HELP ONE MORE PERSON DISCOVER JESUS
Walk in Wisdom
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These daily devotionals are written to help you remain rooted and grounded in God's Word each day. We have one devotional for each weekday, and one for the weekend.
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Latest Devotional
Make Me a Sanctuary
Numbers 35:34b
“… I the LORD dwell in the midst of the people of Israel.”The Shepherd’s Church, which my dad founded thirty-seven years ago, sits right in the hub of Cary, North Carolina, on the outskirts of Raleigh, between the two intersecting thoroughfares of Tryon Road and Holly Springs Road. The side facing Tryon has a lovely grass lawn, divided into four full soccer fields, and I’m currently sitting on a lawn chair on one of those fields, looking out across the parking lot full of cars. Though it’s a Tuesday afternoon and not a Sunday morning, the church is brimming with movement. Parents are coming out the doors now, with kindergartners in tote, some headed to the playground to swing, and others, I’m sure, headed back home. Landscape crews are moving about the premises in typical fashion. Staff members are taking a break for a stroll around the quad. Seminary students are headed inside with their backpacks to study in the library. And the distant hum of city traffic a hundred yards away from me, with the occasional beep of an angry horn, provides the background ambience to this gorgeous sunny day.
The reason I’m relaying these visuals to you is because as I unfolded my lawn chair in this quiet grassy field just a few minutes ago, and as I proceeded to sit for a while in quiet prayer, the diverse sounds of children’s laughter and engines humming and co-workers talking, the sounds of spiritual movement in the midst of this city that is, stirred my affections. Even before reading Numbers 35:34, I began to thank God for a place like this. A place of peace and tranquility; a place in the center of this municipality that represents God’s presence. A place where Christ is proclaimed, and virtue is preached, and service is practiced in so many ways. It strikes me how dark the city of Cary would be without churches like these to stand as beacons.
May we take the greatest comfort in knowing that our God dwells with us, but may we also see our lives as little microcosms of heaven wherever we go today. A refuge for wandering souls; a place of respite for the broken-hearted; and a grassy quad where those lost in the City of Man might draw nearer to the Kingdom of God.
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Latest Devotional
Make Me a Sanctuary
Numbers 35:34b
“… I the LORD dwell in the midst of the people of Israel.”The Shepherd’s Church, which my dad founded thirty-seven years ago, sits right in the hub of Cary, North Carolina, on the outskirts of Raleigh, between the two intersecting thoroughfares of Tryon Road and Holly Springs Road. The side facing Tryon has a lovely grass lawn, divided into four full soccer fields, and I’m currently sitting on a lawn chair on one of those fields, looking out across the parking lot full of cars. Though it’s a Tuesday afternoon and not a Sunday morning, the church is brimming with movement. Parents are coming out the doors now, with kindergartners in tote, some headed to the playground to swing, and others, I’m sure, headed back home. Landscape crews are moving about the premises in typical fashion. Staff members are taking a break for a stroll around the quad. Seminary students are headed inside with their backpacks to study in the library. And the distant hum of city traffic a hundred yards away from me, with the occasional beep of an angry horn, provides the background ambience to this gorgeous sunny day.
The reason I’m relaying these visuals to you is because as I unfolded my lawn chair in this quiet grassy field just a few minutes ago, and as I proceeded to sit for a while in quiet prayer, the diverse sounds of children’s laughter and engines humming and co-workers talking, the sounds of spiritual movement in the midst of this city that is, stirred my affections. Even before reading Numbers 35:34, I began to thank God for a place like this. A place of peace and tranquility; a place in the center of this municipality that represents God’s presence. A place where Christ is proclaimed, and virtue is preached, and service is practiced in so many ways. It strikes me how dark the city of Cary would be without churches like these to stand as beacons.
May we take the greatest comfort in knowing that our God dwells with us, but may we also see our lives as little microcosms of heaven wherever we go today. A refuge for wandering souls; a place of respite for the broken-hearted; and a grassy quad where those lost in the City of Man might draw nearer to the Kingdom of God.
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Sabbath Psalm (From Fanny Crosby’s hymn ‘Blessed Assurance’)
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Spiritual Scars
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Better Judgment
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A Roll Call
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Kingdom Rising
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A Tale of Two Pilgrims
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Sabbath Psalm (Revised from Charles Wesley’s hymn ‘Depth of Mercy’)
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A Leprous Colony
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Word Spreads
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Dry Seasons Pt. 2
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Dry Seasons
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For the Record
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Sabbath Psalm (From Priscilla Owens’ hymn ‘Jesus Saves!’’)
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Monumental Letters
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A Second Impression
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Fighting Words
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Either-Or
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Striking Justice
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Sabbath Psalm (From Lidie H. Edmund’s hymn ‘My Faith Has Found a Resting Place’)
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The Fall of Balaam
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Justice—A Double-Edged Sword
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Spoken For
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A Divine Intervention
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Promises Performed
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Out of the Ordinary
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Dying Request
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Hand in Hand
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When God Speaks for You
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A New Genesis
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Sabbath Psalm (Revised from John Peterson’ hymn ‘A Flag to Follow’)
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In Broad Daylight
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No Place Like Home
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Balaam’s Final Oracle
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Faith—An Oasis
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Balaam’s Second Oracle
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Sabbath Psalm (Revision of Henry F. Lyte’s hymn ‘Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken’)
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Balaam’s First Oracle
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A Language Barrier pt. 2
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A Language Barrier pt. 1
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No Solicitors!
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Out of the Shadows
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Sabbath Psalm (Revised from Palmer Hartsough’s hymn ‘I Am Resolved’)
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The Way of Kings
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Lost Books
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The Truth Bites
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The Hand-Off
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Rebels All
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Sabbath Psalm (Revision of Mary D. James’ hymn ‘All for Jesus’)
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Come to the Waters
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Eulogies for the Living
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Sin is Oh So Draining
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In Christ Alone
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Guardians of the Gift
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Sabbath Psalm (From E. W. Blandy’s hymn, ‘Take the World but Give Me Jesus’)
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A Sappy Symbol
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Rhetorical Righteousness
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A Powerful Posture
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Making Memories
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Tribes and Tongues, pt. 2
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Sabbath Psalm (Adapted from Philip P. Bliss’s hymn, ‘Let the Lower Lights be Burning’)
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Tribes and Tongues, pt. 1
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Stop the Rot!
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Jesus Love the Little Children
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Beating Hearts
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One-Sided
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Sabbath Psalm (Adapted from Joseph Scriven’s hymn, ‘What a Friend We Have in Jesus’)
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The Beginning of Wisdom
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The Grasshopper Principle
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Do You See What I See?
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Time Out
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A Reconciling Rebuke
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Sabbath Psalm (From Fanny Crosby’s beloved hymn, ‘Near the Cross’)
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Unrighteous Rhetoric
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A Story Shared
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Moses’ Complaint pt. 2
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Moses’ Complaint pt. 1
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Famished
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Sabbath Psalm (Adapted from George Matheson’s hymn ‘O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go’)
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Burning
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High Notes and Low Notes
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Silver Chords
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The Waiting Room
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The One and the Many
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Sabbath Psalm (A revision of John W. Peterson’s hymn ‘A Student’s Prayer’)
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Transitions
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The Gold Standard
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Between the Angels
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An Acceptable Approach
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Waxing Lyrical
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Sabbath Psalm (Revision of John W. Peterson’s hymn, ‘Just One Step at a Time’)
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Locks of Love
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A Nazirite New Year
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Love is Jealous, Love is Kind
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Get Your Hard Hat Ready
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Blue Collar Cloth
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Sabbath Psalm (Revision of Fanny Crosby’s hymn ‘All the Way My Savior Leads Me’)
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Beyond the Blue
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A Most Sacred Order
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Awaiting the Dawn