Today is Friday, the twenty-fourth day of April, 2026, in the third week of Easter.
May the Lord of peace Himself give you peace at all times in all ways!
It is day 114 of 2026, with 251 days remaining.
30 days until Pentecost Sunday
Day 24,879 of my life
Eleven years ago today, we buried the empty shell of my father. It was actually on a Friday, too.
Today is Scream Day. You know, I’m good with that. Sometimes, “self care” dictates a good scream.
Oh, my goodness. Today is also Firefly Day. Yes. THAT Firefly!
Okay. I didn’t have to think long at all for this one. Sunday, February 23, six days after February 17, I laid it all on the table to my pastor. It’s really hard for me to explain what the risk was but it definitely had to do with the transformation that God started on February 17. We had become really good friends, over the last couple of years, but for reasons I won’t go into here, that was at risk on that Sunday evening, as I laid out everything God had showed me the previous Monday night/Tuesday morning. Because of the grace and mercy of God and His faithfulness, that friendship bloomed into a “siblingship,” a brother/sister relationship that is truly amazing. And the transformation has continued, and has proved to be even more amazing. All that Christ has done for me, in me, in the last fourteen months. I most definitely do not regret that risk. It continues to pay off, exponentially.
Today is a normal Friday for me. I will be in the computer center at the library today, from 9:15-6:15. C said yesterday, that she is actually feeling better, physically, she thinks due to the antibiotics. Hopefully, she has “turned a corner” in her healing.
My first cup of coffee this morning is CAFE Olé by H‑E‑B Taste of DFW. Back to number one of the Favorite Five. “Offering the delicious flavor of caramel, chocolate and pecans, CAFE Olé by H-E-B Taste of DFW coffee is a medium roast variety.” My second cup is The Mad Professor, by Angelino’s. “Dark chocolate, nectarine & plum notes.”
Dinner tonight will be an H-E-B Meal Simple family meal, I think it’s Chicken Alfredo Penne Pasta, along with some Caesar Salad, Garlic Texas Toast, and even some leftover corn pudding, which was a definite hit. It will be a keeper, for sure.
JESUS TIME
Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus, my Savior, I approach You in this morning hour, beseeching You to let Your grace and mercy go with me through the day. Let Your presence give me the blessed assurance of Your divine protection amid dangers, guidance amid uncertainty, and strength against temptations. Bless the labors of my hands. Bless our home with Your continued presence. Bless our nation, and let righteousness and peace prevail. Bless Your Church, and keep her in Your Word and truth. Bless our schools, and grant that boys and girls may grow in grace and knowledge of You and Your will. Remember not the sins of my youth nor my many trespasses. Bring me safely home tonight, and keep me steadfast in faith; through Jesus Christ, my Redeemer. Amen.
(Lutheran Book of Prayer, Prayer 28, Friday Morning)
Heavenly Father, the week has been long and arduous as I tended to the many needs in front of me every day. It is so tempting to let self-pity direct my day. Give me grace for this day, I pray. Help me to faithfully perform the tasks and duties before me. Keep me attuned to the needs of others instead of turned inward to my own wants. Help me be aware of how You are at work in the lives of all people I encounter today, and enable me to respond with grace and kindness in all situations so that I reflect Your love and point people to You. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
(Portals of Prayer, Prayer for Friday Morning)
Father, by the love of Your Spirit, may we who have experienced the grace of the Lord’s resurrection rise to the newness of life in joy. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
(For All the Saints, Friday of the Week of Easter 3, Opening Prayer)
All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
(2 Corinthians 5:18-20 ESV)
Today I am grateful:
- For these times of solitude each morning, where I immerse myself in Christ and His Word
- That I don’t have to “manufacture courage” to do the tasks that Christ calls me to; He gives me power in His Spirit (Jen Weaver)
- That Christ has given me a ministry of peacemaking/reconciliation (I am still waiting for Him to show me what that’s going to look like)
- That I was ransomed from my futile ways, not with perishable things like gold and silver, but with the precious blood of Christ (1 Peter 1:18-19)
- For my baptism into Christ on March 19, 1967; it was real, it was permanent
- That God is able to create a clean heart within me, and a new song within that heart (Psalm 51)
Lord, in Your mercy, hear, now, the prayers lifted up to you for all who need strength, healing, comfort, and peace.
If you are reading this, I encourage you to stop and pray for someone, at this time. Or, if there is something on your heart, please leave a comment. What can I pray for you?
Psalm of the Day – Psalm 51:10-14
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will return to you.
Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
O God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
(Psalms 51:10-14 ESV)
Untamed Prayers – “Create in Me a Clean Heart,” by Chad Bird
People who are imaginative are called “creative.” Social media, these days, are replete with “content creators.” It can be said that artists “create” paintings; I have “created” songs. “But in Hebrew, it does not matter what you make or how original it might be, you are neither creative nor a creator. Only God is. Every time the Hebrew verb bara (‘create’) is used in the Old Testament, the Lord alone is the subject. In the beginning, God bara the heavens and the earth, and he is not sharing that ability with anyone else.”
This fact somewhat intensifies David’s prayer in verse 10. There was only one way for David to get a clean heart. “Huma activities associated with repentance have their place, but they are powerless to enact inward change. Christ alone, by the power of his Spirit, sent from the Father, can do that. . . .
“Every ‘I forgive you’ from God’s lips to our ears is like the ‘Let there be light’ in Genesis 1. It makes things happen. As there was light, so there is forgiveness. . . . Full of his Holy Spirit, therefore, with hearts washed pure by the liquid of his mercy, our tongues sing aloud of the righteousness of him who did for us what we could never accomplish ourselves (51:14).”
For All the Saints – Friday of the Week of Easter 3
See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.
If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
(Colossians 2:8-23 ESV)
“Baptism is the sign of our first entrance into the household of God, our Father, by which it is signified, that we are received into fellowship with Him, that we are clad with the righteousness of Christ, our sins and filthiness being washed away in His blood. Now it is evident, that the righteousness of Christ Jesus is everlasting, that God’s purpose is so firmly assured, that rather shall the covenant made with the sun and moon, with the day and night, perish and be changed, than that the promise of His mercy made to His elect shall be frustrated and in vain. If Christ’s justice be inviolable and the covenant of God be constant and sure, it is not necessary, that the sign which represents to me, and in some manner proves, that I am received into a covenant with God and as such am clothed with Christ’s justice, be received oftener than once. For the repetition of it would imply, that prior to that I was a stranger from God, and never had been publicly received into His household.”
(John Knox, John Knox’s Works, 1895)
I was baptized into Christ on March 19, 1967. A couple of years ago, I reached out to the Southern Baptist Church where that happened, Calvary Baptist Church, in Mineral Wells, Texas, to see if they still had that in their records, because I wanted, if possible, to nail down the date. And they still had it. I was so grateful for that, because, having converted to Lutheran, I have come to believe that Baptism is much more important than I believed as a Baptist.
My Baptism ushered me into the Kingdom of God and made me a permanent member of His Church, the Bride of Christ, my sins all washed away, past, present, and future. I will always remember that date, as long as I remember anything at all, and will be eternally grateful for that Baptism. And I will always regret letting that hotshot evangelist convince me that I needed to do it again, when I was in college, and that, I believe is the kind of thing that Knox addresses in the reading for today.
Most merciful Lord, turn my lukewarmness into a fervent love of You. Most gentle Lord, my prayer tends towards this – that by remembering and meditating on the good things You have done I may be enkindled with Your love. Your goodness, Lord, created me; Your mercy cleansed what You had created from original sin; Your patience has hitherto borne with me, fed me, waited for me, when after I had lost the grace of my baptism I wallowed in many sordid sins. You wait, good Lord, for my amendment. My soul waits for the inbreathing of Your grace in order to be sufficiently penitent to lead a better life. Amen.
(For All the Saints, Friday of the Week of Easter 3, Closing Prayer, Anselm)
Dear Jesus, I thank You for my Baptism, and that I was able to find out when it happened. I praise You for the life that You have given me, since then, even though, as Anselm’s prayer said, I strayed mightily from that Baptism, over the years. But You, Lord, in Your most infinite grace and mercy, saw fit to bring me back to You, transforming me beyond any of my wildest imaginings. I praise You for this, my Lord. Thank You, thank You, thank You!!
And I thank You, Jesus, for leading me to take that “risk,” last year, and all that You have accomplished because of it.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Grace and peace, my brothers and sisters! Drink deep!
CHRIST IS EVERYTHING!!!
Listening To His Voice 