Tag: Revelation 22

Posted on

Wait for the Final Reel

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Nehemiah 13 Listen: (5:57), Read: Revelation 22 Listen: (3:59)

Links for Wednesday’s readings:

Read: Genesis 1 Listen: (4:55), Read: John 1 Listen: (6:18)

Scripture Focus: Nehemiah 13.6-11

6 But while all this was going on, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I had returned to the king. Some time later I asked his permission 7 and came back to Jerusalem. Here I learned about the evil thing Eliashib had done in providing Tobiah a room in the courts of the house of God. 8 I was greatly displeased and threw all Tobiah’s household goods out of the room. 9 I gave orders to purify the rooms, and then I put back into them the equipment of the house of God, with the grain offerings and the incense.

10 I also learned that the portions assigned to the Levites had not been given to them, and that all the Levites and musicians responsible for the service had gone back to their own fields. 11 So I rebuked the officials and asked them, “Why is the house of God neglected?” Then I called them together and stationed them at their posts.

Revelation 22.12-13

12 “Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

“If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.”

— Orson Welles

Reflection: Wait for the Final Reel

By John Tillman

A calendar year is an arbitrary measurement, like a reel of a film. Before digital projection took over, a thousand-foot-long reel would hold about eleven minutes of film. Projectionists changed reels continuously to show complete films.

How is the story of this year ending for you? Whether it’s bad or good…it’s not really the end. It’s just one reel.

In 1986, Saturday Night Live imagined a new reel to end the Christmas classic, It’s a Wonderful Life. After the happy moment of the community coming together and George’s business being saved, they continued the story in a darker direction. Uncle Billy remembers where he lost the money. They discover “Old Man Potter” deposited it. They rush out, find Potter, and beat him to death.

The sketch wrapped up a loose thread from the original in a darkly funny way. However, it illustrates that, depending on where you end it, a story can go from bright and hopeful, showing the best of humanity, to dark and ugly, showing the worst. George’s story would also be very different if it ended at the bridge, before Clarence interfered in his suicide attempt.

Biblical stories change too, depending on when you stop reading. Nehemiah chapter 12 has a perfect happy ending. The hero accomplishes his purpose. Enemies are shamed. Jerusalem is restored. But there’s another reel. Corruption creeps back in—literally. The greedy villain who dogged Nehemiah through the whole story moves into the Temple! Nehemiah throws Tobiah out, but that wasn’t the end. Nehemiah ends by repeatedly calling on God’s mercy.

There’s much to celebrate in Nehemiah, but it’s not a simple, happy story about good leadership or a template for legalistic enforcement of religious laws. 400 years later, Jesus cleansed the Temple of corrupt and greedy robbers and confronted legalistic systems Nehemiah enforced.

Nehemiah is just a reel out of a film we are all in—struggling against sin and crying out for mercy. The story isn’t over when we kick villains out or when they crawl back to power. In this world, corruption consistently creeps back in.

When we fail or when we win, it’s just the rise and fall of a thrilling tale. In the final reel, the real hero returns. Our story ends with Jesus’ ultimate victory.

Where you end a story, changes what kind of story it is. Wait for the final reel.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting

Happy are they whom you choose and draw to your courts to dwell there! They will be satisfied by the beauty of your house, by the holiness of your temple. — Psalm 65.4

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

Read more about It’s Not Over When It’s Over

Can we save falling things? Perhaps. But failing that, we can rise from destruction…endure to the end. All will fall down. We will stand up.

It’s Not Over When It’s Over

Read The Bible With Us

It’s the perfect time to join our Bible reading plan. Invite friends to read with you at a sustainable, two-year pace.

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

Posted on

New Year, New Adam, New Creation

Scripture Focus: Revelation 22.3, 17
No longer will there be any curse….The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.

Reflection: New Year, New Adam, New Creation
By John Tillman

In recent times, many have cursed outgoing years for their sufferings. 2019 was blamed for much. 2020 was blamed for more. 2021 will get its share of curses and blame.

Traditionally, a new year inspires hope. This doesn’t seem as true anymore. When our traumatized culture looks to the new year, anticipation is often tainted with trepidation. It’s easy to see why. When one has been burned so often, warm feelings about the future are fleeting.

Traditional images of New Year celebrations include the old year, personified by an old man, (Sometimes called “Father Time”) and the new year, by a baby. The baby brings the incoming blessings of the new year and the old man carries the old year’s curses to the grave.

Baby New Year represents hope for the future. However, just like 2020 and 2021 failed to prove much better than 2019, a new generation is unlikely to prove much better than the last. We tend to get stuck in the sins of our forefathers rather than free ourselves from them. Short of a miracle, one year, or one generation can’t reverse the mistakes of the past.

Christians do, however, hope in a miraculous child. Better than a baby new year, Jesus is a new Adam. All creation will be renewed in him. In Jesus, we find a baby who is able to redeem his forefathers, a child who is able to lead reborn children of God, and a king who is able to overturn the wrongs of prior kingdoms.

The old years don’t really deserve cursing but our old selves do. The years weren’t the problem. We were—and are. We have carried out our own curse since Eden, however, God stands ready to reverse it. Neither the year nor those who lived through it are cursed if we are in Christ.

Christ takes our curse in himself and births in us a new self that owes no debt to sin and no death to the grave. The new Adam makes us new creations. Our “old man” is not killed and replaced so much as renewed and reinvigorated with living water that gives life forevermore.

As we enter the new year, rather than curse the past, let us bless the future. Let us drink freely of, and offer to the world “the free gift of the water of life.”

Image: Father Time and Baby New Year from Postcard, 1909 (Public Domain)

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
Be pleased, O God, to deliver me; O Lord, make haste to help me. — Psalm 70.1

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.Today’s Readings
2 Chronicles 36 (Listen – 4:26) 
Revelation 22 (Listen – 3:59)

From John: In this new year, we are tweaking our reading plan. We will still read all of the same books as are typically in our “even year” plan. However, we will read them in a roughly chronological order. We will not jump around from book to book (many books are written in overlapping times) but we will read them in an order that is as close to chronological order without breaking the books up. Readers have expressed interest in this and we are looking forward to seeing scriptures fall at new times of the year and becoming more familiar with how the writers of scripture depended on one another and finding new connections as we read in this manner. We will work on a graphic of the new reading plans over the next couple of months and will provide it when it is available. Thank you for your readership and for your prayer and financial support! Happy New Year!

This Weekend’s Readings
Job 1 (Listen – 3:38) Psalm 1-2 (Listen – 2:05)
Job 2 (Listen – 2:11) Psalm 3-4 (Listen – 1:56)

Read more about Supporting our Work
Your support this year enabled us to bless ministry students with scholarships. One of our student writers, Karen from Saint Louis says, “Getting to know John and some of the guest writers was a great encouragement. The monetary gift was an unexpected cherry on top. Thank you for your support and for your vision to encourage seminary students in our pursuit of God’s calling for our lives.”

Supporting our Work

Read more about The Curse Reversed
In the curse of Eden, God commits himself to a course of intervention on our behalf. The curse is made to be broken.

The Curse Reversed—Readers’ Choice
Posted on

The Curse Reversed—Readers’ Choice

Selected by reader, Jason Tilley
God is perfect justice, perfect mercy, and perfect love. He is never one over the other; rather, they exist in him in harmony. When he is jealous, it is from love, when he rights wrongs, it is from love. To fear God is not to be afraid of God. It is to stand in awe of his perfect love.

Originally published, December 31, 2019, based on readings from 2 Chronicles 36 & Revelation 22.

Scripture Focus: Revelation 22.3, 17
No longer will there be any curse….The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.

Reflection: The Curse Reversed—Readers’ Choice
By John Tillman

In Eden, humanity hid from God because of sin and fear and from each other because of shame and blame. This carries on into our interactions today. We both hide from God and hide God from ourselves, pushing him away to make room for gods of our choosing and making. We take the power and dominion God gave as a blessing and curse ourselves with it. 

God spoke the curse of Eden but, in many ways, we wrote it. And Christ reversed it. 

Even as he speaks the curse of Eden, God purposes and promises to break it. Scripture describes a God constantly working to reverse the curse and speaking repetitions of the theme of the final paragraphs of the Bible, “Come.”

In Eden, God says, “Where are you?” 
At Sinai, God says, “Follow me.”
In Galilee, Christ says, “Here I am.”
In the wilderness, Christ says, “Return to me.”
In Samaria, Christ says, “Ask me for water.”
In his teaching, Christ says, “Abide with me.”
At the table, Christ says, “Remember me.”
In the garden, Christ begs, “Be with me.”
At the beginning of John’s vision, Christ says, “Come up here.”
And here, at the end of God’s vision for the world and for us, God says, “Come.”

In the curse of Eden, God commits himself to a course of intervention on our behalf. The curse is made to be broken.

Epiphany is the revealing of Christ to the nations. It is God breaking through all of our concealments, coming out of hiding, breaking the curse of banishment, and openly saying, “Come.” 

The visions of Revelation can be intimidating, but we must remember the character of the God we serve, perfectly revealed to us in Jesus Christ. He is the same in the throne room as he was in the manger, as he was in the upper room washing our feet, as he was on the cross, as he was pressing the fingers of doubters into his hands, and as he is now, tenderly reaching out to all humanity.

As we enter the new year, may we remember, we do not cower before a punitively petulant God who from his pedestal pronounces our doom.

We kneel before a compassionately caring creator, who kneels lower than us, so that he may lift our face to look in his eyes.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting
How great is your goodness, O Lord, which you have laid up for those who fear you; which you have done in the sight of all. — Psalm 31.19

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

Today’s Readings
Lamentations 1 (Listen – 4:44)
Psalm 32 (Listen – 1:34)

Read more about Supporting our Work
The Park Forum strives to provide short, smart, engaging, biblical content to people across the world for free with no ads. Gifts to The Park Forum support this mission.

Supporting our Work

Read more about His Blessings, Our Curse :: A Guided Prayer
Jesus Christ became a curse for us…died to release the curse’s hold on us, then he rose to bring to us the full blessings of life that overflows with good things.

His Blessings, Our Curse :: A Guided Prayer
Posted on

The Curse Reversed :: Epiphany

Scripture Focus: Revelation 22.3, 17
No longer will there be any curse….The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.

Reflection: The Curse Reversed :: Epiphany
By John Tillman

In Eden, humanity hid from God because of sin and fear and from each other because of shame and blame. This carries on into our interactions today. We both hide from God and hide God from ourselves, pushing him away to make room for gods of our choosing and making. We take the power and dominion God gave as a blessing and curse ourselves with it. 

God spoke the curse of Eden but, in many ways, we wrote it. And Christ reversed it. 

Even as he speaks the curse of Eden, God purposes and promises to break it. Scripture describes a God constantly working to reverse the curse and speaking repetitions of the theme of the final paragraphs of the Bible, “Come.”

In Eden, God says, “Where are you?” 
At Sinai, God says, “Follow me.”
In Galilee, Christ says, “Here I am.”
In the wilderness, Christ says, “Return to me.”
In Samaria, Christ says, “Ask me for water.”
In his teaching, Christ says, “Abide with me.”
At the table, Christ says, “Remember me.”
In the garden, Christ begs, “Be with me.”
At the beginning of John’s vision, Christ says, “Come up here.”
And here, at the end of God’s vision for the world and for us, God says, “Come.”

In the curse of Eden, God commits himself to a course of intervention on our behalf. The curse is made to be broken.

Epiphany is the revealing of Christ to the nations. It is God breaking through all of our concealments, coming out of hiding, breaking the curse of
banishment, and openly saying, “Come.” 

The visions of Revelation can be intimidating, but we must remember the character of the God we serve, perfectly revealed to us in Jesus Christ. He is the same in the throne room as he was in the manger, as he was in the upper room washing our feet, as he was on the cross, as he was pressing the fingers of doubters into his hands, and as he is now, tenderly reaching out to all humanity.

As we enter the new year, may we remember, we do not cower before a punitively petulant God who from his pedestal pronounces our doom.
We kneel before a compassionately caring creator, who kneels lower than us, so that he may lift our face to look in his eyes.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer
I will call upon God, and the Lord will deliver me.
In the evening, in the morning, and at noonday, I will complain and lament, and he will hear my voice.
He will bring me safely back…God, who is enthroned of old, will hear me. — Psalm 55.17

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

Today’s Readings
2 Chronicles 36 (Listen -4:26) 
Revelation 22 (Listen -3:59)

Tomorrow’s Readings (Happy New Year!)
Ezra 1 (Listen -2:03) 
Acts 1 (Listen -3:58)

Thank You, Donors, for a wonderful End-of-Year Giving response!
End of Year giving has increased again, for the second year in a row, with many increasing their gifts and also many first time donors. We are so thankful to God for your generosity. These end-of-year gifts will help us continue to improve the spiritual discipleship of readers around the globe with free, and ad-free, devotional content throughout 2020.

Today, being the last day of 2019, is the last opportunity for tax-deductible contributions for this year. If you have not yet given and intend to give, please follow the giving link or put your check in the mail today. Follow this link to our giving page or mail checks to:
The Park Forum
PO Box 185082
Fort Worth, TX, 76181

Spread the Word
If you are not able to support us financially, another simple action that tangibly helps our ministry is to share about The Park Forum. Liking or commenting on our social media posts (but especially sharing them) helps more people to see them. This type of exposure is far better than when we spend money on ads to promote our posts. 

Forwarding our emails or sending links to our website to friends is another way to spread the gospel and to encourage Bible Literacy in your community of believers. Share a post with others to help them subscribe to our emails.

Read more about Supporting our Work
We are thankful for our donors’ gifts because they show the work of God in our donors’ hearts and their willingness to contribute to improving the spiritual discipleship of readers around the globe.

Supporting our Work

Read more about His Blessings, Our Curse :: A Guided Prayer
Jesus Christ became a curse for us…died to release the curse’s hold on us, then he rose to bring to us the full blessings of life that overflows with good things.

His Blessings, Our Curse :: A Guided Prayer