Daily Lesson for October 18, 2021

 Today's Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 11 verses 16 through 19:

16 ‘But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market-places and calling to one another,

17 “We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;

we wailed, and you did not mourn.”

18For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, “He has a demon”; 19the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, “Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners!” Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.’

John didn't dance, drink, smoke, or date girls who did. Jesus did drink and liked dinner parties with friends -- a wine and tapas guy.

About John they said he had a demon that made him sour. Jesus they called a drunk, and a glutton, and a friend of all sordid kinds of characters.

The point: those opposed to what you are doing will use whatever they think will work to ruin your reputation. They'll build a whole case based on a sliver of what can be seen and known about you.

So, you do you anyways. Because its your voice and energy that the world needs.

You can dance if you want to -- or you can stay home and read. No, not everybody will understand or want to understand. And that's just fine.

Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.

Daily Lesson for October 16, 2021

 Today's Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 11 verses 1 and 2:

Now when Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and proclaim his message in their cities.

2 When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples 3and said to him, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?’

John the Baptist was waiting on the one. The one came. But the one did not do all the things he wanted and needed. Instead, he organized and trained others to do the things themselves. It was a slow and, frankly, disappointing process -- especially if you were in prison like John was. Yet the one would not do for them what they had the power to do for themselves.

And the one empowered them to do it.

And in the end, they would do even greater things than the one could ever have done alone.

Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.

Daily Lesson for October 14, 2021

 Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 10 verses 34 through 39:

34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 

35 For I have come to set a man against his father,

and a daughter against her mother,

and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; 

36 and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household. 

37Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”

I just returned from Lubbock after speaking at a symposium on drug and alcohol recovery.

The path to recovery is a pathway to peace, but first there must often be conflict. 

There must be intervention.

There must be confrontation. 

Sometimes that means there must also be separation. 

Jesus is saying, we must prepare ourselves for the conflict and separation. We must understand that the way we would go for sanity, may mean a fracture in our families and communities. 

He has not come to bring peace — not where there can be no peace. Not a false peace. 

The peace we have is an inner peace. It is a peace that surpasses all understanding — and misunderstanding.

Our peace will sometimes be seen as sword. 

But what it is is a boundary, and a dividing line, and a point of clarification about who we are and who we intend to be. 

“And the one who loses their life shall find it.”

Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas. 

Daily Lesson for October 12, 2021

 Today's Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 10:

16 ‘See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. 17Beware of them . . . 23When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next; for truly I tell you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

Brene Brown writes about having a soft face and a firm spine.

That is exactly what is needed in these times in which we are living.

We work and witness in difficult and dangerous times. We have to understand that there are wolves out there. We must be sensible, on guard, protective of ourselves and one another.

We must also be innocent. We must be gentle. We must keep compassion and seek peace -- first, peace within.

Be wise, little flock. Watch for cars and wolves and wolves in sheep's clothing. Watch out also for snakes.

Be gentle. Be at peace. Give no one a case against you. Practice love. Harm and wish ill will upon no one.

And if you have to flee, then flee. There is no shame in survival.

And may the peace of God guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus always and also today.

Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.

Daily Lesson for October 11, 2021

 Today's Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 10 verses 12 through 14:

12As you enter the house, greet it. 13If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. 14If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town.

When Jesus sent his disciples out he instructed them to take ownership of their own peace. They could enter a place and offer its people peace as a blessing. Or, if the place and people were unreceptive, the disciples could receive their peace in return. But Jesus was very clear, no place and no people were to take the peace away from his disciples. Peace was theirs to keep and to steward.

What made that possible was without doubt the lightness with which Jesus instructed his disciples to travel. They were to, "Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff." People with more than enough never have peace. They have too much to protect. They're too tied to people and place. Those who travel lightly carry peace with them, and they bless others with their peace also.

It's the first day of the workweek. We're being sent out into the world. Let us learn to walk lightly and without fear. And may the peace of God, which surpasses all other possessions, guard our hearts and our minds in all places and at all times.

Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.

Daily Lesson for October 8, 2021

 Today's Daily Lesson comes from 1 Corinthians chapter 12 verses 14 through 19:

14 Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15If the foot were to say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body’, that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16And if the ear were to say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body’, that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19If all were a single member, where would the body be?

This is a hard concept for we Americans to get.

We were brought up on the virtues of rugged individualism and fierce independence. John Wayne alone in the saddle was the quintessential American icon. The Lone Ranger was a close second.

But Saint Paul had a different vision. He too could be seen as lone ranger, but probably because of all he suffered, and how dependent he had to become on others in his imprisonments, Paul spoke much more of the collective -- a whole working together as one with many individual parts.

We have spent the last 20 months arguing about the individual's rights versus the many's safety. How different it all would have been if we had seen that the one and the many are not at all opposites, but all members of the same one body.

Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.

Daily Lesson for October 7, 2021

 Today is the 90th birthday of Bishop Demond Tutu, someone who has been a great source of joy and courage for me from afar for many decades. In celebration of the day, I share with you the birthday wishes I sent to the Bishop via the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation on this wonderful day:

“Happy Birthday Bishop!

I am a Baptist minister in Texas (no longer a Southern Baptist) and my wife Irie and I gave our first child Daniel the middle name Desmond in your honor. He is now 11-years old. 

We salute you. We celebrate with you. And we continue to believe in the Rainbow People of God all over this earth because of you. 

O happy day when you were born!

May your Spirit, and the Spirit of our Lord continue to be born again and again for ages to come . . .

Rev. Ryon Price, Fort Worth, Texas”

Before he retired, Bishop Tutu talked often about the traditional South African concept of “Ubuntu”, which he defined as “My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.”

On this 90th birthday of this great human being, may we remember that all our lives and all our future are bound up together in a common Ubuntu humanity.

Let us dare to live into it all together. 

Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of the historic Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.