Let’s get up and walk the walk with Jesus! It’s so easy to talk the talk. The walk takes effort!

I am fortunate to participate in a very collegial adult Sunday School class at First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee! Here are some examples of how classmates walk that walk.

Mike was motivated to participate in Celebrate Recovery by his wife Sandy. He tells me that he is willing to pitch in with any role that Jesus would ask him to fill, and that ranges from helping with the church sound system to being the go to person every Sunday that opens class with prayer.

Shirley says that God gives us many given abilities. Hers is the motivation to serve at Welcome Table. Welcome Table offers a free hot evening meal every Thursday as a very successful community outreach to personify God’s love.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 25:40, “Even when you did it for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it unto me.”

Bernice also participates in Celebrate Recovery and Welcome Table, along with other means of service at First United Methodist. Her motivation comes from a ladies conference weekend years ago where she felt the presence of Jesus in her midst, and He had a message for her: “Go teach My words!” which she has with consistency, enthusiasm, and determination.

So let’s follow their examples and get out there and go do!

James writes in Chapter 2:17, “Thus faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”

Find your way to reach out and help your brothers, sisters, and children. Jesus tells us that when you do so, you are doing it unto Him. There are so many ways to consistently personify that love!

Find yours!

God above, in this world of hurt and need, guide us to go and do your will. Is it simply purchasing and donating that extra can of food, or is it more? Open our hearts and minds to do your will! Amen.

This devotion was written and recorded by Sam Barto.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

If you would like to respond to these devotionals in any way, we would enjoy hearing from you. Our email address is: podcasts@1stchurch.org.

First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our community and throughout the world. We are located on the web at https://1stchurch.org/.

These words remind me that our strength and faith come from connection. When we realize that we are connected, or rooted, in the world that God gave us, we are sustained even in challenging times.

I have recently heard a series of conversations on WUOT between reporter Pierce Gentry and East Tennessee survivors of Hurricane Helena, which struck in September of 2024. A year later, Gentry revisited people he had met in the storm’s aftermath. The people he interviewed lost everything in the floods that accompanied the storm.

Michael Davis of Butler, TN, remembered, ”My trailer was sitting there, but it was full of water, so we lost our clothes and 54 years of pictures. Our baby pictures, our wedding pictures. All of it.”

Allyson Felty recalled, “It was terror. It was terror. And mostly because of the unknown. I never would have expected anything to that magnitude.”

Frank Brough, who lived in a historic house built by the Sevier family in 1846, said the water came up to the second story joists. The hardest decision Brough had to make was whether to attempt to save the house. But the community stepped in. When neighbors came in to help, Brough recalled, “they carried mud out…in five-gallon containers, and they probably moved a million pounds of mud.”

Joy Lambert, who had left her home for higher ground, watched as nearby apartments were swept off their foundation by the raging waters and hit her mobile home. “I seen it go, and yet my eyes couldn’t fathom what I had seen.”

Pierce Gentry asked all these survivors the same question at the end of the interviews: “What does healing mean to you?” The similarity of their answers is inspiring:

Alyson Felty said, “You know, God is so good. And He has provided to us more than I could have ever imagined.”

Michael Davis answered, “Thank God for all of God’s people. Without God’s people, I wouldn’t be here.”

Joy Lambert answered, “Healing for me is just to trust the Lord and leave it to Him.”

His voice choking up with tears, Frank Brough answered, “All of the time God is good. He is in control…My wife and I live in faith, believing all things work together for good for those that love the Lord.”

The people of East Tennessee are resilient and are rooted in faith. Even though many roots were washed away in Hurricane Helene, the deep roots of faith and community have sustained them. They are like ‘a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream.’

Dear God, thank you for keeping us rooted even in the most tragic times. Thank you for showing us the humanity in our communities that overcomes the worst that can happen and restores our hope. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

This devotional was written by Laura Derr and read by Judy Wilson.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

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I read this passage recently, and it dawned on me that this rich man had possibly had an Abraham and Isaac moment. God asked Abraham to give up the thing he loved most, his son.

Isaac had been the long-promised child for Abraham and Sarah and was the linchpin for God’s covenant to make Abraham the father of many nations. But when Abraham obeyed despite all this, God gave Isaac back to his parents, and the covenant was ultimately fulfilled.

In the case of the rich man, Mark tells us, “Looking at him, Jesus showed love to him” and asked him to give up the thing that was nearest and dearest to him, his wealth. He was obviously a devout man who had lived by the commandments from his youth. But Jesus knew that he had this one thing that he loved even more.

What we don’t know but could possibly speculate is that if the man had agreed to give up his possessions, Jesus could very well have given them back to him (as God did with Isaac). Since he would have surrendered his riches as his own, Jesus could have used them through him in a totally different way, serving those on the margins that Jesus ministered to most often.

But we will never know. While Abraham passed his test of surrendering the thing most precious to him, the rich man did not, and he went away grieving.

As the son of a minister, there were some sermon illustrations that I heard anew in every church he served. One that I will never forget is the story of how they caught monkeys alive in the wild. As the story was told, they would take a dried gourd, cut a small hole in it, hang it from a tree, and then shake the dried seeds inside like a rattle. A monkey would come and reach inside to see what made the noise and grab the seeds. The monkey could not pull its clenched fist back through the hole, but its curiosity would not allow it to let go. The hunter could then just come fetch the monkey, trapped by its own stubbornness.

Are there things we cling to that need to be surrendered? Our resources, our time, our priorities? What could God do with them if we simply let them go and gave them back to God to be used as God saw fit? We may not be asked to give up a child or sell all that we have, but how much more good could God do with our treasures than we could imagine on our own! If only we would let go of them.

Father God, help us to see those things that we cling to so tightly and give us the will to surrender them to you. Amen.

This devotional was written and read by Charlie Barton.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in...