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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In this season of a global pandemic, Peter’s little letter is especially potent as he writes to sustain the hope born of Christ’s resurrection in scattered believers whose lives were marked by suffering.
In our text we learn that Baptism is in the name of Jesus Christ and grants forgiveness and gives the gift of the Holy Spirit. Faith is worked in the heart.
The life of holiness will overtake the world on the last day. Practice living in the coming world now.
Their hearts burned, their feet ran, and their mouths opened. “The Lord is risen, indeed!” they confessed, because this is what Easter does: It makes confessors.
We look for Jesus in all the wrong places because we are looking to glorify ourselves, to reinforce what we already believe to be true, to validate ourselves. But the glorification of Jesus is found in the last place we would ever look, the cross.
In this season of a global pandemic, Peter’s little letter is especially potent as he writes to sustain the hope born of Christ’s resurrection in scattered believers whose lives were marked by suffering.
It is interesting to note how there is no mention of strife, trouble, pain, suffering or sin in this particular psalm. Nothing but praise as the name of the LORD is exalted.
John chose to write these things for a specific purpose: “So that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name."
Nor can we see how God’s hand will guide us through every challenge of this life, we have to believe it. Afterwards, we see how it happened, but in the midst of challenges and trials, we walk by faith and not by sight.
Our text begins with their answer to why they are doing this when they were strictly charged to cease their actions. The answer? “We must obey God rather than men.”
It is safe to say that Easter this year will be unlike any Easter we have ever seen.
The only point in being a Christian at all is if this message of the resurrected Jesus continues to be the solid ground on which you stand.