Today is Friday, the twenty-fourth day of October, 2025, in the Season of the Church.
May the Lord bless you and keep you; may He make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; may He show you His favor and grant you His peace.
It is day 297 of 2025, with 68 days left in the year.
Day 24,697 of my life
It is one week until Halloween/Reformation Day, and two months until Christmas Eve!! Oof!
Interesting question! Since I am semi-retired, now, and am currently working at the best joy I have ever had, the only possible “alternative career path” that I would consider if owning my own used book store. But at this stage of my life, I would not consider that. However, there are some alternative career paths that I considered, earlier in my life. At one point, I wanted to be a professional baseball player. I might have been able to do that, but probably wasn’t good enough. I also wanted to be a rock star. Lead guitar player and/or lead singer for a rock band. I’m good enough to sing with one, but probably was never good enough to play guitar in one. I could hold my own, and think I play better than, say, Neil Young, but I’m definitely no Eddie Van Halen. For the record, I can sing better than Neil Young, too. But song writing? Nah. He’s got me beat, there.
I also almost went to library school once. In 2010, I was unemployed for three months after getting laid off from a job that I had had for ten-plus years. During that time, while filling out dozens of job applications (and almost getting hired by a college library to work a third shift position), I started the application process to a nearby college that provided a totally online Master’s of Library Science. But before that got going, I got a job and decided to go ahead and stick with that job.
But it’s all good, because now I can pretend I’m a librarian. I mean, some folks don’t know the difference, right? I work at a library, so I must be a librarian, right?
Today is a normal Friday. C is working from home, and I am at the library computer center all day. It’s time to pull subscription bags for November, so I will be doing that today.
JESUS TIME
“Our Father who art in heaven, lead us not into temptation. O dear Lord, Father and God, keep us prepared and alert, eager and diligent in Your Word and service, so that we do not become complacent and careless as though we had already achieved everything. We implore You by Your mercy not to let the devil sneak in and take away from us Your precious Word or stir up strife and factions among us, or otherwise lead us into spiritual and physical sin and disgrace. Grant us wisdom and strength through Your Spirit that we may bravely resist the devil and gain the victory. Amen.”
(Lutheran Book of Prayer – Prayer 56 – Friday Morning)
“So take me where You want me to go
I’m ready to follow You home
I know the waves and wind will blow
But You still hold me in Your hands
Oh, Jesus, You have good plans”
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,
and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
(Proverbs 9:10 ESV)
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
(John 14:6 ESV)
Today I am grateful:
- For the Way, the Truth, and the Life
- For the good plans that Christ has for my life; I am ready to follow Him wherever He leads me
- That You, Jesus, are the model of perfect love; thank You for shaping my love for You and for others
- For a beautiful marriage that Christ has given to C and me, for 40-plus years
- Once again, that I am not my own; I belong to Christ, and, in that belonging, I also belong to the community of saints
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?
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
(Matthew 22:36-40 ESV)
Jesus, help me to love You, today and every day, with all that I am. I belong to You; You own me!
Psalm of the Day – Psalm 85
LORD, you were favorable to your land;
you restored the fortunes of Jacob.
You forgave the iniquity of your people;
you covered all their sin. Selah.
You withdrew all your wrath;
you turned from your hot anger.
Restore us again, O God of our salvation,
and put away your indignation toward us!
Will you be angry with us forever?
Will you prolong your anger to all generations?
Will you not revive us again,
that your people may rejoice in you?
Show us your steadfast love, O LORD,
and grant us your salvation.
Let me hear what God the LORD will speak,
for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints;
but let them not turn back to folly.
Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him,
that glory may dwell in our land.
Steadfast love and faithfulness meet;
righteousness and peace kiss each other.
Faithfulness springs up from the ground,
and righteousness looks down from the sky.
Yes, the LORD will give what is good,
and our land will yield its increase.
Righteousness will go before him
and make his footsteps a way.
(Psalms 85:1-13 ESV)
“Love has a name,
a countenance,
a heart
that bears our sorrows,
shoulders our grief,
exposes our weakness,
atones for our sins –
revealing,
in radiant glory,
the face of God in Christ.
Look upon me, Lord,
with renewing,
refreshing life.
See beyond my brokenness,
my ceaseless struggle –
my trespasses,
transgressions;
all I have done
and left undone. . . .
Deliver me,
I pray,
from the casual embrace of death;
from the despair
of my desire.
Reclaim me.
Restore me –
that I may hear Your voice,
walk in Your ways,
to the glory of Your name –
for You have made Yourself known to me;
called me Your beloved.
In You,
all that is
good,
beautiful,
true,
holy,
worthy,
joyous –
converges and embraces.”
(Excerpt from Endless Grace – Psalm 85 – The Face of God in Christ)
The following is from For All the Saints – Friday of the Week of Pentecost 19
Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
Now as a concession, not a command, I say this. I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another.
To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single as I am. But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.
(1 Corinthians 7:1-9 ESV)
“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this:
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
(Matthew 6:7-15 ESV)
“Why refrain from that which God instituted, nature sanctions, reason persuades, divine and human laws approve, the consent of all nations endorses and to which the highest examples exhort? What more sweet than to live with her with whom you are united in body and soul, who talks with you in secret affection, to whom you have committed all your faith and your fortune? What in all nature is lovelier? You are bound to friends in affection. How much more to a wife in the highest love, with union of the body, the bond of the sacrament and the sharing of your goods! In other friendships how much there is of simulation and perfidy! Friends flit like swallows. Few continue to the end. But a wife is faithful and only death dissolves marriage, if indeed it does. If you suffer adversity, you have one who will console you and try to make your trouble her own. If you stay at home you have a respite from the tedium of solitude. If you are away you long for a kiss. Absent you desire, returning you rejoice. By marriage the number of your loved ones is increased. You acquire another father and mother. What more charming than to have a little Aeneas who will cherish you in your old age and in whom you are reborn! You say, ‘Your children may die.’ But do you think you will have no sorrows if you are celibate? Nothing is more safe, felicitous, tranquil, pleasant and loveable than marriage.”
(Desiderius Erasmus, Erasmus of Christendom, translated by Roland Bainton)
“O Thou most holy and everloving God, we thank Thee once more for the quiet rest of the night that has gone by, for the new promise that has come with this fresh morning, and for the hope of this day. While we have slept, the world in which we live has swept on in its awful space, great fires have burned under us, great waters have been all about us, and great storms above us, but Thou hast held them back by Thy strong hand, and we have rested under the shadow of Thy love. The bird sat on the spray out in the darkness, the flower nestled in the grass, we lay down in our home, and all slept in the arms of God. The bird will trust Thee this day to give its morsel of meat, and the flower will trust Thee for its fresh raiment; so may we trust Thee this day for all the needs of the body, the soul, and the spirit. Give us this day our daily bread. Amen.”
Closing Prayer: Robert Collyer)
The more I consider this excerpt by Erasmus, the more I love it. And how much difference a couple of days can make in my state of mind and heart. For, on Tuesday, I read a C.S. Lewis excerpt about marriage and the enemy used it to send me into an almost tailspin, as he threw past sins in my face (which, by the way, he has no right to do, but that’s a topic for another day). But Christ is faithful and He prevailed, reminding me that I belong to Him, and that has been the theme for the rest of this week. And I even see hints of that theme in Paul’s excerpt from 1 Corinthians, this morning.
You see, not only am I not my own, and belong to Christ, I also belong to my wife. What a beautiful picture of marriage this paints, that mutual belonging to one another. And I believe that our marriage has been a great picture of that partnership, now, for over forty years. We have never approached this marriage with an attitude that one of us has precedence over the other. It has been an equal partnership all along.
And I truly love Erasmus’s description of this relationship. We are “united in body and soul,” and have this “secret affection,” and have mutually committed all of our faith and fortune in this marriage. We share everything, even, and most especially, our faith in Christ. Now, while I don’t necessarily agree with Erasmus’s take on friendship (I had to look up “perfidy”), there has never been a friendship like this marriage. And I have yet to have a close friendship that has lasted more than forty years.
We have comforted each other in adversity (each with our individual adversities, and some that we experienced together). We enjoy each other’s company (even when we aren’t in the same room, it is comforting to know that the other is there). And when one of us is away for a time, it is lonely in the house, even if there are other people there. When my wife goes on a business trip, I usually sleep with a bathroom light on. And we have been blessed with two daughters.
Sure there are sorrows along the way. And not everything is perfect, because neither one of us is perfect, although she is closer than I. And I declare to you that my wife and I rarely, if ever, fight about anything. You may not believe me, but it’s true.
So I believe Erasmus’s statements to be true. I have found marriage to be safe, felicitous, tranquil, pleasant, and loveable. We are not our own; we belong to Christ, and we belong to one another.
Thanks be to God!
My Jesus, I praise You for this marriage! I thank You for these forty-plus years of relationship that is safe, felicitous, tranquil, pleasant, and loveable. I thank You that You have worked in our hearts along the way, to draw us closer and closer to one another, and have taken us through some desperately dark and treacherous times. We do not always agree on everything, but I daresay that we might agree more than most. But I’m probably a little biased, as well. My wife is beautiful and loving, and I treasure her, probably more than I have let her know. I pray that You help me to show this more often to her.
I thank You that You have bought us, Jesus, and that we belong to You, and in that belonging, we also belong to one another. I thank You for the beauty that is marriage, a marriage that has been based in You from the beginning.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen.
💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜
Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their labor:
If either of them falls down,
one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
and has no one to help them up.
Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
But how can one keep warm alone?
Though one may be overpowered,
two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
(Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 NIV)
Grace and peace, my brothers and sisters!
Listening To His Voice 