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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

Knowing God - May 13, 2023

May 13, 2023

Language about God is a tricky business. A mentor stressed to me that speaking about God means trading in metaphors. They flutter between yes and no, opening vistas of understanding and...

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Knowing God - May 12, 2023

May 12, 2023

“Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good?” It turns out that this does not promise followers of Christ that they will be free from...

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Knowing God - May 11, 2023

May 11, 2023

I recently visited Maine’s Acadia National Park, an expansive natural treasure of 49,000 acres. The breathtaking landscape was carved out by glaciers in a past so distant that it stretches the imagination....

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Knowing God - May 10, 2023

May 10, 2023

Communities have stories. If you think about it, there really is no hard and fast distinction between the story of me and the story of us. Every individual’s story contains numerous...

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Knowing God - May 9, 2023

May 9, 2023

When was the last time you experienced awe or wide-eyed wonder? When have words escaped your ability to give expression to beauty? Or grief? In these moments we get a glimpse...

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Knowing God - May 8, 2023

May 8, 2023

To an unknown god. The inscription on the altar might seem to be an example of people hedging their bet just in case they have missed something. If that is the...

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Focusing on Christ - May 7, 2023

May 7, 2023

When someone misrepresents me, I feel hot rage. I suspect you do too, but often we’re powerless to defend ourselves publicly. When David was slandered, which is the context for Psalm...

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Focusing on Christ - May 6, 2023

May 6, 2023

As Peter’s letter reveals, the early church was small and characterized by deep, communal, organic spiritual growth. The first metaphor he uses is shows the members as infants craving spiritual milk....

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Focusing on Christ - May 5, 2023

May 5, 2023

The early church was a collection of rejects. It first appears that Peter was addressing diaspora Jews scattered across modern-day Turkey (see 1 Peter 1:1). However, many interpreters argue that his...

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Focusing on Christ - May 4, 2023

May 4, 2023

If the first verses of John 14 are about going, the next part is about knowing. We may miss how shocking it is that Jesus asserts that the disciples have seen...

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