30 New Days - Day 5

The 5th day of a 30 day devotional book by the Rev. Tracy A. Siegman, Senior Pastor FCC, Covington, KY.  Shared with her gracious permission.

Day 5
30-day reading plan: Mark 1 – 8
Daily Verse: Mark 1: 31

So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.

There is an inspirational sign in my house that says, "Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the ground in the morning the devil says, 'Oh No! She's up!'" Brooke was that kind of woman.
I met Brooke the first week of classes at seminary. She was an unofficial shepherd to new students who helped me get acclimated to the academic life. She challenged my theological thinking and taught me how to fry an egg in bacon grease.

Brooke had an aneurysm in the classroom caused by a rare disease and had spent the last year in rehab. She was not the type of woman to be kept down long. She worked hard to regain strength so she could come back to school and finish her journey. She had a short life expectancy due to Morphan’s disease and she was determined to reach her goal in that short time. Her life's dream was to be ordained into Christian ministry. Her perseverance was inspirational to me on the days when the journey to graduation and ordination seemed too difficult.

For the day of her ordination, many of her friends drove several hours away to be a part of the joyous day. In the weeks after, we talked about her ministry. She didn’t feel called to preach every Sunday, but was not physically able to do full-time youth ministry. I wondered with her what ministry for her would be. When she died a year later, I realized what her ministry had been. She was a shepherd to many students at seminary. She was an encourager and an advocate for preparing ministers to care for themselves. On more than one occasion, she was my pastor. No matter our ability, God gives us the gifts and grace to fulfill our calling.

Question for reflection:
Who are you shepherding?

30 New Days - Day 4

The 4th day of a 30 day devotional book by the Rev. Tracy A. Siegman, Senior Pastor FCC, Covington, KY.  Shared with her gracious permission.

Day 4
30-day reading plan: Matthew 23 – 28

Daily Verse: Matthew 26: 75
Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: “Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.

This section of Matthew has some scary imagery. Six times Jesus refers to a place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth in a place of darkness or a blazing furnace. These stories and parables are considered by many to be about the coming eternity of suffering for those who don’t believe.

These images invoke fear that some of our unbelieving friends and family may experience this dark place. Still, some may fear that they are not good enough or don’t do enough to merit Heaven and will instead find one’s self in a dark eternity. Perhaps Heaven-bound believers experience our own outer darkness and weeping in this life.

Peter wept bitterly outside in the dark after denying that he knew Jesus. Peter cried with a broken heart convicted by the revelation that he had betrayed his vow to Jesus to follow Him to the end. Peter had the opportunity to profess before the Risen Lord his continued faith. Peter didn’t deserve the opportunity to repent, but that’s the essence of grace. We get what we don’t deserve.

Recently, Rev. Nadia Bolz Weberi said grace is her undoing. She is broken hearted by her limitations and moved to weeping by the grace she receives for all her failures. “God, who is gracious and merciful and slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, loves you as you are.” Grace, at once, “breaks me apart and puts me back together.” For the ways in which we fail, in the moments we find ourselves weeping in darkness the grace of God absolves us and restores us. We receive this grace through our faith in the Risen Lord.

Question for reflection:
What causes you to weep?

30 New Days - Day 3

The 3rd day of a 30 day devotional book by the Rev. Tracy A. Siegman, Senior Pastor FCC, Covington, KY.  Shared with her gracious permission.

Day 3
30-day reading plan: Matthew 16 – 22

Daily Verse: Matthew 21: 31b
Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.

Many are not excited to have a pair of Jehovah’s Witnesses knock on their door. The JWs believe differently than we believe and typically talk of doom and gloom in their visit. Plus, they come knocking on the door at the most inconvenient time. But, I have a special connection to JWs, because my great grandparents were JWs. When they bring me a copy of their magazine, the Watchtower, I feel a special connection to my great grandparents.

The JWs that usually visit my home like to interpret the “signs of the times” as a warning that the end is near and Jesus is coming again. They can be real Debbie Downers. The 2 women who came to visit today were different. They were concerned about the state of the world believing the world was not headed in the right direction – not toward the Kingdom of God. But, they weren’t worried about our imminent demise.

We decided that if every person in the world respected every other human being and recognized him/her as a child of God then there would be an end to the world as we know it. Perhaps the end will not come in fire and brimstone. I hope the Kingdom of God will come in an end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it transforming of our minds in which we will all finally recognize that each person has the life breath of God within him/her and is worthy of our love.

The second greatest commandment is “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt 22: 39). The Father asks His children to do the work of loving our neighbors. When we stop judging others who are not like us, stop perpetuating all the –isms and love others because of our differences, we will be able to say we did what our Father wanted.

Question for reflection:
What 1 thing can you do to increase the love you show others?

30 New Days - Day 2

Day 2
The 2nd day of a 30 day devotional book by the Rev. Tracy A. Siegman, Senior Pastor FCC, Covington, KY.  Shared with her gracious permission.


30-day reading plan: Matthew 10 – 15
Daily Verse: Matthew 13: 8
Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop – a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.

Much of the Midwest is flatlands farmed for corn, soybeans, and wheat. The flat land is perfect for growing crops. In central Illinois, where I live in a small farming community, we rely on the harvest for much of our economy. We pray for rain, sun, and a safe harvest. The seasons of the year are marked by the fields being planted, growing, being harvested and resting.

Farming in Israel and Palestine is much different. The landscape is hilly and barren after decades of war. When I had the opportunity to visit Palestine several years ago, I planted a tree in Bethlehem. You might expect to plant an olive tree, but I planted an apricot tree. As I was digging in the soil, I couldn’t help but think of the Parable of the Sower. I was planting the tree on the side of a hill. There were rocks and thorny weeds in the soil. The soil needed those rocks and sturdy weeds to hold the soil in place during rainy seasons so it would not get washed down the side of the hill.

These are the landscapes Jesus would have been referring to when teaching about the Parable of the Sower. He would have known that the rocks and weeds would be among the soil where the sower was sowing seed. He would have known that good soil, rocks and thorny weeds would be all mixed up together.

We grow in good soil with rocks and thorny weeds around us. We have to have the rocks and sturdy weeds of friends and family. We need them to hold us in place so that we don’t get washed away when the rains come. Because, the rains will come.

Questions for reflection:
Who are the friends and family who help your roots grow deep and your branches tall? 
How do these friends and family support you?

30 New Days - Day 1

The first day of a 30 day devotional book by the Rev. Tracy A. Siegman.  Shared with her gracious permission.

Day 1
30-day reading plan: Matthew 1 – 9
Daily Verse: Matthew 2: 2b
We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.

I recently saw a church sign that said: “Take God on your vacation.” How do you pack God? Where do I get a Divine size suitcase? Does God fly first class? Will God mind sitting in the backseat with the dog? I’d be more than a little concerned if you think you can fit the whole of God in the back of the minivan or in the overhead compartment. So, how do we take God on vacation?
We don’t have to pack God to take with us to the beach or a cabin in the woods. God is already there, in the trunk of the car and the airplane’s baggage area. God is omnipresent which means God is eternally everywhere all the time. We don’t need to take God with us, because God is here, there and along the way.

The church sign may have had something to do with our inclination to not attend church on vacation. I think the reason we don’t attend church on vacation is because our community is not there. An important aspect of worship is gathering as a community. We consider church our family. When we are on vacation, our community is not there. Worship feels different at another church, because the people we are used to seeing in worship are not there.

The Maji traveled to go to God with us, Immanuel. They left their community in search of God in the flesh. When we travel on vacation, we have the opportunity to seek God in a new place among a different community, even if only for one Sunday. Our vacation is not a time away from God, but an opportunity to meet God in a new place. I’m sure the church community you visit will be overjoyed by your visit.

Questions for reflection:
How do you worship God when you are away from home?
If you winter away from home, have you found a community to worship with at your winter home?

Rev. Tracy A. Siegman

Senior Pastor

First Christian Church (DOC)

14 W. Fifth St.

Covington, KY 41011

30 New Days - Introduction

The Rev. Tracy Siegman has very generously offered the use of her Devotional Book titled  30 New Days for our use during this time when we cannot see each other face to face.   She says:

This is a 30-day devotional book that follows a 30-day New Testament reading plan. Each day has a suggested reading of Scripture. If you follow the suggested readings each day, you will have read through the New Testament in the time you work through these devotions. This daily reading will take about 15 minutes.

Each day also has a daily verse which has been selected from that day's suggested reading. The devotion for the day is based on the daily verse. You can read through this devotion just reading the daily verse, but you will miss reading the verse in its context.

This is not a typical devotional book. Each devotion attempts to draw on a theme of that day's suggested reading or the theology of something from that day's reading. I will suggest interpretations and share my theological thoughts on topics like the Lord's Supper, baptism, sanctification, and the Holy Spirit. I end each devotion with a question for reflection rather than a prayer. I hope that after your reflection on Scripture you will pray in your own words.

This may be for your private devotion or this may be a great resource for your Bible study. Together, you can share your thoughts on the Question for Reflection of the day’s devotion. However you read it, I hope you will reflect on your relationship with God and the world.

May the God of abundance bless you generously, 

Rev. Tracy A. Siegman

Senior Pastor

First Christian Church (DOC)

14 W. Fifth St.

Covington, KY 41011

I will post a new devotion from the book each day.  May they be a blessing to you.

Pastor Maria

March 16, 2020. A Meditation from Pastor Maria

A Meditation from Pastor Maria

March 16, 2020

Yesterday, like many other churches in our denomination and in our community of Selma, we held our last in-person worship service for a while.  We will be moving online for now.  We don’t know how long that will last, but we do know that community is important even when we can’t see each other.  

This is the first of the daily devotions that will be posted to give us each something to consider and talk about during this time when we cannot meet in person.   I would invite you to read the passage and consider the questions, then call or message a friend and share your thoughts together.  Especially consider calling your friends who do not use the internet as much as you do, so they, too, can be part of this time of devotion in community with others.

We are all having to deal with so many restrictions and changes in our daily lives, with every indication that more are on the way.  We are living under a State of Emergency in a state of uncertainty.  We don’t deal well with uncertainty.  We like to know what is coming next so we can make plans.  And when we don’t know what to expect, we worry.

Philippians 4:6-7 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

6 Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  

What worries you today?

What would you pray for today?  

What would bring you peace of mind?