Friday 30 September

Jeremiah 1:1-2:30

I try to imagine what it must have been like for Jeremiah.  He just thought of himself as a child; not mature, not fully skilled, not yet made anything of himself, and yet the Sovereign Lord told him that he’d been known since he was a sperm and had from that point on decided that he should be a prophet to the nations.  After an initial shudder of disbelief Jeremiah must suddenly have found a smile forming on his mouth and a warm glow spreading across his chest.  Jeremiah’s realisation that he mattered, that he was noticed by God, that he had a role to play - well it must have been sensational.  And then he read the small print.  Jeremiah was going to uproot and tear down nations, he was going to destroy and overthrow as well as build and plant.  Jeremiah was to go up to his friends, family, neighbours and leaders and call them defilers and prostitutes and swift she-camels who get seriously busy when it comes to mating time.  I imagine Jeremiah knew he wouldn’t get a favourable response to these declarations.  I imagine Jeremiah knew the bitter cost these messages would inflict on himself and on his loved ones.  I suspect that the smile faded from his lips and something within him sank.  Jeremiah is known as the ‘wailing prophet’ and that is little surprise to me.  But we mustn’t leave it there.  It’s good to recognise that following the word of the Lord is costly and it can cause us to wail but, ultimately, what Jeremiah was saying was good.  His nation was going to starve to death, they were facing a crippling, life-destroying drought.  They had rejected their spring of living water and had dug some no-good cracked-up broken cisterns that were never going to provide them with what they needed.  What Jeremiah was telling them was good, even though it hurt.

Philippians 1:27-2:11

It is the second humbling that is the real challenge.  One level of humbling ourselves is bad enough.  The second level is what really tests our resolve.  Jesus humbled himself once by not clinging onto his equality with God but choosing instead to become a human.  This involved a huge sacrifice of his eternal unsurpassable authority.  It involved him giving up unbroken intimacy with the Father and the untold riches of the heavenly realms.  Jesus had the perfect life but he chose to humble himself and give it up to become a human.  That was the first humbling.  Then, as a human, he chose not to use his unmatched intellect or his dynamic charisma to build his own career.  He chose not to see his unparalleled resources as things for his own benefit.  He resisted the urge to use his breath-taking skills to get a wife, a life and free himself from strife.  No, he chose to humble himself a second time choosing to die an obscure reject’s death watched by only a handful of people outside of a city where thousands were thinking about something completely different.  This second humbling puts my jaw on the floor.  This second humbling shows me that my attitude is so very far from being like that of Jesus Christ.  Humbling myself once seems bad enough.  But twice??  Going beyond just giving stuff up but really choosing to do what is best for others even if they don’t notice it and I get no recognition??  I really want to be able to do it but it just seems so hard.  I take comfort from the fact that the Philippians were no better than me and Paul believed they could do it so he would believe I could to.  Nothing is impossible with God.  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Psalm 115:1-11

“Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him.”  I like that.

Thursday 29 September

Zephaniah 1:1-3:20

I don’t know what happened to Zephaniah after 3:8 but I kinda like it.  Up until that point he had sounded a little too similar to Nahum for my liking but suddenly after it a spine-tingling symphony of hope and promise begins to reverberate and sparkle.  The crescendo finally breaks on the glorious verse 3:17 which is probably the most famous extract from this prophet.  3:17 strokes and swaddles us with the deeply soothing image of God quieting us like a mother cooing over her baby and singing over us with a joyous chorus of great delight.  That is quite something.  It echoes the satisfied declaration of Yahweh about his creation - “it is good” - and yet it goes beyond it, adding the textures of nurture and relationship and comfort and delight.  That really is how God feels about the church.  It really is how he feels about us.  It is staggering.  Thanks to Jesus the Mighty One now sees us as perfect.  Because Jesus took our punishment (all the stuff of chapters 1 & 2) the Lord has purified our lips and he has gathered us and brought us home and he is singing over us in love.  It is the most exhilarating thing in life to hear the melodies of His voice.

Philippians 1:1-26

For me it is triple-choc muffin or caramel slice.  For Paul it is death or living in prison.  All of us have our little dilemmas about what we would prefer more.  But whereas I get a little grumpy if I feel I’ve made the wrong choice Paul just seems incessantly joyful no matter which way it goes.  He is so filled with joy that he doesn’t even care that people are preaching Jesus just to cause him trouble - “what does it matter?” he asks.  Is that a cracking attitude or what?  I’d love to see more of that joy-filled laid-backness in the church.  Not a laid-backness about seeing the kingdom advancing - Paul was always praying for that, he was longing for that, he was rejoicing in that and eagerly expecting that - but a laid-backness about what troubles or stresses come our way.  “So I’m in prison today - big whoop, at least it means the guards get to hear about Jesus”.  “So I’m in hospital for a few days, well that’s a great chance to get to testify to some other patients”. “So things are a bit quiet at work at the moment - what a wonderful opportunity to spend some more time in prayer”.  “So a bloke is giving me a really hard time - I’m chilled out about it - it gives me a chance to show grace and to learn to forgive”.  This kind of laid-backness can only be fostered in Jesus, it can only be found through embracing his perspective on death.  Jesus rose from the dead and we are going to do the same.  What else can really matter after that?  The only thing to get worked up about is sharing this joy that can be found in Jesus.  Everything else is small-fry.

Proverbs 23:29-24:4

Through wisdom and understanding a house is established.  Love on its own is not enough to make your household strong.

Wednesday 28 September

Nahum 1:1-3:19

I don’t think I’ll be rushing back to this book.  I do love the fact that the LORD reassured and strengthened his people through good old Nahum but I must say that the fate of Nineveh doesn’t hit the top 10 of things I’m worried about.  So I don’t suppose I will be visiting Nahum again until 28 September 2012.  But, just before I move on I guess I should ponder a little on the remarkable juxtaposition of the phrases “The LORD is good” (v7) and “The LORD takes vengeance on his foes” (v2).  The trickiness of this couplet has assaulted me all throughout the Old Testament.  A loud voice continually urges me that one can’t both be good and take vengeance.  It encourages me to revel in verse 7 and quietly neglect verse 2.  But I think this voice is the voice of the devil.  Verse 2 assures me of the ultimate determination of God to bring about good and to deal with evil.  Verse 2 actually comforts me because it shows me that justice will be done and that abusers and liars and arrogant self-promoters won’t be allowed to dominate forever.  Verse 2 speaks of a better world to come in which the meek can inherit the earth and in which the poor and the meagre get a fair bite of the pie.  Ultimately verse 2 declares the defeat of Satan - it speaks of the robust intent of the Lord to crush the serpent’s head and prevent him from biting our heal.  And I guess that is why the devil is telling me to ignore it.  

Ephesians 6:1-24

We live as children of light having put off the old self.  But Paul knows that life isn’t a picnic and that the ‘now and not yet’ nature of our new identity leaves us in a challenging place.  He knows that we are prone to mess up or lose motivation.  So he closes this epic letter pointing us all to the secret tool that I so often forget about - prayer.  Many great Christians throughout the ages have made it a daily habit to pray onto themselves the armour of God listed here in Ephesians 6.  Many great Christians throughout the ages have spared themselves and others turmoil and loss through the prayers they have offered in the Spirit.  They have shown us the way; they have demonstrated how we can pray on all kinds of occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.  In prayer is where strength is added and where readiness is made.  In prayer is where protection is sured up and where confidence is swelled.  Prayer connects us into the mighty power of God and enables us to fling it far and wide to the people we know and care about.  Prayer is the engine of the new life.  It’s time to stoke the coals.

Psalm 114:1-8

Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord.  

Tuesday 27 September

Isaiah 65:17-66:24

Again I feel myself becoming unusually emotional.  This is the hope of nations written down on my page.  But that is not where the emotion comes from.  Anybody can write of such things.  The emotion comes from seeing the history of first century Jerusalem pretty much laid out word for word centuries before it occurred.  Jesus, the one who was humble and contrite in spirit was the one esteemed by the Father.  His brothers hated him and excluded him because of God’s name.  So God sent uproar on the city and had the Romans repay his enemies - the temple priests - with the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in AD70 and the overthrow of the need to sacrifice bulls and lambs.  But amongst this slaughter God extended peace like a river and he caused Jerusalem to be glad and to rejoice.  Because in Jerusalem, before it was sacked, God caused his chosen ones to drink deeply and delight in the overflowing abundance of His Spirit.  And it was in Jerusalem that God had gathered all nations and tongues to see the glory of Pentecost.  And Paul and his fellow apostles did indeed travel almost in the order of Isaiah 66:19 to Tarshish and the Libyans and the Lydians and to Tubal and Greece and the distant islands that had not heard of Yahweh or seen his glory.  And the nations did become brothers and did bring their offerings to Jerusalem and they did also become priests of the Most High God.  And even now, many centuries later, while we wait for the new heavens and the new earth to be fully delivered we continue to see the work and the name of God enduring from one New Moon to another.  We continue to see mankind bowing down before God and we continue to see the plight and woe of those who oppose themselves to God.  O the depth of God’s disclosure to his this naked prophet that He would have shown so much to Isaiah so far in advance of it occurring.  O the power and sovereignty of God that he brought about all that he had said so many centuries in advance.  He is so deeply deeply amazing.  My heart and my brain and my being cannot begin to take in his awesomeness.  Maybe that's why I feel so emotional.

Ephesians 5:8-33

My brother used to speak to me with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.  I wanted to smash his face in.  I suspect we both needed to be filled with the Spirit.  What is interesting in this passage is that Paul again rams home that Jesus’ work for us must turn into our work for others.  He has made us light in the Lord so now we must bring light to those around us.  And the first place to start is the home.  Not all of us are married, but for those of us who are our marriage should be the place where the fingerprints of Jesus are most clearly seen.  Husbands, what are you doing to make your wife holy?  Paul says we should use the word to wash our wives and make them clean.  We are not talking water-boarding - this isn’t ramming the word down our wives throats until they feel like they are drowning.  But we should be lovingly bathing our wife in God’s word to her, speaking His love and His acceptance and His calling to her, desiring above all things not that she makes us feel good about ourselves but that she is radiant to God.  And wives, how much are you seeing yourself as part of the same body as your husband, committing in every decision to act and speak like you are on his team, respecting his call as a man of God and valuing his role as the head of the household?  These are great things to do to show Jesus our reverence for him. It is this stuff that really pleases the Lord.

Psalm 113:1-9

Who is like the Lord our God?

Monday 26 September

Isaiah 63:1-65:16

There’s a discrepancy here.  It’s like two teams of builders trying to join a bridge across a chasm and failing to meet in the middle.  The people cry “Look down from your heaven and see.... where are your zeal and your might?... Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down”.  And God replies “I said ‘here I am, here I am’.  All day long I have held out my hands...”.  So what’s going on?  How can both sides feel like they are reaching out to the other but never a connection is never made? The answer is holiness - and this should prick our ears.  The people walk in ways not good.  They offer sacrifices in their gardens and spread tables for Fortune.  They sit among the graves and fill bowls of mixed wine for Destiny.  The people may be speaking prayers and claiming to be building a bridge but their lives are taking them in the opposite direction.  They are playing with things that are dead and are following the prevailing wisdom rather than the word of God.  There is little value in prayer without holiness.  If we are seeking the presence and the blessing of God in our lives and our church and our city then we need to couple intercession with obedience.  God is holding out his hands to us all day long.  He wants to hide our past troubles from our eyes.  And we will see this happen if we routinely prioritise his Word above our own.  If we will trust him and treat him as Lord then we will see the fruit of his Lordship.  This is what Jesus meant when he said “Anything you ask for in my name will be given to you”.  When we come to the Father in the Spirit of Jesus, seeking Jesus, wanting to be like Jesus, wanting to trust the Father like Jesus did and do only what we see the Father doing - then we will see the power of God made manifest among us.

Ephesians 4:17-5:7

Imitate God?  Sorry Paul, have you had a bump on the head?  Have you lost all sense of reality in that noggin of yours?  How can we as worrying, insecure, self-obsessed, weak and fickle humans imitate the One who is and was and will be from Everlasting to Everlasting?  I know I’ve been working on my body recently but I hardly think that I’m going to upgrade from bench-pressing 5KG to holding the universe in my hand.  Surely what you have said - this mumbo jumbo about imitating God - is just plain ridiculous?  But, then again, maybe I’ve been a little over-hasty.  It is true that I’ll never match God in an arm-wrestling contest but maybe I could begin to live like Jesus lived.  After all, He has done quite a work in me.  He has given me a new self that was created for the sole purpose of making me like God in true righteousness and holiness.  It’s like I’ve been given an Iron Man suit (I love that movie) expertly welded to fit me and equip me for miraculous living.  With this new self given to me by God I can deal with my anger in a day and I can stop stealing and I can start working and I can share with others and I can speak things that help others and I can get rid of bitterness and malice and be kind and compassionate and forgive other thickos when they do me wrong.  And - here’s where this new self is truly miraculous - I can be free from even a hint of sexual immorality and from greed.  I can do these things because that is what Jesus died and rose again to achieve in me.  He empowers me for it by his Holy Spirit.  If I root myself down into hearing the voice of the Spirit and knowing I’m a dearly loved child then I can truly live different, I can truly imitate God.  O the love of God - it is so vast and so strong and so rich that I can’t comprehend it.

Psalm 112:1-10

“Blessed is the man who fears the Lord... wealth and riches are in his house”.  I was going to make some joke about me obviously not fearing the Lord enough but I couldn’t do it.  I don’t know anyone richer than me.

Sunday 25 September

Isaiah 60:1-62:12

Does Zion equate to the church?  I think it does.  Paul pretty clearly spells that out in the forgotten chapters of Romans (9-11).  So we see here a vision for the church when it is everything that God wants it to be.  The church has the LORD rising upon it and the glory of the LORD appearing over it.  This is a pretty vivid pointer back to Mount Sinai and to the Tent of Meeting that had the thick cloud thundering and flashing above it.  We should expect and pray for that level of manifestation of God in our midst.  And Isaiah sees the church with all assembled and coming to it - we should expect and pray that all kinds of people will come all kinds of distances to come and be part of our number.  Isaiah also see the church’s heart throbbing and swelling with joy as it looks and is radiant and the wealth of the seas is brought to it.  The church is not a small, struggling organisation that has had its day - it is a potent stronghold of life and resources.  And, as we see in this incredible passage in Isaiah 61, the church is a place of preaching good news and binding up and proclaiming freedom and bringing release and enjoying the favour of God.  The church will comfort and provide and bestow and display his splendour.  The church is not a small thing.  The church is The Thing.  The church is God’s glorious and strong and good provision for the world.  The church is the hope for the nations as it gives away and welcomes in and swells and laughs and points to its Maker.  Let’s believe again in the local church.  Let’s pray again for the local church.  Let’s expect to see rejoicing and redemption in the local church.

Ephesians 4:1-16

I can’t remember the last time I urged someone to do something.  Maybe it was when I urged Lesley to buy me more chocolate.  We don’t tend to go in for ‘urging’ other people to do things - let alone something as potentially guilt-inducing as urging someone to live a life worthy of their calling - so what could have possessed Paul to do it?  I think that there are two main pillars undergirding this urge.  The first pillar is a real desire for God to be given glory.  Paul seems to have been far more obsessed with that than any person I have ever met.  Paul was constantly driven forward by a desire to see Jesus acknowledged as the boss and he pursued this over and above any human sensitivities or norms.  I so much desire to emulate him in this.  The second pillar undergirding Paul’s urging is a near-unlimited expectation of what God can do through people.  His litmus test of success in the Christian life was not about just about clinging on to it until the day you die.  Paul didn’t think the management of a bit of sin and the giving of a bit of time and money was the highest peak of the Christian’s walk.  He actually believed - nay expected - the rank and file would be filled with the whole measure of the fulness of Jesus.  Paul operated on the assumption that every half-wit and rogue who came to his churches would one day be living their lives as if they were Jesus.  Paul saw the fully mature, beautifully holy, staggeringly powerful, overwhelmingly loving, city-changingly effective person that lay inside each and every one of his acquaintances, and he called that person out of them.  Paul’s vision for people was immense.  If we could only get half way towards emulating Paul in this it would have catastrophic consequences for the mundane and ordinary and boring existence that many of us call Christianity.  If we could emulate Paul in his zeal for God’s glory and in his vision for people then we would really see what it is like to live in unity and live well.  I’m making that my prayer for our church.

Proverbs 23:19-28

Buy the truth and do not sell it.  

Saturday 24 September

Isaiah 57:14-59:21

Their God was too small.  They thought he was a monkey who you could feed a nut and then he would dance.  They thought he was a dog whose jowls you could rub and he would roll over and be good.  They didn’t realise they were the monkey, that they had to roll over and be good.  So they chucked God a few token gestures and Isaiah roasts them for it.  And, as I read this, I’m feeling slightly convicted.  Do I actually loose the chains of injustice?  Do I actually share my food with the hungry?  Am I open to strangers and try to help them - maybe not clothing them or feeding them but showing care to them and bringing them love?  This is not about whether I think these are good things to do.  This is not whether I would nod and agree when someone tells me they are doing it.  This is actually challenging me to do it.  I need to cut out a portion of my week and a part of my income and to save a bit of my energy to care for the poor.  What am I doing for the global poor?  What am I doing for the 2 billion whose lives are blighted by poverty.  What am I doing for the people who live in South-West London who are lonely or depressed or racked with illness?  Am I living the kind of life that God has chosen for me?  I want my healing to quickly appear.  I want the glory of the Lord to be my rearguard.  O Spirit, you do not depart from me so please help me get this right.

Ephesians 3:1-21

This wide and long and high and deep love of Jesus that surpasses knowledge - what does it actually do?  First up it fills us with the measure of the fulness of God.  That sounds pretty good.  I wouldn’t mind a bit of that for my friends and family and my church.  That is a profound and deeply valuable thing to pray for ourselves.  Secondly the love of Jesus brings diversity into the church.  It brings people from all sorts of backgrounds and welcomes them and gives them equal status.  And this diversity and equality displays the manifold wisdom of God to the world.  I think we are pretty good at this in the Vineyard.  I think we are pretty good at letting everyone play - letting everyone have a go at praying for others and discipling others and doing good to others.  And thirdly the love of God ultimately leads to Jesus getting glory in the church.  The love of God displays God’s ability to do so much more than we could ever ask or imagine and causes everyone to say “heck, that Jesus is impressive”.  So the love of Jesus builds up the church and brings more worship to God.  I think we need to cling to this like a limpet.  Jesus’ love is not just some random emotion that helps everyone feel good about themselves - it is the expression of his dynamic and powerful nature pursuing his passion for his bride and celebrating the awesomeness of his own self.  And we get caught up in it.  The love of God is like a tsunami that surges towards us whisking us off our feet and carrying us - along with every brother and sister in Christ across this globe - and draws us into holiness, towards love for one another, towards the constant, unstoppable worshipping of His Name.

Psalm 111:1-10

To him belongs eternal praise.

Friday 23 September

Isaiah 55:1-57:13

There are two sets of invitation in here.  First of all there is the invitation to mercy.  Oh what an invitation this is.  The One whose ways are higher than ours and whose thoughts are deeper than ours invites us to come, to hear, to taste and to see.  He invites us to be caught up into his ways and to be carried along in his thoughts.  He invites us to the satisfying and the delightful and the rich and the everlasting.  And he invites us free of charge.  And alongside us he invites the impoverished and the parched and the foreigners and the eunuchs.  A merry cavalry of the odd and the ill crashing into the biggest party of eternity.  And then there is another invitation.  And this one is not one you want. This second invitation is to the mockers and the sneerers and the rebels and the liars.  Those who mistreat those around them and who arrogantly disdain God and make their beds on high and lofty hills.  These are the people who regard themselves as superior to others around them and regard God as inferior to other things.  The self-important and the self-reliant are invited to come and be crushed.  God in his love for victims and in the rightful pursuit of his glory will not permit bad behaviour to be left to roll along.  God is passionate - passionate for us and passionate to see things done right.

Ephesians 2:1-22

This is the spiritual reality of our salvation.  This is what has happened in the hidden spiritual realm that dictates eternity.  We weren’t featuring in it at all.  You could have looked for us throughout all the heavenly realms.  You could have scoured every seat like a friend arriving late at the cinema and trying to find their party.  But you would have come back disappointed.  We were not there - we were in the shadowy darkness of the back car park, chained to the railings and playing with broken bottles and used needles.  But Jesus, in his grace - entirely in his grace - walked round the back of the building, found us, took the shackles off our wrists and carried us into the heavenly realm.  He then sat us there in a seat with our name on, in full gaze of our Father and in touching distance of His throne.  That is what has been done for us.  That is what it means that we are saved.  So Paul says - show it off.  Flash some of the spiritual realm in your everyday life.  Boast about the grace you’ve received, demonstrate the peace you’ve found, do the amazing and good things that are the lifeblood of the heavenly realm.  Live like you now are rather than what you once were.  

Psalm 110:1-7

“Arrayed in holy majesty, from the womb of the dawn you will receive the dew of your youth”.  Sorry, you’ve lost me with that one.

Thursday 22 September

Isaiah 51:17-54:17

My gob is smacked.  I am quite literally churned up inside.  I’m not quite sure why - I’ve read this passage a good number of times before.  But today I’m feeling slightly emotional about the fact that Jesus is so vividly and undeniably foretold in these amazing chapters.  Isaiah was a man watching a nation’s hopes crumble around him.  He daily saw his country-men and friends plodding through life in exile, performing menial jobs in Babylon, aching with confusion over the loss of their temple and their land.  And then he somehow spoke of One who would come and take up his people’s iniquities and carry their sorrows.  He somehow perceived that One would come who would be assigned a grave with the wicked even though there was no deceit in his mouth.  Isaiah spoke about a coming servant who would be made a guilt offering and who would justify many.  What on earth could Isaiah have thought he was seeing?  Throughout all of Israel’s history there had been no sense of anything like this.  The thing Israel had that bore the sins of someone else was the atonement goat that was sent off into the wilderness.  And, although Isaiah said his vision had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him I don’t think he was seeing a goat.  Isaiah must have been seeing Jesus 600 years before He was born.  The pre-existent Jesus, the Word of John 1 was showing himself to his people half a millennium before he became flesh.  Jesus was whispering in the ears of his prophets through all the ages past.  He is so amazing.  He is so incredibly eternally, generous and tender towards his people.  Oh, I’ve started crying over the wonder of it.  That’s slightly embarrassing in Starbucks.

Ephesians 1:1-23

This is a stonking book.  While Galatians hammered in on the ‘now’, on what we do after we have come to faith, Ephesians sticks its finger under our chin and tilts our face up higher - we gaze in wonder at our future inheritance and the glorious majesty of the heavenly realms.  The heavenly realms are not just a future destination but have always existed.  And our names have been written there since before the dawn of time.  These heavenly realms don’t quite sit in parallel to our realm but engulf it and sit over it, always real, always majestic, always rumbling and effervescing with the glorious promise of hope.  These heavenly realms have always been fingerprinting the world but there will be a day - when the times have reached fulfillment - when the heavenly and the earthly will completely become one, under the headship of Christ.  That is when our calling - and the creation’s calling - will be made secure.  On that day we will become staggeringly holy.  On that day we will be completely blameless in His sight and in the sight of all mankind.  On that day every nugget and ruffle of creation will be fully and utterly caught up into perfection, into faultless rhythmic incandescent praise of the great King who made it and perfects it and satisfies it in every imaginable way.  And we have a foretaste of this day sitting within us now.  The Spirit is a deposit paid to us on the point of faith.  It is a portion of that future wonder and power that we can enjoy and experience and be reassured by now.  The Spirit brings that staggering holiness, that unimaginable power and shocking joy and injects it into our current reality.  The Spirit holds our hands and takes up residence in our hearts, continually speaking to us and showing us the One who is far above all rule and all authority, who effortlessly rises above all power and dominion and title that can be given.  The Spirit fills us with His fulness and He does it in every way.  It’s time to press into the Spirit.  

Psalm 109:21-31

They may curse, but you will bless.  Opposition to us following Jesus is virtually certain.  But ultimately it doesn’t matter at all.

Wednesday 21 September

Isaiah 49:8-51:16

For people who are struggling, who are feeling lost, lonely and scared there can be no greater comfort than hearing the LORD saying “I will answer you... you will find pasture on every barren hill... I will guide you... I will not forget you... I have engraved you on the palms of my hands... kings will be your foster fathers... those who hope in me will not be disappointed... I am your Redeemer ... I am your Saviour... I will make your deserts like Eden... my salvation will last forever... my righteousness will last forever... everlasting joy will crown your heads... you are my people”.  These words are where we need to base our identity.  These are the words in which we find our security.  Let’s have them washing around in our heads.  Let’s meditate on them and feast on them in our souls.  These are the source of our strength.

Galatians 6:1-18

We get to the end of the letter and find the punch and stroke of Paul’s conclusion.  We are a new creation, we’ve started again at Calvary, so let’s live like we’ve started again.  And the avenue by which we demonstrate our starting again is our interaction with people.  How you and I treat the people around us is perhaps the primary way that we show that we are saved.  So if we want to know what we are called to, if we want to know what the LORD’s vision for our life is, then we can be sure it includes this - loving and serving those around us.  We should carry each others burdens.  Stress and hardship and suffering is like a burden that sits on people - and the LORD would have all us of bear some of it, rather than just leaving a few people to buckle under it all.  So we need to get into people’s lives and be unembarrassed about asking them to tell us how they really are so we can really help them by praying and chatting and providing practical assistance.  This is what we are called to.  But we are called to do it in a mature way.  We carry others’ burdens not just by following their every whim but also by challenging them to live right, not to hold onto a victim status, not to become a vacuum that sucks others dry of their care.  We are to walk one another forward into holiness and into ‘carrying their own load’.  This is what ‘doing good’ is defined by - by helping people become a new creation in Jesus and then by helping them to live out the reality of this ‘new creation’.  We are good to people by helping them to suffer well and to have the right priorities in life, to know that they are part of the Israel of God and to enjoy and share the peace and mercy of the gospel.  

Proverbs 23:10-18

The defender of the fatherless is strong.

Tuesday 20 September

Isaiah 47:1-49:7

He is flipping awesome.  The LORD Almighty is his name.  He foretold the former things long ago.  We should submit to Him.  He is the ultimate judge.  He will take vengence.  He will spare no-one who opposes Him. We have to submit to Him.  But, more than that, He is the LORD our God who teaches us what is best for us.  If only we would pay attention to his commands our peace would be like a river.  We are best off when we submit to Him.  We would do well to hold all these three things together.  They are three huge motivating factors in our faith.  No one of them sits above the other, but each one stands alongside the other supporting it, reinforcing it, strengthening it.  God is the ultimate reality.  God is the ultimate judge. God is the ultimate high.  God is the source of all matter.  God is the decider on all matter.  God is the fulfillment for all matter.  His standard rises far above any other.  Nothing else can compete with his appeal.  Nothing else could get close to being so good for any one of us.  Nothing is stronger, nothing is more worthy, nothing is more fulfilling, nothing brings such hope, nothing brings such a future.  And God has made himself available to us.  God has chosen us.

Galatians 5:7-26

He wants them to cut their gonads off.  We could dwell on the fruit of the Spirit.  We could compare them with the acts of the sinful nature.  That would be awesome.  That would give us a good boost in the life everlasting.  But I’m struck by the fact that Paul wanted them to cut their gonads off.  Not the Galatians of course, but the agitators who had led the Galatians astray.  It’s worth thinking for a moment what Paul was getting so narky about.  Paul was hot with rage over the confusion of the church - Paul was freaking out over doctrine.  We know Paul well enough by now to realise that he wasn’t some dusty academic - what drove him was the planting of churches and the discipleship of people.  So when he is getting so eggy about doctrine it must be because he believed it was absolutely critical to the discipleship of the people.  Doctrine was fundamentally important to the health of the church.  It’s not too trendy today to get so flustered about doctrine.  But it probably should be.  Doctrine matters.  What we believe about Jesus really matters.  What we believe about the effects of his death and resurrection make a real difference in the real lives of real people.  If people get core doctrine wrong they are spiritually castrating themselves.  And nobody wants that.  So here’s to doctrine.  Here’s to systematic theology and an obsession with the scriptures.  Here’s to reading the bible day in day out and reveling in the saving work of Jesus Christ.  Not because we want to be able to pass theology tests but because we want to live well.  And we want the people around us to be able to live well too.  And if anyone starts to preach heresy; well, I’ll bring my knife if you will...

Psalm 109:1-20

I’ve never prayed for someone’s children to be wandering beggars.  But then I’ve never done as much for the poor as David did.  So maybe the two go hand in hand - a fervent desire to care for the poor and a fervent desire to see their abusers punished.  I don’t think our current obsession with non-judgementalism serves us well.

Monday 19 September

Isaiah 44:24-46:13

The LORD is God and there is no other.  That was the first of God’s 5 points yesterday and it is the oft-repeated chorus of today.  But what difference does that statement actually make?  How is life changed by this assertion?  This bloke Cyrus shows us how.  Cyrus arrived on the scene at the back end of 2 Chronicles after the Israelites had been hoiked off into Babylonian exile by the evil king Nebuchadnezzar.  He found the Israelites dazed and confused.  Their surroundings screamed to them that their God was either a nut-job or just a bit rubbish.  They were asking questions of their identity and of their hope - what is the point of following a God who can’t protect you from the Babylonians?  Then Cyrus showed up.  He smashed up the Babylonians, set the Israelites free and said the LORD had appointed him to build a temple to the LORD in Jerusalem.  But Cyrus was Persian.  Cyrus wasn’t an Israelite.  Cyrus didn’t belong to the children of Abraham.  He was probably the most powerful person in the world.  And God was using him as His shepherd.  God was using Cyrus as the poster-boy of his sovereignty.  It was like there was an advertising billboard bearing Cyrus, covered in bling, posing just enough to show his golden teeth and dragon tattoo, and underneath is the slogan “I am the LORD, and he is my bitch”.  Cyrus, who had probably never heard of Moses and had probably never read the Torah was like a dog who heard the whistle of the LORD and had to come running.  The most powerful ruler in the land could be tossed back and forth in the hand of the LORD like a piece of clay in the hands of the potter.  The same is still true today.  God’s got all this covered.  It doesn’t matter what our surroundings are shouting, it doesn’t matter where the power seems to lie.  We know it lies with God.  We know that God is the boss.  He is the LORD and there is no other.

Galatians 4:21-5:6

Is Jesus really good enough?  Can he really sort out our issues?  Can he really offer us hope for the future?  Is his call really satisfying?  Is his freedom really freeing?  The Galatians seem to have been struggling with these questions.  I think, if we are honest, many of us struggle with them too.  We are tempted to ‘top up’ the call of Jesus with extra things to make us ‘happy’ or help us feel secure.  We think that somehow this ‘church-stuff’ is nicely therapeutic when used in the right way but is not the answer to every question of the soul.  But we are wrong.  Jesus really is good enough.  We need to look beyond the surface to see this.  We need to look beyond the form of freedom to see what freedom really is.  True freedom is not liberty to pursue every latest whim.  True freedom is not the multiple choices of consumerism.  True freedom is the freedom to be good, the freedom to walk the path of love without constantly falling off.  True freedom is not about being able to make any decision we want any day - that is not freedom at all but a death sentence to our souls.  That means we will always be restricted by the limitations of our imperfect minds.  True freedom is the freedom to receive from God the most perfect, the most satisfying, the most exhilarating call - and to be able to follow it.  We can now really follow Jesus’ example of love.  We can, through the power of Jesus, bring compassion and hope to people around us.  We can live up to the potential of humanity - and we can surpass it.  We can live just and good lives.  And when we mess this up and struggle with it in the now we can come back to that extraordinary and unique hope that is only found in Jesus - that a time is coming when we will do it perfectly, when the Spirit of righteousness will have conformed us exactly to Jesus’ likeness.  That is one of the most amazing things I have ever heard.  No wonder Paul encourages us to ‘stand firm’.

Psalm 108:6-13

With God we shall gain the victory

Sunday 18 September

Isaiah 43:1-44:23

There are essentially 5 points the LORD is making here.  Each one deserves our serious attention.  Each one is like a land-mine under the dusty surface of 21st Century London.  If properly understood they will blow apart so much that characterises the fabric of our society.  If properly understood they will blow apart our understanding of ourselves and our place in the world.  First off God speaks about himself.  He is the daddy.  His glory is the ultimate reality for created matter.  We were made to glory him, he is the omnipotent creator king, the holy rock who was and is and will be, unaffected by any and all events and personalities on his earth.  Second, all other powers that claim glory or hope are pathetic jokers.  Only thickos would give them credibility if they really saw what they are like.  Third, although God is unaffected by his creation he chooses to wed himself to it.  He describes himself in relational terms to his people and he has consistently acted to provide care and mercy to his earth.  Fourthly, in spite of God’s manifest awesomeness and consistent loving mercy God’s people have rebelled against him, ignored him and refused to do what he has asked.  Fifthly, although rejection and disgrace and scorn are what his people deserve, he will pour out his spirit on them, he will sweep away their offences and he will redeem them.  Wow.  Those are serious weighty truths.  If we don’t feel their shock-blast we should probably hang around until we do.  How amazing to be one of God’s people.

Galatians 3:26-4:20

This one’s for the ladies.  Once again Paul lasers in on identity.  The former-Jewish Galatians maybe just thought that they’d started believing something slightly different.  The Jesus-story had rung true to them and had gripped them with its power but somehow hadn’t seeped through into all of their beings.  It seems to have remained in the ‘religious’ sphere as a part of their lives and so they were strongly tempted to carry on living as they always had.  They sound a lot like the majority of the church.  Paul confronts their miniscule vision of Jesus.  Jesus isn’t a ticket you carry to get into the venue, he is a cocoon that engulfs you and transforms you like a caterpillar into a butterfly.  You were slaves with no status and no inheritance. You were following the whim of your master day after day until eventually you were going to die from it.  But the Father has bought you.  Now you are his son.  You have the inheritance.  You have the family name.  You walk with the family swagger and you act with the families’ authority.  You are a deeply loved son, the hope for the future of your family.  And your family is the family of God. You are a deeply loved son, even if you are a lady.  We all stand equal before the Father, all equally loved, equally empowered, equally equipped and with an equal inheritance.  I suppose we could go back and live like a slave again if we want to - lots of Christians do.  But that would be tragic.  I suppose we could still look for ways to claim superiority (or inferiority) to other believers - again, lots of Christians do - but that would be ungrateful and heretical.  So howabout, instead we spend our time living like we actually are and live out “Abba Father, you have made us your heir”.

Psalm 105:1-5

“His faithfulness stretches to the skies”.  I wonder what type of experience would cause you to come up with that.

Saturday 17 September

Isaiah 41:1-42:25

He will take hold of our hand and keep us and will make us a covenant for the people; a light for the gentiles.  That is what he said shortly after calling Israel a worm (41:14).  I like the impossible nature of that image.  Worms don’t have arms.  Israel had no hold on God.  Worms just grub around in dirt.  Israel just squirmed around in darkness.  But the LORD stepped in to confound the impossible.  The LORD took the hand of the worm and made the grubby wriggler into a shining light of hope to the nations.  That is what he has done with us.  We had no intention of reaching out to him, we had no capacity to reach out to him and yet he came and reached out to us.  And he didn’t just reach out to us so that we could do a job for him that he really didn’t fancy doing himself.  No, he reached out to us and keeps hold of it, desiring intimacy and relationship with us.  He holds our hand forever, offering strength and support and protection and love.  He doesn’t give us a to do list and kick us out of the door to get on with it but rather he trains us and empower us and cajoles us and encourages us to be all that we have dreamed of and more.  He makes us useful and valuable and life-giving and significant.  He makes us a saving force for good in a world of bitterness and pain.  He stands with us and together we do things we never could have believed were possible.  We were worms but now we are beloved and nurtured children.  We grubbed around in darkness but now we are co-labourers and co-heirs with Christ, bringing hope and peace and grace and transformation to the world.

Galatians 3:10-25

When someone says “brothers, let me take an example from everyday life” my soul is lifted.  My heart beats a little faster in anticipation of an illustration that will shed new light on an issue.  I wait in hope that God’s word will be packaged up for me ready to be applied in my world today.  So verses 16 to 22 are a bitter disappointment.  What the heck is he talking about?  And where on earth is his example from everyday life??  All in all these verses read like Paul has been smoking some ganja and is just spouting random phrases one after the next.  We could spend ages drilling into this passage and working out the exact meaning of every word - and there would be immense benefit in doing so - but for now I’d rather just grab the big picture and press on.  And I think the big picture is provided in verse 23 - showing the shocking extent of God’s work for us.  All of us, no matter how good or devout or brilliant are prisoners in a cage.  We can decorate our cage wonderfully and arrange a great sense of community but we will still be in the cage.  We will still be trapped.  And so God, in his amazing goodness, not only arranges for Jesus to jimmy the lock but also for the law - or for our sense of conscience - to usher us towards the open door.  This is a valuable insight.  It shows that humanity is so debased that it wouldn’t even recognise the cage it is in if it wasn’t for the gracious work of God.  Satan has blinded our eyes so much that we think we are doing OK, we think there is no major issue that can’t be sorted out by a healthy dose of good will.  It is his major ploy to suggest the cage ain’t there.  So we shouldn’t be surprised when people tell us this or when we are tempted to think it ourselves.  In those times we just go back to our conscience, to the accusing finger of the law and we recognise again that things are broken, that we really are trapped and we really do need escape.  And then we see the immensity of what Jesus offers - the huge exhilaration of walking out of that prison door and into the fullness of freedom of eternal life.

Proverbs 22:28-23:9

Do not wear yourself out to get rich

Friday 16 September

Isaiah 38:1-40:31

Here is your God!  But he is not really here.  He is too great to be summed up in a few words, no matter how poetic and glorious.  To whom can you compare God?  How can you fashion a way of speaking about him that is not woefully under-representative of his eternal existence?  We are all men (and women) too poor to present such an offering.  We all furnish ourselves with thrones but only his is above the circle of the earth.  We all form ourselves some sort of space but only he formed the heavens, only he stretched out all visible matter like a canopy.  We all exert some sort of influence on others but only he sweeps away prime ministers like chaff.  He has never learnt from anyone or even learnt anything at all - he has always held all knowledge and understanding within himself.  He has never been enlightened or grown in any way - he has always defined impeccable perfection from everlasting to everlasting.  The great cacophony of cultures and places that we love to visit on this earth amount to just the tiniest drop in his bucket.  Every headland and continent is just like a tiny piece of dust so insignificant that he doesn’t even bother recalibrating his scales when they land on them.  None of us even gets close to being equal with him.  He is completely unaffected by our existence - he is neither greater or less or richer or poorer for us being around.  Every single star adds not a single jot to his being or his immensity.  And yet he carries us like lambs close to his heart, he gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.  Here is our God, speaking tenderly to his people.

Galatians 2:11-3:9

As always with Paul, the question he is answering is not so much “how can I be saved?” as “who are we?”.  If we approach this passage looking only for an answer to the first question then we miss out on some exquisite treats.  Paul starts by saying that we are justified by putting our faith in Jesus Christ.  That is pretty incredible.  That talks about how the verdict over us is changed from guilty to innocent.  But what is next?  What do we do now?  That is what seems to have got the Galatians, and even Peter, in a pickle.  They knew they had been justified but they didn’t quite know what that meant about how they should live.  I think the vast majority of Christians live in that place - mildly grateful that they have been forgiven of their sin but shuffling their feet in slight bemusement about what they are ‘meant to do’ next.  Paul can get our shuffling feet leaping and advancing with this dynamite, crack-a-jack phrase - “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me”.  Paul is saying that the gospel is not just about something that has been done for us but is about something that has been done to us.  We have been killed off.  A new us has been formed within.  And the captain of this new us is not us but Christ.  We have been completely and utterly changed.  So our question is not “what am I meant to be doing?” but rather “what does this new me act like?”.  Paul calls for us to really know who we are, to go back to all the questions we asked ourselves and came to conclusions upon while we were growing up and to ask them again and to come to new conclusions on them.  Our lives have been completely redefined by the death of Jesus and by the presence of Jesus in us.  If we grasp that, then our lives will be filled with goodness.

Psalm 107:33-43

...consider the great love of the Lord

Thursday 15 September

Isaiah 36:1-37:38

It seems that the Lord can read the scrawlings of Assyrians.  Hezekiah spread out before God the Assyrian King’s letter and it was as good as read by the Lord.  I suspect that the Lord knew exactly what it said even before Sennacherib wrote it, let alone before Hezekiah spread it out, but the point is that he chose to act once Hezekiah took it to him in prayer.  This is the towering mercy of our God.  He made heaven and earth, he is the LORD Almighty - the omnipotent one who can do any thing, any time, to any one in any way that He wants.  And he chose to act on behalf of Israel, to send the Assyrians packing and then to slaughter 185,000 of the ones who were supposedly going to attack and destroy his land.  I think He did that just to prove His point.  No matter how strong or determined the forces against us seem to be, they barely even begin to cause a hint of trouble to our God.  A few scratches of a king’s quill upon a papyrus scroll may have us quivering in our boots but it hardly has the Lord flustered.  Nothing can rival his power.  Nothing can put his control in jeopardy.  The most ferocious assault on us is, before God, just like a paper aeroplane thrown at the sun.  He can burn it up without even thinking about it.  He proved that at Calvary.  He vanquished the final enemy of death.  He bound Satan and he will throw him into the eternal fire.  Our God is flipping awesome.  We need to get him bigger in our eyes.  We need to know that we can just lay our most troubling problems before him in prayer and he will act with ferocious power and mercy.  God has the universe in his hands (and there is still space for 10,000 more universes alongside it).  And God has got our backs.

Galatians 2:1-10

Paul seems to betray a lack of regard for the other apostles.  He describes them as “those who seemed to be important” and “reputed pillars” and says they “added nothing to my message”.  And, in truth, Paul did not have much respect for the other apostles, not compared to his respect for Jesus. That was his whole point.  In this passage Paul is continuing the argument that he begun yesterday - that his gospel is not something to be messed with by people because it came from One God.  Paul doesn’t care a fig whether people like or dislike what he says, whether they abuse him or love him for it - he is never going to change his message because it is a message he has been given by one far more lofty than he will ever be.  Anyone who comes along and preaches a modified gospel or an ‘updated’ message must be false because they are denying the superiority of the One who gave the message.  And so we come back to that theme which seems to be all over the place at the moment - that God is dreadfully massive.  That God is several hundred leagues above even the most brilliant of people.  All of us are just humble beggars before him with nothing of substance to offer except what he has given to us.  And so we turn to poor - fellow beggars before the immense and matchless Prince of All Ages.  We regard ourselves as superior or inferior to no other human but regard all humans as unspeakably inferior to Him.  This is His story, we just tell it on His behalf.

Psalm 107:23-32

“they were at their wits’ end...”  they're not the only ones...

Wednesday 14 September

Isaiah 33:1-35:10

We can’t keep on ignoring it.  Thus far there has always been something else significant to focus on but it comes to a point when we start to buy into heresy.  So, here we go with the reckless abandon of a bunji-jumper.  At the core of Israel’s understanding of the future coming of the Kingdom was the concept of vengeance, of divine retribution.  He is a mighty warrior who will burn people as if to lime and will soak mountains with blood. That sounds a bit ferocious really.  It sounds a little dangerous.  But that doesn’t mean we can deny it.  It is what God has chosen to say about himself.  However, it is important that we understand it properly, that we understand the context of it.  God’s retributive action is not just for the sake of it.  It is not just because he enjoys butchering helpless little mortals; it is because he wants to save his people.  He is not just ferocious, he is a ferocious rescuer.  I think many of our issues with swallowing this aspect of the teaching of the bible is that we have not properly digested previous aspects.  Have we really accepted that we are in a terrible calamity, that we are held hostage in a hostile and aggressive world with a powerful foe who is out to savage us and destroy us.  If we had digested that we would be delighted that Our God is going to descend in judgement on our accusers and abusers.  We would rejoice that he will stretch out the measuring line of chaos and the plumb-line of desolation.  Evil is real, it really does assault us.  We need to be rescued.  And that leads us on to Galatians...

Galatians 1:1-24

Jesus gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age.  Our world is still defined by evil.  We stand with both Isaiah and Paul on that one.  It doesn’t mean that there is not good in it or that the people around us are altogether wicked but rather that something dreadful and something ruthlessly sinister is in charge around here, corrupting all that is good and working with evil intent.  And in Galatians, Paul is at extreme pain to stress that there is only one true rescue route, there is only one true means of escape.  And that route is the gospel of Jesus Christ, who followed the will of our God and Father by sacrificing himself to free us from this present evil age.  The Galatians were making out that this wasn’t really the case.  They were suggesting that Jesus was not in fact the real escape route or at least, not the only one.  They were suggesting that Paul had been hood-winked by some of the other apostles or that he had changed his message about how to be rescued because he thought the ‘Jesus-story’ might hold more appeal to Greeks.  I read these exact same suggestions in a paper this week.  At their root they assume that the authority behind the bible and the teaching of Paul is human.  They assume that culture or expediency dictates our message.  But we must resist these suggestions.  Paul absolutely refutes any such claim.  He stresses that no man convinced him of this message and (as we saw in Corinthians) he does not change his tune just because people react badly.  No, Paul is utterly convinced that there is only one rescue route from evil because Jesus himself told him so.  If we mess with the teachings of the bible or try to re-draw the claims of Jesus then it is Jesus himself who we are denying, it is Jesus himself who we are usurping.  This stuff all comes from Jesus and this stuff all points to Jesus.  He alone can transform us and he alone can rescue us.  He alone gives us grace and peace.

Psalm 107:10-22

He has brought us out of darkness.  He has broken away our chains.

Tuesday 13 September

Isaiah 30:19-32:20

Several characteristics of the time that was ahead of Isaiah but is available to us (albeit not in its full consummated form) - a voice behind us will tell us “this is the way, walk in it” (30:21).  It would be easier if the voice was in front of us and attached to a face but that is not the way that it works.  We should expect to hear the voice though.  We will throw away our false fancies like.. well....ahem... dirty tampons (30:22).  I guess that is about as vivid an image as is necessary.  We should be in a time of purity and hatred of spiritual uncleanness.  The food of the land will be rich and plentiful (30:23).  We should expect to enjoy the bountiful blessings of the kingdom, and not feel guilty when we do.  There will be miraculous transformation of people - the blind will see, the deaf hear, the foolish will become wise and the ponderous will be authoritative (32:3-4).  And, perhaps most of all, the LORD will come from afar, his breath like a rushing torrent and he will shake the nations and we will sing with heats rejoicing (30:27-29).  We should expect to have our jaws on the floor and our knees aknocking - astonishment and trembling are natural responses to proximity to God.  He has a majestic voice.  His voice can shatter nations.  And yet it beckons us to come to him.  How gracious he has been.

2 Corinthians 13:1-14

The fundamental identity of a Christian is someone who has Christ Jesus in them.  We need to just pause on this a while.  We need to linger on this doctrine.  The defining thing about us is not that we go to church.  The defining thing about us is not that we try to live in step with the spirit or to obey the words of God.  The defining thing about us is not even that we believe Jesus Christ was God-made-flesh reconciling the world to himself through his death and resurrection.  The defining thing about is that Jesus - the one who touched the blind and they saw, the one who preached the best sermon ever given, the one who never sinned, the one who rose powerful and victorious from the grave, the one who is seated at the right hand of the Father, the one who will be crowned eternal King of every star and galaxy and planet in the universe - that He is in us.  I can’t do the maths for it.  I can barely begin to do the theology for it.  But I sure as heck need to believe it.  Believing it and knowing it would comprehensively change my who perspective on life.  It would radically overhaul what I think about myself, about what is possible for me, about what the future will hold, about what I can offer to others.  If Jesus is actually in me then surely he can use my lips and my fingers and my brain and my feet to do some pretty funky stuff.  If Jesus is in me then I’m in a fundamentally different and fundamentally better place than most of the people around me.  Wow.  I need to think on this some more...

Proverbs 22:17-27

The saying of the wise really do help us.  It will please us when we have them ready on our lips.  

Monday 12 September

Isaiah 29:1-30:18

He was the ‘LORD in Ariel’ but they kept on chip chip chipping away at Him until he just seemed ‘ORD in Ari’.  (Do you like that?? I’m feeling pretty immensely smug right now).  And isn’t that always our way?  We prefer our God to be ordinary.  Because the bulking truth of God is like a huge mountain that stands in our path.  He is the LORD.  He is the Holy One.  He claims absolute authority over us - and it is a bit of a pain.  I don’t like my daily activities to take me continually up and down the slopes of a mountain.  I don’t want to be stumbling and sweating my way around some immovable object.  So I blast a tunnel through this mountain.  I blast a tunnel through my image of God.  I say with Israel “Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions, leave this way, get off this path and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel”.  Often I convince myself that this is not what I am saying.  With my lips I claim that I am honouring God.  But my heart betrays my true voice.  My heart shows how I embrace and welcome the forgiveness of God but slap away the harder calls to obedience.  I love to sing and pray and be prayed for by others but tything, forgiving others, not gossiping, rebuking others and being rebuked myself - these are the calls that I like to ignore.  And I am not the only one.  A lot of the church today quote that “God is love” and misinterpret that to mean that he is their pliable, fawning buddy who just wants to see them happy.  But God is also a Consuming Fire and he will come with his terrible, swift sword to judge the living and the dead.  We don’t get to choose what God is like.  He was here first.  We don’t get to blast a tunnel through God to make him more palatable and more easy to deal with.  Taking dynamite to God is not a good move.  He is the LORD.  He is Holy One of Israel.  We are best advised to accept that and all the difficulties it brings.  Blessed are those who wait for him.

2 Corinthians 12:11-21

Paul reaches back over his shoulder, brushes his fingertips on his quiver and selects his final arrow.  He has been assaulting the posing, self-interested, fleshy manner of doing ministry... and he has nearly killed it off.  As he pulls back the bowstring he has whittled everything down to the simplest of choices.  Service or employment.  Employment is fine in many contexts but not as a mindset about ministry.  Employment is based on an exchange of services for goods - I do this and that for you and you give me something or other in return.  That is how the super-apostles saw their ministry.  But that is not the way of Jesus.  Jesus didn’t want bread and fish from the little boy; he wanted to use him to bless 5000.  Jesus didn’t want money from the rich young ruler; he wanted him to be freed from his superficial obsession.  Jesus didn’t want a boat trip from the fishermen; he wanted them to become fishers of men.  Jesus did not come to be employed by Israel but to serve it.  He did not come to build up a decent inheritance for himself but to give his life as a ransom.  And so the mark and mindset of ministry is service. It is finding people and really committing to them, to wedding ourselves to them.  It is saying that I will very gladly spend for you everything I have and expend myself as well. It is a dangerous way to live.  People let you down.  People you have wedded yourself to can hurt you and embarrass you and humble you.  But it is the way of Jesus and it is the most dynamic way to live out our Christian call.  Paul let’s his arrow fly to kill off the ‘super-apostles’ way of living.  Will his arrow reach our own hearts?

Psalm 107:1-9

He does wonderful deeds for us.

Sunday 11 September

Isaiah 27:1-28:29

This passage was not intended to be a lesson in agricultural history.  Although, I would be quite interested to hear more about why caraway couldn’t be threshed with a sledge but could be beaten with a rod.  The point, of course, is that Abraham’s descendants were making a proper hash of being a great nation.  And they were even worse at being a blessing to all the families of the earth.  God’s people had reeled from beer, had constructed rules on rules, had not listened and had made this weird-sounding covenant with death.  So it looked like God’s redemption narrative was in tatters.  The table of his covenant which had been laden with goodies ever since Abraham was now covered with vomit - there was not a spot without filth.  So what next?  How does the Lord Almighty respond to his kindness being puked on?  He brings punishment.  We can’t deny that.  It is clearly there in black and white.  But he also blows a trumpet.  And this trumpet will act like the most incredible hangover-cure to the perishing masses.  Staggering and befuddled people will find that the LORD Almighty is a glorious crown, and they will be saved.  And these people will not only be the descendants of Abraham but Egyptians and Assyrians will be included too.  What do we do with this?  We are called once again to deep repentance for our ingratitude towards God.  We bow and confess that we have made a lie our refuge.  But we are also aghast at the staggering grace of God to us, that he should consider us something worth his time and effort and forgiveness.  Doesn’t this just lead us to an overwhelming sense of privilege?  To think that the LORD Almighty, the One who is wonderful in counsel and magnificent in wisdom, should let us come and worship Him.  

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

I’ve heard people say Paul’s “Thorn in the flesh” was his secret wife.  How ridiculous!  Paul doesn’t say so how on earth could we know?  We could waste loads of time pondering on this conundrum, and on all the others like it, but they are distractions.  They are seized upon by people wishing to push their own agenda.  We would do better to focus on the main and plain meaning of the passages.  And this is the plain truth for us for today; our character is more important than our comfort.  We are better off in continual pain and humble before God than if we were lying on a beach in Bodrum, sipping cocktails and shoving Him away. If we think that sounds a bit crass and over-dramatic it probably just indicates how we have been infected by our culture.  Our culture thinks so little of character.  But in the bible, our character is greatly treasured indeed.  It is climatically important.  If we want to be used by God and do something significant with our lives then we, like Paul, must not become conceited.  We must prize our humility before God above everything.  We need to ‘delight’ in our weaknesses and the things that knock us back.  We must work hard to be humble.  Because God uses humble people.  His power is made perfect in weakness.

Psalm 106:40-48

“..out of his great love...”  Words just don’t get close to conveying the depth and breath and vibrant reality of God’s great, great love for us.