The Fourth Quarter
So are you ready for the buzzer to sound? I was raised in a home that loved Jesus, church, family and basketball. My dad was a University of Kentucky fan and if the Cats were playing, the whole family watched – thus the graphic at the top of the article celebrating the “Battle for Kentucky” tonight in this year’s “Sweet Sixteen.” When I grew up I married a “Yankee” who thought basketball was a sissy sport, I made him promise not to say that to my dad. Over the years, my husband realized that he was wrong. Now he loves basketball as much as I do. The years passed and we were blessed with four boys and a daughter. Three of our five children played basketball. We went to little league games, middle school games, high school games, and a zillion tournaments. My back ached from spending so much time on bleachers. At one point in my life, I would lay down at night to go to sleep and I could hear basketballs bouncing and tennis shoes squeaking! Even though I have never played basketball myself (they didn’t have a girl’s team when I was in high school) I have been around the sport so much that I often think in basketball terminology. The other day I was talking to my friend about something and I said something about being in the fourth quarter of life – they still play basketball in quarters in middle school, high school, and pros while colleges play in halves. She looked at me strangely. “What do you mean?” she asked. “Well, we are into our 50s. Assuming we live about as long as our parents… I think it’s safe to say this is the fourth quarter of life.” She thought about it a minute, “We might get an over-time,” she said with a grin. We might, but regardless of how long we live, eventually we reach the fourth quarter. Then it’s not long before “game over” – the buzzer sounds and everyone goes home. When I was younger, I was too busy living life to think much about the fourth quarter! Now that I’m older, I realize that one of the reasons I didn’t want to think about it was I knew I wasn’t ready for the final buzzer. I wasn’t ready to face the coach and give my answer for how I had played the game. Ready or not, this life – your life and my life – will end. Ready or not, we will all answer to God for the life we have lived. No matter how old or young we are, let’s live with commitment so that when the final buzzer sounds, or when the coach takes us out of the game, we are ready to face our final score with confidence! The apostle Paul loved athletic metaphors, too. Notice what he says about finishing with confidence: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. And now the prize awaits me – the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing (2 Timothy 4:6-8 NIV). About the author: Teresa is an accomplished author, speaker, mother, and grandmother. Teresa has been married to Bill for a lifetime of family, faith, and love. They are members of Pleasant Hill Church of Christ in Kentucky. They have 5 children and 4 grandchildren. Teresa is also the author of the popular women’s blog called “NanaHood”!
Today’s Verse – 1 Timothy 2:5-6
For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men — the testimony given in its proper time. —1 Timothy 2:5-6 Thoughts on Today’s Verse… We do not need to have another human, no matter how mighty, pious, or special, to intercede for us before God. As God’s children, we can go freely, knowing that God himself has provided the perfect mediator and intercessor between himself and us. That mediator is the Son, who is head of the Church, one with God himself, and our High Priest interceding before God on our behalf. His name is the man, Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, the Son, and our LORD, Savior, and brother, who ransomed us through the cross and who now lives to make intercession for us (Hebrews 2:11-14, 4:14-15, 7:25; Acts 3:6). My Prayer… O God, you are my God, and I praise you for making access to you so freely available. I know that if left to my own worthiness, I would have no strength or righteousness with which to approach you. Yet in your grace, you not only provided a ransom for my sin that makes me holy, but you also provided a mediator for my approach to you. Jesus, I thank you for paying the price on earth and now at the Father’s side to intercede and speak for me! Thank you, Jesus, for making this prayer known to the Father, as I pray in your name. Amen. All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.
How You Can Minister to Christ
How can we minister to Jesus? When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them … (Matthew 9:36) On my first visit to a prison in northern Portugal, in the mid-1970’s, I was taken by the way the inmates welcomed us … There were hugs and big smiles and it seemed like they jumped up and down with joy every time we came. At first, I thought that the warm welcome the inmates gave to my companions and me was because I was the voice of a Bible study radio broadcast, and they wanted to meet the man behind the voice. Later, I found out that once those men were locked up, they were abandoned. Neither their relatives nor their friends came to see them. Let’s face it: who would want to have a convict for a friend, or for a cousin, or even for a brother? During one of my first visits to the French Robertson Unit here in Abilene, one inmate’s first words to me were: “Welcome to the Cemetery of the Living.” Later on, that same man confided to me I was his only visitor in ten years. He had not had a single person come to visit him in an entire decade. Another inmate there – a man from Matanzas, Cuba – gave me his home address in his country. The first chance I had to visit Cuba, I went to see his family. There I learned that they had had no communication with him for the past twenty years. The man’s mother had died, and he was unaware of it. When Paul admonished the Colossians about being supportive, (Colossians 3:13) he did not say that the Christian should bear with his or her brothers and sisters only when the circumstances were right! No, we are told to be supportive all of the time, even when it is uncomfortable or risky to do so. To shoot a wounded comrade would be bizarre behavior for a solider. Yet this is what we do every time we turn our back to a hurting brother. And when we visit the sick and the prisoners, they are not the only ones who receive a blessing. It blesses us just as well. These people are very close to the heart of God. According to Matthew 25:45, as we minister to them, so we are ministering to Jesus Christ himself. What a thought! We can minister to Christ. About the author: Lou Seckler works with Harvest Ministries in Abilene, Texas
I Will Cling to the Old Rugged Cross
Like him, and because of him, we live and die to live again. First Thoughts: If I could turn the calendar back about 21 centuries and relive a week from the life of Jesus, I think this – the most awful and the most wonderful week of his young life – is the one I would choose. In this week, he would be the guest of his Bethany friends, be anointed by Mary and another Mary, make his heroic entry into Jerusalem, teach from the Mount of Olives, share the Last Supper with his apostles, experience betrayal, denial, endure one mock trial after another, then finish his mission on earth on a cross. This week would be endured because of the victory to be celebrated on a single day of the week to follow. On the first day of that week – Sunday, what we call Easter Sunday or Resurrection Sunday – would come the joyous news that He is not here; He is risen; He is risen indeed! Like him, and because of him, we live and die to live again. Remembering and Reliving: It was a quite ordinary church service until… until a college student rose to announce that he and some friends had been asked to help create a mood for communion, the Lord’s Supper. Our part was to sit quietly, with heads bowed and eyes closed, no matter what we might hear or sense. Suddenly, the silence was broken by WHAM! It was the sound of a heavy hammer blow followed by cries of pain. And, from different parts of the room, cries of “Crucify him! Crucify him!” were heard. Muted, but still heard in the background, was the noise of hammer blows and the anguished cries of unbearable pain. Some thought that communion devotional 30 years ago had profaned something sacred. I thought it had made real the raw emotions we usually gloss over with a bit of bread and a sip of wine. For me, it was a communion like no other, and every Sunday I still hear those screams and hammer blows all over again. In 1957, a journalist and author named Jim Bishop created a stir in the religious world with his best-selling The Day Christ Died. More recently, no less a media personality than Bill O’Reilly has included in a series of books one titled Killing Jesus. Countless others, beginning with all four gospel writers, have tried to make the passion of Christ so real that we really do feel like we were “there when they crucified my Lord.” Telling Jesus’ Story: Twenty-one centuries later, we still struggle to tell the story so effectively that our questions are all answered and our emotions so involved that the story just won’t let go. It’s a story that takes place in less than a day – about 22 hours ending shortly before the beginning of Shabbat, the Sabbath. Jesus and the apostles gathered in an upper room for the Passover meal, which we know as The Last Supper. From there they made their way to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus prayed, was betrayed, and arrested. If you’re keeping score, there were seven trials or hearings in less than 24 hours. Preachers tell the story over and over, trying to capture its essence. Lawyers discuss the legality of the various trials. And doctors describe in all the gory detail what death by crucifixion was like. Whether the Romans invented crucifixion or copied the practice from the Persians, they were interested in swift, public, painful punishment, convinced that it would serve as a deterrent for would-be criminals. Only Luke describes the agony of Christ beginning in the Garden of Gethsemane, where, “being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground” (Luke 22:44). A physician, Luke recorded that medical phenomenon and left us to decide whether the sweat was only similar to blood or a rare condition called hematidrosis, where tiny capillaries in sweat glands burst from stress actually causing a mixture of blood and sweat. The blood of Gethsemane was only a portent of the blood Jesus would shed that same night. It’s tempting to just read about the scourging that took place and pass quickly over a word we don’t use any more. But, it takes on new meaning when we visualize the flagrum or flagellum, a handle with leather thongs and lead balls near the ends. Applied vigorously to the prisoner’s back, the scourge would initially inflict surface cuts, and then deeper ones, until muscle tissue was torn to shreds, and arteries spurted until prisoners would eventually bleed out if the executioners were willing to wait. Because of Jesus: But, they were not paid to wait. And Luke, as if he couldn’t bear the details he was writing, summed them up in a short sentence: “And they crucified him” (Luke 23:33). That sentence doesn’t capture the pain of nails through hands and feet, or the blood streaming down from thorns puncturing Jesus’ scalp, or the excruciating thirst, or the pain in hands and shoulders as his body sags, or the pain in feet and legs as he struggles to rise and exchange one pain for another, or the pain of breathing in, and the greater pain of breathing out. Somehow, he manages to gasp out his words, his sayings from the cross, finally summoning the strength to cry with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” Because of Jesus, “I will cling to the old rugged cross, and exchange it some day for a crown!” Special thanks for the use of images related to Jesus’ ministry from The Lumo Project and Free Bible Images for use on Phil’s blog, “The Jesus Window”! About the author: These Encouraging Words from Phillip Morrison are drawn from more than 60 years of ministry and life as a husband, father, grandfather, editor, and writer. A devoted follower of Jesus, Phillip has
Today’s Verse – Psalm 62:7
My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge. —Psalm 62:7 Thoughts on Today’s Verse… Who we are, what becomes of us in life, and what we accomplish of significance are all in God’s hands. We cannot achieve lasting honor for ourselves without his blessing. We cannot secure our future or our safety without his protection and blessing. The basis of all achievement and glory is dependent upon our willingly placing our lives in his care because he alone is permanent, eternal, and offers us life that is unending, with our future secure. Video Commentary… ToGather Worship Guide | More ToGather Videos My Prayer… O God, you are my Rock, the Fortress of my life. I place myself in your care, willingly and dependently. Please take charge of my future and use me for your glory in that future. In you I take refuge, and on your strength I rely to make my days worthwhile and my life to make a difference in the world for Jesus. I seek you and your Kingdom above all other entanglements, distractions, or goals. In the precious name of Jesus, I pray this. Amen. All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.
27 Mar 2026
So, there is good reason for praising God at all times. Even when we face difficult times, let us purpose to praise Him. The scripture reminds us that irrespective of what we are going through, all things work together for good for those that love God and have been called according to His purpose. He has a plan and even when we can’t see it, let us believe He is doing His will. The bare minimum we can do is accept His invitation to walk with Him and to constantly relate with Him. Romans 8:28-30
No Good Deed Left Unpunished
Why can’t we see the good in kindness? Last summer, a couple of teen-aged girls in rural Durango, Colorado, chose to stay home from a dance and use the night to bake cookies for their neighbors. Taylor Ostergaard and Lindsey Zellitti ran the idea past Taylor’s dad – whose approval was contingent on getting a few cookies for himself – and began baking around 9 p.m. They prepared nine plates of cookies, made heart-shaped cards with the message, “Have a great night. From the T and L Club.” They then put them on people’s front porches anonymously. They rang or knocked – and disappeared. Since it was after 10, Taylor and Lindsey determined not to stop by houses that were dark. They’d only go where the people were still up and had lights shining. Their chocolate chip and sugar cookies could be bedtime treats. Talk about your random acts of kindness. Or just old-fashioned good neighborliness. But there’s more to the story. One of the recipients was a 49-year-old woman at home with her own 18-year-old daughter and her mother. She heard the knock at her door. She called out, “Who’s there?” Getting no answer, she called the sheriff’s office. Officers came, found the cookies, and determined that no crime had been committed. The unnerved cookie recipient couldn’t get over it. She went to her sister’s house for the rest of the night. Next morning, she went to a hospital emergency room with an upset stomach. She was diagnosed as having suffered a panic attack. What a terrible backlash from something with such good intentions. The two girls learned what had happened and wrote letters of apology. “I didn’t realize this would cause trouble for you,” said Taylor’s note. “I just wanted you to know that someone cared about you and your family.” The girls’ parents offered to pay the woman’s expenses from the hospital visit. She wouldn’t accept! She said the apologies didn’t ring true and weren’t delivered in person. So she sued the girls! Her lawsuit claimed about $900 in medical fees and raised the issue of punitive damages for “pain and suffering.” A Durango judge awarded the $900, but no punitive damages. Only in America! “I just hope the girls learned a lesson,” said the woman who sued them. Oh, I’ll bet they did! We can only hope it’s not the cynical lesson that kindness is only so much wasted energy or that courts are capricious places these days. Final Editor’s Note: As we close this week, we all remember another act of graciousness – far greater than cookies and a card – that went unappreciated. God sent his Son to serve and to bless the lost, broken, forgotten, and powerless. We also remember another capricious court decision that surrendered the Son of God to be crucified before a jeering mob. Most of the world still does not know – or does not care – about such a divine sacrifice. We rejoice that God did not give up on doing kind things for us because of the ungratefulness of some. We hope that Taylor and Lindsey don’t give up on their kind deeds, either. About the author: Rubel Shelly preached for decades and served as a professor of medical ethics, Bible, and philosophy at multiple universities. He was a former president of Rochester College and Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Lipscomb University. He was the author of more than 30 books and hundreds of inspirational articles. His commitment to a non-sectarian presentation of the gospel touched countless lives.
Of Natural Causes
How long would you have to be gone before someone noticed? So accept each other just as Christ has accepted you; then God will be glorified (Romans 15:7 NLT). Larry died of natural causes the coroner suggested. I balked at the suggestion, because Larry was only 51 years old. Now for some of you, that may seem old, but I’m 52 – dying of natural causes at 51 didn’t seem quite right. But the longer I read the article about Larry’s passing, I realized the “natural causes” were not what we usually mean when someone “dies of natural causes.” Larry’s remains were recently found in his house in a skeletal, mummified condition. No one had seen him since Hurricane Rita that had devastated Beaumont, Texas, nearly 18 months ago. The body was found on top of the bed, just like he had gone in to take a nap and never awakened. They are not sure if Larry expired shortly before the hurricane’s arrival or shortly afterward. His house had not been severely damaged, so no one had actually gone inside to check on him and most folks just felt he had left before the approaching hurricane and never returned. A prospective buyer for the house found Larry’s body. The house was put up for auction because of unpaid taxes. Sadly, no one had really missed Larry. Although he had family in the city, he didn’t want to see them. His neighbors made assumptions about his absence. Who knows, if someone had been more aware of his status, he might have been found before he died! Unfortunately we live in a time when we hardly know any of our neighbors anymore. This is true whether we are talking about the neighborhood where we live or the “neighborhood” where we usually sit when we attend church. While we face an epidemic of loneliness in the many developed countries in the world – and the U.S. seems to be the worst – most folks are waiting for someone else to reach out and include them. Rather than risking rejection, or interfering, or involvement, most of us go about our routines and remain relatively anonymous to the folks around us. While Larry’s death is an extreme example, his death should shock us into a realization that there are lonely people all around us – maybe even within us – who need someone to reach out and simply include them. So why don’t we? I’m going to challenge you to do just that. Look around your neighborhood and your church, and find people who seem a bit lonely or isolated. Intentionally include them. Encourage folks at your church or within your group of friends to begin to call on one elderly person per week to just check on that person and see how he or she is doing. Change the neighborhood where you sit at church at least once per month and sit by someone who seems to be alone and find out about that person. Offer to help carry the boxes or assist someone older who needs help with groceries, the garbage can, or other tasks. What holds you back from reaching out to someone else? What makes it hard to help touch the heart of someone who seems to be alone that you regularly see each week? Why have we become such an isolate culture, as we grow more supposedly “civilized and high tech”? I’d love to hear your take on this and what we can do to make it better. Let me know on my blog, I’d love to hear from you. You can find today’s discussion at this address: About the author: Phil Ware has authored 11 years of daily devotionals, including VerseoftheDay.com, read by 500,000 people a day. He works with churches in transition with Interim Ministry Partners and for the past 21+ years, he has been editor and president of HEARTLIGHT Magazine, author of VerseoftheDay.com, God’s Holy Fire (on the Holy Spirit), and aYearwithJesus.com. Phil has also authored four books, daily devotionals on each of the four gospels.
26 Mar 2026
Let us praise the Lord for all the benefits we receive as His children. He forgives us, redeems us, showers us with His love. He heals our diseases, gives us our desires, renews our strength and works righteousness and justice for the oppressed. He reveals His will to us. He is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding is love. He does not treat us according to our sins. He is merciful. Let us thank Him for eternal life through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Let us praise Him for these and all other benefits. Psalm 103:1-22.
How Great the Father’s Love!
Does any of the Father’s love splash over and touch the people in your family? I overheard a young mother recounting her nighttime ritual of laying her head on her pillow and asking herself, “Did I love my family enough today? If something happens to me tonight will they know exactly how much I loved them?” As an “older and wiser” woman – and more skeptical and a bit jaded, I suppose – my first instinct was to laugh: “Well, of course you didn’t love them enough! How silly!” Jesus conceded that though we are imperfect parents (He literally called us “evil”!) we still do the best we know how! (Luke 6:11-13) Chances are, I did NOT love my family enough today or on any day. Her question, however, haunted me. I continued to turn it over again and again in my mind. The question seemed a bit less daunting and a lot less accusing if I rephrased it: “Could I love my children more, could I love my children better, tomorrow?” Well, Lord willing, I will be given tomorrow with my family. And yes, I will try to love them more completely tomorrow. However, none of us is promised tomorrow for our families or ourselves. I have wept with mothers who have kissed tiny foreheads for the last time to send them to “The Land Where There Is No Tomorrow.” I have prayed and pleaded with mothers whose children have been precariously close to the edge of “The Land Where There Is No Tomorrow.” Those women know what it is to lay their heads down at night and ask, “Did I love them enough …?” My husband and I have tangoed around the line of calling it quits on “happily ever after.” With our new resolve for our marriage, I am painfully aware of how fragile a marriage can be. I am fully aware of his choice to be here. I am intentional about daily letting him know that I appreciate his choice and all that he is to our family. Thankfully, I have not faced the horrific loss of one of my children. But, I think I have failed to be intentional about letting them know how thankful I am for them, as well. The old apostle John, near the end of his life, reminded us, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1) My loving Father has LAVISHED His love on me. Surely, that lavished love should run over and splash on my family. One small thing I am realizing more and more is that as my children grow, the frequent opportunity to touch or hug them is diminishing. I don’t lift them in and out of car seats or high chairs any more. I don’t help them in and out of the bathtub, wipe their faces, or even brush their hair for them any more. They are no longer at an arm’s distance or underfoot all day, so I must be intentional about meaningful touch for my children. I know that my arms ache when my husband is not in town to hug and touch me. My children need touch and love even more! I also realize that sometimes I really have to try to listen carefully to what my children say. I am frequently guilty of multi-tasking which, I’ve come to realize, means doing several things poorly at the same time. It really doesn’t take very long to sit, look into their eyes, and really hear what they are saying – and sometimes, if I am really listening, I can even hear what they aren’t saying. I think about how much it means to me when someone has obviously heard what I said and then later asks me about it. I want my children to know they are valuable enough to get my full attention! Another thing that I’ve realized that means a lot to my kids is to simply sit together and hang around together. Of course, the TV should be off for this – although it’s also a good idea to know what they’re watching and talk to them about it. My kids like for me to talk to them about my day, as well as listen to them about theirs. We dream and scheme, hope and plan. Meaningful touch, intentional listening, and being together are not huge undertakings. They take a very little amount of time – my kids really like to limit how much time they hang out with me anyway– and they require no money at all! I just have to be intentional about doing those things. And tonight I will wonder, “Could I love them more tomorrow?” About the author: Sarah (Riley) Stirman graduated from Abilene Christian University with a degree in Elementary/ Special Education. A freelance writer, she currently lives in Abilene, Texas with her husband, Troy, their 2 children: Ashley, and Riley, as well as Duchess the chocolate lab and Stickers the hedgehog.