Month: November 2023

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A Place for Creatives

Scripture Focus: 1 Chronicles 6:31-32
31 These are the men David put in charge of the music in the house of the Lord after the ark came to rest there. 32 They ministered with music before the tabernacle, the tent of meeting, until Solomon built the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. They performed their duties according to the regulations laid down for them.

Reflection: A Place for Creatives
By Erin Newton

Chronicles creates a bookend to the Hebrew Bible. Forming the final words of God before Christ, the message is a reminder of what God has done and the promises he has kept to his people—his exiled, battered, traumatized, and faith-shaken people.

They had been the outsiders, the misfits, the foreigners. Even when it was time to “go home,” the place they returned to was nothing like what they had left.

Some people were hand-picked to lead the people out of exile and into a new life. Ezra, Nehemiah, and Zerubbabel were just three people out of a multitude. We know a lot about them. The rest of God’s people seemed destined to be nameless and forgotten.

But God took the time to guide the Chronicler through a history of his people—name after name after name. God had not forgotten. Each name is the word of God saying, “I didn’t forget him” and “This one, she’s special to me.”

Among that list is a set of musicians, the creatives of the group. They were given the task of creating songs, performing music, and providing an avenue for worship to a people who did not have the same talents.  

I’m a member of a group of writers that come together to encourage and provide advice for one another. Most of the group are fiction writers. They take pen and paper and manage to turn ink into beauty. I have heard soul-stirring narratives, spirit-lifting comical scenes, and emotionally riveting memoirs. The gifts displayed in this small group are incredible, but each writer often gives a dismissive shrug, “I’m not a real writer.”

And so, the inner critic lies to us, as Ruth Buchanan would say. In a place where we find so much joy, we doubt our place, our importance, our worth.

Even more when we look at those gifts among God’s people. A few chosen people usually lead the church by preaching and teaching. Are the rest forgotten? This list of musicians would suggest not.

Artists are features of the church, not accessories. The creatives are highlighted as important among God’s people. We must recognize the gift of creativity and the talent offered to the body of Christ. The God who clothes the lilies and paints the sky has given a bit of himself in these people. Let us invite more beauty into our worship through the hands of the creatives.


Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting
Splendor and honor and kingly power are yours by right, O Lord our God,
For you created everything that is, and by your will they were created and have their being. — A Song to the Lamb

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


Today’s Readings
1 Chronicles 5-6  (Listen 12:53)
Psalms 81-82 (Listen 2:36)

Read more about The First Spirit-Filled Work
The first Spirit-filled individuals were artisans, builders, makers. Their skilled minds, hearts, and hands wrought God’s people a place to meet with God.

The First Spirit-Filled Work

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Immerse in the Bible with us at a sustainable, two-year pace. Learn more by engaging in a new way.

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The Prayer of a Man Named “Pain”

Scripture Focus: 1 Chronicles 4.9-10
9 Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, “I gave birth to him in pain.” 10 Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request. 

Reflection: The Prayer of a Man Named “Pain”
By John Tillman

Jabez was born from pain and named for pain. This man called “Pain” cried out to God to avoid experiencing or causing pain. We should never sneer or be surprised when people in pain pray for relief.

Jabez prayed for God’s provision, presence, power, and protection.

Praying for God’s provision includes praying for “things” but goes beyond that to pray for God’s providential will. Praying for provision means requesting what we need in order to do what God would have us do.

Praying for God’s hand means longing to walk in God’s presence. God is omnipresent and with us at all times and places, but when we pray for his hand on us, we mean a greater experience of his presence.

Praying for God’s powerful hand means trusting God’s arm is not too short to save nor too weak to work in and through us according to his will. God’s power is for his purposes. His power will not go with us if we stray from his purpose.

Prayer for God’s protection confesses humility. We acknowledge our lack of control and that we cannot protect ourselves from spiritual or physical dangers. Sin and death hunger to devour us, and we, like Cain, fail to master them. Therefore, we need God’s protection.

The chronicler inserts Jabez’s story in the genealogical record of Judah but does not list Jabez as anyone’s father or son. It is a little bubble of narrative bursting out of a chart of records. Why is this story here?

The Bible only mentions Jabez one other time. 1 Chronicles 2.55 notes a town of scribes presumably named for Jabez. Many of the texts we hold dear today were copied and cared for by scribes such as the ones who lived at Jabez.

Perhaps the chronicler knew of Jabez before the exile or even lived there? Whether or not this is true, Jabez’s prayer must be one the chronicler longed to see come true in his life and the lives of other exiles.

When hurting, cry for healing. When exiled or outcast, cry for rescue and inclusion. When called a cursed name, cry for blessing and fruitfulness. When suffering pain in this world and homesick for our true home, cry for relief. Lives defined by pain can find solace, salvation, and supply in God when we cry out to him.

Pray for relief and blessing from pain.


Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting
Your statutes have been like songs to me wherever I have lived as a stranger. — Psalm 119.54

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


Today’s Readings
1 Chronicles 3-4  (Listen 8:52)
Psalms 80 (Listen 1:58)

Read more about Ask and Keep Asking
Lord, help us to ask and keep asking…grant us greater wisdom, enlightenment, hope, and power.

Ask and Keep Asking

Read more about Beyond Second Chances
God goes beyond giving second chances. Scripture is full of second chances, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh chances, and beyond.

Beyond Second Chances

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Beginning Again

Scripture Focus: 1 Chronicles 1.1-4
1 Adam, Seth, Enosh, 2 Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, 3 Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah. 
4 The sons of Noah: 
Shem, Ham and Japheth… 

Psalm 79.1
1 O God, the nations have invaded your inheritance; 
they have defiled your holy temple, 
they have reduced Jerusalem to rubble.
2 They have left the dead bodies of your servants 
as food for the birds of the sky, 
the flesh of your own people for the animals of the wild. 
3 They have poured out blood like water 
all around Jerusalem, 
and there is no one to bury the dead.

Reflection: Beginning Again
By John Tillman

No act of judgment is the end of the story. God is always ready to begin again.

The banishment from Eden, the flood of Noah, and the destruction of Jerusalem are all referenced in our readings today. Each event is a horrific loss followed by God starting over with the faithful.

Chronicles comes from the pain of the Babylonian exile and looks to the past to see the future. The chronicler recognizes the need to return to the beginning to remember who God is and who humans are. Beginning with creation, the chronicler writes the longest genealogical record in the Bible. The chronicler tells the story of a God willing to start over, no matter how often we fail.

Adam lost Eden. Then he lost two sons. He lost Cain to the beast of sin that made him a murderer. He lost Abel to Cain’s rage. In Seth, God started over.

Noah lost his entire world. Then, he lost a son to an act of rebellion and shame. In Shem, God started over.

Psalm 79 cries out in pain and anger. The psalmist has lost home, the Temple, and many who died. Most likely written from Babylon immediately following the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, the writer mourns the loss of both places and people, both destroyed buildings and bodies.

The psalmist’s hot tears and stinging loss are not without hope. The writer foresees a time when mercy will come for the oppressed, freedom for prisoners, salvation for the dying, and judgment for the wicked. God, in the exile, is starting over. 

Most of us will never be physically exiled from our homeland or see our families slaughtered or enslaved. We endure other forms of exile and suffering. Losses of friendships, communities, and broken institutions feel like a death. On top of these losses, we have seen abuse and death within our communities of faith, our cities, and our nation. We can all join the psalmist’s lament, “How long, Lord?”

The psalmist assures us that God hears our groans, complaints, cries, and distress. The chronicler assures us that, no matter what has been lost, God is already at work to restore, repair, rebuild, and rescue.

There is nothing humans can ruin that God cannot restore. Are we ready to begin again?

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Blessed be the Lord! For he has shown me the wonders of his love in a besieged city. — Psalm 31.21


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

Today’s Readings
1 Chronicles 1-2  (Listen 11:18)
Psalms 79 (Listen 1:50)

Read more about From Your Nothing…Something Beautiful
Give your scarcity, your vacuum, your past to Jesus. Sense him hovering over it with you. From your nothing Jesus can make something beautiful.

From Your Nothing…Something Beautiful

Read more about Lasting Revivals and Normal Idols
Josiah cleansed Israel and Judah from top to bottom, but the next generation went bottom up. The changes didn’t stick. Why?

Lasting Revivals and Normal Idols
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Lasting Revivals and Normal Idols

Scripture Focus: 2 Kings 23.10-14
10 He desecrated Topheth, which was in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, so no one could use it to sacrifice their son or daughter in the fire to Molek. 11 He removed from the entrance to the temple of the Lord the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun. They were in the court near the room of an official named Nathan-Melek. Josiah then burned the chariots dedicated to the sun. 

12 He pulled down the altars the kings of Judah had erected on the roof near the upper room of Ahaz, and the altars Manasseh had built in the two courts of the temple of the Lord. He removed them from there, smashed them to pieces and threw the rubble into the Kidron Valley. 13 The king also desecrated the high places that were east of Jerusalem on the south of the Hill of Corruption—the ones Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the vile goddess of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the vile god of Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the people of Ammon. 14 Josiah smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles and covered the sites with human bones.

Reflection: Lasting Revivals and Normal Idols
By John Tillman

Around the world, Christians, including myself, pray for a revival like Josiah’s in our countries. But there’s a problem…

Josiah forcefully and radically changed Israel and Judah’s religious landscape. He tore down the infrastructure of temples, altars, and idols. He put out of work or killed the personnel of priests, prostitutes, and workers. He restored true worship for the first time in generations.

Josiah’s reforms were a massive change for the nations of Israel and Judah. These changes would have affected the job market, the economy, housing, and agriculture. Josiah cleansed Israel and Judah from top to bottom, but the next generation went bottom up. The changes didn’t stick. Why?

Josiah tore down the altars on the hillsides, but he couldn’t touch the ones in their hearts. He burned and ground the symbols of false gods into dust, but he couldn’t grind down the people’s habitual addiction to their images. He destroyed temples of gold and silver, but he couldn’t melt from their minds people’s comfortable familiarity with idolatry.

We need revival deeper than Josiah’s. If we want lasting faith in the next generation and a revival beyond a few changes to architecture, we need to base it on something other than force and power. We don’t need a strong man enforcing showy spirituality, religious observance, and moral behaviors.

Rather than dictatorial destruction, we need grassroots growth. Rather than pharisaical enforcement, we need Christlike engagement. We also need to clean our own houses first and do so with honesty.

It’s easy to be judgmental of ancient people’s idols. They seem so simplistic, terrifying, or just weird. “Storm gods, sex gods, and chaos monsters, oh my. How could they believe this?” But these gods were normal to the culture. Engaging with these idols was practical SOP that promised financial ROI.

When we look for idols in our lives, we shouldn’t look for weird things. We should look for normal things. The idols of a culture don’t always dress up in flamboyant costumes. They often hide in normality and ubiquity.

The idols we find in our lives are unlikely to appear as mystical beings or golden statues or be found in shrines and altars on hillsides. But they might resemble institutions, brands, or revered leaders. They might hide among private shrines of belief, our pet sins, and our longings for comfort, safety, and control.

Lasting revivals start small. May one start now.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer
Come now and see the works of God, how wonderful he is in his doing toward all people. — Psalm 66.4

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

Today’s Readings
2 Kings 23 (Listen 7:43) 
Psalms 77 (Listen 2:12)

This Weekend’s Readings
2 Kings 24 (Listen 3:21) Psalms 78.1-37 (Listen 7:12)
2 Kings 25 (Listen 5:24) Psalms 78.38-72 (Listen 7:12)

Read more about Nameless Prophets
Many tales, like this one, lack obvious takeaways. However, we know that God is on a mission of reformation and restoration. The process will be painful.

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Read more about The Cost of Repentance
Josiah is known for religious reforms…a leader who not only recognized sin but called it out, determined to live differently, and worked to get rid of it.

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Responding in Kind

Scripture Focus: Psalm 76.5-12
5 The valiant lie plundered, 
they sleep their last sleep; 
not one of the warriors 
can lift his hands. 
6 At your rebuke, God of Jacob, 
both horse and chariot lie still. 
7 It is you alone who are to be feared. 
Who can stand before you when you are angry? 
8 From heaven you pronounced judgment, 
and the land feared and was quiet— 
9 when you, God, rose up to judge, 
to save all the afflicted of the land. 
10 Surely your wrath against mankind brings you praise, 
and the survivors of your wrath are restrained. 
11 Make vows to the Lord your God and fulfill them; 
let all the neighboring lands 
bring gifts to the One to be feared. 
12 He breaks the spirit of rulers; 
he is feared by the kings of the earth. 

2 Kings 19.16
…listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God.”

Isaiah 37.22
22 this is the word the Lord has spoken against him:
“Virgin Daughter Zion
    despises and mocks you.
Daughter Jerusalem
    tosses her head as you flee.

Reflection: Responding in Kind
By John Tillman

Our recent reading from 2 Kings 19 included the story of Sennachrib’s threats against Jerusalem and his defeat without Judah even lifting a sword. The story repeats in Isaiah 37, and many Psalms, such as Psalm 76, 46, and 59, reflect on it.

Sennacherib claimed other gods had not saved their lands from him, and Judah’s God would fare no differently. Hezekiah physically brought the letter to the Temple, laid it out before the Lord, and read out Sennacherib’s words. “…listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God.” (2 Kings 19.16)

Isaiah brought Hezekiah a response to Sennacherib. Isaiah’s poem (Isaiah 37.22-35) is a scoffing prophecy. It returns Sennacherib’s scorn, spite for spite. Isaiah tells the man who thinks himself a god-killer that God will lead him by a hook through his nose.

Like Isaiah, Hezekiah, and the psalmists, we live in a world that is in love with scorn. Simply by living and believing the words of Jesus, we are targets of derision, mockery, and outrage. For trusting in the Bible, we experience attacks, accusations, and even violence.

There are powerful cultural and political forces in this world that treat our God as Sennacherib did. Powerless. Irrelevant. Laughable. Often, we want to strike back with our own scornful takedowns, bluster, and insults.

There’s an old saying that we don’t have to attend every fight we are invited to. While scoffers and scorners sharpen their arrows, let us turn to God and keep our vows to him. God doesn’t need our defense but he does desire our devotion.

Do we have insecurities or bitterness triggered by insults, harm, or attacks? Are there counter-attacks forming in our minds? Insults bubbling in our hearts?

Instead of responding in kind, let us turn their words over to God as Hezekiah did. Lay out their words and actions before the Lord. Read him the tweet. Forward him the email. Show him what was done or said.

There is a time to speak facts and engage in healthy debate. There is a time for sarcasm and biting wit. There is a time to stand as God does, holding out our arms all day long to obstinate people. (Isaiah 65.1-3) There is also a time to close our mouths, let people be wrong, and pray that in his mercy, God will break through where we fail.


Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
No good things will the Lord withhold from those who walk with integrity. — Psalm 84.11

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

Today’s Readings
2 Kings 22 (Listen 3:45) 
Psalms 75-76 (Listen 2:33)

Read more about Wisdom & Persuasion
Sennacherib and the Assyrians taunted the Israelites…stoking the people’s fear…fear was a potent tactic.

Wisdom & Persuasion

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Ask friends to join you in our Bible reading plan. Grow together at a sustainable, two-year pace.

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