We are happy to welcome ministry-focused college and seminary students from around the country to write in June of 2020 for The Park Forum. Each of them is pursuing a career in ministry and received free coaching on their writing as a part of the program. For more information about the program and a profile of each of our student writers, visit our Student Writers Month page.

Today’s student writer is Carolyn Soto Jackson, a student at Truett Seminary.

Scripture Focus: Isaiah 41.10
Fear not, for I am with you;
Be not dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you,
Yes, I will help you,
I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.

Reflection: Faith Over Fear
By Carolyn Soto Jackson

Over the last few months, we have witnessed fear rear its ugly head in so many different forms with the Covid-19 pandemic. Our neighbors all over the world found themselves scavenging stores with empty shelves because of hysteria. 

This disease came out of nowhere killing our family and friends, wreaking havoc all over the world. Businesses shut down, careers were put on hold, and we were ordered to stay home until further notice. What seemed nearly impossible, came to pass. So, why shouldn’t we succumb to fear like many of those in the world? 

Because we are believers and we are confident in God’s promises when He commands us to, “Fear not”.  

When God repeats Himself, He is trying to get our attention. “Fear not” in Isaiah 41 is not an exception. This famously repeated command in the Bible is written three hundred and sixty-five times and seems imperative in our current situation. 

Shortly after the command, two powerful promises come from our Lord. We need not be afraid, first,  because He is our God and, second, because He will help us. We are His chosen people and He does not take the lives of His children lightly. Unlike the false idols created by man, God does not topple down when trials and tribulation arise. On the contrary, He rises up!  

When we intentionally choose to have faith over fear, we surrender our will to God’s. This heart posture then allows God to be our Provider and Protector. We want to take control of our lives especially when we are stretched thin, because we think we know what is best. This is a façade or illusion. 

We do not know because the only One who knows is Our God. In times of distress, we tend to act irrationally out of fear. We act out in our heightened emotions without thinking it all the way though. It takes one innocuous spark of fear to set a wildfire of nefarious behavior. 

But, we have a choice. We can choose to freak out or fear not. Our intentional choice to have faith over fear will not only break strongholds but it gives the Lord the Authority to make a way where there seems to be no way.   

Fear not child, God is in control.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
From now onwards all generations will call me blessed, for the Almighty has done great things for me. — Luke 1.48

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle

Today’s Readings
Isaiah 41 (Listen – 5:00) 
Revelation 11 (Listen – 3:24)

Read more about Fear in the Boat
Fear is overcome; don’t be afraid. In the world you are frightened. But be comforted; I have conquered the world!

Read more about The Way of Love Amidst Fear
Fear is natural and one shouldn’t be ashamed of being afraid. However, the response of a Christian must be supernatural.

We are happy to welcome ministry-focused college and seminary students from around the country to write in June of 2020 for The Park Forum. Each of them is pursuing a career in ministry and received free coaching on their writing as a part of the program. For more information about the program and a profile of each of our student writers, visit our Student Writers Month page.

Today’s student writer is Dennis Nicholson, a student at Liberty University.

Scripture Focus: Isaiah 40:26-27
26 Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:
    Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one
    and calls forth each of them by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
    not one of them is missing.
27 Why do you complain, Jacob?
    Why do you say, Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord;
    my cause is disregarded by my God”?

Reflection: Faithful Through Exile
By Dennis Nicholson

Throughout his writings, Isaiah likes to jump around in time. Most of his prophecies foretell future events like the exile. But Isaiah also speaks at length about Israel’s present sins and sprinkles in historical narratives to illustrate his prophecies. 

Isaiah 40 marks a particularly sudden leap forward. We’ve just read about Hezekiah welcoming the Babylonian envoys and Isaiah’s harrowing prophecies of exile. These events would have been familiar to the people of Judah. 

But imagine the confusion in a public reading when they heard the next verses. “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God … Proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed.” (Isaiah 40:1-2). What a stark contrast! Not only does Isaiah speak of comfort, he speaks of it as if it’s at the very gates—as if the exile’s already over. 

When we read these words, we rejoice, remembering God’s past redemption of his people. But if we lived in Israel, we might be tempted to complain. Isaiah might speak of comfort in the present tense, but for Judah, comfort feels distant. Judgment seems like the starker reality. How can God promise salvation when he also promises exile? Does he truly care about his people? Or does he stand as far off as the comfort he promises?

In response to these questions, Isaiah reminds us of God’s timeless perspective. Exile might loom over Israel, but God sits enthroned over the whole world (Isaiah 40:22). Like a good shepherd, he gathers his people, tends to their wounds, and restores them to his sheepfold in Zion (Isaiah 40:11). Though Judah has been faithless, God is faithful. He will bring comfort.

The God who calls the stars by name will call his people out of exile (Isaiah 40:26).

For us, the exile of Judah is itself a distant event. And yet, in many ways, we live in exile today. We witness racial injustice, violence, bigotry, haughtiness. We struggle with acedia and anger and apathy. Maybe we too wonder if God really walks alongside us (Isaiah 40:27).

But in the midst of exile, comfort is near—at the very gates. For the Lord is not slow in keeping his promise but patient, longing for all his sheep to return to him (2 Peter 3:9).

“Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord” (Hosea 6:1).

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
O Lord, watch over us and save us from this generation for ever. —- Psalm 12.7

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle

Today’s Readings
Isaiah 40 (Listen – 5:09) 
Revelation 10 (Listen – 1:59)

Read more about Knowing Promises in Part
In Isaiah three things are being described at the same time—the destruction of Israel in the immediate future, the return from exile in the near future, and the reconstruction of Israel in the far future.

Read more about Hope Amidst Destruction
Even among the destruction of what is coming to Judah in Isaiah’s prophecies, there is hope. God promises to place his glory over the remnant, like a tent or shelter.

We are happy to welcome ministry-focused college and seminary students from around the country to write in June of 2020 for The Park Forum. Each of them is pursuing a career in ministry and received free coaching on their writing as a part of the program. For more information about the program and a profile of each of our student writers, visit our Student Writers Month page.

Today’s student writer is Joshua B. Fikkert, a student at Covenant Theological Seminary.

Scripture Focus: Isaiah 37:14-20
14 Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord. 15 And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord:16 “Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 17 Give ear, Lord, and hear; open your eyes, Lord, and see; listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God.

18 “It is true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these peoples and their lands.19 They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands. 20 Now, Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, Lord, are the only God.”

Reflection: A Tale of Two Kings
By Joshua B. Fikkert

What is the first thing you do when you are in a crisis? 

If you are like me, your first instinct is to seek a solution on your own, and you exhaust yourself thinking through every possible solution, plan, or contingency to fix the problem. This stubborn desire to fix our own problems is rooted in our chief sin of pride, our desire to be like God (Genesis 3:5-6).

The book of Isaiah brilliantly demonstrates the destructive nature of pride and the power of humility in the stories of King Ahaz and of his son, King Hezekiah. Ahaz’s pride created a generational catastrophe, which Hezekiah was forced to deal with. 

When faced with the threat of foreign invasion, Ahaz looked for a tangible solution of his own making. In spite of Isaiah’s insistence that God would save Judah, Ahaz begged for help from Assyria to deliver them. (Isaiah 7:10-12).

The result of Ahaz’s pride was devastating. Instead of helping Ahaz, Assyria defeated Judah’s enemies and then turned on Judah, forcing them into servitude (2 Kings 16:10-18). 

After Ahaz’s death, Hezekiah was left to handle the crisis created by his father’s pride. The Assyrian army surrounded Jerusalem, and destruction was certain. But unlike Ahaz, Hezekiah did not seek a solution of his own making. He humbled himself and sought divine aid. He asked for Isaiah to pray on his behalf (Isaiah 37:2), he sought the presence of God in the temple, and he came before the Lord in prayer. 

The humble prayer of Hezekiah proved powerful and effective. God answered his prayer, and Judah was spared by a mighty act of divine grace (Isaiah 37:36-37). 

When we face trials of various kinds, we must resist the temptation to take matters into our own hands. We must resist the allure of pride, which tells us we can fix our problems on our own. 

We know we have a God who answers and who delivers his people from trouble. We have a God who saves. Therefore, our first response, no matter what the crisis is, should be to call on the name of the Lord. Petitioning for God’s help is not our last resort. It is the first one. 

Let us cast “the burdens of this world upon the strong shoulders of the one who alone is able to bear them up” (Douglas McKelvey, “A Liturgy For Those Flooded By Too Much Information”).

*We will forgo the Divine Hours prayer today, replacing it with a quote from the prayer quoted above by Douglas McKelvey.

“…remind us that we are but small
and finite creatures, never designed to carry
the vast abstractions of great burdens,
for our arms are too short and our strength
is too small. Justice and mercy, healing and
redemption, are your great labors.”

Today’s Readings
Isaiah 37 (Listen – 6:47) 
Revelation 7 (Listen – 3:12)

This Weekend’s Readings
Isaiah 38 (Listen – 3:20) Revelation 8 (Listen – 2:15)
Isaiah 39 (Listen – 1:35) Revelation 9 (Listen – 3:30)

Read more about The Losers Who Write History
Micah, it seems, lived in a time when dissent was not considered unpatriotic disloyalty. Hezekiah, listened, repented, and the prophesied disaster was, seemingly, averted.

Read more about Political Promises
May we speak up for the downtrodden and helpless no matter which party is against them.

We are happy to welcome ministry-focused college and seminary students from around the country to write in June of 2020 for The Park Forum. Each of them is pursuing a career in ministry and received free coaching on their writing as a part of the program. For more information about the program and a profile of each of our student writers, visit our Student Writers Month page.

Today’s student writer is Sylvester Ngonga, a student at Logsdon Seminary, transferring to Gardner Webb University this summer.

Scripture Focus: Isaiah 35.3-4
Strengthen the feeble hands and make steady the knees that give way. Say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance, with divine retribution he will come to save you.

From John: Sylvester’s 1st draft deadline was only 15 days ago. From that time to this, the crisis dominating our attention has shifted. Murder, protests, riots, and brutality, exacerbated by a failure of leadership now dominate our newsfeeds and headlines. But Sylvester’s words are all the more applicable to our current crisis and the scourge of disease still simmers underneath the more violent dangers many now face. God has indeed exposed our feeble hands, feeble knees, and feeble hearts. May God have mercy on us.

Reflection: Feeble Hands, Knees, and Hearts
By Sylvester Ngonga

The preceding chapter, Isaiah 34, describes the judgments against the nations whereas this chapter anticipates the recovery of Jerusalem and the glad return of the exiles from deportation. In these two verses feebleness is conspicuous:

Feebleness of hands: inadequacy of strength, declined productivity
Feebleness of knees: inefficiency of movement, weakened mobility
Feebleness of hearts: inconstancy of hope, heightened anxiety

These lamentations of feebleness characterized the general experiences amongst the people (Lamentations 1) following Jerusalem’s destruction and subsequent deportation into exile (Jeremiah 27.20).

Not unlike their experience, the Covid-19 pandemic has brought the world to its knees. Many people have died. Curtailed physical interactions have led to millions of job losses and closure of learning institutions, and even shutting of church doors. In these surreal conditions, there are trepidations and desperate lamentations of shakiness experienced all over the world in feebleness of hands, knees, and hearts.

The world is desperate for a silver lining beyond this pandemic but Christ gives us something much better: An assurance that is more than a bright outlook, an everlasting future without feebleness of hands, knees, and hearts.

The prophet Isaiah looked beyond the enormous trepidations of people in misery following God’s judgment and saw the return and restoration of a nation. It would no longer be time for lamenting the feebleness of hands, knees and, hearts but strengthening, firming, and cheering up!

In the prevailing global tension, we need the solid hope of our Lord to see beyond this hopeless feebleness. The focus should be beyond simply getting past our present challenges. The anticipation of the hope of glory is not vanity but assured confidence that God will come and save in his own time. Because Jesus lives, we can face the future with confidence and hope (Romans 8.11).

The writer of Hebrews (Hebrews 12:12) references this text of Isaiah in encouraging believers to strengthen their feeble arms and weak knees and to gracefully endure hardships. 

Reflection for the month: Psalms 18:28 You, Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer
Bless our God, you peoples; make the voice of his praise to be heard;
Who holds our soul in life, and will not allow our feet to slip. — Psalm 66.7-8

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle

Today’s Readings
Isaiah 35 (Listen – 1:43) 
Revelation 5 (Listen – 2:39)

Read more about A Generational Lament
In their world, there is no prosperity. In their world, there is little security. In their world, they experience only danger and disappointment.

Read more about Of Grace and Thorns
We do, with regularity, experience sufferings of this world that are intended by Satan to harm and hinder us.