God's Gift of Scripture with Belton Joyner

The other day, I was at a breakfast mee@ng of local clergy. One of the pastors asked, “What are you doing for your sermon this coming Sunday?” One colleague smiled and replied, “My life is a walking sermon.” Maybe that quip gives us a handle for this week’s study text. If I “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17), then my life must be a walking prayer. How does this work? For example, how ca...

The writer of Proverbs (Solomon) says that wisdom comes from God (Proverbs 2:6-7).  What are we to do with a fact that Daniel considers---that God sometimes gives wisdom to non-believers?  In fact, Daniel gets word to the king not to destroy those wise ones in Babylon (Daniel 2:24).  Who would have expected wisdom from those who did not believe in Israel’s God?  Daniel understood that God plants w...

Solomon had a dream in which God invited him to ask for what he thought God ought to give him (1 Kings 3:5).  Solomon asks for the ability to decide between good and evil (1 Kings 3:9).  God is pleased with Solomon’s request and grants the wish (1 Kings 3:11-12).  God promises a long life if Solomon keeps God’s commandments (1 Kings 3:14.  Then, Solomon woke up from the dream (1 Kings 3: 15). God...

You probably remember a lot of the story of Joseph and his brothers.  When they were growing up, their father seemed to treat Joseph with special favor (Genesis 37:3), so the other fellows decided to kill him (Genesis 37:20).  They end up selling him to some passers-by (Genesis 37:28), so Joseph ends up Egypt and gets in high favor with the powers-that-be (Genesis 39:2; 41:42).  Hard times hit whe...

When I was a little boy, there was always competition when putting together the Christmas pageant.  All of the boys wanted to be one of the wise men.  After all, the shepherds and Joseph had to wear bathrobes but the three kings got to wear special costumes with crowns and were given beautiful jars and jewelry to carry.  Who wouldn’t want to be one of those three? The biblical wise men were probab...

Do you remember what happened to Zechariah just a few months ago?  He had been struck speechless, totally mute, because he doubted when the angel Gabriel told him that he and his wife, Elizabeth, were going to have a baby (Luke 1:13, 18, 20).  Now that the child has been born, Zechariah and Elizabeth go to get the infant circumcised (v. 59).  Finally, the leaders asked him what the child’s name wo...

When I was in seminary—at Drew University about two hundred years ago—almost every evening during the week, I would go to the chapel for evening prayer.  Part of the ritual for that service was singing the Magnificat, Luke 1:46-55.  At first, I wondered, “Why do we sing this every time we get together?”  Then, it dawned on me: This was Mary’s summary of key themes in the Gospel. I have a New Testa...

Ask someone to name key biblical figures in this season’s stories.  You’ll hear: Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, angels, shepherds, wise men, inn keeper.  You are not likely to hear “Elizabeth.” Luke begins his account of the coming of our Lord by telling about Elizabeth (Luke 1:5).  Elizabeth had figured she would not have any children (v. 7), but got the surprising news that she would indeed have a ch...

By now you are probably asking yourself, “Good Gracious, is it Christmas already?”  Our surprise about the closeness of the days ahead is pretty mild compared to what Mary must have felt when the angel told her she was going to have a baby! (Luke 1:31) When was the last time you were surprised by something God did in your life?  Maybe it was the healing of a broken relationship.  Maybe it was a ca...

After I read this week’s focal text (Luke 1:5-23), these five reflections emerged. (1) Zechariah was at work (v. 8) when he was visited by God’s messenger.  We don’t usually expect God to show up in the ordinary places of our lives.  Daily routines.  Daily duties.  How would my work day be different if I considered the possibility that something that happened there was a message from God? (2) An a...

Our study lessons for the past three weeks have explored ways in which we can experience God’s presence.   Just as I typed that first sentence, my phone rang.  It was Don.  He often goes with me to Duke women’s basketball games, but he had to miss last night’s game because of a conflict in his schedule.  This morning, he had read about the yesterday’s game, but he wanted to talk to someone who was...

Last Sunday, John reported on the bi-annual stew our church conducts.  Twice a year, our congregation makes about 1,300 quarts of Brunswick stew, selling it to fund mission projects throughout the year.  When John thanked folks for preparing, cooking stirring, and packaging—all that goes into a successful stew, he paused and said, “This is a good example of our stew-ardship.” Brief pause for you t...

The loud crack of gun shots rang across the college campus.  Students scattered in every direction, uncertain where one might find safety.  Then, over the campus loudspeaker system came the serious advice: “Shelter in place.  Shelter in place.” In this week’s focal text (Psalm 27), the psalmist faces evildoers (v. 2), adversaries (v. 2), foes (v. 2), an army at war (v. 3), trouble (v. 5), enemies...

Those in the Wesleyan tradition often speak of “prevenient grace.”  This tradition is a reminder that God takes the first step toward us.  God speaks and invites us to listen.  God offers love and invites us to respond.  God spots human need and invites us to serve.  God gets there first. This week’s focal text (Exodus 29:42-46) teaches us that God wants us to create places...create habits...creat...

After all of these lessons about the living water that God provides, we come to these verses that say that even Jesus gets thirsty. Jesus gets lonely. Jesus needs clothes. This is a bit of a turnaround isn’t it? Our Lord so fully identifies with us that He hurts when we hurt. And now He calls on us to hurt when others hurt. Service to others is service to Christ. As A. W. Argyle has suggested: to...

The focal text begins and ends with the crowd divided. Some even wanted Jesus arrested (v. 32), but it ended up without anyone “laying a hand on him” (v. 44). After this incident, some of the chief priests and Pharisees got upset with the temple police for not arresting Jesus. They asked the police why they had not accosted Jesus (John 7:45). The police said they wanted to give Jesus a fair hearin...

For the psalmist, longing for God is like a thirsty person longing for water (v. 2). We hear an echo of Psalm 23:2...”He leads me beside the still waters.” The psalmist talks to God (v. 1...”my soul longs for you, O God”). The psalmist talks to self (v. 5...”Why are you cast down, O my soul...?) In a sense, no matter whether the psalmist is talking to God or talking to self, the message is the sam...

In this episode, God provides water for a thirsty people, but God uses people (Moses and some of the elders of Israel) to get the job done. Do you suppose God wants to use us in 2023 to do the things needed to make water plentiful and available? God’s plan to care for the creation often includes human instruments. When I read this story, I am reminded of Isaiah 43:19 when God says that “I am about...

This is soap opera material. A man who has fathered a child by one of the family servants (Genesis 16:4) decides that he needs to send that child away so the man can concentrate on raising the son he has had with his wife (Genesis 21:2, 12). The man tried to make things go okay with the servant he was sending away, so he gave her food and water for the journey (Genesis 21:14). Before long, those p...

When I read this week’s focal text, my mind and heart started to work over time. James is three years old. During worship, he stays in the church nursery, except on the Sundays we have Communion. When it is time to go to the Table, James’ dad goes down to the nursery and brings his son up to join in the Bread and Cup. Once a month, there is a huge sign in front of our fellowship center: “Free Brea...

This familiar story—feeding the five thousand—is one of the very few miracle accounts that appear in all four gospel collections, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We recognize it as a sign of Jesus’ great compassion (v. 34) and His desire to help this crowd with His teaching (v. 34). We certainly recognize that God is able to do a lot with what we consider “just a little.” But, I want to zero in on...

You would think that it would be a great moment for Elijah. He had just had a showdown competition with the prophets of Baal and Elijah had won (1 Kings 18:38-40). (Charles Wesley wrote a hymn about the follow-up celebration—1 Kings 18:41-46—541 in The United Methodist Hymnal).  But things turned sour for Elijah. When Queen Jezebel found out that Elijah had humiliated her favorites and indeed that...

One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Exodus 16:15. God has provided food for a hungry people and they look at it and mutter, “What is it?” How often has God tried to give me a gift and I looked at it and wondered, “What’s going on? What is it?” When God answers my prayer in a way different from what I expect, I might not recognize the gift God wants to give.   The Hebrew children called this...

How would you like to be named “Judas”? It’s not very likely that you’d plant that name on your new baby! It was a fairly common name in New Testament times; it was simply the Greek version of “Judah,” one of the tribes of Israel and a beautiful portion of the land of the Israelites. This week’s focal text looks at the one sometimes called “Judas Iscariot.”  (Some students of the Bible think the n...