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A Neglected Garment

Scripture Focus: Jeremiah 13.6-9
6 Many days later the Lord said to me, “Go now to Perath and get the belt I told you to hide there.” 7 So I went to Perath and dug up the belt and took it from the place where I had hidden it, but now it was ruined and completely useless. 8 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 9 “This is what the Lord says: ‘In the same way I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.

Reflection: A Neglected Garment
By John Tillman

God loves an object lesson. Some of God’s most disturbing and stomach-churning object lessons are in Jeremiah and Ezekiel.

Jeremiah, at God’s direction, bought a new linen belt. It was unstained by use or mishap. Pristine. Flawless. Fine clothing was a mark of wealth and privileged status but this item of clothing would not have attracted attention and compliments. Most commentators believe it was worn as an undergarment. 

The garment was common, but God’s instructions were uncommon. God instructed Jeremiah to wear, but not wash, his new underwear. Then he instructed Jeremiah to take a long journey and bury this dirty underwear in a rocky, muddy crevice near a river. Later, when instructed to retrieve it, Jeremiah found the garment ruined and useless.

The garment was ruined by misuse, neglect, and abandonment. God says that his relationship with Judah is ruined in the same way. Judah’s issue was pride. It might seem odd to neglect or mistreat something we are proud of, but it happens often. The gifted athlete takes their talent for granted and ruins their body with drugs or alcohol. The gifted speaker fails to prepare and loses their reputation. The hare lays down to nap and is overtaken by the dutiful tortoise. The expensive car is not maintained and becomes a junker. The pricey designer clothes are improperly laundered and shrink.

Judah was privileged to have a close and intimate relationship with God. They were proud of this status, but they disregarded it. They didn’t maintain it. And they ultimately discarded and abandoned it.

What should be a source of pride became a mark of shame.
What should be functional became useless.
What should be beautiful became ruined.

Can this happen to us?

If Judah’s relationship with God was close, ours in Jesus is closer. If theirs was holy, ours in Jesus is spotless. If they had reason for pride, we have greater reasons.

Let us consider ourselves with sober judgment. Do we treat our status under Jesus with disdain? Neglect? Pride? Don’t let the gospel be a neglected garment.

Unlike Jeremiah’s ruined garment, we can be washed clean and made new again.
Jesus renews what we wreck.
What was rotted is restored to health.
What was ugly is made beautiful.
What was broken is repaired.
What was damaged is reinforced.

Let Christ dress us in the garment of the gospel and never neglect or abandon it.


Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
Be my strong rock, a castle to keep me safe, for you are my crag and my stronghold; for the sake of your Name, lead me and guide me. — Psalm 31.3


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


​Today’s Readings
Jeremiah 13 (Listen 4:11)
Galatians 4 (Listen 4:13)

Read more about Garments of Peace
Make us a holy priesthood, in garments of peace, not holding ourselves above others, but lifting them up and carrying them to you.

Garments of Peace — Readers’ Choice

Read more about Readers’ Choice
We need to know your favorites from the past year for Readers’ Choice in September. Send them via email, direct message, or the linked form.

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Cursed Gospels

Scripture Focus: Galatians 1.6-10
6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! 9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse! 10 Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.


Reflection: Cursed Gospels
By John Tillman

If someone told us to bow to an idol or they put a gun to our head, saying, “Deny Jesus,” many would refuse. But why force others to deny Jesus, when it is easier to get them to love fake Jesus?

Galatians opens with one of Paul’s harshest, attention-getting rebukes. Paul’s exasperated tone is familiar to anyone whose students, children, or employees have immediately forgotten something. “We just talked about this! How can you forget so quickly?” 

The Galatians were abandoning the gospel, but they weren’t being lured away by pagan idols or illicit practices. They were tempted by false gospels. Paul declares those teaching false gospels are under God’s curse. We have several varieties of false, cursed gospels in our culture.

The gospel of legalism says, “Come to Jesus but change first.” Clean yourself up. Add this discipline. Quit this vice. Dress nice. Smile. Then come. Post-conversion, the gospel of legalism requires rigorous maintenance. If your smile slips, your hem rides up, or you get a little muddy, then, “Maybe you were never saved in the first place.”

The gospel of prosperity says, “Come to Jesus to be blessed.” It’s a gospel jackpot machine and when you pull on the handle, if money and blessings don’t come out, it’s because you didn’t insert enough faith into the coin slot. “Pray harder. And mean it this time.”

The gospel of power says, “Come to Jesus to fight.” The gospel of power is about conquering and controlling this world to bless “God’s people” and cast out others. This gospel values retribution over redemption and defeating enemies over loving them. Its catechism is using the right insults for enemies. It is what the gospel would be like if Jesus had taken Satan’s offer. (Luke 4.5-7)

False gospels reveal mistrust in the true gospel. They tempt us to think Jesus isn’t enough. That’s why every false gospel hides an idol. The gospel of legalism’s idol is “the Law.” The gospel of prosperity’s idol is greed. The gospel of power’s idol is control. 

The true gospel says, “Jesus plus nothing.” After we come, the gospel changes us, blesses us, and empowers us in God’s own time and for his purposes. But we don’t add to the gospel—not good deeds, success, or power. We resist false gospels by throwing ourselves fully on the mercy of the true gospel and inviting anyone and everyone to join us.


Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting
I put my trust in your mercy; my heart is joyful because of your saving help. — Psalm 13.5


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


​Today’s Readings
Jeremiah 10 (Listen 3:51)
Galatians 1 (Listen 3:05)

​This Weekend’s Readings
Jeremiah 11 (Listen 4:09), Galatians 2 (Listen 3:44)
Jeremiah 12 (Listen 3:06), Galatians 3 (Listen 4:39)

Read more about Readers’ Choice
It’s time to share your favorite posts of the year. Tell us your faves via email, direct message, or the linked form. We’ll reshare them during Readers’ Choice in September.

https://forms.gle/9vyYwVxa1kZZn7AKA

Read The Bible With Us
It’s never too late to join our Bible reading plan. Find joy in the Bible with us at a sustainable, two-year pace.

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Wealth is a Dangerous Tool

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Scripture Focus: James 5.1-5
1 Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. 2 Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. 3 Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. 4 Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. 5 You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter.

Reflection: Wealth is a Dangerous Tool
By John Tillman

When people think the New Testament is soft and the Old Testament is harsh, they probably haven’t read James. 

Among other teachings, James holds some of the harshest words in scripture directed towards the wealthy. They are so harsh we often feel the need to soften them.

We tend to focus on the idea that the wealthy have a responsibility to use resources ethically. This is true and important. God repeatedly expresses concern for vulnerable people and his wrath towards those who fail to help, or worse, take advantage of them. Tim Keller described God’s special concern for a biblical “quartet of the vulnerable” that included orphans, widows, foreigners, and the poor. The law and the prophets describe neglect and oppression of these people as shedding blood which cries out to God.

James mentioned unethical practices we should avoid. Hoarding is storing up wealth for ourselves beyond what we need. Wage theft is unpaid, partial, or unfair wages. Self-indulgence is treating ourselves to luxuries. Over-consumption can mean food, entertainment, or anything else we binge on.

But James didn’t start with “You are not doing good with your wealth.” James’s first point was “Your wealth is doing evil to you.”

James didn’t seem to think of wealth as a passive, neutral tool. James described wealth as actively harming us, corrupting us, poisoning us. He called it a corrosive force that will “eat your flesh like fire” and bring misery.

Is wealth harming us because we misuse it or are we misusing it because it corrupts and harms us? I think James would say, “Both.”

So, is it all bad news? What should we do?

We must avoid unethical practices and do as much good with our resources as we can. But we can’t completely avoid participating in harm. Even if we pay the best wages, we benefit from those that don’t. Even when we do good with our wealth, evil exists within the flaws and failures of whatever system through which we earned it. If Solomon, the wisest to ever live was corrupted by wealth, we can’t rely on our wisdom.

Take James’s words to heart and don’t soften them. Let them inspire humility and respectful fear. If wealth is a tool, it is a dangerous one. Handle your wealth like a hazard—like a radioactive substance. The more you have, the more shielding you need from its corruption.


Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading
When Jesus was at dinner in his [Matthew’s] house, a number of tax collectors and sinners were also sitting at the table with Jesus and his disciples; for there were many of them among his followers. When the scribes of the Pharisee party saw him eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” When Jesus heard this he said to them, “It is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sick. I did not come to call the upright, but sinners.” — Mark 2.15-17


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


​Today’s Readings
Jeremiah 9 (Listen 4:38)
James 5 (Listen 3:01)

Read more about Readers’ Choice
Readers’ Choice starts in September, so it’s time to share your favorite posts of the year. Tell us your faves via email, direct message, or the linked form.

https://forms.gle/9vyYwVxa1kZZn7AKA

Read more about Kingmakers Unmade
Wealth has unique and difficult dangers that can poison us.

Kingmakers Unmade

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Having vs. Knowing God’s Word

Scripture Focus: Jeremiah 8:7-8
7 Even the stork in the sky
     knows her appointed seasons,
 and the dove, the swift and the thrush
     observe the time of their migration.
 But my people do not know
     the requirements of the Lord.
8 How can you say, “We are wise,
     for we have the law of the Lord,”
 when actually the lying pen of the scribes
     has handled it falsely?

Reflection: Having vs. Knowing God’s Word
By Erin Newton

How many times a day do we read a post or article claiming to be really telling you the truth? But wait! They have the real answer!

We are a culture that is bent on convincing others that everything has been a lie, and the only solution is to trust this person who has this special knowledge. Even now, why should you believe what I’m typing?

What does it mean to be wise? How can we know if truth and wisdom have been handled falsely?

During Jeremiah’s time, the people spouted their confidence: “We are wise. We have the law. Isn’t that enough?” What they didn’t say is that they were sorry or had done wrong. They said, “Peace,” as if everything was fine. But in that time, things were anything but fine. They were anything but innocent. They had anything but wisdom.

God heralded his judgment: “They clung to deceitfulness; they trusted their own ways…like a charging horse going into battle.” They might have had the word of God, but they did not know its requirements (v. 7). We know from other texts that the people deprived the poor, acted unjustly, worshiped other gods, and felt no shame in the midst of it all.

When the community was hurting, the religious leaders would “dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious” (v. 11). Yes, they had the word of God but their handling of it was a lie.

How can we, today, avoid this egregious error? How do we know if those who say they have the right answer are actually wise people?

The proud statement that they had the law is important. They possessed the law. They probably read it from time to time. They might even have it out for people to see. But did they even know what it required?

Having and knowing are different things. You can possess a Bible, but it makes no difference if you don’t know what’s in it. You can display the Ten Commandments in a public building, but does anyone know what they require?

What they really needed, and we need, is one step further: doing. And I think that is how we know if someone is handling truth wisely—they have truth, know truth, and do truth. It must be all three.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
The earth, O Lord, is full of your love; instruct me in your statutes. — Psalm 119.64


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


​Today’s Readings
Jeremiah 8 (Listen 3:52)
James 4 (Listen 2:25)

Read more about Readers’ Choice
We love hearing your favorite posts of the year. Tell us your faves via email, direct message, or the linked form. We’ll repost them in September for Readers’ Choice.

https://forms.gle/9vyYwVxa1kZZn7AKA

Read The Bible With Us
It’s never too late to join our Bible reading plan. What will you hear, reading the Bible with us at a sustainable, two-year pace.

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A Different Kind of Greeter

Scripture Focus: Jeremiah 7.2-11
2 “Stand at the gate of the Lord’s house and there proclaim this message: “ ‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the Lord. 3 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. 4 Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!” 5 If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, 6 if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, 7 then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever. 8 But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless. 9 “ ‘Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury,  burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, “We are safe”—safe to do all these detestable things? 11 Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the Lord.

Reflection: A Different Kind of Greeter
By John Tillman

Jeremiah wouldn’t make a great church door greeter.

Even as a mostly introverted person, I love churches with smiling, happy, engaging greeters. Having greeters actively welcoming people is an important part of the modern church environment.

God sent Jeremiah to “greet” people at the Temple’s entrance but God didn’t tell him to have a warm smile and a pleasant demeanor. Jeremiah stood at the door and warned people sternly. Imagine a scowling prophet, growling something like the following to you as you arrive to church:

“I don’t care how happy you act when you enter these doors or how much you say you love this place and love God! You must change your ways! You are deceived if you think you can oppress the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed innocent blood, and bow down to other forces and idols, and I won’t notice! Instead of a place of worship, you have made this a den of robbers!”

Jeremiah is hot-tempered and prickly Instead of warm and fuzzy. Jesus remixed Jeremiah when he cleansed the Temple. (Matthew 21.12-14; Mark 11.15-17; Luke 19.45-46)

Unlike modern churches, the Temple was designed only for Jews and believers. There were restrictions on who could enter and how far. Because Jesus did away with those distinctions modern churches welcome anyone, believer or unbeliever, into holy space without exception. The devout believer, the absolute skeptic, and the sin-addicted outsider are all welcome. We are all sick and Jesus is the doctor.

But what if we think we aren’t sick?

Jeremiah’s warning told the seemingly devout they were deceived. They thought they were righteous sheep but were ravenous wolves. (Matthew 7.15; Acts 20.29) They thought they were rich but were poor, blind, and naked. (Revelation 3.17) Jeremiah, and God, judged them not by their demeanor but their deeds.As we enter worship, let us imagine a different kind of greeter. As you pass smiling people, ask the Holy Spirit, “What parts of Jeremiah’s warning apply to us today?” Would Jeremiah (or Jesus) say to us, “You have made this a den of robbers”?

Are we shedding blood? (Or profiting from suffering?)
Are we oppressing foreigners or other vulnerable people? (Or supporting those who are?)
Are we devoted to the idols of culture, such as politics, pleasure, wealth, or notoriety?

Don’t despair. When Jesus cleared the temple of “robbers,” he called the wounded to himself. Go to Jesus. Repent. Fall on his mercy and grace.


Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his mercy endures forever.
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his mercy endures forever.
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his mercy endures forever. — Psalm 136.1-2


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


​Today’s Readings
Jeremiah 7 (Listen 5:18)
James 3 (Listen 2:38)

Read more about Readers’ Choice
Readers’ Choice starts in September, so it’s time to share your favorite posts of the year. Tell us your faves via email, direct message, or the linked form.

https://forms.gle/9vyYwVxa1kZZn7AKA

Read more about Where is the Love?
Who does Jesus love? Who or what is he fighting for? …allow Jesus to clean out your Temple courts…Are you willing to let him do it?

Where is the Love?