Saturday 24 December

Nehemiah 1:1-2:20

I think I heard somewhere that Nehemiah contains more prayers per square foot than any other book of the bible.  So it is a nice book to finish on.  I think the Lord loves it when we pray.  I think he really loves to hear our squeaky little voices.  And Nehemiah seems to provide us with quite an interesting gauge of how healthy our prayer life is.  Nehemiah prays in lots of different ways.  That seems to be a healthy thing.  And, when he prays, Nehemiah layers up the names of God like some posh chef making dauphinoise potatoes.  He starts at Lord.  Then he jumps to God of heaven.  Then he goes to “Great and Awesome God”.  And then he finally ends with describing Him as the one who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him.  I think the more healthy our prayer life is, the more names of God we will use.  The more we press into God the more we will become unsatisfied by just addressing him as “God”.  We will want to say more, we will have to say more because we will know He is more.  

Revelation 16:1-21

Such is the strength of His commitment to justice.  Such is the strength of His commitment to mercy.  Such is the strength of His commitment to grace.  God opposes the proud but He brings grace to the humble.  And who could have thought it would not involve a fight?  But our God is willing to fight for us... and then some.  The position of the enemy is so entrenched, the world is so corrupted and the hostility towards the saints is so strong that the whole world needs to be shaken.  The world needs to be shaken to root out every cause and consequence of evil.  The world needs to be shaken to provide unopposed goodness and unchallenged hope and undisturbed peace for the people of God.  The world needs to be shaken.  So God rolls up his sleeves and starts labouring on our behalf.  He whips up His bowls of wrath and splits the great city into three parts.  He causes the islands to flee away and the mountains to disappear.  And these geographical phenomenons are echoed by spiritual ones; an earthquake is occurring and all evil is being brought to the surface.  God is bringing his fight to the devil.  God is commencing the final assault to bring justice, to bring mercy and to bring grace to His people.  Our God is willing to fight for us... and then some.

Psalm 147:1-11

He calls each star by name and yet he chooses to delight in the likes of you and me.  Is He crazy??