Winges, wisdom and whittles

The One Year Bible - Day 261

2012-01-31T04:30:00.000-08:00

God is generous in providing many physical analogies of spiritual truths in the Bible. Jerusalem at this time was a fortified and famous city. Physically, it believed it was mighty and largely untouchable but God tells them that they will be all but destroyed. For us, this is a metaphor for pride and the earthly kingdoms we create, even God forbid in the church, and the way in which we think these fortifications are our salvation. The numbers in the congregation, the number of ministries we are involved with, the number of countries and conferences we get invited to speak at mean precisely nothing, "unless the Lord builds the house". Sadly for Jerusalem, they didn't see that their house was not God-built and they were victims of an invasion that wiped out thousands of Jews before being taken away to Babylon. We think we learn from these stories but honestly do we? Do we pray enough (I know it is never enough but 10 minutes per week is nowhere near!), do we read our Bibles regularly? Do we take decisions based on the leading of the spirit? If not then I would suggest that we are building earthly kingdoms and they will one day fall down!

The One Year Bible - Day 260

2012-01-31T04:24:00.000-08:00

Isaiah 25 starts with the verse, "O Lord, I will honour and praise your name, for you are my God."
This in itself is such rich teaching. It is also easy to pass over because the emphasis can be read incorrectly. We could read, "I will honour and praise your name, you are my God" which is not what is written but what we seem to read by default. The word "for" in this case represents something more powerful, "the reason I will honour and praise your name is because you are my God", "your identity is the only motivation I need to honour and praise your name". I goes deeper than religion whereby God is God and we worship him because we have to. This extends to every level of philosophy and understanding where God is quite literally life and creation itself, he is the superset of everything, the power source to everyone, he is all knowing and all powerful he is....indescribable - and that is why I honour and praise his name.

The One Year Bible - Day 259

2012-01-20T04:53:00.000-08:00

So many prophecies concern Jerusalem in the Bible, perhaps not really surprising. Have you noticed, however, the difference between the existence of Israel and that of the surrounding countries? Jerusalem starts on a high as the chosen people of God, drops into disobedience and suffering and then gets forgiven and restored back to a high again - kind of like a smile. The surrounding nations on the other hand are the opposite. They start from nothing, become powerful and then get destroyed or dispersed by God - a bit like a frown. Who are the Babylonians? The Persians? The Greeks? The Egyptians? The Romans. None of these ever became the power that they once were and according to some prophecies some of them never will. Israel on the other hand has consistently come back from suffering and struggle and is extremely powerful and influential today - considering it's small size.
I want to be on God's side and if that means suffering at the bottom of the smile curve in order to rise up again, so be it!

The One Year Bible - Day 258

2012-01-20T04:48:00.000-08:00

Kingdoms rise and fall all the time and Egypt is quite prominent in the Old Testament because of its power, influence and location. However, Isaiah prophecies that Egypt will be destroyed in punishment because of its pride before God.
One of our problems is we have such a short viewpoint on history that we judge quickly. At the height of its power, it would be easy to have seen Egypt and decided that it was righteous and holy and therefore successful. We can think the same about churches or people that become famous and judge their spirituality on their success. Of course, many of these fall again in our own lifetime sometimes to much shame and humiliation but this should just be another reminder that we need to judge things spiritually. I know we say that numbers aren't that important but honestly, they really aren't. Somebody's charisma or humour is irrelevant before God, only the kingdom fruit that comes about as a result of the work.

The One Year Bible - Day 257

2012-01-20T04:43:00.001-08:00

When bad things happen, humans have such a large range of responses. Some people get angry, some fight, some weep, some rationalise and some try to avoid the experience or run away. What we realise however is that inside the sovereignty of the Lord, none of these will avail. If we are avoiders, avoiding will not work, if we are fighters, fighting will not work. In fact, the only thing that will ever work is aligning ourselves to what God wants, by listening to Him and obeying his voice. Rahab was a prostitute and humanly worthless but was saved with her family when the rest of Jericho perished for this simple reason - she listened to God's voice and obeyed it.

The One Year Bible - Day 256

2012-01-19T04:53:00.000-08:00

I am determined to finish this blog for the Bible in a Year. As soon as it gets neglected, it seems harder to finish although I have now finished the Bible in a Year.
We are reminded again today that God does everything in His own time. Even when bad people seem to be winning, that does not mean that God will not punish them. But He will do it when it suits Him, for instance to teach or punish people. If we really struggle with suffering, we need to remind ourselves that God does know what He's doing and we need to pursue Him to get peace that suffering does not mean out-of-control.

The One Year Bible - Day 255

2012-01-03T05:30:00.000-08:00

God's sovereignty is another of those massive themes that are present in the Bible but not really taught that much in church, perhaps because it is a bit difficult and is not the sort of thing you can teach with authority without revelation, it is much easier to teach about His love or even His justice. What we read is about how God is able to use someone like Assyria to punish Israel when they need to learn a lesson but then how Assyria themselves will be punished for their own sins. What it reminds us is that God does things in His own timing and not when we might think He should do it. We still have choices though, we also know that, we just need to remember that God's plan trumps anything we might try and achieve.

The One Year Bible - Day 254

2012-01-03T05:23:00.000-08:00

I know some people who have been named by Christian parents to match what they feel God is saying about their future. How cool is that. How often do we do that though? Do we, as Christians, pray about our children and ask what they should be called? Hopefully we won't have to name them, "swift to plunder and quick to carry away" but yet that name, albeit unfortunate, was actually important enough for God to give to Isaiah's son to make his message known to the people. In the same way, the more we are open to God, the more we can be used to bring His message to everyone.

The One Year Bible - Day 253

2012-01-03T05:18:00.000-08:00

I was thinking last night about the distinction between the spoken word and touch when used in ministry. The spoken word relates to authority who is embodied into the person of Christ, "The Word" and we read many times of Jesus exercising authority in His words. In fact, most of our authority in society is encapsulated in words, whether the oath we take in Court or the words used by the Police when you are arrested. Touch, however, is fundamentally about life and we also read of Jesus' touch that gives life to people, "contagious holiness" if you like. It is this that Isaiah experiences in chapter 6 when he is touched by a coal from the altar and this gives him life by taking away his guilt.

The One Year Bible - Day 252

2012-01-03T05:15:00.000-08:00

I don't know if you have ever thought about it but almost all Old Testament prophecy concerns Israel, much of it related to the exile and return of the Israelites to Babylon but about Israel nonetheless. How strange then that many Christians have very little in the way of theology regarding Israel from the point of view of the church and Christianity. I would reckon that most Christians would either say that they have no view on Israel or else they would say that the Christian church has replaced Israel in God's heart. Sadly, this is simply not possible to marry up with the scriptures that make very bold and in some cases eternal promises to Israel. We need better teaching in the church if we are to understand these vitally significant people and not to get our 'theology' from the (seemingly) mostly anti-Israeli media.

The One Year Bible - Day 251

2011-12-21T04:44:00.001-08:00

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

2011-12-21T04:42:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-21T04:38:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-06T04:59:00.001-08:00

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

2011-12-06T04:56:00.001-08:00

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.

The One Year Bible - Day 246

2011-11-11T13:18:00.001-08:00

Ecc 5:1 As you enter the house of God, keep your ears open and your mouth shut. Enough said!

The One Year Bible - Day 245

2011-11-11T13:14:00.001-08:00

The beautifully entertaining and insightful book of Ecclesiastes comes to us courtesy of the wisest man who ever lived Solomon. His advice? Everything is meaningless. He was actually talking about the pursuits of man rather than everything but his advice is sound. If there was an old head I would want on my shoulders, it would be Solomon's. If he can say that he has tried everything and it was meaningless then I should trust that chasing women, power, influence or popularity will not bring any more meaning to my life - it might in fact bring less. Pursuing God however is another matter. Why spend 99% of our time on matters that will not exist in eternity? Pursue God and everything we invest in lives forever.

The One Year Bible - Day 244

2011-11-11T13:09:00.001-08:00

Today is particularly relevant to me because we are reminded again that men speak with such massive boasts. The ridiculous contrast between the amount we think we know about everything and the reality of how small and insignificant even the most powerful king is cannot be described in words. We talk like we know how to run the world, like we can sit in judgment on everyone else despite knowing so little about even ourselves. God is gentle with Job but humility really needs to be our foundation here. The only judgment that should ever come from our mouths should be from God's revelation only.

The One Year Bible - Day 243

2011-09-20T05:13:00.001-07:00

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

2011-09-20T05:12:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-20T05:09:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-09T00:19:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-08T04:46:00.001-07:00

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

2011-09-07T03:59:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-06T04:34:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-06T04:32:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-06T04:28:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-06T04:25:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-06T04:21:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-02T06:18:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-02T06:14:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-02T06:01:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-01T10:58:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-01T10:55:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-01T10:50:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-01T10:46:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-01T10:42:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-01T10:38:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-01T10:34:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-01T10:31:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-01T10:28:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-01T10:24:00.000-07:00

"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

2011-09-01T10:20:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-01T10:17:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-01T10:11:00.000-07:00

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!

The One Year Bible - Day 216

2011-08-30T05:21:00.000-07:00

Poor Josiah. After a life of genuine dedication to God, he lost the ability to discern God's voice from king Neco of Egypt. This mistake cost him his life. It is so easy to come awry after a period of 'success' (if we can call it that) once we start shifting from God-focussed to me-focussed. We can't say it too many times people - check yourself before you wreck yourself!

The One Year Bible - Day 215

2011-08-30T05:18:00.000-07:00

Josiah pursued God at the age of 16! He had been made king at the age of 8 and although he had help from Hilkiah, it was clear that this boy had a heart after God. Where are we releasing our young people to pursue God? Not in that patronising way where they are only allowed to do young people's work or special youth services but full-on church involvement?

The One Year Bible - Day 214

2011-08-30T05:15:00.000-07:00

I love it! Imagine, you are besieged by a massive army from a country who has been undefeated against every other nation. You are cornered in your city with limited supplies and you get threatened. What do you do? Well Hezekiah cried out to the Lord in prayer and "and the Lord sent an angel who destroyed the Assyrian army with all its commanders and officers". Haha, take that Sennacherib!
We need to keep on realizing how much resource we have in Christ and start living on that truth. Forget fear, let's live in victory!

The One Year Bible - Day 213

2011-08-30T05:07:00.000-07:00

Do you ever have arguments at work about following processes? There tend to be people who follow them to the letter and others who take them "more as a guide"! Well Hezekiah ends up celebrating the passover at the wrong time because the preparations started late and the priests weren't ready. You could imagine God not liking this because it wasn't "to process" but actually Hezekiah understood that the act of the Passover was more important than when it took place, certainly in this one-off situation. In the church, we also have processes, either formal or informal and sometimes as leaders, we have to make a decision uni-laterally which is not necessarily malicious but simply to ensure the Spirit wins over the procedures!

The One Year Bible - Day 212

2011-08-30T05:05:00.000-07:00

It seems it is not enough for someone's successor to be more Godly than the person they take over from but they need to take positive action to restore what has been lost. In the OT it was mostly destroying pagan shrines and asherah poles but nowadays, there are similar idols in the church that need not to be simply ignored or even denounced but to be destroyed. Sadly the Christian life has to be cycles of blessing and then tidying up as we notice the rubbish start to collect in our lives.

The One Year Bible - Day 211

2011-08-30T05:01:00.000-07:00

Uzziah did what was pleasing to the Lord. It seems clear that if we maintain a position where we are doing what pleases the Lord, then many things prosper under our leadership. Here we read of fertile valleys, a strong army and success over neighbouring nations, not because of talent or strength but as a result of favour.
I guess we easily fall into the trap of "doing" to earn some sort of brownie points instead of simply "being" before God. Our time spent "being", which is prayer, Bible and meditation should always balance or perhaps be much greater than our time spent doing!

The One Year Bible - Day 210

2011-08-30T04:58:00.000-07:00

We read again today in Chronicles about how much God actually does despite what we do. If it were up to us, we would take a large army to fight someone. However the Arameans won the war with a small army because God allowed them to win over a Godless nation. I fear what our nation is becoming as we feel we are advancing in our own eyes but all that will happen is God will allow a catastrophe to occur to remind us that we need to be dependent on Him. I also think we easily dismiss what God chooses to do in place of the free will that we think we have in all matters.

The One Year Bible - Day 209

2011-08-26T04:57:00.000-07:00

"Jehoram was 32 years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem 8 years. No one was sorry when he died".
For some of us chasing a dream, to reach that dream feels like a major success. We might want to be a sportsman, a president or a pop-star but the reading today displays that these things count for nothing in eternity.
Jehoram became king and this would have been an amazing experience so why was his first act to kill his brothers? He should have simply done what God required of him as king and died another hero but we read that he was so hated, there was no celebration when he died and he was not buried in the royal cemetery. He could have done something great with a legacy in eternity but rather he squandered his chances and ended up as a swear word.
We could be in the same situation. We could be the leader of a church and perhaps even popular at one point but if we seek our own ends and not Gods, we will be remembered with little interest or excitement. Let us be like King David and not like Jehoram!

The One Year Bible - Day 208

2011-08-26T04:51:00.000-07:00

"Always think carefully before pronouncing judgement. Remember that you do not judge to please people but to please the Lord"
We can read this and think, "yeah, I agree" but do you ever wonder to what extent we might need to take it? I was interested to read about Glenn Beck, the US commentator who has gone to Israel and told them to trust in God and not be swayed by world opinion and I realised how much guts it takes to go that far.
How many of us when we look at Israel, simply see a normal situation of conflict where the best way would be to please as many people as possible and find some sort of compromise and how many of us rely on what the Bible promises concerning Israel despite many well-know and respected people on the world stage (including Christians) who would denounce this view.
Our judgements are our responsibility and should be based on our own revelation and conscience, not on someone else who has better credentials or more experience. That is the reality of basing our views on what God wants and not on what people want. Not an easy game.

The One Year Bible - Day 207

2011-08-26T04:46:00.000-07:00

"Then the fear of the Lord fell over all the surrounding kingdoms so that none of them wanted to declare war on Jehoshaphat"
Do you ever wonder about situations like the Iraq war or the government stance on terrorism or society? Do you ever say that there is no real answer to these problems and the government simply has to decide what they think best and accept the consequences?
Something we are reminded of today is that devoting yourselves to God as a community is enough to remove some of these problems. Not just because you might get Godly wisdom to deal with things but because God acts on your behalf in the spiritual world and does things to protect you!
I always wonder how much the MPs and politicians really pray about their decisions?!

The One Year Bible - Day 206

2011-08-26T04:42:00.000-07:00

There is a continuous theme in the OT Kings that involves good kings smashing Ashera poles, shrines and foreign temples and the bad Kings building them up. We can look at these and think it strange that something so obvious happened in direct opposition to God's command but actually, we all do exactly the same things.
In our lives, we build up foreign Gods, either in general or specifically in the church. We venerate people sometimes above God, we talk about ministries as if the success is due to people, we talk about certain churches like they are special despite God rather than because of.
If we are taking over a ministry, does our Spirit tell us to smash these Gods and work to remove things that distract us from God? Do we specifically avoid praising men rather than God? And more importantly, do we actively rebuke people or situations that say things related to idolatry?
I expect mostly not!

The One Year Bible - Day 205

2011-08-26T04:37:00.000-07:00

We read today about something that is subtle but actually does occur in our lives. We have someone who was doing something evil that was obviously born of the flesh but which actually got stopped because God told him to stop. I think it demonstrates that our lives are not ones of black and white but all of us have a balance between our Godly minded-ness and our human minded-ness. We should strive to be more God-minded so we can avoid incidents and mistakes in our own lives where this happens.

The One Year Bible - Day 204

2011-08-14T01:20:00.000-07:00

Solomon made a big gesture today. He moved his foreign wife from Jerusalem to another palace because he realised that she should not be 'on holy ground'. The law dictated that the Israelites should not marry foreign women since they would be led astray yet Solomon, who we know had a fondness for the ladies, had done exactly that. He had at least done something about this and made sure he separated his 'unholy' wife from the area of the Temple. I somehow feel this was half-hearted though and it would be like saying I will leave my alcoholism at home and not bring it into the church. What Solomon should have done, as the returning Exiles did in Ezra, was to divorce their wives and send them back to their own lands. To completely deal with the compromise and not try and ignore it. What do we bring to church or perhaps 'leave at home' which we should actually get shot of? Something obvious like addiction?, an un-Godly relationship? Perhaps something more subtle like fear, bitterness or pain? God has the power to deal with these things, why on earth do we allow them to continue?

The One Year Bible - Day 203

2011-08-14T01:16:00.000-07:00

Solomon dedicates the Temple with a very sincere prayer. He asks that God will always dwell there. Many church congregations treat their buildings like the Temple even though we are told that we are His temple but yet we don't treat it fully like a Temple. Personally, I don't see the building as the temple but I go to an Anglican church and that is certainly how it is perceived in many people's eyes. We use phrases totally freely like, "Are you going to church", "I didn't see you at church", "He is over in the church", despite many people openly acknowledging that the building is not the church/Temple. What is half-hearted though is that although we sort of treat the building like the Temple, we do not fully consecrate it. We do not metaphorically wash before going in, we do not restrict the activity in the building to what is suitable for a Temple (at least not in our church). In some ways, I have a respect for the high churches who do go the full 9 yards and treat their buildings with reverence. It might be Old Testament but it is consistent. I feel that a lot of newer churches are inconsistent and are pehaps guilty of discarding some religious concepts but holding on to others.

The One Year Bible - Day 202

2011-08-14T01:10:00.000-07:00

We read today about some of the items made for the temple by Solomon and the one I was struck by was called "the sea" and was a massive bronze bowl which could hold 16,500 gallons of water! The priests used this as their means of ritual washing before they offered service in the Temple. It would be easy to use parallels in the spiritual world for what 'washing' means to the Christian but I have been challenged recently to ask what this meant physically. My opinion is that God is not a God of formality and religious liturgy rather than a practically minded and spiritual God. If we ask therefore what it meant to be clean before God to the priests, we can ask what dirt is or perhaps what it might be. Is it possible that if the priests hadn't washed and took a significant amount of bacteria or viruses into the Temple, that the reaction that would occur in the presence of a Holy Almighty God might well cause these priests' death? We can easily read that God requires us to do certain things otherwise in some way He will 'punish' us but this does not match up too well with a loving God who is aware of our weaknesses, so we need to ask therefore what God is asking of us and it must relate to His ultimate will which is that we come back into a relationship with Him and must throw away everything that hinders. The question is, what about this uncleanliness hinders?

The One Year Bible - Day 201

2011-08-14T01:03:00.000-07:00

What would you ask for if God told you he'd give you anything? I think most of us, would automatically think of something material like money, a house or perhaps that 'dream' job. Solomon asks for wisdom however. On your top 10 list of things to ask for, would this honestly be one? For many of us, sadly, I think we are still very much earthly minded and not heavenly minded much at all. This might not be as blatant as full-on materialism, although that might lurk underneath, but it might well be in the way that we carry out our Christian ministry. By definition, we need to ask God for direction in all things spiritual but honestly, how much time do we spend praying. If we spend more time doing than praying, we are probably still too earthly minded.

The One Year Bible - Day 200

2011-08-10T04:24:00.000-07:00

1 Chronicles 29 and a great passage about people giving freely to God's work. What is important here is that there is communication first, David no doubt explains and imparts his vision for the temple which is then caught by the others and which enables them to be willing to give generously to the work. We must be careful to spend appropriately on God's work (i.e. generously) but only off the back of a well communicated vision. If people are not catching the vision then it needs to be back to the prayer table!

The One Year Bible - Day 199

2011-08-10T04:17:00.000-07:00

Organisation. It is a hard thing to balance in a church setting. We end up in a number of scenarios. We might decide that organisation is basically un-Godly, since we must trust Him for everything and probably our church is quite sloppily run as a result. We might decide that organisation is very important and might end up therefore restricting what God can do because it doesn't fit into the organisational plan. Otherwise we might end up with some sort of balance.
In Israel, we see David being very keen on organisation and we can learn a few things about what works and what doesn't. The key things here are gifting and trust. We cannot imagine David picking a weakling to run the army or an idiot to run the storehouses. He was apparently gifted himself in spotting talent and using it - something important to do in churches. The other thing was then trusting these people (with some accountability of course) to do what they were good at and were entrusted to do. There can be interference from people above us if there is a lack of trust or some lack-lustre performances from people in positions they are not gifted in.

The One Year Bible - Day 198

2011-08-10T04:11:00.000-07:00

1 Chronicles 25 is one of the few passages about music in the Bible. It is interesting that we place a massive emphasis on it in today's churches whereas the Bible places much more emphasis on the Kingdom, integrity, love and power. Anyway, the one thing that struck me was how seriously they took their music. There were people appointed who were directed by musical directors. We can easily shy away from such things in the church because we are afraid of excluding people who might not be very good. Of course you can arrange music with people are aren't that good, you just have to limit what they do to what they are able to do. If we were playing for the Queen, we would prepare and practise loads. For some reason we don't feel the same burden to do so for the King of Kings even though He is infinitely greater.

The One Year Bible - Day 197

2011-08-10T04:08:00.000-07:00

We read in 1 Chronicles 22 a great passage about what it means to leave a legacy. We mostly want to get the glory, as A W Tozer said, "We say that God gets all the glory but we enjoy the fringe benefits". So the idea that we might only be preparing ground for someone else is not good for our egos. We want to reap what we sow, or perhaps even more. David realises that he will not build the temple but rather than simply leaving it to Solomon to do his own work, David draws up plans and prepares building materials in advance to aid Solomon and in doing so leaves a legacy. Of course, this could be seen as David trying to get some of the credit but we read that David is concerned that Solomon might not have the confidence since he is young and wants to reduce the burden of the job.

The One Year Bible - Day 196

2011-08-10T04:02:00.000-07:00

I was wondering today about the way in which foolishness incurs a debt that is not always easily repaid. Look at Hanun the new king of the Ammonites and the way he foolishly not only mistrusted the gesture from king David but also then humiliated the messengers instead of perhaps sending a message back. He then mustered a war machine and allies in preparation to fight and then lost hopelessly twice. It is hard to imagine what it must be like to have 40000 soldiers killed in a battle but this was a result of foolishness, there is always less debt when we acknowledge mistakes as soon as possible and deal with them. Trying to hide behind pride just leads us to a fall.

The One Year Bible - Day 195

2011-08-08T04:52:00.000-07:00

We see today the correct format for serving in church. The leadership arrange for the practical people to carry out their operations. This is important because lots of churches seem to have a continual tension between leaders who decide things by themselves without regard to the operations and practical people who feel they are not free to do things properly or who are not allowed to make decisions such as where to spend money. It is important that the practical people are empowered to run things practically as the Apostles dictated to the Deacons in Acts and it is also important that the Leadership are happy that the practical arrangements being made for the running of churches are appropriate to the vision of the church. As with many things in life, a balance is required between hands on and hands off. I remember a church leadership discussing for 2 hours whether to buy a mobile phone for emergency church use (there was no land line) even though it would only cost £30 or something!

The One Year Bible - Day 194

2011-07-19T13:08:00.000-07:00

David had learned his lesson from the first time he tried to move the ark and Uzziah reached out to steady it and ended up dead. God had told them that the ark was to be carried on poles by Levites who would have done all the necessary preparation and not on a wagon pulled by Oxen, funny how we think we don't always think that God knows what He is talking about. If God says it, it is important! God doesn't say pointless things. It is easy for us to do the same thing with what the Bible says, to dismiss the bits we don't like or don't agree with.

The One Year Bible - Day 193

2011-07-19T13:04:00.000-07:00

We are counting all these warriors that have chosen to fight for David and it is easy to miss what it says about the tribe of Issachar: "All these men understood the signs of the times and knew the best course for Israel to take". What a great thing to be said of someone. It is akin to being prophetic and saying that somebody can see more than the physical and emotional and can actually see the reality of the situations they are in. There are those in the church who can see through nonsense that sometimes happens in churches although they are sometimes labelled as trouble makers and people who are not encouraging enough!

The One Year Bible - Day 192

2011-07-19T13:00:00.000-07:00

We read again today about the amazing exploits of David's mighty men. It is interesting that although David was obviously all-round good and Godly, some of these people excelled in fighting more so than David himself. A single man who killed 300 with a spear in a single battle! It makes me think that in churches where the main leader might be known as a good all-rounder but where individuals are more gifted than that leader in perhaps every field - the difference between a specialist and a general practitioner. The question is whether we give those people the chance to use their gifts since they are not the main leader!

The One Year Bible - Day 191

2011-07-19T12:53:00.000-07:00

We have a slight confusing set of passages today as the first talks about exile to Babylon even though this is much too early on for the full exile that occurs when Israel is attacked by the Babylonians and everyone is taken prisoner. This must therefore refer to an earlier smaller exile that we read about in Kings when the Babylonians attacked Judah and took prisoner the people who lived there. What is strange is that at this point, the kingdom had not even divided, remember that Saul was the first king of Israel! Your homework therefore is to work out what is going on here!

The One Year Bible - Day 190

2011-07-19T12:45:00.000-07:00

We read about various tribes of Israel and their descendants. I've never really compared the numbers but one of the wonderful things is that they are not considered equal in size or skills or relevance to what God is doing. Life is not about equality, it is about being faithful with what you have, whether much or little.

The One Year Bible - Day 189

2011-07-19T12:42:00.000-07:00

"They cried out to God during the battle and He answered their prayer because they trusted Him"
This is easy to agree with but in reality, our attitude needs to be more than just, "Oh yeah, God supplies what we need" but we need a much more fully surrendered helplessness before God. If we don't have that, then we are presuming that God only needs to top up the areas we are weak in rather than to provide everything from the ground up.

The One Year Bible - Day 188

2011-07-19T12:36:00.000-07:00

1 Chronicles 4 and we read of Jabez. There was quite a famous book called the "prayer of Jabez" which is perhaps drawing quite a lot from 2 verses but think about his prayer. Does your attitude match his prayer? Does your heart want God to expand your spiritual territories? I'm not sure about the keep me from trouble and pain bit but it appears that God honoured an honourable man. At the end of the day, it is a matter of whether we consider God a necessary burden in our lives or as the source of all blessing.

The One Year Bible - Day 187

2011-07-19T12:33:00.000-07:00

Today is my birthday and we have a raft of family information to trawl through. We can easily pass these passages by and assume there is little useful information for us but we can still pray that God teach us something from these passages. For instance, why was it that Solomon succeeded David as king even though he was not even close to being the eldest? Who were all these other sons of David? What did they do? How were they treated by David and by others? Was it possible to be a stranger to your father because he had so many children?

The One Year Bible - Day 186

2011-07-19T12:21:00.000-07:00

As we enter Chronicles, we read many of the same stories as we have in Kings. Some of them have slight differences though that are worth considering as are the meanings of people's names. One of the reasons for the genealogies is to prove that these are not fairy tales but historical stories, the other though is that as we learn what people's names mean, we can understand more about OT life. Remember Ichabod son of Phinehas? His name means, "the glory has departed" which was so relevant at the time when all sense of reverence for God had been lost. What do the other names mean?

The One Year Bible - Day 185

2011-07-19T12:18:00.000-07:00

We see a few places in the OT that a king is killed or taken prisoner and one of his brothers is installed in his place. I'm not sure whether you've ever thought about it but if your brother was killed by someone who then wanted you to be king, what would you say? It would appear however that some people are so addicted to power that their integrity is passed by to gain an opportunity. It also reminds us that some people would rather have someone in leadership who agrees with them rather than someone who is the right person for the job.

The One Year Bible - Day 184

2011-07-19T12:13:00.000-07:00

We are challenged today with what it means to restore the temple to its former glory. We are told in 1 Cor 6:19 that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. The obvious NT analogy of this fixing of the temple therefore is for us to restore our lives to the full glory of what God wants to do through us. One of the first things that is discovered as this happens is that the King is reminded of the Book of the Law. We would also find that we are led to the Bible as we seek to repair our relationship with God. The question is, I guess, how sad does it make us when we realise how short we are falling? Sad enough to tear our clothes?

The One Year Bible - Day 183

2011-07-08T05:36:00.000-07:00

We read today about one of the differences between men and God. We regard our death as completely tragic and something that we should avoid for as long as possible but to God where 1000 years is like a day, whether you die at 30 or 90 is not as important as what you achieve in that time.
Today, Hezekiah cries to God when he realises he is to die and as a result, God allows him to live longer. That 15 years however is not great and starts with envoys from Babylon spying out his land and then preparing to invade the land.
As well as our life, we also need to consider our ministries. Sometimes God wants them to finish or at least to be passed to someone else. If we hold on to them, we can incur problems, lose the Spirit and also affect God's plans.

The One Year Bible - Day 182

2011-07-08T05:30:00.000-07:00

In 2 Kings 18, we see a real stripping back of the wealth of Judah, in this case to pay off the king of Assyria and we can read it and feel that somehow it was like defeat to lose so much to the enemy. What we actually see however as a result of this is Hezekiah losing all of his supports and confidence and having to rely on the Lord only for victory.
I guess this is not something that God wanted to do so much as it was what He needed to do since the years of disobedience to God had taken their toll on Judah and they needed to re-connect with God.
We have the same times in our lives when everything is stripped away and which we should not react against because it should make us decide what is actually important in our lives rather than all the shiny nice things that we often enjoy at the expense of God.

The One Year Bible - Day 181

2011-07-08T05:21:00.000-07:00

We read today, "so Hoshea was forced to pay heavy tribute" after he was attacked by King Shalmaneser from Assyria. This happens a few times in the OT and was a common old-world practice. An empire would invade another area and usually at minimum demand a tribute and perhaps people for military service. If they refused, they would go to war.
As a spiritual analogy, we actually sometimes pay tribute to things we shouldn't. In other words, we reap the consequences of a lack of victory against our foes. These might be things we suffer from (like abuse) or they might be things we have actively done (like made a girl pregnant who we didn't then marry). The tribute we pay is often emotional and psychological but could also be practical or financial and can continue for the rest of our lives. There are two lessons then that we need to learn. Firstly to avoid making the mistakes that lead to tribute, i.e. keeping our character and not sinning and then secondly, we need to learn how to get victory over things that we suffer from (and which it is possible to get victory over) such as the emotional suffering we might endure from certain situations. God is a protector but He is also a saviour!

The One Year Bible - Day 180

2011-06-30T05:03:00.000-07:00

The divided kingdom has suffered in many ways. The kings of Israel are generally evil in God's eyes and they go from disaster to disaster until ultimately, it seems that whoever kills the king becomes the new king with no reference to God at all. Although Judah is better in this respect, it is still said of most of these kings that they did not serve God wholeheartedly. That they still allowed pagan shrines and incense to be burned there. I often wonder about churches that on the surface are successful and could be said to be "doing good before God" but which have little hollows with things hidden that are un-Godly. Whether bad relationships, idolatry of people or buildings or certain teachings or whatever rather than destroying everything that is not of God. I wonder how much better these churches would be without that and whether the reason why many churches do very well and then not so well is not due to people getting bored but with issues not dealt with! We then get a bad egg in king Ahaz as we sometimes do in church who decided to marry the church with the world and to join forces with a foreign king. Would we do that nowadays? What would that look like?

The One Year Bible - Day 179

2011-06-30T04:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we read about the final years of Joash. It seems a shame that he was generally a good king and followed God but presumably didn't have the courage of a soldier. When Jerusalem is threatened with attack, he simply pays off the attackers which of course prevents the attack but costs him dearly and betrays a lack of trust in God. I wonder sometimes when we make decisions that work out but which could have had better outcomes if we had asked God instead. We might pay off an unfair parking ticket whereas God would have us contest it and win. Even in spiritual matters, we might try and take the easy way out of a damaged relationship rather than accepting the confrontation and the solution that God can bring through that!

The One Year Bible - Day 178

2011-06-30T04:31:00.000-07:00

Joash was 7 years old when he became king! We read again today about the relationship between the king and the priest. In this case, the priest had to instigate revolution in order to bring back the kingdom of Judah to God. He did this despite the fact he was not the king. I wonder what this means for the Christian today. Is the king a bit like the pastor and the priest is like a prophet? Does this imply that we need to ensure that we have people who can challenge us and even perform certain duties in order for us to perform ours? If we are leaders, do we surround ourselves with "yes men" or with people whose spirituality we recognise and respect, even when they disagree with us?

The One Year Bible - Day 178

2011-06-30T04:26:00.000-07:00

"At about that time the Lord began to cut down the size of Israel’s territory". It begins with disobedience and carelessness and ends up with our 'territory' being reduced. Has your territory reduced? Was it because you were careless and/or disobedient? Well the good news is that it is totally reversible and requires a fresh dedication of yourself to Himself so that you can start to defeat the enemy in the parts of your ministry that have suffered. Take it back people! Whose Kingdom are you fighting for?

The One Year Bible - Day 177

2011-06-30T04:23:00.000-07:00

Jehu replied, "What do you know about peace?"
What do we know about peace? We know that we sort of like peace because it's easy and relaxing but Jesus famously said, "I have not come to bring peace but a sword". But if Jesus is the Prince of Peace and if we can have a "peace that transcends all understanding" why did Jesus say that He did not come to bring peace?
It is because like a lot of things, we don't really understand the difference between human peace and God's peace. We want human peace but God's peace is not about comfort and easy lives as much as it is about being at peace with Him. The peace of God requires work and confrontation as well as boldness and suffering. In other words, we have to sometimes forfeit our peace for His peace.

The One Year Bible - Day 176

2011-06-30T04:19:00.000-07:00

Today Elisha warns the woman from Shunem to go and live in a foreign country because of a famine. The problem with famines is that there is much suffering and people die so it is natural that we would avoid famines. It was because of this woman's closeness to Elisha and therefore God that allowed her to know about and avoid the coming famine. I wonder how many of our famines we could have avoided if we had listened to God in the first place?

The One Year Bible - Day 175

2011-06-24T05:02:00.000-07:00

A great story today of how God has many arrows in his quiver - or many ways of fixing a problem. If you asked a human how to fix the famine and deal with the invading army, you might have thought of planning an effective attack, planting a lot of food and attempting to wait around until it had grown enough to eat. Not so with God, he made the Arameans think they were being chased so they all fled! Interestingly the officer who had not believed in God died as a result of what God did - he died in his unbelief. We must not restrict God's hand by praying for our solutions, we should take Him the problem and let Him decide the best way to deal with it!

The One Year Bible - Day 174

2011-06-24T04:54:00.000-07:00

There is an OT parallel of the feeding of the 5000 in 2 Kings 4. Elisha tells the people to share out a small amount of food between many people and God multiplies it. Even in the OT, God was in the business of allowing those things we consecrate to Him to be blessed and multiplied to the benefit of many others.

The One Year Bible - Day 173

2011-06-24T04:53:00.000-07:00

We read about two instances of holiness blessing those you are in contact with. Elisha helps the 3 kings because of his respect for Jehoshaphat and we also read about the widow being blessed because of her association with Elisha. We often think of ourselves as primarily defensive people whereas the Bible teaches we are contagious and have the ability to bring blessing to people rather than constantly fearing spiritual attacks.

The One Year Bible - Day 172

2011-06-24T04:45:00.000-07:00

Another remarkable OT story today where Elijah calls down fire from heaven onto the soldiers who are sent to arrest him. Ignoring the obvious sad fact that these soldiers were punished when they were only carrying out orders, the bigger picture is about King Ahaziah who has not acknowledged the word of God into his life and has tried to pit his human power against that of God. The result needless to say ends in disaster for Ahaziah (and the soliders) but we are once again reminded of the power and holiness of God. God rebukes Ahaziah for looking for answers amongst foreign Gods and it costs him his life.

The One Year Bible - Day 171

2011-06-24T04:41:00.000-07:00

Good old Jehoshaphat. Although he has decided to do something, the caveat was, "Let us see what the Lord says". Too often we all follow good ideas, even 'Christian' good ideas without seeing what the Lord says. Inevitably these end up in various levels of disaster and the same happened many times in Israel. We might end up with an ineffective mission, we might create a problem we might have to live with or something much worse. With so much at stake and with the ability to pray and seek God, why do we fail so often?

The One Year Bible - Day 170

2011-06-24T04:39:00.000-07:00

It is hard to imagine what the times were like in ancient Israel. Here was Ahab, an evil and presumably confident man being brought to a place of fear by an imminent attack, possibly because of the sheer scale of the invaders. When asked for too much however, Ahab decides to rebuff the attackers and comes out with the immortal line, "A warrior putting on his sword for battle should not boast like a warrior who has already won."
We read of an intervention however from God. Despite Ahab being evil, God has already promised to protect Israel and that is what he does via a prophet who tells Ahab how to approach the battle so they win.
We sometimes think of life in quite simple terms like the Jews did, "God helps righteous people and ignores the unholy" but God is much larger and deeper than that and works to bring everything about for His glory and purpose. How amazing is that!

The One Year Bible - Day 169

2011-06-24T04:35:00.000-07:00

Is this strange today? Elijah has just triumphed at Mt Carmel (or rather God did!) and then the very next moment, he has got scared of a death threat and done a runner. No doubt Jezebel was a powerful and evil woman but where did his courage go? I wonder if it was simply a case that when Elijah was at Carmel, he was very much 'in the Spirit' where his courage came from. However, now that was finished, it was just ordinary Elijah with all his fears facing a challenge. It is much harder to have faith when God is not noticeably present but we are assured from this story that God both knows and cares when we face these challenges in our 'normal' life. We also don't face the same level of danger as Elijah so we should be confident that God knows what is going on and we need never think that we are alone in our fear.

The One Year Bible - Day 168

2011-06-22T23:40:00.000-07:00

I love today's recollection of Elijah vs the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. It is one of those situations that reminds us of how powerful God is but how many important points can you pick out of the story?
The first point is that God spoke to Elijah and Elijah heard and went to Ahab. We tend to presume God is always speaking but how many of us hear and how many of us go?
Next Elijah has the boldness to speak the truth to the evil king Ahab. Sometimes we have to speak the truth when we know it will not be received well, sometimes to people who 'could' kill us in return.
Elijah then tells the king to summon the prophets of Baal to Mount Carmel to prove that God is the Lord. We tend to forget that despite Elijah's background and track record, this would have been hard to say both taking the risk that it would not work and also knowing what would happen if it did.
Then rather than simply denouncing the prophets of Baal, he allowed them the chance to prove what they believed.
He then setup a trial for God in a way that only God could perform. By the time the alter was soaking wet, there was no way that a human could have tricked people into starting a fire. He didn't try and make it easy for God (or perhaps easy on his faith) - not that God needed it to be easy of course. You could also say that the alter represented worship which was important to prepare the ground as it were.
Of course God came through and the prophets of Baal were not forgiven and sent away but were slaughtered. Again, killing was more common in the OT it seems but this wouldn't have made it easy for Elijah to command their execution but he did it because God told him to.

The One Year Bible - Day 167

2011-06-22T23:27:00.000-07:00

There is a recurring theme throughout the books of Kings in the OT where a king dies, his son becomes king, "and he did evil just as his father did". Sometimes we also have, "however, he did..." and we are reminded how easy it is to inherit ungodly practices, theology or attitudes from those who are our earthly or spiritual fathers. For some of us it might be said, "however they did..." but of how many of us could it be said, "He was righteous and did good unlike his father"? How many of us avoid the passive approach of simply carrying on what we have taken over and not questioning the whys and the wherefores of what we do? How many of us take the line that we are 'mostly' correct and this is good enough and how many of us are like David who had humility and a daily relationship with God to enable him to constantly learn and be guided?
We also read about Elijah being fed by Ravens. Ravens are clever birds and this might be a metaphor for us being willing to be fed by the wise people around us when we have lost vision and passion in a difficult situation.

The One Year Bible - Day 166

2011-06-17T13:43:00.000-07:00

1 Kings 14 and we read about a very sad state of affairs in Judah. It is clear that the glory had well and truly departed. There was sin and unfaithfulness and to cap it all, even the Temple which was supposed to be the glory of God had been robbed of its beauty and had cheap substitutes put in their place, a bit like people who spent thousands on their house and give their church all the cheap rubbish that they don't want any more.

If we are the church, do we look like someone has stolen the glory and we have covered it up in cheap rubbish/pretense/religion? The glory is always there for the taking back so if we are like that, let us take it back by going before God on bended knee and repenting.

The One Year Bible - Day 165

2011-06-17T13:35:00.000-07:00

1 Kings 13: A prophet denounces the king and is then punished with death for disobeying God even though sometime (untruly) said that an angel told him to disobey God. Why so harsh? I think God deals with people harshly if they have more responsibility. From those who have been given much, much is expected!
The prophet quite simply knew the seriousness of his message otherwise he wouldn't have taken the message to Jeroboam so he also knew that when God said, "don't eat anything", He meant, "don't eat anything"!
A new Christian might have excuses before God but those of us who have been believers for ages have no excuses!

The One Year Bible - Day 164

2011-06-17T13:27:00.000-07:00

Oh the joys of marriage. Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines. That is a lot of sex my friends! But as the Lord had warned, they turned his heart against God. How often do we hear God's laws and think that we don't need to follow them all, perhaps not to the letter anyway!? We know how to walk the line and to be safe and God doesn't really know what he's talking about does He? Then BAM, something happens and we ask, "why didn't we trust God?"
There is of course no point in telling you this because the history of the human race shows how mush we think we know apart from God!

The One Year Bible - Day 163

2011-06-17T13:14:00.000-07:00

How many times do you read about Israel following other gods and think, "oh silly Israel, how can you turn away from God?".
Let me ask you another question. How much time do you spend trying to get more money? More possessions? More power and influence? How much effort trying to save up for the latest car/jeans/jackets/perfumes?
Yep, we're all exactly the same as Israel!