Saturday 30 April

Joshua 17:1-18:27

I love the way even Joshua gets a bit bored of this distribution of land thing and delegates the task off to various underlings.  But, while the detailed description of arguments over the sizes of inheritances and the falling of the borders may be a little dull, the big picture remains fascinating.  God has led his people to the promised land and now, in these very chapters, Joshua and his people are working out what exactly they have got. It feels a bit like a family wandering around a huge house that they have just inherited from an unknown great aunt.  We get the points of contention emphasised in the re-telling but the bulk of the news is really really good.  Israel have a home thanks to the incredible generosity of their God.  And there is the parallel to us today.  There is more to be done, there are Canaanites with iron chariots in our lives that need to be driven out, but we stand in land we do not deserve.  We rejoice with trembling and at the same time, press on towards the goal.

John 1:29-51

In Matthew, Jesus was shown to fulfill the whole old Testament; in Mark, to be the powerful, but confusing inaugurator of the Kingdom; in Luke, to be the Son of Man who brings the favour of God to the last, the least and the lost.  In John we crash straight into immensely bold statements about Jesus’ identity.  Even after yesterday’s prologue we immediately see Jesus as “Son of God”, “Lamb of God”, “Messiah” and the Son of Man on whom the angels of God ascending and descending.  These are huge claims clearly pointing to Jesus’ divinity.  It is possible to be so overwhelmed by these that we detach Jesus from his humanity, that we believe that he was “super-spiritual” and so cut off from the everyday life that we inhabit.  I’ve met many people who seem to have gone this way and feel that becoming more like Jesus is becoming increasingly isolated in a “spiritual” world, full of prayer but empty of real relationships with people.  But this is a serious underselling of the gospel.  The angels of God descended to earth as well as ascended.  Jesus didn’t just pass by John’s two disciples but asked them to “Come and see”.  Jesus didn’t just leave for Galilee but he found Philip and asked him if he wanted to turn it into a road trip.  In short, as you dig through the veneer of super-spirituality you realise that the Son of God was completely obsessed with spending time with people, with drawing into intimacy with his creation.  Vineyard’s first in the list of priorities is worship, and quite rightly so.  But second is relationships and, if we want to really become like Jesus, then it is one that we would do well to embody.

Proverbs 10:31-11:8

“Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath but righteousness delivers from death”

Friday 29 April

Joshua 15:1-16:10

Yawn.  Didn’t read any of that apart from the weird way that Caleb used his daughter as bait.  Maybe I should have checked ahead before I praised him so highly yesterday...

John 1:1-28

It’s like a jumbo jet has landed in my garden.  It doesn’t even get close to fitting and it has squashed my shed flat but everything should be OK as long as we don’t turn the engines on.  I had felt pretty stretched and challenged by the 3 Synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) but then, out of nowhere, the hulking monstrosity that is John has just been thrust on me from above.  I really don’t know where to start and even as I edge around the introductory concepts - the Word being God, everything being made through him - I feel like I’m getting wedged between the fuselage and the garage.  How can my brain cope with the idea of the Word being in “the beginning”?  I struggle to understand that there was a time when I wasn’t yet born, let alone the universe.  But, at least I’m standing here.  I’m least I’m giving the Spirit a chance of penetrating my soul with even the tiniest increment of these enormous, explosive truths.  At least if I keep repeating over and over “the Word became flesh... and we have seen his glory” then my brain may at some point recover from its does-not-compute system overload and begin to work out how to start putting some of this into practice.  And, at the end of the day, it’s quite fun having a jumbo in the back garden; it certainly gets the neighbours talking.

Psalm 53:1-6

"O God restore the fortune of your people."  That's a cool thing to pray!

Thursday 28 April

Joshua 13:1-14:15

We don’t see a lot of Caleb throughout the Exodus story but he was a constant present and, as the leader of Judah, an important one.  Three things about him that I really like are 1) He never seems to have lost his vigour for the Lord despite having his hopes delayed for 45 years of hard and punishing work! 2) He humbly submits his request for Hebron to Joshua as his leader despite having previously been Joshua’s peer and despite the fact that as leader of the largest tribe he could have used some political pressure tactics to add weight to his case. 3) He shows that you can never out-give God.  Caleb didn’t do a whole lot other than trust God that he could give Israel the land that He promised them but God lavishes on him a long-standing, generous gift of one of the most significant cities in the promised land. Caleb wonderfully illustrates the recurring theme throughout the Old Testament (and the new, and in life today!) that any human attempt at worship and obedience is always completely super-abundantly reciprocated by the recklessly generous God that we serve.

Luke 24:36-53

I must confess that this little nugget of vs45-49 has never caught my eye before.  But it is an absolute gem.  It pretty much represents Jesus’ summary of history from the point of his birth onwards.  Jesus, the Christ - the anointed one - the Messiah - the King of the earth - would be executed but would overcome the grave and, like a tsunami following the earthquake of the resurrection, the message of repentance and forgiveness would spread out from Jerusalem, crashing onto the shores of every nation around the world.  We have been born into this history.  Our job is to spread the message of repentance and to watch then forgiveness hit.  This message of repentance is not a condemning message but a liberating one; it is an appeal for people to turn around and walk towards light and hope and peace.  It is an appeal for people to lay down their burdens and let go of their insecurities, to be freed from their wickedness and cleansed in their consciences.  And, as with the story of Caleb, such repentance does not end with human activity but is overwhelmingly responded to by our forgiving and giving God.  We are not calling people to a detox so that they can try to live more simply and healthily but are informing them of their Heavenly Father who has an embrace so wide that it completely restores you and pockets so deep that they could fund and empower you for ever.  This is the message we have received and it is the message we share with the world.  That is what the Holy Spirit has been sent for.

Psalm 52:1-9

Unlike David, “I am like an olive tree” is not a thought that has ever popped into my mind.  

Wednesday 27 April

Joshua 11:1-12:24

Hahaha, I love the preposterousness of the list of the kings each with the word ‘one’ next to them!  Why on earth did they feel the need to write ‘one’ at all - why not just list all the lands and then say “31 kings in all”.  Sometimes the bible is so wonderfully eccentric it just utterly delights me.  I love the fact that God’s people can be flamboyant or anal, trend-setters or odd-balls and He just welcomes them all in and affirms the way he has made them.  And the list itself is quite an extraordinary thing.  It represents the against-the-odds progression of the promise of God for the people of God.  It shows that despite Israel ignoring the covenant and bankrupting themselves, God has kept crashing them forward, leading them to a land of milk and honey, giving them victory over their enemies drawing them closer to the fulfillment of His promise.  Although the book is called Joshua it really is God’s story, it really is His victory and His triumph, it was He who defeated the 31 kings who tried to destroy Israel and He who called the people of Israel to Himself.  Our God is strong and mighty and he sticks closer to us than a brother, overlooking our rebellion and waywardness and lavishing upon us gift after gift, triumph after triumph, promise after promise.  This whole world is caught up in God’s story; in God’s redemption narrative.  What an utter delight and privilege that we can be co-labourers with Him in his work as he goes about fulfilling every promise that he has every made to the world.

Luke 24:1-35

Oh yeah mama! That is what we’re talking about! Some of the companions went to the tomb but they did not see Him.  Some rolled away the stone but his body they did not find.  Death couldn’t hold Him, the grave couldn’t keep Him.  It tried - oh boy did it try - but the power that lived in his flesh refused to yield to its grasp.  This One would not end that way. This One could not end that way. He is the one that the centuries of writings were about, He is the One who took upon himself all the suffering of all the ages and yet  would not stay dead.  There was something in his flesh, something in his blood, something in his very soul that could not be quashed by even the mightiest assault of the darkness.  Jesus is risen!  And with him rises all the hopes of Israel, all the promises of the covenants, all the salvation of the world, all the hope for mankind.  And yet, after this glorious, majestic, bone-shaking and history-shattering event we find the man Jesus strolling along a road from one city to one village, passing the time of day with a couple of crestfallen travellers.  This One that all the Old Testament was about, this One who triumphed over every principality and power, this One who was taking unsurpassing glory onto Himself was happy just to humbly chat with a couple of guys who thought that their world had caved in.  This is the extra level of glory that rests upon this Man, that he would sneak alongside us and listen to us and cause our hearts to burn within us.

Psalm 51:10-19

From personal brokeness comes a passion for Zion.  From repentance comes a desire to see God glorified in his church and his world.

Tuesday 26 April

Joshua 9:16-10:43

Don’t you get the impression that every one of Joshua’s anecdotes would end with the phrase “so I put it to the sword”?  This narrative does make him sound a little one-dimensional; like a rugby prop who is always spoiling for a fight and might even deck the referee.  But this is not just rampant aggression, it is “zeal”.  Joshua birthed this zeal through extended meditation and worship in the Tent of Meeting (Ex 33:11) and now he is giving it free reign in pursuit of the God-given objectives for him and for Israel.  Zeal like this is a good, God-inspired thing that courses through the veins and surges us forwards towards obedience and sacrifice.  We all know that even Jesus expressed it at the temple.  But I would suspect that such murderous zeal would not be what the Spirit is saying to the churches.  Perhaps it is more a ravenous hunger for holiness and for purity for the church.  Perhaps it is reckless pursuit of justice for the oppressed.  Perhaps it is a radical no-holes-bared quest for the glorification of God and the extension of His kingdom.  Perhaps it is expressed in aching prayer, fearless action and audaciously loving words.  I don’t know exactly what zeal would look like today but I do know where to find it; in the deepest recesses of the presence of the Lord.

Luke 23:26-56

Yesterday we saw how Jesus is King of Kings.  Today we gaze with wonder upon the unfathomable depths of his love.  Every paragraph is buckling under the weight of His compassion and care.  Jesus has been tortured and ridiculed, put through agony and humiliation and yet he turns to the women - He turns to them! - and desperate to see them saved he urges them to weep and prepare for the coming troubles.  Surely He should have been fixed on saving himself from his own troubles but love showed him another way and he chose it.  As they batter the metal through his flesh he asks his Father not to spare himself the pain but to spare the hammer-bearers the agony of their own actions.  When nobodies claim superiority over him he doesn’t vilify them or curse them but ignores them .  But when a criminal submits to Him He promises him the greatest future anyone could ever desire.  And that is not even to mention the actual act of dying.  Whoever we are, whatever we have done Jesus responds to us with monstrous volumes of love.  His longing is to see us well, his aspect is turned towards us and his arms are open wide.  He is the King of Kings but, my goodness does he love his subjects.  He loves us and he loves us and he loves us till days have no end.

Proverbs 10:21-30

The lips of the righteous nourish many.  I love the idea of us wandering around feeding people and building them up just by chatting.

Monday 25 April

Joshua 8:1-9:15

God wants his people to do well.  He is also pretty smart.  I’m sure the people doubted it as they stood at Mount Ebal for hours on end listening to every single word that Moses had written and they clearly forgot it when those jolly japesters from Gibeon showed up.  But it is true and it is something we can totally rely on.  It was demonstrated in the positive when Joshua took time to ask God his opinion about Ai and in the negative when he didn’t bother to ask about the Gibeonites.  A Vineyard distinctive is that we try never to move until we feel the Lord has called us to.  Sometimes its hard work but, on the occasions we get it right, it is utterly amazing.  God really does want us to do well and he is pretty smart at working out ways of getting us there.

Luke 22:63-23:25

As the gospel reaches boiling point we find a single message emerging from the flames.  The essence of Jesus, the central claim about this extraordinary individual is that he is king.  That is the thing that sticks.  The assembly accuse him of it, Pilate grills him on it and Jesus confesses it.  What the assembly just can’t accept and Pilate can’t grasp is that Jesus is not just king with a small ‘k’ but King of all Kings whose reign and dominion will know no end.  And, as Luke makes clear, kingship is about jurisdiction.  Herod tries to claim to that Jesus is under his jurisdiction but Jesus is having none of it.  He won’t humour the puppet king, the sham king of the people of God and while Herod and his cronies mock him for it Jesus busily goes about usurping him of all of his jurisdiction.  And he also usurps all the other kings, including Caesar, while he is at it.  There have been many short summaries of the good news about Jesus that have been used over the ages but I think “Jesus is King” is one of the best.  It is so simple and yet so significant.  It points to his authority and his power and yet, by tying them simply to the name of a bloke who walked about on the earth, it also hints at mercy and compassion.  And so Luke plays out the drama of the King of Kings acting in mercy and compassion to his people.  Jesus allows himself to be subjected to the will of the crowd and they, in a tragic irony that outdoes anything that Ms Morissette could sing about, kill him and pin their allegiance to the violent buffoon Barabbas who couldn’t even wrest a tiny kingdom out of the hands of Herod.  There is only one King worth backing and his peaceful insurrection of the cross has already gained him a triumph of all eternity.

Psalm 51:1-9

What the heck is hyssop?  I think I need to get me some.

Sunday 24 April

Joshua 5:13-7:26

It’s like Einstein asking a 2 year old to sit his maths test for him.  God could easily have cinched this “taking the promised land” thing but he preferred to let the Israelites have a go, even though he knew they would screw it up.  And screw it up they did.  Joshua waltzes away from the shores of the Jordan towards the first settlement in the promised land, possibly self-importantly filled with a sense that he was breaking new ground and pressing into new things.    So God puts him in his place a little bit.  He shows him that the commander of His army of the Lord had got there before him.  Long before him.  He’d probably been sat around sharpening his sword for 40 years while Israel learnt how to listen to God. And then when Joshua tries to suggest that the world is split into those who are for him and those who are against him (maybe Israel’s perpetual problem??) the Lord reminds him that it is around God, and not around a group of people that the world’s dividing line falls.  Remarkably the Israelites actually do the Jericho thing pretty well but then Achan steps up and sullies what would have otherwise been quite a good section. Achan’s sin was quite a familiar one; losing sight of the fact that this is God’s maths test and any prizes we win for it completely belong to him.  We live in extraordinary grace.  We could so easily have been given a life of watching God do incredible things completely independent of us but, for some inexplicable reason he chooses to include us in them.  And what is more, he helps us pass - He tells us what he wants us to do and we just watch the walls of Jericho come down.

Luke 22:39-62

I think Luke must have consulted Peter quite a bit when he was writing his gospel.  We don’t get the Jesus-looking-straight-at-Peter bit in any of the other gospels and it surely is an anecdote that could only come from the horse’s mouth.  Poor old Peter must have soiled his toga when he realised the depth of his shamefacedness.  From that point on he could never have doubted the basis of any future engagement with Jesus - epic portions of grace.  And yet the funny thing is that we don’t even get told what Jesus’ look was.  I’m not entirely sure why that is but perhaps it because it is less important than the fact that Jesus looked at all.  Jesus had more than enough to be getting along with and yet his mind was on his followers.  Jesus already knew that Peter would betray him and yet he didn’t take that knowledge and whack Peter with it.  Rather, he used it to focus his attention on Peter, turning his aspect towards him in the moment of his greatest betrayal.  Isn’t that wonderful?  Jesus chooses to give himself particularly to those who are goofing up and bankrupting themselves.  He doesn’t blandly say that everything is OK but he does show he is there, watching, aware of our plight and dropping hints of the redemption that he is wanting to bring.  

Psalm 50:16-23

I wonder what a thank-offering would look like in the New Covenant?  

Saturday 23 April

Joshua 3:1-5:12

If I was Joshua I might be a little miffed.  Moses’ “parting of the waters” trick has been quoted by religious leader after prophet after teacher, has been the subject of Hollywood movies and numerous books and yet barely anyone even bothers to mention that Joshua did the same thing just a few years later.  Whereas Moses’ parting of the Sea of Reeds is a vivid and dynamic illustration of cleansing and baptism for redemption, I’m still not entirely sure what the parting of the Jordan was all about.  The author of Joshua says it was to exalt Joshua in the sight of his followers, to increase Israel’s reverence for and trust in God and to cause every nation to see that God is great.  It was also to enable the Israelites to actually enter the promised land.  The thing that strikes me about all of this, though, especially when chucking in the circumcisions at Gilgal, is how quick Israel were to forget what God had done for them.  Surely the escape from Egypt with the plagues and the waters parting and the manna and the quails and the Sinai stuff and the ground swallowing people up and the water from the rock and the golden serpent etc etc should have been quite enough to cement in the people’s minds that God should be trusted, that his name should be glorified and that his leaders should be followed.  Why the heck did God need to remind everyone?  I know it is a generation later but still, you would have thought that such significant events would have been major parts of the school curriculum.  I’m just completely baffled by the fact that none of the next generation of Israelites had bothered to be circumcised.  But then, when I think of my own life I realise that God will amaze and captivate me on a Sunday and then I’ll be bemoaning his distance by Wednesday.  We humans seem pretty awful at holding on to things that matter.  But life defined purely by today’s experiences without any regard for yesterday cannot be a life well lived.  Our God is the Author of Creation and the Lord of History as well as being the Master of Today.  We have got to find ways of reminding ourselves of his historic goodness.  Maybe we need to build some cairns.

Luke 22:1-38

My grandfather used to go on and on about these two swords (v 38) saying that is proved Jesus wanted to be a violent revolutionary.  What a load of tosh (may he rest in peace).  We really can’t take a single verse and give it more weight that all the other verses of the New Testament.  The huge weight of evidence shows Jesus refused to accept the land-focussed, revenge-obsessed role of Messiah King of Israel that some wanted him to fill, preferring instead to wage a battle over people’s hearts, obsessed with redemption and forgiveness and wanting to become the benevolent King over all nations.  I do admit thought that the verse is a bit of a weird one, coming as it does after the last supper and betrayal narratives.  What I think Jesus is getting at here is that the battle is about to get fiercer, that the ante is being upped and that confrontation is only going to increase.  I think his call for swords is a call to defence, not to attack.  Maybe Jesus knew that 11 of the 12 apostles would end up murdered. Or maybe he saw the persecution of Christians that begun under the Romans and still goes on till this day.  I don’t know exactly what prompted Jesus to say it but I do know that it calls all of us to alertness.  Not to be stressy, not to be anxious, not to be overly earnest but to be prepared for confrontation and ready to protect ourselves from attack.  My preference is to see that attack as coming in the spiritual form and our defensive swords to be the armour of God from Ephesians 4 but I guess that is for another day.  For today alertness  to the battle would seem to be enough.  That, and the fact that Jesus has seen it all, knows it all and wants to prepare us for it all - he really is the benevolent King who brings us safely into forgiveness and redemption.

Psalm 50:1-15

It’s fascinating how this starts to point towards the book of Hebrews and the idea that animal sacrifices really didn’t mean that much, especially when they were separated from obedience.

Friday 22 April

Joshua 1:1-2:24

What I want to know is what those cheeky spies were doing going to Rahab the prostitute’s house.  And then they come back 3 full days later with some tall story about how they were rumbled and had to hide in the hills. Hmm, I don’t think it would have convinced my mother.

But the big thing for me in this is how the Lord instantly draws Joshua into the salvation story that had previously been starring Moses.  I find that we hear a lot today about God supposedly doing new things and there being new moves of God but so far in the bible all we have seen is God calling Jacob into the thing of Abraham and then Moses into the thing of Jacob and now Joshua into the thing of Moses.  The challenge for Joshua is not to find a new thing that God is doing but actually being strong enough and courageous enough to actually live up to what God has already declared.  It’s not that God doesn’t speak to Joshua giving him specific guidance for his specific issues but the big thing, the main line has already been laid and Joshua’s focus should be trying to pursue it.  I think the parallel for us is the absolute foundational centrality of the bible in all we are doing.  In the Vineyard we love the gifts of the Spirit but our heritage was always, always to submit them to the authority of God’s word.  Let’s take up this heritage and ensure that we remain people of the Word.

Luke 21:5-38

This is a slightly baffling section.  I think much of it relates to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in AD70 but there may be some bits that point to something more.  It feels a bit like we are crossing a deep gorge on a rickety rope bridge and it is not easy to work out where the wooden planks are.  The few that I would be happy to put my weight on are those that Jesus specifically calls out for application; 1) don’t worry about this stuff because Jesus will give us the wisdom we need for it 2) this thing will bring us our redemption 3) while we are waiting we should keep an eye out for what God is doing and 4) we should pray that we will be able to stand before the Son of Man.  Maybe some of these were particular to the disciples but I doubt it.  I think that this state of humble, hopeful alertness is a very healthy one for all the people of God.  It will see us across the gorge and into the unassailable protection of the Son of Man.  Jesus saw this stuff, he understood it and he gave us a clear route to chart our course through it.  His words never pass away and we can trust him every bit as much today as the disciples and the people travelled to visit him at the Mount of Olives.

Proverbs 10:11-20

“Violence overwhelms the mouth of the wicked”.  Is this short-hand for saying we can smack them in the mouth?

Thursday 21 April

Deuteronomy 33:1-34:12

The final words of Moses, and pretty much of Deuteronomy, are fantastic.  The tribes are blessed in their diversity but it’s a diversity that is pinned firmly under a profound sense of worship.  It was the Lord who started this whole thing; he dawned from Seir and he shone forth from Mount Paran igniting the passions of Israel and bringing hope and warmth to a dribbling mish-mash of farmers.  It is the Lord who loves the people and who holds them in his hand.  He has provided direction for them and he will protect them with his everlasting arms.  Yes Israel is diverse, yes the church is diverse and that must be celebrated and maintained.  But it must be maintained under the watching eye of devotion and submission to the King.  In Vineyard we were birthed in worship and we’ve defined ourselves by worship.  Let us never lose that, let us never shift our eyes from our shield and our helper from the one who has let us live in safety and made our spring secure.

Luke 20:27-21:4

I think we see in Jesus, and then much more so in the early church and in Paul, a delight in what is experienced now and a hope and expectation for what has not yet come.  They talk about the coming age of the resurrection but they refuse to let go of the experience of God in the present.  This “now and the not yet” is a foundational Vineyard conviction - that time is not really defined by the moon or even split into before the birth of Jesus and after the birth of Jesus.  But rather, time is defined by two primary ages; one akin to Israel’s desert wanderings and one akin to life in the promised land.  This first age ran from the sin of Adam right through to sometime around that first Easter Sunday and, in a way still runs on today.  There is still the bitterness of death and illness, hunger and confusion.  People still depend on daily bread and a pillar of cloud and fire.  But with the coming of Jesus, with the coming of God to earth, the age of the promised land actually begun - God is dwelling with his people, bringing healing and hope and intimacy and truth right to their hearts through the work of His Spirit.  It’s crucial that we grasp that we live between these ages, knowing God with us but also experiencing him far away.  Like a picket fence we have the Kingdom here but not there and here and not there.  Jesus captured people’s imaginations into the glorious future age but then pulled them back to seeing that God is making some of that available here and now.  God is so keen to bless his people that he doesn’t want us to wait until we are dead before we receive it.

Psalm 49:1-20

“Hear this, all you peoples ... my mouth will speak words of wisdom”.  Phew! The psalmist could be accused of underselling...

Thursday 21 April

Deuteronomy 33:1-34:12

The final words of Moses, and pretty much of Deuteronomy, are fantastic.  The tribes are blessed in their diversity but it’s a diversity that is pinned firmly under a profound sense of worship.  It was the Lord who started this whole thing; he dawned from Seir and he shone forth from Mount Paran igniting the passions of Israel and bringing hope and warmth to a dribbling mish-mash of farmers.  It is the Lord who loves the people and who holds them in his hand.  He has provided direction for them and he will protect them with his everlasting arms.  Yes Israel is diverse, yes the church is diverse and that must be celebrated and maintained.  But it must be maintained under the watching eye of devotion and submission to the King.  In Vineyard we were birthed in worship and we’ve defined ourselves by worship.  Let us never lose that, let us never shift our eyes from our shield and our helper from the one who has let us live in safety and made our spring secure.

Luke 20:27-21:4

I think we see in Jesus, and then much more so in the early church and in Paul, a delight in what is experienced now and a hope and expectation for what has not yet come.  They talk about the coming age of the resurrection but they refuse to let go of the experience of God in the present.  This “now and the not yet” is a foundational Vineyard conviction - that time is not really defined by the moon or even split into before the birth of Jesus and after the birth of Jesus.  But rather, time is defined by two primary ages; one akin to Israel’s desert wanderings and one akin to life in the promised land.  This first age ran from the sin of Adam right through to sometime around that first Easter Sunday and, in a way still runs on today.  There is still the bitterness of death and illness, hunger and confusion.  People still depend on daily bread and a pillar of cloud and fire.  But with the coming of Jesus, with the coming of God to earth, the age of the promised land actually begun - God is dwelling with his people, bringing healing and hope and intimacy and truth right to their hearts through the work of His Spirit.  It’s crucial that we grasp that we live between these ages, knowing God with us but also experiencing him far away.  Like a picket fence we have the Kingdom here but not there and here and not there.  Jesus captured people’s imaginations into the glorious future age but then pulled them back to seeing that God is making some of that available here and now.  God is so keen to bless his people that he doesn’t want us to wait until we are dead before we receive it.

Psalm 49:1-20

“Hear this, all you peoples ... my mouth will speak words of wisdom”.  Phew! The psalmist could be accused of underselling...

Wednesday 20 April

Deuteronomy 31:30-32:52

It’s a bit embarrassing but the truth is Moses’ song really isn’t very good.  I mean, the lines don’t rhyme, the rhythm is sketchy and it doesn’t even have a chorus.  Can you imagine the look on all the people’s faces as they stood in eager anticipation, looking up with longing at their dear leader, waiting for him to bring them the latest revelation from their great God and then for him to start singing them that??  One can only hope that Moses had a gloriously deep and rich baritone voice to mask the joltingly unpoetic nature of the lyrics.  But aside from all this, it is fascinating that the Israelites were so concerned with legacy and were so convinced that legacy was formed through teaching.  It seems that they were always alert to the long-term, always thinking of how they could provide for the ones who were to follow them.  And, rather than finances and nest-eggs, the thing that they obsessed about passing on were truths.  Truths about the glorious provision and love of their God and of the calamity of rejecting Him.  I wonder if I value enough passing truth onto my boys and those coming up behind me?  I want to, I really want them to know and love the bible.  Maybe I should write them a song...

Luke 19:45-20:26

Flip.  Jesus made people want to kill him.  That is quite something to take in.  And these weren’t robbers or criminals or violent men - they were the respectable people of the day.  Jesus wound these people up so much that he made them actually contemplate murdering him (something that would break one of their 10 most sacred rules).  I can’t think of many people who respectable people want to kill.  You’d have to be fairly extreme to stoke people so much that they would bloody their hands to be rid of you.  And that is what Jesus was.  He wasn’t just a rabbi bringing new and authoritative teaching or just a prophet announcing a new and vibrant hope but he was both of these and more.  He was the owner of the temple; he governed where God’s presence appeared on earth.  And he was intimately related to the One who owned and oversaw the people of the covenant.  Jesus’ claims could not be higher.  He claimed authority over every jot and tittle of religious life, every iota of humanities’ identity and every last denarius of people’s resources.  Such a claim was so manifestly offensive, so grossly intrusive that no individual could escape from it.  The only options were to accept it in astonished silence or to come against it with violent plotting.  This is not a ‘nice’ thing that we are in.  It is either astonishingly good or extraordinarily corrupt.

Psalm 48:9-14

It’s interesting how the psalmist saw a crucial part of God’s role as giving guidance to his people.

Tuesday 19 April

Deuteronomy 30:11-31:29

That must have put a real downer on poor old Moses’ day.  He’s still reeling from the news that he is not going to enter the promised land and now he is told that his whole life work is doomed to failure.  Never mind about composing a song, I’m surprised he didn’t just pick up his quill and start stabbing himself with it.  Why on earth did the Lord  let Moses in on Israel’s rebellious future - couldn’t He have let him die in blissful ignorance?  The verse “the Lord confides in those who fear him” comes to mind, as does the one about the Lord speaking to Moses as a friend.  I guess God just wanted to share his secrets with Moses out of intimacy and love and because that is what friends do.  But I think it also speaks of how God’s plans are always so much greater than any personal ministries or desires.  At the end of the day, the Israel thing was never Moses’ life work - it was God’s.  The whole salvation project is God’s redemption narrative, it is not Abraham’s or Jacob’s or Moses’ or David’s.  Nor is it mine or yours or anyone else’s.  We just play whatever part God wants to give us and if that has a difficult end like Moses or a difficult everything like Jeremiah then we just have to eat that up.  All that matters in this life is wedding ourselves to the purposes of God, obeying him and seeking to glorify Him in every single thing.  We do get rewarded for that but it may not be in this age - much treasure is waiting for us in the age to come.

Luke 19:11-44

Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem is really significant.  Jesus explicitly links the Romans’ sacking of the Jerusalem temple in AD70 with God’s judgement.  He also implicitly (through the Parable of the Ten Minas) says that God is going to kill Jerusalem as his enemy because she refused to accept him as king over her.  It’s not your usual after dinner speech content!  In fact, it borders on the grotesque and would probably put you in The Hague in front of the War Crimes Tribunal. But, as much indigestion as it gives us, I really think we do need to swallow this stuff. Not just because it shows that the teeth of the gospel leave scars in history but also because Jesus wept over it.  Jesus wept because his people, his chosen people who he loved had launched a coup against him.  Jesus wept because he felt so deeply the loss of the city that he wanted to become the light of the world.  The interesting cliffhanger that Luke leaves his readers is whether this is the end of it, whether this killing is the end of the story, or whether Jesus is starting a new thing with something else being grafted in to become his light to the world.

Psalm 48:1-8

Beautiful in its loftiness.  Is he talking about my tall and ravishingly attractive wife?

Monday 18 April

Deuteronomy 29:1-30:10

Amid all these warnings and encouragements there is something really very shocking.  Out of nowhere suddenly an unbelievably precious idea is revealed - that a day is coming when parents will no longer circumcise their children’s penises but that God, like a loving Father, will stand over his people and will circumcise their hearts.  On one level it makes no sense at all; where would you even begin to snip?  But on another level it taps into the deepest cravings of humanity - cravings that something stronger and greater than ourselves would come and transform us, making our hearts purer and our walk righteous.  This is the core of our faith - that God is the stronger and greater one and that he has acted like a Father to us, drawing us close and performing a work on us that makes us better than we were.  It’s not that we have moved beyond trying to live well - it’s that we have acknowledged that we could never get there through human effort.  Our knives could not cut deep enough.  But God, in his incredible, incredible mercy has done something to us in our inner being so that we might live to the glory of Him and the benefit of the world.

Luke 18:31-19:10

Seeking and saving the lost is a bit of a funny idea.  In Israel, if you were lost it was most likely because you hadn’t bothered to look at the map.  All the stuff was pretty clearly laid out and God should really have been with the conscientious ones, rewarding them and delighting in their obedience and faithfulness.  You could be forgiven for thinking that the point was Temple sacrifices, Torah observance and liberation of the land, not trudging around peering up at people in trees and stopping to talk to brash and loud misfits.  To say that the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost is to turn the idea of Israel completely on its head.  The Son of Man acts not like Solomon, enthroned in glorious splendour at the centre of his Kingdom, receiving notable guests who are overwhelmed by his greatness.  No, he acts like David, skirting around the edges of the land, liberating villages, driving back the enemies and gathering all sorts into his band of merry men.  The Vineyard has always sought to plunder the kingdom of darkness, to liberate people from oppression and despair but, in truth, we have not seen as much of it as we would have liked.  It’s time for us to get on our horses and start riding on these David-missions.  It is time for us start skirting around.

Proverbs 10:1-10

“The wise in heart accept commands but the chattering fool comes to ruin”.  I bet that was written by a school teacher ;-)

Sunday 17 April

Deuteronomy 28:15-68

Wow.  Did nobody tell Moses the 1 Corinthians 14 rule about prophecy; that it must be strengthening, comforting or encouraging?? Why on earth would he go and say something as daft as “it will please (the LORD) to ruin and destroy you”, let alone all the other stuff?  I guess part of it might be because he is in a strop for not being allowed into the promised land but the its probably because he wants people to grasp the consequences of walking away from God.  These curses are, in effect, doing the same thing that fire and brimstone preaching sought to do.  The thing that is missing here, and in the fire and brimstone stuff, is the concept of grace.  It’s a small word but it sure is powerful.  It rips up this curse-monologue by the roots and flings it into the skip, sowing a crop of forgiveness of cleansing, of empowerment and unjustified inheritances in its place.  What an eye-watering privilege that we would live in this new age, under this new covenant of grace where we do not receive what our wickedness deserves but are welcomed into the Kingdom Banquet of our God.

Luke 18:1-30

There is only room for one big man in the kingdom, and that spot is already taken.  Jesus seems to be particularly rigid about this.  I’m feeling a little uneasy about all the people I’ve flattered or assured of their value to God.  On one level that was probably right; to utter the love of the Father to his trembling children.  But on another level people need to know that none of us deserve a scrap of God’s attention.  The way into the kingdom is always a humble crawl on hands and knees through the dust of Golgotha to beg for mercy at base of the cross.  That is a hard and humiliating journey especially for self-made men or the religiously successful.  Children don’t mind having snot running down their faces and wailing about their own deficiencies but it is not an easy place for the “intelligent” or the “mature”.  We need to heed this though because there is only room for one big man in the kingdom, and that spot is most definitely taken.

Psalm 47:1-9

What a corker! 

Saturday 16 April

Deuteronomy 26:1-28:14

“My father was a wandering Aramean.... now become the people of the LORD your God”.  We come back to the idea of actively remembering and celebrating the work of grace that God has performed among his people. It pays to continually remember that we were nothing - just insignificant wanderers - but that now we really are something, and not in any way due to our ability or to luck.  God, the most powerful ruler who has ever existed, has actively sought us out and drafted us into his personal team not because we are any good but just because he wanted to.  Gratitude and a sense of privilege really are so foundational to our walk with God. I need to spend more time reflecting on the past.

One thing that starts to appear here though that I really do wonder about is when Moses and the Levites start promising Israel that God will set them in “praise, fame and honour high about the other nations”.  I wonder if this actually starts to distort the promise that God has given Israel.  Is it not enough for them that they have been tied close to the heart of the King of Peace?  Do they have to start setting themselves above others as well?  I believe God’s heart for Israel was that they would distill the grace and compassion of God out to the nations of the world, not claim superiority over them.  That was one of the major points that Jesus seemed to correct - he wants he people to serve the world, to be the light to the Gentiles.  This crazy Grace-giver still has more wanderers that He wants to draft into his team.

Luke 17:11-37

My boys have been to various groups (not the amazing Vineyard Kids I hasten to add) where they have been read this 10 lepers story and then told that this means Jesus wants them to say thankyou when people do nice things for them.  What a load of crap.  This is just absolutely not about politeness and it angers and distresses me so greatly that anyone would feel that they should tell kids that it is.  What our children, and us, need to know is not that God wants us to sit calmly at the dinner table but that he wants us to acknowledge that all saving and healing power flows from Jesus.  Jesus is perplexed by the other 9 lepers because they have failed to see who he is.  These 9 lepers have been wasting away outside of the city, cut off from all prospects and relationships, permanently ringing a bell and saying “unclean, unclean” and watching their body decay before their eyes.  Now they can live again - they are healthy and pure, they can marry and gain employment, they can rejoice and converse with others.  How can they not see that this points to Jesus as the Healer, to Jesus as God with Us bringing hope to the hopeless and life to the lifeless?  Jesus expresses surprise not because he wanted recognition of himself but because the 9 lepers have chosen only to go 1 step along a 10 mile journey.  The 9 have received the tiniest scrap of grace and have been too thick or too self-obsessed or too distracted to come back for some more.  The greatest gift this 1 leper received was not his healing but his faith in Jesus.  That is what we should be teaching our children.  That is what we should be acknowledging ourselves.

Psalm 46:1-11

God sounds so majestic! The God of Jacob is our fortress!

Friday 15 April

Deuteronomy 23:1-25:19

The mercy that God desires is as often about not doing things as about actively seeking compassion.  Mercy is not charging interest on loans, not preventing people from picking at your cornfield, not sending newlyweds to war, not adversely affecting people’s livelihoods, not taking advantage of contractors and not making efficient use of every last piece of your property.  Mercy seems to be about slanting your daily operations so that they are open to others, so that others can engage and exchange with you and benefit from all that you have.  This kind of mercy is what we see Yahweh showing time and time again in the Old Testament and what we see Jesus embodying in the New.  God could have run everything very nicely on his own but he chose to open up himself so we could engage with Him, he has opened up his Kingdom so that we can chew on his grapes and borrow without accruing a debt.  How open is my day to others?  Oh God, please would you make me more merciful.

Luke 16:19-17:10

People have done all sort with the parable of Lazarus but I think the important thing with parables is always to focus on the decision that Jesus is pushing in people’s faces rather than on the inner workings of the story.  What I think packs a bigger punch today is the little section about the ploughing servant that follows the Lazarus thing.  It’s always been a Vineyard thing that we are just servants, that we are just loose change in the pocket of God.  It sounds catchy but when you try to like it it does feel a bit like you are being emasculated by crushing (as is mentioned in Deuteronomy 23:1).  I find that I love admiration and praise.  I regularly come in from the field and sit at the table with a smug grin waiting for Jesus to fry me a burger.  I need to deeply deeply repent of this gross presumption and self-obsession.  Jesus is the master and that is a 24-7 reality; we lost our rights when we was bought with blood.  I think that Jesus is asking us again to prepare his supper and to wait on his table.  It is servant stuff, but there is no better place to spend your days.

Psalm 45:10-17

Can I be honest - I’ve got nothing on this one.  

Thursday 14 April

Deuteronomy 21:1-22:30

It feels a bit like CSI.  Measuring distances to neighbouring towns at one end of the passage and examining honeymoon bedsheets at the other (can you imagine anything more gruesome than being the parents who scrutinize and then store the bodily-fluid-stained sheets of their nearest and dearest??  Thank God that we live under the New Covenant!).  I love the fact that even the editors of this NIV can’t find any logic to why some of these laws were put together under one section so they have just given them the title “various laws”.   Hahaha - it is so funny how we like to have neat categories and orders for everything and yet it seems that God just plonked lots of random bits together in this bit.  There is a great sense of compassion here though isn’t there?  Lots of restraining people from natural inclinations - to ignore straying oxen or prioritising one son over another - in amongst the harsh punishments for trespass.  A verse to note though is the bit about anyone being cursed who hangs on a tree.  I don’t think it takes David Caruso to work out where that bit of evidence is pointing.

Luke 16:1-18

Has Jesus gone loopy?  Has he eaten some bad fish and started advocating criminal behaviour?  I think Jesus is telling the shrewd manager story not because he wants people to be dishonest but to be shocked into seeing what shrewdness really is.  Shrewdness realises the temporary nature of a situation, it recognises there are but a few moments to exploit it and it is ruthless in doing so.  Jesus is speaking into the temporary nature of our life.  He is urging his people to be unimpressed by anything we own or achieve in this life, and to fervently and ruthlessly sacrifice it for our own eternal benefit.  Jesus doesn’t seem to have a problem with us doing things for our own gain, just with us being suckered by the alluring but fleeting nature of money and status.  This is important; this is not asceticism - the denial of the image of God in ourselves and in our personalities and our desires - or hedonism - the submission of all things to the satisfying of our desires.  We life for our own benefit but in complete submission to Jesus.  We gain by giving away. We don’t justify ourselves but do seek to be justified by God.  Jesus does not call us to be doormats but hosts, not letting everyone and everything dictate to us exactly how they want to be treated but rather spending ourselves on welcoming people into the love and the knowledge of God.  It’s tricky, but if we ask Jesus to make us shrewd, he can make it work.

Proverbs 9:13-18

Folly is loud. 

Wednesday 13 April

Deuteronomy 19:1-20:20

Israel did a lot of war.  Sometimes they seem obsessed with slaughter and destruction.  So it is interesting to see that Israel refused to throw every good young man on the altar of armed service, positively encouraging the enjoyment of the more tender things in life.  New houses, promising vineyards, desirable relationships and revived spirits are all things that should be enjoyed, even at the expense of important national goals.  You could say that Israel’s military had a human touch but I suspect that a human touch would have resulted in either pure dossing or a campaign for global domination.  No, I think it is better to say that there was a divine touch in this; that God put his hand on the army and ensured that not that every resource was either wasted or thrown into a relentless pursuit of results.  Rather that compassion, enjoyment, rest and relationships were all valued and given their appropriate place.  This balance of priorities I think fits really well into the concept of justice that we saw yesterday - that a life in pursuit of God’s agenda, that the following of his desires not only pleases God, but brings incredible life and fruitfulness to every strand of society.

Luke 15:1-32

I don’t think I can say anything new about these awesome stories.  It’s like Jesus is unfolding his robe and exposing huge, dazzling treasures about the personality and intention of God.  These stories do confront people with choices but they are not crass “turn or burn” shout-a-thons.  They are deeply beautiful and astonishingly creative pieces of art that clutch at the heart as well as the mind.  They can captivate the soul and beckon even the most timid recluse, soften even the most fervent cynic.  And this is a truly wonderful thing about Jesus - that he didn’t just declare truth but he brought people into it.  He didn’t just make statements - he evoked imaginations and aroused passions.  I would love to see the Church do the same.

Psalm 45:1-9

I’d love to write off this psalm as a suck-up poem to a king - probably written by someone who wanted a promotion - but unfortunately Jesus quoted it so it must have some good stuff in it.

Tuesday 12 April

Deuteronomy 16:21-18:22

Worship, justice, leadership.  Three things that get the Lord a little hot under the collar.  And we aren’t just talking about pooching up to church to sing a couple of soft-rock schmooze-fests.  This worship stuff is for real - there ain’t no space for dabbling around and covering bases.  Unadulterated and wild-eyed devotion to the King of eternity, that is what we are talking about.  Justice isn’t an annual donation to Red-Nose day either.  Justice is every moment, every angle submission of daily life to the principles laid down by Yahweh - putting a value on people, knowing your place in society, submitting to authority, seeking God’s will.  And leadership, well you’d have to be a nutter to put yourself forward for it.  The Lord would have you read his law every day (how could you actually get onto any ruling when you had to plough through this lot every single day??) and he will hold you to account for what you say and do.  The bar is high, the challenge very great, but it is something that is utterly essential to the progress of the people of God. 

Luke 14:15-35

I wouldn’t want Dr Luke as my GP; he’d probably tell me I was going to die even if I just went in with a stubbed toe.  It just seems that everything he says is so harsh.  You don’t have to love your family less than Jesus, you have to hate them.  It is not just difficult for a rich man to inherit eternal life - people have to give away everything.  Now of course, Luke is just quoting Jesus rather than saying anything of his own but both Matthew and Mark would also have known Jesus said these things and yet they didn’t include them - I wonder why that is?  I suppose part is personality (and praise God that he welcomes and values all different types of people) but part must be deliberate choice.  Luke seems to want to emphasise the radical and uncompromising nature of Jesus’ call and the seriousness with which people should take Him.  Luke wants people to know right from the outset that Jesus is not just some teacher who will enhance your life or some prophet who will encourage you on your walk; Jesus is the Master and Host of the kingdom banquet and his invitations, while desirable, do cost absolutely everything.  If you fancy the meal then you’ll be delighted to pay, if you are not yet sure then at least you know where you are at.

Psalm 44:13-26

Fancy saying “rouse yourself” to God - how cheeky is that!  What a full and frank relationship God calls us into.

Monday 11 April

Deuteronomy 15:1-16:20

It’s no wonder the first century Israelites shunned tax collectors, or that they wanted to rise up against the Romans.  Here we see in the Year of Jubilee - the year of debts being cancelled - a requirement for God’s society that is radical and uncompromising in equal measure.  God did not want people to extort or take financial advantage of others.  He wanted there to be no-one in need among his people.  God also did not want his people to be subject to other nations or to worship anyone other than himself.  I can’t get past how epoch defining these chapters in Deuteronomy are.  I think they light up great swathes of the New Testament, clarifying what Jesus was speaking into and what hopes he was fulfilling.  The Year of Jubilee style organisation of resources so that no one is in need is one thing that we see the early church living out (in Acts 2).  I believe this was not because they wanted to do a bit of social action (although they did) and was not because they felt sorry for others (although they did) but because they saw in the death and resurrection of Jesus the coming of a permanent year of Jubilee - the coming of the Perfect and Just rule and reign of God.  They were living out the Kingdom of God hope that they saw God define way way back in history. While we wait for the consummation of this Kingdom, while we wait for the Son to return we too can live out this year of Jubilee hope.  We can love God, care for the needy and live free from oppression knowing that what we see in part today, Jesus will provide for us in full tomorrow.

Luke 13:31-14:14

Luke is not a fan of authority.  At least, not the kind that revels in its status and enforces its rights over others.   Jesus doesn’t seem too keen on it either.  These pharisees were happy to have rich and delicious food made and served to them on a sabbath, to enjoy the friends and the fruit of their elevated position and yet to deny a wretched man his first scrap of hope.  That, in microcosm, is what Jesus despised about the earthly authority that the Pharisees enjoyed.  Jesus is undeniably clear on this - any status, any authority, any riches must be gambled away in search of the resurrection of the righteous.  This resurrection of the righteous, these heavenly riches are not found by just being associated with religious stuff - Jerusalem illustrates how you can be the centre of all kinds of religious activity and yet be storing up condemnation.  No, heavenly riches are found at Jesus, on the path that he treads.  Heavenly riches are turning to Jesus and following him to take compassion and mercy to the world.  These acts may seem self-defeating and useless, but they are what we are called to.  And we trust, with Luke, that one day the gamble will pay off.

Psalm 44:1-12

The psalmist sure knows how to take your bonfire and do the proverbial all over it! It was all sounding so good until verse 9.

Sunday 10 April

Deuteronomy 13:1-14:29

Floorplans.  When we were looking for a house they were the only thing I was bothered about.  It’s hard to sex-up a floor plan.  They let you know exactly what you are getting; how many toilets there are, where the kitchen is compared to the dining room, the fact that the third bedroom is actually a cupboard.  What we have been given over these past few days are the floorplans of the faith.  And these floorplans show two monstrous pillars that support the whole edifice of life with God; love and obedience.  Everything rises and falls on these.  The Lord wants us to love Him, he wants us to revere Him and keep His commands and serve Him and hold fast to Him.  All worship, all holiness, all mission, all giving and all social action all must be grounded on these.  From Israel’s perspective, and from ours, these are absolutely sacrosanct and must never be questioned - everything is about loving God and obeying him.  And this is the extraordinary feat that Jesus achieved - he did all this for us.  He ate and drank obedience and love on our behalf. He has shown us the floorplan, he’s laid it all out for us to inhabit.  The question is what are we going to do about it?

Luke 13:1-30

Jesus is blunt.  Lot’s of people are going to be part of his thing.  It may look small now but it is going to be massive - it’s going to affect the whole dough.  Lots of people from all over the world are going to join in His kingdom feast, lots of the last will be privileged with him.  Jesus’ thing is not something you want to miss out on.  But some will.  Some will be rejected and some will weep.  And Jesus asks people where they are.  If they are not sure he urges them to repent and to get in on the act.  It really is a fantastic feast.  But there will be some outside just weeping and grinding their teeth.

Proverbs 9:1-12

Choose who you invest in, choose where you spend your time - some great intentions will yield no fruit and others will affect someone’s eternity.

Saturday 9 April

Deuteronomy 11:1-12:32

Obedience.  It doesn’t sound as sexy as “miracle-working” but, flipping heck, is it important to the Lord.  Israel has heard and rejoiced in the call to love their God.  Now they see what love looks like.  Love is obeying every command of the Lord, particularly those relating to worship. Love is bringing the offerings to the Lord that he requires, in the way that he requires, when he requires them.  Those of us who love and follow Jesus have signed up to the very same thing.  We may not practice such ritualized worship or live under such detailed law but our need to obey is just as strong as Israel’s.  The mandate to protect worship and to fervently reject anything that starts to stain it should still fire every church.  What could stain worship?  Well for Israel it was a longing to be like those around them, to emulate their practices or to believe that power lies outside of the Lord’s commands.  In essence worship is stained when we lose sight of our wretchedness and of God’s merciful love.  If we are so flawed and God is so good, then what could make more sense that to seek God’s will in each and every thing.

Luke 12:35-59

A final distinctive of Jesus followers is laid out here in the parable of the master returning from the wedding banquet. The distinctive is that followers of Jesus do stuff.  They are ready for service, they are faithful and wise managers, they do what their master wants.  This is the major point Jesus is making - just to be around faith or to understand faith is not enough.  Jesus followers act, they obey, they attempt.  I don’t think we need to get too caught up on the ‘food allowance” or the ‘many blows’ - these are not the major thrust of the story.  The major thrust is to shove a piece of paper under the noses of the Jews and to challenge them to write down what they are actually doing for the Kingdom.  The massive theme of Matthew’s gospel begins bouncing around here as well - that God’s desire is not just to bless Israel but to see Israel benefit the whole world.  We’ve been called into a missionary people, we have joined a movement that is charged with doing stuff that advance the kingdom - praying, preaching, serving, healing etc.  Jesus’ desire is to see the whole world redeemed.  Let’s pray that our church, that our people manifest that distinctive of doing stuff to benefit and redeem our world.

Psalm 43:1-5

Joy and delight seem to come from actually seeing that God has got your back. 

Friday 8 April

Deuteronomy 9:1-10:22

I like people saying I’m a good bloke.  I also like telling other people they are good blokes - its what I’ve spent a lot of my Christian life doing.  The problem is that one of the fundamental teachings of the bible is that I and they are rebellious, stiff-necked and wicked.  And, if I’m honest, I know there is more truth in that than in my “good bloke” facade.  This passage rams this home.  We hear Moses’ end of term report card for the Israelites and it’s not one that would make many parents happy; the catalogue of misbehaviour and detentions would probably have resulted in expulsion from any self-respecting secondary school.  And I know that my report card would be equally wretched - broken promises, arrogant self-delusions, deliberate deceit, monumental sins...  The bible doesn’t give us much wriggle room to develop a good self-image on this score.  But, remarkably, despite the despicable record of the Israelites we actually see them prospering and advancing, growing exponentially in numbers and claiming some of the most valuable territory around.  We see God loving them and providing for them, calling them the object of his affections and reassuring them that they are deeply special to Him.  And this is the miraculous paradox of our faith - that even through we are deeply wicked, we are comprehensively loved - that even though we are disgustingly sinful, we are treated as if we are wonderful.  There is a Good Bloke somewhere in this equation, but I’m pretty sure I ain’t it...

Luke 12:1-34

One of the distinctives of Jesus followers that Luke is particularly keen on is detachment from material possessions.  Luke, more than Mark or Matthew, selects story after story of Jesus teaching about the folly of earthly riches and the danger of money.  If we just had the gospel of Luke and none of the rest of the New Testament I think it would be pretty difficult to own much at all and feel happy that you were in keeping with Jesus’ desires.  The root at the base of all of this is the knowledge that God has numbered every hair on our heads and that all security can be found in him.  Luke ferociously advocates a life completely free from worries about bigger barns, new wardrobes or weekly shops.  He sees followers of Jesus as being so convinced of His value and of the reality of eternity that they are willing to bet everything on the treasure He is keeping for them.  It really makes you think, if I really believed that would I do anything different?

Psalm 42:6b-11

“Your waves and breakers have swept over me” - Now that is something I can get excited about!!