Tag: ReadersChoice23

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Better Unborn — Readers’ Choice

Scripture Focus: Jeremiah 20:7, 14, 18
7 You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived;
    you overpowered me and prevailed.
I am ridiculed all day long;
    everyone mocks me.
14 Cursed be the day I was born!
    May the day my mother bore me not be blessed!
18 Why did I ever come out of the womb
    to see trouble and sorrow
    and to end my days in shame?

Originally published on August 26, 2022, based on readings from Jeremiah 20.

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:
Barbara, Tennessee — Thank you!

Reflection: Better Unborn — Readers’ Choice
By Erin Newton

Thank God for raw emotions in the Bible. Jeremiah has suffered greatly because of the message to his fellow people. He has called out their sin and they have sought his life in return. He curses his own birth.

Jeremiah’s complaints are sprinkled with positive exaltations of God. He calls God a mighty warrior who thwarts the plans of the wicked. He raises the exhortation to praise God and sing to him. But within the next few words, the prophet returns to wishing he had never been born.

Job also declares that people “are of few days and full of trouble” and asks God to look away and leave them alone (Job 14.1-6). Ecclesiastes states that the dead are better off than the living (Ecclesiastes 4.1-3).We often think that being a Christian means we are constantly at peace with how God works in our lives or that we have some sort of impervious happiness. Neither of these things are true.

Psalm 42 provides another insight into the emotional ups and downs in suffering. The psalmist declares that “tears have been my food.” Then he remembers the joy of festivals. But the depressive thoughts continue, “Why, my soul, are you downcast?” The psalmist tries to counsel himself, searching for the cause of the sadness and trying to cheer himself with thoughts of God.

Neither Jeremiah nor the psalmist ends with a convincingly cheerful attitude. The psalmist repeats the searching question of his downcast soul and affirms that he will continue to hope in God. Jeremiah, too, ends with wishing he had never been born yet admits that even if he tried to withhold God’s message, he would not be able to contain it.

We will face times of pain, grief, and sorrow. It is a lie to think that we shouldn’t wrestle with the pain or disappointment of how our lives are going. It is normal to feel ready to give up, regret answering God’s call, and wish we could go where no one can reach us.

However, we see their example of perseverance. They are sad but they continue. The psalmist vows to keep hoping. Jeremiah continues to share God’s message. No one suffers alone. We are called to bear one another’s burdens. We all feel like Jeremiah at one point or another. Reach out to your friends. Help one another remember the Lord and cling to hope.

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 Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
1 Samuel 4 (Listen 3:56)
2 Timothy 2 (Listen 3:17)

Read more about From the Belly of the Beast
Sooner or later we all experience the belly of the beast—sinking in the darkest hole of our lives…

From the Belly of the Beast

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Transformed by Koinonia  — Readers’ Choice

Scripture Focus: Philippians 1.4-6
4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Originally published on July 13, 2023, based on readings from Philippians 1.

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:
Gloria, Texas — I work with missionaries who serve all over the world and this makes me think of their work, their fellowship with other believers (even if far from them), and their connection to the Lord that gives them strength to keep serving…they are working to see more people transformed by koinonia.

Reflection: Transformed by Koinonia  — Readers’ Choice
By John Tillman

The word Paul uses to describe the partnership that he feels with the Philippian church is koinonia. Like many Greek words, it has multiple shades of meaning. The word in English primarily refers to the “fellowship” of the church as a community. This meaning is not incorrect, but another interpretation is of being a business partner or having a “share” or investment together in a business. 

Paul knows what it is to have partners in business, having supported himself at times through the skilled trade of tentmaking which he had in common with Priscilla and Aquila. However, the business to which Paul is referring, that we all have a share in, is the gospel.

The business of the gospel is the “putting right” of everything in the cosmos. And the means by which we do so is by “fellowship” or “partnership” with Christ Jesus, whose work continues until “the day of Christ Jesus.” There is no koinonia with Christ without change.

In this phrase, Paul is redefining the ancient Jewish concept of the “Day of the Lord.” This is the “last day” to which Martha refers when discussing her brother Lazarus’s future resurrection and is sometimes called the “eighth day” to symbolize that God is both ending and renewing creation.

This is a day when all will be put right. The day of Lord will be a day of leveling. It will mean tearing down those who have built themselves up and lifting up those who have been crushed.  Earth will be transformed into another place—a place in keeping with all that God desires for us, but we are too foolish to ask for or seek.

Christ’s correction of the cosmos is not limited to all that is without us but includes all that is within us. It is not just Earth that will be transformed but Earthlings. We, each of us, have an inner cosmos that must succumb to a “Day of the Lord” transformation. Within us are exalted idols and habits that must be torn down. Within us are fruits of the spirit that we have trampled under selfish feet.

As we submit to him, Jesus will, with axe and fire, tear down in us what must burn, and with tender nourishing care will tend and cultivate the fruit that he always designed to grow in us. Christ is our partner and our koinonia with him means every trial, suffering, isolation, loss, and sadness, shall work together for our betterment, strengthening, and righteousness.


Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
One thing have I asked of the Lord; one thing I seek; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life… — Psalm 27.5


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

Today’s Readings
1 Samuel 1 (Listen 4:13)
Hebrews 12 (Listen 4:36)

This Weekend’s Readings
1 Samuel 2 (Listen 6:09), Hebrews 13 (Listen 3:31)
1 Samuel 3 (Listen 3:03), 2 Timothy 1 (Listen 2:37)

Read more about A Rebellion of Repentance
The repentance John describes is a rebellion more radical than violent insurrection.

A Rebellion of Repentance

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For Better or For Worse — Readers’ Choice

Scripture Focus: Ezekiel 20:32-33, 37
32 “‘You say, “We want to be like the nations, like the peoples of the world, who serve wood and stone.” But what you have in mind will never happen. 33 As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I will reign over you with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with outpoured wrath…

37 I will take note of you as you pass under my rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant.

Originally published on October 20, 2022, based on readings from Ezekiel 20.

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:
Susan, California — Erin, This is a jewel of a passage and commentary. How encouraging to me! But I grieve that I know so many who are unable to grasp the hope because they are struggling to fashion a new religion in which every limitation which doesn’t line up with their concept of a loving God must be jettisoned. This includes His use of pain as discipline and recovery. Thank God for this assurance He will never let us escape the bonds of His covenant. I am so grateful that you, Erin, are there to speak these truths in a female voice. The Park Forum offers a great balance of male and female responses.

Barbara, Tennessee — Wow. Sobering.

Reflection: For Better or For Worse — Readers’ Choice
By Erin Newton

Israel was bound to God and God to them in covenant. It was a relationship in which God is glorified and the people receive his blessing. It was bound by the immutable word of God himself.

Despite the infidelity of Israel, her idolatry, and oppression of the weak, God never released them from that covenant. They chose other gods to worship and corrupted the whole concept of monotheism. Yet through it all, nothing could separate them from God.

In Ezekiel 20, God reminds the people of this bond. The people have openly rejected him and declared their intention to worship something else. They want to punt the faith. “What you have in mind will never happen.”

Can you reject God and flee from his presence? In our minds, we think it’s possible. Psalm 139:7-10 echoes the impossibility of departing from God.

7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
    if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
    your right hand will hold me fast.

Like Israel, we have been covenanted with God. It is the new covenant, sealed by the Spirit, sealed upon our hearts. There is much talk about deconstruction with some defining the term as the rejection of the faith entirely. Yet we see in Ezekiel that when God has given himself in a covenant, it is unmovable.

For Israel, the people needed to deconstruct the way they had been practicing religion. Their so-called worship of God was corrupt and manipulated. Priests and leaders had allowed faith to turn into idolatry.

Israel wanted to move on to some other form of worship not realizing their God had been with them all along. Return to him. That is the message for Israel. God would say the same to us today.

Is our deconstruction leading us to different idols or are we searching for true, undefiled worship? Can we see how God will be with us in our wandering? Through pain, the Israelites will return to the Lord. Refining our faith can be painful. This is a call for us to examine what exactly we are trying to reject.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting
The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined from ore and purified seven times in fire. — Psalm 12.6

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

Today’s Readings
Ruth 2  (Listen 3:56)
Hebrews 10 (Listen 5:33)

Read more about Presence is Precious
The presence of God is a gift of grace made available to those who seek it, recognizing it as the precious thing that it is.

Presence is Precious

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Defining Moment — Readers’ Choice

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:
Barbara, Tennessee — Some years ago husband was looking to see his identity in Christ more deeply…he has moved toward the Lord in that identity ever since! He is truly a prayer warrior, friend/husband warrior, follower of Christ warrior! 

Jaclynn, Tennessee — This devotional is so kind. As a wanna-be writer and an editor of sorts, I tend to edit life, circumstances, even people… I’m grateful for the reminder not to keep low moments in my own life at the forefront of my identity, or to keep them at all. This reading and my own keen awareness of my need for grace help me embrace the Lord’s kindness and offer it to all others. May the LORD continue to work in the hearts of His children to know and give His kindness and grace.

Scripture Focus: John 20.3-10; 28-29
3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying. 

28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” 

29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Originally published, on January 20, 2023, based on readings from John 20.

Reflection: Defining Moment — Readers’ Choice
By John Tillman

Bible scholars love a good joke or humorous moment in scripture. One that frequently provides levity is noticing that John seems keen to point out that he outran Peter to the tomb. Even though Peter entered first, John notes, twice, that he was the first to arrive. We imagine Peter reading it, saying, “Okay. We get it, John. You’re fast.”

But that’s not all John arrived at first. John was the first to arrive at the conclusion that Jesus was alive without seeing Jesus in the flesh. After hearing the testimony of Mary Magdelene, racing Peter to the empty tomb, and going in to see the carefully arranged graveclothes, John believed. Others needed more convincing.

The most famous of these, of course, is Thomas. Thomas also beat Peter to something. Thomas was the first disciple to express that he was willing to die with Jesus. That’s exactly what Thomas expected when they returned to Bethany before Lazarus was raised. (John 11.16) 

Thomas had good moments but history remembers and has named him for his worst moment. Thomas’s doubt is part of his story, but it is not his whole story. His doubt teaches us the important lesson that the disciples investigated the evidence and were convinced utterly that Jesus was alive. Thomas’s doubt helps our certainty. But his doubt isn’t his identity. 

Jesus doesn’t want you, or Thomas, to be defined by your lowest moment. Jesus didn’t give Thomas the nickname “doubting” and Jesus doesn’t have a nickname for you based on your failures either. 

Coming to faith in Jesus isn’t a race to be won. You can be quick to believe, like John, confused, like Peter, or cynical, like Thomas. Keep searching among the community of faith. Jesus will show up searching for you, bringing new and better adjectives.

We can edit our identity because of Jesus. He takes our descriptors and gives us his. We were sinners. Now we are righteous. We were dead. Now we are alive.

Do you, like Thomas, have an adjective attached to your name? As a writer and editor, let me encourage you to delete it. What adjectives do you carry with you? Doubting? Wounded? Worthless? Unreliable? Delete them and accept the new descriptors that are given to us in Jesus: 

Forgiven
Accepted
Beloved
Included
Purposeful 
Sent

Your defining moment is no longer your lowest moment. It is Jesus’ victory through the cross and resurrection.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer
Let Israel rejoice in its Maker; let the children of Zion be joyful in their king. For the Lore takes pleasure in his people and adorns the poor with victory. — Psalm 149.2, 4

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

Today’s Readings
Judges 16  (Listen 5:59)
Hebrews 3 (Listen 2:25)

Read more about First to Believe Without Seeing
Another “first” to note in the resurrection appearances of Jesus, is the first person to believe that Jesus was resurrected without seeing him.

First to Believe Without Seeing—Resurrection Appearances

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We want to not only continue but expand our work in 2023. Please consider becoming a monthly donor to help us reach more people.

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His Presence, Our Beauty — Readers’ Choice

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:
Barbara, Tennessee — Wow! Thank you, Erin!

Peter, Los Angeles — Erin’s description of the Tabernacle’s beauty (and the connection she drew to Jesus’ body) is breathtaking.  Thank you so much for elaborating on the rich meaning of God’s meeting place with us!

Michelle, NYC — This is just gorgeous. Intertwining the description of the Tabernacle from Exodus with its vibrant colors to the description of a battered Jesus adorned with those same colors. Wow!!  Incredible juxtaposition that will forever be engraved in my mind now.

From John: We are trying to share more of your voices this year in Readers’ Choice so you may see a few more names at the top of these than usual. I’m thrilled to start off this year with one of Erin’s which is also one of my favorites from the year.  Erin’s work with us has been stellar and this is just one of many examples we’ll share this month. A “behind-the-scenes” note I’ll add is that this piece came after a period of being blocked where Erin felt stuck like she didn’t have anything to write/say at all. It is not always true that great writing comes after being blocked, but sometimes being blocked forces a new kind of creativity and connection with the Word. Regardless of how it came about, I’m thankful for this piece as were many of you.

Scripture Focus: Exodus 26:30, 33-34
30 “Set up the tabernacle according to the plan shown you on the mountain…33 Hang the curtain from the clasps and place the ark of the covenant law behind the curtain. The curtain will separate the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place. 34 Put the atonement cover on the ark of the covenant law in the Most Holy Place. 

Originally published on March 15, 2023, based on readings from Exodus 26.

Reflection: His Presence, Our Beauty
By Erin Newton

Amid the desert, the Tabernacle was an oasis of color. Blue, purple, red. Against the dull hues of brown rocks and sandy ground, there would be the shimmer of gold, silver, and bronze. Where God dwelt with his people, there would be beauty.

It’s easy to get lost in the detailed blueprint for the Tabernacle. If we collect all the materials together, it is an array of beauty. There are acacia frames and wooden cross bars. Hooks and clasps in precious metals. Fine linen in jewel-toned colors of a sunset just before the darkness of night.

This is how God chose to be with his people—among the drab backdrop of a desert, he created a vibrant refuge. It is the extraordinary among the ordinary.

God dwelt with his people in the most inhospitable places. In a place without life, God would sustain them with food and water. Day after day after day. All the while, he traveled with them. He guided them. He dwelt with them. The Creator nestled among the created.

As time carried on, the presence of God moved to the permanent Temple. Surrounded by scenes of a garden—it was filled with palm trees and floral designs, cedar walls and golden details, images of the same winged creatures that guarded the entrance to Eden.

Then his presence moved among the people once again. Jesus tabernacled in the fabric of a human body with sunkissed skin of deep brown hues.

Upon the cross, the jewel-toned hues were seen once more. Blue and purple bruises marred his beaten body. Scarlet red blood dripped from his head, hands, feet, and side. His body, disfigured with the vibrant colors of royalty, hung on a cross in the most humble of deaths.

The dark night and shadowed tomb would not hold his presence. As promised, he took up residence in the hearts of every believer. Like the bright golden tongues of fire, the Spirit fell upon the people. He came to dwell again in a lonely place, bringing life and beauty to our souls.

And so, he has remained, in the hearts of every one of us.

He brings life to our mortal bodies. He clothes us in the rich hues of his grace. Among the prism of colors God brings to his people, he clothes us in white—the full intensity of all colors all at once. His presence is our crowning beauty.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
Let me hear of your loving-kindness in the morning, for I put my trust in you; show me the road that I must walk, for I lift up my soul to you. — Psalm 143.8

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

Today’s Readings
Judges 15  (Listen 3:13)
Hebrews 2 (Listen 2:47)

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Read more about Of Temples and Gardens
The Tabernacle, Solomon’s Temple, and other biblical Temples mimic and recreate the imagery of Eden’s garden.

Of Temples and Gardens—Readers’ Choice