9th Nov

2 Kings 22     Joel 1     Hebrews 4     (Click on the Reference to go to the passage)

Hebrews 4

Rest in the Lord and trust His power

It’s all very well to read God’s word and attend church but if you lack faith in God’s power your life can be very frustrating !

 We had been travelling for 3 hours heading towards a campsite on the West coast of Italy. I had put the directions into our ‘trusty ‘ satnav and were confident we would be camped within the half hour. Three hours later and an extra 100 miles we were no closer. Frustration, doubt and anger followed. At this point my wife said something quite inspirational! ‘Let’s pray to God for directions’. We did. Within minutes we had found the road which led to our campsite. Why had we waited so long to do something which should come so naturally?

When we trust in our own efforts we can get lost ’big time’. Rest in the Lord at every opportunity and trust Him to lead your life.

In Romania, Christians address each other with the word ‘Pace’ which means Peace. How wonderful! It reminds us we can have peace here on earth as well as eternal life in heaven.

Lastly in verse 16 we are encouraged to be bold and reverent when we approach God in Prayer. God knows who we are, what we want and need and will answer our prayers accordingly.

Prayer

Dear Lord, when I need to make decisions today help me to put you first and trust in your guidance. 

Amen

(member of a homegroup)

8th Nov

2 Kings 21     Hosea 14     Hebrews 3     (Click on the Reference to go to the passage)

Hosea 14

Behold a noontime of light!

As we reach the conclusion of Hosea, we read here that the Prophet exhorts the Israelites to repentance, and still suggests some hope of mercy. To fully appreciate God's mercy, we must consider the preceding chapters, where Hosea had already testified that there would be no remedy any more, because they had extremely provoked God.

Is this a contradiction? No. The people could return to God by asking Him to forgive their sins.

Destruction was not God’s last word to his covenant people. Although judgment must come, God’s healing, restoring grace is always more powerful than human sin.

Although we cannot demand forgiveness, we can be confident that we have received it because God is gracious and loving and wants to restore us to himself, just as he wanted to restore Israel.  When our will is weak, when our thinking is confused, when we're loaded with guilt or friends desert us, we must remember that God cares for us continually. God's love knows no bounds. His love and forgiveness will cleanse us "...like a refreshing dew from heaven..." (v5).

I will leave the last word on Hosea 14 to Charles Spurgeon:

“This is a wonderful chapter to be at the end of such a book. I had never expected from such a prickly shrub to gather so fair a flower, so sweet a fruit; but so it is: where sin abounded, grace doth much more abound. No chapter in the Bible can be more rich in mercy than this last of Hosea; and yet no chapter in the Bible might, in the natural order of things, have been more terrible in judgment. Where we looked for the blackness of darkness, behold a noontime of light!” (Charles Spurgeon)

(member of a homegroup)

7th Nov

2 Kings 20     Hosea 13     Hebrews 2     (Click on the Reference to go to the passage)

2 Kings 20 

Get your house in order...

How do you react to bad news? Do you get angry? Do you run away or hide from the situation? Or is your first thought to pray?

 Things couldn't really get any worse for King Hezekiah. He'd been told by the prophet Isaiah that his illness was terminal, and death was sure to follow. But the King's first reaction was not anger, or to ignore what he'd been told, but to turn his face to the wall and pray. But he also broke down and wept bitterly after his prayer; he fully recognised the reality of his situation.

 Because of his obedience and faithfulness to God (over a 100-year period of Judah's history Hezekiah was the only faithful king) God healed him and saved his city from the Assyrians. God heard his prayer and saw his tears and added 15 years to his life.

 I'm sure most of us would not want to know how or when we'll die, but you could perhaps hold the view that God was remarkably kind to Hezekiah, telling him that his death was near. Not all people are given the time to set their house in order.

We know that God, in His infinite wisdom and sovereignty, does not always chose to heal or to give us what we think we need (but he always answers our prayers). But, sincere faith and prayer, if directed to the one true God, can change any situation. We read in James 5 verse 16 that "the prayers of a righteous man are powerful and effective".

If you love Jesus Christ as your Lord and saviour, you have been given a gift far more miraculous and precious than that of King Hezekiah's; the gift of eternal life. Until the day when our Lord returns to judge the world and redeem those who have remained faithful until the end, let's make each day count. Let's rise and dedicate the day to our living God and sleep at night knowing our house is in order, because of the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6 v 23.

(member of a homegroup)

6th Nov

2 Kings 19     Hosea 12     Hebrews 1     (Click on the Reference to go to the passage)

Hebrews 1

Jesus - the name above all names!

This week has been a trying week - I can't really pin point why but I do know that it's more to do with my state of mind than with circumstances.

And it's in this state of mind that I have resisted giving time to today's reflection. Yet here I am, by God's grace, reading of the person and the glory of the Son of God.

My eyes well up, my heart is moved and reassured. All is indeed well with my soul. Jesus reigns - He sits at the right hand of God. His name is powerful - Satan and his demons fear its power.

My Jesus, my saviour, my friend.

As I dwell on the power of Jesus' name, I become aware of the world going on outside and I find myself wondering with a new sadness, what it must be to not love and honour the name of Jesus.

On our way to church God provides me with a visual answer. As we wait at traffic lights at Stoke's Croft, I watch a man standing in the cold and rain with a small placard around his neck on which is written 'Jesus Saves'.

A young man marches past and without breaking his stride, snatches what I presume is a tract and screws it up. It is his face more than anything that catches my attention - so full of anger and perhaps a little confusion.

We live in a society where the name of Jesus, through whom the universe was made, is thrown away time and time again. Family, friends, colleagues, neighbours - living and yet not seeing. 

Oh Lord, use me today to proclaim the beautiful name of Jesus.

(member of a homegroup)

5th Nov

2 Kings 18     Hosea 11     Philemon 1     (Click on the Reference to go to the passage)

Hosea 11

Does love really look like this?

I've been moved by the recent story line in Downton Abbey where Mrs Crawley has taken in Ethel.  Ethel, a former Downton servant who fell pregnant to a recuperating soldier who subsequently died was forced to leave her service at Downton and fend for herself.  With little love shown to single parents Ethel resorted to prostitution to feed herself and her child.

Graciously Mrs Crawley eventually takes Ethel in as her cook and house made, prepared to take the shame that this action might bring on her 'good' name, and we begin to see this lovely little story of redemption unfold.

Love it seems is as much a verb as it is a noun.   

The story of The Prodigal Son, similar in so many ways to Hosea, is a case in point.  The father ran to the prodigal. He hugged him, clothed him and organised a great party for him.  I want to see this world more like the father sees it - I write that carefully.  His love was painful, costly and outrageous.  It made, in the world's eyes, a fool of him, but it is where life is at.  It's where the party is.  Where grace, mercy and love meet.  

Mrs Crawley, Hosea, and the prodigal's Dad show me something of what it means to love like the Father.  

With gay abandon and with the security of our Father's love may we pursue our worlds with an ounce of His love.  It's where life in its fullness is!

(member of a homegroup)

4th Nov

2 Kings 17     Hosea 10     Titus 3     (Click on the Reference to go to the passage)

Instead of lions I wonder what medium God would use today to arrest our attention?

"No other gods, only me."  (Exodus 20, The Message)

With my head I've long since understood this.  Story after story in the Bible tells me the consequences of not going after God with all my heart, soul and strength, not least this chapter in 2 Kings.

God wants my worship because he is worthy.  He's Yahweh after all.  I want, on my best days, to give God whole life worship because I know well that here I find true freedom. Freedom to be the personality, the human God made me to be. Free to work alongside God as Christ's ambassador to my generation, to fulfil something of his kingdom purposes here on earth.  This is exciting!

But like the Israelites before me I get wilfully distracted.  When did I last pray for God's kingdom to break out in my workplace? Am I more concerned for my colleagues than I am for myself, knowing that the God I worship has my back?  Do I care more about my bonus than I do about treating customers fairly?

And what about my conversations in the pub with friends? I love Strictly Come Dancing, particularly as the competition progresses and the celebrity dancers become fab-u-lous dancers. But is my conversation at the pub about the dancing or the stunningly attractive female bodies on display? Where is my worship? Who am I honouring?

To You our hearts are open

Nothing here is hidden

You are our one desire

You alone are holy

Only You are worthy

God, let Your fire fall down

Let our shout be Your anthem

Your renown fill the skies

We are here for You, we are here for You

Let Your Word move in power

Let what's dead come to life

We are here for You, we are here for You.

Instead of lions Lord, send me.  May your Kingdom come.

(member of a homegroup)

3rd Nov

2 Kings 16     Hosea 9     Titus 2     (Click on the Reference to go to the passage)

Hosea 9

‘You love the wages of a prostitute’, declares the Lord in verse 1. Clearly, Israel is happy to settle for less than second best, and it seems to me that this is an issue rooted in identity. In chapter 2, we saw that the unfaithful wife was content in receiving gifts from her lover that were incomparable to the rich gifts of her husband. That Israel loves the ‘wages of a prostitute’ suggests that Israel, the unfaithful wife, sees this as a great thing. Israel, the unfaithful wife, doesn’t seem to realise just how much she is loved. In verse 10, God reminds Israel of His love-struck moment when He ‘found’ Israel, like ‘grapes in the desert’ – rare, beautiful, and desired. Israel ignored its lover, and gave itself to others, soon becoming as ‘vile as the thing they loved’ (v.10).

In this chapter, two of the key things God appears to be expressing is that He loved first, but that we become taken-in by others and become more like them. These others (sins, other people, the devil, even ourselves) seem irresistible, but are nothing compared to God’s love. In verse 15, however, God says He will ‘drive them out of my house’; like 1 Corinthians 5, it is important to remember that there are ‘house rules’, and when we cease to care about these, we hurt God, we hurt others, and we hurt ourselves. God’s forgiveness is perfect and eternal, but we need to repent from our heads and hearts, and learn to love living in His house. In Psalm 119:97, the Psalmist says ‘Oh how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long!’. God longs to draw us into a place where we sing ‘better is one day in your courts than thousands elsewhere’ (Psalm 84:10). When we truly learn that living in the Father’s house is a place of liberty, not confinement, we learn to love our home. In Hosea 9, Israel is expelled from their home with God, and become ‘wanderers among the nations’ (v.17), and like Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden, and when the prodigal son left his home, life becomes immeasurably harder. But there is a way home; the Way, the Truth and the Life and His name is Jesus (John 14:6).

Do we see our walk with God as restrictive? Are we truly grasping that God set us free? Do we love less that what God provides, and do we fully understand that God only provides the best? Do we long to ‘dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life’? (Psalm 23:6, 27:4).

(member of the congregation)