Robert

 God fulfils his promises: something to celebrate this Christmas season... :)
          
          Jeremiah 33:14 ESV
          
          “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 
          
          
          Maybe at first glance, you might assume as Gentiles that this verse doesn't apply to us. Yet as Paul says in Romans 2, being a Jew spiritually is about having our hearts circumcised, not about physical circumcision thankfully! So if we belong to the Jewish Messiah, we're grafted into spiritual Israel.
          
          As Paul says elsewhere, 'in Christ Jesus all the promises of God are 'yes and amen'. So even Gentiles believers who trust in the Lord can claim this promise for themselves. Yet what is the promise?
          
          We need to contextualise. The promise is of the advent of Jesus, who will be the righteousness of all who put their faith in him. Though we are naturally unrighteous, we can be made right with God through the blood of Jesus.
          
          Having been made right with God, we won't carry on 'business as usual'. He gifts us his Holy Spirit to empower us to righteously live for him. We won't be perfect this side of eternity, yet we will become increasingly Christlike.
          
          'God our Righteousness, may we trust in Christ to make us acceptable in your sight, in the power of his Holy Spirit. In his name we pray, amen'.
          
          

 Guard your heart: ...
          
          Proverbs 4:23 ESV
          
           Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
          
          
          Solomon isn't just saying to not let any old person whisk you off your feet. I think there's an element of that. He's writing more widely though.
          
          This is a better quote than the famous secular quote, 'I think, therefore I am'. Just because I think I'm a monkey doesn't mean to say I am. If I did, there'd be something wrong with me at a heart level.
          
          If God purifies our hearts, we'll be a blessing in this life, whatever stresses we go through. If our hearts remain impure, our 'springs' will be polluted. We need God to cleanse our hearts.
          
          We're not basically good, but do bad things. We do bad things because we're basically bad. We need God to set us right.
          
          'Holy God, please set us right. Make our hearts pure and may we bless others as you bless us. In Jesus' name, amen'.
          
          

 We all get upset, but we can all know God's comfort...
          
          Psalm 34:18 ESV
          
           The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.
          
          
          They often say that about one in four people suffer from mental illness health. Even if we don't as such, I'm sure we almost all get brokenhearted and crushed in spirit at some point in our lives. As Solomon says at one point, 'hope deferred makes the heart sick'.
          
          Even if we don't have psychological problems, we all have external problems that cause broken hearts and crushed spirits. It could be bereavement or relationship breakdown. Maybe we have health or money worries.
          
          This verse is very comforting. Broken hearts and crushed spirits may be pretty much inevitable. Yet we can know our all powerful and all loving God to be near us. 
          
          If we're crushed in spirit, not even God's nearness might comfort us. Yet if we know that God will ultimately save us, we can have hope. We needn't despair.
          
          'Dear Lord, please be near to us in our suffering, and may you ultimately deliver us. In Christ's name, amen'.
          
          

 Don't have contempt for God's word! ...
          
          Jeremiah 36:23 ESV
          
           As Jehudi read three or four columns, the king would cut them off with a knife and throw them into the fire in the fire pot, until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the fire pot. 
          
          
          Jehoiakim was a contemptible king. He was reigning over Judah in her twilight days. Yet instead of repenting at the word of the Lord, he despised it.
          
          This verse reminds me of that saying of Jesus's not to throw our pearls to swine. Yet Jehoiakim had to hear God's indictment over him, even if he was to spurn a final warning from the Lord. He reminds me of the king of Minas Tirith in Lord of the Rings, who buried his head in the sand over his city's destruction.
          
          God forbid that we would likewise despise the word of the Lord. God's word can be life to us. If we receive it in spirit and in truth, we have everlasting life. If we reject it, the lake of fire is our destiny.
          
          Poor prophet Jeremiah and his scribe Baruch! Maybe Jehoiakim's destruction of their prophecy is why the rewritten version isn't chronological and respectfully seems somewhat cobbled together, compelling though it remains. Jeremiah's prophecy is Holy Spirit breathed; yet it also has a ring of authenticity about it.
          
          'God, forbid that we would despise your word, to our own destruction. May we heed your warnings and live. In Jesus' name, amen'.
          
          

Let the Lord look after you :) ...
          
           Psalm 121:5 ESV
          
          The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand.
          
          
          When I hear the word keeper, I think of a goalkeeper in football. When the striker is bearing down upon the goal, the keeper comes out to intercept him. He doesn't just passively stand there to allow the attacker to circumnavigate him.
          
          God is the defender of his people. He doesn't abandon us. He actively fights the evil one who wants to destroy us.
          
          Another application of 'keeper' is that when someone is marriageable, we sometimes colloquially say 's/he's a keeper'. A 'keeper' relationally is someone we ought to and want to cherish. We're to value God above all.
          
          In the blazing Middle Eastern sun, to have the Lord as our shade isn't just a luxury, he's essential. Even with more melanin than me, the heat of summer can be a dangerous thing in hotter climates than the UK. We need God to be our 'right hand man', the One on whom we consciously rely in everything.
          
          'Lord, we praise you for defending us and shielding us from all that would assail us. We pray in Christ's name, amen' 
          
          

 Don't worry about what to say...
          
          Matthew 10:20 ESV
          
          For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. 
          
          
          I'm reminded of something else in the new testament. It is written that when we speak, we should do so as speaking the very words of God. As James said, fresh water and salt water don't come from the same spring: we shouldn't bless and curse from the same mouth.
          
          Another recollection is of the Roman Catholic monk Martin Luther who converted to Christianity and was put on trial for his life. He insisted he couldn't go against his conscience and the Biblical writings. 'Here I stand', he insisted, 'I can do no other. So help me God'. 
          
          We don't need to be all scripted when we are called to give an account of our lives. We must pray, of course. Yet we can trust God to give us what to say by his Holy Spirit.
          
          'Where words are many, sin is not absent'. On the other hand, 'even a fool is considered wise if he holds his tongue'. It's about finding a holy balance in what we say, and prayerfully speaking the words that God would have us to say.
          
          'God, please give us wisdom in what we say. May we honour you in everything. In the name of Christ we pray, amen'.
          
          
          
          

The Watchman at Saint Andrew’s Cross
          
          
          Once upon a time, I met the Watchman.
          Watchman was watching at Saint Andrew’s Cross.
          I'd visited my brother from England
          And was crossing city streets filled with frost.
          
          I heard the Watchman before I saw him
          He was warning us of judgement to come
          I was a moral young man at the time
          And not like the homeless man who was numb.
          
          I assumed that I'd made my peace with God
          Because once I had prayed ‘the sinner’s prayer’.
          So I hurried past the Watchman’s sermon
          And I hardly slowed for a glance or stare.
          
          The homeless man heard the Watchman's warning
          And his life was transformed, the right side up
          He became a successful musician 
          And with the Watchman he often did sup.
          
          I heard the musician some years later
          Although I didn't recognise him then
          He sang a song of when Jesus found him
          Of what he sang I did not really ken.
          
          I had been moral but went off the rails
          And I got in trouble with the land’s law
          My life took a turn for the very worst
          I'll cut a long story short and not bore.
          
          I had become a homeless man myself
          The busking musician threw me some coins.
          Then the Watchman came to my town as well
          And commanded me to ‘gird up my loins’.
          
          He asked for a meal deal from my shrapnel
          And shared his feast with me on a park bench
          I asked if I could follow him as well,
          He told me all of my people to tell-
          
          To tell of the hope of eternal life
          Beyond our days of miserable strife.
          After that my life was still hard
          But I sought to build it on God's own word.
          
          Nobody wants to end up on a cross
          But when Christ did, he earned himself a crown
          So I'll take up my cross and follow him
          And tell of his love to all in my town.
          
          
          
          

 How's your prayer life?
          
          Colossians 4:2 ESV
          
          Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. 
          
          
          God wants us to be steadfast in prayer. He wants us to be consistent. He doesn't want us halfhearted.
          
          Prayer is conscious reliance on the One on whom we rely. Prayer is wise, because without God, we can't do anything. Prayer is a way of holding God to his promises to help us.
          
          We're to be watchful in prayer. Where do we need God to come through for us? Ask him about it!
          
          Prayer isn't just to be a shopping list. It's to be defined by thankfulness. Ingratitude is an ugly trait.
          
          'Heavenly Abba, Dad in heaven, may we be grateful for all your goodness, and fully reliant on you. In Jesus' name, amen'.
          
          

 We all need spiritual heart surgery...
          
          Hebrews 4:12 ESV
          
          For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 
          
          
          God's word is powerful. It is an offensive weapon. It's like a surgeon's scalpel.
          
          Our souls are what distinguish us from animals. We are eternal souls, which encapsulates our thoughts, intentions, feelings and emotions. Whether or not we trust in Jesus, we have everlasting souls.
          
          Our spirits come alive when we trust in Jesus. Our bodies become temples of the Holy Spirit. We begin to bear the fruit of the spirit.
          
          The difference between a moral person and a spiritual person is like the difference between crab apples (wild apples) and pink lady apples. Wild apples are sour; pink lady apples are delicious!
          
          'Sovereign Lord, please apply your word to our hearts. Help us see where we're going wrong, and cut out all that is amiss. In Jesus' name, amen'.
          
          

Do you believe in the impossible? ...
          
           Luke 1:37 ESV
          
           For nothing will be impossible with God.” 
          
          
          I'm reminded of the power someone mentioned of the word 'yet'. When someone says they can't do something, if 'yet' is added, it is taken from the realm of the impossible to that of the possible. Of course, ultimately, it is God's will that prevails, not ours.
          
          The Nazarene peasant Mary wasn't naive. She knew that virgins didn't have babies... Yet! She was going to be the exception. The angel Gabriel clarified for her.
          
          Mary wasn't disbelieving, she just wanted to clarify how she was going to have a child. Gabriel explained that she would conceive by the Holy Spirit, a miraculous conception. What seems impossible to us is possible with God.
          
          Why was Jesus born of the virgin Mary? To fulfil God's promises. As sin came into the world through one man, so salvation came into the world through one man, the Son of God.
          
          'Dear God, we're so grateful that nothing is impossible for you. Please help us to trust you for salvation. In Christ's name, amen'.