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Transformed by Koinonia  — Readers’ Choice

Scripture Focus: Philippians 1.4-6
4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Originally published on July 13, 2023, based on readings from Philippians 1.

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:
Gloria, Texas — I work with missionaries who serve all over the world and this makes me think of their work, their fellowship with other believers (even if far from them), and their connection to the Lord that gives them strength to keep serving…they are working to see more people transformed by koinonia.

Reflection: Transformed by Koinonia  — Readers’ Choice
By John Tillman

The word Paul uses to describe the partnership that he feels with the Philippian church is koinonia. Like many Greek words, it has multiple shades of meaning. The word in English primarily refers to the “fellowship” of the church as a community. This meaning is not incorrect, but another interpretation is of being a business partner or having a “share” or investment together in a business. 

Paul knows what it is to have partners in business, having supported himself at times through the skilled trade of tentmaking which he had in common with Priscilla and Aquila. However, the business to which Paul is referring, that we all have a share in, is the gospel.

The business of the gospel is the “putting right” of everything in the cosmos. And the means by which we do so is by “fellowship” or “partnership” with Christ Jesus, whose work continues until “the day of Christ Jesus.” There is no koinonia with Christ without change.

In this phrase, Paul is redefining the ancient Jewish concept of the “Day of the Lord.” This is the “last day” to which Martha refers when discussing her brother Lazarus’s future resurrection and is sometimes called the “eighth day” to symbolize that God is both ending and renewing creation.

This is a day when all will be put right. The day of Lord will be a day of leveling. It will mean tearing down those who have built themselves up and lifting up those who have been crushed.  Earth will be transformed into another place—a place in keeping with all that God desires for us, but we are too foolish to ask for or seek.

Christ’s correction of the cosmos is not limited to all that is without us but includes all that is within us. It is not just Earth that will be transformed but Earthlings. We, each of us, have an inner cosmos that must succumb to a “Day of the Lord” transformation. Within us are exalted idols and habits that must be torn down. Within us are fruits of the spirit that we have trampled under selfish feet.

As we submit to him, Jesus will, with axe and fire, tear down in us what must burn, and with tender nourishing care will tend and cultivate the fruit that he always designed to grow in us. Christ is our partner and our koinonia with him means every trial, suffering, isolation, loss, and sadness, shall work together for our betterment, strengthening, and righteousness.


Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
One thing have I asked of the Lord; one thing I seek; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life… — Psalm 27.5


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

Today’s Readings
1 Samuel 1 (Listen 4:13)
Hebrews 12 (Listen 4:36)

This Weekend’s Readings
1 Samuel 2 (Listen 6:09), Hebrews 13 (Listen 3:31)
1 Samuel 3 (Listen 3:03), 2 Timothy 1 (Listen 2:37)

Read more about A Rebellion of Repentance
The repentance John describes is a rebellion more radical than violent insurrection.

A Rebellion of Repentance

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Anger Industrial Complex  — Readers’ Choice

Scripture Focus: Ephesians 4.25-32
25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body. 26 “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 and do not give the devil a foothold. 28 Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.

29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. 

Originally published on October 4, 2022, based on readings from Ephesians 4.

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:
Jason, Austin, TX — A great perspective on anger and how our culture weaponizes it for material gain.

Reflection: Anger Industrial Complex  — Readers’ Choice
By John Tillman

The Christian relationship to anger is complex. God gets angry. Jesus gets angry. Christians can be angry too. Anger can be an appropriate reaction to injustice and suffering. Anger can be a fruit of love. Anger can be a requirement for social change. However, anger is also a “Deadly Sin.” Deadly sins are ones that produce and lead to other sins.

We need to escape sinful anger while acting on godly, righteous anger. How?

Our culture is addicted to anger. We play anger for laughs in our entertainment. We signal our virtue with anger. We get applause when we are angry at the “right” things. Yet, we judge others for their anger. We mock those triggered or angered by things we deem insignificant.

Anger affects us in many ways. It warps our humanity. Anger can form grooves, patterns, in our lives that affect our identity, transforming us into people of anger, rather than people of God.

Anger hinders our relationship with God. Paul considered anger a severe problem. Elders in the church could be disqualified if “given over to anger.”

Anger makes us vulnerable to human and spiritual manipulation. Paul says anger gives the devil a foothold in our lives but it also gives a foothold to manipulative politicians and media voices. This “anger industrial complex” sows tares of outrage in our hearts and harvests profits from the crop of our anger. 

Anger crouches at our doors, and on our devices, ready to take us down a path leading eventually to violence. Anger will rule us or we will rule it. 

We must ask, “Why am I angry?” and “How can I turn anger toward loving action?”

Anger is often sinful when rooted in self-love, fear, insecurity, and pride. We think, “I deserve better.” “I’ll never allow that to happen again.” We must turn these thoughts over to God and starve our lives of the voices that prompt these demands.

Even “selfless” anger can spur us to sinful actions. Actions springing from righteous anger will always be inherently righteous. If what anger motivates us to do is sinful, then either the anger itself or our reaction to it is sinful.

Rather than comforting ourselves with anger, let us comfort ourselves with God’s peace. His peace will lead to flourishing. Our anger will only lead to failure and violence.

*Based on my notes from a sermon by JR Vassar, at Church at the Cross. See the full sermon here.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
I am like a green olive tree in the house of God; I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever. — Psalm 52.8

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

Today’s Readings
Ruth 3-4 (Listen 6:24)
Hebrews 11 (Listen 6:22)

Read more about Two Lamechs, One Jesus
Noah’s world was cursed by anger, hatred, division, and sin. Sound familiar?

Two Lamechs, One Jesus

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For Better or For Worse — Readers’ Choice

Scripture Focus: Ezekiel 20:32-33, 37
32 “‘You say, “We want to be like the nations, like the peoples of the world, who serve wood and stone.” But what you have in mind will never happen. 33 As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I will reign over you with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with outpoured wrath…

37 I will take note of you as you pass under my rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant.

Originally published on October 20, 2022, based on readings from Ezekiel 20.

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:
Susan, California — Erin, This is a jewel of a passage and commentary. How encouraging to me! But I grieve that I know so many who are unable to grasp the hope because they are struggling to fashion a new religion in which every limitation which doesn’t line up with their concept of a loving God must be jettisoned. This includes His use of pain as discipline and recovery. Thank God for this assurance He will never let us escape the bonds of His covenant. I am so grateful that you, Erin, are there to speak these truths in a female voice. The Park Forum offers a great balance of male and female responses.

Barbara, Tennessee — Wow. Sobering.

Reflection: For Better or For Worse — Readers’ Choice
By Erin Newton

Israel was bound to God and God to them in covenant. It was a relationship in which God is glorified and the people receive his blessing. It was bound by the immutable word of God himself.

Despite the infidelity of Israel, her idolatry, and oppression of the weak, God never released them from that covenant. They chose other gods to worship and corrupted the whole concept of monotheism. Yet through it all, nothing could separate them from God.

In Ezekiel 20, God reminds the people of this bond. The people have openly rejected him and declared their intention to worship something else. They want to punt the faith. “What you have in mind will never happen.”

Can you reject God and flee from his presence? In our minds, we think it’s possible. Psalm 139:7-10 echoes the impossibility of departing from God.

7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
    if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
    your right hand will hold me fast.

Like Israel, we have been covenanted with God. It is the new covenant, sealed by the Spirit, sealed upon our hearts. There is much talk about deconstruction with some defining the term as the rejection of the faith entirely. Yet we see in Ezekiel that when God has given himself in a covenant, it is unmovable.

For Israel, the people needed to deconstruct the way they had been practicing religion. Their so-called worship of God was corrupt and manipulated. Priests and leaders had allowed faith to turn into idolatry.

Israel wanted to move on to some other form of worship not realizing their God had been with them all along. Return to him. That is the message for Israel. God would say the same to us today.

Is our deconstruction leading us to different idols or are we searching for true, undefiled worship? Can we see how God will be with us in our wandering? Through pain, the Israelites will return to the Lord. Refining our faith can be painful. This is a call for us to examine what exactly we are trying to reject.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting
The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined from ore and purified seven times in fire. — Psalm 12.6

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

Today’s Readings
Ruth 2  (Listen 3:56)
Hebrews 10 (Listen 5:33)

Read more about Presence is Precious
The presence of God is a gift of grace made available to those who seek it, recognizing it as the precious thing that it is.

Presence is Precious

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Idolatry as Parody — Readers’ Choice

Scripture Focus: Jeremiah 10.11-14
11 “Tell them this: ‘These gods, who did not make the heavens and the earth, will perish from the earth and from under the heavens.’ ” 
12 But God made the earth by his power; 
he founded the world by his wisdom 
and stretched out the heavens by his understanding. 
13 When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar; 
he makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth. 
He sends lightning with the rain 
and brings out the wind from his storehouses. 
14 Everyone is senseless and without knowledge; 
every goldsmith is shamed by his idols. 
The images he makes are a fraud; 
they have no breath in them.

Originally published on August 16, 2022, based on readings from Jeremiah 10.

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:
Brian, Montana — How true. May the idols be removed from our lives. We are definitely livings in days similar to Jeremiah’s. God is the only cure.

Barbara, Tennessee — I needed to pray through some things – cultural fears as I age especially! Thanks for this challenge to replace the imitation with the Truth!

Reflection: Idolatry as Parody — Readers’ Choice
By John Tillman

Jeremiah encouraged idolaters to look again at God compared to their idols.

God made the world:
God’s spirit hovered over chaotic nothingness and, by his words, the earth came to be. By his power the mountains were lifted. By his wisdom heavenly bodies took their places. By his understanding the hidden realities of DNA strands, quantum particles, and things science has yet to discover were created. God calls us to serve him, but it is actually he who serves us.

Humans make idols:
Our spirits, disconnected from God, sink in chaos and we are desperate to ground ourselves in something tangible. In our weakness we cast about for symbols of strength (that will yield to our whims). In foolishness we mold realities that center on our needs. In ignorance we claim perfect knowledge and understanding, cutting out of our lives anything that contradicts us. We make our idols to serve us, but we end up serving them. 

We become like our idols: fraudulent, shameful, unable to think, and unable to respond. Our hearts harden and our ears tune out and our eyes glaze over.

We think of idol-making as primitive and foolish. The Bible dumps scorn on the practice. It describes how foolish it is to make idols from worldly things when the world and everything in it was made by God. Idolaters worship the derivative rather than the original—the parody rather than the artist.

But are we that different from Jeremiah’s idolatrous audience?

Don’t we make idols of the things culture tells us are important? Careers? Sexual expression? Perfect spouses? Perfect bodies? Perfect families? Power? Influence? Politics? Don’t we pay and sacrifice, expecting these things to protect us, guide us, lead us, teach us?

Our idols make us senseless. God will give sight and hearing to the blind and the deaf.
Our idols make us ignorant. God will give wisdom to those who seek it.
Our idols shame us. God will lift up the humble.
Our idols defraud us. God will have mercy on us.

We need to, with regularity, search through the temples of our hearts for idols that slip in with our culture. No one is immune. No one has arrived. Bring out your idols and compare them to God. Then let him replace them with himself.


Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
Bow down your ear, O Lord, and answer me… Keep watch over my life, for I am faithful. — Psalm 86.1-2


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


Today’s Readings
Ruth 1  (Listen 3:33)
Hebrews 9  (Listen 4:40)

Read more about Normalizing Idols
Love is a greater ethic than knowledge or freedom. When knowledge leads us toward pride, let love lead us toward humility.

Normalizing Idols

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Woe, Whoa, Wow — Readers’ Choice

Scripture Focus: Matthew 11:20–24
Then Jesus began to denounce the towns in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. 21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22 But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. 23 And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades.  For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. 24 But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”

Originally published on February 17th, 2023, based on readings from Matthew 11.

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:
Jason, Austin, Texas — “Clinging to my unbelief” really spoke to me. It hadn’t thought about it like that.
Brad, Texas — From woe to wow. That’s a zinger.


Reflection: Woe, Whoa, Wow — Readers’ Choice
By John Tillman

Keanu Reeves made “whoa” famous. Owen Wilson did the same for “wow.” These words express a sense of amazement and wonder. (Or sometimes a sarcastic lack of wonder.)

Jesus repeatedly says something that sounds similar: woe. These woes are statements of judgment, not amazement. However, as Jesus reluctantly pronounced judgment on these cities he was amazed. Despite all he showed them, including miracles and healings, people didn’t believe. Jesus said to them, as God said to ancient Israel and Judah through the prophets, “What more could I have done? Why will you stubbornly refuse to believe?” (Ezekiel 33.11)

Often, our culture thinks faith is something one must cling to without a shred of surety. We want “evidence,” “proof,” or “a sign” to believe God. Even believers want signs. We want “proof” that good things will happen when we step out in faith to witness, change jobs, or give sacrificially.

Faith can be clung to, like a life raft, in a sea of doubt. (And aren’t we glad it can?) But unbelief can also be clung to in a sea of evidence. We should ask ourselves if we are clinging to doubt. Are we using a demand for certainty to fend off faith? 

The condemned towns had a special opportunity and they wasted it. They still rejected Jesus. To whom much is given, much is expected. (Luke 12.47-48) We might wish that we had the same opportunity they had: to see Jesus in the flesh, to see healings, etc. But Jesus also said, “To those who are faithful with a little, more will be given.”

If we are faithful with what we are given, we will see more. There are many things given to us so that we may believe. But the best two to focus on are the Bible, a miracle you can hold in your hands, and prayer, our miraculous heart-to-heart connection with God. How we steward these gifts may affect what other signs we see. Maybe the reason we don’t see evidence of the next step of faith, is because we haven’t taken the step that we have been shown?

Also, perhaps your stepping out in faith to act is the evidence someone else needs. Just prior to this chapter, Jesus sent his disciples out to the towns with miracles, messages, and peace. To whom might Jesus be sending you?

Perhaps your faithful obedience can take them from “woe” to “wow.”


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

Today’s Readings
Judges 21  (Listen 3:47)
Hebrews 8  (Listen 2:22)

Read more about Jesus with Axe and Fire
John the Baptist describes a Christ who stands ready with both axe and fire.

Jesus with Axe and Fire

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