Elijah Must Come First — Readers’ Choice

  • September 30, 2024
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  • John Tillman

Scripture Focus: Mark 9.9-13
9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. 10 They kept the matter to themselves, discussing what “rising from the dead” meant. 

11 And they asked him, “Why do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?” 

12 Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah does come first, and restores all things. Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected? 13 But I tell you, Elijah has come, and they have done to him everything they wished, just as it is written about him.” 

Originally published on February 29, 2024, based on readings from Mark 9.9-13.

Readers’ Choice is ending: This is our last official Readers’ Choice post of the year, but we may throw in a few extra ones this fall. We love sharing your voices at this time of year. Please continue to share with us about your favorite devotionals throughout the year, via email, private message, or the form for 2024-2025.

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:
Peter, CA — Amen! I rejoice in the inspiration of beholding God’s glory in Jesus and the application to “come down the mountain and be Elijah. Stand in the wilderness and be John the Baptizer” to witness to our generation.

Reflection: Elijah Must Come First — Readers’ Choice
By John Tillman

At the transfiguration, Jesus, Peter, James, and John are joined by Moses and Elijah. These prophets experienced God’s glory on mountains in the past. Now they experienced God’s glory in Jesus.

After the transfiguration there is a discussion about John the Baptizer and the role of “Elijah” as the disciples walk back down the mountain with Jesus.

For Elijah, the transfiguration “mountain top moment” follows his past experiences of a mountain of triumph and a mountain of despair.

On his mountain of despair a storm, earthquake, and fire passed. Then Elijah heard the whispering voice of God and emerged from hiding, covering his face. On the mountain of transfiguration, Elijah, face uncovered, speaks with Jesus, who commands storms, shakes the Earth, and baptizes his followers with the Holy Spirit and fire.

Jesus says that Elijah “comes” and “has come.” John the Baptizer was the Elijah of his day, preparing the way for Jesus. John, like Elijah, had ups and downs. In one passage he proclaimed Jesus the Lamb of God and in another questioned if he should be looking for someone else.

In my life, I often waver between cynicism and hope. One week, I despair at anything getting done or getting better. Then, the next week, I throw myself into work and celebrate even minor improvements.

One day, considering the state of the world and the Church, I’m ready for Christ to come, burn it all down, and start over. On another day, I’m praying for time as I happily tilt at windmills with the idealistic energy of Don Quixote and threaten giants with the bright hope of young David, swinging a stone.

Despair is natural if change relies on us, but it doesn’t. Change relies on us relying on God. For change to occur, Elijah must come first. 

Come down the mountain and be Elijah. Stand in the wilderness and be John the Baptizer.

Be a voice crying in the wilderness. Prepare the way for one greater than ourselves. Call our age to repentance. Challenge the false prophets and point out their failure. Turn the hearts of children to parents and parents to children. Set the axe to the roots of hypocrisy.  Set in motion the restoration of all things.

We all have mountains of victory and despair in our past and present, but a mountain of transfiguration rises in our future.

From John: The Divine Hours prayers will return in October. This month we will pray one scripture passage or verse each week.

Prayer:
And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. — Luke 1.17

​Today’s Readings
Lamentations 5 (Listen 2:03)
Romans 3 (Listen 4:30)

Read more about Jesus with Axe and Fire
To burn out of our souls our preoccupation with ourselves we require a different kind of axe and a different kind of fire. Thankfully, Jesus stands ready to supply both.

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Read more about Hate Conflict? Love Truth
Who is responsible for stirring up conflict?…the deceitful man…normalizes conflict, conceals conflict, and stigmatizes dissent.

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No DARVO — Readers’ Choice

  • September 27, 2024
  • /
  • John Tillman

Scripture Focus: Psalm 7.3-12
3 Lord my God, if I have done this 
and there is guilt on my hands— 
4 if I have repaid my ally with evil 
or without cause have robbed my foe— 
5 then let my enemy pursue and overtake me; 
let him trample my life to the ground 
and make me sleep in the dust.
6 Arise, Lord, in your anger; 
rise up against the rage of my enemies. 
Awake, my God; decree justice. 
7 Let the assembled peoples gather around you, 
while you sit enthroned over them on high. 
8 Let the Lord judge the peoples. 
Vindicate me, Lord, according to my righteousness, 
according to my integrity, O Most High. 
9 Bring to an end the violence of the wicked 
and make the righteous secure— 
you, the righteous God 
who probes minds and hearts. 
10 My shield is God Most High, 
who saves the upright in heart. 
11 God is a righteous judge, 
a God who displays his wrath every day. 
12 If he does not relent, 
he will sharpen his sword; 
he will bend and string his bow. 

Originally published on September 22, 2023, based on readings from Psalm 7.3-12.

Readers’ Choice is here: There’s still time to tell us about your favorite, most meaningful posts of the year. If you shared it with someone, or it helped you, let us know via email, direct message, or filling out the linked form.

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:
Jason, TX — It’s comforting to see how the scriptures speak to our current culture. It helps me have peace when things seem to be going crazy. God is God through it all.

Reflection: No DARVO — Readers’ Choice
By John Tillman

David, falsely accused, tells God to let his enemies kill him if their accusations are true.

False accusations do occur, like the ones David denied in this psalm, but accused leaders often use techniques described by the acronym DARVO: Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender.

First, despite evidence or testimony, they deny allegations and repeat claims of innocence. Alternatively, they replace “deny” with “double down, ” claiming what they did was not wrong or was within their rights.

Next, they attack the character, motives, or mental health of accusers. Lastly, they claim victimhood and persecution, promoting themselves as heroic sufferers or fighters.

DARVO is not new. It is just a new description of how the powerful twist justice and public opinion to benefit them. King Ahab had his version of it when he called Elijah the “troubler” of Israel. (1 Kings 18.27) Saul, whose persecution of David is the likely subject of this psalm, used it against David.

How can we live in a world dominated by Sauls and Ahabs, the disciples of DARVO? How can we know what the truth is and who is telling it?

First, be wary of the tactic. Those aware of DARVO tactics are less likely to be fooled by them. Simple denial isn’t DARVO. Truly false allegations should be denied. But when attacks and pleas of martyrdom occur, we should beware and call it out. It’s a red flag indicating bad intent.

Second, rely on God’s justice AND seek earthly justice. We often focus on God’s destruction of evil at the end of time, but when David rejoiced at the sharpening of God’s sword, the bending of his bow, and his shield’s protection, he was thinking of his “now,” not his “not yet.” Like David in this psalm, victims entreat God, and us, for earthly justice. And God would have us deliver it.

Especially if we like or support leaders, we shouldn’t let them get away with DARVO. Seeking truth does not mean seeking evidence to support specific claims of innocence or of guilt. We must seek truth and justice, whether it acquits an enemy or convicts a friend.

Whether justice cuts down a pastor, a politician, a movie mogul, or a media star, we should rejoice that victims’ voices were answered by God. We should say, paraphrasing David, “If they have done this, let their enemies overtake them.” May justice be done, and that right soon.

Music: “Better tell that long-tongued liar…
Tell ‘em that God’s gonna cut ‘em down.” 
— Johnny Cash (God’s Gonna Cut You Down — Video)

From John: The Divine Hours prayers will return in October. This month we will pray one scripture passage or verse each week.

Prayer:
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. — Matthew 5.44-45


​Today’s Readings
Lamentations 2 (Listen 4:55)
2 Corinthians 13 (Listen 2:19)

​This Weekend’s Readings
Lamentations 3 (Listen 5:10), Romans 1 (Listen 5:02)
Lamentations 4 (Listen 3:42), Romans 2 (Listen 4:13)

Read more about Hope for Mercy
Because we are tethered to this world, our sins can bring earthly consequences.

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David was never more like Jesus than when he wished he had died on a tree rather than his beloved son.

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Enemies Becoming One People — Readers’ Choice

  • September 26, 2024
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  • John Tillman

Scripture Focus: Isaiah 19.25
25 The Lord Almighty will bless them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.

Originally published on June 21, 2024, based on readings from XX.

Readers’ Choice is here: There’s still time to tell us about your favorite, most meaningful posts of the year. If you shared it with someone, or it helped you, let us know via email, direct message, or filling out the linked form.

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:
Jake, AK — The ideas of “prayer and care,” “empathy and service,” and “integration and unity” as the pathway of love for our enemies is profoundly helpful and challenging. Father, create in us renewed and sensitive hearts that look beyond our trauma and see those who hurt or exploit us in the light of Your love. Lead us along the pathway of love and draw even our enemies to you.

Brian, DC — This is a good word. A hard word. But much needed.

Reflection: Enemies Becoming One People — Readers’ Choice
By John Tillman

Isaiah’s prophecy says the mighty nation will become weak. The wise nation will become foolish. The powerful nation will become enslaved. The hopeful nation will sink into despair. But then, that same humiliated nation will turn its face to God and cry out against its oppressors. Then God will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, defend them, and send a savior to rescue them!

If this sounds familiar, the surprise is the identity of the nation. The nation that will be punished, forgiven, saved, and restored is not Israel or Judah. It’s Egypt.

In Exodus, Moses asked Pharaoh to let “his people,” the Israelites, go into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to God. But in Isaiah’s prophecy, the Egyptians will offer sacrifices and make and keep vows to the Lord. The Lord will make the Egyptians his people alongside Israel and Israel’s other great enemy, Assyria.

God makes former enemies one with his own people.

Some people talk loud and proud about Jesus’ commands to love “one another” or to love “others.” But when Jesus says, “Love your enemies” and “Do good to those that hate you,” they struggle to muster an “amen.”

Christ’s commands to love our enemies have always been controversial and difficult teachings, but in today’s no-holds-barred cultural conflicts, they seem impossible.

When you even talk about loving your enemies, you can be called a traitor. “Don’t you understand how dangerous they are? You are enabling them! Look what they’ve done!”

God knows all this. It’s hard to imagine enemies more dangerous or harder to love than Assyria and Egypt. And yet, loving enemies is God’s plan for the world and his will for our lives.

Level one is loving enemies at a distance. (Prayer and care) Level two is mourning enemies’ losses and sheltering them in their suffering. (Empathy and service) The final level is becoming “one people” with enemies under God. (Integration and unity)

Where are you on this scale? 

Do you struggle to love the outsider? The foreigner? The sinner? The idealogue? The liberal? The conservative? Can you imagine being “one people” with them? It’s hard. Everyone you struggle to love is someone God desires to bring into his family just like he brought in you.

You don’t have to violate scripture to show love. But not showing love would be a violation. Let God’s love stretch your imagination, your heart, and your witness. 

From John: The Divine Hours prayers will return in October. This month we will pray one scripture passage or verse each week.

Prayer:
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. — Matthew 5.44-45


​Today’s Readings
Lamentations 1 (Listen 4:44)
2 Corinthians 12 (Listen 3:54)

Read more about Mourning and Loving Enemies
God mourned the suffering of these enemies of Israel and commanded Jerusalem to be a sanctuary for Moabite refugees.

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Read more about Grief for the Guilty
We proclaim God to be just, does compassion and mercy end there? Mercy and justice can burn equally in one’s heart.

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Eulogize your Enemy? — Readers’ Choice

  • September 25, 2024
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  • Erin Newton

Scripture Focus: 2 Samuel 1.17-18
17 David took up this lament concerning Saul and his son Jonathan, 18 and he ordered that the people of Judah be taught this lament of the bow…

Originally published on September 7, 2023, based on readings from 2 Samuel 1.17-18.

Readers’ Choice is here: There’s still time to tell us about your favorite, most meaningful posts of the year. If you shared it with someone, or it helped you, let us know via email, direct message, or filling out the linked form.

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:
Brian, MT — A lot to think about on this topic.  Never thought about that way. Thanks for sharing the insight on an important matter.

Reflection: Eulogize your Enemy? — Readers’ Choice
By Erin Newton

Would you write a eulogy for your enemy? If someone targeted your life, would you speak kind words in memory of their death? The questions sound absurd.

When God’s anointing passed from Saul to David, the king sought to kill him. With every turn, David’s life was in mortal danger. There was no peace between them. In the end, however, the news of Saul’s death stirred David to write a dirge, a funeral song.

The book of Psalms is filled with songs of lament that seek the favor of God and reflect upon God’s faithfulness and trustworthiness. This song is different. There are no calls to God or reflections of past hope. It is very much a eulogy for Saul and Jonathan. A funeral song for a man who hated David and a man who loved David—a friend and a foe.

It is little wonder that David felt compelled to sing praises of his closest friend. It is unthinkable that he would do the same for Saul. What compels David to give such honor to someone who, by all accounts, did not deserve it?

The answer is David’s relationship with God. The words were honoring Saul and Jonathan, but the motivation was to honor God. For all the years of hiding in the wilderness or dodging assassination attempts, David waited patiently to see the outworking of his anointing. He never raised a hand against Saul, though he was tempted on occasion!

How we speak of the dead reveals one aspect of our relationship with God. David likely struggled with hoping for Saul’s demise so that his future would be secured. He had enough reasons to be opposed to the king. His faith, however, would not allow him to act upon such thoughts.

Each person is born as the image of God. Each person dies as the same image of God. How do we easily honor new life at birth, pure and innocent, and dishonor the same life in death, ravaged by sin and broken? We cannot celebrate evil, but we must find space to honor God at death. It is a difficult task; one we may spend our lives trying to understand.

Like David, Jesus speaks words of grace about his enemies, “Forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Perhaps, we can learn that relationships with our enemies are a reflection of our relationship with God.

From John: The Divine Hours prayers will return in October. This month we will pray one scripture passage or verse each week.

Prayer:
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. — Matthew 5.44-45


​Today’s Readings
Jeremiah 52 (Listen 5:49)
2 Corinthians 11 (Listen 4:46)

Read more about Eating With Enemies
When Christ leads us into the heavenly city, we will find ourselves dining and worshiping with people we harmed or who harmed us.

Eating With Enemies

Read more about Do You Know The Enemy?
Do we remember who the real enemy is or are we too focused on the powers of this earth?

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Cursed Gospels — Readers’ Choice

  • September 24, 2024
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  • John Tillman

Scripture Focus: Galatians 1.6-10
6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! 9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse! 10 Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Originally published on August 16, 2024, based on readings from Galatians 1.6-10.

Readers’ Choice is here: There’s still time to tell us about your favorite, most meaningful posts of the year. If you shared it with someone, or it helped you, let us know via email, direct message, or filling out the linked form.

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:
Michelle, CO — So much truth. Thank you.

Reflection: Cursed Gospels — Readers’ Choice
By John Tillman

If someone told us to bow to an idol or they put a gun to our head, saying, “Deny Jesus,” many would refuse. But why force others to deny Jesus, when it is easier to get them to love fake Jesus?

Galatians opens with one of Paul’s harshest, attention-getting rebukes. Paul’s exasperated tone is familiar to anyone whose students, children, or employees have immediately forgotten something. “We just talked about this! How can you forget so quickly?” 

The Galatians were abandoning the gospel, but they weren’t being lured away by pagan idols or illicit practices. They were tempted by false gospels. Paul declares those teaching false gospels are under God’s curse. We have several varieties of false, cursed gospels in our culture.

The gospel of legalism says, “Come to Jesus but change first.” Clean yourself up. Add this discipline. Quit this vice. Dress nice. Smile. Then come. Post-conversion, the gospel of legalism requires rigorous maintenance. If your smile slips, your hem rides up, or you get a little muddy, then, “Maybe you were never saved in the first place.”

The gospel of prosperity says, “Come to Jesus to be blessed.” It’s a gospel jackpot machine and when you pull on the handle, if money and blessings don’t come out, it’s because you didn’t insert enough faith into the coin slot. “Pray harder. And mean it this time.”

The gospel of power says, “Come to Jesus to fight.” The gospel of power is about conquering and controlling this world to bless “God’s people” and cast out others. This gospel values retribution over redemption and defeating enemies over loving them. Its catechism is using the right insults for enemies. It is what the gospel would be like if Jesus had taken Satan’s offer. (Luke 4.5-7)

False gospels reveal mistrust in the true gospel. They tempt us to think Jesus isn’t enough. That’s why every false gospel hides an idol. The gospel of legalism’s idol is “the Law.” The gospel of prosperity’s idol is greed. The gospel of power’s idol is control. 

The true gospel says, “Jesus plus nothing.” After we come, the gospel changes us, blesses us, and empowers us in God’s own time and for his purposes. But we don’t add to the gospel—not good deeds, success, or power. We resist false gospels by throwing ourselves fully on the mercy of the true gospel and inviting anyone and everyone to join us.

From John: The Divine Hours prayers will return in October. This month we will pray one scripture passage or verse each week.

Prayer:
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. — Matthew 5.44-45


​Today’s Readings
Jeremiah 51 (Listen 10:15)
2 Corinthians 10 (Listen 2:45)

Read The Bible With Us
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