Strangely Happy

As far as I can tell, the opponent, magistrate and judge are all God in this warning from Jesus! Our rebelliousness makes us God's enemies! This is not a good position to be in (to say the least) especially since God is very friendly, very loving, very understanding, very helpful and very powerful, and he is interested in using that power on your behalf to speak up for you ("justify" you), make you a better you ("sanctify" you) and put you on a throne ("glorify" you). But when we want to justify ourselves (defensively but unconvincingly), sanctify ourselves (making New Year's and other resolutions which we don't keep, for example), and glorify ourselves (it's not hard to see how, so I'll leave it to your imaginations, but be prepared to wince), we are left strangely unhappy. So take a deep breath. God is good. Feel it. You're not made to shoulder the burdens of the world. He has bigger and more willing should...

"Red sky at night, shepherds' delight, red sky in morning, shepherds' warning!" Before the more precise meteorology that we today take for granted, people still got pretty good at forecasting the weather! Certain features of the sky lent themselves to memorable weather patterns in the minds of observant onlookers. We pay attention to what we want. Jesus was a (very!) patient person, but was at least borderline indignant with people's ability to focus and discern weather patterns, while closing their eyes to signs in society that humankind is spiralling downwards, morally, and this descent is marked by strife, greed, hate, slander, neglect of the vulnerable, disrespectfulness, obscenity, and indignities suffered - from homelessness to statelessness. How can you be an expert in predicting rain and an amateur at predicting judgment? "Men are without excuse since what may be known about God is plain to them, since God has made it plain, being understo...

While on holiday in West Yorkshire, I was treated quite regularly to the sight of wandering sheep, from nearby flocks, including these two, who had wandered on to the front lawn of a neighbour! It seemed to be a not unusual phenomenon. We all like sheep have gone astray; Each of us has gone his own way, And the Lord had laid on him The iniquity of us all! I am the good shepherd...My sheep know my voice. These quotes from the biblical books of Isaiah and John, respectively, tell us of the bad and good tendencies of humans - rather unflatteringly likening us to sheep! We have a tendency to "stray" from God. It is not ever, with any of us, that we merely make one or two errors in life which we quickly regret. In our ever present willingness to be legends in our own minds, we may see ourselves that way. But rather, much as we might want to be genuinely good people (and many of us do), we are all too readily ready to put self before God and others, and then soothe our ...

"Go to the ant you sluggard..." The biblical book of Proverbs goes on to praise the humble ant for its self-motivated industriousness, working without delay, as it does, "without overseer." The members of the church in Ephesus are urged to "redeem the time (or 'make the most of every opportunity') because the days are evil." First, give over your worries to God. Then, secure in his care, we should use our time to do things that keep us near him. As we live in the Spirit, growing in Christ, let us enjoy watching God work all around us. Like the ants, we will build things much bigger than ourselves.

"Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won't you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?" (Luke 14:28) "The prospect of the righteous is joy, but the hopes of the wicked come to nothing." (Proverbs 10:28) Is Christianity so hard that it is left (mostly) untried, as GK Chesterton (who wrote the Father Brown detective series a century ago) said? It does seem hard, because it is inconvenient to not fit in with others, and to choose restraint over indulgence, and prayer over taking control, etc. That's why even Jesus himself likened the choice to follow him to a property developer who has to budget carefully before building, what with contractors always coming in over what they quote to to you and all! I wasn't a very good student at uni, because my aim wasn't to learn, but to pass, so I studied the minimum necessary to achieve my goal. I have remembered a few things, though. One of those is t...

"Where can I go from your presence, where can I flee from your Spirit?"  "You hem me in , behind and before" "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain." (Exerpts from Psalm 139, in the Old Testament of the Bible) It is a mistake to view the universe as impersonal. The most brilliant scientists - Sir David Attenborough, Professor Brian Cox, to name but two - cannot describe their subjects, whether a distant constellation of stars, or a community of the tiniest insects, without resorting to words of wonder and gratitude.  What we experience in nature isn't accurately perceived by a description of activities and molecules. All of it is engineering and artistry at the same time. More than that, the things we take for granted every day - breathing, walking, speaking, hearing - depend on so many things "working together for good," including distant stars colluding in death to provide substances for our atmosphere, gravity ...