Narrow Pathways

Devotional

Week of November 3, 2024 (To read the devotional click on the topic heading)

Monday

MUSIC

Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! Psalm 150:1-6 Elesha Coffman is the professor of American Religious and Intellectual History at Baylor University. She wrote an article for Christian History that was titled “Singing the Old, Old Story.” The article was published on August 27, 2016 and began…
Tuesday

TRAGEDY

God still has a purpose for Donald Trump and the Deity concluded that Corey Comperatore has served his earthly mission. This is the implied response by MAGA supporters and Christian evangelicals’ interpretation of the failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump but took the life of Corey Comperatore. This incident occurred on Saturday, July, 13, at 6:11p.m. at the fairgrounds in Butler, Pennsylvania. As a retired United Methodist pastor who has spent a career helping individuals navigate tragedy, I find this response disturbing. The message conveyed at the RNC that convened days later in Milwaukee and evangelical pastors continued to pontificate…
Wednesday

CHRISTOLOGICAL TITLE – STONE

Embarrassingly, I must confess, I had little interest in the trades. The individuals who were employed by the tasks of manual labor were nice enough to converse with, though to me their actual work seemed very mundane and redundant. That is, until my church and parsonage burnt to their foundations in September 1985. After the ground was broken, I visited the construction site daily. Each trip heightened my understanding and provided a weekly accumulation of respect for the laborers. The most significant moment came when I viewed all of the pipes the plumbers had installed on the ground that would…
Thursday

SUICIDE

I was born with Asperger’s, which is on the autism spectrum. Asperger’s means I have difficulty with interpersonal relationships. It wasn’t until my early 60s that I was diagnosed with this birth condition. Until then I only knew that I was “different” and life was very difficult. Asperger’s is the condition where I am fixated in life on one thing, for me it is religion, I became so consumed in that area of study that I acquired six academic degrees and taught religion in college. Asperger’s also means that I lack interpersonal skills, which results in living a very lonely…
Friday

VISION

And the Lord answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. Habakkuk 2:2 In the early 1980s, Jim Carrey was an unknown actor struggling to be successful. To stay motivated he wrote a check for $10 million to himself for “acting services rendered,” and dated it for 1994. He carried this promise in his wallet for daily inspiration. In 1994, Carrey learned he would reap exactly $10 million for his role in the movie Dumb and Dumber. Today, Carrey is one of America’s top movie stars, and he credits his constant visualization with helping him…