Watching Daily At Wisdom's Gates

 Psalm 32:8 ESV I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you. God doesn't leave us in the dark as to the way we should go. Many people think the way we should go is hedonism, the pursuit of pleasure. Others think we should be moral and religious. Hedonism and moralism aren't the ways God wants us to go. He does want us to take pleasure in him and to obey his word. Ultimately however, we must follow Jesus who perfectly fulfils God's law. Jesus is the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to Father God except through him. He's the only way by whom we must go. God isn't some 'blind watchmaker' as it were. He's not some distant, uncaring, unfeeling force way out there in the universe. He's got his loving eyes upon us. 'Dear God our Lord, please watch over us with your loving care, and guide us in the way you would have us to go. For we pray in Jesus' name, amen'.

 John 20:21 ESV Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”  The disciples felt the opposite of peaceful. Their Teacher and Lord had been crucified. They assumed they would be next. When Jesus rose from the dead, his disciples understandably thought he was a ghost, initially. Thankfully, he reassured them. Jesus poured out his peaceful Spirit upon them. When we think of peace we might think of a tropical beach holiday. Jesus shatters that impression here. He wasn't telling his followers to rest on their laurels as it were! The Father sent the Son to give his life for his people. The Son sends us his people to give our lives for the world. One of our main purposes in life apart from knowing God is to make him known. 'Dear Father God, thank you for sending your Son. May he give us his peace, even as 

 1 Corinthians 3:7 ESV  So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.  The Corinthian church was tempted to idolise Christian leaders. Christians to this day struggle with the same tendency. Some favoured Paul, or Apollos, or Peter. The Apostle Paul rebuked the Corinthian church for their 'cult of personality' tendencies. More than sexual immorality, this divisiveness was the primary issue in that church. It's the first issue Paul addressed. Paul sought to realign the Corinthians' priorities. He had planted God's word in their hearts; Apollos had watered it. Yet it was God who gave the increase. A farmer doesn't pat himself on the back for the harvest. He's not passive- he still plants and waters. Yet he gives the Lord thanksgiving for the growth. 'God our Lord, we praise you for those who plant and water your word in our lives. We give you the glory for your work through them. Please forgive any idolatrous te...

 Romans 10:13 ESV  For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” The Lord Jesus Christ is the means of salvation for us. Nonetheless, unless we call upon him, we will not be saved. Of course, we can't just call out his name in vain and expect to be saved. True worshippers do so in spirit and in truth. Jesus isn't just a mantra, a 'get out of hell free card'. He is our Lord and worthy of our worship. A common question is 'what about those who've never heard of Jesus'? That's why it's so important for us as his people to make him known. Before his first advent people looked forward to his arrival; now we look back, and forward to his return. When the Lord returns it will be too late to call upon him for salvation. Today is the day of salvation. Tomorrow isn't guaranteed. 'O Lord God, we call upon you for salvation, in sincere faith that you will answer us. We praise you for your sacrifice on our behalf. For the honour of your ...

 Acts 2:38 ESV And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  We all need forgiveness. However moral we may be, we've all sinned. We all fall short of God's glory. Repentance is the key that unlocks the door of forgiveness. We need to do a 180° turn from our selfishness/self-righteousness. We must trust in God to save us. I don't think Peter's talking about water baptism here. Water baptism is a sign that we've been spiritually baptised in the blood of Jesus. When we do so, we receive his Holy Spirit. Salvation and the Spirit go hand in hand. This verse helps to debunk the idea that there's a 'second blessing' of 'first class' Christians who are 'baptised in the Holy Spirit'. Every one of us who repents gets baptised in the Holy Spirit the moment we believe in Jesus Christ. We mustn't let the gift 'gat...

 John 8:12 ESV  Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Note what Jesus didn't say. He didn't say 'I am a light in the world'. This humble Carpenter turned Teacher said 'I am the Light of the world'. Even to say 'I am' was a hint at his Divinity. When he appeared to Moses, he revealed his name to be 'I am who I am'. He is the Eternal Light who always has been and always will be. Saint Augustine famously said that he previously had his back to the Light and his focus on what the Light reflected on. Finally, he turned to the Light and walked in the darkness of selfish hedonism no more. Jesus is the Source of all that is good. We face an eternity in outer darkness if we don't come into the Light. If we do turn to Christ however, we will enjoy the light of everlasting life. He can turn our lives around. 'Dear Lord God, please turn our liv...

 Matthew 9:37-38 ESV  Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.” Be careful what you pray for! Immediately after these verses, Jesus sent his followers out to fulfil this prayer. If we ask God to bring in a harvest of souls into his Kingdom, we're probably going to be the answer to our own prayers. One of the main reasons God doesn't translate us immediately to glory the moment we come to faith in him is because he wants us to call others to put their trust in him. The one good thing we won't do in glory that we can do now is to witness to unbelievers of the goodness of God. God doesn't want anyone to perish, neither should we. I'm not a Greek scholar, but I'm sure it's not coincidental that Jesus calls for labourers, not just workers. Evangelism is laborious. It's not easy work. God wants earnest prayer. He doesn't j...

 Romans 1:16 ESV  For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Shame is a powerful emotion that can cripple us. Crucifixion was a shameful thing. Yet the cross of Christ can powerfully liberate us from guilt and shame. The Gospel has always been counterintuitive. That a Man dying as a common criminal can be good news doesn't seem to make sense. Yet that's the means God has chosen to set us free. Crucifixion seems the epitome of weakness: dying naked and alone on a Roman cross. Yet God could turn it into the immeasurably powerful means of our salvation. God turned something hateful- execution on a cross- into the ultimate demonstration of love. The Apostle Paul wasn't being racist by saying salvation came to the Jews first. He's just stating a fact. Jesus is Jewish, and came initially to the Jewish people, before sending his people out to the world to make him known. 'G...

 Ezekiel 36:26 ESV And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  The Bible doesn't flatter us. It doesn't tell us to 'follow our hearts'. It teaches that our hearts are deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can understand them? Thankfully the Bible offers hope. God can perform a spiritual heart transplant upon us. He can transform our hearts from stone to flesh. True spirituality wouldn't have us squirrelled away in some monk's cell or some ivory tower. God giving us new hearts of flesh means that we become truly alive and most genuinely human when he does his work in us. He can make spiritually dead people alive in him. As an aside, being 'woke' is a dangerous thing to be. When Jesus healed the blind man, he rebuked the religious people for claiming to have spiritual insight but being blind to him. Christ crucified is a stumb...