Author: Erin Newton

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The Stigma of Disease — Readers’ Choice


Readers’ Choice is here: Over two-thirds of our devotionals get emailed responses from readers like you. Hearing that what we have written is meaningful to you is meaningful to us. That’s why we love sharing some of your comments and messages. Thank you, readers. We do what we do to serve you. 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 by filling out the linked form.

Links for today’s readings:

Oct 9  Read: 1 Kings 12 Listen: (5:15)  Read: Psalms 32 Listen: (1:34)

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:

Barbara, TN — So good and true!
Brian, DC — I agree with you. Diseases should ignite our sympathy, not our stigma.  And we should learn to see all of our neighbors through the eyes of God. It is a horrible thing to go through life being taunted and cast out because of something that person had no control over…If only we could see God’s glory in those whom the world refuses to look at let alone talk with and listen to.

This post was originally published on April 9, 2025, based on readings from Leviticus 13:2.

Scripture Focus: Leviticus 13:2

2 “When anyone has a swelling or a rash or a shiny spot on their skin that may be a defiling skin disease, they must be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons who is a priest.

Reflection: The Stigma of Disease — Readers’ Choice

By Erin Newton

When my son came home from the hospital, he had a glaring, visible physical disability. There would be no hiding this. We were prepared to have a child with disabilities, but after months of medical treatment, we realized his disease would be a billboard.

Stigma comes with diseases and disabilities. People form conclusions and assumptions without information. My love for our son was no less the day he received his tracheostomy, but I knew the stares and whispers would come the moment we stepped out of the building. I imagined them saying, Who sinned, this boy or his parents? (John 9.1-3)

Leviticus 13, unfortunately, has been misunderstood as support for associating disease with moral failure. A series of scale diseases are listed: things that cause discoloration, shiny marks, boils, burns, even baldness. Long ago, these descriptions were misidentified with leprosy, or Hansen’s disease. Combined with stories of scale diseases inflicted on a person for sin, such as Miriam in response to her criticism against Moses (Numbers 12), modern readers began to assume that God judged all those suffering from Hansen’s disease.

Diseases affecting the skin are not the only ones to carry such stigma. Amy Kenny (My Body Is Not a Prayer Request) details how people in the church have approached her with remedies or assessments of her faith just because of her disability.

How do we read Leviticus 13?

The visual aspect of scale diseases resembled skin peeling away. It was a reflection of death; it reminded them of decay. Death has no place in the presence of God. It was not a moral judgment on the person with boils but a recognition that death deteriorates the body. God bestows life and order; death brings decay and disorder.

More than anything, we must read these chapters with eyes heavenward. We are not being given a rulebook on how to judge others based on disease or disability. This chapter points up to God by pointing down toward death.

Diseases should ignite our sympathy, not our stigma.

And what of those that have no “scales” to the naked eye? What reaction will I get when I tell you of my anxiety or my OCD?

Learning to see the world through the eyes of God means being quick with sympathy and slow with accusations. It means knowing the real enemy is the disorder brought on by death and not pinpointing supposed faults.

The Lord’s Prayer:

We will take a break from The Divine Hours prayers for the month of October and instead pray Dallas Willard’s paraphrase of The Lord’s Prayer:

Dear Father, always near us, may your name be treasured and loved, may your rule be completed in us—may your will be done here on earth in just the way it is done in heaven.

Give us today the things we need today, and forgive us our sins and impositions on you as we are forgiving all who in any way offend us.

Please don’t put us through trials, but deliver us from everything bad. Because you are the one in charge, and you have all the power, and the glory too is all yours-forever-which is just the way we want it!

Readers’ Choice is here!

#ReadersChoice is time for you to share favorite Park Forum posts from the year.

What post challenged or convicted you?

https://forms.gle/aSD7X5psHqjSMtBFA

Read more: Spiritual Twins

Each twin is a perfect donor match to the other. They can heal one another if needed. A better “eye for an eye.”

Spiritual Twins — Readers’ Choice

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Her Voice from the Margins — Readers’ Choice


Readers’ Choice is here: Over two-thirds of our devotionals get emailed responses from readers like you. Hearing that what we have written is meaningful to you is meaningful to us. That’s why we love sharing some of your comments and messages. Thank you, readers. We do what we do to serve you. 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 by filling out the linked form.

Links for today’s readings:

Oct 8  Read: 1 Kings 11 Listen: (7:05)  Read: Psalms 31 Listen: (3:11)

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:

Brian, DC — I have learned so much from the dear saints who, when we first met, were alcoholics, homeless, crack addicts, prostitutes, and felons. These friends are the most honest, aware, and wise women and men I know. God IS the one who hears the voices of those on the margins.”
Barbara, TN — Thank you, Erin! Such a good take!
Jon, TX — Preach!

This post was originally published on January 15, 2025, based on readings from Genesis 16:6-7, 13.

Scripture Focus: Genesis 16:6-7, 13

6 “Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.
7 The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur.
13 She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.”

Reflection: Her Voice from the Margins — Readers’ Choice

By Erin Newton

“As a symbol of the oppressed, Hagar becomes many things to many people” (Phyllis Trible, Texts of Terror).

We are accustomed to comparing the two sons of Abraham: Isaac and Ishmael. Even in the ordering of the names, we place the younger, chosen son before the eldest. There is an instinctual (or likely a learned) way of viewing Isaac positively and Ishmael negatively. Perhaps the mind wants to conclude: If Ishmael is not chosen by God, he is rejected by me.

Similar thoughts are carried on to their mothers: Sarah and Hagar. Sarah at the beginning is the sole wife to Abraham. It is the promise given to her that the grand ancestry of God’s people would be rooted. But she laughed, she doubted, she schemed.

There are many stories in the Bible that can, if we are still listening, furrow our brows in concern. At first we are reading with a smile watching God choose and bless this family, but then the frailty of humanity sneaks in and begins to warp the goodness. If we are too calloused to see it anymore, we might be tempted to shrug off this really bad idea as something that “works out in the end.”

Works out? For whom?

We have a rare glimpse into the aftermath of Sarah and Abraham’s scheme. We watch Hagar flee into the wilderness for solace. It is there that God comes to meet her. And for the first time, a character in the story calls her by name.

This is why Hagar means so much to so many—God knew her even when people abused her.

Phyllis Trible noted how Hagar represents the marginalized in our day: “She is the faithful maid exploited, the black woman used by the male and abused by the female of the ruling class, the surrogate mother, the resident alien without legal recourse, the other woman, the runaway youth, the religious fleeing from affliction, the pregnant young woman alone, the expelled wife, the divorced mother with child, the shopping bag lady carrying bread and water, the homeless woman, the indigent relying upon handouts from the power structures, the welfare mother, the self-effacing female whose own identity shrinks in service to others” (Texts of Terror).

Hagar reminds us of the importance of letting the marginalized speak. It is Hagar who names God, the One Who Sees. There is no monopoly of knowing God. Let us listen.

The Lord’s Prayer:

We will take a break from The Divine Hours prayers for the month of October and instead pray Dallas Willard’s paraphrase of The Lord’s Prayer:

Dear Father, always near us, may your name be treasured and loved, may your rule be completed in us—may your will be done here on earth in just the way it is done in heaven.

Give us today the things we need today, and forgive us our sins and impositions on you as we are forgiving all who in any way offend us.

Please don’t put us through trials, but deliver us from everything bad. Because you are the one in charge, and you have all the power, and the glory too is all yours-forever-which is just the way we want it!

Readers’ Choice is here!

#ReadersChoice is time for you to share favorite Park Forum posts from the year.

What post helped you endure suffering?

https://forms.gle/aSD7X5psHqjSMtBFA

Read more: Prayer for Outcasts

We pray, today, for those who flee. Aid their flight.
May they avoid danger, escaping the fowler’s snare.
May they find fair winds, lifting their wings and spirits.

Prayer for Outcasts — Guided Prayer

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Choosing Life-A Recap of Deuteronomy — Readers’ Choice


Readers’ Choice is here: Over two-thirds of our devotionals get emailed responses from readers like you. Hearing that what we have written is meaningful to you is meaningful to us. That’s why we love sharing some of your comments and messages. Thank you, readers. We do what we do to serve you. 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 by filling out the linked form.

Links for today’s readings:

Oct 3  Read: 1 Kings 6 Listen: (5:10) Read: Psalms 23-24 Listen: (2:03)

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Oct 4  Read: 1 Kings 7 Listen: (7:47) Read: Psalms 25 Listen: (2:18)
Oct 5  Read: 1 Kings 8 Listen: (10:23) Read: Psalms 26-27 Listen: (3:13)

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:

Barbara, TN — Thank you, Erin! Wow, what a synopsis! Thank you!
Jason, TX — Erin knocked this one out of the park! So clear and so powerful to see how the whole book is about choosing the way of life.

This post was originally published on June 25, 2025, based on readings from Deuteronomy 30.19.

Scripture Focus: Deuteronomy 30:19

19 … I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life…”

Reflection: Choosing Life-A Recap of Deuteronomy — Readers’ Choice

By Erin Newton

Choosing life means choosing God. It is both a singular choice to change one’s identity forever and a perpetual choice to choose godliness every day.

God set before his people (within arm’s reach, he adds in vv. 11-14) the guidelines to follow. How does a person choose life? Let’s recap what Deuteronomy has said.

Choosing life means…

  • Following him, even in the land of “giants” (1.22-33).
  • Being kind to your brothers and sisters, even if they are (by definition) a different people (2.2-6).
  • Knowing when God has told you no (3.26-29).
  • Obeying the commands from God without adding your own ideas or ignoring the ones you dislike (4.2).
  • Memorizing the core summary of godliness in ten commandments (chapter 5).
  • Loving God with the entirety of our being—all strength and soul (6.4).
  • Remembering that God’s grace is given to those he loves, not those who deem themselves worthy (7.7-8).
  • Not forgetting God—who he is and what he has done (chapter 8).
  • Remembering the lure of temptation and your weaknesses (9.7-21).
  • Circumcising your heart by adopting the identity of God’s people, becoming like him in the process (10.16)
  • Seeing the creation become fruitful and plentiful, and working with creation in an interdependent relationship: God, humanity, and creation (11.13-15).
  • Worshipping God (chapter 12).
  • Being aware of false prophets and the temptation to worship someone (or something) else (13.1-8).
  • Providing for God’s people and his church financially (14.22-29).
  • Being purposefully and committedly gracious—granting freedom physically and financially to those around you (15.1-18).
  • Remembering the holy days with feasts and festivals and worship (16.1-17).
  • Enacting justice in the community (17.1-13).
  • Testing prophets and those who speak in the name of God (18.14-22).
  • Providing spaces for grace and mercy (19.1-10).
  • Choosing peace before conflict (20.10).
  • Seeking justice and closure when answers are elusive (21.1-9).
  • Being wise in your judgment of others, especially when one party is likely abused (22.26-27).
  • Welcoming the foreigner who chooses to live among God’s people (23.15-16).
  • Not exploiting your neighbors (24.14-18).
  • Finding wisdom in cross-cultural spaces and gleaning its truth for today (25.4).
  • Living sacrificially (26.1-15).
  • Remembering what God has prohibited (27.15-26).
  • Remembering the blessings God has in store (28.1-14).
  • Remaining content in what God has revealed to us and the knowledge he withholds for himself (29.29).


Each chapter has highlighted one or more ways of choosing God—choosing life. Let us also choose life each day, fulfilling the calls from Deuteronomy.

The Lord’s Prayer:

We will take a break from The Divine Hours prayers for the month of October and instead pray Dallas Willard’s paraphrase of The Lord’s Prayer:

Dear Father, always near us, may your name be treasured and loved, may your rule be completed in us—may your will be done here on earth in just the way it is done in heaven.

Give us today the things we need today, and forgive us our sins and impositions on you as we are forgiving all who in any way offend us.

Please don’t put us through trials, but deliver us from everything bad. Because you are the one in charge, and you have all the power, and the glory too is all yours-forever-which is just the way we want it!

Readers’ Choice is here!

#ReadersChoice is time for you to share favorite Park Forum posts from the year.

What post helped you better understand scripture?

https://forms.gle/aSD7X5psHqjSMtBFA

Read more: The Stretching Arm of Salvation

We pray for those in need of salvation…a prayer for those suffering oppression, injustice, and persecution.

The Stretching Arm of Salvation — A Guided Prayer

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Wisdom Talking

Links for today’s readings:

Read: 2  Samuel 20 Listen: (4:51) Read: Psalms 10 Listen: (2:13)

Scripture Focus: 2 Samuel 20:15b-16, 22a

15b While they were battering the wall to bring it down, 16 a wise woman called from the city, “Listen! Listen! Tell Joab to come here so I can speak to him.”

22 Then the woman went to all the people with her wise advice…

Proverbs 4:6b-9

Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you;
    love her, and she will watch over you.
7 The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom.
    Though it cost all you have, get understanding.
8 Cherish her, and she will exalt you;
    embrace her, and she will honor you.
9 She will give you a garland to grace your head
    and present you with a glorious crown.

Reflection: Wisdom Talking

By Erin Newton

What is wisdom? Take a moment. How would you define the word?

We often think about Proverbs when we talk about wisdom in the Old Testament. We consider the collection of sayings that cover a myriad of topics: how to get along with others, how to make good financial decisions, the value of working hard, the value of being quiet in the mornings, and so on and so forth.

A good life is one that exercises the skills of wisdom, and wisdom has faith as its foundation. “Fear God” is the beginning of wisdom.

The story of Joab’s mission, a gruesome tale, has a plot twist in 2 Samuel 20. The siege ramps were built and his troops were battering the walls, trying to force their way into the city.

It was a loud and terrifying time for the inhabitants. I imagine the people were screaming and crying out in fear with little hope of escape. But one voice cried out for peace. This one voice saved many.

The men in this story play the role of power, might, and violence. The woman here plays the role of an intercessor for the people. She seeks peace over violence. She understands that nothing good will come from a battle. She is called “wise” because she skillfully averts war.

I think the men and women in the story are serving a literary function and not necessarily designating one characteristic to one gender. There are both wise women and wise men in the Bible, but it is more startling when women are the focus and when they save entire populations from destruction (see also Esther). God highlights the true strength of the meek, the mild, and the marginalized.

The juxtaposed images of might versus wisdom grant us an opportunity to look at our own circumstances. We are given a chance to consider how one small voice can save many—as long as it has been developed through wisdom.

There is no lack of words these days. Everyone has a post to gather “likes.” All opinions seem to be vying for the same attention. But are these voices wise? Do our words seek peace?

We ought to be like this woman interceding for our communities. To do so means we must grow in wisdom, constantly learning, ceaselessly examining our world, and courageously speaking.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

Protect my life and deliver me; let me not be put to shame, for I have trusted in you.
Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for my hope has been in you. — Psalm 25.19-20

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: Tribalism and Insurrection

Divisive leaders appeal to our tribal instincts and desire for power. They belittle opponents and call for conflict and conquest.

Tribalism and Insurrection
Readers’ Choice is Here!

Readers’ Choice is time for you to share favorite Park Forum posts from the year.
What post helped you explain the gospel?

https://forms.gle/nUsUW1yp4AKHSGrZ8

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Hatred, the Underside of Lust

Links for today’s readings:

Read: 2  Samuel 13 Listen: (6:39)  Read: Revelation 21 Listen: (4:34)

Scripture Focus: 2 Samuel 13:14–16

14 But he refused to listen to her, and since he was stronger than she, he raped her.
15 Then Amnon hated her with intense hatred. In fact, he hated her more than he had loved her. Amnon said to her, “Get up and get out!”
16 “No!” she said to him. “Sending me away would be a greater wrong than what you have already done to me.”
But he refused to listen to her.

Reflection: Hatred, the Underside of Lust

By Erin  Newton

“Having gratified itself, lust deepens into hatred” (Phyllis Trible, Texts of Terror).

The story of Tamar does not soften its edges. There is no ambiguity of her innocence like some might foolishly try to argue in the case of Bathsheba. The power dynamic is clearly stated: Amnon is a prince and physically more powerful.

But he is ruled by his passions. His sexual desire makes him “sick” with lust. He is obsessed—no longer operating by rationality or morals. His flesh controls his narrative. He is, in fact, powerless to his most base instincts.

Tamar, the weaker person, is the pillar of strength. Unaware of the trap, she shows compassion and empathy for her “sick” brother. When the wicked plot is unmasked, she clearly refuses. “No!” She reminds him of morality. “Don’t do this wicked thing!” She offers an honorable solution of marriage.

But Amnon does not love her. Long-term commitment isn’t his goal. It is not kindness that is making his decisions. He is filled with lust, and by his strength he reacts in violence.

Phyllis Trible notes the change that occurs after the rape: “Violence in turn discloses hatred, the underside of lust.” The reaction is not uncommon. Jo Ann Hackett (Women’s Bible Commentary) says, “There is good evidence that people who force their dominance on others (rapists and sadists, for example) are fighting what they perceive as weakness in themselves and that their victims’ defeat only reminds them of their own weakness and consequently enrages them.” His weakness drove him to violence, and in the end, he still hates himself.

Tamar again is a pillar of strength and truth. She is not ruled by her emotions. When she should be angry and ashamed, she defiantly refuses his dismissal. “No!” She reminds him of what is right. He doesn’t care.

This weak man has no intention of listening to truth, especially truth embodied in Tamar.

Nothing about this story is foreign to our present circumstances. Men and women who feel inferior can be ruled by their own self-hatred and react violently. But the act of violence never solves their weakness. It merely begets more violence.

In the direct context of sexual abuse, we should be mindful of Amnon’s response. We must recognize that venom spewed against survivors is more of a reflection of a perpetrator’s heart. We must be like Tamar—bold, outspoken, and grounded in God’s truth.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading

Do you not realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you and whom you received from God? You are not your own property, then; you have been bought at a price. So use your body for the glory of God. — 1 Corinthians 6.19-20

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: Not a Temptress but an Abuser

Equating sexual abuse victims to “Potiphar’s wife” is reading the passage backwards. Potiphar’s wife is the abuser.

Not a Temptress but an Abuser
Read more: No DARVO

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?

No DARVO — Readers’ Choice