Intercepting Deconstruction

  • May 12, 2023
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  • John Tillman

Scripture Focus: 1 Thessalonians 3.3-5
3 So when we could stand it no longer, we thought it best to be left by ourselves in Athens. 2 We sent Timothy, who is our brother and co-worker in God’s service in spreading the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, 3 so that no one would be unsettled by these trials. For you know quite well that we are destined for them. 4 In fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that we would be persecuted. And it turned out that way, as you well know. 5 For this reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith. I was afraid that in some way the tempter had tempted you and that our labors might have been in vain. 

Reflection: Intercepting Deconstruction
By John Tillman

Paul mentions twice that he can “stand it no longer.” The tension of wondering what had become of the fragile, new faith of the church in Thessalonica was too much for him. Deciding to stay in Athens alone, Paul sent Timothy to check on the believers and report back.

To put that in context, Paul could stand a lot. He could stand imprisonment, stonings, beatings with rods, and many other indignities and sufferings. But to suffer the nagging doubt about the faith of those he cared for was beyond him.

Paul’s concern is two-fold. He was concerned that news of his troubles would distress the believers and that “the tempter” would take the opportunity of distressing news to short-circuit their faith.

Faith, like young plants, is vulnerable when immature. A young plant may be choked out by thorns but a mature tree barely notices their clutching at its bark. Plants mature over time but faith matures only through active cultivation.

However, even mature faith can be harmed and even great trees can be felled. Many in our day have backed away from faith or are reexamining it. Some irresponsible pastors have attacked “deconstructing” Christians as being fooled by or being tools of Satan. Some of these pastors are the same men who caused, endorsed, or ignored the abuse, hypocrisy, and suffering that has fueled the deconstruction movement. They stand throwing gasoline on the fire and blame the devil.

While it is true that spiritual forces and powers attack individuals and the church at opportune times, (Luke 4.13) we can’t ignore the tangible causes. When we find abusive pastors, sweaty and holding an axe by a felled tree, we don’t need to blame the tree for giving in to Satan.

Paul preferred to prevent, rather than condemn, deconstruction. And when faith faltered, Paul intercepted those who strayed correctively but always compassionately. His strongest words were directed at deceivers, not the deceived. 

In our age of social media and instant messaging, we don’t need to send Timothy on a hazardous journey to stay in touch, although sometimes discussing faith can feel like a hazardous journey.

Like Paul, let us take the risk and put our energy into cultivating, maintaining, and repairing faith. Who do you know, weak in faith, who needs encouragement? Who do you know strong in faith, who you can turn to?

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
I call with my whole heart; answer me, O Lord, that I may keep your statues. — Psalm 119.145

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

Today’s Readings
Numbers 21 (Listen 5:03)
1 Thessalonians 3 (Listen 1:44)

This Weekend’s Readings
Numbers 22 (Listen 5:55), 1 Thessalonians 4 (Listen 2:24)
Numbers 23 (Listen 4:01), 1 Thessalonians 5 (Listen 2:37)

Read more about Cultivation Means Tending
We must carefully plant and nurture the early growth of gospel teaching so that it grows strong, healthy, and productive.

Cultivation Means Tending

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How are you dividing up your spiritual harvest? To whom are you passing on biblical knowledge?

Cultivation Leads to Harvest

Fear of Being Fooled

  • May 11, 2023
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  • John Tillman

Scripture Focus: 1 Thessalonians 2.1-4
1 You know, brothers and sisters, that our visit to you was not without results. 2 We had previously suffered and been treated outrageously in Philippi, as you know, but with the help of our God we dared to tell you his gospel in the face of strong opposition. 3 For the appeal we make does not spring from error or impure motives, nor are we trying to trick you.

“Pray……we don’t get fooled again.” — The Who


Reflection: Fear of Being Fooled
By John Tillman

People don’t like being tricked. I don’t even like surprise parties. 

Perhaps our fear of being fooled goes all the way back to Genesis? After the serpent fooled his parents, the Lord told Cain sin was a crouching creature to be mastered. (Genesis 4.6-7) We won’t be fooled again…we hope. Yet, over and over again, like Cain, sin masters us. The serpent fools us.

There are many stories we tell ourselves about our world being a deception. Free Guy, The Matrix films, and The Truman Show are just a few examples. In these stories, someone is living within what they think is real, what they think is normal, and what they think is good. But eventually, they find the truth.

Neo wakes up. Truman sails his boat into the wall of the sky. Guy learns about his creator and his imprisoner. In all these stories, someone is trying to fool the protagonist and someone is trying to free the protagonist. There’s a deceiver and a truth-teller at work.

Is it possible to go through life and never be fooled? I doubt it. If you never trust or put faith in anything, every time a true thing comes into your life and you refuse to believe it…you fool yourself. If you’ve been living with or inside a lie, being told the truth can feel like a trick. Sometimes, the skepticism that we think is protecting us, is actually keeping us imprisoned.

Neo, Truman, and Guy had truth-tellers who worked to free them from what they thought was normal, good, and real. These stories in our culture show our fear of being fooled and that searching for truth is arduous and risky. 

Skeptics aren’t usually out to try to harm believers. Most of the time they’re just trying to keep from being harmed. 

Skeptics in our lives need safe places and time for journeys of discovery. We need to allow them to work things out slowly, but that doesn’t mean the work isn’t urgent. We, like Paul, need to ensure skeptics that the gospel we share does not spring from error or impure motives. Words won’t be enough. It will take meals, time together, sharing experiences, and having difficult but respectful conversations about what is true.

As we help them search for truth, the truth will set them free.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. — Psalm 90.12


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


Today’s Readings
Numbers 20 (Listen 4:15)
1 Thessalonians 2 (Listen 2:53)

Read more about Last to Believe
Far from putting Thomas down, John treats Thomas’s journey from doubt to faith with respect and tenderness.

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Sometimes we look at kindness and assume there is a scheme of self-promotion or self-preservation behind it all.

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Caring for the Dead

  • May 10, 2023
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  • Erin Newton

Scripture Focus: Numbers 19.11, 16
11 “Whoever touches a human corpse will be unclean for seven days.

16 “Anyone out in the open who touches someone who has been killed with a sword or someone who has died a natural death, or anyone who touches a human bone or a grave, will be unclean for seven days.

Reflection: Caring for the Dead
By Erin Newton

There is, in fact, a sting to death. It is painful and cruel. It rends our hearts with each new loss. Within the mortal body was someone dearly loved. With a final embrace, a closing of eyes—we often seek to lay their bodies to rest with gentleness and care.

In the ancient world, such contact with the dead led to a week’s worth of impurity. Those defiled by contact with death could not enter the Temple until they were cleansed. Death could not reside within the presence of God. Death is the antithesis to a Creator God.

Numbers 19 details purification through the washing of water mixed with the ashes of a red heifer. The ash-mixed water with other cleansing agents was sprinkled on those defiled by contact with the dead. This law, combined with the natural trajectory of life, meant this practice occurred quite frequently.

Respect and care for the dead could not be avoided, even if the cleansing ritual was inconvenient. Even in death, each person is an image bearer of God. Each mortal body must be treated with dignity and honor.

When Jesus died upon the cross, Joseph of Arimathea requested his body so he could be buried before the Sabbath. John tells us that it was Nicodemus who brought the burial spices and helped wrap the body in linen. Joseph and Nicodemus willingly entered a week of impurity. We do not hear from them again.

It is fascinating to consider the crucified Lord, having been prepared for burial and causing two men to enter a state of impurity, would choose to join with his disciples three days after his death. This same God who declares the uncleanliness of death is now content to meet with them, dine with them, and let them touch his body. They are at no risk of defilement; Jesus is no walking corpse. He is alive.

The purity laws are always reversed with Jesus. No longer does the impurity of death or bleeding pass from one person to another. Now it is purity that moves from the Son of God to mere mortals. The ashes of a heifer could outwardly clean, but the blood of Christ does so much more (Heb 9:12-14).

How we honor our dead continues to reflect the value and dignity of each person. But no longer does death stand between our intimacy with God. Death has no victory.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Small Verse
Let me seek the Lord while he may still be found. I will call upon his name while he is near.

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

Today’s Readings
Numbers 19 (Listen 3:39)
1 Thessalonians 1 (Listen 1:27)

Read more about The Staggering Dead and the Glory of God
One day, as Lazarus and our dear Christ, himself…we will leave our grave clothes behind. That is the glory of God.

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Read more about The Broken Power of Death
For those in Christ, death is a toothless predator, a limbless wrestler, who cannot hold us down for long.

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An Imprecatory Psalm for Mass Shootings

  • May 9, 2023
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  • John Tillman

Scripture Focus: Galatians 6.7-10
7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8 Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

Reflection: An Imprecatory Psalm for Mass Shootings
By John Tillman

In the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, when you ask how far away something is, we answer in minutes, not miles. Allen, Texas is about a 40-minute drive from us but this weekend it seemed much closer. As I tried to write today’s devotional the morning after the Allen shooting my thoughts kept returning to it. 

I went to church after writing the 1st draft of this. As normal, I paused to think about what I should do in case of a shooting. Every Sunday, I think about the exits, the likely direction of an attack, and what, if anything, I could do other than help people escape. 

This shouldn’t be normal.

I was a student at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary when the shooting at Wedgewood Baptist Church happened on September 15, 1999. I did not know any of the victims personally but one of them was in a class with me. I remember stepping out of the memorial service in SWBTS chapel to get tissues from the bathroom and pass them out to those weeping near me. It wasn’t enough for me to weep with the weeping, or pray without doing something.

Shootings weren’t normal then. Now they are so normal, we do nothing about them except pray.

Someone asked, “What do you pray for when you pray about mass shootings.” My prayers in these situations mirror the imprecatory psalms of scripture. 

Perhaps this prayer is too raw or angry for you to pray. That’s okay. Pray your own prayer. The imprecatory psalms and our angry prayers in crisis are still valuable to God:

An Imprecatory Psalm for Mass Shootings:
Jesus, be with the victims and their families. 
Heal physical, emotional, and spiritual wounds.

God, may swift justice fall on attackers and accomplices.
“Kings” do not bear the sword for nothing.
May that sword swing and find its target.
May evil be punished in this world to the best of our ability.

Holy Spirit, convict those leaders who continue to do nothing in response to these crimes.
Afflict them with lack of sleep and lack of peace.
Do not listen to their prayers!
Turn your face away from them until they establish just laws that:
Prevent these events prior to their happening
Protect victims during these events, and
Prosecute those who contributed to these events afterward.

Throw your covering over us, Lord. Have mercy.
How long, O Lord? How long?

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting
To you I lift up my eyes, to you enthroned in the heavens.
As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters, and the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress,
So our eyes look to the Lord our God, until he shows us his mercy. — Psalm 123.1-3

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

Today’s Readings
Numbers 17-18(Listen 6:58)
Galatians 6 (Listen 2:18)

Read more about Justice of God
Sometimes when we find penalties in the Bible harsh, it is because we have been fortunate enough to never suffer serious harm.

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The psalms were artistic endeavors, not legal documents or court decisions. They are the cries of the victims, not the verdict of the judge.

Praise God for the Justice of the Gospel

Bad Yeast and Good Yeast

  • May 8, 2023
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  • John Tillman

Scripture Focus: Galatians 5.6-9
6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. 

7 You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? 8 That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. 9 “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.”

Reflection: Bad Yeast and Good Yeast
By John Tillman

Paul repeats this line, “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough” in 1 Corinthians. (1 Corinthians 5.6-7) In Corinthians, Paul was concerned that a case of sexual immorality would spread and damage the reputation of the church. Here, Paul was concerned that the Galatians were being misled to follow strict Jewish laws.

So which is it, Paul? Does “yeast” lead to breaking God’s law or to following God’s law? If one law from scripture is binding, Paul, why do you say people don’t have to follow them all?

In the majority of scripture, yeast is treated like a corrupting agent. Nearly every mention is about keeping yeast out of spaces, places, and food that is holy. This goes back to the establishment of Passover. Making bread without yeast in that meal symbolized the haste with which the Israelites were to leave Egypt. (Exodus 12.34-39) All the ceremonial bread used in worshiping the Lord in the Tabernacle was to be made without yeast because it was looking back to that moment.

Yeast was removed from Jewish communities during Passover because just a little could make an entire batch of bread unusable. Even today, on the night before Passover, Jewish families will search through the house for crumbs of leavened bread, hidden by parents for children to find. These will be thrown out or burned.

Paul, and Jesus, were concerned about the yeast of false teaching and sin. They wanted it exposed and thrown out. Jesus warned about this in Mark, Matthew, and Luke. (Mark 8:14-21; Matthew 16.5-12; Luke 12.1-2) In Luke, Jesus specified yeast as the sin of hypocrisy and stressed that hidden things would be exposed. However, Jesus also compared the Kingdom of God to yeast spreading through a large batch of dough. (Luke 13.18-21)

So, there is good yeast which is the gospel the Galatians risked losing. And there is bad yeast, including pride, self-righteousness, hypocrisy, sexual immorality, and other sins.

We need to seek out and throw out bad yeast. This yeast puffs us up with pride which could lead to self-righteous-rule-enforcing or self-righteous-rule-breaking. Sinful yeast makes us unclean and infects everything we touch.  

We need gospel yeast. This yeast works through our whole lives, changing the flavor of our faith and filling us with pockets of God’s Spirit. Serve the world with gospel yeast. This yeast is the yeast that counts: “faith expressing itself in love.” (Galatians 5.6)

Share the gospel. It is good yeast.


Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer
Let my mouth be full of your praise and your glory all the day long. — Psalm 71.8

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


Today’s Readings
Numbers 16 (Listen 6:59)
Galatians 5 (Listen 3:22)

Read more about The Law that leads to Grace
Thank you, God, for grace through faith that cannot be downgraded and a Law designed to lead us to grace.

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Paul’s thorn in the flesh is one of the great unknowns of scripture.

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