Category: 843 Acres

Posted on

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

Posted on

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
Posted on

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
Posted on

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

Posted on

Dream On — 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 2 Read: 1 Kings 4-5 Listen: (7:21) Read: Psalms 22 Listen: (3:49)

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:

Dave, TN — Thank you! He never leaves us. He is faithful.

Brian, DC — Many in my extended family can identify with this reflection. Some were never known or seen outside the family. Others were late bloomers whose gifts impacted people across the world. My brother and I think about these things a lot.

Barbara, TN — Hallelujah! Thank you for the explanation of the feelings that come with ups and downs! It is the downs in hindsight that leave me with more assurance of his care and presence!

This post was originally published on February 2, 2025, based on readings from Genesis 40.7-8, 23.

Scripture Focus: Genesis 40.7-8, 23

7 So he asked Pharaoh’s officials who were in custody with him in his master’s house, “Why do you look so sad today?” 8 “We both had dreams,” they answered, “but there is no one to interpret them.” Then Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.”

23 The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him.

Reflection: Dream On — Readers’ Choice

By John Tillman

From favorite to outcast. From a son treated like a prince to a slave treated like a criminal. From dream teller to dream interpreter.

The ups and downs of Joseph’s life sound exciting in a story but would be awful to live through.

Joseph was rejected, abused, and nearly killed for his dreams. After his brothers’ attack, the muck of the cistern, the shame of enslavement, the shock of sexual abuse, the scandal of false accusation and being imprisoned for something he did not do, he must have been questioning his and his family’s interpretation of his dreams.

Instead of the Sun, Moon, and stars bowing to him, Joseph is imprisoned. Instead of being the dreamer, he hears others’ dreams. Instead of sharing dreams that make others jealous, he hears others’ dreams and wishes for a similar outcome.

I’ve often wondered if interpreting the dreams of the prisoners was a flash of hope for Joseph or a mark of despair.

Was it exciting to use his skills? Or, was it a painful reminder of his apparent failure? Did it boost confidence that God would fulfill his dreams? Or did he wonder why these men’s dreams should be fulfilled within days while he waited years? Did he see them as encouragement from God? Or did he wonder why a pagan cupbearer’s dream should come true, when his dream, given by the one true God, seemed denied?

The repetition in the last verse of this chapter, I think, hints at Joseph’s mood. “The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him.” (Genesis 40.23) Repeatedly, Joseph’s hopes were dashed and his dreams crashed.

Do you feel unremembered? Forgotten? Have you been in a downward spiral away from the dreams you thought God had for you? Have you gotten cast into cisterns, mired in mud, mistreated, or thrown in a prison of doubt?

Joseph’s journey is a picture for us of the path of Jesus, our suffering savior. As we follow Jesus, we will walk this path too.

Joseph was not forgotten in prison. Jesus was not abandoned in the grave. Certainly we are not forgotten or abandoned when the ups of our lives turn to downs.

Let us remain faithful in the downs and humble in the ups. Not every dream is of God, but every dream from God will come true. All God’s promises are “yes,” in Jesus.

Dream on.

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 reminded you of Christ’s love?

https://forms.gle/aSD7X5psHqjSMtBFA

Read more: Inaugurating The Era of the Servant

Jesus is the fulfillment of every era and every need. Today, his body, the church, is called to live out the era of love and service.

Inaugurating The Era of the Servant