Watching Daily At Wisdom's Gates

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'

being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6 (NIV) When I was severely depressed, and doubting my own salvation, my brother's friend got him to quote this verse to me. It wasn't a magic fix, but it did encourage me. God's not going to give up on us half way to glory. We can be confident in God. When He begins a good work, He carries it on to completion. He doesn't get bored and abandon people to our fate without Him. If our salvation depended on us, we'd be hopeless. All our righteousness is like filthy rags. Christ's righteousness is enough for us. The day of Christ Jesus is the day of His return. When we see Him, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. He can purify our hearts so that we can see God, holy though He is and sinful though we are by nature. 'Father in heaven, we're so grateful for Your faithfulness. Please persevere with us, for Jesu

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being Ephesians 3:16 (NIV) If you don't know how to pray for a fellow believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, here's a good place to start. God is gloriously rich. In a Biblical phrase, 'the cattle on a thousand hills are his'. Everything we have, even if we're the richest person in the world, is on loan from God. I don't think Paul's especially thinking about money though. I'm sure he's carrying on from Ephesians 1 where he talks about us having every spiritual blessing in Christ. If we have every spiritual blessing in Christ, then we can expect that He will strengthen us with power through His Spirit in our inner being. Just because we can expect that doesn't mean to say we don't need to pray for it. God's a good Father, but we should still ask Him for good things. It's not by worldly might or power, but by the Holy Spirit of God that

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvellous—how well I know it. Psalms 139:13-14 (NLT) We're not just accidents. Deep down we know that we're not just 'stardust' or whatever else evolutionists call us. If life was meaningless, that would be pretty depressing. As it is, we are created by a loving heavenly Father. He formed us in our mother's wombs. Even at the moment of conception, our DNA to describe exactly how we will be is all intact. Because of the truth of this verse, abortion is an awful thing. Mercifully, it's forgiveable. Yet we shouldn't turn a blind eye to such evil. We're God's workmanship. We're created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. When unbelievers do good works, they try and take credit for them. When believers do good works, we recognise the work of God in our

If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 1 John 4:15 (NIV) In Islam, the worst sin is to say that God has a Son. In Christianity, the worst thing we can do is to deny that the Lord Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God. He is our only hope. Jesus isn't God's Son in a fleshly sense. He is the eternal image of the invisible God. If we want to know what God's like, we need look no further than Jesus. This verse is an amazing, powerful, and provocative statement. By simply acknowledging that Jesus is the Son of God, we get God's Holy Spirit taking up residence in our hearts. He begins to change us from the inside out. We have a glorious future to look forward to in the Lord Jesus. Because He gave His life for us, we can live for eternity with Him in glory. All praise belongs to Him! 'Father God, we praise You for sending Your Son for our salvation. Please cleanse us from our sins, in His name, amen'

Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. Romans 12:12 (NLT) Christianity isn't just 'pie in the sky when we die'. It's also 'steak on a plate while we wait'. The hope that God gives isn't just a 'cross your fingers' kind of hope, but a living hope. We might hope that our sports team wins. That's not a very secure hope, even if our sports team is successful. The hope that God gives is based on Jesus's defeat of death, so it's more definitive than just some vague hope for something good. Hope is like joy's parent. If we're hopeful, we'll inevitably be joyful as well. They go together like cheese and wine! Troubles are sadly inevitable in this life. Paul calls the Roman church, and ourselves as well, to be patient in the midst of troubles. In this world, we will have troubles, but we can be encouraged that Jesus has overcome the world. 'Dear Lord, please help us to persevere in prayer, in the

But as for me, I will sing about your power. Each morning I will sing with joy about your unfailing love. For you have been my refuge, a place of safety when I am in distress. Psalms 59:16 (NLT) This verse is a challenge to me. The first bit I can just about say amen to. Yet do I sing every morning with joy about God's unfailing love?  I should sing each morning with joy about God's unfailing love. Yet to be honest, I don't. Hopefully I'll remember this verse beyond my short meditation here, and make it my daily practice. After all, I can testify with the psalmist that God has been my refuge, a place of safety when I am in distress. I love the tenses in this verse. Because of God's past and present goodness, we will continue to praise Him into the future. God has been good to us. He is good to us. He will be good to us. So we ought always to sing of His unfailing love for us in Christ crucified. 'Heavenly Father, we praise You for Your unfailing love. May we eve

Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you. Luke 6:28 (NLT) Sadly, it comes naturally to people to curse. If we fail someone, their gut reaction is to curse us. Jesus commands us to bless those who curse us however. Naturally, when people curse us, we want to curse them back. Jesus commands us to be the change we want to see in the world. If we want people to undeservedly bless us, we should undeservedly bless them. Inevitably, we hurt one another, even without intending to do so, oftentimes. Our reaction when hurt ought to be to pray for those who hurt us. We can pray for justice, like the old testament often reminds us. The new testament would encourage us to pray for forgiveness and reconciliation with those who hurt us. It's easier said than done. Yet that is the Jesus Way: the One who said 'Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they do' even when they crucified Him. 'Blessed God, thank You for blessing us. We praise You for Jesus's inte

He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed. 1 Peter 2:24 (NLT) Clearly, in the context, Peter is talking about spiritual healing, not necessarily physical healing. We aren't guaranteed physical healing. We'll all die of something, unless Jesus returns first. We can be healed of our terminal sin sickness however. The prognosis is death, but we can be delivered from the fate we all face. We just need to trust in Jesus. Because Jesus died on the cross, He bore our sins away for us. We just need to trust in Him. We're to die to sin and live for what is right. We're to make a daily choice to die to sin and to live for what is right. It's not even daily. It's a constant awareness that we should do what's right and kill sin in our lives. Heavenly Father, we praise You for Your Son, in whom we have healing. In His name we pray, amen'

This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.” Romans 1:17 (NLT) The Good News isn't that we get right by our own efforts. That would be a lie anyway, because all our righteousness is like filthy rags. The Good News is that God makes us right through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The righteous shall live by faith in the Lord. It's not about 'believing in yourself' like Disney would tell us. It's about believing in Him. None of us are naturally righteous. So we need a righteousness that is not our own. We need the righteousness of Christ. When we trust in the Lord Jesus, we gain eternal life. We don't just have meaning and purpose for a lifetime. We have it for eternity. 'Righteous Father, we praise You for the righteousness we can enjoy through faith in Christ, in whose name we pray, amen'

 Everyone's lives are purpose driven. Some lives are lived for good purposes; some lives are lived for bad purposes. Some live for pleasure: 'Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die'. Others seek to justify themselves by living moral lives. God accepts those who trust in Him and seek to glorify Him. Our purpose truly is to believe  in Christ crucified for us and to live to honour Him.

 My words are fig leaves. His word is a covering  for my lack. My writings don't make up  for my inadequacies The Lord is all sufficient.

 I got a glimpse of the celestial city: golden and resplendent. I'd been heading in the wrong direction,  but I know where I want to be. To be in Your presence I'll do an about turn get back on track and plod on. Maybe I was never on track. What really matters isn't where I've been but where I'm going.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Matthew 5:6 (ESV) What do we hunger and thirst for, apart from food and drink? Maybe we're addicted to alcohol or drugs. Jesus gives an alternative, that we should yearn for what is right. Hunger and thirst don't just have to be literal things. They could be metaphors for what really matters to us. Maybe it's money, sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll, power or whatever else. Jesus said that for true happiness we should be hungering and thirsting for what is right. This includes the fruit of the Spirit which is love, joy and peace etc. They might seem vague things, but they're personified in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the epitome of blessedness. The world says we need to do retail therapy, or get drunk, or have sex, or whatever else, to be satisfied. The Son of God says that we should hunger and thirst for righteousness. If we do, we will know true satisfaction. 'Heavenly Fat

Anti Vaping Poems Popcorn Lungs What flavour are your popcorn lungs? Sweet and salted? Unsalted? What flavour are my popcorn lungs? Secondary smoky flavour. Passive- Aggressive- Smoking When people around me smoke I passive aggressive smoke: Not just for my own health’s sake But for their’s  And angry at the system That hooked them in the first place. Puff the Magic Dragon Puff was a magic dragon His lungs turned into popcorn. Maybe he wasn’t magic after all Perhaps it’s just that he smoked. Vape Battles I have a battle With vapers on the bus: If they antisocially do it, I open windows, Even if it’s freezing! Precursive Smoking Smoking is a precursor To burning forever in hell So repent of self harm And let your body become A temple of the Holy Spirit As you worship the One Who endured hell for us. A Confession I tried smoking in the past. I must have smoked scores of cigarettes. Thankfully I repented before I got too addicted Hopefully my lungs aren’t scarred for life. I’m not telling

Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. Malachi 3:10 (NIV) It's debatable whether tithing is required in the new covenant era. People get fixated on 10%, when in reality, with all the other offerings, it probably amounted to 20-25% of people's income. In the new covenant, where deliverance isn't just from slavery in Egypt but an eternity in hell, if anything we should be more generous. I think it was John Wesley who as a young man got a pay rise and said that when our income increases, we shouldn't raise our standard of living. Instead, we should raise our standard of giving. If we have enough for our needs, then anything extra we should be generous with. Of course, God doesn't need anything from us. Yet everything we enjoy is a gift from Him. Even our

What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. Philippians 4:9 (ESV) The Apostle Paul had such integrity that he could write this verse with no sense of irony. He learnt, received, heard and saw from the Lord, and he passed what he learnt on to the Philippian church. He called them to follow his example. I'm blessed to have come from a home with Christian parents. I've learnt, received and heard and seen a lot about God and living for His glory. It's not enough to just observe from the outside looking in however: we need to put what we learn into practice. If we don't put what we learn into practice, we're metaphorically stuck up in an ivory tower, frittering away our lives. If we claim to believe in the God of peace, we need to be peacemakers who live for Him. If we're not glorifying God, we're wasting our lives. I love the promise in this verse. If the God of peace is with us, it do

The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:18 (ESV) Throughout life in this fallen world, surely we all know something of brokenheartedness and a crushed spirit. Maybe we try and brush such feelings under the carpet. Yet God is near to those who feel like that. We might feel like God is distant when we're brokenhearted and crushed in spirit. We might assume He blesses those who are rich and 'have it all together'. We might think He's some distant, unfeeling force way out there in the universe. Thankfully, God doesn't just sympathise with us in our weaknesses. He's able to empathise with us. The Lord Jesus Christ became one of us so that we can become saved from our crushed spirits and brokenheartedness. God hates pride and loves humility. Sometimes it takes our hearts to be broken and our spirits to be crushed before we realise our need of Him. God doesn't sadistically let us be hurt. He wants to save us to hurt no more f

 This is a poem by a friend of mine called Luke Sheldrake: When eyes of faith are growing dim, Behold, the tempter enters in With strokes of darkest black he paints the God of love and truth and grace. All filled with hate and craft and smart He seeks to draw away our hearts A twisted image he erects From deep inside his darkened breast. 'A God of love?' o hear him scoff, 'God's left you all alone to rot A God of grace, this cannot be, for look He has abandoned thee'. 'Forgive your sins: this cannot be, Behold your guilty look and see Yes, hell shall be your home at last  And all your days of grace are past'. The Christian's soul in turmoil stands Until the Lord stretch out his hand: 'These wounds of love I bear for thee The payment's made to set you free'. The cross alone's my only plea The Man who hung upon the tree He took the nails and bore my guilt and now my blood will not be spilt. O vilest serpent full of hate, Behold the God of t

If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:9 NLT We're not to be shy if we believe that Jesus has defeated death. If He has, this is the best news ever. Salvation is possible, in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not enough to believe in our heads, We're to openly declare that Jesus is Lord. I'm not sure there's such a thing as secret believers.  We might get persecuted for openly declaring Jesus as Lord. Yet we need to count the cost. If He defeated death, then not even death itself can separate us from His love. Christ's resurrection changes everything. Persecution isn't enough to make us reject Him. He is the only way of salvation: we must trust in Him. 'Heavenly Father, please help us to be bold to confess Christ as Lord, and to believe that He is risen from the dead. In His name we pray, amen'

For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11 (NLT) God has plans for His people. They might be exiled for a lifetime in a pagan land, but He'll eventually call them home. In the meantime, they're to settle and to trust in Him. God's people were scarred by the exile to Babylon. Yet God assured them that if they trusted in Him, He would be faithful to them. Judgement was over and there was hope for them yet. Similarly, we as God's new covenant people aren't destined for disaster. We can expect a good, hopeful future from God. He is for us, not against us. God has plans in the plural for us. We don't just have to stick to plan A. God can multitask and help us to have a great destiny in more than one way. 'Lord our God, please fulfil Your perfect plans in our lives, and give us hope and a future. In Jesus' name, amen'

Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?” I said, “Here I am. Send me.” Isaiah 6:8 (NLT) Isaiah had an awesome vision of the preincarnate Lord Jesus Christ, a theophany. Jesus was looking for someone to represent Him to His people. Isaiah volunteered. It was a brave thing for Isaiah to do. The vision was fearsome. Even the angels were awe inspiring, never mind the Lord Himself. I'm not sure Isaiah knew what he was letting himself in for. His ministry to God's people was a largely thankless task over many years. Tradition reckons that he was sawn in half by those who hated his rebuke of their iniquitous lives. Isaiah knew he wasn't up to the task, humanly speaking. He knew he was a sinner before the Holy One. Thankfully God made atonement for him, and for all who trust in Him. 'Lord our God, please help us to be willing to serve You. For the honour of Your name, amen'

Commit your actions to the LORD, and your plans will succeed. Proverbs 16:3 (NLT) Too often, we drift through life with little thought as to what we're doing. We need to be 'intentional' about aligning our actions with the will of God. We're not necessarily going to become billionaires, but we will make it to glory if we commit ourselves to God. Even Jesus said to His Father, 'Your will be done'. He didn't dictate to God. He didn't 'manifest. Similarly, we need to commit whatever we do to God. He won't necessarily make us win the lottery. Yet He will provide for our needs. We need to align our plans with the will of God. If God wills what we plan, it will assuredly come to pass. We just need to trust Him. 'Lord, please help us to commit our actions to You, and may our plans succeed. In Jesus' name, amen'

The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life. John 10:10 (NLT) Everyone has a purpose. Even Jesus and satan have purposes. The devil's purpose is to destroy us. The evil one wants to ruin our lives. He wants us in hell with him, miserable for eternity. Thankfully, Jesus is more powerful than that. Jesus wants something better for us. He wants to give us life, and life to the full. He wants to give us abundant life. A rich, satisfying, abundant, life to the full doesn't necessarily mean to say we'll be filthy rich materialistically. Yet God will provide all we need. Not even the thief can thwart God's purposes. 'Heavenly Father, may You realise Your purposes for our lives. In Jesus' name we pray, amen'

The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you. Romans 8:11 (NLT) Because the Spirit of God rose Jesus from the dead, there's hope for us too. He who resurrected Jesus is at work in us. Though outwardly we're wasting away, yet inwardly we're being renewed into the likeness of Christ. We're not just destined for the grave. We can have eternal life with God. We're spiritual beings, not just worm food. The Spirit who raised Christ from the dead can make us Christlike. We can have our old, deathly ways dealt with and become what we ought to be. We can enjoy eternity with our Saviour. Our bodies are destined to die, unless Jesus returns first. Yet there is an eternity to come. We can be resurrected like Christ was to enjoy eternity with Him. 'Heavenly Father, please pour out Your Spirit upon us to make us like Christ, in w

 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Galatians 5:25 (ESV) It's not enough to claim to live by the Spirit. We need to keep in step with the Spirit. It's like a toddler saying they're going for a walk with dad, but not keeping up. Thankfully, the Holy Spirit can adjust His pace to be appropriate to ours. Nevertheless, He's like a pace setter for a runner. He encourages us to keep up with Him. In the context, keeping in step with the Spirit involves increasingly bearing the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy and peace etc. These things don't come naturally to us. A baby isn't born with the ability to walk, it has to be developed. If we fail to keep in step with the Spirit, the danger is that we're not living by Him at all. We need to become more Christlike in how we live. With the Spirit's help, it's possible. 'Heavenly Father, please help us to live by, and keep in step with the Spirit. In Christ's name we pray, amen

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Galatians 5:24 (NIV) Jesus told even religious leaders that they were of their father the devil. That's who we are by default, belonging to the evil one. Thankfully, we can become Jesus's. We belong to Jesus when we trust in Him and His crucifixion on our behalf. Without Him as our substitute, we're hopeless. We don't just passively acknowledge the truth of His crucifixion, we claim it for ourselves. We have wrong passions by nature. We need to overcome wrong passions and desires. There's such a thing as good desires. If we delight in the Lord, we're promised elsewhere that He'll give us the desires of our hearts. If we delight in the Lord, He Himself is the desire of our heart. He gives us of Himself. 'Heavenly Father, thank You for sending Your Son to give His life for us. May we give our lives for You and Your glory, amen'

 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Galatians 5:22-23 (NLT) How ought we to live? We ought to be loving. God is love, and so should we be. How can we be defined by love, and these other virtues? By the Holy Spirit's work in our lives. We can be joyful even in difficult circumstances. We can be at peace even in the midst of external conflict. We can be patient even when we live in a society that craves for instant hits. We can be kind even when we don't feel like it. God can supernaturally make us good, faithful, gentle and self-controlled. These things don't come naturally to us. Through the indwelling Holy Spirit we can become what we ought to be. 'Lord God, we praise You that we can become what we ought to be, by Your Spirit. Please forgive us for the many times we fail, through Christ Jesus we pray, amen'

 God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God. Matthew 5:8 (NLT) Our hearts are naturally impure. How then can any of us be blessed, and to see the Holy One, who cannot tolerate impurity? Thankfully, it's through the One who spoke these words. God wants to bless us. He's not a killjoy. He wants what's best for us, and that's purity. Because Jesus died in our place, we can be forgiven of all of our impurity. We can have our impurities washed away in the blood of Jesus. We just need to trust in Him. Somewhere in the Bible it says that no one can see God and live. Yet if God reveals Himself to us, and glorifies us, it can be possible. Nothing is impossible for God. 'Heavenly Father, please purify our hearts through Christ and by Your Spirit. May we see You in glory, in Jesus' gracious name we pray, amen'

Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. Proverbs 4:23 (NLT) Elsewhere, Jeremiah describes our hearts as deceitful above all things and desperately wicked! So far, so bad! Thankfully, God can do a spiritual heart transplant for us. Once we've had a spiritual heart transplant, we need to guard our hearts. If our hearts are in the right place, so shall the rest of us be. Spiritually, our hearts are as important to our souls as our physical hearts are to our bodies. Whatever we decide to do in life begins in the heart. There's a saying that if we sow a thought, we reap an action. If we reap an action, we reap a habit. If we sow a habit, we reap a character. If we sow a character, we reap a destiny. Whether we end up with God in glory, or estranged from Him for eternity is determined in our hearts. If God sorts our hearts out, and we guard them, we'll be alright. If He doesn't, we're lost. 'Heavenly Father, please transform our hea

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:5 (NIV) The devil is always trying to plant arguments and pretensions in our minds. Sometimes he uses our thoughts. At other times, he might use people. Instead of passively listening to the devil's arguments and pretensions, we should question, challenge and ultimately demolish them. I think one of the devil's biggest tactics nowadays is distraction. The most important think is to know God, not to check our notifications. The knowledge of God isn't necessarily having a PhD in theology. It's about having a relationship with Him as our heavenly Father. This is possible through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, His Son. We need to take captive thoughts to make sure they're honouring to Christ. If they're not, we should dismiss them. We need to fight against wrong thoughts instead of mindlessly