Tag: John

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Embracing Uncertainty — 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 21  Read: 2 Kings 2 Listen: (4:26)  Read: Psalms 46-47 Listen: (2:15)

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:

Shelley, OR — How reassuring that times of anxiety and insecurity can coexist  with the “surety of our faith in Christ.”

This post was originally published on July 23, 2025, based on readings from Judges 6:39-40 and John 14:8.

Scripture Focus: Judges 6:39-40

39 Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece, but this time make the fleece dry and let the ground be covered with dew.” 40 That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.

John 14:8

8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

Reflection: Embracing Uncertainty — Readers’ Choice

By Erin Newton

Anxiety was always part of my life, so adding it to my faith was natural.

If your early days in the faith look like mine, you repeatedly prayed for supernatural signs. I always needed God to prove my salvation was secure. Did that prayer “stick”? Maybe I should do it again.

When I read Scripture that spoke of “ye of little faith,” I was the “ye.” Paired with comments that doubting was a lack of faith, I assumed my doubt meant my faith was in jeopardy.

Unfortunately, this mindset about faith caused me to read the story of Gideon in a condescending way. Gideon, he of little faith. An Old Testament Doubting Thomas.

Susan Niditch calls Gideon our most “pleasingly insecure” hero. Yet God loves this insecure hero. He doesn’t back away from using him.

Gideon is called to save Israel from the hands of the Midianites. Despite the God-given instructions, he’s not free from his own insecurity. Has his faith faltered? Have the previous days or years following God suddenly become nullified because he asks God for a sign? And one more sign? No. Gideon the hero struggles with anxiety just like any one of us.

Philip, one of the apostles, repeats this same scenario in John 14. Jesus tells his disciples that he is about to leave them. Things are about to get a lot worse. Philip, looking for some place to alleviate his insecure feelings, says: “Show us the Father and that will be enough.” One more sign. Then I can keep going.

God didn’t hesitate to answer Gideon. Insecurity does not offend God. Jesus answers Philip by pointing out the answer has always been his presence. He was answering his insecurity before Philip realized his own anxiety.

Gideon cannot escape his insecurity. Philip is not immune to doubts. Our repetitive pleas to God to help our uncertainty is not a sign of diminishing faith. Asking for a sign is met with God’s own reassuring words, “I’ve been with you all this time.”

The indwelling of the Spirit will not erase our anxieties. (Oh, how I wish he would remove this thorn in the flesh!) Embracing uncertainty is a part of faith. But like our own fears—our best method is to embrace the overwhelming uncertainty, learning to live in the tension between the surety of our faith in Christ and the common human reaction to ask for one more reassurance.

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!

Read more: Count Your Hardships

Balanced with the various ways God provided, the anxiety-inducing “what-if” turns into the hope-filled “even-if.”

Count Your Hardships
Read The Bible With Us

Who could you invite to read the Bible with you to find joy in God’s word? Read together at a sustainable, two-year pace.

https://mailchi.mp/theparkforum/m-f-daily-email-devotional

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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
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Embracing Uncertainty

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Judges 6 Listen: (6:15) Read: Titus 1 Listen: (2:24)

Scripture Focus: Judges 6:39-40

39 Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece, but this time make the fleece dry and let the ground be covered with dew.” 40 That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.

John 14:8

8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

Reflection: Embracing Uncertainty

By Erin Newton

Anxiety was always part of my life, so adding it to my faith was natural.

If your early days in the faith look like mine, you repeatedly prayed for supernatural signs. I always needed God to prove my salvation was secure. Did that prayer “stick”? Maybe I should do it again.

When I read Scripture that spoke of “ye of little faith,” I was the “ye.” Paired with comments that doubting was a lack of faith, I assumed my doubt meant my faith was in jeopardy.

Unfortunately, this mindset about faith caused me to read the story of Gideon in a condescending way. Gideon, he of little faith. An Old Testament Doubting Thomas.

Susan Niditch calls Gideon our most “pleasingly insecure” hero. Yet God loves this insecure hero. He doesn’t back away from using him.

Gideon is called to save Israel from the hands of the Midianites. Despite the God-given instructions, he’s not free from his own insecurity. Has his faith faltered? Have the previous days or years following God suddenly become nullified because he asks God for a sign? And one more sign? No. Gideon the hero struggles with anxiety just like any one of us.

Philip, one of the apostles, repeats this same scenario in John 14. Jesus tells his disciples that he is about to leave them. Things are about to get a lot worse. Philip, looking for some place to alleviate his insecure feelings, says: “Show us the Father and that will be enough.” One more sign. Then I can keep going.

God didn’t hesitate to answer Gideon. Insecurity does not offend God. Jesus answers Philip by pointing out the answer has always been his presence. He was answering his insecurity before Philip realized his own anxiety.

Gideon cannot escape his insecurity. Philip is not immune to doubts. Our repetitive pleas to God to help our uncertainty is not a sign of diminishing faith. Asking for a sign is met with God’s own reassuring words, “I’ve been with you all this time.”

The indwelling of the Spirit will not erase our anxieties. (Oh, how I wish he would remove this thorn in the flesh!) Embracing uncertainty is a part of faith. But like our own fears—our best method is to embrace the overwhelming uncertainty, learning to live in the tension between the surety of our faith in Christ and the common human reaction to ask for one more reassurance.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

You are my helper and my deliverer; O Lord, do not tarry. — Psalm 70.6

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

Read more: Count Your Hardships

Balanced with the various ways God provided, the anxiety-inducing “what-if” turns into the hope-filled “even-if.”

Count Your Hardships
Read The Bible With Us

Who could you invite to read the Bible with you to find joy in God’s word? Read together at a sustainable, two-year pace.

https://mailchi.mp/theparkforum/m-f-daily-email-devotional

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Who Drinks the Curse?

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Numbers 5 Listen: (4:39) Read: Acts 28 Listen: (4:56)

Scripture Focus: Numbers 5.12-17

12 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘If a man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him 13 so that another man has sexual relations with her, and this is hidden from her husband and her impurity is undetected (since there is no witness against her and she has not been caught in the act), 14 and if feelings of jealousy come over her husband and he suspects his wife and she is impure—or if he is jealous and suspects her even though she is not impure—15 then he is to take his wife to the priest. He must also take an offering of a tenth of an ephah  of barley flour on her behalf. He must not pour olive oil on it or put incense on it, because it is a grain offering for jealousy, a reminder-offering to draw attention to wrongdoing. 16 “ ‘The priest shall bring her and have her stand before the Lord.

John 8.2-11

2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

11 “No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Reflection: Who Drinks the Curse?

By John Tillman

The “jealousy sacrifice” is uncomfortable to read. It seems like a double standard. The “adulterous woman” is held accountable, but what about the unknown adulterer? Also, why is there no test for the unfaithfulness of a man suspected by his wife? Could this ceremony be performed if suspicions were reversed?

Struggling with difficult parts of the Bible is a necessary part of faith. Pretending the Bible is easy to understand is a denial of truth. There is no satisfactory explanation we can reach in a 400-word devotional. But here are a few practical and symbolic things to reflect on.

The sacrifice tests the couple, not just the woman. The sacrifice’s lack of oil addresses the marriage’s lack of trust and joy. Distrust is based on jealous “feelings,” not evidence. The woman’s faithfulness and man’s unsubstantiated suspicions are tested. The ceremony’s primary purpose seems to be restoring trust by proving the wife’s innocence rather than punishing her guilt.

The curse would vindicate the innocent. The Tabernacle’s dust was holy and only harmed the unholy. The ink of the written curse would be washed off the scroll into the water and reveal the truth. Shame would fall on the guilty party. Either secret adultery or public jealousy would be shamed. An unharmed woman would be shown to be holy.

Some Mosaic laws were allowances for hard hearts. (Matthew 19.7-9; Mark 10.4-9) Jesus prioritized Edenic ideals over Mosaic commands, saying “Moses allowed” things God did not intend from the beginning. Mosaic law was how God dealt with the people where they were.

Jesus redeems sinners and the law. Everything in the Old Testament is about Jesus. (Luke 24.25-27) Jesus seemed to subtly reference this curse when the “adulterous woman” was brought before him in the Temple. The differences are that neither her husband nor the adulterer are with her. How can someone be caught “in the act” without the partner being there?

Jesus stooped to the dust of the Temple floor as the priest would in the Tabernacle. Jesus wrote in the dust just as the priest wrote the curse. What Jesus wrote in the dust surely exposed the jealousies and sins of those standing there, as the curse would expose the truth behind the accuser’s suspicions.

Satan accuses us not with “feelings” but facts. We are guilty. Yet, Jesus defends us. He drinks our curse and bids us “sin no more.”


Let us say, “Amen. So be it.” (Numbers 5.22b)

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading

Jesus said to us: “Everything now covered up will be uncovered, and everything now hidden will be made clear. What I say in the dark, tell in the daylight; what you hear in whispers, proclaim from the housetops.” — Matthew 10.26-27

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

Read more: Calluses Aren’t Forever

Calluses develop. We aren’t born with them…calloused hearts, ears, and eyes were temporary. Jesus and Paul knew this. Calluses aren’t forever.

Calluses Aren’t Forever
Read more: Are There Ashtrays in Your Elevators?

Like ashtrays in elevators, there are always systemic, tangible, widespread, societal enablements of sins.

Are There Ashtrays in Your Elevators?

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The First Spirit-Filled Work

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Exodus 35 Listen: (4:31) Read: Luke 17 Listen: (4:22)

Scripture Focus: Exodus 35.30-34

30 Then Moses said to the Israelites, “See, the Lord has chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, 31 and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills—32 to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, 33 to cut and set stones, to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of artistic crafts. 34 And he has given both him and Oholiab son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan, the ability to teach others.

John 14.26

26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you

Reflection: The First Spirit-Filled Work

By John Tillman

Jesus described the filling of the Holy Spirit as being for the good of not only the disciples, but the world. The works the Spirit did through them built a new space, a new Temple, a new people of God to shine the light of God’s love to the world.

We often think of the Holy Spirit helping pastors when they preach and musicians when they lead worship. We know the Holy Spirit helps us study the Bible. We pray in faith that the Holy Spirit will bring the miraculous help of God for healings, interventions, or protections.

However, the first Spirit-filled individuals, Bezalel and Oholiab, were not orators, political leaders, musicians, writers, prophets, warriors, or healers. They were artisans, builders, makers. They worked with their hands.

They also did these things in community. Part of the Spirit’s gifting was to teach. They were not to do what God called them to alone but to teach others who would join the work.

The first Spirit-filled workers in the Bible used hammers and tongs, needles and thread, chisels, saws, and perfume…not pulpits. They spoke not with words but images. They taught understanding through symbolism and space. They brought spiritual healing through the redemptive instruments of atonement they would craft.

Their skilled minds, hearts, and hands wrought from the gifts of God’s people a place to meet with God. Artistry using symbols, spaces, textures, patterns, and images replanted a representation of an Edenic garden in which humans would once again walk in fellowship with God.

What type of sacred space are we creating? Not just in our churches but in our lives? Not just in spiritual ways but physical ways? Are we telling the redemptive story and ushering people into the presence of God?

Whether you work with hammer and chisel or with keyboard and screen, God’s Spirit longs to use your work to build sacred space depicting redemption. This space goes beyond the walls of your church building to encompass all those who will hear the call of Christ. Worship in this space and invite others in to learn of God.

May we be filled with the Spirit to the tips of our fingers as they work acts of redemption.

May not only the words of our mouths and meditations of our hearts, but also the works of our hands be pleasing in the sight of the Redeemer.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting

Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory; because of your love and because of your faithfulness. — Psalm 115.1

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

Read more: Prayer in our Vocation

To some, it might be a surprise that one of the primary definitions of the word “vocation” is a divine calling.

Read more: Prayer in our Vocation

To some, it might be a surprise that one of the primary definitions of the word “vocation” is a divine calling.

Prayer in our Vocation
Read more: Extra Ordinary Prayer

We carry prayer with us into every moment of our lives. As we do, may our actions be blessings not curses, carrying the good news of the gospel.

Extra Ordinary Prayer