Watching Daily At Wisdom's Gates

  And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles." Acts 18:6 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/act.18.6.ESV When Paul told his fellow Jews 'your blood be on your own heads', he wasn't justifying anti-Semitism. After all, he himself was Jewish. I think he must have reflected on Jesus's words not to throw pearls to pigs, or what is sacred to dogs. Jews would call Gentiles pigs and dogs. But Jesus would call Jews and Gentiles alike who oppose and revile Him pigs and dogs. This doesn't mean to say Jesus was dehumanising people, but that people dehumanise themselves by rejecting Him. Bear in mind that Paul said he would choose to be accursed if he could for the sake of his people to be saved. But because they tended to reject the gospel, he decided his ministry would be more effective if he focused on preaching to Gentiles. Interestingly...

  For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: 'To the unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. Acts 17:23 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/act.17.23.ESV The Athenians were clearly hedging their best when it came to divinity. They were a very religious people, with lots of gods. But they clearly lacked confidence that they had the right belief system. I love Paul's evangelistic method here, which could be described as 'beating ploughshares into swords'. Ploughshares are everyday things like an altar to an unknown god. The sword symbolises God's word, that the Holy Spirit uses to make people come alive spiritually. Paul started with where the Athenians were at: agnosticism. He then took them from there in an attempt to cause them to put faith in the one true God. How could they have believed without Paul preaching to them? As is often the case, when Paul spoke ...

  Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Mark 11:24 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/mrk.11.24.ESV If we read this verse in isolation, we might think that it is a blank check to get whatever we want. 'What are tomorrow's winning lottery numbers' might be a popular prayer if that were the case! But if we read in context, we see there are conditions. We need to ask according to the will of God. If we ask for something God doesn't will, it's not going to happen. So if we ask God to kill our rich uncle so we can inherit some of his wealth, God isn't likely to answer that prayer as we might like! Even the very next verse makes clear that forgiveness isn't unconditionally given to the one who asks in faith. If we faithfully ask forgiveness for ourselves but refuse to give it to others, we won't receive forgiveness for ourselves. If we want mercy, we need to show it. If we apply the next ve...

  She followed Paul and us, crying out, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation." Acts 16:17 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/act.16.17.ESV I used to read this and think that the demon oppressed slave girl was doing Paul and his mission team a favour, doing their preaching for them. But upon reflection, I think it's like someone shouting out the punchline to a joke that standup comedian is trying to tell. That wouldn't be funny, and neither was this a favour. They say that no publicity is bad publicity. But if you seem to be endorsed by a clearly evil power such as had hold of this girl, that's not a good endorsement. People will have been put off by her intrusion. Paul and team clearly weren't happy about the situation either, and Paul ended up driving the demon away. He delivered the girl and no doubt added her to the fledgling Philippian church which already included Lydia and would soon incorporate the jail...

  Then Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob, and worthless fellows collected around Jephthah and went out with him. Judges 11:3 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/jdg.11.3.ESV Jephthah was unpromising material to save Israel. The illegitimate son of a prostitute, when he grew up, his brothers drove him away. Nowadays, he would probably have been aborted. When reading Scripture, the temptation is to try and apply it directly to ourselves. But as Jesus explained, all of Scripture points to Him, not us. We might like to identify with Jephthah the underdog, but here he is a shadow of Christ. There were questions around Jesus's own legitimacy (who ever heard of a virgin born Son?). His own step brothers initially rejected Him in His ministry. His followers weren't humanly worthy fellows, fishermen and a tax collector etc. We might not feel particularly worthy of Christ ourselves, and of course we're not. He delights to choose nobodies like us however. A...

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  And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us." Mark 9:22 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/mrk.9.22.ESV It's often when people are desperate that they turn to the Lord. If all seems well, most people don't bother seeking God. The man in this verse came to Jesus out of desperation. His son was oppressed by an evil spirit that threw him into fire and water to kill him. The father was so desperate that he came to Jesus, without even much hope that He could do anything. But as Jesus said, even a mustard seed of faith can move a mountain. The father knew it wasn't just about Jesus being able to deliver his son. It would be no good for Jesus to be able but unwilling to deliver his son. So he asked Jesus to have compassion on them. On the other side of the coin, it would be no good for Jesus to only have compassion, without the ability to deliver the boy. Thankfully, as the story progres...

  For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. Mark 8:35 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/mrk.8.35.ESV Who doesn't want to save their life? Who doesn't want a life of comfort and ease? But Jesus says these are not to be priorities for members of His Kingdom. Far from just wanting an easy, pleasurable life, if we are to follow Jesus, we are to be prepared to lay our lives down. Jesus isn't necessarily saying that we must be martyred for Him, but that we need to be prepared to die for Him. This might not sound like good news, but the gospel is such good news that our very temporal lives aren't worth holding onto, for the sake of the gospel. Dying for the gospel isn't just about being martyred. It's about dying to wrong thoughts, words and deeds, like lust, pride and greed. God doesn't ask for our all because He's over-demanding, but because He knows what's best for us. If we...

  coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. Mark 7:22 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/mrk.7.22.ESV As far as nature vs. nurture when it comes to this rogue's gallery of sins, Jesus is very much in the nature camp. Coveting and wickedness, indeed all these sins, spring from the heart. We need God to circumcised our hearts: to cut away all the bad stuff! Deceit and sensuality go hand in hand. We might like to deceitfully present ourselves as disciplined, but if we're governed by our feelings, we're sensual. We need to get a grip on ourselves and control our sinful urges. Envy is wanting something that doesn't belong to us. Even more so, it's resenting people for having stuff we don't. Slander is often used to deflect from our own failings by lying about others. Pride could be argued to be a root of sin: the idea that we know better than God infiltrates many of our evil behaviours. Foolishness is not to seek to fight these tr...

  The next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, "The Lord does not call your name Pashhur, but Terror on Every Side. Jeremiah 20:3 ESV https://bible.com/bible/59/jer.20.3.ESV Unsurprisingly, Jeremiah wasn't a popular prophet, prophesying as he did judgement for God's people. So unpopular he was, that someone put him in the stocks. This did not put him off his ministry however. Jeremiah wasn't just a fair weather prophet, whispering sweet nothings into the itching ears of his listeners. He told the unadulterated truth of God, even when it was hard to stomach. He wasn't afraid of the consequences of doing the right thing. Far from being chastened by his time in the stocks, Jeremiah insisted that terror on every side was coming to his people. Whilst he came across as the opposite of a patriot, Jeremiah refused to flatter God's people, but to warn them of the judgement to come. We need reminding too, even if we've trus...