This article is the first part of a two-part series. The second part will take a look at when pastors abuse their congregations.
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?

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Samson knew what he wanted when he saw it, and most of the time, living by sight, he walked like a blind man straight into an ambush.
But where love is necessary we pray for our enemies and bless them in the hope that God will repent and convert them to the Gospel.
Papa was an incredibly stimulating man who was full of life and made life rich for those found in his path.
The Sixth Sense is a suspenseful and scary movie where a little boy is born with the strange gift of seeing dead people.
How strange and yet how comforting: God prays to God for us, the Spirit to the Father. He sees through the fog of our emotions to what we truly need.
When we say, “I’ve screwed up big time. I’ve betrayed my spouse, my family, my friends. I’ve hurt lots of people,” we don’t need to hear, “Yes, you have. You need to make that right, learn to walk the talk, and act like a Christian next time."
Jesus is the "because" and "therefore" of our salvation because He died for our sin
There is a mirror that we Christians look into with daily repentance.
Being a run-of-the-mill, mediocre parent is a gift to your children. It models for them what life is all about: the little things, the overlooked things, the minuscule elements of daily life that—in various ways—are God’s gifts to us.
When the Holy Spirit is at work in the office of the holy ministry, the man is ridden by the Spirit and so his only concern is for preaching the Gospel, baptizing, absolving, and feeding sinners in the Name of Christ Jesus.
That image of the “godly woman” haunted me from examples in the Bible of honorable women.
"Are you Republican or Democrat?” “Liberal or conservative?” “Yankees or Red Sox?” “Star Wars or Star Trek?”