Grace for All

Progress Isn’t Always Visible

#671

Today at 4:01 AM

Hebrews 11:1 (NIV)

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

How many times in life have we as humans felt that we are working towards something and making little to no visible progress?

I know that, being a graduate school student, I have felt this plenty of times, going through two thesis changes and working a job 20 hours a week on top of my course load.

However, while we may not see it, progress is not always visible. We could be maki...

A Living Faith

#670

Yesterday at 4:01 AM

1 John 3:18

Little children, let us love not in word or speech, but in deed and truth.

In my life, I’ve had more than one experience, as I’m sure you have had, in which a person touted their piety and religious superiority, but I later found out that it was not backed up with behavior that reflected God’s love toward others. One of the most stark examples I can remember is when I was a child, and an interracial couple started attending my church. They were stared at and whispered about until they went from sitting...

Talk is Cheap

#669

Last Tuesday at 4:01 AM

1 John 3:18

Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

I’ve known some “big talkers” in my lifetime. Some of these acquaintances spoke of grandiose plans for their future, only to fizzle out when action was required. Others would spout off accomplishments, but in reality, they were riding on someone's coattails and attempting to take credit for someone else’s work. I try hard not to be too judgmental or dismissive of these folks, but I’ve been burned too many times by people with little or no follow-through.

This v...

Live a New Life

#668

Last Monday at 4:01 AM

Romans 6: 1-4

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

In this passage, which actua...

It’s Okay to Ask for Help

#667

Last Sunday at 4:01 AM

John 15:5

I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.

In this parable, Jesus uses the word abide to talk about our relationship to him. Abide, in this setting, is a rich word meaning to stay in fellowship or union with Christ. The metaphor of the vine and the branch helps to drive this message home. Grapes can only grow and bear fruit if connected to the vine.

What does abiding mean for us? For me, it...

Scripture Saturday (September 13, 2025)

#666

Last Saturday at 4:01 AM

Welcome to the Saturday episode of the Grace for All podcast. Thank you for joining us today.

Saturday is a special time when we take a few moments to review the scriptures that we have cited in the episodes this week.

If you missed any of those episodes, you might want to consider listening to them today. And even if you heard them all, there may be one that you might want to listen to again. We hope that each of these scriptures and podcasts will bring you a full measure of joy, peace, and...

Grace

#665

Last Friday at 4:01 AM

Ephesians 2:8-9

For it is by grace you have been saved through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.

We Christians are not perfect.

We Christians are all sinners.

But the thing that sets us apart is our Faith and trust in Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God. He came to Earth, was virgin born into a human body, and lived a sinless life. When His time on earth was done, he calmly offered Himself up to...

Acts of Love

#664

09/11/2025

Hebrews 10:24 (NLT)

Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.

Most of us go about our daily lives on autopilot. We go to work, do our best, interact with our families and co-workers, clients, guests, or customers in a polite manner. Sure, we take some time to smile, laugh, and attempt to fully enjoy the day, but realistically, it’s just a routine. Others might even comment that we are always pleasant, upbeat, calm or well prepared. We smile and offer thanks, but don’t take those...

Trust

#663

09/10/2025

Proverbs 3:5 (NIV)

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your path straight.

I had a recent experience regarding trust that caused me to stop and consider the word and its deeper meaning. The veterinarian was to come and vaccinate our cat and horse early one morning. Usually, I must catch the cat and place him in the kitty box before the veterinarian comes to the house. Since we were also vaccinating the horse, I took t...

Don’t Be a Goat

#662

09/09/2025

Matthew 25:40

And the King will answer them, "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me."

The stated theme of our podcast organizers this month is "The 'And' of Faith: Grace and Good Works." Having been raised Lutheran, where Sola Gratia—by Grace Alone—is an oft-quoted slogan and Martin Luther was known for his dislike of the book of James, my first reaction to the theme was a little negative. I had to remind myself that Paul has taught me t...

Go and Do

#661

09/08/2025

Ephesians 2:8-10 (NIV)

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith— and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Grace is the rock upon which Christian life is built and sustained. Through faith, grace transforms us so that good works naturally follow.

In James 2:17, we find that “faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is...

Finding Strength in the Vine

#660

09/07/2025

John 15:5

I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.

My father, like many men of his generation, grew up working on his family’s farm. His father, my grandfather, had two jobs: he was a stationmaster at various train stations throughout East Tennessee, and he farmed. It wasn’t a huge farm, but he produced enough to sell or share with others. My dad recalled working alongside his father and learning how to cultivate and ha...

Scripture Saturday (September 6, 2025)

#659

09/06/2025

You are listening to Grace for All, a daily devotional podcast produced by the people of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee.

This is Scripture Saturday, a time when we pause and reflect on the scriptures we have read throughout the week. If you missed any of our devotionals on these passages, you can find them on our website at 1stChurch.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Now, we invite you to listen and receive Grace.

Welcome and thank you for joining us.

Grace for All is a daily...

Together in Faith and Good Works

#658

09/05/2025

Hebrews 10:24 (ESV)

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.

My objective today is to take this simple, straightforward message and complicate it to the point that you will never forget it. Now you might be saying, “What could possibly be hard about the phrase, Let us consider how to stir up one another? '” If you ask my wife, this is very clear; to stir is a cooking term. Stirring helps dissolve particles like sugar or salt into a solvent like water. Stirring creates a homogenous mixt...

Whatever you did for the least of these you did for me

#657

09/04/2025

Matthew 25:40

The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me!

Just before saying these words, Jesus had told the parable of the sheep and the goats. In Chapter 24 and 25 of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus is sitting alone with his disciples on the Mt. of Olives, telling them of the time to come – a time in the future when the Temple would be destroyed, nation would rise against nation, famines and earthquakes would be in various places, and many would...

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait

#656

09/03/2025

Galatians 6:9 (NIV)

Let us not grow weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

I’m sure we’re all familiar with the phrase “good things come to those who wait.” I feel this also goes hand in hand with the phrase “patience is a virtue.”

It can often be exhausting to feel that you are constantly doing good towards others to get nothing in return; on the contrary, there are some cases where doing charitable acts towards others paves the way for mo...

The Comfort of a Rock

#655

09/02/2025

Numbers 20:8 (NIV):

Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes, and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.

Psalm 94:22 (NIV)

But the LORD has become my fortress, and my God the rock in whom I take refuge.

God gave special significance to the rock when he commanded Moses to strike a rock in the desert and provide water for the I...

Stirring Each Other

#654

09/01/2025

Hebrews 10:24 (NRSV)

And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds.

Picture something with me. Imagine you're stirring a pot of soup on the stove. You're not just mindlessly moving that spoon around - you're being intentional, making sure nothing sticks to the bottom, bringing up the flavors from the depths. That word "provoke" in our verse? In the original Greek, it's paroxysmos - it's where we get our word "paroxysm." It means to stir up, to incite, to sharpen like iron sharpening iron.

The writer of Hebrews is addressing a...

Stirring the Pot

#653

08/31/2025

Proverbs 15:18

A hot-tempered person stirs up conflict, while one who is patient calms a quarrel.

When I read this verse, I immediately think about my grandmother, who was a master at using Southern phrases to get a point across. “ Stirring the pot” was one of her favorites and it took me a while as a child to figure out exactly what she meant when she said it. When you Google this phrase, it says in a social context it refers to intentionally creating or escalating conflict, drama, or tension, often to achieve a specific goal...

Scripture Saturday (August 30, 2025)

#652

08/30/2025

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the people of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee.

This is Scripture Saturday, a time when we pause and reflect on the scriptures we have read throughout the week. If you missed any of our devotionals on these passages, you can find them on our website at 1stChurch.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Now, we invite you to listen and receive Grace. Welcome and thank you for joining us.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast...

Patience

#651

08/29/2025

Ephesians 4:2 (NLT)

Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other's faults because of your love.

Well, well……. Patience is an interesting concept. It is about how we handle adversity, delays, unpleasant circumstances, and trouble.

Our first thought, at least mine, is how often I am caught in traffic and am irritated with the slow or distracted driver in front of me. That driver is keeping me from my destination for no obvious reason. In the end, I might be delayed by one or two minutes, but the frustration I feel...

A Warm Hug

#650

08/28/2025

Nehemiah 8:10

Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

I have, unfortunately, heard this verse quoted by well-meaning people as they apologize for their tears at the loss of one they loved. They will say, “I know I shouldn’t grieve, for the joy of the Lord is my strength.” When you understand the setting in which Nehemiah spoke these words, you come to understand...

Our Loving Savior

#649

08/27/2025

Isaiah 41: 13

For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, “Do not fear, I will help you."

Have you ever thought about how much God loves us? I do think about His love often, especially since my husband passed away and I no longer have his support and have to make all decisions myself. This verse of scripture was a comfort to me, knowing God would be walking beside me, holding my hand and leading me. God does lead us when we feel alone, when we have lost a lo...

Be Prepared

#648

08/26/2025

1 Peter 3:15-16 (ESV)

But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.

The Boy Scout motto is "Be Prepared," and their slogan is "Do A Good Deed Daily."

I was a Boy Scout for many years, and I tried to honor both o...

God Meets Us Where We Are. But!

#647

08/25/2025

Luke 19:1-10 (NIV)

Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man named Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short, he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and bega...

Practicing Kindness

#646

08/24/2025

Proverbs 11:17

Those who are kind reward themselves, but the cruel do themselves harm.

There is a popular quote, and I hope you’ll forgive me if the way I report it is not exactly how you have heard it. And I hope you’ll forgive me, too, if you know it to be from a particular source. You see, it’s actually attributed to many people — a quick Google search revealed attribution to everyone from Buddha to Saint Augustine to Christian author Joanna Weaver to Irish actor Malachy McCourt. In any case, the quote goes some...

Scripture Saturday (August 23, 2025)

#645

08/23/2025

Welcome to the Saturday episode of the Grace for All podcast.

Thank you for joining us today. Saturday is a special time when we take a few moments to review the scriptures that we have cited in the episodes this week.

If you missed any of those episodes, you might want to consider listening to them today. And even if you heard them all, there may be one that you might want to listen to again.

We hope that each of these scriptures and podcasts will bring you a full measure of joy...

Faithful through Every Season

#644

08/22/2025

2 Timothy 2:13

If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.

Sometimes I think if I were God, I would have given up on people a long time ago. Do you ever feel that way? As if the rest of the world has quit trying, and you might as well, too?

My walk with Jesus has led me through many seasons—seasons filled with hope and gratitude, seasons rich with promise and potential, seasons in which my spirit was so attuned to Christ I could see evidence of God’s presenc...

The I am(s) of Jesus

#643

08/21/2025

John 8:54-59

Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, he of whom you say, ‘He is our God,’ though you do not know him. But I know him, if I would say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him and keep his word. Your ancestor Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day; he saw it and was glad.” Then the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and you have seen Abraham?” Jesus said to...

All Means All

#642

08/20/2025

1 Corinthians 13:7

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Bearing all things, believing all things, hoping all things, enduring all things- that is a lot to contemplate. Bearing and enduring don’t exactly have a positive tone. Hoping and believing do. When we really stop and examine these words in the context of God’s love, the verse only has universal meaning when they are applied to all things and all times. It is all too easy to love, believe, hope, and endure when things are pleasant and we think thi...

Who Touched Me?

#641

08/19/2025

Mark 5:25-34

Now a woman was there who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years. She had endured a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all that she had. Yet instead of getting better, she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, for she kept saying, “If only I touch his clothes, I will be healed.” At once the bleeding stopped, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. Jesus knew at once that powe...

Present Always but Hidden by Our Distractions

#640

08/18/2025

John 16:33

I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.

In this scripture, Jesus is talking to his closest followers, teaching them the importance of staying close to Him; the importance of relying on Him for strength and direction. But they were very confused and concerned, because he had also just told them he was leaving and going where they could not follow.

How could they rely on Him if he was leaving?

Not...

Clothed in the Right Identity

#639

08/17/2025

Colossians 3:12 (CEB)

Therefore, as God’s choice, holy and loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

Paul begins this verse with therefore—a word that always invites us to look back. In the previous section, Paul describes the kind of life that flows from focusing on “the parts of your life that belong to the earth”: anger, greed, slander, and all the ways we scramble to establish ourselves by the world’s measures. But he also paints another picture—the life that comes from being “renewed in knowledge by conforming to the image of the on...

Scripture Saturday (August 16, 2025)

#638

08/16/2025

This is Grace for All, a daily devotional podcast produced by the people of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee.

This is Scripture Saturday, a time when we pause and reflect on the scriptures we have read throughout the week. If you missed any of our devotionals on these passages, you can find them on our website at 1stChurch.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Now, we invite you to listen and receive Grace. Welcome and thank you for joining us.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by...

The eye of a needle?

#637

08/15/2025

Mark 10:17-27 (NIV)

As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life? Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’“Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thin...

Forgiveness, can you imagine?

#636

08/14/2025

Ephesians 4:32 (NIV)

“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”

I have grown up hearing the phrase “forgive and forget” whenever having been in a conflict with someone who has wronged me and being faced with the issue of forgiveness. In my adult years, I’ve been of the mindset of trying to be slower to anger and more willing to forgive, though often that can be a difficult task.

While the phrase “forgive and forget” is one that I’ve always felt I don’t agree wit...

Be Thankful

#635

08/13/2025

Colossians 3:15

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful.

Paul’s letter to the Colossians continues the theme of most of his letters: Christ is Lord of all, and we are to accept and love one another in faithfulness to Him.

Imagine this headline on a papyrus scroll in 60 A.D., when scholars believe this letter was written either by Paul or a close disciple of his:

Number of Followers of Christ Continues to Increase in Colossae. Observers Confused About...

Knowing Love

#634

08/12/2025

1 John 4:7

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

When hearing this verse, I can’t help but think about the 1960s song “They’ll Know We Are Christians By Our Love.” If you don’t know it, I strongly encourage you to look it up, but chances are that you’ve heard it at some point. It has four verses, at least four of which I’m aware, that discuss unity in the Spirit, walking together, working together, and a celebration of...

Our Hope Is in Him

#633

08/11/2025

Romans 15:13

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Hope, joy, peace: these are feelings which we all seek. Without these feelings, life can be dreary and feel meaningless. However, each of us has times in life when hope, joy, and peace are elusive. It is hard to be hopeful when the doctor shares a dire prognosis. There is certainly little joy when a loved one is terribly ill and approaching death. And peace c...

Slow to Anger

#632

08/10/2025

Proverbs 15:18 (NRSV)

Those who are hot-tempered stir up strife, but those who are slow to anger calm contention.

We seem to be surrounded by anger lately—contentious politicians, screaming pundits, angry neighbors, and impatient drivers. There are certainly reasons to be upset, but acting out in anger seldom solves anything.

As the mother of boys, I have had many opportunities to calm contention. When they were fighting with each other, I never thought, “Well, if I get angry, too, they’ll stop.” We all know we can’t diffuse anger with more anger, but tha...