On a Sunday shortly after September 11, 2001, Daniel Nayeri attended Redeemer Presbyterian Church, as he had done most Sundays since beginning his undergraduate studies at New York University in 2000. In the bulletin he noticed a lengthy quote from Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s “The Brother’s Karamazov” about how all suffering would be made up for in the end, and that “something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, for the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, of all the blood they’ve shed; that will make it not only possible to forgive but to justify all that has happened.”

Nayeri tore out the quote and for years kept it as a bookmark.

When he published his memoir in 2020, “Everything Sad is Untrue,” he included the Dostoyevsky passage as the book’s epigraph.

“Everything Sad is Untrue” won the Printz Award for literary excellence in young adult literature. Nayeri’s subsequent books for young readers, “The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams” and “The Teacher of Nomad Land,” were chosen as Newberry Medal Honor Books. “The Teacher of Nomad Land” also won the National Book Award. His latest book, “This is a Door,” which will be published in October, is a finalist for the Kirkus Prize for middle-grade fiction.

Nayeri is from Iran, but his family fled the country after his mother converted to Christianity, a capital offense. The family lived as refugees for several years before settling in Edmond, Oklahoma.

After studying at NYU, Nayeri lived in New York City and worked in publishing for many years. Now he lives in South Carolina with his wife and son and attends a PCA church in the Palmetto State. He talked with byFaith about his works, and the craft and responsibility of writing for young readers. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The book that you are most known for is “Everything Sad is Untrue.” Can you tell us a little bit about it and the J.R.R. Tolkein reference in the title?

The book is an autobiographical story about how I came to the United States with my mother and my sister. It opens with the perspective of a narrator who’s quite young. He’s in middle school and standing in front of the class trying to explain what his life was like before they came to Edmond, Oklahoma, as refugees. And you can imagine a lot of questions pop up. Why were you refugees? It’s because his mother had a Fatwa on her head. Why did she have that? Well, because she converted to Christianity from Islam. And that’s a capital crime.

The children are asking these questions, and he’s trying to express it, and he’s not a great storyteller. He’s realizing that in order to explain how they got to Oklahoma as refugees, he’s got to go all the way back and tell one family story and then another family story. And before he knows it, he’s telling Persian history and mythology and poetry. 
And the stories are getting bigger and more poetic so nobody in his class believes a word he’s saying. And they’re not wrong to do so. Some of these stories are the mythology of Iran.

At the climax, he finds out that his father — who’s this man that he’s posed as a larger-than-life figure — is going to come visit from Iran. And “will he be this kind of heroic individual, or will he be a schlubby Persian guy?” is the question at the heart of the climax.

The story itself is very much about coming to America. My mother did convert from Islam to Christianity, and so we were refugees for about two years. First in the United Arab Emirates and then in Italy, until we were given asylum to the United States. It’s one of those stories that’s a discursive novel, which means it’s a stream of consciousness from this young man. He’s trying to tell you as many things as he can at once and then hopefully it all comes together by the end and you’ve gotten a chance to meet him.

He’s a young man who’s also kind of discovering his love of books and reading, and this was my childhood. I read “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” on repeat. People asked me if I was a real voracious reader and I’m like, “I was; I just read the same books over and over.”

So there’s a quote in “The Return of the King,” that my book’s title is from. The hobbits Sam and Frodo are at the end of this journey that’s been long and perilous and arduous and tragic, and something good comes to pass. And very naively and sweetly, Samwise Gamgee asks, “Is everything sad going to become untrue?” It’s just such a sweet thing to ask. It’s a very childish thing to ask. But Samwise is not that childish, and what you realize is that his question is perfectly valid. There’s no reason to believe that if this one gigantic thing came undone, why wouldn’t the other tragic things become untrue?

I love that quote. I love that phrase. And for a long time, that was the title, “Everything Sad Will Become Untrue.” And then I realized in the voice of my narrator — who’s a little bit more presumptuous than Samwise — that he would think that if it was gonna happen in the future, then you may as well believe it’s happened in the now, which I’m fully aware is a 12 year old’s thought and not actually true. There are sad things in this world at the present moment. His perspective on that is one that is based on the idea that how you perceive the future is how you will live in the present. And so he is claiming this idea, not in any way under the impression that it is an accurate description of life on earth. And so that’s where the title came from.

How did you get to the PCA?

I was an undergrad at NYU in the year 2000. I was looking around for a good place to go, and at that time, Redeemer was meeting in different locations, at Hunter College and at the Cultural and Ethical Society. So I went there. And to be clear, the quote from “The Lord of the Rings” is one that Keller used to talk about all the time. The epigraph in my book is a Dostoyevsky epigraph, and it’s an epigraph that Tim used when we got back from September 11. I tore that out of our bulletin, and I always had it as my little bookmark for my notebook as I was writing this novel. It just felt like the most obvious epigraph to use, but it should be clear that it was given to me by Pastor Keller.

For the next 20 years or so he was our pastor. I volunteered for about eight years as a youth leader, and a lot of my job was to do the pie bake.
We would bake 600 pies the week before Thanksgiving, and we would do it at the Bowery Mission.

Redeemer has the challenge of being in the middle of the city. For a long time, we didn’t have a building. We were renting a building.
And so you would do small groups in people’s houses, but somebody who lives on the Upper West Side has a real hard time coming to Brooklyn just for a two-hour event. So it felt like a place where community was something you have to really focus on. By joining the youth group and doing the pie bake, which sounds silly, that’s where I ended up making lifelong friends. And these particular couples became people I looked up to in their relationship. They became not just friends, but people who my wife and I think of as mentors.

Last fall, “World” published an interview with you, and there was this quote that stuck out to me. You said, “I was a born worshiper, and I tend to use stories to do that. And the challenge is to point those stories in the proper direction.” How do you do that? How do you get your stories to point in the proper direction?

I don’t ever set out and think, How can I write a story about this particular virtue or this particular ethic? I try to think of something as the story first. And my understanding of the world is, if I wanted to write a story about a banker who’s made his life entirely about finances and has a terrible home life, I know what this guy is doing. If I were to paint this person as honestly as I could — reaching into the parts of myself that are obsessed with success and money and have made a ruin of my own relationships — I am fundamentally at some point going to return to what I understand to be as fundamental to this natural world as gravity, which is the reality of a spiritual experience. The struggle of a world beyond the natural of evil against good. And the total and eventual victory of good.

I don’t believe in a world of balance. I believe in a conception that there is a God, and he has opinions.

I’ll give you an example. I just wrote this book coming out in October.
It’s called “This is a Door.” This is an experimental story, but it’s a very traditional hero’s journey. But it’s set in the world of fable. It’s in the world of a far away village, on a mountain, in a country that doesn’t exist. And it’s about a young man who sets out on a journey to find his purpose.

So what do you do? Do you adhere to a general ethic like the good guys are the ones who generally do the things that we in 2026 America like, and the bad guys are the ones who do the things that we don’t think are cool anymore, and that’s the morality of that world? What is the methodology if you’re writing a world that isn’t ours?

It’s very much a parable. He comes to this mentor and tells her, “I don’t know what my purpose is, but I know it will be whatever makes me most useful to the good God and least useful to the bad ones.”
And that’s where he’s going to take his heuristic.

And now we have a setup, but what does that even mean? What does it mean to have one good God and then many possible bad ones in the life of a young person? 
And how do we make ourselves useful?

To make yourself useful to a good God, you have to be in a relationship with that good God. It means you have to be acting on some sort of commission. What does it mean that there’s a world where there are little bad gods? Well, it means there are things that you can ruin your life worshiping. And they want nothing good for you. I am building on a structure that in my little measly imagination is a heuristic that is what I want people to think about in our world in 2026. But that is not built on the events of our history.

So I always think, what are the most basic exercises of our spiritual lives? And how do characters interact with that?

You write for young readers. They have questions about the world, and they make observations. And on the one hand, they want to have their questions validated. But they also need a guide. Otherwise, they’re adrift without anything but their feelings to guide them. As a writer how do you validate the questions and concerns of young people but, also guide them?

I am not a replacement for parenting. As a writer, you can never forget that you’re speaking to other people’s kids. That is not something to take lightly. Whatever I write in these books is fundamentally just one thought that they can try on and taste. But it should have no comparative value to their family and to their parents’ guidance.

My role is to ask questions that will fundamentally destabilize the assumptions that you have and make you ask the questions that might lead you toward better answers.

For a lot of the harder things to talk about in life, the novel is best used in the service of asking as opposed to telling.

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You only! Not only were the Philippians distinguished by the fact that they had remembered Paul in his need—that was significant—they had also been the only ones to remember him.

There is always a special aura about someone who does something for you when only that one has remembered to do it. In his vastly successful book How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie has a section in which he tells of some of the devices he developed for pleasing business acquaintances. One of them was to learn their birthdays. Each year the acquaintances would receive birthday cards from Carnegie. In most cases he was the only one outside of the immediate family who had remembered the man’s birthday. The resulting goodwill was staggering.

I believe that if Dale Carnegie could do that for secular ends to win friends and influence people, Christians ought to be able to do the same type of thing for spiritual ends and to do so sacrificially to win them for Christ.

Do you want real joy in this world, real fruit in your Christian ministry? If so, let me suggest this. Instead of wondering to yourself, as you often do, why people do not treat you better or remember things that are important to you, seek for ways in which you can help them, particularly in those areas in which only you know the problem. God will show you how. The other person will think that no one understands his need or no one is aware of his problem. Then your gift or your word of encouragement will come. He will be overjoyed; and if he is a Christian, he will see it as another way in which God uses people as channels of his faithful provision and blessing. I cannot tell you who the person is whom you could help.

I cannot tell you what the circumstances will be or even what you can do. That will vary. You will have to find it out for yourself. It might be a person in your own family with a unique need, perhaps one of your children who desperately needs someone to do something special for him or her, or your wife or husband who needs understanding. It might be someone at work who thinks that no one cares about him. It might be someone at church. It might be a stranger. It might be a financial need. It might be a word of encouragement. Whatever it is, God will help you to find it if you ask him. And he will give you great joy in being the one who, like the Philippians, did not forget, but remembered.

Taken from Come to the Waters by James Boice ISBN 9798887790954 used with permission from P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg NJ 08865

Scripture quotations are from the ESV (the Holy Bible English Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved. 

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Four presbyteries are extending the same invitation to the PCA. “Come and See” has been selected as the theme for the 2027 General Assembly to be held June 14-18 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and hosted by Wisconsin, Chicago Metro, and Korean Central presbyteries along with the Presbytery of Northern Illinois.

The host committee hopes the PCA will “come and see” how God is at work and the gospel is transforming communities in the Upper Midwest.

“We hope people will see what the PCA is like in our part of the country, that it’s not as large or densely populated with PCA churches but has faithful people who are serving in the Upper Midwest,” said Alison Sherwood, the host committee’s public relations liaison.

Urban ministry, campus ministry, church planting ministries are all experiencing growth in Wisconsin and Illinois. For example, between 2012 and 2024, Wisconsin Presbytery particularized 17 churches and had an additional four church plants in process, and many of its churches are pastored by Wisconsin natives. 

The 2027 Assembly will be only the 11th Assembly outside the Southeast, and the first time back in the Upper Midwest since the 1987 Assembly in Grand Rapids, Michigan. 

“Having the General Assembly this far north is unique,” said Mark Kaiser, co-chair of the General Assembly host committee. “It’s a great opportunity to show our brothers and sisters in the PCA how wonderful and inviting the Midwest is.”

As the Administrative Committee considers accessibility in planning future Assemblies, the 2027 host committee believes that Milwaukee has much to offer. Whether by plane — Milwaukee is located near Chicago’s Midway and O’Hare airports in addition to having its own airport —  train, or automobile, Milwaukee is easy to access. The Baird Center and its three adjacent hotels will provide family-friendly, convenient accommodations. And the temperate weather — high temps should be in the 70s — and location on Lake Michigan provide plenty of opportunities for families to enjoy outdoor activities. 

The host committee set up a display in the exhibit hall at the 2026 General Assembly in Louisville, tempting passersby with samples of cheese curds and engaging in conversations about the benefits of hosting the Assembly in Milwaukee. Near the end of the Assembly the committee debuted its promotional video. 

General Assembly registration will open in January 2027. For more information on the Assembly, click here. 

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God invites us to place our earnest requests before him. This is God’s cure for anxiety. God invites you to place your request about these things that trouble you before him. The promise is that the peace of God will keep your heart and mind through Christ Jesus.

Notice that these verses do not say we shall necessarily receive the things we ask for. We would expect the passage to say, “Present your requests to God, and God will fulfill your requests.” Instead it says, “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (v. 7). Our prayers are often in error, and we pray for things that are not good for us. God does not promise to give us these things. All things work together for good to them that love God. However, God does promise to give a supernatural peace to those who share their real needs with him.

Paul was not recommending something for others that he had not found true for himself. Paul too had had this experience. Do you remember the prayer that Paul wrote in Romans 15:31–32? Paul was in Corinth and was about to go on to Jerusalem with the collection from the gentile churches. After that he had planned to travel to Rome as an ambassador of the Christian gospel. He asked prayer for three things:

1. “that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea”
2. “that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints”
3. “that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company”

How were Paul’s requests answered? We do not know every aspect of God’s answers but we know that Paul’s first request was not fulfilled literally. Paul fell into the hands of unbelievers and spent two years in prison in Caesarea as a result, although his life was spared. We have no information about his second request— that his collection might be received willingly by the saints in Judea—but there is no reason to think Paul received a warm welcome from anyone. Finally, we know that Paul’s third request—for a joyous journey to Rome—was fulfilled, if it was fulfilled, only after long delays and through much hardship. When Paul arrived in Rome at last, he arrived as a prisoner in chains.

God certainly did not answer Paul’s requests as Paul intended. But God did answer, and he answered exactly as Paul indicates in his words about prayer to the Philippians. He answered by giving Paul peace. Paul knew God’s peace even in the most difficult of earthly circumstances and he writes out of these circumstances to tell us also to make requests of God, our heavenly Father.

Taken from Come to the Waters by James Boice ISBN 9798887790954 used with permission from P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg NJ 08865

Scripture quotations are from the ESV (the Holy Bible English Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved. 

The post Devotion for September 23, 2026 appeared first on byFaith.

Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper tells the story of how a prince and a pauper exchange places. The pauper, mistaken for the prince, is taken to live in the palace, while the prince is turned back to the poor streets of London where he suffers great indignities before he eventually regains his rightful place and the throne.

In the same way, the Lord Jesus Christ took on our poverty, while we have been clothed in his finery. The Bible says, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9). He became poor as we were so that we might be clothed in his righteousness. He endured suffering and death that we might become like him—sons of God and coheirs with him of God’s glory.

It is true that the paupers must give up their rags, but there is no comparison between our rags and God’s glory. Jesus has told us that there is nothing given up in this life that is not replaced a hundredfold by spiritual treasure, not only in this world but in eternity also.

Years ago the son of a wealthy American family graduated from Yale University and decided to go out to China as a missionary for Jesus Christ. His name was William Borden. Many of his friends thought him foolish to give up so much of this world’s goods and his future to go there. But Borden loved the Lord Jesus Christ, and he wished to serve him. After only a short time on the field, and before he even reached China, Borden contracted a fatal disease and died. He had given up everything to follow Jesus. But at his bedside his friends found a note that he had written as he lay dying: “No reserve, no retreat, and no regrets.” Borden had given up everything but he had found a treasure that was beyond words.

Perhaps there is something that God has been asking you to lay aside in order that you might be a more effective witness for him. I do not know what it is. The thing that is a hindrance for one disciple is often entirely different for another. But whatever it is, you know it. At this point in your life, for you it is the touchstone of your discipleship. Will you cast it aside to follow Jesus? If you do, you will grow in your Christian discipleship, and God will bring great blessing into your life and through you also into the lives of others.

Taken from Come to the Waters by James Boice ISBN 9798887790954 used with permission from P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg NJ 08865

Scripture quotations are from the ESV (the Holy Bible English Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved. 

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You can listen to other episodes here: https://byfaithonline.com/media/podcast/ 

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Will you accept God’s verdict upon your goodness and turn to him for the righteousness he gives you by grace? Paul did this, for he says that his desire was to be found in Christ, not having his own righteousness, which is of the law, but having that which is through faith in Christ—righteousness from God by faith.

Quite a few years ago a man was brought into the emergency room in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, with a dislocated spine. My father, who was an orthopedic surgeon, was on duty, and he saw at a glance that the man had been partially paralyzed. He had been in a serious accident, and there was much wrong with him. His legs had been broken and there were deep lacerations over much of his body, but he could not feel these things because a nerve had been pinched by the spine. My father began to operate on him using a local anesthetic and occasionally asked if the man could feel anything from his injuries. The questioning went like this: “Do you feel anything?” “No.” “Do you feel anything now?” “No.” At last my father came to a piece of splintered bone that was pressing on the nerves. This time, as he removed the bone and asked, “Can you feel anything?” the answer came back loudly, “Yes, yes, I can feel it!” It was a cry of pain. But it was a pleasing cry, for it was the first step in the man’s complete recovery.

It may be the same for you. God’s verdict upon the human race includes all people—the hedonist, the moralist, the most religious person, and you, whatever you may be. It is one that declares all human righteousness unable to satisfy the righteous standards of God. You are included in that judgment, but you may not be able to feel that the things God is saying about you are true. Are you sensitive to God’s verdict? Do you feel the truth of his statements? If not, there is a spiritual disorder in your life and God must begin to operate on it before you will come to him.

Perhaps he is doing that now! You may be feeling the most acute spiritual pain because of it, but you must know that your new sensitivity is the first step in your spiritual recovery. Your recovery will take place completely as you come to God to receive a righteousness that comes from God himself and is entirely untainted by sin. That righteousness comes by faith in Jesus Christ. You must come to God through him.

Taken from Come to the Waters by James Boice ISBN 9798887790954 used with permission from P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg NJ 08865

Scripture quotations are from the ESV (the Holy Bible English Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved. 

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By dissecting perfectionism through the lens of the Biblical story arch, we see its true nature: Creation tells us why we thirst for perfection. The Fall tells us what perfectionism has done to our lives. The story of Redemption shows us what victory over perfectionism actually looks like, and Restoration gives us a final hope. 

All of us have our own Anton Ego, whether that be a boss, teacher, cultural standard, or (most likely) the voice in our own heads. We understand that we cannot be perfect, but most of us believe that we can be near-perfect at something. We tell ourselves that, finite though we are, if we could just crack one area of life, we might finally be happy. 

And perfectionism is so much more than being a detail-oriented, type-A person. I am neither of those things, but after several years in ministry, I have found that my state of well-being often depends on how I feel I am performing or appearing to others. If I believe I am not meeting the visible and invisible benchmarks in both work and personal life — or worse, if someone else points out my failures — I fall apart. Perfectionism terrorizes all personality types, accumulating a menagerie of victims. So, why do we still chase after it?  

Perhaps our first issue with chasing perfection is that we do not see it as the villain. Many people would even argue that their perfectionism is the key to their success. This may be true for a time, but it is not sustainable. The target of perfection will keep moving. We may meet our goal in one area, but then realize that success is not enough, and we have neglected the other parts of our lives. 

Sometimes success and failure are easy to measure, like grades or a sales quota. Sometimes success is harder to quantify, like ministry achievements or relationships. We compare ourselves to others in our vicinity and strive to meet the Anton Ego standard even though we know it is unrealistic. There is a deep desire in all of us to be better. 

The Perfect Creature

Our creation can give us some clues about where this desire comes from. In Genesis 1, we see the sequence and scope of creation. Seven times God surveys his creation and calls it “good.” After he creates humankind, he judges it “very good.” We are the crown of God’s creation, his perfect masterpiece. Dwelling with him in the garden was a perfect existence where all of our needs were met. 

I believe the thirst for perfection is the thirst for being declared “very good.” This kind of verdict was impossible for the chefs of Paris to receive from Anton Ego, but all it took to bring down his perfectionism was one bite of ratatouille. Ratatouille is nothing fancy; it’s a peasant dish, roasted vegetables in a simple tomato sauce. But it transported him back to a time as a child when he was loved, safe, and provided for. It took him back home. We long for the home we lost long ago. 

Sometimes it feels like we only have three options: keep striving to get better on our own, lower our standards, or give up. I work with college students, and the purity of this desire to be “very good” is why I cannot tell them to abandon their quest for excellence. However, if our creation tells us that our solution to perfectionism cannot be to lower our standards or give up, the Fall reminds us that our solution cannot be to try providing the “very good” life for ourselves. 

The Original Perfectionist

Eve was the first perfectionist. Like us, she didn’t see it as the villain but as a chance to provide herself with a better life than the one God had given her. In Genesis 3:5, the serpent tells her that God knows when she eats the fruit, her “eyes will be opened” and she “will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 

At this suggestion, both Adam and Eve start to question God’s goodness and provision. Is God really good? Does he know what is perfect for my life? Can I determine for myself what is perfect? Is he withholding something from me? And so they decided to take action against God’s commands, choosing for themselves what was “very good.” 

We ask the same questions and make the same decisions every day. Instead of making us better or giving us a better life, our obsession with being the perfect version of ourselves exposes and shames us, pointing out our flaws and failures all the more. 

What do we do now? We cannot give up the fight. We need a champion. Our response when faced with the anxious desire to be perfect should be to fall at the foot of the cross. As Christians, we have a unique and life-giving hope. That hope is a person, and his name is Jesus. 

In 2 Corinthians 5:21, Paul says, “for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” We kneel at the foot of the cross because it is there that our imperfection is placed on Jesus and his perfection is placed on us. This is where we are justified and once again called “very good” as new creations. Christ’s redemption shows us that victory over perfectionism actually looks like weakness and surrender, a brave acknowledgement that our own attempts at being “very good” are not enough. 

This weakness, emboldened by grace and the knowledge of our standing with God, also primes us for the work of the Holy Spirit in our restoration. In Christ, perfection is no longer an impossible standard but our destination, our final home. We get to strive for a prize that is already won, freeing us to strive for excellence rather than perfection. 

Perfection vs. Excellence

“How can you tell the difference between perfectionism and striving for excellence?” 

This was the most common question I received when teaching a seminar on this topic over the summer. It was a difficult one to answer, because they often look very similar. 

Excellence is seeking to do things to the best of my ability, while acknowledging my finitude and fallenness. Perfectionism chases the delusion that with even more focus and fervency, I can somehow transcend my mortal bonds. Excellence is trying to make the most of what we have, whether at work or in relationships. Perfectionism is an idol that always demands more and is never satisfied, even with excellence. 

Someone seeking to diligently and excellently complete their work assignment can look very similar to someone seeking to impress their boss. My answer after each seminar became this: It is not a question of “am I doing enough?” but rather  “who am I doing it for?” The one seeking excellence is content with a job well done while the one seeking approval and success will not be satisfied with the same result. It is a matter of the heart, of what we view the purpose of our lives to be. 

A greater purpose for our lives than pursuing perfection is love: the love of God that we get to pour out on others because our cup is full and our hearts feel like we just had a large helping of “very good” ratatouille. In the famous love passage of 1 Corinthians 13:4-13, you will not find the description of a perfectionist, but of someone who is resting in the arms of Jesus, able to go forth with strength and a heart positioned toward others. 

Resting in Jesus means we can stop seeing the success of others as a threat. We get to rejoice in their excellence and empathize with their failures. This fight against perfectionism is a long battle in which the villain often tricks us into fighting on his side. He targets our fears and gives us false solutions, feeding our fickle ideas of success. It is only when we recognize this as tyranny, surrender to Christ, and rest in his grace that we stand a chance.

Kelley Murphree serves as campus staff for Reformed University Fellowship at the University of Alabama Huntsville.

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Sponsored content from EO Tours

There is a riverside outside the old city gate at Philippi where Paul went to pray, and where the Lord opened Lydia’s heart. There is a stone platform at Corinth where Paul stood before Gallio. There is a theater at Ephesus that still seats thousands. 

You have read these letters for years, but now it’s time to picture them – not just in your imagination but in person. 

Paul’s Voyages is EO Tours’ Reformed flagship journey for 2027: twelve days departing October 6, 2027, nine nights aboard Celebrity Infinity, with guest speaker The Rev. David B. Garner, PhD. The route runs Kavala, Thessaloniki, Kusadasi, Athens, and Corinth, with calls at Rhodes, Santorini, and Mykonos. 

What Being There Gives You 

What geography supplies is not theological authority. It is context. 

The distance between Philippi and Thessaloniki is measured in walking days rather than map inches. The shape of a Roman agora, and what it meant to argue in one. A riverside outside a city gate, and why a woman praying would be found there. 

None of this is new revelation. All of it clarifies what the text already says — and it clarifies it for the reader who has always imagined what it must have looked like. 

That is what twelve days along the route are for. You come home and read Philippians, having stood where it was received. The letters do not change. What you bring to them does. 

There is a new understanding to carry home. These cities sit where they sit because of Roman roads and sea lanes, and the gospel moved along them in that order. You see providence moving on a map. A group that sees it together has something in common afterward that it did not have before. 

And you do not need seminary-level preparation to receive any of it. A church group spans a wide range of spiritual depths. Some travelers come to study. Some come to see Greece. Communicants and non-communicants travel together just as they do in any congregation, and this journey is built to welcome all of it, the concordance-loving, study Bible-toting Sunday school teacher and the first-year, still-wondering-and-questioning attender. 

Dr. Garner teaches, your pastor shepherds, and EO Tours’ guides provide the historical and cultural backdrop at each location. All you have to do is come and soak it all in. 

The Exclusive Guest Speaker 

As of July 1, 2026, Dr. David B. Garner became the fifth President of Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia and also serves as the Charles Krahe Professor of Systematic Theology. He is an ordained Teaching Elder in the Presbyterian Church in America and led the PCA study committee on Insider Movements. He is the author of Sons in the Son: The Riches and Reach of Adoption in Christ (P&R, 2016) and How Can I Know for Sure?, and editor of Did God Really Say? He holds a PhD from Westminster and a ThM from Dallas Theological Seminary. 

The teaching takes place over the two full days at sea and at the biblical sites — with lectures and time for questions  

This is a floating classroom on a cruise ship, and that is a gift. Most church members never have the chance to sit under a seminary president. On these two days, you will — with time to ask him the question you have been carrying. 

What Will You Do in Port 

EO Tours chose this itinerary for its immersion in New Testament lands, not just for its popular tourist destinations. This is the full twelve-day itinerary, port by port. 

Kavala (Philippi). Paul went to the riverside to pray, and the Lord opened Lydia’s heart — the first Christian baptized on European soil. You will see a Roman-period crypt believed to have served as Paul’s prison, along with the agora, basilica, and theater. 

Thessaloniki. The Via Egnatia, the Galerius Arch, the Roman agora, and the Basilica of St. Demetrios. Acts 17:3–6, where Paul and his companions were accused of turning the world upside down. 

Kusadasi (Ephesus). One of the Seven Churches of Revelation. You will see the agora, the library, the terrace houses, the Ephesus Experience Museum, the theater, and the single remaining column of the Temple of Artemis. 

Athens. The Acropolis, the Propylaea, the Parthenon, the Erechtheum, and Mars Hill, where Paul declared “TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.” 

Corinth. The archaeological museum, the marketplace, the temples, and the Bema, where Paul stood before Gallio. 

The voyage also calls at Rhodes, with its Old Town and the Palace of the Grand Masters, as well as Santorini and Mykonos. At these three ports, you will have time on your own to book an optional shore excursion through the cruise line at additional cost, explore independently, or stay aboard. 

Study and Leisure, together 

Both are on the itinerary, and you’ll enjoy both. The schedule is ordered by the epistles. Rhodes, Santorini, and Mykonos are ordered for relaxation, reflection, and exploration on your own, and Celebrity Infinity is your 5-star hotel at sea. 

Taking the teaching seriously and enjoying Greece with people from your church are not in competition. That is the ordinary shape of this journey, and it is part of why congregational bonds formed over two weeks abroad tend to outlast the trip. 

Nine of the twelve nights are aboard Celebrity Infinity, and the ship is where you can reflect on all you’ve taken in during your time in the ports and Dr. Garner’s sessions. She carries about 2,170 guests — large enough for quiet corners, small enough that you will keep running into the same people from your church. 

Evenings are unhurried. There is the main dining room and the Oceanview Café, the Rendezvous Lounge, and The Spa. Specialty venues such as Tuscan Grille and Le Petit Chef are available at additional cost, as are the boutiques and the ship’s optional packages.  

What’s Included? 

It is a fair question for a starting price of $4,298*, so here is everything that’s included. 

Your price includes round-trip international airfare from New York, overseas transfers, fuel surcharges, government taxes (subject to change), shore excursions as listed on the itinerary, meals on board, select ship amenities, admin fees, port charges, and cruise taxes.* Airfare can be added from many local airports around the United States for an additional cost. 

An optional Rome Pre-Tour runs October 3–7, 2027, starting at $1,848.** 

Save $100 

Depart the USA on October 6, 2027. Return on October 17, 2027. A $100 early registration savings closes October 6, 2026.***  

And if these dates do not suit, this is not a one-off track. There is Scotland and the Reformation: In the Footsteps of John Knox, departing August 31, 2027, and Reformation in Germany: In the Footsteps of Martin Luther, departing October 5, 2027. For those who would rather not sail, Journeys of Paul in Greece 2027 covers comparable ground by land only. 

Register Today for the October 6, 2027 departure or contact Tim Brown if you want to host your church. 

*Your Price from New York Includes: Round-trip International Airfare & Overseas Transfers, Additional baggage & optional fees may apply; see fine print for details, Fuel Surcharges and Government Taxes (Subject to change), Shore Excursions as listed on itinerary, Meals on Ship, Admin. Fees, Port Charges, Cruise Taxes. Prices are per person based on double occupancy. A 3.5% surcharge will be added to all credit card transactions. 

**Guests taking an extension may be on a different flight than their group and/or traveling companion. Price is per person based on double occupancy. A 3.5% surcharge will be added to all credit card transactions. 

***Full deposit required; savings deducted from the balance. 

The post The Cities Behind the Letters You’ve Read All Your Life appeared first on byFaith.

Here we read that the confession that will be made—that Jesus Christ is Lord— will result in glory to God the Father.

This is not true of any honor given to humans. If you glorify human beings, you dishonor God. You do so if you exalt yourself or your merits as a means of salvation, or exalt human beings as mediators between yourself and God, as saints who win God’s favor for you, or exalt human wisdom as that which is ultimately able to solve the world’s problems, or place your hopes for the future in psychiatry, science, systems of world government, or whatever it may be. If you exalt the ability of mankind in any of these ways, you dishonor God, who declares that all of our works are tainted by sin and that we will never solve our own problems or the problems of others except by turning to Christ and depending upon his power to do it. The only way to honor God is to give honor to Jesus Christ.

Think of the terms by which we are privileged to give glory to Jesus. Think of his names. Jesus Christ is the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. He is the Messiah, the Lord, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and Omega, the Ancient of Days, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, God with us, God our Savior, the only wise God our Savior, the Lord who is, who was, who is to come, the Almighty. He is the Door of the sheep, the Chief Shepherd, the Good Shepherd, the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, a Lamb without spot or blemish, a Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. He is the Logos, the Light of the World, the Light of Life, the Tree of Life, the Word of Life, the Bread that came down from heaven, the Resurrection, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is Immanuel, God with us, he is the Rock, the Bridegroom, the Wisdom of God, our Redeemer. He is the Beloved. He is the head over all things, which is the church. He is the one who is altogether lovely, the one in whom the Father is well pleased.

Is Jesus Christ these things to you? He can be. He deserves to be. If he is these things to you, then in your own heart you praise him and in giving him glory you give glory to God our heavenly Father.

Taken from Come to the Waters by James Boice ISBN 9798887790954 used with permission from P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg NJ 08865

Scripture quotations are from the ESV (the Holy Bible English Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved. 

The post Devotion for September 18, 2026 appeared first on byFaith.