UNBLOCKING THE WELL OF THE LIVING WORD

DAY 25 MORNING Read 2 Corinthians 1:1-11

LAMENTATIONS: THE STEADFAST LOVE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST NEVER CEASES

The faithfulness and love of God is revealed through the coming of our Jesus Christ who is alive for evermore. The main theme of Lamentations is right at the very centre, in Lamentations 3:22 , “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end.” Lamentations is a lament that was written after the fall of Jerusalem. It was written as an acrostic each stanza starting with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet.  The fall of Jerusalem was a cataclysmic event in the history of Judah. The seige brought the people of God to the very end of themselves, and they were desperately hungry enough to resort to becoming cannibals. Lamentations was a written as a funeral lament or dirge. It began with an invocation to God, then described Judah’s current need, there was then a confession of trust and a petition and after an appeal to God’s care there was then a vow of praise and assurance of being heard, followed by praise to God.      

The wrath of God is clear but also God’s faithfulness is acknowledged. God’s character unchanged. He is still good and he is still with his people. God’s faithfulness is seen in the discipline. The book of Jeremiah teaches Judah how despite any form of outward success, Jeremiah obeyed God and was ultimately released by the leader of the Babylonian army. Jeremiah was vindicated. This book, Lamentations, follows immediately after the book of Jeremiah and focusses on God’s faithfulness. If Judah had been teachable and soft-hearted and had cried out to God like Jeremiah, it could have been saved, but it chose not to follow the Lord to be hard-hearted. Lamentations confronts us to fear God and not to fear man. We are unlikely to face as hard a time as Jerusalem, but we can learn from the book of Lamentations to be obedient  and to follow God’s ways. Just as Jeremiah cried out to Lord and stood on His promises, let us do so as well… remembering that Jesus said  “Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.”

MISSIONARY MONKS: FRANCIS OF ASSISI 1181-1226[1]

Francis was born the son of a cloth merchant Pietro Bernadone. Like Peter Waldo, Francis was challenged by the call to preach and live in poverty and humility and serve the poor. Francis’ father was angry at Francis’ lifestyle of service to the poor and contemplation, and took him before the bishop to disinherit him. Francis removed all his clothes before the bishop and said he wanted only to serve his Father who is in heaven. Many came to hear Francis preach. In 1210 he took 11 of his followers and went to Rome to ask the Pope for approval of his “rule” and permission to preach. When he returned to Assisi, having received permission from the Pope, he gained more following. The Franciscans received permission to use a Benedictine monastery. They were called the Brothers Minor and he encouraged them to focus on adoration of God, generosity, forgiveness of wrongs and repentance. His sincerity, joyousness, earnestness and radiant love generated a large following. Francis travelled across Italy, went to Spain, Morocco, and Egypt. Before he died in his forties, the Franciscan movement had spread to Northern Europe.[2]

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

PRAY  for “the Azerbaijani  in  Georgia the twenty-sixth largest unreached people group in Europe, whose  language is Azerbaijani, North and whose primary religion is Islam There are 232,000, 0.0% Christian and  0.0% evangelical. ”[3] The Azeris who live in Georgia are mostly in the capital city of Tbilisi. We pray for missionaries willing to go to this poor people group in Georgia, willing to demonstrate the Gospel in word and deed.  May the Azeris know that the love of God never ceases, His mercies never come to an end. They have lived as a displaced people for centuries. Reveal your love and compassion to this people group we pray.     

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DAY 25 EVENING Psalm 121-125, Re-read Psalm 121

PSALM 121: PILGRIMS WITH A PURPOSE. LOOKING UP AND LOOKING FORWARD TO CHRIST AND HIS HEAVENLY CITY.

Psalm 121:1-4 “I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip— he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.” Psalm 121 is the second of 15 psalms, called the songs of ascent. They form a chain, a chiastic structure, with the most important one Psalm 127 in the middle.[4] “Historically in Israel the songs were sung by ‘the faithful’ as they walked from great distances up to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover Pentecost and Tabernacles.”  Eugene Peterson inspired by these psalms of Ascent wrote a book on discipleship called[5] “A long obedience in the same direction.” If life is to be compared to walking on a journey is our walk a walk of obedience? How we conduct  ourselves as we walk on the journey of life, is  important. Derek Tidball asks, “Are you a pilgrim or a spiritual tourist?” He refers to Zygmunt Bauman, who he says has suggested [6] “that whereas the key symbol of people in previous generations was the pilgrim, today it’s the tourist. Both are on journeys passing through other people’s territory but there the similarity ends. Pilgrims are purposeful and travel in a group to which they belong, towards a spiritual destination. They journey in a morally responsible way and transform the places they pass through for the better. The journey may take them through inhospitable terrain at personal cost. By contrast says Bauman, tourists are rich tramps. They’ve time to fill and are going nowhere in particular. They owe no loyalty to their fellow travellers and they take no responsibility for the territory. They only leave litter behind for others to remove. Since they can pay, they expect others to serve them. And when one journey is over, they look forward to the next. Are we pilgrims or spiritual tourists?”

Two of the songs of Ascent, Psalm 121 and Psalm 123 both begin with the phrase . “I lift up my eyes.”Every pilgrim must have their eyes set above. Traditionally in the church throughout the centuries there has been a strong focus on ‘seeing God’. Hans Boersma wrote “Seeing God; the beatific vision in the Christian tradition.” [7]Robert Louis Wilkens wrote  “The Spirit of early Christian thought (subtitled) Seeking the face of God.” [8]He says that Psalm 105:4 “Seek his face always,” captures the spirit of early Christian thinking. This verse is cited four times by Saint Augustine in his work ‘The Trinity’. The orthodox church and early church have had more of a pilgrim posture than the current western Charismatic evangelical church. Metropolitan Kallistos Ware in “The Orthodox Way says [9] “the traveller upon the spiritual way, the further he advances becomes increasingly conscious of two contrasting facts of the otherness and yet the nearness of the eternal…. In the first place he realises more and more that God is mystery… yet in the second place, this God of mystery is at the same time uniquely close to us, filling all things, present everywhere around us and within us. And he is present not merely as an atmosphere or nameless force but in a personal way.” To a charismatic evangelical this all sounds very mysterious!.. “Apostle Paul [10] used the word mystery frequently in his epistles. We read that faith is a mystery, salvation is a mystery, Christ is a mystery, the church is a mystery, the gospel is a mystery and even transgression is a mystery”, maybe we should not be phased by the word mystery! [11] As we travel as pilgrims on the spiritual way, drawing closer to our personal yet mysterious God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ…we can be encouraged by Matthew 13:11‘it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.’”

PRAYER I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

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[1] Summary Latourette, R.S. A history of Christianity beginnings to 1500 volume 1, Prince Press, 2003, 429-436

[2] Summary Broadbent, E.H. Pilgrim Church, Crossreach publications, 2022, 94-96

[3] Data provided by Joshua Project https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/10528/GG

[4] Orthodox Study Bible, Thomas Nelson, 2008, 766.

[5] Peterson, E. A long obedience in the same direction. IVP, 2021.

[6] Tidball, D , Signposts, Psalm 121, IVP, 2019,  quoting Zygmunt Bauman. https://edisciplinas.usp.br/pluginfile.php/123891/mod_resource/content/1/Baumann-%20From%20Pilgrim%20to%20Tourist.pdf

[7] Boersma, H. Seeing God, William B. Eerdmans 2018.

[8] Wilkens, R.L. The Spirit of Early Christian thought: Seeking the face of God, xxii, Yale University press, 2003.

[9] Ware, M.K, The Orthodox Way, St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2018, 18.

[10] Meshreky, A. Zion: A Scriptural Study and a vision for ministry, Shine International 2023, 147.

[11] Meshreky, A. Zion: A Scriptural Study and a vision for ministry, Shine International 2023, 147.