1 Samuel 1:1-2:26
Eating roasted meat? Even though it is early morning I can still feel a bit of drool at the corner of my mouth just at the thought of it. Weeping in bitterness of soul? It’s not something that I have ever put near the top of my daily to-do list. And yet one is a grave and wicked sin that will lead to death while the other will lead to life and joy. One sizzles and crackles with pride while the other wails and groans with humility. The sons of Eli were flouting God’s regulations on how offerings should be served (Leviticus 3 & 4) because they liked their meat to be crispy. Worship and sacrifice had become about bringing pleasure to them rather than bringing pleasure to Him. The tragedy is that the sons were already benefitting from the people’s worship. In his generosity the Father had allocated to them the boiled meat that was generated from the sacrifices. They had, in a twisted display of disrespect and presumption, decided the Father’s provision for them was not good enough and they were going to steal some of his (the fat). This is where the enemy seeks to get us. Church attendance, giving, serving, singing, reading and praying all so easily become focussed on us. What suits our week and our budget and our mood and our desires. We need to beware such inclinations. And if that is where we find ourselves? If we feel far from God and condemned by our situation? Hannah shows us the way. Weeping. Praying. Humbly crying out to God. I think I need to re-write my to-do list...
John 10:22-42
The big story rolls on here - Jesus is at pains to point out that he is saying things entirely consistent with the Hebrew scriptures and with his actions. Check it out and you will see - if God was going to do something massive on earth, would it look any different to Jesus? And, while this journey continues, we are treated to a dazzling array of precious truths so great it is like walking round the Jewel House at the Tower of London. Each one is worth memorising and meditating on. Each one would underpin a radically transformed life. Jesus knows us. We will never perish. The Father has given us to Jesus. We cannot be snatched out of Jesus’ hand. These are immense sources of comfort. Words that take our fears, our concerns about our identity, our dread about our future and smash them on the rocks. Words that creep in under our defences and begin to mould our inner being. They cause us to pray differently, to think differently, to walk differently. And, if we ever begin to get done with them, then we can start on the fact that Jesus and the Father are one and that they are both in each other. This is truly a rich inheritance, an eternal feast that we can pick at and digest for the rest of our days. I feel so privileged to have been invited into this thing. To have been given to Jesus by the Father.
Psalm 63:1-11
The psalmist thinks that God’s love is better than life. I wonder what that belief would do to you?
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