What Time is It?

  • March 15, 2024
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  • John Tillman

Scripture Focus: Ecclesiastes 3.1-8
1 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

From John: Since we posted this prayer in 2022, some of these prayers have been answered. Let us not be weary. May we keep praying. Harvest, judgment, is coming.Reflection: What Time is It?
By John Tillman

There is a time. There is a season.

There are many well-known poems in the Bible. The poem describing the creation of humans. (Genesis 1.27) The Psalm of the good shepherd. (Psalm 23) The Lord’s prayer. (Luke 11.2-4) Paul’s poem about love. (1 Corinthians 13)

The teacher’s poem about time and seasons, however, might be the most well-known biblical poem in our culture. No small part of its fame is that it was turned into a megahit song by The Byrds, released in 1969. The song landed in a turbulent era. It seemed that the song’s opposites were all flooding the world and contending against each other. 

Our time is not so different from that time. We see, hear, and feel all around us the elements of the song. Love and hate, war and peace, deconstruction and reconstruction, sowing and harvesting, mourning and joy, harm and healing. 

Reading a little further, we find that the teacher also tells us of another time and season. There will be a time “to judge every deed.” There will be a season when the unseen will be seen and both the righteous and the unrighteous will face a time of judgment.

What time is it? What season are we in?

Today, let us pray that we will understand the times and seasons that we find ourselves in using some scriptures focused on seasons.

Thank God for his assurance and presence in all seasons.
Ask him to depose wickedness (within and without us) and grant us wisdom.

He changes times and seasons;
    he deposes kings and raises up others.
He gives wisdom to the wise
    and knowledge to the discerning. (Daniel 2.21)   Pray for strength to prioritize gospel cultivation.

Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. (2 Timothy 4.2)

Pray for grace to understand the present time.

And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. (Romans 13.11)

Rest in him. He holds all things together.

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. (2 Peter 3.8)

The time to do good is always now. Let us not be weary in it, for the time of harvest is coming. (Galatians 6.9)

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
God is a righteous judge; God sits in judgment every day. — Psalm 7.12

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

​Today’s Readings
Ecclesiastes 3 (Listen 3:02)
Psalm 51 (Listen 2:19)

​This Weekend’s Readings
Ecclesiastes 4 (Listen 2:18), Psalm 52-54 (Listen 2:10)
Ecclesiastes 5 (Listen 2:50), Psalm 55 (Listen 3:18)

Read more about Miracles of Deliverance and Judgment
We pray for more than just miracles of weapons that do not prosper against the innocent. We pray for the even more miraculous deliverance of the hearts of evil leaders to change.

Miracles of Deliverance and Judgment

Read more about Why Do We Need the Leading of the Spirit?
The leading of the Spirit—O, how highly necessary is it! Who can be without it?

Why Do We Need the Leading of the Spirit? :: Throwback Thursday

Over the Brink of Success

  • March 14, 2024
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  • John Tillman

Scripture Focus: Ecclesiastes 2.10-11, 15-18
10 I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; 
I refused my heart no pleasure. 
My heart took delight in all my labor, 
and this was the reward for all my toil. 
11 Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done 
and what I had toiled to achieve, 
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; 
nothing was gained under the sun. 

15 Then I said to myself, 
“The fate of the fool will overtake me also. 
What then do I gain by being wise?” 
I said to myself, 
“This too is meaningless.” 
16 For the wise, like the fool, will not be long remembered; 
the days have already come when both have been forgotten. 
Like the fool, the wise too must die! 

17 So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. 18 I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me.

Reflection: Over the Brink of Success
By John Tillman

Proverbs gives us expectations about wisdom and its outcomes. The wise prosper, find success, and are satisfied. Then Ecclesiastes dumps cold water on our optimism.

People love stories from the brink. We’ve all heard testimonies from those who approached the brink through drug use, alcoholism, sex, greed, or violence. They reached the edge, saw emptiness, and turned back. Ecclesiastes feels like one of those stories. However, Ecclesiastes is not about reaching the brink of failure or addiction. The teacher plunges over the brink of success and finds an equally empty void of meaninglessness. 

“All is meaningless,” says the teacher. “Trust me. You think wealth will satisfy you? Doing what you love? A great job? Impressive accomplishments? Unlimited sex? Sorry, folks. I did it all and it’s all meaningless”

The word translated “meaningless” is difficult. Many Bible translations render it as “vanity.” It means something transitory or unsatisfactory. Its figurative meaning is like vapor or breath. Ecclesiastes clarifies, saying it is like “chasing after the wind.” Imagine grabbing a handful of smoke. The smell of it might still be on your hands and clothes, but there is nothing substantial there.

How can Solomon, the teacher of the book, say “all is meaningless”? Isn’t one of the strengths of our faith that it gives us meaning? Is Solomon jaded and dissatisfied? Did he misuse the unique wisdom God gave to him?

The teacher sees the world as it is, up close and to excess. Whether sex, wealth, or the wisdom (and foolish idolatry) of other cultures, Solomon drank deeply of it all. It was, at least partially, a lived-out experiment.

This experiment comes at a cost of grief. Humans bit the fruit in the garden because it was “useful for gaining knowledge.” (Genesis 3.6) Solomon takes a big bite of the world’s so-called knowledge, as do we all. 

It is uncomfortable to hear the success we long for is pointless, but it’s healthy. We can’t succeed our way to joy, pleasure ourselves into love, or spend our way into significance. Joy, love, and significance come to those who pursue the treasure of our gracious God, not the trophies of a ruthless world. (Matthew 13.44)

The wisdom of Proverbs and the wisdom of Ecclesiastes are not in conflict. Both call us to trust not in attaining success but in attuning our lives to God’s voice and our to actions his purpose.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
Send out your light and your truth, that they may lead me, and bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling. — Psalm 43.3

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

​Today’s Readings
Ecclesiastes 2 (Listen 4:03)
Psalm 50 (Listen 2:26)

Read more about Solomon’s Folly
Most people seek to retest Solomon’s findings. “Sure, sure, wealth and pleasure are meaningless,” we say, “but let me try.”

Solomon’s Folly

Read more about Supporting Our Work
Our work depends on the continuous support of donors like you. Please consider financially supporting our ad-free biblical content.

Supporting our Work

Inspired Utterance

  • March 11, 2024
  • /
  • John Tillman

Scripture Focus: Proverbs 30.1-5
1 The sayings of Agur son of Jakeh—an inspired utterance. 
This man’s utterance to Ithiel: 
“I am weary, God, 
but I can prevail. 
2 Surely I am only a brute, not a man; 
I do not have human understanding. 
3 I have not learned wisdom, 
nor have I attained to the knowledge of the Holy One. 
4 Who has gone up to heaven and come down? 
Whose hands have gathered up the wind? 
Who has wrapped up the waters in a cloak? 
Who has established all the ends of the earth? 
What is his name, and what is the name of his son? 
Surely you know! 
5 “Every word of God is flawless; 
he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.

Reflection: Inspired Utterance
By John Tillman

We do not know who Agur, Jakeh, or Ithiel are. They are mentioned nowhere else in scripture. 

Agur expresses that without God’s wisdom, humans are little better than brute animals. This could be a general description of our culture. 

Our culture claims to set us free, allowing our individual hearts, feelings, experiences, and opinions to self-determine truth, right, and wrong, however, this doesn’t set anyone free. “Personal truth” makes every person a dictator who must either enslave the world to their “truth” or be enslaved by the conflicting “truths” of others.

“Follow your hearts” sounds supportive until someone follows their heart to commit adultery, rape, or create pornography. “Do what feels good” sounds fun until someone “feels good” making racist artwork, overdosing on drugs, or defrauding the poor. “Speak your truth” sounds freeing until one person’s truth causes deaths (or war) over a lie.

Agur, whoever he is, must have read Job. His writing reflects Job’s concepts. Agur knows we need a dose of humility. He issues a challenge to himself and to the reader — a challenge for those who think themselves wise. “Have you gone to heaven? Have you gathered the wind, held the waters, set the boundaries of the earth? If you didn’t, surely you know who did!”

If Agur read Job, Jesus seems to have read them both. Jesus echoed Agur when he said, “No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.” (John 3.11-13) Jesus also expected that those who “study the scriptures diligently” should find, not just wisdom, but testimony about himself. (John 5.39-40) All scripture testifies about Jesus and the wisdom we find there is from him. (Luke 24.27)

We may not know who Agur is, but we know the name of the Holy One he reveres and references — the source of true wisdom. The setter of the boundaries of the earth, the holder of the waters, the gatherer of the wind, and the one who comes down from heaven, is Jesus. He is the flawless Word of God and is a shield to all who take refuge in him.

In his refuge we find wisdom, peace, mercy, and understanding that can change us from brutish beings enslaved to our urges into true humans — images of God upon the earth.

Lord, give to us inspired utterances that reveal you to others as the source of wisdom.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Righteousness and justice are the foundations of your throne; love and truth go before your face. — Psalm 89.14

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

Today’s Readings
Proverbs 30 (Listen 3:51)
Psalm 46-47 (Listen 2:15)

Read more about Blessings of the Dispossessed
“Cause I can see a people dispossessed 
Broken and brave in the face of so much fear 
Driven from their homes by the greed of a nation 
Whose treaties were as good as litter 
Along the trail of their tears”

Blessings of the Dispossessed

Read more about Honoring The Truth
Seeking the truth is not only a spiritual quest. It is sometimes a civic one. Or a legal one.

Honoring The Truth

Streams of Scripture

  • March 8, 2024
  • /
  • John Tillman

Scripture Focus: Psalm 27.1-3
1 As the deer pants for streams of water, 
so my soul pants for you, my God. 
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. 
When can I go and meet with God? 
3 My tears have been my food 
day and night, 
while people say to me all day long, 
“Where is your God?”

Reflection: Streams of Scripture
By John Tillman

In arid regions, there are rivers and streams that only exist at certain times. These wadis are dry, dead depressions in the landscape for much of the year. Some are little more than ditches. Some are like miniature canyons.

These dusty gulches can go from empty to overflowing in minutes due to rain nearby or rain miles and miles away on higher plains or mountains. When snowmelt or heavy rains rush down from the peaks and the high plains, wadis in the desert flow with water and spring to life.

Wadis can become a source of water but dry up as quickly as they fill up. Animals accustomed to finding water in these places can be in distress when they come to a wadi and find it dry.

The writer of Psalm 27 reflects on the distressed sound of deer in the desert, crying out in thirst. The animal cries out in desperate need searching for signs of water. The psalmist cries out in desperate need searching for God.

Jesus may have had this psalm in mind as he prayed in Gethsemane. Jesus’ words, “overwhelmed with sorrow” (Matthew 26.38) echo the psalmist’s phrase, “Why my soul are you downcast?” In the middle of a garden Jesus experienced a spiritual desert. 

Our lives, especially our spiritual lives, can seem like arid regions. One day, the wadi flows and we feel connected to God. Another, it is dry and we long for greater connection. But we can access water from a higher plane, a greater source, that makes streams in the desert.

Psalm 1 says when we delight in the scriptures, they become like water that fills a tree with life and makes it productive, healthy, and full of good fruit. Jesus, in one of his darkest moments, found scripture within his downcast soul. When you know the scriptures inside and out, they get inside you and come out of you. We need scripture hidden in our hearts for our soul’s darkest moments.

If Jesus experienced dry times, we will, too. During dry days, we can search our souls for streams of scripture. Like animals in the wilderness, calling out in need, we can call on the Holy Spirit to fill our dry depressions. The dusty canyons of our souls can be filled with the living water that Jesus gives, becoming a fountain within us, overflowing with life.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Small Verse
Let me seek the Lord while he may still be found. I will call upon his name; while he is near. 

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


​Today’s Readings
Proverbs 27 (Listen 2:43)
Psalms 42-43 (Listen 2:31)

This Weekend’s Readings
Proverbs 28 (Listen 3:07), Psalm 44 (Listen 2:44)
Proverbs 29 (Listen 2:44), Psalm 45 (Listen 2:17)

Read more about Sluggish Grief
Emotional experience is like traveling across mountains…the bright ascent to the peak…But…we must descend into the valley, the dark woods.

Sluggish Grief

Read more about Be With Me
The weight of our sadness reflects the hope of a beautiful life that has been tragically altered.
But we are not alone. God is near to the brokenhearted…

Be With Me

Answering Fools

  • March 7, 2024
  • /
  • John Tillman

Scripture Focus: Proverbs 26.4-5, 9, 12
4 Do not answer a fool according to his folly,
or you yourself will be just like him.
5 Answer a fool according to his folly,
or he will be wise in his own eyes.

9 Like a thornbush in a drunkard’s hand
is a proverb in the mouth of a fool.

12 Do you see a person wise in their own eyes?
There is more hope for a fool than for them.

Reflection: Answering Fools
By John Tillman

Answer a fool. Don’t answer a fool. This famous mirrored pair of proverbs is almost a metaphor for the entire collection. Alone, either one of them makes sense. Together they seem absurd. Surely they can’t both be right? Surely neither of them can be wrong?

Firstly, we shouldn’t become fools.

Being wise isn’t as easy as just quoting a proverb or even putting it into practice. Even wise words can cause harm when foolish people quote them. Proverbs’ vivid picture of this is a drunken man, wildly swinging a thornbush. The man, anyone around him, and anyone trying to help are likely to be harmed.

We need wisdom to know how to use wisdom. When we quote aphorisms without regard to the situation, we are like that drunken thornbush-waving fool. “Pray more.” “Have a little faith.” “Is there sin in your life?” All three of these statements are scripturally valid and, at the right time, could be wise things to say. They will also wound someone who is suffering if we wave them around wildly. To a mother whose child is sick, any of the above statements are likely to feel like an attack.

Secondly, we should pursue wisdom humbly. 

Proverbs is a book of hope for fools. It calls to us to become wise and warns of something worse than being a fool — being wise in our own eyes. We all start foolish and simple. Lady Wisdom invites us to wisdom. Lady Folly whispers a lie that we’ve already arrived. Can we prevent others from falling into this trap? Can we prevent ourselves from doing so?

Do we answer fools or not? Do we try to remove the thornbush from the drunkard’s hand? 

Frustratingly, I think the answer is, “sometimes.” Sometimes, perhaps we can help fools stumble toward true wisdom. Sometimes the best thing we can do is help others avoid the thornbush-waving fools. In either case, we should take care and be humble. We can’t save everyone from their own foolishness, especially when we are still at risk of it ourselves.

Whatever we can do to prevent ourselves and those around us from becoming wise in our own eyes is probably worth the risk. We may be scratched by the thorns, but so was our savior. And he endured them to save fools like us.


Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Send forth your strength, O God; establish, O God, what you have wrought for us. — Psalm 68.28

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


​Today’s Readings
Proverbs 26 (Listen 2:37)
Mark 16 (Listen 5:34)

Read more about Destiny of Grass vs Cedars
There are purposes for the flourishing of the wicked and one of them is that one day the world will see them fall.

Destiny of Grass vs Cedars

Read more about RSVP to Wisdom or Folly
Two hostesses beckon. Which banquet will you enter? Who gets your RSVP?

RSVP to Wisdom or Folly