Revelation 16

God wins his world back. Just like in Exodus, God uses plagues of judgement to prize open the grip of the Pharaoh. Here, through the symbol of seven bowls we see the same truth as the seven trumpets and the seven signs; God has such commitment to justice on his earth, God has such commitment to mercy for the oppressed, God has such commitment to raising up the humble that he will even whip up a storm to assert his will on earth. This will be a real storm felt by real people in real places. The recipients of God’s judgement will be human beings, and the earth will feel it too. It probably sounds harsh to us. We should think of selfish squatters laughing as they desecrate our granny’s house. They have broken her prized possessions, tortured her cat, ripped up her bedroom. They have ignored the myriad of warnings shoved through the letterbox. They have picked up the eviction notices and wiped their bums with them. How do we feel when eviction day comes? How does granny feel. Sometimes, with some people, it really does come to this. And, if we are honest, we will admit that it needs to come to this on the earth. The position of the enemy is so deeply entrenched. There is massive corruption, hostility towards God and celebration of pride and greed. The world needs to be shaken to root out every cause and consequence of evil. The world needs to be shaken to provide space for unopposed goodness and undisturbed peace. The bowls show us that God will finally do this. God will split into three parts the great city and he will end those who have got fat and brazen with their abuse of human power. If you – like most of the church for most of history – are being ravaged by persecution, or smashed by oppression, or relentlessly looted of your possessions then this is a hope-filled image for you. God will win his world back. God will re-establish justice and then finally we will be free.

Revelation 17

I’m sitting in a coffee shop. I’m listening to the lovely twinkly Christmas music. I’m conscious that both the bible and the year are reaching their end. I’m looking at all the delicious treats on offer and I’m finding it hard to equate what I see with what I have just read. The passage tells me of great powers raging in this world. It tells of a grotesque and adulterous force that is intoxicating us with worship of false gods. It says that this force is violently opposed to me and my faith. It says that it wants my blood. But everything looks so jolly. Christmas is just so jolly… isn’t it?? I think this is one of the areas of my faith that I struggle with more than anything else. In the affluent West we have grown so accustomed to things having the edge taken off them. Life is manicured around us; it has been declawed. I suppose there is nothing wrong with that except that it belies the truth of the vicious battle going on. I need passages like this so I can see through the fancy facade and remember the reality. I need to see that in their hearts – in their souls – people are haggard.  People are on the brink. I need to look past the superficial “jolliness” and see the cancer and the divorce and the loss and the loneliness and the people struck by trains and the slander against Jesus and grasp that this is the work of a disgusting and despicable force. It is the work of THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES. In John’s day that MOTHER was manifested in the idea of Rome. Today it is probably another manifestation that rules over the kings of the earth. It requires wisdom to recognise it because it is so easy to overlook. It is so easy to be serenaded by superficial and to miss the battle that is raging on this earth. We need to pray hard to see the fetid ugliness that hides behind what we call “normalness”. Only then can we fight. Only then can we be sure we will overcome. The story of the book is coming to an end and it ends with a mighty battle and then the brilliance of a brand new dawn. We must not lose sight of that. We can enjoy the twinkly lights. We can enjoy the jolly stuff. But we must also see what lies beneath; being disgusted by the influence of greed and being delighted to be a follower of the Lord. 

Revelation 18

Babylon will be tortured. Babylon will weep in torment. These are the sections of Revelation I have always found hardest to like! But this time, as the sweep of the narrative is much clearer to me, I think it is winning me over. Babylon is a symbol of the great “idea” or the great “kingdom” of the day that scorns the creative order of God. God made the world for shalom, where all feed well and enjoy fellowship with God and men and women. But Babylon actively asserts itself over and above the Creator and then crashes around the earth snatching stuff intended for others. Despite clear and present warnings both in creation and from the Creator, Babylon advances in this greed with reckless abandon. She draws others into the pride and the plunder. It puts smoke in God’s nostrils. God will bring them to ruin in just one hour. But before he does that he issues an invitation to his people. Have you heard this invitation? Are you actually responding to its call? The invitation is to step out of the value-system of the culture. The invitation is to reject the constant desire for accumulation. Greed is a slippery enemy that can slide so easily into our hearts. Do we dream of bigger houses, fuller bank accounts, newer gadgets and better jobs? What if God intended that job for someone else? What if the manufacture of your desired gadget ground the faces of the poor and denied their God-given dignity. Do you care? Babylon doesn’t. But the people of God will care about these things. We see “excessive luxuries” as the rejection of God’s shalom that they really are. Let’s be clear about this; gold in itself is not evil. Gold is the pavement stone of heaven and a symbol of God’s beauty. Buy presents for loved ones. Save up for your pension. Treat yourself every now and then. But beware the love of gold. The love of gold leads to a yearning for accumulation, which will cause you to share in Babylon’s sins. Instead let’s come away from such things. Instead, in humility and in worship let’s give allegiance to the Way of Heaven with what we say and what we want and what we spend. For the Way of Heaven will last forever, while Babylon will be overthrown in one night.

Revelation 19

Never again. That has been the refrain of the last few passages.  Never again will Babylon be found. (For Babylon read the abusive power of Rome, or any dehumanising force that sits like a fat parasite over the earth). Never again will a lamp shine in her.  Never again will she lead the nations astray.  It is worth lingering a while on that ‘never’.  We get so used to the ugly runt head of the devil popping up in our lives that it can be hard to believe that a time is coming when it will never happen again.  The Word of God is continuing relentlessly with the annihilation of evil.  The birds of the air will gorge on its flesh.  I say again that this is worth a linger; a sure and certain conviction that evil will be ravaged would be a good portion of our daily bread.  To know that evil’s days are numbered would inspire us, it would embolden us, it would help us stand firm.  And we can know that it is true because it is already happening. This takes us back to what I said right at the start of Revelation – this is not so much a prophecy about the future as a revelation of the Now. The word of God is already dressed in a robe that has been dipped in the blood. The armies of heaven are at this moment white and clean. KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS has already summoned the birds, he has already started treading out the winepress. He started it on the cross. He started it at Calvary.  Every time we see an addiction overcome, every time we see a healing occur, every time we see someone filled with the Spirit or forgiven of their sins or growing in love or standing firm in trial – every time we see these things we see the victory of Faithful and True, we see the two being thrown into the fiery lake. Jesus is doing his thing right now. And he will consummate the whole thing in the end. Our world is being redeemed and it will be fully redeemed. Evil will come to an end. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Revelation 20

I don’t know what to say about the 1,000 years.  I know people have defined their faith by what they think about it. That seems a little bizarre considering that it is just a stage history will pass through on the road to its final destination.  To define yourself as pre-millenial or post-millenial seems a bit like defining your house move by what time the removal company is arriving.  I guess you can do it if you want but it seems to be missing the point. It doesn’t seem like the main and the plain in this passage. What does seem main and plain is this phrase “the dead were judged according to what they had done”.  Now hold on a minute but don’t you think we need to call in the heresy squad?  Doesn’t John know that we are saved by grace through faith and it is not down to works? Doesn’t he realise that we can do what we bally-well please once we have been washed in the blood?  Oh.  He doesn’t.  And if he doesn’t then maybe I shouldn’t either.  For what has kept coming back time and time again through our voyage across the bible has been this idea that salvation actually means being made more holy.  What has become increasingly clear is that forgiveness for sin and healing from the things that cause us to sin are so intertwined that they can’t be separated.  The whole point is that Christians will do good things.  Even in the midst of a society that pressures them and attacks them and tries to deceive them; Christians will still live blameless lives.We will be holy as He is holy so that, upon judgement day, God will look at what we have actually done and will say “I recognise myself in you, well done my good and faithful servant”.  Will he say that to you? If you read these verses and don’t ask yourself that question you are seriously missing the point. You may have gone to church week in week out, you may have read the whole bible and even asked Jesus to forgive you for things you have done wrong, but if you have not actually in any way submitted yourself to the Lordship of Jesus and sought to change your behaviour to honour him, then I think you need to be scared about judgement day. Judgement day will come. All people from all time will be judged. For those in the book of life it will be extreme delight. For all others it will be a shock and a horror and bring much grief.

Revelation 21

This is our great hope. This is what we cry out for like a hot shower and our own bed after a long week of soggy camping. The content of this chapter should be imagined and then reimagined to ensure our hope is real. Over and again I come across “bible people” who have no real imagination for what our hope will look like. Over and again I realise my understanding of “what it will look like” is too super-spiritual and vague to cause any change in my 9-5. In truth most communication about “heaven” sounds so much like an out-of-body floaty-sunny fantasy land that our minds cannot accept it. Revelation’s images are far more “earthy” than many of us ever manage. In fact – get this shock – the hope of Revelation is not for us to go to heaven at all. Please do think about that. The hope of Revelation is not that we will float out of our bodies and out of this earth to some hovering utopia in the skies. No. The hope of Revelation comes down out of heaven. Twice in this passage we see our hope coming down “out of heaven”. Both times it is the bride or the holy city that comes down “out of heaven” – where it has been paradising with Jesus while it waited for the New Earth to be made. The key phrase is that now, in this New Earth God has come down to live with his people. All wrongs have been righted. The earth has been transformed; made perfect and fully redeemed in every way, but something that we could still only describe as ‘earth’. It seems like this good and spotless place will have nations and kings and people who can make and bring things of splendour to the Lamb. It seems that the New Earth will be like Eden when it was “very good”, except more populated, thriving, swirling, life-infested in every way. The garden will show signs of human cultivation, with every single good thing done in the body represented and remembered there in some way. It will be a city of joy. Brilliant and beautiful without a trace or threat of shame. So if you ever start to feel sick of camping, if you ever feel bored of feeling half-washed then do not despair; the hope is coming. It is real, it is good, and if you have your name in Jesus’ book you are guaranteed to make it there.

Revelation 22

The Fall is overcome. The river of life raises The City and its inhabitants way up above even the lofty heights of Eden.  For now there is a throne. Now there is no night.  And they will reign for ever and ever without a pesky snake coming and wrecking it all up.  So unspeakably brilliant is this vision, so nostril-flaringly outstanding is this sight that John – even John who saw the transfigured Jesus and who ate the broiled fish with the risen Christ – even John can’t help himself but fling his whole being down onto the dust and physically express his utter unworthiness to be around it.  I can’t remember the last time I felt such a depth of astonishment and conviction.  I end this journey with a similar sense of trepidation to that with which I started it, except now I feel more aware of the sheer inadequacy of my knowledge, the meagre extent of my faith.  This Jesus who I love, this Jesus who in my worst moment I feel I fully know – this Jesus is the same one who gave this vision to John.  This Jesus is the same one who is called the Root, the Offspring of David and the Bright Morning Star.  This Jesus has shown me Himself – he really, truly has – and so far all I’ve been able to look at is the nail of his little toe.  What I’ve seen has been amazing.  What I’ve seen nearly brings me to tears right now in this seat and yet it is just a whiff.  It is just a tiny fragment of gold compared to all of Fort Knox.  But there will be a day when I see it all.  I pray I will keep seeing more and more until that day comes.  But there will be a day when Jesus will come, where Jesus will come and claim his own and will reward for what’s been done.  And then I will see him as he is.  Then his whole phenomenal, beyond-ordinary, beyond-temporary, beyond-constraint body will be unveiled before me.  And I will fall face down and I will eat the dust.  I can’t wait for that day.  Please come, Lord Jesus.

Revelation 11

The stuff about the trumpets and the woes and the witnesses and the woes interlaces back and forth like a bowl of spaghetti. If we try to follow all the progress of the trumpets and the woes we might feel a bit dizzy. But there is a massive truth in here that we can suck up and be nourished by. It is the vocation and the vindication of the witnesses. The identity of the witnesses is probably the church. And even if that is uncertain, their vocation speaks into our vocation; God wants witnesses. A witness does not just work at a particular role. Nor does a witness just wave their hand and see things change. No, a witness shows and tells what they have seen. And that is the task of the church. Show and tell what you have seen. It is the simplest thing, as long as you have seen something. So have you seen something? Have you really seen God? What Revelation tells us we have seen is not just God but “you, the Lord God Almighty, the One who is and who was… have taken your great power and have begun to reign”. Please note this. We are invited to see that God has already begun to reign. God has already acted in Jesus. And that God is a hulking spiritual behemoth who is beginning to reign on the earth. As we’ve said before – this isn’t the most obvious thing you think when you look at the church. It looks a bit rubbish. It looks a bit beaten up. But a witness has seen a different truth lurking in the shadows and they can’t help but declare what they know to be true. And while a witness might be mocked and even killed right now, in the end they will be vindicated. In the end they will be proved to be correct. This is the crucial thing about this book. This is God’s message to any of his people who feel discouraged or downtrodden; the witness who has been executed will rise up again and be welcomed into the heavenlies. Those who are wantonly destroying the earth will end up being destroyed. God will win back the earth, and he is already at work. He has begun to reign… and his reign will never end. And while it is great to read this book and to eat up this spaghetti, the real question is will we digest that truth? Will we become witnesses? Let’s take time to look at God and to spot his reign on the earth.

Revelation 12

The woman is the collective of the saints; the people of God from every tribe and nation and tongue. The son – of course – is Jesus, born of the people and yet destined to rule them all. The dragon is the Devil. And that is probably the most equipping aspect of this vision because it lays bare Satan’s agenda and informs our most effective battle strategy. The Devil wants to lead the whole world astray. He accuses all believers and in furious anger wages war against those who obey God’s commandments. Temptation and accusation are actually weapons sharpened to sever you from the body. But they won’t succeed if you are wise to their threat. When we know that the Devil is hard-set upon our destruction we see temptation for what it really is; we can now smell the poison in the attractive-looking drink. Sin is Satan’s way of killing you. Every temptation is designed to do you in. Giving in to temptation isn’t an easy option – it is heaping up hardship, it is hacking at your heart. A “quick bit of fun” isn’t a “quick bit of fun”; it is idiotic foolishness, like licking your dirty pants. Understanding the Devil as Accuser also helps us deal much better with the self-doubt and self-hatred that squeezes itself into our psyche. So often they are simply accusations of the enemy. So often they are the Devil trying to use our minds as his weapon to destroy us. In those moments we don’t need to go over and over the finest details of the thoughts. We just need to kneel before the throne and ask the Son for his help.  The Accuser was not even strong enough to beat an angel; he didn’t even get close to fighting with God. And so his plans will ultimately fail if we invite Jesus to come into our minds. Even if it seems like he can make us bleed, his time is short. And our days will be long. The great woman (that is us) will be helped and the great woman will be given wings. Our conquering hero has already shown his hand.

Revelation 13

Revelation 13 isn’t telling us to obsess over the mark of the beast, and it certainly doesn’t equate that mark with a piece of body-borne technology. No, Revelation 13 is telling us about worship; it unambiguously asserts that people will either worship Satan or Jesus, and it urges us to worship the Son. This isn’t quite as simple as it might appear; it calls for wisdom, so we don’t get caught up with the crowd. It seems that Satan sneaks into our worship through human powers that have been distorted into beast-like beings reminiscent of the visions of Daniel. Almost certainly total devotion to Rome – worship of the Emperor collaboration in their every agenda – was seen as worship of the devil. Almost certainly total devotion to capitalism, or to liberalism or to nationalism will cause us to bear the mark of the beast. The faithful will need to patiently endure in the midst of any culture; not to conform to the pattern of this world but to stand out, distinct, like those who hope in a different world. And so Revelation 13 should cause us to ask about our dreams and our hopes. Whatever we may sing about on a Sunday, it is what we yearn for and what we shoot for that shows what we worship. If you cut me open what would my ambition be shown to be? I’d like people to tell me I’m impressive. The odd applauding crowd would not go amiss. A little more acceptably I want to grow old with my wife and watch my grandchildren thrive in life. All of these things can be good, but what if the only way I can reach them is to compromise with my culture and calm my commitment to Christ? This “risky” environment is what the church is always in. The beast is so powerful and he can make his way of getting things look really good. Massive wisdom and endurance are required. Chapters like this can make faithfulness seem incredibly hard. And, when I think about it, so many of my friends seem to have fallen captive to the relentless assaults of the power-wielding dragon. But we must not rip these chapters out of context. Because chapter 14 shows us the resource we have to draw on when we need to endure; worship of the lamb. Honour of and glory of the One who had redeemed us from the dragon’s power. If we want to endure and be blameless, it is worship of the lamb that should be our battle-cry. 

Revelation 14

I think this is the same content as Revelation 13, but presented through a different image. You know, like when Jesus spoke of himself as bread one minute and then a shepherd the next. None of us thought he had actually turned into a loaf of bread and then into a sheep-keeper; we understood them to be images conveying the same truth in different ways to pull out certain meanings. Here we have a vision of 144,000 men who have never had sex. Nowhere in the New Testament has having-it-off with your spouse been regarded as a defiling act.  In fact the evidence has been massively to the contrary. (There has also been no suggestion in the New Testament that men are entitled to a higher level of heavenly dwelling than the womenfolk.) And so we embrace this image like we did Jesus as a bread roll; we understand the “144,000 men who kept themselves pure” as symbolic of something. They take us back to the wilderness wanderings of Israel where the women of Moab seduced God’s people into worshipping their foreign gods. Or they take us back to Ezekiel and Hosea who again and again compared idolatry to sexual promiscuity. So we understand the 144,000 men not as a precise count of exalted males but rather as an image of God’s faithful women and men, chosen by him (symbolised by the number 12×12) and perfect in number (symbolised by the number 10×10). Having understood this image it then tells us what action to take; to patiently endure, obeying God’s commandments and remaining faithful to Jesus (v12). We do this like a husband waiting for his beloved wife to come back from a long trip. We do this like a wife waiting for her happy husband to come home. We do it knowing that we would be susceptible to seduction if we did some silly things but we don’t want to do those silly things, because we love Him and we are his. We have been chosen by him and we have his name written on our heads. Blamelessness has become our birthright. Purity has become our preoccupation. And so we endure through the long and lonely nights and we endure through the difficult days when life feels a bit dull. We endure and we remain faithful because our spouse will return and, when he does, he will set all things right.

Revelation 15

It has shocked me how much worship has gone on in Revelation.  I knew the big passages like Revelation 4 and Revelation 19 were soaked in the worshipful crown-casting of the elders but I hadn’t realised the praise-craze had soaked into every corner of this book.  And most shocking perhaps is the fact that worship seems to lap right up and over all the most awkward bits about bowls of wrath and sharp-sickle-swinging angels.  To me it feels a little hard to read about trampling the winepress until blood flowed out and then to say ‘Great and marvelous are your deeds Lord God Almighty”.  But then again, I’m not yet on the right side of this view.  I don’t yet have the perspective of one who has been victorious over the beast.  I have not yet been given a harp by my God.  And so I must humble myself before this Word of God.  If this is what the Holy Spirit has disclosed to John and through John to me then I need to accept it.  I need to change my patterns of thought so that they fit in with the priorities of the word rather than just try to ignore them so that I can carry on thinking in the same unredeemed way that I have always thought.  For God alone is holy and I most decidedly am not. And so I will accept his word over mine and pray he changes me to be like him.

Revelation 6

The lamb begins to enact the plan. Is this future stuff? Or has it already happened? Or is it both?? There is much debate about that, but the passage doesn’t major on it and nor should we. To try to pin these verses to specific years is to miss the inclination of the revelation. For the inclination of the revelation is the exaltation of the Hope of Nations. The Lamb – the hope of nations – opens six seals. He does it deliberately and easily. All eyes are on him. The Living Creatures follow his every whim. Vast spiritual horses advance at his flick of their bridle. Men receive judgement from him. Martyrs receive compassion from him. Neither can change his timetable or intentions. All the cosmic constants quake and change because he wants them to. The Lamb – the one who oversaw creation – now oversees decreation as if he were whipping up an omelette. He does what he wants. And no one can stop him. This is our God. Jesus may have died on the cross, his church may be being maligned and marginalised but this Lamb ain’t weak and his stance ain’t insecure. All the pretenders to the throne of the earth will eventually see that. They may have to suffer to see that, or they may see it up front. But in the end they will see it. This isn’t a threat to the church. This is an encouragement to the church. It might seem right now that all the power – literally all the power and influence lies with the likes of President Bashar Assad and Lady Gaga and Warren Buffet and Marcus Rashford and that they can do whatever they want whenever they want. But that appearance is false. In the end all of the “kings of the earth” are going to hide in the mountains in an attempt to escape the gaze of the Lamb. He was the only one who could open the scroll. And seal by seal he enacts the Father’s plan. Everything will be shaken. Every single fallacy in creation will be unmasked and undone when Jesus wants it to be so. Everything will be de-created except the church of Jesus Christ (which might even include Lady Gaga). And so – Kingdom and Priests – we should honour the lamb. Let’s keep our eyes fixed on him and stay faithful in our trials.

Revelation 7

You’d have to be pretty annoyed if you were number 12,001 in the tribe of Naphtali. So close and yet so far! But, the truth is that the 144,000 are only what John hears announced. When he looks to see there is a huge multitude of every tribe and language. What is heard is probably a metaphorical description of the crowd he sees (although with Revelation you can never be sure…); 12 may mean something like ‘perfection of government’ and 10 might refer to it being God’s choice. So 12,000 might be those who have been definitely and irrevocably chosen by God to carry out His perfect governance. The use of the names of the tribes of Israel shows how this vision is the culmination of the whole sweep of the biblical narrative from Genesis through to Jude. So, we have a promise of spiritual victory. In the hiatus between the six seals and the final seventh seal we peer through the crack of reality to see diverse saints from every scrap of the earth stepping into the eternal chambers of their rest. They will be before the throne forever. Their God will spread over them the tent of his endless protection and bountiful provision. They will be shepherded and well fed. They will be lavished with kindness and have every wrong set right. This is the victory that is being accomplished by the seals of judgement; this is the future (and maybe the present) for those who honour the lamb. This comes back to the central thrust of Revelation. Honour the Lamb. Emulate the slain one. For he will win back the earth and grant eternity to all his people. And so – if we are going to read this well – we must follow the inclination of the Revelation. We must gather with people from many languages and many experiences and go mental for Jesus. We should now, as a united diverse church switch on our fire hydrants of amazement at the lamb who was slain. In our own tongues and with our own dance moves we must put Him at the centre and give Him his due. We must do whether it is easy or whether it is hard because if we are faithful in doing it then the victory will be ours. And it will be the Nigerians’. And the North Koreans’. And the Naphtalians’ and the Nicaraguans’. For the multitude is great; of every tribe and tongue – the lamb is winning back the whole earth that we may worship him forever.

Revelation 8

Like a psychedelic vision fizzing with bewildering images too much for simple minds to comprehend. If you feel overwhelmed or confused; don’t despair. Apocalyptic literature is intended to conceal and allude. It is meant to present the truth behind a veil which the faithful can lift through growing engagement with The Lamb. But even our wisest prayer warriors, with a lifetime imbued with the scriptures, still see the truth in Revelation as in a glass darkly; enough to advance but not so much that we get proud. A key method for these chapters is to focus on what you can understand, on what the Spirit highlights to you. Read the other bits but let them remain on the shelf to be considered “next time round”. What am I “grabbing” today? Well, I’m drawn to see how all of God’s de-creating work – crashing down cosmic constants, letting fire do its work – is in response to his people’s prayers. God is doing what his people have been begging him to do for years. And so, I think that – if we follow the tone of their blasts – the trumpets should lead us to prayer. Real prayer, proper prayer that fills the golden bowl of heaven. This prayer expresses a sickness with the prominence of pride and posing and persecution of God’s people. Do we pray those prayers? Do we allow ourselves to express agonised dissatisfaction with the state of this earth? I, for one, am sick of all the pride and all the hate. I’m sick of humanities’ sin that requires this kind of tragic response. In fact I’m sick of my own sin. Woe to us. Woe to me. Woe caused by me and my always-in-the-background, never-quite-quashed desire to do my own thing, to put two fingers up to God and choose to please myself. Woe to my flesh that keeps on dragging me down to my most base self. Woe to the devil for being such a complete git. None of these trumpets or woes would have been necessary if we had just clung close to our loving and merciful God. And none of this stuff will continue when God finally acts. He will set us free from every single hint of sin. And so we pray. We repent of our fallenness. We beg God to change things, to win his earth back in our days. We see in this passage that the remedy will be robust; the medicine will require a massive gulp. But it is what we want, O God; the short sharp horror of those days is infinitely preferable to endless pride and endless pain.

Revelation 9

A continuation of chaotic visions. The layering effect of the revelation adds intensity. The numbers convey certainty. But coming at it on this slightly weary morning, it all feels a bit baffling. Let’s just recap on where we are; we’re still watching the activity caused by the seventh seal. These are the seals that release God’s great plan to win back the earth. The lamb is the only one who is worthy to open them, and he is doing so in fulfillment of the long-held prayers of his people. The trumpet blasts that accompany the opening of the seventh seal remind us of the walls of Jericho falling down. The locusts and the plagues remind us of the Exodus from Egypt. This thing we are reading is the climax of the victory of God. It may contain destruction. It may contain woe. But it is, in fact, a final act of liberation, a wilderness wandering coming to an end. For many of us, there may be a gag reflex at the idea that God – our God of love – is the cause of so much pain. We like to think that God is a bit coochie coochie. But the big picture of liberation helps us swallow and then digest this hearty meal. There is a huge evil force encamped upon the earth. He is a star fallen from heaven. He is the boss of the Abyss. His intention is dire and his power is grave. This beast – who we see in many forms in the next few chapters – is like Pharoah on steroids, like Philistines on a power up. His prime goal is to make people worship idols (v20). His power over people is to keep them feeling proud. They love the work of their own hands, they do what they want, how they want, when they want. And this pride makes them blind to the compassion and rule of God. And so – just like in Egypt – God releases plagues to expose the impotence of the idols. Each woe attacks a widely held idol; the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life. Each woe is measured and restrained; enough to expose the impotence but not so much that everything crashes down. It is all enacted by the lamb to achieve freedom for his people and to offer repentance to those “of the world”. But tragically, very few repent. And that should steel us for these days. We need to pray for steel in our stomachs to stay humble before our God and to keep on keeping on when so many refuse to repent.

Revelation 10

Call me a coward, but if I saw an angel who had one foot on the sea and one foot on the land and who shouted like a roaring lion – if I saw that angel – and someone asked me to go up to him and take his scroll off him… I would leg it. You see, the thing about this section of Revelation is that it cracks open the door to the battle room of heaven. We see that behind the sleepy-feeling days of this earth a crashing conflict is going on in the spiritual realms. The fate of many peoples, nations, languages and kings is being decided not in their bedrooms but in heaven’s board room. The enormousness of the Spiritual powers, and the depth of influence they have on the earth is pretty much blasphemous to our modern “rational” thinking. And, while many of us may love Jesus, very few of us really trust him on this truth. We often look at our problems and other people’s power and we let them become the big story. If only we could get a new job, or have a bigger following, or get the government to do what we want them to do… Our aspirations and our methods are of “this world” and not of “God’s”. For God sees the big picture. God is the big picture. God’s battle against Satan is the arena in which fates are decided. And we should call on God to send his hulking monsters (angels) to sound their trumpets and let Kingdom come. I know we talk about it a lot but I wonder if our practice really declares that God is the one who decides when things come to pass? I fear my practice suggests it is “google” who gets things done. So my prayer from this passage is that we find new ways to live like God is Sovereign and when he decides something will be, then it will be, no matter what. My prayer is that a church, who is increasingly a marginalised force in our nation, will follow the thrust of this passage. Let us be faithful. Let us wage war like the Lamb. Let us return to prayer, and to being fully obedient even when we want to run away.

Revelation 1

Wow.  That is quite a start.  It’s like when you go bowling and your first throw is a strike.  You stare in slight disbelief, a little tweak of a smile in the corner of your mouth. You begin to hope that this will be your night.  So let us start by laying out just how awesome this book is.  And to do that I think we need to get one thing straight right at the start – Revelation is not really a book about the future.  Revelation is not really about the end of the world.  Sure it does contain a good chunk of stuff about what is coming but the main thrust of this book and the adrenalin-pumping truth that is focuses on the awesome victory of our God.  In the future.  But also right now.  Revelation gives us an eye on God and his counsel, right now, this very day, this very moment while you sit here reading.  Revelation lets us squint with hands over our eyes at the unapproachable light, at the one whose face is like the sun shining in all its brilliance. We see God is massive. God is sovereign. God is strong. And in doing so we realise how teeny weeny we are.  Revelation shows us that our perspective is too tiny, that our human-centered analysis has been grossly misplaced.  Revelation reminds us again that there is only one Almighty. I am not Him. In fact God isn’t even here on this earth. Revelation even scorns our human obsession with time; with what is happening in the future at what we’re doing at 4.30pm.  It lifts our chin to the Alpha and Omega who was and is and is to come – the one who watches clocks spin round like they are fake dials on a toy.  He is no more dictated to by time than a builder is dictated to by his drill.  He is the one who loves us.  He is the one who has freed us.  He is the one who has made us his kingdom and priests to serve him forever.  So let’s fix our eyes on Him now and worship him now and fall as if dead before him now.  He is the Living One.  He is the firstborn from the dead.  And he is the ruler of the kings of the earth.

Revelation 2

This ferocious force in the heavens, this unstoppable time-bending warrior has eyes like blazing fire.  He uses them to search every heart and mind. He is searching your heart right now.  He uses his double edged sword to prize open every hidden thing that lives inside of you. That is true whether you choose to engage with it or not, whether you choose to think about it or not.  God is searching your heart.  And after he has searched it he speaks. His voice may be audible, it may be mediated through an Apostle like John who has written it in the scriptures, or his voice may be a “conviction within” that conforms to His Word. But he will speak. Because the God of the Heavens wants his earth back. And he is going to get it. His pattern of speaking is nearly always the same; “1) Hear me.  Give attention to me. 2) You are doing well 3) But there is something that is not right.  Repent from it  4) Then listen to me! I will win this earth and when I win, you will share in a staggering array of goodness”  We see this format in each of the letters to the churches and, if we have ears to hear, we will recognise it in our lives. God invites us to lean towards Him. He takes the initiative in winning us back. He wants us to start by listening.  If you are anything like me, that takes a moment to act upon. Actively listening to God is not something that I naturally do. But if we do it we will find Him lavishing us with such bewildering encouragement that we start to think that he has the wrong guy. And then, when we are safe in his arms, he begins to win every part of our beings. Like pulling grass-seeds out of a dog’s ear God comforts us with his love as he works to pull our sins from our tangled souls. Our repentance is our ‘yes’ to him. With his forgiveness and his process of healing he continues to win every part of us. And after the repentance comes a further invitation to intimacy, a second request to be still.  And He closes the conversation with an even greater promise, a sweeter kind of word, a yet more brilliant hope. The best is yet to come; what he is doing in us, he will do in all the world. Every fibre of creation will be won by God. The Mighty Warrior will win and heal and restore all things.

Revelation 3

The thing that is getting me about these letters to the churches is the lavishness of what is to come.  If we overcome – which doesn’t sound too hard when we factor in the awesome power of the Spirit – we will be able to eat from the tree of life, we will not be hurt at all by the second death, we will have authority over all the nations, we will have our name acknowledged before the Father, we will be made pillars in the temple of our God.  Isn’t that just ridiculously remarkable? We will even sit with Jesus on his throne. Isn’t it preposterous?  There isn’t an award ceremony on earth that could get close to giving us anything as incredible as even one of those things.  There cannot be a person with such a mediocre record as mine who is even in the running for such a dazzling array of riches. And that is the point of Revelation. For a persecuted church, for a struggling church, for a marginalised and disempowered church a “mediocre record of success” can be so discouraging. It can pour cold water on your perseverance when Synagogues of Satan look so powerful and so permanent. And when they push you around and pressure you into compromising your stance it can be so easy to cede ground; to let discouragement make you lukewarm. Sometimes I go that way. I suspect you do too. But then we read Revelation. Then we hear the Word of our God. He will win all the earth. And he wants to win every part of us now. Stand firm. Strengthen what remains. Put salve on your eyes. See beyond the facade of fleeting forces. Buy gold from him. Let his rebuke and his love rework every thought. Don’t look at your mediocrity. Just look at his love. See how great he really is. He will win. He is winning right now in a million hidden ways. And so lean into trust and lean into encounter. Open the door to the knocking King and eat of the food that he wants to share with you. It’s a foretaste of the banquet that we will feast on for endless days.

Revelation 4

Two mountainous truths that are so monstrous and so overwhelming that they feel like Everest and K2 appearing before my eyes. Everest is the inherent holiness, power and eternity of God. Holiness as a term seems to have lost a lot of its punch these days. It conjures up feelings of a trip to the dentist or having your hair cut. But true holiness, the holiness of God is far from that. It is a storm with thunder and it is jewels of matchless price. The holiness of God is like a jumbo jet to our paper aeroplane – it is epic, it is beautiful, it is worthy of all respect and all the accolades you can muster. And it always will be. For God is eternal. The truth about God is that at the end of the day, his day hasn’t ended. 10:00 and 12:15 and 03:17 are no different to him. In fact our whole concept of time itself – a concept that we are inherently incapable of seeing beyond – is just like a caterpillar crawling along the finger of God. He was. And He is. And He is to come. God’s holiness, power and eternal nature mean that he will always rule, he can never be dethroned. You can’t get any more secure than that. No principality, no person and no concept could even enter the courts of God without his permission. God is unrivalled. Remember that when the persecution hits. Lean back on that when your earthly securities are crumbling in your hands. God is like Everest. But there’s another mountain. K2 is God’s ownership of the earth. The earth is God’s; he made it, he’s never given up on it and he will win it back. His eyes are always watching it like a creature who has eyes on every side. He is always visiting the earth, agile and mobile like a creature with six wings. And, as a symbol of the unbreakable connection between the Eternal One and his earth, there are 24 elders – 24 representatives of the earth – always before his throne. Think about this God. Cast your crowns before this God. He is the One who never forgets you. He is the one who will never overlook you. He is the one who will win us in the end. He is holy. He is powerful. He is eternal. He is our maker. He is our overseer and our helper. And, because of who he is, and who he will always be, there is not a shadow of a doubt that he will win the earth back in the end.

Revelation 5

The scroll represents God’s plan and his authority. He will win back his earth and the scroll says how. But no one can open it. Angels are shouting, John is weeping and weeping and the elders are falling on their faces. But the One on the Throne sits serene and secure. He knows his plan is good. And he knows the one who will enact it. This is a vision of reality right here. Never mind Newsnight. Never mind I’m a Celebrity Get me Out of Here. If we really want to know where it is at, if we really want to get a glimpse of governmental power and authority then we need to flick off the television and get our face in Revelation 5.  This is the future.  And this is the present.  And this is the past.  God, on his throne, knowing. God on his throne serene and secure and the root of Jesse enacting his plan to win back his earth. Except there is a surprise in this passage. The surprise is why and how Jesus is worthy. The surprise is what that means for the church. This surprise defines the whole of the rest of the book. Are you ready? The worthiness of Jesus is due to his death. Jesus is worthy because he was slain for the sake of the world. No-one, not even the greatest of the saints was willing nor able to pay such a price. And it is for that reason – his willingness to die an obedient death of atonement – that Jesus is the worthy one. It is worth really dwelling on this point because the implications are massive. We see what it means to be in the Kingdom. A church who is seeing brothers burned alive by Nero or ripped apart by lions sees where victory and worthiness is found; it is found in humble obedience to the Father and sustained love for our neighbour. When we are persecuted we do not kick back not fall back. We turn our cheek and love them back. We overcome evil with good. We stand firm, even to the point of death. And when it looks like we are losing we rejoice in our weaknesses. We aim for faithfulness. We take up our cross and emulate the lamb who was slain, choosing to enact the Father’s plans no matter the cost.

1 John 4

“We know and rely on the love God has for us.” (v14). This is the wonderful voyage of our faith. There is always a fair wind behind us.  Whenever we feel like we are just lolling around, going nowhere, lost at sea – we can come back to this. We can raise again the mighty mainsails of our faith, and let the fresh, reliable wind of God blow us back on course. The wind of his love always blows. It always blows strong – strong enough to carry your ship and mine all the way to the shore. The cross has assured us of this. The death of Jesus as an atoning sacrifice for our sins has assured us forever that the Father loves us strong. He loves us strong and He loves us now.  He loves us in this moment. I think that takes time to accept. It takes even longer to understand.  And the hardest thing of all is to rely on it. Imagine a life so convinced of the love of the Father than every single interaction, every single thought process was steered by his love. No more striving. No more insecurity. No need to win a fight or grasp for a prize. Imagine if we had the ability to take love-based risks for others and to give away stuff for their sake knowing we can never lose out. Mull a moment on the magnificence of that. If your soul becomes fueled and steered by a reliance on God’s love then you could live in staggering goodness all of the time. This is what fellowship with the Father can give us. This is what the Anointing from the Holy One can rub into us. This is what it means to be set free from our sins. John sets the ethical bar of the believer so high not because he is unaware of our weaknesses but because he is so aware of God’s love. The Father loves us and will set us free from our sins when we learn to rely on the love of our God.

1 John 5

“He who has the Son has life” (5:12). Life is the shore that the love of God blows us towards. The early Christians didn’t think the simple word ‘life’ summed up the sheer magnificent extravagance of what was on offer so they put the word “eternal” in front of it. It pimped up the idea like golden alloys on a Bentley. But today the phrase ‘eternal life’ seems a bit religious and dry. We need to think about it again. For John “eternal life” (or just “life”) is the most exquisite and long-lasting pleasure available on this earth. It is life in all its fullness as you enter every single moment infused with the love of God. Eternal life is breakfasting in gladness for the provision of your creator who almost seems like he is sat at your table.  Eternal life is having deep and vivid friendships where you give and see them grow. Eternal life is truly understanding who we are; knowing peace while standing in a train or overflowing with joy while sitting on the toilet. This God-fuelled life wafts us out into the world to see human potential and to give ourselves for its coming. This is what Jesus did and this is what we have in Jesus. As long as we remain in his presence. And that is what we need to fight for. There are so many voices eroding this vision of life. Some make Jesus seem dry, or aloof, or just… not quite… God. Other voices try to encourage you that “real life” is to be found in the pursuit of your passions. They tell us to idolise our comfort or our reputation or our progress. But those of us who know the Father see the falsehood in these claims. They are elevating trinkets above the treasure, they are denying the battle that is raging on the earth. We know that a life of love is not a burdensome command.  It is a rich, vibrant and verdant life full of love. A life in God is an invitation to delight. And I think it would be rude if we refuse to enjoy it.

2 John

This tiny little letter from an old bloke to a random lady (or is it a church?) has been preserved and prized because brevity brings clarity. The less you say, the more weighty your words. It’s a bit like Yoda, in letter form.  And so here we find a titan of the faith shrinking down to a few sentences our central call from Christ; This is love that we walk in obedience to his commandments. As you have heard from the beginning, his commandment is that you walk in love (v6).  There is a fascinating circle formed by these two phrases. We are told that love is about obeying Jesus and that what Jesus told us to do is to walk in love. One keeps on flipping us back round into the other like a kid pushing herself around on a playground roundabout. As you push on obedience it brings you round to love. As you push on love it brings you back round to obedience. You love and you obey, you love and you obey. On and on with ever increasing strength. Except it doesn’t make you dizzy. Instead it makes you “true”. You know, the kind of truth that makes you feel connected to something eternal, that makes you feel so clean and so alive and like finally – after all this time – you have found your purpose and your goal. Truth or, as we might find more appealing today, living “true” is the most precious of commodities. And John tells us it is found in doing what Jesus said and then doing what Jesus said. We live the “truth” inside of us when we choose to obey and we choose to love. All of which brings me back to the brevity of John. This joy-filled generous old man had seen Jesus in the flesh and had an encyclopedia of expertise in every area of faith. And yet he whittles it all down to obedience and love. Out of love for you and love for me he makes it all so simple and he makes it all so clean. It inspires me to obey; to choose to love and walk in love and to keep on loving until the end.

3 John

I love this last letter of John. It exposes what the apostles had to deal with. Apostolic life wasn’t a dramatic miracle followed by a dramatic miracle. Apostolic life was a dramatic miracle followed by someone slagging you off, followed by encouraging another believer, followed by dealing with someone who wants to be first, followed by a dramatic miracle. We can sometimes conjure up an image of being “anointed” that is so far removed from people’s normal life. It is a massive shame when we do so. We see that, for John, the greatest joy was not an eye-popping miracle nor a standing ovation when he preached. His greater joy was hearing that his children were walking in the truth. John had seen so much. He said there wouldn’t be enough books in the world to write down all he had seen Jesus do. He’d watched as the fledgling Jesus-movement spread and was established in many countries around the Mediterranean. Yet he never tired of the simple joy of seeing one person doing well with Jesus. John never lost sight of the children of Jesus; each one precious, each one to be loved and celebrated and rejoiced over when doing well. Doesn’t John’s heart remind you of Jesus heart? Doesn’t his delight in people exude divine dignity, doesn’t it glitter and glow like the goodness of God. I want to be like John. I want my greatest joy to be hearing someone rave about what Jesus is doing in their life. I want to whoop with wonder when someone tells me they are walking in the Word. So I’m going to go looking for it. I’m going joy hunting; taking chances to hear how others are doing and then grinning with gladness when they gabble about their God.

Jude

In his very forceful denunciation of false teachers Jude seems like he is playing bingo with every naughty bloke from the Old Testament; Sodom and Gomorrah, Korah, Balaam, Cain. Ever heard of them? Jude name-checks them. Bingo! Jude also deploys hyped up hyperbole when heaping holy hell upon the heretics. They are like bad clouds, bad trees, bad waves and bad stars. All of them bad things. All of them false. And that, I think, points to the primary thing we can take from this letter; that we should not be complacent about the threat of false teaching. It is quite easy to be, isn’t it? We want to find common ground with others, to “let things slide” and generally to be nice. It can feel so petty to kick up a fuss about a person’s preaching preferences. But Jude tells us it is not petty. False teaching is not a small thing. It is a massive threat. It has the worst of all consequences. Most commentators think Jude was a brother of Jesus. You know, one of the ones who initially called Jesus mad or bad but then – after the resurrection – decided he was God. Jude therefore knows what it is like to sit on the wrong side of Jesus, to fall off the cliff of faith, only to be snatched back by God’s mercy before he hit the flames. He wants us all to avoid such a terrifying and ugly experience. And so he calls us to deliberately and repeatedly build ourselves up in the faith. He wants us to pray in the Spirit and to remain conscious of God’s love. Essentially Jude wants us to keep his brother at the center; to keep our Christianity about Christ. Are we keeping the main thing the main thing? Are we helping others do the same? Or are we getting distracted with peripherals and gradually sliding away from Jesus? If we are, let’s come back to Him. He can keep us from stumbling; he is strong enough and good enough to keep us pure and keep us true. And – if we keep Jesus at our center – then our future will be joy. And worship forevermore.

2 Peter 2

“I watched a really good video online the other day. This preacher from South Africa was opening up some really deep truths…” Sound familiar? With the increasing availability of all kinds of teaching on the internet this chapter is more important than ever. Continuing the guide-dog metaphor, a genuine risk in exile is that you accidentally grab the wrong lead. Perhaps someone will even put the wrong lead in your hand. And then, led by a wild dog of sensuality or pride, you end up in destruction. You may think that melodramatic. In our culture – even among other church leaders – I’ve found people are shockingly blasé about the risk of false teaching. To be bothered about false teaching is to be like a prig. Or a fusspot. We’d rather focus on “what we are for”. But ask yourself this question; who knows more about the risks and rewards of genuine discipleship – you or the Apostle Peter? No disrespect, but I’m going to go with the one Jesus called The Rock. So, how do you protect yourself from false teaching? Well, Jesus said “By their fruit you will know them” and Peter drills into this a bit more. He encourages us to follow the trajectory of a teaching. Is this dog leading me towards humility? Strutting speeches about special revelations are seriously suspect. False teachers use such language to promote their church, their teaching, their insight over against the rest of the body of Christ. They use phrases like “When you’ve seen what I’ve seen…” and “the problem with the rest of the church is…”. Preaching should enlarge our vision of God but their preaching enlarges our vision of them. Beware of such people. Please. Develop a very strong antenna for preaching that leads you away from humility. And then drop that lead. Return to the humble guys and girls who preach the main and plain message of the Messiah. Beware also of dogs headed towards sensuality. If they tell you to “be true to yourself” or to “live your dreams” be careful. They may just be immature. Or they may be leading you to a plate full of dog vomit. Good teaching helps us be true to our King. Good teaching helps us step into his dreams for us. Good teaching celebrates holiness as a beautiful possibility and revels in humility before the Great and Awesome God. Give your ear to those preachers and you will thrive in exile and be fruitful in your faith.

2 Peter 3

One thing we have not yet pulled out in 2 Peter is the fact that living in exile is a choice. You choose to live as an exile rather than assimilate to your host culture. It’s like Brits living in the Costa Del Sol nipping off to the English Pub for fish and chips every day. Except with Christians it is a Christ-like character and values and a certain type of behaviour that you cling onto. And cling on you must. Because living as an exile is a choice. And it is a choice that attracts stares, derision, and even some persecution. Why – Peter asks – should we continue to make this choice? Why don’t we just adapt to our environment and live like the rest of them do? Because “The day of the LORD will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar.” Exile will end. Peter really stresses this point with a huge amount of figurative language. A thief, a fire, a deluge and a fire  (again). All of these point not to the smashing of this good earth but rather to an irreversible universal transformation by God. Think of Noah and the flood, except maybe a bit hotter. The fire language in particular shows God’s action will be purifying and refining; destroying things that do not conform to his desires and bringing to purity those that do. To continue the metaphor Peter is saying that one day Britain will invade Spain and the fish and chip boozers will be identified and celebrated, while all those tapas bars and olive shops will be shut down. So you should get yourself down the pub. Exile will end and all you have lived for and hoped for, all you have believed in and trusted in, all those promises in the scriptures, all those instructions in the scriptures – every single one of them will be shown to have been utterly brilliant, resonating with truth. The Word of the One – even the tricky letters of Paul – will be  proved devastatingly accurate in the end. And so do not give up. Do not fail. Peter – good old Pete – knew what it was to fail. He had a pastor’s heart born out of his betrayal and restoration. And out of this heart he calls us friends. He knows that the wait seems long and our flesh is weak and so he calls us friends. As friends of his and friends of one another we learn to persevere. We learn what it means to really have hope. And we grow in the grace of our friend Jesus the King.

1 John 1

Fellowship with God is the deep, hope-imbuing core of the faith. John’s letter urges us on to the pulsating life-source of the Way; fellowship with the Father. Forget the slightly naff-sounding “personal relationship with Jesus”. We are not talking about a daily 5 minute check-in to get an inspiring thought and confess the odd sin. We are talking about fellowship. Naked, intense, bonafide fellowship with the Father. Fellowship is inviting Him to look over every cell in our bodies and every fleeting thoughts in our minds. Fellowship is letting Him run his hands over every sweep of our emotions and every urge of our souls.  Fellowship is us beholding Him and sitting with Him, chatting with Him and being silent with Him. Fellowship is us and God, naked, intense, bonafide. And you know if you have it. Because from fellowship everything else flows. Fellowship yields ecstasy. John calls it his “joy being complete”. Fellowship with the Father opens new doors on the corridor of your soul, doors that lead to freshness and fancy. If you have never known unexpected delight  – unconnected to your circumstances – simply a gift from the Father, then maybe you’ve been missing out on the fellowship He offers. Maybe you have been deceiving yourself? For fellowship leads us into the Way. The purity you are pursuing is picked up in the Presence. Purity isn’t worked into our lives through gritted teeth or through instagram filters. Purity is picked up in the Presence. Because in the presence you are naked. In the Presence it is intense. And your imperfections are exposed and then they are forgiven and they are washed. Sometimes this includes words. Sometimes this includes tears. But always – always – this includes the active presence of the Father; the deliberate drifting into devotion to him. Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. Is that true for you? Is the presence your pulsating life-source of your faith? Please make it so – it is the only way to really have eternal life.

1 John 2

Binge-watch a compelling TV show and you start to dream of the characters, to think about them in your down time. This illustrates what it is to “remain” in something; to marinade in its values until it seeps into your subconscious. John urges to remain in the Father and not in the things of this world. This isn’t so much about selling our TV as learning how to mull on the Messiah whatever we are doing. Through repeated small choices of the mind we retrain our imaginations to be captivated by Christ. And we ensure that the Jesus we are thinking of is the real one; not a castrated christ crafted by the anti-christ. This is actually really important. The anti-christ spirit that John warns the church about is not likely to manifest in outright hostility to Jesus. Instead this straying spirit smoothly steers us into seeing Jesus as a reflection of ourselves. Jesus becomes an interesting person, but without power to make us change. And God becomes a maker of the heavens but never close enough to touch. We defeat the anti-christ through reminding ourselves that Jesus is our God and that God is our friend. Jesus brings heaven and earth together and so we hail him as our God king. And this hailing comes best through small choices of the mind. When making decisions I will look to Jesus as often as I can. What would he want me to say to this person? How would he want me to spend this evening? I build a lag for my Lord even in really simple things trying to retrain my subconscious to be marinated in the Messiah. If you do this every day you will be remaining in Jesus and you will start to walk like he walked. But it is not all about your effort (this is the gospel after all). The Anointing of the Holy One is here to help you out. Even when you forget to slow down in your day if you carve out special moments to acknowledge the Spirit He will lead you into truth. The mystics were really on to something; the spiritual disciplines are of great value to our faith. Through them, and through building a lag into your mind, (and a regular dollop of grace) you will become confident and unashamed as you remain in God’s love.

1 John 3

This is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us (v23). Love one another. When we love other people our hearts can be at rest in God’s presence. When we love one another we feel confident in our God. So I’d like to spend more of my energies on loving other people. I wonder if you feel the same? That means laying more things down. That means giving more stuff away. It sounds like a bit of a bummer but actually it is not. I’ve never had a material possession that has come close to the satisfaction of  feeling confident in my God.  Our new car (when it was new) felt pretty satisfying for a day or so but then it got a bit grubby and the baby was sick on it and I realised it actually wasn’t that brilliant after all. Not compared to a heart permanently at rest with my God. I’m becoming increasingly convinced that there is nothing sweeter than expressing pure love to brothers and sisters in the faith. They are worth laying everything down for. To show them love just feels like the purest act that I could ever perform. That’s why my wife and I have committed to spending as many Sundays at church as we can.  That is why we lead a small group. That is why we have tried to organise our lives so we can lay down our lives for those around us.  Because when we do that – when we love with actions and in truth – it feels like the most magnificent way to spend an hour (or two or three or four). Better than “seeking a blessing”, better than “pursuing my dreams”, better even than trying to “do evangelism” is expressing the pure love of Jesus to a person God loves. I wish we all prayed for that more. I wish we all wanted to love more.  I wish we all wanted to give away more. When we really love one another we will look just like our Father who gave it all for us as an expression of pure love.

1 Peter 2

How to thrive in exile is the major theme of 1 Peter. Exile is disconnect from the presence of God. Exile is struggling to see God’s purposes coming to pass. Exile is being surrounded by people given to other gods, who seem to be getting along better than we are. For the Jewish nation, exile was disaster. Exile was a siege, squeezing out hope. And ever since, us newborn babes in Christ have interpreted feelings of exile the same way; they have cramped our chests, suffocating our souls. Peter the Pastor – Peter, the feeder of the lambs – addresses us here. He tells us that we were chosen. The Father chose us.  He didn’t have to. He certainly didn’t need to.  He didn’t do it because he felt guilty.  It wasn’t a half-hearted act. He chose you because he wanted you.  He wanted you.  And so he chose you.  He didn’t choose everyone – some are stumbling before him – but he did choose you. So, little lamb, don’t let your attention get distracted by everyone else. Instead, remember the mercy the Father has shown you in Jesus. By his wounds you were healed. Through the death of Jesus, your spiritual exile was ended. And, so you can never be disconnected from God again. You belong to him and he is choosing to shepherd you.  He is choosing to oversee your soul today. He – through Jesus Christ – is fulfilling his purposes in you every time you come to him. He is forging you and many, many others, into the population of his Kingdom. More than that; he is expertly and patiently crafting you and I together into a Holy Spirit House – a new temple – a place of His relentless rejoicing presence, even in the midst of the prospering “pagans”. That is a meal worth eating slowly.  That is food that we want to digest well.  For this food can transform our whole experience of life. This food can underpin a whole sense of identity. It gives us capacity to thrive spiritually in the midst of our physical exile. Fierce words, fickle friends, feelings of the forlorn cannot change what He Has Decided. Our Shepherd stands strong. And so let’s come to him. Let’s listen to his instructions and walk in his ways. Let’s choose to be different, letting the healing of his wounds go to work on our souls.

1 Peter 3

In the last chapter we exiles were reminded that we were chosen. In the grubby days of disconnection, that light shines bright in our hearts. But Peter hasn’t just left it there. This beast of a man (I always imagine Peter to have been a big bloke for some reason…) pulls out some of the regular challenges we face when trying to live this truth – and then he knocks them on the head like Little John dispatching a soldier of the Sheriff of Nottingham. Most of the challenges come down to this simple fact – in exile we are surrounded by people who do “people stuff”. Some people, often people to whom we are very, very close, haven’t yet believed the word and are confused by the way we live.  Other people, often people who are very closely connected to us, are just plain evil to us. Husbands may be dismissive of our devotions. Bosses may bash us when we are blameless. And while these things hurt, none of these things should make us doubt that we are chosen. Jesus had all of that happen to him… apart from the husband bit… (although his close family did all dismiss him)… and he was literally the Christ – the “chosen one”. Jesus’ pattern of life; his willingness to die in the knowledge that he would be made alive in the Spirit is something that should deeply inspire us. We can always lean back on the shoulder of Jesus, trusting that where he has gone (through suffering and into God-fuelled resurrection), we will follow.  And so we can put up with hardship. We can shut up when we are abused. And more than that. We can show compassion in the midst of it. In exile, even if we manage to persevere in our hope, there is a tremendous temptation to withdraw from all the annoying people doing people stuff. But Jesus didn’t just put his head down and grit his teeth when he was suffering; he lifted his eyes and was continually kind. This kind of equation – you give me all kinds of nasty stuff and I give you all kinds of lovely stuff is only possible if you have the huge vision of God Peter cast in chapter one. And if you are certain that you are chosen like Peter said in chapter two. Jesus had both of those in abundance and he is now seated in the place of all power in the heavenlies. So set him apart in your heart and he will give you all the strength and all the stamina you need.

1 Peter 4

“You have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do – living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies”… Wait a minute. Am I the only one who hasn’t spent time in the past doing orgies?  Debauchery – yes.  Lust – unfortunately yes.  Drunkenness – to my shame yes.  But orgies??  I once went to a party where some people were kissing in the corner but I don’t remember joining in.  Maybe that means this passage doesn’t apply to me?  Sadly I think it does. In this description of the flood of dissipation it is shocking that the only one that has an added adjective – to set it apart is the worst – is idolatry. And that cuts me to the core.  I have looked to idols like the worst of them. Idolatry was neatly summed up by Augustine as any disordering of our loves. Idolatry is loving a good thing above the best thing; working so hard that I neglect my other God-given responsibilities, wanting to be liked more than wanting to do what Jesus wants, meditating on my phone when I’m trying to meditate on the word. Idolatry is a subtle sin that we can convince ourselves is not present… until we begin to suffer. Suffering is about our nightmares becoming real. We suffer most when what we love most is attacked. And so suffering always exposes our idols. That is what Peter means when he says “he who has suffered in his body is done with sin”. If, when we are in real physical pain we can’t love others deeply, we begin to realise where our priorities really lie. If, when we have been slighted, we use our words to get them back, then we realise how our honour is more important to us than Jesus’. And these revelations help us; they show us a new area when God wants to set us free. Living in exile and having people do people stuff to us actually helps us become holy. As long as we use all of these revelations as prompts to prayer. Because none of us have the strength to beat idolatry on our own. But through prayer – prayer that commits us to our faithful Creator – the unspeakable strength of Saviour seeps into our souls, sustaining us in goodness and reordering our loves.

1 Peter 5

We thrive in exile by leaning on the strength of Jesus. In him we remember we have been chosen by God. Through prayer with Jesus unspeakable strength seeps into our souls. But there is one last factor, one last problem we need to be aware of if we really want to thrive. We call him the devil. The devil is real and exile is his domain; he prowls around here trying to devour people of faith. Which is a bit tricky, because we can’t even see him.  And so we are called to be humble; to constantly look for guidance and help from the One who can see him, from the One who has our back.  It feels a bit like soldiers on the ground being guided by the officer watching both them and the enemy from the satellite in the sky. If we remain in communication then the devil will not succeed.  If in humility we cast ourselves upon the Lord, if we never trust ourselves to understand anything too fully or to be able to cope with anything independently, but rather always look to Jesus and his scriptures for direction then we will do well.  If we understand movement towards hardship to be Jesus way of saving us from an ambush and frustrating delays to be his way shaking off a tail, if we turn from any hint of pride by always assuming that God knows more and sees more than we ever could possibly do, then we will be resisting the devil – the father of the proud.  If we always keep in our view the fact that God is the one with the mighty hand and we are the ones who are puny, well, then we will receive grace in the ‘now’ and a crown of glory in the ‘not yet’.  Humility is recognising that we are in a battle and that God is the only one who can get us through it.  Humility is acknowledging that only in Him can we fulfill our calling.  Humility is always resisting the temptation to not read the bible or worship or pray or love our neighbour or bear with the difficult person in housegroup by acknowledging that the One who knows better has said that these are the best things to do and it would just be plain stupid to not listen to him.  And if we continue to say and to show that we can’t live without Him then he will restore us. He will make us strong and firm and steadfast.  And He will bring us into his eternal glory in Christ.

2 Peter 1

As with every excellent meal, there is a good portion of seconds.  And this second portion from Peter has a strong aroma of humility. Peter says that by the death and resurrection of Jesus we have already received everything we need for life and godliness. That is actually quite a shocking statement. We have already been given all we need to ace this test. Many of our prayers suggest we don’t believe this… when we beg or plead for stuff we already have. But – in case we lean too far out of that window – this is not a push to “mega-faith” or self-reliance. If we think we apply this truth by focusing on ourselves (our Spiritual Pedigree, our Faith, our stuff) then we will end up far away from the “love” that is the climax of our faith. Rather like a blind lady receiving a guide dog, we should see the provision of the cross as a helper for us. The divine power walks alongside us helping us do what we could not do. So how are we guided by this power? The lead that we hold are the promises of God; through them we may participate in all the godliness of God.  So here’s the question. Do we even know what these promises are? I must confess I know far too few. The Holy Spirit put them in the Book so that we could know them and yet I have scarcely bothered to pick them up or hold them tight. If Peter – who met Jesus, who walked with Jesus, who was made the boss by Jesus – calls them very great and precious then I think they warrant my time. That is where humility comes in, isn’t it? Will I be humble enough to hold the lead and trust the nuzzling of the dog? Will I accept my tendency to be short-sighted and so cling to my guide with all that I’ve got? I so much want to be like God. I so much want to see my faith give birth to love. I need to start to learn the promises of God.

James 2

This passage is laced with the spicy Jewish flavour we saw in chapter one. Faithful Jews always knew that they must be defined by their God. Religion was not a segment of the grapefruit of life; sectioned off to certain practices on certain days. No, religion was like the chocolate in a chocolate milkshake; mixed into every aspect of every day. And so, if a Jew took a sip of the drink and no chocolate flavour was present, they would have to ask if it was the right drink they had; “Is there really chocolate in here? If so, it must be dead!”. The “James perspective” assumes the forgiving and welcoming aspect of the grace of God (which was so crucial to Paul when reaching the previously-excluded Gentiles) and focuses attention on the transforming nature of God’s grace. James wants God’s grace to have full effect in our lives; to make us perfect and complete in him, doing all God wants us to do. Here is what this means for us; if I took a video of one hour of your life – any waking hour on any day – would it be clear to me that you have faith in Jesus Christ? Forget the attending of church services or reading of the bible which only happen in certain moments of a week. Think about the stuff you do all the time; how you treat people, how you use your words, how you make your plans. If we want our milkshake to taste of chocolate then these are the areas where God’s grace needs to go to work. And that is where “faith” comes in. Faith – for James – is cooperation with God’s efforts in our lives. Faith is saying “yes” to God making us like him. Faith breeds a simple humility in our heart that naturally causes us to treat all people well. We do that in church and we do that in work. Faith breeds a simple humility in our heart that recoils from cursing others or making vain boasts; our awareness of God means those wouldn’t seem right. And so, this Jewish flavour actually expands the sense of adventure we have in our faith. We realise God wants to redeem all of us; to make us clean and pure and beautiful and joyful in every single droplet of our lives. That is what it means to be rich in faith and a real heir of the kingdom.

James 3

How we make decisions shows who we follow. Every choice casts a vision of what we love. It breaks down like this. What we love and what we aspire to fuse together in our mind into our own personal form of “wisdom for life”. This “wisdom” is the sum total of all our conscious and unconscious desires; it is our playbook, our “code” to help us get where we want to get. And so – whether we realise it or not – this wisdom acts as the hidden umpire of our minds; determining how we act or respond, how we plan or let things slide. Many believers do not have Jesus as their umpire; their “wisdom for life” is unaffected by their faith. They may show up in the right rooms and use the right phrases but the seat of power in their minds is still occupied by the same old loves. So they say stuff and do stuff that is “vile”. James’ agenda is to unseat the old umpire and put Jesus in his place. What would it look like to do this? Well, it may take effort. It may take time. The first thing to focus on is the purity of Christ. The priority of a pilgrim is purity of heart. Stop a minute and think on that. When considering a job offer, or which coffee to buy, or how to reply to a child, the first instinct of Emmanuel is “which option will make me more pure?”. Purity here is about all pointing in one direction; it is about a life that isn’t frayed at the edges or conflicted in any way. I buy a coffee and speak words that most advance my pursuit of God. Trying to rewrite our decision making habits to make them pure like this will take time and effort. Something like 95% of our decisions are made subconsciously. But if we start with the 5% we are conscious of, then our “wisdom” will begin to change. And so for thirty days or so we push into purity; we ponder on it and play around with it. We imagine how our day might look different if we were totally pure. And then we choose to act that way as much as we can. And God, in his mercy, will speed the change along.

James 4

It’s about now that I suddenly start to feel like James is just a tad harsh. He is speaking to Christians and he describes them as adulterous people, sinners and double-minded.  He says they are just a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes, and he says they boast and brag and do evil and sin.  Phew!  Would you want a pastor like that??  But, you know what, I think I would.  Because good old James had lived with holiness his whole life.  He had probably shared a bed with holiness – sleeping alongside his brother Jesus who never sinned and was the epitome of purity.  He probably watched in gob-smacked wonder as his older brother gave away and turned from the things of the world, humbly entrusting himself to God.  He probably stood next to Jesus as people slandered him and Jesus just smiled in response.  He probably received rebukes from his brother about boasting about his future or thinking too much of himself.  You see, I don’t think James was down on people – he loved people, he gave his life to pastoring people, he wrote his letter to people – I just think that James had a very realistic perspective on what people were really like.  When you have spent your life with brilliant white, slightly light brown just doesn’t seem that great.  So James would be a great pastor.  Because James would always show us there’s something more.  James would lead us into holiness and equip us for leading purer lives.  If you are a leader or you want to be, the best thing you can do is emulate James – the best thing you can do is get such a clear and vivid image of Jesus that nothing else seems that great.  It is a life-time’s work.  But a life-time is what we’ve got.  Let’s draw near to God and share a bed with holiness; it will expand our vision of how delightful life can be.

James 5

“Be patient until the Lord’s coming.”  I can’t remember ever really engaging with that idea. Even today I fleet-footed past this verse to get to the stuff about prayers of faith. But I feel drawn back to verse 7, as if the Spirit is highlighting it to me. Why haven’t I ever focused on this before? I know that patience is not something I am good at, but I don’t think that is the main problem.  I think the main problem rests in my theology; do I really believe that Jesus is coming back?  And, more than that, do I think it would be a good thing?  James certainly did.  Paul certainly did.  As did Peter and the writer to the Hebrews.  In fact the whole ruddy lot of them were convinced that the Lord was coming back and it was going to be awesome. And – if we do think about it – it is going to be awesome, isn’t it? It is going to be awesome because Jesus sees good stuff you do that never gets noticed by your peers. It is going to be awesome because all you have sown-to and cultivated will spring up into verdant, eternal life. This time is more grubby than we would like. It is a time of planting and tilling. But then is when the harvest will come. Then is when abundance will abound – and the abundance will link directly to our purity right now. This perspective on the struggles in life helped the church grit their teeth and remain faithful through their suffering.  It helped them not get distracted from the delight of devotion. I want to learn from their example.  I love Jesus. I deeply deeply love Jesus and know he is the epitome of goodness and joy.  I am so richly satisfied when I fix my eyes on him and do stuff that invests in the harvest on his return.  So, Holy Spirit, please would you hammer into my thick skull the truth that even small acts of faithfulness are worth it.  Please would you help me wake up in the morning wondering whether today will be the day when the ploughman overtakes the reaper.  And then please would you give me patience – a patience to stand firm and not grumble and keep going for goodness in the grubbiness. For when Jesus returns it will be astonishing. The glory of his Kingdom fully come will make it all seem worthwhile, and will surpass even Elijah-type prayers in this time.

1 Peter 1

I suspect that all Peter’s life he kept coming back to that moment on the beach, broiled fish in his belly, when Jesus told him to feed His sheep (John 21:17).  This letter shows us what Peter did with that; for Peter, feeding sheep meant telling people how small they are… and how big God is.  On some days I know I am puny (particularly on bin-day – ooh my arms ache after having to drag those heavy bins to the pavement).  On some days I see the transience of my life.  But I spend a lot of the time avoiding that particular topic of thought.  Peter, however, rams it back in my face – I am like grass (1:24), I wither, I am a child (1:14).  I need my ego bashed.  I need to know none of this could possibly depend on me.  I need to know that moving a recycling bin is just about my limit.  That is food to my soul, as perverse as it may sound.  And then I need to know that God is the Father, that he foreknew us all and he keeps things in heaven.  He is rich in mercy, He is holy, He is the impartial judge, He is the one who raised Jesus from the dead.  In short, He is very very big.  His little finger stretches further in every direction than the arm-span of all of humanity standing side by side.  I could stretch my mind back in time to the very dawn of the Age… and He would have been sat there, enjoying the view.  I could gather every person together of every different culture and time… and He would have watched every one of us grow; he would have been the Father of us all.  And we could gather up every fragment of gold and every diamond and every treasure of every nation… and it would just seem like a piece of belly-button fluff alongside His riches.  God is so big.  And He has chosen us.  He is shielding us with his power.  He is sanctifying us with his spirit.  He is showing us that he is good.  Oh what an amazing meal this is.  Oh what a miraculous catch of fish Peter is serving up for us.  I am so deeply grateful to him.  But I’m so much more grateful to Jesus.

Hebrews 10

Encouragement in the faith comes not just from Jesus.  There is huge encouragement from him; His character and his identity and his provision for us is immense.  The last 9 chapters have called us to dwell on them and fix our eyes on them and be encouraged and strengthened and fuelled by them.  And they have been good.  They have been great.  But that isn’t the end of it.  We also encourage one another.  God has put the world together in such a way that people depend on people, brothers and sisters in faith depend on brothers and sisters in faith.  The calling of every man and every woman is to spur one another on towards love and good deeds.  We have in our souls an intrinsic need to meet one another regularly and consistently, to give of ourselves to encourage one another and strengthen one another.  That is how God has made us.  And yet we naturally shrink back from it.   For a range of reasons we shy away from meeting together (when we say meeting together what we mean is actual open, honest, generous engagement rather than just being in the same room).  We come up with explanations of why it is best for us (or even for others) if we don’t go today or don’t share this or that particular thing.  We find ourselves swaying towards isolation.  But that way is death.  Life is found in leaning into one another, in attending house group, in praying with two or three others, in coming on a Sunday, in daring to speak out, in daring to expose ourselves and let others expose themselves to us.  Meeting together is saying “I am a filthy sinner” and having others say “yes, that is true, but you are also loved and you are also being made pure. So take up your forgiveness and grasp hold of your inheritance and get back out there and do what God is calling you to do.”  Let us not give up on meeting together like this.  Let us not give up on pressing into this.  Life is found leaning into one another.  In one another is encouragement in the faith.

Hebrews 11

The now and the not yet.  Recently we’ve reclaimed the now – and, if I could, I would turn a few backflips for that. We have boldly approached the throne in worship. We have carried the presence into our streets. We have contended for healings and for ecstasies of His peace. But faith must retain the ‘not yet’ or it is not faith at all.  Faith looks at what is now and delights in the salvation of our God made manifest among us – people coming to faith, people being healed, people being set free, love being shown.  But faith always regards today with slight disappointment. And so it should. Faith always says ‘Is this it?‘ and faith knows that while it is, for now, it won’t be for ever.  That is why faith longs for that better country, the heavenly one that is not yet here. Faith is willing to sacrifice for the not yet. It can take the hurt because of its hope. Faith sacrifices the first-fruits and builds arks and leaves homelands and lives in tents and admits that this earth (as it is) is not our home. Faith is willing to leave rewards and longed-for-results and desired-satisfaction until a future time. Faith ultimately invests its efforts in this current age for the promise of the future age. I feel like I’ve only just started to understand real faith. I feel like I’ve just begun to say with integrity that I have entrusted things to God for Him to give back to me on That Day. I wonder if you have got there yet? Have you accepted hurt because of your hope? Does your life not make huge sense if this is all there is? If you have – and I suspect you have, even if you don’t remember it right now – then the world is not worthy of you. If you have – even in a small way – then God is not ashamed to be called your God. And there’s nothing more wonderful than knowing that truth.

Hebrews 12

I think it is really interesting how the writer of Hebrews approaches lifestyle issues.  With Paul, everything is pushed back to our identity in Christ – he continually assures us that we are in Christ, that we are a new creation and therefore should live in the new creation kind of way.  This writer doesn’t do that.  This writer looks at the problems and struggles in this life and then compares them with the problems of the past.  This writer always shows how now, under the new covenant, we are so much better off than our forefathers and therefore can’t really complain or make excuses about not living right.  And having done that this writer then turns our attention to God.  Not so much God in us and who we are in God but who God is in Himself.  This writer paints a continually expanding, glorious fresco of the Almighty God of All Ages.  You get the idea that this bloke is still so completely overcome by the wonder of it all.  You get the idea that this writer bounces up and down on his chair and then flings himself face-down, awestruck like the thousands upon thousands of angels in his vision.  You get the idea that this writer sees himself continually standing in bold trepidation upon the most holy ground of the City of the Living God, always edging closer to the judge of all men, hearing the cry of welcome and yet daring only to edge forward all the same.  You get the idea that this writer is continually putting down his pen to weep and to spread-eagle himself again at the wonder of it all.  He knows his God is a consuming fire.  He knows his God spoke and the whole earth shook.  And, as he sees that, as he thinks on that, he knows with joy and certainty that all he wants to do is cling to his God and give himself to his God and worship his God.  I know what I want to be looking at today.

Hebrews 13

We saw in chapter 12 how, when it comes to lifestyle issues, the writer to the Hebrews runs a slightly different form of argument to Paul.  I love the diversity this exposes – Paul was the apostle to the gentiles and this writer (who I personally suspect might have been Apollos… but what does it really matter?) was focused on Messianic Jews. They both wrote in different ways with different vocabulary and with differing emphases. And yet among their diversity they had so much in common. They were both mates with Timothy and were happy to use him as their representative. They both celebrated love, they both called their churches to show hospitality, they both strongly warned against sexual immorality, they both advocated the formalised expression of church, they both fixed so much of their attention on the kingdom to come, they both waxed lyrical about Jesus. Jesus was their hero, their role-model and their friend. And that is the beauty of the early church that we peer at through these apostolic writings – they were a huge range of people; rich and poor, educated and uneducated, Jewish and Roman and Turkish and Greek and every blend under the sun.  They were male and female and young and old and new converts from paganism and life-long observant Jews who had found their Messiah. And they all hung out together. They all fixed eyes on Jesus together. And because of Jesus they all were united on an incredible range of issues.  Because they all knew that Jesus was the same yesterday, today and forever they gradually became the same, while remaining vastly different. I love the diversity of our church. I’m more and more convinced that united diversity is an essential marker of a real work of love. Enacted love is the work of his peace. And so let’s do what all those early apostles did – let’s pray for the peace of God’s presence and the work of his grace. Let’s fix our desires on our God and his pleasure.

James 1

When Paul and the other apostles were scattered around the Mediterranean pursuing the mission to all of the nations James probably stayed in Jerusalem pastoring a church of converted Israelites.  So he writes with a pastor’s heart and a delicious, spicy Jewish flavour.  This flavour could be summed up with the verse “do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” (1:22).  Obedience and action were ground into the Jewish understanding of religion – sacrificing at the temple, taking care of family members, controlling your diet, celebrating the festivals. Religious life meant doing God’s things in all of life. That was just how it was.  Most of us have grown up in a cultural blend of Greek and Romantic thought. In Greek thinking ideas are beautiful. You can dwell on them, debate them and devote yourself to them, all the time reclining on your klismos nibbling olives. On the other hand Romantic thought has taught us to celebrate epic moments of inner joy and ravishing acts of beauty. Much modern worship services doff their beret to the French Romanticism of the Enlightenment. Neither Greek thinking nor Romantic thinking are wrong, but they can lead into immaturity and error unless they are tempered with the Jewish mind.  So it is worth us digesting as much of James as we can. It is worth us reading James as if he is a foreigner we are trying desperately to understand. Let’s get him to speak slow. Let’s repeat back to him his sentences to make sure we’ve really understood. Some of James’ lines seem simple and instantly applicable. Tame your tongue. Be quick to listen. And yet, with the Jewish mindset we realise their huge power. We come to them like sporting drills to be practiced and practiced again to make us do God’s things. I want to be someone who sucks all the juice out of my faith. I want to be someone who delves into all the riches of all that God has for me. I want to delight in thinking about God. I want to enjoy feeling God. And I also want to be like God. And so I’ll try to practice this book like a coaching manual for life.

Hebrews 5

I’m glad the writer has much to say about Melchizedek because to be honest – I’ve not nothing. He seems like an obscure character used to answer a question that is never asked by a non-Jew like me. But the stuff about maturity hits me between the eyes. Maturity is about being able to distinguish between good and evil (v14).  That’s a powerful definition I’m going to try to remember.  If we can just sneak across into chapter 6 we see that such maturity is built upon the elemental teachings of repentance from bad acts, faith in God, baptism, laying on hands, the resurrection, and eternal judgement. These teachings seem to follow the narrative of the Christian life as it should be lived. You repent and turn from idols to God, you get baptised, you are empowered and filled with the Spirit, and then… oh, what’s this stuff about resurrection and eternal judgement? We don’t seem to talk about those very much. Certainly not as the foundation of things. But resurrection and eternal judgement seem to be the two linchpins of the Christian mindset after being filled with the Spirit. They lift our eyes to a day in the future – a day beyond our current experiences – where momentous events will occur and destinies will be set. For centuries they seemed to be used like prefects supervising (sometimes a little too keenly) the activities of Christian pilgrims, scaring them into behaving for fear of future rebuke.  But they needn’t be seen that way.  They can be seen as a glorious hope of justice and peace.  They can be seen as the consummation and full enjoyment of the slithers and snippets of the kingdom that we get to experience today.  They can be seen as fundamental truths about life, without which maturity cannot be reached.  They set the context for our life – they help clarify the things that are worthy and the things that are useless, the things that are good and the things that are evil. It is hard to be mature in faith if you don’t ever think about resurrection and judgement. So can I encourage you to think about them some more; they warrant your time more than musing about Melchizedek.

Hebrews 6

I often feel like I need an anchor.  I am prone to drifting with the tide and getting very close to some rocks.  My soul sometimes fades. It sometimes exudes about slightly dubious things. So I’m very grateful for the anchor metaphor in verse 19; it really helps me. I realise that sometimes I need to consciously fix my thinking around a defined constant. Sometimes I need to resist the ebb and flow of my emotions by deliberate thoughts about the permanence of God. God never changes. God’s purpose never changes. God has deliberately shown us that he would bless Abraham and give him many descendants. The inclusion of the gentiles was always going to happen. God’s project was always going to rumble on in an ever expanding manner. Sometimes slow and sometimes shudderingly fast, but an increase in God’s government has always been God’s plan. Sometimes I just need to remind myself that God knows what he is doing and his family will keep on growing no matter how I feel, or even what I do. God’s commitment to blessing is also deeply reassuring. I don’t know about you but there are times when I lose sight of the simple goodness of knowing this God. On dark days the wind of worry can blow me off course and threaten my ship. On those days I need to remind myself that God is good; he has always done good. Sometimes we can see it and other times we can’t but all of us now share in God’s blessing to Father Abraham. So, how do you feel today? If it is a good day, run your hand around this anchor. Get used to its feel; it will be more easy to use when the waves begin to hit. And, if it is a bad day, let your anchor fly; think of the permanence of God and how his purposes never change

Hebrews 7

Jesus always intercedes for us.  I wonder what he is praying for me right now? I wonder what he is praying for you? That’s quite something isn’t it? To think that the Big Man of space, time and everything else is spending his days uttering words of petition for us.  It is deeply humbling.  It is hugely inspiring. When you are peeved, he is praying for you. When you are intimidated he is interceding. When you are wayward He is wrestling for you in prayer. What a love. What a faithfulness. What a commitment to you and to me that Jesus – the King of Creation – refuses to be passive as we tumble and trip through life. He prays for us. He goes on praying and fighting in the heavenly realms. Jesus didn’t stop fighting for our salvation after the cross; he is still grappling for us right now. He is working in prayer that we might receive grace and goodness and the fullness of gladness in God. Reading that this morning makes me love Him again. Reading that gives me hope in him again. And so I want to see those prayers fulfilled in me – no matter what they are. If the one through whom all things were made has got some desires for me then they must be pretty raspingly beautiful. I want to lean on those prayers and let them take my weight. I want them to carry me into the banquet hall of the kingdom. Yes, Lord God, whatever you want for me – I want it too!  Your will be done, O God.  Let me hold onto your hope and see all your prayers come true.

Hebrews 8

Let me get this straight.  God called a man – a pretty ordinary sort of man – and made ridiculously generous and long-lasting promises to him.  Then the man messed up.  But God passed these staggeringly generous and long-lasting promises on to that man’s son and then on to his sons until all these sons messed up so bad that they got themselves enslaved in Egypt.  So God responded to this abject failure on the part of the sons (now called Israel) by walking them out of slavery in Egypt and then making even stronger and even more ridiculously generous promises to them (from the top of Mount Sinai).  And then the house of Israel messed up. Again.  And again.  And again.  And then God repeated his ridiculously generous promises over and over, again and again until one day the house of Israel had gone so far that these ridiculously generous and long-lasting promises were no longer tenable. So how did God respond? He made new promises to them. Except these promises are not scaled-back, slightly-less-risky, minimizing-potential-losses promises.  No, these are so staggeringly, incredibly generous and so epically, gong-resoundingly long-lasting that they make the previous ones look pathetic by comparison.  He makes himself our high priest.  He takes his heart and gives it to us.  He takes all of his being and places it at our disposal. He does this for us even though our track record is terrible and our future prospects are quite puny. He does it because that is who he is. Our God is the God of ridiculous generosity, of unflinching faithfulness, of relentless determination to do good to his earth. Let’s remember the jaw-dropping personality of our God. Let’s rejoice in it, cling to it, be staggered by it and worship him because of it. In fact I need to pop off and worship him right now.

Hebrews 9

The acted symbol of the temple showed Israel again and again that the culmination of their hopes, the pinnacle of their dreams, the foundation of their identity was to be with God. Each time they sacrificed animals, sprinkled blood, or passed by the tent they were reminded that Yahweh Elohim was their map, their mentor and their maker. The sacrificial system was a rhythm of reminders to come and be with God. A lot of Israel were like blind men or stiff-necked animals – they failed to follow the symbol to its source. “Where is the man who seeks God?” the psalmist wailed. But for those who were alert to God, the rituals of redemption led them again and again into repentance towards God, hunger for God, devotion to God. Tabernacle worship was good as far as it went. But the symbols created a demand they could not satisfy. Like passengers on a perpetually circling aeroplane, they could see the airport out the window, but couldn’t land or disembark. Then Jesus came. The revelation of Hebrews 9 – the revelation it revels in – is that Jesus landed that plane and opened wide the doors. True forgiveness of sins was now achieved. Anyone could now enter the actual Holy of Holies. So do we? Most of us have ditched the rhythm of reminders and rituals of redemption. That’s OK if we are actually entering the presence. So are we entering the presence? Are we coming to God and finding him as our map, our mentor and our maker? Modern life seems to have such a bias away from being with God. Are we forgetting what it is all about? Are we being stiff necked or blind men? He has come so we can be with him. He will come so we can be with him, if we are eagerly waiting for Him. Oh I want being with God to be my passion once again.