Names of Christ—Vine, Resurrection, and Door :: Throwback Thursday

Psalm 55.22
Cast your cares on the Lord
   and he will sustain you;
he will never let
   the righteous be shaken.

Reflection: Names of Christ—Vine, Resurrection, and Door :: Throwback Thursday
By Nicetas of Remesiana (335-414)

Do the pleasures of the world seduce you? Turn all the more to the Cross of Christ to find solace in the sweetness of the vine that clustered there.

Are you a lost sinner? Then you must hunger for justice and thirst for the Redeemer, for that is what Christ is. Because he is bread, he takes away all hunger. If you are stumbling, fix your foot firmly on him, for he is a rock; and like a wall he will protect you. Are you weak and sick? Ask for a medicine from him, because he is a doctor.

If anger is tormenting you and you are torn by dissension, appeal to Christ who is peace, and you will be reconciled to the Father and will love everyone as you would like to be loved yourself.

If you are afraid that your body is failing and have a dread of death, remember that he is the resurrection, and can raise up what has fallen. When sinful pleasure tempts you and the flesh is weak, recall that you are in the presence of a just judge, severe in weighing the evidence and one who is making ready everlasting fire. Then, sinner as you are, you will lose your taste for sin.

In your hour of death, brother, should you lose hope of obtaining a just reward in heavenly glory, be bold in faith to remember that he is the door, and through him once you are raised from the dead, you will enter the mysteries of heaven, join the company of angels, and hear the longed-for words; “Well done, good and faithful servant; because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will set thee over many; enter the joy of thy master…take possession of the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Amen.

*From The Names and Titles of Our Saviour

Prayer: A Reading
Jesus taught us, saying: “Can you not buy two sparrows for a penny? And yet not one falls to the ground without your Father knowing. Why, every hair on your head has been counted. So there is no need to be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” — Matthew 10.29-31

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
Numbers 17-18 (Listen – 6:58)
Psalm 55 (Listen – 2:43)

Thank You!
Thank you for reading and a huge thank you to those who donate to our ministry, keeping The Park Forum ad-free and enabling us to continue to produce fresh content. Every year our donors help us produce over 100,000 words of free devotionals. Follow this link to support our readers.

Read more from Nicetas of Remesiana: Reflection: Jesus, Priest, Lamb, and Vine
In the Holy Scriptures there are many names and titles which are applied to our Lord and Saviour, Jesus.

Read more  from Nicetas of Remesiana: Names of Jesus—Justice, Doctor, and Bread
He is called justice because through faith in his name sinners are made just; and redemption, because he paid the price in his blood to buy us back— we who had been so long lost.

Praying Through Betrayal and Failure

Psalm 53.3
Everyone has turned away, all have become corrupt;
   there is no one who does good,
   not even one.

Reflection: Praying Through Betrayal and Failure
By John Tillman

Today we see three Psalms in which David is dealing with betrayal and failure.

He is betrayed by Saul. He is betrayed by Doeg. Later, he is even specifically betrayed by the people of a city in which he is hiding from Saul.

David has failed to please the king, failed to heal the king’s madness with his prayers or his musical ministry, and failed to protect his allies and the men and families who are with him on the run.

In some ways the artistic license of the Psalms allows them to be a truer history than the books that record these events. The narrators of 1st and 2nd Samuel and 1st Kings are limited to facts and observable happenings. In the poetry of David we see deeper. When David’s response is dignified sorrow and grief, the psalms show us his violent anger and desire for revenge. When David seems confident and decisive, in the psalms we see that he is doubtful and questioning.

Today we pray a prayer, combining passages from each of these psalms.

Betrayal and Failure

Our culture favors the boastful.
(even when we claim not to)
But you do not, Lord.

   Why do you boast all day long,
You who practice deceit,
 You love evil rather than good,
  falsehood rather than speaking the truth.
You love every harmful word,
   you deceitful tongue!

May we respond to boasts with humility, to deceit with the truth, to evil with good, and to harm with healing words of comfort and love.

The fool says in his heart,
   “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, and their ways are vile;
   there is no one who does good.

God looks down from heaven
   on all mankind
to see if there are any who understand,
   any who seek God.
Everyone has turned away, all have become corrupt;
   there is no one who does good,
   not even one.

Arrogant foes are attacking me;
   ruthless people are trying to kill me—
   people without regard for God.

Surely God is my help;
   the Lord is the one who sustains me.

Prayer: The Request for Presence
Send out your light and your truth, that they may lead me, and bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling… — Psalm 43.3

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
Numbers 16 (Listen – 6:59) 
Psalm 52-54 (Listen – 3:18)

Thank You!
Thank you for reading and a huge thank you to those who donate to our ministry, keeping The Park Forum ad-free and enabling us to continue to produce fresh content. Every year our donors help us produce over 100,000 words of free devotionals. Follow this link to support our readers.

Read more about In the Face of Betrayal
Jesus was familiar with the entire spectrum of betrayal.
He was betrayed on a national level.
He was betrayed on a broad, societal level.
He was betrayed on an intimate and personal level.

Read more about Prayer for Enemies
Let us pray with renewed commitment for our enemies, our villains, our heretics, our corrupt officials, our attackers, and those who scoff at the mention of prayer.

Our Sins Ever Before Us

Psalm 51.3
For I know my transgressions,
   and my sin is always before me.

Reflection: Our Sins Ever Before Us
By John Tillman

Psalm 51 is a Psalm that seems to echo through the New and Old Testaments. Its phrasing, words, and sentiments are often repeated.

In Luke, Jesus puts its words in the mouth of the Tax Collector in his parable about prayer: “have mercy on me, a sinner.
Jesus alludes to it again in the Prodigal Son’s rehearsed speech of repentance.
The Pharisees adapt its language in John, when condemning the man born blind.
Paul quotes it in the third chapter of Romans and repeats its themes in Romans seven.

Many see this Psalm as a beautiful picture of how we can come to God for forgiveness no matter what we have done, and it is a beautiful picture. But before David could write this song of confession, he had to reach a moment of revelation. Before we sing the beautiful song of Psalm 51 we must hear the ugly parable of Nathan. The ugliness we see is the reflection of our sins.

Like David, we must be forced to see our sin for what it is.

David was already a lustful man—taking a large number of wives and concubines. He was already a bloody man of war and vengeance, so much so that God would not let David build the Temple. These sins eventually led him to a breaking point.

He became an adulterer—purposely seeking out and sleeping with another man’s wife.
He became a liar—seeking to hide his crime and dodge his responsibility for the child.
He became a murderer—murdering Uriah, a friend who was more honorable than David himself.
He became a coward—farming out the murder to someone else.

Before we pray or listen to Psalm 51, we need first to pray that there will be a Nathan in our lives to reveal to us the sins that we are failing to see. The reason David’s sin is “always before him” is because Nathan was there to reveal it.

In our prayers today, may we echo this Psalm as Jesus and Paul did, but first, may we seek revelation from the Holy Spirit of the sins we do not see in ourselves. We can’t confess what we refuse to see.

Racism. Idolatry. Pride. Greed. Lust. Reveal them to us, Lord.

Have mercy on us, Oh God. According to your unfailing love!

Song:Psalm 51” — Charlie Peacock, Westcoast Diaries Volume Two

Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. — Psalm 51.11

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
Numbers 15 (Listen – 5:09) 
Psalm 51 (Listen – 2:19)

Thank You!
Thank you for reading and a huge thank you to those who donate to our ministry, keeping The Park Forum ad-free and enabling us to continue to produce fresh content. Every year our donors help us produce over 100,000 words of free devotionals. Follow this link to support our readers.

Read more about You Are The Man — Embracing Prophetic Responsibility
When Christians speak truth to power, we are empowered with the same Holy Spirit that spoke to Nathan. Whether to a monarch, a magistrate, or a magnate, we represent the message of the Gospel.

Read more about Confession Destroys Denial
We confess we have been deaf to cries of the needy, cries for help, and cries of injustice…Never let us rely on earthly kings to carry out the tasks of the heavenly kingdom.

God of all Nations :: Worldwide Prayer

Psalm 50.1-6
The Mighty One, God, the Lord,
   speaks and summons the earth
   from the rising of the sun to where it sets.
From Zion, perfect in beauty,
   God shines forth.
Our God comes
   and will not be silent;
a fire devours before him,
   and around him a tempest rages.
He summons the heavens above,
   and the earth, that he may judge his people:
“Gather to me this consecrated people,
   who made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”
And the heavens proclaim his righteousness,
   for he is a God of justice.

Reflection: God of all Nations :: Worldwide Prayer
By John Tillman

The Bible consistently shows God as a god of justice to all people who calls to himself people from every nation and race.

To serious students of scripture, it seems ludicrous that we must keep repeating that the God of the Bible is not American, not White, and not partial to any race.

But repeat it, we must.

Poway asks us to repeat it. Pittsburgh asks us to repeat it. Christchurch asks us to repeat it. Charleston asks us to repeat it. Charlottesville asks us to repeat it.

God is not the god of the white man and he does not show favoritism to any race, any class, any people, any blood, or any nation.

No country ever overcame racism or slavery without the explicit influence of Christianity. May the church in every nation work to prevent the darkness of racism in our countries, but most especially may we eliminate it from our churches.

We pray for all our nations this week using words from brothers and sisters in Christ from India.

Prayer for my nation from India

Eternal God,

Thank you for my country. By your Holy Spirit help national leadership in my country to see and experience your great light. Please show my people the wonders of your divine grace that many may come from darkness into the light of Christ.

Lord, grant me the grace to be an instrument in your great design for my people. May my personal life so reflect the beauty of Jesus that people will see the difference that true faith can make.

You, O God, are the only God; Creator; Master; Savior. By your grace, I cry out to you for peace and for the salvation of my people. I offer this prayer in the matchless Name that is far above all other names.

*Prayer from Hallowed be Your Name: A collection of prayers from around the world, Dr. Tony Cupit, Editor.

Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
God looks down from heaven upon us all, to see if there is any who is wise, if there is one who seeks after God. — Psalm 53.2

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
Numbers 14 (Listen – 6:15) 
Psalm 50 (Listen – 2:26)

Thank You!
Thank you for reading and a huge thank you to those who donate to our ministry, keeping The Park Forum ad-free and enabling us to continue to produce fresh content. Every year our donors help us produce over 100,000 words of free devotionals. Follow this link to support our readers.

Read more about Racism Wears a Mask
The church was the first entity in history to directly attack racism and the Holy Spirit is the only way its burden can truly be put down.

Read more about Slavery, Racism, and a Lone Christian Voice
In the late fourth century a lone Christian voice spoke out against the oppressive institution of slavery in a way that none had before. Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335-394)

Ever Present Help

Psalm 46.1
God is our refuge and strength,
   an ever-present help in trouble.

Reflection: Ever Present Help
By John Tillman

The “ever-present” help that most people are used to, is the technology platforms we have attached to our hands and wrists.

These platforms were designed for profit. That profitability hinges on addiction and ubiquity. To continue their financial growth curve, the most powerful corporations ever to exist on the planet must make their products increasingly addictive and ingrained in our day to day life. Technology, it seems, is a jealous god.

In an article for the New Yorker, Jia Tolentino wrote about the difficulties of putting down one’s phone, when it is filled with technologies that, from the start, were designed to keep us from doing so:

“Sean Parker, the first president of Facebook, has called the platform a “social-validation feedback loop” built around “exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology.” Tristan Harris, who worked as a “design ethicist” at Google, has said that smartphones are engineered to be addictive.

Technology promises freedom of movement and ease of work, but, more often than not technology chains our hands to a borderless, invasive, all-encompassing workday that never ends. Workers clock in, but they can’t clock out.

Technology promises emotional fulfillment and freedom of expression, but often we find ourselves chained to the emotional highs and lows of reactions, comments, and likes on social media. All of this is numbing to the connection and community that we truly need.

The technology that we have designed to help us connect has had disastrous, unexpected consequences. Our world is one of shattered relationships and loneliness despite more “connectedness” than ever.

We aren’t the first to think this. In a recent interview with Kris Boyd on Think, author, Jenny Odell, discussed how 400 years before the time of Christ, Epicurus started a garden school outside the city because he thought life in the Greek empire was becoming too hectic and people were disconnected from what was important.

The solution of cultivation, retreat, and pursuit of community is one we can apply toward our spiritual pursuits. Walking in a park is the key metaphor we use to refer to exploring God’s word, and cultivation is how we picture the growth of the seed of the gospel in our lives.

Technology is capable of aiding us in these things. May we use technology to tie God’s Word on our hands and integrate it into our lives. The Park Forum is dedicated to encouraging this kind of usage. For in connection to the gospel, we find freedom, fulfillment, and community that technology can’t deliver.

Prayer: The Request for Presence
I call with my whole heart; answer me, O Lord, that I may keep your statutes. — Psalm 119.145

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
Numbers 10 (Listen – 4:11) 
Psalm 46-47 (Listen – 2:15)

Today’s Readings
Numbers 11 (Listen – 5:22) Psalm 48 (Listen – 1:28)
Numbers 12 (Listen – 2:12) Psalm 49 (Listen – 2:10)

Thank You!
Thank you for reading and a huge thank you to those who donate to our ministry, keeping The Park Forum ad-free and enabling us to continue to produce fresh content. Every year our donors help us produce over 100,000 words of free devotionals. Follow this link to support our readers.

Read more about Where Our Hearts Are
Our devices can be tools to lead us to God’s heart, not away from it. This ministry’s mission believes in that. But there is danger.

Read more about A Restoring Sabbath
Think and pray about ways in which you can abstain from technology’s addictive elements, while still using its powerful tools to spur your spiritual growth.