Walking the Way: A daily devotional

Hosea 10:12 Sow for yourselves righteousness;     reap steadfast love;     break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord,     that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.   Thought for the day – What God wants We used to live in Kent and across the road from our estate was an open field that lay fallow for a large part of the time we were there. It was peaceful and easy to walk on. And fallow ground feels restful, even a bit virtuous. Nothing's wrong, nothing's growing, nothing needs fixing. Almost sounds like some of our churches.   But that is not an image Hosea presents. Fallow ground isn't peaceful or restful ground, here it's hardened ground. It's the heart that has stopped expecting anything. And the prophet's word is blunt: break it up. Get the plough out. It's time. And ploughing is difficult. Ploughing tears things up and breaks things down. Nobody breaks up hard soil gently.   John Wesley was well ...

Hosea 9:14 Give them, O Lord—     what will you give? Give them a miscarrying womb     and dry breasts.   Thought for the day – Barren Womb, Open Hands Today’s thought is a Deb takeover As a woman, as a mother this passage is a hard read. I remember, a few years after we had adopted my ex-sister-in-law gave me a very belated adoption congratulations card, and the only words she had written in it were the words from this verse. At the time I was furious. So furious that I ripped the card up. Because to be reminded that as a woman my body had failed me, even though we had children through adoption was more painful than I can put into words. I guess, contextually, the inability to have children way back when Hosea was writing was more significant than now, when women aren’t tied to being a mother and housewife. But it is still significant. Significant because family relationships today are still complicated - both joyful and hurtful. I...

Hosea 6:4 “What can I do with you, Ephraim?     What can I do with you, Judah? Your love is like the morning mist,     like the early dew that disappears. Thought for the day – Mist and dew I’m an early morning person. I regularly get up at 5 am and occasionally I go out and sit in the garden with a cup of coffee and just sit and enjoy the quiet before the chaos of the kids and ministry begin. But eventually the day comes round and life begins with all the busyness that it entails and that quiet In the mist and dew disappears like our verse this morning. In context our verse is about the superficiality of the worship of the Israelites. Hosea 6 has that profound verse ‘For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.’ About how going through the motions of worship isn’t enough, and the implication is that our shallow worship dissipates like dew and mist. But as I was thinking about the quiet of the mornin...

  Daniel 10:14   But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; and behold,  Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia.   Thought for the day – Battle beyond the stars When I was a teenager, I went away on a camp for young leaders. It was run by Scripture Union and we were looking at Nehemiah for leadership skills. Anyway, on the Saturday afternoon I was outside   reading, when I looked up and saw this enormous figure standing next to me. And I mean enormous, he was taller than some of the trees and as I looked around the campsite, I saw every person there had their own. It was of course a big angel and I couldn’t help but be blown away by that brief look into the spiritual realm. Today’s verse from Daniel reminded me of hat day. And as I was researching today I came upon this quote from Biblical Scholar Ronald Wallace: ‘We are indeed given a remarkable revelation...

  Daniel 9:4 And I prayed to the Lord my God, and made confession, and said, “O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments   Thought for the day – Our lament Daniel’s prayer today is a lament. It’s cry of shame for what has gone before and a shout for God to intervene and restore Jerusalem. And it reminds me of a song I love called Lament by a South African group called Friends First, which was written during the apartheid years of South Africa. So rather than wax lyrical, here are the lyrics. Make it your prayer today.   O Lord our God who keeps his covenant of love, we have sinned and done wrong. We have turned away from your righteousness, our ears have been closed to your command. The land is divided and the people are apart,  The nation is covered in shame. We have resisted your power and your grace, We have not acknowledged your name. Our leaders and...

  Daniel 7:9 I watched till thrones were put in place, And the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow, And the hair of His head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, Its wheels a burning fire;   Thought for the day – Ancient of days In our chapter today, Daniel has this amazing vision of four beasts, they are the kingdoms of the world that are to follow. It's an image that we see again in the book of Revelation, and a reminder to us that when John wrote the book of Revelation, he was relying on texts from the Old Testament. But our focus today, and the verse that caught my mind, is verse 9. That sense that we are back in the throne room of God, where thrones are set in place, and the Ancient One or the Ancient of Days, as our verse says today, has taken his place and is ready to bring judgment on the world. That description of God is awe-inspiring. His clothing was white as snow. The hair on his head was like pure wool. These are amazing images o...

Daniel 1:8 But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself.   Thought for the day – Where God is Many years ago I was invited to join some Muslim friends for Iftar, the breaking of the fast during Ramadan. I was honoured to be asked, but found myself wondering about whether or not the food that I would be eating would be clean. I’m not Jewish, but it was the only way I could think about it. In the back of my head was the challenge the Corinthian Church faced in 1 Corinthians about food offered to idols. In the end I went for the meal and had a great time. The reason I felt okay joining my Muslim friends for Iftar was because I was well aware of what I was doing. I was also reminded of Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 10:27 : ‘ If an unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat anything set before you without raising questions ...

Ezekiel 48:35 The city will measure about 31,500 feet all the way around. From then on the city’s name will be: The Lord Is There.   Thought for the day – Where God is Today we finish the book of Ezekiel. And I can’t help but think what a wonderful ending Ezekiel presents us with. The land is reallocated to the tribes and in the centre of it all, not in Jerusalem, is the city of God. The holiest place that is separate from the worldly power of the Prince of Israel. The city of God called ‘The Lord is there’.   I don’t know about you but that’s a place I would want to be in. A place that in Revelation is described as having no tears, or sickness, or death. A place of complete peace and love, because God is love and where God is will be a place so beyond our wildest imaginations, we’ll spend the rest of eternity simply in awe and wonder of where we find ourselves.   I’m not going to apologise if I come across all gushing and silly. And I’m not going to apolo...

  Ezekiel 46:2 The prince must enter from the outside through the entrance hall of the gateway. He must stand by the doorposts of the gateway.   Thought for the day – Raspberry beret One of the musicians I enjoy listening to is Symbol, or the artist formally known as Prince. It’s a tenuous link to today’s reading but hey I’ve had more tenuous links. And the reason I mentioned Symbol because for the last few days I’ve been wondering who the prince of the New Temple is or represents. And it seems that many Biblical scholars think that the prince in Ezekiel is a symbol of how the role of leader is even more distinct from the role of priest than it was before.   The prince mediates worship but never leads it. The prince functions less as a prediction of one particular ruler and more as a foil: an authority who mediates worship but is still barred from the inner sanctuary, pointing beyond himself to a greater priest-king who would not need to offer for his own sin ...

Ezekiel 45:20 You must do the same on the seventh day of the month for everyone who unintentionally does something wrong and is unaware of it. So you must make peace with the Lord for the temple.    Thought for the day – Unknown sin There’s an idea forming in my head. What are the things we do that may or may not unintentionally be sinful? Intentional sin is easy. It’s the conscious things we do that bring us into rebellion against God. Having said that, even that’s not clear cut because so much of what we deem to be right is driven by the zeitgeist, the spirit of the age. So, what about the unintentional sins we commit? Unintentional sin is defined as acts that are objectively wrong or harmful in effect, but where the actor lacked the guilty knowledge or deliberate will. Things we do because we don’t know they’re wrong or we didn’t consciously choose to commit them. And before someone says it’s unfair for God to hold us accountable for things we do not know what we’re doing,...

Ezekiel 44:23 They must teach my people the difference between what is holy and what is unholy. They must show the people how to tell the difference between what is clean and what is unclean.    Thought for the day – We are a royal priesthood Today’s chapter in Ezekiel is striking in that it is very specific to the priests that would lead worship in the new Temple. There are strict conditions for what they wear, how they look, and what they do. and one the ones that stand out to me is how they were to demonstrate the holiness of God. Something I believe we as the people of God, who are now his royal priesthood, should be doing as well.   You may well think ‘Wait Ray, I’m not a priest!’ Well, we are. Peter reminds us that we are a "chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession," called to proclaim God’s excellencies. (1 Peter 2:9); we all serve as representatives of God. Priesthood in its widest sense is a representative ministry. We represent ...

  Consumers? Ever heard of the phrase ‘too much of a good thing?’ How much is too much for you? And how much of a good thing is too much? At what point do we say enough is enough? I’ve been thinking about this recently. A lot. I believe God has been challenging me to think about how much I consume. I feel like this one of those moments when I stand up in a support group and say ‘my name is Ray and I am a consumer.’ I’m not being flippant here either. I think we need to confess that we are consumers. God has given us an amazingly wild, diverse beautiful place to live. Our consumption is destroying it. And it’s because we have believed in the lie that more is better. The latest phone, the newest car, the most up to date fashion. The must have toy. More is better is what the world tells us. The Gospel is that we find our value, our purpose, and our satisfaction in Christ alone. Paul writes in Philippians 4:19 ‘And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his gl...