The One Year Bible - Day 243

One of the things that is quite hard to understand is passages like this in Job 37 which imply that the weather is actually directly related to God's activity, an almost medieval idea that thunder is God getting angry. It is hard because we know of physical reasons why these things happen although it is challenging to be reminded that just because God is spirit, doesn't mean he is not intricately and inexplicably linked to the physical world in a way that might just cause these things to happen!?
I remember reading once about particles that seem to move freely through time and space on a sub-atomic level that exist in all physical matter. I can't remember if this is the Higgs-Boson (God particle) that has been mentioned more recently but it made me think that these particles might well be pure spiritual energy that "sustains all things by his powerful Word". Amazing really.

The One Year Bible - Day 242

Elihu points out the fault in Job's line of thinking. Job has assumed that since he is righteous, God must be unjustly punishing him although he realises he can't do anything about that. Elihu shows him that God by definition is righteous, all other theology must be built up from this. We know reading the book that Satan was tempting Job to sin so it wasn't related to Job's sin but in the absence of that possibility, Job has compromised his theology and made God the weak link. In the same way that "neither this man sinned nor his parents, but this happened for the glory of God". We don't need to understand why things happen (although it is sometimes nice) so we simply need to ask sometimes, "God, if this is my fault then point it out so I can sort it otherwise Your will be done!".

The One Year Bible - Day 241

Need to catchup, catchup, catchup....
Today, Job decrees that if he has done certain things, then he invites punishment. For instance, "If I have strayed from his pathway, or if my heart has lusted for what my eyes have seen, or if I am guilty of any other sin, then let someone else eat the crops I have planted. Let all that I have planted be uprooted"
I wonder if you could say that about your own life? I couldn't. I should though, if I am contrite about my lifestyle, I should honestly be able to say the same thing. I can't.

The One Year Bible - Day 240

Job speaks about wisdom and again it is something that is so important a principle and in some ways very obvious but yet something which we easily forget. True wisdom is not found despite God, it is only found in God. Although the chapter uses a long analogy of mining and how good men are at examining all things, it reminds us that we cannot find wisdom outside of God. This is interesting because there are many people who would claim to have wisdom despite God but if wisdom is proved right by her actions, how many of these people really stand the test of time? How many of their decisions are so incisive, so profound that they make whole families or communities improve? None, I would suggest unless some of their wisdom is 'borrowed' from God. To forgive people graciously is a Godly concept frequently borrowed, to reduce someone's loan interest, to love our neighbours as ourself are all Godly pearls of wisdom that are borrowed.

The One Year Bible - Day 239

There is something interesting about the way that Job struggles. It is hard to imagine quite how much he suffered emotionally, physically and spiritually but the significant thing was that he never doubted God. He was operating in a place of "I don't know why this is happening but I trust God" rather than his so-called friends who have distorted the truth to try and make it fit in with what they know (or think they know). This is a human trait because we like to think we have a good understanding of life but we need to be quicker to say, "I don't know" when we don't know so that God can teach us the truth in His own time.

The One Year Bible - Day 238

There is a theme that comes out a lot in Job which should be a challenge to us. How many times have we thought that our life was really tough (whether spiritually or just physically) and then looked at others and wondered how they've done so well? How comes I work hard and struggle to pay the bills but John over there bought his house from the council for pennies and doesn't have a mortgage? How is it that at work, I am very skilled and able but I get paid half of what some idiot gets paid in senior management? It is easy to think like that and of course sometimes it is true but also there is much we don't see in these situations. If we knew all there was to know about someone, would we swap our life for theirs? Probably not. Would you take more money at work if you had to have the divorce or the mistakes from their youth? Their criminal record perhaps or a family who hate them? I wouldn't.
We need to learn to be content and to work hard and provide for our families despite what we think other people are enjoying!

The One Year Bible - Day 237

Job in many ways is a challenge about being judgemental. When you see someone suffering, is your instinct that they must have done something wrong, or they chose their path? Sometimes this is true but do we think that they deserve their fate when we accept grace from God instead of our fate? Job challenges his listeners to encourage people out of suffering rather than to judge them. That is not to say that we shouldn't expect people to take a stand and be responsible for themselves but it does mean that we should understand people from a perspective of love.

The One Year Bible - Day 236

Wisdom belongs to the aged and understanding to the old but true wisdom and power are found in God; counsel and understanding are His.
This is a statement that we can never forget to remind ourselves of. The human instinct is to accumulate knowledge and understanding to "make ourselves better" but what then happens naturally is to push God to a lesser position as we decide we don't need His help so much any more. We might get wiser with age but that wisdom must be borne of God to ensure it does not become fleshly and self-defeating.

The One Year Bible - Day 235

Bildad's angle is quite simple. God is true and God punishes sinners, therefore Job must have sinned to deserve his bad treatment but his argument is also wrong because his equation is not complete. I would love to write a book about Christian equations and what we often think logically being very wrong but Bildad has not allowed for the fact that God does not always allow suffering simply as a result of sin but sometimes to teach and train us and sometimes to bring His glory another way.
One of the best ways to find out how dodgy our logic can be is to discuss these things with friends and make a bold statement such as "women are not allowed to teach" and see why people disagree with it. You will find in some situations that somebody has a revelation of another factor which you haven't considered in your 'logic'

The One Year Bible - Day 234

Throughout Job we are told that he was a righteous and upright man, yet Eliphaz insists that Job's suffering must be related to sin and after all, are we not all sinners before God? It is a subtle but religious mis-understanding that since we have all done things wrong, that we all stand as sinners before God. In reality, it would appear that God is much more forgiving of people than that. He doesn't stand there and point the finger every time you do something slightly wrong. Of course, in New Testament theology we are fully freed from sin by the cross but we mustn't be too tempted to think that every little thing we see wrong in someone's life gets as much head-shaking from God as it does from us.

The One Year Bible - Day 233

It is easy to dismiss stories in the Bible as simply stories, fiction rather than fact but there is a clue at the start of Job that suggests this actually happened. The fact that it mentions that Job was from Uz puts some real world context into the story. It would be slightly misleading to say this if in fact it was made up unless Uz has other significance but other than the fact it might mean, "not here" or "close by" it is hard to infer that.
Why am I saying this? Because if this is real, it gives actual insight into what happens in the spiritual world where angels and demons converse and discuss but ultimately where God is overall Sovereign! That is to say that when we suffer evil things, God knows what He's doing - we don't always believe that.

The One Year Bible - Day 232

This is really interesting that "what the king has sealed in his name cannot be revoked". This is a mostly alien concept to us today because we are not generally people of our word. We easily change our mind and would think nothing of saying, "I know I said that before but now I am saying...".
The thing which was subtly different was that the king of Persia was treated like a God who was incapable of making mistakes which was why repealing a decision was not available. For this reason, Xerxes had to find a way to counter the previous order by doing something new.
I think if we were more careful with our words, we might have less reason to repeal what we say but at the same time, we have to remember the only One who never needs to repeal his orders since they are eternal. We might change but He doesn't, praise the Lord!

The One Year Bible - Day 231

Haman went very quickly from honour to destruction and we need to be reminded of how easy it is for our own quick descent to spring from mistakes. I was thinking the other day how many people have sex outside of marriage and tell themselves it is OK. If you are a Christian, how quickly would you lose your position of authority if you made somebody pregnant or caught some disease that you couldn't keep quiet, or if you are married, that your wife finds out and kicks off? Something that the devil tells you that, "everyone else is doing" or just, "be careful and you'll be OK" turns into a big problem that never goes away entirely. Be ruthless with your integrity people!

The One Year Bible - Day 230

We read today at the start of Esther about the importance of people in leadership being responsible since they influence other people. Queen Esther, whether or not she should have gone when the king asked, was a role model whether she accepted that or not. We often like to think that we are not role models, not because we think it is a bad idea but because we want to be able to do things we know are not very good and get away with it. Even casual things like swearing, smoking, rebelliousness or lack of commitment are picked up by others, inside and outside the church. It is a fact that if someone else does something bad but sees everyone else doing it, they justify it and lower their standards. If on the other hand, we keep our integrity (in a non-judgemental way) then people are reminded that they need to sort out things in their own life and are hopefully compelled towards Christ.

The One Year Bible - Day 229

I think we often over-emphasise praise in churches. Perhaps because we like music, perhaps because we can always sing songs whatever the spiritual condition of the church but really praise needs to be about who God is and also what He has done. If we don't see Him work in our church, it is hard to genuinely thank Him. We should pray, receive, do and thank God in that order.

The One Year Bible - Day 228

10% were chosen by sacred lots to relocate to Jerusalem. This is interesting because it makes me wonder what it means to set aside a part of our church to be dedicated to spiritual things. I am not a big fan of paid pastors in general but in our church we do have people, often retired, who have more time to dedicate to pray, visit other churches and generally give us as a body a much more in-tune view of what God is doing. In some churches there will be no such people in which case the leader or leaders have all responsibility to decide what is right. This is tiresome at best and at worst means we become disconnected. Always look to identify and encourage those people who work extra for the kingdom.

The One Year Bible - Day 227

We notice some language that is unusual for us, "You handed them over", which again implies that God is pulling more strings than we perhaps realise. This makes me realise how much of our language is unhelpful and sometimes downright heresy. When we say, "are you going to church", we are misrepresenting what church is (in my opinion this is very serious). If we say, "are you a Christian" we are using a term that is not particularly well defined and does not equate directly with people who are born-again believers or not. It depends on the person as to whether they call themselves a Christian or not. We must not be too afraid of strong words but it is more useful to use phrases like "on a journey towards Christ" which is helpful for people who do not know whether they are allowed to call themselves things like "born again" or a "Christian". Just be careful with your words, that's all I'm saying.

The One Year Bible - Day 226

A bittersweet day today. The people are being reminded of the book of the law of Moses and it understandably makes them weep as they realise how far they have fallen. Nehemiah then tells everyone not to mourn but to celebrate because of the opportunity to make things right again. I guess we sometimes get things the wrong way round, we celebrate when we have nothing much to be proud of and then get miserable despite living in victory over sin. Oh that we would be more in tune to the Spirit.

The One Year Bible - Day 225

Sanballat's servant approaches Nehemiah with a letter full of lies and asks for a response, so Nehemiah tells him that it's all nonsense and sends him away. How many of us would have done the same? We often have a more political bent than Godly people should have. What do I mean? Well do we avoid confrontation at all costs or are we able to tell people when they are out of line? Sadly, it seems most of us think that confrontation is not Godly and we do all we can to accommodate. Fortunately, I am at a church where the pastor is able to confront people when they are out of line and can deal with issues before they become too big.

The One Year Bible - Day 224

In Nehemiah 3, they are rebuilding Jerusalem. In a way that is quite unusual for the OT, it is everyone who is doing the work, not specialists or hired help. I heard once about a church in Sweden where the building got erected by everyone in the congregation. This was probably quite cool in a team building way but in a Spiritual sense, is our church 'built' by everyone or just a few people? The Bible is quite clear that everyone has a place but does our setup allow for that or does it encourage and allow a few people to dominate most ministries? Sadly, most churches seem to do the latter, especially with employed workers who are understandably expected to do more work than people who do it in their spare time but therein lies the problem. Should we have so many people working for the church or should we have more part-time volunteers? Even someone working for free is in danger of doing too much at the expense of others.

The One Year Bible - Day 223

Sin by omission, not something we think or talk about very often. It is easy to see sin in the things that we do but what about in the things that we don't do? We might sin by lying to somebody but what about when we don't help somebody. The passage in Matthew 25 say that we sin by omission as well as by action! Be warned.

The One Year Bible - Day 222

We must read a hundred times in the OT about people being so convicted and so sorry that they cry, tear their clothes and put ash on their heads. Have you ever done that? I might have cried a few times but generally I am nowhere near that level of conviction. Does that mean that I am a good person or just that I am not open to what He wants to sort out in my life? As we suddenly realise that something is badly wrong in our church, how upset does that make us? Do we feel the guilt we should feel and repent or just try and sort it out with minimal fuss?

The One Year Bible - Day 221

Ezra bless him, he is worried about the dangers ahead of them when they travelled, but quite rightly, he didn't want to ask the king for protection since he believed in a God who was mighty and powerful. It is these sorts of situations that actually test our theology though. We can easily say that God is able to do everything but we often to struggle to know whether He will do any of these things. When it actually comes to it, do we put our faith in men or in God? Would we have asked the king for protection since "God has given us common sense"? Or trusted the King who made the heavens and the earth?

The One Year Bible - Day 220

"because the gracious hand of the Lord was on him". Note that Ezra was not a priest, he was a scribe although he was a Levite. I like to think he was simply a spiritual, practical man who demonstrates that God does not only use airy-fairy spiritual types to make things happen. He warns us not to undervalue those who although spiritual, are mainly practical in nature and put out the chairs or fix the buildings or unlock the building for services. We mustn't under-appreciate these people. Not because we are spiritual and they are practical but because practical people can be spiritual too and are sometimes just as able to teach, prophecy and pastor those as the people who are not really practical at all!

The One Year Bible - Day 219

Ah yes, the opposition to rebuilding Godly things. We expect opposition but who from? We can take opposition from non-Christians because they are obviously not going to understand the things of God completely. But these opposers were local people, potential allies, not foreigners. They represent for us other parts of our faith, whether other denominations or just groups of people within the church network who have the things of men in place of the things of God. How do we deal with these people? We confront when we need to, we defend and we carry on!

The One Year Bible - Day 218

In cryptic crosswords, there are 'signpost' words, words that suggest what sort of clue this is. The same must be true to a certain extent in the Bible. We read that the Israelites needed to "rebuild" the altar of God before they were able to make sacrifices to Him. This must be a analogy (again) about how much preparation we need sometimes in a church setting to put in place the foundations of a genuine place of worship (not musical). What is the altar and what does it represent? I think it relates to purity and righteousness, surely the only way we could rightly come before God. But wait, you might argue that we are never righteous so how is this possible? Well firstly you had to be clean before you could sacrifice but also, the altar was where you laid your sacrifices. What else would result in the place where we sacrifice things in our lives that need to be given over to God? Purity/holiness/righteousness, whatever you want to call it. How do we build this in our churches? By recognising places where we are acting unrighteously and cleaning these things. Is it because our prayer life is lacking or we don't study the Bible enough? Is it because we are more religious than loving or the other way round?

The One Year Bible - Day 217

I love this verse in Ezra 1 which says that God stirred the heart of Cyrus the big, bad, evil king of Persia to allow Israel to return to Jerusalem. What is interesting is that our default mindset means that everyone who isn't a 'Christian' could not possible be used in God's kingdom. I'm afraid this verse puts paid to that. It does not say whether Cyrus was a God seeker or simply that God used him anyway but use him He did. We really need to challenge our perception of God's sovereignty when we think that so much of what happens is either caused by us or is at least something we deserve because we have disobeyed God and He is punishing us. God does not allow this to punish us, he allows it to make us return to Him and all the blessing that entails - He does it for our good, not His!