Grace for All

Matthew 22:34-40 34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second...

You are listening to Grace for All, a daily devotional podcast produced by the people of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. This is Scripture Saturday, a time when we pause and reflect on the scriptures we have read throughout the week. If you missed any of our devotionals on these passages, you can find them on our website at 1stChurch.org or wherever you get your podcasts. No...

Job 19:25 For I know that my Redeemer lives and that at the last he will stand upon the earth. This may seem an odd verse popping up in the book of Job, which is probably best known for detailing Job’s disagreements, suffering, and, ultimately, his steadfast faith in the midst of his misfortunes. In the previous verses in Chapter 19, Job lists his woes: darkness covering his path, the loss of his...

Matthew 13:3-9 A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and cho...

Psalm 94:19 (NIV) When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy. Psalm 94:19 (NLT) When doubts filled my mind, your comfort gave me renewed hope and cheer. Reading both translations makes this verse seem a bit clearer. In our world, anxiety is a constant voice, a big topic. At times, I find myself dealing with anxiety (traffic in downtown Atlanta comes to mind). It’s not that I...

Micah 5:2-5 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor bears a son, and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites. He will stand and shepherd his flock in the str...

Proverbs 11:17 Those who are kind reward themselves, but the cruel do themselves harm. There is a popular quote, and I hope you’ll forgive me if the way I report it is not exactly how you have heard it. And I hope you’ll forgive me, too, if you know it to be from a particular source. You see, it’s actually attributed to many people — a quick Google search revealed attribution to everyone from Budd...

Job 19:25 (CEB) I know that my redeemer is alive, and afterward, he’ll rise upon the dust. Job’s friends think they have God figured out. Job has lost almost everything, and they think they know why. Surely, he must have done something terrible. God rewards good people and punishes bad people, they reason, so if Job is suffering, Job must be guilty. Job knows they’re wrong. But he doesn’t understa...

Welcome to the Saturday episode of the Grace for All podcast. Thank you for joining us today. Saturday is a special time when we take a few moments to review the scriptures that we have cited in the episodes this week. If you missed any of those episodes, you might want to consider listening to them today. And even if you heard them all, there may be one that you might want to listen to again. We...

Job 19:15 (NIV) “My guests and my female servants count me a foreigner; they look on me as on a stranger.” Psalm 69:8 (NIV) “I am a foreigner to my own family, a stranger to my own mother’s children.” Not too long ago I was reading a book by a Benedictine nun. As I read, she kept talking about “the other”. I pictured the other as someone terrible. It took a while, but finally I figured out that sh...

Romans 8:28 We know that all things work together for good for all those who love God, who are called according to His purpose. Everyone has times in life when it seems things are not working together for good. We live in a time when we want the “good” right now, so when things are not going well, we may question God. “Why me, Lord?” is the question many of us ask when a job is lost, a family is t...

Proverbs 3:5-7 (The Message Version) Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; God’s the one who will keep you on track. Don’t assume that you know it all. Run to God! When life feels easy and seems to present us with just what we need when we need it we are experiencing the energy called...

Luke 24:5-6 In their fright, the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: When we read the gospel stories, we have both the benefit and the burden of knowing how the story of Jesus ends. “And on the third day he rose again...

Who's that in the mirror? Second Corinthians, chapter 3, verses 17 and 18 say, "The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Lord's Spirit is, there is freedom. All of us are looking with unveiled faces at the glory of the Lord as if we were looking in a mirror. We are being transformed into that same image from one degree of glory to the next degree of glory. This comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit....

Isaiah 25:8 “He will swallow up death forever. The sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The Lord has spoken.” Sometimes I think we make God too small. We try to fit God into the small box of our tiny human brain, our limited imagination, our earthly three-dimensional world, governed by our five senses. Due to this lim...

John 20:16 (NIV) Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher)." I’ve photographed the sunrise dozens of times from all over the world. One rule never changes: don't shoot before civil twilight — that window when the sun is still below the horizon, but there's enough light to make out shapes and colors. It's not darkness anymore, but it isn't da...

You are listening to Grace for All, a daily devotional podcast produced by the people of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. This is Scripture Saturday, a time when we pause and reflect on the scriptures we have read throughout the week. If you missed any of our devotionals on these passages, you can find them on our website at 1stChurch.org or wherever you get your podcasts. No...

Exodus 7: 1-5 (NIV) Then the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. You are to say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country. But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you. Then I will lay my h...

John 20:27 (NIV) Then he (Jesus) said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” Following this, Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God.” This was a high point of faith. Jesus then says Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen yet have believed. Thomas was not with the other disci...

Matthew 28:6-7 He is not here, for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him. This is my message for you.” In this passage, an Angel of the Lord is speaking to Mary Magdalene and the other Mary. Three days have passed since Jesus’...

John 20:11-18 (RSV) “ But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept, she stooped to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” Saying this, she turned...

John 20:20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. I love Holy Week and Easter. It provides us a remarkable time to reflect on the unimaginable gift we have been given, the gift we didn’t earn and could never repay, the gift of Christ dying for our sins. It is a time to reflect upon the power and the glory and the majesty of ou...

John 20:16 (CEB) Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabbouni” (which means Teacher). Sometimes people read this story and wonder how Mary could possibly have mistaken Jesus for the gardener. How could she not recognize someone she knew so well? I had an experience last week that helped me understand. I was conducting the funeral for one of our longtime church member...

Thank you for joining us for today's Grace for All podcast. On Saturdays, we pause for a few moments to look back on our week and to review the scriptures that we have used in our podcast. We encourage you, after listening to this episode, to go back and listen to the episodes you missed, or to review the ones that were particularly meaningful for you. We trust that the thoughts that we have share...

Romans 14:8 “If we live for the Lord and if we die, we die by the Lord.” We are all on the clock from birth. We are also challenged to face our fate without flinching. But not right now, we say. How would you live knowing death was imminent? Seek a miracle cure? Do a bucket list? Or just hunker down and dedicate time with family and friends? Our Christian faith would be tested as we seek God for t...