Watching Daily At Wisdom's Gates

 Romans 8:36 ESV  As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” This bleak verse is sandwiched between two of the loftiest peaks of positivity within the whole of Scripture. Nothing can separate us from God's love. That doesn't mean to say that the devil won't try in vain to tear us from the heart of God  Paul goes on to say that we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. We're not like Roman conquerors, or those of any other empire. Our victory will be everlasting. In this life, we face much persecution. The global church faces much persecution, in places from Nigeria to North Korea. Christians are easy prey because we tend to be peaceable and are convenient scapegoats for despotic rulers. The Bible is realistic about the difficulties that Christians face. Our victory is in eternity. In the meantime we face many difficulties in this life. 'Lord our Shepherd, please help us to be realis...

 Job 22:28 NLT  You will succeed in whatever you choose to do, and light will shine on the road ahead of you. Torn out of context, this verse seems great. Upon closer inspection, it raises some questions. If we can 'name it and claim it', why aren't we all flying around in private jets? Contextualising this verse digs up more concerns. The source of this quote is Eliphaz. Even colloquially, a 'Job's comforter' is a bad thing. God condemned Eliphaz and company, and righteous Job had to intercede for them. Eliphaz and his friends slandered Job and made out he was suffering because he was unrighteous. Thankfully, God heard Job and forgave Eliphaz and co. We're not guaranteed to be 'rolling in it' when it comes to Mammon, just for professing faith in Jesus. The Apostle Paul knew what is was to abound and also to have lack- to be a 'cheese and cracker' Christian at times. John the Baptist was a 'locusts and wild honey' kind of believer. Th...

 Romans 15:5 ESV May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus,  I love the juxtaposition of endurance and encouragement in this verse. Endurance alone sounds stoical: grit your teeth, cross your fingers and hope to die. Endurance isn't enough. Encouragement alone sounds Epicurean: be hedonistic and blinkered to spiritual realities. Encouragement isn't enough, if we're simply encouraged to be selfish and materialistic. Faith in Christ married endurance and encouragement. If we have faith in Christ, we will assuredly endure. Yet it won't be a joyless perseverance. We'll be encouraged in the midst of our longsuffering. The Christian life isn't some individualistic thing. We can pick and choose our friends, but we don't get to decide who's in God's family with us. This is why Paul prays that we'd be in harmony and of one accord, as we seek to serve our Lord. 'O Lord our...

 Psalm 34:18 ESV  The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. They often say that about one in four people suffer from mental illness health. Even if we don't as such, I'm sure we almost all get brokenhearted and crushed in spirit at some point in our lives. As Solomon says at one point, 'hope deferred makes the heart sick'. Even if we don't have psychological problems, we all have external problems that cause broken hearts and crushed spirits. It could be bereavement or relationship breakdown. Maybe we have health or money worries. This verse is very comforting. Broken hearts and crushed spirits may be pretty much inevitable. Yet we can know our all powerful and all loving God to be near us.  If we're crushed in spirit, not even God's nearness might comfort us. Yet if we know that God will ultimately save us, we can have hope. We needn't despair. 'Dear Lord, please be near to us in our suffering, and may you ultimately del...

 1 Samuel 5:9 ESV  But after they had brought it around, the hand of the Lord was against the city, causing a very great panic, and he afflicted the men of the city, both young and old, so that tumors broke out on them.  Why do any of us face affliction? Because the hand of the Lord is against us. God isn't impotent in the face of our affliction; he ordains it. Is God some kind of sadist to afflict us? We should have no sense of entitlement before him. We're a bunch of rebels against his Majesty deserving of his condemnation to hell. If we're afflicted like the Philistines here, as God's enemies, we can't kick against his spurs. We must repent of our wrongdoing. Likewise if we belong to Jesus, we should still take heed of his correction. God is the same now as he was then. Coronavirus was a megaphone by which he called us to repentance and faith in him. Were we listening? 'God, help us to recognise that you are sovereign even over our affections. May we repent i...

 Romans 4:25 ESV who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. This is a feeble illustration, but it's not enough that an important message is delivered. It has to be opened and received. That is a pale shadow of Christ's death and resurrection. Because Jesus died, our slates can be wiped clean. Because Jesus rose again, we can be accepted by God. We just need to receive his deliverance by faith. If we receive a parcel, we might have to sign for it. In a similar way, faith signs us up for salvation and justification by God. Even our faith is a gift of God, who adopts us into his family. We're on pilgrimage to our heavenly home with our Father God. The death and resurrection of his Son assures us that we can be set on the right track. We're not just trusting in some vague notion: but that Jesus was crucified and then defeated death for us. 'Dear Lord, we're so grateful for our deliverance and acceptance by you, because of Jesus, in who...

 Romans 3:18 ESV   “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” We tend to assume that fear is a bad thing. Yet it isn't necessarily so. Fear of fire for example means that we're unlikely to get burned. Our God is a 'consuming fire'. If we get on the wrong side of him, he will destroy us. We must repent of our rebellion and wisely fear him. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So to have no fear of God is to be spiritually foolish. God forbid that we would be apathetic and shrug our shoulders at the coming judgement. Despite our cold hearts, God sent Christ to give his life for our redemption. God forbid that we would spurn his love. If we do we can only expect to perish forever in hell. 'Father God, we praise you for sending your Son for our deliverance. May we fear to spurn your love. In his name we pray, amen'.

 Ruth 3:14 ESV  So she lay at his feet until the morning, but arose before one could recognize another. And he said, “Let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor.”  The self control of Ruth and Boaz is impressive here. They loved one another, but they didn't just hook up like a pair of animals. They waited until they could marry according to God's good design. It will have taken much discipline for Ruth to follow Naomi's (questionable!) plan to 'force Boaz's hand' to 'make an honest woman' of Ruth. She went and lay at his feet until he awoke and promised to make sure he could marry her. We can take Ruth and Boaz as a picture of the church and the Lord Jesus Christ, their divine Descendant. I'm reminded of Jesus's parable of the wise and foolish bridesmaids. We're to await our heavenly bridegroom with expectancy. We might sleep before Christ returns, but let's make sure we're stocked up on the 'oil' of the Ho...

 Jeremiah 36:23 ESV  As Jehudi read three or four columns, the king would cut them off with a knife and throw them into the fire in the fire pot, until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the fire pot.  Jehoiakim was a contemptible king. He was reigning over Judah in her twilight days. Yet instead of repenting at the word of the Lord, he despised it. This verse reminds me of that saying of Jesus's not to throw our pearls to swine. Yet Jehoiakim had to hear God's indictment over him, even if he was to spurn a final warning from the Lord. He reminds me of the king of Minas Tirith in Lord of the Rings, who buried his head in the sand over his city's destruction. God forbid that we would likewise despise the word of the Lord. God's word can be life to us. If we receive it in spirit and in truth, we have everlasting life. If we reject it, the lake of fire is our destiny. Poor prophet Jeremiah and his scribe Baruch! Maybe Jehoiakim's destruction of thei...