UNBLOCKING THE WELL OF THE LIVING WORD

DAY 20 MORNING Read Acts 2:23-31

PSALMS: DEEP CRIES FROM OUR HEART FIND CONSOLATION IN JESUS.

Jesus Christ is the object of the praise, the worship and the cries from the heart found in the book of Psalms. The Psalms are deep cries from the heart, a compendium of heartfelt prayers, some written by David and Solomon and others probably by exiles in Babylon. These beautiful songs probably formed the basis of  a hymnbook that would have been used in the Second Temple and would have brought consolation and sanity during very difficult times. Psalm 2 and Psalm 110 are the most quoted parts of the Old Testament in the New Testament, and were foundational to the early church’s revelation that Jesus is now ascended and seated at the right hand of the Father.  Matthew Henry said, “There is no one book of scripture more helpful to the devotions of the saints than this, and it has been so in all the ages of the church.” The Lord is coming to dwell with us. He is establishing his presence among a family of nations. The psalms have been and will continue to be essential in the devotional life of the church.

Psalm 2 reveals that Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father, interceding passionately for God’s kingdom to come on earth. As we draw to the end of this age, deep cries from our hearts are called out from us if we are aligning with the passion of Psalm 2. Opposition to God’s purposes will be crushed. The nations will be restored as God’s inheritance and his dwelling place. At midnight when the virgin church will need oil in its lamps, passionate deep cries from the heart drawn from the psalms will sustain the church through times of tribulation, as she waits for Jesus’ second coming.      

MISSIONARY MONKS: ANSKAR 801-865[1]

Anskar was raised from a young age in a monastery, founded by Colombanus’ disciples from Luxueil. From about 793, Vikings began to attack and pillage monasteries in Western Europe. Despite the fear that this understandably created, Anskar, believed he was called to be a martyr and resolved to take the Gospel to Scandanavia.. Viking paganism was similar to the Germanic paganism that confronted Willibrord and Boniface. Anskar began his missionary work in the north of Denmark in Schleswig. Despite hardship and his assistant Autbert becoming sick and dying he persevered, holding on to a heavenly vision he had received “Go and declare the word of God unto the nations.” His mission to Sweden was thwarted by an attack by pirates when his missionary team robbed of nearly everything they possessed. He established a mission base in Hamburg and Bremen with the goal of sending missionaries to the North. He then had success in church-planting in Denmark and relaunched into Sweden and began to start churches there too. There were a number of key features of Anskar’s missionary work. Dreams and visions guided him and his monastic theology and included the embracing of suffering. He regarded prayer and fasting of paramount importance but not to be conducted at the expense of serving others. He worked in teams and followed the invitation of political leaders, requesting missionaries. Establishing a mission base to teach and train was vital to his monastic service. Social justice and care for the poor were a high value too.    

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

PRAY for “the Cypriots, Turkish in Cyprus the twenty-eighth largest unreached people group in Europe, whose  language is Turkish and whose primary religion is Islam. There are 228,000 and they are 0.5% Christian and  0.26% evangelical.”  [2]  Anskar persevered in his misisonary call in a time of violent conflict, when Vikings attacked and pillaged. We pray for Turkish Cypriots, who as recently as 1963 were at war on the small island of Cyprus with the Greek Cypriots. This is an unreached people group where there has been deep division between Greeks and Turks. May your Gospel go to the Turkish Cypriots, we pray!    

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DAY 20 EVENING Psalm 96-100, Re-read Psalm 97

PSALM 97: A FIRE GOES BEFORE THE LORD AND PREPARES BELIEVERS FOR THE JUDGEMENT SEAT OF CHRIST

Psalm 97: 1-5 The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice. Clouds and thick darkness surround him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.Fire goes before him and consumes his foes on every side. His lightning lights up the world; the earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth. This passage from Psalm 97 reminds me of a song from the 1980s, over 40 years ago, written by Dan Stradwick from ‘Scripture in Song’, and played by Bob Fitts of Integrity music.  Listen to song [3] and see lyrics below [4]:  “The Lord reigns. The Lord reigns. The Lord reigns. Let the earth rejoice. Let the earth rejoice. Let the earth rejoice. Let the people be glad That our God reigns. Let the people be glad That our God reigns.  A fire goes before Him, And burns up all His enemies. The hills melt like wax,  At the presence of the Lord.”

Joy Dawson in “The Fire of God” says these rather sobering words.[5] “I believe as God’s children, we’re all either in a fiery trial (with varying degrees of heat), heading for one and don’t know it, or have been in one and need more understanding of how to get through the next one more successfully. I believe the degree of the heat of God’s fire in each believer’s life is proportionate to the extent of God’s plan to use each one for the extension of his kingdom and to bring glory to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is vividly illustrated in the lives of Job, Abraham, Joseph, David, Daniel, Mordecai, Esther, Jeremiah, Mary, Paul and apostle John. In each case the intense heat came when they were living righteous lives before God and men. This means we must never presume on God’s purposes for those in the fire. We must never judge.”

Psalm 97 says “Fire goes before him” and Daniel 7:10 also says “A stream of fire issued and came out from before him; a thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the court sat in judgment, and the books were opened.” Psalm 97 also says righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. And Daniel 7;10 also using same imagery of fire says “the court sat in judgment, and the books were opened.” 2 Corinthians 5:10-11 says ^“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others.” At this judgement seat we will not be judged for our repented sins, they have already been eradicated by the blood of Jesus. Psalm 103:12. Says that God “has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west” and Hebrews 8:12 says “I will forgive their wickedness, and I will remember their sins no more”.

So what will our judgement entail? We will be examined regarding how we lived as believers, and both good and bad will be examined. Often scripture refers to us as builders. We are sub-contractors of Zion, Psalm 132:13-14. We are created for good works.  We are his workmanship, Ephesians 2:16 in order that we may walk in them, but are you and I are building with his eternal word, see 1 Corinthians 3:12-13? The fire will show if a person’s work has any value.  The fire that examines your and my life will be the word of God. If our behaviour starts from obedience to his word, our achievements will last forever. How we used our God-given talents to build God’s kingdom is what matters. If the building is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved but only like someone escaping from flames. 1 Corinthians 3:15 So, why does the Lord use fire in our lives?….to grow our character and to examine our work to see whether it has any value.  Godly character and virtuous living matters.

PRAYER Lord, just as Saint Gregory and many of the Church Fathers believed through the singing and chanting of the psalms and the sacrifice of praise, that godly character or virtue would be instilled, help me to grow in Christian character through devotion to the psalms. May your fire burn up sin in my life I pray.

[1] Smither, E.L.  Missionary monks, Cascade books, 2016, 107-118 (summary).

[2] Data provided by Joshua Project  https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/11457/CY

[3] Song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RxXXRPPrVo

[4] Lyrics https://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/d/dan_stradwick/the_lord_reigns.html Dan Stradwick,D.  ©1980 Scripture in Song ( a division of Integrity Music)

[5] Dawson, J. The Fire of God, Destiny Image, 2005, 13, 14.