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.
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