Author: Erin Newton

Posted on

Letters for Tomorrow’s Folk

Links for today’s readings:

Jun 10  Read: Isaiah 6 Listen: (2:24) Read: Psalm 102 Listen: (2:45)

Scripture Focus: Psalm 102:4, 17-18

4 My heart is blighted and withered like grass;

    I forget to eat my food. …

17 He will respond to the prayer of the destitute;
    he will not despise their plea.


18 Let this be written for a future generation,
    that a people not yet created may praise the Lord

Reflection: Letters for Tomorrow’s Folk

By Erin Newton

I was sitting by the pool with a friend, our kids swimming nearby. I was enjoying the sunshine and sounds of laughter when my friend turned and said, “How are you doing since her death?” The question jolted me out of my blissful daydreaming. “Oh, fine. I’m doing ok.”

I went home and got the kids dried off. Looking around my house, it was clear I was not ok. My house had become a mess. Every inch was a pile of neglected chores. Dishes piled and overflowing the sink. Laundry baskets spilling out into the kitchen and hallway. Wrappers of

half-eaten granola bars littering my desk. 

My best friend died unexpectedly a month ago today. The anguish and grief in my heart were visibly evident in my house. I often forgot to eat. Just like the psalmist’s prayer, eating was a task and no longer enjoyable. 

Pain, suffering, grief, depression, anxiety, and a host of other emotional states often have physical signs. As much as I like to muster up the “I’m fine” statements, one step in the door and you’d know.

I’m relieved to see that such reactions were common thousands of years ago. We are not sure what has happened to the psalmist, but the author is in pain. Appetites are poor; hope is fading. 

The prayer here is not a plea for amnesia. He does not ask God to make his troubles a distant memory. He simply states reality: I am miserable, emotionally and physically. 

And then he turns to looking at God. Words of praise and admiration fill the next verses. There is the recognition of God’s power and sovereignty, his love for his people, and his promise to hear their cries. 

Then we get a lesson that still rings true today: This can be recorded for someone else’s benefit. Why record your misery? Why put on paper a time when life sucked? Why testify to your own frustrations? The answer, for others. 

The psalmist is suffering for an unknown reason. Perhaps it was deserved, or natural consequences, or completely unwarranted. We have no information to claim his suffering was for others—but his testimony is. 

Have you told someone a story of God working in your life? Take time to record your own story. We might think our lives are too simple for archiving, but testimonies are an act of remembrance and a light for the future.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

O God of hosts, show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved. — Psalm 80.7

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

Read more: Temple Confrontations

Uzziah angrily claimed purity and was made unclean. Isaiah fearfully confessed uncleanness and was made pure.

Temple Confrontations
Read more: Baring Your Soul

When strangers ask, “How are you?” we’ll mumble, “Fine. How are you?” …How can we share deep hurt with those we do not trust deeply?

Baring Your Soul
Posted on

Knowledge Is Power

Links for today’s readings:

Jun 3  Read: Malachi 2 Listen: (3:12) Read: Psalm 90 Listen: (2:03)

Scripture Focus: Malachi 2:7, 17

7 For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, because he is the messenger of the LORD Almighty and people seek instruction from his mouth…

17 You have wearied the Lord with your words.

Reflection: Knowledge Is Power

Erin Newton

We live in the age of fact-checking and social media community notes. We value truth and honesty, and people are eager to confirm statements as true or false.

As Christians we also hold our leaders to such standards. Malachi says, “A priest ought to preserve knowledge, because he is the messenger of the Lord Almighty” (2:7). In the ancient world, when literacy rates were much lower, people relied on religious leaders to relay (and interpret) the words of God. In the New Testament, James reiterates the standards of religious teachers: “Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly” (3:1).

Knowledge is power; therefore, truth is a vital cog in the machine.

Malachi reports about the dishonesty among the priests. They do not practice justice, and they are unfaithful to their spouses. They are not trustworthy in their conduct, so how can they be trustworthy in their words? In their instruction? In their guidance?

In the end, God is fed up with their empty words.

The preservation of knowledge includes knowing what is true and being able to discern what is false. Christians have attempted to fine-tune the faith until every inch of life is covered. We think we are preserving knowledge, knowing that people are instructed by our interpretations.

But we often fail through our actions. Sometimes we fail through compromise.

What we say about God’s word matters. How we glean truth from the Bible, prayer, experience, and tradition matters. Our desire to have the right answer is noble in and of itself, but if our lives are counter to our words, we weary God.

Not many of us are ordained priests or employed as pastors, ministers, or leaders. When James speaks of teachers, we might think we have escaped such a risky position. However, in our modern era, we become thought leaders on social media. When something we say can be cropped into an inspirational phrase, our words suddenly have more weight. We lead and teach children as parents, aunts, uncles, or elders. As iron sharpens iron, we act as teachers to our friends. 

The priesthood of the believer is not only our ability to approach God with our prayers but also our role in teaching the world. With such a position through Christ, let us learn to speak truth, live truthfully, and not weary the Lord.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading

Jesus taught us, saying: “Whoever holds to my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me; and whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I shall love him and reveal myself to him.” — John 14.21

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

Read more: Offal Leaders 

Malachi describes a de-commissioning…feces from the animal would be smeared on their faces, representing impurity and death.

Offal Leaders—Readers’ Choice
Read more: A Broken Rebel’s Prayer

His family must have hoped that their little rebel, like a well-slung stone, might take down the oppressive giant…Instead, he fails miserably.

A Broken Rebel’s Prayer — Readers’ Choice
Posted on

Victorious and Lowly

Links for today’s readings:

May 27  Read: Zechariah 9 Listen: (3:01) Read: Luke 18 Listen: (5:27)

Scripture Focus: Zechariah 9:8-9

8 But I will encamp at my temple
    to guard it against marauding forces.
Never again will an oppressor overrun my people,
    for now I am keeping watch.

9 Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!
    Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you,
    righteous and victorious,
lowly and riding on a donkey,
    on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Reflection: Victorious and Lowly

By Erin Newton

Touchdown dances and victory laps are our typical images of winners. The beauty queen gets a crown. Celebrities get red carpets and paparazzi. Athletes get medals, rings, or letterman jackets. Politicians get parties and banners and confetti. I hear the doctoral graduates in Finland get top hats and swords!

The walk of shame is usually a reference to bad judgment, fleeting impulses or rejection. Second and third place athletes get lesser medals, smaller trophies. Losing politicians are asked to concede. Those not finishing a race get labeled with “DNF” (did not finish).

To imagine a winner, a victor, in a self-imposed image of lowliness is antithetical to what we expect. Winners get center stage. Those entering with a lowly demeanor are usually the ones who are not the winners.

Zechariah 9 presents a picture of our God—both victorious and lowly.

We speak often of the lowliness of Christ, his humility and willingness to suffer for our sake. But the picture tends to shift after his crucifixion to an image of the mighty and powerful and risen Lord. We want to herald his victory over the grave, and we should be glad.

Yet our God holds both victory and lowliness together in himself. He is not just some winner who avoids bragging too much. He is a protector, keeping watch over his people, but he enters riding on a donkey, not a warhorse. He is not some giant, super-sized, Ultron type of deity crushing and snapping enemies out of existence. He chooses to be humble, not just as our example, but because he is.

It is mind-boggling.

We tend to refer to lowliness and humility as something Jesus “put on,” as if it was a foreign and lesser human quality, when in fact it is part of who our God is. My mind struggles to hold the two together without emphasizing one over the other—God is powerful and victorious; God is lowly and humble.

We are called to be like Christ and that means learning to embody both the victorious nature of Christ and his lowliness. Humility is something we learn to put on, but even as God works victories through us (power over sin, despair, hate), we must learn to keep “riding on a donkey” as our Lord did.

Humility should be a quality that defines us, knowing God will certainly be working victories in the meantime.

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 Springtime by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: The King We Want

I’ve sent a king, God says
He rode in on a donkey
My servants prophesied him
You rebels crucified him

The King We Want
Read more: Types of Blindness

Even those who already believe can be blinded…The disciples had blind spots and a tunnel vision focused only on political salvation.

Types of Blindness
Posted on

Worshipping Through Horror

Links for today’s readings:

May 13  Read: Habakkuk 3 Listen: (2:59) Read: Luke 4 Listen: (5:27)

Scripture Focus: Habakkuk 3:5-6, 16

5 Plague went before him;
    pestilence followed his steps.
6 He stood, and shook the earth;
    he looked, and made the nations tremble.
The ancient mountains crumbled
    and the age-old hills collapsed—
    but he marches on forever.

…

16 I heard and my heart pounded,
    my lips quivered at the sound;
decay crept into my bones,
    and my legs trembled.

Reflection: Worshipping Through Horror 

By Erin Newton

For my doctoral studies, I’ve been researching terrifying imagery in the Old Testament. This means when I’m reading books with titles like Reading the Bible with Horror in public, people are looking at me funny.

The question I get often is, “Why horror?” Most of us feel more comfortable focusing on the pleasant places in the Bible: the psalm about being a sheep snoozing in a gentle green pasture or the story of Jesus feeding the multitude. Like it or not, however, the Bible has lots of scenes that terrify us. And it appears the prophets were a little shaken too.

Habakkuk has been given a vision from God of the impending doom on the wicked nations. Despite the terrifying revelation, he responds with a hymnic prayer. How many hymns have you sung that speak of God heading out to smite the enemy while being flanked by Plague and Pestilence? This type of imagery is good for our modern cinemas, not really for the church choir.

Habakkuk takes the terrifying image of God’s power and wrath and doesn’t flee from it. He encapsulates it in song. He carves it into history through prayer. But at the same time, he’s scared. This isn’t some machismo war-song. His heart is pounding. His lips are quivering. His knees are shaking. He can feel his own fear. Why? Because the image of God’s power has overtaken him.

Brandon Grafius, in Reading the Bible with Horror, highlights the effect of horror movies and literature in our Christian lives. We are sometimes drawn to such artistic expressions because the images typically encapsulate our fears. We fear dying, so there’s a blood-sucking monster. We fear ravaging illness (or global pandemics or virus-laden cruises), so horror would make Plague a monster.

Horror (well-crafted horror) and the Bible (especially the Old Testament) have something in common: “They both experience the realities of life too deeply to tell us that everything is okay when it’s not,” says Grafius. Habakkuk gets that. He’s scared. It’s terrifying. But his prayer admits to the reality of the darker parts of life. He knows God is working, but that doesn’t make everything sunshine and daisies.

Reading the Bible with horror means not avoiding these texts or rushing to make them more pleasant. Sometimes we need to pray about the terrifying realities of our world, knowing God is in our midst.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

I will bear witness that the Lord is righteous; I will praise the Name of the Lord Most High. — Psalm 7.18

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: No, Not Like That

We must trust God when he chooses to address evil, whether it is in our hearts, in our institutions, or in our countries.

No, Not Like That
Read more: He Became a Servant

Habakkuk’s psalm longs for the Lord to make himself known…What Habakkuk waited for, we have seen in Jesus.

He Became a Servant
Posted on

When God Is Not Swayed by Gold

Links for today’s readings:

May 6  Read: Micah 6 Listen: (2:28) Read: Psalms 86-87 Listen: (2:26)

Scripture Focus: Micah 6:7, 14

7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
    with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?

…

14 You will eat but not be satisfied;
    your stomach will still be empty.
You will store up but save nothing,
    because what you save I will give to the sword.

Reflection: When God Is Not Swayed by Gold

By Erin Newton

Expensive gifts are common throughout the Bible. The magi brought gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the infant Jesus. The woman poured an expensive jar of oil on Jesus’s feet. The queen of Sheba brought gold, precious gems, and spices to Solomon as a gift.

Is it the financial worth of gifts that determines their value? Sometimes. For gifts exchanged between loved ones, however, the value is something that transcends cost. And so it is with God.

Micah 6 contains the well-known verses about offering gifts to God. “With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God?,” verse 6 says. The question is rhetorical and introspective. What does God really want from us?

The assumed answer is “expensive things.” Micah’s audience is thinking like common people. We love stuff. We love costly stuff. We value that which is rare and available only to a few—the expensive stuff. Surely, we think, God wants expensive stuff too.

But the verse turns in an unexpected way. “Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?” This is generational wealth amounts! This is more stuff than any person would know what to do with. Where do you store rivers of oil? Are you ready for herds and herds of rams (or are you going to eat a thousand rams for dinner)?

 No, God doesn’t really want any of this. Micah tells the people that God wants them to be merciful, just, and humble. God desires character over wealth, morality over treasure, righteousness over buyouts.

It’s not that gold is inherently problematic. Gold has been an honored gift to God, but gold offered without integrity and faithfulness is worthless. Such wealth is destined for ruin.

Do I have herds of livestock? No. Do I even know how many crates of olive oil a person can buy at Costco? Not a clue. I might read this and think I’ve been spared from acting like Micah’s community did. I’m not trying to buy God’s favor. Whew!

Yet we offer God paltry gifts of fancy words, our best dress on Sunday, and maybe a portion of our income in tithes. For many, these are worth more than we give anyone else. But without integrity and true faithfulness in how we conduct our lives, I’m afraid we too will be left with empty stomachs and war-torn losses.

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 thor being. — A Song To The Lamb

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: Leaders Sent by God

Our justice is tainted. Our mercy is rarely given. Our humility gives way to pride. Therefore, God has offered his own firstborn for the sin of our souls.

Leaders Sent by God
Read more: State of Our Souls

We pray for an undivided heart. No person, cause, or ideology should vie for the supremacy of Christ in our lives.

State of Our Souls

Show Buttons
Hide Buttons
Spur a spiritual rhythm of refreshment right in your inbox
By joining this email list you are giving us permission to send you devotional emails each weekday and to communicate occasionally regarding other aspects of the ministry.
100% Privacy. We don't spam.