Author: John Tillman

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Forces and Powers — 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 14 Read: 1 Kings 17 Listen: (3:14)  Read: Psalms 37 Listen: (4:21)

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:

Barbara, TN — Really important charge here! I can certainly see where I believed what may or may not have been right but in the wrong way in times past. Praying for our country and the world. Loved this sentence: “It’s foolish to be unwary of spiritual forces, yet dangerous to be obsessed with them.”

This post was originally published on July 3, 2025, based on readings from Colossians 2.8-15.

Scripture Focus: Colossians 2.8-15

8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. 9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. 11 In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self, ruled by the flesh, was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Reflection: Forces and Powers — Readers’ Choice

By John Tillman

When Paul says there are “forces” and “powers” in this world, what does he mean?

Paul’s language seems ambiguous. Some translations use “basic principles” instead of “elemental spiritual forces”. (Colossians 2.8) Paul’s ambiguity is probably intentional. Ancient thinkers were comfortable with the concept of spiritual powers co-mingling with other powers. Paul recognized layers of visible and invisible powers and forces operating in his world.

Our world also has interconnected forces and powers. Obvious forces include local, state, and federal governments. Cultural forces include social and economic philosophies. We also see the effects of less obvious forces. Corporations create algorithims that influence our media and social media. Dark money floods politics. Insider trading infests banking and business. Wealthy influence peddlers push cultural narratives. And behind the visible and hidden human powers are spiritual powers.

A word of warning: Dangerous and manipulative movements and leaders twist teachings about spiritual things to cause panic and excuse violence and vitriol. The existence of spiritual powers doesn’t mean everyone who votes differently from you or does something you oppose is “demonic.” Beware those discussing “spiritual warfare” in these ways.

How do we navigate a world with multiple layers of spiritual and non-spiritual forces and powers? Look to Paul’s example. Paul stood trial before Roman rulers. Paul opposed ideological forces of Greek philosophy and idolatry at the Areopagus. Paul resisted spiritual forces by tearing down strongholds of spiritual arguments and casting out spiritual beings.

In all cases, Paul defended himself and others against these powers by testifying to the gospel in the name of Jesus. That’s it. No weapons. No mobs. No insurrections. No attacks. No violence. Paul delivered people from demonic influence. He didn’t attack them. Paul just spoke the truth of Jesus.

We must resist many “powers.” Like Paul, we don’t resist the world’s powers with worldly weapons or resist demonic powers by attacking humans. Demonizing and dehumanizing are sinful synonyms from a Christian perspective.

As for the spiritual powers, we don’t fight them—we announce their defeat by Jesus. We don’t disarm the powers—we remind them that Jesus already did.

It’s foolish to be unwary of spiritual forces, yet dangerous to be obsessed with them. Instead, we can walk through the world of powers, confident that Jesus has disarmed them. So long as we walk with him, we cannot be captured by any force or power. Rooted in him, we cannot be moved.

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?

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Read more: Jericho’s Wall

God isn’t interested in destroying people we call our enemies. He’s not on “your side.”

Jericho’s Wall

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Cosmic and Earthly Creations — 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 13  Read: 1 Kings 16 Listen: (5:31)  Read: Psalms 36 Listen: (1:29)

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:

Michelle, NY — This is an excellent devotional on Genesis 1 & 2. Many people struggle with the two chapters and this so-called “mismatches”. I love the way you put context to both to show the harmony between them. God will never mislead us in His word!

This post was originally published on January 2, 2025, based on readings from Genesis 2.7-8.

Scripture Focus: Genesis 2.7-8

7 Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. 
8 Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed.

Reflection: Cosmic and Earthly Creations — Readers’ Choice

By John Tillman

The creation accounts in Genesis 1 and 2 sound different.

Genesis 1 is cosmic, ordered, rhythmic poetry. The Spirit hovers. The Word speaks. Photons, matter, and life forms burst into being ex nihilo, “out of nothing.” Day and night separate each act from the next in a chain of images, like framed paintings on a museum gallery’s wall, or colored panes in a stained glass window.

Genesis 2 is earthy, messy, intimate prose. The actions of creation are less ordered and formal. The Creator kneels in a grassless, soggy plain forming a human from the wet earth. He puts his mouth on the muddy shape and breathes into it, then wipes mud from his lips as Adam takes his first breath. God, the gardener, keeps digging in the dirt. He plants and cultivates trees that provide beauty and health, cuts rivers that supply water to distant lands, forms other living creatures out of the ground, and a co-laborer for Adam from his own flesh.

These two versions aren’t arguing with each other. The writers of scripture weren’t confused or ignorant. They didn’t forget what they just wrote. When you lay these two stories over each other, they fill in each other’s gaps.

Whether you need to be reminded of how grand, glorious, and powerful God is or how near, intimate, and tender he is, Genesis has you covered.

Our creator is both cosmic and earthy. He blows galaxies across the universe and he breathes into our lungs. He speaks to photons and whispers in our ears. He scatters stars in the sky and sows seeds in the dirt—and seeds in our hearts.

From its first pages, the Bible reminds us that the glorious God of Heaven muddied his knees and hands at our making. The God who created calculus and physics also created our emotions and feelings. We are also both cosmic and earthy creations. We need his cultivation.

In this new year, how is your garden? Do you need irrigation for dry soil? Do you need to diagnose diseased plants? Do you need to stop pests from nibbling your fruit? Or do you need to plow it all under and start ex nihilo? Let our garden-planting God guide you.

As we walk through the scripture with him, God will never stop cultivating our muddy, messy lives into the garden he always designed us to live in.


Image Note: The image used in today’s post is of the Butterfly Nebulae, located in the constellation of Scorpius.

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 did you share with a friend?

https://forms.gle/aSD7X5psHqjSMtBFA

Read more: God In the Dark

God still says “let there be light” and causes the Morningstar to rise in our hearts.

God In the Dark — Hope of Advent

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God Makes the Disabled Holy — 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 10 Read: 1 Kings 13 Listen: (5:14) Read:  Psalms 33 Listen: (2:08)
Oct 11 Read: 1 Kings 14 Listen: (5:22)  Read: Psalms 34 Listen: (2:14)
Oct 12 Read: 1 Kings 15 Listen: (5:30) Read:  Psalms 35 Listen: (3:21)

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:

Barbara, TN — That is a powerful clarification, John! Thank you!

This post was originally published on April 17, 2025, based on readings from Leviticus 21.21-23.

Scripture Focus: Leviticus 21.21-23

21 No descendant of Aaron the priest who has any defect is to come near to present the food offerings to the Lord. He has a defect; he must not come near to offer the food of his God. 22 He may eat the most holy food of his God, as well as the holy food; 23 yet because of his defect, he must not go near the curtain or approach the altar, and so desecrate my sanctuary. I am the Lord, who makes them holy.’ ”

Reflection: God Makes the Disabled Holy — Readers’ Choice

By John Tillman

Is God against the disabled?

Leviticus 21.21 seems, at face value, to devalue the disabled.

Is Yahweh breaking his own command from Leviticus 19.14 to not curse or put obstacles in front of the disabled? When Jesus cleared the Temple courts of merchants described as “thieves” and called the disabled to himself, was he “correcting” God’s mistake in Leviticus 21? (Matthew 21.12-14)

No. When we set Jesus against Yahweh (or Yahweh against Yahweh) we deny the essential unity among the godhead which is taught by Jesus, affirmed by the Father, and demonstrated by the Holy Spirit.

There are a few things to consider in this difficult-to-understand passage.

The disabled were not barred from worship or the Lord’s presence. Leviticus 21’s limits are only for priests and only for one specific priestly duty: offering sacrifices.

Disabled priests were barred from physically demanding duties. Serving at the altar involved killing and butchering the animals and carrying out the many physical requirements of the ritual for whatever sacrifice was being made. This physical labor may have been difficult for those with some of the disabilities mentioned.

Nothing, animal, vegetable, mineral, or human, that approached the altar was to have a defect. Sacrifices represented the perfect dying on behalf of the imperfect. Both animal and priest represented the people offering it. Priests “without defect” were mirror images of animals “without defect.” 

Disabled priests had full rights as priests. The disabled priests could not offer the food offerings, but their rights to eat from those offerings were identical to the other priests and they had no other limitations in their responsibilities.

God claimed disabled priests as his and made them holy. Describing a disabled priest’s limitation, God identified himself with them, saying, “his God.” (Leviticus 21.21) God is still their God and they are his priests. They are included when God says, “I am the Lord who makes them holy.” (Leviticus 21.23)

Today, many in our society threaten protections, education, and opportunities for the disabled. Our God makes the disabled holy along with us. Let us not allow anyone to label them as anything but equally blessed and loved by God.
In Christ, the disabled are priests of equal value, equal calling, equal standing, and share an equal blessing of the Holy Spirit. We must include them, not only in feasts, so that all will be blessed (Luke 14.13-14), but in every work of God within their capabilities.

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: Not So Random Acts of Kindness

The disabled community suffered greatly in the ancient world, often expelled as outcasts.

Not So Random Acts of Kindness

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The Fractal Church — 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 7 Read: 1 Kings 10 Listen: (4:27) Read:  Psalms 30 Listen: (1:32)

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:

Peter — This was beautiful both scientifically and literally. I was inspired by the call to be patterned after Christ, and it aligns well with the title Christian (which I am told means “little Christ”).

This post was originally published on August 22, 2024, based on readings from 1 Thessalonians 1.2-10 and John 15.5a.

Scripture Focus: 1 Thessalonians 1.2-10

2 We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. 3 We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 4 For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5 because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. 6 You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. 7 And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. 8 The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, 9 for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.

John 15.5a

5 “I am the vine; you are the branches.

Reflection: The Fractal Church — Readers’ Choice

By John Tillman

How does the message of the gospel reproduce despite hardship? How does good news echo in a chamber of suffering?

Fractals occur often in our universe. They are repeating patterns that are self-similar regardless of scale. Among the many places we find these recursive patterns are the shapes of shorelines and rivers, the limbs and leaves of plants, and the bronchi and bronchioles in human lungs.

In a tree, the branches are like the trunk. Their width and shape have a mathematical relationship to the trunk’s width. The limbs are like the branches, and the stems are like the limbs. The leaves on the stems contain veins that repeat and repeat the same shapes and mathematical patterns seen in the trunk, branch, limb, and stem. In a human lung or a river system, we can see a nearly identical fractal pattern.

Within the church, a self-similar, recursive, repeating pattern should occur. The church should be a fractal that repeats the pattern of Jesus. He is the vine. We are the branches.

Regardless of scale, the pattern should be the same. Whether there are tens of thousands or only two or three, Jesus, and the pattern of his life and teaching must be present. Jesus is the trunk, and the churches and people of different eras are the branches, limbs, stems, and leaves. At each stage and in every age, we are intended to reproduce the trunk’s pattern. If it is not so, then our gatherings are deformed. They are aberrations and mutations.

Paul lived among the Thessalonians, demonstrating the pattern of Jesus. They imitated him, reproducing the same pattern. That message and example rang out throughout their country, inspiring within other communities a self-similar group to begin repeating the pattern.

When the church becomes an imitator of Jesus and each member becomes an imitator of Jesus, the gospel’s message rings out beyond our communities to distant cities. The fruits of faith are carried to other climes where their seed is dropped.

The church cannot look like Jesus when her members fail or refuse to follow his pattern of life. Paul celebrated the Thessalonians’ faith, love, hope, and sacrifice that mimicked Jesus. May we celebrate and imitate it in our own lives and churches.

Faith produces work.

Love produces labor.

Hope produces endurance. (1 Thessalonians 1.3)

Plant these seeds in your life and your church’s life, be fruitful, and multiply.


From John: There are many ways of “doing church.” The church I am part of has a pattern of planting other churches and sending out our own members rather than only growing larger and larger. I will not disparage other churches’ strategies, however, I find this one “self-similar” to the pattern of the early church. This fall, one of the staff members I’m closest to will leave to start a church approximately an hour away. We won’t be joining the new church, but will you pray with me that not only their church plant, but many others will become self-similar imitators of Jesus within their communities? And will you pray for the church planting and evangelism efforts within your own denomination or church?

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 encouraged your faith?

https://forms.gle/aSD7X5psHqjSMtBFA

Read more about The Branch and the Branches

Christ’s righteousness flows into us and we are able to create holy space, shade under the limbs of God’s tree.

The Branch and the Branches
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The Shema and The Lord’s Prayer — 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 6  Read: 1 Kings 9 Listen: (4:16) Read: Psalms 28-29 Listen: (2:41)

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:

Russ, CA

Susan, TX — Come into my walled city and occupy me newly. All these furnishings, gifts, talents were provided by you. Take over and use them to draw others into your love.

This post was originally published on June 2, 2025, based on readings from Deuteronomy 6.3-9 and Matthew 6.9-13.

Scripture Focus: Deuteronomy 6.3-9

3 Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you.

4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Matthew 6.9-13

9 “This, then, is how you should pray:

“ ‘Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

10 your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

11 Give us today our daily bread.

12 And forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from the evil one.’

Reflection: The Shema and The Lord’s Prayer — Readers’ Choice

By John Tillman

Many people today pray daily using The Lord’s Prayer which Jesus taught his disciples in the New Testament. Jesus and his disciples however, already grew up saying a daily prayer. It was a prayer taken from Moses’ speech to the people about to enter the land and was, in Jesus’ day, said twice daily. Jesus answered using this prayer when he was asked what the greatest commandment in the law was. (Mark 12:28-34; Matthew 22.36-40)

This prayer is called, “the Shema.” The Shema takes its name from the first word of the prayer. The Hebrew word shema is sometimes translated to listen or hear. In this prayer, and elsewhere in scripture, hearing and obeying are intrinsically linked in the Hebrew language. Shema implies not just hearing words but carrying them out.

In The Lord’s Prayer, action is also implied. Praying “your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven,” is not intended to be a passive wish with no participation on our part. In both the Shema and The Lord’s Prayer, we are expected to engage in concrete actions once we stop praying.

We will pray today, combining these two prayers from scripture. Before you rise from prayer, ask God to guide your feet and hands to enact his word.

Hear, Listen, Obey

We ask you to hear us, God, but we need to hear you.|

You alone are God, our only Father in Heaven

Your name is holy as we are to be holy.
Father, Son, and Spirit are one, as we are to be one.

You alone are the provider of our bread.
You alone are the forgiver of our debts.

In return, Lord, we love you with all our heart, showing your love to others in forgiveness
In return, Lord, we love you with all our soul, opening our inner being to your indwelling
In return, Lord, we love you with all our strength. The strength of our body and mind, we give to you for your service and will.

Tie your Word to us that…
In your strength, may we resist temptation.
In your love, may we rescue the falling.
In your Spirit, may we speak the gospel with our words, carry the gospel with our feet, and enact the gospel with our hands.


Video: (Shema — The Bible Project)

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 pray more frequently?

https://forms.gle/aSD7X5psHqjSMtBFA

Read more: Public, Prayerful, Persistent Protest

Daniel prayed in defiance of an unjust law. He was guilty before the law of the land, but blameless before God.

Public, Prayerful, Persistent Protest