Watching Daily At Wisdom's Gates

 “Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. ” Ephesians 6:11 ESV Traditionally, I've thought of the armour of God as an individualistic thing. Yet of course, the Roman soldier didn't fight in isolation. He was part of a band of brothers. A Roman 'tortoiseshell' of shields could withstand barbarian hordes. We don't win spiritual warfare in isolation, but in community. A solitary Roman soldier could easily be destroyed by an enemy army.  When we trust in Jesus, we become part of his spiritual army. He's gone before us, through death into resurrection and ascension. Nothing can stand in our way. God has equipped us with everything we need for spiritual warfare. We can stand strong in him. We are to trust in him, not in our own devices. 'Lord God Almighty, please help us to take up your armour and to use it. May we fight together, and not isolated. In Christ's name we ask this, amen'.

 “And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” ” Exodus 33:14 ESV Moses knew that if God's presence didn't go with his people, they may as well have packed up and returned to slavery in Egypt. Likewise, if God doesn't presence himself with us, we may as well give up and seeking to reach the promised new creation. Thankfully, God promises to go with us. We can't 'white knuckle' our way to glory. We can't 'pull ourselves up by our bootstraps'. We need the presence and leadership of God's Holy Spirit.  I love how Jesus echoed this verse in the new testament. 'Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden', he urged, 'and I will give you rest'. Christ Jesus is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. As the writer to the Hebrews says, Jesus is himself our Sabbath rest. We don't need to stop on Saturdays, or on the Lord's Day of Sunday. We don't have to be legalistic about rest, turning it i...

 “The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. ” 2 Corinthians 9:6 ESV I don't think the Apostle Paul is only talking about money here. Nonetheless, he was calling the Corinthian church to be generous with their money. I'm reminded of James who says it's not enough to 'generously' wish a poor person well. If we see a brother or sister in need, we should do something about it. We can pontificate about giving fish and teaching fishing. Yet if someone is hungry we should do both/and, not just either or. If someone is hungry, we should give them a fish while teaching them to fish as it were. The saying is that if you feed a man a fish you feed him for a day. If you teach him to fish, you feed him for life. The Apostle Paul makes the point that if we want God to be generous to us, we should be generous to others. Our generosity doesn't earn God's generosity. Our generosity is a respon...

 “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” Psalm 19:14 ESV We often think of sin as things we do. Often, it is things we say or even things that we think. So this verse is a good prayer to pray. As Jesus said, 'out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks'. If he sets our hearts right, gracious words will flow out of us. It won't be an overnight transformation however. May we not just not say and think bad things. May we also say and think good things too. That's what the Lord is looking for too. The Lord is our rock and redeemer. He's solid and dependable. He's bought us out from the condemnation we deserve, and freed to to live lives that are acceptable to him. 'O Lord, our rock and our redeemer, we praise you for your salvation. Please help us to think, say and do what is right. For your glory we pray, amen'. 

 “For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.” Galatians 1:10 ESV The Apostle Paul pulled no punches with the wayward Galatian church. He said that those who led them astray should be accursed for their accursed false Gospel. Jesus is enough, not Jesus + circumcision or anything else. Judaism was tolerated in the Roman Empire. Christianity wasn't at the time. So false teachers saying we have to become Jewish to become Christian had an attractive message. Paul wasn't a flatterer. He wasn't trying to give the Galatian Christians an easy life. He was trying to give them the truth. Our concern should be God's approval, not that of mankind. This doesn't mean to say we should be cantankerous and difficult. It just means we should get our priorities right. 'Sovereign God, please help us to seek your approval above all, because that is what ultimately matters...

 “Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, ” Deuteronomy 7:9 ESV The Lord God of Israel is the God of the universe. He is a faithful God. He keeps his promises. Gods never going to stop loving us. He doesn't withdraw his love after our 491st sin. He who began a good work in us will carry it through to completion upon the Day of Christ Jesus. If God loved us enough to send his beloved Son to die for us, the least we can do is to love him in return. We demonstrate our love for him by keeping his commandments. In summary, these are to love him and to love one another. God's people are always one generation away from extinction. God doesn't have grandchildren. It is our duty to proclaim the Good News of salvation through faith in the Lord to subsequent generations, until he returns or calls us home. 'Lord our God, may we love you as we ou...

 “I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.” Psalm 9:1 ESV God doesn't want half-heartedness. We're to be wholehearted in our devotion to him. He is worthy of our everything. God is worthy of our thanks for giving us life. Above all, he gives us newness of life through faith in Jesus. Because Jesus died and rose again, we took can die to self and live for God. Ingratitude is ugly. Half-heartedness is unattractive. We are wise to be grateful for all God's goodness to us. We're not simply fast-tracked to glory by God. He gives us his Holy Spirit to enable us to live for him each day, until he calls us home. It's good to shout his goodness from the rooftops! 'Gracious Father in heaven, we're grateful for your goodness to us in Christ. Please help us to be grateful to you for all of our days and forevermore, in his name, amen'.

 “ I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, ” Philippians 1:3 ESV I think of my brethren in the faith of God. I thank my God in all my remembrance of them. I echo the Apostle Paul's affection greeting to the Philippian church. To be honest, we're commanded elsewhere to give thanks in everything. So even when we remember difficult people, we should give thanks to God for them as souls made in the image and likeness of God. Everyone is either a 'blessing or a lesson' as the cheesy half-rhyme goes. People either bless us with the remembrance of their love, or they give us a lesson, a warning to not be hateful like them. I want to be someone people bless God for. I want to be for those I know like the Philippian church was for Paul, a cause for joy. Thanksgiving is a great North American tradition. Sadly, we're not so thankful in the U.K. Traditionally we remembered harvest in old fashioned churches and thanked God for it, yet even that tends to be forgotten nowaday...

 “ Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.” Proverbs 3:7 ESV I'm sure we've all met people who are wise in their own eyes. I'm sure we'd recognise that such pride and arrogance is an ugly thing. We're little creatures in a vast universe; to think we're the fount of all knowledge is delusional! The beginning of wisdom is to fear the Lord. So, brainy atheists haven't even started to be wise. They might have a lot of knowledge, but they're clueless about spiritual things. Fear of God isn't a blind terror that cringes away into the darkness. It's the fear of a child who is afraid to displease his dad, so he comes into the light. A wise son turns from evil and confesses his evils to his dad. Apparently 98% of men get caught in sexual sin and only 2% preemptively confess it. Better to be honest with the Omniscient (all knowing) One rather than to foolishly try and mask our evils. May God have mercy upon us.  'Heavenly ...