Saturday 16 July

Amos 3:1-4:13

“Yet you have not returned to me” declares the LORD.  KABOOM.  There’s a pile of stuff in that line just there, let alone the rest of the passage.  Why would the LORD - who treads the high places of the earth - be whining like a schoolboy.  Why would the LORD - the creator of the wind - be giving anyone a second chance?  He formed the mountains, he turns the dawn to darkness, why doesn’t he just cluster-bomb the Israelites back into the dust from which he made them?  Because he loves them - that’s why.  He chose them and he loves them and he wants them to come back to him.  He has sent this ostentatious country-boy to woo his people back to him.  The driving, surging motive behind the words and actions of our God is love.  Love for us.  Longing to be close to us, to have us call on him and listen to him, to act for him and advocate for him.  Today we might call it being ‘in relationship’ with God.  When hardship comes we should hear in it the beckoning voice of our king.  When shortage hits we should see through it the open arms of our Father.  He wants us.  He wants us to speak with him and share our emotions with him.  He wants us to listen to him and be moulded by him.  He is the Lord God Almighty and he reveals his thoughts to men.  Each and every thought is a thought of love.

Romans 3:9-31

Oooh.  It would be silly to rush past this passage.  It would be folly indeed to let this one slide by in the half-glazed reading of the dawn.  In this is riches beyond measure.  In this is nitro-glycerin in purest form.  “Justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus”.  Justified freely by his grace.  Now that could liberate a man.  That could set one free from every kind of doubt and self-alarm.  Justified freely by his grace.  Well that could loose us from every bond.  Where is the need for further recognition?  Where is the need for greater respect?  He has given us it all.  Where is the need for deeper cleansing?  Where is the call for yet another clean start?  Nothing can hold us now.  Not in the realm of God.  Not where it really counts.  We are completely and utterly free.  We are completely and utterly pure.  We are completely and utterly blameless.  And yet we struggle to accept this.  Our minds recoil at such a thought.  And, in truth, it is so vast a concept it is no wonder that it takes some time.  So we read on to see how this miracle could be worked.  We press in to fathom the unfathomable depths of Jesus’ grace.  Show us more O Spirit, convince us again O God, let us really taste this redemption from your Son.

Psalm 85:8-13

“Surely his salvation is near those who fear him.”  But what does it mean to fear him??