Wideplace

Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts! We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple! - Psalm 65:4

There is one simple satisfaction for the believer. It is the fact that Almighty God has chosen to bring me near to Him! To be brought into His courts, where He reigns is true blessedness!

I will be satisfied with the goodness of His house, the holiness of His temple. This is enough, this is everything. Nothing else compares.

“We shall be satisfied…”

And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made… - 2 Kings 18:4

Hezekiah was a brave and wise king. The bronze serpent had been made by Moses at God’s command. Moses was the leader who led Israel out of Egypt, who brought them the 10 commandments. The serpent reminded them of God’s mercy in a time of judgement.

This serpent was their spiritual heritage - something too sacred to dispose of. But, it had become a snare to the people; it had become a substitute for God, and as such it caused harm.

Hezekiah saw this and broke the serpent in pieces - the people needed to have their spiritual heritage broken in order for it not to become a snare and a stumbling block.

There are many stumbling blocks in our own spiritual traditions: things that somehow become more important than God, or His people: the way that we dress, our church government, views on communion.

Anything that takes our focus away from the proper worship of God and fellowship with His people, no matter how sacred it appears to be needs to be broken up and removed from our lives and our churches.

He said, “It is finished” - John 19:30

Despite its context, this verse is one of the most hopeful verses in Scripture! This is that crucial point in all of time where the focus of all eternity rest on the cross, and what was taking place between Jesus, the Christ, and God.

The one Greek word ‘tetelestai’ which is usually translated as ‘it is finished’ embodies all our hope: it has been accomplished. This is not ‘I’m finished, done for’, but ‘I have completed the very thing for which I came into the world!’ - what a difference!

Jesus is in control, and with this statement our salvation is purchased, our destiny is secured, the bride is betrothed. With this ‘accomplished’ heaven is assured for all who hope and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ!

Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. - John 14:13

We have a promise from Jesus that whatever we ask in His name He will do. This is not a carte blanche that allows us to “name it and claim it” for our own personal ends. It’s been said often enough not to need repeating here that asking in Jesus’ name means asking according to His character and will, not ours, but Jesus explains the nature of asking in the follow on phrase: that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

The entire purpose of asking in Jesus’ name is that the Father may be glorified, just as Jesus glorified the Father by His actions on earth. This is very much the same sentiment as Jesus taught us the pray in the Lord’s Prayer: Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

We have been given a part to play in God’s unfolding plan for His creation! We, as His dependent creatures are to ask of God, and receive that God’s will would be done, that His Kingdom would come, not just with the second coming of Jesus Christ, but among us, His Church here on earth, but bringing glory to God in the heavenly places! Our place is to ask according to Jesus’ character and God’s will, to ask Him to work in His creation for His glory and our benefit.

As we move into another year one prayer is on my mind:

Lord build your Church and let not the gates of hell prevail against it

This is completely in keeping with God’s will, as He has already promised it (Matthew 16:18) and does not restrict God to our opinions on how His Church should be built. So let the coming year be one in which we take to prayer, not just any prayer, but specific prayer in His name and for His glory. Then we will see Him answer, as He has promised, and He will be glorified in His Church, both now, and for all eternity (Ephesians 3:21)!

And there I have provided a place for the ark, in which is the covenant of the LORD - 1 Kings 8:21

The temple had several layers, from the outer court to the holy place to the most holy place (1 Kings 8:6). It was in the most holy place that the covenant box resided. Here, in a place too special even to be looked on was the box that contained the ten commandments - the stone tablets of the covenant made through Moses between God and His people, Israel.

In this new temple, the focus of worship, the covenant was placed at the very heart. The only basis upon which Israel could draw near and worship was that of God’s covenant with them. The temple without the covenant was devoid of relationship: it was merely religion.

For Christians our body is the God’s temple, and the new covenant must be at our very heart. Without that we are not Christian, but merely religious. It is Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf and our acceptance of His terms for salvation that allows us to draw near.

This covenant must be the very heart of our faith - all else is peripheral to the love of Jesus in dying in order to raise us to newness of life. As we place Jesus and what He has done at the heart of our lives then the glory of God will fill the temple of our bodies (1 Kings 8:11) as we worship Him in Spirit and truth.

Have you considered my servant Job? - Job 1:8

The story of Job takes us right back to the absolute fundamentals of our Christian faith. Job 1:8 recounts God’s words to Satan:

Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?

God is actually proud of this man, of his faith and his obedience. The incredible thing is that Job is able to please God by his own personal faith, regardless of circumstances. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians reveals the heavenly and spiritual nature of God’s Kingdom and the part that we play in it. We, the Church are responsible for making known God’s wisdom, not primarily in this world, but to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places (Ephesians 3:10).

Job’s story goes on to show how even when everything is taken away from him Job is still honouring God with his life. He loses his family, his wealth, his health and even the support of his wife. Yet, the Bible tells us that: “In all this Job did not sin with his lips.” - Job 2:10. With nothing but himself Job was able to honour God and please him; Job was making God’s manifold wisdom known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places.

What do you think that you need to be able to please God? Do you think you must be in ministry in your local church, or on the mission field? Do you think that you must be doing something with someone? The bottom line answer is “No”. Ultimately your ministry must flow from a personal faith relationship with God: you and Him alone.

God can, and may allow everything that you hold onto as your ’service’ to be taken away from you and yet still expect to see spiritual fruit from your life. If the arena of our life is in the heavenly places then this is possible; if we are working in our own strength to ‘do stuff’ at church we will fail miserably and feel a miserable failure!

We need to ask ourselves: “If God were to take away everything but me and Him would there be anything left?” We need to be sure of this before we do anything else. Job could say with certainty:

For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. - Job 19:25

Job was looking only to God: He was his only hope. God must be our only hope. With the psalmist we must be able to say:

Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. - Psalm 73:25-26

Only then can we begin to do again in the strength of our relationship with God and the certain knowledge that it is Him alone that we honour with our lives, whatever the circumstances.

they ought always to pray and not lose heart - Luke 18:1

We know that we ought always to pray. We have the privilege of access to our heavenly father: it is a thread that runs right through the New Testament.

In this passage Jesus addresses the intercession: the act of seeking the Lord for an express purpose - to see Him work in our world, our lives. In this it is the losing heart that is the problem. It is easy to pray when we see the immediate results. But prayer is an act of faith. Just as the widow persisted day after day, with no guarantees of success, we must petition day after day with the promise of being heard and of being granted justice.

God will act, because He will always be true to Himself, but when He acts, will He still find us on our knees in faithful, persistent prayer?

We must not lose heart in our intercession for God’s intervention in this world in which He has placed us - this is a part of the role that God has given to us - not just ’shopping list’ prayers, but seeking Him, and His making right of the wrongs of this earth.

We must not lose heart - that is the goal of the enemy - to give up, to stop. Whe n the Son of Man comes, will He find us faithful?

For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. - Luke 17:24

There’s a lot of hype surrounding the concept of the rapture - the idea of the taking of the Lord’s people to be with Him, but Jesus never implies a secret return to claim His own - in fact He specifically states that it will be obvious to all:

And they will say to you, ‘Look, there!’ or ‘Look, here!’ Do not go out or follow them. - Luke 17:23

The day of the Lord is to be sudden, but not secret. Those who say ‘here it is’ are wrong, because when Jesus returns no-one will need to have Him pointed out to them! The logic of Luke’s record in Luke 17:20-37 is inescapable: The Day of the Coming of the Son of Man is going to be as sudden and obvious as a lightening bolt illuminating the entire sky; this coming will burst into every day life for saint and sinner alike; this Day will suddenly change everything. Sinners will be left standing as the saints by their sides are taken to meet the Lord.

This fits perfectly with 1 Thessalonians 4:17

Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

This speaks of our being caught up to meet Him in the air as He returns! Praise God that we will also be transformed, changed in the twinkling of an eye - as we meet Him, the coming King (1 Corinthians chapter 15)!

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel

If you had known Simeon before the incarnation of Christ what would you have thought of him? Just some strange man who had nothing to do with his time? Why then does Scripture record his story?

It wasn’t by accident that Simeon was at the temple. This was the purpose for his life: to wait for the consolation of Israel. This was single minded devotion. Nothing else would get in his way or rise to the surface of his consciousness. He was waiting, not the way you do in a doctor’s waiting room when you are just marking time, but eagerly, expectantly, excitedly!

Our hope in Jesus Christ is partially fulfilled. If we have turned to Him in repentance and committed our lives to Him, then we are already born again, we are already new people, we already walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4).

Colossians 3:1-3 says:

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

and goes on to say in verse 4

When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

That is such an incredible statement! To think that one day, we will appear with Him in glory! So, what do you spend each day thinking about? Your forthcoming holiday? A better job, house, car?

As believers we have a blessed hope: the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ (Titus 2:13)! This, as with Simeon should be more than our Sunday affiliation, our religious acknowledgment - this should be our consuming passion!

Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. - Matthew 7:24

The picture in Jesus’ parable of the houses build on the rock and the sand is an illustration of the building of a life. We are all seeking to build our lives. We want to build that which is strong and secure; something of which we can be proud as we look back on our lives.

“These words of mine” refers back to the entire sermon on the mount. Hearing and doing is the building of our lives on solid rock. Those who don’t both hear and do are building their lives on the sand, and, ultimately, their lives will fail to stand.

This parable is too easily generalised away. We apply it to “God’s Word”, and in so doing we make it too vast in scope to be able to apply it intelligently to our day to day life. It does apply to all of God’s Word in a general sense, but Jesus intended it to be taken specifically in the context of that which He had just preached. It is the specifics of the sermon on the mount, therefore that determine whether our lives stand or fall.

The message of the sermon on the mount turns the world’s values upside down - it takes the established ideas and values and rips them apart, replacing them with simple, solid instruction:

• don’t fight back
• love your enemies
• give, and give secretly
• pray, and pray secretly

And so it goes on! We build on the rock when we fulfil these simple instructions, both completely and individually. We build on the sand when we fail to do any of these instructions.

Each world inverting command fulfilled is another solid rock built on the solid rock.

We build our lives one brick at a time. Every opportunity taken to love someone who hates, to give in private to the needy, to go the second mile is another brick on the rock.

This is how we build a life that will survive the storm: one brick at a time.