Monday 20 June

1 Kings 7:23-8:21

The ark did not contain Abraham’s bones - the primary thing in this faith is not tradition.  The ark did not contain Moses’ staff - the primary thing in this faith is not displays of power.  The ark did not contain the balm of Gilead - the primary thing in this faith is not healing.  The ark did not contain water of cleansing - the primary thing in this faith is not purity.  The ark did not contain the ephod encrusted with the twelve jewels for the twelve tribes of Israel - the primary thing in this faith is not the people.  The ark contained two tablets of stone, the document of the covenant - the primary thing in this faith is God’s commitment to his people and his people’s commitment in return.  This faith is centered around the monumental declaration “I am the Lord your God who led you out of the land of Egypt, you shall have no other gods but me”.  Everything starts and ends with that.  That is what we need to keep coming back to on the bleary-eyed mornings and those long, slow afternoons.  When we are choosing what to read in our ‘quiet times’ or how to spend our journeys to work.  How to respond to friends in pain or to deal with our own personal issues.  We obviously no longer have the temple (we have become the temple) and we no longer have the ark but we can still approach this central tenet of our faith, we can still boldly approach the throne of grace intentionally and repeatedly, bringing requests and reverence to our loving Father who has led us out of spiritual Egypt.  As we do this, as we draw close to the Father we will experience his cloud filling our temple and us being unable to fulfill our service because of the glory of the Lord.

Acts 13:42-14:7

Much is made of Paul going on 3 “missionary journeys”.  I myself don’t like the phrase.  I think it suggests Paul set out with an itinerary and a budget, always knowing where he will be when and at what point he would return to his home in Jerusalem (or Tarsus depending on what you prioritise).  The reality is very different.  Paul and Barnabas had been sent off by the Antioch church but they just seemed to bumble around the Med, moving on to new groups of people or to new places based on when they get kicked out of the place they are in.  It’s an interesting way to do mission - stay somewhere until they try to kill you then leg it.  Paul and Barnabas just don’t seem to be that bothered about where they are.  That is a challenge to the preoccupation I’ve had in most of my life of trying to work out where exactly God wanted me to be.  Looking at this I think that may have been one huge distraction.  Maybe the focus should be doing what Paul and Barnabas did - going with the flow in terms of location but paddling hard in terms of action.  Over and over again we see Paul and Barnabas arriving somewhere and just getting down to preaching the word.  As we saw yesterday, this wasn’t necessarily in a particularly “apostolic” manner but just advocating for Jesus in every context.  I think that is what the church needs to get back to.  I think it is time for the word of the Lord to spread once again.

Psalm 75:1-10

“You are resplendent with light, more majestic than mountains rich with game.”  I long to see more of the Father’s resplendence and majesty.