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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Jesus lives to intercede. So we needn’t bring him our feigned righteousness or our faux rehabilitation.
Repentance means being cut down by the law’s declaration of judgment. It’s not an activity we do to prepare for grace, but a point of despair worked by God himself.
If we want to see evidence of our Father’s answer to the fifth petition, we need only to look at the cross and the empty tomb.
There is joy in Lent, but it is the kind of joy that comes in being made whole.
It’s not the disciples’ faith that invented the resurrection but the resurrection that gave birth to the disciples’ faith.
Is it possible to take a cyber approach to the season of Lent? I do not think so.
Jesus enters this world’s darkness and brings us the life-giving power of God’s light.
The preacher of this text should follow the logic of the text, the divinely inspired genius of Saint Paul, and get out of the way.
When we look upon the cross, we see our sin. We also see the One who washes it away and gives life.
Because of my Advocate, there is no judgment or condemnation by God in my suffering.
Apathy, melancholy, and disillusionment plague the footsteps of the up-and-coming generations more than ever, especially in the realm of religion, and it’s worth asking, “Why?”
Trusting in Christ’s promise of new life and deliverance pours generosity and hospitality into the way we think and the way we experience life.