Oct 5th

1 Kings 8     Ezekiel 38     Ephesians 5     (Click on the Reference to go to the passage)

Most people hear the word ‘church’ and think of a building. In the New Testament the word means a ‘called out’ people – people called together to live distinctively as disciples of Jesus filled with the presence of the Holy Spirit. Yet we can sometimes become preoccupied with buildings, meetings, doing things the way we like them done. Ephesians 5 tells us more about what life marked by the presence of God will look like. I love the dynamic atmosphere of worship suggested by this letter as people ‘speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs’. ‘Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father…’ (Eph 5:19-20).

On the face of it, several chapters of 1 Kings including 1 Kings 8 are about a building - the Temple, how it was built, its materials, dimensions, furnishings etc. Then suddenly the moment comes where the cloud of God’s presence fills the temple (1 Kings 8:10-11). In fact there is so much cloud that the priests cannot continue performing their rites. The building was not important in itself: its importance was as a place where people could encounter the presence of God.

Do we ever forget that our church activities should be God’s way of extending his presence in Christ to the world around us? Our priority must be to seek His presence so that we are transformed and that people around us encounter him too.

(member of the congregation)

Oct 4th

1 Kings 7     Ezekiel 37     Ephesians 4     (Click on the Reference to go to the passage)

The last couple of chapters of Ezekiel seemed a bit grim but all of a sudden we come to a wonderful (although slightly macabre) picture of a Israel, pictured as skeletons in a burial pit, being raised to new life. Israel in exile, far from their God, the life sucked out them could look forward to a time when God would free them, bring them home and once again be among them. This was a story that spoke powerfully to slaves in the America (‘Dem bones, dem bones, dem…dry bones’) as they longed for their own freedom – they probably understood it better than we.

It is God’s Spirit who brings them life (v14). Without his Spirit they are dry bones. With his Spirit all sorts of possibilities open up for the future.

Paul in Ephesians has been telling us quite how much God has done for us. In Ephesians 4 he tells us about the work of the Spirit in us as God not only gives us life but makes us vehicles through whom He brings life to others. He equips us for works of service (Eph 4:12-13) not just to build up others but to help us all become what He wants us to be: ‘attaining the whole measure of the fulness of Christ’.

What is God calling you to do to help others ‘attain the whole measure of the fulness of Christ’? What gifts has he given you? How should you use them?

(member of the congregation)

Oct 3rd

1 Kings 6     Ezekiel 36     Ephesians 3     (Click on the Reference to go to the passage)

Architects, builders and interior designers may really enjoy 1 Kings 6. But many of us will struggle. There is so much detail and it is difficult to imagine what this building might look like. And how long a cubit is anyway (I make it 2 foot)? Why get so excited about a building project?

There would have been few big buildings in Israel and this one would impress from miles around with its grandeur. If the suspension bridge is the image to conjure up Bristol and the gerkin for London, Solomon’s temple was the image for Jerusalem. It spoke of God being permanently with His people – no more moving around in tents or setting up shrines on high places. The great promise to Abraham (‘I will be your God and you will be my people’) was being fulfilled. And God had a place in the heart of Israel. He is not distant, an absentee landlord, the watchmaker who wound up the clock and left it to run. God is in the heart of his people and they can come to a place to worship him in the nitty gritty of their daily lives. In the temple heaven and earth meet.

The temple did not last for ever. But it was replaced by something better. We do not have to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to encounter God. We meet him in Jesus, the new Temple, in whom heaven and earth meet. In fact in yesterday’s reading (Eph 2:21) he said we were being made into a temple ourselves in which the Spirit would dwell. Which is why Paul can fall to his knees and pray with confidence as he does in Ephesians 3:14-21. And what a prayer he prays!

This would be a great prayer to work through yourself today. Who can you pray this for today?

(member of the congregation)

Oct 2nd

1 Kings 4-5     Ezekiel 35     Ephesians 2     (Click on the Reference to go to the passage)

I thought Scafell Pike (the highest mountain in England) was impressive until I saw Mont Blanc and realised it is more than 4 times higher.

The Old Testament reaches a mountainous peak in 1 Kings 4 and 5. Things are as good as they are going to get for ancient Israel. The borders extend as far as they ever will, the people are numerous and live in peace (‘each under their own vine and fig tree’), the harvests are plentiful and Solomon is admired for his God-given wisdom across the Middle East. There is a hint that all is not as good as it seems – Adoniram is in charge of the forced labour (1 Kings 4:6) which suggests that Israel’s prosperity is built to some extent on slavery – but this is a high point in the Old Testament. Most would probably settle for that and generations to come would look back to this golden era in the promised land. This is Israel’s Scafell Pike.

But Ephesians raises the bar sky high and takes us to Mont Blanc. What God has done for us exceeds anything we could imagine. Not only do we see his sheer grace in taking people who deserved nothing and giving them everything (and you could not find a better definition of grace than Eph 2:4-5) but it is hard to take in the scale of what he gives us. Paul uses the language of what we can hope for in the future to describe the present: he has made us alive in Christ (v5), raised us, seated us in the heavenly realms (v6), and so it goes on.

The rest of life is about playing catch-up, learning to become what Paul tells us we already are.

Are our expectations high enough? Do we settle for Scafell Pike when we can have Mont Blanc? What does God actually want for you?

(member of the congregation)

Oct 1st

1 Kings 3     Ezekiel 34     Ephesians 1     (Click on the Reference to go to the passage)

We all want to know what the future holds. Horoscopes may tie our future to tall, dark strangers, crossing waters or successful business opportunities but the Bible has more to offer than socialising, travel and money. All our passages cast a glance to the sort of future God offers us.

In 1 Kings 3 Solomon wants his reign as king to be marked by wisdom and we read a graphic account of his lateral thinking in deciding which of 2 women is the baby’s mother. God answers his prayer and the Book of Proverbs is part of Solomon’s legacy.

Ezekiel 34 promises that God will be a true shepherd to his people, replacing their self-serving leaders.  The shepherd will search for his straying flock, bring them back, find good grazing for them and heal them. This is a picture of loving, nurturing God, actively involved in people’s lives and we cannot read it without thinking of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, to whom the passage points.

In Ephesians we find out more about the future God offers us. It includes the wisdom Solomon sought as we find out more about who God is, what He has done and how He wants things to be. It also includes the power to transform us, power which is already at work as God brings his purposes about.

Someone once said to me, ‘Become what you are’. In Ephesians we see that God has already made us new. The future is about working out what that is and playing catch-up.

(member of the congregation)

Sep 30th

1 Kings 2     Ezekiel 33     Galatians 6     (Click on the Reference to go to the passage)

I like being able to see the steeple of Christchurch from miles away. Sometimes walking in the country a view will open up and there it is, clear and unmistakeable on the skyline, pointing upwards. Brunel’s suspension bridge gets onto the brochures but Norton’s steeple (and who has heard of him?) gets the skyline.

Ezekiel is called to be a watchman, standing on the walls of Jerusalem to scan the sky-line, look-out for a distant cloud of dust or a blurry shape – the first signs of the approaching armies of Assyria bent on destroying the city. His is an awesome responsibility. He is accountable to the townsfolk. Warn them of the approaching danger and responsibility passes to them. Fail to warn them and Ezekiel will be responsible for their death. It makes chilling reading.

Seeing Christchurch on the sky-line makes me feel proud. But it also reminds me that Jesus has passed the baton to us. The reign of God is coming when God will reorder our world. Like Ezekiel’s watchman it is our task to scan the horizon for signs that He is already at work and invite people to join in. Ezekiel’s was a message of doom. Jesus’ is a message of rescue, of fulness, of a more abundant life lived in his presence. People are missing out if they do not hear this. It is down to us to make it known.

Who I am called to be a watchman to?

How can Christchurch be more than a steeple on the skyline for the people of Bristol?

(member of the congregation)

Sep 29th

1 Kings 1     Ezekiel 32     Galatians 5     (Click on the Reference to go to the passage)

‘It is for freedom that Christ has set us free’. (v.1) What wonderful truth, and yet so often we live lives that don’t reflect that. We get ensnared trying to jump through hoops to win our salvation, or go so far the other way that we use our freedom ‘to indulge the sinful nature’ (v.13). Paul leaves the church in Galatia in no doubt that in trying to fulfil the minutiae of Jewish law they had alienated themselves from Christ, and fallen away from grace. Every time we try to win forgiveness or ‘make up for things’ with God, we render Christ Jesus’ beautiful, perfect, and holy sacrifice as utterly pointless. Similarly, those who satisfy the sinful nature are told that they will not inherit the Kingdom of God. 

Paul’s answer to both situations is straightforward – live by the Spirit (v.16). The Fruit of the Spirit will be known to many of us, those nine characteristics ‘against which there is no law’ (v.23). It is worth noting that these are all the fruit (singular) of one ‘tree’, the Spirit, and therefore we can expect all of them. It’s not a case of some people being blessed with the tree that grows patience, whilst another grows self-control. As we grow in our Christian lives, and continue to keep in step with the Spirit, all of this fruit will appear more abundantly in our lives. We will also see less of the acts of the sinful nature. Reading this list we can often initially feel quite secure – “I don’t indulge in witchcraft or debauchery, I must be ok.” And yet as we read down the list it can get quite uncomfortable. I know that I get jealous and selfish at times, and I long to walk more in step with the Spirit so that those aspects of me become a thing of the past. I also know that it takes time (helped by patience) to grow fruit.

The other challenge of this chapter comes in verse 7. The Galatian Christians were doing so well, and yet they allowed someone to get in the way. In Chapter 3 Paul asks who has bewitched them?  These weren’t young Christians, who hadn’t really got it right in the first place, but men and women who knew the truth and were living it out. We can often get comfortable thinking that we’re ok and beyond being distracted away from the true path. This passage is a reminder that we must constantly be on our guard, testing the preaching we hear, and continuing to love one another in Christ. Like David and Joab, we mustn’t get distracted by the Commander General and lose sight of the King.

(Christ Church couple)