Month: January 2025

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Genesis 11 Listen: (3:47), Read: John 10 Listen: (4:44)

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Read:  Genesis 12 Listen: (2:51), Read: John 11 Listen: (6:37)
Read:  Genesis 13 Listen: (2:16), Read: John 12 Listen: (6:26)

Scripture Focus: Genesis 11.10, 26, 31-32

10 This is the account of Shem’s family line.
Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he became the father of Arphaxad. 11 And after he became the father of Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and had other sons and daughters.

26 After Terah had lived 70 years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran.

31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Harran, they settled there.
32 Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Harran.

Reflection: Fast-Forward

By John Tillman

Genealogies in scripture are nicknamed “begats” because of the following format, although not every genealogy section follows it precisely: “So and so, begat so and so, who begat so and so…”

Many who attempt to read the Bible through, falter and fail amidst the “begats.” Some find them confusing, with unpronounceable names. Some find them boring.

Our boredom is ironic because, from a certain perspective, the story goes fastest in the begats. They are the biblical authors’ “fast-forward” button. Generations are compressed into a few lines. As they flash by, sometimes the images are dark or violent. Sometimes we see great progress.

Have you seen videos online in which an artist shows a painting or drawing from each year over many years? Beginning with childish crayon scratches, their work develops. They change tools. They abandon crayons for colored pencils, then drop color for high-contrast, black and white. They go through a charcoal phase, a pastel phase, and settle on paints. But they don’t just change tools. They change styles and inspirations. They go from cartoons to anime, film stars, religious icons, copies of famous paintings, and self portraits. Sometimes the art gets dark and broody. Sometimes it’s cute pets and loved ones. Sometimes it turns violent or extreme. These videos show patience and dedication.

The “begats” sections teach me that God is patient on a scale I can’t easily understand. He gives generation after generation the chance to walk humbly, to love mercy, and to do justice. Over and over, each generation fails. Some repeat old mistakes. Some overreact to the errors of the past. Some invent new ways to “go wrong.” God is more merciful than I am.

God is working on a generational time-scale but he’s also working in you and me. If he is patient over generations, he will be patient with us.

What do your faith and spiritual practices look like now? What works do your faith produce in keeping with righteousness? Childish crayon drawings or copies of the old masters? Cartoons? Caricatures? Portraits? Are you repeating old mistakes? Stuck in a sinful rut?

Don’t give up. Keep drawing. God is patient to develop your eyes to see, ears to hear, feet to walk, and hands to do good works. He is dedicated to bringing his work to completion in you, in this generation, and all the ones to follow.

God sees our progress in fast-forward.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting

O God, you know my foolishness, and my faults are not hidden from you. — Psalm 69.6

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

Listen to: Urban Legends and Good Shepherds

You may have been wounded by a foolish or wicked shepherd. But you can still be healed by Jesus, the good shepherd.

Read The Bible With Us

Don’t get blown off course or swamped by cultural storms. Immerse in the Bible with us at a sustainable, two-year pace.

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Links for today’s readings:

Read: Genesis 8 Listen: (3:06), Read: John 8 Listen: ((7:33)

Scripture Focus: Genesis 8:22

22 “As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease.”

Reflection: Winters as a Sign of Mercy

By Erin Newton

As we brace for the blistering cold and possible inches of snow, we are reminded that we are in the middle of winter—not really a new year. This turn from one year to the next has been less than enthusiastic. I can’t seem to muster the energy to set goals or think of what I will achieve over the next few months. I’m not alone. I’ve seen posts and articles lamenting the awkwardness of New Year being in the middle of the cold and dreary winter weeks. But it won’t last forever.

It is the cyclical nature of seasons that brings hope. It reminds us of the promise ages ago that God would “never again” bring massive destruction to the earth in an effort to wipe out humanity. As long as the earth endures, there will be seasons. And that means there will be winter.

The “never again” promise from God should be a relief to humanity. Before the Flood, the narrative suggests that humanity’s wickedness could reach a point of no return or that there was a limit to God’s mercy. God saved a few in that boat, but God’s judgment was thorough. The surviving animals and humans were crammed into tight living quarters. Leisurely strolls to pass the time were probably mixed with the smell of manure or the squawks of cooped-up birds. I doubt it was much of a cruise ship.

But the waters receded, never again to cover the mountains. The steadiness of seasons was promised in return.

Winter is a promise of God’s providential care. No matter what we do, the cycles will keep on turning. There is no evil that will invoke “Flood: Round Two.” The beauty of God’s promise is not that it will be Edenic again. It’s not a heavenly promise of blue skies and sunny warmth. There will still be winters—periods of fallow and hibernation and dormant fields.

We experience this realistically as the axis of the Earth tilts away from the sun. But there is a spiritual and emotional component. Our ambition may lie dormant for a while. Our spiritual lives may chill every now and then. But the cycle of winter is nothing to fear. Winters are a sign of God’s mercy. Winter is God’s “never again” promise.

As we bundle up this week, we reflect on God’s providence—he cares for us beyond our mistakes and beyond our failings.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. — Psalm 86.4

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

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Links for today’s readings:

Read: Genesis 7 Listen: (3:18), Read: John 7 Listen: (5:53)

Scripture Focus: Genesis 7.21-23

21 Every living thing that moved on land perished—birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind. 22 Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. 23 Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; people and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.

Reflection: When the World Goes Wrong

By John Tillman

Why does the world go wrong? Because humans go wrong.

Someone once asked C.S. Lewis, “Why did God make a creature of such rotten stuff that it went wrong?” Lewis responded to the question in Mere Christianity: “The better stuff a creature is made of—the cleverer and stronger and freer it is—then the better it will be if it goes right, but also the worse it will be if it goes wrong. A cow cannot be very good or very bad; a dog can be both better and worse; a child better and worse still; an ordinary man, still more so; a man of genius, still more so…”

Humanity is potentially good, not basically good. Abilities that make possible great good, make possible great wrongs. Made a little lower than angels, humans can delve nearly demon-deep in evil.

When we are surprised by the world going wrong, we have forgotten what the world, and humans, are like. We underestimate our wickedness and overestimate our righteousness.

One reason the flood seems horrific is our assumption that Noah’s contemporaries were, like us, “basically good.” Scripture says the pre-flood world was uniquely evil and grew that way by degrees. The flood was not a snap judgment on an average day, condemning average people. Generation after generation grew progressively worse. Every thought and action was evil. Every street ran with blood. Every sky echoed victims’ cries. When victims cry out and human justice fails, God will act both to save and to punish.

Earth’s evil before the flood and now demonstrates the greatness of humanity going greatly wrong and our need for salvation and judgment. Those killed by the flood were not “basically good” but neither was Noah and neither are we. God has forsworn another flood of water, but there are other judgments. As for salvation, there is only one.

If the state of our souls was basically good, Jesus wouldn’t have had to die. Those saved by the Ark or the cross are saved by grace. The Ark’s salvation was limited to Noah’s construction ability, but Jesus worked salvation on the cross.

In a sin-flooded world, we need not build an Ark, but we must take up the cross. Unlike Noah’s Ark, there is room at the cross for all who will join us. When the world goes wrong, take up and share the cross.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting

Out of Zion, perfect in its beauty, God reveals himself in glory. — Psalm 50.2

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

Read more: Two Lamechs

The literal sons of Cain’s Lamech died in the flood…his ideological descendants abound…those who multiply and escalate violence

Two Lamechs, One Jesus

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Links for today’s readings:

Read: Genesis 6 Listen: (2:48), Read: John 6 Listen: (8:27)

Scripture Focus: Genesis 6.5-8

5 The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. 6 The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. 7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

Epiphany: January 6th is the completion of Christmastide, called Epiphany. It means “manifestation” and represents the revealing or manifestation of Christ to the non-Jewish nations, represented by the visit of the Magi to worship Christ. It reminds us that Christ belongs to and came to save all nations and peoples and not merely one race, ethnicity, group, or nation.

Reflection: Resisting the Flood of Sin

By John Tillman

Sin grows. The trickle of sin that started in the garden led to the flood.

Eating forbidden fruit seems like a small thing. Perhaps it was. However, both fruit and deeds have seeds and from small seeds, large things grow.

Sin didn’t stop with forbidden fruit. The plant that grew from that first sin had wide branches and its seeds blossomed into violence when Cain killed Abel. (Genesis 4.6-8) Abel’s trickle of spilled blood became a swelling torrent of injustice and violence. This is demonstrated by Cain’s descendent, Lamech, who multiplied his forefather’s sins, bragging about violence toward men and women. (Genesis 4.19-24)

By Noah’s time, “Every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.” (Genesis 6.5) The world was already flooded before a drop of rain fell from heaven—it was flooded with the blood of violence. And every drop cried out from the ground to God. (Genesis 4.10-12)

Noah and his family resisted the spirit of the age defined by Cain’s Lamech. Noah’s father was also named Lamech, but this Lamech was descended from Seth, the son given to Eve in place of Abel. Noah comes from a lineage representing grace, beauty, restoration, and resistance to violence.

Which Lamech are we following, celebrating, or emulating? Are we venerating the violent? Are we praising the prideful? Are we applauding those who prey on the weak?

Noah wasn’t sinless but he resisted the growing evil in his time. Noah wasn’t saved because he was good but because of God’s mercy. Through obedience and grace, he became part of God’s plan of salvation in a sin-flooded world.

We aren’t sinless either. We contribute to the world’s sinfulness in small and large ways. But, like Noah, we can find God merciful. We can, by grace, resist.

Sin always seems like a small thing at the beginning but it grows. Wickedness and evil seek cracks and untended ground for their seeds to take root and grow.

Eden’s curse affected both the ground and human hearts. Weeds crowd out grain and pride crowds out worship. Thorns crowd out fruit and hatred chokes out kindness. Poisonous leaves replace healing ones and poisonous lusts replace healing loves.

Our hearts are vulnerable ground, requiring maintenance and cultivation. Are we letting sin grow or resisting it?

Cultivate resistance. Through obedience and grace become part of God’s salvation plan for our sin-flooded world.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

Protect me, O God, for I take refuge in you; I have said to the Lord, “You are my Lord, my good above all other.” — Psalm 16.1

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

Read more: The Floodlight of Epiphany

Epiphany is celebrated on a day but is also a process. Today, we will pray that the light of Christ would dawn, exposing darkness.

The Floodlight of Epiphany

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