Charlotte Methodist Church of Asheboro

09/15/2026

Day 2 — Sometimes Love Just Stays

Scripture: John 19:25–27

“Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother…”

There are moments when love can fix something.

And there are moments when love can only stay.

At the Cross, Mary cannot stop what is happening to her son. The beloved disciple cannot rescue Jesus. Neither of them can remove the nails or silence the crowd.

But they can remain.

So they stay.

There is something profoundly Christian about refusing to abandon someone simply because you cannot solve what they are experiencing.

We often feel pressure to have answers.

Someone loses a loved one, and we search for words.

Someone receives devastating news, and we try to explain it.

Someone’s marriage collapses, depression settles in, addiction returns, or life simply becomes unbearable—and we desperately want to make it better.

But sometimes there isn’t a sentence capable of repairing the moment.

There is only presence.

“I’m here.”

Jesus even creates community from the Cross. He looks toward His mother and the disciple He loves and entrusts them to one another.

Even while dying, Jesus is building a family.

That should tell us something about Church.

The Church is not merely where we gather to sing songs and hear sermons. We are meant to become a people who carry one another.

We pray for one another.

Feed one another.

Visit one another.

Sit beside one another.

Celebrate together.

Grieve together.

And when somebody doesn’t have enough strength to stand, we stand beside them until they do.

That is holiness expressed through love.

There will be moments when you cannot change someone’s circumstances.

Don’t underestimate the ministry of simply refusing to leave them alone in it.

Prayer

Jesus, make me attentive to the people around me. Give me wisdom to know when to speak and humility to know when words aren’t necessary. Make our church a community where people are loved through celebration, suffering, healing, and grief. Teach us to stay. Amen.

Thought for Today

You don’t always need the right words. Sometimes the most Christlike thing you can say is, “I’m still here.”

++Jarod

09/14/2026

Day 1 — Look Up

Scripture: John 3:13–17

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son…”

Sometimes life trains us to look down.

We look at what went wrong. We look at the diagnosis, the bills, the broken relationship, the unanswered prayer, the mistake we cannot undo. We become so focused on what is happening around us that we forget to look toward the One who is above it.

Jesus reminds Nicodemus of Israel in the wilderness. The people had been bitten by poisonous serpents, and Moses lifted up the bronze serpent so that those who looked upon it might live. Jesus says that He, too, will be lifted up.

He is pointing toward the Cross.

Christian faith does not teach us to pretend suffering isn’t real. It teaches us where to look in the middle of it.

Look to Jesus.

The Cross is where God’s love becomes unmistakable. Before we could earn it, deserve it, or even fully understand it, God acted on our behalf.

That is grace.

God did not wait for humanity to climb its way toward Him. God came looking for us.

And He is still looking.

Perhaps you have wandered. Perhaps your prayer life isn’t what it once was. Perhaps church became complicated. Perhaps disappointment slowly created distance between you and God.

The invitation remains:

Look up.

Grace is already reaching toward you.

And when we turn toward Christ, grace doesn’t merely forgive our past. It begins transforming our present. The love that saves us also begins teaching us how to live differently.

That is the Christian journey: grace finds us, grace saves us, grace changes us, and eventually grace sends us into the world to love others.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, when my circumstances become larger than my faith, turn my eyes toward You. Thank You for loving me before I knew how to love You. Let Your grace forgive what is behind me, transform what is within me, and guide what is ahead of me. Amen.

Thought for Today

Don’t stare at the problem so long that you lose sight of the Savior. Look up.

++Jarod

09/12/2026

09/12/2026

Daily Devotion — What’s Growing in You?

Scripture: Luke 6:43–45

“A good tree does not bear rotten fruit, nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit.” — Luke 6:43

Jesus has spent much of Luke 6 talking about how we treat other people—loving our enemies, showing mercy, withholding judgment, and examining the beam in our own eye. Then He takes us deeper.

He moves from behavior to the heart.

A tree does not decide one morning to manufacture apples. Fruit develops naturally from what the tree already is, what its roots are receiving, and what has been growing within it.

Jesus says our lives work much the same way.

Eventually, what is inside us comes out.

Pressure has a way of revealing it.

Someone criticizes us, and something comes out.

We don’t get our way, and something comes out.

We’re tired, disappointed, overlooked, offended, or afraid—and suddenly words leave our mouths that surprise even us.

We may apologize afterward and say, “I don’t know where that came from.”

Jesus might gently answer:

“Let’s look at the roots.”

Because the problem isn’t always the moment that triggered us. Sometimes the moment simply exposed something that had been growing beneath the surface for a long time.

Bitterness produces fruit.

So does insecurity.

Unhealed resentment produces fruit.

So does pride.

But grace produces fruit too.

So do prayer, humility, forgiveness, compassion, and a life increasingly surrendered to Christ.

That is why Christianity cannot simply be about controlling our outward behavior. Jesus isn’t interested in making rotten trees better at decorating their branches.

He transforms us from the inside out.

Then Jesus says something particularly challenging:

“From the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks.” — Luke 6:45

Our words tell stories about our hearts.

Listen to yourself for a day—not just what you say at church or around people you want to impress, but what comes out when you’re frustrated.

How do you speak about people who aren’t in the room?

What do you say about someone who hurt you?

How do you speak to your spouse, children, coworkers, or strangers when you’re exhausted?

And perhaps even more revealing:

How do you speak to yourself?

If the words coming from us are consistently angry, cruel, cynical, judgmental, hopeless, or demeaning, Jesus doesn’t invite us merely to work harder at saying nicer things.

He invites us to bring the heart producing those words to Him.

There is tremendous grace in that.

Because Jesus isn’t simply standing beneath the tree criticizing its fruit.

He is the One who can heal its roots.

The Church should be a place where we can honestly examine what is growing within us without pretending everything is healthy. We come together not because all our fruit is perfect, but because we belong to the One who continues pruning, healing, nourishing, and transforming us.

So instead of asking only,

“Did I behave like a Christian today?”

perhaps we should ask something deeper:

“What is growing in me?”

Is my relationship with Jesus making me more merciful?

More patient?

More generous?

More forgiving?

More compassionate?

More capable of seeing people as Christ sees them?

Because ultimately, spiritual maturity isn’t measured by how religious our branches appear.

It’s revealed by the fruit our lives produce.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, search my heart and show me what is growing there. Reveal the bitterness, pride, fear, resentment, or woundedness that I have learned to hide from others—and sometimes from myself.

Heal my roots. Fill my heart with Your grace until mercy, patience, kindness, forgiveness, and love become the natural fruit of a life rooted in You.

And when people encounter me, may they experience something of You.

Amen.

Thought for Today

When something ugly comes out of you, don’t just regret the fruit. Ask Jesus to heal the root.

++Jarod

09/11/2026

Daily Devotion — Check Your Vision

Scripture: Luke 6:39–42

“Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit?” — Luke 6:39

Jesus asks a question that sounds almost humorous at first. If one person cannot see where he is going, how can he possibly lead someone else?

But Jesus isn’t really talking about eyesight.

He’s talking about self-awareness.

Immediately afterward, He speaks about the person who notices a tiny splinter in someone else’s eye while completely overlooking the wooden beam in his own.

Apparently, human nature hasn’t changed much.

We can recognize somebody else’s attitude while excusing our own.

We notice their pride but call ours confidence.

Their anger is a problem; ours is justified.

Their gossip is destructive; we’re merely “telling what happened.”

Their failure becomes evidence of their character, while our failure comes with a carefully prepared explanation.

Jesus turns our attention away from everybody else and says, essentially:

Before you examine them, examine yourself.

That isn’t condemnation. It is an invitation to spiritual maturity.

In fact, Jesus does not say we should never help someone remove the splinter. He says to remove the beam from our own eye first, and then we will see clearly enough to help our brother or sister.

That’s important.

Christian accountability requires clear vision.

If I haven’t confronted my own wounds, prejudices, insecurities, resentments, and blind spots, I may think I’m helping someone when I’m actually projecting something from myself onto them.

Sometimes what irritates us most in another person deserves prayerful examination within ourselves.

And this matters especially for those who lead.

Jesus says, “No disciple is superior to the teacher; but when fully trained, every disciple will be like his teacher.”

We become like the voices we continually follow.

So choose carefully who shapes your faith.

And if others are following you—as a parent, pastor, teacher, friend, mentor, or simply as a Christian whose life somebody is watching—then the question becomes even more serious:

Where am I leading them?

The Church does not need perfect people leading perfect people.

We need people humble enough to admit when their own vision has become clouded and courageous enough to let Jesus correct it.

Before correcting somebody today, pray.

Before judging their motives, consider your own.

Before pointing toward their splinter, ask Christ:

“Lord, is there something in me that I cannot see?”

That prayer takes courage.

But sometimes the greatest spiritual breakthrough begins when we stop asking God to show us what is wrong with everyone around us and finally give Him permission to show us ourselves.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, give me clear vision. Reveal the places where pride, pain, fear, resentment, or insecurity have distorted the way I see others.

Before I correct another person, teach me to examine my own heart. Before I attempt to lead anyone, make certain that I am following You.

Make me humble enough to receive correction, gracious enough to extend mercy, and spiritually mature enough to help others without condemning them.

Amen.

Thought for Today

Before asking God to show you what is wrong with everyone else, have the courage to pray: “Lord, show me what I cannot see in myself.”

++Jarod

09/10/2026

Daily Devotion — Love Beyond What They Deserve

Scripture: Luke 6:27–36

“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.” — Luke 6:27

There are teachings of Jesus that comfort us. There are others that confront us.

This one does both.

Jesus does not say, Ignore your enemies. He does not say, Stay away from them and hope they eventually get what they deserve.

He says:

Love them.

Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who mistreat you.

Those words become considerably harder when the “enemy” has a name.

It is easy to discuss forgiveness when we are speaking theoretically. It is different when someone betrayed us, embarrassed us, lied about us, rejected us, wounded our family, damaged our reputation, or left scars we are still learning how to live with.

Then Jesus says, love them anyway.

But we need to understand what Christian love means.

Loving someone does not require pretending they did nothing wrong. Forgiveness does not erase accountability. Grace does not require remaining in an abusive or destructive relationship. Healthy boundaries can be entirely consistent with Christian love.

Jesus is asking something deeper.

Do not allow what someone did to you to determine who you become.

Hatred has a way of keeping us connected to the very person we want to escape. We replay the conversation. Rehearse the offense. Imagine what we should have said. Wait for an apology. Hope they finally understand what they did.

And before long, someone who may no longer even be present still occupies an enormous amount of space within us.

Jesus offers another way.

Pray for them.

Not because they deserve it.

Because you deserve freedom from becoming consumed by what they did.

Prayer changes the relationship we have with the wound. Sometimes we begin by praying through clenched teeth. Sometimes the most sincere prayer we can offer is simply:

“Lord, I don’t know how to love this person yet. But I don’t want hatred to live in me.”

That is a beginning.

Then Jesus gives us what we often call the Golden Rule:

“Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

Notice the standard.

Our behavior is not determined by theirs.

Christians do not love only when love is returned. We do not extend mercy only to people who deserve mercy. Jesus says even sinners love those who love them.

Grace goes further.

And then comes perhaps the most important sentence in the passage:

“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”

There it is.

Jesus is not asking us to love difficult people because they are worthy of it.

He asks us to love because we have already been loved beyond what we deserved.

Every one of us lives by mercy.

So perhaps there is someone you need to release today.

You may never trust them the same way again. Reconciliation may not be possible—or wise. Boundaries may remain necessary.

But you can refuse to hate them.

You can stop carrying the offense everywhere you go.

You can place them, the wound, and the justice you desire into God’s hands.

And eventually, by grace, you may discover something surprising:

Forgiveness didn’t change the past.
It changed how much of your future the past was allowed to possess.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, loving those who have wounded me is sometimes more than I know how to do. Give me the grace I do not have within myself.

Teach me to forgive without denying what happened, to establish boundaries without becoming bitter, and to seek justice without surrendering my heart to hatred.

You have shown me mercy beyond what I deserve. Let that mercy flow through me until even the wounds of my past become places where Your grace is revealed.

Amen.

Thought for Today

You don’t have to give someone access to your life in order to stop giving their offense control over your heart.

++Jarod

09/09/2026

Daily Devotion — Blessed Doesn’t Always Look Blessed

Scripture: Luke 6:20–26

“Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours.” — Luke 6:20

Jesus says something in this passage that turns our usual definition of a blessed life upside down.

We tend to recognize blessing by what we can see: enough money, a comfortable home, good health, a successful career, people who love us, and circumstances that seem to be working in our favor.

Then Jesus looks directly at His disciples and says:

The poor are blessed.
The hungry are blessed.
Those who weep are blessed.
Those who are rejected because of Him are blessed.

Jesus is not glorifying poverty, hunger, grief, or suffering. He is announcing something far more powerful:

Your present circumstances do not determine your standing with God.

You can be hurting and still be blessed.

You can be grieving and still be blessed.

You can have more month than money and still be blessed.

You can be rejected by people and still be held securely by God.

You can walk through a season that looks absolutely nothing like the life you prayed for—and God has not abandoned you.

Luke’s version of the Beatitudes is especially striking because Jesus speaks about real human conditions: poverty and wealth, hunger and satisfaction, grief and laughter, rejection and social acceptance. The passage promises that the kingdom of God will not leave the world’s present inequalities and suffering as the final word.

And then come the uncomfortable words:

“But woe to you who are rich…”

Jesus is not teaching that possessing something automatically separates us from God. He is warning us about the danger of becoming so comfortable with what we have now that we no longer recognize how desperately we need Him.

Sometimes abundance can numb the soul.

We can have a full refrigerator and an empty spirit.

A beautiful home and a broken heart.

A successful career and no peace.

A crowded calendar and a lonely life.

We can even become comfortable in church—singing the songs, knowing the language, sitting in the same pew—while gradually losing our hunger for God.

The danger is not simply having something.

The danger is allowing what we have to convince us that we have enough without Jesus.

That is why these words are both comforting and challenging.

To the person who is struggling, Jesus says:

Your story isn’t over.

To the person who is comfortable, Jesus says:

Don’t mistake comfort for blessing.

And to all of us He announces that God’s Kingdom operates according to a different economy—one where the forgotten are seen, the hungry will be filled, tears will not last forever, and those whom the world pushes aside are welcomed to the table.

That should also shape the kind of Church we become.

If Jesus sees the poor, we see them.

If Jesus draws near to the grieving, we draw near.

If Jesus welcomes the rejected, we make room.

If Jesus cares about people the world overlooks, then there should always be a place for them among us.

Because sometimes the person who appears to have the least may understand something the comfortable have forgotten:

When Jesus is all you have, you begin to discover just how much you have in Jesus.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, teach me to recognize blessing through the eyes of Your Kingdom rather than the measurements of this world. When I am struggling, remind me that You have not forgotten me. When I am comfortable, keep my heart from becoming satisfied without You.

Give me eyes for those who are hurting, hungry, grieving, lonely, or overlooked. And make Your Church a place where people discover that regardless of what they possess or what they have lost, there is room for them in the Kingdom of God.

Amen.

Thought for Today

Don’t confuse an easy life with a blessed life. Sometimes God’s deepest work happens in seasons that don’t look blessed at all.

++Jarod

09/08/2026

Daily Devotion — A Life That Said Yes

The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Scripture: Matthew 1:18–23

“She was found with child through the holy Spirit.” — Matthew 1:18

Today the historic Church remembers the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary—the birth of the woman whom God would call to become the mother of Jesus Christ. September 8 has long been observed by Christians as a day honoring Mary’s birth.

For Methodists, honoring Mary need not distract us from Jesus.

Quite the opposite. Mary always points us toward Him.

Scripture does not tell us the circumstances of Mary’s own birth, so our attention ultimately turns to what God accomplished through her life. Matthew tells us that Mary conceived Jesus through the Holy Spirit, and that this Child would be called Emmanuel—“God is with us.”

Mary’s greatness is inseparable from her willingness to participate in God’s purpose.

She was not powerful by the world’s standards. She possessed no throne, wealth, or influence. She was a young woman from an ordinary place whose life became extraordinary because she made herself available to God.

And there is something deeply Methodist in remembering that.

Grace comes first. Our response follows.

God calls.
God gives grace.
God opens the way.

And then comes the question each of us must answer:

Will I say yes?

Mary’s yes did not guarantee an easy life. Her obedience exposed her to misunderstanding. She would give birth far from home, flee with her family from violence, wonder at things she could not yet understand, and eventually stand near the cross while her Son suffered.

Yet she remained faithful.

Sometimes we imagine that following God’s will should make life easier. Mary reminds us that obedience is not always comfortable. Sometimes saying yes to God disrupts our plans before we understand His.

But look at what God accomplished through one surrendered life.

Through Mary came Jesus Christ—not merely another teacher or prophet, but Emmanuel, God with us, the One who “will save his people from their sins.”

That is why Christians can honor Mary without making Mary the center.

Jesus is the center.

We remember her because her life teaches us what discipleship looks like: humility before God, courage when the future is uncertain, faithfulness when obedience becomes costly, and trust that God’s purposes are greater than our understanding.

Perhaps that is the invitation of this feast for us.

The world does not necessarily need more impressive Christians.

It needs available Christians.

People willing to say:

Lord, if You can use my hands, use them.

If You can use my voice, use it.

If You can use my home, my resources, my experiences—even the wounded parts of my story—use them.

Mary could not possibly have understood everything her yes would mean.

Neither will we.

We simply trust the God to whom we are saying it.

Prayer

Almighty God, we thank You for Mary, the mother of our Lord, and for her example of humble and courageous faith. Give us grace to receive Your Word with open hearts and the courage to follow wherever You lead.

When obedience is difficult, make us faithful. When the future is uncertain, teach us to trust You. And may our lives, like Mary’s, always point beyond ourselves to Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.

Amen.

Thought for Today

Mary’s life reminds us that God can do extraordinary things through an ordinary person who is willing to say yes.

++Jarod

09/07/2026

Daily Devotion — When Being Right Becomes More Important Than Doing Good

Scripture: Luke 6:6–11

“I ask you, is it lawful to do good on the sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?” — Luke 6:9

There is something troubling in this passage.

A man walks into the synagogue with a withered hand. Jesus sees him. The religious leaders see him too.

But they are looking at the same man for entirely different reasons.

Jesus sees someone who needs healing.
They see an opportunity to prove Jesus wrong.

Luke tells us that the scribes and Pharisees were watching Jesus closely, hoping He would heal on the Sabbath so they could accuse Him.

Think about that for a moment.

They were so determined to defend their understanding of what was right that a man’s suffering became secondary.

Jesus knew what they were thinking. He called the man forward and asked a piercing question: Is the Sabbath for doing good or doing evil? For saving life or destroying it?

Then Jesus told him:

“Stretch out your hand.”

And the hand was restored.

Yet instead of celebrating a miracle, the religious leaders became furious.

A man had been healed—and somehow they were angry about it.

That ought to challenge every Christian.

Because it is possible to become so convinced that we are right that we stop asking whether we are loving.

We can win an argument and wound a person.

We can defend a tradition and forget why the tradition exists.

We can quote Scripture while failing to demonstrate the mercy Scripture teaches.

We can even sit in church, surrounded by the things of God, and become more interested in identifying what is wrong with somebody than in asking how Christ might restore them.

Jesus shows us something better.

Notice that He does not ask the man to hide his damaged hand. He tells him to stretch it out.

The very thing the man might have been accustomed to concealing becomes the place where Christ demonstrates His power.

There is a word in that for some of us.

We spend tremendous energy hiding the parts of ourselves that feel withered—the wounds, failures, fears, disappointments, addictions, grief, shame, and places where life has left us diminished.

Jesus does not recoil from those places.

He asks us to bring them into His presence.

The Church should be a place where people can stretch out the wounded parts of their lives without fear of becoming somebody else’s gossip, project, or object lesson.

A place where truth is spoken, certainly—but where truth always serves the purposes of redemption.

A place where holiness and mercy are never separated.

A place where, when someone begins to heal, we celebrate rather than scrutinize.

Because Jesus did not look across that synagogue and see a theological problem to debate.

He saw a person worth restoring.

May we learn to see people the same way.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, forgive me for the times I have cared more about being right than being merciful. Give me eyes that notice people rather than merely their problems.

Give me courage to stretch before You the wounded places I would rather hide, and make Your Church a community where broken people encounter truth without condemnation, grace without pretense, and the healing presence of Christ.

Amen.

Thought for Today

Jesus never asks us to pretend the withered places aren’t there. He asks us to stretch them toward Him.

++Jarod

09/06/2026

We will not have our regular Sunday service today due to power outage. Everyone stay safe and let us know if we can help!

++Jarod