Ken Mitschke @kenmits

Even when we believe with all our minds that life is meaningless, we simply can't and don't live that way.

Today we honor the earthly fathers who've shaped us — the ones who showed up, taught us, prayed for us, and pointed us toward something bigger than ourselves. We're also tender today for those whose father stories carry hurt or absence. Wherever you fall on that spectrum, there's good news that holds hope for all of us. We have a heavenly Father whose love has no ceiling and no end. His guidance often surprises us — taking us down roads we didn't plan, opening doors we didn't see, asking us to trust when the path goes dark. And His blessings? They come in forms we'd never have written into our own story, yet they always reveal a goodness deeper than we knew to ask for. Take a moment to thank the Father today. And if you're a dad reading this — your role matters more than you know.

If our country were invaded, about 90% of the soldiers who took up arms to defend us would be men. If a criminal is breaking down your door and you call the police, there’s about an 85% chance the officer who shows up to put his life on the line for you will be a man. If you need electrical work, plumbing, or welding done, about 95% of those who do such hard work are men. If you need goods hauled from shore to shore by truck drivers, around 90% of them will be men. Thank God for the men who do such work—and all other kinds of labor—most of whom do it to care for their wives and children. Thank God for all men who get out of bed and are off to their jobs so their families have a roof over their heads and food on the table. Families need fathers. Daughters need dads. Sons desperately need dads. You can look up the stats that prove the deleterious effects of fatherless households. Or you can just open up the Bible and read Genesis 1-2 to see that God created a man and woman to be a husband and wife, and together to procreate and raise children. Are men perfect? I don’t need to answer that. We all know the answer, especially us men. And the same answer applies to women. None of us are: women, men, mothers, fathers. We are all deeply flawed people, all living by the mercy of a good God. That same merciful God has put us all together on this planet to live, to love, to work, to worship. Men do men things. Women do women things. God uses fathers in ways that mothers can never replicate. Just like he uses mothers in ways that fathers can never replicate. Parenting is not a competition between the sexes. Today is Father’s Day. A day of gratitude for men who shoulder tremendous burdens, provide for their families, take them to church, teach their sons to be men, show their daughters that they are loved and respected, and will do whatever it takes to protect their families from harm. Fathers. Thank God for them.

Forgiveness isn't always easy. But when we remember how much we've been forgiven, it changes how we extend grace to others. Who is God inviting you to forgive today? “𝘉𝘦 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳, 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳, 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘊𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘎𝘰𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶.” — Ephesians 4:32 NIV

John 15:12 Read today's verse in the Bible App! app.bible.com/votd-2026-06-1…

Q: Do Christians live under the Old Covenant or the New Covenant? A: Christians live under the New Covenant, not a revamped or improved version of the Old. Jeremiah 31:31–34 prophesied this chadash (Hebrew for “new” or “fresh”) covenant, fully quoted in Hebrews 8:8–12—the longest Old Testament quote in the New Testament. The Old Covenant, with its laws, sacrifices, and rituals, was temporary and inadequate (Hebrews 10:1–4). Christ’s perfect, once-for-all sacrifice has made it obsolete (Hebrews 8:13). Q: Are Christians still bound by Old Covenant laws like Sabbath observance, dietary restrictions, or festivals? A: No. Those laws, including Sabbath regulations, kosher rules, and feasts like Passover or Yom Kippur, were specific to Israel and fulfilled in Christ. With the coming of the New Covenant, these obligations no longer apply (Galatians 3:24–25; Colossians 2:16). In Christ, Jews and Gentiles alike are united in one body and live in gospel freedom. Q: What does Christian freedom mean under the New Covenant? A: Christian freedom isn’t moral chaos. It’s the freedom to live as God designed us, bearing the image of Christ. It means living by faith, walking in love, and serving our neighbors through our vocations, whether as parents, spouses, workers, or friends. Freedom is expressed not in self-indulgence, but in self-giving love. Q: Do any laws still apply to Christians? A: Yes. Moral laws like “do not murder” or “do not steal” are universal. They existed before the Old Covenant, were affirmed within it, and remain binding today as ways that we love our neighbor (Romans 13:9). These laws reflect God's unchanging character and continue to shape our lives as Christians. Q: Why is the New Covenant so significant? A: The New Covenant brings forgiveness, transformation, and heart-deep knowledge of God. Through Christ, we are made new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17), and God remembers our sins no more (Jeremiah 31:34). Rejoice in this freedom, sing a new song (Psalm 98:1), and live to love and serve! ________________ We read about the new covenant today in Bible in One Year (Jeremiah 33:31-34). For more information and to sign up, visit 1517.org/oneyear

As a leader and business owner, your deepest purpose should be serving other people. That’s what gives the work meaning. That’s what keeps the mission clear. That’s what reminds you why the business exists in the first place. The goal is to build something that helps people, not something that just points back to you.

Billy Graham preached the Gospel to more people than anyone in history. Standing near the end of his life, his only regret? "I wish I had done MORE." No one retires from following Jesus. Make every day count. #BillyGraham #DontWasteYourLife #Faith

"Deal bountifully with your servant, that I may live and keep your word. Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law." —Psalm 119:17-18

"Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is." —Ephesians 5:15-17

“Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” Luke 5:10 And pulling them from bondage to freedom, from darkness to light, from death to life, from hell to heaven, from Satan to Christ.

#OTD June 15, 1520: In the papal encyclical Exsurge Domine, Leo X condemns Martin Luther on 41 of counts of heresy, branding him an enemy of the Roman Catholic Church. After the encyclical, Luther's works were burned in Rome.

If you and your church were to disappear off the face of the earth tomorrow, would anyone in the community around you notice you were gone? ...And if the community did even notice would they say “we are really glad they are gone”, or “we are really going to miss them. #church

“Why are you treating me this way? What did I ever do to deserve this?” That complaint summarizes what Moses, Job, and Jeremiah said to God. When things were falling apart in the wilderness, and the Israelites were bellyaching and weeping, Moses cried out, “Why have you treated your servant so badly?” (Num. 11:11). When Job lost his possessions, his health, and his children, he cursed the day of his birth and hurled Why? Why? Why? toward heaven. Jeremiah does the same in Jeremiah 15, which we read today in Bible in One Year. Echoing Job, he turns Happy Birthday into Woeful Birthday. He feels born only to be a burr under the saddle to everyone around him. It’s not as if he’s been a provocative evildoer. He has simply been a faithful prophet. But no good prophet goes un-persecuted. Jesus says, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake” and “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you” (Matt. 5:10–11). Indeed, they persecuted the prophets, prophets like Jeremiah. But Jeremiah was not rejoicing and being glad. He was lamenting and being sad. Persecution comes in many forms, from mocking to martyrdom. Most Christians will not be martyred, but few disciples of Jesus have escaped ridicule for remaining faithful to the Lord and his Word. When things do not improve, and especially when they get worse, it is not hard to understand why Jeremiah accuses God of being “like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail” (Jer. 15:18). When we long for a cold drink of hope from heaven, sometimes we get a mouthful of sand instead. But God answers Jeremiah with grace and steel. “If you return, I will restore you” (Jer. 15:19). He promises to make him “a fortified wall of bronze” (15:20). The sweetest and most joy-filled words God saves for near the end: “For I am with you to save you and deliver you, declares the Lord” (15:20). You bet he is, for the “I-am-with-You” God is Jesus the Emmanuel, the one who comes to save us and deliver us. Blessed are those who are persecuted because they are thereby united with the One who was persecuted unto death, died that death, and rose from the grave, so that, no matter how lukewarm or hot the persecution we face, we know that we are safe in Jesus, for “who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?... I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:35, 38-39).

#OTD June 9, 1834: William Carey, often called "the father of modern Protestant missions" dies, having spent 41 years in India without a furlough. His mission could count only about 700 converts, but he had laid a foundation of Bible translations, education, and social reform. He also inspired the missionary movement of the nineteenth century, especially with his cry, "Expect great things; attempt great things"

Anyone who's tended a rosebush knows the thorns get your attention long before the blooms do. They prick, they catch, they draw blood. And it's tempting — so tempting — to define the whole plant by what hurts. But hope insists on a different focus. It doesn't deny the thorns. It just refuses to let them be the final word. Beneath every painful season, God is cultivating something fragrant. Something worth waiting for. Something that wouldn't exist without the very soil that feels so hard right now. What "fragrance of hope" are you holding onto today?

When people complain to God, he does not always put his arm around them and comfort them. Sometimes he gives them a swift kick in the pants. To Job, he says, “Dress for action like a man” (Job 38:3). After the prophet Jeremiah has been whining about the prosperity of the wicked, the Lord says, “If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses?” (Jer. 12:5). In other words, Jeremiah, if you are already worn out by this level of opposition, what are you going to do when things really heat up? If you are moaning and groaning about the burden you have to carry now, how will you handle it when the road gets steeper, and the cross gets heavier? Do you want to run with horses or shuffle with sloths? The same question confronts us. If we are constantly grumbling over small inconveniences, small sufferings, small acts of obedience, how will we endure when true trials come? How will we follow Jesus down the hard road of costly discipleship? Yes, there are many times when we need the Lord to put his arm around us, bind up our wounds, and speak tenderly to us. And he does. But there are also times when we need him to shake us awake, get in our face, and rebuke our spiritual laziness and self-pity. And he does that, too. Do we want easy, spiritually apathetic lives? Or do we want the long, difficult, but deeply blessed life of running with horses on the path Christ has set before us? So let us hear the exhortation: “Let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance [run with horses!] the race that is set before us” (Heb. 12:1). ____ We read Jeremiah 12 today in Bible in One Year. Join us at 1517.org/oneyear