Year: 2024

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Exceptional Emperors

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Ezekiel 39 Listen: (4:51)
Read: 1 Peter 2 Listen: (3:48)

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Read: Ezekiel 40 Listen: (8:21), Read: 1 Peter 3 Listen: (3:30)

Read: Ezekiel 41 Listen: (4:40), Read: 1 Peter 4 Listen: (2:50)

Scripture Focus: 1 Peter 2.11-17

11 Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, 14 or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. 15 For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. 16 Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. 17 Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.

Reflection: Exceptional Emperors

By John Tillman

When we think about difficult commands in the Bible, we might first think of the Old Testament. Sacrificial practices, laws about “unclean” things, sabbath rules, or other ritualistic regulations seem overly complex and strange to us. Commands to conquer or destroy enemies, wipe out opposing nations, or execute people for adultery or idolatry seem brutal.

But with a quick scan of human history, we don’t actually have difficulty with those types of commands. We excel at creating and enforcing overly complex systems of rules. Just look at the United States tax code. We also don’t typically have a problem adopting brutality and violence when faced with nations, people groups, or ideas we fear. Recent history shows that fear makes fanaticism and might makes right, even in modern “enlightened” times.

Cultural prejudices tell us the most difficult to follow commands are in the Old Testament, but the commands we fail most often to obey are from Jesus and the New Testament writers.

Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Forgive repeatedly. Do not resist insults. Take up your cross. These, and others like them, are the hardest commands of Jesus and the entire Bible. They are hard for us and were hard for the disciples, including Peter.

Peter was a natural fighter, not a forgiver. He was quick to blurt out curses and quick to draw a sword. Jesus went “the extra mile” several times to get these lessons into Peter’s head.

Peter was slow to learn these commands, but he did learn them. He demonstrates this with his own exceptionally hard commands.

Submit to human authorities. Even pagan ones.
Show proper respect to everyone. Even enemies.
Honor the emperor. Even if it is Nero.

We may think our political situation is bad. Perhaps your candidate lost and the other candidate won. Perhaps you think the winner is exceptionally bad. Peter’s situation was worse. No authorities Christians typically face today are as anti-Christian as the Greco-Roman pagans Peter’s readers faced.

Nero was an exceptionally bad emperor but Peter made no exception for the character his readers must demonstrate. We do not have exceptions for our character based on living under a bad “emperor.”

Exceptionally wicked times or emperors, do not justify exceptions to following the way of Jesus.
Good deeds silence enemies faster than returning evil for evil.
Our character under adversity shines God’s glory brighter than victories.

From John: Divine Hours prayers will return next week. For the remainder of this week we will close with the “Election Prayers” that have been in our Echo Prayer feed for the last few years.

Election Prayers:

Pray that in any unrest or conflict that Christians would distinguish themselves from the culture by being able to protest without violence or threat and by being able to give a listening and compassionate ear to even the most strident of opposition.

Pray that we would not be guilty of name-calling or any unwholesome or dehumanizing language.

Pray that what comes from our speech would demonstrate the truth in love no matter what happens around us.

Pray that Christians would not be part of sinful gloating, of boasting, or threatening others over political wins or losses.

Pray that all parties and individuals would reject violence or threats of violence and seek justice for victims of political violence.

Read more about Different Kind of Exile

Peter’s words about living in a pagan society have always been applicable, but they seem especially appropriate to our times

Different Kind of Exile

Read more about Repurposed Weapons

Our world, and Satan who rules it, wants us to be their weapons…Tragically, we are often deceived and march to war

Repurposed Weapons
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Imperishable Things

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Ezekiel 38 Listen: (4:23)
Read: 1 Peter 1 Listen: (3:53)

Scripture Focus: 1 Peter 1.17-21

13 Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. 14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

17 Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. 18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 20 He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

Reflection: Imperishable Things

By John Tillman

Peter’s audience included Jews and Gentiles scattered throughout several Roman provinces. He called them God’s elect. They were Jews, Cappadocians, Galatians, Romans, etc. but now they are redeemed in Christ. Their other identities became secondary.

Peter writes to us as well.

Like Peter’s readers, we were divided by our varying cultural heritages, scattered among provinces, and subject to principalities and powers both spiritual and political. But now, by God’s foreknowledge, we are chosen from among those identities, places, and kingdoms to live as one people under Christ. This world is no longer our home. We used to belong here. Now we are exiles.

Our ancestors handed down to us empty ways of life, filled with perishable things such as power, pleasure, and wealth that are obtained by sinful means such as greed, division, striving, and violence. The precious blood of Christ redeems us from that perishable life to an imperishable life.

“Rome” holds our earthly citizenship, but our kingdom is heavenly. Our race holds our earthly heritage, but our people are those from every tribe and tongue who confess the name of Jesus. Our culture informs and influences our moral framework, but our righteousness is revealed in the life of Jesus and our sanctification is accomplished by obedience to his Holy Spirit.

We must ensure we are not putting our hope in the perishable life instead of the imperishable. If we do, we will live in anxious fear of human governments rather than reverent fear of God.

Right now in the United States, we may or may not know the results of the recent election. As I write, days in advance, anxiety is high for many. Elections have real consequences, so reasonable concern is warranted, however, what is imperishable cannot be lost, no matter if we “lose” a human political contest.

By God’s foreknowledge, you are his elect placed here for his purposes. No matter which “side” prevailed in your local and federal elections, you have “work” to do that God will judge impartially. There may be policies or agendas to opppose or support, but more importantly there will be people who need love, hope, and the service of those who aren’t trying to win their votes but win their souls.

With alert and sober minds, set your hope on the imperishable and work to serve others in ways that testify to the kingdom on which your hope is set.

From John: Divine Hours prayers will return next week. For the remainder of this week we will close with the “Election Prayers” that have been in our Echo Prayer feed for the last few years.

Election Prayers:

Pray that in any unrest or conflict that Christians would distinguish themselves from the culture by being able to protest without violence or threat and by being able to give a listening and compassionate ear to even the most strident of opposition.

Pray that we would not be guilty of name-calling or any unwholesome or dehumanizing language.

Pray that what comes from our speech would demonstrate the truth in love no matter what happens around us.

Pray that Christians would not be part of sinful gloating, of boasting, or threatening others over political wins or losses.

Pray that all parties and individuals would reject violence or threats of violence and seek justice for victims of political violence.

Read more about Wrongly Placed Fear

We need not fear being marginalized if we properly fear God. Christianity has done much of its best work from the margins.

Wrongly Placed Fear

Read more about Peacefully Resisting Gog and Magog

Gog and Magog show us how nations and powers align themselves against God’s people wherever they settle.

Peacefully Resisting Gog and Magog
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Ex Nihilo in Ezekiel

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Ezekiel 37 Listen: (5:07)
Read: Titus 3 Listen: (2:05)

Scripture Focus: Ezekiel 37: 4–5, 11

4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life.’”

11 Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’”

Reflection: Ex Nihilo in Ezekiel

By Erin Newton

The landscape from where you sit may look rather bleak. The ups and downs of what feels like a never-ending series of unprecedented events make the future appear without hope. We see nothing but despair, death, and difficulty.

Ezekiel gazed across the valley and saw only bones, not freshly deceased remains but signs of those who had long since suffered death.

These are not the bodies of Jarius’s daughter, a few moments within the throes of death, or Lazarus, a few days within the tomb. The bones were dry, clean, and cured by the sun. If we read a glimmer of hope into the stories of those on the brink of death, this story should strip away all hope of resuscitation.

But God asks Ezekiel to dream the impossible. Ezekiel spoke God’s salvation to the most inattentive, unresponsible, unlikely audience.

We think about Jonah, miraculously spared from the stomach acid of a whale (or miraculously resurrected from the whale), and cling to the idea that somehow, maybe in some way, God could fix and reverse the signs of death, if it was recent. Ezekiel 37 is entirely different.

Life would come from nothing— another ex nihilo creation in Ezekiel. While the tissues and muscles supernaturally regrew on the bones, the nerves and tendons attaching as required, the skin covering the vital organs, hair and melanin filling in every inch of the body, I imagine the hymn rang out: “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”

Death and hopelessness had settled into the valley. It was past the perceived time for God to intervene. Judgment had come upon the land as the prophets foretold. The bones were testimony to the promises kept by God, albeit the promises they hoped he’d forget.

But there is no sin and no subsequent judgment that exceeds the limits of God’s mercy. From the hand that judged sin came the hand that would bring new life. “Salvation was to rise phoenix-like from the embers of judgment.” (Leslie Allen, Word Biblical Commentary).

When we look at the days ahead, does it look beyond hope? Do we see the future and assume the time has surely passed for God to help us in this time and in this place? Dear sisters and brothers, do not lose hope. By God’s spirit, new life has entered our bones, and we rise and rise again.

From John: Divine Hours prayers will return next week. For the remainder of this week we will close with the “Election Prayers” that have been in our Echo Prayer feed for the last few years.

Election Prayers:

Pray that in any unrest or conflict that Christians would distinguish themselves from the culture by being able to protest without violence or threat and by being able to give a listening and compassionate ear to even the most strident of opposition.

Pray that we would not be guilty of name-calling or any unwholesome or dehumanizing language.

Pray that what comes from our speech would demonstrate the truth in love no matter what happens around us.

Pray that Christians would not be part of sinful gloating, of boasting, or threatening others over political wins or losses.

Pray that all parties and individuals would reject violence or threats of violence and seek justice for victims of political violence.

Read more about Paul’s Stance on Gentleness

People who are violent rather than gentle…slanderous rather than truthful…are not our enemies. They are captives.

Paul’s Stance on Gentleness

Read more about Be Yoked to Christ, Not Politics

May no party or leader be permitted to yoke us or Christ’s church to their cause.
May the only yoke we take on, be the yoke of Christ, in service to others.

Be Yoked to Christ, Not Politics
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This Present Age—Guided Prayer

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Ezekiel 36 Listen: (6:40)
Read: Titus 2 Listen: (2:01)

Scripture Focus: Titus 2.11-14

11 For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. 12 It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

Frodo: I wish none of this had happened.

Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times; but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides the will of evil.

Reflection: This Present Age—Guided Prayer

By John Tillman

We often wish we were some “when” and perhaps some “where” else, but God calls us instead, to live for him today, “In this present age.” (Titus 2.13)

There was never an age of this earth in which evil did not wreak havoc, governments did not mishandle justice, and in which the church, in one capacity or another did not fail to fully live out the gospel. Our faith must not be in those things. We join in a prayer today based on what Paul declared the Holy Spirit would teach.

Teach Us, Holy Spirit
Teach us, Holy Spirit, that in this age and in this space, you have placed us and called us.
May we be made eager to do good for the sake of the gospel.
May we all, men and women, live as examples: temperate, worthy of respect, and self-controlled.
May we be sound in our faith and in our love for others, and carry out the work of the gospel.
May we live reverently and truthfully, quenching any spark of slander and never sharing or spreading anything that is not factual.
May we by unfailingly kind and submissive to other another.
May no one be able to malign the word of God because of us.

Teach us by your Holy Spirit to show integrity and seriousness, taking care that no one can mistake or condemn what we say.

May even those who oppose us have nothing bad to say about us.

May we be models of integrity to our employers and fellow-laborers, trustworthy and immune to corruption.

Teach us to say “no” to desires that are of this world, even ones that seem “good” to human wisdom. Teach us to say “yes” to desires that lead us closer to you, even when they seem “foolish” to human wisdom.

It is no more difficult to live in this age you have placed us in, Lord, than any other age of the church, and probably it is easier. You have placed us here and called us now, to live for you in this place, in this culture, in this time.

Make us ready, Lord, for the challenges that we will face as we await the blessed hope of Jesus Christ, who will redeem us from all wickedness and set right all that is wrong.

Come, Lord Jesus, come!

From John: Divine Hours prayers will return next week. For the remainder of this week we will close with the “Election Prayers” that have been in our Echo Prayer feed for the last few years.

Election Prayers:

Pray that in any unrest or conflict that Christians would distinguish themselves from the culture by being able to protest without violence or threat and by being able to give a listening and compassionate ear to even the most strident of opposition.

Pray that we would not be guilty of name-calling or any unwholesome or dehumanizing language.

Pray that what comes from our speech would demonstrate the truth in love no matter what happens around us.

Pray that Christians would not be part of sinful gloating, of boasting, or threatening others over political wins or losses.

Pray that all parties and individuals would reject violence or threats of violence and seek justice for victims of political violence.

Read more about Love One Another

For those who live in the United States, many will awaken to news of newly elected leaders. Remember…Being a jerk is a conscious decision.

Love One Another

Listen to Apotheosis of Politics

As traditional religion declines, politics is the newest, fastest-growing religion…We must beware the temptations of this apotheosis of politics.

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Stereotypically Sinful

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Ezekiel 35 Listen: (2:21)
Read: Titus 1 Listen: (2:24)

Scripture Focus: Titus 1.12-14

12 One of Crete’s own prophets has said it: “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.” 13 This saying is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith 14 and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the merely human commands of those who reject the truth.

Reflection: Stereotypically Sinful

By John Tillman

Paul called Epimenedes a poet and a prophet. He quoted Epimenedes before the Aeropagus in Greece, “In him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17.28) To Titus, on Crete, Paul quoted the same poem, describing Cretans as “liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.”

If we have a simplistic “every word in the Bible is true” viewpoint, we shouldn’t trust people from Crete. Doesn’t “a prophet” in the Bible say Cretans are liars? Is that what is going on here? Is Paul quoting a racist poet and saying, “He’s right?”

Not really. We need to be more faithful interpreters of God’s word. What is the truth of this passage and the relevance of this quote?

First, Epimenedes was from Crete. This introduced a paradox philosophers call the “liar’s paradox.” If all Cretans are liars and Epimenedes is a Cretan, he must be lying when he says, “All Cretans are liars.” Paul knew this wasn’t a universal truth.

Second, the poem challenged a specific lie. Crete claimed Zeus was mortal and built a tomb for him on the island. Epimenedes called Cretans liars because he believed in Zeus’s immortality. The poem’s popularity made “Cretan” synonymous with “liar” in the larger Greek culture.

So if Paul thought the poem “true,” is Zeus immortal, and do we live and move and have our being in him? Of course not. Paul applied the cultural stereotype to false teachers who needed correction. Paul’s purpose for them and us is to overcome culture and stereotypes and be sound in faith.

Paul taught that all people, not just Cretans, are by nature liars, brutes, and gluttons. He confessed that when he wanted to do good, sin was right there with him. (Romans 7.19-21)

What negative stereotypes or opinions about you or others come from culture or your mind? Are you quick to believe them? Is there any truth to them?

It’s unfair for culture (or yourself) to stereotype or label you. It is unwise to ignore scripture’s rebukes against our sins, whether they are stereotypical or atypical. It is also unhealthy to ignore scripture’s promise that we are loved and can be redeemed.

Stereotypes are not excuses. Nor are they curses. Don’t be a stereotypical Cretan or anything else.
Repent of lying. Especially to ourselves.
Repent of brutality. Especially to others.
Repent of gluttony. Especially when others lack.
Be sound in faith, and be devoted to the gospel.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; let the whole earth tremble before him. — Psalm 96.9

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more about Banners, Trumpets, Repentance

John’s banner had one word and his trumpet one note, “repent.”

Banners, Trumpets, Repentance

Read more about A Rebellion of Repentance

The repentance John describes is a rebellion more radical than violent insurrection.

A Rebellion of Repentance