Tag: Matthew 3

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Pass Through the Water and Walk in the Spirit

Links for today’s readings:

Mar 30  Read: Song of Songs 6 Listen: (1:48) Read: Matthew 3 Listen: (2:17)

Scripture Focus: Matthew 3.11, 13

11 “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14 But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”

Reflection: Pass Through the Water and Walk in the Spirit

By John Tillman

The baptism John wanted did not come how or when he expected.

John was a phenomenon. Crowds came from a wide geographic area to be baptized on the east bank of the Jordan, probably across from Jericho. (John 1.28; 10.40)

The repentant stood in lines to be baptized. Cynical, self-righteous, and unrepentant religious leaders stood in clusters to watch with suspicion and judgment.

No one (especially the religious leaders) could miss the location’s symbolism. One generation of Israelites failed to trust God and cross here and the next generation crossed on dry land to victory. (Numbers 14:29-31; Joshua 3.14-17) Elijah passed the mantle of his calling to Elisha here. They crossed eastward on dry ground together, (2 Kings 2.7-8) Elijah was taken up to heaven, and Elisha crossed back on dry ground. (2 Kings 2.13-14)

John used the Jordan as a symbol of choosing faith. Pass through the water of repentance or die in the desert of your sin? Abandon your way and enter God’s kingdom or go your own way to destruction?

John longed for a greater baptism than he practiced. He prophesied about one coming to baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. Then, Jesus, the promised one, asked John to baptize him in ordinary Jordan river water just like every repentant sinner standing in line.

To obey his father, as an example to us, and to move toward his battles with sin and death, Jesus had to pass through the water. He experienced the baptism of John to bring the greater baptism John prophesied.

The baptism John wanted came not only after John’s death, but after Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension. The baptism John prophesied was poured out on the early church and on every follower of Jesus. (Acts 2.1-3)

Churches do water baptism differently, but we all recognize the water as a symbol of the Spirit. Remember your baptism. Not just being sprinkled or dunked. Remember that you are baptized into the Holy Spirit and fire.

Like John, our experience of the Holy Spirit might not look, feel, or function as we anticipate and we may have doubts. (Matthew 11.2-3) But don’t take for granted what John died longing for and Jesus died to obtain for us. “Eagerly desire the greater gifts” and walk in “the most excellent way” of love. (1 Corinthians 12.31-13.1)

Take up the mantle passed to us by those who have gone before. If you have passed through the water, walk in the Spirit.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

Give me the joy of your saving help again and sustain me with your bountiful Spirit. — Psalm 51.13

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

Read more: Love without Red Flags

“I am for my lover, and my lover is for me.” This literal translation reveals the self-giving attitude of the husband and of the wife. They are for one another.

Love without Red Flags
Read more: Clear the Old Growth 

With sober judgment, let us clear the old growth…cutting down pride, selfishness, hatred, fear, greed, and lusts

Clear the Old Growth—Readers’ Choice

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Clear the Old Growth—Readers’ Choice

Readers’ Choice Month:
This September, The Park Forum is looking back on readers’ selections of our most meaningful and helpful devotionals from the past 12 months. Thank you for your readership. This month is all about hearing from you. Submit a Readers’ Choice post today.

Today’s post was originally published, on June 14, 2022, based on Isaiah 10.33-34 and Matthew 3.10b
It was selected by reader, Brad, from Texas: 
“I found this devotional poetically crafted and incredibly dense with meaning: turning our impossibly sized enemies over to God, trusting Him to deal with them as we remain steadfast in our trust and devotion to the many dimensions of God-honoring character.”

Scripture Focus: Isaiah 10.33-34
33 See, the Lord, the Lord Almighty,
will lop off the boughs with great power.
The lofty trees will be felled,
the tall ones will be brought low.
34 He will cut down the forest thickets with an ax;
Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One.

Matthew 3.10b
10b Every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

Reflection: Clear the Old Growth—Readers’ Choice
By John Tillman

I worked, for a few weeks, as a lumber surveyor’s assistant in the piney woods of East Texas.

I would drive a stake in the ground and then plow as straight a path as possible along a compass heading, dragging a long, smooth strip of hard plastic, called a “chain.” I wasn’t to turn to the left or the right. Unless it was impossible, I had to push straight through brush, bushes, or thorns.

The surveyor would step on the chain to stop me when the tape reached the stake. Then, I would drive another stake and wait. By tugging on the chain, he would signal me to continue straight or turn 90 degrees left or right. In this way, we marked off squares of wooded land, and calculated the value of its trees based on the ratio of “quality” trees to trees that were not useful or valuable.

In Macbeth, the wicked-hearted king is given a prophecy that he cannot be defeated until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane. Macbeth assumes he is invincible. For when does a wood travel?

Similarly, Assyria grew overconfident. Sennacherib knew God’s word well enough to twist its meaning in his threats to Jerusalem, yet he had no respect for God. He thought he was a god and all other gods were idols. He expected to overwhelm Jerusalem as easily as Samaria. Sennacherib’s army was an impossible, forest-like foe, covering the ground and overwhelming the land.

The foes we face don’t determine our fate. Like Hezekiah, we can turn them over to God. Isaiah promised that the Assyrian army would be cut down in a day. The “lofty” and “tall” trees would fall before God’s ax. 

In the ancient near east, trees were valuable and important—especially the highly valued cedars of Lebanon. Yet no earthly value or importance will stop God’s judgment. God’s ax “is already at the root of the trees.” (Matthew 3.10)

Instead of focusing on outward enemies we have little control over, let us survey our inner forest and the foes we find there. With sober judgment, let us clear the old growth, turning neither to the left nor the right, cutting down pride, selfishness, hatred, fear, greed, and lusts so that better fruits may flourish in the forests of our hearts.

“Every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me out of all my terror. — Psalm 34.4

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

Today’s Readings
Jeremiah 50 (Listen 8:42)
2 Corinthians 9 (Listen 2:26)

This Weekend’s Readings
Jeremiah 51 (Listen 10:15) 2 Corinthians 10 (Listen 2:45)
Jeremiah 52 (Listen 5:49) 2 Corinthians 11 (Listen 4:46)

Readers’ Choice is Here!
Thank you for your recommended posts from the last 12 months. Which one helped you understand scripture?

Readers’ Choice 2025

Read more about Uprooting and Replanting
People uproot thornbushes and burn them. Then they plant fruitful vines in their place.

Uprooting and Replanting
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Clear the Old Growth

Scripture Focus: Isaiah 10.33-34
33 See, the Lord, the Lord Almighty, 
will lop off the boughs with great power. 
The lofty trees will be felled, 
the tall ones will be brought low. 
34 He will cut down the forest thickets with an ax; 
Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One.

Matthew 3.10b
10b Every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

Reflection: Clear the Old Growth
By John Tillman

I worked, for a few weeks, as a lumber surveyor’s assistant in the piney woods of East Texas.

I would drive a stake in the ground and then plow as straight a path as possible along a compass heading, dragging a long, smooth strip of hard plastic, called a “chain.” I wasn’t to turn to the left or the right. Unless it was impossible, I had to push straight through brush, bushes, or thorns. 

The surveyor would step on the chain to stop me when the tape reached the stake. Then, I would drive another stake and wait. By tugging on the chain, he would signal me to continue straight or turn 90 degrees left or right. In this way, we marked off squares of wooded land, and calculated the value of its trees based on the ratio of “quality” trees to trees that were not useful or valuable.

In Macbeth, the wicked-hearted king is given a prophecy that he cannot be defeated until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane. Macbeth assumes he is invincible. For when does a wood travel?

Similarly, Assyria grew overconfident. Sennacherib knew God’s word well enough to twist its meaning in his threats to Jerusalem, yet he had no respect for God. He thought he was a god and all other gods were idols. He expected to overwhelm Jerusalem as easily as Samaria. Sennacherib’s army was an impossible, forest-like foe, covering the ground and overwhelming the land. 

The foes we face don’t determine our fate. Like Hezekiah, we can turn them over to God. Isaiah promised that the Assyrian army would be cut down in a day. The “lofty” and “tall” trees would fall before God’s ax. 

In the ancient near east, trees were valuable and important—especially the highly valued cedars of Lebanon. Yet no earthly value or importance will stop God’s judgment. God’s ax “is already at the root of the trees.” (Matthew 3.10)

Instead of focusing on outward enemies we have little control over, let us survey our inner forest and the foes we find there. With sober judgment, let us clear the old growth, turning neither to the left nor the right, cutting down pride, selfishness, hatred, fear, greed, and lusts so that better fruits may flourish in the forests of our hearts. 

“Every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our god. — Psalm 92.12

Today’s Readings
Isaiah 10.5-34 (Listen – 5:13)
Matthew 24 (Listen – 5:59)

Read more about Uprooting and Replanting
People uproot thornbushes and burn them. Then they plant fruitful vines in their place.

Uprooting and Replanting

Read more about The Ever-Patient Agriculturalist
God wants to give us every opportunity to flourish. We, however, can put a halt to his husbandry…uproot in our hearts what he plants…

The Ever-Patient Agriculturalist
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Top 3 of 2018

Romans 15.15
I have written you quite boldly on some points to remind you of them again…

Top 3 of 2018
By John Tillman

Picking my own “Best Of” was too hard. So, I’m letting Google Analytics pick for me. These are the top three most visited posts not written by a guest author in 2018.

Hope on a Limb :: Hope of Advent

It is difficult for posts late in the year to compete with ones from earlier in the year that had time to build traffic and be mentioned multiple times. I’m thrilled that this one, from only a month ago, made the top spot. It’s not only the top post written by myself, but the top most visited page on our entire site for 2018. People are looking for hope…

“We can be assured as we stand on Zacchaeus’s hope-filled Sycamore limb, that the King of Glory we hope for will not pass us by. The colt will carry our King. And in the end, all the broken who enter the courts of His temple, will be healed.

What are you waiting for? Climb up on the limb in hope.”

The Seductive Idolatry of Politics :: Readers’ Choice

Politics is what people who have no faith in God must turn to for earthly salvation. Christians can and must do better. Since writing this post, several other pastors and writers have picked up the thread. May many more do so.  May we abandon all our idols, but most importantly the idol of politics and politicians.

“Politics is the most powerful new religion of this millennium. It continually plays on the kind of imagery we see in Revelation. But outside of Christ there will never be a day when every nation, tribe, people, and language are united. Politics promises this unity and diversity but instead gains its power from fear and division.”

Killing With our Hearts

After writing this post, a reader jokingly commented, “you take the fun out of everything.” She was right. Issuing a stinging rebuke can be fun and Jesus spoke his share of zingers. But so many times we excuse our sinful and petty hatreds by hiding behind Christ’s impassioned language that, we must remember, had a goal of calling people to him, not destroying them.

Too often lately, Christians have participated in, or stood by allowing, hate-filled rhetoric. As Saul, who became Paul, can tell you, you don’t have to throw stones at someone to be guilty of their blood. You just have to hold the coats of those who do.

“Christ’s words about how murder begins with inner violence, adultery begins with inner lust, and divorce is not only adultery, but a victimization of the vulnerable party are as shockingly harsh to modern ears as they would have been to the original audience.”

Moving On…

As we move into 2019, we will continue to allow God’s Word to speak to us, to disturb our comfort, to disrupt our thinking mired in selfishness, and to spur us on to love and good deeds.

Share one of these posts (or this one) with someone who you will walk through the scriptures with this year. As the African proverb goes, “If you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go together.”

Prayer: The Greeting
The Lord lives! Blessed is my Rock! Exalted is the God of my salvation! — Psalm 18:46

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

Prayers from The Divine Hours available online and in print.

Today’s Readings
Genesis 3 (Listen – 4:14)
Matthew 3 (Listen – 2:21)

Additional Reading
Read More about The Value of Words
Our culture values hard-hitting, biting words. The Internet swarms to support meanness. Crowds applaud words that degrade and attack. The Internet loves to verbally “stone” its victims, and too often Christians participate or give support to those who do, “holding the coats” of those who attack and degrade others.

Read More about Supporting Our Work
We keep our site ad-free and produce over 100,000 words per year of free devotional content that is read across the world by 4,000 daily readers. We are tremendously thankful to God for using our community to bring God’s Word to people in cities around the world!

How far will you travel in God’s Word this year?
On January 1st we restarted our two year Bible reading plan in Genesis and the Gospel of Matthew. Join us on the journey. We read the Old Testament over two years and the New Testament and Psalms each year.

Read with us at a sustainable pace. Subscribe and invite friends to join you using this link.

Where will a journey through the Bible take your faith in the coming year? Jesus calls each of us, saying, “Follow me.”