.

Remember what we talked about yesterday: Daniel and his friends are living in exile. They’re in Babylon. They’re surrounded by a culture that is telling them who they’re supposed to be.

And now Babylon is literally telling them what they’re supposed to worship.

But they know who they are.

They know whose they are.

And they’re not willing to give that away.

That’s the lesson we’ve been seeing throughout Daniel.

Nebuchadnezzar can take their land.

He can take them into exile.

He can give them new names.

He can give them new food.

He can give them positions in his government.

He can build a giant statue and tell them to bow down.

But he can’t take away their identity.

Because their identity ultimately isn’t found in Babylon.

Their identity is found in God.

And I think that’s a good reminder for us.

Because there are all kinds of things in this world that will try to tell us who we are.

There are things that will tell us what matters.

There are things that will tell us what we’re supposed to value.

There are things that will tell us what we’re supposed to worship.

And sometimes the things we worship don’t look like golden statues.

Sometimes they’re money.

Sometimes they’re success.

Sometimes they’re popularity.

Sometimes they’re power.

Sometimes they’re our own comfort.

Sometimes we’re tempted to make our own lives the center of everything.

And Daniel reminds us that we have to remember who we are and whose we are.

Because when we know who we are, we can stand when everything around us is telling us to bow.

That’s what Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego do.

Everybody else bows.

They stand.

And they stand not because they know everything is going to work out the way they want it to.

They stand because they know God is worth standing for.

And that’s a good word for us today.

There are going to be moments in our lives when we have to decide what we’re going to stand for.

There are going to be moments when it’s easier to go along with everybody else.

There are going to be moments when standing for what we believe is going to cost us something.

And in those moments, I hope we remember these three men.

God is able.

God can save.

God can change the situation.

But even if God doesn’t do what we want God to do, God is still God.

And our faith isn’t dependent upon everything going our way.

Our faith is dependent upon the faithfulness of God.

So as we go into this weekend, let’s remember who we are and whose we are.

Let’s be people who are willing to stand when we need to stand.

Let’s be people who don’t allow the world around us to determine what we worship.

And let’s have the kind of faith that can say, “God is able—but even if he doesn’t, I will still trust him.”

Hey, thanks for being with me today. I hope you have a great Friday and a wonderful weekend. We’ll pick up with Daniel again next week.

In today’s reflection, we finish Daniel chapter 2 and look at how Daniel’s ability to interpret Nebuchadnezzar’s dream leads him into a position of influence in Babylon. Daniel didn’t choose exile, but God placed him there and used the gifts he had given him to make a difference. In the same way, we may not always understand why God has placed us where we are, but we can trust that God can use our gifts, relationships, jobs, families, and communities for good. As Christians, we recognize that this world is not our ultimate home, but being people of the kingdom doesn’t mean withdrawing from the world—it means working for its good while living according to different values. We are called to show mercy, forgiveness, love, and care for others, using whatever influence God has given us to bring the values of God’s kingdom into the places where we have been planted.

Join us for our daily reflections. In 10 short minutes, we’ll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help us better understand God’s Word.

You can read today’s passage here.

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Good morning. It’s good to be with you on this Thursday morning as we draw close to the weekend. We’re not there yet—we’ve still got today and tomorrow—but we’re getting there. So I hope you’ve got some good things planned for whatever is going on in your life.

Today we’re going to finish out chapter 2 of Daniel. We’re going to look at verses 46 through 49.

“Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face, worshiped Daniel, and commanded that a grain offering and incense be offered to him. The king said to Daniel, ‘Truly, your God is God of gods and Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery.’ Then the king promoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon. Daniel made a request of the king, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon. But Daniel remained at the king’s court.”

So, if you remember yesterday, Daniel was able to interpret the king’s dream. He was able to help Nebuchadnezzar understand what was happening and what this dream meant. And this is something we’re going to see throughout the book of Daniel. Daniel has this particular gift—the ability to interpret dreams and understand these mysteries—and because of that gift, he is entrusted with leadership.

And I think there are a couple of interesting things for us to think about here.

First, let’s talk about leadership.

Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are all placed in positions of influence. Daniel is given authority over the province of Babylon, and his friends are given positions of leadership as well.

And I think that’s interesting because Daniel is exactly where God needs him to be.

God has placed Daniel in Babylon. Daniel didn’t choose to go there. He didn’t wake up one morning and say, “You know what? I think Babylon sounds like a great place to live.” No. He was taken there. He was in exile. And yet, God had given him gifts that allowed him to have influence in that place.

And I think sometimes we forget that God has placed us where we are.

I’ve heard a mentor of mine say over and over again, “Bloom where you’re planted.”

And I think there’s a lot of wisdom in that.

Sometimes we spend so much of our time wishing we were somewhere else. If I had a different job. If I lived somewhere else. If I had different circumstances. If things were different in my family. If I had more opportunities.

But Daniel reminds us that God can use us right where we are.

Where do you have influence?

You have influence at your work. You have influence in your family. You have influence with your friends. You have influence in your church. You have influence in your community.

You may not have influence everywhere, but you have influence somewhere.

And the question is: What are you going to do with it?

None of us can fix everything. None of us can redeem the entire world. None of us can solve every problem.

But God has given each of us certain gifts, certain relationships, certain opportunities, and certain places where we can make a difference.

So don’t be afraid to use the influence God has given you for good.

And then there’s another piece of this that I think is really important.

Daniel is doing all of this in exile.

He’s not home.

He’s in Babylon. He’s in a foreign land. He’s living among people who don’t share his faith or his values. And yet Daniel doesn’t simply withdraw from the world around him.

He works for the good of the place where God has put him.

There’s a passage in Jeremiah where God tells the Israelites to seek the welfare of the city where they have been sent into exile, because its welfare is connected to their welfare.

And I think that’s a really important word for us.

As Christians, we believe this world is not our ultimate home. We are looking toward something greater. We belong ultimately to the kingdom of God.

But that doesn’t mean we stop caring about this world.

Quite the opposite.

While we’re here, we should work for its good.

While we’re here, we should love people.

While we’re here, we should care for the broken and the hurting.

While we’re here, we should help the least, the last, and the lost.

While we’re here, we should show mercy and forgiveness.

While we’re here, we should model the goodness of Jesus.

And I think that’s where being an exile becomes really important.

Because our values should sometimes look different from the values of the world around us.

That’s part of what it means to be holy. To be holy means to be set apart—to be different.

And as United Methodists, we talk a lot about holiness. We believe that our lives should look different because we belong to Jesus.

So when somebody tells us to get even, Jesus tells us to forgive.

When somebody curses us, Jesus tells us to bless.

When somebody demeans us, we pray for them.

When somebody shows us judgment, we respond with mercy.

When the world tells us to look out for ourselves, Jesus calls us to look out for others.

Those are different values.

And here’s the thing: those different values give us influence.

Daniel had influence because of where God had placed him and because of the gifts God had given him. And we have influence for the same reason.

So I think there’s a really good word for us here today.

God has you where you are.

Maybe you don’t understand exactly why.

Maybe you don’t understand why you’re in this job, in this family, in this community, in this church, in this season of your life.

But God has you there.

So bloom where you’re planted.

Use the influence you’ve been given.

And while you’re living in this temporary home, don’t forget who you are and whose you are.

We’re exiles, but we’re not without purpose.

We’re strangers, but we’re not without influence.

And we’re here for a reason.

So let’s use the places and spaces where God has put us to do some good, to love some people, to show some mercy, and to point people toward the kingdom of God.

Because God has you where you need to be, doing the things you need to be doing, at the time you need to be doing them.

So let’s use those places and those spaces for good as we live out our heavenly values in this earthly home.

Hey, thanks for being with me today. Have a great rest of your day, and we’ll pick up tomorrow with Daniel chapter 3.

Today we continue our journey through Daniel 2 as Daniel interprets Nebuchadnezzar’s troubling dream of the great statue. While there are plenty of details we could explore about the kingdoms represented in the dream, today we step back and look at the bigger picture: God is not surprised, and kingdoms rise and fall. Babylon seemed permanent, but it wasn’t. Neither are the things in our own lives that sometimes seem so permanent. Our lives are finite, human institutions are temporary, and the world around us is constantly changing—but God is eternal. When life surprises us or things don’t go according to plan, we can remember that God isn’t caught off guard. Our hope isn’t ultimately in what is temporary; our hope is in the God whose kingdom will stand forever.

Join us for our daily reflections. In 10 short minutes, we’ll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help us better understand God’s Word.

You can read today’s passage here.

Click here if you’d like to join our GroupMe and receive this each morning at 7:00 a.m. CST.

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Good morning. It’s good to be with you on this Wednesday morning. Hope you are well and doing good.

I am very excited about today because Wednesday nights are back up and going here at First UMC, and that means I get two Bible studies today. I’m teaching a Bible study on James this morning at 10:00 here at the church, and that’s going to be a lot of fun. Then tonight, during our Wednesday night programming, I’ll be doing Matthew.

I’m really excited to be able to do Bible study again. I love Bible study. These reflections every morning are kind of like a Bible study, except it’s a one-way conversation. I’m talking and you’re listening. But I love Bible study because I love the conversation. I love getting to ask questions. I love when people ask those deep, ponderous questions that make us really dig down into our faith and think about what we believe and why we believe it.

That’s one of my favorite things to do as a pastor, so I’m excited to be back doing that today.

And if you’re around Starkville and you want to come to a good Bible study, join us at 10:00 here at the church. Then tonight, come eat with us and stay for adult Bible study, children’s activities, youth activities, and all the other good stuff going on around here.

Today we’re going to pick back up with Daniel chapter 2. Yesterday we talked about dreams and how God can sometimes speak to us through dreams. Today we’re going to hear Daniel’s actual interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.

The dream is about this enormous statue. It has a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, a middle and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, and feet that are partly iron and partly clay. Then a stone, one that was not cut by human hands, comes and strikes the statue at its feet. The entire statue falls apart, and the stone becomes a great mountain that fills the earth.

Daniel then explains the dream.

Nebuchadnezzar is the head of gold. But after him will come another kingdom, and then another, and then another. Kingdoms will rise and kingdoms will fall. And eventually, God will establish a kingdom that will never be destroyed.

There are a lot of things we could talk about here. You can find all kinds of commentaries and explanations about exactly what each part of the statue represents. And there’s certainly value in understanding the historical kingdoms that Daniel is talking about—Babylon, Persia, Greece, and eventually Rome.

But I always like to step back and look at the big picture.

And there are two things that really stand out to me.

First, God is not surprised by anything.

I had a friend named Lonnie Schrader who used to say something whenever something unexpected happened. He would say, “God’s not surprised by any of this.”

That has always stuck with me.

Because we get surprised.

Something happens in our lives that we didn’t expect. Something happens that we couldn’t have planned for. Something happens that we don’t understand, and we’re just completely taken aback by it.

But God isn’t.

Nebuchadnezzar is the most powerful king in the world. He probably couldn’t imagine a time when Babylon wouldn’t be the great kingdom. He couldn’t imagine his kingdom falling.

But God could.

God already knew that Babylon would rise and fall. God already knew that Persia would come. God already knew Greece would come. God already knew Rome would come. God knew all of it.

And eventually, God would establish a kingdom that would last forever.

That’s a good reminder for us.

When something happens in your life that you didn’t expect, when something comes along that you couldn’t have planned for or prepared for, it’s okay to be surprised. It’s okay to say, “I didn’t see that coming.”

But we can also remind ourselves:

God’s not surprised by any of this.

God sees what we can’t see. God knows what we don’t know. And even when we don’t understand what’s happening, we can trust that God is still at work.

And then there’s the second thing I think Daniel reminds us of:

Kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall.

Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom seemed permanent. Babylon seemed like it was going to last forever.

But it didn’t.

And that’s true of every human kingdom.

That’s true of every human institution.

That’s true of every generation.

That’s true of us.

We have a tendency to think that the way things are right now is the way they’re always going to be. We get wrapped up in what’s happening today and we forget that history keeps moving.

But Scripture reminds us that our lives are brief.

The psalmist says, “Teach us to number our days.”

Our days are numbered. Our lives are finite.

But God is eternal.

That’s the difference.

Babylon wasn’t eternal.

Nebuchadnezzar wasn’t eternal.

Persia wasn’t eternal.

Greece wasn’t eternal.

Rome wasn’t eternal.

And neither are we.

But God is.

So don’t put all of your hope in the things that are temporary. Don’t get too wrapped up in the stuff of humanity—the things that seem so important right now but won’t ultimately last.

Our hope has to be in something bigger than ourselves.

Our hope is in God.

Because kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall, but God’s kingdom stands forever.

And I think that’s one of the great messages of Daniel. When everything around us feels uncertain, when the world feels like it’s changing faster than we can keep up with, when something happens that surprises us or scares us or catches us off guard, we can remember that God isn’t surprised.

God is still God.

God is still in control.

And God is still eternal.

So, as we go through our day today, let’s remember to keep things in perspective. Our lives are brief. The things around us are temporary. But God is everlasting.

So let’s put our hope in the one thing that will last.

Thanks for being with me today. Daniel has interpreted the dream, and tomorrow we’ll look at what happens next.

Hope you have a great day. We’ll see you in the morning.

In today’s reflection, we continue our journey through Daniel 2 and look at Daniel’s response to a crisis with prudence and discretion. Before we speak, are there times when we need to ask, “Does this need to be said? Does it need to be said by me? Does it need to be said by me now?” We also talk about dreams, how God sometimes uses unexpected ways to speak to us, and the importance of creating enough quiet in our lives to actually listen. Sometimes God may be speaking, but we’re simply too busy or distracted to hear. Daniel reminds us to slow down, seek God’s wisdom, and trust that God is with us—even when we don’t understand what comes next.

Join us for our daily reflections. In 10 short minutes, we’ll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help us better understand God’s Word.

You can read today’s passage here.

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Good morning. Hope you’re doing well today and having a good start to your week. It’s good to be with you as we continue together in our time in Daniel.

We were talking yesterday about how, now that school has started and Mississippi State is back in session, we’re getting into that regular rhythm. And I like rhythm. I appreciate many of you reaching out and telling me that you enjoy these reflections each morning. If you’re watching the video, it goes up at 7:00. If you get the email, it goes out at 6:00 in the morning, and if you’re listening to the podcast, it goes up at 5:00. So if you’re an early riser or you’re on your way to work, check your podcast app and hopefully it’ll be there.

But there’s something good about regular rhythms. And so it’s good to be in this rhythm with Daniel.

Today we’re going to read Daniel chapter 2. My Bible breaks chapter 2 into several sections, but I want to put these two sections together because I think it makes more sense when you see them together. We’re going to read verses 1 through 23.

Nebuchadnezzar has a dream. He’s troubled by it, and he calls in all of his magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and Chaldeans and tells them, basically, “Tell me what I dreamed and then tell me what it means.”

And they say, “Well, King, tell us the dream and we’ll tell you what it means.”

And Nebuchadnezzar says, “Nope. You tell me the dream first.”

And they say, “Well, nobody can do that. What you’re asking is impossible.”

And Nebuchadnezzar gets angry and decides that all the wise men in Babylon are going to be killed.

That includes Daniel and his friends.

So Daniel hears about this and, in verse 14, it says that Daniel responded with prudence and discretion. I really like that.

Daniel doesn’t immediately panic. He doesn’t start yelling. He doesn’t start blaming people. He doesn’t start saying, “Well, this is ridiculous! Somebody needs to do something!”

He simply asks what is going on.

The great theologian Chris Rock once said that there are three questions you ought to ask yourself before you say something:

Does this need to be said?
Does this need to be said by me?
Does this need to be said by me now?

I think those are three pretty good questions for us to think about.

Does this need to be said?

You know, sometimes we’ll say, “I probably shouldn’t say this, but…” Well, if you have to begin with “I probably shouldn’t say this,” then maybe you probably shouldn’t say it.

Does this need to be said by me?

There are things that need to be said, but I’m not necessarily the person who needs to say them. Sometimes somebody else needs to speak that word. Sometimes you may hear something from a guest preacher that you can’t hear from your regular preacher. That’s one of the reasons it’s good to have different voices speak into our lives.

And then, does it need to be said by me now?

Sometimes the answer is yes. Sometimes the answer is no.

Jesus talks about not casting pearls before swine. Sometimes people simply aren’t ready to hear what you need to tell them. And that’s okay. It doesn’t make them bad, and it doesn’t make you bad. It just means that now may not be the right time.

Daniel understood that.

He didn’t storm into the king’s presence and start demanding answers. He asked what was happening. He asked for time. And that opened the door for him to eventually speak the word that needed to be spoken.

And then there’s another really interesting part of this story: the dream itself.

Throughout Scripture, we see God communicating through dreams. Think about Jacob’s dream of the ladder. Think about Joseph. Think about Peter and the vision of the clean and unclean foods. There are a lot of places in Scripture where God communicates through dreams.

Now, I don’t want you to hear me say that every dream you have is God trying to tell you something. Some of us have some pretty strange dreams, and I don’t think God is responsible for all of them.

I’ve got a therapist who’s big on the idea that our dreams are often our brains processing things that we may not even fully understand. There’s something happening inside us, and our brains are working through it while we’re asleep.

And I think there’s something to that.

But I also believe there are times when God can speak to us through our dreams.

And maybe one of the reasons dreams can be so powerful is that, for once, we actually have our undivided attention.

Think about how much noise we have in our lives. Phones. Television. Social media. Work. Family. Responsibilities. Conversations. Notifications. Emails. All of it.

Sometimes we barely have enough quiet to hear ourselves think, much less hear God.

But when we’re asleep, all of that noise is gone. Maybe that’s part of why dreams can sometimes get through to us in ways that other things don’t.

I’m not going to sit here and tell you I’ve had a lot of dreams where God has spoken to me. I don’t usually remember my dreams. Holly, on the other hand, seems to remember all of hers, and they’re usually something crazy.

I have one dream that I have over and over again. It’s where I’m late for a calculus test, and I suddenly realize I haven’t been to class the entire semester.

Every time I’m thinking, “Oh my gosh! Today’s the calculus final! I forgot to go to class the entire semester!”

I guess that’s some residual PTSD from calculus.

Maybe you’ve got one of those dreams too. Maybe it’s not calculus. Maybe it’s something else.

But I do remember one dream that I believe God used to speak to me.

It was when I was a senior in high school, around the time when I really gave my heart to Jesus. And if you’ve ever been a senior in high school, you know that’s a strange season of life. You’re thinking about college. You’re thinking about leaving home. You’re thinking about what comes next. There’s a lot going on.

I remember having this dream, and I don’t really remember what happened in the dream. I just remember that everything was terrible. And as I was coming out of the dream, I had this sense—almost like a voice in my heart and soul—that said, “Andy, it’s going to be okay. I’m going to take care of you. It’s going to be okay.”

And I woke up not long after that with this incredible sense of peace.

I just knew that God was going to be with me. I knew that whatever was coming next, it was going to be okay.

Now, I don’t think every dream is a message from God. I don’t think we need to wake up every morning and start interpreting every strange thing our brains come up with.

But I do believe there are times when God speaks to us in ways we don’t expect.

And maybe the bigger lesson for us in Daniel isn’t simply that God speaks through dreams.

Maybe it’s that we need to create enough space in our lives to actually listen.

We need some quiet.

We need some stillness.

We need some moments without the noise and the distractions where we can simply be present before God.

Because maybe God is speaking more often than we realize. Maybe the problem isn’t that God isn’t speaking. Maybe sometimes the problem is that we’re not listening.

Daniel had prudence and discretion. He knew when to speak and when to wait. And when the moment came, he sought God. He didn’t pretend that he had all the answers. He asked God for wisdom, and God gave it to him.

I think there’s a good lesson there for all of us.

Before we speak, maybe we should ask: Does this need to be said? Does this need to be said by me? Does this need to be said by me now?

And then, perhaps even more importantly, we should ask: Have I been quiet long enough to hear what God might be saying?

Tomorrow we’ll pick up with Daniel’s interpretation of the dream and see what happens next.

So, hey, have a great rest of your day. Find a little quiet today. Listen. Pay attention. And maybe you’ll hear something you wouldn’t have heard otherwise.

Thanks for being with us. We’ll see you in the morning.

As we begin the book of Daniel, we enter the story of a young Jewish man living in exile in Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar doesn’t just take Daniel and the other young men from their homeland—he attempts to reshape their identity by changing their names, their language, their education, and even what they eat. But Daniel refuses to forget who he is. In this reflection, we explore what it means for Christians to live as people who are, in some ways, “in exile”—living in the world while remembering that our truest identity and home are found in Christ. Like Daniel, we’re called to remain rooted in who we are even when the world around us tries to tell us who we should become.

Join us for our daily reflections. In 10 short minutes, we’ll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help us better understand God’s Word.

You can read today’s passage here.

Click here if you’d like to join our GroupMe and receive this each morning at 7:00 a.m. CST.

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Good morning! Hope you’re good today on this wonderful Monday morning.

Hope you had a great weekend.

Last week was a busy one. We had a lot going on with school starting at Mississippi State, college lunch yesterday at church, and just all manner of things.

And so it’s nice to kind of get through it.

To have lived through my first opening of school at Mississippi State.

We survived.

So now we’re kind of moving into the regular patterns.

If you don’t know how church works, you tend to have patterns.

And right now we’re going to move into a pattern of the life of the church this semester. I’m looking forward to some Bible studies this week. I’ll have a couple of them. I’ll teach a morning Bible study at 10:00 here at the church, and then a Wednesday night Bible study as part of our Wednesday night programming.

So I’m looking forward to a lot of good Bible studies and a lot of good stuff going on here.

So if you’re looking for a place to plug in, obviously we’d love to have you here at First.

Today we’re going to start Daniel.

We talked about doing Daniel, and so we’re going to start Daniel today.

Daniel 1 gives us a little bit of the background for what’s going on, so let’s talk about that for just a minute.

Daniel is a book of prophecy.

And we sometimes make the mistake of thinking that prophecy simply means future telling.

And some prophecy is future telling.

But not all prophecy is future telling.

Prophecy is really about speaking the word that the Lord has laid upon your heart.

A lot of prophecy is dealing as much with what’s happening in that moment as it is dealing with what the future holds.

But Daniel is one of those books that has a lot of what the future holds. It has a lot of apocalyptic language, language that is referenced in Revelation and in other New Testament books.

In fact, one of the phrases we see in Daniel—and we’ll talk more about this when we get to it—is “Son of Man.”

That’s an actual title that Jesus uses for himself in the Gospels.

So Daniel is a prophetic book written about a young Jewish man who is in exile in Babylon.

And you’ll get that context today about what that means.

The Babylonian exile is a formative time for Israel and for the Jewish people.

A lot of things happen in exile.

Since they could not worship at the Temple, the teaching of the Law becomes a primary thing.

And you have these teachers of the Law who interpret the Law and give interpretations of how the Law should be carried out.

These teachers of the Law eventually become the Pharisees.

You couldn’t sacrifice without the Temple. That was the domain of the priests and the Sadducees.

And so the Pharisees really arise during this time and become a formative voice for much of Judaism.

Judaism itself is deeply shaped during this time of exile.

The nation of Judah is taken into exile, and the word Judah eventually gets shortened into the word Jew.

And while they’re in exile, a lot of the Old Testament Law and books are compiled and eventually canonized.

So in some ways, the exile was one of the harshest times for Israel and the Jewish people.

But it was also one of the most formative times.

And isn’t that the way it goes sometimes?

Some of the most formative times in our lives are the hardest.

That’s where we often grow and develop the most—in difficult times.

So let’s read Daniel 1.

The story begins with King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon coming against Jerusalem and besieging it.

The Lord allows King Jehoiakim of Judah to fall into his power, along with some of the vessels from the Temple.

Nebuchadnezzar takes these things back to Babylon and then orders that some of the young men from Israel’s royal family and nobility be brought to him.

They are young men without physical defect, handsome, intelligent, knowledgeable, and capable of serving in the king’s palace.

They’re going to be educated in the language and literature of the Chaldeans.

They’re going to receive the king’s food and wine.

And after three years, they will be brought into the king’s service.

And among them are Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

You probably know them by the names the Babylonians gave them:

Daniel becomes Belteshazzar.

Hananiah becomes Shadrach.

Mishael becomes Meshach.

Azariah becomes Abednego.

And Daniel makes a decision.

He will not defile himself with the royal food and wine.

So he asks the palace master to allow him and the others to eat vegetables and drink water instead.

And they do this for ten days.

At the end of the ten days, they look healthier than the young men who have been eating the royal food.

So they continue with the vegetables and water.

And Scripture says that God gives these four young men knowledge and skill in literature and wisdom.

Daniel also has insight into visions and dreams.

And when the time comes for them to appear before Nebuchadnezzar, the king finds that there is no one who compares to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

So they are brought into the king’s service.

That’s Daniel 1.

And there’s a lot going on here.

We talked last week about the imprecatory Psalms, and one of my favorite Psalms in that category is Psalm 137.

Psalm 137 is a prayer of anger toward Babylon.

Babylon has destroyed everything.

And when I talk about Psalm 137, there are three things that I often point out that helped define the Jewish people and their identity.

They knew they were God’s people because of three things.

First, they had the Temple.

Second, they had the land.

Third, they had the covenant of circumcision.

And now look at what Babylon has done.

Babylon has destroyed the Temple.

They’ve taken them from their land.

And they’ve taken away their ability to maintain all of the things that had defined them.

And then Nebuchadnezzar does something else.

He takes their names.

Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah are given Babylonian names.

He takes their food.

He takes their land.

He takes their Temple.

He takes their names.

In other words, Nebuchadnezzar is trying to take their identity.

He’s saying:

“No, no, no.”

“You’re going to be this now.”

“You’re going to be Babylonian.”

“You’re going to eat our food.”

“You’re going to learn our language.”

“You’re going to serve our king.”

“You’re going to have our names.”

He’s taking this identity that they have in God and trying to replace it with something else.

And so what do Daniel and these other three young men do?

They maintain their identity in a time of exile.

In a time when everything felt completely upended, they held on to who they were.

They held on to their identity.

They held on to their faith.

They held on to their traditions.

They refused to allow Babylon to tell them who they were.

And I think there’s something really important for us in that.

Because we live as Christians in exile.

This world is not our home.

We are always, in some sense, living in exile because our truest home is not here.

Our truest home is with God.

Now, we also know that God is in this world.

As the old hymn says, “This is my Father’s world.”

God is here.

God is at work here.

God loves this world.

But our truest home is still with God.

And so, as Christians, we should always feel a little bit out of place in this world.

We should always feel a little bit like an outsider.

We should always feel a little bit out of sorts.

Because our values, our virtues, and our wisdom should sometimes be a little out of step with the world around us.

It shouldn’t always fit.

And that’s okay.

In fact, I think that’s a good thing.

When we value people over money, we’re out of step with the world.

When we value relationships over ideology, we’re out of step with the world.

When we value love over hate, we’re out of step with the world.

When we value the way of Jesus over the way of self-gratification, we’re out of step with the world.

When we value sacrifice over exaltation, we’re out of step with the world.

We’re out of place.

And that’s okay.

We should be.

There’s an old Rich Mullins song that I love called In the Land of My Sojourn.

The idea is that we’re sojourners.

We’re pilgrims passing through.

We’re here for a time, but this isn’t ultimately where we belong.

And so while we’re sojourning in this land, I think the lessons of Daniel and these other three young men can be an example for us.

Let’s hold on to who we truly are.

Let’s hold on to Jesus Christ.

Let’s find ourselves deeply rooted in him.

Because there will be times when the world tries to tell us who we are.

There will be times when the world says:

“This is what matters.”

“This is what you should value.”

“This is what success looks like.”

“This is what you should pursue.”

And sometimes those things will be completely out of step with the way of Jesus.

So when those times come, let’s hold on.

Let’s hold on extra tight to Jesus.

Because Jesus is our truest identity.

No matter how crazy the world may be.

No matter how out of sorts things may seem.

No matter how much everything around us changes.

Our identity is still found in Christ.

Daniel was in exile.

He was surrounded by a culture that was trying to reshape him.

But Daniel knew who he was.

And that’s the challenge for us.

We’re living in our own kind of exile.

So let’s know who we are.

Let’s remember whose we are.

And let’s hold on to Jesus.

Because when we hold on to our identity in Jesus Christ, even in our time of exile, we’ll find life.

We’ll find life even when things seem a little out of step.

We’ll find life even when we don’t quite fit in.

We’ll find life because our identity isn’t ultimately found in this world.

It’s found in Christ.

And we’ve got a lot of good stuff to learn from Daniel.

So tomorrow we’re going to pick up with Daniel chapter 2.

Hope you have a great rest of your day.

We’ll see you in the morning.

Thanks!

In this reflection, we continue looking at the difficult and often uncomfortable imprecatory Psalms with Psalm 140. David cries out to God for protection from those who have hurt him and asks God to bring judgment upon his enemies. How do we reconcile these words with Jesus’ command to love our enemies? As we wrestle with that question, we explore the difference between karma and grace. Christianity isn’t about getting what we deserve; it’s about receiving the grace and mercy of God. At the same time, our choices have consequences, and what we sow can shape the harvest of our lives. Psalm 140 gives us permission to be honest about our anger and pain while reminding us to choose what we want to plant in our lives: mercy, goodness, peace, forgiveness, and grace.

Join us for our daily reflections. In 10 short minutes, we’ll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help us better understand God’s Word.

You can read today’s passage here.

Click here if you’d like to join our GroupMe and receive this each morning at 7:00 a.m. CST.

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Good morning! It’s good to see you on this Friday morning.

I hope you’re well. I hope your week has been good, and I hope you’ve got a good plan for the weekend.

I’m excited about this weekend here in Starkville. We’ve got a big Sunday planned for worship. We’re starting a new series talking about why church matters.

Why does this whole thing matter?

Why is it worthwhile to wake up early on Sunday morning, get dressed, drive down the street, and come to church?

Why does any of this matter?

We’ve got our college lunch this Sunday, too. We’re going to feed lunch to all of our college kids here at State who want to come over. We’re hoping to have a good crowd and feed a bunch of college students a free meal.

And we’re going to talk about why we think this whole church thing matters and why it’s worthwhile.

And I think that’s a good message for us as adults to think about, too.

Why does this matter?

Why are we doing this?

Why does church matter?

We’ll spend some time talking about that on Sunday.

But today we’re going to do Psalm 140.

And then starting Monday, we’re going to begin Daniel.

That’ll be fun.

And interesting.

And probably a little challenging.

But today we’re looking at another one of what are called the imprecatory Psalms—these Psalms of vengeance and judgment. These are Psalms that are difficult for us to understand and sometimes hard for us to wrap our minds around.

We did Psalm 109 yesterday, and it was challenging.

Today we’re going to look at Psalm 140, and it’s equally challenging.

Another one of David’s Psalms.

Let’s read it.

“Deliver me, O Lord, from evildoers; protect me from those who are violent, who plan evil things in their minds and stir up wars continually. They make their tongue sharp as a snake’s, and under their lips is the venom of vipers.”

David continues to talk about people who are trying to hurt him.

“Guard me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked; protect me from the violent who have planned my downfall. The arrogant have hidden a trap for me, and with cords they have spread a net along the road; they have set snares for me.”

And then David says:

“I say to the Lord, ‘You are my God; give ear, O Lord, to the voice of my supplications.’”

He calls God his strong deliverer.

And then we get to the hard part.

“Do not grant, O Lord, the desires of the wicked; do not further their evil plot.”

And then:

“Let the mischief of their lips overwhelm them.”

“Let burning coals fall on them.”

“Let them be flung into pits, no more to rise.”

“Do not let the slanderer be established in the land.”

“Let evil speedily hunt down the violent.”

And then David ends with:

“I know that the Lord maintains the cause of the needy and executes judgment for the poor. Surely the righteous shall give thanks to your name; the upright shall live in your presence.”

Another Psalm where, for me, verses 10 and 11 really hit at it.

“Let burning coals fall on them.”

“Let them be flung into pits, no more to rise.”

“Let evil speedily hunt down the violent.”

These are not easy words to hear.

And they’re difficult because, again, they’re hard to reconcile with Jesus.

Jesus tells us to love our enemies.

Jesus tells us to pray for those who persecute us.

And here David is saying, “Let evil hunt them down.”

That’s not exactly Good Samaritan language.

That’s hard language.

And I think, as we said yesterday, in some ways these Psalms show us the very real language of how we sometimes feel when things are hard and painful and challenging.

There are times when we feel this way.

There are times when we are angry.

There are times when we feel betrayed.

There are times when we’re hurt.

And I think the Psalm gives voice to that anger.

It gives voice to that betrayal.

It gives us language—maybe language we shouldn’t aspire to—but language that names how we sometimes feel.

Because the reality is, we’re going to feel that way sometimes.

And I think there’s a line from one of the Batman movies—Batman Begins, which is one of my favorite superhero movies—that I think is interesting here.

Spoiler alert for a movie that’s almost 20 years old now.

Batman has an opportunity to kill his enemy, and he doesn’t.

But he says, “I’m not going to kill you. But I don’t have to save you.”

And then he leaves him as the train crashes.

And I think in some ways that’s what David is saying here.

He’s saying, “Lord, they have done these things. They’ve planned my downfall. They’ve set traps for me. They’ve tried to destroy me.”

And David is essentially saying:

“Lord, let them have what they’ve dished out.”

And that’s where I think we have to be careful.

Because one thing I believe strongly is that we Christians do not believe in karma.

Karma is essentially the idea that you get what you deserve.

You’ve done A, so you’re going to get B.

You’ve done something bad, so the universe is going to give something bad back to you.

You get what’s coming to you.

You get what you deserve.

But that’s not Christianity.

We don’t believe in karma.

We believe in grace.

We don’t believe in a God who’s out to get us.

We believe in a God who is always for us.

A God who loves us.

A God who cares for us.

A God who encourages us.

A God who restores us.

A God who saves us.

We don’t believe in karma.

Karma is works-based.

You do A, you get B.

You do good, you get good.

You do bad, you get bad.

And you read the Gospels, and that’s not how it works.

People get grace who don’t deserve it.

The thief on the cross didn’t do anything to deserve grace.

The workers in Jesus’ parable who came at the end of the day received the same wages as the people who had worked all day.

Why?

Because the landowner was able to be generous.

That’s grace.

We don’t believe in karma because, quite honestly, we don’t want what we deserve.

We want grace.

We want mercy.

We want God to give us what we need, not simply what we’ve earned.

But—and this is where I think this Psalm is helpful—I do believe that sometimes we reap what we sow.

That’s different from karma.

I saw a little Internet picture one day that looked like a gas station sign, and it said:

“Everything happens for a reason.”

And underneath it said:

“Sometimes the reason is we’re dumb and we make bad decisions.”

And there’s some truth in that.

Because our choices have consequences.

If I live my life by the sword, eventually I may die by the sword.

If I live my life by slander, I’m probably going to find myself surrounded by slander.

If I live my life by gossip, I’m going to discover what it feels like to be gossiped about.

If I live my life by hatred, I’m going to find myself surrounded by hatred.

If I live my life by vengeance, I’m going to discover what vengeance does to me and to the people around me.

And that’s different from karma.

I don’t believe God is sitting up there saying, “You did this, so I’m going to make sure you get this.”

That’s not the God we see in Jesus.

But I do believe that the choices we make matter.

The attitude we cultivate matters.

The relationships we cultivate matter.

The people we surround ourselves with matter.

The way we live our lives matters.

And what we sow eventually has a way of becoming part of the harvest of our lives.

David is saying here, these people have lived lives of vengeance.

They’ve lived lives of harm.

They’ve lived lives of pain.

They’ve planned my downfall.

They’ve hidden traps.

They’ve spread nets.

They’ve set snares.

And David says, “Lord, let them experience the consequences of what they’ve done.”

And I think there’s something for us to learn from that.

Not karma.

Grace.

But also consequences.

So when we look at this Psalm, I think once again we’re seeing David give language to anger.

We’re seeing him give voice to the hurt that we all feel at times.

But we’re also reminded that we don’t have to live there.

We don’t have to live lives of vengeance.

We don’t have to live lives of hatred.

We don’t have to live lives of anger.

We don’t have to live lives of unrighteousness.

Because if we sow those things, we shouldn’t be surprised when those things begin to show up in the harvest of our lives.

So let’s be careful what we sow.

Let’s sow mercy.

Let’s sow goodness.

Let’s sow peace.

Let’s sow grace.

Let’s sow forgiveness.

Because those are the things we want to see grow in our lives.

We don’t want karma.

We want grace.

And thank God that what God gives us is not simply what we deserve.

God gives us grace.

So let’s be careful what we sow.

And let’s be careful with what we reap.

So, hey, thanks for being with us today.

I hope you’ve learned a little something from these Psalms.

We’ll pick up Monday with Daniel.

Have a great weekend.

And we’ll see you Monday.

Thanks.

What do we do with the parts of the Bible that make us uncomfortable? In this reflection on Psalm 109, we look at one of the imprecatory Psalms—an intense prayer in which David cries out to God for justice against his enemies. These words can be difficult to reconcile with Jesus’ command to love our enemies and pray for those who hurt us, but perhaps that’s exactly why we need to wrestle with them. The Psalms give us permission to be honest with God about our anger, hurt, injustice, and desire for things to be made right. That doesn’t mean every feeling is a feeling we should hold onto forever, but it does mean we don’t have to hide our deepest emotions from God. Sometimes we have to name our pain before we can let it go, trusting that ultimate justice and vengeance belong to God.

Join us for our daily reflections. In 10 short minutes, we’ll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help us better understand God’s Word.

You can read today’s passage here.

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Good morning! Hope you’re having a good Thursday today. I hope you’ve had a good week.

We’ve had a great week here at First UMC. We’ve had a lot of ways to serve our college kids—Wesley kickoff, Shades of Starkville yesterday. I’ve gotten to meet a lot of kids and got to sweat a lot on the campus of Mississippi State.

That’s always fun when you’ve sweated as much as I’ve sweated this week.

So I’m enjoying the air conditioning.

Air conditioning is awesome.

I’m thankful for it.

It has been a hot but good week.

I mentioned next week we’ll start talking about Daniel, but what we’re going to do the next two days this week is look at some Psalms.

And if you’ve been part of my reflections for any length of time, you know I love the Psalms. I’m always returning to the Psalms, particularly sometimes as a break between two sections.

What I find myself doing a lot of the time when I go to the Psalms is reading the ones I like.

And there are a lot of them that I like.

Psalm 1.

Psalm 20.

Psalm 23.

Psalm 39.

Psalm 51.

Psalm 119.

I’ve got a lot of Psalms I like.

But the next two days, I’m going to do something different.

I want to talk about a couple of Psalms that I don’t really talk about a lot.

I’m talking about something called the imprecatory Psalms.

The imprecatory Psalms are Psalms of anger and vengeance. They’re Psalms where the psalmist, usually David, is praying against his enemies.

And there’s some harsh language here.

There’s some difficult language here.

So I thought it would be interesting for us to look at these Psalms.

There are probably five to ten Psalms that are generally considered imprecatory Psalms, and there are a lot of other Psalms that have some of this language in them.

Psalm 109 is one of them.

Psalm 140 is another one.

So today we’re going to look at Psalm 109, and tomorrow we’ll look at Psalm 140.

And these are Psalms that I don’t know that I’ve ever preached on. I don’t talk about them a lot.

And you’re going to see why when we read it.

Psalm 109 begins:

“Do not be silent, O God of my praise, for wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me, speaking against me with lying tongues. They beset me with words of hate, and attack me without cause.”

And then David really gets going.

He says that they have repaid his love with evil and his good with hatred.

And then he starts asking God to do some things to these people.

“Appoint a wicked man against him; let an accuser stand at his right hand.”

“Let him be found guilty.”

“May his days be few.”

“May another seize his position.”

“May his children be orphans and his wife a widow.”

“May his children wander about and beg.”

“May strangers plunder the fruits of his toil.”

And he keeps going.

He talks about their descendants being cut off.

He talks about their name being blotted out.

He says that they did not remember to show kindness but pursued the poor and needy.

And then he says:

“He loved to curse; let curses come upon him.”

And then, eventually, David turns back to God and says:

“But you, O Lord my God, act on my behalf for your name’s sake; because your steadfast love is good, deliver me.”

And then he ends by saying:

“With my mouth I will give great thanks to the Lord; I will praise him in the midst of the throng.”

So we see here David listing a whole lot of things that he wants the Lord to do to these people.

And we don’t really know what to do with these Psalms.

I mean, particularly when we put them alongside Jesus, who says, “Bless those who curse you and pray for your enemies.”

Jesus tells us to pray for our enemies.

And here David is saying, “May his wife be a widow. May his children be cut off. May his name be blotted out.”

These are hard things.

They’re really hard things.

I read some commentaries trying to get a feel for this, and there are a couple of things that helped me understand these passages.

The first is that this is an expression of anger.

Not every prayer in the Psalms is necessarily a prayer that we’re supposed to pray.

And not every example we see in Scripture is an example we’re supposed to follow.

Sometimes what we see in Scripture is the humanness of individuals.

And if we’re going to be honest, we’ve all had terrible things done to us.

We’ve had terrible things done to our families.

We’ve had terrible things done to people we love.

And sometimes, if we’re really honest, we feel a little bit like David here.

“Lord, get them.”

“Lord, look what they’ve done.”

“Look what they’ve done to my children.”

“Look what they’ve done to the people I love.”

“Get them, Lord.”

“Get them.”

We’ve all felt this way at some point.

Now, that doesn’t mean that the voice is a good voice.

It doesn’t mean that we should stay there.

It doesn’t mean that we should live our lives in that place.

But I think most of us have felt this way at some point.

And so, in some ways, this Psalm gives voice to something that is a reality of human life.

That’s one thing.

And then I read another perspective that I thought was helpful.

There is real wickedness in the world.

There is evil in the world.

And justice must be done.

There are people who have experienced unimaginable evil who could pray a Psalm like this and pray it authentically because of what they had suffered.

You think about Holocaust survivors.

You think about people who have experienced tremendous violence or injustice.

There is such evil in the world at times that this language makes sense.

Now, it’s probably not appropriate because somebody cut you off in traffic.

That’s probably not the appropriate response.

But I could understand someone who has experienced unimaginable evil praying this Psalm and meaning it.

Because sometimes there is so much pain that if we can’t name it, we can’t let go of it.

And I think that’s part of what these Psalms are doing.

They’re wrestling with the reality of evil in the world.

There is evil in the world.

And there are times when we want that evil to be judged.

We want justice.

We want vengeance.

We want things to be made right.

And ultimately, Scripture tells us that vengeance belongs to God.

Paul says, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay,” says the Lord.

Ultimately, judgment is in God’s hands.

And I think that’s an important part of what this Psalm reminds us.

There are real times when evil must be named.

There are real times when evil must be dealt with.

There are real times when justice must be done.

But ultimately, that’s God’s work.

And then there was one other thing that Dr. Nick—and others—talked about in seminary that helped me make sense of these Psalms.

One way of understanding these cries for vengeance is to understand the one being cursed as ultimately representing evil itself—the devil.

In other words, we can understand these cries for justice as cries against the powers of evil.

And we should hope that evil is ultimately destroyed.

We should hope that evil is completely defeated.

We should hope that everything that is opposed to God is ultimately undone.

And according to Scripture, that’s exactly where the story ends.

God wins.

Evil does not win.

Death does not win.

Sin does not win.

God wins.

So these are Psalms that I don’t think have an easy answer.

I really don’t.

I don’t think they have an easy answer.

And I think that’s okay.

Not every passage of Scripture has to have an easy answer for us.

Sometimes Scripture gives us something we have to wrestle with.

And ultimately, for me, that’s where I’ll land on these Psalms—and we’ll read Psalm 140 tomorrow, which is a similar Psalm.

These Psalms give voice to our anger.

There are times when we feel like the psalmist here.

There are times when we’re angry.

There are times when we’re hurt.

There are times when we want justice.

And I think we need to be able to name it.

We need to be honest about it.

We need to be honest with God about it.

But here’s the important part:

We can’t stay there.

We can’t stay in the anger forever.

We can’t allow the hurt to become our identity.

We can’t allow vengeance to consume us.

But we can bring it to God.

We can say, “God, this is where I am.”

“This is what I’m feeling.”

“This is what happened.”

“This is how angry I am.”

And we can trust God enough to tell the truth.

As the great theologian Michael Stipe once said, “Everybody hurts.”

And I think there’s something true about that.

Everybody hurts.

So it’s okay to be honest with God in the midst of whatever anger or hurt we’ve faced.

Bring it to God.

Name it.

Wrestle with it.

And then, eventually, let God do with it what only God can do.

So we’ll continue tomorrow looking at another one of these Psalms.

We’ll look at Psalm 140 tomorrow.

Thanks for being with us.

Be honest with God.

We’ll see you tomorrow.

Thanks.

As we finish our journey through 1 Corinthians, we look at Paul’s closing words and the many people he names at the end of his letter. Timothy, Apollos, Priscilla, Aquila, Stephanas, and others remind us that the work of God has never been about one person doing everything. Paul may have been the apostle, but he understood that the ministry belonged to all of them together. In this reflection, we talk about why the Christian journey isn’t meant to be lived alone, why church is about more than Sunday morning worship, and what John Wesley meant when he said there is “no holiness but social holiness.” Ultimately, the church isn’t just the preacher, and our faith isn’t built around any one person. It’s us together—the people of God—encouraging one another, serving one another, and living out God’s mission together.

Join us for our daily reflections. In 10 short minutes, we’ll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help us better understand God’s Word.

You can read today’s passage here.

Click here if you’d like to join our GroupMe and receive this each morning at 7:00 a.m. CST.

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Good morning — it’s good to be with you on this Thursday… or Wednesday… whichever day this is. My days are running together a bit, so I’m drinking coffee and trusting the Lord. It’s good to be with you as we finish 1 Corinthians today. We’re wrapping up chapter 16, verses 5 through 21 — the end of the book.

Starting Monday, we’re going to jump into Daniel. I haven’t taught through Daniel in a long time, so I’m both nervous and excited. Books like Daniel and Revelation always make me a little anxious because they’re apocalyptic, symbolic, and require a lot of context. And these morning reflections are devotional, not deep academic study. But we’ll walk through it together and trust God with it.

Before Daniel, though, we’ll spend the next couple of days in the Psalms. Those of you who know me know I treat the Psalms like a palate cleanser — like the sorbet between courses at a fancy dinner. The Psalms reset things. They center us. So tomorrow and Friday, we’ll sit with a couple of my favorites, and then Monday we’ll start Daniel.

Today, though, we finish 1 Corinthians:

“I will visit you after passing through Macedonia… I hope to spend some time with you… Keep alert, stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.”

These closing verses are classic Paul. Most of his letters end this way — with travel plans, greetings, and encouragement. Paul dictated most of his letters, which explains moments like chapter 1 where he says, “I didn’t baptize any of y’all… well, maybe I baptized a few.” You can hear him thinking out loud. But at the end, he signs it himself. As your document says, “I Paul write this greeting with my own hand.”

These final verses are some of my favorite parts of Paul’s letters because they’re so practical and so human. He mentions Timothy, Apollos, Priscilla and Aquila, Stephanas, Fortunatus, Achaicus — all these people who helped him, encouraged him, worked beside him. Paul gets the attention, but Paul never worked alone. He always had people around him, mentoring him, being mentored by him, serving with him.

It’s a reminder that the work of God is never a one‑person show.

Paul says, “Put yourselves at the service of such people… everyone who works and toils with them.” It takes all of us. That’s the heart of his teaching on spiritual gifts — no part of the body is superior, and no part is unnecessary. We stand together. We stand on the shoulders of others. We need each other.

John Wesley said, “There is no holiness but social holiness.” We often interpret that to mean our holiness must be lived out in the world — and that’s true. But Wesley meant something deeper: we cannot be holy alone. We cannot be faithful alone. We need each other’s prayers, encouragement, accountability, and presence.

That’s why plugging into church matters. Worship is essential — and you know I love worship — but worship alone isn’t the whole church. We need our people. Our groups. Our choir. Our mission teams. Our small groups. Our friends in faith. The journey of faith is not solitary.

And likewise, it’s not just the preacher. I hope I’m faithful. I know I get things wrong. But the preacher didn’t die for your sins — Jesus did. The church is not built on the preacher. The church is built on Christ and carried forward by the people of God together.

Paul ends 1 Corinthians by reminding us: it’s not just him. It’s all of them. And it’s all of us.

That’s a good way to end this book.

Tomorrow we’ll pick up with a Psalm, and we’ll stay in the Psalms through the rest of the week. Monday morning, we’ll begin Daniel.

Thanks for being with us. Have a great day — see you in the morning.

Today we look at 1 Corinthians 16:1–4, where Paul reminds the church of one of the earliest and most essential marks of Christian life: remember the poor. Paul ends this letter with a grounding reminder: after all the debates, disagreements, and distractions, the church must not forget the poor. We talk about why this mattered in the early church and why it still matters today — for our churches, our communities, and our personal walk with Christ.

Join us for our daily reflections. In 10 short minutes, we’ll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help us better understand God’s Word.

You can read today’s passage here.

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Good morning — it’s good to be with you on this hot Tuesday. Yesterday was something else, and today… well, it’s Mississippi. Heat is just what we do. If you’re watching or listening from somewhere else, just know we’re all sweating together. And I’m not complaining — y’all know I save my complaining for the cold months. I’m just making a statement so I won’t be judged later when I loudly declare how cold it is. For now, I’m enjoying the sun.

We’re starting chapter 16 today, reading just four verses, and tomorrow we’ll finish out the book. After that, I’m not quite sure where we’re going. We’ll definitely head back to the Old Testament. I’ve done Judges, Ecclesiastes, and now Corinthians. I might spend a few days in the Psalms — I love the Psalms — so that’s probably where we’ll land for a bit.

Today we’re looking at 1 Corinthians 16:1–4:

“Now concerning the collection for the saints… on the first day of every week each of you should put aside and save whatever you can earn… I will send any whom you approve with letters to take your gift to Jerusalem.”

It’s a short passage, but it connects to something big happening in Acts 15. The early church was having its first major debate: what should happen when Gentiles become Christians? Should they first become Jewish? Should they be circumcised? Should they follow kosher laws? The church had to decide whether Christianity was simply an extension of Judaism or something distinct.

Acts 15 is the moment the church says clearly: Gentile believers do not have to become Jewish first. They don’t have to be circumcised. They don’t have to follow purity laws. They are welcomed fully as they are.

But then comes the question: what should Gentile Christians do?

And one of the earliest answers — one of the first expectations placed on Christians everywhere — was simple and profound:

Remember the poor.

The believers in Jerusalem were suffering. Many were trapped there, unable to leave, unable to work, unable to support themselves. They were among the poorest and most vulnerable in the early church. So Paul and the apostles encouraged Gentile churches across the world to take up offerings and send support to Jerusalem.

Before doctrinal debates, before theological systems, before church structures — one of the first defining marks of Christian life was this:

Remember the poor. Care for the poor. Love the poor.

Paul brings that same reminder here in 1 Corinthians 16. After all the fussing and fighting in Corinth — and goodness, they fussed about everything — Paul ends with something grounding, something clarifying:

Remember the poor.

It’s a good reminder for us today. As churches, as Christians, as people trying to follow Jesus in a complicated world, we can get caught up in so many things — programs, budgets, preferences, disagreements, distractions. But Paul’s simple instruction still stands.

Do we remember the poor?

Do we place care for the poor among the most important things we do?

Or is it just something we tack on when convenient?

If you want to see where the Spirit of God is moving, look for the people serving the poor. Look for the churches serving the poor. Look for the ministries lifting up the poor.

I don’t have easy answers. I don’t know exactly what this means for you, your church, or even mine. But I do know we can’t ignore it. We can’t excuse ourselves from it. We have to keep it in front of us — praying, listening, asking God how we can live this out.

So as you go about your day, let Paul’s words be a north star:

Remember the poor.

Thanks for being with us today. We’ll finish 1 Corinthians tomorrow. Have a great day.

What happens to us after the resurrection? In this reflection on 1 Corinthians 15, we explore Paul’s attempt to describe the resurrection body and what it means for our hope as Christians. Paul uses the image of a seed becoming something far greater than what was planted to help us understand that while our resurrection bodies will be connected to who we are now, they will be transformed—imperishable, glorious, and no longer subject to sin, sickness, weakness, or death. We may not know exactly what eternity will look like, but we can trust that God’s future is better than anything we can imagine. And that hope doesn’t mean we simply wait for heaven; it calls us to live boldly and joyfully now, working to make life on earth look more and more like the kingdom of God.

Join us for our daily reflections. In 10 short minutes, we’ll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help us better understand God’s Word.

You can read today’s passage here.

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Good morning! I hope you’re doing well on this Monday morning. I hope you’ve got a big week planned and a lot going on.

There’s certainly a lot going on up here in Starkville this week as State starts classes. There are a lot of good activities happening. Dog Days is going on, and I know Wesley has a lot of activities planned. We’re going to be cooking burgers at the church for them Tuesday night, so that’ll be fun.

I’ve been told that when the kids get back into town, Starkville really picks up. And I can now see what they mean because our streets are not designed for all these people! It’s a lot of people.

I think that’s probably true of every college town. Oxford is probably the same way. Hattiesburg is the same way. Clinton is the same way. But it really is a joy to have so much life and so much energy here in Starkville with all of our kids back in class.

I’m looking forward to seeing what a great semester looks like for everybody—including us. This is my first rodeo here, so I don’t really know what the rhythms look like myself. We’ll find out together.

Today we’re going to finish out 1 Corinthians 15: 35–58.

My Bible, the New Revised Standard Version, entitles this section “The Resurrection Body.” Sometimes you’ll see it called the “spiritual body.”

This is Paul trying to explain to the people what the resurrection life looks like.

And you’re going to see that it gets confusing.

There’s really no other way to put it.

Paul is trying to explain something that’s really hard to explain and really hard for us to understand. So we’ll look at some of the big-picture things that Paul is telling us today.

Paul says:

“But someone will ask, ‘How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?’”

And then he goes into this whole discussion about seeds. He says that what you sow doesn’t come to life unless it dies. You don’t sow the body that it is going to be; you sow a seed, and God gives it a body as God chooses.

Then Paul goes on to say:

“So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a physical body; it is raised a spiritual body.”

And then he gets into this comparison between Adam and Christ.

The first man, Adam, became a living being. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

And then he says that just as we’ve borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven.

And then he gets to one of the most famous parts of this whole chapter:

“Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.”

Then he says:

“Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed.”

And he goes on to say that in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

This perishable body will put on imperishability.

This mortal body will put on immortality.

And then Paul says:

“Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”

And then he finishes with:

“But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

Okay.

There’s a lot happening here.

Obviously, this goes back to the question the Corinthians were struggling with. In some ways, they’re asking, “Why is the Lord taking so long?”

What’s taking so long?

Why hasn’t the Lord returned?

Remember, in the earliest days of the church, they were expecting Jesus to come back at any moment. They fully expected the second coming to happen very soon.

We’ve almost become numb to that idea. Some of us get fixated on it sometimes, but most of us don’t think about the second coming every day.

They did.

They were pretty convinced it was going to happen at any moment.

But as it didn’t happen immediately, and more and more believers began to die, they started asking, “Well, what happens to those who die?”

And that’s really what this whole section is about.

What happens to those who die?

What happens to their bodies?

And Paul’s answer is essentially this: Listen, in the resurrection, we’re going to have a body.

And I think that’s what I really want you to hear today.

Paul calls it the resurrection body. Some translations call it the spiritual body.

I think Jesus after the resurrection gives us a good example of what Paul is talking about.

Post-resurrection Jesus had a physicality to him.

He walked.

He ate.

He traveled.

There was something physical about him.

But he was different.

He wasn’t like a regular, non-resurrected person. He could appear in places where the doors were locked. There was something different about him.

But he was recognizable.

He was physical.

He wasn’t just a ghost or a spirit.

And Paul is telling us that in the resurrection, we will be like that.

We will have a body.

Now, it will be an imperishable body. It won’t be exactly like this body, but it will resemble this body in the same way that a seed grows into something much larger.

The seed you put in the ground doesn’t look like the plant that eventually comes out of the ground.

But there is a connection between the two.

In the same way, this body that we have now will give way to a resurrected body.

So that’s what Paul wants us to hear.

We don’t need to worry too much about exactly what it will be like in eternity because God is going to take care of us.

And I think that’s really the point I take away from this chapter.

There’s a lot you could focus on. There are a lot of things in here that are hard to understand. Sometimes it can get a little confusing.

But there’s this word “perishable” that Paul keeps using.

What does that mean?

It means that this body is imperfect. This body is mortal. This body is subject to the consequences of sin and the fall.

And Paul connects sin and death because of sin, there is death.

But in eternity, there will be no sin.

And if there is no sin, there will be no more death.

There will be no more sickness.

There will be no more weakness.

There will be no more pain.

The fall is ultimately the root of all of these things.

Because we have failed as humans, things are disordered. Things aren’t right.

But in eternity, there will be no fall.

We will be perfectly restored.

So when Paul says that the perishable will put on imperishability, he’s saying that these bodies—which are God’s good gift to us but which have experienced the consequences of living in a fallen world—will one day no longer experience those consequences.

Our bodies will be physical, but they will be as they should have been.

And that’s the big takeaway for me.

The Bible tells us that no mind can conceive what God has in store for those who love him.

I don’t know exactly what eternity is going to look like.

I don’t.

But I know it’s better than anything we can imagine.

I know it’s better than anything we can experience here on earth.

And I know that we will have these bodies that are no longer stained by sin.

I just think that’s incredible.

There is going to come a time when there will be no more cancer.

No more illness.

No more pain.

No more death.

All of those things will be done away with forever.

That’s what it means for the perishable body to put on imperishability.

These bodies that experience all of these things will one day have a body that doesn’t have any of that.

That’s what we hope for.

We hope for a day when there won’t be sickness or death.

We hope for a day when there won’t be hungry children.

We hope for a day when there won’t be individuals who are beaten or abused.

We hope for a day when there won’t be addiction.

None of these things.

That’s what we hope in.

And so, as Christians, when we pray on Sunday morning, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” I think that’s also an encouragement for us to work to make this life as much like heaven as possible.

While we’re here on earth, let’s work to make sure that the life these perishable bodies live can be as much like the imperishable life as possible.

That’s part of our calling.

We know that one day God will make all things new.

But until then, we’ve got work to do.

So don’t stress too much about the things we don’t know or don’t understand.

Trust what Paul tells us.

God has something in mind for us.

And whatever God has in mind, it’s going to be awesome.

“But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

That’s our hope.

We have great hope today.

So live fully.

Live boldly.

Live joyfully.

And know that as great as this life is, there is something even better that God has in store for us.

Thanks for being with us. Have a great day today.

We’ll see you tomorrow.

Today, we take a closer look at 1 Corinthians 15 and Paul’s powerful statement that “all die in Adam” but “all are made alive in Christ.” What does that actually mean for how we understand sin, humanity, salvation, and the image of God? We talk about our natural “bent to sinning,” why sin is more than simply the bad things we do, and how Christ restores what has been corrupted. We’ll also unpack Paul’s reference to Christ as the “first fruits” of the resurrection and take a closer look at the mysterious passage about baptism on behalf of the dead. Ultimately, this conversation points us away from simply trying to be better people and toward the deeper Christian truth that our hope isn’t found in our actions, but in Jesus Christ.

Join us for our daily reflections. In 10 short minutes, we’ll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help us better understand God’s Word.

You can read today’s passage here.

Click here if you’d like to join our GroupMe and receive this each morning at 7:00 a.m. CST.

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Good morning! I hope you’re having a great end to your week. This is Friday, and I hope you’ve got some great plans for the weekend. I’m recording this early, so that’s why I’m wearing the same clothes I wore in yesterday’s reflection.

I’ll be heading down to Hattiesburg to work on my daughter’s car—or, more accurately, to see what needs to be done to my daughter’s car. I won’t actually be working on it because, as you know, I have no useful skills. I’m not a mechanic! But we’ll see if we can figure out what’s going on with it.

So, no matter what your plans are for Friday, I hope it’s a good day. It’s a big weekend here in Starkville because the kids are moving in, so that’s always fun. We’re also wrapping up a sermon series we’ve been preaching for the last few weeks and we’ve been talking about how we’ve got work to do, so let’s go do it.

I always joke that I preach the same sermon every Sunday; I just change the words. So today we’re going to pick back up where we left off yesterday in 1 Corinthians 15:12–36. But I really want to focus on verses 20–29.

Yesterday we talked about how this passage is kind of bookended. Verses 12–19 talk about the resurrection, and then verses 30–36 come back around to talk about the resurrection again. If we don’t believe in the resurrection, or if Christ hasn’t been raised from the dead, then we have some serious problems.

But right in the middle of all of that, there’s a really interesting section that has some important theological and practical things for us to think about.

Paul says:

“But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.”

Now, that is a huge doctrinal point right there for our faith: all die in Adam; all are made alive in Christ Jesus.

You’ve heard me preach this before and you’ve heard me teach it, but I think we spend too much time focusing on the wrong thing. We tend to focus on sins instead of our sinful nature.

And by sins, I mean the things we do that we shouldn’t do. I jokingly call it “smoking and drinking and cussing.” Those things we know are wrong. Those actions can be big or small, but they’re the things we do that we know we shouldn’t do.

But Paul is saying it’s more than that.

“All die in Adam; all are made alive in Christ.”

When Adam failed, when Adam was deceived, when Adam fell into sin, humanity was corrupted. There are a lot of theological words you can use for this. You can call it depravity. You can call it original sin. There are all kinds of ways of describing it.

But the basic idea is that all of us, as human beings, have this bent toward sin.

I love the way Charles Wesley describes it in his hymn “Love Divine”:

“Take away our bent to sinning.”

Alpha and Omega be.

We just have this bent. We have this inclination, this desire to do the wrong thing.

I often describe it this way: How many of us teach our children to be bad?

None of us!

We teach them to be good. We teach them manners. We teach them to share. We teach them how to treat other people. We don’t have to teach our kids how to be selfish. We don’t have to teach them how to lie. We don’t have to teach them how to fight over a toy.

There’s something in us.

As human beings, as the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, we have this natural bent. This is what Paul is talking about when he says, “All die in Adam.”

All of us are dead in our sins. All of us have this corruption.

Now, there are different ways to understand this. In the Wesleyan tradition, which is the tradition the United Methodist Church is part of, we talk about depravity largely in terms of corruption.

In Genesis 1, we’re told that we are made in the image of God. Then the fall happens in Genesis 3, and the image of God is corrupted.

We believe that it was corrupted, not destroyed.

That’s an important distinction.

We believe that all human beings still bear the image of God. Every human being has the image of God upon them. But that image has been corrupted or deformed. It isn’t quite right. It has that bent in it.

All of us have that.

So, when I talk about sin, I don’t ever want you to hear me speaking about sin as though it makes you some piece of scum.

No. No. No. No.

To talk about you being sinful is to talk about you being human.

We’re all sinful. We all have a brokenness. It’s part of being human.

So, all are dead, or all have this corruption, in Adam.

And then Paul says that all are made alive through Christ.

Christ is the second Adam. That’s what Paul talks about later. Christ restores what sin has corrupted.

Through Adam, all of us as human beings have this corruption, this sin. Through Christ, we can all be made whole.

Ted Runyon, in his wonderful book The New Creation, talks about how we are the new creation. That image of God that has been corrupted and deformed through the sin of Adam—that image is being restored through Christ.

The effects of sin are being reduced.

We call that sanctification in my tradition. We call it Christian growth. We have different ways of describing it.

But through Christ, what was broken in Adam is being restored.

All died in Adam, but through Christ, all can be made alive.

And here’s the important thing: It isn’t your actions that make you who you are.

We’re not saved through our actions. We’re saved through Christ.

Likewise, sin corrupts us and often forces that corruption to show itself through our actions. Christ restores us, and that restoration begins to show itself through our actions.

We don’t need to focus only on the surface level.

Y’all, there’s something deeper going on.

And I think that’s the problem with morality sometimes. We focus on being good or being bad. But that’s just looking at the symptoms.

That’s like taking Tylenol to treat an illness.

No, we want to cure the illness.

The old word for preachers is “curate.” We want to cure the illness. And the illness is this corruption that comes through Adam.

So how is that corruption cured?

Christ.

Christ is the answer to our sin problem.

The answer to our sin problem isn’t simply better actions.

The answer to our sin problem is Jesus.

As in Adam all die, through Christ all are raised. Through Christ we are born again. Through Christ we are made new.

And then Paul uses another really interesting phrase. He calls Christ the “first fruits.”

First fruits are a concept from the Jewish tradition. Basically, if you have the first fruits of a crop or a harvest, those first fruits are a sign and guarantee of the harvest that is still to come.

So when Paul says Christ is the first fruits of our resurrection, he’s saying that Christ was the first one to be raised, and because Christ was raised, we shall be raised.

Christ’s resurrection guarantees our resurrection.

That’s what it means for Christ to be the first fruits. His resurrection is the guarantee that our resurrection is coming.

And then, real quick, there’s that strange passage about the baptism of the dead.

This is something that happened in the early church. Sometimes you didn’t just walk down an aisle, get baptized, and join the church. That’s not how it worked back then.

It was a process. It could be a several-year process of becoming a Christian. There was teaching, testing, and preparation.

And sometimes, during that process, you would die of natural causes or you would be martyred.

So what happened if you died during that process before you had been baptized and formally received into the church—even though you already believed in Jesus and were considered a Christian, you just hadn’t completed the process?

When the time for your baptism would have come, someone could stand in for you and be baptized in your name.

That’s what Paul is talking about here.

It was a way of honoring those people who had died before their process of catechism and baptism had been completed. They were in Christ, and the baptism was an act of honoring that.

Now, that’s an interesting phrase, and some churches have built some interesting theology around it. But I don’t think you want to build your theology around this particular practice because it was something specific to that time and place in the early church.

But I do want you to understand what Paul is getting at.

The big point is this: All died in Adam, and all are made alive in Christ.

That’s the good news.

The problem goes deeper than the things we do. The problem is the corruption that has entered humanity. And the solution isn’t simply trying harder to be good.

The solution is Christ.

So, anyway, I wanted you to understand a little bit more of the importance of that phrase: “All died in Adam, and all are made alive in Christ.”

On Monday, we’ll pick up with the resurrection body, where Paul really tries to explain something that’s hard to explain.

So Monday may be very interesting.

And very messy.

I hope you’re well. Have a great weekend. And if you’re here in Starkville with us at First United Methodist Church, we’ve got a great church and some great things going on here.

Have a great weekend, and we’ll see you Monday.

Thanks!

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul makes a bold claim: if there is no resurrection from the dead, then the entire Christian faith falls apart. In today’s reflection, Andy explores the cultural and theological background behind Paul’s argument, including the Jewish debate over resurrection and why the early Christians were so focused on Christ’s return. Paul insists that the resurrection isn’t a peripheral belief—it is the foundation of Christian hope. If Christ has not been raised, our faith is futile. But if Christ has been raised, then death is not the end, and we can live this life with confidence in the life that is still to come. Andy reflects on what it means to live fully in the present because our ultimate hope is found in eternity.

Join us for our daily reflections. In 10 short minutes, we’ll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help us better understand God’s Word.

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Good morning! It’s good to be with you on this Thursday morning. I hope you’re doing well.

Today is a big day here at First United Methodist Church in Starkville because we’re going to be helping kids move into Mississippi State.

Well, we’re going to help kids move in.

But our joke is that we’re probably going to do more to support the parents than we are the kids.

I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday who’s moving his daughter up here, and we were talking about how much more relaxed it is to move your child into Delta State than it is to move your child into Mississippi State.

At Delta State, you show up, you move Thomas in, you take his stuff upstairs, you go run a few errands, you come back, and you’re done.

Mississippi State?

It’s like you’re parachuting behind enemy lines.

There’s a window.

You’ve got to hit the window.

And if you don’t hit that window, you’re in trouble.

So we’re going to be praying for all the parents moving their kids into Mississippi State, Ole Miss, and all the other universities around the state.

And we’re going to do what we can to help.

So keep all of those college students and their parents in your prayers as they make this transition.

Today we’re continuing in 1 Corinthians 15. We’re going to read verses 12through 36.

There’s a lot of really interesting stuff in this section.

And honestly, I don’t know that we’re going to get through all of it today.

There are several things in these next couple of sections that I really want to slow down and spend some time with because Paul is talking about some pretty big questions—eternity, death, resurrection, and what happens to us when we die.

So let’s take some time with this.

Paul begins by saying:

“Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?”

That’s the question.

How can you believe that Christ was raised from the dead and then say that there is no resurrection from the dead?

Paul’s argument is pretty simple.

If there is no resurrection from the dead, then Christ hasn’t been raised.

And if Christ hasn’t been raised, then our faith is futile.

If Christ hasn’t been raised, then we’re still in our sins.

If Christ hasn’t been raised, then those who have died in Christ have perished.

And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, Paul says, then we are among all people most to be pitied.

That’s a pretty strong statement.

But Paul is making a very important theological argument here.

The resurrection isn’t some minor part of Christianity.

The resurrection is foundational.

The resurrection is the thing everything else depends upon.

And part of what is driving this conversation is the world in which Paul was writing.

There were people in the ancient world who believed there was no resurrection from the dead.

Within Judaism, there was actually a debate about this.

The Sadducees, for example, did not believe in the resurrection.

That’s why when you read the Gospels, you see the Sadducees asking Jesus that famous question about a woman who had been married to several brothers who each died.

They ask Jesus, essentially, “If there is a resurrection, whose wife will she be?”

The Gospel tells us that the Sadducees didn’t believe in the resurrection.

Part of that difference came from the way different Jewish groups understood Scripture.

The Sadducees placed particular authority on the first five books of the Bible—the Pentateuch, the books of Moses.

The Pharisees accepted a broader collection of writings as Scripture and found other passages that pointed toward resurrection.

So there was an actual theological debate happening within Judaism about whether resurrection was real.

And then you also had the broader Greek and Roman world, where there were all kinds of different ideas about what happened after death.

There could be ideas about an afterlife or some kind of existence beyond death, but the Christian claim was different.

Christianity wasn’t simply saying, “There’s something after this.”

Christianity was saying:

There is resurrection.

The body is raised.

Jesus Christ was actually raised from the dead.

And because Christ was raised, those who belong to Christ will also be raised.

That’s what Paul is trying to make absolutely clear.

And remember when this was written.

First Corinthians was probably written sometime in the mid-50s AD, roughly twenty years or so after the resurrection of Jesus.

And the early Christians were waiting.

They expected Jesus to return.

They believed his return could happen at any moment.

And as time went on, some of the Christians in Corinth began asking a very practical question:

What happens to the people who die before Jesus comes back?

What happens to the people who have already died?

Have they missed out?

Are they gone forever?

What happens to them?

Paul’s answer is:

There is resurrection.

That’s the hope.

That’s why Paul says that if Christ hasn’t been raised, then everything falls apart.

If Christ hasn’t been raised, our preaching is pointless.

Our faith is pointless.

Our hope is pointless.

We’re misrepresenting God.

Those who have died in Christ have perished.

And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, then we are to be pitied more than anyone else.

But then Paul makes the turn.

He says:

“But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.”

That’s the hope.

Christ has been raised.

And because Christ has been raised, resurrection is possible for us.

And there’s something here that I think is really important for how we live our lives right now.

There’s a great idea from C.S. Lewis that I’m going to paraphrase.

Lewis talks about how our focus on eternity actually affects the way we live in the present.

And I think that’s exactly what Paul is getting at here.

If this life is all there is, then I have to make this life work.

I have to protect my reputation.

I have to make sure my retirement account is big enough.

I have to make sure my stock portfolio is doing well.

I have to make sure everybody thinks well of me.

I have to make sure that I get everything I possibly can out of this life.

Because if this is all there is, then this is everything.

But if this isn’t everything—if there is a resurrection—then I can live differently.

If my ultimate hope isn’t found here, then I don’t have to cling so tightly to what happens here.

I can live fully for Jesus right now.

I can give.

I can serve.

I can love.

I can take risks for the Kingdom.

I can worry less about my reputation.

I can worry less about what people think about me.

I can live with a kind of freedom that comes from knowing that this isn’t the end.

There’s something better coming.

And that’s the hope of the resurrection.

We talked yesterday about what Paul called “of first importance.”

Jesus Christ is of first importance.

And at the very heart of that first importance is this:

Christ was raised from the dead.

That’s the foundation.

Paul is essentially saying, “If this isn’t true, then none of this matters.”

If Christ wasn’t raised, then we’ve been lying to you.

If Christ wasn’t raised, then God didn’t raise him.

If Christ wasn’t raised, then our faith is futile.

If Christ wasn’t raised, then we have no hope.

But—

Christ was raised.

That’s the Christian proclamation.

That’s what we believe.

That’s what the Church has proclaimed for two thousand years.

Jesus Christ died.

He was buried.

And on the third day, he was raised from the dead.

And because he lives, we have hope.

That’s why the resurrection matters so much.

It’s not simply something we talk about on Easter.

It’s not simply a doctrine we put in the Apostles’ Creed.

It’s the foundation of Christian hope.

And so when Paul talks about the resurrection, he’s not talking about some abstract theological idea.

He’s talking about the thing that allows us to live differently right now.

Because if death isn’t the end, then I don’t have to live as though death is the end.

I can live with hope.

I can live with courage.

I can live with generosity.

I can live with love.

I can live fully for Jesus because I know that whatever happens in this life, this life is not all there is.

So that’s where we’re going to stop today.

There’s a lot more here.

Tomorrow I want to spend some time with verses 20 through 29, because Paul gets into Christ as the “first fruits,” the connection between Adam and Christ, and then there’s that very interesting passage about baptism on behalf of the dead.

There’s a lot to unpack there.

So we’ll take our time with it.

Thanks for being with me today.

Pray for all those college students and parents moving into Starkville and Oxford and all across Mississippi.

And remember this today:

Christ has been raised.

And because Christ has been raised, we have hope.

Thanks for being with me.

Have a great Thursday, and we’ll see you in the morning.

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul reminds the church of what is truly “of first importance”: Jesus Christ—his death for our sins, his burial, his resurrection, and his appearances to the witnesses. In today’s reflection, Andy explores what it means to keep the main thing the main thing in our faith. There are many theological questions and denominational differences that matter deeply to Christians, from baptism and Communion to predestination and spiritual gifts. But Paul reminds us that these things, important as they may be, are not all of equal importance. At the center of our faith is Jesus. Andy reflects on the importance of knowing what belongs at the center of our faith and being careful not to turn matters of secondary importance into the things that divide us.

Join us for our daily reflections. In 10 short minutes, we’ll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help us better understand God’s Word.

You can read today’s passage here.

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Good morning! It’s good to be with you on this Wednesday morning. I hope you’re doing well and enjoying your week.

Things are getting busy around here in Starkville. The college kids are going to be moving in soon, and we’re getting ready for all the ways we can serve the students who are coming into our community.

So if you’re around the Starkville area, I’d love for you to come worship with us. And if you’ve got a kid moving to Mississippi State, reach out to me. I’d love to connect with you and help your student find a community here at the church, at the Wesley Foundation on campus, or at one of the other churches in our area.

If there’s any way I can be of service, please let me know.

I was taking Popsicles to the Famous Maroon Band the other day, and I was talking with some of the parents afterward. Some of them were from Texas, and we started talking about what it’s like to be a band parent.

And I told them, “Look, if your kid needs something, let me know. I’m a band dad. Band dads have to look after the other band children.”

So we’re getting ready for a lot of new students around here, and I’m excited about what God is going to do in this community in the coming days.

Today we’re going to continue in 1 Corinthians, and we’re going to read 1 Corinthians 15:1–11.

This is a really, really important passage.

And you’ll see why.

Paul begins:

“Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you...”

And then he says something that I think is incredibly important:

“For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received...”

First importance.

I love that phrase.

Because Paul doesn’t just tell us what he believes. He tells us what is most important.

He tells us what belongs at the center.

And what does he say?

That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.

That he was buried.

That he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.

That he appeared to Peter, then to the twelve, then to more than five hundred people, then to James, then to the apostles, and finally to Paul himself.

This is what Paul says is of first importance.

And I think that’s incredibly important for us as Christians to remember.

If you get out the United Methodist Hymnal, toward the back you’ll find a collection of creeds and statements of faith.

One of the ones we know best is the Apostles’ Creed.

You have the Nicene Creed.

And then you have other statements of faith and scriptural affirmations.

There’s a distinction between a creed and a statement of faith. A creed is a statement that has been affirmed by the broader Church, often through ecumenical councils. A statement of faith can be more specific to a particular denomination or tradition.

But one of my favorite things in the hymnal is when we get to those scriptural affirmations.

Because here Paul gives us something like that.

He says, “I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received.”

And then he tells us what that first importance is.

Jesus.

Jesus.

Jesus.

Jesus is the first importance.

Think about what Paul doesn’t mention here.

He doesn’t talk about tongues.

We’ve spent a lot of time talking about tongues over the last few days.

He doesn’t talk about spiritual gifts.

He doesn’t talk about worship styles.

He doesn’t talk about predestination.

He doesn’t talk about free will.

He doesn’t talk about baptism.

He doesn’t talk about Communion.

He doesn’t talk about all the things that Christians have spent centuries arguing about.

He says:

Jesus.

Jesus died for our sins.

Jesus was buried.

Jesus was raised from the dead.

Jesus appeared to his followers.

Jesus appeared to Paul.

That’s the first importance.

Now, that doesn’t mean that everything else is unimportant.

That’s an important distinction.

As a Wesleyan, as a United Methodist, there are things that matter deeply to me.

Baptism matters to me.

Communion matters to me.

The way we understand grace matters to me.

Our understanding of sanctification matters to me.

These are important things.

And other Christian traditions have things that are important to them.

If you’re Presbyterian, you’re probably going to have some strong opinions about predestination.

If you’re Baptist, you’re probably going to have strong opinions about baptism.

If you’re Pentecostal, you’re probably going to have strong opinions about speaking in tongues.

If you’re Episcopalian or Catholic, you’re probably going to have some very strong opinions about Communion.

And that’s okay.

These things matter.

But the question we have to ask is:

Are they of first importance?

Paul says no.

There is something that comes before all of those things.

Jesus.

Jesus is of first importance.

And I think that’s something we need to remember because we have a tendency as Christians to take things that are important—but secondary—and make them primary.

We take something that belongs in the second category and move it into the first category.

And when we do that, we can start dividing ourselves over things that Paul never said were of first importance.

We can become so focused on whether someone agrees with us about baptism or Communion or worship or spiritual gifts or some other theological question that we forget the thing that Paul says matters most.

Jesus.

There is room within Christianity for disagreement.

There is room for conversation.

There is room for theological exploration.

There is room for different traditions.

There is room for different understandings.

There is a lot of room inside the Christian faith.

But there are also boundaries.

When we talk about Christian orthodoxy—right belief—there are some things that have historically been understood as foundational.

The person of Jesus Christ.

The nature of God as Trinity.

Those are central boundaries of historic Christian belief.

But inside those boundaries?

Man, there’s a big sandbox.

There’s a lot of room to play.

There’s a lot of room to talk.

There’s a lot of room to disagree.

There’s a lot of room to learn.

There’s a lot of room to grow.

And I think that’s a beautiful thing.

But we’ve got to be careful.

Because social media and podcasts and the internet have given us an endless supply of things to argue about.

There are all kinds of cultural issues that people have decided are absolutely essential to being a Christian.

And some of those things may be important.

But they don’t necessarily rise to the level of first importance.

And that’s why it’s so important for us to know what actually is first importance.

Because if we don’t know what’s most important, we’ll eventually make something else most important.

And we’ll start fighting over things that were never meant to be the center of our faith.

Paul tells us what the center is.

Jesus Christ.

His death.

His burial.

His resurrection.

His appearing to his followers.

That’s the foundation.

And then Paul says something else that I love.

He talks about himself.

He says he’s the least of the apostles because he persecuted the Church of God.

But then he says:

“But by the grace of God I am what I am.”

I love that.

Paul knows that everything he has done has ultimately been because of God’s grace.

He says he worked hard, but it wasn’t really him.

It was the grace of God working through him.

And that’s where all of this comes together.

Because the foundation isn’t my ability.

It’s not your ability.

It’s not my theological understanding.

It’s not your denomination.

It’s not your preferred worship style.

It’s not even my particular understanding of Christianity.

The foundation is Jesus.

Jesus is the cornerstone.

Jesus is the foundation.

Jesus is what matters.

So let’s keep the main thing the main thing.

Let’s keep the first thing the first thing.

There will always be things that we disagree about.

There will always be theological questions that matter.

There will always be things that are important to us.

And that’s okay.

But let’s never let something of secondary importance become more important than Jesus.

Because Paul has already told us what is of first importance.

And it is Jesus Christ.

Jesus died.

Jesus was buried.

Jesus was raised.

Jesus is alive.

And Jesus is Lord.

That’s the main thing.

So let’s keep the main thing the main thing.

Thanks for being with me today.

I hope you have a great rest of your Wednesday.

Tomorrow we’ll pick up with the rest of 1 Corinthians 15, and Paul is going to spend some time talking about the resurrection—which, as you might imagine, gives us a lot more to talk about.

Thanks for being with me.

We’ll see you in the morning.

What does Paul mean when he says that worship should be done “decently and in order”? In today’s reflection, Andy finishes 1 Corinthians 14 by exploring Paul’s teaching about orderly worship, spiritual gifts, prophecy, tongues, and the controversial passage about women speaking in church. Rather than reading that verse in isolation, Andy considers it alongside Paul’s earlier instructions in chapter 11, where women are explicitly described as praying and prophesying. From a Wesleyan perspective, he explores why context matters when we interpret Scripture and why the goal of worship isn’t a particular style or tradition, but creating space for the people of God to encounter God together.

Join us for our daily reflections. In 10 short minutes, we’ll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help us better understand God’s Word.

You can read today’s passage here.

Click here if you’d like to join our GroupMe and receive this each morning at 7:00 a.m. CST.

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Good morning! It’s good to be with you on this Tuesday morning. I hope Monday went well and that you have a great Tuesday ahead of you.

Today we’re going to finish out 1 Corinthians 14. Yesterday we talked about tongues—where the practice comes from theologically and how we might understand it within the Wesleyan tradition.

Today Paul turns his attention to something that is just as important: orderly worship.

Let’s read 1 Corinthians 14:26–40.

Paul’s point throughout this section is pretty straightforward.

When the church gathers for worship, everything should have a purpose.

Someone has a hymn.

Someone has a lesson.

Someone has a revelation.

Someone has a tongue.

Someone has an interpretation.

But Paul keeps coming back to the same principle:

“Let all things be done for building up.”

That’s the standard.

Is what we’re doing building up the body of Christ?

Is it helping people encounter God?

Is it helping people hear what the Spirit is saying?

Or is it simply creating confusion and distraction?

Paul isn’t prescribing one particular form of worship.

He’s prescribing purposeful worship.

And I think that’s important because Christians have spent an awful lot of time arguing about what worship is supposed to look like.

We call them the “worship wars.”

Traditional versus contemporary.

Hymns versus praise music.

Organs versus guitars.

Formal liturgy versus informal worship.

And I think we sometimes miss Paul’s point.

The question isn’t, “Which style of worship is the right one?”

The question is, “Does our worship help us encounter God?”

We all experience God differently.

Some of us grew up in a little country church where the hymns were sung from an old hymnal and somebody’s grandmother sat on the front row.

Some of us encountered God in a much more formal setting—a Catholic or Episcopal church with liturgy and incense and beautiful music.

Some of us experience God through contemporary worship.

Some through silence.

Some through preaching.

Some through Communion.

Those differences aren’t necessarily bad.

They’re contextual.

They’re circumstantial.

They’re preferences.

And there’s nothing wrong with having preferences.

But we need to be careful that we don’t confuse our preferred means of worship with the end of worship.

The means can vary.

The end remains the same.

We gather to encounter God.

That’s what matters.

Paul is telling the Corinthians that their worship should have order because worship isn’t ultimately about us.

It’s about creating space for the whole body to encounter God together.

And then we come to one of the more difficult passages in this chapter.

Paul says:

“Women should be silent in the churches.”

This is one of those verses that has been used throughout Christian history to make very broad claims about women and ministry.

So I want to slow down here and explain how I understand it.

As a Protestant, and particularly as a Wesleyan, I believe Scripture is the ultimate authority for the Church.

Tradition matters.

I love the traditions of the Church.

I deeply respect the wisdom of Christians who have gone before us.

But when Scripture and a particular tradition come into conflict, Scripture ultimately has the greater authority.

That’s an important part of how I understand my own tradition.

As a United Methodist pastor, I affirm the full calling and participation of women in ministry, including preaching and pastoral leadership.

That’s also true throughout much of the broader Wesleyan tradition.

But I recognize that not all Christians agree with me on this.

And that’s okay.

There are faithful Christians who interpret these passages differently.

So why do I interpret this particular passage the way I do?

Context.

Look back at 1 Corinthians 11.

Paul says:

“Any woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled disgraces her head.”

Notice what Paul doesn’t say.

He doesn’t say, “Women aren’t allowed to pray.”

He doesn’t say, “Women aren’t allowed to prophesy.”

Instead, he gives instructions about how women should pray and prophesy.

And remember what prophecy means in this context. It isn’t necessarily predicting the future. It’s speaking the word of God to the gathered community.

So Paul has already acknowledged that women are praying and prophesying in worship.

That’s important.

Because when we get to chapter 14 and Paul says women should be silent, we have to ask what exactly he means.

If Paul intended to establish an absolute prohibition against women ever speaking in worship, then chapter 11 becomes very difficult to explain.

So I read chapter 14 in the context of the larger section.

What is Paul talking about here?

Orderly worship.

That’s the subject of this entire passage.

If someone speaks in tongues and there is no interpreter, they should be silent.

If someone else receives a revelation, the first speaker should be silent.

People should speak one at a time.

Everything should be done decently and in order.

And then Paul addresses women who are apparently asking questions during the worship service.

He tells them that if they have questions, they should ask their husbands at home.

In other words, I believe the issue here is disruptive speech, not a universal prohibition against women praying or preaching.

Paul is concerned that the worship service not become chaotic.

And that’s why I think the context matters so much.

We don’t interpret one verse in isolation when the surrounding chapter helps explain what the verse is doing.

So as a United Methodist and a Wesleyan, I can affirm the authority of Scripture while also affirming the call of women to preach and lead in the Church.

For me, those things aren’t contradictory.

They’re the result of reading the whole passage in context.

And that brings us back to Paul’s larger point.

Worship should be orderly.

Not because God is rigid.

Not because there’s only one right way to worship.

But because worship is supposed to build up the body.

That’s why Paul ends this section by saying:

“But all things should be done decently and in order.”

That’s the principle.

Not one particular style.

Not one particular denomination.

Not one particular instrument.

Not one particular liturgy.

Order.

Purpose.

Edification.

And ultimately, encounter with God.

So when we gather for worship, let’s remember why we’re there.

We’re not there to get our preferred style of music.

We’re not there to prove that our way is better than somebody else’s.

We’re not there simply to be entertained.

We’re there to encounter the living God.

And whatever helps us do that faithfully, while building up the body of Christ, can be a beautiful expression of worship.

Thanks for being with me today.

Tomorrow we’ll leave 1 Corinthians 14 behind and move into chapter 15, where Paul turns to one of the central claims of the Christian faith: the resurrection.

And that’s going to give us plenty to talk about.

Have a wonderful Tuesday, and I’ll see you again tomorrow morning.

Why do some Christians speak in tongues while others don’t? In today’s reflection, Andy continues through 1 Corinthians 14 by exploring Paul’s discussion of tongues and prophecy. Along the way, he explains the Wesleyan roots that connect Methodists and many Pentecostal and charismatic traditions, while reflecting on what spiritual maturity ultimately looks like. Whether expressed through extraordinary gifts or ordinary faithfulness, the goal of the Christian life is the same: to grow in the love of God until our lives reflect the love of Christ.

Join us for our daily reflections. In 10 short minutes, we’ll dig a little deeper into Scripture and help us better understand God’s Word.

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Or, if you’d like to read the transcript of the video, keep reading!

Good morning! It’s good to be with you on this Monday morning. I hope you had a wonderful weekend.

Here in Starkville, we’re beginning to see more and more Mississippi State students arriving as another school year approaches. It’s always an exciting time of year. Our town begins to come alive again, and as a church we look forward to welcoming students—both those returning and those who are here for the very first time.

Today we continue our journey through 1 Corinthians, picking up in chapter 14.

On Friday, we spent our time in chapter 13, where Paul reminded us that love is the greatest of all the spiritual gifts. Now Paul turns to one of the most debated subjects in the church: tongues and prophecy.

Let’s read 1 Corinthians 14:1–25.

This passage can make some Christians a little nervous because it deals with a topic that different churches understand in different ways.

I’ll be honest about where I’m coming from.

I’m not part of a charismatic tradition. Speaking in tongues has never been a central part of my own spiritual experience.

But I also want to be careful not to dismiss something simply because it hasn’t been my experience.

Over the years I’ve been present when people have prayed over me in tongues.

I’ve witnessed moments that I sincerely believe were genuine movements of the Holy Spirit.

The people involved were faithful Christians whom I deeply respect, and I have no reason to question the sincerity of their faith or the reality of what God was doing in their lives.

So while speaking in tongues isn’t part of my own regular experience, I certainly don’t dismiss it.

Paul, however, is making an important distinction here between tongues and prophecy.

When we hear the word prophecy, we often think of predicting the future.

That’s certainly part of the biblical story at times.

But much more often, prophecy simply means speaking the word God has given for that particular moment.

The Old Testament prophets frequently addressed the people standing right in front of them. They called God’s people to repentance, challenged injustice, offered hope, and proclaimed God’s truth into their present circumstances.

That’s the kind of prophecy Paul has in mind.

His concern is practical.

If someone speaks in a language no one understands, how does that build up the church?

Paul says,

“I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue.”

Notice what keeps appearing throughout these chapters.

The purpose is always the same.

Build up the church.

Strengthen the body of Christ.

Help people encounter Jesus.

That’s Paul’s measuring stick.

One thing I think is fascinating is that many of our Pentecostal and charismatic brothers and sisters actually have deep roots in the Wesleyan tradition.

John Wesley taught that the Christian life doesn’t end at conversion.

God continues transforming us.

We continue growing in holiness.

We continue becoming more like Christ.

Wesley called that process sanctification.

Many Pentecostal and charismatic traditions emphasize that as believers grow in the Spirit, spiritual gifts—including speaking in tongues—may become visible expressions of God’s work in their lives. That emphasis grew out of a broader Wesleyan conviction that God’s grace continues to transform us throughout the Christian life.

That’s an important connection to understand.

We’re family, even when we express our faith in different ways.

Where I personally land is here.

When I ask, “What is the greatest evidence that someone is becoming more like Jesus?” my answer keeps bringing me back to chapter 13.

Love.

That’s the fruit I’m looking for.

Paul has already told us,

“If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.”

For me, that’s the lens through which I read chapter 14.

God certainly gives different gifts to different people.

Some have gifts of teaching.

Some have gifts of encouragement.

Some have gifts of leadership.

Some may even have the gift of tongues.

But whatever gifts God gives us, the ultimate evidence of spiritual maturity is that we increasingly love like Jesus.

Wesley often described Christian maturity as being made perfect in love.

Not perfect in knowledge.

Not perfect in performance.

Perfect in love.

To love God with all our heart.

To love our neighbor as ourselves.

To allow the Holy Spirit to shape our lives until love becomes our most recognizable characteristic.

That’s the kind of sanctification I long for.

If the Spirit’s work in my life isn’t making me more patient...

More kind...

More forgiving...

More compassionate...

Then something is missing.

Because no matter what gifts we possess, the goal is never the gifts themselves.

The goal is becoming more like Christ.

And when we become more like Christ...

We become people of love.

Thanks for being with me today. Tomorrow we’ll continue in 1 Corinthians 14 as Paul turns his attention to worship itself and why order matters whenever God’s people gather together.

I hope you have a wonderful day, and I’ll see you again tomorrow morning.