Wednesday 30 November

Daniel 5:17-6:28

Who’s the daddy?  Who actually is the boss?  Who really has the power?  In exile it can be confusing.  In a society like Daniel’s and like ours there are tectonic shifts happening in power structures.  New kings come in and people claim all sorts of things about them.  People always seem to want to crown latest one as the greatest one, the most recent one as the most decent one.  I wish they would shut up.  Because they start to lure the ear of those of us trying to be faithful.  They tell us that the best bodies look like this and the best minds think like that and the way to riches is through the accumulation of funds.  They suggest to us that we should live like them and they coerce us into following their ways.  They push us to value their things the highest and, ultimately, they desire us to think that they are the best.  Which is all very well... except they are wrong.  And God will prove them so.  God is the boss.  God is the best. God shows us the best way to keep our bodies and the most fulfilling ways for our minds to think.  God leads us into the true treasury of riches and God will keep us safe until the end.  It might feel like the satraps are against us.  It might even feel like we are staring some lions in the eyes.  But we can stand firm.  We can hold true.  Because our God is the living God and he endures for ever.  He rescues and he saves; he performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth.

1 John 1:1-2:11

Thump.  Thump.  Thump  It’s like huge Joe Frazier-size fists thumping into the punch bag.  This beloved disciple is no lightweight; his words pummel the luke-warm.  Confess your sin, walk like Jesus walked, love your brother - or your are still in the darkness.  There is no place to hide from this assault.  The duck and weave can only save you for so long.  But these immense, titan-like fists also open wide in welcome.  And the comfort they bring is strong beyond belief.  They show us the deep, hope-imbuing core of the faith.  They urge us on to the pulsating life-source of the Way; fellowship with the Father.  We are not talking here about the slightly naff-sounding personal relationship with Jesus.  We are not talking about a 5 minute check-in every day in order to keep a good working relationship with God.  We are talking about fellowship.  Naked, exposed, intense, bonafide fellowship with the Father.  This is Him looking over every part of our being, every cell in our bodies and every fleeting thoughts in our minds.  This is Him running his hands over every sweep of our emotions and every urge of our souls.  This is us beholding Him and sitting with Him, chatting with Him and being silent with Him.  This is us and Him.  Together.  And from this place everything else follows.  And away from this place none of the other stuff can follow at all.  Our faith, if it is to be true faith that punches with the weight of John, will find its home in the fellowship of the Father, and will lay its head on the bosom of the Son.

Psalm 136:1-12

These modern songs are so repetitive.

Tuesday 29 November

Daniel 4:19-5:16

Now that is a serious brown-trousers time.  Belshazzar should have listened to his dad.  He should have just read his dad’s letter.  I know his dad had spent several years acting like an actual donkey but he still could have given his words some heed, especially after his sanity was restored.  But God - the One who does what he pleases with the people of the earth - gave him a spectacularly miraculous second chance.  God tried to summon Belshazzar into repentance by conjuring up some fingers and getting them to write a warning on a wall.  But Belshazzar acted more like a donkey than his dad ever did.  He watched this thing happen, his knees knocked together and he begged for someone to tell him what it meant.  But then, when Daniel interpreted, Belshazzar the donkey just rewarded Daniel with purple robes and didn’t make any effort to repent.  How could he not have repented?  How could he not have given his allegiance to the Most High?  How could he have seen such miraculous revelation and just made a purely human response - one that pretended to respond but actually didn’t respond at all to the content of the revelation and really was just a neat way of preserving his position?  But that, I guess, is a definition of sin.  That, in a less graphic but nonetheless equally-offensive way, is what we do every time we hear or read the word of God and just bat it away like a tennis ball.  The bible is clear about the consequences of such action.  God goes to huge length to call us to repent.

2 Peter 3:1-18

They keep on bleating on this Day of the Lord.  It’s almost as if it is a central part of their faith.  In fact it is almost as if it is THE central part of their faith that they build everything else around.  All this ‘wholesome thinking’ that Peter has been trying to stimulate (by the way, don’t you just love that slightly quaint phrase ‘wholesome thinking’?) seems to just be the canvas of the teepee... and the two ‘comings’ of Jesus seem to be the sticks.   And I worry that my teepee doesn’t have enough sticks.  I worry that I have leant away from thinking about the ‘last days’, and that I have not been the only one.  I worry that talk about the ‘last days’ has been dominated by people who use poor exegesis and over-active imaginations.  I have been profoundly challenged about this topic throughout the bible-in-a-year.  I really want to grasp what Peter and Paul and the early believers understood to be the trajectory of history, and the trajectory of their lives.  Because I think that we will always struggle to live out our faith effectively until we are convinced about the Day of the Lord.  

Psalm 135:13-21

We become what we worship.

Monday 28 November

Daniel 3:13-4:18

He’s a bit of a pantomime character this Nebuchadnezzar.  And for no greater reason than his decree following the emergence of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego from the fire.  He has tried to burn these three blokes to a crisp.  He has done everything in his evil power to eradicate any trace of them.  But everything in Nebuchadnezzar’s power can’t even make the tiniest dent on the power of the Most High.  His fire can’t even singe Shadrach’s robe.  So how does Nebuchadnezzar respond?  He makes this ridiculous decree that if anyone disses the Most High then Nebuchadnezzar will have ‘em.  Hahaha.  Has he learnt nothing?  Has he not understood it at all?  The Most High is well able to look after himself.  He doesn’t need us to flash our illusion of power around in an attempt to protect Him.  He is not just some other stakeholder in our lives that we need to aggressively defend.  He is the Most High.  He can take care of Himself.  He wants us to serve him, not to defend him.  He wants us to obey Him, not to protect Him.  He wants us to worship Him, not threaten others about insulting Him.  In short I think the reason why Nebuchadnezzar seems like a pantomime character is that in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, he cannot seem to grasp that he is not the centre of the universe.  Nebuchadnezzar just can’t take his eyes off himself.  And it would be really, really funny if I wasn’t quite so much like Nebuchadnezzar myself.  Oh Jesus, please would you teach me to be humble.

2 Peter 2:1-22

More on humility.  Is someone trying to tell me something?  Peter’s message has been focussed on how big God is and how small we are.  And he sincerely rams this message home with this section on springs without water and mists driven by a storm.  It is the bit on slandering celestial beings that really cuts me.  I don’t really understand the ins and outs of it but I do feel sincerely convicted about all the mouthing off that I have done in my life.  I’ve mouthed off about other believers - people whom God has adopted as sons.  I’ve mouthed off about the church - Jesus’ bride for whom he died.  I’ve mouthed off about all kinds of spiritual happenings and experiences - things that have have richly blessed at least the people who received them if nobody else.  How dare I?  My perspective is so small and my insight is so tiny.  How could I be so arrogant as to slag off the things of God?  All I should be doing is standing on the word of God and speaking the words of the Spirit (which regularly makes pretty harsh declarations about things!).  But I regularly veer off from that and slander others off my own back.  In view of my tininess and God’s awesome hugeness how can I think my own personal perspective is worthy of other’s ears?  I don’t want to become entangled again in such behaviour.  I want to be better than a dog.  I want to steer clear from that vomit.

Proverbs 29:1-9

It is justice, and not a thriving economy, that gives a country stability.  (29:4)

Sunday 27 November

Daniel 2:24-3:12

What I really want to know about this passage, what really bothers me is whether Nebuchadnezzar’s decree required you to bow when you heard the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes and all kinds of music all playing together or whether the sound of just one of them would be sufficient to make you need to kneel.  Either way, he must have had pretty high expectations about the musical proficiency of his people.  If it was the latter I, for one, would have been completely clueless as to whether I was hearing a horn (and so require me to kneel) or just a trumpet (and so I would have been OK to carry on).  And if it was the former, well it would have really ruined listening to any music at all because as soon as you heard the zither (which I have no idea what it sounds like but hope it is a bit like a kazoo) you would have been on tentahooks waiting to tick the rest of the instruments off your list and then fall on your face.  It would have been a bit like musical bingo!  But I would not have played.  Because who wants to fall face down before a man whose days are numbered?  Who wants to worship the king of a kingdom that is going to be crushed.  My worship is precious.  My kneeling actually means something.  And I want to save it for something that will endure.  I only want to bow before the One who will never be destroyed.  

2 Peter 1:1-21

As with every excellent meal, there is a good portion of seconds.  And this second portion from Peter has two overwhelming flavours; one is a strong aroma of the past and the other is a powerful hint of the future.  First, the past - by the death and resurrection of Jesus we have received everything we need for life and godliness.  That is actually quite a shocking statement.  We have already been given all we need to ace this test.  But this is not a push to self-reliance.  Rather, like the Lifelines in ‘Who Wants to Be A Millionaire’ we have been given things that enable us to draw on the help of another.  We have been given the great and precious promises.  We just need to call them in.  We just need to live in the truth that they are real.  We just need to drink deep of the presence of Jesus.  We have all we need - it’s time to get confident in that.  And then secondly, the hint of the future - the rich welcome into the eternal kingdom.  All we do here will not pass away.  Our actions here are not swiftly forgotten.  Every action of brotherly kindness, every word of love sows into the coming kingdom.  Not in some wishy-washy, floaty-like-a-fairy kind of way but in the way that these actions put people into that kingdom who would not have been there otherwise.  And so if we live this way - if we show love and speak the truth and persevere and make every effort, then walking into the kingdom will be like walking into our own award ceremony. Person upon person will walk up to us and thank us for what we did for them in this life.  People will say “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you”.  And people will embrace us warmly like the recipients of undeserved riches.  That is what our future can be like if we press on in this faith. And that is a future I want.  

Psalm 135:1-12

“Sing praise to the Lord, for that is pleasant”.  Has he actually heard me sing??

Saturday 26 November

Daniel 1:1-2:23

It’s a funny mix.  Daniel’s book looks at the corridors of worldly power and yet is drenched in supernatural occurrence.  It is a book favoured for twee children’s stories and yet contains more aggressive conflict than mighty morphing power rangers.  Some of it is in Hebrew and some of it bizarrely switches into Aramaic.  I think Daniel is one of the hardest books to understand in the whole bible.  But here we are.  And I intend to enjoy it!  The first 2 verses show what the book is about - the war of the gods.  Yahweh’s stuff has been nicked by the Babylonian god.  Yahweh’s people have been conquered by the people of the Babylonian god.  The Babylonian god looks like he is off to a flyer.  But don’t be deceived, in this war there can only be one winner.  Despite vastly inferior-looking food, Yahweh can strengthen his warriors far better than the Babylonian god can.  Despite their captivity, Yahweh can speak revelation to his people far more effectively than the Babylonian god can disclose anything to his astrologers and magicians.  And, more than that, it is actually Yahweh, the God of heaven, who holds history in his hand and who will reveal it to whomsoever he chooses, whenever he chooses and however he chooses.  In this war Yahweh has quickly shown that he is occupying so much of the battlefield that the Babylonian god looks like a weedy kid trying to play Twister.  So if you want to get on in life, if you want to be on the winning side, if you want to be helping to build history rather than ineptly struggle against it then turn yourself to Yahweh.  If you trust in false gods, you are sure to be disappointed.

1 Peter 5:1-14

I’d not previously spotted this link between humility and the devil.  I sort of knew both of the verses but hadn’t seen how they slot together.  But in this meal that Peter has been serving us, this is a great way to finish.  We know we have been chosen by God.  We have seen how we have been called to live for Him.  But we need to be careful of where we go with that.  It is not all plain sailing.  We are not yet home free.  As we struggle to live as children of light, turned from our sin and showing deep love, we need to be alert to the desires of the devil.  The devil wants to devour us.  He hates children of light.  He is prowling around us trying to annihilate our faith.  But if we are humble then he will not succeed.  If in humility we cast ourselves upon the Lord, if we refuse to presume our standing over others, if we never expect to be living a trouble-free life, then we will be standing firm in the faith.  If we swiftly turn from any hint of pride then we will be resisting the devil - the father of the proud.  If we always keep in our view the fact that God is the one with the mighty hand and we are the ones who are puny, well, then we will receive grace in the ‘now’ and a crown of glory in the ‘not yet’.  God is the only one who can get us through this battle.  Only in Him can we fulfill our calling.  The temptation to not read the bible or worship or pray or go to housegroup is great.  But it ain’t half as great as God.  And if in humility we acknowledge we can’t live without Him then he will restore us. He will make us strong and firm and steadfast.  And He will bring us in to his eternal glory in Christ.

Psalm 134:1-3

May the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth bless you from Zion.

Friday 25 November

Ezekiel 47:1-48:35

Oh this most beloved of prophetic images.  There must have been more rivers flowing from more temples across Britain than there are measuring lines to measure them with.  And these images always end with us being asked to don our swimming cap and goggles and jump on in.  But, you know, I think that slightly misses the point.  I don’t think the full extent of the promise of this river is that we can jump in it and enjoy swimming around.  It is a much bigger promise than that.  It is a promise of provision for the world.  It is a promise that people far and wide can eat of the rich and varied fruit of the kingdom.  In short, it is a promise of radical transformation of this world.  The gospel of Jesus, the grace of his throne will turn lifeless waters into fresh ones, it will cause trees to produce leaves that heal others.  We are not just talking about ministry times here; we are talking gritty mission going into dark corners and bringing light.  We are talking an expansive spread of the offer of the gospel for people to feed on and be nourished by.  We are talking abundant and generous gifts from the people of God by the presence of God to the creation of God.  It won’t be for everyone - the swamps and the marshes will not become fresh - but for those who do fish and for those who do feast, it will be a swarming mass of goodness.  

1 Peter 4:1-19

Am I the only one who hasn’t spent time in the past doing orgies?  Debauchery - yes.  Lust - unfortunately yes.  Drunkenness - to my shame yep.  But orgies??  I once went to a party where some people were kissing in the corner but I don’t remember joining in.  Maybe that means this passage doesn’t apply to me?  But sadly I think it does.  Out of this list of flood of dissipation it cuts me to the core that the very worst is idolatry - that is the only one pulled out be called especially detestable.  I have looked to idols like the worst of them, and that makes me worse than an orgier (I wonder what the correct term is for someone who engages in an orgy - strangely enough I’ve never had cause to use it before).  But in view of Jesus’ death.  In view of him being done with sin I should also be done with sin.  Not only in knowing that I am forgiven but also in completely cutting out any sense of sin in my life.  That is what life should look like in the kingdom.  And that comes through being clear-minded - by keeping the truth about Jesus clearly in the centre of my brain - and by praying for self-control.  And it comes through loving to love others and loving to love them deeply.  Life in the kingdom is a life of service of His subjects in whatever way I can for however long I can and in the best mood that I can. Because that brings praise to God through Jesus.  To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever.

Psalm 133:1-3

Living in unity is like precious oil running down the beard.  I wish I had a beard.

Thursday 24 November

Ezekiel 45:1-46:24

Who the heck is this prince?  Suddenly out of nowhere Ezekiel starts waffling on about some prince who is going to come and be the perfect ruler of Israel.  But who is he?  Where has he come from?  Why is he performing some of the priestly roles?  Why is he going into the temple to offer a freewill sacrifice?  Why is he going to be among the people, going in when they go in and coming out when they come out?  Either Ezekiel got a bit of a knock on the head when he was getting excited about the measurements of the temple, or the Lord has spoken to him about a new form of government that He is bringing to his people.  It is more of this continuity and discontinuity stuff.  We see in this vision of Ezekiel a staggering silhouette of the Prince of Life, and yet he seems to be casting his shadow on an out-of-date background.  But no matter.  The thing is that God spoke to this crazy old prophet about His designs for his people.  God spoke about a coming rule of justice and peace and provision and care.  God spoke of his plans to bring in a new age under the magnificent and beneficent rule of Jesus.  We have the joy of living in that age.  We have the greater joy of heading there still.  Jesus is our prince and he comes in and goes out with us.  Oh the sweetness of that thought.

1 Peter 3:1-22

Yesterday Peter told us we were chosen.  I still can’t get over that.  Flip.  It is amazing.  But he hasn’t just left it there.  In today’s passage Peter pulls out some of the regular issues that are exposed by such a revelation - and then he savages them like a lion on a wilderbeast.  There are some people, often people to whom we are very, very close, who haven’t yet believed the word.  There are some people who are just plain evil to us.  There are people who are slightly confused by the way we choose to live.  There are people who may intimidate us or speak badly of us or make us suffer.  None of these things should make us doubt.  None of these things should cause us to fear.  We need not be frightened.  We can always lean back on the shoulder of Jesus.  He has quite an arsenal at his disposal.  He is in the heavenly realms sat at the right hand of Almighty God.  He has smashed open the prison doors.  Through his death he has shattered and crushed the power of death.  He has brought us into life.  And so we can put up with hardship.  We can shut up when we are abused.  We can keep up our sympathy.  We can offer up our compassion.  We don’t need to smash up those who mistreat us. We don’t need to close up from those around us.  We can do these things because we look up.  We look up to Jesus.  We look up to Jesus as Lord.  We look up to the One who has offered himself up for us.  We look up to the One who has raised us up in Him.  Yes there may be issues but they are nothing compared to Jesus.  They are nothing at all compared to unfading beauty of what he has done to our spirits.  Nothing is worth as much as that.

Proverbs 28:18-28

“A man will do wrong for a piece of bread”.  One man didn’t.  

Wednesday 23 November

Ezekiel 43:1-44:31

Continuity and discontinuity.  The continuity is bafflingly beautiful.  The roar of the voice of God, the land radiant with his glory, the only possible response of falling face down.  We see this and we know this.  There is continuity between what Ezekiel is saying and what we experience under this exhilarating new covenant.  Wow, God is ferociously amazing and he is bringing his amazingness to bear on our lives.  We can see God and that is bafflingly beautiful.  But there is also some discontinuity.  Ezekiel speaks about sacrificing goats and the dimensions of the temple and priests keeping their hair trimmed.  What is all that about?  That smacks of the old covenant, of the Mosaic legislation that Ezekiel could see had failed.  Surely Ezekiel wasn’t prophesying that we would be returning to all of that?  Well I think we come back here to that age-old problem with prophecy, what Paul described as seeing in a glass dimly.  Ezekiel saw that God was going to show extraordinary mercy and lavish his presence upon his people but he had no thought channels to send that down nor any language to express it other than his experience of the temple.  Ezekiel was seeing the truth of God’s commitment to his people and the fact that he was going to do something new, and he was faithfully testifying to it.  But the capacity of his brain - and indeed of his listeners’ brains - meant that it came out as imagery, as familiar imagery that would convey the truth of God’s plans.  So I have no expectation of the temple in Jerusalem being rebuilt.  Those days, I am sure, are passed. But I do expect that God will always surprise me.  God will always exceed my expectations.  God will always prove to be way beyond my capacity to comprehend or to explain.  God will always convey his truth to me, he will always lavish his mercy and his goodness upon me.  But he will always baffle me.  My faith will be one long tale of continuity and discontinuity - of seeing familiar and amazing things and new and incomprehensible things all at the same time.  That is the glory of our God.  That is the joy of faith.

1 Peter 2:4-25

Here is some more food for you lambs of Jesus; you were chosen.  The Father chose you.  He didn’t have to.  He certainly didn’t need to.  He didn’t do it because he felt guilty.  It wasn’t a half-hearted act in response to the feeling that you were left out.  He chose you because he wanted you.  He wanted you.  And so he chose you.  And he chose me as well.  He chose us together.  Out of the sludge and slurry of our own making he plucked us and cleaned us off.  He wiped us down and took the dirt out of our mouths.  He healed us and called us his own.  He chose us and he is choosing to shepherd us.  He is choosing to oversee our souls today.  That is a meal worth eating slowly.  That is food that we want to digest well.  For this food can transform our whole experience of life.  This food can underpin a whole sense of identity and confidence to persevere.  We were chosen by the Father.  We didn’t deserve it but that is not the issue.  He chose us.  And he has brought us out into his wonderful light.  O how incomprehensibly generous is our God.

Psalm 132:1-18

Cor, that was quite some vow that David made to God. 

Tuesday 22 November

Ezekiel 41:1-42:20

I just skim read that.  It was slightly boring.

1 Peter 1:1-2:3

I suspect that all Peter’s life he kept coming back to that moment on the beach, broiled fish in his belly, when Jesus told him to feed His sheep (John 21:17).  This letter shows us what Peter did with that; for Peter, feeding sheep meant telling people how small they are... and how big God is.  On some days I know I am puny (particularly on bin-day - ooh my arms ache after having to drag those heavy bins to the pavement).  On some days I see the transience of my life.  But I spend a lot of the time avoiding that particular topic of thought.  Peter, however, rams it back in my face - I am like grass (1:24), I wither, I am a child (1:14) and I am like a newborn baby (2:2).  I need my ego bashed.  I need to know none of this could possibly depend on me.  I need to know that moving a recycling bin is just about my limit.  That is food to my soul, as perverse as it may sound.  And then I need to know that God is the Father, that he foreknew us all and he keeps things in heaven.  He is rich in mercy, He is holy, He is the impartial judge, He is the one who raised Jesus from the dead.  In short, He is very very big.  His little finger stretches further in every direction than the arm-span of all of humanity standing side by side.  I could stretch my mind back in time to the very dawn of the Age... and He would have been sat there, enjoying the view.  I could gather every person together of every different culture and time... and He would have watched every one of us grow and learn and been the Father of us all.  And we could gather up every fragment of gold and every diamond and every treasure of every nation... and it would just seem like a piece of belly-button fluff alongside His riches.  God is so big.  And He has chosen us.  He is shielding us with his power.  He is sanctifying us with his spirit.  He is showing us that he is good.  Oh what an amazing meal this is.  Oh what a miraculous catch of fish Peter is serving up for us.  I am so deeply grateful to him.  But I’m so much more grateful to Jesus.

Psalm 131:1-3

“I have stilled and quietened my soul like a weaned child with its mother”.  Is this a joke?  Is he being ironic?

Monday 21 November

Ezekiel 40:1-49

Is this a joke??  I thought we left Leviticus behind months ago.  But now, as a supposed climax to this wild and crazy book we get a passage so dense in detail that even Moses would have been envious (were he not such a humble man).  The only piece of drama seems to revolve around a man who looks a bit bronze (had he been down El Sol, the sunbed shop?).  This man is shouting out the lengths of various bits of wall - and we are meant to find that exciting??  I’m sorry but my piety does not stretch that far.  But then again, I can see that this would be extremely encouraging for faithful Israelites who had been stuck in exile for 25 years.  This would be a heart-warming promise for Israelites who had seen their temple destroyed.  It would be hugely reassuring for Israelites who spent their days longing for a return to full-bore, temple-centered relationship with God.  This could even be conceived as a climax to all Ezekiel’s prophecies if you an exiled Israelite longing for a chance to once again offer Yahweh the prescribed sacrifices and to see the cloud of His glory in the temple.  But that’s not where I’m at.  So I skim read most of it.

James 5:1-20

“Be patient until the Lord’s coming.”  I can’t remember ever really engaging with that idea.  Even today I fleet-footed past this verse before I felt some urge to come back to it.  I know that patience is not something I am good at, but I don’t think that is the main problem.  I think the main problem rests in my theology; do I really believe that Jesus is coming back?  And, more than that, do I think it would be a good thing?  James certainly did.  Paul certainly did.  As did Peter and the writer to the Hebrews.  In fact the whole ruddy lot of them were convinced that the Lord was coming back and it was going to be awesome.  It gave them perspective on the struggles in life.  It helped them grit their teeth through suffering.  It helped them see what is important.  I want to learn from their example.  I love Jesus.  I deeply deeply love Jesus and know he is the epitome of goodness and strength and joy and liberty.  I am so richly satisfied when I fix my eyes on him.  So, Holy Spirit, please would you hammer into my thick skull the truth that it will be amazing when He returns.  Please would you help me wake up in the morning wondering whether today will be the day.  And then please would you give me patience - a patience to stand firm and not grumble and face up to suffering while I wait for Him.  For he is full of compassion.  He is full of mercy.  And one instant with Him will swallow up and richly overcome all the highs and lows of our time in this life.

Psalm 130:1-8

“With you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared.”  That almost seems illogical.  I’ll have to think on that a bit more...

Sunday 20 November

Ezekiel 38:1-39:29

Much of that stuff about Gog and Magog might as well be gibberish.  I got lost in all those unfamiliar names.  But this call to the wild animals and birds is very interesting (39:17).  They are told to eat flesh and drink blood.  They are told to prepare themselves for the great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel.  It is a sacrifice of judgement; judgement on all the arrogant pretenders to power on the earth - on horses and riders and mighty men and princes of the earth.  And this sacrifice of judgement will benefit the wild beasts - this slaughter will feed the birds.  Jesus would later take on himself these false powers and see them crucified on the cross.  And I would later become the wild animal, feasting on his flesh and his blood.  But this sacrifice is not just about filling a stomach.  It is also the leading of people out of their exile of sin (39:23).  It is bringing people out of captivity and helping them forget their shame(39:25-26).  I increasingly realise how much of a captive I was.  I increasingly find myself freed from my shame.  But this sacrifice is not just about my liberation.  It is also the glory of the Lord displayed among the nations.  It is also the showing of God to be holy through his people gathered from their lands.  The church is first of all God’s advocate; we are saved to be overflowing with worship and to show the world that He is King.

James 4:1-17

It’s about now that I suddenly start to feel like James is just a tad harsh.  He is speaking to Christians and he describes them as adulterous people, sinners, double-minded, he says they are just a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes, and he says they boast and brag and do evil and sin.  Phew!  Would you want a pastor like that??  But, you know what, I think I would.  Because good old James had lived with holiness his whole life.  He had probably shared a bed with holiness - sleeping alongside his brother Jesus who never sinned and was the epitome of purity.  He probably watched in gob-smacked wonder as his older brother gave away and turned from the things of the world, humbly entrusting himself to God.  He probably stood next to Jesus as people slandered him and Jesus just smiled in response.  He probably himself received rebukes from his brother about boasting about his future or thinking too much of himself.  You see, I don’t think James was down on people - he loved people, he gave his life to pastoring people, he wrote his letter to people - I just think that James had a very realistic perspective on what people were really like.  When you have spent your life with brilliant white, slightly light brown just doesn’t seem that great.  So James would be a great pastor.  Because James would always show us there’s something more.  James would lead us into holiness and equip us for leading purer lives.  If you are a leader or you want to be the best thing you can do is emulate James - the best thing you can do is get such a clear and vivid image of Jesus that nothing else seems that great.  It is a life-time’s work.  But a life-time is what we’ve got.  Its time to share a bed with holiness.

Proverbs 28:7-17

“He who increases his wealth by exorbitant interest amasses it for another who will be kind to the poor.”  Hmm, that seems quite current.

Saturday 19 November

Ezekiel 36:1-37:28

Oh the sweetness of it.  Oh the joy.  That the people of God are being gathered from every corner of the globe.  We were scattered through our own fault and through the faults of others.  We were scattered and backslidden.  We were scattered and stone-hearted.  We were scattered and as dry as death.  That should have been our end.  I deserved that to be my end.  But there was a rattling sound.  There was a sprinkling of clean water.  There was The Breath coming from the four winds.  There was the hand of the Prophet drawing us together.  Tendons appeared, my stone heart became tender, I was cleansed, I came to life.  He has done it.  I was just a recipient.  You were just a recipient. We are all ridiculous, undeserving recipients together.  And He is the Lord our God.  He deserves renown for this.  He deserves every praise.  No once-slain bones should keep quiet.  No once-stone heart should not rejoice.  Our God is awesome.  Our God is mercy.  Our God - the Lord - is our rescuer.  Our God has done the whole ruddy lot of it.  He deserves all glory.  He deserves all praise.

James 3:1-18

Oh bum.  I already feel slightly neurotic about my talks after I’ve given them and now I find out I’ll be judged more harshly because of them.  Has there been presumption in me O God?  If there has, please would you forgive me?  I know I love the sound of my own voice and I think I’m hilarious and super-cool but please don’t hold that against me.  I do really just want to use my tongue to bring you glory (oh and to suck polos as I like those - you don’t mind that do you?).  But then, Lord, I am deeply grateful that even as soon as your brother James has said this thing about being more harshly judged he goes on to say “we all stumble in many ways”.  I am so thankful for that.  I love the fact that your word one minute severely challenges me and the next embraces me like an old friend.  Because although I long to live worthy of you and to glorify you in everything I also know that I mess up.  I know I stumble in many many ways.  So thank you that you neither lower your standards or withdraw your love.  O God you truly are amazing.

Psalm 129:1-8

“May they be like grass on the roof which withers before it can grow”.  He’s obviously not seen my gutter - there is almost a forest up there.

Friday 18 November

Ezekiel 33:21-35:15

He nicked them.  Jesus nicked these stories.  If he was a student he’d be done for plagarism and be up before a tribunal.  I start to think “how dare he?”.  I start to feel cheated and that he’s a con.  But then I realise the genius of it.  Then I realise that Jesus nicking these stories and turning them into his parables is about the most inflammatory and provocative thing he could have done.  Because in doing this Jesus made his parable of the Lost Sheep not just a fluffly little story for us to tell our children at bed time but an accusatory diatribe against the current leaders of Israel.  By taking this passage from Ezekiel and turning into the parable of the Lost Sheep Jesus not only suggested that the temple leaders were like shepherd who only take care of themselves but he also suggested that he - Jesus - was the Sovereign Lord come to bring back his scattered flock.  The parable was principally a claim of authority.  He was saying He was the hope for Israel and the temple gang was not.  It was a call to trust in him.  And then there is the sheep and the goats.  Again, in this context we see how this is not a promise that ‘good people will get into heaven’ but is a scathing attack upon the ‘shepherds’ of Israel at the time of Jesus who not only stole the best stuff for themselves but also messed everything else up for others.  They saw themselves as righteous but Jesus was declaring them to be bankrupt and evil.  Jesus was saying that he was the Sovereign Lord coming to clear out the vain, abusive leaders of Israel to replace them with himself - the David-figure who would be Prince among them.  Ezekiel promised that God would come to show people that he is the Lord.  He came.  He was called Jesus.  If you want to know God, look at the Christ.

James 2:1-26

More of the Jewish flavour we talked about yesterday.  And this passage is shot through with it.  Martin Luther hated this bit; it caused him to describe James as a “strawy epistle” and even suggested it shouldn’t be in the bible.  Luther was wrong.  We as Western gentiles have been grafted into the olive tree of this immense and beautiful Jewish faith and we should be deeply grateful for the focus on action it brings.  This Jewish flavour means we demand that all are welcomed among us, we insist upon us acting with compassion and taking care of those in need.  Without a focus on action then all of this would just be optional extras - things for people to choose if they want to or if they “feel led by the Spirit” (what a convenient phrase that can be!!).  But we are not as pathetically insipid as that.  We insist on seeing faith at work in our lives.  We challenge people when they judge others on appearance.  We push each other to care for each others needs.  We call people to deeper levels of discipleship because we expect them to increasingly display the powerful mercy of the glorious Lord Jesus Christ in their lives.  Sure we do it in compassion and sure we do it in love but we must do it!  It is the freedom we are called to.  Faith must display itself in deeds.  Jesus is worthy of that.  His mercy is powerful enough for that.

Psam 128:1-6

“Your sons will be like olive shoots round you table”.  I’m confused; do olive trees not like vegetables either??

Thursday 17 November

Ezekiel 32:1-33:20

The blood drained from my face when I first heard this concept.  I had joyfully air-guitared along to the thrashing snarls of Slash’s guitar in “live and let diiieee oh, oh, oh, oh oh”.  I merrily bought into the idea that you are your own person and you are free to choose whatever you want to choose.  In my mock humility I got myself out of all kinds of heart-ache by saying “far be it from me to tell you how to live”.  But I am a watchman and I will be held accountable for your blood.  Your fate is on me - I have a responsibility to preach the word to you.  And before you think I’ve ripped an obscure Old Testament passage out of context and flipped it into an inappropriate application, let me say that Jesus draws on this concept when he sends out the disciples and Paul explicitly references it when he tells the Jews “your blood is on your own heads! I am clear of my responsibility” (Acts 18:6).  God has given us the word of life so that we will pass it on the people in our sphere of influence - evangelism is not an optional extra.  If that makes you feel guilty (as it often does me) then repent.  Then ask for greater boldness - even the apostles had to do that!  And remember that our responsibility is to speak the word, not to see it take root.  We are required to try to tell people about Jesus and leave the conversion bit up to God.  He calls us to co-labour with Him, to make long-term commitments to people and to walk them from first hearing the gospel into them running a house group.  It is a heavy calling but the burden is light.  It is a bit daunting but, in Him, the yoke is light.

James 1:1-27

When Paul and the other apostles were scattered around the Mediterranean pursuing the mission to all of the nations James probably stayed in Jerusalem pastoring a church for observant Jew whose hopes and desires had been met in Jesus.  So he writes with a pastor’s heart and a delicious, spicy Jewish flavour.  This flavour could be summed up with the verse “do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves.  Do what it says.” (1:22).  Obedience and action were ground into the Jews understanding of religion - sacrificing at the temple, taking care of family members, controlling your diet, celebrating the festivals.  Religious life meant doing God’s things in all of life.  That was just how it was.  But in Greek thinking (which most of us in the West grow up in) religion can be more of a theoretical business - debating philosophical ideas, reaching a cerebral truth and perceiving things in a certain way.  Greek religion can sometimes be more bothered about reaching good doctrine than reaching good action.  So it is worth us being aware of that and digesting as much of James as we can.  So his simple, instantly applicable verses are more like sporting drills for us to do than history facts for us to learn.  So I’m going to try to be quick to listen today.  I’m going to try not to interrupt anyone (God knows I need his help on this).  Because I want to know the freedom of living the law.  I want to be blessed by God for doing what He asks.

Psalm 127:1-5

“He grants sleep to those he loves”.  Despite all the broken nights we have had over the last 5 years I am beginning to see that this is actually true.

Wednesday 16 November

Ezekiel 30:1-31:18

Can I be honest?  I’m growing slightly bored of these laments for the other nations.  Is that really naughty?  Is God disappointed with me because of that?  I don’t think so.  I suspect He was quite bored of having to give them.  Like a parent having to get up for the 10th time in the night to put the dummy back in their baby’s mouth, I think God was probably slightly frustrated that he had to keep doing this same thing over and over, and yet he would never do anything else.  God would never stop telling people that hope is found in Him.  God kept on warning people against trusting other nations - even though he had said the same thing hundreds of times before.  His commitment to us is that strong. So I don’t mind being bored when I read the bible.  I take it as an incredible reassurance - God is willing to bore himself for my good. His commitment to us really is that strong.  

Hebrews 13:1-25

We saw yesterday how, when it comes to lifestyle issues, the writer to the Hebrews runs a slightly different form of argument to Paul.  I love the diversity this exposes - Paul was the apostle to the gentiles and this writer (who I personally suspect might have been Apollos but who really cares) was focused on Messianic Jews.  They both wrote in different ways with different vocabulary and with differing emphases.  And yet among their diversity they had so much in common.  They were both mates with Timothy and were happy to use him as their representative.  They both celebrated love, they both called their churches to show hospitality, they both strongly warned against sexual immorality, they both advocated the formalised expression of church, they both fixed so much of their attention on the kingdom to come, they both waxed lyrical about Jesus.  And that is the beauty of the early church that we peer at through these apostolic writings - they were a huge range of people; rich and poor, educated and uneducated, Jewish and Roman and Turkish and Greek and Greek-Jewish and Roman-Greek and every blend under the sun.  They were male and female and young and old and new converts from paganism and life-long observant Jews who had found their Messiah.  And they all hung out together.  They all fixed eyes on Jesus together.  They all were united on an incredible range of issues.  Because they all knew that Jesus was the same yesterday, today and forever.  I love the diversity of SWLV.  And I love how much ground we have in common.  It is the beautiful mystery and witness of the church - we are vastly different and yet strangely the same.  That is the work of the grace of God.  That is the work of His peace.

Proverbs 27:23-28:6

“The righteous are as bold as a lion.”  I wish I was more righteous.  I’d like to be like a lion.

Tuesday 15 November

Ezekiel 28:1-29:21

It’s the worst sin.  It is an unspeakable monstrosity.  And yet it won’t get you any jail time.  In fact, people may even celebrate you doing it.  But it is absolutely, undeniably evil.  So what is it?  It is the sin of Tyre.  It is saying in your heart “I am a god”.  It is so heinous because, more than any other sin, it draws attention away from the One True God and puts it on yourself.  It is so ruddy awful because it puts everyone around you in a major state of peril.  It is like placing a diversion sign just before a chasm, turning all the HGVs and passenger vehicles towards a spindly little twig rather than the steel girdered bridge.  Thinking you are a god and acting like you are a god will kill more people than a suicide bomb or a machine gun.  Pride is the devil’s most potent weapon.  And that is why God hates it.  That is why God wants to bring it to a horrible end.  So while God’s words about Tyre are undeniably harsh they are, in fact, spiritually beautiful.  They are wonderful to read.  I really mean that.  Because they expose God’s ardent, rampant desire for the good of his world.  They twitch and writhe with God’s commitment to his world, to cut out evil and to set up pathways back to hope.  He could just blow us all up or leave us to crash into the chasm but his yearning for us is too strong, his desire for our wellbeing is too great.  He wants us all to know that He is the LORD our God because in that knowledge is hope.  In that knowledge is life.

Hebrews 12:14-29

I think it is really interesting how the writer of Hebrews approaches lifestyle issues.  With Paul, everything is pushed back to our identity in Christ - he continually assures us that we are in Christ, that we are a new creation and therefore should live in the new creation kind of way.  This writer doesn’t do that.  This writer looks at the problems and struggles in this life and then compares them with the problems of the past.  This writer always shows how now, under the new covenant, we are so much better off than our forefathers and therefore can’t really complain or make excuses about not living right.  And having done that this writer then turns our attention to God.  Not so much God in us and who we are in God but who God is in Himself.  This writer paints a continually expanding, glorious fresco of the Almighty God of All Ages.  You get the idea that this bloke is still so completely overcome by the wonder of it all.  You get the idea that this writer bounces up and down on his chair and then flings himself face-down, awestruck like the thousands upon thousands of angels in his vision.  You get the idea that this writer sees himself continually standing in bold trepidation upon the most holy ground of the City of the Living God, always edging closer to the judge of all men, hearing the cry of welcome and yet daring only edge forward all the same.  You get the idea that this writer is continually putting down his pen to weep and to spread-eagle himself again at the wonder of it all.  He knows his God is a consuming fire.  He knows his God spoke and the whole earth shook.  And, as he sees that, as he thinks on that, he knows with joy and certainty that all he wants to do is cling to his God and give himself to his God and worship his God.  It is when we lose sight of God that the pain in our calling seems the biggest.  I know what I want to be looking at today.

Psalm 126:1-6

He who goes out weeping... will return with songs of joy. 

Monday 14 November

Ezekiel 26:1-27:36

I don’t imagine I’ll be rushing back to this passage, not unless I ever decide to re-sit my history GCSE and have to do some coursework on the cultural and commercial norms of Tyre in the 7th Century BC.  But I guess the one small thing I can take out of this section is a reminder that when God says He is sovereign, it means He is sovereign.  In my heart I find that ‘doctrine’ tested every single day - I see people scorning Jesus and the way of the cross and then merrily going off and prospering and smiling and being celebrated all over the place.  That makes me doubt who is the boss.   It makes me doubt that my eggs are in the right basket.  When I hear of bank-bonuses in the City or watch politicians wielding immense influence I sometimes wish I had followed in their footsteps instead of my bumbling efforts to follow in Jesus’.  I see all kinds of things in the world that suggest prosperity and happiness and satisfaction is dished out by Money or Power or Other People - that they are the sovereign ones rather than God.  So this passage, as bleak and curious as it is, is a helpful tonic to my heart; it reminds me that God is Sovereign, and He will have His way in the end.

Hebrews 12:1-13

I’m offended.  How dare the writer to the Hebrews say I have feeble arms?  How dare he say I have weak knees?  OK, so I couldn’t life that box the other day but it was at least half full and Lesley did also struggle with it for a bit before she carried it up the stairs.  But then again I shouldn’t just be offended - “be the change you want to see”, that is what Gandhi said, so I think I’ll head off down the gym - that must be the answer... but then again I won’t go often enough to make any difference.  It’s almost like my trouble is not my feeble arms but my feeble soul.  My short-coming is not my weak knees but my weakness towards sin.  Too often I see disobedience to God as a nice - if fleeting - distraction on a difficult day.  I don’t realise it is crippling me.  I don’t realise it is entangling me.  I don’t realise that these little ‘indulgences’ (or sometimes big, ongoing indulgences) are actually holding me back from running the race marked out for me.  I moan like crazy when I am slightly physically disabled in any way - when I have hurt my foot or cricked my neck or something small like that - and yet I am content to carry on regardless of my chronic spiritual lameness that is not being healed.  So thanks be to God that he takes the initiative and he sets me on my spiritual physio, training me how to walk right and move right, adjusting my patterns from ones that damage me to ones that free me.  He ‘disciplines’ me so that I can walk, and not only walk but run.  God chooses to do for me what I am not even doing for myself - healing me of my sin.  How grateful I am for that.  I want to submit to him and really live.

Psalm 125:1-5

“the LORD surrounds his people”

Sunday November 13

Ezekiel 24:1-25:17

That, there is the very definition of agony.  And it seems to be agony caused by the Lord.  God takes away the delight of Ezekiel’s eye - He puts to death Ezekiel’s wife and He tells Ezekiel not to mourn.  I must confess that throughout all the Old Testament, this is the bit I have gagged on most ferociously.  This is the place where the wild, craziness of Ezekiel’s life and call seems to have gathered itself up into one sharp point... and stabbed me through the eye.  I have recoiled against it and really sought my soul over it.  Is this what God is like?  Does he epitomise cruel and ferocious anger to such an extent that even Quentin Tarrantino can have one of his characters quote him before unloading both barrels on a murderous campaign (Ezekiel 25:17 is quoted by Samuel L Jackson in the film Pulp Fiction).  Well, in my soul-searching I have reached two stopping houses; one is that this pain was not God’s fault but mankind’s and; two is that for all the pain the Ezekiel felt, God felt it more when he damned Jesus to hell.  All this ‘fury’ is a clear and precise act to melt away impurity.  Israel and the other nations and you and I and every person who has ever lived have put into ourselves disgusting destructive powers that are eating us alive.  And so the fury of God - the vengeance he is showering on the world is the fury of a surgeon’s knife that amputates a gangrene leg in order to save the soldier.  He does this to save us.  And, that is not all.  This ‘fury’ is also a clear and precise act to establish hope and peace - the purpose of the vengeance is not to ‘get even’ but to show what justice is, to show who rules the roost, to bring people into the sweet liberty of the knowledge of the LORD.  The wrath is not the end - the wrath leads to knowledge and understanding of God.  And in that, all this wrath and fury and agony inflicted on mankind is a pointer to the cross.  All this suffering by the prophet is a signpost to the suffering of The Prophet.  All this desecration of the sanctuary is a pre-cursor to the desecration of God’s true sanctuary - the Word become flesh.  Whatever pain Ezekiel or Moab or Philistia has felt, God has felt it more.  This horrific, ferocious pain caused by our sin and our rebellion and our disgusting behaviour ultimately fell squarely on Jesus.  If we want to know who our God is, if we want to understand the horrors of our sin and the beauty of God’s vengeance - for it truly is beautiful - then we need to look to the cross.  And not only look but to sit there and stare and pray and fast.  For there is the place where we see our God.

Hebrews 11:17-40

Do I regard disgrace for the sake of Christ of greater value than the treasures of Egypt?  I’m not sure that I do.  I feel conflicted.  Some of my life seems to hold true to this faith but some of it points in another direction.  Some days I’m all for it and some days I am not.  So what do I do?  Well, I think the words about Moses hold the key.  He, and all these other heroes of the faith did not just knuckle down and try harder and harder until they had grown a strong faith.  They fixed their eyes in the other direction - rather than looking more at themselves they “saw him who is invisible”.  They saw Jesus.  They didn’t just hear words or read the bible but they looked at Jesus face and saw his promises coming out of his mouth.  And so the world was not worthy of them.  We too could be like that.  We too could be heroes of the faith who outshine this dark place.  I know it is difficult to swallow but that is what the writer of the Hebrews is saying.  We can join all these heroes.  We can become one of their number.  And we get there through looking at him who is invisible - really looking at him and the better world he has for us.  If we can bear that - and all the suffering it will bring with it - then we will be commended by the Father.  If we keep looking at Him then we will conquer kingdom and administer justice and gain what was promised.  And He will not be ashamed to be called our God.

Psalm 124:1-8

If the Lord had not been on my side... the raging waters would have swept me away.

Saturday 12 November

Ezekiel 22:23-23:49

I’m crying.  My stomach is all churned up.  I know I’ve let my breasts be fondled, I know I’ve let my virgin bosom be caressed.  I wish I hadn’t.  Oh God I really wish I hadn’t but I know I have.  I know I’ve lusted after foreign lovers - I know I have defiled myself on the genitals of braggadocio and self-promotion.  I know I’ve passed big houses and lusted after the power they convey.  I know I’ve followed the way of Egypt and Babylon - of taking the power and the strength that you have given me and using it to subdue and take from others rather than to serve and provide for and love them.  And most of all I know I have despised what You have given me.  I know I’ve taken the copious, relentless, generous gifts that you have lavished on me and I have dropped them on the floor and then looked out the window, longing for what my neighbour has.  I know I’ve chosen to overlook all the incredible provision you have made for me and have focussed instead on the bits that I find hard.  I have dared to pick fault with you, O God, when I lie and sit and walk in a continuous stream of your treasures.  Oh God, I am so deeply sorry.  I’m crying because I know I am lewd.  I know I’m promiscuous.  I wish I wasn’t.  I wish I hadn’t been so disrespectful and ungrateful.  You should slay me O God.  I know you should drag me out of my house by the hair and call all the street to stone me to death.  I know that is what I deserve.  And yet you don’t crush me.  You don’t give me what I deserve.  Instead you are working for me - you are working to put a stop to my lewdness and my longing.  You are changing me so that I no longer look on those things with longing.  How could you be so kind?

Hebrews 11:1-16

The now and the not yet.  Recently we’ve reclaimed the now - and, if I could, I would turn a few backflips for that.  But faith must retain the ‘not yet’ or it is not faith at all.  Faith looks at what is now and delights in the salvation of our God made manifest among us - people coming to faith, people being healed, people being set free, love being shown.  But faith always regards the now with slight disappointment.  And so it should.  Faith always says ‘Is this it?‘ and faith knows that unfortunately it is, for now.  That is why faith longs for that better country, the heavenly one that is not yet here.  Faith is willing to sacrifice the now for the not yet.  Faith sacrifices the first-fruits and builds arks and leaves homelands and lives in tents and admits that this earth is not our home.  Faith is willing to leave rewards and longed-for-results and desired-satisfaction until a future time.  Faith ultimately invests its efforts in this current age for the promise of the future age.  And if some of that future age can be experienced now - well that is a glorious faith-strengthener and a stimulus to wait for it more keenly.  It is not a suggestion that we should expect everything now.  And I feel the ramifications of this, for me, are huge.  I feel like I’ve only just started to understand real faith.  I feel like I’ve just begun to say with integrity that I have entrusted things to God for Him to give back to me on That Day.

Proverbs 27:15-22

How does iron sharpen iron?

Friday November 11

Ezekiel 20:45-22:22

I keep coming back to the old chestnut of judgement.  It feels a bit like an annoying hole that appears in my sock - I think I have darned it up but a few days later it just pops back open.  I find myself wanting to be more apologetic about judgement than I am about sin.   I make excuses for people sinning - its their hurt or their lack of understanding or this or that or the other, but it is quite hard to make excuses for God’s wrath; He is all knowing and all wise, He doesn’t have off days and what He says is who He is.  So if he is speaking judgemental words then I can’t explain them away as not being an accurate reflection of him - they are a part of his character.  And bravo for that.  That is what I am realising.  Who am I to think I have such significant insight and understanding that I can suggest God is out of line?  What a punk I am.  And that is the other thing I am realising; I can’t be making excuses for us when we sin.  If we are sinning it is not just because we are hurting or because we lack understanding - it is because we are choosing to rebel against the one who made us and loves us and calls us to live for the good of this land.  When we sin we are being utterly destructive and we must be held to account for that and stopped from doing it again.  It is horrible when people treat their parents with contempt or oppress aliens or defile their daughter in law and I’m learning that it is equally horrible when they despise God’s holy things and eat at the mountain shrines.  So maybe I need to stop darning up this hole in my sock and just go and get a new pair.  A pair that walks in the way of God rather than man.  I pair that detests sin for the corrosive poison that it is, and that celebrates any acts that roots it out of our lives.

Hebrews 10:19-39

Encouragement in the faith comes not just from Jesus.  There is huge encouragement from him; His character and his identity and his provision for us is immense.  The last 9 chapters have called us to dwell on them and fix our eyes on them and be encouraged and strengthened and fuelled by them.  And they have been good.  They have been great.  But that isn’t the end of it.  We also encourage one another.  God has put the world together in such a way that people depend on people, brothers and sisters in faith depend on brothers and sisters in faith.  The calling of every man and every woman is to spur one another on towards love and good deeds.  We have in our souls an intrinsic needs to meet one another regularly and consistently, to give of ourselves to encourage one another and strengthen one another.  That is how God has made us.  And yet we naturally shrink back from it.   For a range of reasons we shy away from meeting together (when we say meeting together what we mean is actual open, honest, generous engagement rather than just being in the same room).  We come up with explanations of why it is best for us (or even for others) if we don’t go today or don’t share this or that particular thing.  We find ourselves swaying towards isolation.  But that way is death.  Life is found in leaning into one another, in attending house group, in praying with two or three others, in coming on a Sunday, in daring to speak out, in daring expose ourselves and let others expose themselves to us.  Let us not give up on doing this.  Let us not give up on pressing into this.  Life is found leaning into one another.

Psalm 123:1-4

“I lift up my eyes to you”.  They are so prone to looking at myself.

Thursday 10 November

Ezekiel 19:1-20:44

God acts for the sake of his name.  God shows mercy for the sake of his name.  God deals with Israel for the sake of his name.  Is he just a big head?  Is he just an ambitious self-promoter?  The very thought of it is completely preposterous.  How could God be ambitious? As soon as there was an idea of something great, He would already be it.  No, I think God is so bothered about the sake of his name because when God’s name is hallowed, his kingdom comes.  When God’s name is hallowed, his will is done. The peace of the world depends on God’s lordship being recognised.  When there is doubt over who is in charge, when all sorts of false and foolish idols are looked to for security and hope then the very foundations of the world begin to quiver.  Human hearts need to be anchored to the solid rock.  They need to know who is the boss.  Everything that has been created needs to know who created it and why - or else dischord and disharmony and discontent begin to reign.  There really is no hope for the world when the knowledge and fear of the Lord is not found.  So God acts for the sake of his name.  And it’s a name that is so worthy of respect.

Hebrews 10:1-18

This bit is crucial.  It is actually one of the few places in the whole New Testament where the impotence of the Old Covenant is clearly stated - Paul never says anything as strong as the blood of bull and goats being unable to take away sins (but that doesn’t mean he would have disagreed with it).  But that is the money note.  That is the bit that blows like a warm summer breeze into the crusty frame of dry religion.  We do not rely on our actions to make us clean.  We do not rely on ourselves at all for our salvation.  At the absolute, overly-generous best that would lead to us just scraping through by the seat of our pants.  That would lead to us going through rigid processes time and time again in the fleeting hope that they might just make us not-so-unacceptable.  No, we don’t just scrape through - we have been made perfect.  It is not through our sacrifices but through his one sacrifice.  It is not something that needs to happen time and time again but it has occurred once and for all.  And yet I think that so many of our problems stem from our doubting of this covenant.  So many of our problems stem from thinking about ourselves like bringers of atonement sacrifices and imperfect bumblers who are just trying to scrape by.  We need to listen to the song of the cross. We need to teach our soul to hum that tune.  Because that is where our atonement was achieved and we have been made perfect in His sight.

Psalm 122:1-9

“Jerusalem is built like a city that is closely compacted together”.  It is nice to get an architectural observation in a worship song - you don’t see that very often these days.