Sunday 16 October

Jeremiah 32:26-34:22

Singleness of heart and action (32:39).  If you added something about beauty or satisfaction then that would be about the best description of holiness you could get.  And under the new covenant that is what we are given when Yahweh is our God.  The Lord Our Righteousness, the righteous branch came and performed the most astonishing heart transplant that the world has ever seen.  When Jesus died on the cross he fulfilled Jeremiah’s promise by effectively ripping out his pure, unadulterated heart and offering it to all of us to place in our chests.  This heart that delighted in the word of God and which had never known any form of rebellion is the heart that now forms the core of our being - that is what it means to live ‘in Christ’ - we have a heart that continually pushes us in the direction of God.  Our hearts, for all the remaining vestiges of our wicked self, is good.  Our heart can be trusted when it is bathed in prayer and soaked in the Spirit and yielded to the fear of God.  And if we are ever unsure, or if we want to help others discern what would be good for them then we can come back to this idea of singleness.  Pure hearts and good hearts have one defining goal - getting closer to Jesus.  Does this desire make me more like Jesus?  Will it bring me closer to him?  If not, we can just let it slide.  But if so, then let’s pursue it like crazy.

1 Timothy 1:1-20

I don’t think Paul was a cockney.  Or at least I’ve not yet seen the verse where he calls Jesus his gov’nor.  So when he calls Timothy his son I think it was more than just a generic term that he’d learnt down the market.  It was a statement.  It really meant something both to him and to Timothy.  These whole letters are potent challenges to my disconnected, boundaried approach to church-life and ministry.  Paul saw Timothy as his true son in the faith.   He invited Timothy into his life like he was the fruit of his loins and the heir to his estate. Paul was deeply committed to Timothy.  He had huge affection for him.  He was willing to spend himself and give himself to see Timothy advance.  And this is such a potent challenge to me because I have to ask myself who is my Timothy?  Who have I really invited into my life?  Who are my true sons in the faith?  The closest I seem to get is to treat a few guys like distant cousins - I send them SMS every now and then and then run into them at family gatherings (church).  But I want to move beyond that.  I want to carve out time to treat people like sons.  I believe that is spiritual leadership.  I believe that is the kingdom.  I believe that is the calling of Jesus.

Psalm 119:41-48

God really has unfailing love for us.