Tag: John

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Genesis 17 Listen: (4:02), Read: John 16 Listen: (4:14)

Scripture Focus: John 16.2

2 The time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God.

From John: We return to this rewritten post from 2019 to remind us that as Christianity grows overseas, persecution does as well. In the linked Christianity Today article from 2024, we read that in the previous year, 5,000 Christians were killed for their faith, 4,000 were abducted, and more than 295,000 Christians were forcibly displaced from their homes because of their faith. Let us pray for the persecuted church without claiming their persecution as our own.

Reflection: Praying for the Persecuted

By John Tillman

It is troubling how American media downplays or ignores persecution of Christians overseas.

Perhaps they think Christians have it pretty good in America, so the suffering of Christians overseas lacks relevance. It is good for Christians to share the stories of modern Christian martyrs, however we must be careful not to claim for ourselves their mantle of suffering.

Our readers outside the United States are approximately twenty percent of our email subscribers and a much higher percentage of our web traffic and social media reach. However, the vast majority of our readers are in “safe” countries for Christians. Our difficulties are not comparable to those suffering true persecution.

Wherever we live, we must also not claim persecution when experiencing discomfort or pushback from culture. We must not get our feelings hurt when governments don’t rubber stamp our religious convictions as law, or when prominent voices call us names, call out hypocrisy, or attack us intellectually.

This doesn’t mean we abandon our convictions. Too many have done so. This doesn’t mean we abandon winsome engagement with culture. We must speak the truth in love and speak truth to power.

As we pray today, using Christ’s words to his disciples before his crucifixion, may we keep in mind and hold up before God’s throne in prayer members of our community and of God’s church in countries where they are threatened by the state, by religious militias, and by other dangerous forces.

Praying for the Persecuted
Lord of the suffering and the outcast, we pray the words of your Son regarding the suffering of our brothers and sisters…
“I have told you so that you will not fall away. The time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God.
I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them.
Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.
Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. Your joy will be complete.”
Turn our brothers and sisters’ grief to joy. And turn our mourning into action on their behalf.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Cry of the Church

O God, come to my assistance! O Lord, make haste to help me!

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: Prayer for the Church from Indonesia :: Worldwide Prayer

We confess that in the comfort of your blessings and abundance…we too easily forget others who pray for daily bread…peace in their land…freedom to pursue life…

Read more: What Is Persecution? :: Throwback Thursday

It is a sign of great uncharitableness and cruelty, when men can find in their hearts to persecute others for little things

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Ezra 2 Listen: (5:25)
Read: Revelation 1 Listen: (3:43)

Scripture Focus: John 14.26-27

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. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

Reflection: Conflict-Free Holidays – Peace of Advent

By Erin Newton

Jesus was born during the Pax Romana—the peace of Rome. It was a period between wars and a time of relative prosperity. Peace is nearly always thought of as the antithesis to conflict or war. And the Bible refers to peace as the future hope during the midst of pain and suffering.

When we think about God coming to dwell among us, the peace of Advent usually includes the vision of a conflict-free eternity. It is this Prince of Peace who brings the promise to eliminate combat and end all struggles.

We long for the days without strife and without war. It is an age-old plea. The psalmist cries out, “Too long have I lived among those who hate peace. I am for peace; but when I speak, they are for war” (Ps. 120.6-7).  

Not only does peace bring us wholeness, it is meant to bring us freedom from conflict. But that is far from reality. We enter this Advent season with wars raging across the oceans, conflicts brewing among friends and family, war and strife growing between neighbors—we are a far cry from peace it seems.

The baby lying in a manger would become a man who warned that peace would not always be reality. The cost of following Christ may mean division among friends, families, and neighbors. It is the sword that He warned was coming to disrupt so-called peace. Sometimes the conflict we face is because we have chosen to follow Christ, and the so-called peace of our world was simply a dishonest harmony.

So how do we wait this week meditating on the peace of Advent? I think we look to Christ’s birth as the inauguration of the future peace. It is the “already but not yet” peace we are promised. The gears are set in motion even when the grinding clamor of war reverberates worldwide. The first peace to be won was that within our souls. And it continues to win the war of souls.

And then we see the peace he has left with us. The peace he promised would be with us is a non-earthly peace, peace mediated through the Holy Spirit. Yes, national wars and domestic battles continue today. But peace is possible through the power of the Holy Spirit. It is by His power we can seek peace, and sometimes, win peace. Let us seek peace and wait expectantly.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

Look upon your covenant; the dark places of the earth are haunts of violence. — Psalm 74.19

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more about The Arm of Flesh versus the Prince of Peace

How can we tell the difference between Sennacherib’s propaganda and Hezekiah’s true faith?

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Scripture Focus: John 12.16
16 At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that these things had been done to him. 

Reflection: Not Getting It
By John Tillman

John tells us that nearly everything Jesus said and did, and what was done to him was written about in the scriptures. Yet, it still surprised everyone. They did not get it.

Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, “You worship what you do not know,” and in some ways that is true of all generations before Jesus.

In the stories of every patriarch, prophet, priest, or king, we see moments God surprised them. There were twists and turns in the biblical narrative when God’s unsuspected, and sometimes counterintuitive, plans and purposes were revealed.

Jesus’ enemies, disciples, and followers had been waiting for the Messiah to come. The religious leaders studied the scriptures diligently, searching for him. (John 5.39-40) The Samaritans, hated by the Jews, still believed in the Messiah and waited for him. (John 4.19-26) The Magi traveled from distant lands looking for him. (Matthew 2.1-2) They all had expectations that came from scripture and prophecy.

Some things nearly everyone got right, starting with the place of his birth, Bethlehem. Herod’s scholars knew exactly where to send the searching Magi. (Matthew 2.4-8) When Phillip told Nathanael that he thought Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah, Nathanael scoffed that nothing good could come from Nazareth. (John 1.45-46) Later, opponents of Jesus also considered Nazareth, in Galilee, a location that disqualified Jesus from being taken seriously. (John 7.52)

Jesus said to Thomas, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20.29) The disciples saw and touched Jesus, but in some ways, we see more of Jesus through the written gospels and the rest of the New Testament than they did at that time. There was more to be revealed.

“We did not get it,” John says. (John 12.16)  “We did not understand what Jesus was doing or saying. We did not understand what was happening because we did not understand what had been written.”

If the learned religious leaders who opposed Jesus and the earnest disciples who were so close to him could make errors, we can too. To take God seriously is to follow him humbly. To be surprised by God is to know him better than we did before.

If God surprised men and women all through the scriptures, he will surprise us. God has surprises in store for you this year. Humbly examine your assumptions and look for the unexpected.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer
Search for the Lord and his strength; continually seek his face. — Psalm 105.4

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

Today’s Readings
Job 12 (Listen 2:21) 
John 12 (Listen 6:26)

This Weekend’s Readings
Job 13 (Listen 2:27) John 13 (Listen 5:06)
Job 14 (Listen 2:23) John 14 (Listen 4:13)

Monday’s Readings
Job 15 (Listen 3:23) John 15 (Listen 3:20)

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Read more about Mary and Judas
Mary did the theological math. She gave her offering knowing Jesus was about to give his life. Judas did some math as well. He realized that he didn’t want to follow