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About Disciplines

The Upper Room Disciplines provides an opportunity to look more deeply at scripture by offering a week of devotions by a single author on a particular theme.

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Latest Disciplines Devotions

In the Presence of the Divine - August 23, 2024

August 23, 2024

When we look at one another’s faces, we are beholding infinitely valuable bearers of the divine image. God’s image is there, not sometimes but always. When we talk to others, however,...

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In the Presence of the Divine - August 22, 2024

August 22, 2024

God is gracious and gentle. God’s mercy and loving-kindness are abundant. And yet we are called to be strong and stand in the strength of God’s power. What kind of power...

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In the Presence of the Divine - August 21, 2024

August 21, 2024

We build worship spaces and we design and lead worship services. We schedule stop and start times in chapels and sanctuaries. But then scripture issues a challenge, inviting us to imagine...

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In the Presence of the Divine - August 20, 2024

August 20, 2024

God’s presence can coincide with physical joy and comfort, but it isn’t synonymous with it. We can, after all, experience God’s presence even in grief and physically uncomfortable circumstances. We can...

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In the Presence of the Divine - August 19, 2024

August 19, 2024

When appeals to the sacred are made, we’re never too far from someone’s—or a group of someones’—sense of what is holy. We know the power of kneeling during a song for...

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The Beginning of Wisdom - August 18, 2024

August 18, 2024

Be filled with the Spirit,” Paul urges. In today’s passage he recommends one specific way by which people of faith can be filled: “Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among...

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The Beginning of Wisdom - August 17, 2024

August 17, 2024

Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time.” In this week’s reading from Ephesians, Paul continues to call the Christian...

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The Beginning of Wisdom - August 16, 2024

August 16, 2024

In John 6 Jesus expresses his longing to feed the crowd with “true bread,” that which will continually and most deeply satisfy their needs. But then he shifts from saying he...

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The Beginning of Wisdom - August 15, 2024

August 15, 2024

This week’s Gospel continues John’s extended drama from last week about Jesus and bread. Chapter 6 began with an account of Jesus feeding a multitude using a boy’s lunch. Then came...

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The Beginning of Wisdom - August 14, 2024

August 14, 2024

When God says to the newly crowned Solomon, “Ask what I should give you,” Solomon ultimately responds: “Give your servant, therefore, an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern...

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