There haven’t been a whole lot of constants for me over the last year.

For the past year of my life, nothing has stayed the same. I went from my final semester of college, to a summer at home working an office job, to student teaching, to graduating, to a brand new job in a brand new town. I went from being an expert at being a student after having done that for 15+ years to being a teacher with virtually no experience. I went from knowing everyone on the tiny campus I lived on to moving to a new town where the only people I know are my coworkers.

Today is the Feast of St. Philip and St. James. We remember these two apostles by reading a devotion from Celebrating the Saints.

Introduction to Song of Solomon

The Book Song of Solomon focuses on the love God designed to be shared between husband and wife. Through that relationship, the Lord Jesus gives us a glimpse of His intense love for us, and the yearning He wishes to stir up in our hearts as we await His return on Judgment Day.

Our focus for today is the reading from Acts, which is the account of Philip and the Ethiopian. We take our devotion from Growing in Christ Adult Bible Study.

If your church follows the lectionary, last Sunday was "Good Shepherd Sunday", when we read Psalm 23 and sing some songs about us being God's little lambs. It is striking that the Gospel reading for this day from John 10:11-18 misses the beginning of the chapter, where Jesus says, "The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him" (John 10:3-4). This is an important part of the picture of Jesus as Shepherd and us as his sheep: we need to get out of the sheep pen.

Today’s devotion details how Johann Walter’s work influenced the involvement of the congregation in the worship service. The poem below also was written by Walter. These excerpts are from Music in Early Lutheranism.

The psalm of the day is our focus, and our devotion comes from The Twenty-third Psalm: Arch Books.

Our devotion for eleventh century theologian Anselm comes from Saints and Angels All Around.

When a congregation has a vacancy in the pastoral office there is often a general sense of anxiety concerning the future.

We know God has a great sense of humor, and I appreciate the Bible stories that make us laugh about how God works. The disciples on the road to Emmaus, in Luke 24, is one of those stories. After the resurrection on Easter morning, Jesus sneaks up on two disciples on their way to Emmaus. "What are you guys talking about?" Jesus asks, nosing his way into their conversation. They don't recognize him and proceed to tell Jesus all about himself. Then Jesus calls them silly fools. Every time I read that story, I can't help but laugh at God's humor and how oblivious I, and all people, can be.