Watching Daily At Wisdom's Gates

 James 1:19 ESV  Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;  As the Turkish proverbs goes, if speaking is silver, listening is golden. Speaking is easy; listening is hard. James calls us to be quick to listen and slow to speak. We have two ears and one mouth. This suggests that we should listen about twice as much as we speak! We have a good record of Jesus's words, but he is the ultimate listener too, to respond appropriately to his hearers. James isn't just telling us to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, or even to seek to emulate Christ. He reminds us that we're brethren. We're adopted into God's family through faith in Jesus. Anger isn't necessarily wrong. In our anger we're not to sin. We're not to be quick tempered. 'Abba God, we praise you for adopting us into your family. Please help us to display the family characteristics: to be good, temperate listeners. For the glory of your name, a...

 Mark 11:24 ESV Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.  This verse sounds too good to be true. It also sounds easily abused. We might think it makes God sound like a blank cheque or a divine slot machine. In the context, Jesus was talking about forgiveness. If we think we're beyond forgiveness, we can cling to the promise of this verse. If we believe Christ has forgiven us, we will be. Our faith doesn't earn our forgiveness. Jesus's blood achieved our forgiveness. Yet faith is the divine gift that unlocks the door of forgiveness and reconciliation with God. Our greatest need isn't stuff. This verse doesn't give us licence to ask for a private jet for example. Yet if we believingly ask God to adopt us into his family through Christ's sacrifice on our behalf, he will. 'Abba Father God, please give us the faith we need to enjoy a relationship with you. We ask in Christ's gracious name, amen...

 Galatians 6:2 ESV  Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.  We all have burdens. We sometimes talk about people who don't seem to have a care in the world, but we all do. Even if we feel carefree, we're blinkered to all the concerning things going on around us. Although we shouldn't be worried and anxious, neither should we be careless or stoical, gritting our teeth or being blinkered to the difficulties of life. Instead, we ought to help one another. After all, Christ has born the burden of our sins, so helping one another is the least we can do! The law of Christ is to love one another as he has loved us. Love isn't just a warm, mushy feeling. It's a verb, a doing word: love is action, like bearing one another's burdens. In a nearby verse the Apostle Paul says we each have to carry our own burdens. There's only so much that others can do for us. We have to take responsibility for ourselves. 'Dear Lord God, thank you for bearing o...

 Proverbs 9:10 ESV The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. Biblical wisdom isn't about having a high IQ necessarily. It's not even simply to know the right thing to do. It's about choosing the right thing to do. The world doesn't like binary, black and white choices. It prefers to muddy the waters with many shades of gray. Proverbs makes a stark contrast between wisdom and folly. We all have a default bent of simplicity veering towards foolishness. We need to start fearing God to begin on the road to wisdom. Fear isn't necessarily bad: a wise child is afraid to upset their parents for example, out of loving respect. If we want to have spiritual insight, we need to get to know God. Science and God aren't necessarily opposed. Science simply means 'knowledge'. Yet it's not enough to know a lot of things, we need to know the Creator of all things. 'Our Master and Maker, may we know and fear you a...

Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.  Luke 12:51 ESV We tend to think of peace as good and division as bad. It isn't necessarily so. If we were all peaceful in the face of Nazism, we'd be living in the Third Reich. If we are peaceful in the face of Islamist expansionism, we’ll soon be living in an Islamic State. Jesus wasn't some pacifist hippie. Neither however was he a violent warlord. When Jesus said he came to bring division rather than peace, he meant this in a positive sense. On a motorway, there is a division between the two carriageways to keep motorists safe. In life there's a division between those who are on a highway to hell, and those on the narrow road to glory. We as believers in Christ aren't called to violent revolution to overthrow oppressive regimes. Christianity didn't overthrow the Roman Empire, despite all the persecution suffered. Ours isn't a political ideology but a spiritual real...

 1 Corinthians 9:24 ESV  Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.  I guess it could be said that all of us are in the race of life. Some of us are running in the wrong direction. Others are crawling in the right direction.  Deep down, I'm sure the vast majority of us want to succeed in life. Sadly, many people give up. They blame their upbringing, health or other circumstances for not thriving. I think of the famous American quadriplegic Joni, who hasn't let her disability stop her from living a full and inspiring life. She encourages us all to live life to the full in seeking the glory of God in our lives. As Winston Churchill famously told some English schoolboys in the midst of WWII, 'never give up'! We might not feel like we're winning at life. I'm sure Jesus didn't feel like that as he was crucified for our sins. Yet by his death and resurrection he has obtained the victory for u...

 Romans 8:6 ESV For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.  What is our focus on? Money, sex or power? Or do we overlook such idols and focus on God and glorifying him? The world focuses on fleshly things like food, alcohol and comfort. The Apostle Paul tells us to focus on the Spirit. He produces such fruits in us as love, joy and peace. We don't have to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps to refocus to what matters. We simply need to cry out to God for the gift of his Spirit. Then we just need to keep in step with him. The world is constantly clamouring for our attention. It seeks to stir up greed and covetousness in us for an excess of things we don't necessarily need, or only in moderation. We need to constantly realign our vision to look to the Founder and Finisher of our faith, until he calls us home, and for eternity  'Dear God, we praise you for the life and peace we find in you. May we never lose sight of you w...

 1 John 3:24 ESV Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us. At first glance, this verse seems to contradict the previous one I wrote about. In the previous verse, the Apostle John says we simply need to confess that Jesus is the Son of God to abide with God. Here he talks about obedience. Confession and obedience aren't contradictory. By confessing Christ as Lord, we are being obedient to God. If we truly believe in the Son of God, we will seek to live lives defined by love of him and of one another. When people asked Jesus what they must be doing to do the works of God, he simply replied that they should believe in the One the Father sent: himself. As the old hymn says, 'trust and obey'. Trust is foundational. Yet if we really have faith in God, it will be evidenced by good works.  Faith is the key to unlock the door to a relationship with God. Obedience is the way we keep our ...

 1 John 4:15 ESV  Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.  Maybe to the average apathetic Englishman, this verse seems inconsequential. Even if the average Englishman might tick a box to say he's a Christian, in reality, he is at heart an atheist. He's more likely to worship alcohol or football.  To a Muslim, this verse expressed what they perversely think is the worst sin, to say that God has a Son. Yet Christ's Sonship is not human but divine. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin Mary. In our relativistic age, your average Joe is numbed to the revolutionary consequences of Jesus being God's Son. The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Outside of him we're hopeless. In Islam, their god a sideshow in an immoral playboy mansion in the sky. In Christianity, when we trust in the Son of God, we get the Holy Spirit of God taking up residence in our hearts, and we become citizens of the new...