The following entries are excerpts from Chad Bird’s new book, Untamed Prayers: 365 Daily Devotions on Christ in the Book of the Psalms (1517 Publishing, 2025), pgs. 311 and 335
Why did the church dedicate a day to St. Michael anyway? Who is he, and what does he do?
The Antichrist offers another continual presence. It is every whisper that tempts us toward autonomy, that tells us to carry it alone, that insists suffering is meaningless.

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On this Day Handel Begins Composing Messiah, and 5 Things We Can Learn From It
The simul makes several affirmations and rejections on the doctrines of sin/original sin, justification, and sanctification, to name a few.
As I weigh briefly here the advantages and disadvantages of preaching original sin and preaching actual sin, I don’t mean to argue for one and against the other. Instead, I mean to suggest a benefit in focusing a given sermon on one or the other, and that neither type of sermon should be the only type a Christian hears.
It’s no wonder we’re so attached to images; we are one. We are human hyphens between the celestial and the terrestrial.
Imagine yourself at an advanced age. What do you want to remember when you’ve forgotten virtually everything else? Sing that.
These three: to judge, to avenge, and to glory, have been taken from us, and no person should share in them.
We can’t all afford to travel the world, but the more we read from outside our own context, the bigger we see the world.
Original sin produces violent fruit.
Nostalgia is a powerful emotion. It can get ahold of a person and turn him all the way in on himself. What seemed a brief reflection lingers for hours, days, weeks, even years.
All I need to know about your spiritual condition, I can discover by watching you drive your car. What I’ve learned is that everyone is a lawbreaker, including me. It’s as simple as asking a few short questions about your driving habits...
In the biblical world, having a few extra inches on your waistline was not a reason for dieting but dancing.
Forgiveness. Reconciliation. They are beautiful notions until we have some reconciling and forgiving to do. It is easy to say we believe in forgiveness.