Watching Daily At Wisdom's Gates

 Proverbs 18:10 ESV   The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe.    Note that the righteous man's righteousness isn't what makes him safe. It's the name of the Lord that's a strong tower. I'm sure this doesn't mean we use the name of Jesus as a mantra. The name of the Lord Jesus means that God is our Saviour. The truth of those words is what saves us. Because Christ saves us, we are safe. Some people have a form of godliness but deny its power. They're moral people, but they're trusting in their own self righteousness rather than the righteousness of Christ, credited to our bankrupt spiritual accounts. There's no safety in self. What we run to says a lot about us. When we're addicted, we tend to run to whatever our addiction is. The Lord would have us to run to him for refuge. 'Lord our God, may we run to you, and so find safety. In the powerful name of Jesus we ask this, amen'.  

 1 Thessalonians 5:15 ESV   See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.      Our gut reaction when someone does evil to us is to do evil back to them. If someone punches us, we want them punched back. 'An eye for an eye'. 'The eye for an eye' idea isn't about going vigilante. It's about seeking justice from the authorities. We as individuals should do good even to evil people.  By doing good to our enemies, it's like we heap burning coals on them. We convict them of their wrongdoing. We show ourselves to be better than them. We're not just to do good to each other as God's people. We're to do good to everyone. Insofar as we are able, we should bless those we come across in our day to day lives. 'Heavenly Father, please help us not to repay evil for evil. May we instead do good to all, especially the household of faith. For your honour we ask, amen'.  

 Psalm 133:1 ESV   Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!    Division makes headlines. Unity quietly envelops us like a warm comfort blanket. I'm sure there's a sense here of 'shalom': holistic wellness, not just the absence of hostilities.  Our heavenly Father wants us to get on well. He doesn't want us to be a dysfunctional family. He wants what's best for us. Discord might be entertaining for dramas. In real life however, it's better to live in harmony. It's good and pleasant to enjoy unity in diversity. We're different. Yet we can know unity in connection with the Lord God. We can respect our differences and appreciate that we're all made in the image of God. 'O Lord our God, may we dwell in unity, and know the goodness and pleasantness of such a state. In Christ's name we ask, amen'. 

 1 Corinthians 1:10 ESV  I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.     One of the main reasons Paul wrote 1 Corinthians was to appeal for unity to a divisive church. So this is one of the key verses of the whole letter. God wants his churches to be united in him. The Corinthian church was being tempted to have a 'celebrity culture'. They had their various favourite Christian personalities. The Apostle encouraged them to stay united in Christ. This verse is relevant in our YouTube age, where people may be tempted to tap into their favourite preacher. We should prioritise our local flesh and blood pastor over some pixelated Christian celebrity! Above all, the question is whether our favoured people exalt Christ crucified in our hearts.  Christ is to be our obsession. He's the one we should celebrate. He's the o...

 Hebrews 4:10 ESV   for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.  As the famous saying goes, 'religion says 'do'; Christ says ',done''. Because Christ has done the work of salvation, we don't need to try and earn it. We can rest from trying to justify ourselves. If we trust in Jesus, we can rest from our attempts to buy his love. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Having saved us, we don't need to do penance to pay for all our wrongdoing. Jesus is sat on the throne of heaven. His work of salvation is done. He's not idle, but he's resting after his death for us. We cannot ever pay back our Lord for what he has done. We need to rest from our works in the finished sacrifice of Christ. Our spiritual rest can begin the moment we believe, not just in eternity to come. 'Dear Lord, please help us to rest in your love. We ask this in your powerful name, amen'. 

 Zephaniah 3:17 ESV   The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.    Maybe the thought of the Lord God being in our midst fills us with terror. Maybe our troubled consciences make us think that he would smite us in his wrath, to condemn us to hell as we rightfully deserve. This verse reassures us. Perhaps the opposite reaction to the thought of God's presence is indifference. We might wonder what difference God being with us would make. This verse challenges our apathy.  God is mighty to save, yet he doesn't do so begrudgingly. He delights to deliver us. He calms our troubled hearts with his unfailing loving kindness. Amazingly, God himself celebrates us with loud singing. He is after all the Source of all goodness, music included. Nevertheless, his delight in us is astounding! 'O Lord our God, as you amazingly delight in us, ...

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 Matthew 6:21 ESV  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.    What our treasure is says a lot about us. Not only so, but it reveals what our destiny will be. If our treasure is in stuff that will corrode, then so our hearts will corrode too.  Stuff isn't bad in and of itself. Yet it is not our raison d'etre, our purpose in life. Jesus urges us to get our priorities right. Christ commands us to store up treasures in heaven that can never corrode. When we invest in God's Kingdom, we're guaranteed to get a return. God's economy isn't Russian roulette, it's a guaranteed inheritance in glory.  It's not enough to pay God lip service if our treasures are on earth. He needs to be our everything. We are to invest our worldly treasures into the life to come.  'Father in heaven, please help us to get our priorities right. May we treasure you above all, for you are worthy, now and forevermore, amen'.   

 Proverbs 22:4 ESV  The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honour and life.    This is a surprising verse. We might assume that worldly people who idolise Mammon gain riches and honour and life in this world. Solomon suggests otherwise. Solomon, certainly early in his reign, was a humble man. God blessed him with riches and honour and life. He initially, and I believe in the end, feared the Lord, at the dedication of the temple and in his repentant swansong of Ecclesiastes. The Bible teaches the opposite of the world. The world celebrates pride. The Bible says that pride goes before a fall. If we are humble and fear the Lord, not only do we tend to have good lives in this world. We also gain eternity where the streets are paved with God. Even if we muddle through this life, there's a glorious destiny for those of us who belong to Jesus. 'Dear Lord God, may we be humble and fear you as we ought. Please bless us as we do so. For your honour we ask t...

 Luke 12:40 ESV  You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.   We need to be ready for Jesus like 1st Century Jewish men awaiting their friend the bridegroom. In Western weddings today, the bride tends to be fashionably late. In Eastern weddings then, the bridegroom often didn't turn up until nighttime. It would be very inappropriate to be sleeping when the bridegroom arrives. Our purpose as his friends is to be watchful and to wait for him. So it is with the return of Christ. I heard a good observation on the wise and foolish bridesmaids parable of Jesus. Even the wise bridesmaids fell asleep as they awaited the bridegroom. Yet at least they were prepared to brighten up his way with oil filled lamps when he arrived. Oil filled lamps symbolise lives filled with the Holy Spirit. A famous preacher was once asked if he was filled with the Holy Spirit. 'I am,' he replied, 'but I leak,' implying that we keep needing to be 'toppe...

 Mark 8:35 ESV  For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.   This seems a counterintuitive verse. If we want to save our lives, we would hope and assume we'd save them. If we lose our lives we wouldn't expect to save them. I think what Jesus is doing is contrasting selfishness (trying to save ourselves) and 'otherishness' (living for Jesus and the gospel). We're not to simply be out to save our own skins. We're to care for others. If we live and die for the gospel, we're telling the good news to others, whatever the consequences. We're doing our duty to tell of salvation in Christ. Even if we get persecuted, it's worth it. We can either live selfishly or self-sacrificially. Jesus is calling us to the latter. By his grace we can do this. 'Dear Lord God, please help us to be selfless and loving, not selfish. For your honour and praise we ask this, amen'.  

 1 Timothy 4:12 ESV  Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.     They say forty is the new thirty, but I still don't think I can call myself a youth: I'm well into middle age! In ancient Israel, Levite men started active service for God aged thirty, as did the Lord Jesus himself. So I suspect Timothy was probably in his twenties at most. Even if we're no longer youths, we can still obey the Apostle Paul's charge here. We're still to be exemplary. We're not just to be good when we're young, only to derail ourselves later in life. Our speech doesn't have to be exclusively religious Bible quotes, but it does have to be seasoned with salt. It's not enough to just talk about the weather or our favourite sports team. Our conduct is to be holy and pure, like Billy Graham refusing to be alone with a woman who wasn't his wife.  Love is to define us. Paul fleshes out what ...

' Depart from me, all you workers of evil, for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping. ' Psalm 6:8 ESV David wasn't perfect himself. He was guilty of grievous evil. He committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered her husband Uriah. David was repentant of his evil. He literally cried out to the Lord, and the Lord heard the sound of his penitential weeping. We're all naturally evil, but not all of us repent and renounce our wrongdoing. Evildoers were like vultures with a carcass with David and his public fall from grace. They never let him live down what he had done. Nevertheless, he 'shooed' them away because the Lord was on his side. God knows our hearts. He knows if we're truly repentant for the evils we have done. If we are, we can have confidence that God is for us, not against us. 'Lord, we're so grateful that you hear the sound of our weeping. Help us repent and renounce evil, and to trust in you to deliver us. For your honour and praise w...

'O Lord , in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch. ' Psalm 5:3 ESV God doesn't just want the fag end of our days as it were, a hasty prayer at the end of the day by our bedside. He deserves the first-fruits of our time. The Lord should be our first thought in the morning. King David was a busy man no doubt, running the nation of Israel. Nevertheless, the Lord heard his voice in the morning. It seems his practice was to pray 'out loud'. We don't have to just pray 'in our heads'. No doubt it was a sacrifice for David to give up the first hour or so of his days to the Lord. Yet he knew it was worth it. He started his days out right, by consulting with the One who orders our time. Prayer isn't just about presenting a 'shopping list' of requests to God. He isn't a divine slot machine. We're to devote ourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful, as the Apostle Paul put it. 'O Lord, m...

 Psalm 103:2 ESV   Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits,    We are to bless the Lord. We're not just to pay him lip service. Our very souls are to bless his holy name.  Benefits have a negative connotation in the UK, which has a relatively generous welfare state which arguably many people exploit. Lots of people are on state benefits who should be working and benefiting the greater good by paying taxes. Spiritually, if we receive God's benefits, we're to bless others. It's not enough to scrounge benefits from God and to be miserly with them. If he forgives us, we're to forgive others. If he's a Father to us, we should treat others like family. As Jesus said, if we want to be forgiven, we need to forgive. We can't earn the benefit of forgiveness. Having been forgiven however, we should benefit others with forgiveness. 'O Lord, we bless your holy name. May we always remember your benefits to us, especially forgiveness. In Christ's...

 John 15:4 ESV   Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.     What does it mean to abide? Jesus goes on to illustrate what it means. As a branch abides in the vine, so we must abide in Christ. We're not very agricultural nowadays, so an easier illustration might be that of an arm within a body. As an arm is connected to the body, so we are to be connected to Christ. We can't bear spiritual fruit apart from him. The Apostle Paul talks about people who have a form of godliness, but deny its power. That's like a snapped off branch boasting of its fruit. Apart from Christ, we can do nothing. A severed arm can't boast if it's holding a tool by rigor mortis. It's only in connection with our Lord that we can be spiritually effective. We don't just abide in him to bear fruit, but because he is our raison d'etre, the meaning of our lives. 'Heavenly Father, may ...

 Hebrews 13:16 ESV   Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.    I think when we come to know the good news of salvation in Christ crucified, the danger is that we can become like spoilt children. It's not enough to be saved: we're saved to serve. If we're truly saved, we will progressively become less selfish and more 'otherish'.  We might be tempted to neglect to do good. If we don't need to earn our salvation, we might think we can remain bad people. Yet if we don't start to become better people, we betray the fact we haven't been truly saved. There needs to be evidence of our salvation. We need to do good and to share what we have. There's no room for miserliness or stinginess in the Kingdom of God. I appreciate that the writer admits that to be sharing and good requires sacrifice. He acknowledged that it's hard to be like this. Yet if it pleases our Lord and Saviour, sacrificial generosit...

 1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV  So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.   Elsewhere, we're told that the Kingdom of God isn't a matter of eating or drinking. Yet there are ways of eating and drinking that glorify God. For example, we're not to be greedy or get drunk.  When it comes to food sacrificed to idols, the Apostle Paul has a nuanced approach. Of course, food sacrificed to idols isn't poisonous. Yet he wouldn't have us to partake in pagan, demonic worship.  For the sake of unbelievers, if they specify that food is halal for example, I avoid it. For their own sakes, I don't want them to think that I'm okay with Islam as a demonic religion. I'm not hostike to Muslims, but I wont flatter or deceive them that they're okay as they are, and I'm unashamedly anti Islam. We're to eat and drink to the glory of God. He's a jealous God. He won't share his glory with another. That's why I won't eat fo...

 I prompted AI to write this story... The Prodigal’s Mother She heard him before she saw him—the gate complaining on its hinge, the old sound of return. The servants ran. The father ran. But she stayed where she was, hands wet with flour, the dough cooling under her palms. He stood in the yard thinner than memory, a man-shaped apology. Dirt clung to him as if it had chosen him. When he lifted his eyes, he looked first for his father, then—hesitating—for her. The father embraced him with the clumsy relief of a man who had rehearsed grief too long. “My son,” he said, as if saying it might stitch the years together. Orders flew. A calf lowed. Sandals were fetched. A ring found its way onto a finger that had known other weights. Only then did she step forward. She did not touch him. “So,” she said, wiping her hands on her apron, “you’ve remembered the road.” He opened his mouth, closed it. The speech he had practiced collapsed like a tent in wind. “Mother—” “You left hungry mouths here...

'In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord , make me dwell in safety.' Psalm 4:8 ESV I'm not wishing to belittle insomnia. Yet sleep is a gift of God. I don't regularly suffer from insomnia, but at times I have I have literally gone mad, like any of us would if we didn't get enough sleep. Without wishing to generalise, I think a lot of insomnia is down to doubting that God helps us to dwell in safety. If that's us, we can ask him for the free gift of faith in him. If we get a good night's sleep, or any rest at all, we should be thankful to him. I think insomnia can lead us one or two ways. It can drive us away from God in despair, or towards God in prayerful dependence for the rest we need. I'm sure David had plenty of sleepless nights in his tumultuous life, but he trusted in God to give him the rest he needed. When David was a fugitive, on the run from murderous king Saul, or even as a king battling enemy kingdoms, he must have str...

'many are saying of my soul, “There is no salvation for him in God.” Selah ' Psalm 3:2 ESV I relate to David here. This Psalm was written when his life was unravelling. Many casual observers assumed there was no salvation for him in God. To casual observers of my life, there may be no salvation for me in God. Many people assume that if we do good, good will come to us; if we do bad, bad will come to us. The problem is that none of us deserve God's salvation. God promised David a Descendant whose Kingdom will never end. That was David's hope. The Son of David is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, the Jewish Messiah and Saviour of the world. He was born in David's town and died outside David's city to redeem us to himself. David didn't deserve salvation. He was a murderer and adulterer. I don't deserve salvation either, but my hope is in Jesus, not in myself. 'God, words cannot express how grateful we are that our salvation doesn't depend on us...

'He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. ' Psalm 2:4 ESV A worldly caricature of God is of a cosmic killjoy, some grumpy old man up in the sky with an almighty chip on his shoulder. The reality is profoundly different. If I can say this reverently, God has a sense of humour. As far as God's concerned, the biggest joke is mankind's rebellion against him. We might assume he's helplessly wringing his hands at our iniquities against him. Yet from his point of view, us opposing God is like an ant opposing an anteater (multiplied by infinity!)! We might rebel against God. Yet we will ultimately fail. Even if we gain the world and lose our souls, that is not to our profit. When we look at tyrants carving out empires for themselves, we might feel helpless in the face of evil. Yet God knows they're mere mortals who will ultimately have to give an account to him for their actions, like the rest of us. Unless we trust in the Son of God, we'r...

'And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. ' Genesis 2:22 Adam must surely have had the easiest marriage ever! All he had to do was to go to sleep. When he woke up, his wife was there! Along the way, Adam lost a rib, but even that illustrates the relationship women have with men. As the famous commentator Matthew Henry said, woman wasn't taken from man's head to dominate him. She wasn't taken from his feet to be dominated by him. Woman was taken from beside man's arm to be protected by him, near his heart to be loved by him. Some people think that woman being created after man means she's subservient to him. The Bible actually shows how valuable woman is: as the song goes, and I paraphrase, man can do a lot, but this world wouldn't mean nothing without a woman on it. God created the universe perfectly. Yet until he created women it was incomplete. As Bob Dylan sang, 'man gave names to all th...

'But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” ' Genesis 3:9 ESV I wonder if God is asking the same of us today. 'Where are you?' At the time of typing, I'm at the local library on one of their computers. Yet I don't think God was only being literal with Adam. God is omniscient. He knows full well where every one of us is at any one time. Yet he also knows where we're at spiritually. Sometimes, where we're at literally reveals where we're at spiritually. Adam was literally hiding in the bushes because he was ashamed of himself for disobeying God. If we're atheists or agnostics, it could be argued that we're metaphorically 'hiding in the bushes' from the Almighty. To be honest, even our religious efforts are like Adam and Eve's fig leaves, a pathetic attempt to cover up our spiritual bankruptcy. God needed to kill animals to make clothing out of their skins to clothe Adam and Eve's nakedness. Similarly, w...

Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” Genesis 4:9 ESV This is an outrageous verse. Cain had just murdered his younger brother Abel. God knew exactly where Abel was, lying dead in the ground, but was giving Cain an opportunity to repent. Far from repenting, Cain decided to act like a stroppy teenager with the Sovereign Lord God Almighty, the Judge of all the earth. To be honest, God was staggeringly gracious with Cain, not just here, but for the rest of his life. Cain deserved death for his murder of Abel, but God made sure no one killed Cain. Cain ended up having a successful life humanly speaking. Spiritually however, there's no indication that he ever repented of his fratricide. We can only assume that he is lost for eternity. As Jesus said, what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, yet loses his soul? Cain is a classic example of that. As the first man ever to be born, the world was his oyster a...

Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Genesis 5:22 ESV The implication is that Enoch didn't walk with God until he fathered Methuselah. I actually think this verse is referring to a literal walk with the pre-incarnate Lord Jesus Christ, allow me to explain myself. In the Garden of Eden, we're told that God was in the habit of walking there in the cool of the day. I believe that to be the pre-incarnate Son of God, who I understand literally moulded Adam out of clay and literally breathed the breath of life (his Holy Spirit) into him. So I think Enoch was so overwhelmed by becoming a dad that he asked God to walk with him, and God graciously responded. In context, we're told that it came to a point where Enoch walked with God, and then was no more. He literally didn't die, but walked with his Lord into glory (maybe a sweet chariot swung low eventually for to carry him home!). It all started when he became a dad to M...

Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” Genesis 6:3 ESV This verse makes it sound like God's patience has an expiry date. If we read it wrongly, we might assume that God's patience wears thin after 120 years. I want to try and challenge that assumption. In this very same chapter, we read that Noah found grace/favour in the eyes of God. We know from the rest of the account of Noah that he wasn't perfect. He got drunk at one stage. Yet God was patient with Noah. God showed Noah grace and favour even though he didn't deserve it. The God of Noah is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. Some people have lived longer than 120 years since God said this, Noah included. What I think it means is that our average life expectancy will never exceed 120. Thankfully, if we find grace and favour with God through Noah's Descendant Jesus crucified on our behalf, God's patience with us doesn't have an ...

 Isaiah 60:1 ESV   Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.    I had to double take with this verse, despite assuming I have good Bible knowledge. Surely this is a verse about the Lord Jesus Christ! It almost seems blasphemous to apply it to God's people.   If we know ourselves to be the sinners that we are, we should marvel at this verse. God wants to brighten up our lives. He doesn't want to banish us into outer darkness as we deserve.  Isaiah's initial audience was the believing Jewish community. Jesus initially came to the Jewish people. Most Jewish people nowadays would deny it, but he is the Light of the world. Those most Jews currently disbelieve, Jesus is the glory of the Lord. Amazingly he wants to bless us with the light of his glory. He doesn't want to condemn us as we deserve. 'Dear Lord, thank you that all your promises are 'yes and amen' in Christ. We're grateful that even Gentiles like me ...

 Romans 12:2 ESV  Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.    In my university town there was a nightclub called 'Pier Pressure' (that was literally on a pier!). If I'd have ever gone, I'd have given in to peer pressure. I would have been conformed to this world.   The Apostle Paul commands us to be non conformists. He tells us to be 'transformed by the renewing of our minds'. We need to govern our thoughts; not to be governed by them.  I've often struggled to discern God's will. Paul encourages us to test different options. Sometimes it's not a choice between right and wrong, but what is good and what is best. God wants what's best for us. We need to think, pray, and study his word to help discern what plan of action we should take. I love the verses in Ecclesiastes that say God's already approved what y...

 Psalm 27:4 ESV  One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.    To be honest, I'm not sure that God literally answered David's prayer in this life. King David had a country to run. He couldn't just dwell in God's temple all of his days. I think this verses helps to reveal why David was nicknamed a man after God's own heart. He didn't just pay God lip service. David wanted an intimate relationship with the Lord. Even though this prayer won't have been fulfilled during David's earthly sojourn, it is true of God's people in eternity. As he said in Psalm 23, 'I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever'. Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us in our Father God's house.  There's another Biblical truth that when we trust in Jesus, we become temples of the Holy Spirit. So whether we're r...

 Mark 2:27 ESV  And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.     There's a quote from an old hymn that says that religion never was designed to make our pleasures less. God isn't a cosmic killjoy. He wants us to rest in him and in his love.  We're not robots. We're mortals. God has designed us to need rest, and given us a day a week on which to do so. For the Jewish people, the Sabbath was a Saturday. Jesus defeated death on Sunday so it has always been the practice of Christians to rest on that day, from Bible times. That is the day we have always met together to worship the Lord. Christians have different opinions about the Sabbath. We should give those kind of debates a rest! Suffice to say that if we get legalistic about a day of rest and overly prescriptive, we're missing Jesus's point here. 'Dear Lord, please help us not to idolise rest and turn it into some kind of religious work by which to try and earn your favour. F...

 2 Corinthians 4:16 ESV  So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.      By the time you get to my kind of middle age, you start to feel the reality of this verse. Things start going wrong physically. We begin to get weaker.  There's nothing wrong with new year's resolutions to keep fit for example, but we need to be philosophical about physical decline. Even as we begin to break down in our bodies, we can be renewed spiritually. We never need to lose our spiritual zeal and fervour. We don't so much renew ourselves as much as we are renewed by God. Yet we're not to be passive. We're to partner with God to renew ourselves. Spiritual renewal is 100% of the Lord. Yet we need to be all in too. If we don't want to be spiritually renewed, we won't be.   'Lord God Almighty, please renew us spiritually, and help us not to lose heart, even as we waste away physically. In Christ's name we ask,...

 Genesis 2:23 ESV   Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”    I heard a preacher joke that Lamech was the first rapper in the Bible. He murdered someone and made up some dirty about it for his wives. Yet I would suggest that this verse reveals Adam as being like the first rapper ever. Some people describe rap as standing for 'rhythm and poetry'. There may not be rhythm so much here, but there's poetry. Adam was so overjoyed at the creation of Eve that he overflowed in praise. Lots of people assume that because Eve was created after Adam, that makes her out to be inferior. Yet as the commentator Matthew Henry said, she was created out of Adam's rib to be close to his heart as his intimate equal. She wasn't from his head as his superior; or from his feet as his inferior. If anything, the creation of Eve gives women dignity. Adam was incomplete without Eve; humanity w...

 Psalm 1:2 ESV  but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.    Most people don't associate the Bible with delight. They picture a dusty old book in some crumbling old building. Yet if we were to actual dust if off and read it, we would find it to be delightful.  Many assume that happiness is found in a crowded place, going with the flow down the highway to hell. Psalm 1 teaches us that happiness is found in God's word. Not only does it tell us how to live, but it shows us in Christ. Jesus is the Word of God made flesh. He is the image of the invisible God. If we want to get to know the Lord, we need look no further than him.  Biblical law isn't just some Judge condemning us. It's a Father instructing is, and 'laying down the law', teaching the right way to go. Instead of thinking how to gratify the flesh, we should be thinking how to feed ourselves spiritually. 'Heavenly Father, may we delight in your word as is rig...

 Genesis 1:2 ESV  The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.    As we enter 2026, it feels like the earth in the beginning: formless and void. The future is in darkness: we can't see what is to come. We don't have a crystal ball. One thing is certain as we embark on a new year: the Spirit of God is hovering over, as he was in the beginning. It's not just Jesus Christ who is the same yesterday, today and forever. His Spirit is too. We don't need to fear an uncertain future. God goes before us to create new opportunities and a wonderful destiny. Ultimately, he's going to inaugurate a new creation when Christ returns. Maybe 2026 is the year of Christ's return. Even if not, may his Spirit fill us to live for him, whatever life throws at us. Life is tough, but God is good, and he's with us by his Holy Spirit. 'God our Lord, we're grateful that you've ...

 Isaiah 43:18-19 ESV  Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.    Isaiah isn't saying to have amnesia or to be blinkered about the past. He is saying to not let the past to define us. We're not to be so preoccupied with how we've got somewhere that we can't see where God is taking us.  God's people found themselves in a bad place. They were captive in the wilderness of Babylon. Isaiah urged them not to despair. We as God's new covenant people aren't instantly beamed up to glory. Instead, we find ourselves feeling like we're deserted in this spiritually barren world. We're not to despair. The narrow path of life cuts through the wilderness. God sustains us on the way with the water of life which is the Lord Jesus himself, by his Spirit. We may have been through a lot, but 'it'll be r...