Friday 3 June

2 Samuel 3:22-5:5

Did they not read the papers?  Even if they’d only subscribed to the Ziklaggossip twitter account they would have known that David didn’t see murdering kings as a particularly good past-time.  In fact, for a feted general who was reputed to have slain tens of thousands, David didn’t seem that into death at all.  I guess that gives us some comfort as we read the blood-stained pages of the Old Testament - while killing was as common as dog pooh on the pavement, it was often frowned upon by the good guys and, if it wasn’t, it was due to it fitting within a tightly defined code.  Of course there still remains a certain level of discomfort that we see the Lord commanding his people to slaughter every man woman and child but I think that discomfort is OK.  We know that God loves his people and welcomes aliens and odd-balls into his redemptive story.  We know that David wept aloud over Joab’s revenge-attack and was incensed at Baanach and Recab’s needless shedding of blood.  So the backdrop is one of respect for life, even if the action involves some slaughter.  The Lord’s desire for David was that everything he did would please his subjects and that he would be a good shepherd for the Lord’s people.  Ultimately God is a giver of peace, he just needed the real Good Shepherd to come and really impart that to his people.

Acts 1:1-22

Like a gleeful butcher Luke slaps down huge hunks of meat on the counter in front of us.  Jesus was here and he began some stuff.  He went away and the age of the Holy Spirit dawned.  At some point Jesus is going to come back.  It’s no wonder the disciples joined together in constant prayer - they probably didn’t have the blindest idea about what to do.  They were probably praying John Mumford’s prayer over and over “O God O God O God - help! O God O God O God - help! O God O God O God help!”  We all know the importance of Acts 1:8 in defining the purpose of the church but the absolutely fundamental role of the Holy Spirit does bear repeating.  It baffles me that many Christians seem to go about their business without crying out for continual baptism in the Holy Spirit.  In the Vineyard I believe it is one of our most valuable legacies - the belief and the practice of expecting the Holy Spirit to actually come upon us and empower us.  I think we have really grasped that we live in the age of the Holy Spirit and he is now the oxygen to the lungs of our faith.  We must never lose that.  It would be good to think about Jesus’ return at some point as well.  Maybe we’ll get to that a bit more when we read some of Paul.

Psalm 69:13-28

More prophecy, and more misery.  It obviously doesn’t hold that the more you move in the gifts of the Spirit the more happy clappy you are.