Friday 16 December

Malachi 2:17-4:6

“You have wearied the Lord with your words” (2:17).  Oh no.  He’s read my blog hasn’t he?  I knew I should have stopped in April.  I just get so excited about all these amazing passages packed with promises.  And I get so convicted by these warnings.  It shocks me how far the pendulum swings in both directions.  The judgement against the arrogant and the unjust and the stingy is so flaming severe.  And the provision and compassion on the repentant and the God-seekers is so abundantly lavish.  And it all seems to come down to this thing that Malachi says about it being like a man who has compassion on his son who serves him (3:17).  At the end of the day our life is dictated by who we serve.  Will we take our words and our deeds and our money and seek to use them to serve God’s Word and God’s Will?  If we will then He will rise over us.  He will heal us.  He will throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing on us that we will not have room enough for it. 

Revelation 7:1-17

You’d have to be pretty annoyed if you were number 12,001 in the tribe of Naphtali.  So close and yet so far!  But, while I want to joke about this stuff I do have to watch what I say because while I think that these tribes and these numbers are likely to be symbolic (12 may mean something like ‘perfection of government’ and 10 might refer to it being God’s choice so 12,000 might be those who have been definitely and irrevocably chosen by God to carry out His perfect governance) - I may well be wrong.  With Revelation you never can be sure!  What is undeniable though is the continual stream of worship that seems to smother the chapters of this book.  It is like a fire hydrant of amazement at Jesus that is constantly switched onto full blast.  Everywhere you look, everyone you see, whatever their background, whatever their experience, whatever language they are speaking in, whatever clothes they are wearing - everyone is going mental about Jesus.  Everyone is doing everything they can with everything in them to put Him at the centre.  To give Him his due.  And the great promise of this chapter is that we can be among them.  And so can the Nigerians.  And the North Koreans.  And the Nicaraguans.  All of us can be epically pure.  All of us can be washed and made white.  All of us can have the tears wiped away from our eyes.  For Jesus is building a broad church.  Jesus is building a diverse church.  Jesus is building a unified church.  Jesus is building a worshipping church.  And, in his name, His church will overcome.

Psalm 144:1-8

God trained David’s hands for war.  That is not fair.  All he seems to have trained mine for is how to dress salad.