The One Year Bible - Day 251

Isaiah was around during teh reign of 4 kings, good and bad. I wonder what he was like as a person and how much pain he saw during the reigns of the bad kings compared to those of the good kings? Do you think he used to say, "in the good old days" or was he so pure that all that was important was "God says..."? I would really like to meet these people one day and find out whether they eat cookde breakfasts and laugh a lot. Whether they prefer to whiskey to wine and what sort of music they like. Not sure if that is the plan for heaven but would be cool.

The One Year Bible - Day 250

There is something unusual when we are in love. Although love is not material or physical, it causes physical reactions in us, something which the materialist atheists would presumably put down to survival! But there is something very deep and fundamental about the love which causes our hearts to skip, which causes us to smile, which means we cannot wait until our next contact. Sadly, I think we treat Jesus like someone who is always hanging around and is therefore boring rather than someone we enjoy so much that we are pleased to take Him with us into every situation. When was the last time you really looked forward to prayer or praise as an opportunity to spend time with God?

The One Year Bible - Day 249

Song of Solomon is a great book because it is both an explicit love song between men and women but it is also an intimate metaphor of a life between humans and God. The feelings that the colourful language invoke can easily be seen as those that we feel with another that we love but how much harder for us to relate to our relationship with Jesus? How often does that make us blush or feel distracted? How often do we talk about that relationship to the annoyance of others? This intimacy is available with Jesus in a spiritual way, we just have to pursue it. Love can fade in human relationships without effort, how much more so towards God?

The One Year Bible - Day 248

We are told that a great evil occurs when kings give positions of authority to fools. We might chuckle and distance ourselves from the principle (we are not kings!) but have we thought what this might actually mean for those of us who are managers in the workplace or leaders of the church? Who do we put into positions of authority? People who are proven, gifted and humble or just people who might have been around a while or who complain a lot unless they are kept busy. Are we brave enough to stand up to these 'fools' and not allow them into areas of influence that they are not called to or do we just try and keep the peace?

The One Year Bible - Day 247

Must keep up, must keep up.... Today we consider what is really valuable in life. Ecclesiastes talks about a good reputation and we might all nod in agreement. Of course wisdom, honesty, character etc are the most important things in life but what do we really spend our time and effort on? If you're like me, a lot of time is spent trying to get more things. A newer car, a better job, more respect or influence. In reality, I do very little to encourage reputation, honesty and character. It might mean not spending time with certain people or in certain situations which we know can harm our integrity. It might mean giving things up that are preventing us from praying and reading the Bible. In might mean loads of things but this is certainly another area which is good in theory and very weak in practice.