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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
Spiritual Scars
Numbers 35:33
“You shall not pollute the land in which you live, for blood pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it.”Man can’t thunder over the uncultivated landscape of the future the words, “Let it be,” and cause his ambitions to find fruition. He can’t conform the mysterious forces of Providence to align with his mental projections. His God-infused power of thought and will are not so divine as that, which is why the psalmist utters in exasperation, “What is man that You are mindful of him?” It’s only when we recognize that we are nothing on our own will and have nothing of our own making that we’re able to learn better who we are. Nevertheless, while the rampant pseudo-spiritualists and hyper humanists need a reality check against their egotistical mysticism, we saints could do with a bit more recognition of the power that our thoughts, words, and deeds really do have in the world around us.
Consider how a murderous thought that plays out into a murderous deed doesn’t just stain a moment in time, or a pair of jeans, or an individual conscience, but the whole created order. A murderous act from one image-bearing brother to another invisibly but manifestly pollutes the earth, which is why God says that the earth groaned after Cain’s murder of Abel. We don’t need to understand that mystery in order to recognize the weight of it.
When my parents first moved to Cary to start the church, we lived in a little rented house that was sort of haunted. Weird things happened there. My mom recalls hearing footsteps coming up and down the stairs when no one was there. Voices, noises; things like that. Well, sure enough, before moving, a neighbor informed my parents that the previous owner of the home had murdered his wife there. No surprise! In fact, I firmly believe that the places where people claim to experience paranormal activity like that are places that have been stained in the blood of a horrible crime from one human over another, as if a traumatized earth hasn’t forgotten the deed.
The point: our sins will find us out, and they leave scars on the world we can’t erase.
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Latest Devotional
Spiritual Scars
Numbers 35:33
“You shall not pollute the land in which you live, for blood pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it.”Man can’t thunder over the uncultivated landscape of the future the words, “Let it be,” and cause his ambitions to find fruition. He can’t conform the mysterious forces of Providence to align with his mental projections. His God-infused power of thought and will are not so divine as that, which is why the psalmist utters in exasperation, “What is man that You are mindful of him?” It’s only when we recognize that we are nothing on our own will and have nothing of our own making that we’re able to learn better who we are. Nevertheless, while the rampant pseudo-spiritualists and hyper humanists need a reality check against their egotistical mysticism, we saints could do with a bit more recognition of the power that our thoughts, words, and deeds really do have in the world around us.
Consider how a murderous thought that plays out into a murderous deed doesn’t just stain a moment in time, or a pair of jeans, or an individual conscience, but the whole created order. A murderous act from one image-bearing brother to another invisibly but manifestly pollutes the earth, which is why God says that the earth groaned after Cain’s murder of Abel. We don’t need to understand that mystery in order to recognize the weight of it.
When my parents first moved to Cary to start the church, we lived in a little rented house that was sort of haunted. Weird things happened there. My mom recalls hearing footsteps coming up and down the stairs when no one was there. Voices, noises; things like that. Well, sure enough, before moving, a neighbor informed my parents that the previous owner of the home had murdered his wife there. No surprise! In fact, I firmly believe that the places where people claim to experience paranormal activity like that are places that have been stained in the blood of a horrible crime from one human over another, as if a traumatized earth hasn’t forgotten the deed.
The point: our sins will find us out, and they leave scars on the world we can’t erase.
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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
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Tribal Standards
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Count Me In