Welcome to The Bereans Devotionals
These are short cinematic reflections on Scripture, faith, and everyday grace. Each devotional combines spoken Word, visual storytelling, and original jazz guitar performed by Paul K. Shitabata, M.D. the author and creator of The Bereans.
Every video is designed to be a moment of stillness — a place to pause, listen, and encounter God through Scripture and sound. These devotionals are filmed and produced with care to bring light, peace, and inspiration to your week. Watch the Complete Devotionals on The Bereans Blog.
This a collection of original instrumental compositions by Paul K. Shitabata, M.D., inspired by faith, reflection, grace, and the ordinary moments through which God quietly shapes our lives. These pieces were written and recorded as musical companions to the journey explored throughout The Bereans: seasons of struggle, gratitude, longing, endurance, hope, and rest. Blending cinematic atmosphere, jazz influences, and devotional reflection, this music is intended for prayer, study, worship, contemplation, or simply slowing down in a noisy world. In an age increasingly filled with artificial noise and distraction, these recordings are deeply personal, created by hand, heart, and experience. I hope they encourage you to pause, reflect, and draw nearer to the Lord who walks with us through every season of life. Visit the Site for the Complete Collection
Late-night jazz, reflection, and rediscovery.
Second Chorus Jazz is a companion project to The Bereans — a place where music, memory, and quiet reflection meet. After decades spent in medicine and pathology, jazz guitar became more than a hobby for me. It became a second chorus in life — a space to slow down, listen carefully, improvise, reflect, and simply breathe.
Here you’ll find original improvisations and interpretations of timeless jazz standards, recorded in intimate settings using a variety of guitars that each carry their own voice and character. Many of these recordings are done late at night, when the world grows quieter and music becomes less about performance and more about honesty.
The music ranges from reflective ballads and classic standards to original compositions inspired by faith, longing, grace, memory, and the ordinary moments of life that often matter most.
Though distinct from the devotional writing on The Bereans.blog, this project shares the same heartbeat:
finding meaning, beauty, truth, and grace in the middle of ordinary human experience.
As the years pass, perhaps life itself becomes a kind of second chorus — not necessarily louder or faster, but deeper, wiser, and more honest.
Performed and arranged by Paul K. Shitabata, M.D. Visit the Site for the Complete Collection