UNBLOCKING THE WELL OF THE LIVING WORD

DAY 19 MORNING  Read Luke 1:5-17

MALACHI: JESUS IS THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS WHO COMES WITH HEALING IN HIS WINGS

The Lord Jesus Christ, the messiah is coming and a way will be prepared for him and he will come with healing in his wings for those who fear his name. For those who don’t fear his name, for those who are arrogant and evil, the day of the Lord will be like an oven and they will be set ablaze. God is revealed in the book of Malachi as being worthy of respect and honour (1:6). He is a covenant-keeping God, with integrity and uprightness (1:6) and requires wholehearted worship from his covenantal people. This last book in the Old Testament finished with a strong challenge to remain faithful to the covenant, as unfaithfulness will be judged.  Malachi brought a sharp accusation against the priests for bringing lame, sick and blind animals for sacrifice as worship. The exiles had been rebuilding Jerusalem physically despite opposition but their worship was not wholehearted. Obeying the Law of the Lord was paramount regarding worship and issues of social justice. Their sub-standard sacrifices were not permissible or acceptable by the Lord. The softening and turning of hard hearts into soft ones would be God’s heart in the New covenant that the Messiah would bring. God would bring the glory of his holy presence to the nations. God also declared prophetically that His messenger would come and prepare a way for the Lord, and would be like a refiner’s fire (3:3)  and a fuller’s soap. This prophetic figure who would prepare a way, reminds us of Isaiah’s prophecy in chapter 40, “In the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for God.” Malachi looks forward to the future. His people shall be his special possession. He will judge wickedness including sorcery, adultery, swearing falsely and oppression of the poor, orphans and widows ( 3:5).Those people who fear God, He  will choose to  be his treasured possession and he will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. Though He will burn up the arrogant like stubble, the righteous will be joyful, receiving healing at the time of his appearing. God has the compassion of a parent (3:17) and will change, soften and transform hearts (4: 5,6). Her will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children at the day of  his coming. Malachi pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ, He is the coming messiah and a way will be prepared for him and he will come with healing in his wings for those who fear his name.

MISSIONARY MONKS: ALCUIN OF YORK  735-804

Alcuin of York came from the Northumbrian nobility and he received his education from the Cathedral school in York which was built by Archbishop Egbert. Alcuin built a large library in York and he became a scholar, theologian and trainer of missionary monks. Later in his life he worked under Charlemagne in France and he became Abbot of St Martin Le Tours. He built another large library for the French in the Carolingian court. This library was significant in resourcing the Carolingian renaissance. Alcuin wrote a significant biography of Willibrord’s life, which was an inspiration for others to follow him. Alcuin wrote at the end of his life,[1]  ‘In the morning, at the height of my powers, I sowed the seed in Britain.  Now in the evening, when my blood is growing cold, I still am sowing in France … hoping both will grow. By the grace of God, giving some the Holy Scriptures, making others drunk on the old wine of ancient learning …. I became many things to my men, in order to train many for the advance of the Holy Church of God.” He fixed his eyes on Jesus, he had a missional lifestyle and was a scholar who was devoted to mathematics, poetry, education and theology, and was a trainer of missionary monks.

CLICK ON BOLD and you will be directed to Joshua Project website with more information for prayer.

PRAY for the “Arab, Moroccan  in  France the thirteenth largest unreached people group in the world, whose language is Arabic, Moroccan and whose primary religion is  Islam. There are  441,000, 0.5% Christian and  0.1% evangelical. ”[2] Alcuin of York worked under Charlemagne in France and he became Abbot of St Martin Le Tours… he sowed in France and trained many for the advance of the church. May a way be prepared for the Lord in France, today…more missionary monks like Alcuin of York reaching the Moroccan Arabs in France, that have not as yet made Jesus Lord, we pray.

DAY 19 EVENING Psalm 91-95, Re-read Psalm 95

 PSALM 95: “WAKE UP!” AND LISTEN TODAY TO THE VOICE OF JESUS CHRIST  IN THE SCRIPTURES

Psalm 95:5-9 “Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if only you would hear his voice,“Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested me.” Steve Uppal  of All Nations church, in Wolverhampton, in England, at the beginning of Covid, in March 2020 preached a sermon series, called  “Wake up”. See clip below [3]. Charles Wesley preached on “Wake up”, on 4 April 1742. He said ‘What then do you mean O sleeper? Arise, call upon your God if your God will think of you. A mighty tempest is stirring around you and you are sinking into the depths of perdition. Awake, awake!”

Over 1500 years ago, Benedict at the beginning of his ‘Rule’ also challenged his monks to “Wake up”, and Psalm 95: 7, 8 were his inspiration.[4] He said “Now at last we must wake up, …Let us open our eyes to the divine light and listen carefully to what the divine voice tells us to do when it cries out each day, ‘If you hear his voice today, do not harden your hearts.’ Esther de Waal says [5] that Benedict wrote his Rule for monastic living, just after the Fall of the Roman Empire, in AD 540, which helped chart many through .. stormy waters, saying “Christians must have looked back with nostalgia to the age of the Fathers and asked themselves if ever again the church could produce a Saint Augustine and a “City of God” to hold out the promise of peace and order and light on a scene which seemed instead to be rapidly descending into chaos. And then on the scene there appeared the man who built an ark to survive the rising storm an ark not made with hands.”[6] “Benedict’s call, was to a deep and challenging life, focused on prayer and laying down one’s life, following biblical Christian principles living in community with a committed body of believers. It wasn’t explicitly evangelistic, but these small groups of believers became like a beacon set on a hill. Many were drawn to the light and culture of the Western European nations and transformed by the biblical Christian worldview.” 

I believe that Europe needs another Benedictine missionary monastic movement today, beginning with a similar “Wake up” call. We need to hear Jesus waking us up, speaking to us through both Old and New Testaments. It is Scripture that rouses us. Scripture is a divine voice. Scripture is sacramental.  Early church exegesis was not primarily about observing, interpreting and applying the text, as is customary in bible study today. It was about encountering Jesus the divine logos in the Scriptures and obeying the divine voice. Benedict’s rule consisted of [7]“instructions of a loving father: receive them gladly and carrying them out to good effect so that by the efforts of obedience you may return to him from whom you have withdrawn through the laziness of disobedience. It is to you that my words are now addressed, if you are ready to take up the powerful and glorious weapons of obedience, renouncing your own will with the intention of fighting for the true king, Christ the Lord.” The Scriptures are a sacred text. Scripture is not to be objectively applied in a scientific way. Lesslie Newbiggin, century said [8] “the idea of a purely objective knowledge is an illusion… but it is a prime and dominant illusion of Western culture.”  We are all children of a divine heavenly Father and knowledge in the bible is a personal knowing (“yada” in Hebrew). Have you had the revelation that your bible including the Old Testament should be read in the light of the resurrection, by the community of faith, as a coherent story? Can …you hear this call afresh today?.. to wake up, to encounter Jesus Christ, the divine logos, to hear His voice and to obey Him in the fear of the Lord?    

PRAYER  Lord help me to read both Old and New Testaments, in the light of the resurrection in the community of faith as a coherent story and as I meet you, the living Lord Jesus Christ, help me to listen to your voice and obey you, in the fear of the Lord.     

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[1] Taylor, A Mission heroes, (reference Tinnion, C. Training missionaries: Alcuin of York), YWAM England, 2010.

[2] Data provided by Joshua Project https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/11764/FR

[3] Uppal, S. https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=A4oYyz82xD0 starting 6 mins 14 secs.

[4] Benedict. The Rule. Penguin, 2008, The Prologue, 7.

[5] De Waal, E. Seeking God, Liturgical Press, 1999, 1.

[6] Taylor, A.  Launch out into the deep. Self published, drawn from 2, 3.

[7] Benedict. The Rule. Penguin, 2008, The Prologue, 7.

[8] Newbiggin, L. Faith in a changing world, St Paul’s Theological Centre 2012, 73,74.