Glory revealed? 

A lady approached a minister and asked the minister to baptise her child. They discussed what infant baptism was, and when he asked her when she wanted her child to be baptised, she told him that she didn’t want the baptism to be done as part of the Sunday worship service. When he asked why, she said to him that those attending didn’t want to sit through a boring sermon.

I don’t know how you felt when you heard the account I’ve just given. I have no doubt there will be some that will be nodding thinking about the last time you had a particularly bad sermon. There will be some that are thinking about the theological debate about infant vs believer baptism. There will be some that may be outraged that people see the church merely as a vehicle to get things done. And there may be some that are thinking what our current worship says about the way we make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, And the glorious majesty of His kingdom.

This is the question I want us to focus on as we go through the day. For many churches, the main point of outreach is their Sunday worship. It’s not ideal but it’s what they have. Does your Sunday service make known to people His mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of His kingdom? It’s a challenge to myself, as a preacher and worship leader, as much as it is to you listening. And as with most of these things there are no easy answers so today please think about your Church services and if need be make some changes and have a conversation with some to make changes so that God may be shown in all his glory and wonder.

Habits

 

Psalm 135:18

Those who make them become like them,

so do all who trust in them.

Thought for the day

What’s your worst habit? What’s your best habit? It’s a strange direction to go in with today’s verse because in context, today’s verse is about idolatry. Idols are dead so those who make them become like them as do those who worship them. They die.

 

But maybe it’s not such a strange direction to go in. After all the habits we have are very often as a result of what we hold dearest. A morning quiet time can be a habit because of our desire to spend quality time with God. Watching porn can become a habit because of our desire to satisfy our own needs, often at the cost of our meaningful relationships. Our habits in many ways reflect our priorities.

 

So what are your habits? Good and bad. What do your habits tell you about yourself? I think we can learn a lot about ourselves when we think about our habits and question them. So today as you go through your day ask God to reveal to you what your priorities are as reflected in your habits. If you have a habit of being late for everything, ask God to show why that is. It may be as simple as getting a diary. If you have good habits still ask God to check your motivations because even good habits can be motivated by the wrong reasons, just go read Jesus’ parable about the two men praying in the synagogue.

 

Our habits will either make us or break us. Lets check them with God today shall we?

 Psalm 130:6

I wait for the Lord

 

Thought for the day

There used to be a car advert in South Africa for a small car from a well-known German car manufacturer. The advert song had the lines ‘waiting, waiting, waiting for the bus. Where’s the bus?’ The advert was a person standing at a bus stop in the rain as this little car drove past. Cut to the people in the car nice and dry and warm and unbelievably happy. It wasn’t a particularly original advert that’s for sure.

Two things come to mind when I read today’s verse. The first is the iine from the advert about waiting (as if waiting is such a bad thing) and the second thing is how we have become so accustomed to things happening immediately that we are no longer able to wait for things. And that’s a big challenge for disciples of Jesus because as I’m sure we’ve experienced God’s timing is very rarely our timing.

How many of us can honestly say with the Psalmist ‘I wait for the Lord’? The reality is that the vast majority of believers cannot say they wait for the Lord, because they are time poor and if we’re honest God is not always our top priority.

We need to take time and wait for God sometimes. We need to take time and be still and listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. We need to take time and just enjoy being with God. We need to stop and wait, even if it’s a bus stop in the rain because fast and convenient is not always the best way.

Message for someone

 

Psalm 107:6

Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,

and he delivered them from their distress

Thought for the day

Someone asked me how the could know if if God was speaking to them. It’s a good question. How can we know if God is speaking to us? There are a whole number of ways. Circumstances can be an indication that God is trying to tell you something. Dreams and visions are another way. People can say things to you and then there is Scripture. But often the most common way God speaks to us is through repetition. He will say something to us again and again until we get the message. He’s patient and let’s face we aren’t the brightest when it comes to hearing from God. And the repetition bit is important because today’s verse gets repeated 4 times in today’s psalm and there’s a message there for someone who needs to hear it.

I don’t know who today’s message is meant for but someone out there is struggling at the moment and God wants you to know that you can call out to him. I’m not even sure this message is meant for someone today; the joy of a podcast is that someone can listen to it 2 years from now and someone can hear this message, but God is telling you to call out to him and he will rescue you. Take a step of faith God is waiting.

Organic Scripture

 

Psalm 106:4

Remember me, O Lord,

when you show favor to your people;

help me when you deliver them;

Thought for the day

Have you ever read a passage of Scripture and felt that you’ve heard that before? It may not be a direct reference, there are literally hundreds of those and a good Bible should give you those references in the foot notes. But those times when you read a passage and it’s more like an echo. (I’m sure there’s a theological or literary term for it, but I can’t remember it.) Today’s verse is the same. As I was reading the Psalm, I heard an echo of a another verse. I’ll give you a second to see if you can think what it was… My echo was when the thief on the cross with Jesus turns to Jesus as says: ‘Jesus remember me when you come into your Kingdom.’ Luke 23:42

 

This is one of the joys of Scripture. We read portions of Scripture and it makes connections with other sections of Scripture. Maybe not directly, but certainly organically. There almost a neuroplasticity to the Bible that forms new connections as we read it. Those echoes we read and hear become new pathways for us to learn about the Bible and about God himself. So, in today’s verse and it’s echo, both the psalmist and the thief are asking God to remember them and wipe away their sin. They recognise their need for God and so they ask knowing that God will hear them.

 

Think about those times when you have heard an echo in Scripture. When you’ve thought about it what does tell you about God?

Church?

Opening Prayers

Loving God,

It's all in the touch,

the touch of love,

the touch of healing,

the touch of compassion,

the touch of reassurance,

the touch that says,

'You are special, wanted,

held in high regard'.

It's all in that touch,

that very special touch,

the touch you give through us

who reach out to those in need,

to those who need to know.

Help us to be channels of your touch

in this dark world,

to bring your love,

healing,

compassion,

and reassurance,

to a world that knows

none of these

 

Bible verse (Amos 5:4-5)

For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel:

Seek me and live;

but do not seek Bethel,

and do not enter into Gilgal

 

Thought for the day

The perennial conversation in Church is what is the Church? The discussions will range from the Church as the bride of Christ, through to the Church being the people of God rather than the buildings. And yet as much as we like to think that the Church is the people of God we invest heavily

in our buildings. And don’t get me wrong, we have some amazing buildings but so much of what we call Christianity has evolved around and because of those places of worship we call churches, chapels, cathedrals etc. So much so that for those people who are not Christians, when they think about Christianity they see churches. The three places Amos mentions in today’s verse were three of the holiest places in Ancient Israel. And yet God is telling Amos’ readers that the life they seek is in God, not in those holy places. Don’t get me wrong Churches and places of worship are important, but we can worship God anywhere. But when our desire to see holy places outweighs our desire to see God we have a problem.

Rest? What rest?

Rest? What rest

Bible verse (Ezekiel 20:12)

I gave them my Sabbaths as a sign between us, so they would know that I the Lord made them holy.

Thought for the day

How have you found being in lockdown, if you’re in lockdown? What has been the biggest challenge you have faced. For me, the challenge has been to make sure I have a day off.

You see like many people, I have to work from home. No big difference there but when I look back over the last 6 weeks of lockdown in the UK, I can count on two fingers the number of actual days off I have had. When I haven’t had to answer the phone, or reply to an email, or prepare a service.

I have to ask myself, how is that honoring God. Today’s verse in Ezekiel talks about the Sabbath day of rest as a sign. A sign that we have been made holy, put aside for God. In a way observing the Sabbath, whenever that may be, indicates our trust in God. The Sabbath requires us to trust God that the world won’t fall apart while we rest. My not taking a day to rest and recuperate shows me that I don’t really trust God. That’s a hard thing to admit but I feel for myself at least it’s true.

So how about you? How is your day of rest going? Do you keep it or like me has it become a concept rather than a reality because my challenge to us all today is to take the time to simply rest. Rest in God’s goodness and do not worry about anything.