Standout Verses - John 19:5, 14
Behold the man … behold your King.
He would be nailed to a cross, this man – this king. For me.
Why would I behold? It’s less fluffy than the sanitised winterfest manger. It doesn’t seem as glorious as the transfiguration mount. The emotional resonance here is discomforting.
Yet it is here we are told to behold this man – this king; my God.
In this, Pilate speaks with wisdom and no one listened. Today I listen.
Here I behold this man – this king; my God.
O cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from thee;
I lay in dust life's glory dead,
and from the ground there blossoms red
life that shall endless be.
Wednesday, 3 December 2008
Tuesday, 2 December 2008
toothpaste and shaving foam ... or water?
Standout Verses - 2 Samuel 14:14
Our lives are like water spilled out on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. But God does not just sweep life away; instead, he devises ways to bring us back when we have been separated from him.
We all know the illustration of trying to get toothpaste back in a tube, or shaving foam back into the can, because they are so over-done. In the traditional form of the story the analogy is most often to what we say; we can’t take our words back. The paste and foam sit there looking out of place on the children’s worker’s prop as evidence of potential sin, encouraging us to be more guarded in future. If the worker were to use a glass of water in the analogy what would happen. Well, with a spoon and a cloth much of the water could be gathered up again but most likely there would be some dirt brought back into the glass and there would be some water and there would be some left on the ground. If much care was taken then we could get very close to the appearance of a perfect job - near clear water and the glass as good as full. But this would only be an illusion.
We are people of dust and stains …
When our lives become problematic and are spilt out on the ground we find a way to pick ourselves up and patch ourselves together, and often we don’t involve God in that process. Millions of non-Christians and Christians alike live pieced together lives without God, displaying for all the world the illusion of togetherness. But if we scratch the surface, if we investigate further, we find that their lives contain the dirt of daily living, inadvertently gathered up as they hold themselves together: contaminated with the unhealed pain, uncontrolled desire and purposeless striving. We would see that they have not managed to pick up all that dropped and around them are scattered the discarded drops of life they could not reclaim. The struggles of life have left them damaged. Often though, to the outside observer, it looks as if the glass has been successfully and purely refilled.
The illustration shows us that this gathering up of life is not something that we can adequately do on our own: the truth we find here is that our lives cannot be “gathered up” by ourselves. They can only be pieced together and held together by God. He will not sweep away what we spill, nor will he contaminate what he brings together. He will devise a way.
Lord, we can only be made whole by a miracle. It is beyond the earthly and humanly possible, but I praise you that it is not beyond your divine will.
Piece me together.
Keep me together.
May I never again be separated from you.
Our lives are like water spilled out on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. But God does not just sweep life away; instead, he devises ways to bring us back when we have been separated from him.
We all know the illustration of trying to get toothpaste back in a tube, or shaving foam back into the can, because they are so over-done. In the traditional form of the story the analogy is most often to what we say; we can’t take our words back. The paste and foam sit there looking out of place on the children’s worker’s prop as evidence of potential sin, encouraging us to be more guarded in future. If the worker were to use a glass of water in the analogy what would happen. Well, with a spoon and a cloth much of the water could be gathered up again but most likely there would be some dirt brought back into the glass and there would be some water and there would be some left on the ground. If much care was taken then we could get very close to the appearance of a perfect job - near clear water and the glass as good as full. But this would only be an illusion.
We are people of dust and stains …
When our lives become problematic and are spilt out on the ground we find a way to pick ourselves up and patch ourselves together, and often we don’t involve God in that process. Millions of non-Christians and Christians alike live pieced together lives without God, displaying for all the world the illusion of togetherness. But if we scratch the surface, if we investigate further, we find that their lives contain the dirt of daily living, inadvertently gathered up as they hold themselves together: contaminated with the unhealed pain, uncontrolled desire and purposeless striving. We would see that they have not managed to pick up all that dropped and around them are scattered the discarded drops of life they could not reclaim. The struggles of life have left them damaged. Often though, to the outside observer, it looks as if the glass has been successfully and purely refilled.
The illustration shows us that this gathering up of life is not something that we can adequately do on our own: the truth we find here is that our lives cannot be “gathered up” by ourselves. They can only be pieced together and held together by God. He will not sweep away what we spill, nor will he contaminate what he brings together. He will devise a way.
Lord, we can only be made whole by a miracle. It is beyond the earthly and humanly possible, but I praise you that it is not beyond your divine will.
Piece me together.
Keep me together.
May I never again be separated from you.
Monday, 1 December 2008
how much is enough?
Standout Verses: Psalm 119:66, 73
I believe in your commands; now teach me good judgment and knowledge.
You made me; you created me. Now give me the sense to follow your commands.
These verses almost seem out of place on first reading. In the middle of this psalm where Ezra spends verse after verse after many a verse declaring how much God’s law means to him, how much he delights in it, they jar. For the writer would otherwise seem to have it all sorted. He must be following God’s law. He loves it, honours it, meditates on it. He has hidden it in his heart and been overwhelmed with desire by it; hoped, rejoiced and wondered in it. It revives him, renews him and sustains him. Surely he must know them all, follow them all and keep them all. But no, for more is needed.
When you pause briefly it begins to make sense, and the truth begins to shine through. We only need to bring ourselves into the equation and we see the possibility of sin. We easily recognise that we like Paul (Rom 7:14) are “all too human” but our response is often to model ourselves after the writer of this psalm. “If I meditate on God’s law day and night, if I learn more, understand more, surely that will be enough,” we tell ourselves. We only get half the picture. Scriptural understanding alone is insufficient to bring about a change in our actions. That change follows a change of heart and of passions which comes from relationship. Scriptural understanding without a Jesus-relationship is meaningless head-noise. Scripture reading that focuses other than on building that relationship is just literary entertainment. The scriptures: the law, the prophets, poetry, gospels and letters point to God and exist to lead us to Him. All other uses are mere moralising sociological history and demean the Word of God.
I believe in your commands; now teach me good judgment and knowledge.
You made me; you created me. Now give me the sense to follow your commands.
Lord God, this is my prayer too. Teach me good judgment and knowledge and give me the sense to follow your commands; and do it through building my relationship with Your Son.
I believe in your commands; now teach me good judgment and knowledge.
You made me; you created me. Now give me the sense to follow your commands.
These verses almost seem out of place on first reading. In the middle of this psalm where Ezra spends verse after verse after many a verse declaring how much God’s law means to him, how much he delights in it, they jar. For the writer would otherwise seem to have it all sorted. He must be following God’s law. He loves it, honours it, meditates on it. He has hidden it in his heart and been overwhelmed with desire by it; hoped, rejoiced and wondered in it. It revives him, renews him and sustains him. Surely he must know them all, follow them all and keep them all. But no, for more is needed.
When you pause briefly it begins to make sense, and the truth begins to shine through. We only need to bring ourselves into the equation and we see the possibility of sin. We easily recognise that we like Paul (Rom 7:14) are “all too human” but our response is often to model ourselves after the writer of this psalm. “If I meditate on God’s law day and night, if I learn more, understand more, surely that will be enough,” we tell ourselves. We only get half the picture. Scriptural understanding alone is insufficient to bring about a change in our actions. That change follows a change of heart and of passions which comes from relationship. Scriptural understanding without a Jesus-relationship is meaningless head-noise. Scripture reading that focuses other than on building that relationship is just literary entertainment. The scriptures: the law, the prophets, poetry, gospels and letters point to God and exist to lead us to Him. All other uses are mere moralising sociological history and demean the Word of God.
I believe in your commands; now teach me good judgment and knowledge.
You made me; you created me. Now give me the sense to follow your commands.
Lord God, this is my prayer too. Teach me good judgment and knowledge and give me the sense to follow your commands; and do it through building my relationship with Your Son.
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