Watching Daily At Wisdom's Gates

 “For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.” Galatians 1:10 ESV The Apostle Paul pulled no punches with the wayward Galatian church. He said that those who led them astray should be accursed for their accursed false Gospel. Jesus is enough, not Jesus + circumcision or anything else. Judaism was tolerated in the Roman Empire. Christianity wasn't at the time. So false teachers saying we have to become Jewish to become Christian had an attractive message. Paul wasn't a flatterer. He wasn't trying to give the Galatian Christians an easy life. He was trying to give them the truth. Our concern should be God's approval, not that of mankind. This doesn't mean to say we should be cantankerous and difficult. It just means we should get our priorities right. 'Sovereign God, please help us to seek your approval above all, because that is what ultimately matters...

 “Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, ” Deuteronomy 7:9 ESV The Lord God of Israel is the God of the universe. He is a faithful God. He keeps his promises. Gods never going to stop loving us. He doesn't withdraw his love after our 491st sin. He who began a good work in us will carry it through to completion upon the Day of Christ Jesus. If God loved us enough to send his beloved Son to die for us, the least we can do is to love him in return. We demonstrate our love for him by keeping his commandments. In summary, these are to love him and to love one another. God's people are always one generation away from extinction. God doesn't have grandchildren. It is our duty to proclaim the Good News of salvation through faith in the Lord to subsequent generations, until he returns or calls us home. 'Lord our God, may we love you as we ou...

 “I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.” Psalm 9:1 ESV God doesn't want half-heartedness. We're to be wholehearted in our devotion to him. He is worthy of our everything. God is worthy of our thanks for giving us life. Above all, he gives us newness of life through faith in Jesus. Because Jesus died and rose again, we took can die to self and live for God. Ingratitude is ugly. Half-heartedness is unattractive. We are wise to be grateful for all God's goodness to us. We're not simply fast-tracked to glory by God. He gives us his Holy Spirit to enable us to live for him each day, until he calls us home. It's good to shout his goodness from the rooftops! 'Gracious Father in heaven, we're grateful for your goodness to us in Christ. Please help us to be grateful to you for all of our days and forevermore, in his name, amen'.

 “ I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, ” Philippians 1:3 ESV I think of my brethren in the faith of God. I thank my God in all my remembrance of them. I echo the Apostle Paul's affection greeting to the Philippian church. To be honest, we're commanded elsewhere to give thanks in everything. So even when we remember difficult people, we should give thanks to God for them as souls made in the image and likeness of God. Everyone is either a 'blessing or a lesson' as the cheesy half-rhyme goes. People either bless us with the remembrance of their love, or they give us a lesson, a warning to not be hateful like them. I want to be someone people bless God for. I want to be for those I know like the Philippian church was for Paul, a cause for joy. Thanksgiving is a great North American tradition. Sadly, we're not so thankful in the U.K. Traditionally we remembered harvest in old fashioned churches and thanked God for it, yet even that tends to be forgotten nowaday...

 “ Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.” Proverbs 3:7 ESV I'm sure we've all met people who are wise in their own eyes. I'm sure we'd recognise that such pride and arrogance is an ugly thing. We're little creatures in a vast universe; to think we're the fount of all knowledge is delusional! The beginning of wisdom is to fear the Lord. So, brainy atheists haven't even started to be wise. They might have a lot of knowledge, but they're clueless about spiritual things. Fear of God isn't a blind terror that cringes away into the darkness. It's the fear of a child who is afraid to displease his dad, so he comes into the light. A wise son turns from evil and confesses his evils to his dad. Apparently 98% of men get caught in sexual sin and only 2% preemptively confess it. Better to be honest with the Omniscient (all knowing) One rather than to foolishly try and mask our evils. May God have mercy upon us.  'Heavenly ...

 “ The least one shall become a clan, and the smallest one a mighty nation; I am the Lord; in its time I will hasten it.” Isaiah 60:22 ESV My cynical, unbelieving nature initially assumed this verse is too good to be true. Yet this is God's way. He chose Abel over Cain, Isaac over Ishmael and Jacob over Esau for example.  Even Jesus was a humble Carpenter for most of his life. Humanly speaking he didn't have any children. Yet by faith, his people are a mighty throng. Anti-Semitism is a pandemic in the world today. Yet the Jewish Messiah is the Saviour of the world, our only hope. From a despised people comes the means of our deliverance. God's timing isn't ours. A thousand years is like a day to the Everlasting One. Yet Jesus has now achieved our deliverance. All we need to do is to trust in him. 'Dear Lord, we thank you for counterintuitively choosing nobodies like us to shame the rich, powerful and proud. Please help us to trust you to vindicate us. For your glory...

 “For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. ” Romans 8:6 ESV The flesh looks different to different people. There's different symptoms but the same disease. For some it's lust, for others greed and for some it's pride.  This is an interesting verse. We could be tempted to focus on the flesh to try and overcome things like lust, greed and pride. The Apostle Paul tells us to focus on the Holy Spirit of God. There's some old quote about the 'expulsive power of a new affection'. Where once we were consumed by fleshly things like lust, greed and pride, now we're to shift our focus. We're to zoom in on spiritual things like life and peace. A good place to start would be to ruminate on the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy and peace etc. are to define us. If we can be called spiritual, these virtues are to characterise us. 'Holy Father in heaven, please help us to overcome the flesh and to become spiritual....

 Isaiah 41:13 ESV  For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, “Fear not, I am the one who helps you.” To encourage someone is to help someone to be brave. That's what God himself does here for his people in this verse. He's leading us by the hand; we simply need to follow. Apparently, one of the most common commands in the Bible is to not be afraid. If we rightly fear the Lord, we'll have no need to fear anything or anyone else. We don't need to be scared of oppressive superpowers for example like Babylon for Judah. God doesn't just give empty encouragement to not be afraid. He actively helps us. He sent Jesus to give his life for us. Because Christ died and rose again, we too can rise again to newness of life. The risen Lord walks with us by his Holy Spirit, until he calls us home. We just have to keep in step. 'Heavenly Father, help us not to be afraid. May we trust in you instead to help us get to glory. In Jesus' name we ask ...

 Matthew 12:35 ESV The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil.  Jesus is brutal in this passage. He calls religious people a 'brood of vipers'. Even in his day, some sins, like pride and self righteousness and slander were seen to be 'acceptable' culturally, even as such people looked down on undesirable tax collectors and overt sinners. If evil spills out of our mouths, we betray the fact that we are naturally evil. Even the good we do is tainted by mixed motives. A drop of poison in an otherwise pure glass of water still contaminates it. Jesus called his own followers evil. He didn't flatter them. Yet he said if they gave good gifts to their kids, how much more will Father God give good gifts to those who ask him? The power of the gospel is that through the humanly speaking evil of Christ's crucifixion, God made a way for evil people like us to be made good. It's a lifelong pro...