Wednesday 12 October

Jeremiah 25:15-26:24

Gulp.  No wonder they wanted to murder Jeremiah - he has been banging on about the same thing for so long now that even I’m beginning to reach for the kitchen knife.  I know it is not his fault - he was only doing what the Lord was calling him to - but it is getting more than a little boring.  Things do perk up tomorrow though with the explosive letter to the exiles that starts in chapter 29.  I’m afraid that the phrase that most caught my attention today was God saying he will put the wicked to the sword (25:31).  It is not a verse I’m going to get cross-stitched onto my wall but I guess I do need to embrace the sentiment of it.  It seems to attribute to God a brutality that I rarely engage with, a finality that I choose not to dwell upon.  But God is the dictator of everyone’s destiny and he is the most wise and generous God who will never treat anyone unjustly.  Therefore I want to try to celebrate his brutality - because it is a brutality for good; a ruthless and relentless pursuit of beauty and purity.  God will put the wicked to the sword and we will all be better off for it.

1 Thessalonians 5:1-28

Again we see Paul talking about the return of Jesus and saying “therefore encourage one another”.  It seems to be one of the biggest holes in my faith - I so rarely think of Jesus coming back and, when I do, it is with a sense of confusion rather than encouragement.  But that was not the way of the early church.  No matter what questions they had about the coming end - and they had a lot - they continually received the rallying cry - this is going to be an amazing thing, this is something to look forward to, this is something to seek.  I worry that I have become so attached to the here and now that those words just float over my head.  But I don’t want them to.  I want to think of the return of Jesus and be strengthened in my faith.  I want to think of the coming judgement and, rather than feeling a little bit sick, feel my soul soaring in anticipation of hearing Jesus say to me “well done my good and faithful servant, come and live with me!”.  Maybe this lack of enthusiasm about the return of Jesus ties into a general lack of certainty about our standing in Christ, our purity in him and the certainty of our call.  But Jesus did die for us and when he comes back it is to bring us closer to him, not push us away.  And that is something deeply, deeply encouraging.  It’s time to start celebrating His long-promised return.

Psalm 119:17-24

“Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law”.  Haha it’s great to see he struggled waking up for early morning bible-study as much as I do!