Watching Daily At Wisdom's Gates

 Matthew 7:12 ESV   “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.    This verse is nicknamed the 'golden rule'. Other religions often have a negative version: 'don't do to others what you don't want them to do to you'. Jesus puts his command in the positive. Elsewhere, the Law and the Prophets (the Old Testament) is summed up to be love of God and  of one another. That's what we (sometimes subconsciously) wish for ourselves and should do for others, to love them as Christ has loved us. We're to be prepared to lay down our lives for one another. I appreciate 'love' could be seen to be vague. I don't just mean a mushy feeling. I don't even just mean being prepared to die for someone. True love is daily acts of joyful service for one another. An important application of this verse for believers is to tell people the good news of salvation in Christ crucified. People told us, for us ...

 Psalm 23:4 ESV  Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.     Note that we may have to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, not death itself. Physically, we all face death, unless Jesus returns first. For the believer though, it's like falling asleep until Jesus wakes us up again. The Lord Jesus is the Good Shepherd who laid his life down for the sheep. He gives us eternal life from the moment we believe, and no one can snatch us out of his hand.  Evil is real, but we don't need to fear it with the Good Shepherd alongside us by his Holy Spirit. We face the 'triple whammy' of the world, the flesh and the devil; but we're born again by God's Spirit to overcome. Because Jesus gave his life and rose victorious over death, we can conquer and have the victory too. God's rod and staff don't sound too comforting at first. He may have to nudge and s...

 2 Corinthians 12:10 ESV  For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.    This is a counterintuitive verse. We might assume that we can only be content when the sun is shining and our lives feel okay. The Apostle Paul insists that it's possible to be content even in difficult circumstances. I need to clarify that Paul wasn't content with these hard things for their own sakes. He wasn't a sadist. Instead he was grateful for an opportunity for God to display his strength in Paul's weakness. We might assume that when we face things like insults and persecution that we might just throw in the towel. Paul knew however that such things were causing him to rely consciously on God instead of himself. 'Blessed are the persecuted, for great is their reward in heaven'. Weaknesses, hardships and calamities can either drive us from God in bitterness, or to him in dependence...

 Luke 1:46-47 ESV  And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour   Mary knew the meaning of life. Mary knew that our purpose is to magnify the Lord and to rejoice in God our Saviour. She fulfilled her purpose in life. In one sense, Mary was never more than a humble peasant woman. At the same time she had the immense priviledge of bearing the Son of God in her womb as the virgin born and conceived of the Holy Spirit. Magnification of the Lord and rejoicing in her Saviour meant for Mary to bring him up into his Divine destiny! For us, magnification of God and rejoicing in him, our Saviour doesn't require us to say 'hail Mary', but hail Jesus. Mary needed a Saviour. We certainly do. Mary had the horror of witnessing her Son's crucifixion. Yet she came to understand that he died to save her as well. She was a matriarch in the early church, not because anyone 'hailed' her, but because she knew the meaning of life: to magnify and...

 Hebrews 10:24 ESV   And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,     Love and good works don't happen by osmosis. We need to consider how we can stir one another to them. The very next verse gives one way we can do so.  Unless we meet up we can't encourage one another. Jesus didn't call 'digital disciples', but flesh and blood ones. We shouldn't get out of the habit of gathering as church. One of the main reasons we should gather as church (apart from obedience to our Lord) is to encourage one another and to be encouraged. Jesus is coming back soon. We need to be ready for that great day and to stay on the path in the meantime.  Love isn't just a mushy feeling. It evidences itself in acts of service. Love and good works are complementary. 'Dear Lord, please help us to be thoughtful as to how we can spur one another on to love and good works. For your honour and praise we ask this, amen'.   

 James 1:22 ESV   But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.     You may have heard the saying: "'Religion says 'do'; Christ says 'done'". The point is that we don't need to earn our salvation. Yet James reminds us that having been saved, we should prove our salvation by changed lives. I've also heard it said that the distance between the head and the heart is a long way spiritually. As James says, it's not enough to hear the gospel, we have to put it into practice in our lives. We do the word not to be saved, but to evidence our salvation. Say for example a fireman saves us out of a burning building. If we then run straight back in to the burning building, we were never truly saved. Remember Lot's wife! I'm not saying we can lose our salvation. If we could we would, but thankfully salvation is 100% of the Lord. Nevertheless, works show we're saved like movement shows someone's alive  'Dear Lord, d...

 1 Samuel 2:2 NLT  No one is holy like the Lord! There is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.    The Lord is uniquely holy. There's no one holy like him. Even a woman of integrity like Hannah wasn't perfect like the Lord. I love the humility of Hannah here. She might have been all proud and self congratulatory. Instead, she worshipped God.   There is no-one besides the Lord. He enabled Hannah to conceive Samuel (with her husband's help!). She gave God the praise. Just think: if Hannah hadn't have been barren before, we probably wouldn't have got her epic hymn of praise to God! So we can be grateful that he works all things out for good, even barrenness. There is no one solid and dependable like God our Rock. 'Lord our Rock, we acknowledge your holiness and ask that you would empower us by your Holy Spirit to be like you. In Christ's name we ask, amen'. 

 Philippians 4:7 ESV   And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.    This verse gives some helpful context to the previous one. The previous one basically says 'dont worry; pray!' This verse tells us why? We don't combat anxiety with prayer so we can pay ourselves on our backs. We do so in anticipation of this promise here. God doesn't give us peace only when we pray 24/7 and reach 0% anxiety. I feel like there's a hint of danger in this verse. If God's peace needs to guard us, then we have an enemy who is seeking to steal our hearts and minds. The devil can't have our souls who are in Christ, but he will seek to steal our peacefulness in the Lord. If we trust in Jesus, we're at peace with God, whether we feel like it or not. Yet God wants us to feel at peace in the midst of the devil's onslaughts. We can be with God like a kid hiding behind his dad from the school bully! 'Abba,...

 Philippians 4:6 ESV  do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.     I love how the Bible doesn't tiptoe around anxiety. It doesn't offer us a pill to numb the pain. It commands us not to be anxious. I'm glad the Bible gives us a positive alternative to anxiety: prayer! Say for example I'm worried about a lack of work. I can prayerfully apply for jobs instead of laying around worrying. We're not simply to let go and let God. Say we're looking for a spouse for example. They're not going to drop from heaven: as well as praying for them we should look for them. Bear in mind that we may be the answers to our own prayers! If we want God's Kingdom to come, God might call us to call others to put King Jesus on the throne of their hearts. That's not even a 'might' really, it's a definite! 'Gracious God, please forgive us for worrying and disbelieving...