English Bible reading thoughts – October to December

Calendar

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October – click on the date below

1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8–9–10–11–12–13–14–15–16–17–18–19–20–21–22–23–24–25–26–27–28–29–30–31–Top

November – click on the date below

1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8–9–10–11–12–13–14–15–16–17–18–19–20–21–22–23–24–25–26–27–28–29–30–Top

December – click on the date below

1–2–3–4–5–6–7–8–9–10–11–12–13–14–15–16–17–18–19–20–21–22–23–24–25–26–27–28–29–30–31–Top

October 1st

The record of the ark actually being brought to Jerusalem is in our first reading in 1 Chronicles 15 – this was successful this time because God was involved at every stage. David acknowledged that the previous failure was because they did not “enquire of him”, verse 11-13. Because they did not ask God and check how he would want them to move the ark there were serious consequences – someone had died! Uzzah’s reaction was natural, we would do the same in that situation I am sure, but we should not have been in that situation, it was not what God wanted. We can therefore confidently assume that David and the Levites did pray to God, as well as completing significant research into how they should transport the ark this time. The details that we have in this chapter demonstrate the amount of research that they undertook into God’s commands given to Moses – we can read about the instructions in Exodus 25 and 37 and the likes of Numbers and Leviticus, and verse 26 shows that God was with them as a result of their careful preparation. This is the lesson for us. For us to be sure that our actions are what God wants we first need to find out what God actually wants, we do this by prayerfully reading the bible, or having the bible read to us every day if we can. It is so risky just doing what we think is the right thing to do, without constantly checking that what we are thinking is right, there can so easily be bad consequences. Even if our motives are right – as David’s were during his first attempt to take the ark to Jerusalem, but he and the Levites just did what they thought was right that time. We then have to try our best to follow what God wants, respecting him at all times. It is not sufficient for us to just assume what God wants, we have to check and be sure. David and the people had the right heart in bringing the ark back, but they did not do it the right way and God was not pleased. This second attempt David was sure what was right, I think verse 2 clearly tells us this when David set out his renewed confidence in doing things right. The joy that David and the people demonstrated, verse 27-28, showed that actually following what God wants results in great happiness, so it is well worth working out what God wants! Anything other than fully respecting God also results in situations that was demonstrated by Michal, Saul’s daughter, by not putting God first. By despising David, who was doing his best to do things as God wanted, Michal in reality despised God, verse 29. It is often pride that stops people doing what God wants, Saul was proud, Michal was proud. And pride brings us to think about the nation of Tyre – they were proud too – we see this in Ezekiel 27, how they used the best things to build their city because of their great wealth. Because of all their trading successes, the people of Tyre thought that they were “perfect” and powerful. People who traded with them also relied upon them and also trusted in human achievements.  When it was destroyed, all those involved “lamented” the loss of Tyre only because their own wealth was now gone, verse 29-36. Pride is bad and the opposite to this is humility and it is a key characteristic to all our Christian lives. David humbly did things God’s way; Michal was proud and all the people of Tyre were proud and it is only those who were humble who were rewarded. Luke 24 is a wonderful confidence boosting chapter, this is the start of the new phase in God’s plan, the phase that we are all involved in because of our belief and baptism into Jesus. The very start of the chapter is such a contrast to the depressing consideration of pride that also significantly contributed to the death of Jesus that we read about again in yesterday’s readings. This chapter is fresh – exciting – verse 1 we read of “first day of the week” and “very early” – this is the wonderful new start. It is a new start for those who humbly respect God, we may not fully understand why Jesus had to die, but we respect and humbly accept that it was God’s way.  It is important for us to remember and to be familiar with both God’s and Jesus’ teachings, for example the women were reminded that Jesus did say that he would be raised from the dead, verse 5-8. They then went in their excitement and joyfulness and told the disciples, verse 9-10. The disciples’ response is typically human, verse 11, but it is something that we can learn a principle from, and that is to check as they did, verse 12. The importance of God’s word is demonstrated by Jesus as he spoke to the two people on the road to Emmaus, verse 25-27. So we have to always respect God’s word in the bible and believe it and try our best to follow it. It is all about really believing what God has said and how what he has said about Jesus and that it did happen and how we have to really believe in Jesus and his resurrection. When Jesus met with the disciples later, he reminded them of the importance of God’s word, verse 44-45. And he reminded them what was “written”, verse 46-49. So let us remember these examples as we try to do our best for both God and for Jesus. Following God and Jesus provoked worship and praise, verse 50-53. Doing what God wanted in David’s time brought worship and praise. Because Jesus died for us, we are now waiting for Jesus to return – as we wait we should be checking what both God and Jesus want us to do, and to try to put that into practice and be worshiping and praising. If Jesus does not come back before we die we can be 100% confident in our own resurrection when he does return – it happened to Jesus – it will happen to us! October

October 2nd

1Chronicles 16 shows us the continued celebration of the ark being brought to Jerusalem. This was a unifying event, David ensured that the celebration was shared, verse 3, this can remind us of how we share the breaking of bread and how unifying that should be.  We then read David’s “Psalm of thanks” which helps us to think about how much we give back to God for the things that he does for us. In David’s case his thanks was prompted by the ark, in our case thanks for Jesus, but also for all the things that we have. Verse 8 prompts thanks, it prompts telling others, verse 9 prompts praise, verse 11 prompts us to always turn to God and verse 12 reminds us to remember. These are all important things that we should all be trying to do every day of our lives because of what God has done for us. Praise and teaching others are repeated again in verse 23-25 and in verse 29 we are prompted to “bring an offering” to God. So what do we “bring to God”? He has given us so much – he has given us life, he has given us Jesus, so what do we bring to God? All of the things David has listed, but what else can we give? God does not need us to bring anything, because everything that we have is God’s anyway, but he wants us to bring things to him so that we demonstrate our love for him. He wants us to take opportunities to praise in every aspect of our lives, so EVERYTHING that we do should be giving to God. David’s praise is full of respect, eg verse 30; he sees all nature praising God, verse 31-33 and he praises too, verse 35. David cries out for salvation and we should be doing this too, David acknowledges that salvation will be in the kingdom and we too should be praising God because he has promised us the kingdom where we can praise him for ever, verse 36. Unlike David, the people of Tyre were proud and arrogant, Ezekiel 28, verse 2, 5 and 17. They thought that they were wise, verse 6, and the king thought of himself as a “god”, verse 9. The people of Tyre should have known better because they knew about God, their predecessors had helped Solomon build the temple and verses 14-15 perhaps remind us of this. This is the problem with human thinking, so respect and praise of God helps us to remain humble. The wealth of the nation of Tyre brought pride and arrogance and ultimately sin, verse 16 – a clear warning for us now in how we live our lives. The end of the chapter in verse 23, 24 and 26 shows the ultimate aim of God, ie that all people will “know that he is the Lord”. Galatians 1 and 2 is another example of people who should have known better, in this case our brothers and sisters at the churches in the region of Galatia. They were going back to the Law of Moses after having seen and experienced the gift of Jesus from God, and Paul was very firm in his challenge of them, chapter 1 verse 6-9. It appears that the Jewish Christians were rejecting Paul’s teachings because he was concentrating on the Gentiles and Paul has to remind them of his calling by God, verse 11-24.  This was not Paul “showing off”, he was simply trying to convince the brothers and sisters that he was a genuine servant of Jesus. God works in the same way when dealing with anyone and he does not judge by external appearance, chapter 2 verse 6, he always knows what is in the heart and what mans real motives are. The one thing that we must always do is to lovingly challenge when we see others making mistakes just as Paul did when Peter was acting wrongly, verse 11-14, showing how important it is that we all try to follow what God wants and to also encourage others to do the same, both Paul and David did this, because the consequences can be severe, as was the case with the people of Tyre. God wants us to be in the kingdom, so we need to praise and thank him for this by giving things back to him, we also need to be careful not to go back to our old ways, or human ways, of doing things in our walk to the kingdom. October

October 3rd

Elite sports’ people train and train to win their goal, eg Olympics, all are dedicated, and we heard of so many stories of how far athletes went in their training whilst at home during Covid lockdown! It got me thinking about how passionate Paul was in wanting his “goal” of being in the kingdom and how much he also wanted to help others. Appling the same dedication as Paul did in his “goal”, and also helping in our “goal” too, is much, much better than the athletes’ moments of glory! When we read about the kingdom and the ultimate praise of God it is no wonder that Paul was so passionate about his faith! But our faith should also create passion in us! While we think about our reading today and how Paul strongly reacted, just ask ourselves how much passion do we have for the promised kingdom “goal” and how we are driven in our response. There were a couple of problems in the Galatian churches – the actual detail of the issues are not important, and perhaps not fully relevant to us, but the principles certainly apply to us now – the church was taking aspects of the Law as being more important than Christianity, they were preferring some apostles to others, they were allowing others to influence their thinking and they were judging by “external appearances”. They had lost sight of what Jesus had done for them and lost sight of the grace that had saved them! In their case they were trying to do things on their own, which I think is what “maintaining the Law” effectively means for us, and therefore Jesus would have “died for nothing”! It is Paul’s passion in his challenge that should help us to see how real God’s grace was to him. Paul was so concerned that they had lost sight of this that he used really strong and direct language, eg (Gal1:6…) (astonished), (Gal2:6…) (added nothing), (Gal3:1…) (foolish) and (Gal4:9…) (weak and miserable principles) – this is foolish! – “You foolish Galatians!” was Paul’s response to their forgetting of grace, mercy, love, forgiveness and relying on their own strength. We read in (Gal3:2-5…) that he gets them to logically think about what they were doing. This is quite amazing really that the church had learnt about Jesus, they’d seen how only through him could they be saved, received the spirit of salvation and seen the miracles and yet wanted to return to the Law and to then demonstrate their “faith” by what they did. Paul really believed in the grace and forgiveness of God and he passionately challenged the church because they missed the whole point of Jesus who gave every aspect of his life for us! And we should have this same passion too when we think about how much Jesus means to us. Our faith need not be complicated, we have read in (Gal3:6-9… & :13-14…) that all we need to do is to rely on Jesus – Abraham didn’t understand all of this in his time, he didn’t understand how God would actually do it, he couldn’t completely see what he did would affect anything, but he believed that God would do what he said he would. We read in (Gals3:22-25…) that we are all naturally “prisoners of sin”, we have no escape other than through Jesus! Paul makes it clear in (Gals3:26-29…) that if anyone has faith in Jesus then they are sons of God! It doesn’t matter who we are, what nationality we are, does not matter where we are – if we belong to Christ then we are heirs. Knowing this should make us as passionate as Paul was – he was pleading with the brothers and sisters in the church not to give up on the wonderful promise made by going back! We read in (Gals4:1-7…) that we are God’s children! We ARE God’s children because of Jesus, because of our belief and our faith in him. And bringing all this together to think of what we really are and to think what Jesus has done for us is explained by  Paul in (1Cor15:22-23…) that in Adam (ie human) we all die, but in Christ we will be made alive! We will be fully “alive” when Jesus comes back, but we should also be alive and full of passion now because of what is promised. All because God loves us and wants us to be his children! What a faith we have to be passionate about like Paul was and all we need to do is to believe and be baptised and to try our best to obey and be different from those around us who do not accept Jesus – Paul’s strong teaching on this is in (2Cor6:17-18…) where he says we are “sons and daughters” of God, but that we should be separate from others because of this. Being “sons and daughters” is wonderful! Paul was really concerned over the Galatians’ change of heart and this really does come across in his letter – he is very blunt, but his passion for God and Jesus and the promise and love for them shines through. Paul was so passionate about the salvation in Jesus, he was so focused on the kingdom and encouraging his brothers and sisters to only focus on grace and mercy too and strengthening their faith that he focused his entire efforts on encouraging others! So let us have the same passion as Paul did because of the wonderful promise that has been made to all of us, if we continue to demonstrate our faith in Jesus. The bread and the wine is an opportunity for us to reflect on what means the most to us in our lives! How passionate are we in believing what we believe? How passionate are we in speaking to others about our faith? How passionate are we in thanking and praising God and Jesus for what has been done for us! We will now think about this in the breaking of bread and the drinking of the wine. October

October 4th

We have some really good practical thoughts on a common theme in the readings today that we can all learn from to put into practice in our daily lives. Starting in 1Chronicles 18 and 19 we have the summary of David’s military successes as the kingdom of Israel was being set up. It was obvious that God was with David in all of this work at the time, 18 verse 6. But it was equally clear that David had the right attitude at this time and we should have the same attitude too. David took all the gold shields that he captured in the war with Hadadezer to Jerusalem, verse 7. The reason for this is in verse 11 – he dedicated everything that he captured to God and to God’s work. The bronze captured was used in the temple, verse 8. David therefore here sets a good example for us to follow in that he always put God first, he did not take any of these things for himself to make himself rich – everything was given to God. In all this David demonstrated the right attitude. This was true too in the way that he dealt with the people, verse 14, he was not selfish and he did the right and just things for the people. This is exactly how we should be in the way that we deal with our brothers and sisters, we should not be using our Christianity to get rich, or powerful or for any personal gain. We should also all be doing the right things for all our brothers and sisters, not only helping our friends and family! Because David had the right attitude, God gave David “victory”, verse 13. David’s good example also influenced others, eg Joab clearly put God first when he went to fight the Syrians (Arameans) because they rejected David’s acts of peace, verse 13, Joab allowed for God’s will to be done. Because David did the right things and had the right godly attitude he had peace at this time and all his enemies were subdued. The lesson for us is clear, if we want peace in our homes and ecclesias, we too should not be selfish and we should put God and our brothers and sisters first. The opposite attitude to this is shown in Ezekiel 30. The Egyptians were proud and selfish, they could not be trusted to help (we saw that in Ezekiel 29:6-7, where they did not support the people of Israel in their need; we also saw that they took the things that God had provided as their own, verse 3 and 9). Their pride is confirmed in chapter 30 verse 6 and 18. Pride always results from selfish actions and ends in people thinking that they are better than others around them – this is not what God wants. God wants all people to recognise that he is the Lord, verse 8, 19, 25 and 26, only when we do this do we demonstrate the right attitude in giving everything to God and always doing the right thing for our brothers and sisters. The Pharoahs were proud, they trusted in themselves and they believed that they were gods.  God brings low all those who are proud and are selfish, verse 20-23. We have exactly the same message and lesson in Galatians 5 verse 19-21, these are all characteristics of proud, selfish people and it is clear that people who “live like this” will not be in the kingdom. Those who will be in the kingdom are those who give everything to God and consider others before themselves, verse 22-23. The right attitude is summed up in verse 14, “love your neighbour as yourself” – this is what David did, even though he was king! Paul says that we have “freedom” in Christ, verse 1, if we abuse this freedom by being selfish then we are not free.  We must not “indulge our sinful nature”, verse 13, we must not aim for any personal gain! Faith is expressed through love, verse 6, so unless we show love, as David did and certainly as Jesus did, we will not be seen as faithful – it is that simple. Personal gain and selfishness without repentance results in death; love and putting others, including God, firsts, results in life. It is our choice! How we live now determines our future. We have to also resist the temptation to allow ourselves little “selfish acts”, because little things end up big, this is the picture of the little yeast working through the dough, verse 9. If we start to be selfish, then we will become more selfish and others will follow our lead and the result is catastrophic. The same message is in Galatians 6 verse 1-3 – be careful is the message, do not be proud, but lovingly and gently restore those who have sinned. We have to “self examine” ourselves, verse 4, and ask “are we like Jesus?”, if not, we are wrong. David helped his people and set good examples, we are to do this also, verse 5. And Paul says to us not to be “deceived” or selfish because God knows, verse 7-8, we must not do anything for personal selfish gain – doing this ends in death. Rather we should be pleasing God and only this brings life. This is exactly what David did, he dedicated all to God and always considered the people first, so the lesson is clear for us – we must do the same – selfishness and pride does not work, if we want life we should put God and others first! Bible teaching is clear, verse 9-10. We all understand food harvests so the lesson is easy to understand – what we sow we reap, so how we act now dictates what happens to us when Jesus comes back. The message in Galatians is not to go back to old human ways, they will fail.  Instead, we need to push on in godly ways. October

October 5th

Up until now in 1Chronicles David has remained godly and always set good examples for others and we have had a good role model to follow, now in chapters 20 and 21 we see some mistakes of David. We can also take lessons from these and see how David responded to the mistakes that he made – we make mistakes, but if we have the same heart as David we can be forgiven too. Chapter 20 verse 1 hints that this is the time when David slept with Bathsheba and had her husband killed – we thought about this in the thoughts on 2Samuel 11 and we saw that there were consequences to his actions. Chapter 21 tells us about the consequences of David counting his army, it was human pride that caused him to count them, verse 1-2. The word “satan” simply means “adversary”, in the parallel chapter in 2Samuel 24 we read that it was God who was the “adversary”, so it is probable that David and the people were boasting about their military achievements and someone suggested to David that he count the army. David demonstrated a weakness in not giving the credit to God for all of his achievements, but he had previously influenced others to the good, Joab, for example, attempted to talk David out of this mistake and even though he ended up obeying David, he still defied David by not counting the Levites and Benjamin, verse 3 and 6. Joab demonstrated that he was more at one with God in this situation than David was, it demonstrates to us too that all of us should be willing to challenge each other in love and to also listen to each other when mistakes are being made. God was clearly unhappy with the situation that David had created, verse 7, and David became aware of this and realised his mistake, verse 8. David’s immediate humility as soon as he realised his mistakes is something that we all need to learn, none of us are sin free and perfect, but when we do make mistakes and sin we should have the humility to accept this and to repent. As always there are consequences to sin, in David’s case 70,000 men died of the plague, verse 14; David had to pay personally, verse 25-26 and David could not do what he would normally have done to offer sacrifices, verse 30. We need to remember too that when we sin there are consequences – others suffer, there is personal cost to us and our worship suffers too. However, if we properly repent there is forgiveness. David demonstrates his godliness by immediately accepting his mistake and allowing God to be in complete control of the consequences, verse 13, a lesson too for us, ie when we sin we should not make things worse by involving others, perhaps in covering our sin up, but we should accept whatever decision there is from God. In this case God did show mercy and halted the punishment, verse 15. David accepted responsibility for the sin, irrespective of who was his adversary, verse 17, he obeyed, verse 19 and he insisted that he paid the price, verse 24. Because David took responsibility and repented in humility God heard his prayer, verse 26.  Another lesson for us is to also take responsibility and humbly repent for our sins. Ezekiel 31 is a prophecy of the destruction of Egypt which is likened to the destruction of Assyria and shows just what pride, which is the complete opposite to humility, results in. The picture, or parable, shows a very big strong tree, a cedar, as representing Assyria, verse 3, it was strong and powerful and all nations sheltered under it, but it was proud, verse 10 and 14. Because of its pride God destroyed them, verse 15, no longer did the other nations come to it for shelter, verse 16-17. God said that the same will happen to Egypt because just like Assyria, Egypt too was proud, verse 18. Pride always comes before a fall, it happened to David, it happened to Assyria, it happened to Egypt and it happens to us too. David’s pride very quickly turned to humility and it is in humility that we read Ephesians 1 and 2. Chapter 1 verses 3-14 contains some very uplifting words for us – it tells us that we have been ”chosen”, we have been “adopted as sons (and daughters)”, we have been shown “glorious grace”, which he “freely gives”, it is God’s “good pleasure” to give us the kingdom, he is “guaranteeing” our inheritance – all this is because of Jesus. Paul is amazed by this knowledge and we should be amazed and thankful too, verse 15-16. Paul prays for the brothers and sisters here that they may be “wise” and “know God better”, that they may be “enlightened” and “believe”, verse 17-19, and we should pray for these things too so that we can demonstrate this knowledge and grace in our lives, chapter 2 verse 10. We acknowledge that we were “dead” in our sins, verse 1, but because of God’s love we are “alive”, verse 4-5. We also have the confidence that we are “raised up” with Jesus, verse 6-7, meaning that when Jesus comes back and we are found faithful we will also be made immortal and be in the kingdom and experience God’s full grace! We have all these promises (which are even more wonderful because there is nothing that we have done to earn them) because the gift has been given by grace, verse 8-9, so none of us can “boast”, or be proud, that we have earned a place in the kingdom. However, we do need to reflect this grace in our daily lives, otherwise Jesus and God are not living in us, verse 22. Verse 11 to 22 show that we are “one in Christ” and this is such a privilege and a humbling situation, especially when we “remember” that we are sinners and continually make mistakes. Being one in Christ does come with responsibilities and later in Ephesians, Paul reminds us again what those responsibilities are. Humility is the key characteristic for us in our everyday lives, pride will always fail. October

October 6th

1 Chron 22   …mighty in the eyes of God …or mighty in the eyes of men? We see in .v8 the reason the Lord did not want David to build the temple. “you are not to build a house FOR MY NAME, because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight”. We might remember that very often David was doing God’s will by shedding the blood of his enemies.. However, I believe God is referring to blood that was shed by David, not according to God’s will (and in His name), but according to the will of David(in his name).Two examples being the murder of Uriah and the deaths caused by the census. At times when David was not conscious of God, and considered himself as a “mighty man before men” then he abused his God given authority and committed adultery, murder, deceit and denied His God.. So was God punishing David, by not allowing him to build the temple ? …remember David was forgiven. If God was “punishing” David, it was a “punishment” that was designed to be positive ; David was given the opportunity to serve, to provide and support the building of the temple “for the name of the Lord”. As a willing, enthusiastic SERVANT David would be seen as mighty in the eyes of God, for in that role he had the right spirit… as should we .. to be as Christ. “your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus… made himself nothing… a servant.. humbled himself.. obedient even to death.. therefore God exalted him.. (Jesus.. mighty in God’s eyes)   and gave him the name above every name (in the future .. mighty before God and all mankind) Phil 2:5-11. We can see David’s enthusiasm for God’s plan regarding the temple. He prepared everything and everyone. Not only with the materials, the location, but more importantly the words of encouragement. The neighbouring nations would be involved,” cedar trees from Tyre and Sidon”,  the “aliens” would all work together to make a glorious temple, and whilst doing so , more importantly, could get to learn the things concerning the God of Israel and His will for ALL mankind. David gives words of encouragement to Solomon (v7-16). David reveals his will (v7), and God’s will.. and both wills would be achieved by God’s chosen son of David: Solomon… “ his name will be Solomon, and I will grant Israel peace and quiet during his reign . .He is the one who will build a house FOR MY NAME…(v 9-10).With faith in David’s words and God’s  promises, Solomon was to put that faith into action, knowing that if he continued in the spirit of faith and obedience the Lord would be with him. Likewise David spoke to the leaders “Is not the Lord your God with you ?… has he not granted rest.. ?”..” devote your heart and soul to seeking the Lord your God”. There are so many lessons in this chapter.. AND  we see the chosen son of David and his role as a servant for the will of God to bring people to Him , so that they may know God and give him the glory due to His Name. And that is the role of all of us…  to bring people to the one God and for them to find peace with Him. Ezekiel 32:   even though the Egyptians arrogantly thought that they, unlike Judah, would not fall to Babylonian’s forces, they would eventually experience the same fate as the citizens of Jerusalem. The Lord’s words were recorded before the event so that all nations might know that the Lord is the one true God who reigns in the nations of men (and still does !). There are many repeated themes in this chapter .. Pharaoh / Egypt and his multitudes are referred 7 times. It would seem that Egypt and the other nations mentioned put their confidence in their “strengths” their “multitudes”… these multitudes might have been considered mighty by men… but not in God’s eyes. The uncircumcised (people not in a covenant relationship with God) would all die, and were destined for the grave. This is the destiny of all mankind who haven’t responded to the message of salvation offered by God through the sacrificial life of His son. Col 1:11…”In Christ you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature…having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins.” Ephesians 3 +4  ..the grace,  gifts, and love from God… and our response. The letter to the Ephesians begins by Paul uplifting the Ephesians (and us) by telling us about  the incredible blessings (gifts) that God had brought to them through His plan in Christ. But what fruit do these blessings bring ?… IF TRULY DISCERNED  they bring gratefulness, love and an incredible comforting humility. With that spirit we will choose to willingly serve, to give, to love, to forgive ….to give glory to His name. The gospel, to Paul (and us) , is always exciting.. as it speaks of God’s will in such a deep way and brings with it a new way of thinking and living. But, at that time, it was even more exciting. The mystery of Christ had NOW been revealed (it was there from the beginning.. it was in God’s word from the beginning, and if one looked back one could see it ) but that which was there wasn’t revealed until Christ was born, lived, died and resurrected.. and in turn proclaimed to the Jews and the Gentiles…. This is what was happening at that very time in God’s plan !! Through that gospel the Gentiles (by God’s will) were heirs TOGETHER with Israel, members TOGETHER of one body, and sharing TOGETHER in the promises  through Jesus Christ.  Despite all of these blessings, Paul prays that the Ephesians may continue to be “ONE” with the Lord, and for that “One-ness” to continue to grow. ”I pray that you are strengthened with power through His spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith”…. And to know (intimately) the enormity of the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.. and to be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. A high calling! How are we to live? Ch4:1.. “Live a life worthy of the calling you have received.(reminder is in ch 1 !) “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient,.. in love. Make EVERY effort to keep the unity of the spirit ..”. Whilst there is diversity in the church, in the true church there are great areas of one-ness. Paul mentions 7 of them. ONE BODY: In Christ, Jews and Gentiles(us) are “one new man” reconciled unto God in “one body” through the cross of Christ. Eph 2:15-16. ONE SPIRIT: one with the spirit of God. ONE HOPE: one with God’s will.  ONE LORD: “Jesus is Lord” 1Cor 12:3. ONE FAITH: “salvation is found in no one else (except Jesus) “ Acts 4:12. ONE BAPTISM: see how important baptism is.. one of the 7 towards one-ness. ONE GOD and FATHER.. from which all of the above have their beginnings… in the mind of God to bring salvation. “our fellowship is with the Father and with His son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make your joy complete” 1 John1:3-4. October

October 7th

David demonstrated detailed preparation for the organisation and service in God’s temple in 1Chronicles 23. He has learned from his life’s experiences, he has learnt from his mistakes and sins, and has now reached a maturity where God is first in everything. This is how we should be, and all of the readings today show us our responsibilities that we have after we have been shown grace. There is always work to do in God’s service, for example, the Levites used to carry the tabernacle and the articles for worship as the people moved around the desert with Moses, verse 26. However, their service does not stop when the tabernacle stops moving and the temple is built – instead their work has changed, verse 28-31. It is all service to God if we make these changes with the right motives and by putting God first and respecting his principles. In Ezekiel 33 there is another principle that we can follow. Ezekiel was described as a “watchman”, verse 7.  A “watchman’s” responsibility was to look out for any attackers who were threatening a country and to sound a warning by blowing the trumpet if an attack was coming. This warning gave people time to prepare, and was a very responsible job. If the watchman sounded a warning and no one responded then he had still fulfilled his responsibility; but if he did not sound a warning then he had failed in his responsibility, verse 1-6. The watchman who did not sound a warning would be held responsible for the damage done to the country and its people. God told Ezekiel specifically how this example applied to him, verse 8-9. This principle very much applies to us too – we know that Jesus is going to come back, we know that God is going to punish those who are not watching and waiting for Jesus so we have the responsibility to teach others. We are therefore watchmen like Ezekiel. God is not happy with the death of the wicked, verse 11, he wants people to change from their “evil ways” and he has given us the responsibility to share the wonderful message that we have for all human beings. God’s grace and forgiveness is wonderful because he does not exclude anyone from forgiveness, all he asks is that we repent, verse 14-16. This is a great comfort to us because we know that we sin, it was a great comfort to David because he repented and was forgiven after his sins. Notice here though the responsibilities that come with repentance, we have to give back what we “pledged”; we have to return what we have “stolen” and we have to try to stop sinning. We have a responsibility to carry on serving, we cannot say that I was a “pioneer” in CBM or I have previously done so many good things for God, so therefore I can now relax and do what I want to do, verse 13. When Jesus comes back or we die before he comes back we will be judged as we were at the time, whether good or bad, verse 17-20. This is both a comfort and a warning. God does not expect us to be perfect, but he does expect us to be trying to be one with him. It is no good just coming to listen to God’s word and then not doing anything with the knowledge that that gives us, it is a waste of time and does not achieve our salvation, we are told this in James 1, but we are also told this in Ezekiel 33:30-32. We ignore God’s word at a cost to us because we know it is true. There is an example of how true God’s word is in verse 22. Ezekiel was now able to speak all the time; God had foretold that he would be able to speak all the time when Jerusalem had eventually fallen, Ezekiel 24:25-27, so this was confirmation that what the man told him was true, verse 21. Ezekiel had been unable to speak, other than to repeat what God had said, since chapter 3 verse 25-27. So, because we know God’s word is true, as Christians, we are to be “imitators of God”, Ephesians 5 verse 1-2, and we are to also “live a life of love”. Because of the grace that God has shown us (Eph 1 and 2), because we are one in Christ, (Eph 3 and 4) we now have to demonstrate our gratefulness and love, not because we have to, but because we want to be like God. David wanted to serve, so did Ezekiel and so must we. In these last 2 chapters of Ephesians we have more examples of how we should serve in addition to preparing and teaching others. Verse 3-4 highlights sexual immorality, impurity, greed, obscenity, foolish talk and rude joking as being things that we should not do. These cover virtually all the things that are against God – a “hint” of sexual immorality covers thoughts, the things we look at that are sexual, lusting after others, making comments, viewing things on the internet or in magazines, watching traveling cinemas, etc. Impurity covers many many things that are not godly and we can probably ask “would Jesus be doing this”; if the answer is “no”, then neither should we! Greed covers things like taking things that are not ours, making up stories to get help, inflating costs, keeping the change, not sharing, etc. Obscenity, foolish talk and rude joking would be things that Jesus would not say. All these we need to avoid and as Paul says we should be “thankful” for what God has given us. It is important that we do try to avoid these because the consequences are severe, verse 5-7. Thank God that we do have opportunity to repent! We have to be careful with the people we mix with because it is easy to become like the ungodly if we mix with them, rather we should mix with those who are godly because we will be able to learn from each other and to be better “imitators of God”. In verse 8-14, “darkness” describes those who are ungodly. There are more lessons for us to follow, verse 15-20, do not get drunk, rather read the bible together, sing hymns and songs, praise from the heart and give thanks. Giving thanks to God and being joyful shows humility and the right attitude and helps us not to do the things that are ungodly. A big principle comes before further lessons in daily life in Ephesians 5 and 6 this is chapter 5 verse 21. We are to “submit” to each other out of “reverence for Christ”, we are to treat each other as better than ourselves, we are not to think that we are better than others and we are to remember that there is no hierarchy in the church – we are all sinful servants who need grace and mercy. Ephesians 5 verse 22-33 shows us who husbands (and men) and wives (and women) represent, ie the man represents Jesus and the woman represents the church. This is a daily living parable to remind us of the love that Jesus showed to us and how the church (us) responded to Jesus in love. This is not saying that the husband or man is the boss of the wife or woman, it is about love and care and compassion and helping each other, it is about respect and serving, it is about “imitating God”. So brothers, we represent Jesus, sisters you represent the church and this picture (parable) shows us love. The same sentiments are in Ephesians 6 verse 1-4, children will obey parents if they see the parents imitating God and showing love; parents will teach children about God and Jesus because they love them so much that they want them to be saved too. Slaves (workers) and masters (business managers) also need to love and respect each other, verse 5-9, do everything honestly and as if you were working for Jesus or if Jesus was working for you – we can apply the same principle to our CBM structures too in how we all deal with each other in the various roles that we all have. There are many further spiritual lessons in verse 10-17 using the picture of a soldier and applying it to how we prepare for service (we will leave this to another time!). We all struggle to be  imitators of God, we all struggle to be like Jesus (who was the best imitator of God) so we always need to pray, verse 18. David, Ezekiel and Paul were desperate to save others so they followed what God wanted and tried to teach others about God and Jesus’ grace and how to respond to it, verse 23-24: “Peace to the brothers (and sisters), and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with undying love.” We demonstrate our “undying” love by how we act. October

October 8th

In 1Chronicles 24 and 25 we continue with the details of who did what in the service of God as David prepared for the temple to be built and worship to be carried out there. David was keen to ensure that the Levites, who were those chosen by God to manage all the things associated in worship, carried out the work. David’s use of lots in chapter 24 verse 5 and 31 and for the singers in chapter 25 verse 8, allowed for God to direct the choice. So David very much wanted God’s choices to prevail in the worship. The Levites obviously had the important role of actually arranging the worship but the singers had the important role of leading the people in worship by teaching, thanking and praising God via music, chapter 25 verse 3 and to exalt God in verse 5. It is also important for us today to take worship seriously, including the music we use and the words that we sing. In Ezekiel 34 we see that the leaders, described as shepherds, had failed in their task of setting examples to the people, the flock of sheep, and instead leading them in such a way that the flock (people) were scattered among the nations. The shepherds were put there by God to lead, verse 2, but they were selfish and only looked after themselves, verse 3-6 and 8. So God carried out his promise to punish the shepherds, who were the “sleek and strong sheep”, verse 11 and 16. He will judge between the sheep, verse 17.  This is similar to the account in Matthew 25:31-46 where Jesus is saying that we should look after our brothers and sisters as if we are looking after Jesus himself. But God will search for his sheep and bring them back to their land and look after them and he will set up a perfect shepherd, ie Jesus, verse 23-24 who will tend God’s sheep for him. Verse 20-22 reminds us again that God will judge those of the sheep who mistreat others – this lesson is for us too.  As we are all God’s sheep we should be following our shepherd, Jesus, who will care for us if we let him, but the sheep who mistreat others will be judged as Jesus said in Matthew 24. I think we have a picture of the Kingdom here, verse 25-31, so some of these things will only happen when Jesus comes back, but in the meantime as brothers and sisters, sheep, we should be helping Jesus to shepherd God’s sheep.  We see examples of this in Philippians 1 and 2. Paul is writing to the “overseers” and “deacons”, verse 1, these are the shepherds and the servants of the church in Philippi. Paul, another servant/shepherd, is encouraging all of the sheep to carry on the “work” by “sharing” and “loving” until the “day of Christ”, so he is saying that we should learn the lessons of the shepherd and care for each other until Jesus comes back. Paul’s main aim was to help others to stay strong; he always saw hope and encouragement in his suffering, verse 12-14, and he rejoiced because Jesus was preached, verse 18. Both Timothy and Epaphroditus were examples of good shepherds, verse 19-30. Timothy was compared positively against bad shepherds, verse 21, Timothy took a “genuine interest” in others, as we should do too, we must not only look to our “own interests” as the bad shepherds did in Ezekiel. Epaphroditus and people like him are to be honoured, verse 29, it is because they too are genuinely concerned for others, verse 26, they are also “fellow workers” and “fellow soldiers” (for God), verse 25. In other words we should honour those who serve. Paul reminds us that we should “shine like stars”, verse 12-18, we are to be seen as different as we try to be like Jesus in all of our actions and dealings, we are not to be “crooked” or “depraved” we are to be “blameless” and to set good examples as did David, Ezekiel, Paul, Timothy and Epaphroditus. We are “united” with Jesus therefore we should have the mind of Jesus and try to do what he did and does, verse 1-5. And by doing this we will be nurturing our mind and actions to also be like God as Jesus was, verse 6-11. So all of us have to ask the questions of ourselves: are we good sheep, are we good shepherds, are we setting good examples, are we being recognised as being like Jesus and God, or are we fitting in with the world around us and acting just like them and being bad shepherds and fat sheep just interested in ourselves? October

October 9th

There are a few practical lessons for us in today’s first reading of 1Chronicles 26 which are also partially repeated in the Philippians reading. The chapter lists more details, as previous chapters, demonstrating to us how important it is for us to try and do things properly in our worship of God. We also see that the actual men who were chosen to do certain roles were chosen by lot, so again God was allowed to be part of the decision process by directing the name of the person who was picked out. Unlike the lots that are used to determine what country plays another in the World Cup, for example, this lot could be influenced by God, verse 13. However, the men who were put forward into the lot were capable, verse 6, 8, 9 and 31, so it was not a random selection in the lot, David and the people had to select people who were right for the jobs, in this case for service at the temple it was Levites, so there were some faithful actions associated with this. The same is true for us when we select members for certain duties in our Christian worship, we have to select those who are appropriate, who are capable and who are already demonstrating a love and commitment to God. In verse 31 a search was made of the “records” – is our equivalent the ecclesial register to see who has been regularly committed to our Sunday services? The other lesson is in verse 26-28 where we read that “some of the plunder” was dedicated to the temple of the Lord, our modern equivalent of this is our giving of some of our money to the work of the Lord. Because we must remember that all that we have has been given to us by God anyway, so we are only giving back to God what is already his! The short reading in Ezekiel 35 reminds us what goes wrong when the wrong attitude is demonstrated. The people of Edom, or Mount Seir, “boasted” against God, verse 13, and God “heard it”, as he does for everyone. The people were happy when Israel/Judah were defeated, verse 10, they were happy to “take the land over”. It was not a surprise that this happened because the people of Edom were always enemies of God’s people, verse 5 – they opposed them and therefore God at every opportunity. Eg Numbers 20:18-21. So God who hears and sees everything punished Edom, verse 6-9, 11-12 and 14-15 – a reminder to us too in how we respond to situations in our lives. The readings in Philippians 3 and 4 start off by demonstrating humility, verse 1-3, ie “put no confidence in the flesh (human ability)”. In David’s time the Levites humbly accepted their tasks and realised that it was God who was working and giving them the capabilities that they had, the same should be for us, all our talents, or capabilities, should be recognised as coming from God. Paul considered all of his human capabilities as “rubbish”, verse 8; the thing that counted in his life was “knowing” everything about and being like Jesus. He also clearly stated that he wanted to “know” Christ, verse 10-11, this was his priority in life to be like Jesus and to be with him, therefore he wanted to serve and to submit to Jesus’ and God’s will, as did the Levites and as should we. Our “goal” is the kingdom and we have to keep aiming for it, verse 12-14, our minds should be on godly things not on human things. We should be demonstrating that we are starting to think like God, verse 15-16, and if we allow ourselves to change then when Jesus returns we will be fully changed, verse 20-21. It is sad that so many live as “enemies” of God and of Jesus, verse 18-19, and it is sad because these people are putting trust in human things and are selfish and only thinking of themselves, as in the example of Edom, but we too need to be careful not to put our human standing above God. Paul conveys the importance for what we have just read in chapter 4 verse 1, this is how we “stand firm”. Paul then gives us examples of how our humility should work out in our daily lives. The first one is to be united, verse 2; to help there to be unity in the ecclesia, verse 3; to rejoice, verse 4; set an example, verse 5, and to pray about “everything”, verse 6. If we are humble in all aspects of our lives we will be at peace, verse 7. The things that we think about should be those listed in verse 8, things that are “noble”, “right”, “pure”, “lovely”, “admirable”, because we have to put these into practice, verse 9. Paul exhorts us to “rejoice” as he did, verse 10. It is difficult sometimes to rejoice when we are hungry, sad, ill, worried, but Paul said that he learned to be content in any situation, verse 12 – he suffered all these things and he coped because God and Jesus strengthened him, verse 13. As David and all the Levites and the people worked together to help each other, so we should help and support each other – Paul says that it is good to “share in others troubles”, verse 14. “And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen”, verse 19-20. October

October 10th

When we read the first chapter of John we are struck by the obvious reference back to the creation record in Genesis. In Genesis 1:3 we read ‘And God said, Let there be light, and there was light’.  Before this there was only darkness.  Even after this, there was still darkness, at night time. In John 1:1-5 we read of ‘the Word’ and ‘In him was life; and the life was the light of men.  And the light shone in the darkness and the darkness comprehended it not’.  So when Jesus came as ‘the light of the world’ there was still darkness.  What are we to make of that? Before we try to answer that question I want us to think about a passage which is a little puzzling at first sight.  It’s 1 Kings 8:12 which says ‘The Lord said that he would dwell in the thick darkness’.  What does this mean? Sometimes people say that darkness represents sin, but that can’t be so because God can’t be associated with sin – he could not ‘dwell in sin’. I think this verse is telling us that darkness is something we can’t understand.  We can’t begin to understand where God dwells: we can’t begin to understand where ‘heaven’ is.  So perhaps we can say that ‘the light’ is equivalent to understanding and ‘the darkness’ to a failure to understand. If we apply that principle to the first 4 chapters of John we begin to see the problem the Jewish leaders had: they just couldn’t understand how this man from Nazareth could be the promised Messiah.  Look at the questions they asked: What sign do you show us, since you do these things? (2:18); It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in three days? (2:20); How can a man be born when he is old? (3:4); Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb? (3:4); How can these things be? (3:9). This lack of understanding continues for many Jews, and for the world at large, right through to this day. What about us?  Read now Ephesians 5: 8-14.  We were in darkness and did not understand our need for Christ and what he has done.  But now we have understanding, by God’s grace, we must ‘walk in the light’, which means that the way we live our lives must show this understanding of Christ and his ways. There is another passage that helps our understanding of this principle.  Read now 2 Corinthians 4:3-6.  You see how that passage links our thoughts together? There is an important point in this that we should not miss.  It was God who created light in Genesis: it is Jesus who is the light of the world: and ‘God who commanded light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts’.  We do not have our understanding of the Gospel because we are in some way cleverer than others.  It was God who ‘shone in our hearts’.  Although we have a choice as to how we respond we should never think that we have initiated or earned our salvation. Even the disciples struggled to understand.  Read now Luke 18:31-34.  Their understanding grew after the resurrection.  As we share bread and wine now may we reflect on the light of the world and reflect his light to others so that they may come to an understanding of the salvation of God, through the Lord Jesus Christ. October

October 11th

In 1Chronicles 28 we read of David’s continued planning for the building of the temple in Jerusalem. His dedication to the things of God is an excellent example for us. Even though God had told David that he would not build the temple, verse 3, he still prepared undeterred, verse 2. We experience disappointments in our lives but we should carry on too, recognising that God knows best. David always saw God working in his life and he humbly accepted this in his message to the people and to Solomon, his son, verse 4-7. David also involved others in his plans and preparation so that all those who loved God could be involved and also make plans to support the work of the temple within their own areas of responsibility, verse 1. The practical lesson for us is that we are not on our own in the work for God, we have brothers and sisters to help and encourage us all, therefore we share the work. The benefits of being “wholehearted” in the work, as David was, are obvious in verse 8, ie that descendants after them would benefit for ever. David was determined that Solomon should be wholehearted too, verse 9, where David encourages him to always follow God. There is a simple choice for all of us: “If you seek him [God], he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you for ever.” David faithfully passed on the plans to Solomon to carry out, verse 19, and then he encourages Solomon, 20-21. This is the same lesson for us too, “be strong and courageous and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you”. The people in exile in Babylon were discouraged in Ezekiel 37 verse 11, and God told Ezekiel to prophesy to them, verse 12-14. The people were disheartened because they were refugees in a foreign land, all their hope was gone and they said all their “bones had dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.” The wonderful thing is that God was still there even in their despair and this dramatic picture of the valley of dry bones all coming together and being brought back to life, verse 1-10, represented the people’s return to God’s land. It is a picture that foretold what happened at the end of Israel’s exile in Babylon, it also is evidence in our time now with the Jews being back in Israel having been brought back by God from all the nations. The State of Israel was officially recognised by the world in 1948. The prophecy is not totally fulfilled yet though, because generally the Jews do not accept God and Jesus, and neither is there one king, but it will happen. The prophecy of the 2 sticks, verse 15-22, shows us that the 2 nations of Judah and Israel will become one again as they originally were at the time of Saul, David and Solomon and today we see this part of prophecy as being fulfilled as the Jews are back in Israel as a single nation. But we still wait patiently for them to be godly and to have the one king, ie Jesus, verse 23-28. So “be strong and courageous” because what God has said will happen will come to pass. Jesus’ first miracle is described to us in John 2 sets the scene for how Jesus is going to change men’s hearts back to God. This simple marriage account can be seen as a picture of man’s failure in that they had run out of wine, verse 3, which can represent the “fruit of the spirit”, Jesus’ mother says to listen to Jesus, verse 5 and then when the master of the banquet tasted the wine he noted that it was the best, verse 10. There are lots of potential lessons in this first miracle but it is obvious that to get the best “fruit of the spirit” we need to listen to Jesus because there is no other alternative. This is because the people had corrupted God’s temple that David had dedicated his life in preparing, they had made God’s house into a market, verse 16. There was no respect for and of God and just as David had said to Solomon the people had “forsaken God” and “God had rejected them” – and only Jesus could bring people back to God. This would be achieved by Jesus’ death and miraculous resurrection, verse 18-21. Jesus’ teaching to Nicodemus in John 3 shows that we have to be “born again”, verse 3, otherwise we will not be in the kingdom. We have to have different thinking, we have to be baptised and we have to demonstrate the fruits of the spirit, verse 5-8. We have to replace darkness with light, verse 19-21, and to try our best to follow God’s ways. The only way that we can do this is to accept and follow Jesus, verse 14-15. It was no coincidence that Jesus’ first miracle was at a wedding because throughout the bible we often see spiritual lessons from weddings, John the Baptist recognised this in verse 27-30, where he sees Jesus as the bridegroom and the church as the bride and we are “married” to Jesus when we are baptised and we will be permanently with him in the kingdom when he returns. The message at the end of John 3 is very similar to what was in Chronicles: “Whoever believes in the son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him”, verse 36. October

October 12th

King David teaches us about wealth in 1 Chronicles 29; “Wealth and honour come from (God)” (verse 12).  In fact, everything we have comes from God (verse 14).  David says this in the context of his own giving. He chose to give to God a vast amount of wealth (verses 2-5) as a contribution to building the temple.  Although in reality he was giving back to God what God first gave to him. What is interesting is that David rejoiced in doing this (verse 9).  Here is true giving.  Giving should be willing and voluntarily, and it should be done cheerfully (2 Corinthians 9:7).  David’s giving encouraged others who also gave willingly. Although the people were losing wealth, they were happy to give for the Lord.  This is a tremendous example for us.  What do we give for the building up of God’s house (which is His people)? Any wealth we have is a test for us (verse 17).  It is a test as to how we will use it.  Are we going to use everything we have for ourselves, or are we going to give some back to God?  King David sat on his throne.  But he was clear whose kingdom it really was.  The kingdom was God’s (1 Chronicles 29:11).  And God was head over all.   The throne was God’s throne (verse 23).  This is a picture of the future kingdom when the son of David will sit as king on God’s throne over the God’s kingdom.  Ezekiel 38 describes an invasion against God’s people a long time in the future (verse 8).  We are told that God’s people have been regathered from the nations and are living safely (verse 8).  They are also rich, and it is these riches that the invader is interested in.  The invader is described as Gog from the land of Magog.  They are from the far north (verse 15).  This means they were not immediate neighbours to Israel, but were from a long distance.  This suggests they are from Turkey/Russia/Iraq/Iran. Many will look at this chapter and see this as potentially applying to today, where God’s people have been regathered from the nations and are relatively prosperous.  An alternative view comes from the only other place where Gog and Magog are mentioned.  This is Revelation 20:7-10, and the time is at the end of the thousand years.  Bible prophecy will be fulfilled, but the question is when? When we think of time, we think of the advice of Jesus to us.  Be ready all the time because we do not know when Jesus will come back.  John 4 describes the encounter between Jesus and a Samaritan woman. Such an encounter would not normally happen with a Jew, but then Jesus was no ordinary Jew.  God ultimately had a plan to save the Samaritans (Acts 1:8, 8:1-8) and Jesus’s meeting with Samaritans and references to them prepare the way for this.  The sect of the Samaritans only take the first 6 books of the Bible as true.  Jesus explained to the Samaritan woman that truth must be followed and they must follow it.  The encounter meant that many Samaritans believed Jesus was the true Messiah.  God used an unusual woman to witness to her own people.  The woman was a bit like the city of Samaria.  Both had been associated with 5 different partners.  In the case of Samaria, these were 5 sets of gods they had previously worshipped (2 Kings 17:29-33).  Now Samaria was not linked to them.  It was to the woman and to the city that Jesus appealed for them to follow truth.  We see in this the mercy of God.  Even though they did were not full Jews, they were invited to follow the good news of the kingdom of God.  The Samaritans received the message even without seeing a miracle. This was in contrast to the Jews at Cana who wanted to see a miracle before they believed (verses 46-48).  God was willing to accept them based on their faith.  We too are not full Jews, but we will be accepted by Jesus if we live a life of faith. October

October 13th

2 CHRON 1-2:  Solomon prayed for wisdom but did he “read the word of God all the days of his life”? Solomon had the potential to be a great king in the eyes of God, and he showed this by asking the Lord to give him wisdom, so that he could lead and govern the Lord’s people wisely. But did he continue in that spirit? Instructions from God for future kings were given in Deut 17:14-20. “The king must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself, or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them. He must not take many wives OR HIS HEART WILL BE LED ASTRAY. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold. The king must write a copy of the law.. and it is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God..” (“The fear (reverence) of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom Psa 111:10). If we listen to the word of God each day we will know more about God’s will, and if we put that knowledge into action; God’s will, will become ours. Then, we will find that when we are praying we are praying for the right things… the things that are important to us and God. The word can bring us to one-ness! 2 Chron 1:14-17….  Solomon did not follow the instructions given in Deut 17..he acquired and sold many horses, he acquired much silver and gold and we learn elsewhere that later on he had many wives who did lead him astray. I suspect Solomon’s heart and will was with God whilst he was over-seeing the building of the temple.. he dedicated his will to giving to the Name of the Lord.. but once that was achieved, he was led astray by women, other “gods” and the deceitfulness of riches and the “pleasures and concerns of life”. All the time the word of the Lord was there to guide him, to give him wisdom.. and if followed, the Lord God himself would be with  him – how foolish mankind can be!! 2Chron 2, “A good name is more desirable than great riches…” Proverbs 22:1. We remember in 1 Chron 14 how David had his house built with help from Hiram king of Tyre. Hiram sent messengers, cedar logs, stonemasons and carpenters  to build a palace for him. They mutually benefitted each other and became friends. So Solomon was naturally guided to Hiram, a man he could trust (had a good name), a man who had some knowledge of the God of Israel. It was to be a shared task, a Jewish king and a gentile king.. working together to give glory to the God of the Jews and the gentiles. Hiram’s number one skilled man was called Huram-Abi .. whose mother was from the tribe of Dan (Jew) and his father from Tyre (gentile). Hiram’s men, along with the “aliens” in Israel (gentiles) would be brought together with Solomon’s men (Jews) to build the temple, a temple of praise, offerings, teaching, dedication etc where all things were done to bring all mankind to the one God. What a wonderful time…when people are together in one spirit (the Lords’) to give glory to the Name of the Lord. Ezekiel 39….  I wonder what Ezekiel understood from this prophecy given to him by the Sovereign Lord. I am sure, like Ezekiel, there are parts that we couldn’t be totally sure about.. when these things would happen etc. But there are some parts that we can be sure about, and when we recognize the main message for all mankind, all nations.. “whose side are you on…. The Lord’s or the world ?”; we realise if we understand and follow that sure instruction… we are safe.. as the Lord would want us to be. I suspect Ezekiel knew what some of the names referred to in his time; Gog, Meshech, Tubal, Persia, Cush, Put, Gomer etc… and we too can be certain with some of them, and have a good idea who the rest are… but it wasn’t just these nations.. no doubt other nations would have been involved.. by funding to support the enemies of Israel.. Ezekiel would have witnesses in his lifetime a similar occurrence.. of nations coming down against Jerusalem and the terrible things that happened (albeit God’s will)… and Ezekiel would have seen the contrast with a future event as described in Eze 37-39…This time the nations would not prevail.. the Jews would be back in their land, gathered from the nations, Jerusalem as their capital and ultimately, the land would be attacked by many powerful nations… and those armies destroyed leading to the ushering in of the kingdom of God…. with God’s dwelling place in Jerusalem… this was and is, God’s will .. nothing can stand in the way of it.. what incredible joy it would bring to Ezekiel’s life.. what purpose to his preaching.. The repeated statement from the Lord through Ezekiel was “they will know that I am the Lord”. The enemies would know when they saw the terrible things that happened to their countries/armies (.v21). Israel would also “know that I am the Lord” when He rescues the nation from this war. But the Lord would cause even greater things to happen… a cleansing of the land.. the nation of Israel to be forgiven, to once more be in a covenant relationship with God… to be given a new heart and a new spirit… their old spirit broken by seeing “the one whom they pierced”. So Ezekiel’s hope, promise from God, where he wanted to be… was in a future time.. in the kingdom of God, with the Lord dwelling in his sanctuary (remember this would have been close to Ezekiel’s heart because he was a priest) amongst his people. His preaching was so that others could share that promise, including eternal life. That will continues, as believers pray “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. On earth as it is in heaven”. Knowing God, knowing Jesus.. John 5. What a wonderful collection of books the Bible is… we can so easily read of the promise of God in Ezekiel’s time… turn a few pages and go forward 600 years(!) and ….AND..  be listening to the word of God.. spoken by His son!! The gospels record 7 miraculous healings done by Jesus on the Sabbath (7th day).. as believers, we recognize this is design seen in the inspired word of God, and this is just one witness in the multitude of witnesses.. to the design within the whole of scripture.. from beginning to end.. so that mankind might know God’s incredible purpose for mankind, and to be able to put their trust in Him. One of those 7 sabbath miraculous healings is seen in John 5:1-15.. the healing of a man who had been an invalid for 38 years. Because the healed man carried his bed according to Jesus’ instructions.. the Jews persecuted Jesus.. because he had done these things on the Sabbath(.v16). What follows are words of teaching from Jesus.. that they might know God.. and the one whom He sent. Lesson 1: (.v17)  God and Jesus were working.. God’s work had not stopped. Lesson 2.(v18-30) Jesus acknowledges he was not equal with God (Jesus was totally dependent on his Father). God was working through His son, and because Jesus loved His father, he did His will, and was given delegated authority from His father. In verse 19 and verse 30.. Jesus makes it totally clear “I can OF MYSELF do nothing”. God caused miracles to witness to the fact that God approved of his son and was working through his son. But more importantly than the miracles, were the words that Jesus spoke… these were the words said in the spirit of God.. that which could bring (through faith) a changed life and even a future eternal life. Father and son.. V21 as the Father raises the dead… so could the son; V22 the Father has committed all judgement to the son; V23 by honouring the son, we are also giving honour to the Father(albeit separately!!); V24 the shared will of Father and son.. salvation..” from death into life”. V31-47, “If I bear witness of myself (and not God), my witness is not true”. Jesus reasons with the Jews, he appeals for them to see evidence of his delegated authority. It was seen and witnessed by John the Baptist.(v33-35). The “works” which the Father had given him were a greater witness… not just the miracles, not the words, but also Jesus’ willing acceptance as a sacrificial servant, willing to die, even for his enemies.. that they might turn.. and find life. Another witness.. God’s written word (.v37-40).. evidence provided (by God) throughout the O.T. Take Moses for example, someone they claimed to trust in.. and yet “but IF you believed Moses you would believe me, for he wrote about me” There are more than 300 Old Testament prophecies that have been fulfilled in the first coming of Christ! We, as brothers and sisters in Christ, have been taught by God.. taught through His word, His son and His will. And because of these “gifts from above” we naturally give honour to Jesus, and by so doing we also give honour to his Father, from whom all things came. And with understanding the delegated authority that Jesus was given.. that knowledge makes so much of scripture easy to understand.. but more importantly,  that we might “know(intimately) God and the one who He sent (Jesus)”. October

October 14th

Solomon builds and furnishes the temple in 2Chronicles 3 and 4. The details and the size are amazing and it was all intended to remind the people of God’s glory and to bring about respect and worship. The sight of the sculptured cherubim, chapter 3 verse 10-13, must have been awe inspiring. The summary of the items in the temple in chapter 4 verses 19-22, confirms that no detail was overlooked in the worship of God. All this was what was in David’s heart for Solomon to build and it should have been a reminder for the worshippers to remember that God was the only God and all powerful. We know from readings in Ezekiel that the people sadly rejected God and turned away from him and all this amazing temple was destroyed. However, Ezekiel 40 shows us that God’s people will again have a temple to worship in, that they would return from exile in Babylon and that they would worship God. The details of the size and the position of gates, etc. again show us how important it is to get the worship of God right to trigger the right reminders for the worshippers. Since Ezekiel’s prophecy here the temple had been rebuilt twice, once during Nehemiah/Ezra’s time and then again during Herod’s time, but each time the temple was destroyed because of the people’s sin. Whilst the temple was still standing during Jesus’ time Jesus promised those who followed him would HAVE eternal life, John 6 verse 40, he repeats in verse 47, and again in verse 51. Jesus says that unless we constantly “take Jesus into us” we have no life in us, verse 53-58. The implication here is that yes we do HAVE confidence in eternal life, but we also have the responsibility to also be more like Jesus in our lives – knowing that we have eternal life means that we have to live now as if we have it, ie respecting and following both God and his son Jesus. It is no good saying that we just have eternal life because of grace, if we are not doing our best to live like Jesus. The history of God’s people has demonstrated clearly that we all need Jesus to be able to come to God, without him we are lost, but all of the bible teachings show us that we have to grow and be like God. This is what the temple was aimed at, this is what Jesus is aiming at, ie to remind us that we do have responsibilities, as well as grace and the promise of the kingdom. Sadly some of Jesus’ disciples turned away because this was a hard teaching, verse 60 and 66, they preferred their lives with no responsibilities, they just preferred to please themselves. God willing we are like the twelve who said where else can we go, verse 68, they respected that only Jesus could give life and they accepted the responsibilities that came with it. October

October 15th

It was a great day of celebration and worship of God when the Ark was brought into the temple, 2Chronicles 5. Every elder was there to represent the people, verse 2-3, and when assembled the Levites took charge of the ark and moved it, verse 4-6. The celebration and worship of God was undertaken with great joy and respect as the ark was moved to its new home. The whole point of the temple and the ark was to provoke praise, respect and memory, all the things that we should be focused on too, and at this time the music used to worship and celebrate, verse 11-13, was done in praise and acknowledgement to God for his love. God was pleased because he filled the temple with a cloud, so thick that the priests could not perform their duties, verse 14. This was a great time, a time when the people were at one with God. In chapter 6 Solomon continues with the praise and worship, verse 4-11. Solomon’s prayer of dedication starts by acknowledging God’s greatness, verse 14, and he also acknowledges the responsibilities of those who are his to follow “wholeheartedly”. This is how David followed God and this is how Solomon started to follow God, and Solomon acknowledges this again, verse 16. So the same lesson is for us – we have to follow God “wholeheartedly” and “be careful” in all that we do. Solomon acknowledges that we all sin, verse 36, but also acknowledges that when we do we need to repent, verse 24, 26, 29 and 37, and this is very important for us too – when we sin we need to turn and repent. And God knows if we are genuine, verse 30, he “knows [our] heart”. The turning to face Jerusalem and therefore the temple was a great acknowledgement of the importance of respecting God and his interface with man because it was a reminder for the people. Ezekiel 41 continues with the details of the vision of the temple that Ezekiel was shown and although we see the sheer vastness of the temple vision in it we also see the intricate carvings of the palm trees and the cherubim, eg verse 17-20. All of this was intended as a reminder to God’s people of the respect that we should show to God because of his love for us. The temple also features in John 7 – in this chapter the Jews are celebrating the feast of the Tabernacles to thank God for his provision of the harvest and for saving them out of slavery in Egypt (Leviticus 23:33-44) – the people slept in tents to remind them of God’s provisions for them in the wilderness. Jesus delayed his journey to Jerusalem and therefore to the temple, verse 6-9, but he arrived half way through the week, verse 14, and began to teach. As always Jesus was challenging in his teaching and statements, eg verse 24, many people were discussing him, eg verse 25-17, but the people were divided, eg verse 40-44. The Jewish leaders were particularly opposed to him, verse 45-52, but their research about prophets from Galilee was incorrect, there was a prophet from there, ie Jonah (2Kings 14:25, Gath Hepher was in Galilee) (also Micah and Elijah were from there too!) nor had they remembered Isaiah 9:1-2, they should have known this, so the lesson for us is that we should try our best to find out what God does say so that we can at least try to believe and do the right things. We will make plenty of mistakes and there is no way that we can say that we know exactly what God wants, but neither can we just go our own way and expect God to save us! Jesus said to “stop judging by appearances, and make a right judgement” (verse 24), but the leaders were biased in their thinking and were prejudiced against Galilee, they thought that the place was of no value so much so that the place was given away in 1Kings 9:10-14 as payment in Solomon’s time. So the lesson for us is to always be aware of the reminders that God gives to us so that we remember God’s love and mercy, remembering too that he will judge those who do not follow him wholeheartedly. October

October 16th

Following the building of the temple of God by Solomon, and Solomon’s prayer of dedication, we now have God’s response (2 Chronicles 7). Firstly, the presence of God entered the temple and then fire from heaven consumed the sacrifice.  Both were signs that the construction and offerings of Solomon had been acceptable.  The temple had been built to God’s specification and the sacrifices had been offered in the right way.  Now God was living on Zion, that is, Jerusalem.  From this point on in history, God and His plan would be associated with Jerusalem.  God had appeared first in Mount Sinai, travelled with them in the Tabernacle through the wilderness, and now was resting at Jerusalem.  It looked like this would be a permanent dwelling, given it was a building and not a tent.  The second response from God was God’s message to Solomon in response to Solomon’s prayer.  This was after the 7 days of dedicating the altar and the sacrifices.  The sacrifices were evidence that the hearts of the people were right with God.  We note that the words came to Solomon at night when he was alone. God said that He would listen to the prayers of the people when they prayed to Him at the temple.  He would help them when a disaster from God struck because of their sin.  But there were conditions.  The people had to humble themselves and pray.  They also had to turn from their evil ways – that is, they had to repent.  God would always be listening out for these humble prayers, and God was looking out to see true repentance.  These directions to save oneself were repeated by the prophets throughout Israel’s history.  God wants to be merciful to His people when they repent.  However, if they think they can be blessed as they carry on sinning, they are mistaken.  Ezekiel 42 continues to describe the future temple area.  It was to be a square of 500 cubits each (approximately 250m square). Inside this square was holy and outside was unholy or common (verse 20).  The priests were to teach the difference between what was holy and what was not (Ezekiel 44:23).  The chapter describes the rooms that were either side of the temple on the north and south side.  There none of these behind or in front of the temple.  The rooms had 3 stories, reminding us of Noah’s ark (Genesis 6:16).  The rooms belonged to the priests who used them as changing rooms (verse 14) and eating rooms (verse 13). They were probably not living quarters because they had their own houses immediately outside the temple (Ezekiel 45:4).  It is possible that they slept temporarily waiting for their shift in the manner of 1 Chronicles 9:33 and Psalm 134:1, where singers would sing at night.  It is always the priests who are close to God.  These are the ones who are dedicated to the work of God.  We are to be like this (Revelation 5:10).  Imagine living close to God!  The work of God is to save life.  All who serve God must have this same goal of wanting to save the life of others.  But that was not the goal of the teachers of the law and the Pharisees in John 8.  They brought a woman to Jesus who had been caught in adultery.  They wanted to kill both her and Jesus.  In the conversations, Jesus taught them that all are sinners and we all should seek repentance.  This was also the teaching of Solomon’s temple.  Jesus told the woman to leave her life of sin – that is, to repent.  Jesus gave her an opportunity.  If she was willing to walk in the light then she could find life (verse 12).  In the same way that Jesus offered this sinner life, we need to shine the light of salvation through Jesus to others.  There then followed a conversation between Jesus and the Pharisees about fathers and sons.  The principle is this : a son should learn from the father and do what the father does. Therefore, the son and the father should be one or united in purpose.   They should be doing and saying the same things.  This was true of Jesus and his father (God).  This was definitely not true of the Pharisees.  They were not following the heavenly father and were not doing His works.  God was not really their father.  Because they were falsely accusing Jesus of being a fraud, they were false accusers – that is, devils.  They were like sons of a father who is a false accuser, not sons of God. They were sons of a father who was a false accuser.  Another way of saying this is that they were sons of the devil.  They were like Cain, whose goal of false accusing his brother was murder. The Pharisees had just tried to do this to the woman and Jesus.  1 John 3 develops this theme.  If we follow sin, then we are children of the false accuser (and can be called children of the devil, 1 John 3:8-9) and like Cain (1 John 3:12).  If we avoid sin, then we are children of God (1 John 3:9).  The question for us is – whose child are we?   We show who is our real father by what we do. October

October 17th

When Jesus and his disciples were walking away from the temple, they came across a blind man.  We learn that this man used to beg.  Like many blind men, he positioned himself on a busy road.  He was always there and would have been well-known.  This blind man had been born blind.  He had been there a long time. The disciples asked Jesus a strange question.  Who sinned to cause this man to be blind?  It surely cannot have been the man himself, since when he was born, he had not sinned.  Could it have been his parents?  Jesus answered by saying it was neither.   It was not sin that caused this blindness.  It was so that the work of God could be displayed.  The blind man knew that Jesus was a Rabbi because the disciples called him ‘Rabbi’.  But Jesus did not talk like any other rabbi.  One thing we know about blind people is that they have a very good sense of hearing.  We know this when we close our eyes and listen intently.  The blind man heard Jesus say that his blindness did not come from sin but had a higher purpose.  This was good news for him.  Now he was very interested.  Jesus spoke about things which meant a lot to the blind man – Light.  Jesus was the light.  The blind man lived in darkness.  Those in the light work, just as people work in the daytime.  What work was the light of the world going to do to bring light into the world of the blind man?  The next sound the blind man heard was the sound of spitting.  Was he spitting against the blind man?   Then he heard the sound of mixing on the ground.  Then the mud was put on his eyes.  The rabbi told him to go to wash it off in the Pool of Siloam.  What was the blind man to do?   The Pool of Siloam was not near the temple.  It was down the hill to almost the lowest point of the city.  Would he believe Jesus and do what he said?  Or would he wash off the mud and carry-on begging?  He chose to believe.  He left Jesus and felt his journey towards the pool of Siloam.  There he washed and then he understood.  His eyes were opened and he looked up.  The first thing he did was go and see his parents.  He had never seen them before.  We can picture the scene!  It was his faith that had healed him.  The putting of mud and spit on the eyes of any other blind man would not have worked except for the element of Jesus.  His faith in Jesus allowed him to see the light.  All who turn to Jesus see the spiritual light of the world.  There is a spiritual side to the mud too.  The mud comes from the dust.  And man comes from the dust.  The other component was spit.  Spit is always associated with shame.  The shame again is sin that comes from human nature.  The blind man had to see that this was his nature.  Man cannot save himself.  It is only through faith in Jesus, who was the one who carried man’s shame.  The blind man had to go and wash before he was healed.  In the same way, we had to show our faith by the washing of baptism.  The blind man was transformed.  He was spiritually and naturally blind, but now he was spiritually and naturally sighted.  The healing of the blind man was investigated by the Pharisees.  It was not to investigate whether Jesus was a prophet.  They were investigating whether Jesus had broken one of their sabbath laws.  In their investigation, they judged that Jesus had broken them and that Jesus was a sinner.  The blind man had reached a different conclusion, (v17) “He is a prophet”.  When the Pharisees investigated a second time, the blind man spoke up with stronger conviction, (read v30-33).  The Pharisees responded, “You were steeped in sin at birth”.  So now we know where the teaching that the man born blind was born in sin – it was from the Pharisees.  This meant they called all disabled people sinners!  They seem very good at calling others ‘sinners’ – they called the blind man and his parents’ ‘sinners’ and Jesus.  To avoid sin, Jesus and his followers were excluded from synagogues.  We must question what the Pharisees really knew about sin or its removal!  Jesus heard what had happened and found the blind man.  The blind man declared full belief in Jesus.  The final teaching of Jesus is one that explains about the worst type of blindness – spiritual blindness.  The blind man was only physically blind, but the Pharisees were spiritually blind.  Jesus goes further.  He takes us back to the opening question of the chapter.  Is someone born blind a sinner?  Jesus refers to this in his comments to the Pharisees, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin”.  He tells them that the blind are not sinners.  It is those who choose to be spiritual blind that are sinners – like the Pharisees.  Those who choose not to believe.  Jesus contrasts the blind beggar compared to the blind spiritually elite.  Now the blind man came to the daytime in which he too now had to work.  He had sat on the way to the temple.  But now he followed the way.  We need to follow the simple and committed faith of the blind man.  We must stand by our faith in Jesus, whatever the consequences.  It is Jesus who saves us.  We must follow the way he wants us to go.  We read in John 8:12, after Jesus saved someone else who had definitely committed sin, “When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”  We have come to the light, and we too must work in this light.  Like all followers of the way, let us be spiritually sighted as we remember Jesus.  We see in the bread and wine the love and meaning of the body and blood of Jesus.  It is Jesus who removes the shame of our humanity, bore our own shame and opened our eyes to the path in the light.  Then, when our Lord comes, the Lord of the Sabbath will heal our sins on that greater sabbath day.  Then there will no more darkness in our lives.  We thank God for the grace we have received in Jesus. October

October 18th

We read about the death of Solomon in 2Chronicles 9, verse 29-31, and this marks the start of a change for God’s people. This is the end of the united kingdom because of the mistakes made by David and Solomon during their lifetimes. Solomon started well when he asked God for wisdom, but he allowed ungodly things into his life that led him astray – we have already considered this in 1Kings 11 where we see part of his failings in marrying multiple wives. Chronicles does not record Solomon’s ungodliness, it concentrates on his fame and wisdom and those leaders from other nations who came to visit him because they heard of his wisdom, verse 1 and 23. The Queen of Sheba’s response suggests that she learned a lot about God from Solomon, verse 5-8, which shows Solomon in a good light. The queen was “overwhelmed” by the things that Solomon showed to her, verse 4. What also comes across in this chapter is Solomon’s “worldly” wealth, eg verse 13, 16, 17, 21 and 25 and maybe it was all these things added together that caused Solomon to forget God and to lose his original focus. This is an obvious warning to us – to ensure that our priorities are always with God first. The continuing vision that Ezekiel was receiving reminds us yet again that there are consequences for mistakes, Ezekiel 44 verse 10. The Levites had corrupted the worship of God and led the people astray, they did not have God as their number one priority. But, thank God, he does show mercy, because although there would be consequences they would not be cut off, verse 11-14. Their role would change, they would not have the same responsibilities because of their sin.  The same applies to us too, even though God shows us mercy and gives us forgiveness, we cannot undo what wrong has been done. Ezekiel was told to “look carefully” and “listen closely” and “give attention” to everything that God was telling him, verse 5, so God’s lessons are important and we must also “look”, “listen” and be “attentive”. God was criticising his people for not taking the worship of him seriously, verse 6-9, he was saying that these practices would not happen again. However, those who did treat God with respect would continually serve him, verse 15-16, but they too would be constrained by responsibilities, eg verse 20-23. They would also be expected to decide disputes in “accordance with God’s laws”, verse 24, and this is important for us too – we have to make decisions and help our brothers and sisters using bible teaching as our guide. John 11 again reminds us how the religious leaders of God’s people failed to use “God’s laws” as their guide, they also failed to put God first because they were only interested in themselves, verse 47-48, they were putting the Romans above God! We obviously know that the death of Jesus was foretold and the religious leaders were unknowingly fulfilling prophecy, but nevertheless there are lessons for us to always put God first. The prophetic nature of what they were doing is confirmed here too, verse 49-51. From that time the corrupt religious leaders plotted to kill Jesus, verse 43-57. The account here about the raising of Lazarus is a huge lesson for the disciples and the people – Jesus said it would be, verse 14. Many people did believe because of this miracle, verse 45, but as is so typical of human nature, others did not see the significance and power in the miracle, verse 46. It is the same today, some will believe, others will make the choice to ignore the obvious message of salvation and it is their choice. Martha believed in the resurrection when Jesus comes back, she stated this clearly in verse 24 and she really believed in Jesus, verse 27, so she had no doubt that she would see her faithful brother again, but it was still a sad time that Lazarus had died earlier than they had expected. The raising of Lazarus was a significant event that would have helped Jesus as well as Martha and Mary and the disciples, witnessing that God had given Jesus the power to raise someone from the dead, verse 40-42. Jesus had total confidence in his father to raise Jesus himself from the dead in a few days’ time, but the memory of Lazarus’ resurrection would have a great impact on the others too when they considered Jesus’ death and resurrection. We have to put God first, we have to reject our human tendencies to put ourselves first, we have to believe and have the faith in the resurrection, which is our only hope. October

October 19th

2Chronicles 10 and 11 shows how Judah and Benjamin were split from the rest of Israel; we know that this was God’s will, 10 verse 15 and 11 verse 4. The reason for this is in 1Kings11, Solomon “did not keep the Lord’s commands”, so after 40 years of security the kingdom of Israel was split. Humanly speaking the advice of the elders was better than that of the younger people who Rehoboam grew up with, but Rehoboam rejected this and took his peers’ advice, 10 verse 12-15. The consequences were that the Israelites rebelled against the King, verse 18-19, these are natural consequences if the leader is harsh. So there are lessons here for us: 1. It is wise to listen to wise counsel and in the normal course of events this advice from the elders may have worked; 2. We always have to be open to God working in events and in this case if the elders had checked the records, ie the equivalent of the bible for them, they would have seen that this is what was prophesised anyway so they should have expected it; 3. Being harsh is not wise, it drives people away. The good part of this account is that Rehoboam and the rest of Judah listened to God and did not attack their brothers in Israel, he also “walked in the ways of David and Solomon” at this stage, 11 verse 17. On the other hand although God gave him opportunity to follow him (1Kings11), Jeroboam completely rejected God, verse 14-15, this was a serious deliberate act of disobedience on Jeroboam’s part and Jeroboam is blamed for the sins that he “caused Israel” to commit. The start of the ungodliness of Israel was caused by Jeroboam, not only did the Levites leave Israel and move to Judah, all the other godly people in Israel left too, verse 16. This again emphasises that if the leaders are bad then the people will become bad too, a lesson for us today too! It was sad that during Israel’s and Judah’s history they had corrupted the things of God, hence their punishment by being sent into exile and in Ezekiel 45 we see the continuing vision of Ezekiel in how the land should be divided when the people would return, God has to step in to correct the wrongs that had crept in over the years. Verse 9 says this, ie that the leaders had “dispossessed” their brothers  of the land that they had as an inheritance when they were settled after coming out of Egypt. God had to step in again to correct their corrupt weights and measures, corrupted so that the priests and Levites and leaders could obtain more from the people, 10-12. The sad thing was that the people had become dishonest and forgotten that they should demonstrate their faith and belief in God by the honest ways that they interacted with others – a lesson for us too! If you compare the instructions with respect to the Passover in this chapter with those given to Moses in Leviticus 23, Numbers, Exodus and Deuteronomy you will see that these appear to be more detailed, perhaps an indication that the willingness to do more by the people to should their total respect of God had disappeared. Even though they “believed” in God, they were not following God, therefore not pleasing him and I think we have an example of this in John 12. Following the resurrection of Lazarus many “believed”, verse 11, 12-15, 17-18 and 42, even some of the religious leaders did, but no one committed to Jesus and we see the reason in verse 43. So the people were interested in Jesus’ miracles, they wanted to see Jesus and Lazarus but the reaction of the leaders typifies the people’s response, they were not willing to commit, because they “preferred praise from men” rather than from God. This is an important lesson for us too – we believe, but are we committed? Do we prefer the things that come from our life now or are we preferring the things we get from God? Jesus had powerful things to say about this, verse 23-26, he is saying that if we “love” the life that you have now, you will lose it; but if we hate the things of our life now, ie reject all the ungodliness, we will gain eternal life. It is our choice again, we have to decide on our priorities. Belief in Jesus means that we have to believe in all of the things of God too, verse 44-46, this demands respect and honour, it involves listening to God and being honest in all that we do. The way that we live our life now dictates how we will be judged when Jesus comes back, so we have an opportunity now to change and repent, Jesus was not judging the people then, but he will when he returns, verse 47-48. The same applies to us, although Jesus has “saved” the world, he will judge on his return and if we are not “keeping the things” that we have heard, ie doing the things that God and Jesus teach us then we may find that we are condemned! So again our lesson is to try our best to do what God wants us to do in an honest and respectful way. October

October 20th

2 Chron 12. Rehoboam and all Israel forsook the law of the Lord (v1) so the Lord forsook them and left them vulnerable to Shishak, King of Egypt (v5).  Shishak took all the fortified cities and came to Jerusalem (v4).  The leaders and the King, when in a terrible situation, humbled themselves and said “The Lord is righteous”. The Lord would not totally destroy, but he would teach the people of Jerusalem a lesson. Who is it better to serve, the nations (world) or the Lord God?  The choice is the same today for all mankind.  “Do not love the world or the things in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”  How sad that Rehoboam is summarized in v14 “And he did evil, because he did not prepare his heart to SEEK THE LORD ”. 2 Chron 13. We seem to have a positive account of Abijah in this chapter e.g. The speech he made v 4-12 but in 1 Kings 15v3, it says, “He committed all the sins his Father had done.  His heart was not FULLY devoted to the Lord his God as the heart of David.” So, despite the speech and God’s deliverance from Israel “Because they relied on the Lord” v18 … Abijah’s life is largely remembered as not FULLY devoted to the Lord … it would seem whilst observing the requirement of the Lord our God (outwardly) and claiming they had not forsaken him (not totally!) they had, in truth, still worshipped other gods.  For we read in 2 Chron 14 about Abijah’s son Asa and it says in v3, he removed the altars of the foreign gods and the high places … he commanded Judah to SEEK the Lord God of their fathers etc. … things that his father (Abijah) hadn’t done.  I am reminded of “SEEK the Lord while he may be found. Call upon Him while he is near” (Isaiah 55 v 6-7). “And devote/commit  (FULLY) your way to the Lord.  Trust also in Him.” (Psalm 37v5). A thought from John 13…..”the disciple who Jesus loved”. We  have to remember all the events of John’s gospel would have been recorded after all things had happened. At the time of writing John would remember what happened… how Jesus was treated by all kinds of mankind, even his disciples, and contrast that with how Jesus had lived his life, a sacrificial life of giving, not just at the cross, but his whole life, every day in that spirit, the spirit of a loving, willing servant. So, with tears of awareness/remembrance, John would be writing these words “Now before the Feast of the Passover when Jesus knew that his hour had come, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” .v1.… these words are a conclusion to everything else that was written. “Jesus loved them to the end”.. And we too understand that those who “WERE in the world” but now are “his own” (those in Christ) are loved by Jesus. John could relate these words to himself confessing he was loved by Jesus. In fact John, when writing about himself NEVER puts his name, instead he writes “the disciple who Jesus loved”, or similar, as in John 13:23 “one of his disciples, who Jesus loved”. This happens 5 times in John’s gospel: John 13;23…….. last supper (John was placed next to Jesus and asked who Jesus’ betrayer was); John 19:26………crucifixion (Jesus placed Mary in the care of John); John20:2……empty tomb (Mary Magdalene brings news of empty tomb); John 21:7 ….. seeing resurrected Jesus… (on a fishing trip !) and John21:20… following Jesus. They were all truly significant moments in John’s life! Is it by design (God’s) that the words are recorded 5 times? I think it was by design, by God in His inspired word. Five is known as the number concerning grace… and the very name “JOHN”.. means “God has been gracious”…. And what did John mean when he wrote those words…” the disciple who Jesus loved” because in v1 he records “he loved them to the end”. Did he mean that Jesus loved John even more than the others, and that John was “special” to him… and John recorded that he was the “special one” 5 times! And all of this AFTER Jesus had shown his love to all of them.. despite them having the wrong spirit, wrong understanding and a lack of faith and dedication…. NO… that’s not why John wrote “the disciple who Jesus loved”. John, WHEN  WRITING about all Jesus said and did, especially when recalling the amazing times (listed above), was more aware of the incredible love of Jesus… something that he hadn’t realized at the time of these things happening. So rather than writing his name as that disciple being written about.. he merely CONFESSED who he was, ie “The disciple who Jesus loved”. It’s easier to understand when you imagine John is writing and he could have put “John”.. but he didn’t, he paused and confessed what was in his own heart. The confession was not to others (or us), but to himself, “The one who Jesus loved”… it was a very personal, intimate realization… and it is our confession too, when we REALLY take to heart the words of scripture. “We love because he first loved us” 1 John 4:19. A thought from John 14/ Luke 22:7-16, “I go to prepare a place for you”. John 14 begins by Jesus re-assuring his disciples – they were confused, and understandably distraught as they knew they would be separated from Jesus for an unknown period of time. Jesus begins by reminding them to have faith in God, and faith in him (v1). Then in verse 2 he says “I go to prepare a place for you”. The words seem to be a different theme to v1 .. but they are not, they are directly connected to verse 1. Not long before John 14, Jesus tells 2 of his disciples  “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat”, Luke 22:8. They didn’t know where Jesus wanted the meal to be held (v9) Jesus told them to follow a man carrying a pitcher of water (which later on the disciples realized was Jesus preparing for the washing of their feet!) verse 10 continues “follow him into the HOUSE … and ask him “where is the guest ROOM where I (Jesus) may eat the Passover with my disciples. Not only that, Jesus shows his love for his disciples by saying “with fervent desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer”. The disciples had shown faith in Jesus and it all happened as Jesus had said, a few hours before John 14, Jesus had already “prepared a place for them”, they had gone there not knowing where it was, but simply FOLLOWED Jesus to that place, having complete faith in him, so likewise Jesus is reminding his disciples to keep having that faith, and once again, at a future time Jesus will prepare a place for them, and where would that be?  Jesus tells them in Luke22:16  “I will no longer eat of it, until it is fulfilled IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD”. So, John 14:3 is all about Jesus and his believers in the Kingdom of God, this is further confirmed by listening to Jesus words “where I am , there you may be also”. It is clear from scripture that Jesus is coming from heaven to us, we can see this in John 14, “I will come again and receive you to myself” (.v3) “If any one loves me, he will keep my word; and my Father will love him, and we will COME to him and make our home WITH him”  v23 “For the Lord himself will DESCEND from heaven and the dead in Christ will rise first”, 1Thess4:16. Also many other verses say this, all confirming that Jesus is coming back to establish the Kingdom of God on Earth and with fervent desire he has already prepared all things for “his Own (in Christ)”. It is clear, the world has only one future, and that is WITH Jesus. October

October 21st

A common practical message comes through all of the readings again today. In 2Chronicles 14 and 15 we see the results when the leader, king Asa, and the people are at one in how they worshipped and sought God. They had challenges, eg the pending attack by the Cushite army, but each time they sought God and tried to do the right things. Asa was described as “good and right” in God’s eyes, 14 verse 2, and he was described in this way because he removed all of the false gods and wrong worship, eg verse 3, 5 and then 15 verse 8. The lesson for us is that we do have to do our best to remove the things that come between us and God and we have to constantly do this, like Asa who realised that more things were wrong as he became more aware of God, so must we keep reviewing the things in our life that detract from the best worship of God. Asa was an example to others as he encouraged the people to follow God, eg 14 verse 4. Because of his godliness people from Israel moved to Judah, 15 verse 9, so the lesson is obvious for us, ie if we are acting godly people will see and will want to join us because of the example that we set. Because the king and the people did their best God was with them and they “prospered”, 14 verse 7, and again because they asked God for help and they were trying to follow God, God gave them victory over the Cushites, verse 11-15. The account of the message from God in chapter 15 reminds us yet again that God’s help is conditional, verse 2, and Asa is encouraged to not to give up, verse 7. This is cause for great joy and continued dedication, verse 9-14. This is a great situation for all of us to be in, ie to follow God “wholeheartedly”, verse 15, and to be “fully committed” to God, verse 17. In Asa and Judah’s case the result was no war for a time, verse 19, in our case the ultimate blessing is being in the kingdom. Whatever Ezekiel 47 exactly means, it paints a picture of God’s love and teachings flowing out from the temple and giving sustenance for providing “food and healing”, verse 12, this paints a similar picture as Revelation 22:1-2. So the strong message here is that if we want “food” and “healing” that will last we need to rely on God. Setting good examples and allowing others who also respect God to join in with God’s people is confirmed in verse 21-23 and the message here is that God wants those who are not naturally his people (“aliens”), ie Gentiles, to be given an inheritance too; this is us and we are thankful for this opportunity. John 15 and 16 continues with Jesus’ teachings during the Passover meal that Jesus shared with his disciples, which then became the first breaking of bread service for us. Chapter 15 verse 4, 5, 6, 7 and 10 are examples of the conditional love of God, as we also see in Chronicles. We have to “remain” in Jesus to benefit from his grace, and if we try to obey his commands we will remain in his love. We have to want to follow both God and Jesus wholeheartedly and if we do we will be filled with confidence and love. Jesus showed us just how much he loved, by giving his life for his friends, us, and we are his friends if we do what Jesus commands, verse 14-15. The command is: “Love each other”, verse 17. Asa loved God and the people, he demonstrated that by removing temptations, teaching and encouraging; God teaches that his salvation is open to all who love him and Jesus gave everything for us, his friends! We have to do likewise. Jesus prepared his disciples for suffering because of him, verse 18-chapter 16 verse 4, but he said that they would have comfort from God to help in their difficulties and in the times when they have to give an answer for their faith, verse 12-15. The climax of the message for us is that in Jesus we have “peace”, verse 33. “Peace” because we know that God is in control, we are confident in the return of Jesus and in the future promise of the kingdom and “peace” also because we can turn to God in prayer and have help to cope with our troubles. October

October 22nd

We again see the two extremes of human nature in 2Chronicles 16 and 17. After a good, godly start Asa becomes proud and turns to human strength for help rather than to God. It is sad that he had forgotten what God had achieved for him and the people in his early years as king. King Baasha of Israel appears to be stopping the people of Israel from crossing into Judah because of the more godly nature of the people in Judah, 17 verse 1. But instead of turning to God, Asa turned to the king of Aram and God sent Hanani the prophet to challenge Asa, verse 7-9. Unfortunately Asa was not repentant, verse 10, he had become so proud and arrogant in his position and even when he became ill he still did not turn to God, verse 12. It is so sad that Asa started so well in his walk with God but he allowed human pride to come between him and God. In chapter 17 it appears that Jehoshaphat learnt from his father’s mistakes, initially at least, as God was “with him”, verse 3. Because he tried to follow God’s commands, God established him as king, verse 5, and it is clear that Jehoshaphat was “devoted” to God and he removed the source of temptation from the people, verse 6. He goes further too – he sent out teachers to correct the failings of the people, verse 7-9. So again we see the strong lessons for us, we have to constantly be reminded of the things of God, we need to be humble when we do make mistakes and others challenge us and we need to try and always pray to God when we are in difficulties. In this account, Asa suffered consequences by not repenting and turning back to God. In Ezekiel 48 the priests were given a “special” portion in the reallocation of the land, verse 9-12. It was because the priests remained faithful to God when the other Levites and the Israelites went astray. The priests had a period of suffering like everyone else, but God had not forgotten their faithfulness and they were rewarded for this. It is similar for us, if we remain faithful and try our best now, we will be rewarded by being accepted into the kingdom when Jesus comes back. The message is always true that no matter how bad things appear to be, God will never leave us or forsake us – we have been promised the kingdom providing we remain faithful. Jesus’ prayer in John 17 is amazing and humbling, because Jesus includes us in his prayer, we are included as “all those who believe”, verse 20-26. Jesus wants us to be “one” with him and his father! In his prayer Jesus reminds us of the importance of teaching, ie verse 8, 14 and again verse 26, in these words Jesus appears to be acknowledging its importance: “I gave them the words you gave me”; “I have given them your word” and “I have made you known to them” – Jesus faithfully passed on his father’s teachings to his disciples and also to us. Jehoshaphat also recognised how important God’s teachings were, and the priests who Ezekiel refers too also recognised the same. Like the priests, we too will have a special inheritance. This wonderful, special prayer of Jesus becomes more special when we know what followed, ie his arrest and then crucifixion – the last thing before he died, Jesus was praying for us! Jesus always honoured his father’s words and even in this sad chapter 18 where Jesus is arrested and then subjected to a false trial it is clear that God’s word was acknowledged as right, eg verse 4, 9, 14 (Jn11:49-52), 32 and 37 – all these verses acknowledge previous prophecies. Jesus knew all this was part of the purpose of God and even during the last hours before his death he witnessed to the wonderful future that we are all part of, verse 36, where he spoke of his return. To conclude today’s thought read again 17 verse 1-5, Amen! October

October 23rd

2Chronicles 18 and 19 continues with telling ushow Jehoshaphat acted and therefore provides us with more lessons in how we should be living our lives. Jehoshaphat made some ungodly decisions in his dealings with people that resulted in God saying to him that God’s “wrath” would be on him, but he had done “some good”, chapter 19 verse 2-3. Hearing this made Jehoshaphat rethink the ways that he dealt with people and verses 4-11 show how he again turned the people’s “hearts back to God”; he had learnt that we must “serve faithfully and wholeheartedly”. So what had he done wrong up to this point? Chapter 18 verse 1 gives us the clue, he “had great wealth and honour” and he “allied himself to Ahab in marriage”. He had married Ahab’s daughter, Ahab was one of the bad kings of Israel. In those times kings married kings’ daughters of neighbouring nations to form an alliance as a way of protection and maintaining unity. This was a mistake that Jehoshaphat made and it provoked God’s response in 19 verse 2. Maybe it was pride that had crept in too because of his wealth and honour, both of these things put Jehoshaphat in situations that he should not have been in. The lesson is so clear to us, we need to always be aware of the company that we keep and ask ourselves if it is going to help our faithful, wholehearted walk or is it going to hinder it. It is true that our underlying godliness can still shine when we are in bad company and it did with Jehoshaphat when he visited Ahab. Ahab put on a huge feast and then he asked Jehoshaphat to go to war with him, chapter 18 verse 2, a difficult position for Jehoshaphat to refuse, his father-in-law had just given him a feast, how could he refuse! So he agreed, verse 3. This situation could have been avoided if he had not become so close to an ungodly person.  However, he did set an example, verse 4, 6 and 7 where he challenged Ahab for saying a bad thing of God’s prophet. Micaiah, the true prophet of God did come and using a parable showed how God was actually using the false prophets to get Ahab to go to war but that this would also result in Ahab’s death. Another difficult situation for Jehoshaphat then arises – how can he try to save his father-in-law’s life! He agrees to a very bad plan of being a decoy, verse 29, and he is nearly killed but after crying out to God he is saved, verse 31-32. So Jehoshaphat’s bad choices nearly ended in his death! But no one can hide from God and God guided the apparent random arrow that struck Ahab down, verse 33-34. Jehoshaphat put himself in real danger because of his bad choices – a lesson for us to beware of these temptations. It could have been a temptation for Daniel and his friends too in Daniel 1 to eat and drink the attractive things from the “king’s table”, but they put their faith in God first, verse 8. The big lesson for us here is that Daniel and his 3 friends were captives who acted in such a godly way at all times that their captors saw it and liked and respected their example. Despite being captives, they still acted in godly ways and God was able to work through them, verse 9. Our actions are certainly seen by those around us, something for us all to remember! The official was understandably concerned, verse 10, and Daniel makes a suggestion that is accepted, verse 11-14. The official could have only agreed to this because he trusted the four and respected the fact that all four respected God themselves. Obviously God was working too, because the four were trying their best to serve him. Another clear lesson for us about being “wholehearted” in our Christianity and setting good examples. In this case a miracle was evident and the four were more healthy than the others, verse 15-16, so God enabled what the four desired, not “defiling” themselves, and God also increased their understanding, verse 17, so much so that they were 10 times better than their peers, verse 18-20. There were two men who put their human standing at great risk when they went to Pilate to ask for Jesus’ body in John 19, verse 38-42. Both Joseph and Nicodemus kept their faith in Jesus secret because they “feared” the Jews, but now they risked their livelihood by declaring their love of their Lord. Sometimes we are put in difficult situations by events when we have to declare our love for both God and Jesus, our “confession” of our faith is made that little bit easier if we are seen by those around us as being trusted and honest in all our dealings. Although Pilate was a weak leader, demonstrated by his wanting to please the Jews rather than letting an innocent man go free, he was sympathetic to the request because he knew it was wrong that Jesus was killed, verse 12. He even showed his regret by refusing to change the sign that he had written to go on the cross, verse 19-22, even ungodly people confess that Jesus is King. And even here at this terribly sad time we see prophecy fulfilled, eg, verse 23-24 and 35-37. Our Lord Jesus never did anything other than follow his father “faithfully” and “wholeheartedly” and even right at the time of his death he took care of his mother, verse 25-27, such is the love of Jesus! Jesus acknowledged that his life was in his father’s hands and he confessed this again before Pilate, verse 11, Daniel certainly confessed this too and so did Jehoshaphat in his way, all of them are examples for us. Our better example is Jesus, but we can take comfort from others too, who despite their sins, also remained faithful to God. Because of Jesus’ sinless death we have confidence in the resurrection and have a way for our sins to be forgiven, so we see beyond this sad reading knowing that Jesus is now alive and will return as a just king. October

October 24th

John 20 is the wonderful account of Jesus’ resurrection; it is the event that gives us the hope that we have, because we too will be resurrected if we die before Jesus comes back. Jesus knew all though his ministry what was going to happen to him, he referred to his death and miraculous resurrection in John 2, verse 18-22, here Jesus referred to the “temple” as his body. The disciples did not understand the meaning of this until after the resurrection and now it is clear that the “temple” that Jesus was referring to was himself, but also it was now involving believers as part of the body. It appears that the phrase that Jesus uses in John 20 verse 21-22 when he “breathed” on them so that they received the holy spirit, was to remind them and us of the words his father used in Genesis during Creation. When God made man he “breathed” into his nostrils and Adam became a living man. This reference, together with the start of John, ie chapter 1 verse 1-18, strongly suggests that we are to think of a “new creation” with the resurrection of Jesus. Jesus became the “first fruits” (1Corinthians 15:23), implying that there is more to follow, that there will be more resurrections. In this chapter in Corinthians, verse 22, Paul refers to the fact that “in Adam all die” and “in Christ all will be made alive”. So resurrection is a new creation and this new creation involves forgiveness, verse 23. From verse 24 of John 20 to the end of John 21 we have a number of enacted “pictures” as reminders for the disciples, and also to us, about what this new creation is about. The first picture is about doubt, verse 24-31. We all suffer from doubts at time and Thomas really doubted that Jesus was alive and although he was faithful, he really could not believe what the other disciples told him. He said that unless he puts his fingers in the holes where the nails were and put his hand into the hole in his side, he would not believe. And this is then exactly what Jesus told him to do, Jesus knows our doubts and he will personalise his help for us if we let him. Notice that Thomas, although he doubted, remained faithful and met with the other disciples still. The next picture to learn from is John 21 verse 1-8 where the disciples went out to fish again, but they caught nothing, only when Jesus told them where to cast the net did they catch fish. This reminds us of Luke 5 verse 4-7 and then Jesus told Peter that he was going to be a “fisher of men”, verse 10, so this picture in John 21 is saying that Jesus will help them in their preaching as they go out and tell everyone of the resurrection and the hope that it brings. Next picture is from verse 9-14, here Jesus has “prepared” the food for them to eat, that includes bread – there is no doubt that this is intended to remind us of the breaking of the bread as Jesus gave it to them, verse 13. By his death and resurrection, Jesus had “prepared” to make our salvation possible. Although Jesus provides all that we need, we are also invited to bring a contribution, verse 10, so our appreciation for Jesus’ preparation should want us to also bring a contribution to help the group of believers. Forgiveness is the next picture and this is from verse 15-19. Because Peter “sinned” by denying Jesus (John 18) Jesus was now showing him, as an individual, that he was forgiven. Jesus asked three times if Peter loved him, three times to correspond with the three denials, a reminder that those who have been forgiven “much” are stronger, because they learn and grow. The new creation is all about forgiveness. The last picture lesson is from verse 20-23 where we see Peter being concerned about the “disciple who Jesus loves”. Jesus’ kind reply to Peter is also the same to us, ie that Jesus has given us all different roles in the church – Jesus needs all of us with our different talents and abilities, we should not expect everyone to do the same thing in our service and we should not judge others by what we do. We should all realise that we are all loved the same by Jesus and he has brought us into his church to contribute and to perform different roles. The final lesson for us in John 21 is that all these things were written down for us to see that everything about Jesus is true, verse 24. A new creation started with the resurrection of Jesus, we are part of this new creation and we have these picture reminders that Jesus knows our doubts and helps us; he helps us to teach others; he has prepared a way for our salvation; he forgives us and he has called us to have different roles in his new creation. October

October 25th

Some people just do not want to accept God and his ways, no matter how well they are taught and no matter how many good examples there are for them to follow – it is their choice! This I think was the case for both kings of Judah that we read about in 2Chronicles 21 and 22. Jehoram, who succeeded his father Jehoshaphat, was described by God as “evil”, chapter 21 verse 6. A demonstration of why he was described as “evil” is in verse 4. When he was established, he killed all those who he thought might oppose him some time in the future – this is the action of an ungodly dictator who was only interested in himself and was proud. His father did make the mistake of marrying a daughter of Ahab and Jehoram rejected the advice that his father surely would have given him, and also married a daughter of Ahab, ie Athaliah, who was also the daughter of Jezebel, one of Ahab’s very ungodly wives! The real bad influences from this ungodly family become apparent as we read. Jehoram suffered revolts and all because he had “forsaken” God, verse 10. Elijah sent a letter to Jehoram, verse 12-15; in this prophecy we see clearly that God is going to very quickly bring Jehoram down. This is exactly what happened, verse 16-19, and he suffered a very very unpleasant death. Jehoram craved power, demonstrated by the killing of his brothers, yet in his death the complete opposite happened to the ungodly thing that he craved the most, verse 20. He died and no one “regretted” his death! He suffered an extremely sad end to his life. His son did not learn from his father’s mistakes, he too was described by God as “evil”, chapter 22 verse 4, Ahaziah was “encouraged” by his mother to continue to do wrong, verse 3. He allowed others to influence him for evil, and he too was punished by Jehu who God had appointed to destroy the house of Ahab, verse 7-9. The concluding verses show just how wicked Athaliah was, acting just like her mother did in Israel. However, another woman who was unlike all around her, who was godly, saved the young Joash from the murderous Athaliah, verse 10-12. All this is a grim account in Judah’s history, but it still shows God at work and also shows us the faith of Jehosheba who stood out as godly amongst this ungodly crowd. The lesson for us? We should always reject ungodly influences in our lives if we want to remain in God’s love, God will always work out things for the best, even though it may not seem like it at the time – Jehosheba demonstrated great faith and trust in God. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego also demonstrated enormous faith when they refused to obey the king’s command in Daniel 3. They knew that it was wrong to bow down and worship any god other than the one true God and clearly confessed this to the king, verse 16-18. In this confession to the king Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego demonstrated a great lesson for us, they acknowledged that God could save if it was his will, but they also acknowledged that God had his purpose and accepted whatever God decided for them. We need to also remember this too, we pray for things and outcomes that we think would be best, but we too should always pray that God’s will will be done. On this occasion Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were saved from the furnace and the king learnt a huge lesson, 26-27; more than this Nebuchadnezzar confessed that only the one true God could do this, verse 28-29. Just like with Jehoram in Chronicles, God directs ways to be completely opposite to corrupt and evil human thinking – the other advisors to the king were jealous of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (and Daniel) because the king considered them better than his other advisors (chapter 1:20), so they “denounced” the Jews, verse 8, and it was they who reported Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to the king in the first place. But look at what actually happened to Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego because they only trusted in God, verse 30. The opposite actually happened to what the jealous advisors wanted! God works in godly people’s lives! Acts marks the start of the Christian era, this new creation. Jesus focuses on teaching the disciples about the “kingdom of God”, Acts 1 verse 3. This is the important part of our belief in God and in Jesus, the kingdom is the end game, it is what is promised, it will happen. The angels confirmed this after Jesus was taken to heaven, verse 9-11, this is what we are looking forward to, ie the return of Jesus to set up the kingdom of God. The disciples believed this would happen, they just did not know the time, verse 6, and Jesus’ answer confirms that all timing and events are in his father’s hands, verse 7. The disciples did not quite know what would happen from now on, but they trusted and remained faithful, dedicating themselves to prayer, verse 14. Another thing that they were dedicated to was God’s teaching. Peter spoke, quoting from the Old Testament Scriptures, which were their Bible, to suggest that they refill the role left by Judas in order to make up the twelve again, verse 15-17 and 21-26. Whether this was actually the right thing to do or not, (we are not quite sure, some people think that Jesus’ choice was Paul and not Matthias), the disciples did the right thing by consulting the bible and praying before they made the decision. This has to be our lesson too, we have to base all our decisions on prayer AND God’s word. One last lesson from here – Peter and the disciples considered the “witness of the resurrection” as well as all of Jesus’ teachings as an important “qualification” to be an apostle. In addition to prayer, the bible, and the importance of the Kingdom of God, we should add the resurrection to our list of important teachings – all these give us hope and should always take priority over our natural human tendencies of pride, power and satisfaction now. October

October 26th

Patience is something that we all have to learn. In 2Chronicles 23 Jehoiada the priest and his godly wife waited six years before they presented the hidden heir to the throne, verse 1. During this period of waiting they endured the ungodly “rule” of Athaliah (Chapter 22 verse 12), this would have been a time when godly people would have been frightened and a time when they would have known that there was no descendant of David on the throne, verse 3. Verse 21 suggests that it was not a good time when Athaliah ruled! They wanted to put in place what God wanted, but they patiently waited until the seventh year, verse 1. Only when the time was right did they make their move and then continued to protect the “line of David”, 2-7. This is exactly what happened and Joash was made king, verse 11. Following the death of Athaliah, the priest Jehoiada renewed the contract with the people that they would be God’s people, verse 16 and they started to right the wrongs that had been introduced into Judah, verse 17. Once again the respectful worship of God was reintroduced, verse 18-20. Jehoiada was a good example to the young king Joash and we know he remained a good influence until he died. The way that he dealt with Athaliah confirms his respect of the temple and therefore God, verse 14-15. The lessons for us are again to try to learn and understand what God wants and demonstrate a complete respect for him, the bad influences of Ahab’s family were destroyed (Athaliah and the false god of Baal and the priests). Nebuchadnezzar learned a big lesson too in Daniel 4, although he was used by God to bring about the destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity of the people (Jeremiah 27:5-7), God still cared for them and used Nebuchadnezzar to ensure they prospered whilst in captivity. By his own admission, Nebuchadnezzar was a proud and arrogant man, verse 4 and 28-30, but he learned over a period of 7 years that it was God who ruled in the kingdoms of men, verse 17, 25 and 32. It appears that all of chapter 4 is a letter that Nebuchadnezzar wrote to all of his people (verse 28-33 may be an interjection by Daniel) and it is a confession that God is the only true God and that man should be humble before him, verse 36-37. By inspiration, this letter is included in the bible for all of us to learn from, his conclusion is not new, Daniel himself confirms that God rules in the kingdoms of men in Daniel 2:21 and 5:21. All those who are proud will fail, only those who are humble can respect God. The Jews in captivity learned humility and God brought them back to the land. Acts 4 ends with many people humbly accepting Jesus and realising that Jesus’ crucifixion was as a result of pride, “wicked” men, verse 23. They asked what they should do after learning how Jesus had been raised from the dead, verse 37. “Repent and be baptised” was the answer then and still is the answer now to sin, verse 38-39. The “gift” is forgiveness, this is what Jesus gives us. By remaining true to Jesus we can “save ourselves from this corrupt generation”, verse 40. These last verses show us the kind of character we should be trying to have in response to Jesus’ forgiveness and the promise of salvation, ie we should be “devoted” to fellowship, breaking of bread and to prayer; we should be in “awe” of what God does for us; we should be “together” and have things in “common”; we should be prepared to give to those in need, even selling possessions; “every day” they “continued” to meet together; they “broke bread”, ie shared food with “glad and sincere hearts” and “praised God”, verse 42-47. This is a similar emotion that the people in Joash’s day felt when they celebrated that he had been made king and that the wickedness was removed, it was similar to how Nebuchadnezzar felt when he humbly acknowledged God and it is how we should feel when we consider what Jesus has done for us. Jesus had promised the disciples that they would receive “comfort” by the power of God’s holy spirit and that they would be helped to teach and to prove that the message about Jesus was right. In this case God’s power enabled them to speak in different languages, verse 4, it was not a power that the disciples had, it was God’s power enabling them to do something at a particular time, they humbly gave the credit to God, verse 17-21. October

October 27th

Jehoiada, the priest, was a good influence on Joash during his life, 2Chronicles 24 verse 2, he did everything right to bring Joash up in the ways of God, he even chose wives for him too, verse 3. We are not told, but we presume that these wives were God fearing, otherwise Jehoiada would not have chosen them. It is also clear that Joash was committed to doing the right things, ie he wanted to restore the temple, verse 4, he was not happy that the work was delayed, verse 6, he used the remaining money wisely, verse 14, and he enabled offerings to continue at the temple. God described him as “right” – “all the days of Jehoiada the priest”. The lesson for us is for us to respect those who are trying to teach us the ways of God and also is a reminder that all of us have a responsibility to teach the ways of God to others. However, when Jehoiada died Joash turned to become an evil man. He forgot the teachings of the priest, he abandoned his worship of God and he introduced false worship, verse 17-18; he was tempted by the officials who came and paid “homage” to him, he was easily led astray and he became proud and arrogant. Even when God sent prophets in an attempt to turn him and the people back, in his pride he rejected them, verse 19. It gets worse – when Zechariah, Jehoiada’s son, who he must have known personally, challenges him, verse 20, he plots to kill him, verse 21. He “did not remember the kindness” of Jehoiada, verse 22. This is terrible, Joash became so proud and arrogant he would not listen to anyone, he even had pride in his army, but God had this destroyed by a smaller army and brought his downfall, verse 24. Then his officials plotted against him because of what he had done, verse 25. He failed because of pride – a massive lesson for us to always be humble in everything that we do. Pride was the downfall of Belshazzar in Daniel 5 too. The king was arrogant, when he boasted about his nation’s power, by bringing out the gold articles that were dedicated to God for worship in the temple in Jerusalem, verse 1-4. He had not learned respect and humility like his father Nebuchadnezzar had done and God was about to teach him about humility too, verse 5-6. It is interesting that Daniel was not part of the group of advisors that Belshazzar first called, I assume this is because he wanted the younger advisors and because of pride he did not use the advisors that his father used. Because his first choice advisors could not help, his mother (I assume) suggested Daniel, verse 10-12. Daniel was brought, verse 13, and he interpreted the writing, verse 18-28. During this interpretation, Daniel is quite clear that it was the pride and arrogance of Belshazzer that was going to bring about his fall. Daniel demonstrated the complete opposite of pride by being humble, he did not want any gift, verse 17, and neither did he take any credit for the interpretation because he referred to God all the way through what he said. Pride stops people honouring God; humility allows God to work in our lives; in this case Daniel was promoted to 3^rd in power and God put him in a position to influence Darius when he took over, verse 29-31. We can see pride and humility in Acts 3 and 4 too. Peter and John and the other disciples never took any credit for any of the miracles that they were involved in, they always gave the credit to God and to Jesus, eg verse 6, 12 and verse 10. When they preached they taught humility, eg verse 19, ie you have to be humble to repent! The disciples praised God as soon as they heard that Peter and John had been released, verse 24, and the way that they were all “one in heart”, verse 32-37, demonstrates a humble character. This contrasts with the attitude of the priest, the “rulers and elders”, they were arrogant and proud, verse 1-3, 7, 13-18. They were unwilling to “repent” as a lot of the people had done and were only interested in their own standing in the community. Even though it was now so obvious that what the disciples were doing was of God, they were too proud to see it and believe! So are we humble or proud? Are we only interested in our own achievements, or are we completely reliant on God? Do we keep everything that we have built up for ourselves, or are we willing to share when there is a need? Do we demand that we are listened to, or do we wait for God to give us opportunities? There are so many lessons from individual examples that we have read about today! We pray that we all will remain humble! October

October 28th

King Amaziah of Judah was a man who did not follow God “wholeheartedly”, 2Chronicles 25 verse 2, he was described as “right in the eyes of the Lord”, but during his 29 years as king he ended up refusing to listen. His attitude is a lesson for us, because initially he did start well, he ensured that he obeyed the law of Moses, verse 4, and he initially listened to the man of God, verse 7 -10. But he showed a lack of faith by inviting the men of Israel to help him in the first place, verse 6, he should have relied on God, as he then did when he sent the men back (verse 10). Even though he defeated the Edomites, because God was working, he really turned against God by bringing the worthless gods of Edom back with him, verse 14. This is a bewildering action on his part and it demonstrated a complete lack of trust and respect in God and it is no wonder that God was angry with him, verse 15. After all that God had done for Amaziah, he immediately turned his back on him – a real warning for us when we forget what God has done for us in the past and replace him with other things. God’s love is such that he sent a prophet to speak to him, but Amaziah was just not interested, verse 16. And when we are not interested God stops talking, as demonstrated by the prophet stopping talking, although he passed on the message that God would destroy him because he had “not listened”. And this is what happened. We always have to listen to God if we want him to work in our lives, we can not expect him to listen to us or help us if we do what we want to do and turn our backs on him. Daniel, on the other hand, always listened to God and did what God wanted. Daniel was blessed by God because of this, and because of his position that God had elevated him to, his peers despised him and plotted against him. Daniel 6 verse 6-9 shows how they plotted to bring down Daniel because of their jealousy of him because he had yet again been promoted into a top position, verse 1-3. The only reason why Daniel was promoted was that he was honest and the king could see that he was, obviously God was at work too, but that was only because Daniel was a godly man. This is exactly how we should be too in all our dealings with people, we need to be honest and trustworthy in everything. It is sad though that often others will resent this and will look for ways to trip you up, but we should nevertheless be blameless as Daniel was, verse 4. These men knew how Daniel acted and prayed three times a day and set up the “trap” just to get rid of him, in so doing they also pushed the king into a corner, causing him grief and embarrassment. So Daniel was thrown into the lions’ den, humanly speaking this was the end of Daniel. But the king knew enough about Daniel and his belief that he believed that God could rescue Daniel if he wanted to, verse 16. He was also very concerned about Daniel and demonstrated this during the night and into the morning, verse 18-20. To his relief God had saved Daniel, verse 21-23, and he made a confession to all his nation that they should respect God, verse 25-27. However, the men who had set the trap for Daniel and who had pushed the king into a corner by making this edict a law that could not be changed, were punished, verse 24. There are times in our lives when we are doing things in a godly way, but despite this we suffer, in Daniel’s case it was persecution, and things did not look good when he was condemned to the lions’ den. However, God was still working even then and Daniel was saved. Trust in God is the key, even if things do not work out the way we would like it to, we still have to trust in God, because he knows best, he always does! Jealousy seems to be the common human characteristic in Acts 5 and 6 too. Because of the apostles’ teaching and the work that they were doing many believed, eg chapter 5 verse 14. The religious authorities were jealous that this was happening, verse 17, and arrested them, verse 18. Their miraculous release from prison, verse 18-19, caused the authorities even more of a concern, verse 21-24, especially when they heard that the apostles were speaking at the temple, verse 25. Even though the religious authorities saw even more evidence that God was working through the apostles they still did not believe, and punished them, verse 40. Peter had clearly told them that they would obey God rather than men, verse 29-33, and when they were released they praised God, verse 41-42. Stephen too was arrested too because of jealousy, and lies were used in order to convict him, chapter 6 verse 11-14. There is a common theme here in that human thinking does not like God’s thinking and those who oppose will do anything to stop listening to God! We all forget that God is aware of all the things that happen in our lives, God is aware of our thoughts and our actions. Ananias and Sapphira did not have to give all of the proceeds from their land to the poor, it was their money to keep if they wanted to, but they wanted to appear good by doing what most others were doing. Perhaps they lacked faith, who knows what their motives were, but they lied to God, chapter 5 verse 4 and 9. This is the lesson for all of us, we have all committed to follow both God and Jesus and we have committed to be honest like Daniel was, like the apostles were and certainly to try and be like Jesus. Yes we will fail, but what Ananias and Sapphira did was planned their deceit, verse 1-2 and 9, they worked out a scheme to appear to be good to their brothers and sisters but they could not lie to God and to Jesus, both knew what they had done and both were punished. All the things that we have read about today are dramatic, but the principles still apply to everyone of us – I think that the “fear” that is mentioned in verse 5 and 11 means full respect of God. Stephen certainly respected God, so did Daniel, and both were seen to be different by their actions, they made an impact on the people around them by being godly and Stephen’s face even looked dramatically different when he was defending his godly actions, chapter 6 verse 15. Do we look different? Do we look godly? October

October 29th

Pride and human thinking are two of our main enemies in our Christian life. In 2Chronicles 26 king Uzziah started off well, God described him as doing “what was right”, verse 4, however this only happened whilst he was influenced by those who were good around him, verse 5. God “helped” him and he became “powerful”, verse 8 and 15, however, Uzziah did not use this “power” well; he did not give credit to God and verse 16 shows how his pride and his arrogance led to his downfall. He misused God’s grace, love and help and thought that he could do what he liked, including burning incense in the temple. He had forgotten that he should be humble in all that he did, he allowed his pride to take control and even when he was correctly challenged by the priests he refused to listen and got “angry”, verse 17-19. This is a very dramatic example of punishment from God as leprosy immediately broke out on his forehead; the priests and even Uzziah himself immediately acknowledged that this was from God, verse 20. In the Bible Leprosy has been used to symbolise sin and as a consequence, lepers were not allowed in the temple, so this very dramatic picture in Uzziah’s life is a reminder that disobeying God is serious, and sin comes between an individual and God, verse 21. In 2Chronicles 27, his son Jotham also became powerful, but he remained humble, he respected God, verse 2, and he “walked steadfastly” before God, verse 6. He had a better godly attitude than his father, perhaps learning from the bad example of his father – lessons for us too as we humbly follow God. Pride is a very human characteristic and all of us can fall so easily into this “pride trap”, we all naturally like praise and enjoy telling others what we have done and what we know, just so that we can increase our standing in others’ perception of us – it is really not good! But we all like praise and to be thought well of, so this is a real humbling message for all of us, or it should be! To be godly we need to be humble in everything! Daniel 7 is the record of Daniel’s dream about various “beasts” that come out of the sea, we know that these beasts represent four human kingdoms, verse 17. Bible scholars believe that they can match these beasts with real nations, but I just want to pick out the lessons and hope for us. We know that human nations are proud and generally ungodly and the fourth beast, in particular, boasted, verse 8, 11 and 20. The fourth beast (human kingdom) also persecuted God’s people, ie the saints, verse 21 and 25. God, the “Ancient of Days”, judged in favour of the saints and they possessed the kingdom, verse 22 and 27. We see a picture of Jesus in this passage, verse 13, like “a son of man”. So wherever this fits into world history we can take real hope from this message because God’s people, the saints, will be brought into the everlasting kingdom where we will worship and obey. God will save us via Jesus, his son, at his return there will be a judgement and human nature, sin and death will be completely destroyed forever. So wherever God’s people are in history, they can be assured that God will work out his purpose and give the kingdom to his saints, ie us. The interesting and important point, though, to bring out is Daniel’s humble attitude. We know from previous visions that he was interpreting for others, eg Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 2) he always gave the credit to God, and it is the same attitude on display here, verse 15. He did not understand, so he asked, verse 16. The wonderful summary is in verse 16-18, wonderful because this involves us and the promise to us of a future in God’s kingdom when Jesus comes back. Whatever the minute detail of this means this future hope is referred to again in verse 26-27. Despite these massive revelations to Daniel he “kept the matter to himself”, verse 28. In humility he kept quiet and did not boast about his new, God given, knowledge. Neither would the proud nations be in the kingdom – the kingdom is for the humble! God is please when we are humble! Stephen’s speech in Acts 7 is a great summary of the history of the people of Israel and we are sadly reminded that time and time again the people turned away from God’s ways, whether it was the jealousy of Joseph’s brothers, verse 9, the building of the golden calf, verse 41 or the pride of the present religious leaders, verse 51. Stephen quoted Isaiah 66:1-2 in verse 49-50, the religious leaders would have known these verses and also what comes next, ie “This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.” Instead of continuing with the quote, Stephen uses the reality of the leaders’ pride and hypocrisy to show that they were rejecting God, 51-43. They were doing exactly what Uzziah did in Chronicles, they were acting like the “beasts” (nations) in Daniel and they were too proud to recognise this! Even when Stephen tried to continue to demonstrate both God and Jesus’ love, they would not listen, verse 54-58. Stephen was humble right to his death, he even prayed for the people to be forgiven, verse 59-60. He died, knowing that Jesus would return, as God had promised, and that he together with all the saints will be in the everlasting kingdom when it is set up on earth. These are all good lessons for us today to increase our hope in a world where we are confused and dismayed by what is happening around us. There are events that we cannot understand and certainly cannot explain. Stephen asking God and Jesus to forgive the people for what they were doing reminds us of Jesus who said the same as he hung on the cross, Luke 23 verse 35. Events and Jesus’ words at the crucifixion would have reminded the Jews of prophecies in the Old Testament, eg Psalm 22 and if those who were able to had thought about the Psalm, they too would have known that God had a salvation in mind as the Psalm says at the end. There is so much significance in the bread and the wine to show that all this is only achieved in Jesus. The wine was also speaking of new life in the kingdom. So in humility we thank both God and Jesus for what has been done for us! And resolve to try harder to walk in humility. October

October 30th

Ahaz was a wicked king of Judah, he was nothing like his father Jotham. He was like the people of Judah who “continued with their corrupt practices”. God described Ahaz as “not doing right”, 2Chronicles 28 verse 1. He followed Israel’s ungodly example and the things that are listed in verse 2-4 are so ungodly that there is not even a hint of any good in him – it appears that he had complete disregard for God. And because of this, God “handed him” over to enemies, Aram, Edom, Philistines and Israel, verse 5 and 17-18, so many people died because “Judah had forsaken” God, verse 6. Judah had become so disobedient to God that even Israel, who were normally worse than Judah, set a better example in the way that they dealt with the prisoners after the prophet had spoken to them, verse 9-15. Despite being defeated, Ahaz did not turn to God, he tried to rely on Assyria, verse 16, but because of the “wickedness” and “unfaithfulness” of Judah, God ensured that this did not work, verse 19. Nothing worked for Ahaz, verse 21, and he made things worse, verse 23.  His actions suggest that he blamed God for this and he basically shut down the worship of God in Judah and set up alternatives, verse 24-25. He completely turned his back on God! The interesting lesson for us here is that if we are determined to reject God’s ways and go our own way it takes us further and further away from God and if our attitude is wrong God will work against us. Even though I feel like Daniel after reading Daniel 8, verse 27, ie “it being beyond understanding”, I do take courage from Daniel’s vision that human thinking will never prevail and that God’s ways will always overpower ungodliness, verse 25. The angel Gabriel explains the vision, verse 16, and we learn that the ram with 2 horns represents the Media and Persia empire, verse 20, and the goat represents Greece. All these kingdoms were replaced by a very wicked leader who will destroy God’s people, verse 23-24, this description appears to suggest that this was the Greek leader Antiochus Epiphanes just before the time of Jesus’ birth. The practical point though in this is not necessarily who the images represent but what lessons we get. Note that in verse 24 and 25 we are told that his strength was not because of “human power” and neither was his eventual destruction. This is God working in history and he destroys those who oppose him, especially those who are proud, as is the case here. Like Ahaz before, God frustrates, he brings to power and he removes from power whilst working out his purpose. Those who should know better to follow and obey him he will punish to bring them to repentance. Bringing to repentance is a theme in Acts 8. The church suffered persecution and the believers were scattered, there was clearly great suffering, verse 1-3. However, those who were scattered preached, verse 4-8, so instead of the religious authorities (and Saul) stopping the spread of the message of repentance and the kingdom of God, they actually triggered the method that spread the message further! God in control again bringing “joy” out of suffering! It would have been terrible for those who were “dragged” into prison, it is terrible now for those who are suffering, so our prayer always has to be for strong faith for all of God’s people. Simon the Sorcerer is an interesting section, verse 9-24. He was clearly a proud and rich man because he was elevated by those who saw him perform his magic, like the other people in Samaria, he was convinced by the message of repentance and the kingdom of God and was baptised. He was “astonished” by the miracles that he saw being done, confirming that his “magic” was only illusions and tricks. Despite his apparent belief, his true character comes out when he asks to pay for the “holy spirit”, he saw Christianity as an opportunity to get even richer, he was “full of bitterness” and “captive to sin”! Peter’s response is damming and Simon is advised to repent. We do not know if he did, but humility was needed for sure for this to happen. The Ethiopian was humble, verse 26-39, he asked for help when he did not understand, he listened to the message about Jesus and he wanted to be baptised and demonstrate his new found faith in the humble act of baptism. So through all these lessons we can see that the people of God (us) need to always follow God and to trust.  If we go against him there are consequences, but he is always there for us to repent; events are often dictated by God and he is aware of situations and will intervene as necessary to bring about his purpose. October

October 31st

I’m sure that we all know somebody who opposes and is critical of our faith. Maybe we know of people who mock us and scorn us because we believe in Jesus. Many in this world would consider us to be cranks because we believe in God and creation. But that is nothing to the way in which Saul, later known as Paul, treated the first century believers. Not only did he curse and discredit the Christians of his time, but he was on a mission to chase them out of their homes, beat them, imprison them, treat them cruelly and even murder them. It’s no wonder that Christians not only kept out of his way, but they also actively fled from him in fear of their lives. We read of Saul today in Acts chapter 9. He was born in Tarsus and received possibly the best education available at that time, studying the Law of Moses in Jerusalem under Gamaliel, and, by all accounts, proved to be an exceptional scholar. From what we know, when he was in his thirties, he was elected to be a member of the Sanhedrin and in Acts 26 verse 10 he confesses quite openly that he voted for the death penalty to be placed on the early believers in Jesus. By the way, being a member of the Sanhedrin meant that he had to be both a married man and a father. So, if that was the case, he must have lost both his wife and his child at an early age. This is speculative and Paul never mentions that fact in his letters neither is it confirmed anywhere in Scripture. So, Saul is a man of great influence. He has great power in the Jewish world. He has just successfully overseen the execution of Stephen. He is a man of great zeal. He is greatly focussed on his objective which was to rid the world of this new sect which followed Jesus, known as “The Way”. We read that a great persecution arose which showed no discrimination between men and women, and it was Saul who was the leader. Apparently, because of the persecutions many of the believers had fled to Damascus. Saul therefore had a plan to set off to Damascus to catch those believers and bring them back as captives to Jerusalem where they would be put to death. It was about 125 miles from Jerusalem to Damascus and it would have taken around 6 days to get there on foot. Being a devout Jew, Saul would have left immediately after the Sabbath, and it would have been his intention to get there just before the next Sabbath day. It was around midday on the sixth day that the Lord appeared to him. A blinding light appeared in front of him. Paul says when speaking to King Agrippa in Acts 26 “At midday, O king, along the road I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who journeyed with me”. This light which he saw was a lightning flash which kept repeating itself and it was stronger than the rays of the sun. No wonder that he was blinded. This light was the glory of God, the same as that which was seen by the shepherds at the birth of Jesus and the disciples at the transfiguration. Saul saw Jesus whereas none of the other people in the party saw anything. They merely heard the words which were spoken. “Saul, Saul”. By repeating his name this is a form of reproach, the same as when Jesus reproached people in the Gospels. “Simon, Simon”. “Martha, Martha”. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem”. Jesus is reproaching Saul. “Why are you persecuting me?”. By killing, torturing, and imprisoning the disciples, Saul was persecuting Jesus. We are all a part of the body of Christ and if we do wrong to one member, we are doing it to Jesus. “Inasmuch as you do it to one of the least of my brothers you are doing it to me” (Matthew 25:40). Saul is no longer the proud Jew who tries to stamp out all who oppose his way of thinking. He is now reduced to a blind man who relies on others to guide him on his way. When he reaches Damascus, he has three days of blindness. He is trapped in his own world, and he has a lot to think about. He sees the error of his ways. He once thought of himself as being a guide to the blind. Now it is he who is blind and needs guidance. It is Ananias whom God sends to restore his sight, and he immediately asks to be baptised. He is a new man. He is a different person. No longer proud, arrogant and assured in his ways. Now he is a humble servant of the Lord Jesus. Imagine the courage and the humility it must have taken for him to go to the synagogues in Damascus and start preaching Jesus! So, there are lessons to be learned from this episode. As we preach and talk to others about Jesus it’s probably fair to say that we wouldn’t venture near a man like Saul, somebody who has contempt and ridicule for the message we bring. We wouldn’t go near somebody who is a murderer like Saul. We would say that somebody like Saul is a bigot, somebody so fanatical and steeped in a false religion that it is not worth even trying to talk to him. But the truth is that we know nothing about God’s plans. We wouldn’t go near somebody like Rahab the harlot and yet she is part of the genealogy of Jesus. She is somebody commended in Hebrews chapter 11. We might think that Saul is somebody who is so far from the truth that we shouldn’t bother with him. Think also of the faith of the early Christians. Ananias was told by God to go to Saul. He tells God of his fears. How could he go to Saul when it was commonly known that he had come to Damascus to capture Christians and lead them back to Jerusalem in chains where they would die. Would we have gone to Saul if we were in his shoes? It must have taken a great deal of faith. Similarly, we might be in situations where our human thinking tells us not to do something, whereas we know the right thing would be to follow the Lord’s command. We know that the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God and vice versa. Sometimes it takes both courage and faith to follow the right path. Think of the change in Saul. At one time an arrogant, proud member of the Sanhedrin. Now he is a humble servant of the Lord Jesus. He humbled himself. He was prepared to admit that he was wrong. He threw himself into doing what is right in the sight of God. We need to humble ourselves. We need to be prepared to admit it when we are wrong. We need to have the humility and the courage to say, “Yes, I was wrong. I totally messed up. Please forgive me!”. And it’s fair to say that Paul spent the rest of his life admitting to other believers that he had got things so terribly wrong. We now remember Jesus. Jesus, who did no wrong, but who emptied himself of all personal pride and ambition. He put aside the thinking of the flesh and he did the will of his father totally in his life. He suffered a cruel and agonising death for our salvation. Let us remember him now in these emblems of bread and wine. October

November 1st

There is a common practical theme that appears in all of today’s chapters which is unity. Unity is key for any group of people to be strong and to be effective, all have to be unified around a common purpose and belief. In 2Chronicles verse 1, Hezekiah, king of Judah, sends messages to all of Judah and Israel to come to Jerusalem and to assemble at God’s house to celebrate the Passover. He understood from his knowledge of God that it was right for God’s people to be united around a common goal. This Passover was to be special and at the end of the chapter we are told that nothing as good as this had been experienced since Solomon’s time. Hezekiah ensured that all those who were considered as God’s people should come. However, it is clear that the Passover should be celebrated as God wanted it to be, eg the priests and other Levites had to be ceremonially clean, this was so important that the celebration was delayed because originally they were not. All of Judah assembled, because God changed their hearts and many people from Israel also attended. However, some mocked, eg some from Manasseh, presumably they chose not to come and would have missed out on the joy that was experienced. Worse than that, they missed out on a crucial reminder of God’s salvation, but also of his requirements for anyone to be part of his salvation. For Hezekiah to have arranged this event he would have needed everyone to be united.  This is a lesson for us today as brothers and sisters, we also have to be united in our worship of God and our work for him, notice how the plan “seemed right” to the whole assembly, they were united.  This was an event that was designed to celebrate and give thanks to God for saving those that remained from the king of Assyria – we too need to be united when we celebrate our salvation in Jesus. Daniel demonstrated that he was united with God and also acknowledged that he needed help in understanding God’s message. In chapter 10 we read that Daniel had a vision, those who were with him fled in fear and Daniel was left alone. This is a great contrast with the picture that we had in 2Chronicles during the Passover where they had joy, because now we have fear. The angel told Daniel that the vision was about what would happen to God’s people in the future. We know from other visions in Daniel that God was going to restore his people, at the end of the 70 years, but more significantly when Jesus returns, this is why we need to be unified to remind each other when we fear. Daniel needed help, so do we. He received strength from the angel and not from those who ran away. Those who ran did not share Daniel’s understanding and faith. In Acts 10 we have the example of unity demonstrated by Cornelius and his family and friends, in a sense he was in unity with the Jews as he helped and so too, to a certain extent, with God. He prayed and he helped others. Peter was staying with Simon, a brother, so he shared his home. The vision that Peter was shown about the clean and unclean meat was a lesson in unity for him because the Lord taught him that that nothing that God provides is unclean, so the gospel of salvation could be extended to non Jews as well as Jews. Whist Peter was thinking about this, the visitors from Cornelius arrived with the message. Peter went with them, after being told to go with them by God. We see partial unity in this, however, to make it complete there had to also be a unity in belief. All those involved realised that to be united (one), all had to accept Jesus, and therefore God and Cornelius and his family were baptised. For us to be really united we need to have a common belief, a common respect of God and have no prejudice against others who share our faith. Our acts of worship and work together can only be joyful if we are unified. The lessons from these chapters help us to remember that we need others to help us on our road to salvation, and we need to help them too. November

November 2nd

The theme of unity carries on in today’s readings. 2 chronicles 31 shows how the people who were living in Judah, ie all Judah and those from israel who had migrated there, responded to God’s love and their desire to follow God’s laws better after the Passover celebration. Verse 1 tells us that all the people went and broke down all the alters, ie they destroyed everything that came between them and God, this was their priority before they went home. In the same way we should also remove all the ungodly things that stop us from being in unity with God and each other. King Hezekiah then ensured that the contributions to the Levites, including the priests, were reintroduced as required within the law of Moses, verse 4. This was done with enthusiasm and the people also gave a lot, verse 5, they gave so much that there was plenty to store for the future, verse 10. This is a great demonstration of unity, how the people all worked together as one, and importantly they did it for God. The stores were organised faithfully, verse 11-12, and organise distribution, verse 15. Notice in all these verses that many had responsibilities to work as a unit. Careful consideration was given to the requirements for the Levites in all this and Hezekiah and the people were faithful, verse 20-21, and because Hezekiah worked as one, he prospered. Daniel 11 is an interesting chapter and shows us that there will be disunity centered around Israel, however, no one will help those who are not at one with God  verse 45. When we come to Acts 11 and 12, we see great acts of unity, but also how easy we can have disunity if we do not respond in a godly way. Verse 1 of Acts 11 tells that that those in Judaea heard that the gospel had been preached to the gentiles and that the Jewish converts “contended” with Peter, this word means that they were “discriminating” against Peter and therefore the gentiles, verse 2. They had listened to gossip and showed him no respect that he had “eaten with the gentiles”, verse 3. However, what they did do was allow Peter to speak and explain his actions, from verse 4, Peter was also willing to explain what had happened. So much disunity is caused when people do not listen to or explain reasons for doing things, all have to be humble and talk. Until Jesus comes back there will always be differences of opinions of godly things and we have to discuss these and use God’s examples and laws to research and determine decisions. Peter humbly explained all the details and the others humbly listened. Peter quoted Jesus’ teachings in verse 16-17 and showed how both God and Jesus were telling him and them to preach to the gentiles. After listening, the brothers and sisters were happy, verse 18. This is how we should resolve any disagreements in our community too, we ask, we listen, we explain and we refer to God’s words – all in humility and in prayer of course. The lesson was learnt and the gospel continued to spread among the gentiles, eg verse 20. All now working in unity, the brothers in Jerusalem sent help to Antioch, verse 22. The first teaching was to stick with the message of God because of his grace, verse 23, this was the same response as in the time of Hezekiah. Paul and Barnabus teamed up as a unified team and worked together, teaching and setting a good example to others, such that the first use of the term “Christian” was used to describe those who were in unity following Jesus, verse 26. Unity works in physical ways too when other Christians heard about the coming famine, verse 29, and aid was sent. Acts 12 tells us about Peter in prison and the miracle of his escape, there are many practical lessons from Peter’s attitude and peace that he demonstrated whilst in prison, but how he displayed unity is the lesson we will take. When he was released the first place he went was to tell his brothers and sisters, he knew where they would be, verse 12. Do we know where we can find our brothers and sisters when we need them, do they know where to find us when we need them? This is unity. The brothers and sisters were praying for Peter, this too is unity, all were concerned for him, likewise we should be concerned for each other. Peter was concerned that James and the other brothers were told before he hurri1edly left, verse 19, presumably he left to go into hiding to protect his brothers and sisters. Again this is unity as he thought of others. God was not pleased that the ungodly Herod was making himself as a “god” verse 22-23, he was not glorifying God and he died. Being one with God and with each other should be our aim in our Christian lives. The chapter ends with another demonstration of unity, verse 24-25, Paul and Barnabus took Mark with them on their preaching trip, no one considered anyone better than another, all worked together as one. November

November 3rd

In the first 14 years of Hezekiah’s reign believers had enjoyed good times. He had done what was right in the sight of the Lord .. he cleansed the temple, restored temple worship, kept the Passover, and carried out further reforms; getting rid of all the pagan altars and high places etc. Also, the prophet Isaiah witnessed to the word and will of the Lord at that time.  However, the nation of Assyria was a concern. They had taken the northern kingdom of Israel and some of the fortified cities in Judah, and they were now attacking nearby Lachish with Jerusalem the next target. Nothing seemed to be able to stand against the armies of Assyria. If you were a believer living in Jerusalem, how would you feel… would you trust in your king and put your life in his hands, would you trust in God knowing that God’s will would be done no matter what happened ? Sennacherib asked that question in verse 10 “In what do you trust ?” He then tries to divide the people of Jerusalem from their King (.v11-12 and 15). Then he tries to divide the people from their God (.v13-15).The Assyrians tried to frighten the people of Jerusalem and claimed to be mightier than any god including the God of Jerusalem.  As a believer, one would have concerns !! But, as a true believer you would have known that there is only one God.. the other “gods” are the works of man’s hands.. they are powerless.. they couldn’t hear, help or do anything. God’s will would be done… and His word was brought to Jerusalem through Isaiah. Examples of the re-assuring words of Isaiah are seen in Isaiah 37 particularly v 6-7.”Do not be afraid of the words which you heard.. I will sent a spirit upon him.. and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.” How important it is to know the will of God…. commit to Him who saves. Not only did the Lord reveal His will for Sennacherib, but also for his army… Isa 31:8 “Assyria shall fall by a sword not of man..” As a believer, not only would you have been strengthened by faith in the word of the Lord through Isaiah, but also by words  can Hezekiah (.v7-8), as well as the people “coming together/ fellowship” and helping the king make preparations ready to withstand any siege . The city of Jerusalem was being strengthened. .but more importantly the “heart” of the city was being strengthened.. to TRUST in the “Lord our God”.  And what joy, when suddenly, in one night, everything had changed.. the whole Assyrian army was destroyed… by an angel doing God’s will.  And so, for believers throughout history and now.. if we commit our lives to the Lord, we are comforted by the living all powerful God.. 2Chron 32:8 “with us is the Lord our God, to help us and to fight our battles” Only one thing can separate us from the Lord, and that is ourselves.  Dan 12:   Speak about what we are sure of…wait for the rest of scripture to be fulfilled and thus revealed.  In this chapter,  Daniel (a man highly regarded in the sight of God) confesses that he didn’t understand all that was revealed to him.. but one thing he could be sure of was his resurrection to eternal life. “As for you, go your way till the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will RISE to receive your allotted inheritance” Dan 12:13. And, in reality, once those words were written, there was no more to say… nothing else mattered.. the promise of eternal life in the kingdom of God with fellow believers from all generations and nations. Such was the promise that “when” didn’t really matter.. Believers naturally want to know when all these things will happen; but it doesn’t matter “when”.. it doesn’t even matter whether we are dead or alive.. all that matters is our relationship with God from day to day and everyday. Believers from the beginning confessed that their lives were with the eternal God, the creator of all things. They “ all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off .. embraced them..” Heb 11:13… They believed in the resurrection from the dead. We see examples in the old testament : Abraham (Gen17:8), Job (ch19:25-27),Isaiah (ch 26:19),Daniel (ch12:2) etc. All, and many others, believed in their resurrection at the appointed time.. and yearned for that time to come. Jesus was the first to rise from the dead to eternal life “the firstborn from the dead” Colossians 1:18. The same God who raised Jesus has promised to raise others to eternal life.. “those who are Christ’s” and has told us when “at Christ’s coming” 1 COR 15:20….. Need we know more ? Jesus re-affirms Dan 12:2 in John 5:28-29 “ .. the hour is coming in which all who are IN THE GRAVES will hear his voice and come forth.. those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation”.. If we do “evil” we either don’t believe Jesus or we don’t care !! ACTS 13:     What do we preach ? We have read speeches that were done in order to preach the gospel to all nations.. and we have read of another done by Paul in Acts 13. By reading this chapter we can remind ourselves of what we should do.  The early part of the chapter sees the Holy Spirit at work with the church. Heaven and Earth working together to achieve God’s will, that of salvation. Here is a reminder for us to pray, to pray for guidance, for insight, for the right words.. everything. We do pray for a blessing on all that we do, but sometimes the words seem to be just “words”. We need to pray with a real URGENT need, to pray with the right motive.. not that OUR work is successful. .but that GOD’S will is done and salvation might come to another, that they too, might know and feel the love and grace, and truth in God and His son Jesus.  After prayer and guidance.. be ready. We see the Paul and his companions went to the synagogue on the sabbath and sat down (.v14)…they were ASKED for a message of encouragement. Paul didn’t push themselves forward.. they waited for the moment.  Next lesson(.v16).. know your audience.. acknowledge your audience from the beginning.. engage with them.. by so doing the words become personal.. and that is how the Lord wishes the message to be.. from Him… to each individual person. “Men of Israel and you Gentiles who worship God”  .v17-22:  Paul gives a brief history of Israel and their journey from Egypt to David with the Lord God. These verses on their own, might not have seemed relevant to the gentiles.. but within those very scriptures from Moses(Genesis onwards) to David (and beyond).. the plan of God for all mankind was there, and the fulfilment of that plan in the life of Jesus.  .v23: from David’s “descendants God has brought to Israel the Saviour Jesus, as He promised”. .v26: a reminder of what this speech was all about.. salvation, for all nations.  .v27: .the people of Jerusalem “did not recognize Jesus” and killed their saviour. The scriptures are the way to recognize Jesus.. especially the Old Testament. Jesus did the same on the road to Emmaus recorded in Luke 24… and so should we, that more people come to recognize Jesus.. not just the historical Jesus.. but also the living resurrected Jesus. .v 38 another lesson..try to keep the “heart” of the message simple. “ I want you to know that through Jesus, the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you”. Yes, that’s our mission… to preach Jesus and all he represents.. and by so doing make people aware of the glory that is due to God. November

November 4th

Acts 15 verse 9 shows us that in the Gospel there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles, ie non Jews. In the Old Testament God worked with Israel who still have a special place in God’s purpose. But in the New Testament it is clear that there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles. Within the gospel of Jesus, Peter describes God’s work as “purifying by faith”. Naturally we are weak sinners and behave badly, we do things that displease God, but God is willing to forgive and we are cleaned by showing our faith. We show faith by baptism, God then forgives and continues to work in our lives through faith as we think about teaching and the actions of Jesus Christ and try to do the same. James says in verse 17 that the Gentiles “come in”, therefore people from all nations can become part of God’s people and “God’s name is called upon them”. So what does this mean? Jeremiah 32 verse 20 suggests that God’s name means his reputation, i.e. God is known for doing wonderful things to save his people. He saved Israel from Egypt with the 10 plagues, where he showed His power and people who heard about it were amazed at the power of God – this is a great reputation made saving his people, Israel, therefore God’s reputation and name concern his actions to save his people. His salvation demonstrates his character, he is merciful (Ex 34). God is also, “truth”, what he promised came true. He acted to save because of the promises he had made, therefore God’s actions are true to his promises and God had mercy on the slaves who were suffering in Egypt, so he showed mercy. He is a God who saves and reveals the glory of his character, abundant in mercy and truth. When God made his promises he spoke about a covenant to Abraham and Jeremiah speaks about this in Jeremiah 32 verse 38, the covenant allows certain people to be God’s people and God will be their God. We can compare this to a marriage, where couple promise to be united and the wife normally takes the husband’s name, with the covenant God makes with us we take God’s name. God’s name is connected with Israel and therefore his people had a responsibility to witness for Him and behave in a way that is consistent with His principles. Jeremiah is talking about these things because at the time the people were disobedient to God and God would send them into captivity as a result. In Hosea 1, Hosea has to give his children different names to speak about God’s message. The first son in verse 4, Jezreel, was given this name because God would scatter Israel because of their sins and judgement would come. Jezreel has two connected meanings, arising from the idea of a farmer planting a crop. In Bible times he cast the seeds onto the soil, he “scattered the seed” so the one meaning is “God scatters”. The other meaning is “God sows”. In Hosea 1 the meaning is initially “God scatters”, the people will be scattered through different countries because of their wickedness, but God had promised to Abraham that the people would have a special place. So also in Hosea 1 we see that God would work out his purpose in verse 11 where Jezreel means “God sows”. This verse also says, God would give the people a leader, the New Testament says that this is Jesus Christ, this is connected with the meaning of Jezreel – “God sows”. The parable of the Sower (Matthew 13) shows Jesus as the farmer sowing the seed, which is God’s word. The different types of ground represent the different types of people who heard. The “good soil” is the people who received the seed (God’s word) liked it, understood it and believed it and through faith became part of God’s people. Despite the people being scattered the purpose of God was still fulfilled. Hosea had another son, verse 9, the son’s name means “not my people” because God said to Israel ‘you are not my people’. This is opposite to “I will be your God” because of their wickedness God’s covenant was ended. But verse 10 contains the promise that God’s people will no longer be separate but they will be one and have a leader to unite them. The New Testament explains that this was fulfilled through the work of Jesus Christ but was not restricted to just the Jews but open to all nations to become part of Abraham’s, and therefore God’s family, through faith in Jesus Christ. This is what James says in Acts 15 verse 17. God’s reputation how he saved Israel from Egypt has now been expressed in a greater way by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is this saving work that those who are baptised and participate in the bread and the wine together, remember. Through that saving work God has made a new covenant through faith allowing people of all nations to become the people of God. Not just Jews but all of these people have God’s name called upon them because, by God’s grace, they have benefited from his saving work in Jesus Christ. But if God’s name is on us we have the same responsibility to live in a way that pleases God, modelling our lives on the example of Jesus Christ, who revealed in his own life the character of God. We have the same responsibility to talk to others about the saving work of God. In the bread and wine we give thanks for the way he has saved us and we are encouraged and motivated to live and work in the way of God. November

November 5th

Our starting point for thoughts this morning is from 2 Chronicles 34 and is about Josiah renewing the covenant (contract) with God, that all the people had previously broken by replacing God with idols and other ungodly things. Verse 29-32. Josiah was determined that he and the people should correct the things that had gone wrong and to correct the fact that they had disobeyed God, he was determined to teach the people the things of God again. Josiah had already started to correct the things that were wrong during the start of his reign, probably based on the wise advice of the godly influencers around him, eg Shaphan, Hilkiah and possibly, his now repentant and humbled grandfather, Manasseh. However, when the book of the law was found during the restoration of the temple, Josiah and the others realised that they were still not following God’s laws properly, what they were doing had become subtly changed because the priests had not been reading the book of the law properly – in fact, there is suggested evidence that during Manasseh’s time he had changed the text that the scribes had copied because he’d suggested that there were 50 alternative translations to what was known as the Law of Moses! So the text that was found was very likely to have been the original text, hence the dramatic reaction by Josiah! This has to be a big lesson for me too to remind me that I have to always check my understanding of what God wants me to do and how to act in my life. Josiah’s reaction to learning about his, and his people’s mistakes, demonstrated how important he thought that following God’s law was, verse 19-21. He then sent to enquire of God, and the prophetess confirmed that God would punish Israel because of their rejection of him. Because Josiah had humbled himself he would not see the results of the punishment because he would die before this punishment would be meted out. Even though he knew this he was still determined to completely destroy the images and high places and to teach the people by reading to them the law. Sadly the people didn’t change their ways, they only paid lip service to Josiah and pretended, and we know that they subsequently went into captivity as God had said they would. Hosea was a pattern of how God’s people had responded to God, this resulted in a real sad and terrible life for Hosea as he coped with children from other men from his unfaithful wife – this gives us an indication of just how bad God feels when people replace his commands and sin. Hosea’s wife eventually left him completely to follow other men, leaving him to care for the children who were not even his, their names reminded him all the time of this. Only his first son, who was his own son, remained faithful, his other children followed his unfaithful wife, so in the enacted parable we have here, we are reminded that God only had his own son who was faithful, ie Jesus. In Hosea 2 verse 16, we have a promise that his unfaithful wife will return and there is a further demonstration of God’s love in that they will no longer call him “master” (Baali) but “husband” (Ishi). The word Baali also has a connection with idol worship, especially Baal, so the reconciliation, spoken of in Hosea, will involve a big turnaround of repentance and forgiveness after the people having previously replaced God to turning back to him, their husband. The symbol of Jezreel (meaning “God plants”) makes us think again of Jesus and it is only through him that sinners’ names will be changed from “those who had not had mercy” to “have mercy” and they shall be called God’s people and they will call him their God (verse 23). This is talking about us – only in Jesus can we have mercy and be the children of God and all these graphic misdemeanours in the O/T teach us that human beings are nothing without Jesus. It is therefore important that we all try our best to learn what pleases God, we cannot say that we are followers of God if we do not try our best to please him. In Acts 16 we learn that Lydia’s heart was “opened” to learn, verse 14. She was a worshipper of God, but she wanted to learn more from Paul about both God and Jesus and the kingdom on earth and as a result of her response to Paul’s message, was baptised. All her household was baptised too, they all made a promise (covenant) to follow God’s teaching as best as they could, as did the children of Israel and as did I. Another important Christian principle comes out in verses 23-40, reading it makes me wonder about how I act again because it should also be my reaction to God’s grace and mercy! Paul and Silas were put in prison because of the complaint of the “masters” of the girl whose mental illness that they had healed, had previously been used to make money for them. Whilst in prison they were kept in a location as safe as possible so they could not escape. Even though confined in prison, Paul and Silas were praying and singing and no doubt teaching the other prisoners and talking about their faith and God’s grace and mercy. They made a godly impression because during the earthquake when all the doors were opened and all the prisoners’ chains were released none of the prisoners escaped. Such was the impression that they made, not only on the prisoners but also on the jailor. The lesson here is that God should have such an impact on every aspect of our lives, that we should praise whatever situation we are in because we should constantly be demonstrating that we are God’s and follow him. The reaction of the jailor certainly confirms that we teach in every aspect of our lives. If we want to be saved to have to believe in our Lord Jesus and demonstrate this in the way that we live. But as always we fail to measure up to Jesus’ example and I thank God that despite my failings that God now says to those “Not my people” “you are my people”! And all this is because of Jesus! November

November 6th

In 2Chronicles 35 Josiah was trying to get the people to do the right thing. Looking at Exodus 12 verse 2-5 and Numbers 28 we see that the Passover lamb cost the people in their preparation. The same principle in preparation applies to us too. In Chronicles we see words and principles that are repeated and these are important for us to think about and remember, one such word or principle is ”prepare” or “preparation”, verse 9, 14 and 20. To follow Jesus we have to prepare for the things that we are doing in following him, eg by prayer, reading, thinking, etc. this ensures that we are ready to work. Preparing for the return of Jesus Christ is achieved by the things that we do and in doing these things we will be ready when Jesus does come back, Luke 12 verse 42-43. He wants us to be ready to assist our brothers and sisters at any time, if we do not do this, we are mistreating them, verse 45. Those who do not assist their brothers and sisters are lost, they are doing their own thing. Just as preparation was required for the Passover, so the person of God must always look after others, the servant was surprised when the master returned, he was unconcerned for his brother, he was just doing his own thing and will be punished by his master, verse 47, because the servant does already know his master’s will. We cannot use our perceived lack of abilities as an excuse for not helping. Our reading, praise and prayer with others when brothers and sisters need us is helping them. It helps us too to be ready when Jesus comes back. It is interesting too that in preparation for the Passover, those with small families are to help each other and share the lamb, so as God’s family we all help each other. Hosea is now older in Hosea 3; his wife is also similarly older too and both are paying the price for the wife’s misbehaviour. Hosea has been on his own and now God asks him to show the same type of love that God shows to all of his unfaithful people. Hosea now has to show real love to his wife who was so unfaithful to him and eventually left him for other men, despite all the things that he had previously done to ask her to stay. God’s love is shown to those who do not deserve it, and this was now being shown to his wife who had now also been left by the men that she once craved for and who previously apparently loved her. To survive she had sold herself as a slave, verse 1, so Hosea had to buy her back, verse 3, the verse suggests that Hosea gave everything that he had to buy her back because he had to use both money and food to make up the total, he gave everything. This is the same that God has given for us to give us the opportunity of salvation – he gave his son, ie everything! This is love, giving to those who do not deserve it, ie loving people like us by giving his only begotten son, this is a cost! Therefore our preparation should be at a cost too. In Hosea’s case, verse 3, says that there was a trial period before they became intimate as man and wife again, this is the same for us we are in a probation period now as we wait for Jesus to come back to see if we will remain loyal. Jesus will come back, we are sure of that, and our suffering now as we patiently wait, is nothing compared to the wonderful future that we have all been promised. God gave a real life experience in Hosea for us to learn from, Hosea would have got used to living his own life on his own but he was told to be reconciled, he had to show the same attributes as shown in Colossians 3 verse 12. All of us have to do what is right, all of us need to change our lives to do, and be what God wants, ie humility and gentleness – this should have a big meaning for us as we read in James 3 verse 13, and is demonstrated by a good life. Our deeds and our good life demonstrate that we have understanding and the Passover shows us that we need to be prepared to change – we need to look at our deeds and see if they reflect what God wants. Do we only meet together for our “Passover meal”, ie the breaking of bread when we have visitors or are we setting a good example by meeting every Sunday as Jesus wants us to? Do we spend our time in “stupid and foolish arguments”, 2Timothy 2 verse 23-26, or do people see us as ambassadors, living lives by doing the right things, being kind and teaching, etc. In Acts 17 we read that the Bereans checked what they were told, verse 11, this is always a good practice and it is important if we are to understand the significance of the resurrection. Verse 3-4, we are sure of the resurrection and it is this that guarantees eternal life and verse 24-28 talks about this new life after Jesus has judged the world. Jesus will judge those who have heard the gospel and who have tried to live in the right way and welcome them into the kingdom for ever, those who follow the system of the world will be excluded and their systems and nations will be destroyed. Verse22 when Paul spoke to the people of Athens he complimented them for being “religious” and having a developed learning and Paul tries to teach them about God just as God himself had a plan to try and convince the Jews who were in captivity in Babylon to turn back to him in Jeremiah 29 verse 10-13. God can be “found” by anyone, wherever they are and God wants all to seek and find him so all can benefit from a future hope. The word “hope” can mean “rope” so hope is like a rope that we can hang onto and help us as we wait patiently for Jesus to come back. Jesus is coming back to set up his father’s kingdom and we have this hope (rope) to hang onto. So the message is to seek God, do not let go of the rope because we have a wonderful future ahead of us, pictures in Isaiah 2, 11, 35 and 65 all give us pictures of a time when there will be no more suffering, no more sickness, etc, and we are going to see the king! We need to believe and test what we are told, we need to do the same things as we are told and to continue to examine what we are told because our only hope is in the Kingdom of God. November

November 7th

Acts 20 verse 32 talks about the word of grace to build up all who are sanctified – therefore Paul urges us to all pay attention to God’s word. If we pay attention, it is able to build us and to strengthen us and helps us to an inheritance, ie a place in the kingdom among those who are made holy, ie us! We are made holy in Jesus with our sins forgiven, through faith in his sacrifice and we remember this during the bread and the wine each Sunday. Although we are made righteous we still have to pay attention to God’s words – we all need to be instructed to know how to act and to think. In the Old Testament there was a problem because the people stopped paying attention to what God said and built up bad behaviours and in the end God punished them. Hosea 4 verse 1 shows that the people were not thinking about God’s mercy to them because they showed no mercy to others because they had no knowledge of God. For Christadelphians we have a certain amount of knowledge of first principles before baptism, this is because we need to make our baptism meaningful to know what God wants us to think and do. Therefore we always ask a few questions of the person who wants to be baptised before we baptise them, it gives them an opportunity to demonstrate a certain knowledge of the salvation that they are accepting and how they should respond to this knowledge. Thy need to know that accepting God would be the right thing for them and that we know that we can have fellowship through our shared knowledge. Our lessons from the Old Testament show us that we should have a faith that needs to be preserved – we do this by always improving our knowledge of what God wants us to believe and do – this is what keeps us faithful. Israel forgot knowledge and when they forgot knowledge they started to behave badly and then displease God. With knowledge we know about God’s truth and mercy – we know that God is true, we know that God is light, in whom is no darkness, therefore God’s truth needs to be honoured. Jesus in his sacrifice honoured God, and his standards of truth reflected those of God; he demonstrated that by allowing himself to be crucified even though he could have saved himself from the cross.  He allowed himself to be killed by wicked men in a public crucifixion. During the breaking of bread we are asked to remember the death of a righteous man, who always obeyed and was faithful, he did no sin. Jesus allowed himself to die. Jesus had the same nature as us – he had the same body as us – he had the same temptations as us, unlike us though he was sinless, he did not sin. He had to have our same body so that he could act on our behalf before God, he allowed himself to die, he followed, he declared, he showed righteousness and he shows truth, so Jesus said through all of this that he “believed God”. Likewise our human nature needs to die and we need to agree that God is right.  Therefore, like Jesus who chose to die in harmony with God’s truth, we need to try our best to put to “death” our natural human tendencies. God is merciful – in the bread and the wine God’s truth and mercy come together, Jesus committed to God’s standard of truth but also because of love, ie God provided Jesus to die for us.  So in God’s mercy our sins can be forgiven – his mercy was expressed in giving his son. Because we understand these things we know how to live, and we should try our best to reflect God’s truth, eg verse 2, this then reflects God’s mercy. So we should learn and teach the truth of the Bible that tells us how to be saved, so that we never lose the knowledge of God’s truth and his mercy, 4 verse 6. Israel was punished because they lost knowledge (Judah suffered the same – 2Chron36) and preferred the ideas and “knowledge” of men, therefore God rejected them. This is the same use by Paul in Acts when he talked about grace, saying that we should pay attention to God’s teaching to remind us to follow our knowledge of God. We will always continue to grow and we improve in the way that we act when we continue to listen to God’s knowledge. The last wicked kings of Judah are catalogued in 2Chronicles 36, verse 2, 5, 9 and 11 – the people and the last remaining articles in the temple are all gone – all because they forgot God and the knowledge, verse 14. Despite Jeremiah reminding the people, verse 12, there was no humility, the people remained proud. Jeremiah 22:1-7 says that we have to obey and in verse 10 Jeremiah was thinking of Josiah, he was good and had a hope so do not weep for him. On the other hand weep for Jehoahaz as he had no hope in Egypt; Jehoiakim, verse 13-24, behaved badly, he built a big house for himself, but this was not going to save him, verse 15-16. Josiah was blessed because he believed and acted in a way that pleased God in his behaviour, knowledge and actions – it was his way of life, as it should be ours. We have responsibilities to try and live in a right way and to demonstrate what is important in our life by our actions.  November

November 8th

The last two verses of 2 Chronicles are the first two words of Ezra. This allows one to consider the books of Ezra and Nehemiah as like the third book of Chronicles.  It is a continuation of God’s dealings with His people after the time of the Chronicles. God had sent Babylon against His people and they were taken into captivity in Babylon.  Now God sent another king to bring them out of captivity.  Going into and out of captivity and its timing was all part of God’s plan.  In Isaiah 45:1 and 45:13 we read that God planned for Cyrus to do this, even before Cyrus had been born.  When Cyrus had been born and become king, God moved Cyrus’s heart to bring God’s people back from captivity (Ezra 1:1).  God can easily change a king’s heart to bring about His purpose (Proverbs 21:1). Ezra adds additional words to what was said at the end of 2 Chronicles.  Ezra gives the purpose of the return of the Jews, which is to build the temple of God in Jerusalem.  For this purpose, Cyrus gave vessels from the original temple of Jerusalem, and facilitated the Jews to travel and set up the temple.  This had to include priests and Levites for the service of the temple.  We are given a list of both vessels and the people in Ezra 1 and 2 (and Nehemiah 7). We have itemized many of the vessels and people, although not all of them.  The total number of people was 42360 from which they started to build a new nation in the land of promise.  There was a further list of returning exiles in Ezra 8.  Hosea 5 describes the situation that caused Israel to go into exile in the first place.  Although it was the northern kingdom of Israel that was overrun and went into captivity by the Assyrians, most of Judah also went into exile at the time of Hezekiah.  In Hosea, God explains why this happened.  Even though they continued to offer sacrifices to God (verse 6), their heart was not with God.  Their religion was a show religion.  But God was not fooled by their performance.  He could see what was hidden in their heart (verse 3).  What God saw was spiritual prostitution and spiritual corruption (verse 3).  In fact, the heart was so badly affected that they were now incapable of returning to God (verse 4).  This meant that destruction and exile were the only solutio to the problem.  The priests and the royal house were the worst (verse 1).  God describes their spiritual sickness as like a wound that could not be healed.  Even in their sickness, they did not seek God and repent.  They sought the king of Assyria to save them (verse 13). Although Assyria was the nation to punish them, God made it clear that the punishment actually came from Him.  God was the lion who would carry them off with noone able to rescue Israel (verse 14).  God would then wait for His people to admit their guilt in exile (verse 15).  We know this happened through faithful men like Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah.  In Acts 21 and 22 we have another time when God’s people had a show religion.  They were not following God inwardly, but only outwardly. This time their spirituality was exposed by the arrival of Paul at Jerusalem.  Paul had told the Ephesian elders that he was on his way to Jerusalem, where he would find hardship and imprisonment (Acts 20:22-23).  As he travelled to Jerusalem, others told him the same thing (Acts 21:4, 11).  Paul told these people that he was ready to die if necessary (verse 14).  We can imagine Paul thinking that he needed to die because of what he did to Stephen (Acts 8:1) and others.  In this respect, Paul was like Jesus going to Jerusalem.  At Jerusalem, we learn that the Jewish believers still kept the Law of Moses (Acts 21:20).  We remember Paul’s attitude to Jews in order to win them for the gospel. Paul said, “To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews” (1 Corinthians 9;20).  He did this now by paying the expenses of keeping the law for some believers (verse 24).  It is likely that this was the Nazarite vow (Numbers 6).  However, like Jesus, Paul was falsely arrested and falsely charged.  The Roman officer permitted to speak to the people.  Paul gave a personal testimony of his conversion, but this did not convince the crowd.  They wanted to kill Paul (22:22) and took off their coats in preparation (22:23).  Paul was saved by the Romans. Like Jesus, he was unjustly flogged and detained.  Like Jesus, he was tried before the Roman rulers.  But unlike our Lord, Paul did not have to die.  Our chapters have taught us that God can see the heart. Performance religion is not acceptable with Him.  We must love God truly from the heart.  If we do that, then He is able to save us from our captivity which is a captivity to sin and death.  We do not need to fear death, because God is able to save us from this too.  We must thank God that we do not have to suffer as much as Jesus did or Paul did.  But we do need to stand up for what is right even when it is unpopular and to love God from the heart. November

November 9th

In Ezra 3 the people prepared to build the temple in similar ways to Solomon. Like Solomon they used trees from Lebanon. This gives a picture of the gentiles, represented by the trees from Lebanon, being built into the temple of God. In the time of Solomon Israel had made a covenant with Tyre in Lebanon, because they had learned about the true God from David. For life we have to be in covenant relationship with God. In Ezra 3 and 4 the returned exiles needed to exclude those who are not in this covenant relationship from helping to rebuild the temple. It was harder to maintain separation as they were small in number so the exclusion was important. Some gentiles were already in the covenant relationship, we read of this in Joshua and these people became the “Nethinim” who were still part of Israel in the time described in Ezra (see Ezra 2) and Lebanon was in Solomon’s time. Therefore the people of the land were excluded not because they were gentiles but because they were not in covenant relationship. Separation is key and we have to be careful with our worship, it is right to mix to teach and to set an example, but we have to watch our worship. If worshipping God in a wrong way we miss the point. Our temple (body) has to be built on the basis of the Bible. We must not compromise. Look out for the principle of Separation as we read the books of Ezra and Nehemiah it repeats many times. Ezra 4 records a Letter sent to the emperor by the enemies of the Jews. As a result the building work they were doing stopped for about 15 years. They went back to build the temple, but built the letter from their enemies shows they built the city wall as well. In Nehemiah 1, verse 3 the wall had been broken down and burnt. It appears that is the “new” wall that was built in Ezra, destroyed by the Jew’s enemies when the emperor supported them. 15 years later when prompted by Haggai and Zechariah they started building the temple again, and not wall. Haggai said that they should have been building the temple and not their own houses! They were discouraged when the wall was broken down but they could have continued building the temple. We have a job to do in building our “temple” but things come in and stop us because we are disappointed – we then start to have other priorities but our lesson should be as a first priority we keep going. People were trying to discourage others. Keep going! God uses difficulties that arise in life to develop our role and our character. Isaiah 49, one of Isaiah’s servant songs, which prophesy of Jesus, giving his thoughts. Look at verse 4, even Jesus thought that he had worked hard for nothing, but he carried on – he knew that work was with his God. Verse 6 is God’s answer! God has a big purpose, ie saving the world and he encouraged Jesus in this – it is not about the small things it is about contributing in our small way to God’s big plan. Caleb encouraged the Israelites that even though they looked like “grasshoppers” they would succeed, sadly the people did not believe. Both Caleb and Joshua received what was promised, they did not lose hope. Ezra 3:12 – the older people had not lost their faith and hope. Ezra 3 contains a connection to the things David had organised as well as those between Solomon and this time. The word to “set forward” comes from a word meaning “to shine from far away”, it can mean someone who has “honour”, they are noticed by others. In this case the Levites were given responsibility to supervise the work. This is a lesson for us as we build the house of God, we have to shine and set examples to others – building an ecclesia is not about telling others what to do it is about setting an example. Jesus speaks about a City on a hill, referring to  Jerusalem which when there were festivals in the temple had lampstands in the temple which could be seen from far away. Believers should be like this and shine by setting an example.  November

November 10th

EZRA 5-6…. “Letters”. The prophets Haggai and Zechariah prophesied to the Jews. What did they say? To give a seemingly hopeless nation hope?  By God’s will, we Christians of 2021 can go and find a “letter” written by Haggai 2540 years ago “!! We can see(hear) what God was saying to the people of Judah and Jerusalem, through the inspired words of Haggai. We don’t have to go 100’s of miles to look in a library, we have the words of Haggai amongst the other “letters” that God chose to speak to His people. What words did God choose to inspire His people to once again become His people?  Hag 1:7  “Consider your ways.. build the temple, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified”.  Hag 1:12 The people obeyed the voice of the Lord.  Hag 1:14 So, the Lord stirred up their spirits to do God’s will.  Hag 2:  a personal message to some individuals and the rest to “be strong… for I am with you”.  By trusting in God and following His instructions they were also to see a bigger picture of a future “temple”, one of greater glory than Solomon’s, in which all nations would come to worship and give God the glory.  We, as Christians, “have been built on the foundation of the apostles(letters) and prophets(letters), Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. Ephesians 2:20-21.  When we write letters to someone, we choose words according to the receiver, so by looking at Tattenai’s letter to Darius we can guess that he regarded Darius as a “just” leader, one who could make wise decisions, one in whose authority he could trust. Tattenai goes into quite a bit of history in order to give accurate relevant(unbiased!) information to Darius. I love the peoples’ description of themselves in verse 11 “we are the servants of the God of heaven and earth”. The reason for writing to Darius was to check if the Jews were re-building the temple according to King Cyrus’ will, some 20 years before. As readers of God’s letters we know it wasn’t just the will of Cyrus, but more importantly the will of God. Almost 200 years before Cyrus was even born, the Lord spoke of His will being done through someone who would be named Cyrus – in Isaiah’s “letter” 44:28 “Cyrus.. will say to Jerusalem, “you shall be built” and to the temple “your foundation shall be laid”” and ch 45 continues to describe God’s purpose with Cyrus – all fulfilled. But, it wasn’t just in a letter from Isaiah, in a “letter“ from Jeremiah ch 29:10 God shows He is Lord because he defines WHEN they would return from exile in Babylon, “After 70 years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you… and cause you to return to this place”.  In Ezra 6  the letter from Tattenai was taken from Jerusalem to Babylon (1600miles) to search for Cyrus’ decree. But it wasn’t found there so they went to Ecbatana (600miles) and after a diligent search they found it !! King Darius was able to read the words of Cyrus, and to conclude that the Jews were doing Cyrus’s will. King Darius supported that will at his own expense from the taxes on the region, and this support was to be done immediately, and animals were to be provided for the sacrifices that the Jews may “pray for the life of the king and his sons”.  All these events are confirmed by the world’s history museums, but the Bible alone, tells you the reasons why. And we, by God’s grace, and faith and obedience in His word, KNOW the will of God.. His will has been in the past, His will is happening now.. but ultimately it finds completeness in the future when the world will be full of the glory of God.. and so we pray “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. Hosea 7: Adultery. Have you ever been the victim of adultery? A victim, when you still loved that person intensely, and you had lived faithfully, and they in turn had “trampled all over you”, with no thought for you at all. It’s very painful! This is what Israel did to God and this is what we do whenever we CHOOSE to do OUR OWN wills knowing it’s not our Lord’s will.  Adultery, pain, betrayal of a greater love… we call it “sin”.  Maybe we understand the enormity of sin when we see that it is often adultery and likewise we should recognize the enormity of FULL forgiveness offered for that “adultery”. This chapter begins with God’s will “to heal Israel” It’s interesting to contrast God’s will with Israel’s actions. Israel’s actions : fraud, wickedness, lies, adulterers, drunkenness, pride, abandoned God, rebel etc. God’s will: to heal, to “call upon me”, be faithful, to seek Him, to be sincere, he would chastise in order to strengthen, and he STILL wanted them to “return to me” !!.. all of this whilst they were still sinners.  “God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” !! Rom 5:8. ACTS 25: Paul knew that as a citizen of Rome he could insist on a trial before the Roman judgement seat, and not the Jewish Sanhedrin, where he would find no justice. If a citizen thought he was getting justice in a provincial court, he could appeal to the emperor himself. If the appeal was declared valid, the prisoner was sent to Rome to be judged there. ( Paul already knew from the Lord that he would be in Rome at some time in his life…Acts 23:11 “..as you have testified for Me in Jerusalem, so you must also witness in Rome”) . But Festus had a problem, he had to produce a letter providing details of the case, and Festus didn’t understand the problem that the Jews had with Paul. But he knew someone who might understand – king Agrippa.  ACTS 26: King Agrippa had no doubt heard some things about Paul from the Jews, and he had listened to Festus, but now he had an opportunity to hear Paul speak for himself. (We also have opportunity to listen to Paul, to understand his former life (his past), his life for Jesus (his “now”), and his future hope for all those who are baptized and believe in the name of Jesus).  Paul was a Jew, a devout Pharisee. He fervently believed in the promises God had made with Israel; the promise of a coming Messiah and the re-establishment of the Kingdom of God. But he didn’t believe Jesus was the promised one until on the road to Damascus. In fact, before then, he worked with the Jewish leaders in persecuting Jesus’ followers… “being exceedingly enraged against them “. After his “conversion” he saw the hope written in the scriptures, in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. The fact that Jesus had been raised from the dead confirmed to Paul that all believers would be raised from the dead to share in the blessing of the promised Kingdom of God. We too can listen to the words from the resurrected Jesus to Paul (isn’t that amazing!) “I will make you a minister and a witness… of things seen and which will be revealed. I am sending you to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are SANCTIFIED BY FAITH IN ME”. Paul was obedient to the calling and witnessed through the scriptures “that the Christ would suffer, that He would be the first to rise from the dead, and would proclaim light to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles” Acts26:23.  We’ve heard Paul’s speech as did the people then. They concluded “this man (Paul) has done nothing deserving of death or chains”. Festus thought Paul was mad. Agrippa had some knowledge, but his heart was not in it.. BUT thousands, in all generations since, have seen, they’ve listened to the letters from God  (scriptures) and understood the witness of Paul. We too have been on that journey of darkness to light, and have embraced the same hope as Paul.. Jesus. November

November 11th

It is clear in Ezra 7 that God was working in every aspect of the Jews returning to the land, verse 6, 9 and 28 and even Artaxerxes acknowledged this, verse 18. God works in the kingdoms of men, he certainly works in the lives of his people. He works in our lives, even though we may not recognise it, but he will always help us to the kingdom if we follow him and let him by trying to become more godly. Ezra was an accurate scribe, he knew God’s teachings well, he was a wise teacher quick to teach and set a good example, verse 6. There is a link too to 2Timothy 2 verse 15, where the same meaning of the original word for sticking to God’s teaching is seen, we too have to correctly and quickly handle God’s word. The return to rebuild the temple was taken seriously by all who returned because the correct people were involved in the supervision of the work. Ezra was a Levite and priest, the others who came back were the correct personel too, verse 1-7. Hosea 8 has a similar theme in that there is reference to God’s teachings, in this case, however, the God’s people did not respond to or respect God’s word as Ezra did. The people did not respect it, verse 12  they considered it “alien”, their offering sacrifices was not serious, verse 13, they pretented to be religious and God was not pleased. All the way through this chapter we see that the people replaced God with other things  their own stength and idols, etc, verse 4, 12 and 14. None of these did any good, even their fortresses did not protect them. God said that his people had broken the covenant  verse 1, and rebelled. We need to stick to God’s teaching and try our best to do what God wants. We cannot survive and succeed in our own strength, we need to follow God and obey to reach salvation and gain his promise. Paul is a great example of someone who trusted in God at all times, Acts 27 continues with the account of his journey to Rome. We have details of his shipwreck and how he and all the people on board were brought to safety because they did, under Paul’s guidance, what God wanted, verse 22-26. It is always encouraging when God’s ways are followed, verse 36, this is a lesson for us too in that we too should follow God’s ways, if we want encouragement. God was working in this situation through others too, just like king Artaxerxes, the centurion helped the situation, God made the king to favour the people who returned to the land  and God worked with the centurion too. However, this happened because Ezra and Paul were acting in Godly ways and had the respect of those who were in charge of them. This account is in detail and maybe Paul would have seen similarities in what happened to Jonah, this woukd have encouraged him as God brought a salvation there too from the sea and the fish. Instances in others, especially in the Bible, and our own lives, increase our confidence that God does save and carry out his purpose. Our ultimate salvation is when Jesus comes back and God wants everyone to have the opportunity to accept him and Jesus. Paul’s confidence in God, had a possitive impact on others, so did Ezra’s, so we should always try to remain confident and encourage others to also put their faith in God. We all suffer challenges in our lives, Paul demonstrates here that we need to continue to trust in God as he works out his plan. November

November 12th

Ezra 8 gives us the details of more Jews returning to Jerusalem following their captivity in Babylon. And the chapter shows how serious Ezra and the people took the opportunity to return and rebuild what was destroyed. For example Ezra ensured that Levites were with the group that went to Jerusalem, verse 15-17. He did this even though there were already Levites in Jerusalem, Ezra wanted to be really sure that things were being done properly in their worship of God and in their rebuilding of the temple. Ezra also demonstrated great faith by completely relying on God by not asking for soldiers to protect them, verse 22. He did not want the king to think worse of God and his own faith in him – this is an incredible motive really – he did not want to show God in a bad light. He and the people took their request to God for a safe journey seriously, verse 21 and 23. It is also likely that the fast that they undertook coincided with the Day of Atonement, which would be appropriate as they reflected on their people’s sins that had caused their captivity in the first place. So the people took their responsibilities seriously, as we should when we demonstrate our faith in everyday life – we must try not to show God in a bad way because of what we incorrectly do. We can take courage too that when we demonstrate faith, we know that the “gracious hand of God” will guide us, as it did for Ezra, verse 18 and 31. Hosea 9 continues with the reasons for Israel’s punishment and captivity in the first place. Unlike Ezra, the people at Hosea’s time did not respect the things of God, they rejected and ridiculed, verse 7, and God clearly stated that their punishment was because of disobedience, verse 17. It is often the case that when people relax, as you would after the harvest, verse 1-2, that you are in danger of disobeying God if your life is not completely motivated by him. As Christians, we should always relax with God, because God is always the centre of an individual’s life. God should always be in our everyday lives and our worship of him should never be viewed as a hardship – whether we work, relax or worship, God should be at the centre, because we want him to be. The people of Israel did not have God at the centre and did ungodly things when they relaxed to celebrate the harvest when all their work for the year was complete. And this is one of the problems with wrong motives, if worshiping God becomes a chore, then we are one step closer to a problem. The contrast with the wonder of the start of the nation of Israel, when they committed to God because of his wonders, with the situation now in Hosea’s time could not be so obvious, verse 10. And God removed his love, verse 15 and punished, verse 9. This is how seriously we should take every aspect of our Christian lives. Acts 28 continues to demonstrate the faith of Paul as his journey ends in Rome. Paul took every opportunity, including this shipwreck, to teach about the kingdom and how faith in Jesus is the only way to salvation. Verse 1-6 reminds us just how foolish human thinking is. The islanders originally thought that Paul was a murderer because he was bitten by a snake, but when he did not die they changed their minds. This is what happens when God’s teachings are replaced with human thinking. The people of Israel acted as prophesied in Isaiah 6, quoted in Acts 28 verses 26-27. The problem was that the people did not want to listen to God, therefore they failed and sinned. So we should respect God’s teachings all the time and demonstrate faith in all that we do, even when we do relax. Relaxing is a human requirement to reset our weak bodies, but when we relax, we should still be putting God first. When we think about Paul’s life and all that he went through, how he initially went against God and Jesus and persecuted the brothers and sisters in Jesus, how he was converted and then all the trials and tests that he went through – in prison, ship wrecked, flogged, stoned – he never once relaxed and took a rest from God – he took rests with his brothers and sisters, but he remained focused and motivated by God. And when we get to the end of Acts 28, when he finally reaches Rome, he continues to willingly work for God and for Jesus. He did not even hint at retiring from God’s work, he saw it as a pleasure, a thing that he wanted to do and as those last verses of the chapter we read that he wanted more people to learn about salvation and he makes it his point to share, verse 28-31. As we now eat a piece of bread and drink some wine we think about how both God and Jesus motivate us all day and every day and how our burden is light if we work with Jesus – we want to be with him and his father, no matter where we are. Let’s not relax without God and Jesus, our faith is not a chore, it is our life! November

November 13th

In the book of Ezra, we read of the return of Ezra from Babylon to Jerusalem.  Ezra visited the newly constructed temple, delivered presents to the temple and offered sacrifices.   However, in chapter 9 he learnt that all was not well.  The house of God might have been completed and looked good, but the house of Israel (the people) had fallen into disrepair.  The house of God was holy but the people were not.  Holiness includes separation from the wrong practices of the world, but the people had not done that.  The cause of the problem was intermarriage with the peoples around them.  The holy race of Israel was no longer holy (verse 2).  Israel had been told not to intermarry with the other nations (Deuteronomy 7:1-6).  The reason for this was that Israel would copy the practices of the other nations and worship idols.  They would become like the people in the land of Canaan that had to be destroyed because of their wickedness (Deuteronomy 9:4-6).  This was a great problem.  The issue at stake was the future of the people of Israel in the land.  If they were no longer holy, God would wipe them out again and take them into exile.  Ezra immediately realised the seriousness of the situation.  He tore his clothes and plucked his hair out.  Those who agreed with Ezra joined him.  They trembled at the word of God (Ezra 9:4).  We too must take the word of God seriously.  Those who do this will be acceptable to God (Isaiah 66:2); “This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.”  Ezra was humble and contrite.  He went to God in prayer and confessed the sins of the people.  Like a good priest, he prayed for the people.  He used the word ‘we’ in his prayer, rather than saying ‘them.’  We should also work to help people be right with God.  And we must tremble at the word of God and listen to it humbly.  The mixing of Israel with the unholy practices of the people of the land had happened before.  Hosea 10 describes a time when Israel had built many altars and sacred stones to worship idols.  Hosea calls these ‘high places of wickedness’ (verse 8).  They worshipped the golden calf at Bethel.  They had not remained separate from other nations but had become as bad as the people that were originally in the land.  Hosea likens the time to the time of Gibeah, which was possibly the worst case of corruption ever to occur in Israel.  It almost resulted in the loss of a tribe (Judges 20:4).  Both Judah and Israel would become slaves to other nations if they did not change (verse 11).  The prophet appealed to them to do what is right.  The people would reap what they sow.  If they sowed righteousness, they would reap righteousness (Hosea 10:12).  If they sowed wickedness, they would reap wickedness (Hosea 10:13).  The New Testament picks up this principle and the same principle applies today – we will also reap what we sow (Galatians 6:7-10).  God has also been sowing.  God has sowed the good seed of the word and it is bearing fruit all over the world (Colossians 1:6).  It is generating holy people – those who live by faith, hope, and love (Colossians 1:5).  The writer of Colossians knows that holy people can become unholy, so he prayed that they would continue in faith and grow spiritually (Colossians 1:10-11, 23).  They have been brought out of the darkness of the world into the kingdom of life (verse 12-13).  God has done this through the work of Christ.  Jesus was the true spiritual image of God and the firstborn from the dead.  He is the first of the new creation.  The new creation is the true believers that are brought out of the old natural creation.  It is Jesus who brings this new creation about and reconciles its members to God.  This is why it says all things were created in him and through him.  It mentions the things in heaven and earth as being part of this new creation.  While it is true Jesus is bring the new creation into unity with God, it is more likely that that ‘heavens and earth’ mean God’s people (as in Deuteronomy 32:1, Isaiah 1:2).  This includes the rulers and authorities on the earth who are the ones who are in heaven, just as heaven rules over the earth.  Ephesians 1:10 uses similar language and applies them to the things on earth which we must use the armour of God against (Ephesians 6:10-12).  In Ephesians, it is the believers who are in heaven (Ephesians 2:6).  The purpose of Jesus is to bring everyone together and make them perfect (Colossians 1:28).  If this is the aim of Christ, then it should also be the aim of all Christians just as it was for Paul (Colossians 1:23, 25). November

November 14th

Ezra 10 verse 1 reminds us to pray and confess repent, Hosea 11 talks about the people who used to be called God’s children but they did not listen to him and therefore did not repent. Colosians 1 verse 5 talks about repentance and how we should walk in faith. During our lives, which can be difficult, but we have to “walk in faith” and not “walk by sight”. Paul in this letter reminds the church that although he is absent, he is there in “spirit”, ie he was thinking about his brothers and sisters and getting reports about them. He liked to hear how orderly they were and how firm in the faith in Jesus they remained. We are all learning to become more like Jesus and if we are looking to become more like Jesus we do this in faith, which is the key, 2 Corinthians 5 verse 7. This is about “faith” not “sight”, so we walk in faith. In our learning we acknowledge that without “knowledge” is in Jesus, Colossians 2 verse 3 and we are not basing any of our knowledge on human thinking because this will not last, verse 20-23. So our walk in faith should be something that, as Christians, we should be improving, the sooner that we reach this conclusion the sooner that we become better before God. Many times on our journey people introduce challenges into our path but we should remain firm in faith and continue to confess sins, this is hard within human constraints without faith. We can see an example of faith in Abraham, he “walked in faith”  even though people mocked him and laughed at him, he remained faithfull. Because of his faith he was called to be the father of many nations. Even Sarah, his wife, became strong in faith even when she was old but because of God’s promise and her faith, she had a child, she did not give up. Romans 4 verse 19-20, Abraham did not weaken in his faith even though his body was as good as dead (100 years old). Sarah’s womb was dead yet neither of them weavered because they knew of God’s promise and were strengthened by faith – we too should remain strong in faith. Our life brings many challenges, many things go wrong, but the lesson is is to continue walking in faith and by doing so will help us to avoid many complications. Noah by faith, built the ark on dry land having not experienced rain before and the people around laughed at him and wondered what he was doing. Noah continued to build and to also warn them as he was instructed by God. Because Noah had faith in something that he had not seen. Sadly a lot of people today only trust in what they see, but this is not faith, but Noah saved his fsmily by faith, Acts 11 verses 7-9. By faith when Noah was warned about things that were not seen but he still, in respect and “fear” continued to build the ark to save his life. He taught others and received things that were promised. Sometimes we get mocked, but we still have to build, we can not give up, we continue to build our lives with our actions – this is our salvation. Many things happen when people talk a lot of things about us, but we should stay faithfull. 2 Corinthians 4 verse 18. Other people see things in different ways to us, what they see now is temporary, in contrast to what we see in faith which is eternal. We should not fix our eyes on what is seen because what is seen is not faith, we must fix our eyes on Jesus. If we fix on worldly things all these will pass away, this tells us to fix eyes on what is unseen, this is faith and not a “walk of sight”. If we look at what we can see we will not be in the kingdom, but it is the kingdom that we should be looking at in faith. Understanding the word of God and focussing on our walk of faith is what should occupy us. The world is in a mess, but it is all temporary, whether this is today or tomorrow, we should still focus on things not seen and we should preparing our lives by “walking by faith” avoid stupid things today, 1 Corinthians 2 verses 13-15. This is what we speak, not from human wisdom but words taught by the spirit, this is not foolish, thetefore we do not accept things that are taught by non belivers, rather we should listen to God. God wants us to do things that are not foolish. Spiritual people make godly judgements so we should not follow those who not using plain spiritual reasons based on faith. We have seen faithless people in the world’s actions and we should ask ourselves where are we going. No faith is demonstrated by what we see so we should not really wonder where we are going. The world is faithless, it does not see godly examples and we keep walking in faith. November

November 15th

There is a common theme through the 3 readings today, this is prayer. Colossians 4 talks about the Christian “devoting” themselves to prayer, verse 2, this means a life of prayer, with watchfulness and thankfulness. Epaphras certainly had a prayful life, he “wrestled” in prayer so that others would stand firm, verse 12. The term “wrestled” suggests “struggled”, ie finding it difficult to know what to pray for because you know that the needs of others are so great. His love for his brothers and sisters is so great that he kept on praying for them. This is certainly the same attitude as that of Nehemiah in chapter 1. He was obviously interested in the welfare of the people in Jerusalem and was praying for them and asking about them, verse 1-2. Nehemiah was clearly very concerned and upset for them, verse 3. His reaction in verse 4 demonstrates that Nehemiah was “devoted” to prayer, he fasted and prayed. Notice in his prayer that he praises God, acknowledges that it was the people’s sin that got them in this situation in captivity, and in complete humility he associates himself with the sins of the previous generations. He truly was a humble man and a prayerful man, verse 6-7 and 11. He is also respecting God’s teachings too as he refers to them in his prayer, verse 9. Another lesson for us too is that he prays that God will use him to contribute to God’s plan and purpose, this has to be our prayer too that God will use the abilities that he has given us! It is only because of his preparation that when the king asked what was wrong, he was able to immediately continue with his prayer and pray to God for immediate help when the king asked, verse 4. This confirms his devotion to prayer as we have read in Colossians 4.  God was working in Nehemiah’s life, verse 8 and 18, because Nehemiah invited him to. Despite setbacks, verse 19, he was still able to encourage others, verse 20. Hosea 12 continues to catalogue the pride and sins of Israel, eg verse 1, and God punishes them in accordance with their deeds, verse 2. There is an allusion to Jacob’s birth and his struggles in life, verse 3-5 and then verse 12, this is a real person struggling with life and the situations that he found himself in. Yet his descendants did not learn the lessons and unlike Jacob himself they turned from God. Jacob prayed for a wife, he prayed for protection from his brother Esau and God worked with his failures. As we are told in Colossians about living a godly life, we see that God considers any cheating as a sin, verse 7-9, yet God is always willing to accept sinners back  verse 9-20. So in conclusion Colossians 3 we have “rules for holy living” – there are the things for us to avoid, verse 5-10, ie lies, sexual immorality, anger, etc. The things that we should practise are in verse 13-14, ie, patience, gentleness, forgiveness, etc. The actions in verses 15-17 help us to nurture a live that is devoted to prayer, when we achieve this we are happy in our marriages, in our work, in every aspect of our lives. So let us all try to devote our lives to prayer. November

November 16th

In Nehemiah 3 we have an excellent example of godly people working together to do God’s work. The wall of Jerusalem needed rebuilding and almost everyone contributed to the task, no one said that they could not do it because they were not skilled. This is a very big lesson for all of us, everybody contributed to the work and everybody worked together as one and everybody tried their best to carry out the task. Notice the kind of skills that the people had, there were goldsmiths and people who made perfume, verse 8, priests, verse 24, Levites, verse 17, rulers, verse 18 and women, verse 12, none of these said that they would not do the work because they were incapable or unskilled. The work was divided into sections, each team knew their responsibilities and together they completed their section and contributed to the whole project. There was a spirit of unity with all having the same purpose and working together as one body for God. We need to do the same too as we all work together in unity on all the tasks that we have as Christians, eg teaching others, challenging others, teaching Sunday School, reading, studying, helping others, etc, we should all contribute, no matter our skills. (1Corinthians 12 verse 12 to the end of the chapter shows us how the body is all working together for the head, ie Jesus.) There was only one group of people who did not contribute, this was the nobles of Tekoa, verse 5, I do not know why they were not ready to contribute to the hard work that was required, perhaps they were proud, I do not know, but by not actually helping with the work they would not have set a very good example, more of this later. Hosea 13 is the result of the people of Israel who did not work together as one in praising and following God. Even though God did everything for them, eg bringing them out of Egypt, verse 4-6, he cared for them. He made them powerful, verse 1, but they rejected him, verse 2-3, and God said that they were just like a mist, ie something that disappears. So God punished, verse 7-9, saying that nothing will save them, verse 10. All this because they rebelled, verse 16, and did not work together for God. Despite this, there is still an element of hope and God never leaves us without hope, eg verse 14, even in desperate situations God will always be there for those who repent. This verse is quoted by Paul in 1Corinthians 15 verse 55, where Paul shows us that this time will be when Jesus comes back to correct all of the things that are wrong in this ungodly world. The “ransom” that God will use to save us from death is Jesus, so our appreciation for this should make us all want to work together in unity and in love. 1 Thessalonians 1 and 2 demonstrates what happens when Christians work together as one, it is clear here that the examples that Paul, Silas and Timothy provided in how they worked together helped the brothers and sisters who they were teaching to be “imitators” of them, and therefore of Jesus, chapter 1 verse 6 and chapter 2 verse 5. This is a big lesson for us because a powerful teaching mechanism is for people to follow the example that we set. If we carry out God and Jesus’ desire for us to teach and help and be an example, then others will imitate us for good; on the other hand if we disobey God and act in ungodly ways, people and our children will imitate us for bad. So we have a very big responsibility to set good examples in our lives. The brothers and sisters in the church here became good examples to others, chapter 1 verse 7-9. The result was that others believed and also started to wait for Jesus to come back, verse 10. Unlike the nobles from Tekoa, the brothers and sisters set a good example by being humble and demonstrating their faith by their actions. The examples that the brothers and sisters and the apostles set benefited all those who saw and heard, chapter 2 verse 5-12, this is how we help to become worthy of the kingdom. We know from Nehemiah that there was opposition to the building of the walls of Jerusalem and we will also have opposition to the work that we doing, but the brothers and sisters remained strong and continued to set good examples in their lives. The bible uses the word “satan” to show that there will be opposition to our work, eg chapter 2 verse 18, this is explained for us in verse 14-16 and verse 2 again. But we have to keep going despite set backs and opposition, we have to continue setting good examples and encouraging others to imitate us in our good behaviour. Our lesson has to be to set good, godly, examples as we aim to teach and encourage others as we all work in unity to build God’s people who are waiting for Jesus to return to rescue us from the coming wrath of God, chapter 1 verse 10 and chapter 2 verse 16. We have discovered many times that opposing God’s ways and becoming rebellious will result in consequences, so we pray that all of us will work together as that single unit to glorify God, no work should be skipped as we aim to do our best for both God and for Jesus. November

November 17th

Nehemiah 4: Watch and pray.  Sanballat, Tobiah and others mocked the Jews in Jerusalem “When they heard they were re-building the wall”. Imagine you were one of those builders. The work would be hard, the workers few, the conditions difficult, and you would be aware of a lot of people not liking what you were doing. You know what Nehemiah wants you to do, and you like the idea, but can it be done? If we listen to “our voice”, it will be saying “it can’t be done” and we will dwell on reasons to support our thinking like “We are only feeble Jews” “we haven’t got the tools to do the job or the people who have the necessary skills”. IF one person comes alongside and says “we CAN do this IF we work together” then suddenly each individual achieves more than if he was working on his own – in mathematical language: 1 + 1 is greater than 2!  and this is transforming whenever this happens.  “Though one be overpowered by another, two can withstand him” Ecc 4:12. Nehemiah was the one that came alongside (sent by God), he was “one” with his people. When mocked by his enemies, what did he do?(verses 4-5). He took everything to the Lord in prayer – his mind, his heart, his fears, and those fears he LEFT with God. Because of that prayer Nehemiah begins verse 6 with “so”. In other words because of that prayer the “feeble Jews” were renewed in strength, and they all worked together, with the same will, “having a mind to work”. Fears can only live if we lack trust in God, so by putting faith into action (mind to work), our lives will become less fearful, and more prayerful and trustful. We have our example – Jesus.  “O my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me (fears), nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will (total trust)” Matt 26:39.  And “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” – words spoken at the cross.  But words that were true of his whole life” Luke 23:46.  Neh 4:7 : With faith restored and the encouragement of seeing the entire wall joined up – up to half of its expected height, the Jews were seeing the rewards of their faith. However, this increased the will and number of their enemies. Jerusalem was now surrounded by enemies from the north (Sanballat + Tobiah), the south (the Arabs), the east (Ammonites) and the west (Ashdodites). What happens?(v9) “Nevertheless, we made our prayer to our God, and because of them (the enemies) we set a watch against them day and night”. Notice, the Jews didn’t just pray, they also “worked”, knowing that they were working WITH the all powerful God. Paul was someone who prayed frequently, but he also worked, recognizing that God was working through him and others. “We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God was pleading through us.. we then, as workers together with Him, also plead with you.” 2Cor:20.  And I believe that is what Jesus means when he says “watch and pray. When he says “watch”, he doesn’t mean look at what is happening in the world, he means watch your hearts and minds (Luke21:34).  And Jesus says not to just watch your hearts, he gives the answer, watch AND PRAY.  The teaching and example from Nehemiah 4 is throughout the N.T. and here are 2 examples:  Jude 20 “But you, beloved, BUILDING YOURSELVES up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.”  Ephes 6:17-18: “take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God: praying always with all PRAYER and supplication in the spirit, being WATCHFUL to this end with all perseverance.” Hosea 14 “return to me” v 1-3 :The final section of Hosea’s prophecy begins with a call to repentance that includes a model prayer. The people of Israel were to pray for God’s gracious forgiveness and renew their relationship with Him, no longer putting their hope in foreign alliances or military strength or other “gods”.  v4-8: IF the prayer was sincere … then God promises to “heal their backsliding”. In another model prayer (Psalm 51) “RESTORE to me the joy of your salvation”. The joy and growth is likened to the growth and beauty of the lily, trees, grain, and vine… and like the dew should be viewed as a witness to blessings from heaven.  v9: we have been taught by the word of God to be wise, to understand, to know, to acknowledge that the “ways of the Lord are just”.  When we follow those ways in the spirit of faith, love and fellowship, then we have confidence in God’s will for us. When we sin it brings fears, and we have a lack of confidence not only in ourselves but in when we are judged by the Lord. We stumble.  “Happy is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding… then you will walk safely in your way, and your foot will not stumble.” Proverbs 3:13. 1 Thess 3.   Work in progress. Paul shows his love and concern for the Christians in Thessalonica. His hope, joy, and crown of rejoicing is that the believers will be “in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, at his coming” 1 Thess 2:19. He sends Timothy (our fellow-worker) “to establish and encourage you concerning your faith, so that no-one should be shaken” (echoes here of God sending Nehemiah to the Jews of Jerusalem so that no one would be shaken in their faith). Timothy brings back good news; the church at Thessalonica had the same spirit toward Paul as Paul had for them. How beautiful is true fellowship!! So Paul gives thanks to God, because the news was a witness to answered prayers (do we forget to say thank you for answered/all prayers?) Paul prays night and day (like Nehemiah and Jews working night and day!), praying for the opportunity “to perfect what is lacking in their faith”.  1 Thess 3:12 “may the Lord make you increase and abound in love”.  1Thess 4:1 “we urge and exhort to abound more and more (grow) to walk and please God”.  4:11 “lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands”.  4:12 to be an example to un-believers.  4:12 to understand the hope in Jesus is for those believers who have already died (at sleep) as well as those believers who will be alive at Jesus’ return.  4:16 Jesus will descend from heaven and the dead in Christ will rise first.  4:17 The living in Christ will be with Jesus and the formerly dead in Christ”. We shall always be with the Lord”.  We know Jesus is to RETURN, and we also know we will inherit the promises made to Abraham concerning eternal life ON EARTH; there are so many quotes throughout the bible confirming God’s will for mankind.  Psalm 37:11 “The meek shall inherit the earth” (quoted by Jesus)  in the same psalm look at verses 22 and 29.  John 13:33.. Jesus speaking to his disciples “Where I am going(heaven) you cannot come”.  It is clear from Thessalonians and elsewhere that Jesus will RETURN and be with believers forever in the Kingdom of God on earth – this is God’s will. This has been clearly revealed to us, whereas many other details are not so clear, such as when. God has deemed that we should not be all-knowing, but we should TRUST and FOLLOW in His ways. November

November 18th

Nehemiah 5 and 6 shows us that ALL work carried on even though there was an urgent need to focus on an area as a priority, the wall needed repairing and we have seen how they all focused on this.  However, Nehemiah challenged the elders of the people because they had wrongly been trying to make money out of their fellows, chapter 5 verse 6-8. This was a bad situation and very wrong, the elders realised this when they were challenged which is why they “kept quiet”. The list of complaints from the people is really bad, because everyone should have been helping their brothers and sisters to survive and not trying to take advantage of others’ situation, verse 1-5. God has also put us in a family of believers so that we ALL help each other and do NOT take advantage of each other by demanding things to make your own situation better. We can take a lesson from Nehemiah’s continued challenge to the elders and those who were taking advantage of their brothers and sisters, verse 9-11. The message is clear for us, we must not be trying to make any money out of the things that God has given us, this is wrong. We should “fear” God and always seek to ensure that we are acting in godly ways towards all of our brothers and sisters. This means that everyone of us should be careful not to be corrupt in how we deal with each other, whether this is taking advantage of others’ misfortunes or demanding more for ourselves, verse 13, where Nehemiah graphically demonstrated how all these bad practices should be “shaken out”!  Nehemiah set a good example by not acting in any way that would be ungodly, he ensured that those around him were properly treated, verse 16-20. And he prays that God would remember him when Jesus comes to set up the kingdom, verse 19. We always have to ensure that there is fairness to all our brothers and sisters and none of us should be expecting preferential treatment! Opposition to the building of the wall continued in chapter 6 and the enemies of God’s people continued with their scheming and lies and their attempts to stop the building by mocking God’s people failed. In fact, the very things that they were trying to achieve by their mocking caused them themselves to be disheartened because the repairs to the wall were completed in a very short time because God was with his people, verse 15-16. This is a wonderful lesson for us because when we work in faith, using the situation that God has put us in properly, we will succeed if we continue in faith. Joel 1 and 2 is difficult to place in the history of the Jews, God’s people, it is possible to see some similarities with the events in 2Chronicles 20, if this is right then this happened to Judah. Whenever this happened chapter 1 indicates a suffering under natural things, ie real locusts, drought, etc, the whole chapter indicates a suffering and often God uses things like this to bring us back to him, as happened with his people. From verse 13 we see that there is a call to repentance and an acknowledgement of mistakes and sins, so even when all seems lost there is hope. The key to this chapter is our reliance on God, verse 19-20, no matter how bad suffering appears to be then we should not stop calling on God. 1 Thessalonians 5 talks about the return of Jesus saying that it will be at a time when generally people do not expect him, but for those of us who are waiting for him it will not be a surprise, verse 1-3. The time of Jesus’ return is not important, it is being prepared that is important. Just as in the time of Nehemiah we should all be living in the “light”, is acting as Jesus would and setting good examples to others by the way that we treat them, Our “desire” should be the kingdom of God (salvation) and not what we can gain out of this life now, verse 4-11. Paul has many lessons for all of us in his conclusions in this chapter, verse 12-25, he is advising us all to respect each other, he is saying that we should not be lazy or idle, we are to help the weak and to be patient. Interesting that he also says that we should rejoice always and give thanks for any circumstance that we are in (verse 16). This is important because if we believe that God is in control in our lives then whatever happens we should give thanks to him. Whether we are building (as Nehemiah was), teaching, encouraging, serving, etc. we should be doing all to the best of our ability and doing it joyfully. Our aim in life should be focused on the return of Jesus, verse 23-24, not on how to better our lives now, because this is not what God wants, he wants us in the kingdom – this has to be our desire too.  November

November 19th

Nehemiah 7 starts with a list of people, verses 1-63, showing us that God’s people are individuals; it is important for us to remember that we read about real people in the Bible, and just as God was interested in them, he is interested in us now. The people in verses 62-63 were deemed to have corrupted their heritage, verse 64-65, we see that they cannot be deemed full priests; this is a reminder to us that we have a principle that we all have roles to take seriously and to keep reminding ourselves of what God wants from us, we do this by reading and discussing, obviously prayerfully. Throughout all of this rebuilding and rededication the people gave willingly, verse 70-72, and as a result God’s people lived in their cities, verse 73. A lesson for us is that we should also give our time and other resources generously so that we too will live in security and safety in the kingdom. Joel 2 appears to show the further physical punishment of God’s people, this time by human armies. Despite this punishment there is hope, verse 12-14, God is leaving the option open to repent. God always leaves the option open to come back to him and we see this because of their regret of turning away from God in the first place, verse 15-17. The remainder of the chapter gives more hope that repentance is possible and although verses 30-32 was concluded to have been in part fulfilled in Acts 2, there will be a further fulfilment in the future too. 2Thessalonians 1 and 2 is encouragement to brothers and sisters in the church at Thessolonica. These brothers and sisters were being persecuted and really were suffering, probably by the hands of the Jews. Paul is reminding them of the certainty of the return of Jesus and the kingdom. At which time those who were persecuting them would receive their just punishement. The same lesson applies to us now with all our sufferings, whether this is persecution, famine, temptations or illness, all these things will be taken away when Jesus returns. Paul is reminding us that we are to be content in whatever situation that we are in, chapter 2 verse 13-15, stand firm is the message that we are to learn from. There are different interpretations of what is described as “lawless one”, chapter 2 verse 8, it seems reasonable to also see this as human institutions and the real “lawless one” is human nature and sin itself, this is what will be destroyed when Jesus returns. So we have to be appreciative of whatever situation we are in, there are individual lessons for all of us from each situation. Our hope is the return of Jesus when God will restore all things. Paul’s concluding comments in verse 16-17, shows us where our priorities should be. So our priorities should be to work as one for God because he is interested in individuals, we have to respect his ways and encourage each other with the hope that we have of the kingdom. Only when Jesus comes back will we be in a position when all of our sufferings end. November

November 20th

Ezra 8 really starts on the last verse of the previous chapter. It was the seventh month and the first day of the month, which means it was the Feast of Trumpets (Levitics 23:23).  This was a day when the trumpets were sounded, included the two silver trumpets at the temple.  We are told little else about the trumpets in the law, but its significance is that it symbolised the resurrection trumpet call (1 Thessalonians 4:16).  All Israel had assembled before dawn at the temple, rising very early to listen to the Law of God.  The chapter emphasises the understanding of the law (verses, 2, 3, 8 and 12).  Everyone was attentive and the reader read clearly to help understanding (verse 8). This is an example of how to read the Bible.  It is not as a performance, but in order to help the reader understand.  Reading too fast or unclearly does not help understanding.  The people did understand the words and this made them sad.  However, Nehemiah told them not to weep but be happy.  This is what the word of God ultimately does, because the words are comforting.  The heads of the families read about keeping the Feast of Tabernacles, which was on the 15th of the 7th month (Leviticus 23:33).   They kept a spectacular Feast that year, having just come out of exile and enjoying the fruit of the land for the first time.  This was a bit like the time of Joshua, when the people at the excellent fruit of the land after having had manna for 40 years. The Feast at the time of Joshua was greater, but this feast was greater than any other.  At the Feast of Tabernacles, the Law was to be read every seven years (Deuteronomy 31:10-12) and this year was the year they read the Law.  Having kept the feasts of Trumpets and Tabernacles, we are caused to ask whether they kept the Day of Atonement which should have taken place on the tenth of the month and is not mentioned.  We assume it was because the people were originally sad, perhaps because of sin, and secondly because they did confess sin in the next chapter (9:2).  There is a time to be sad because of our sin and a time to be happy because of God’s goodness to us.  The prophecy of Joel contains God’s judgments against Israel first and the nations second.  In Joel 3 we come across God’s judgments of the nations.  The first part (verses 1-8) are punishment on Tyre, Sidon and Philistia for stealing God’s people and God’s treasures.  It may have taken a long time for the punishment to come, but it did come because people reap what they sow.  What they did to Israel would happen to them.  All nations would be called to battle in the valley of Jehoshaphat, a valley which means ‘God is judge.’  There God would harvest them in the way that the grain and vine harvests are gathered (verse 13). Nations come from every side (verse 12) – Tyre and Sidon from the north, Philistia from the west, Egypt from the south and Edom from the east.  All the nations next to Israel who hated Israel would be judged for the hatred.  God will do this from Jerusalem (verse 16). Never again would foreign armies invade Jerusalem (verse 17).  Israel will have abundant blessings of wine, milk and water.  God will not do this because God is merciful and forgives sin.  This is something to rejoice about.  And then God will live in Jerusalem (verse 21).  Joel ends with this thought, just as Ezekiel does (Ezekiel 48:35).  This is such an encouraging thought for us too.  The Thessalonian ecclesia had a problem with members being idle. In the first letter, Paul counsels them to work hard (1 Thessalonians 4:11). Evidently he had also told them this when he was with them (4:11).  He also points out the example he set in this area of working hard (1 Thessalonians 2:9).  Now in 2 Thessalonians 3 the problem of idleness was still present.  Paul then gives strong advice on the need to work – in fact, this is the strongest passage on this topic in the whole of Scripture. Someone who does not work is not holding the teaching of Paul  (2 Thessalonians 3:6).  This teaching came from Paul in word and in deed.  Whenever Paul ate someone elses food, he paid for it (3:8).  He told them bluntly, “If a man will not work, he shall not eat” (3:10). All people should be able to do something with their time and contribute to the feeding of themselves and others.  Instead, they had those who were idle and then caused trouble by how they used their time.  Paul warns Timothy about these people (1 Timothy 5:13).  His advice goes stronger – do not associate with idle people.  This would include not providing them with food.  He should be warned as a brother about his poor way of life, so that he changes.  We must all think about what we and others do in order to eat.  We must contribute by working and earning our right to eat. November

November 21st

There are a number of important principles in 1 Timothy chapters 1, 2 and 3 and they all convey love. The principles are laid out first and then we have the conditions and qualifications that help us to portray love in the ways that we act, with the aim of us all knowing how to “conduct ourselves in God’s household”, chapter 4 verse 15, ie how we should be acting as children of God. The first principle is that we should not teach false teachings and that we should challenge those in our community who do teach false doctrines, chapter 1 verse 3-4, because it causes disunity and problems. In order to be able to recognise this and then to be properly equipped to challenge we have to know what God determines as true doctrines, therefore we have to constantly check our beliefs and understanding with what is written in the Bible. Paul is clear in 2 Timothy 3 verses 16-17 how scripture helps us in our lives. Notice in chapter 1 verse 5 that the reason for not teaching false doctrine and for challenging those who do is love! This is love for God, love for Jesus and love for our brothers and sisters – Jesus tells us in John 15 verse 9-14 what love is – because of love Jesus did what his father wanted, because of love Jesus gave his life for his friends, because of love we obey commands, because of love we focus on encouraging our brothers and sisters to the kingdom and because of love we try our best to be like Jesus. Love has to be the centre of everything that we do. The problem when we do not always show love to our brothers and sisters we cause some to “wander away”, verse 6-7, so avoiding false doctrine is important. Brothers and sisters who want to be teachers and demand this status are proud and this is wrong – we notice in Nehemiah 9 that it was arrogance that caused the children of God to be punished by captivity (verse 29-31). The lesson is true today – if we want God to be gracious to us we have to do our best to do what he says. The next principle in Timothy is to “use the law [of life and death in Jesus] properly” because this is good, chapter 1 verse 8. So in love we have to use this knowledge properly, remembering that our motivation for this is love of God, Jesus and our brothers and sisters, so it is important. Because if we are motivated by love we will not be “law breakers” or “rebels” and therefore will have no fear of the law! The law only then applies to those brothers and sisters who are included in the list in verse 9-11. However, we need to examine ourselves and ask ourselves if anything in this list describes us or are we really only showing love. As we examine ourselves and our actions also consider what Jesus says in Matthew 5 about such things as lust and adultery or anger and murder. Our Christian belief strongly encourages us to change our outlook on everything to having one of a love just like Jesus – his love was demonstrated by willingly giving his life so that we can be in the kingdom – that is the priority, dictated by love. Our next principle is the real life example of Paul’s repentance and change of direction where previously to his conversion and “repentance” he did not show love, but there is hope for all of us because all of us can be changed if we are on the wrong path now, verse 12-14. It was grace, mercy and love that changed Paul’s beliefs, and he completely changed direction, he changed his life around, in other words he repented. The point is that Jesus came into the world to save sinners like Paul, who opposed God, and to save sinners like us who continually break his commands. This is something that we should remember and accept as a “trustworthy” saying. This is why we remember and break bread and drink wine each week to praise both God and Jesus for the mercy shown to all of us, verse 17. Nehemiah 9 is the account of the people’s confession and repentance, but it includes acknowledgement of past mistakes and a determination to change. Possibly the final principle in these chapters in Timothy concerns our worship and this too is important. Our prayers are not to be focused on ourselves, we are to pray for everyone, including our governments, chapter 2 verse 1-2, notice that this is not a list of requests it is a prayer about peaceful and quiet lives, it is a prayer that there will be no tensions with others, ie it is a prayer for love and this is “pleasing to God”, verse 3, and the reason for this? It is because God wants all to be saved, verse 4, so all these principles are to help us to salvation – this is love and it is without controversies! We are basically praying that God will use us to be good examples as we demonstrate love by doing our best to please both God and Jesus. Paul reminds us again that there is only one way to come to God and that is by fully accepting Jesus and trying to love like he loved, verse 5-6. We acknowledged this when we were baptised and made our confession that we were dedicating our life to a life of love as Jesus did. So when we pray we must not be part of any anger or dispute, verse 8, in fact Jesus said in Matthew 5 again that if we have a dispute with a brother or sister we are to leave our “gift” [or prayer] at the “altar” so that we can be reconciled with our brother or sister first. This is also an important principle because if we have an ongoing dispute with a brother or sister and we are not trying to resolve it, God will not listen to our prayers! So it is important that we consider our attitude towards our brothers and sisters and consider if we are acting in love or not. After these principles we now have examples of how we are helped to remember them in our everyday lives and we are given everyday reminders by God to help us love and demonstrate the right attitude. Brothers need to pray without anger or disputing, verse 8, sisters need to dress modestly and to demonstrate their love by their actions, verse 9-10. Brothers and sisters are to also continually depict the parable or picture of Jesus and the church in their lives as a reminder of sin, verse 11-15. These verses are not about the brother or man being “boss” over the wife or sister, it is about a loving reminder given by God to help us to remember love. Ephesians 5 verse 22-33 helps us to see the relationship between the sister and the church and the brother and Jesus so these verses in Timothy are a loving reminder for us to help us to love more. There is only one way to be saved and that is in Jesus, so the “childbearing” in chapter 2 verse 15 has to involve Jesus and only if the woman (church) continues in faith, love and holiness with the right attitude will salvation be achieved. The selection of overseers and deacons in chapter 3 also shows us how much preparation is needed and how we have a better chance of having harmony in our community if we follow this selection criteria. If our “leaders” are demonstrating love by following all these principles then our church is better equipped to also demonstrate love, if we ignore these selection criteria we will end up with disputes. So the selection criteria in chapter 3 is not designed to exclude those who have made mistakes, it is to ensure that love and harmony exists. November

November 22nd

At the end of Nehemiah 9 and verse 38 we read that God’s children made a “binding agreement” to help commit themselves to following God’s law, thy did this because of their confession that they made earlier in chapter 9. They confessed that they had sinned against God and now they wanted to try to put things right as they repented of their previous sins and actions; they were not only repenting of their own actions but they were including their predecessors’ sins too. So today’s reading in chapter 10 is their contract and their agreement how they were going to try to follow God’s teachings and they were going to use this contract as a reminder for them. Now this reminder and contract is very similar to our baptism. We recognised our need for forgiveness and repentance and we marked our “contract” with baptism and we can use this “binding agreement” as our reminder that we should also be following God’s laws now. Just like our baptism was a public confession, ie in front of others, this contract was in front of others too and we see this in the list of names at the start of the chapter. We then see the items that were included in the contact and we need to also use these as a template so that we too can try to follow God’s ways. The first one is about separation from others who do not share the same faith as we do, verse 28, this is a very good place to start our Christian life because if we become good friends with non-believers there is a real danger that they will influence us for bad. Psalm 101 says the same thing, in that if we mix with non believers we will become like them, this is why we are strongly advised to only mix with believers so that we all encourage each other to be godly. The people agreed to “follow the law of God”, verse 29, this includes carefully obeying the things taught by God. This is encouragement for us to read the Bible and to try to put the teachings that we find there into practice in our lives. This is also was we agreed to do when we were baptised. The people promised not to let their daughters marry those who did not share the same faith, verse 30, this is for similar reasons to those for mixing with others. The lesson here for us is that the love that we have for our daughters is such that we want them to be in God’s kingdom, therefore we would only want them to marry men who are also aiming for the kingdom, this is a very practical ideal for us to aim for. Although we no longer keep the Sabbath because we break bread and drink wine on the first day of the week, ie a Sunday, the lessons are still relevant, verse 31. We should try to keep Sundays free to only remember God and his son Jesus, we would benefit better from a day of concentrating on and worshipping God. Keeping the “sabbath” holy was a great way for God’s children to prepare and to focus on God. The remaining verses talk about giving things for God’s work, this could be money or crops or animals, all these things can help in God’s work, so the lesson is clear for us too that we are expected to contribute to God’s work, no matter what financial situation we are in. We can bring firewood to help in cooking if that is all we have – we all have a responsibility to “give to the Lord” and our “giving” helps others. We can bring food so that others who have nothing can be helped. This is what we agreed to do when we were baptised, so a great lesson for us to use to think about what we give in God’s service. Amos 2 continues with the punishment that God gives to all nations who oppose him, in this chapter this includes Judah and Israel. This chapter is a reminder that God sees everything, he sees our actions as well as seeing nations’ actions and all will suffer the consequences of their failure to follow God’s ways. God will always ensure that justice is done and those who do right will be blessed and those who do wrong will be cursed, these  blessings and cursings will happen when Jesus comes back, so now is the time for us to be serious in how we follow God’s ways. God is clear how he will deal with those who do not follow him, verse 4 – because his people replaced him, he will pass judgement on them, verse 5. The abuse of others and many ungodly actions are condemned in verse 6-7 and God is clear that because of his help in the past, eg verse 10-11, we should respect and follow him and not to continue to abuse others, eg verse 12, and if we fail to remember to follow God he will “crush” us, verse 13. God gives us every opportunity to follow him, he gives us reminders and examples of how we can demonstrate our love for him because he has loved us. 1Timothy 4 sadly reminds us that people will abandon their faith and start to believe in lies, verse 1-2, we should not get confused by the word “demon”, it is simply meaning a false teaching.  By “hypocritical liars”, the context suggests that these were ungodly Jews. The point that Paul is making here to Timothy is that we should be constantly reading our bibles to ensure that we learn what God wants, he says that we should “devote” ourselves to reading, teaching and preaching, verse 13. Our respect of God’s word should be obvious in the way that we dedicate ourselves to it and to comply with the agreement that we made when we were baptised, verse 15-16. God knows that we always fail, this is why he gives us reminders and examples of how others failed and learnt. 1Timothy chapter 5 tells us how to treat our spiritual family and to show respect to each other, eg widows. There are clear messages about how we should treat the different situations that widows find themselves in, we need to treat them as individuals and the widows also have to be responsible in what they should expect. Later in the chapter we have lessons about elders and how they should not show favouritism, verse 21. All these lessons are what we agreed to when we were baptised and we should be trying our best to follow what God wants. We all have responsibilities to each other and we have to try to take the opportunities that God has given us to do what God wants, verse 17-20. November

November 23rd

Nehemiah 11 is an example of how God’s people willingly accepted the different roles that were assigned to them. All appear to accept their part and this is a good lesson for us as we work as a willing team in our ecclesia and the wider Christadelphian community. Every role has equal importance, but roles are assigned in accordance with God’s requirements. In this example in Nehemiah we have the priests, verse 10, and Levites, verse 15, who had the greatest responsibility of leading because of their allegiance to God when Moses lead all the people from Egypt. But like us today, those with particular talents represented the people in different ways. For example the Levites in verse 17 led the thanksgiving and prayer; there were gatekeepers, verse 19; there were singers, verse 22; organisers verse 24 and craftsmen, verse 35. Each had a specific role and all worked for the good of the whole community. There was respect for each other’s land as all took their ancestral land, verse 3 and 20, no one tried to take advantage of others who had not yet returned to Israel. All this is a lesson for us in how we accept the different roles in our ecclesias as we serve God and each other. There was a need for people to live in Jerusalem to keep and protect the city and there was no shortage of volunteers because it was a good place to be at the centre of worship as there were blessings, Psalm 87 verse 1-6. However, to reduce the numbers and to ensure that necessary work was able to carry on elsewhere, lots were cast ,verse 1, this allowed for God to be in the decision process, today we pray for guidance. Notice that all the people supported the decision showing a unity and commitment to each other. This is a great lesson for us to learn from, as we accept our roles on the ecclesia and willingly support each other. Amos 3 is a reminder of what goes wrong when God’s people do not work together as one to follow God. Despite God bringing them out of Egypt, verse 1, and God choosing them as his special people, verse 2 they sinned against God. The questions that God asks from verse 2-6 all invite us to answer with an obvious “no”, and God makes the equally obvious statement that he has always revealed his plans to his people, verse 7, he has never been secretive about his plans, he has always told us his requirements, therefore there should be no surprise when God responds with punishment for his people when they disobey and therefore, verse 11, an enemy would come and sadly just as a sheep cannot be saved from a lion’s mouth, verse 12, his people could not be saved from the enemy. God will destroy those things that take us away from him, verse 13-15. 1Timothy 6 has similar warnings for us, respect is shown by all to all, no matter if slave or master, verse 1-2. We are warned about the dangers of loving money and replacing God with it by trusting in money more than God , verse 6-10. The love of money creates all kinds of evil and will bring nothing but grief to our lives. We are told to be content and to focus on eternal life, verse 11-16. Only by willingly serving God and Jesus can we gain life, anything else just prevents us from gaining eternal life. It is sad that some teach that wealth in this life is a reward from God and today there are many church groups and individuals who think that being a Christian can bring financial gain, they are wrong , verse 3-5. Paul exhorts us to build our faith on a firm foundation so that we can be in the kingdom, verse 17-21. We all have to help each other as we walk towards the kingdom, we willingly serve each other as we do and only by working together in love will we stay firm in our faith. November

November 24th

NEHEMIAH 12:          “It is good to give thanks to the Lord”.  Although in this chapter there are a lot of names, within the chapter we see an  organized “church” having beautiful fellowship. The Levites led the thanksgiving psalms (v8), to praise and give thanks(v24). In verse 27 there was a “dedication of the wall of Jerusalem”.  This seems strange to me, a dedication of a wall!! But for me, the following words bring understanding. The Levites gathered “to celebrate the DEDICATION with gladness, both with thanksgivings and singing and musical instruments”. So the people were gathering together to give thanks for the dedication – of God, of the leaders, of the priests, and of the people, and that dedication of all, working as one, had been to build the wall. How appropriate then, that priests and people should gather together and give thanks and praise to the Lord God, knowing full well His support and encouragement throughout.  v31-39:   How appropriate that the worshippers should walk on that wall – one party went anti-clockwise and the other clockwise, but both were heading towards the temple. By walking on the finished wall towards the temple each person was reminded and inspired by the great work that had been done by God and His people. Everyone there that day would have the same spirit and were one with the Lord.  v42 “the singers sang loudly”.  They weren’t singing loudly so that they may be heard, they were truly giving everything within them to God. Their psalms, and songs, each sound, each voice was directed TOWARDS God… shared with God.  The words of the psalms etc were powerful because the singers knew them to be a true reflection of their hearts, they were one with the words and one with God. When we worship like this, it has power.  When we merely sing with no dedication and direction, it’s just a nice song!!  v43 “They offered great sacrifices, and rejoiced, for God made them rejoice with great joy; the women and children also rejoiced.”  v47 “In the days of Zerubbabel and Nehemiah all Israel gave the portions for the Levites etc”  We too, as a Christian church regularly come together to give thanks and praise to God, for His love, His dedication (faithfulness) and His protection. As we walk to our “meeting place” we remind ourselves of why we are collectively coming together to worship, to give thanks to God. We remember not just the dedication of God, but also the amazing dedication of His son, and as we dedicate ourselves to them, we find joy in a wonderful fellowship.  “truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.” 1 John 1:3-4  “be filled with the spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music IN YOUR HEART TO THE LORD, always giving thanks to God the Father for EVERYTHING, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” Eph 5:19-21. AMOS 4:  Worship in spirit and truth (John4:23).  v1 Bashan, the region east and north-east of the sea of Galilee, was (and is) a prime grassland area renowned for its cattle. In the verse the cows of Bashan seem to be symbolic of the rich women (and men!) who indulged in indulgence. Although they had more than enough, they oppressed the poor and crushed the needy to get even more riches! The Lord God warns them, because of their lifestyles of pleasing themselves and not God, they would be taken into captivity (v2-3). Interestingly, “you will be taken away with hooks” because the Assyrians prisoners of war were led away with a rope fastened to a hook which pierced the nose or lower lip.  v4-5 These verses are directed against THEIR worship. God wishes mankind to worship in spirit and truth, and these verses show that this was not happening. They had corrupted the ways of the Lord, preferring to worship in their own ways. They went to Bethel and Gilgal, popular places of worship in Amos’ day. But in God’s eyes, they went to sin. They boasted(v5) about their works, clearly deceiving themselves and others that they were so righteous.  Boast 1: they brought sacrifices every morning…should have been morning and evening Numbers 28:4. Boast 2: they brought tithes every 3 years. God’s will was that tithes were brought so that “the Levites, the stranger, the fatherless and the widow may eat and be satisfied” They brought their tithes as a “ritual”, but didn’t live out God’s principles in the rest of their lives.  Boast 3: they burned leavened bread as a thank-offering. Leavened bread could accompany a thank-offering, but if the bread was to be burnt it had to be unleavened (Lev 7:13-14).  Boast 4: they boasted about their freewill offerings – this was totally the wrong spirit (to boast!) the offering was meant to be done in the spirit of gratitude and humility, not in self-praise!!  v6-11: here we have 5 calamities that God has already sent upon the Israelites in an effort to drive them to repentance. Each section ends with a tragic outcome “yet you have not returned to me”. And so the final outcome.  ”Prepare to meet your God, O Israel”.  We have been rescued, “plucked from the fire” like Lot and his family out of Sodom and Gomorrah, but let’s remember the warning from Jesus – remember Lot’s wife who looked back, desiring her previous life in preference to a new life with the Lord! 2 TIMOTHY 1: Faith or Fear.  Paul writes to Timothy as a father would to his beloved son, such was the spirit of their relationship. No doubt Timothy was concerned about Paul’s situation, in a prison in Rome awaiting a possible execution. Paul writes to Timothy to keep his faith active, to remember what God has done for him, to remember what Christ had done for him, to remember the faith shown by his mother and grandmother etc. But Paul doesn’t just seek to restore Timothy, he is also at the same time, revealing his own spirit to a fearful Timothy. We see from the words of Paul that faith and spirit wise he was managing his situation.  He reminded Timothy of his calling, according to God’s will and the promise of life in Christ Jesus.  He thanked God, who he served with a pure conscience (his conscience was troubled until Jesus turned him round).  He prayed night and day. (This shows his faith was strong. When we get weak, we pray less often, bizarrely).  Paul’s concern was Timothy’s faith which he knew was genuine. But it needed to be stirred up and put into action.  “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind”.   Paul fully believed. Even though he was suffering it didn’t trouble his faith, because faith is about what is ALWAYS TRUE whether in good times or bad times. Good or Bad times never change what is true. Is there a God? YES, whatever.  Is the Bible the word of God ? YES, whatever.  Is Jesus my saviour? YES,.whatever. etc. So when we struggle let’s remind of those things that are true that can’t be taken from us, and then pray for some help in present times.  “who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, according to His purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.” “who has abolished death and brought life and immortality through the gospel.”  “For I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I committed to Him until that day.” Paul committed his life to the Lord and left his life in his safe hands. Knowing he could die at any time (but it didn’t really matter when) but on that Day (Jesus’ return) he would be granted immortality. Therefore, Paul (speaking on the Lord’s behalf) tells Timothy and us to “Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.  Although many had turned away from Paul and the true gospel,  Onesiphorus had not. He was a good example to follow and Paul was often refreshed by him – what was the refreshment provided ?… no doubt Onesiphorus’ faith and love and his perseverance, and his wonderful spirit as a willing servant of Christ Jesus, no matter what. November

November 25th

Nehemiah 13 starts by reminding us how important reading the bible is and checking what God expects from us, verse 1; here we see that the consequences of NOT reading meant that Eliashib, a Moabite, was actually working as some kind of priest in the temple, verse 4, and he had allowed the “enemy” Tobiah to have a room in the temple, verse 7. This was not supposed to have happened and when Nehemiah became aware he was not pleased, verse 4. Not reading meant that God’s requirements were not checked and the people deviated from them, and it would appear that as a further consequence the Levites had not carried out their tasks, verse 10-11.  Whether this was a consequence of the presence of Eliashib or not we cannot be sure, but we can be sure that the requirements of God were neglected. It then took trustworthy men to take over the responsibility, verse 13, thus ensuring that the proper supplies were assigned to their brothers. The problem in not always checking with God means is that multiple things start to go wrong and people start doing what they want, for example, some were breaking the Sabbath, verse15-18, this was unacceptable and the people were not remembering the lessons about the Sabbath and thinking of God’s rest, ie the kingdom. Being a strong and Godly leader, Nehemiah took action to ensure that the Sabbath was not broken in future, verse 19-22. In addition Nehemiah also discovered that men were marrying women from other nations, verse 23, therefore their children did not know which language to speak, verse 24, but the more important lesson here is that they did not know what the right worship was. This is the problem with all of these “problems” that Nehemiah identified – God’s requirements were being compromised and the people were replacing God as the one true (and only) God. Nehemiah correctly challenged the people and explained how God was displeased with such actions, verse 25-27, some of his actions were extreme (verse 25) and “beatings” are certainly  not the actions that any of us should follow now, but his response demonstrates just how wrong it is for God’s people to replace and rebel against God. The “removal” of hair is interesting, because hair removal can be a sign of a covenant (contract) that is broken so maybe our equivalent is when we remove fellowship from those who rebel against God until they repent. So Nehemiah attempted to correct all of these things and also “purified” the priests, verse 30-31, demonstrating that he took the worship of God seriously and understood what it meant to be in the family of God. Whether this chapter is a summary of Nehemiah’s work as leader of God’s people, or new events as time moved on, it contains massive lessons for us and reminds us again of the lessons in the “vow” or contract that everyone makes when they accept a part in God’s family (chapter 10). Throughout chapter 13 Nehemiah asks God to “remember” him, verse 14, 22, 29 and 31, this is not Nehemiah being proud of what he has achieved in his life, it is a prayer for God to remember him when he sets up his kingdom in the future, our prayer should be for this too, but we should also be asking ourselves what will God remember of the actions in our lives, will they be godly or will they be ungodly! The same message of trying to learn about the things of God and to read the bible or have the bible read to us is in Amos 5 verse 1, we always have to try to follow what God wants. When we do not follow God’s ways no one should be surprised when God removes his blessings from us, verse 2-3.  Because of God’s love for us we should try to obey him in everything that we do. However, God is always willing to be merciful when we repent, verse 4 and 6, so whilst we have the opportunity to do this we should consider how we live and ask ourselves if we are godly in everything and if we are not, we need to repent and seek God properly. When we think about our ungodly ways we need to think if we are “righteous” verse  7 because this was the big problem here with the children of God, they looked religious in their worship but they were not acting properly, they were not giving justice to those who needed it, eg verse 10 and 11, they were not being godly to those who were oppressed and suffering. God was asking them to examine themselves, verse 12 and to change, verse 14-15, we need to keep looking at our actions to see if we are not providing justice properly, we have to care for all those in our ecclesia to ensure that all have “justice”. It is an important challenge that God gives to us because our worship is not complete if we are not caring for all of God’s people in practical and loving ways because if we are not verse 21-27 apply. It is something for us to seriously consider. 2Timothy 2 contains the same message too with respect to learning about God and Jesus and the responsibility to teach others, verse 1-2. The examples of the soldier, athlete and farmer are all examples of how we should work at following and respecting God’s teaching, each had a reward. The important thing to always remember is that in Jesus (verse 8-10) we will all have the reward in the kingdom if we remain true to God and to Jesus, verse 11-13. So as brothers and sisters we need to keep reminding each other of these things, verse 14, we should be looking at all of God’s teachings and see if we are following them. We should not be “quarrelling” about words, we should be doing our best to follow what God wants, verse 15-16, it is “doing our best” that is important here, we should not be tempted to change what God wants because we “dislike” his requirements or find them hard to follow. The same message is here as in Nehemiah with respect to the damage caused by those who influence in wrong ways, verse 17-18, Paul describes it as “gangrene” – a strong picture, but it kills if it is not cut out, so we have to be aware of those who teach false doctrine. God always remains the same, verse 19, we should always build on his solid foundation, when we do, we will not fail because God is always right, if we build on human thinking we will fail. Paul’s concluding comments in this chapter, ie verse 20-26 instruct us to “build” our house, ie our fellowship, properly and on godly principles and to avoid those “stupid arguments” and cause disunity and unrest. 1Corinthians 3 also shows us that divisions in the church are wrong. So we always have to do our best to follow what God wants, we cannot replace God’s ways with human thinking, if we want to be part of God’s future we really must try to keep to what he wants us to do. November

November 26th

The king of Esther held a major event early in his reign.  It may be that this was his first chance to bring his administrative team together to learn about how his kingdom works.  This took 6 months.  At the end, he held a feast for 7 days.  On the last day of this feast, he wanted to display his greatest treasure – his queen.  On the last day, the king was ‘happy’.  The translations give the impression that the king had had too much wine, but the Hebrew word does not really convey that.  The word is derived from the word ‘good’ and it means that the king was good, pleased, kind and happy.  He was not drunk.  He had come to the greatest thing in his kingdom which he was pleased to display. But the queen did not come.  This was not just a snub of the king, but to all those present and the kingdom.  It was a huge issue.   It would set a precedent of behaviour for all women.  As verse 18 says, she was encouraging disrespect for husbands everywhere.  There would be disruption in every household.  The king had to act.  Respect for husbands was an important principle.  The requirement for women to respect their husbands is an important Bible principle in marriage.   We read this in Ephesians 5:22, Colossians 3:18 and 1 Peter 3:1.  And the husbands must love their wives as their own bodies. Unlike Esther, Amos 6 does describe the misuse of wine.  Israel was drinking and lounging in pleasure, using riches gained by its abuse of justice.  It was proud of its own ways, thinking it was godly.  But God said He would judge them for their pride and their ways.  It is a lesson for us not to become complacent like them and think we are ok.  We need to examine ourselves to check that we are doing what is right. 2 Timothy 3 tells us that the complacency of Amos 6 will occur in the last days.  People will have some features of being godly but really they are worldly.  People will always be learning but not learning about the right things.  This is like today.   Godliness is hard to find.  Like Timothy, we must follow the good example of the apostle Paul and Jesus.  It is by reading the Bible regularly, and closely following its message, that we can make sure that we are really right with God.  The Bible can teach us, rebuke us, correct us, and train us, so that we are right with God.  Let it do this for us.  The more we can do this, the less likely we are to fall into the trap of the Israelites of Amos’s day.  We finish with the advice for us to be careful – the world today is a place of pleasure and selfishness, and we must not be like this. November

November 27th

In Esther 2, we learn about Esther.  Unlike Vashti, she is obedient.  She obeys her adopted father and the head of the house of women.  She obtains favour with those who see her.  She is very beautiful, but she is not just a beauty queen.  She had a good personality that brought her favour.  So she becomes queen.  The king saw qualities of humble service that he did not see in Vashti.  This is the behaviour that we too need to have.  As Ephesians 6:7 says,” Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men.” Amos 7 shows us that God listens to His people.  Twice God was on the point of bringing disaster on Israel, and twice He stops because of Amos’s appeal.  However, God finally drew the line on how long He was willing to put up with Israel’s sin.  We see this in His removal of the priest of Bethel.  God will also do this for the world we live in.  He will draw the line at man’s wickedness and say “enough”.  When that time comes, we need to make sure that we are on the God’s side.  We need to be like Amos – humbly serving God and avoiding the ways of the world. The letter to Titus, along with the letters to Timothy, give us practical information on how to run ecclesias.  God wants ecclesias to stand in faith and in the knowledge of the truth and use this knowledge to be godly (1:1).  Key to this in ecclesias is the role of elders.  They are to take the lead, and they need to have the right qualities to do this.  There are many rebels and false teachers and divisive people.  The ecclesia needs protection from them.  But everyone has a role (chapter 2) – old men, old women, young men and young women.  Everyone needs to behave in a godly way; humbly serving God and not themselves.  This includes submitting to the authorities. The key message from all passages is the need for a humble and an obedient service to God.  Hebrews 12:28 tells us, “Since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and fear”.  Just as Esther served obediently before she received the kingdom, let us also use our time to do the same. November

November 28th

Esther 3 and 4 describe the rise of the enemy of the Jews – Haman.  He took a personal dislike to Mordecai.  But his anger was not just against Mordecai.  His anger was against Jews in general.  We are told the reasons for this.  They remained separate from other people and have different laws.  What seems to have been happening was that they were following the laws of God whenever they were different from the laws of the land.  This is why Haman did not like them. When God’s people are faithful to the commands and trust in God, then God hears their prayers.  God does save them.  This is what happens when God’s people trust in God, keep His commands and do not mix with the world.  It is a lesson for us to keep our separation, and trust in God.  He always listens to His faithful people and will ultimately save them.  He will save us. Amos 8 continues the theme from the chapter 7.  Israel was God’s people, but in Amos’s day they were not faithful.  They made money illegally in everyway and abused the poor, selling them for only a pair of sandals.  They were unholy people in God’s holy land.  Amos spoke of a time of trouble which would lead to the exile. Philemon is a book about a practicing Christian.  We are told Philemon was good at loving the brothers and sisters.  In fact, his name means ‘friendly’.  He refreshed many people, and even the ecclesia was held in his house.  We can ask ourselves whether have such a good reputation among other brothers and sisters.  Paul was confident that Philemon would follow his request, because of his positive reputation. Philemon also tells us how to love someone.  Paul was in prison when he was visited by Onesimus.  Onesimus must have sought Paul out, possibly because of hearing about him in the ecclesia in Philemon’s house.  At the prison, Paul and Onesimus became very close.  By the end, Paul loves Onesimus.  He goes even further.  He loves Onesimus as himself.  What an example of love this is!  Onesimus was a runaway slave, that Romans would have despised and killed.  But Paul talks to him and he became a brother in Christ.  Paul advises others to see him as a brother in Christ as well.  In our relationship with our brothers and sisters, let us make sure that we love all the brothers and sisters deeply from the heart, even the ‘lowest’ brother or sister.  November

November 29th

Esther 5 and 6 describe the self-sacrifice of Esther and the rise of Mordecai.  Esther shows the self-sacrifice qualities of Jesus.  Like Jesus, she saves her people after a period of 3 days.  Like Jesus, her life has led up to this point.  Like Jesus, God worked through Esther to bring salvation. Esther does not work alone, but with the support of Mordecai.  Like Esther, Mordecai is not against the king and even saved his life.  This is unlike what Haman thought, when he claimed the Jews were against the kingdom.  God’s people must be good citizens where it does not conflict with God’s laws. God, who is just, ensures that such righteous people are helped.  Mordecai is finally honoured for saving the king and God ensured that it is Haman himself who had to honour Mordecai.  God steps into man’s affairs to ensure His justice is done.  God will bless those who bless the Jews and curse those who curse the Jews.  Haman had taken on God and had met his match.  God is also greater than any enemy we can have. Amos 9 tells us that no one can hide from God.  There is no place in any mountain, sea or land which can hide.  No one can fight God or deliberately break God’s laws and get away with it.  Israel has become God’s enemy, but a different enemy from Haman.  Unlike enemies from other nations, God will spare a small part of His people.  Even if they are downtrodden, there will be a revival.  The words of verses 11-12 are quoted in Acts 15:16-18 to show that this revival includes believers from among the Gentiles.  And even if they are downtrodden, God has planned better things for them.  The chapter and book end with a picture of the kingdom with the replanting of his people in this kingdom.  But this kingdom cannot be brought about by a people who continually fail.  This brings us to the next reading. Hebrews explains the greatness of Jesus to the Hebrews, which we know as the Jews.  In particular, the book uses the Law of Moses to show how Jesus was greater than the elements of the Law.  Jesus was the exact representation of godliness, and it was glorious.  Chapter one compares Jesus with angels and shows that Jesus is much greater.  It is as if some Hebrews were trying to worship angels and the writer shows that this is mistaken.  Even angels worship Jesus. Chapter 2 builds on chapter 1.  God showed Jesus with greater by allowing him so many miraculous abilities.  Also Jesus is the one God has planned to rule the earth, not the angels.  Jesus is the one who will save many people, not the angels.  In doing this, he had to be like the people, not like the angels.  Jesus was made of the same flesh as we are and suffered as we do.  This is like a High Priest who understood the people he represented.  In the case of Jesus, it was far more so.  He understands our suffering and temptation.  We can be sure that we are understood and well represented to God.   November

November 30th

In Hebrews 5:11-14 we are told to move onto solid food when we are mature. If we are not mature we are on milk, as babies are, like babies we do not remain on milk we have to move on to the meat! To do that we read to understand God’s teachings. Esther tells us about a bad man called Haman who was intent on destroying the Jews, God’s people, and like all people who try to destroy the Jews, Haman was killed. Haman is described as “vile” 7 verse 6. We see the end result of God working to bring about the resolution to the problem and to bring justice, 8 verse 17. At first it seems a strange plan in the way that the king undertook the change of plan after having initially given his seal in sending out the message to kill the Jews and now this message to change it and give a new command to allow the Jews to protect themselves. But the end result was that people “feared” the Jews and became converts, so in this strange, but God directed, change of events people we effectively saved by become part of God’s family. Obadiah teaches the importance of brotherly love – Jacob and Esau were brothers and therefore there should have been love, however there was no love and even when there was a reconciliation there was more of a tolerance rather than a love. Esau then did not love, just like Cain, and Esau’s descendants that we read about here in Obadiah showed no love, verse 12-14. So the message is that we should love our brothers and sisters in Christ. The people of Esau were to be punished and destroyed because they did not love. Obadiah ends with the kingdom. The kingdom of God is coming and God will deliver – he delivers because of Jesus and in Hebrews 3 verse 1 we have the purpose of the breaking of bread which is to fix our eyes on Jesus. The beginning of Hebrews shows us how great Jesus is and we come to his “house”, 3 verse 6, but is conditional because we remain there “if” we hold to the confidence. We then have a warning for us to remember how we have been saved just as the people of Israel were brought out of Egypt. But they stopped believing in God and died. We have to be careful to we do not stop believing. In Hebrews 4 shows our priority for us to enter into this rest. We remember Jesus’ death and resurrection and the breaking of bread and this keeps us strong in the faith and we should keep going to reach the kingdom. This is a great hope in Jesus and we should always fix our eyes on him, which also means that we fix our eyes on God too. November

December 1st

ESTHER 9: “But they did not lay a hand on the plunder”.  It was a strange year (approx. 470BC) within the Persian empire. The people had received instructions of what would happen on the 13th day of the 12th month…the first message said that the king would support the destruction of the Jews throughout his kingdom on that day, as proposed by Haman the Agagite. Not long after, a second message was sent indicating that the king had changed his mind and would now help to protect the Jews and support them in the destruction of their enemies on that day,as proposed by Mordecai (a Jew) and Queen Esther (a Jew).  If you were a Jew, you would be incredibly grateful for the turn of events and your rescue. Had they prayed and fasted, like Esther and Mordecai?  What is apparent within this chapter is the phrase that is said 3 times, “but they did not lay a hand on the plunder” (verses 10,15,16). Did the letter from Mordecai have these instructions? In the book of Esther, as a believer, we know that God’s hand is at work. We see the response to prayer and fasting, the rewards of waiting and faith, the humble lifted high etc. I am confident Mordecai would have reminded the Jews in the letter of their history. A part of which would have been concerning the enemies of the Jews. Haman was a Agagite, and an Amalekite, a long time enemy.  In Moses’ time, when the Israelites were in the wilderness they were attacked by the Amalekites. Because of their hatred for the Jews the Lord said to Moses “write this scroll as something to be remembered… I will completely destroy the memory of Amalek” Exodus 17:14 and “The Lord will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation” Exodus 17:16. Many years later King Saul, a Benjamite, in 1 Sam 15 is told by God to totally destroy the Amalekites and their belongings (flocks etc). Saul was not faithful to God’s word and CHOSE what he destroyed and what he saved – he and his men saved the best for PLUNDER. 1 Sam 15:19 “why did you take the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the Lord?”  Nearly 600 years later, Haman (an Amalekite) hated the Jews and wanted to destroy all of them- but now the Jews had an opportunity to avenge themselves of their enemies. Mordecai, also a Benjamite (Esther 2:5), would have been very familiar with Saul’s successes and failures, and so he would destroy the enemies of the Jews, but he would not take any plunder.  REMEMBER: Letters were sent to the Jews so that they should celebrate each year. “As the time when the Jews got relief from their enemies, and as the month when their sorrow was turned into joy.” (Verse 22) and “These days should be remembered” in every generation, everywhere. So, why did they remember and celebrate? Had their “luck” changed? Or did they celebrate because of some clever Jews; Mordecai and Esther? Or was it national pride? For the believer, then and now, surely by remembering the events we can see God’s hand at work. His rescue, His faithfulness, His justice etc, and the true believer, when conscious of the Lord’s mercy, humbly gives thanks and praise TO THE LORD with great joy. Jonah 1:    We are all “work in progress” We get some things right and some things wrong… and so did Jonah.  v 1: “the word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amittai. We see the same character in 2 Kings 14:25 “according to the word of the Lord God of Israel, which He had spoken through His SERVANT Jonah.” So Jonah had done previous work for the Lord, preaching to Israel.  v2: The Lord tells Jonah to go to Nineveh and tell them how wicked they were, and that God would act accordingly. Imagine you are Jonah, it’s more than 500 miles to Nineveh. The people of Nineveh were proud, greedy, brutal etc and what’s more they were dangerous enemies of Israel.  Jonah was not willing to preach to Nineveh. Part of that “unwillingness” is recorded in Jonah 4:2, “for I know that you are a gracious and compassionate God.” Jonah wanted the Ninevites to die in their sins, he didn’t want them to be forgiven. Are we at times like Jonah? Remember Jesus tells us to pray for his enemies (and He did!).  So Jonah separates himself “from the presence of the Lord”. He was already separate in spirit (because God wanted to forgive), and now he sought to separate himself further. As far away as possible. Did Jonah really believe he could escape from the Lord? “Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?” (Nowhere!) Psalm 139:7  in the same psalm verse 24 “see if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting”. If we struggle to do God’s will, pray for help, ask for a new heart, a new mind etc. so that you might be led in the way and not go astray.  The Lord sent a great storm. The crew cried out to their gods, they cast lots seeking the cause of the storm and discovered Jonah was to blame – they asked him what they should do. V12: “Pick me up and throw me into the sea…” Jonah accepted the situation and was willing to lose his life for the sake of the crew.  v13: the men of the ship showed their “good” qualities. They tried to rescue Jonah and themselves by rowing towards shore, but the storm got worse. They cried out to the Lord, and prayed, then unwillingly they threw Jonah into the sea, knowing this was God’s will (they did God’s will even though they didn’t want to!). The sea calmed down, and the men feared the Lord exceedingly, offered a sacrifice, and took vows. Would Nineveh do the same? As for Jonah, the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah, not that he might die, but that he might live, conscious of the “presence of the Lord”. Hebrews 6+7: Melchizedek.  When we read our Bibles, we don’t always see the importance of the words. An example is when we read Genesis 14:18-20.  “Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High.  And he blessed him and said “Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; And blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” And he gave him a tithe of all. I am sure Moses who wrote these words, didn’t see their significance either. But the words were chosen words, chosen by God.  Abraham – a man greatly influenced by God, given great promises and the prospect of eternal life, but he recognised that this man Melchizedek was GREATER than himself – this Melchizedek had been given greater authority than Abraham, and Abraham recognised that (Melchizedek blessed Abraham and Abraham gave tithes to Melchizedek, meaning Abraham recognised Melchizedek as the chosen priest of God).  Although Melchizedek was in such an elevated position, he is never spoken of until 1000 years later.  For me …these 3 verses in Gen 14 are a tiny seed deliberately planted by God to reveal itself at a later time, at the right time, to reveal the full purpose of that seed.  Psalm 110:4. The Lord has sworn and will not relent, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”  This is the only other mention of Melchizedek in the Old Testament. – there are 23000 verses in OT.  Regarding Melchizedek, there are 3 verses in Gen 14, and 1000 years later these words (one verse) in Psalm 110.  Psalm 110 is the psalm most often quoted in the N.T. and no wonder. We can see in this Psalm: v 1 that messiah is GREATER than David (his lord) and in v4 he was to be a priest for ever according to the priesthood of Melchizedek, and not Levi – an eternal High priest to replace the Levitical priesthood.  So in effect God was saying that both the priesthood and the laws connected with that priesthood – and in a future time these would be changed to a priesthood and accompanying rules according to God’s will.  That will was revealed in his son, especially and uniquely in JESUS. The writer to the Hebrews (probably Paul) could see that these 4 verses in the O.T. were planted by God to have impact when God’s son, David’s Lord, and mankind’s high priest and future king was resurrected and given eternal life. God’s plan was there from the beginning and Paul could see it and he wrote Hebrews to share the wonder of it all. The resurrected Jesus was given eternal life and therefore we understand the words in Psalm 110 “you are a priest FOREVER according to the order of Melchizedek”. (King of righteousness) Read Hebrews 7 for yourself and see the undeniable truth concerning Jesus. December

December 2nd

Although Job 1 and 2 uses the word “satan” to depict a conversation between God and someone else it is completely clear that God is in control of the “satan”, chapter 1 verse 8 shows us that God suggested Job to consider some kind of test. “Satan” also acknowledged that it was God who had the power to “test” Job, verse 11, and then God gave permission to “satan” to do something, verse 12. The same thing happened in chapter 2 for the second “test”, God asked the question, verse 2, God suggested Job again, verse 3 and God gave permission verse 6. It is absolutely clear here that “satan” is NOT a supernatural being that goes about making people do evil. The word “satan” is just a word that the bible translators have not properly translated it simply means “adversary”. So what was happening here is that the “angels”, which means “messenger”, are people who should be godly, but are criticising Job and saying that he is only a godly man because he has a big family, has wealth and has health. This is confirmed for us later in the book of Job, but we also see this in Job’s wife’s response to his illness in chapter 2 verse 9. Job’s response to the loss of his children and to his illness shows us how a godly man should try to respond to any suffering situation, chapter 1 verse 20-21 and in chapter 2 verse 10. Job shows us his correct attitude in dealing with the massive disappointments in his life, chapter 1 verse 22 and again chapter 2 verse 10, ie he did not sin in blaming God for his suffering. So in these chapters I think we have a scene being played out so that we learn lessons to help us to understand suffering and perseverance. We should not be confused by the use of the word “satan” because it is just a word meaning adversary! In Job 2 verse 11-13 we see Job’s friends assembling with the purpose of sympathising with Job and supporting him, notice that for 7 days and 7 nights no one said a word. It is always good practice to think about what you are going to say in challenging situations, it is always wise to listen and not to quickly blunder in with suggestions. This appears to be a positive in Jonah too. Jonah was inside the fish and he had time to think about what he had done and he prayed, chapter 2, in his prayer he acknowledged that only God could save him.  As he thought that his life was ebbing away he “remembered” God and vowed that he would remain faithful. In this case God commanded the fish to vomit Job onto dry land, verse 2. Then God gives Jonah a second chance to go and preach to the people of Nineveh. God does “test” us in our lives to see how we respond to different situations, because only in dealing with difficult situations can we really demonstrate our faith. Hebrews 8 and 9 shows us very clearly that in Jesus we have a new life in Christ, the law could not save, but Jesus does and we can confidently come to God because of our commitment to him by our baptism and Jesus is now our mediator, chapter 9 verse 15. The end result of this commitment is an “eternal inheritance” in the kingdom when Jesus comes back, this is why we live through our difficulties now because a future in the kingdom is our only hope. Both Job and Jonah, despite their mistakes, only had hope in God and although they did not understand what was happening to them, they still trusted in God. Often we wonder why certain things happen to us in our life now and often we do not understand, but God’s purpose is not to give us everything now, his purpose is to do away with sin and to give us the kingdom, chapter 9 verse 26-28. Our sufferings now are part of our sinful human nature, our life now is a period of training to see if we really do rely on God and Jesus for everything. December

December 3rd

After the 7 day silence in chapter 2, Job breaks the silence in chapter 3 by stating that because of his experiences it would have been better if he had not been born in the first place. All the way through this chapter he is saying this in graphic ways, this shows us just how much he was badly affected by his experiences, ie the loss of his family and his health, he just could not see the point of his own existence. He is not saying that he now wants to die, he is saying if only he was not born then he would not suffer these things. He is asking many questions and repeats “Why, why, why?” This is the same as us when we suffer, we ask “why?”, and perhaps we feel like Job. A hint to his character is in verse 25, he was worried about such a situation, he “feared” and “dreaded” this situation, maybe he felt guilty of what he had, he certainly over protected his family by always asking for forgiveness for them, Job 1 verse 5, but by the end of Job he had learnt those all important lessons from God to trust and to not ask why because God always does the right things. Eliphaz in chapter 4 really does not help Job at all, he clearly thinks that Job must have sinned in some way for this suffering to be brought upon him. He certainly appears to have feared Job’s response to what anyone was going to say, verse 1, was Job “impatient” at this time? Was he quick to defend himself? Eliphaz starts by commending Job and acknowledging that he was a helpful person, verse 3-4, many had benefited from Job’s assistance in the past, so it is clear that Job was a good, godly man, and contrary to his friend’s wrong belief, Job did not suffer because of anything that he had done wrong. Eliphaz starts to insult Job, verse 5-6, the words that he uses suggests that he may have been one of Job’s “adversaries”, ie a “satan”, he was not complementary of Job’s “blameless ways”. Eliphaz continues with his wrong belief that Job must have sinned to now be suffering in this way. There are obviously consequences of mistakes in our lives as Jonah experienced as God tried to turn him around from running away, but Jonah still takes time to understand fully in chapter 4. Jonah could not understand why God wanted to save the people of Nineveh, he knew that God was “gracious and compassionate” and would save Nineveh, but because he could not understand this, he tried to go in the opposite direction, verse 1-3, and he just could not cope with the success of his preaching and the repentance of the people in chapter 3 and he wanted to die. It is very likely that Jonah thought that it was a really bad move to save the Assyrians because they were enemies of Israel, so he felt justified in his actions, but how can he know better than God! So the message to us has to be that God always knows best, no matter how much we cannot understand the reasons behind something, whether this is our own or other’s suffering. The point is that we have no right to be angry or to question God, verse 4, it does not matter if God is testing us or putting us through a trial, it is better for us to simply try and accept. Jonah was still unsure of God’s reasons and still waited to see what would happen to Nineveh, verse 5-8, he doubted God again and rather than leave all things to God he waited around to see what happened, even though he suffered a lot of discomfort, he waited. The message here for us has to be to trust in God, he knows best, we will often not understand reasons for something, but let us leave it up to God – pray to him for help and strength, but then move on, try not to dwell on the issues, but confidently pass our concerns to him and get on with the next part of our service to him. God’s response to Job in verse 9 seems to be saying that Jonah has no right to be angry about the vine withering, because it was God who provided it for Jonah in the first place, so again the message is that we should not be questioning God, we should rather be accepting his decisions for us, Job is the example of not blaming God for his situation. Verse 10-11, God has a reason for everything, he wanted to save these people and it is not for us or Jonah to question what his plans are. In Hebrews 10 we see that the Jewish Christians were suffering too, verse 32-34,during their suffering they sympathised with those in prison and they joyfully accepted the confiscation of their property all because they had knowledge of the future kingdom that would last. They got through their sufferings because of the knowledge of the future promise and Paul (if it was Paul who wrote Hebrews) was reminding them to “remember”. This is the confidence that we have and Paul (?) is saying to not “throw away” this confidence because we will be “richly rewarded” when Jesus comes back, verse 35-39. So we have to work through our pain and suffering, there is a future for us, so the message is for us to reply on God at all times. We will see in the rest of Job that he learnt perseverance and the message in Hebrews is the same, verse 19-31, we have to persevere and to trust God, this is our “test”. We are exhorted to “draw near”, “hold unswervingly to our hope”, think about how we encourage others and not give up meeting together, especially as we see the return of Jesus getting nearer. Jesus is our only saviour, he is the perfect sacrifice who died once for all.  So let us focus on Jesus who has made us holy, verse 10-13. December

December 4th

Eliphaz continues speaking in Job 5 and whereas he is right in saying that God is in control and “blessed is the man whom God corrects”, verse 17-26, he remains judgemental, ie verse 27. When we are attempting to comfort our brothers and sisters who are suffering we must not judge them. Yes, God can correct us with suffering, but suffering comes to every one of us, it is part of our human existence, it is a reminder that we are human and that we will only be free of our suffering when Jesus comes back. Micah 1 is a sad vision because God is providing a “witness against” his people, verse 1. God is showing that because of the people’s sin God is going to bring judgement on Samaria (Israel) and Jerusalem (Judah) because of their ungodliness, verse 3-7.  All of the things that they have replaced God with, eg their idols, will be smashed to pieces. The response of the people should have been like that of Micah in that he mourned and wept, verse 8-16, the judgement should have brought about repentance, and in some respects it did in Judah’s case under king Hezekiah when this vision was sent by God (verse 1).  This is an important message for us too that we should be thinking about our actions when we are constantly reminded about our sinful human nature, because only when we remember this can we fully understand the loving grace of God that gives us life. Indeed we are blessed when God calls us to accept Jesus and gives us the promise of a suffering-free and human nature-free future in the kingdom. Hebrews 11 is a wonderful chapter showing how many bible characters are also waiting in the grave for Jesus to return, none of them received their “rewards” when they died, verse 13and 39, all of them will receive their “reward” with us when Jesus comes back, verse 40. This is a wonderful chapter of faith and when we look at some of the sufferings that some went through we can see Job’s and our sufferings in context, verse 32-38. It is faith that carries us through our sufferings, faith in God and faith that he will do what he says.  Our life now is temporary, we can view it as a training and a demonstration of faith, as it says in verse 1, ie we have not actually seen what God has promised, but because we believe him, we have faith in him and faith is a vital part of our Christian life. It is not what we do that saves us, it is our faith that does, and these examples show us how faithful people demonstrated their faith in the ways that they lived. The letter to the Hebrews was written to Jews who had converted to Christianity but were now thinking of going back to Judaism.  The letter was probably written in about AD 63 to 65, 30 years after the events recorded in the gospels. We need to try to understand what these Jewish believers were thinking. We know from the Gospels and the Acts that a lot of priests were among those who converted to Christianity in the early years.  Read, for example: Acts 6:1 and 7, John 12:42. When a priest was serving under the Law of Moses he received his income from the offerings made by other worshippers. When he left, he would have lost that income.  I wonder if some were thinking that the sacrifice they had made was worthwhile.  They needed to be convinced that the sacrifice made by Jesus made everything worthwhile. Not only that, but the Jews who had not converted were desperate to discredit Christianity.  They wanted to show that Jesus of Nazareth was a fraud – that he wasn’t really the Messiah.  The letter to the Hebrews was written to deal with that challenge. Let’s note how the letter begins: Hebrews 1:1-2. Look at the points that are made there.  First, the writer makes it clear that he believes that all of the Old Testament was the word of God.  He does not seek to discredit it.  In fact, there are 7 (possibly 8) direct quotations from the OT in this first chapter.  Second, he says that God has spoken to us – these first century readers – by His Son.  That means that the words and teachings of Jesus are of great significance. Read now Hebrews 2:1-4. There are two things that we explore in chapter 1. First, Psalm 110 is quoted twice so we ought to look at that Psalm. Read Hebrews 1: 3 and 13. Psalm 110:1-4. We need to notice the reference to sitting at the right hand of the Majesty on High. The second point to note in chapter 1 is the repeated reference to the Son – the Sonship of Jesus. Read Hebrews 1:2, 5 & 8.  Verse 5 is a quotation from Psalm 2:7 and 2 Samuel 7:14. The point about this is that the Jewish leaders at the time Jesus was arrested KNEW that Messiah would have to be the Son of God. Read Matthew 26:63-64; Luke 22:67-70. This point, and the connection with Psalm 110, is crucial to the argument in Hebrews. Read now Hebrews 8:1 – 2. The point is that the Aaronic priesthood could only go into the presence of God on one day each year – the day of atonement.  But Jesus, our High Priest, is always in the presence of God as the mediator of the new covenant. So some of the specific exhortations contained in chapter 10 are here: Hebrews 10: 22 – 24. Hebrews 8 verses 1 and 2 mentioned the Day of Atonement and this can still teach us now. We read about the Day of Atonement in Leviticus 16.  This is a long chapter – we’ll read a few verses only. Verses 29, 30 & 34   tell us that this was a yearly event. What did Aaron (the High Priest) do? Verses 1-3 tell us that he went into the most holy place, having made a sacrifice. And Verses 16 & 17 tell us that he makes atonement. This is the event that is being spoken about in Hebrews. Read Hebrews 8:1-3.  Our High Priest (Jesus) is in the presence of God in heaven – Aaron could only go into the most holy place once a year.  But Jesus had to make a sacrifice in order to enter into the presence of God (verse 3). This is what Hebrews chapter 9 is about. 9v7 – once a year – Aaron offered for himself and the people. 9 v 8 & 9 – the way into the Most Holy Place – the presence of God was not open to all. 9 v 11-12 – But Christ – into a greater tabernacle – by his own blood – obtained eternal redemption.  Important points here about the sacrifice and Jesus’ own need for it! 9 v 24 – into the heaven itself (cf 8 v1-2). Now into chapter 10. 10 v 12-13 relates back to 1 v 3 and 8 v 1. Note especially 10 v 12 – one sacrifice for sins for ever. So the exhortation for us: V22 let us draw near (to God); V23 let us hold fast (whatever the pressures were or might be); V24 let us consider one another. December

December 5th

Job responds in Job 6 and 7, saying that he sees the suffering that he is going through as coming from God, chapter 6 verse 1-7, even though he is suffering, he takes comfort from the fact that God knows what is happening to him and in his suffering he does not curse God or move away from him, verse 10. He then contrasts the confidence that he has in God with the lack of confidence that he has in his friends, verse 14-15, he says that they are unreliable and he compares them to practical things that are expected to help but do not, verse 15-20, ie flooding streams that quickly dry up and trade “caravans” that do not turn up when expected – all disappoint, just like his friends, verse 21-23. Although Job, just like his friends, is incorrectly linking all suffering to sin, he knows that he can only rely on God and in this he never changes. The sad situation is that Job cannot understand why he is suffering because he believes that he is righteous and has always tried to do the right thing, but his friends are saying that he must have sinned otherwise he would not be suffering like this, verse 24-30! Chapter 7 appears to be Job praying to God and he acknowledges that man’s life is hard, verse 1-5, he is acknowledging the hard graft that came about because of sin, Genesis 3:17-19.  This should perhaps help us to understand our sufferings – it is a reminder that we are sinful and that we do need saving, and that the coming kingdom should be a reality that we can always take courage from because it will be a time when our human nature and suffering will be taken away. When we look at our lives and compare them to God’s existence and also to the promised time in the kingdom our lives are short and quick, verse 6-10, as human beings we are temporary and “vanish like a cloud”. At the end of the chapter Job considers sin and the need to be forgiven, he acknowledges that God knows everything as being the “watcher of men”, but he is incorrectly blaming God for just picking on him, verse 17-21. One of the lessons from Job is for us to learn from our sufferings as they are a reminder of our human nature, and that only by looking to God will we have life when Jesus comes back. Micah 2 has a warning for those who “plan” dishonest things, verse 1-2.  We have to be careful what we “plan” – maybe it is how to misuse a CBM hall for personal financial gain, or it could be how we can personally benefit from CBM money or ecclesial collection money, or maybe it is how we can exploit a project for our own benefit or how we can exploit a brother or sister. The thing that we must remember is that God is aware, verse 3-5, and he will judge righteously.  We saw in Job that human beings generally disappoint, but God never disappoints; however, we should be trying to be more like God in our dealings with each other and we should be “honest prophets” and not “false prophets” that God talks about in verse 6-11. It was the false prophets, ie teachers, who did not respect God’s people and neglected to obey God’s teachings and it is they who are punished. However, as is always the case there is always hope for those who respect God and his children, verse 12-13. Hebrews 12 encourages us to focus on Jesus, verse 2, we need to “fix” our eyes on him, to follow him and to be like him and to do this we need to discard everything that stops us from doing this, verse 1. We have to think about the things that stop us being like him and think about how he acted, verse 3 and constantly remember that our human desires are not going to help us at all. We are told in verse 4-6 that it is a struggle and that we will suffer, though not to the extent that Jesus suffered; however, we can view our suffering as discipline form God, ie it is helping us to reach the promised goal of the kingdom. When we think about this it is simply not easy, hence we are told again to “endure hardship as discipline”, verse 7-11, because we are being trained for the kingdom. For this we praise God, but also respect him, verse 28-29, this is quite a hard verse because it describes God as a “consuming fire”, but when you think about it God only wants people in his kingdom who are trying to be like him, that is the only way that we can be at one with him, so therefore, God has to reject all those who are not like him – so we should humbly make every effort to live at peace with each other and to respect and to follow God, verse 14-27. December

December 6th

In Job 8 we get the response from another of Job’s friends, ie Bildad.  He also incorrectly thinks that Job must have sinned to be suffering in the way that he is, he suggests a simple remedy which is that all Job has to do is to confess his sin and then all things will be right again. He criticises Job for speaking incorrect things, verse 1-7, and in his words he reminds Job of his children who “sinned” (Job 1:4-5) and in so doing suggests that maybe he was one of Job’s “adversaries” (satan) who resented Job seeking forgiveness for his own children! We can all be “adversaries” (satans) to each other in how we think, act and speak, good if we are a good adversary in assisting to help turn someone from sin or encouraging them, but not good if we are a bad adversary and we cause someone to sin or to discourage them! Bildad was a bad adversary because not only did he resent Job’s godliness in the first place, he was now discouraging him and in his concluding, unhelpful remarks, he, like Eliphaz, says that he must have sinned, verse 20-22. Micah chapters 3 continues with the warning in the book to the leaders and prophets, ie those people who should have been looking after God’s children, but who were exploiting them and not caring for them, verse 1-3, these people should have “known justice” and should have been “good” but were not. God says that he will not listen to people who act like this, verse 4, and this again should be a warning to us because if we are acting in ungodly ways God will not listen to us when we pray. There will be consequences for them and even when they think there are secure they will not be, verse 5-7,  and like the people of Judah, our previous security will not save us from God’s justice, verse 8-12. As shepherds and teachers of God’s children we all have a responsibility to do right and to act like God. Because we all want to be in God’s kingdom that is spoken about in Micah 4. Verses 1-5 speaks of Jerusalem and “many nations” going there, this can only be for worship and learning, so this is a time when everyone wants to follow God and to worship and to really be like him. It is a time when all suffering will come to an end, verse 6-8.  This and other pictures of the kingdom in the old testament, eg Isaiah, give us a wonderful hope in the future and Micah asks the question of those of God’s people who were suffering in Hezekiah’s time “why do they cry aloud”, verse 9-10.  Because they had rejected God they would be punished, so this should not be a surprise to them. So the message for us is that if we want to be part of God’s wonderful kingdom we should try our best to always follow his ways and try to act like him in everything that we do! The point is that God has a plan, verse 12, and God will bring his plan to completion, verse 13. So Hebrews 13 is a great way to conclude our thoughts for today. Verse 1-3 show us how to love each other; verse 4 shows us how to respect our wife and husband and verse 5 shows us that we should not love money, it is those who “loved” money who exploited their brothers and sisters and rejected God’s teachings! When we are suffering we should remember that God will “never leave us or forsake us”, he is our helper, verse 6, and this we can say with confidence if we are trying our best to follow him. The mistakes in the past have always been because we and others have forgotten to follow God’s ways and we are always reminded that teaching and encouraging each other to follow his ways is important, verse 7-10. It is only through Jesus that we are saved and this we should always remember when we consider our lives and how we live them, verse 11-16, we remember, we praise and we remember to do good, these are the marks of a Christian. Verse 20-21. Amen! December

December 7th

Job deals with the issue of suffering.  There are two sides to this. Firstly, the suffering of the righteous, which is not pleasant. Secondly, the non-suffering of the wicked which is also hard to take. The righteous will experience both in their lives, as Job did.  In Job 9, we feel the pain of the suffering of the righteous Job.   Job complains about this apparent unfairness, where both the righteous and the wicked are destroyed (v22).  In his dark thoughts, Job seems to tread dangerously.  Does God really mock at the despair of the innocent (v23)?  Does God really want to plunge Job into a slime pit (v31)?  Is the injustice in the land the fault of God (v24)? The pain of these thoughts causes Job to want to speak to God and understand what He is doing.  Job appeals for an arbitrater or mediator to take his complaint to God and bring about a fair solution (v33).  Job speaks for all of us who are hurting today, even though we faithfully do what God wants.  It is not wrong to question the apparent unfairness. But it is wrong is to say it does not matter what we do.  The outcome of these thoughts is to slip into the ways of the wicked.  Job did not do this, and neither should we.  We are in a better position than Job.  God has provided us with Jesus who can arbitrate for us.  Let us bear our sufferings, and keep our faith like Job did. Micah 5 also points us to Jesus.  Jesus is the ruler who will come from Bethlehem (v2).  He is the shepherd (v4) who will bring peace (v5).  He does this through his suffering (Jesus would be struck on the cheek as described in verse 1).  However, the time of Micah 5 was a time of anything but peace.  We know that from Micah 3:12 that this was the time of Hezekiah (because this verse is quoted by Jeremiah 26:18 at the times of Hezekiah).  This was the time when the Assyrian invader destroyed Israel and destroyed all of Judah except Jerusalem.  The Assyrians were attacking the land when verse 5 was written.  It speaks of a deliverance from the Assyrian.  However, these verses really refer to a future time, when both evil foreigners and evil Israelites are purged in the land of Israel.  So let us make sure we are not among the evil but among the righteous. James 1 could have been written to Job.  It says whenever you face trials, these are for the testing of your faith (v3).  There is a purpose to suffering.  It is so that you can develop perseverance (3). Perseverance is the quality of keeping going through difficulty.  In verse 12 we are told that the man who perseveres will receive a crown of life.  James even tells us that Job had perseverance (James 5:11): that is, he will receive the crown of life.  Under the pressure of testing, we should not give into temptation and turn to sin (v13-15).  We should be like Job who kept his faith. In positions of trial, we would be wise to reduce our speaking and do more listening (v19).   We would then be less likely to enter into the dark talk of Job.  We should not become angry. Anger is a dangerous state of mind for the people of God.  It does not lead to righteousness (v20).  Instead we should follow the word of God.  We have been born of the word (v18).  It has been planted in our hearts (v21) but it must now grow.  We listen to the word (v22) such as when we do the Bible readings.  But doing the readings is not enough.  We must DO what it says (v22).  A man who listens and does not do is like a man looking in a mirror and then forgets what type of man he should be.  The chapter ends with two important warnings about what type of people we should be.  We are righteous if we control our tongues (v26), keep separate from the world (v27) and look after the widows and orphans (v27).  So let us control our tongue and live according to the word of God. If we do that, then that will be our wisdom.  And if we lack wisdom, let us ask God for more (v5). December

December 8th

Job 10:     Is faith enough?  Job is very ill and is getting worse. He understandably “loathes” his life, nearly all of what he valued had been taken away from him. He still had faith, he believed there was a God, but did he still confess “ Shall we indeed ACCEPT good from God, and shall we not ACCEPT adversity?” We do have the ability to accept things, even bad things in life, but we need to add to that acceptance TRUST…. Trust in God, wait for Him, learn from Him etc. As I read these heartfelt words in Job 10, words he intends to say to God (v2), I don’t see any trust. As we know in any relationship without trust, doubts, questions and even accusations arise. So the words of Job in this chapter shows he has a faith, but is lacking in trust.  He thought that his problem was a lack of understanding God’s ways, and he was desperate for an answer – but the problem was Job lacked trust in God. v 2-7:  Job in prayer, is telling God what to do (!) and questions God’s judgement, to which God graciously answers in ch 40:2 “shall the one who contends with the Almighty correct Him?” and ch 40:8 “would you condemn Me that you may be justified?” (Both of these questions are given by God, not to win the argument, but God knows that Job will find the answer, and then repent and change (born anew), with a better understanding of God and His ways.  v8-12:  Job acknowledges he, like all of creation, is wonderfully made; the description of how the body is formed is beautiful, and yet the life is short returning to the dust (this present life being temporary is something to thank God for!)  v13-17: Job questions God’s intentions. As with the rest of the chapter, Job is thinking mainly about himself. When we are suffering, the mind dwells on “me, me, me” In this chapter alone Job uses “me” or “I” more than 50 times! For each of the accusations we can give a positive answer:  v14 – God is encouraging you to repent, so that He will forgive;  v15 – God welcomes a humble, broken heart, the Lord breaks the heart in order to re-build;  v16 – God brings down the proud so that He might live in the humble;  v17- God continually works to achieve His will with mankind, correcting, teaching etc.  v18-22: After thinking that God only had negative intentions with mankind, Job concludes why was I wonderfully made, why was I born ? Job would prefer no relationship (not been born) than having a relationship that was like his with God – this is true; but the errors were with Job, not GOD!  The “shadows of death” is mentioned twice (v21,22) – words said with no trust in his relationship with the Lord contrast with David’s “shadow of death”.  Psalm23:4 “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I WILL FEAR NO EVIL. FOR YOU ARE WITH ME”,  and despite his sins and sufferings, “Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever”. Micah 6: What does the Lord require of you? “My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you?”  v4-5: The Lord reminds His people what He has done – rescued them from Egypt and brought them to the promised land ( the Lord has been faithful).  v6-7:  Mankind thinks that according to what God has done he should “pay Him back”, with “external” offerings.  v8: But that’s not what God wanted, He wants “internal” offerings of the heart. He wants mankind to become like God – to do justly, to love mercy, and by so doing, to walk humbly with God (in continuous fellowship).  Interestingly, if we live our lives justly, humbly and with mercy, it considerably reduces our burdens! God hasn’t burdened us, He has shown us the way to be relieved of OUR burdens (not His), and like Enoch, encouraged us to walk with God.  v10-12: in contrast to God wanting justice; “His people” loved to live lives of injustice.  v13-15: God’s justice will be done “Therefore, I have begun to destroy you, to ruin you because of your sins”. He would cause all of their pursuits to fail, not simply to punish, but because He is a merciful God, to punish in order to correct His people, to bring them back to Him, to forgive them.  v16-17: They abandoned the ways of their redeemer, their just and merciful God for the ways of the evil Omri and Ahab where there was no justice and no mercy. Why?  Because they liked man’s ways better than God’s ways!! And that is why the world is what it is today; a world full of injustice, hatred and pride, and what a burden it is to all of us! Let’s remind ourselves of a promise of Jesus.  “Come to me… I will give you rest”. James 2:  Judging, faith and works.  v1-4:  Do not show favouritism. The example given by James is how we might treat the rich and poor. (But it is only one example of many; it could have been how we judge different tribes or races, or male or female, or young or old etc). In truth we should respect and treat all of mankind equally, as we would wish the Lord to treat us. “Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favouritism to the great, but judge your neighbour fairly” Lev19:15.  v5-6: This is not how God judges, and when we look at who God has chosen, generally (not exclusively), He has chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promises to those who love Him. James says that the brothers and sisters dishonoured the poor, and honoured the rich who seek to take you to court, and despise you and your Lord!  v8: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself”.  If you respect this commandment then you will love and respect all of mankind (respect them but not necessarily their actions!). If you show favouritism you have sinned, and now you are reminded in v13 “Judgement is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy”.. “With what judgement you judge, you will be judged” Matt 7:2.  Faith without works is dead: James gives a practical example; a brother/sister is naked with no food and one of the church only gives words, and does not help with the physical needs. “Love thy neighbour as yourself” are not just nice words, they are to be put into action – love is never just a word. Jesus says “by their fruits you will know them” and the fruits are not just words. Faith is a doing word, faith is dead if it is not active.  The example of Abraham:  Gen 15: promised son and many descendants – he believed (v6).  Gen 17: promises in Isaac and his offspring – so Isaac will have children – he believed.  Gen 22: was willing to sacrifice his son (Isaac) because of faith in God (God will provide) Heb 11:17:  “By faith Abraham, when he was TESTED, offered up Isaac”. Abraham believed God, and the richness and depth of his active faith was SHOWN and proved by his works, being willing to sacrifice his son. If he had chosen to disobey, Abraham would have reasoned, “I can’t kill Isaac, because God promised Isaac will have children (and he hasn’t got any yet)”. Abraham would have then justified his disobedience, but not have shown full trust in God. Instead, by faith and trust in action, he obeyed.. and was by FAITH AND WORKS, JUSTIFIED BY GOD.  Rahab:  a gentile, female and former prostitute – her faith was tested and put into action, by hiding the spies she was revealing her faith, her hope, her God.  We too, have opportunity every day to witness our faith, not just to others, but to ourselves! December

December 9th

It is now turn for Job’s third friend, Zophar, to speak in Job 11. Like the others, he also accuses Job of sinning, thus giving an explanation for Job’s suffering. He incorrectly concludes that Job must have sinned to be suffering all of this. Of course Job has sinned, like everyone else has and does, but this is not the direct reason why Job is suffering in the way that he is, Job was suffering from human nature, which is a consequence of sin in the first place. This is the same for all of us, ie our suffering is part of our human nature, it is a way of life and is to be expected. Zophar in some respects is right in saying that we have no right to challenge God, verse 7-12, but he wrongly believes that God was directly punishing Job because Job must have committed a specific and “bad” sin, verse 13-20. Job and his friends needed to learn that no one has the right to challenge God and that we cannot blame him for sufferings, these are part of our human nature. Zophar did wish that God would speak, verse 5, and indeed he did at the end of Job when we see that the friends were critisised and Job was taught to understand better. In Micah 7 we see disappointment because of Israel’s misery brought on as a consequence of their rebellion against God, verse 1-6; we see a choice in verse 7, ie to wait for God; we see hope from verse 8-12; we see the bad effects of man’s actions verse 13; we see the need for a just shepherd to firmly lead God’s people, verse 14, and then we see the praise and acceptance of God’s mercy in verse 13-20. Despite God sending constant reminders to the people of Israel, they still rebelled against him and replaced him with other things (idols), this was unlike Job, who all the way through his suffering did not replace or rebel against God. The key lessons from Micah are verse 7 where we are to always rely on God and verse 14 where we should always remember that we have to want to be “shepherded”! We need a shepherd to lead us to God, this shepherd is Jesus and we should always want to learn about him and follow him, a big part of this is our constant reading. There are consequences for sin, suffering is part of this but death is the ultimate end, but we have a wonderful hope for the future when God will display his ultimate mercy, compassion and will remove all our sins and our human nature. This will happen when Jesus comes back. We cannot blame God for our suffering. In a way the bad motives of Job’s friends is possibly understood by James 4 verse 1-3, they were wrong in thinking that Job was suffering because of a perceived big sin, Job could not understand why he was suffering because he believed that he had not sinned! The result was a quarrel. Two thirds of James 3 deals with the difficulty of taming the tongue. Although the tongue is only a small part of the body it is described as a fire, a restless evil, full of poison. We find it easier to tame animals than tame our own tongue. We use it to both praise God and speak badly of others; this should not happen. James’ examples are very obvious. We do not expect a spring or borehole to produce both sweet and bitter water but are happy for our own mouths to speak both good and evil. What we say is governed by what is in our heart (Luke 6 v 45). The tongue can cause great harm so we need to guard our hearts against the tendencies of our own human nature and the influences of the world around us so that we can speak words of righteousness, peace and love. There are numerous instructions on the use of the tongue, particularly in Proverbs – see chapters 4 v 24; 10 v 11-14 and 19-21; 11 v 12-13, 23; 15 v1. Paul says our speech should be gracious and seasoned with salt (Colossians 4 v 6) so that we will know how to talk to everyone we meet. If we are never at fault in what we say then we are perfect and able to keep our whole body under control. Jesus was the ‘perfect man’ because he had total control over his tongue (1 Peter 2 v 21-23), none of us will be perfect. We need to be on our guard as even Moses ‘spoke unwisely with his lips’ (Psalm 106 v 33). The rest of the chapter contrasts the wisdom of the world with the wisdom of God. The world’s wisdom is full of bitterness, envy and selfish ambition and leads to every evil practice. The characteristics of Godly wisdom are listed in verse 17 and they lead to a harvest of righteousness and a life of humility. These qualities are similar to the fruit of the spirit in Galatians 5 v 22-23. The first nine chapters of Proverbs highlight the benefits of wisdom and dangers of folly and are well worth a read. James 4 emphasises that quarrels among believers originate from within. If covetousness and selfishness are allowed to take hold then strife will inevitably follow, this is how Job’s friends opposed Job. We will not get what we want from God if we ask with wrong motives, ie just wanting things for ourselves so we that we can indulge in the pleasures of the world. James bluntly describes such behaviour as adulterous and points out that friendship with the world is emnity with God. In God’s thinking there are only two ways – his way or the way of the world (1 John 2 v 15-17, Matthew 26 v 24, Galatians 5 v 13-19, Psalms 14 & 15). We need to humble ourselves before God and resist the “devil”, ie those evil desires which well up within us (James 1 v 14-15). God requires us to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly (Micah 6 v 8). God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (Isaiah 66 v 2, Luke 18 v 14). If we draw near to God then he will draw near to us (2 Chronicles 15 v 2, Hebrews 10 v 22-23). If we speak evil of others we are speaking evil of the law which commands us to love one another and tame our tongues. By condemning others we become judges – which is not our place for there is ‘only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy.’ We should not boast about what we’re going to do in the future – particularly if all our plans are worldly (buying and selling). We have no idea what tomorrow will bring let alone the next year. We need to concentrate on living a life of faithful service today and acknowledge that it is only ‘if the Lord wills’ that we will be able to do anything at all (1 Corinthians 5 v19, Romans 1 v 9-10, Hebrews 6 v 3). Most significantly Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane for God’s will to be done (Matthew 26 v 36-46, Luke 22 v 39-46). December

December 10th

Job starts with a sarcastic comment in his reply in Job 12, ie verse 2, saying that when his friends die then wisdom will too! This is obviously not true and Job says that in verse 3, ie that he is not inferior to them and he also knows (or thinks he knows) that God brings suffering on those who sin. We know from the end of Job and from the rest of the Bible that suffering in itself is not the punishment for sin, death is. There are consequences for sin and this often results in suffering, and suffering is also part of our human nature, but we cannot conclude that suffering is only brought about because the individual sinned. This was a common belief by the Jews, in fact it was at the time of Jesus too and Jesus had to change the disciples’ perception, Luke 13 verse 1-5. Although Job and his friends were on opposite sides of the argument, all incorrectly believed that suffering was only brought about by sin, Job’s response in verse 4 confirms his mistaken belief, where he says that he “called on God” and was “righteous and blameless”. The respect from his friends was not there because of their misbelief and there was a danger that Job would conclude that it was pointless him “calling on God” and following him if he was going to end up suffering! So it is therefore wrong for anyone to think that suffering is a punishment for sin, it is not – everyone suffers, godly people and ungodly people and no one should be happy that anyone suffers as Job’s friends might have been, verse 5. The problem starts when we make comparisons with others, like Job did in verse 6 – he seems to be concerned that the wicked prosper, ie they are “undisturbed” and  “secure”; this is a very human thought process and David said similar things in Psalm 94:3; Jeremiah asked the same too in Jeremiah 12:1. Rather what we should be thinking is that God knows and he is in control, as he demonstrates in Nahum, in fact Job acknowledges this in the rest of this chapter. He refers to the answer as being obvious, verse 7-9, even the animals, birds, earth and fish know – not that they have the intelligence to work it out, they just accept good and bad from God’s hand! Job correctly acknowledges that all is in God’s hands, verse 10-12. Job also acknowledges in verse 13-25 that God is in control. Nahum 1 and 2 says the same thing and chapter 1 verse 2 shows us that God will avenge wrong in his own time, it is important to remember that it is in God’s own time, because although he will judge, he is also very patient, verse 3. God can use the natural world to demonstrate to us human beings that our ways are wrong, verse 4-6, and we do see a lot of suffering today caused by this, whether it is drought or too much rain, often we can trace these problems back to consequences. However, we can see in verse 7 that there is a purpose of this resultant suffering, ie God wants all those who suffer to come to him for refuge, God is not willing that anyone should perish, but that all should come to him for salvation. Despite God’s patience, there are times in history that his patience runs out and this was the case with Nineveh, the capital city of the Assyrian empire. The rest of this chapter and chapter 2 show the predicted end of this once great city because they “plotted against God”, verse 9, and they were also very cruel to God’s people of Judah, verse 12. So yes there are times when God intervenes in human history and there is one great time when God will again intervene when he sends Jesus back! There is always hope in suffering and this is even present here in this prophecy about Nineveh, eg verse 15, this is a familiar phrase, we see it in Isaiah 52 verse 7 and Romans 10 verse 15 and it speaks about the gospel of Jesus and the good news of salvation.  So any suffering is temporary, we need to look beyond our suffering to the wonderful promises that God has made to us. Just like in chapter 2 the hope continues in that God will restore “Jacob” and “Israel”, verse 2. In James 5 we see a stark warning to those who had grown rich through illicit means and the suffering of others and then the chapter goes on to encourage those who were suffering, just as Job was. James exhorts them to be patient and treat each other well. It is interesting that the means of showing patience, which James highlights, is not grumbling against each other. When things get hard to cope with it is very easy for tensions to arise but that is not the call of the gospel. If we do grumble then we are guilty of judging our fellow believers and will in turn be judged – by the Judge who will soon be here. Instead of judging we should be supporting, forgiving and interceding for each other. We can take encouragement in suffering from the patient examples of the prophets, secure in the knowledge that those who persevere will be blessed. We are directed to consider the perseverance of Job and the blessings he received because the Lord is full of compassion and mercy (Exodus 34 v 5-7), so we know from the complete story of Job that it was his remaining faithful to God that God was pleased with. We must not swear by anything or we will be condemned. It seems that in this context swearing implies that we are not usually honest and that we are not totally convinced of God’s loving mercy. As the antidote to swearing we should pray – in time of trouble, in times of happiness, in times of sickness – basically we should pray in all circumstances. In times of sickness we should call the elders to come and pray over us and anoint us with oil – it is interesting that it is the sick person who asks for help here, so Job was right to ask for his friends’ moral support and prayers. James tells us that the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective and immediately quotes the example of Elijah (1 Kings 17v1 & 18 v 41- 46), emphasising that he was a man just like us. He was aiming for righteousness as we should be – but was not perfect – and his prayer was heard. James also supplies a detail not given in 1 Kings 17 – that the drought started as a result of Elijah’s earnest prayer. Finally, James turns to those who wander from the truth and exhorts us to bring them back. This reflects the teaching of Jesus in the parable of the lost sheep in Matthew 18 v 12-14, Luke 15 v 4-7). In order to be able to bring others back we have to stay steadfast ourselves, seek out the lost and bring them to God in prayer. The result of this is that both we and they will be saved from death. We need to love each other deeply and pray (1 Peter 4:7-8). December

December 11th

Job continues with his response to his friends in Job chapter 13. He uses similar words, saying that he also knows all of the things that his friends are telling him and that he is no different to them, verse 1-2. Again the confused argument is over the cause of suffering, we know that they are all wrong in believing that suffering is as a direct result of sin and this lesson they all need to learn, so it can seem to us reading Job now that the arguments are repeated time and time again and we start wondering why. The book of Job is in the bible because of God’s inspiration, therefore it must still have an important message for us as we read it today, the lessons are still relevant. The argument that Job and his friends are having is typical of how our minds work today. Some people become Christians for personal financial advantage; some people become Christians because they fear what will happen to them if they do not become Christians; others become Christians because they want to be thought more highly of than others; some leave the church because they lose faith because they suffer, and others look down on others and make judgements on others who suffer. All of these reasons are wrong, neither God nor Jesus said that becoming Christians would mean that an individual’s life would be free from suffering now, in fact Jesus told us to expect suffering for his sake! The promise that we do have is that all pain and suffering will end when Jesus comes back, and this should be amongst the reasons for becoming a Christian. Churches that teach having prosperity now are wrong, their teachings are unscriptural, the scriptural teaching is that Christians and non Christians alike can suffer in their lives now. This is why I think that Job is such a long book apparently talking about the same things, it is to get this important message across to all of us that suffering is not as a direct result of an individual’s sin as Job and his friends initially believed. Job’s determination was to speak to God and argue his case, verse 3, he wanted to explain that he was a just man and not a sinner so why should he suffer; this is sometimes how we feel when we suffer, but clearly this is wrong. We need to learn that things happen in our lives today that we have no control over and that our only hope is the return of Jesus – God’s aim is for us to be in his kingdom, his aim is not for us to have a life free from suffering now. Unlike Job’s friends, we should all be encouraging each other to remain faithful and godly, we should not be criticising and accusing each other of sin, or other reasons why others suffer, verse 4. As fellow Christians who are suffering we need encouragement, otherwise we too could wish that others would be silent, verse 5-19. Job concludes this chapter with a prayer to God, verse 20-28, in it he 1, asks for God to take away his suffering (verse 21) and 2, to show him his sin (verse 23). There is nothing wrong in asking God to remove our suffering if it is his will and we should do that because God can, but we must not expect it to be removed as it could be for our benefit, as suffering was for Paul (2Corinthians 12, verse 7-10); instead we should always ask for strength to cope. I wonder about the sin request though, because we all sin, the only one who did not sin was Jesus and remembering him is a constant reminder that we are sinners! Nahum 3 continues with the prophecy against Nineveh, the reasons for its destruction are in verse 4 and 19, God had his reasons for their destruction and the people were a cruel people, history books tell us this, and clearly God is not happy with anyone who is cruel. The Assyrians were hated by other nations and as a result had no friends, implied by verse 7, they were ungodly and proud, depending on their own strength, verse 16-17, and God brought them low very quickly. The speed of destruction is perhaps hinted at in the way that Nahum describes the destruction, eg verse 1-3, but certainly God is against them, verse 5-6. We have to remember that there is a distinction between godly people, eg Job, and those who rebel against God, eg Assyrians, and not think that punishment in the form of suffering is as a result of individual’s sins. We are reminded in 1Peter 1 that we have “new birth” in Jesus and that we have a “living hope” because of Jesus’ resurrection, this means that we have been “brought into an inheritance” that will not perish, verse 3-4. We know that this will be a reality when Jesus comes back, verse 5. So even if we are suffering now we should be rejoicing because of this wonderful future promise, verse 6. We should try and consider that our trials and suffering now are part of our “training”, verse 7-9, this is easier to say than to believe when we are suffering because suffering is painful at the time and very distressing, this is why we are always reminded of our salvation and it is this we should try to focus on to help us cope with our suffering, verse 10-12. The same reason why we should also “search intently” what God has written in the bible to gain encouragement and to see the many pictures of the future. This does not replace prayer, this is as well as prayer! No matter how hard our lives can be sometimes we should respond to this knowledge of our salvation by looking at how we live our lives, verse 13-16, we should try to be separate (holy) and self-controlled as we respond to God’s love and mercy. We may not understand what is happening in our lives, but what we do know is that God is in control and he is the righteous judge and not flawed human beings who for example judged Job, verse 17-21. Our love towards our brothers and sisters as we encourage them should be the same love that both God and Jesus showed towards us in enabling us to have salvation in the first place, verse 22-28. Suffering is painful, it is a part of our human existence, we can pray for it to be removed, but we can only expect it to be fully removed in the kingdom when Jesus comes back when our human nature and sin and death are removed! December

December 12th

In Job 14v1, we see that man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble so the lesson we learn here is that we must prepare ourselves because our days are few and numbered and we don’t know when our lord Jesus will come to establish the father’s Kingdom so we need to be mindful of lives and check whether we are worthy of the kingdom so we should allow God to control our lives. So in our lives let us struggle to please God and do what is good because for a time is coming when all who are in the grave will hear his voice and come out those who have done good JOHN 5:28-29. And this is the same reflection in JOB 14:14-15 so it is a humble reminder for us all to continue doing good. The Name Habakkuk means EMBRACER OR WRESTLER, we see he starts his prophecy by complaining to God and this is purely human nature that in most cases we complain a lot verse 1-3 but we see God’s answer to Habakkuk so amazing and wonderful and he promises to do something that Habakkuk will not believe verse 5 and truly this is how human beings behave that sometimes we are not patient and we don’t believe that God answers prayers. And 2kings 21:16. And we continue to see the second complaint of Habakkuk in verses 12-13, O LORD, are you not from everlasting and he continues to say your eyes are too pure to look on evil: “You cannot tolerate wrong why then why do you tolerate the treacherous?”; “Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?” In this case we see Habakkuk is judgmental and not contented with God but in Habakkuk 2:2-3 the answer is simple that we wait to see God’s revelation and this is to say we need to be patient in everything and GOD always answers our prayers at the right time, so we need to worry not because God is in control of our lives and whatever happens in our daily lives He knows why. In 1 peter 2:1 we are told to get rid of certain things such as malice and deceit and in verse 6-7 we see the picture of Jesus Christ as the stone that the builders rejected and has become the capstone. In verses 11 we are urged to abstain from sinful desires which war against our souls such that we live good lives which is worthy of God’s callings by setting the best examples and in verse 21 is that we were “called”, because Christ suffered for us leaving an example that we should follow in his footsteps. In summary of today’s readings is that we should prepare our lives and set the best examples by doing what is right and what pleases God. December

December 13th

In Job 15 Eliphaz responds to Job’s situation for the second time and he continues with the same misguided criticism of Job, saying that he has sinned. He makes serious judgements on him, verse 5-6, and he implies a criticism of Job’s wealth in verse 27-29, where he criticises those who are large, implying that they have more than enough money because they are large! Verse 14 is a question raised by Eliphaz about how can a man be pure – we know that all people are only made righteous in Jesus because all are naturally sinners and therefore all sin, whether, seen as “good” or “bad”. In Habakkuk 2 we have God’s answer to Habakkuk’s complaint about his and the rest of God’s people’s suffering and here we see some principles that should help us in how we understand some suffering. There are different opinions as to what time this prophecy refers to and to whom, but irrespective of this, the lessons seen can clearly apply to us to help in our lives. Although I think that we have to be very cautious about taking what Eliphaz says as God’s ways because we know that he is criticised by God at the end of Job, but what he says about “large, wealthy” people does have some similarities to God’s response here. God is clearly criticising those people who gained their wealth and prosperity dishonestly, ie verse 6, 8 and 12. These people had also replace God with “idols”, verse 18-19, so God is punishing those people who had not respect for him or of God’s people. Twice God includes in his response to Habakkuk two contrasting verses to the rest of the chapter, ie verse 14 and 20. There are only 2 types of people in God’s eyes, ie those who live as if the “earth is filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” and recognise that “the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him”; the other type of person is the one who builds his or her life on “dishonest gain”. So the start lesson for us today is, which type of person are we! Habakkuk was complaining because of his and his fellows’ suffering, he had forgotten that their suffering was as a consequence for their rebellion against God, and God is reminding Habakkuk that the things that God said would happen will happen, eg verse 3, this includes those things that God has promised after the suffering, ie verse 14 and 20. The suffering at Habakkuk’s time was because of pride, verse 4-5, and we know that pride is clearly the wrong attitude for a Christian – as Peter reminds us in 1Peter 5 verse 5-7, we have to be humble (complete opposite to pride). The focus here is on the young men, but none of us will be part of God’s promises if we are proud, in fact chapter 3 verse 8 includes us all. Chapters 3, 4 and 5 talk about suffering, eg 3:17, 4:12-19 and 10, so just like Job, we are not exempt from suffering. In fact some of our sufferings are brought about because of our faith, and the verse in chapter 4 says that we are “blessed” if we suffer because of Christ, and we should “praise” God because of it. It seems a really strange thing that we should praise God for our suffering, it is so easy for us to complain like both Job and Habakkuk did, but Peter’s exhortation to us is to be “self-controlled” and not to “grumble”, chapter 4 verse 7-11, we have to wait for God to work out his purpose in his own time. Jesus suffered for us, chapter 4 verse 1, and we are exhorted to have the same attitude as he did to help us stay away from sin. The people in Habakkuk’s time were criticised by God for being “worldly” – we are exhorted to stay away from these ideas and to put the ways of God first, verse 2-6. There are some confusing verse here, but the end message is not to replace God with anything, whether it is in order to better our human life, or simply to enjoy our human life! It is our daily actions that “hinders” our relationship with God, eg if husbands are not treating their wives properly, their prayers will not be answered, chapter 3 verse 7; wives should not be showing their “beauty” by the way that they look, they should be demonstrating it by the way that they act, verse 3-6; elders should be caring for the flock, just as Jesus did, chapter 5 verse 1-4, this is not being like Job’s friends in always criticising Job – elders should not be “domineering”! So all of us should be accepting the situation that God puts us in, we should be praising and we should be self-controlled, verse 8-9, because temptation is always there and if we give into it we will sin – the word “devil”, is just that a word, it means “false accuser” and that is exactly what natural human thinking is, it is always the opposite to God’s thinking and just as in Habakkuk where those who were only interested in dishonest gain were punished by God because they were not interested in him, so we should be trying our best to always follow God, rather than being interested in getting things dishonestly. We all need reminding of these principles and because of the forthcoming persecutions, Peter goes to great lengths to remind the believers of the great blessings they have received. One of these blessings is what he terms the grace or the “abundant mercy” of God – 1 Peter 1 verse 3.  Through God’s abundant mercy we have great hope through Jesus, and he tells us that we must have faith in that hope. Verse 7 tells us that that faith is so much more precious than gold that perishes, also that their faith would be tested by fire – they would receive persecutions and their faith would be tested.  But whatever happens their faith would carry them through all these things.  Jesus knows what it is like to be human, with all the temptations and the pitfalls that surround us. He understands the weakness of human nature.  The temptations he endured are far greater than anything we will ever experience.  But doesn’t Jesus praise his servants in the parable of the talents “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord”.  Well done – that is praise from Jesus to us and it is surely a wonderful example of the grace and the abundant mercy of God and this “abundant mercy” is the first reminder that Peter gives us in his epistles. A second “reminder” that Peter gives us is found in 1 Peter 2 v 21, Peter witnessed the sufferings of Christ.  He says that the sufferings of Jesus are our example, and we should follow in his steps.  Verse 22 says there was no deceit found in his mouth.  When we are confronted either justly or unjustly and we have limited options, we often find a way of either saying untruths or maybe “bending the truth” to make things look good for us and to get us out of a tricky situation. But not Jesus – there was no deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return.  When he was mocked by the soldiers, he did not say anything back to them.  When he was in intense pain he didn’t threaten or curse his tormentors.  But rather he submitted himself to the will of God and he trusted in him.  And similarly us – we must not give back evil for evil.  We must not try to get even with others.  “Vengeance is mine”, saith the Lord, “I will repay”. We must leave things in the hands of the Almighty. A third “reminder” by Peter is in 2 Peter 1 and 2 where Peter advises us that we should be on the lookout for false teachers and false doctrines.  Needless to say, our world is full of godless and false ideas.  Even the established churches bend the word of God to suit their own ends.  As so-called students of the word of God they should know better. We need to beware that any false doctrine does not infiltrate the brotherhood. Peter reminds the believers that “holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21).  There is a need for us to follow closely the word of God and to dismiss the false doctrine of other teachers.  Peter describes them as “speaking evil of things they do not understand” (2 Peter 2:12).  It was, of course, a problem in the first century. Paul warned the elders of Ephesus in Acts 20 of false teachers and the epistle of Jude is similarly concerned with false teachers who were trying to infiltrate the early ecclesias.  In many cases the infiltration of the ecclesias by false teachers was a deliberate ploy by the Jews to stamp out the growth of Christianity.  But Peter’s “reminder” is as valid to us in the 21^st century as it was to those early believers. The final “reminder” that Peter gives us is in 2 Peter 3 and it is perhaps the most poignant for us in our days. Scoffers will come in the last days, says Peter. We see this so much on our days.  But Peter warns us that “the Lord is not slack concerning his promise”.  One day with the Lord is as 1000 years and the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night.  One day it will suddenly happen – either we will suddenly die and as far as we are concerned the Lord is here – or out of the blue the angel of the Lord will come for us, and we will be taken away to meet the Lord. Whichever scenario confronts us the “reminder” that Peter gives us (3:14) is to look forward to these things and to be “diligent to be found by him in peace without spot and blameless”.  We know that without Jesus we cannot possibly be “without spot and blameless” – but Peter gives us some wonderful words when in verse 15 he says, “consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation”.  Yes, the Lord is longsuffering, he is abundantly kind and gracious to us, and the day will come when we realise just how gracious and forgiving, he is. We pray for that day to come when Jesus is once more on this Earth and the kingdom is established. December

December 14th

Job 16 and 17 describes Job in the depth of despair.  He can see no hope for his life and he prepares for death.  In his dying, he finds no relief.  Friends have become mockers, comforters have become those who condemn him.  He has anguish on anguish.  Even observers are appalled by what they see.  Yet Job continues to maintain his integrity – “Nevertheless, the righteous will hold to their ways” (17:9).  That is what the righteous will do – maintain their right course despite the events of life.  And this is what we must do.  Even if we have to face the disturbing humiliation of the dying process, we must maintain righteous ways.  Because we know that it will be well with us in the end, like Job. Habakkuk was also a man down who was suffering (1:1-4).  Yet by the end of his book he is so happy in a spiritual high place (3:19).  How has this happened?  He has thought about God and what God has done and will do.  He knows that God has appointed a time for the judgment of the wicked (2:3).  God has a great plan that amazingly sees the world full of the knowledge of God (2:14).  Then there is God’s advice to all men (2:20); “But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.”  When Habakkuk thinks about these things it changes everything.  His complaints have been silenced.  Instead of complaining, he now prays.  Now he understands, he can do three things,  1) he is able to wait patiently for God’s plan to happen (3:16), 2) he can cope with the hardships of life (3:17-18), and 3) He can rejoice in the Lord despite these hardships.  Habakkuk is in a high spiritual place.  Can we do the same?  Can we wait patiently for the Lord?  Can we endure hardships?  And can we rejoice in the Lord despite these hardships?  Habbukuk 3 is a prayer, but it was also a song.  Habukkuk literally rejoiced in the Lord with singing. 2 Peter 1 -2 advises us to do everything to make our spiritual calling secure.  In Peter, the trouble was not from friends (as in Job) or the wicked (as in Habakkuk), but from false prophets.  They can take us away from the right way if we are not careful.   We do this by following the advice for all Christians everywhere, which Peter highlights at the beginning of his second letter.  It is not enough to have faith and be baptised.  This alone will not save us.  We must add 7 spiritual virtues to our faith (2 Pet 1:5-8).  The first is moral kindness or goodness.  This is the result of a true faith which we must have.  Then we must add knowledge.  The basic knowledge we had for baptism is not enough.  We have to firm in our knowledge so that false prophets cannot touch us.  Knowledge must lead to self-control.  We know how we should behave and we must control the flesh.  Once we have mastered this, then we can have perseverance in our troubles.  Both Job and Habukkuk were able to do this.  Next comes godliness, the quality of being different from others in the world, as our perseverance will also show.  Finally, comes love.  There are two types of love.  Firstly, the phileo love, which is the warm love we have for friends and family.  This is the easier love.  Then comes the hard love, the agape love.  This is the love we must have for even our enemies.  It is as if the crown of Christian virtues is to be able to love our enemies.  Are we able to get to this place?  Job showed that he had this love when he prayed for his enemies (who were originally his friends).  Let us make sure that we add all these 7 Christian virtues to our faith, so that we can stand the test like Job and receive the crown of life that God will give the righteous.  December

December 15th

Job 18:    the spirit of the words.  In this chapter Bildad seems to have lost his patience. It is very frustrating when you believe you can help someone, and you want to help, and yet they won’t listen. Imagine the Lord’s frustration with mankind when we realise just how much He wants to help mankind!  We have to be careful with our assessment of Bildad, just as Bildad should have been with Job. It’s so easy to read the words as harsh, cruel, condemning, un-loving. If WE do read the words with that spirit, we are confessing that WE would have said the same words with that critical spirit. If WE read the same words as quietly said in the spirit of gentleness (despite the accusations) then instead of Bildad’s criticism, we see his concern, his frustration, his thinking. Whether Bildad was critical, or frustrated, it doesn’t really matter. But what does matter is how we live with fellow mankind. How often have we regretted what we have said, but in reality we should regret the spirit in which those words were said. The most effective words, listened to and learnt from are those done in the spirit of gentleness. “Let your gentleness be known to all men” Phil 2:5.  Job 19:   Hidden treasure.  Suffering is very isolating and can be lonely. Job’s “friends” had come to support Job, but were “breaking him in pieces with their words” (v2). We are instructed within the church “Let ALL things be done for edification” (building up). Job doesn’t receive any help from his family, servants or friends, they had all separated and distanced themselves from Job and even his very life was departing from him. “have pity on me” he pleads (v21).  In v 23-24 he pleads for his words to be written, recorded in a book and saved for future generations (and we are still reading these words 3000 + years later, thanks to God !!) We might think that Job is wishing to reach out to future mankind, to share his suffering and looking for someone else who would understand his frustration.  But more likely, Job wanted mankind to know the words that follow: (v25-27) “For I know my redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth: and after my skin is destroyed, this I KNOW, that in my flesh I shall see God; how my heart yearns within me!”. Job wanted mankind to KNOW what he knew – something that even suffering and death could not take away… he wanted to share and confess his greatest TREASURE. Suffering can so easily hide our treasure because the “now” can take us away from the eternal, but suffering can also help us to go to the eternal for help, for wisdom, for trust. Let’s try not to ADD suffering to suffering (something we are very good at!) but let us go to a friend that will help us, even to salvation. “He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live.” John 11:2. Zephaniah 1:  Hidden in the Lord.  The book of Zephaniah tells us about events that happened in Jerusalem about 600+ B.C when Josiah was king. The northern kingdom (Israel) had been destroyed by the Assyrians as forewarned by God’s prophets. Judah’s kings, Manasseh and Amon had largely abandoned God, but a revival to faith and obedience to the only one true God, was led by the young Josiah. After Josiah’s death the people “turned back from the Lord”.  Zephaniah’s name means “hidden in the Lord” and it’s in the sense of hidden treasure, hidden to protect. Zeph 2:3 “seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth, it may be you will be hidden in the day of the Lord’s anger” And when we know this verse we see that some will be saved from “the day of the Lord’s anger”. This helps us in our interpretation of Zeph 1:2 “I will utterly destroy everything from the face of the land” – as some are saved, we understand “everything that is condemned by the Lord” will be destroyed. In short, God’s justice is coming to all. These are reassuring words for true believers, and words of warning to non-believers given because the Lord does not delight in the death of anyone – “repent and live”.  (v4) the words are now focused on Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. But the warnings to them are the same as to all mankind throughout all generations. Idolatry was(is) everywhere … “those who have turned back from the Lord, and have not sought the Lord, nor inquired of Him” Jesus says “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” Where are our hearts and minds? What do we value as important, and in what order?  In the following verses we see the desires of mankind:  Royalty… covetousness, indulgence, idolatry, power at all costs (deceit etc), violence, control.  Money handlers: the love of money at all costs (excuse the pun!)  The “complacent” who don’t think that they need God, who are totally centred on their own lives and possessions.  All had committed idolatry and valued their “ desires” more than the Lord ! However, justice will come. “the great day of the Lord is near” & “we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” 2 Cor 5:10.  The words to Judah (600 B.C ish) still apply to all of mankind. We have been warned because of a loving, even jealous God. Put simply, if we live with the Lord now, we will be given eternal life, with the Lord forever by God’s grace. If we don’t, we are choosing eternal death and will hear these words from Jesus “I never knew you”. 2 Peter 3: “Where is the promise of His coming”?  Of course, the answer is “in scripture” and Peter warns his flock to listen to scripture rather than the scoffers. He reminds his followers that all things existed because of the word (will) of God “Then God said… and it was so” Genesis 1. The flood (Gen 7) happened because of God, His judgement on the world at that time. God is still in control, and there needs to be and there will be, a future judgement. The “delay” is because God’s will is that “not any shall perish but that all SHOULD come to repentance”. God’s promise still remains because He is a loving, patient God, but He is also a God of justice and therefore, there will be a time when “the door is closed” and the last have been gathered in. Peter encourages his flock to be ready for that day, and warns them it will come like a thief in the night… read Matt 24:29-44 and Matt 25, all about the return of Jesus and him establishing the kingdom of God.  Heavens and earth (v10-13):  “the heavens will pass away with a great noise.. dissolved, being on fire”.  “The earth and the works in it will be burned up”.  Do we believe that the heavens and the earth will be destroyed by fire? If we didn’t know the rest of scripture we might! But it doesn’t make sense – heaven (where God dwells) doesn’t need to be dissolved and burnt! Even planet earth is not to be literally destroyed, (despite climate change); in verse 13 Peter writes “new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” Elsewhere “the earth abides for ever” Ecc 1:4 and “the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord” Num 14:21 etc. A better understanding is that the “heavens” are the rulers of this world and the “earth” are those ruled by the “heavens”. The promise is that this current world (the kingdom of men) is coming to a swift end, Jesus is to return, judge mankind and with His people establish the Kingdom of God on earth – this will be totally new. The old “way” will be totally destroyed. Isaiah 65:17-25 and Psalm 72 are helpful chapters to read.  Peter finishes his letter telling them (us) “to look forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless…” and to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ”. December

December 16th

Zophar replies for the second and last time in Job 20. He appears with typically human thinking in response to Job’s comments about his “redeemer” and that he will “see him” (chapter 19, verse 25-27) – he cannot believe that Job could say such a thing, verse 2-3. He is proud in his thinking because he still considers Job as a bad sinner and he (Zophar) is not! Job demonstrated an element of faith and knowledge that his death was not the end, he probably did not understand how it would happen but he considered that he had a future with God at the resurrection. By implication Job did not believe that Zophar would be part of that as Zophar himself was falsely accusing Job of some very bad sin. All of this chapter suggests that Zophar was clearly a bad sinner and verse 29 gives his conclusion on the matter. The truth is that every human being is a sinner and we all need forgiveness and we are all reliant on our “redeemer”.  We know from the rest of scripture that this full redemption is when Jesus comes back and the resurrection takes place. Suffering is not as a result of specific sins, suffering is a consequence of sinful human nature and sometimes God uses suffering to teach and also as a punishment for rebellion against him. Zephaniah 2 starts by continuing to tell us about the “great day of the Lord”. Chapter 1 tells us that this “punishment” was foretold during king Josiah’s time (verse 1), and the “great day of the Lord” is when God brings his judgement on the people who rebelled against him. This rebelling is important and it is distinct from humble followers of God who sin, rebellion is when individuals replace God with other things and have no regard for him at all and this is why God punished Judah. However, in verse 3, we see the opportunity for God’s people to repent from their rebellion – this calls for humility, the exact opposite to the pride that is normally the case of us human beings! Judah had rebelled against God and this was their opportunity to properly turn back to him and then perhaps God would shelter his people. This is exactly the same for us now, if we are humble and repent of our sins then God will forgive, but if we are proud and rebellious that we cannot ever expect God to shelter us. Not only was the prophecy against Judah it was also against those nations who also rebelled against God because of pride and complete ungodliness, ie Philistia, verse 4-5 – we have to look at Ezekiel 25 verse 15-17 to see the reason why, but it was because they wanted to completely destroy God’s people; Moab and Ammon were to be destroyed because of pride, verse 10, and also the same for Assyria, verse 15, Cush (probably Egypt) was also proud and depended on their own strength. God’s message has always been the same – the only way to be saved is to be humble, pride will not achieve forgiveness or salvation, pride will only achieve destruction in the end. The underlying message in 1John 1&2 is also humility. The acceptance of Jesus as our saviour is humility, so is accepting that we have sinned, verse 9, so is doing what doing what God wants, chapter 2 verse 5. Pride is saying that we have not sinned, chapter 1 verse 8 and 10, pride is not doing what God wants, chapter 2 verse 4, it is also hating your brother, verse 9. If we say that we love both God and Jesus then we have to demonstrate love by walking in the same way that Jesus walked, verse 6, that means loving our brothers and our sisters in the same way that Jesus loves them and us! This means that we have to ensure that we meet for the breaking of bread to remember Jesus’s love for us every week, it means that we should teach and encourage others, it means that we care for the widows, it means that we visit those who are ill, it means that all of us are included, verse 12-14, young and old, male and female (even though not mentioned here, they are included). Love is extended to everyone by everyone, verse 9-11. The problem in Zephaniah is that the people of the nations AND God’s children loved the “world”, they loved the things that replaced God;  but John is telling us in verse 15-17, that we are not to love the “world” – if we do God’s love is not in us. So if we are only interested in doing things for ourselves, if we are only trying to better ourselves and if we are only thinking of ourselves then we are proud and God is not in us! The verses from 18-27 are often used to refer to those who do not actually believe that Jesus existed, as the “antichrist”, but I think that this means more than this, the context of John’s words is that those who say that they follow Jesus and obey his father but do not walk as Jesus did or obey God are still in “darkness” and are “liars”. Therefore those who do not “walk like Jesus” and disobey God are the antichrist – this is something that we should all think about because sometimes we can act like this, ie act like an antichrist, by the things that we do that we should not and the things that we do that we should. For example, Job’s friends were like an antichrist when all they did was criticise him, they also did not comfort him; the people that Zephaniah was talking about were antichrists; John says that those who are liars and those who do not show love are antichrist. So how do you act? Are you ALWAYS encouraging your brothers and sisters? Are you always meeting with ALL of your brothers and sisters in your ecclesia? Are you always holding breaking of bread services each Sunday? Are you visiting the sick? Are you teaching others? We can be confident when Jesus comes back that we will be in the kingdom, however, this does depend on us “staying in him” now and walking in his ways and obeying his father, verse 28-29. During our lives now we need to become like God and his son, we have to present the “light” to others in everything that we do, in humility of course, chapter 1 verse 5-7, then we are “purified from sin”. December

December 17th

Job replies in Job 21 and in his reply he confirms what he thinks of his friends, ie they are mocking him, verse 3, and they are speaking nonsense, verse 34. These are lessons for us when we are called upon to console each other, we should be helping each other to come to terms with suffering rather than making judgements and mocking and speaking nonsense.  Because of their judgmental attitude, Job has lost confidence in his friends, they are more of a hindrance than a help. Job wanted support from his friends and he attempts to answer in this chapter how they should have consoled him, verse 2.  Job’s response is a very human way of looking at suffering and he ponders the question as we all do from time to time, he asks why do the wicked appear to have a trouble free life, verse 7, all the apparent “blessings” of children, animals, enjoyment and prosperity are experienced by them, verse 8-13. The wicked even seem to completely reject God because they see no benefit in worshipping because they already think they have everything that they need, verse 14-15. David had these same thoughts and some of his Psalms reflect on this – he counters these thoughts by thinking about God, and that is exactly what Job does in verse 16 when he remembers that the wicked’s prosperity is not in their own hands. But he still struggles with this and he again thinks about the times when the wicked suffer, verse 17-21, presumably the answer that Job comes up with is not many times! It sometimes does appear that this life is unfair and the wicked do appear to prosper. However, he again thinks of God and he realises that you cannot question God, verse 22, God knows best and knows all the answers. He then gets to the real central point when he thinks about what happens to everyone, whether good or bad, rich or poor, verse 23-26, the fact is death comes to all and like Job our focus should be on following God and looking forward to the kingdom, that is what really counts. Zephaniah 3 talks about this future hope and the last verses from 9-20 talks about future restoration where there will be purification, humility, joy, no one being afraid, etc. This is what God is getting us to consider, he wants us to look at the big picture, the wicked have their rewards in this life; we have our rewards when Jesus comes back, this is what we have to focus on. Verses 1-8 is not a very good picture of God’s people, they oppressed others, they were arrogant and proud, they were unrighteous, they were “eager to act corruptly”, they basically had no respect for God. Yet in God’s love he promised to change their attitude. We see how much God and Jesus loved in 1John 3&4. All those things in Zephaniah that were going to be changed, eg fear, is brought about by love, chapter 4 verse 16-21. God’s love is focused on the forgiveness of our sins, verse 7-15, and because we have knowledge of this we should be trying to love each other as both God and Jesus loved us. The verses in chapter 3:11-24, show us just how much love we have to show to each other, and this was demonstrated by Jesus in verse 16 in giving his life for us. He was like his father who wants us to be his children, verse 1-3. Love is demonstrated in our actions – in how we help others but also in our determination not to sin, verse 4-6. John depicts sin as the “devil”, ie “false accuser” and it should not surprise us that human nature does have this tendency to sin, but because of the love of God and of Jesus, we should be trying our best not to. We are “born of God”, therefore, verse 9-10. So in our sufferings we think of the big picture and focus on the kingdom, and in our lives now we should focus on love because both God and Jesus loved us first. December

December 18th

This is now Eliphaz’s third and final time to respond; in this response he more forcefully criticises Job, saying the same things he and the other friends have said before and also referring back to things that Job said last. What is apparent with this argument between Job and his 3 friends is that as time moves on the distance between the 2 sides of the argument is getting bigger and bigger and reconciliation appears not to be possible. They all basically mistakenly agree that suffering is as a result of sin, but Job is saying that he has not sinned and his friends are insisting that he must have sinned! The differences of opinions between Job and Eliphaz is now so great, reconciliation looks unlikely, and we should take a lesson from this when we inevitably have differences of opinions with others – we should try and not let these differences get out of control – this is why Jesus said to be reconciled with your brother before you pray (Matthew 5 verse 24). Eliphaz is trying all ways to explain why Job is suffering and although his motives appear to be fine, because he wants Job to repent (verse 21), he is suggesting in verse 4-5 that his sins were “endless”.  Is he referring Job back to sins of his youth when he was less aware of God, Job 13 verse 26? Or is he just making a big assumption that Job’s sins were many to explain his suffering? Eliphaz accuses Job of not helping others and even worse, exploiting them, verse 6-9. This he knows not to be true really because Job was known as a Godly man – Job 1 verse 1-3. It is interesting that Eliphaz says that the “righteous see their [wicked people’s] ruin and rejoice”, verse 19-20 – so were Eliphaz and the other friends the opposers (satan) who were jealous of Job’s reputation, who in the first place suggested that he was only good because he had a stable home, income and family? Jealousy is such a bad emotion and we should all learn to control it! It is sad that Eliphaz clearly believes that Job has sinned in a bad way and refers back to Job’s previous comment in Job 21 verse 14-16 in verse 17-18. Job was lamenting that the wicked are just not interested in God’s ways and would therefore not mix with them and Eliphaz was basically saying that Job was one of them and that Eliphaz himself was not going to mix with Job! This is getting to a very sad situation and this sadly happens too often when brothers and sisters become convinced by their own beliefs without thinking about their own motives and if their beliefs are based on the Bible or not. Thinking carefully about what we are doing is the common theme in Haggai 1&2, this challenge is in chapter 1 verse 5 and 6 and in chapter 2 verse 15 and twice in verse 18. The people who had returned to Jerusalem from captivity (they were in captivity because they rebelled against God) in Babylon forgot the reason for their return and already were only concentrating on themselves, chapter 1 verse 4, they had in fact made the decision to put God second, verse 2. In an attempt to get his people to reconsider their actions God reduced the harvest and made their lives harder than they could have been, verse 6. The same thing happened in chapter 2 when the people were not following God’s requirements properly, verse 16-17. God can use an element of suffering to make us think again about our actions and if we take advantage of this “reminder” then we are prompted to “think carefully” about the things of God and what he requires us to do. The people in Haggai’s time were given a new opportunity to start again by properly following God when they returned to Israel, he gave them prompts to “think again” about how they acted, he sent Haggai and he said that he was with them, chapter 1 verse 13, and that he would bless then, chapter 2 verse 19. We too have been given an opportunity to have life in God’s kingdom so we should be reading the bible so that we “think again” about how we act and do things because God will only give us the kingdom if we have the right attitude and always put him first. This wonderful opportunity that we have comes through being baptised in Jesus and it is emphasised for us in 1John 5 verse 16-17. The “sin that leads to death” refers to those people who have either chosen not to follow God and accept Jesus or have “rebelled” against them; the “sin that does not lead to death” refers to those people who have accepted Jesus, try to follow him and repent when they do sin. So we have to always “think again” about the way that we live because it is a matter of life and death! I am sure that all of us say that we love both God and Jesus, verse 1, but the test to see if we really do is whether or not we carry out “his commands”, verse 2. And following his commands should be a pleasure for us when we have the right attitude, verse 3.  It should not be a burden to carry out the breaking of bread service every Sunday to remember God’s love for us. If it is a “burden” to some, then sadly those who think like this have the wrong attitude, just like the wicked in Job. We have to change our worldly thinking – “being born of God” ensures that we “overcome the world” and believing that Jesus is the son of God is the central part of this, verse 4-5. Jesus was sent by God so that we could have eternal life and it is a simple choice that we have to make, if we want life, and we can confidently have it, but we have to follow God’s ways; rejecting his ways means that we cannot have life, verse 11-12. “Thinking again” about all that we read in the bible helps us to understand God’s will so that we then can have confidence in asking God, verse 13-15, how can we expect God to answer our prayers if we are not trying to please him? John concludes this letter by saying to “keep yourselves from idols”, verse 21, we know from old testament times that God’s people corrupted the worship of God by adding human “gods”, they were rebelling against God because they found his commands “burdensome”, so our lesson is not to make the same mistake now. December

December 19th

John’s 2^nd and 3^rd letters both make reference to “walking in truth”; both link this with great rejoicing and joy on John’s part to know that the believers were doing this.  Look again at 2 John verse 4: “I rejoiced greatly that I have found some of your children walking in truth…” And then 3 John verse 4: “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.” What does it mean to “walk in truth”? 2 John gives us some good clues.  Firstly, this is something about which John says that he “received commandment from the Father”. So this “truth” is not a man-made thing: it is not the truth as defined by an individual human being.  It is God’s truth.  God is, after all, a “God of truth” – He is described as such in Psalm 31:5. Moses describes Him as “the rock”, whose “works are perfect, and all His ways are just.” (Deuteronomy 32 :4). In a world in which we are each invited to make our own version of truth, to make our own standards and redefine any truths we find uncomfortable or unpalatable, we must learn to rely instead on the everlasting truth of God, the Rock, the unchangeable one.  Our own ideas of right and wrong must be subject to His truth: His ways are right and just. Back in 2 John, he goes on to write about 2 distinct aspects of “walking in truth”.  The first is found in verses 5-6.  It is about the commandment to “love one another”.  Love is then defined as walking “according to His commandments”.  So “walking in truth” should be shown by our actions – in particular, towards one another. Showing love to one another means thinking of the needs of each other and doing what we can to help each other towards the Kingdom.  It means investing time and energy in developing relationships within the ecclesial family and putting others first.  And because this love is characterised by the commandments of God, it is not just a case of being nice to each other or simply making each other feel good.  Showing the love of God to one another sometimes requires tough choices. It is the love that is shown to us by God and demonstrated in the life of the Lord Jesus and it is defined by truth.  Godly love is kind, gentle, peaceable – but it also “does not rejoice in iniquity but rejoices in the truth” (1 Corinthians 13:6).  So it will mean encouraging right behaviours and attitudes in each other, and discouraging ones that are not right or helpful in our walk to the Kingdom. The second aspect of “walking in truth” is perhaps what John goes on to say in verses 7-11.  It has to do with right and wrong doctrine, in particular in relation to the nature of the Lord Jesus.  John, having just said that we need to love one another, is immediately balancing this by making it clear that part of doing this is to keep separate from those who hold and promote wrong teaching. Scripture places a high value on truth. Joshua exhorted the Israelites to “fear the LORD and serve Him in sincerity and truth…” (Joshua 24:14).  Samuel echoed these words when he said, “Only fear the LORD and serve Him in truth with all your heart.” (1 Samuel 12:24). David wrote in Psalm 51:6, “Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts” – at the very core of our being.  In Psalm 145:18 we read, “The LORD is near to all who call upon Him; to all who call upon Him in truth.” Conversely, in Jeremiah chapter 7 we read that the nation of Israel were in desperate trouble because they had become a nation “that does not obey the voice of the LORD their God nor receive correction.  Truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth.” In chapter 9 he says “…they are not valiant for the truth.” Not surprisingly, these same ideas are expressed in the New Testament too.  Jesus is first described in John as “full of grace and truth” (John 1: 14) and said that the truth will make us free.  Speaking of his disciples, he prayed “Sanctify them by Your truth.  Your word is truth.” (John 17:17).  On the other hand, Pilate dismissively asked “What is truth?” – he cared nothing for it. Paul warned that there would come a time when, just like Pilate, even believers, “would turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables…” (2 Tim 4:4) and that they would, like Israel of old, perish because “they received not the love of the truth.” (2 Thess 2:10). So when we reflect on what we have learnt about “walking in truth”, we find that this means two things: right thinking and right living. This essential combination comes up in John’s first letter, too.  In chapter 1:5-7 he writes: “This is the message that we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.  [So the truth he is passing on comes from God, as we saw in 2 John].  If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practise the truth.  But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another…” [the “love one another” talked about in 2 John]. What this passage is telling us is that fellowship has to do with light and with walking.  It comes from firstly being illuminated by God’s light: to know God and to understand the truth about Him.  His Word, the Psalmist wrote, is a “lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” And again, “The entrance of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.” (Psalm 119:130).  God’s word teaches us about Him and how to have a right relationship with Him.  God’s Word is the source of the truth and we must pay attention to it if we want to “walk in light”.  But this knowledge and appreciation of God must then be reflected in the way that we behave towards each other.  It has to be expressed in our relationships, by showing God’s love. So as we now come to commemorate the fellowship that we have with God and with each other, we remember that it was made possible through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus – the one who was full of grace and truth.  Let us thank and praise God that “if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His son cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7). December

December 20th

The Job readings for today are 25, 26 and 27, they include Bildad’s third response and then Job’s further response to his criticism. Bildad’s comments appear right and his comment in verse 4 is true, ie no one is righteous before God, but it is his cruel criticism of Job and his lack of compassion that Job responds to in chapter 26 verse 2-4. Job is sarcastic in his response –  he is really saying that Bildad and his other friends have not helped Job at all in his suffering; they have not tried to save him; they have not given him loving advice and neither have they provided any wise suggestions. He asks them who helped them to say the things that they did say, because the implication is that he does not recognise anything that they said. Job is saying that if they were speaking God’s words then he would have recognised them! The lesson here for us is that the “authority” of the things that we say should be God’s, ie from his bible, we cannot teach or challenge anyone by saying “I think” without referring to the bible. Job confirms his belief in God and says that he will never speak wickedness for as long as he lives, chapter 27 verse 2-6, Job certainly stuck to his principles, and in this sense he was better than his friends because despite how they previously saw Job acting before his suffering, they now forgot all that and now accused him of sinning badly. Chapter 26 verse 8-14 gives us confidence in the inspiration of the bible because there are things here that at that time in human history the only way that Job could have known that the earth was “suspended over nothing” was if that information was provided by God. Today we know that to be true because of the research that humans have been able to do, but then, technology was not available to prove it. He also acknowledged God working in human events, ie verse 12, where he refers to Egypt – the word “Rahab” is used to describe Egypt, see Isaiah 30 verse 7 – presumably this verse refers to the children of Israel coming out of Egypt via the parting of the Red Sea (Exodus 14). Job clearly has complete respect for God and therefore maintained his godliness all the way through his sufferings. As with all prophecies there are slightly different interpretations by all who study the bible and this applies to Zechariah 2 and 3. It is good to have debate, providing the interpretations are bible based.  Whatever period in history chapter 2 refers to, it is a wonderful hope because it is a picture of restoration of God’s people into a nation – we can see that it applied to the return of the Jews from captivity in Babylon, verse 7, and it was around the similar time as Haggai, but we can also take lessons from it for us too because we have confidence that God will restore all things when Jesus comes back. Chapter 2 suggests that it is referring to a restoration following the return from Babylon too, because we have reference to Joshua the high priest, verse 1, who was referred to in Haggai 1 and 2; we know that Joshua and the people had opposition to what they were doing from Ezra 4 verse 1-5 and Nehemiah 4, so characters like Sanballat were the “opposers” or “satan” as described here. Verse 8 says that this account is “symbolic of things to come”, so it appears that we are being told that these, perhaps real events, are also pictures of future events, and it does not take much imagination to see Jesus in this picture and verse 10, for example, as a picture of the kingdom. So we can see reminders of all sorts of times when God restores things all the way through history and will again in the future. As Zechariah progresses with his prophecy we do see that it climaxes in the return of Jesus, so just like Job, we maintain our confidence in God because we know that he will restore all things. Jude, our last reading for today, is written to church members, ie us, verse 1. Jude uses the past history of God’s people as lessons for us to learn to keep a focus on and attempt to correctly interpret what God is saying, Job is another example. The problem with the church in Jude’s time was that brothers and sisters had joined who had corrupted God’s teachings, and this is a warning for our time too, verse 3-4. The only way that we can be best equipped to understand what God wants is for us to prayerfully read the bible, this is why it is important to always check because we always need reminding, verse 5. The past examples that Jude uses are of the Israelites who were rescued from Egypt and then did not believe and were destroyed; God’s human messengers (word “angels” means “messengers”), ie people who were supposed to have been carrying out God’s work but they misused their authority and were destroyed, verse 6, (this is very likely referring to Korah, Dathan and Abiram in Numbers 16); Sodom and Gomorrah were also punished for their sexual immorality; so all those who oppose and rebel against God are rightly destroyed because their continued bad influence would corrupt and turn others against God. Corrupting God’s requirements is so subtle, in verse 3-4 Jude refers to “grace” and it is by grace that we are saved – without grace none of us will be saved, however, these corrupt brothers and sisters were using “grace” as a reason for them to carry on doing what their human desires wished, saying that they could do what they liked and God would forgive them through grace! Jude was pointing out from historic examples that this was not the case, those who corrupted God’s teaching would be punished. So just because we do not like a teaching of God we cannot simply ignore it and do our own thing, that get’s us nowhere. Verse 8 is a very strong statement on what God thinks of those who corrupt his teachings! And they are condemned, verse 11-13, Jude is saying that brothers and sisters who act like this should not be included in our breaking of bread services (love feasts) – so this is serious. The message is to be careful, verse 14-16. Sadly people will ridicule and criticise those of us who try to keep to God’s teachings, we should expect this, verse 17-19, but as Jude says, we should be building each other up, praying and waiting patiently for Jesus’ return, verse 20-21. If we are going to challenge others, we need to use God’s teachings as the “authority” for that, we need to try our best to stick to God’s teachings and we are to try and see the return of Jesus in everything that we read. December

December 21st

Job 28 continues from what Job says about the wicked in the previous chapter.  The wicked die wealthy (27:16 & 19) but then they are gone for ever.  Man seeks wealth like gold and precious stones.  But man is seeking the wrong thing.  There is something of far greater value that lasts for ever but is harder to find.  This is wisdom.  Wisdom starts with the fear of God but continues with avoiding evil (28:28).  Job did this.  Through his suffering, he had the wisdom to recognise the supremacy of God. And he had the wisdom to not turn to evil when he was tested.  Can we have this wisdom when we suffer? Zechariah describes a different type of suffering.  Zerubbabel was trying to rebuild God’s temple but opposition had stopped the building. Zechariah 4 encourages Zerubbabel to restart the building – not by the might of human force but by relying on God (4:6).  And they should not worry about the result being small and inferior (4:10).  What matters is that the faithful work is carried out.  Today we are also builders.  The house we are building is God’s house made of brothers and sisters (1 Cor 3:9). We should build this house in the same way as Zechariah.  We should rely on God and we should not be concerned if our work is only small and inferior.  All faithful building work will be rewarded.  But we should be careful how we build (1 Cor 3:10). The same was true in Zechariah’s day as we read in chapter 5. God’s house should not be built on falsehood, but only on truth (5:1-4).  Nor could it be a house built of wickedness (5:5-11). God’s house must be a holy house built on the truth of God’s word. In the New Testament, we start reading Revelation.  As Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children”. Revelation is God revealing the next stage of His plan with man. At centre stage of this plan is Jesus Christ, who is coming soon. Chapter 1 gives us a description of Jesus, who is the one who was dead but is now alive for ever (1:18). The features of the description are ones of Jesus coming in righteous judgment.  The question for every reader of Revelation is, “Are you ready for the return of Jesus?”  We must ask this question and make sure we can say “yes”.  If we cannot, then we have not learn the important last message of Jesus in the Revelation.  Chapters 2 and 3 describe how some of the ecclesias were not ready.  Ephesus had to repent (2:5) and so had Pergamum (2:16).  The problems of the ecclesias are problems that ecclesias today face.  in chapter 2, there are warnings of sexual immorality from teachers like the Nicolaitans, Balaam and Jezebel. These ecclesias were not maintaining their separation from the world. Ephesus had dealt with false teachers but had gone so far as to have lost their love (2:4).  Here is the difficult balance ecclesias need to have of maintaining purity while at the same time as maintaining love. Finally, there are messages for the ecclesias to keep being faithful even while they are suffering (2:9, 13).  Let us maintain our separation from the world, and keep our love for God strong, even if we have to go through our own suffering.  We need to wisdom of Job and the perseverance of Zechariah to do this.  Then we will be able to build up our ecclesia house, so that it is a holy dwelling place which pleases God.  And God will be pleased to live with us, for ever. December

December 22nd

Job 29-30 The perfected man.  It’s a natural thing to do when one gets older, to look back on one’s life;  especially when we were young and at our best. But is our relationship with the Lord dependent on the “good times”?  We might be only one with Him when life is easy; when our health is good and we are respected by mankind. Job had good health, he was highly respected and he was also doing the right things: helping the poor, the orphans, the blind and lame, teaching in righteousness and justice. What a good life Job had, when Job perceived “the Almighty was yet with me” (v5). Isn’t that our greatest joy; when we perceive the Lord is with us ? In chapter 29 we see that Job liked the praise of men, he liked his elevated place in society; and he does seem to give this too much importance. Ch.30 is in contrast. In contrast to what Job did for mankind… mankind forgot his former deeds and rejected the “poor” Job, and considered him the lowest of society…Did Job think that the Lord had done the same, rejected Job? He knew the Lord had caused his humiliation, and he seemed to believe it was some kind of punishment although he did not understand why.  His (our) suffering was (is) not  a punishment with rejection from God (rejection from God only comes when we reject his teaching/discipline and refuse to listen). As parents with children, discipline does not come with rejection, (it comes because of love!) but with guidance and encouragement to live the right way. Circumstances were such that God wanted Job to have the right mind (thinking) in ALL situations, and for Job to go to Him for help and find Him.  Phil 4:11-13  “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through Him who gives me strength”.  This is true of Paul, and it is true for all of us. It was true of Jesus. Heb 5:7-9 “when He (Jesus) had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of his godly fear, though he was a son, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. And having been perfected….” The Lord God was the cause of the suffering, not to punish, but to bring Job to a closer understanding of the “perfect” man… humble, trusting and one with God at all times, and in all circumstances. We can do this… “through Him who gives us strength”.  Zechariah 6-7:    Visions.  What would we have seen and understood? Jerusalem and its surroundings had been a very unstable place to live for many years; there were fears on every side. Zechariah was given a vision of chariots and horses, and he knew this was a vision with an intended message. But he didn’t understand “what are these, my Lord?” (v4).  The angel then gives some explanation – the horses were “spirits of heaven”, angels (probably) who were sent by God to do His will amongst the nations. Zechariah would have realized that God was still at work, in the nations, bringing His will and promises to fulfilment, and ultimately preparing people for the kingdom. We too should be mindful of the all-powerful God and obviously, nothing can resist His will. The world today is very unstable, nothing (without God) is sustainable… but there is a God, He is in control, His will will be done, and it’s only with Him that we can find the foundation to build our lives upon.  With that reassurance Zechariah receives another “vision”, building on a “foundation” given to Isaiah before him. (Isa 11:1) He proclaims the word of God (v12-13) speaking about God’s will with a man.  We, by that same word, and the grace of God know who that man is.  “whose name is the Branch”, “who will build the temple of the Lord”, “who will rule on His throne”, “who shall be a priest on His throne”. We know the priest-king – out of the billions of people ever born, there is only one who can be trusted with that authority, and we KNOW, (not just believe) it’s Jesus.  The message from Zechariah 7 is clear. The Lord does not value heartless ritual, fasting or worship… we are not “one” with God when this happens. But the Lord gives us instruction to show us how and when we can become one and experience it (v9-10): “Execute true justice, show mercy and compassion everyone to his brother. Do not oppress the widow or fatherless, the alien or the poor. Let none of you plan evil in his heart against his brother”.  If we don’t show mercy, compassion etc we have failed concerning the 2nd commandment, which in turn has failed the 1st commandment. Love is the commandment, but it’s not a commandment in the human sense… you cannot command someone to love you – when love is spoken as a command it means it is a priority, it’s what comes first. If we have love, then we will find that all of the other fruits of the spirit will come naturally, as good fruit from a good tree. We are TOTALLY dependent on God’s love, let’s make that awareness live in our daily lives by loving in return. “If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” 1 John 4:11. Revelation 3-4 : lessons and questions.  “He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches” The letters to the churches were not just for them, but for all of us; as churches and individuals.  Lessons from Sardis: be watchful regarding your faith, your lives, your hearts; strengthen your faith and your works of faith; remember your calling; hold fast and repent; seek first the kingdom of God; the Lord will be faithful with the faithful.  Lessons from Philadelphia:  they have kept his word; not denied his name; were loved by Jesus; had persevered and held fast; and great rewards were promised.  Lessons from Laodicea: rebuked for being half-hearted, full of the things of this world believing they had no need; spiritually… poor, blind, naked etc.; the answer – come to Jesus, become rich in faith; receive righteousness (white garments), be healed that you might see; repent to be with the Lord, understand “as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten”.  If you read those words SLOWLY, examining your own minds, and realized you yourself needed to work in some of these spiritual areas, then you “have an ear to hear”. And that is what the word of God does if we listen to His words – reading on its own does nothing; listen and live like Jesus.  Rev 4:     Whenever we read Revelation we see “echoes” from elsewhere in scripture. For example, the 4 living creatures in this chapter and Ezekiel 1; there are many similarities but there also differences in their appearance. What interpretations or messages can we be sure of? For me, the words and visions are intriguing. I accept I don’t understand (and probably never will whilst in this body!) but I find peace in knowing many things of God are beyond our understanding, we just look on in wonder.  Regarding the 4 living creatures and 24 elders; I have read many different suggestions as to what they represent – do the symbols represent one idea, or many; I don’t know. It is interesting to see that they come together in worship.  Ch 4:11 “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power; for you created all things, and by your will they exist and were created” – words to God. And Ch 5:9-10 “You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for you were slain, and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation and have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth” – words to Jesus.  So we see the 4 living creatures and 24 elders worshipped because they had been redeemed to God by the blood of Jesus!  I don’t want to steal comments on Revelation 5 (tomorrow) but my limited understanding tells me that the symbols might be pictures of redeemed mankind at a future time given different roles by the Lord.  What I can clearly see is that if our hearts and minds are with the Lord we are in safe hands “we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called to His purpose” Rom 8:28. December

December 23rd

Job 31 is a companion to Job 29.  Both chapters describe Job’s way of life.  Job is to be admired.   Job clothes the naked (31:19) and feeds the hungry (31:17).  He provides shelter for the traveller (31:32).  He provides justice for the poor.  He has been faithful to his wife.   He has not trusted in his wealth but trusted in God.  He has not rejoiced in the downfall of enemies and has avoided falsehood.  Noone contradicts Job’s claims, not even the three ‘friends’.  Job is like the righteous as described in the parable of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25:31-46), who clothes the naked, feeds the hungry and shelters the traveller. Job is an example of righteousness for us all to follow. Just as Proverbs 31 describes the virtuous woman, so Job 29 and 31 describe the virtuous man, who is Job.  Job 31 concludes Job’s speeches in the book.  Job 32 is about the next speaker, a young man called Elihu, who has respectively waited for his elders to speak.  He claims to speak differently from Job’s accusers (32:14).  We will learn that this is true. Zechariah tells us that the righteous are those who will live in Jerusalem (Zechariah 8:16).  Zechariah highlights 4 of Job’s qualities – truth, justice, loving his neighbour and avoiding falsehood.  These qualities will enable the righteous to live in Jerusalem and have joy, love and peace (8:19).  There will be feasts of rejoicing and  happy pilgrimages to that city (8:19-22).  People from all nations will want to go their and enjoy such blessings.  However, the reader is left unclear about when these times will come about.  No doubt those who listened to his words considered an immediate fulfillment and were encouraged.  And maybe some of this happened.  But the real joy and honour from the nations must still be future.  This is our future, if we live righteously.  This is a Jerusalem-based future, as we ultimately read at the end of Revelation. Revelation 5 presents us with the Lamb who takes centre stage in the purpose of God and in this chapter.  The Lamb is Jesus, who is also the Lion of the tribe of Judah.  Jesus was slain like a sacrificial lamb, but he will come as a royal lion.  It is Jesus alone who can open the scroll that is sealed (5:1).  He can do this because he was slain for mankind so that he can bring about God’s plan of the kingdom (5:9-10). For this the Lamb is praised.  What follows in Revelation 6 is that these seals are opened and what is written in the seals happens.  The four horsemen of the Apocalpse appear first and ride off to conquer, to take away peace, to cause famine and to have power to kill.  This means trouble is coming.  The fifth seal presents us with a picture of an altar where the dead symbollically request justice. They do not know how long there will be until justice is achieved.  The sixth seal brings the darkening of the heavens as if a storm is coming.  All the high and mighty on earth flee.  A storm is coming and the world had better be prepared for it.  It is the wrath of the Lamb and the one on the throne.  It is the great day of justice that has come (6:17).  The book of Revelation as a whole describes the justice coming on the earth. This is the time when the wicked and the righteous are both rewarded. For the wicked, this is a day of trouble.  For the righteous, it is a day of joy.  The righteous have nothing to fear from the coming of the Lamb.  The lesson is clear.  We must show the behaviours of the righteous.  We need to live in truth, justice and love just like Zechariah and Job.  If we do, then Revelation ends with the description of our joy in the new Jerusalem. December

December 24th

There are some provoking thoughts from the continuing response by Elihu in Job 33, there are bible students who think that he is wise in his response and others think that he is as bad as Job’s other friends. Elihu certainly gives credit to God, verse 3-4, and he also has sympathy with Job saying that he is just like him, verse 6, and he also says to Job that he has nothing to fear from his responses, verse 7. This always has to be a good start when any one of us has a disagreement with a brother or sister or has the loving task of encouraging them, ie we are all the same and we should help in humility. Elihu acknowledges that God is always right and that he has a reason for doing everything, he suggests that God’s reason for allowing suffering, and bringing it in Job’s case, was to try and stop men from “wrongdoing” and being “proud”, verse 17. This is probably a good lesson for all of us in our daily lives is to always think what are the lessons for me! Elihu uses language that builds a picture for us in his response from verse 19-28, starting with a man ill in bed. He is obviously ill and is clearly dying, verse 22, this reminds us too that we are in the process of dying because of our human nature and we need a “mediator” (Jesus) to show us “grace” and to “ransom” us, verse 23-24. As this picture builds we see the need to “repent”, verse 26, also we see forgiveness (restoration), we then see an admission of sin to our fellow man, verse 27, and ultimately we see that man can be “redeemed” from the grave, verse 28. So we can see in this “picture” the progress from us acknowledging our sin to being forgiven, because that is what God wants in the end. God will repeatedly give us opportunities to save us from death, verse 29-30, this shows just how merciful and long suffering God is. We know from other scriptures, eg Ecclesiastes, that acknowledging our sins and how we can be forgiven is “wisdom”, verse 33. There’s a verse in Zechariah 9 that reminds me of the restoration of Job at the end of the book (Job42:10) and that is verse 12 where those who are brought back to Jerusalem are given “twice as much” as they had before. This promise of having all our suffering removed is something that we can all look forward to when Jesus comes back, a time that this chapter refers to, verse 9.  We know from the new testament that this verse refers to Jesus (Matthew 21:5 and John 12:15), the people at that time expected Jesus to restore all things then, but that was not God’s plan and we continue to wait for Jesus to come back. This prophecy referred initially to the Jews as they went back to the land, but it refers to us too as we faithfully wait for Jesus to come back, verse 14-17, the confidence that we have is that “God will save”, so no matter how we suffer now, if we stay faithful and are wise, we will be part of this promised time of joy. Revelation 7, 8 and 9 continues with this theme, the symbolic number of “144,000” signifies Israel, verse 4-8. They were joined by another “multitude”, verse 9, made up of people who were from “every nation”, so we appear to have a picture here of people from all nations of the world who have accepted Jesus (the lamb) and have their sins forgiven by the blood of Jesus, verse 14. So we see a picture of people, us, and those Jews who  accept Jesus who are promised that they will no longer suffer, verse 15-17. This is a picture of the kingdom of the future that we all look forward to, when our pain and suffering end. In the meantime we try our best to follow God and we pray for help and strength to cope with the situations that we are in – these prayers are important because they feature in God’s plans and judgement for the future, chapter 8 verse 1-5. Chapters 8 and 9 have some further pictures of judgement but we take confidence that God will always care for his people. Chapter 9 verse 4 – we are those people who are symbolically marked on our foreheads and just like the people of Israel in Egypt during the plagues, God’s people will be afforded a certain amount of protection when his judgement comes. Even amongst all this confusing destruction, God’s aim appears to be to turn people around from their sins, just as it was in Job’s time, verse 20-21. God wants man to repent, this is why he will restrict his judgements so it gives others opportunity to think and repent. We have been given the opportunity to follow God and to accept Jesus, our names are already written in the “book of life” and we can be confident we will be with Jesus when he sets up his father’s kingdom on earth, IF we continue to obey and follow. Now is the time to change our lives and try our best to follow. December

December 25th

Job 34, Zec 10, Rev 10 and 11. Not really good Christmassy readings! – but whatever Revelation 10 and 11 actually mean it clearly brings us to the Kingdom and reminds us how Jesus overcome sin! If it wasn’t for Jesus’ birth then this promise would not be possible – so for no other reason than this – this is a Happy Christmas Every Christmas should therefore be happy – but for whatever reason I appreciate this is not always possible for all! (even though Jesus not born at this time of year, I see no reason not to celebrate!). “Happy Christmas” then accommodates most people, most of the time. But there are many who will not enjoy Christmas so much or even not at all, for 1 reason or another, this year. There are brothers and sisters we know who have painful thoughts, especially now when it is more acute.- loss of members of family, breakup of others, illness, worry, loneliness. Ukraine, Afghanistan, Cameroon, Mozambique, Malawi, all East Africa – the list goes on and on where people for one reason or another will not be happy. We all respect these feelings and we feel sad for those who are in distress at Christmas. But individuals’ distress does bring us closer to Jesus because he really does know what we are going through – Hebs 4:14-16 – no matter how hard it is at the time, we have to put our complete trust in God and in Jesus – they know exactly what we are all going through. In fact all the pain and suffering that there ever was is known about – we’re so familiar with Job’s pain and suffering and how we are learning to be patient and that we should not be blaming God for the bad things that happen, even though he does bring them on us when he knows that will be the right thing for us. As with any exhortation we have to think about Jesus and come to thank him and to appreciate all that he and our father have done and do do for us. Jesus’ birth was just one part of this tremendous love that is shown to each of us. We can use the “celebration” at Christmas to again focus our minds on the birth of Jesus when most of the world at least considers some element of his birth, even if they do not believe. Jesus’ birth gave rise to our salvation so, for that reason, I continue to say Happy Christmas! Question is how to help each other when hard? In our Job 34 reading we have the phrase “let us learn together”, verse 4, and this is how we should learn, together – we are brought together as a group of brothers and sisters to grow and learn to cope. Together we have more ideas and we benefit from sharing – obviously providing the ideas are those of God’s too. Elihu was a little bit sarcastic as he speaks to the 3 friends in this chapter, ie verse 2, 10, 16 and 34, he sarcastically calls them “wise men” and “men of understanding”, he was actually ridiculing them for them not being wise and not understanding because they had drifted away from God’s teachings. Now this is the interesting part because we know that we too must be careful not to deviate from God’s ways, this is why it is always good to be in fellowship and share scriptural ideas and encouragement, because there is nothing else! Even if we may not always understand what is written in the bible or what is happening in our lives, we have to start from the understanding that God is always right, eg verse 10, “Far be it from God to do evil, from the Almighty to do wrong”. We know that so many mistakes and misunderstandings are made when we deviate from what God says, so it’s a reminder for us! Another learning point that Elihu makes is that no one can hide from God, he is aware of all our actions and deeds – as well as our sufferings – verse 21-22, there is nowhere to hide from him,  he always knows what we are going through, no matter what that is! Zechariah 10 also repeats doing this “together”, in fellowship, as well as with fellow believers, it is doing things with God, verse 5, the point here is that God’s people were stronger together with each other and with God, because God was with them. Because there was this fellowship created by God in his mercy, God’s people prosper, verse 6, their past problems were forgotten, verse 8, and God redeems them and restores them “as numerous as before” – all this is possible when they (we) remember God, verse 9. Then they will be strengthened and “walk in his name”, verse 12. Man has always rebelled against God and it is this rebellion that has to stop before the world can walk in his ways because man’s ways cannot help at all; verses 1-2 shows the difference between man and God – only God can bring the rains and the crops, verse 1, whereas man brings deceit by the “idols” he creates, verse 2, and God punishes those leaders who cause his people to “wander”, verse 3. The only way that salvation can be brought about is in Jesus and in verse 4 we have the mention of the “cornerstone” which is Jesus, as confirmed in Acts 4 verse 11, and sadly the Jews rejected Jesus when he came first. But for our Happy Christmas thought – we are brought together in fellowship with each other and more importantly in fellowship with God because of Jesus which was made possible by his birth – Matthew 1 verse 20-21. In Revelation 11 verse 8 we have a reminder of what happened to the saviour of the world in Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified. There are some confusing pictures in Revelation 10 and 11, but they are very graphic and if we take the whole of God’s purpose, we can see help in the old testament because what is prophesied in Revelation was prophesied then too, verse 7. There appears to be terrible times before Jesus comes back, but like at all stages during history there have always been those who worship God and here in Revelation this is the case too, chapter 11 verse 1, the 2 witnesses were also protected, verse 5. But however confusing this is, it comes before the “kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ”, verse 15-18, so we can be really confident that God will do as he has promised and send Jesus back to set up his kingdom – this is when salvation and peace will come – Luke 1 verse 30-33. We will be there together, in fellowship, all because of Jesus! Happy Christmas! December

December 26th

Even though not immediately obvious, these readings do relate to salvation promised at Jesus’ birth. Job’s other friends have had a go, now the young Elihu has his turn and he picks up on what the others and Job have said. Some of his responses are obvious lessons for us but when God does speak in Job 38:2 is he referring to Elihu, or to Job or to the other 3 friends? Some of Elihu’s comments are confirmed in the rest of scripture, so these are known to be right, one such comment is about the arrogance of the sinners, chapter 35:12… and 36:9… – they do not accept God so they do what they want and just saw no point in not sinning – Job35:3… This appears an unfair criticism of Job, Elihu appears to consider Job as one of the wicked, because I don’t think Job actually said this, he did wonder why the wicked prospered, just like David and Jeremiah did, and sometimes we wonder the same, but not Job. The wicked certainly say what is the point in not sinning – but they sadly miss the point – the point is salvation, that all of us look forward too! Amen to that – so we have to “keep on” because of this promise! So it was a massive disappointment for Zechariah and those who heard his prophecy in chapter 11, when God says that the 2 staffs, Favour and Union were to be broken, verse 7, 10 and 14…, they were a sign of God apparently pulling back from caring for his people, despite God saying that he would care for them (10:6), God was now saying that the “shepherd” would not be one who we all desire, verse 16… But for those who stopped to listen – this was talking about a deliverance and it was a prophecy of Jesus. There are quotes around Jesus’ death pointing back to this, so it is very much a “salvation” chapter, albeit the start of the salvation process because of Jesus – who the people rejected BUT because of that we have this wonderful promise of life and we thank God for it – so we do have salvation in these chapters – and Zechariah 12 introduces the realization of the Jews’ mistake! 12 verse 10-14… Rev12 reminds us of pregnant Mary who gave birth to a “male child”, who was persecuted at birth and throughout his life, but God protected him from all the wickedness until the right time, when Jesus destroyed the power of death. All righteous men and women up until then had been looking forward to: verse 10-12… Rev 13 continues with these graphic pictures that depict the worst of human nature – trying to destroy all traces of godliness by trying to stop the wonderful gospel being preached and then “man” “blasphemes” God in every way with proud arrogance – as was the case in Job, verse 5-8… There are many ideas about what all these characters and symbols actually mean, I’m happy to believe that they represent the extremes of man’s thinking – they clearly cause the saints to suffer and so the message for us is to be patient and “keep going” verse 10 (end of)… because in the end God’s salvation overcomes all wickedness and sin. We therefore have a real hope because our names are “written in the Book of Life” and we should rejoice, even though we are in the middle of confusing times at the moment! So we always “keep on going” and thank God always for Jesus’ birth because without him our salvation is just not possible – so for no other reason that this – this is a “Happy Christmas” – every Christmas should be “happy” – even though sometimes, because of suffering, it doesn’t feel very happy! There are brothers and sisters here who have painful thoughts and we respect these feelings and we feel sad for those who are in distress at Christmas – Jesus sympathises too: Hebs 4:14-16… through words like this we try to encourage and to be encouraged. No matter how hard it is at the time, we have to put our complete trust in God and in Jesus – they know exactly what we are all going through, after all, God loves us so much that he sent his son to give us salvation: 1Jn4:7-12… So if God sent Jesus and Jesus knows exactly what we are going through, we know that God is in control and interested in our lives, then what else can we do but cast our burdens on Jesus and have faith that he knows best. Again easy to say, but just think where God and Jesus have helped you personally in the past! It is Jesus’ birth that was a vital part of our salvation and thank God for it! For Christians it’s a time to reflect on Jesus’ birth – the miraculous event that has changed our lives! There are wonderful words in the Christmas account – Mt1:18-21… We are saved from our sins! We are reminded of the whole purpose of Christmas of God’s salvation – because we all need saving Ro3:21-26… God had planned our salvation right at the beginning, when Jesus was a little baby, God knew how he would die – for us! Just think of that love for you and me! So really how can we not praise God for Jesus’ birth? How can we not respect God’s forgiveness? How can we question God for allowing the upsets in our lives? The contrast between the non Christian’s Christmas and the Christian’s Christmas is brought out in [Rev13:11-18… and 14:1-5…] Whichever way you interpret 666 (Rev13), it’s against God, and man is generally against God – he carries on with own activities, with no real thought for God – just as happened in Job’s time! We have the picture of the beast, man against God in Rev 13, and in Rev 14 we have the picture of those who are with God, the saints, us – those whose every action is made with an attempt to follow Jesus; those who acknowledge Jesus in everything. So now each Sunday we remember our king and world ruler who is going to take away all suffering and death! He’s going to raise the dead! He’s going to allow us to worship properly! That’s who was born 2000 years ago – so we think about Jesus’ birth, as well as his death and resurrection. We don’t need to wait for New year to make new resolutions, we should be making new resolutions every week – at each new start! how Jesus’ birth and death affects us now. Each time we break bread and drink wine, we should again thank God and Jesus for their love and give thanks that Jesus was born to be our saviour. 1Pe 1:3-4. December

December 27th

In Job 37 we have the last part of Elihu’s response to Job’s situation and in it he continues to set the scene for God to respond because he sees God in the things around him, particularly in the weather. We know from Job 38 verse 1 that God answered “from the storm”, so it is possible that the storm was building up from chapter 36 verse 27 and Elihu is using the storm to describe God’s power. Jesus certainly used the examples of every day life that was going on around him to find lessons, eg oxen ploughing the fields, the sower planting seed and the harvesters collecting the crop, so it is very likely that Elihu did the same in his response. The weather is a great example to use to depict God’s power, it is used elsewhere in scripture, eg Elijah, and we are reminded by the weather of God’s power. We so often see the effects of eg verse 13, where God shows both his love and his punishment in it. All these things are true, the weather affects all of our lives, even the animals detect changes in the weather, chapter 36 verse 33, therefore we should “revere” God because of his awesome power, chapter 37 verse 24. The first few verses of Zechariah 12 also remind us of God’s creative power, verse 1, and it is this same power that God will use to destroy those who oppose him, and specifically in this chapter, those who oppose Jerusalem. We know from the news that Jerusalem is a problem for the world, there does not appear to be a human resolution to the troubles that surround it, and this is exactly what God said would happen, verse2-3. These verses show how difficult it would be to resolve the issues there and those who have tried have always failed and suffered as a consequence. However, God will provide a solution, he is “watching” over the city, verse 4-5, and we know that Jerusalem will be the capital of God’s kingdom when Jesus comes back to the earth – God will save Jerusalem, verse 7-9. All the people of Israel will mourn for Jesus when they realise that it was God’s son their ancestors killed, verse 10-14. Because we have accepted Jesus now we are part of this continued restoration and Revelation 14 uses “natural” things that we all experience to show that there will be “harvest” when Jesus comes back. We all know that a harvest is a joyful time, but we also know that both good and bad crops are separated during the harvest – the good we use, the bad is thrown away. This is exactly the picture that we have here, there are good, ie the 144,000, verse 1 and 12 and the bad, ie verse 9 and 17-20. The good are determined by the “the father’s name written on their foreheads”, this is shown by obeying God’s commands, verse 12, and by their good deeds, verse 13. This group is made up of the 144,000 and those who have the “eternal gospel”, verse 6-7, so this is us, therefore we have to worship, obey and be seen for our good deeds. The other group are those who have the mark of man (beast) on their foreheads, verse 9-11, these are those who oppose God and are just interested in human things and only interested in their own power and wealth. So the question for us is who do we look like? Do we look like “man” in the things that we do, or do we look like “God” in the things that we do? There are only 2 groups of people when God judges the earth when Jesus comes back, ie good and bad, it is a great time for the good, although they require patience now (verse 12), but there will be no hope for the bad and there will be destruction. Verse 13 is an important verse because although we know from other scripture that we are not saved by the things that we do because we are saved by grace, but, because we are saved by grace we should therefore be doing good deeds, and this is how we are known! So are your deeds godly? Now is the opportunity to change if they are not! December

December 28th

God enters the Job debate in Job 38.  He had let everyone have their say.  Now God sends a storm and the scene turns dramatic. God could speak to all people present but instead He addresses Job out of the storm.  God judged that Job had darkened (ie made obscure) God’s counsel by Job’s own words (38:2).  But God does not reply to anyones specific questions, not even Job’s.  Instead God describes what He had done during the days of creation.  He describes the sea and clouds, the land and the light, the weather and the stars.  With the storm raging around them, there should be no doubt that God has all power and understanding.  What God says will be true.  But Job is left to work out what God is actually saying.  And so must we.  Just as noone can understand how God created the world, so noone can understand how God works in our lives.  This was how Elihu concluded his words in the previous chapter, when he drew attention to God, “Listen to this, Job; stop and consider God’s wonders” (37:14).  And Elihu concluded, “The Almighty is beyond our reach and exalted in power” (37:23).  We too should consider the greatness of God.  Whenever we do not understand God, think of His creation.  We must accept that there will be times in our lives where we do not understand what God is doing.  This is a natural consequence of our limitations and our inability to see into the future.  We must trust God in these moments.  God is bring about His ultimate plan of righteousness and justice, even if it does not like that from our current position.  We must persevere the troubles of the present to gain the blessings of the future. The end of Zechariah is another time  when man did not understand God’s plan.  Zechariah 13 tells us of a prophet who is wounded (v6) and a shepherd who is struck with a sword (v7).  The sheep are scattered and the people struck down (v7-9).  In all this turmoil, God has a plan that is working out.  His people are cleansed (v1) and they are refined to a point where God is willing to be their God (v9).  Today we understand these words as about Jesus.  He was the one who was wounded by his friends (v6) and the shepherd who was struck.  We see the danger of judging God based on the situation in a moment in time.  Yes, the death of the shepherd Jesus was awful, but it does brought about cleansing and reconciliation.  God knows what He is doing, and we do not. Chapter 14 tells us about events still in our future.  There will be a battle at Jerusalem (14v2) where the nations fight against it.  In this battle God intervenes and saves them (v3-5).  The king is established in Jerusalem.  The nations submit to him and honour him.  In other words, we have a situation like Job’s.  We have trouble before blessing.  Along the way, there will be troubles.  We must understand that God knows what He is doing.  Ultimately there will be peace through the king that God has appointed.  We all pray for this time when we say, “your kingdom come.” The book of Revelation gives us a picture of what we have already seen in Zechariah.  The nations submit to God and honour Him (14:4).  God’s people sing about the greatness of God.  They sing about God’s justice and righteousness (15:3).  These are features which Job questioned for a time, but then came to agree with intimately and personally.  The same will be true of all true believers when they see the justice of God administered among the nations.  God is right and just to bring these plagues on the world.  But until that point it looks as though the wicked get away with their wickedness.  This takes us to the seven last plagues (15:1) which are described in chapter 16.  There is no escape from these plague.  Whether people are in the land, sea, river or heavens – or in the things they symbollise – there is no escape. Justice will be done.  Even the altar exclaims, “true and just are your judgments” (16:7).  We previous met the altar speaking when it said, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” (6:10).  Now the altar sees justice.  In the book of Revelation, we read about how God will ultimately bring about his righteous justice on the world.  The righteous, like Job and Zechariah, will see that it does pay to follow God.  There is a time when the righteous are rewarded and the wicked punished. December

December 29th

Job 39 – The wisdom of God.  “Tell me, if you have understanding” (Job 38:4).  In chapter 39 the Lord questions Job’s understanding and wisdom. Let’s pause there and think – how much do we know? (not a lot!) How much does God know? (everything) Can we ever question God’s decision making? If we are struggling (and we all do at various times), don’t question, simply ask for His wisdom and help, help to trust totally. If you trust totally, you don’t need all of the answers.  The Lord challenges Job gently by telling him to observe God’s creation. To see how animals and birds are born, how they live and find food – all of them are different, having different skills – and all have been provided for.  Any life is a miracle when you consider all of the amazing things that have to happen in the womb – then at birth many changes have to happen so that the child can breathe independently without even thinking about it day and night, even the structure of the heart changes at the same time to support the new life, a life outside of the womb. Did any of us parents plan these miraculous changes? (No God did!) Do we know much about how a new life comes to be born? Mankind has come to know some of what happens, but in truth we don’t know how it happens, and if God told us, would we be capable of understanding?  God tells Job to look at the ostrich, because although she seems to lack in parental skills, even she gives glory to her creator. She might not be able to fly, but she can run very fast, indeed it is the fastest 2 footed animal, each stride is 5 metres when running at 40mph! They have also been known to kill a lion with their powerful legs. The more we know about God’s creation the more we give glory to Him, for all things are wondrously made.  What have mankind been given? of ourselves? we cannot fly, we haven’t been given the best eyesight, we are not the strongest animal etc. The major difference with the rest of His creation is that we have been given the potential to have a living, daily relationship with our creator.  The ostrich uses the God given gifts, do we use the gift given to us, do we value it? Would we rather be a lion, or an elephant (powerful animals), but seemingly ignorant of their creator?  Jesus speaks to his disciples similar words in Luke 12:22-24.  “.. do not worry about your life; consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse or barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds?” Remember Jesus spoke these words, he himself was the witness to the provision of God for mankind and just how much He values you and me.  Malachi 1 “I have loved you”.  The Lord begins the message through Malachi with these words. He is not limiting His love to the past; but He is saying “I have loved you” in contrast to them not loving Him. He reminds them of their calling, when he chose Jacob in preference to his brother Esau, even before they were born. But despite their calling from the Lord, they like Esau didn’t value the blessings and having a relationship with God. Do we really value the calling and blessings of the Lord in our lives? There is no doubt that “He loved us”, the sacrifice of His son Jesus witnesses to that. The depth of His love cannot be questioned by any Christian but how is the Christian’s love for God? How deep is your love? How much do we hold back?  In Malachi’s time the people were bringing their offerings, and their offerings revealed their hearts – how much they wanted to “give” to the Lord, how deep their love was.  “When you offer the blind as a sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you offer the lame and the sick, is it not evil?” v8.  God was not offended by the offerings, but by WHY these animals were chosen – they had chosen the worst of the flock and kept the best for themselves! They were not giving “sacrifices”, they were merely doing what was convenient, justifying their actions, giving the appearance of dedication to the Lord, but in truth were doing a heartless ritual, congratulating themselves for doing what was required, and then getting on with more important things to do!   This is a warning to us. Never forget the sacrifice of Jesus, the sacrifice of God, for me and for you. Even in difficult times never forget the faithfulness of the Lord. We too have to bring to the “table of remembrance” and it begins with our hearts being prepared by reminders of “I have loved you”. As Jesus says “do this in remembrance of me”, we rightly link these words with when we take bread and wine, but in truth we are to do all things “in remembrance of him” – when we start the day, when we pray, when we sing etc remembering not just a sacrificial Jesus but a living Jesus. And so, it brings us back to the beginning with the Lord saying “I have loved you” and for us to contrast how deep is ours for Him.  Job and Malachi help us to put everything into perspective, ie God knows everything and God loves us. So when we look at Revelation 17 and 18 we see that if we give credit for anything to man, we end up with destruction, but if we give all the credit to God and respect him for that we find real rejoicing, chapter 18 verse 20. Many bible students have tried to fit the sometimes-complicated words of these 2 chapters into history and to specific organisations, the problem with doing that is that some of the lessons may not be seen as relevant to our lives today. There may in fact be many correct interpretations, as every bible reader should be seeing how they can gain these all-important lessons to make a difference in their lives. Both these chapters appear to be talking about human power and wealth, symbolised by Babylon and the so called “attraction” of the prostitute. We already know that the “beast” represents man, ie human beings (including women) and the things that the “beast” does are attractive so much so that people are addicted to the things that “man” does, chapter 17 verse 2. The pursuit of natural human beings is against the things of God and of Jesus, verse 14, and right from the time of creation man has fought against God and God has “allowed” this to happen until he says enough is enough, verse 17. We are given ideas of what each of the symbols here represent, but all of them are centred around human pursuits, particularly on making money! And when this fails, as is depicted in chapter 18, there is so much anguish amongst the human population, eg 9-19, kings, merchants and all those “who earn their living from the sea”, who were devastated that “Babylon” had been destroyed. Why? Because they were no longer able to make money and to become wealthy – everything that they relied upon was destroyed. So, if anyone’s focus is on the things of man, then they will be disappointed, however, if anyone’s focus is on God then they will rejoice. Man’s focus has always proudly been on excess, eg verse 3 and 7 and man boasts about this, but none of these excesses can save, as suggested by verse 13, that ends with “and bodies and souls of men”, in other words pursuing worldly wealth will kill you in the end! The message appears to be that God will destroy anything that is centred around human thinking, which would include nations, institutions, communities and even religious bodies, if anything is against God it will be destroyed. The message to us is therefore to “come out”, verse 4, this means that God will save us when the destruction comes, but also we need to be careful not to get attracted by the things that the world offers such that we become “intoxicated”.  We have been given opportunities by God to earn or work so that we can feed our families, but we need to ensure that God remains our focus, not our pursuit of wanting to become wealthy! Because any “wealth” will be brought to ruin “in an hour”, chapter 18 verse 17. So let us all keep things in perspective and always put God first because everything about him is right. December

December 30th

God continues his answer to Job in chapter 40; already Job recognises that he has no answer for God because he is “unworthy”, verse 3-5, but God continues his answer from verse 6. God is basically asking Job if he can do the things that God can do – the answer to all of that is obviously no! This is a humbling thought because compared to God we have no abilities at all, even those who think that they are better than their fellow human beings are absolute rubbish when compared with God! In God’s response to Job we see the worst of human beings and how God does give everyone the opportunity to change their attitude, verse 11-12; here God is stating one of his aims in dealing with human beings is to change pride to humility. As human beings, one of our biggest problems is pride. It is interesting that God goes on to talk about the “behemoth”, although the meaning is not completely understood, most bible scholars think that this is the hippopotamus or elephant, and the descriptions here fits either animal. It is a good description of human pride too because those who are proud do not fear, eg verse 23. The main point that God appears to be making in this chapter though is that Job, and also every human being, cannot do what God does, human beings cannot save themselves or anyone else.  God shows his confidence in this fact in verse 14. No one can do what God can do, even though some people choose to ignore God and try to control things in their own way, they have no power at all. Human beings’ pride and God’s salvation is also talked about in Malachi 2 – verse 17 shows the wrong human attitude, ie people incorrectly believe that the wrong that they do is acceptable to God! This is something that we all have to be careful of, because as human beings we tend to manipulate God’s teachings to mean things that we want them to mean! God has a warning for those who manipulate teachings so that they can personally benefit – the priests, for example, were not setting good examples and God gives them a warning, verse 1-2, they were “not listening” to God and they had not “set their hearts” to honour God, and for this God “cursed” them. Their descendants suffered and they suffered, verse 3-4. God uses the example of the priest Levi as someone who was good and showed God “reverence” and who “walked in” God’s ways, verse 5-6, and by being humble and godly, he “turned many from sin”. This is what God wants for human beings, he wants to save, but to come to salvation humility is needed. We can take examples from others who humbly teach and set good examples. God summarises the role of priests, verse 7, but they did not do what they were supposed to have done, verse 8-9, and because they had “not followed [God’s] ways”, they were replaced by Jesus who did humbly walk in his father’s ways. There are lessons too for us from the unfaithful example of the nation of Judah, ie we have to be committed to God and not replace him with other things, described as idols, verse 10-12; we have to be genuine in our worship, verse 13-14 and we have to remember that when we were baptised we committed ourselves to both God and to Jesus; therefore we should not now be trying to go our own way, verse 15-16. We do have a choice, God does not force us to follow him, but if we want to be part of his wonderful promise we have to try our best to follow him in humility, if we humbly follow him and constantly respect him every day then we will be part of the rejoicing spoken of in Revelation 19 and 20, verse 1-10. Verse 7 talks about a wedding, bride and lamb, it also talks about “fine linen”, but gives the meaning, ie the “righteous acts of the saints”, so in this symbolic vision we see the lamb meaning Jesus; the bride means us, his church; the wedding is our ultimate joining with Jesus in his kingdom and the fine linen are our “righteous actions”. Our righteous acts now help us to be with Jesus when he comes back – Jesus said the same thing in Matthew 25, verse 1-13, so now is our opportunity to try our best to “walk in God’s ways” as Levi did. Jesus “walked in” his father’s ways and so should we try. Jesus was the “lamb” that was killed and in his death and then resurrection we were able to start our salvation journey, but now Jesus is the “faithful” and “true” judge, described as a “rider on the white horse”, and he is bringing judgement on the nations in graphic symbolic pictures, verse 11-21. All those who are proud and ungodly will be destroyed, and the “false prophet” and the “beast” symbolise these natural human behaviours. It is so sad that despite all of the opportunities that God gives human beings we have the picture here of them still rebelling against Jesus’ rule, verse 19-20, but those who rebel will be killed at some stage. Chapter 20 talks about a period of time (1,000 years) when Jesus and his saints are reigning, verse 4, the saints are described as those who did not have the mark of the beast on their foreheads, ie those who tried their best to follow God and to not follow natural human tendencies. This period is also a period of time where temptation appears to be subdued, verse 1-3, temptation is depicted here by a number of descriptions, ie “dragon”, “ancient serpent”, “devil” and “satan”, all are just descriptive words of temptation to sin. As we have seen in Job, and the fact that “it” is “bound” and then set free, confirms to us that this is not a powerful evil force, “it” is just a description of the evil temptations within human beings. Whatever all this symbology means we know that ultimately this “evil temptation” will be destroyed, verse 7-10. It is sin that has come between God and man throughout all of history, pride, not walking in God’s ways, rejecting Jesus, all these things become a barrier. God gives us the opportunity to break this barrier down by allowing us to become baptised into Jesus’ death and resurrection and come into a new life, which involves trying our best to live a life like Jesus, and in so doing our names are written in the “book of life”. This “book of life” is a symbolic way of describing all those who are known by both God and Jesus and are seen as “walking with God”; this is us, if we continue to “walk with God”, and so we will be amongst those who are brought to complete salvation, verse 11-15. We pray that all of us reading this will remain “walking with God”. December

December 31st

In all 3 readings today, ie Job 41 & 42, Malachi 3 & 4 and Revelation 21 & 22 we have both God’s grace and God’s judgement shown and for this we should show complete respect for both. Yes, it is very true that we are saved by grace – in fact without grace we would have no hope at all, so we are completely reliant on God’s grace for our salvation and we thank God for that. However, grace does not mean that we can do what we like and believe what we like, if we want to benefit from God’s grace we have to do our best to do what God wants us to do. In Job 41 God continues with his demonstration to Job that compared to God man can do nothing – God uses the example of the leviathan, which is probably the crocodile, and says that it is impossible for human beings to tame the crocodile. As that is true, then God is saying that human beings cannot understand the things of God – and it was God who created the crocodile in the first place. Like the hippopotamus, the crocodile is a symbol of pride, verse 34, people who are proud cannot be saved. Job 42 confirms God’s grace and also shows us other characteristics that God wants to change. Job “knew of” God, but he did not really “know” him, he did not understand God’s grace and mercy, and Job had to learn this.  Job confirms that he has learnt in verse 3 and 6 – he previously thought that you just had to follow the “legal” rules of God and that would result in a suffering free life, but now he has learnt that following God is not demonstrated by following a set of rules, it is about having a godly attitude and realising that God can do anything, and that includes showing grace. This grace was shown to Job’s 3 friends, verse 7-9, they also showed humility, because they realised that all the things that they had said were not right. The “reward” for humility is from God, ultimately that is the kingdom. In Malachi 3 we have other characteristics to add to this list, these are not giving full respect to God, verse 8-9 and not following God 100%, verse 13-15. God reminds us yet again that if we trust in God then he will show grace, eg verse 10-12 and verse 16-17, this may not be in our lives now, but it certainly will be in the kingdom! There is a distinction between the “good” and the “bad”, verse 18, and God gives us the opportunity and wants us to be in the ”good” group. God does not change, verse 6, he has always been the same from creation through the time of the bible and is the same now and in the future – it is human beings that have changed and moved away from God, verse 7. But we can return to God by accepting Jesus and trying our best not to do the “bad” things that Job and Malachi have shown. Chapter 4 shows us without doubt that the “day of the Lord” is coming, verse 1, all the arrogant and evildoers will be destroyed; those who “revere” God’s name, verse 2 will be blessed. And this blessing is summarised for us in pictures in Revelation 21 and 22 where those who follow God and accept Jesus will be at peace, chapter 21 verse 4, in a time when there will be Godly rule and godliness will be taught, verse 7 – it will be a time where those who are not godly will be excluded, verse 8 and chapter 22 verse 15. There is certainly a distinction between those who are ungodly and those who have the character of God, verse 4 – the lesson for us now is do we practice any of the “bad” bits that are listed in all these chapters, or are we in the “good” group. Those who try their best to be in the “good” group are those who will be shown grace by God who really wants everyone to be saved.  However that salvation is on God’s terms – it is pointless someone being in the kingdom if they are proud and only interested in themselves, God gives the kingdom to those who are humble. We do not know when Jesus will come back, but he will come back, that is for sure – he will come back to judge between the 2 groups of people, and how we live now determines which group we will be in. If we are humble and trying to really know God and trying our best, we can be confident that we are saved by the grace and mercy that God has demonstrated all through history, verse 10-11. Chapter 22 verse 20-21, this is a wonderful teaching and we must pass this teaching onto others, ie encouraging our brothers and sisters and also to others who have not yet accepted Jesus – we do not want to have God or Jesus saying to us that we have not been 100% committed! December