As a tax collector, Matthew most likely had a fairly lucrative business. And yet, at the request of Jesus, he left his tax booth and followed.

Similarly, Peter went ashore, laid down his nets, and followed Jesus when summoned. And their lives would never be the same. All of his disciples left their well established lives to follow Jesus throughout his ministry and beyond.

Have you ever received such a call that would drastically change your life's trajectory and chose to follow that call? Such a call is usually a clear summon to go in a very different life direction. Such a call involves an unmistakable choice and requires an action on our part.

But what about the more subtle spirit nudges that we encounter on a regular basis. These don't involve pivotal life choices but are still a beckoning to action. When we see the person at the gas pump next to us who only puts $10 worth of gas in their car because that's all they can afford. Or someone who has to choose groceries to put back when they discover that they can't afford everything they've hoped to purchase. Or the friend that we hear about who is having a rough time and could use a call or a text or a visit. Responding to these nudges won't necessarily change our life paths but could have a significant impact on others.

Too often these opportunities present themselves in a moment that I have let pass without taking action and I instantly regret not responding. My cousin Bobby is one who is attuned to nudges. When he sits down with the young homeless man and says "Would you mind telling me your story?" When visits the table of elderly veterans in a restaurant to thank them for their service and pick up their check. Or packs up food from a restaurant and takes it to the homeless person on the sidewalk outside. It is those moments that he recognizes and doesn't let pass that may not turn his life around but can make a world of difference to the recipients of his kindness.

The big calls are important, they demand our attention and response and can make a tremendous difference in our lives; but they come ever so seldom. However, it's those spirit nudges that we receive in our daily lives that, if we recognize and respond, can make a significant difference for someone else's day. As Pastor Jonathan admonishes us, "Stay alert!"

Heavenly Father, sometimes we need the courage to respond to the big calls in our life. You have plans for us that may take us in a totally different direction but they offer the reward of knowing that we are following your will. But help us to always be attuned every day to the nudges to respond when we see your children in need of our resources, our attention, and our care. Help us not to let those opportunities to share your love pass us by. Amen.

This devotion 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 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/.

Picture a lawyer — sharp, well-trained, an expert in the Torah — approaching Jesus with what he thinks is a test question. "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?"

He probably expected Jesus to wade into the theological debates of the day, maybe pick a side in some ongoing rabbinic argument. What he got instead was Jesus reaching straight into the lawyer's own Bible and pulling out a verse from Leviticus.

Leviticus. The book of priestly codes, purity laws, and detailed instructions for grain offerings. Not exactly where you'd go looking for the heart of the gospel.

But there it is, tucked into chapter 19 between commands about paying workers fairly and not cursing the deaf: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

In its original context, that command had a specific audience in view. The verse itself makes this clear — "any of your people." Leviticus 19:18 is addressed to the community of Israel, about how they treat each other. It's a profound command, but it has a fence around it. Leviticus even circles back, just sixteen verses later, to say that same love should extend to the outsider and the stranger — which tells you something. You don't need to add that verse unless the original one had limits.

So the fence was real. And people are remarkably creative when it comes to finding the edges of a command they'd rather not keep.

In Matthew 22, when Jesus calls this the second greatest commandment — alongside loving God — he's already signaling that something larger is at stake. But it's in Luke 10 where the full weight lands. A legal expert asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus turns it back on him — what does the law say? The man quotes Leviticus 19:18 correctly. Good. But then comes the hedge: "And who is my neighbor?"

That wasn't an innocent clarifying question. It was a search for the boundary line. Define neighbor precisely enough, and you can also define who doesn't qualify.

Jesus answered with the parable of the Good Samaritan, where the hero is the last person his Jewish audience would have expected. He didn't just move the fence — he removed it entirely. You don't get to ask who counts as a neighbor. You ask instead: to whom can I be a neighbor?

That's what makes this so quietly astonishing. The most radical love ethic in the New Testament wasn't new. It had been sitting in Leviticus for over a thousand years, waiting for someone to finally mean it without looking for the exit.

And now it lands on us. The difficult neighbor. The different one. The one we'd rather not count.

The command was always clear. The question was always whether we'd let it be.

Father, thank you for a love command that refuses to stay inside the lines we draw. Give us the courage to stop asking who qualifies and start asking how we can serve. Amen.

This devotional was written and read by Cliff McCartney.

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/.

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 love.

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/.

Believe, Believe, Believe! Search engine results show that word used 98 times in John alone! The other Gospels of Mark show nine uses of believe, 14 in Matthew and nine in Luke.

Jesus continues in verse 29 in his revelation to Thomas with, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."

That includes you and me. We have not seen Jesus' wounds or his miracles, but we believe. Maybe we believe because we went to Sunday School as a child, maybe because a parent took the time to read Bible stories to us, or maybe someone in our lives modeled the love that Jesus commands us to do.

There are any number of reasons to believe. Jairus of Capernaum believed, and it saved his daughter's life.

Mark 5:22 to 24 tells us, "Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came to Him, and when he saw Him, fell at his feet and begged Him repeatedly, My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live. So He went with him."

As continued in Mark 5:35 to 36: While He was still speaking some people came from the leader's house to say, "Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further? But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to Jairus, "Do not fear, only believe."

Jesus also said in Luke 18:16, "Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs."

Believe! Believe as a little child. Don't try to analyze it all. Believe! Believe and walk the walk that demonstrates your love for your neighbor. Do not live the hate and violence that makes the headline and leads the latest media story. Love! Jesus commands us to love!

God above, fortify us to demonstrate that we believe in You by sharing our love for others through our actions. Actions that we take NOW, and hurry up as Mark tells us to over 40 times! 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/.

Need vs want is a common lesson that adults try to instill in the young, especially teenagers. We try to teach them to focus on what is most important. We suggest they focus on developing their skills and education and not worry about having the latest phone or the nicest car. We suggest they work on being a better person, learn healthy habits to improve their diet, and to exercise. We shake our heads when they make the wrong choices.

If we as adults are disciplined then we pat ourselves on the back for eating healthy, exercising, saving for retirement, and not chasing after the Jones' latest vacation. But what if these things are really only more ways for us to chase idols? What if these are actually the wants of the self proclaimed superior? If our desire to prove we are worthy focuses on our physical and financial success, aren't we really continuing a long tradition of putting our self interests before others?

Now I am not saying you shouldn't take care of yourself. I am not saying anything goes. I am not saying you should stop all planning and efforts for your financial and physical health. But are we making them the point instead of a means of better reaching what should be the point? When we see these as the end goal, when we see these as the only goal, then aren't we forgetting that they are a means to an end.

If we listen to the teaching of Jesus, there is one true need and everything else is a want. If we work to be closer to God by following the path of Jesus and loving all of God's creation, this will lead us to a closer relationship with God. Everything else is trust and faith come what may. If we are honest with ourselves diet and exercise are better than not, but they do not guarantee good health. They are good choices, but they do not offer us a relationship that promises anything. If we work hard, we hope to be financially stable and have a decent standard of living, but that is not a guarantee either. Come what may in a life of uncertainty, the teachings of Jesus are very clear. Love God and all of his creation with all of your heart. Everything else is a want.

Prayer and worship focused on loving God builds a relationship. And as with all healthy relationships human and holy, our desire is to be loved, to be trusted, and to reciprocate. Cares about clothes, money, fame, possessions and admiration of all kinds will all fade no matter how much we wanted them. If we take care of ourselves and our health as a means of being better able to help our neighbors then we are meeting the one need that has been asked of us.

Lord, please help us to place Your command to love our neighbors as ourselves at the heart of all we do. Help us to understand that everything we do, think, and say is possible because You have given us the ability to do, think and say. May we show our love and understanding of Your command by helping our neighbors and sharing what we have been given, Amen.

This devotional was written by Jill Pope and read by Susan Daves.

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/.

Saul of Tarsus was not a villain. He was a serious man, a learned man, a man of deep conviction who believed with everything in him that he was doing the right thing. He was a Pharisee, trained in the finest traditions of Jewish law and scholarship, and he had concluded that the followers of Jesus of Nazareth posed a dangerous threat to the faith he loved. He had watched Stephen stoned to death and had approved of it. He had gone from house to house, dragging men and women off to prison. He was, by his own later account, zealous beyond his peers.

What Saul could not see — what his very certainty prevented him from seeing — were the people in front of him. They were not people to him. They were a problem to be solved, an error to be corrected, a threat to be eliminated. His theological precision, his clarity about right and wrong, had somehow drained the humanity out of every face he encountered. He knew what they represented. He did not see who they were.

And then the light. And then the voice. And the voice does not say what we might expect. Jesus does not tell Saul that his theology is wrong, or that he has misread the scriptures, or that he has violated the law. He says something far more personal, and far more devastating: "Why are you persecuting me?" Not my people. Not my followers. Me. Every person Saul had dragged from their home, every family he had broken apart, every man and woman he had delivered to suffering — Jesus had been there in every one of them. Saul had never been fighting an abstraction. He had been raising his hand against Christ himself.

Saul is struck blind. The man who was certain he could see everything — who had clarity about truth and error that most of us can barely imagine — suddenly cannot see at all. He has to be led by the hand into the city. He sits in the darkness for three days, unable to eat, unable to drink, unable to act. Before he can become Paul, before he can become the apostle to the Gentiles and the author of some of the greatest words in all of scripture, he has to sit with what he has done. The blindness is not a punishment. It is a gift. It is the only thing that could stop him long enough to be transformed.

We are not so different from Saul. We may not persecute anyone. But we know what it is to be so certain of our own rightness that the people in front of us stop being people. We do it with those who hold different political views, different theological convictions, different ways of living their lives. We see what they represent before we see who they are. Our certainties blind us, quietly and completely, and we rarely notice it happening.

Jesus tells Saul — and tells us — that the person in front of you is not an abstraction. That person is someone for whom Christ died. That person, in some profound and mysterious way, is Christ himself. In Matthew's gospel, Jesus says that whatever we do to the least of those around us, we do to him. The Damascus road is that same truth, arriving not as invitation but as confrontation. The call of the Kingdom is to see the face in front of us before we see anything else.

Our Father, forgive us for the times our certainties have blinded us to the people around us. Open our eyes to see in every person we encounter the face of Christ himself. And when you need to stop us in our tracks to teach us that lesson, give us the grace to sit still and listen. Amen.

This devotion was written and read by Jim Stovall.

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/.

Have you ever noticed how often in Scripture… God calls someone, and instead of placing them in a position of leadership right away… He places them in a position of service?

We see it so clearly in 1 Kings 19.

Elijah has just walked through exhaustion, fear, and restoration. And then God calls Elisha.

And Elisha's response is striking.

He doesn't hesitate. He doesn't negotiate. He doesn't ask for a plan. He returns home… He takes the very oxen that represent his livelihood… He sacrifices them… He burns the plow… And then he follows Elijah.

But here's what's easy to miss. He doesn't step into a leadership role right away. Scripture says… "He became his servant."

Before Elisha ever speaks as a prophet… Before miracles… Before influence… He serves.

And this is not just Elisha's story. This is God's pattern. Joshua served Moses. David served before he was king. The disciples followed and served before they were sent. And even Jesus said… "I did not come to be served, but to serve."

In God's Kingdom, serving is not a lesser role. It is the forming place. It's where God shapes humility. It's where He builds faithfulness. It's where He teaches us to depend on Him, not position.

Because leadership in God's Kingdom doesn't begin on a platform. It begins in quiet obedience. In showing up. In caring for others. In doing what no one else sees.

And maybe today… the question isn't, "When will I lead?" Maybe the question is, "Am I willing to serve… even if no one notices?"

Because the truth is… God develops the heart in serving before He reveals the calling in leading.

So wherever you are today— in the quiet, unseen places… Be encouraged. God is not overlooking you. He is preparing you.

Lord, teach us to serve with a willing and humble hearts. Help us to be faithful in the small things, and to trust that You are working even when we cannot see it. Shape us in the hidden places, so that we may reflect You in whatever You call us to. Amen.

This devotional was written by Marcia Prill 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.

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/.

Mary Magdalene stands outside the tomb, weeping. She has seen Jesus die. Whatever hope she once carried has been buried with him. Even when she turns and sees a man standing there, she does not recognize him. Why would she? Resurrection is not what she expects.

She assumes he is the gardener. She speaks to him out of grief and confusion, still trying to make sense of what has been lost.

And then everything changes with a single word.

"Mary."

Jesus does not argue with her. He does not explain what has happened. He does not offer proof or theology. He simply calls her by name.

And in that moment, she knows.

There is something deeply personal here. Mary does not come to belief through explanation but through recognition. She knows the voice. It is the voice of the one who has known her, called her, and loved her.

It echoes what Jesus said earlier: "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me" (John 10:27, CEB).

We often want clarity before we trust. We want answers before we respond. But Mary's experience suggests something different. Recognition can come before understanding. Relationship can come before explanation.

Jesus still calls people by name.

He meets us in places of grief, confusion, and unanswered questions. He speaks, not always in ways we expect, but in ways that reach us personally.

Faith, then, is not figuring everything out. It is recognizing that we are known.

And when we hear our name spoken in love, we begin to see what we could not see before.

Father, thank you for calling us into relationship with you through Jesus. Help us to know the voice of our shepherd and follow it. In the name of the one who calls to us, Amen.

This devotional was written and read by Donn King.

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/.