Be strong and [be] very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Joshua 1:7 NIV
We all have those ‘goto’ verses where we find help, strength or comfort, and sometimes all three like this one! But like all of God’s promises, this one comes with a condition. Our salvation is free for the asking. Yes, you have to want it enough to ask for it and only then it is given as a free gift. In this verse, the condition is obedience to the law of Moses, but Jesus brought an extension to the law, so I suggest that our condition today, is to obey the commands and law of Christ.
Not straying to one side or the other is easier said than done, but it is required, no it is necessary for our success in life. Did you notice that being strong and courageous came first? Only then to taking care and obeying the law? By staying on the straight road, then and only then God’s people would be successful, and not only where they were, but wherever they went!
The strength of our convictions must come first, and the other things follow. There was a time that I thought we must not get sidetracked to the left or right, but that’s not the timeline of the verse, is it? As modern language would say, we have to ‘man up’ (or woman up!) with all the strength God will give us, and ultimately we will be successful. Just as it was for Joshua, so we are keeping good company. I can almost hear you asking, how on this earth are we supposed to find this strength. The answer is found in the very next verse where it says: “Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” Joshua was to be obedient to the law of Moses, but we have the greater law as given by the Son of God and the apostles. Now I must ask myself the question, am I up to reading and studying the Bible, so that I will overcome? That’s something we must each work out for ourselves, so how about you?
The aim is to provide a stimulating mix of personal opinions (from a mainstream Christian worldview), and associated comments, which will be accepted and published if they comply with the usual courtesy and decency.
Showing posts with label Inside. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Inside. Show all posts
Wednesday, 22 August 2018
Thursday, 5 July 2018
Externals
Every few weeks I get to meet up with some friends for a coffee and a blether. We cover just about any subject and in the space of a couple of hours can set the world to rights, no matter the troubles. These are very light hearted times and not usually too serious, but get to know each other better every time even though we all go back many years. This past week was such a time.
Politics and the state of the world are fair game and are in our sights most times. I wonder how much attention we pay to the overall state of our nation? You can substitute your own country and I’m sure it will be pretty much the same, with all the same problems which need solutions. Our politicians do try, but don’t always get it right with our major issues like:
Drug use and addiction is increasing at an alarming rate, and although it is debated a lot, we don’t seem to be closer to a solution. We all know it’s not a good thing to be hooked on drugs, but since we can’t stop it happening, the answer seems to be to allow it, decriminalise hard drugs and not prosecute offenders. After all, they are victims too. If you can’t fix it, then make it legal!
Crime is at an all time high and linked to unemployment, poverty, and a bad childhood. We need to find someone or something to blame and we do a pretty good job at that. We find reasons to sympathise with the criminal while the victims are left behind.
Terrorism is rife, and without naming names or sections of society, we all agree it is a major problem but we don’t want to tackle it head on. So we go round in circles making suggestions that it’s not really their fault if someone has radicalised them to believe they are doing good in the long run, and if anything happens to them, their family will be provided for. We don’t want to upset any group unnecessarily, so we stay silent to the obvious truth.
After talking about this for a while, one of the men said something like this which brought a silence to our table. “The further we get from the commandments of the Bible, the worse society becomes, and that’s because we (the 'good' part of society) have also moved away from the importance of the Bible.” On this occasion, we could not disagree. The real problem wasn’t and isn’t what’s wrong with society. It’s what has happened to change us as a whole? Our community and therefore our nation has moved away from the laws of God, and we no longer live our lives in a Bible believing manner. We have changed on the inside, and that has affected our attitudes to wrong behaviour. Get the inside right, and the other problems will follow.
We used to have a name for that internal intention to do wrong. Oh yes, we called it ‘sin’, but we’re better than that now, aren’t we? Talk of sin is old fashioned. Our communities and societies have moved on for the good of us all, and we are better for it, aren’t we? Let’s leave the Bible to have the last word, and see what it says…. Case closed I fear!
The human heart is most deceitful and desperately wicked. Jeremiah 17:9 NLT
Politics and the state of the world are fair game and are in our sights most times. I wonder how much attention we pay to the overall state of our nation? You can substitute your own country and I’m sure it will be pretty much the same, with all the same problems which need solutions. Our politicians do try, but don’t always get it right with our major issues like:
Drug use and addiction is increasing at an alarming rate, and although it is debated a lot, we don’t seem to be closer to a solution. We all know it’s not a good thing to be hooked on drugs, but since we can’t stop it happening, the answer seems to be to allow it, decriminalise hard drugs and not prosecute offenders. After all, they are victims too. If you can’t fix it, then make it legal!
Crime is at an all time high and linked to unemployment, poverty, and a bad childhood. We need to find someone or something to blame and we do a pretty good job at that. We find reasons to sympathise with the criminal while the victims are left behind.
Terrorism is rife, and without naming names or sections of society, we all agree it is a major problem but we don’t want to tackle it head on. So we go round in circles making suggestions that it’s not really their fault if someone has radicalised them to believe they are doing good in the long run, and if anything happens to them, their family will be provided for. We don’t want to upset any group unnecessarily, so we stay silent to the obvious truth.
After talking about this for a while, one of the men said something like this which brought a silence to our table. “The further we get from the commandments of the Bible, the worse society becomes, and that’s because we (the 'good' part of society) have also moved away from the importance of the Bible.” On this occasion, we could not disagree. The real problem wasn’t and isn’t what’s wrong with society. It’s what has happened to change us as a whole? Our community and therefore our nation has moved away from the laws of God, and we no longer live our lives in a Bible believing manner. We have changed on the inside, and that has affected our attitudes to wrong behaviour. Get the inside right, and the other problems will follow.
We used to have a name for that internal intention to do wrong. Oh yes, we called it ‘sin’, but we’re better than that now, aren’t we? Talk of sin is old fashioned. Our communities and societies have moved on for the good of us all, and we are better for it, aren’t we? Let’s leave the Bible to have the last word, and see what it says…. Case closed I fear!
The human heart is most deceitful and desperately wicked. Jeremiah 17:9 NLT
Sunday, 24 June 2018
Pride and Joy
Jimmy was a well liked man, who had an good job which he did well, a wife and family whom he loved, and they loved him right back. He lived by good principles, like not being in debt and only paying for something he could afford. Jimmy’s two small sons wanted for nothing, but at the same time they didn’t have many of the ‘extras’ their pals had. They didn’t mind because they had something much more valuable. Each other.
Jimmy’s place of work was some 20 miles from home, and he took the train week in and week out because they didn’t have a car. They couldn’t afford one and he wasn’t about to go into debt for one when the train was reliable. One particularly stormy morning his wife Mary started a conversation and sowed a seed in her husband’s mind. She suggested if they saved up slowly, maybe they could afford a small runaround used car, and that way she continued, you wouldn’t get soaked walking to the train station so often. The seed was sown and Jimmy thought about it all day at work. With his wife’s backing, and the excitement of his sons, they decided to pull together, to save money where they could, and in some months or a year down the road, they could be the proud owners of a real family car. Not a new car, but one that was all theirs!
Some months later, the big day arrived, and Jimmy had his prize possession in the form of a bright red mini. Next to his family, it was the apple of his eye, and having taken so long to get one, he took great care of his car. The family lived on the 12th floor of a high rise block of flats, and did not own a garage, so he could look out of his window to see that his car was still there. Of course it always was, but he didn’t like it when it rained and the car got wet. So he would rush down to the car park to dry off his car. After all, it could get rusty he reckoned. To further protect his investment, every week Jimmy was found washing and polishing his car. It was the brightest and shiniest example of automotive engineering you would ever find.
On one of the family’s regular car journeys into the very hilly Scottish countryside, the unthinkable happened. It was a perfect storm. With a loud bang, the car shuddered to a dramatic halt at the side of the road pouring smoke and steam into the air and fortunately everyone was safe. Mary was distressed, and the boys thought it was an adventure, but Jimmy was worried about the safety of his dear wife and sons. After calling the AA, they sat tight on the embankment a safe distance away from the lopsided, still smoking car, at the side of the road. It didn’t take long for roadside assistance to arrive and figure out what was wrong. Then came the embarrassing questions. “When was the last time you put air in your tyres?”, “When did you last check your oil level, and the fluid in the radiator?” Jimmy’s car was lovely to look at, but wasn’t healthy under the bonnet.
Jimmy’s problem, and possibly ours too, is that he never referred to the owner’s handbook. If he did, he would have avoided the perfect storm of a tyre blowout, low oil level, and little coolant in the radiator. I wonder which of life’s essential lessons we miss when we don’t consult the handbook we have to avoid those storms, or if we can’t avoid them, to be prepared for them! We have the freedom to own and read the Bible, but are we like Jimmy who made sure his car looked good, but he didn’t read the very book that would have helped keep him and his precious family eternally safe? Jimmy now reads his car manual, but it took a near disaster before he knew how important it was. How about us, and I include myself in this? Have we neglected the best and only set of instructions for this life on earth? Do we give the Bible the prominence it needs and deserves in our lives? We might not be able to avoid all those near disasters that life throws at us, but we can be better prepared for them. Our owner’s handbook shows how important it is to look after our interior in these words:
What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with ….all sorts of impurity. Matthew 23:27 NLT
Jimmy’s place of work was some 20 miles from home, and he took the train week in and week out because they didn’t have a car. They couldn’t afford one and he wasn’t about to go into debt for one when the train was reliable. One particularly stormy morning his wife Mary started a conversation and sowed a seed in her husband’s mind. She suggested if they saved up slowly, maybe they could afford a small runaround used car, and that way she continued, you wouldn’t get soaked walking to the train station so often. The seed was sown and Jimmy thought about it all day at work. With his wife’s backing, and the excitement of his sons, they decided to pull together, to save money where they could, and in some months or a year down the road, they could be the proud owners of a real family car. Not a new car, but one that was all theirs!
Some months later, the big day arrived, and Jimmy had his prize possession in the form of a bright red mini. Next to his family, it was the apple of his eye, and having taken so long to get one, he took great care of his car. The family lived on the 12th floor of a high rise block of flats, and did not own a garage, so he could look out of his window to see that his car was still there. Of course it always was, but he didn’t like it when it rained and the car got wet. So he would rush down to the car park to dry off his car. After all, it could get rusty he reckoned. To further protect his investment, every week Jimmy was found washing and polishing his car. It was the brightest and shiniest example of automotive engineering you would ever find.
On one of the family’s regular car journeys into the very hilly Scottish countryside, the unthinkable happened. It was a perfect storm. With a loud bang, the car shuddered to a dramatic halt at the side of the road pouring smoke and steam into the air and fortunately everyone was safe. Mary was distressed, and the boys thought it was an adventure, but Jimmy was worried about the safety of his dear wife and sons. After calling the AA, they sat tight on the embankment a safe distance away from the lopsided, still smoking car, at the side of the road. It didn’t take long for roadside assistance to arrive and figure out what was wrong. Then came the embarrassing questions. “When was the last time you put air in your tyres?”, “When did you last check your oil level, and the fluid in the radiator?” Jimmy’s car was lovely to look at, but wasn’t healthy under the bonnet.
Jimmy’s problem, and possibly ours too, is that he never referred to the owner’s handbook. If he did, he would have avoided the perfect storm of a tyre blowout, low oil level, and little coolant in the radiator. I wonder which of life’s essential lessons we miss when we don’t consult the handbook we have to avoid those storms, or if we can’t avoid them, to be prepared for them! We have the freedom to own and read the Bible, but are we like Jimmy who made sure his car looked good, but he didn’t read the very book that would have helped keep him and his precious family eternally safe? Jimmy now reads his car manual, but it took a near disaster before he knew how important it was. How about us, and I include myself in this? Have we neglected the best and only set of instructions for this life on earth? Do we give the Bible the prominence it needs and deserves in our lives? We might not be able to avoid all those near disasters that life throws at us, but we can be better prepared for them. Our owner’s handbook shows how important it is to look after our interior in these words:
What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with ….all sorts of impurity. Matthew 23:27 NLT
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
Deep Inside
Another lovely evening winter sky over the town of Port Glasgow, the town where I was born, and grew up. Nothing special you think, but take another moment to follow my reasoning. This is not one of my photos. It was given me by a very good family member, who thought it worth while to run outside with her camera, to take this scene.
Why would anyone feel anything about a sky scene? Why do we mostly love sunsets? Why does music stir the senses to the point that we have our own special 'memory' tunes, and we call them 'our songs'? Why is it when you look across at the Argyle Hills, covered in snow, we gasp at the beauty? Why is art (because these are all pieces of art) so important to humans?
Animals have no concept of beauty. They live on base instincts. An animal of any kind will not lift its head to take in the beauty of a sunset, or the rolling waves. Have you ever wondered why?
How about the thought that we really are so fundamentally different, that we just cannot be part of the same evolving species? How about the thought that we are not animals after all? How about the possibility, maybe in your own mind just a faint possibility, that the difference is that there actually is a God, and the thing that makes us different is that part of us that responds to beauty, love, feelings, emotions, and not just instincts? Science cannot test for beauty or feelings, just tangible things. There is a place for science and the study of knowledge, but let's not close our minds to the feelings which stir inside us when we are affected and touched by our emotions, feelings, beauty, and especially love. Science cannot deal with these things, and rightly so. They are intangible.
For my part, I don't think these feelings are borne of the chemical make up of our bodies, or minds. I think it goes further. We have become good at being a 'God-Free' society, and very secular in our outlook. Isn't it time to at least be open to the possibility that there might just be that superior creator God after all? What is there to lose? The lady who took this photo just recognised the beauty. It was deep inside, and didn't have to be proven scientifically. She just knew it was 'good'!
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