Friday 21 October

Jeremiah 46:1-47:7

That’s got to be embarrassing.  You’ve gone around mouthing off about how something is yours.  You’ve strutted your stuff all over the place.  When other people approached you stuck out you jaw and whooped like a gibbon.  But that thing belonged to the Lord.  And he will fight you for it.  It’s the Lord Almighty who gets to have the final say.  He is the One who owns the day of retribution.  So we can’t get our own back - it’s not ours to get back.  And we don’t need to fear others getting their own back or others enforcing their will.  They may do for a while.  It may chaff a little for the duration but it’s only ever going to be a light and momentary trouble compared to the eternal glory that awaits us.  Because the last day in our history is His. The deciding vote on our destiny is his.  And his will can’t return to its scabbard and it can’t cease and be still because the Almighty is the one who wields it.  So everyone else who says they can tell us what we’re worth and everyone else who tries to make statements about us and everyone else who tries to bribe our allegiance to their next big thing.  Well, they are just going to be embarrassed.  That day belongs to the Lord, the Lord Almighty.

1 Timothy 6:3-21

When I come across verses like 6:15-16 I feel a bit like a pan-handler finding a little nugget of gold.  They nearly send me loopy.  O the greatness of God.  How could he live in a light that is so bright you can’t even approach it?  How can he have ‘might’ that goes on for ever.  What on earth could that look like?  How could it never end? I have no terms of reference for that.  There is an expansiveness and incomprehensibility to him that shudders my kidneys.  O the greatness of God.  And so of course we are content as long as we have got a bit of food and some clothes.  We know the King.  Everything else is just naff by comparison.  All the jiggerypokery of life is just an assortment of trinkets compared to the One who is immortal.  He is the only ruler.  He is King.  He will bring about what he wants to bring about when he wants to bring it about.  He is unmovable and unshakable.  So if I have him why would I be eager for money?  Compared to him it is no better than dust.  He gives life to everything and he has given life to me.  I just want to keep his commands.  Nothing else really matters.

Psalm 119:73-80

‘give me understanding...’