Watching Daily At Wisdom's Gates

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. John 15:12 (ESV) Jesus might not seem to be particularly original here. The commandments Moses gave were, in summary, pretty similar. 'Love your neighbour' was written by Moses, he got there thousands of years before Christ's first advent. Note however the spin that Jesus puts on the commandment. He raises the bar higher than Moses. Moses tells us to love our neighbour as we love ourselves. We don't need to be told to love ourselves. Jesus did need to tell us to love each other as He has loved us. How did He love us? By giving His life for us. Jesus is telling us to be willing to lay down our lives for others. Elsewhere He even says to love our enemies. If we only love those who love us, we're no better than pagans. 'Loving heavenly Father, may we love each other as Your Son loved us and gave Himself for us on the cross. For Your glory and honour we pray, amen'

God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God. Matthew 5:9 (NLT) The world is weary and assumes peace is a hopeless pursuit. The world assumes that God blesses those who fight for their rights. Jesus insists that peacemakers are blessed, even if their's seems an impossible and thankless task. It's easy to start a fight. It's hard to resolve a conflict. Yet God's word says that when a man's ways are pleasing to God, he can make even his enemies to be at peace with him (as a general rule). If we're peacemakers, not only does God bless us with supernatural happiness and joy, but we're adopted into His family. It's not that we have to earn God's adoption by being peacemakers. A distinguishing mark of God's children is that we work for peace. If someone claims to be a child of God and starts a violent conflict, it's highly unlikely they are. If the opposite happens though, they may well be one of God's famil

You are my refuge and my shield; your word is my source of hope. Psalms 119:114 (NLT) Another word for a refuge would be a safe place. Yet David wasn't some snowflake who just needed to run away and hide from the responsibilities of life. He was a mighty warrior. David wasn't so macho to deny that he needed to find refuge in God. For much of his young adulthood he was a fugitive from the murderous incumbent king Saul. If God wasn't his refuge he wouldn't have survived. Sometimes we need to flee, at other times we need to fight. For David it wasn't fight or flight, it was literally both at different times. When he did have to stand and fight, the Lord was his shield. David's hope wasn't in his own strength. It wasn't even in the promise that he would become king. David's hope was in the word of God, which always proves true and hopeful. 'Dear Lord, may we prove You to be our refuge and shield. May Your word be our source of hope. For the honour of

 Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; he will neither fail you nor abandon you.” Deuteronomy 31:8 (NLT) These words were actually spoken by elderly Moses to the young man Joshua who was going to take over as the leader of the children of Israel. God Himself would echo them after Moses died. I'm sure they were effective in encouraging Joshua to be the powerful leader he became. The command not to be afraid is a common one in Scripture: apparently as numerous as the days of the year (not sure about leap years!). If we trust in the Sovereign of the universe as our God, we have no need to fear. If God is for us, nothing and no-one can be against us. Moses was seeking to encourage Joshua. I'm sure he was feeling discouraged that Moses his mentor and father-figure would soon die. Yet Moses encouraged Joshua that the Lord, the One who was, is, and is to come, would go before Him. The Lord who helped Joshua conquer the prom

 And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19 (NIV) Note that the verse says that the Apostle Paul's God will meet all Christians' needs, not necessarily their wants! Paul was writing to the Philippian church, but this verse applies to all Christians down the ages. We might not get a private jet off God, but He does provide our needs for us. God doesn't meet our needs because we deserve it. We're not entitled to His provision. It's according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus. Because of the riches of God's love for us in the Lord Jesus Christ, we get to enjoy the provision of all we need. Ultimately, our greatest need is salvation from our sins. This is possible because Christ died on our behalf. The world sees the crucifixion of Christ as a shameful thing, which it humanly is. Yet God turned the worst miscarriage of justice ever into the means of our deliverance. Jesus not only gave His life

A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. Proverbs 11:25 (NIV) Humanly speaking, we assume that if we're generous, we lose out. If I give you a hundred pounds, I'm a hundred pounds worse off. Yet this verse is saying that what goes around comes around. It's not a straightforward, linear line between generosity and prosperity. Some generous people are relatively poor. Generosity is more about an attitude than a tithe/tax. God will make sure that generous people prosper. Even if we don't win the lottery, if we're motivated by God's generosity to us in Christ, we get to enjoy eternal life. We're not generous to earn salvation, we're more generous if we have been saved. 'It is more blessed to give than to receive'. If we give to others, not only do we bless them, but we get to feel good about ourselves. We shouldn't get proud and self congratulatory, but we can have a good conscience that we've done the right

He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. Mark 4:39 (NIV) This verse literally happened. Jesus was caught in a furious storm. He simply commanded it to stop, and it did. If someone has that kind of power over creation, it can only be concluded that He is the Creator. Jesus has authority over nature, and in the context of Mark's gospel, everything else as well. Jesus has authority over sickness, demons, even death itself. Jesus is Lord. He's not just the Son of Mary; He's the virgin born Son of God. He came down to earth from heaven to make it possible for us to have an eternity with Him in glory. Understandably, the disciples were afraid of this supremely powerful Man. Whatever storms we're going through in life, Jesus is greater than them all. He's pretty fearsome though; we should entrust ourselves to Him. 'Heavenly Father, we praise You for Your Son, and His power over all the sto

Praise be to the Lord, to God our Saviour, who daily bears our burdens. Psalms 68:19 (NIV) We all have burdens. Christians have extra ones, such as persecution and the attacks of the evil one who wants to make us ineffective in our lives for God. Jesus calls those who are weary and burdened to come to Him, and He will give us rest. Other religions burden people with burdens to try and earn God's acceptance. The God of the Bible bore our burdens upon a Roman cross. The Lord Jesus Christ was crucified so that we don't have to bear the burden of trying to justify ourselves before God. Having our burdens borne by God isn't a one off act. We don't just pray a prayer one time and have a day of relief from our burdensome lives. The Lord God our Saviour daily bears our burdens. If we get through life and survive death, it isn't because we're particularly special. It's because God has borne our burdens. In Him we can enjoy eternal life, starting today. 'Loving He

That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:10 (NIV) The Apostle Paul wasn't some kind of sadist. He didn't enjoy weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and difficulties for their own sake. Yet for Jesus's sake he was willing to put up with anything. Why did Paul delight in troubles? Because he knew that Christ's strength was sufficient, even in spite of his weakness. Christ gave everything for us. So it's not too much for Him to ask everything of us. Jesus went so far as to bless those who are persecuted. Of course, by itself, persecution is unpleasant. Yet Jesus assures us that our reward is great in heaven if we're persecuted. Jesus was insulted even though He didn't deserve to be. We should endure insults for His sake, knowing that we have a heavenly inheritance to look forward too. His strength is made perfect in our weak