Wednesday 31 August

Micah 1:1-4:13

Micah seems a little schizophrenic.  One second he is boldly announcing judgement, the next he is howling like a jackal.  In this he embodies the tragic conflict at the heart of the bible.  And in the heart of God.  God is like a tree surgeon felling a much-loved, mighty oak.  Israel was his pride and joy but it is dying in its core and it needs to be cut down before it falls and does some damage.  Micah takes no pleasure in this judgement and, through him, we see that God is similarly distressed.  But the Lord will not shy away from acting - he will remove every hint of Israel’s incurable sickness even if it costs him his life.    Micah reminds us that God is both deeply passionate about his people - he will shave his head in mourning and weep and wail over the calamity of his people - and is deeply committed to justice and goodness - he will utterly ruin those who plan iniquity, who seize fields and who defraud a person of their home. We should dwell on that for a while.  We would do well to ponder on the character of our Lord.  But we’d also do well to identify this incurable sickness in Israel.  What was it that was rotting the oak?  Micah says it was Money.  The leaders prioritised money over mercy, they looked for profit over purity.  This run-of-the-mill activity was what was destroying the nation of Israel.  I start to think about the commercial side of Christianity today.  People who write worship songs for the royalties or books for their proceeds.  But it goes much wider than that.  Every good gift is from God, every skill we have has come from him.  So our management ability or our sharp mind or our ability to listen, or to teach or to care.  When we abuse these things to profit ourselves we are inflicting a sickness on our souls.  This is not a rant against earning a decent wage - honestly gained money is in no way lambasted here - but it is an expose of motive.  Do we love money or do we love God?  Are we working for his kingdom, or for a bigger house?  The Lord deeply deeply loves us; he calls us not to kill ourselves from within.

2 Corinthians 4:1-18

We do not lose heart.  That phrase starts and ends this brilliant passage.  It speaks right into the core of the church today.  I think we so easily lose heart.  I think so many of our brothers and sisters have lost heart.  But we need not lose heart, if we fix ourselves on these words of Paul. The core truth that underpins our heart is the truth about where we are and where it is we are headed.    We live in an Age ruled by the Devil.  He blinds the eyes of many many people and he is pressing us hard, he is perplexing us, he is persecuting us and he is striking us down.  We are subversives living under his rule, working for the good of all people, defying his agenda of death.  So he is after us.  He is trying to destroy us every day.  But this will not be the way forever.  This stuff is just temporary and a better Age is on its way.  In the coming Age the Devil will have been overthrown and Jesus will be ruling forever.  And we will be there with him (this is the really crucial bit!!).  We will be there with Jesus, standing alongside him as he brings beauty and joy and glory to all.  How can we be sure of this?  Because Jesus was pressed hard and perplexed and persecuted and struck down by the Devil but then he rose again.  And in his resurrection he showed us our future.  As we see in our life now the same sort of things that led Jesus to death we also can see in our hearts the same sort of things that raised Jesus to life.  The Spirit lives in us and we see his life.  We are jars of clay but our contents are gold.  We are knocked around but we are never destroyed and these momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So let’s not lose heart - we will be raised to enjoy that Age.  Let’s not go down the road of deception or distortion.  Rather lets fix our eyes on Him.  Let’s fix our eyes on that Age.  For that Age will be eternal and it will be filled with the presence of Him.

Psalm 104:31-35

May the glory of the Lord endure forever.  Aye, it will.  It surely will.