Watching Daily At Wisdom's Gates

How wonderful and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony! Psalms 133:1 (NLT) Unity is a wonderful thing. Yet it is not the be all and end all. People might be united against God: that's not a good form of unity. When we get adopted into God's family through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we become brothers and sisters with one another. Inevitably, siblings sometimes fall out. Yet it's wonderful when we get on well. It's important to be harmonious. We're not to be cantankerous and controversial for the sake. We ought to be 'all things to all people' like the Apostle Paul. The great thing about what God does with us is that He causes people who might naturally be at emnity with one another to become friends. As Solomon said, 'when a man's ways are pleasing to the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. There'll inevitably be people who don't want to be peaceful, but as Jesus said, 'blessed are the peacemaker

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8 (NIV) Some people have a naturally sunny outlook. Others seem permanently morose. The Apostle Paul would clearly call the latter camp to be more positive. Instead of focusing on fake news, focus on the Good News. Instead of focusing on negative things, be positive. Instead of watching rubbish on the TV, meditate on the word of God. Don't get me wrong, there are things on TV that can edify. Nature documentaries show forth the glory of the Creator, even if the commentator is saying it's all one big accident. To believe that in the beginning nothing exploded and became everything over billions of years is more farfetched than faith in our altogether lovely Creator. If we want to know the personification of all these virtues, we need look no further than th

Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else. 1 Thessalonians 5:15 (NIV) When somebody does wrong to us, our gut reaction is to do wrong back to them. That is not the Jesus way. 'Vengeance is mine', says the Lord. When we try and pay back evil with evil, we're always disproportionate. Maybe we go too easy on people. More likely, we overreact and cause a feud to develop. Happily, the Apostle Paul gives us an alternative to a tit for tat kind of mentality. Instead, he calls us to strive to do what is good for each other, and for everyone else. 'Striving' suggests it isn't going to be easy. We're not just to do good to the household of faith. We're to be good to everyone we come across. We might not be able to make poverty history worldwide individually, but we can make a difference where we are. 'Righteous God, please help us to wrong no-one and to bless everyone we come acro

I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. 1 Corinthians 1:10 (NIV) If we have any familiarity with the book of 1 Corinthians, we might think the main issue with the Corinthian church was the toleration of sexual sin. Yet the Apostle Paul's priority is their lack of unity. They were divided in terms of who they followed. Some Corinthian Christians said they followed Paul, or Peter, or Apollos or other church leaders. Yet Paul urged them to be united in Christ. He's the One who died for them and rose again.  Church leaders are only servants of Christ. He's the One under whose banner we're to gather. A similar problem that was around in the Corinthian church was the 'super apostles'- people who claimed to be better believers than everyone else. The 'super apostles' were self

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 1 John 1:7 (NIV) If we walk in the light, it will expose some of the darkness of sin in our lives. Thankfully, the blood of Jesus, God's Son, purifies us from all sin. We need to come into the light though. Jesus is the Light of the world. In Him there is no darkness at all. We need to come to Him.  One of the fruits of fellowship with God is fellowship with His people too. When we get adopted into God's family with Him as our heavenly Father, we get a family of believers who we get to fellowship with. We need to encourage one another to stay in the light. If we claim to walk in the light but hate a brother or sister, we betray the fact that we don't. Hatred and love are incompatible, like light and darkness, or oil and water. Jesus can cleanse us from our hatred and sinfulness. 'Father God, please illuminate our hearts with

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? Psalms 8:3-4 (NIV) It's all too easy to drift through life, caught up in the busyness of family and work and leisure and whatever else, without any consideration of the meaning of life. Yet even if we were to consider the wonders of creation, it should cause us to marvel. When we consider the vastness of the universe, it's amazing that God has any mindfulness towards us. In scale we might seem more insignificant to God than ants seem to us.Yet the Lord Jesus Christ became one of us to reconcile us to God. He didn't need to, it was purely out of love that He has done so. Mankind is cared for by God because He made us in His image and likeness. We might be made out of the dust of the earth, but we also have the breath of God in our lungs. We can be born again by the Holy Spirit of God to

I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Romans 12:1 (ESV) It's because of God's mercies that we can offer ourselves as living sacrifices. We can't earn His acceptance. Nonetheless, He's merciful to us- not treating us as we deserve. Because Jesus sacrificed Himself for us, we should sacrifice ourselves for Him. Through faith in Him, we can be holy and acceptable to God. We're not naturally holy and acceptable to God, yet He can make us so in Christ. Having had Christ die for us, it would be awful for us to carry on with 'business as usual'. His great love for us demands our spiritual worship. 'Love so amazing, so divine, demands my heart, my life, my all'. The meaning of our lives is to worship God. He is worthy of our worship because of His mercy to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. His love demands ours. ' Merciful God, plea

Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ. Galatians 1:10 (NIV) We all long for approval. Yet we should seek the approval of people because there's always going to be people who disapprove of us. It's best to focus on seeking God's approval. Focusing on people pleasing is the wrong emphasis. People have all sorts of ulterior motives and don't necessarily have our best interests at heart. God on the other hand wants what's best for us. Paul wasn't a cantankerous person who didn't care what people thought of him and was awkward for its own sake. He just knew that God's acceptance is what really matters. So he sought to do right by God rather than to try and flatter people. Christ commissioned Paul as His servant. He wasn't around to serve other people for their own sakes. He served others only insofar as that was Christ'

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:34 (NIV) Worry comes naturally to us. There's plenty of things that could cause us anxiety. There's the cost of living, war, disease, climate change etc. Jesus doesn't massage the egos of anxious people. He very bluntly tells them not to worry. He kindly informs us that worry is pointless. There's no point worrying about tomorrow, because worry doesn't achieve anything. It doesn't make tomorrow any better. It does make today a lot worse, and a lot more miserable. I like how Jesus acknowledges that life is troublesome. Yet elsewhere He tells us to be encouraged, because He has overcome this troublesome world. If we belong to Him, we will overcome too. 'Father God, please help us not to worry, but to trust in Jesus, in whose name we pray, amen'