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06/19/2026

06/19/2026

Read Hebrews 3:7-15 - Anatomy Of A Hardening Heart

Scripture uses language to describe being spiritually unhealthy. Our hearts can gradually grow hardened toward God—one day and one choice at a time. Hebrews 3:7-8 (referencing Psalm 95:7-8) says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.” After God delivered His people from Egypt, they “tested and tried [Him]” (v. 9) during their time in the wilderness.

God had faithfully provided for His people, but they refused to see it (vv. 9-10). What about us? What habits nudge us away from God—day by day hardening our hearts against Him? We all make some of those choices. So I’m thankful that today, right now, God offers to exchange our hearts of stone for those softened by His love (see Ezekiel 36:26).

Adam Holz

How is God drawing you closer to Him? How can you learn to hear His voice?

Dear Father, sometimes my heart gets tired. Please forgive me for choosing the wrong things. Help me embrace Your offer to cleanse and soften my hard heart.

06/18/2026

Read Jeremiah 17:5-8 - Deep Roots

As Douglas Kent, a landscape architect, toured a charred Los Angeles neighborhood after the city’s raging 2025 wildfires, he encountered a shocking surprise—trees, alive and green, right next to melted cars and burned buildings. Many of them bore lush palms and leaves, abundant fruit, and strong trunks and branches. How?

After two consecutive rainy winters, the trees’ roots had reached deep into the soil to draw moisture, carrying it to branches and leaves. In a fire, they proved resistant. “What I saw,” said Kent, “was that if you were deep-rooted, you survived.”

Our faith during the fiery trials of life can be like that. As we set our spiritual roots deep in Christ and His love, we become “like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit” (Jeremiah 17:8).

Jeremiah, who never minced words, warned that those who trust in “mere flesh” are “cursed” (v. 5). “That person will be like a bush in the wastelands; they will not see prosperity when it comes.” Instead, “they will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives” (vv. 5-6). How much better to trust in God! Well-watered by His sustaining love, we thrive even in raging times, bearing spiritual fruit in Him.

Patricia Raybon

How deep are your roots in Christ? How can you trust Him during fiery trials?

Dear God, as the world seems to burn around me, please remind me to trust in You.

06/17/2026

Read John 10:1-10 - Listening To The Good Shepherd

In John 10:10, Jesus warns that “the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” Rebuking religious leaders who opposed Him for healing on the Sabbath (9:13-15), Jesus revealed their motive: to steal, kill, and destroy. Our spiritual enemy, Satan, plots to steal our understanding of God’s grace—and the freedom Jesus’ death provides for us. Hope and help come earlier in the passage where Jesus described Himself as the good shepherd who calls His sheep by name (10:2-4). The good shepherd’s sheep “will run away from [a thief] because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice” (v. 5).

We sometimes find ourselves victimized by the evil in our world. But our loving God invites us into a practice of discernment where we learn to recognize and avoid the voice of our enemy who wants to steal, kill, and destroy. As we tune our ears to the voice of our Good Shepherd, we can trust Him to lead us to life “to the full” (v. 10).

Elisa Morgan

Where in your life is “the thief” seeking to harm you? How will you listen for the voice of the Shepherd who longs to lead you to Himself and provide abundant life?

Dear God, please help me discern the voice of the thief and instead tune my ears to Your voice.

06/17/2026

Step up to the plate and check out our collection of baseball cards from the 1970s through 2011! From vintage Topps cards of the 70s, 80s and 90s to modern stars, there’s something for everyone.

06/16/2026

Read Psalm 104:1-7, 10-16 - Seeing God’s Grandeur

In nineteenth-century poet Gerard Manley Hopkins’ sonnet “God’s Grandeur,” this literary artist celebrates the countless ways creation is “charged”—intensely filled—with “the grandeur of God.” Hopkins describes God’s breathtaking glory flaming and glistening “like shining from shook foil.” But if God’s beauty is so vibrant, why do so many people miss it? Hopkins suggested one reason is that humanity has covered everything with “man’s smudge” and “man’s smell”—leaving many unable to see anything beyond themselves.

Psalm 104 is also a celebration of God’s beauty in creation. Using vivid imagery, the poet describes God “clothed with splendor and majesty” (v. 1), revealing His beauty, power, and care in wind and fire (v. 4), thunder and waves (v. 7), water, grass, and trees (vv. 10-16).

Countless gifts sustaining both body and soul (v. 15) point to “the glory of the Lord” (v. 31) whether we always realize it or not. In his poem, Hopkins concluded that, even when humanity is blind to God’s glory, because of His goodness, there always “lives the dearest freshness deep down things.” If only we’ll stop to see and wonder, there are countless reasons to see, believe in, and celebrate God’s beauty and goodness “as long as [we] live” (v. 33).

Monica La Rose

What dulls your awareness of God’s glory? What helps you see and experience His beauty?

Dear God, thank You for the ways Your beauty fills the world. Please help me see and celebrate Your beauty and the work of Your Spirit all around us.