Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

If I love (serve) others, I will see God in me for His love will be perfected in me. If I love (serve) others, they will see God in me for His love is perfected in me. If I love (serve) others I will see God (the Imago Dei) in them for His love is perfected in me. I believe (am committed to and trust in) these statements. I will see God when His love is perfected in me.

Today's readings in the Psalms:

Morning: Psalm 27

Mid-day: 119:9-16

Evening: Psalm 102

Voices Together is available as an annual daily devotional and can be purchased at the Fellowship Of Ailbe bookstore.

Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

More guidance--does our audience take their instruction from the Lord or from the world. A warning to me--seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Look first to the Lord and the Word, then being properly armed and armored, I am prepared to evaluate the world's knowledge in the light of God's wisdom.

Today's readings in the Psalms:

Morning: Psalm 26

Mid-day: 119:1-8

Evening: Psalm 101

Voices Together is available as an annual daily devotional and can be purchased at the Fellowship Of Ailbe bookstore.

I John 4:1-3

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.

Repeat after me: "Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God and every spirit that does not confess Jesus in not from God." And repeat and repeat and repeat and ... No ambiguity, no waffling, clear and understandable. Is Jesus Christ a man sent from God or not?

Today's readings in the Psalms:

Morning: Psalm 25

Mid-day: 119:169-176

Evening: Psalm 100

Voices Together is available as an annual daily devotional and can be purchased at the Fellowship Of Ailbe bookstore.

"Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry; hold not your peace at my tears! For I am a sojourner with you, a guest, like all my fathers. Look away from me, that I may smile again, before I depart and am no more!"

When I am in distress, Lord and cry out to You, I need to hear You, I need You and Your Comforter. I come to the point where I need to be restored and renewed, do not withhold Yourself from me.

Today's readings in the Psalms:

Morning: Psalm 24

Mid-day: 119:161-168

Evening: Psalm 99

Voices Together is available as an annual daily devotional and can be purchased at the Fellowship Of Ailbe bookstore.

This is the fifth anniversary of the publication of Voices Together on the Fellowship of Ailbe website.  Thanks to all of you for your many encouraging letters.

Psalm 39:7-11

"And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you. Deliver me from all my transgressions. Do not make me the scorn of the fool! I am mute; I do not open my mouth, for it is you who have done it. Remove your stroke from me; I am spent by the hostility of your hand. When you discipline a man with rebukes for sin, you consume like a moth what is dear to him; surely all mankind is a mere breath! Selah

Lord, my hope, my certain expectation of grace and mercy is from You. I know that when I turn from You, when I willfully disobey, that You hide Your face from me unable to be in the presence of sin and corruption. But when the depth of my transgressions is acknowledged You are quick to forgive and restore. You are a gracious and loving Lord.

Today's readings in the Psalms:

Morning: Psalm 22

Mid-day: 119:145-152

Evening: Psalm 97

Voices Together is available as an annual daily devotional and can be purchased at the Fellowship Of Ailbe bookstore.

Surely a man goes about as a shadow! Surely for nothing they are in turmoil; man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather!

Is this where Solomon began to understand that all is vanity? Is this the recognition that man is driven by an intense desire to accumulate possessions? Might not this intensity be a sin driven warping of the Imago Dei, of the desire of the Almighty to create beauty and display His Glory?

Today's readings in the Psalms:

Morning: Psalm 21

Mid-day: 119:137-144

Evening: Psalm 96

Voices Together is available as an annual daily devotional and can be purchased at the Fellowship Of Ailbe bookstore.

To the choirmaster: to Jeduthun. A Psalm of David. I said, "I will guard my ways, that I may not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth with a muzzle, so long as the wicked are in my presence." I was mute and silent; I held my peace to no avail, and my distress grew worse. My heart became hot within me. As I mused, the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue: "O LORD, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am! Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath! Selah

Lord, as David did, so must I make a vow before You to guard my tongue even though my thoughts roil and boil within me. I must learn to weigh and measure my words, especially in the presence of unbelievers; my concern must be that I say nothing to cast disgrace upon Your Holy Name. And when I do speak, let my discourse begin with praise and thanksgiving, acknowledging that You are Lord and Master of my life

Today's readings in the Psalms:
Morning: Psalm 20
Mid-day: 119:129-136
Evening: Psalm 95
Voices Together is available as an annual daily devotional and can be purchased at the Fellowship Of Ailbe bookstore.

Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"-- yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. (17) So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

Lord, how often I fail to acknowledge that You are in control of all things, that it is You who causes the sun to rise each morning and set each evening and everything else. I, then, must be faithful in recognizing Your hand of mercy in controlling and ordering my life. The Lord willing, I will such and such must be the watch word of my speech. It also serves to remind me that I need to be constantly alert to evaluate every word out of my mouth, every action I am about to take, to insure that You are being glorified. You are Lord and Master of my life.

Today's readings in the Psalms:

Morning: Psalm 19

Mid-day: 119:123-128

Evening: Psalm 94

Voices Together is available as an annual daily devotional and can be purchased at the Fellowship Of Ailbe bookstore.

Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

Help me, Lord, to see those areas where a brother is failing and to pray for the Spirit to move in him. Help me to be a friend, a brother, a wise and compassionate counselor rather than a critic and a judge.

Today's readings in the Psalms:

Morning: Psalm 18

Mid-day: 119:113-120

Evening: Psalm 93

Voices Together is available as an annual daily devotional and can be purchased at the Fellowship Of Ailbe bookstore.

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. (Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

How often, Lord, do I get this completely backwards--submitting to the devil and going before You in pride and double-mindedness? What madness leads me to think I can stand before the LORD, God Almighty, pound my chest and declare that I am going to do it my way?

Lord, discipline and humble me

Today's readings in the Psalms:

Morning: Psalm 17

Mid-day: 119:105-112

Evening: Psalm 92

Voices Together is available as an annual daily devotional and can be purchased at the Fellowship Of Ailbe bookstore.

I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.

There is exquisite beauty in the Law of God, the very coherence and consistency as it fits together as a finely crafted, which it is, mosaic. Sheer beauty, bountiful joy in the life lived according to Your Word.