Grace for All

If we are happy and content with our life as it is today, we might not be extremely anxious for this beautiful old earth to pass away. But people whose lives are filled with great pain and suffering surely look at this promise that “the old things will pass away” and pray for this day to be very soon! All we have to do to feel their perspective is turn to the news of the day - where the horrors of war, hostages, bombings, murders, hate crimes, child abuse, illness, and death are played out in living color for all to see.

In the 1960’s my grandmother used to say “Lord, Lord, what’s the world coming to?!” About a month ago an aged friend of mine said those same words to me. ”Lord, Lord, what’s the world coming to?!”

For Christ Followers, we know what it’s coming too and even if we are personally happy, we yearn for relief for all people from the pains of this broken world. We would love to give that promised future earth to everyone. That earth where there will be…

No more death and dying,

No more sin, evil, pain, or suffering,

No wars or rumors of wars,

No more sadness and crying,

No more hatred or meanness,

No more sorrow,

Nothing bad in the whole earth and the heavens!

No more bad eyesight, bad hearing, bad joints.

No more aching bodies, disease, or brokenness, No mental illness, alcoholism, drug addictions!

No more child abuse, no evil thoughts, no murders! No anger! No fighting! No war!

Only the fruits of the Spirit - LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, KINDNESS, GOODNESS, GENTLENESS, FAITHFULNESS, and SELF-CONTROL! A new heaven and a new earth!

Beyond our tiny imaginations to understand!

But this is promised for those who LOVE GOD, LOVE THEIR NEIGHBORS, AND FOLLOW JESUS CHRIST!

Come friends, let’s follow Him and keep ourselves centered in LOVE and the promise that Jesus will someday wipe away every tear from our eyes! Come Lord Jesus!

This devotion was written and read by Bernice Howard.

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: [email protected].

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/.

One of my favorite movies of all time is The Elephant Man.  This award-winning film is based on the true story of John Merrick, who lived in nineteenth-century London and was horribly disfigured.  Massive tumors grew all over him, enlarging his head.  He was so grotesque that, unable to find employment elsewhere, he took a job as a freak in a sideshow.  No one bothered to find out if he could even speak but through the friendship and encouragement of a young physician, Frederick Treaves, it was discovered that not only could John Merrick speak, but he was quite intelligent, witty and charming.

The most gripping scene in the movie is the one in which Merrick is lost and confused in the Liverpool train station. A group of people, terrified by his appearance, become a mob and pursue him. He lunges and lurches along trying to escape and ultimately is forced against a wall. As the mob moves in apparently ready to kill him, a plaintive wail rises from deep within him, “I am not an animal.  I am a human being.”

Some people are ugly and some are beautiful.  Some are bright and others are dull.  Some are wealthy and others are poor.  Some are of one race or ethnicity and others are of another.  But inside every skin is a human being that Scripture says is made in God’s own image.

I love the following quote from Mother Teresa. She was  once asked by a journalist how she was able to continue for years doing the work she did, caring for the outcasts of Calcutta—the blind, the impoverished the diseased. Her answer: “Every person I meet is Jesus in disguise.” That’s scriptural you know. Jesus said, “If you have done it for the least of these my brothers and sisters, you have done it for me.”

Wherever you may go today—the grocery store, work or school, or home—be aware that every person you meet is a human being made in God’s image. Every person you meet is Jesus in disguise.

Dear God, forgive me when I disregard people who are not like me, who look different or think differently. Give me the eyes to see the truth about them—they are, as I am, made in Your image. In the name of our Savior, Amen.

This devotional was written and recorded by Herb Sadler.

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: [email protected].

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/.

One of the central messages of this podcast is that God’s grace – his forgiveness, his strength, and his friendship – are gifts that are freely given to anyone anywhere who accepts them. As we begin our New Year, it is a good and right thing that we should remind ourselves about this relationship that we can have with our Creator.

We do not earn this grace by our good works. As Paul says in his letter to the Romans, a worker is due his wages. They are not a gift.

But God’s grace is a gift. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, called this “prevenient grace.” it is Grace that exist even before we ask for it. We simply have to accept the gift. It is there waiting for us.

Wesley takes us a bit further in our understanding by writing that “prevenient grace elicits the first wish to please God, the first dawn of light concerning His will, and the first slight transient conviction of having sinned against him.“ This grace causes us to respond with good works. Our good works are a way of telling God that we accept his gift of grace.

So, as we start our New Year, our first act should be acceptance of God‘s grace. And after that, our New Year’s resolution is to demonstrate to God, and to others, our acceptance by our good works.

Our Heavenly Father, help us to understand that our works do not earn us a place into the Kingdom of God. Rather they are a response to the gift of your grace, a gift that is freely given to us all. Amen.

This devotional 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: [email protected].

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/.

In the Temple when Simeon held the Christ Child eight days after his birth, he gave this prophecy to Mary and Joseph:

As the Christmas season neared, the gift shop in the hospital where I worked at the time displayed three lovely little porcelain angels. These were unlike most Christmas angels. Each, about 6 inches high were dressed in a bulky coat and cap. One held a loaf of bread, one a Christmas tree, and the third held a lighted candle. They captured my heart, but were considerably outside my pocket book. Each day I would go by the gift shop and look in at these angels always fearful that someone would have purchased them. Then about a week before Christmas, the gift shop had a 50% off sale on all Christmas items. I hurried into the shop and to my joy what I had become to think of as my angels were still there and I bought them.  I knew exactly where I would display them.

That evening when I got home I had several things to carry in—including my precious angels. As I placed the items on my kitchen counter, the package holding the angels slipped from my hand and hit our tile floor with a shattering sound.  All were broken.  I felt heartbroken as well. I gathered all the pieces, sorted them and over the next few days did my best to glue them together. When I was done I looked at these poor broken angels and loved them even more.

Since that incident over thirty plus years ago, I have left my three broken Christmas angels on display year round as a reminder that it is through our broken places that the love of Christ can most easily shine in.  Over time I have also discovered that it is through our broken places—those places that Christ has lovingly mended—that we can most often become angels for others who are broken.

This was reinforced most recently when I saw a verse written by Leonard Cohen, a Canadian song writer, singer, and poet. He said, “There is a crack in everything, and that is where the light comes in.”

Where we are cracked, the light of Christ shines in. And where we are cracked the light and the love of Christ can shine back out to all we meet.

Dear God, help me to always be grateful for the cracks that have occurred in my life. Help me to accept your loving hand in mending me, and help me have the courage to shine your light back out through my cracks to others. In the loving name of Jesus the Christ, Amen

This devotional was written and read by Barbara Sadler.

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: [email protected].

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/.

Listen to the Scriptures from the previous week along with two pieces of music, one familiar and one that's new!

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: [email protected].

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/.

In the years 1348-49, the Black Death made its way throughout Europe for the first time, killing up to a quarter of the population. An indistinctive, nameless six-year-old girl living in England survived this plague, but was surely not immune to the suffering around her.  In Norwich, where she lived, as many as one third of the townspeople died.  Perhaps among those lost were her parents, siblings, aunts and uncles, or friends.  In fact, she would write that twenty-five years later as she faced her own death, she contemplated how it was a pity to die so young.  This was not because she had “anything on earth” that she “wanted to live for,” rather that she wanted to live longer so that she “could love God better.” (McGinn, 2006, p. 239) 

At what seemed certain to be her point of death, this young woman received a series of visions, or revelations, of the love of God.  She would recover from her illness and spend the rest of her life contemplating and writing about these revelations in order to share God’s love more fully with a world in need.  We do not know this woman’s name, but her gift—the first book ever to be written by a woman in the English language—has inspired countless others to find hope and comfort in the love of God, amid the suffering of the world.  She will forever be known to us by the name of the church in which she contemplated her visions and lived out her remaining years as an anchorite, St. Julian’s Church in Norwich, England.   

The prayers of Julian of Norwich’s heart—both to live and to love God better—were answered in a most beautiful way.  Julian came to understand deeply and as few ever do, that loving God better came by knowing God’s love for her—and for all of God’s creation—better.  

Julian’s understanding of God was rooted in the connectedness of all things.  Hers was a spirituality capable of holding both the suffering of creation and God’s abundant and eternal love for creation.  Julian sees that God is in all things. Her message of God’s love is timeless, and acutely relevant in our increasingly disconnected and anxious world.   

God, of your goodness, give me yourself.  For you are enough for me.  And I can ask for  nothing less that will be to your glory.  And if I ask for anything less, I shall still be in want, for only in you have I all.  And all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.  Amen.  

Today’s devotional was written by Greta Smith and read by Owen Ragland.



Norwich, Julian of. (2014). The Showings of Divine Love. Translated by Grace Warrack. Wilder Publications, Inc.. Kindle Edition. 

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: [email protected].

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/.

Let that soak in. The God of all creation loves you!

His unfailing love is a free gift; and He gives it to all his children.

And what are we to do with all that LOVE?!

We need to soak in this great LOVE, to believe it, to relish it, to let it fill us.

We need to absorb it until we feel so full, that we must give it away!

Can you imagine being so aware and full of the feeling of LOVE that you are brimming over!

Doesn’t that sound great!?

So, why are we not feeling full of God’s LOVE continually and constantly giving it away?

Maybe life gets in the way, smothering our awareness of God’s LOVE.

Maybe we spend so much time tuned into noise of the world through our many devices, that we don’t have much time for the things of The Spirit. 

Maybe worry, bitterness, anger, sadness, anxiety, loneliness, and pain take up too much room for LOVE to fit in.

Perhaps you have heard the story of the old Cherokee teaching his grandson about life.  “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy.  “It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves.  One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”

He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.  The same fight is going on inside you – inside every other person, too.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?”

The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

Every time the battery on our phone gets low, we feed it. We plug it in to charge it up.

And just like that battery, we need to be fed with a daily charge from God. We need time sitting quietly with no noise or distractions, just plugged into God, to get ourselves recharged with his GREAT LOVE!

The stronger our charge, the more LOVE we have to share!

Lord, help us to keep a full charge!  Pull us to your LOVE that we may be brimming over and sharing your LOVE with everyone we encounter!

This devotional was written and read by Bernice Howard.

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: [email protected].

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/.

One summer, when I was a girl, my mother and my brother planted cushaw seeds in our front yard.  It turned out to be a prolific year for cushaws.  The vines grew quickly, spreading in all directions, and by Fall our yard was a maze of stalk and leaves and crooked-necked fruit.  For weeks we were in search of creative ways to use cushaws.  We researched how to cook them, and how to dry them. We ate them in stew and used them to make bird houses.  But mostly, we baked pies.  Cushaw pie is much like pumpkin pie, except, of course, made with cushaws.  That year, my family ate cushaw pie all Fall.  And we froze a multitude of cushaw pies to enjoy all winter.  That year, as we all helped cook up the cushaws, my brother, who was perhaps 12 or 13 at the time, also cooked up the phrase, “My, my cushaw pie.” Those words are enough to generate both a smile and a shake of the head from anyone in my family to this day.   

That year, cushaw seeds produced the most bountiful harvest I have ever witnessed.  With little to no tending or care after putting them in the ground, they flourished.  They fulfilled their full potential.   

I am thinking a lot, lately, about seeds.   Bishop Michael Curry in his book, Love is the Way writes, “…my job is only to sow the seeds.  That’s everyone’s job.  The error of youth is thinking that you’ve succeeded—or it’s worth contributing—only when you can see, touch, or taste the fruit.” 

Receive the seeds that are given.  Plant them.  Tend them as you can.  Let go of the elements you cannot control. 

My job, I am reminded, is to plant seeds, not to change the world.  It is to plant seeds, not to change my children.  It is to plant seeds, not to change my friends.  Or my enemies.  Or my neighbors.  Or strangers.  Or anyone. 

Except, perhaps, myself.  And maybe, even to change myself, I can only receive the seeds in humility, plant them in love,  and hope they take root.  

Master Gardener, you sow your love in our hearts as a seed.  As we receive anew the Christ child, let us do so in love, with love, and for love, that we too may sow seeds of love in your holy name.  Amen.

This devotional was written and read by Greta Smith.

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: [email protected].

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/.

My husband is really a handy guy to have around. You probably know someone like him who seems to be able to make clear sense of those multiple-language instructions to assemble toys on Christmas morning or who can find the reason your car is making that funny noise or manage to build a beautiful piece of furniture out of boards of wood from a tree he cut down.

In the many projects he has tackled over his lifetime, one thing shines through. He is always able to figure out the main part of the problem. It may take a try or two, but like finding a stud in the wall to hang a picture, he studies the problem until he finds the main point and the rest of the project hangs on that understanding.

Now, Jesus told the Pharisees “All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.”

This understanding is where the Bible is leading us and where we hang our understanding. It helps us to keep clear of distractions and remember the main point. Just like the multiple languages in those toy instructions, life throws distractions at us, and they make the whole thing seem like gibberish. God gives us scripture to learn from and even gives us a cheat code! “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and with all your mind…and Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Knowing this truth doesn’t make life easier, just more understandable.

God, help us to remember that love is the main thing, and to love you first and our neighbors as ourselves. Help our heart, soul and mind to remain centered around you and your love.

This devotional was written and read by Julie George.

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: [email protected].

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/.

For many families, going to church on Christmas Eve is a cherished tradition.  In my home church, the tradition was to begin the service at 11:00 pm so that the lighting of the candles came at midnight as Christmas Eve turned to Christmas morning. 

My father was the Minister of Music and my mother sang in the choir so my brother and I would always be sitting on the front row of the congregation so that we were under the watchful eye of both parents.  Though large, the sanctuary was always completely full and it would become very warm.  

For young children, this was a late hour and sometimes we would fall asleep. Eventually someone near us would gently wake us with the words “It’s time!”  We certainly did not want to miss this part!  We would hold our candles high singing, “Silent Night,” followed by “Joy to the World,” as Christmas Day arrived. As the candlelight spread through the sanctuary, we knew it was a special time and felt the love surrounding us.

I wonder if some of the young shepherds may have been sleeping when the angels arrived with the joyous news of Christ’s birth.  Maybe they were awakened just in time to see the glow in the sky and hear the amazing words, “Glory to God in the Highest!”

During Advent, we wait with hope that “it’s time” for God to come into the world anew.  We pray for a world that needs love and peace. Then, as Christmas comes, we know it’s time, our time, to hold our candles high and spread God’s light throughout the world.

Lord Jesus, come into the world anew.  Enter our hearts, so that just as we passed the flame to welcome Christmas, we might pass your love and peace to light the world.  Amen.

This devotional was written 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: [email protected].

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/.