They were all satisfied

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They were all satisfied

They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.

Matthew 14:20

I love going out for a curry with my friends. Sadly it’s not something that happens all that often, but I do enjoy it when I get a chance. Being rather unadventurous, I tend to have a chicken tikka masala, pilau rice and a Peshwari nan, and perhaps one of those funny ice creams in a fruit skin afterwards. By the time I’ve munched my way through that lot, I’m usually completely full. Not another morsel could cross my lips. Then, of course, it’s time to pay the bill…

In today’s reading, we witness the aftermath of a very famous meal. Jesus has just miraculously fed five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish. You’d think that you might struggle to feed a dozen people with that, but somehow Jesus manages to feed five thousand! What’s more, after the meal there are twelve baskets full of leftovers! Everyone present, all five thousand, have eaten until they are full, and there is still a huge amount of food left.

The picture we have of Jesus in the feeding of the five thousand is of a compassionate person, who recognises the needs of all people and is eager to provide for those needs. We also get the image of one who provides in abundance; Jesus doesn’t hold back, he doesn’t give the people just enough to get by, he gives them more than they could possibly need. No one present on that day expected Jesus to be able to feed everyone who had turned up to listen to Jesus, but miraculously he did.

This is the same Jesus that we follow today. The Jesus who we have declared to be our Lord and master if we are Christians is the same generous Jesus who understands people’s needs and is able, willing and happy to meet those needs. Even if we believe that there is no way that Jesus could possibly provide all that we need, he is capable of doing so.

Give thanks today that our God is generous, loving and compassionate. Give thanks that he provides in abundance to those who follow him and listen to him. Pray that God will meet our needs, physically, mentally and spiritually. And be confident that no matter how unlikely it might seem that God can meet our needs, there is nothing that he cannot do.

The crowds followed him

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When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns.

Matthew 14:13

Last month the premiere of the latest Harry Potter movie took place. Normally these events fill the whole of Leicester Square, with hundreds of film fans turning out to see the stars arrive for the screening. Harry Potter, though, is now such a successful film franchise that fans filled not just Leicester Square, but also Trafalgar Square. Over the years the films have gained such an enormous following that people travelled from across the country, and indeed the world, for the premiere.

Throughout his ministry, Jesus was followed by huge crowds. People turned up to listen to him teach, or in the hope that they might be healed, or even just to witness one of his incredible miracles. People told their family and their friends that Jesus was in the area, and in no time at all, thousands of people had turned out to see Jesus. There was no escape for Jesus. Even when he retreated to somewhere quiet in the hope of enjoying a few minutes peace and quiet, he was followed by crowds.

Perhaps these days we take Jesus for granted. Maybe we’re so used to reading his teachings in the Bible, or reading of his miracles, that we’ve lost the excitement, the sense of expectation felt by those who discovered Jesus during his earthly ministry. If we lose that excitement, though, it doesn’t take long for us to neglect our faith; we stop reading our Bibles, we stop praying, and any excitement that we had left about Jesus gradually disappears. When we make Jesus ‘normal’, we downplay the magnificence of his words, the majesty of his kingdom, and the breath-taking events of his death and resurrection. When Jesus’ victory over death becomes something that we just accept without response, our faith withers and dies.

The truth, of course, is that nothing about Jesus was normal. He was – and is – radical, inspirational, saving and life-giving. We need to be careful not to lose sight of that. We need to be more like the crowds that followed Jesus, passionate about following him, desperate to see him, and eager to hear every word that he says.

Let’s resolve today to ensure that our faith is a living faith. Let’s ensure that we’re excited about Jesus, and desperate to study his every word. Let’s strive to live our lives as a response to Jesus’ words. And let’s pray for enthusiasm of the crowd that see in today’s reading.

Love your enemies

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I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

Matthew 5:44-45

Sometimes in life we find ourselves in situations where people hurt us. Perhaps a family member or close friend is unkind to us. Perhaps someone we work with is unpleasant to us. Maybe we find ourselves subject to workplace bullying by a boss or employer. It’s never nice being hurt, particularly when it’s by someone who we feel should treat us rather better. When we are treated badly, it’s very easy to feel strong hatred towards the culprits. Love is often the last emotion we feel towards these people.

That’s why today’s verse is so challenging. Jesus tells us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. It’s easy to love those who love us, but loving people who mistreat us, who persecute us, who make our lives a living hell is rather more difficult. Sometimes, indeed, it feels impossible. Yet that is what we’re called to do.

Jesus tells us to love our enemies for two reasons. Firstly, because in doing so we are living as “children of heaven,” transformed by the love of Christ, and seeking to build God’s heavenly kingdom here and now. Secondly, we are called to love our enemies because God loves them too. God, we are told in this verse, blesses the evil and the good, the righteous and the unrighteous. If we love God and strive to follow him, we should love what he loves – and that means even those people who mistreat us.

Of course, one of the best ways of loving someone is to pray for them, as Jesus commands us to do here. Praying for our enemies forces us to see them as humans and can change our perception of them. Praying that they will come to know Jesus can lead them to salvation and away from God’s judgement. And of course, if our enemies come to follow Christ and strive themselves to live out the gospel, perhaps they will cease to persecute us. After all, if they come to know Christ, they will themselves discover the importance of loving all people.

There’s no denying that this is a very difficult verse to live out, but just think how different the world would be if everyone stopped hating, and loved everyone they encountered. If our default position was to love all people the world would be transformed. So why not make that commitment to love today? Why not try to love everyone that you encounter, whether they love you or persecute you?

Who Can Be Against Us?

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Who Can Be Against Us?

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things.

Romans 8:31-32

It is often difficult being a Christian. There are many who ridicule our beliefs and hold us in contempt for basing our lives on what they consider to be a fairy tale. In the western world we’ve seen a rise in militant secularism in recent years with prominent figures condemning Christians for holding to the Gospel. Elsewhere in the world it is even harder; Christians face physical persecution and even death for choosing to follow Jesus.

For all those who face these realities, today’s verses bring real reassurance.

If God is for us, who can be against us?

If we choose to follow Jesus, God is on our side and there is no enemy that is stronger than him. There is nothing that anyone on earth can do to separate us from God and the salvation that he holds out to us all. No matter how much people laugh at us, ridicule us, torment us or persecute us, we can stand firm knowing that nothing can prevent us from gaining salvation. Not even the devil can stop us from getting to heaven. God is stronger than any enemy that we face.

God gave up his son to secure us our salvation. If he was willing to do that then he will stop at nothing to ensure that his followers are saved. He will give us all things that we need to follow him, to live our lives for him. Nothing can separate us from God. No one can condemn us to hell. We are safe, we’re going to heaven, and there’s nothing that anyone can do to prevent that.

Give thanks today that God is all-powerful, and that there’s nothing and no one that can separate us from him. Praise God for giving his son for us so that we can be saved. Give thanks that God will equip us and provide for all our needs as we seek to live according to the plan that he has for us!

God Works In All Things

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God Works In All Things

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28

Sometimes life can be tough. Few, if any of us, will escape some kind of difficulty during the course of our lives. It might be illness, physical or mental. It could be unemployment or financial difficulties. Maybe we’ll experience difficulties in our relationships, perhaps with a partner, a parent, a sibling or a friend. These turbulent periods of our lives are the consequence of living in a fallen world. The world we live in is not as God intended; sin has a hold on creation, and impacts us all, directly and indirectly.

This is a rather bleak picture, but through it all there is hope. Today’s verse states that “in all things God works for the good of those who love him.” This certainly doesn’t mean that all the bad things that happen to us are willed by God. Indeed, God grieves for his creation (see Genesis 6:6). What it does mean is that God uses all the bad things that happen to us for our own good. How often have you heard that people have come out of negative experiences stronger? How often have you heard people say of negative experiences that in the end, it was the best thing that ever happened to them? Bad things hurt, sometimes unbearably so, but if we’re Christians we can take comfort from the fact that God is working through our difficulties.

What does Paul mean, though, when he says God works “for the good of those who love him”?

God, of course, takes an eternal perspective, whilst we tend to see everything from a more short-term view. For God, what is in our interests is often different to what we might think. God wants us to grow closer to him, to become more like Christ, to be more loving, less selfish. In other words, he wants us to become better Christians who strive to live for the glory of his kingdom. He will use the difficulties and hardships we experience in the present age to shape us into the people that he wants us to be.

Perhaps you’ve experienced this yourself. Perhaps you can look back at a time of trouble in your life and see how you grew closer to God as a consequence. I know I can.

Let’s give thanks to God that he works in this way. Let’s thank God for working through our lives in the good times and the bad times, helping us to come to know him better. And let’s pray today that we would know God’s transforming love in our lives when things are going well, and when they’re not going so well.

The Intercession of the Spirit

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The Intercession of the Spirit

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.

Romans 8:26

One of my favourite verses in the Bible is Luke 22:42. In this verse, Jesus is praying in the Garden of Gethsemane just before he is arrested. He prays, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” I love this verse because not only does it show Jesus’ humanity; he knows the suffering that lies before him, and displays a fear that is very real. At the same time, though, this verse is a model for prayer, because Jesus prays, “not my will but yours be done.” This is a very useful guide for us all, because whilst we can get so wrapped up in our own needs, ultimately we need to pray for God’s will to be done, both in our lives and in the world.

How do we know, though, what is God’s will? How can we pray if we don’t know what to pray for? Well, we can do what Jesus does in this verse from Luke; we can bring our requests to God, but affirm that ultimately we want what is in God’s will. Alternatively, we can use today’s verse from Romans as a guide. The Holy Spirit, which lives in us if we rare Christians, and comforts, counsels and guides as as we live out our present lives, will intercede on our behalf. We might not know what to pray for, but it is still important to spend time in prayer, to focus our thoughts quietly on God, and to allow the Holy Spirit to search our hearts and minds and to bring our innermost thoughts to God the Father.

For me, this is hugely comforting. Like man Christians, I find prayer difficult. I struggle to make time for prayer, and when I do I often can’t think what I should pray for. I think about all thing things that I ought to pray for – world peace, food for the hungry and so on – but so often get wrapped up in my own selfish thoughts. It’s reassuring, though, that I don’t need to use words to pray, because the Holy Spirit can pray for me, if I just stop and spend some time in quiet prayer.

If like me you struggle with prayer why not make a renewed effort to build a prayer time into your day? And if you can’t think of what to pray for just be still, quieten your mind, and let the Holy Spirit intercede on your behalf?

Future Hope

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Future Hope

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

Romans 8:18

Floods, droughts, volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, forest fires. There’s scarcely a week when we don’t hear of some catastrophic event turning life upside down, leading to the death of many and the suffering of many more. Sickness, physical and mental, pain, suffering, discomfort, broken hearts. We’re all affected by these one way or the other. Sometimes life is tough. Sometimes life seems unbearable.

But there is hope.

That’s why the Christian message is good news. Whilst the world suffers, the gospel brings comfort and hope. Hope of a future that is immeasurably better than the world we live in today.

It’s that hope that Paul reminds us of today in this verse from Romans. We might be suffering in the present, but we shouldn’t dwell too much on our current condition. Instead we must look forward to the future. If we’re Christians, we need to take a long term perspective on suffering. We might live for seventy or eighty years, perhaps more if we’re lucky. Those years will be spent in our fallen world that at times seems bleak and dark, a world that is ravaged by evil, sickness and death. But after our death, our souls will live on in the new creation, where there will be no death or suffering. We will spend eternity with our Father in heaven.

When the time comes, the glory of God will be revealed in us in the same way it was revealed in Jesus (most notably at the transfiguration, see Luke 9). We are told that we will be like him (see 1 John 3:2). In the new creation, our bodies will not suffer from injury, disease or affliction as they do now, and our minds will be free of the stress, depression and disappointment of today. Instead, we will live as God intended, in a new world that is free all of the negative aspects of human life today. In heaven our bodies and our lives will radiate the glory of God, just like Jesus himself does.

Life can be very tough. Remember, though, as you face setbacks and disappointments in the coming days, that these are only temporary. Do not dwell on negativity, but look forward to the future, to the hope of resurrection through Christ into a new creation that is perfect. And remember, we’re all called to make disciples, so don’t keep this message of hope to yourself, but strive to bring it to the world through your actions, through your relationships, and through your words.

Let’s prepare for now for he glory of the future!

Jesus: The New Link to Heaven

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Jesus: The New Link to Heaven

He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.”

John 1:51

Have you ever seen the hit Channel 4 show ‘Grand Designs’. I’m quite a fan. I love watching the houses progress from drawings to real homes. One of the things that always strikes me as I watch the buildings take shape is how dangerous building sites are. As someone who has an issue with heights, I worry particularly when the builders climb up ladders and walk around upper floors on just the beams. You certainly wouldn’t get me up there! I’m always relieved when the floors are boarded, and when the rickety ladders are replaced with solid staircases.

If you read yesterday’s Daily Reading, you might remember that we looked at Jacob’s vision of a ladder linking heaven and earth. In today’s verse, we see that ladder replaced with something much more permanent. Jesus explains that ‘the Son of Man’ is now the link between heaven and earth. ‘Son of Man’ is a term that was first used in the Old Testament book of Daniel to refer to one “who was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him” (Daniel 7:14). It is also a name that Jesus often applied to himself, an indication of his messianic role.

Jacob’s vision of a ladder confirmed that God still wanted a relationship with the people he created, despite their sinful nature. He showed Jacob that he was still reaching out to his people, and that heaven and earth were still connected. Now, two thousand years after Jacob’s dream, the ladder that Jacob saw was being replaced. God was still reaching out to his people; he was still keen that heaven and earth should be interconnected. Now, however, that connection was being established through something more permanent, more solid, than a ladder. The link now is his son, Jesus Christ.

Here in John 1, right at the beginning of his ministry, Jesus suggests to his disciples that it is through him that mankind can be reunited with God. It is through him that people can know God. It is through him that we can be saved. He is new the link between people on earth and God in heaven. What’s more, this new way to heaven is permanent. Once that connection between the heavenly realms and the earth had been established, it was secure for all time. Even 2000 years after Jesus spoke these words, Jesus is still in place as the link between heaven and earth. We can still know God through Jesus. We can still be confident that we will get to heaven through Jesus.

Give thanks today for Jesus, that he established a permanent connection with heaven. Thank God for sending his son to be amongst us, and to die for us. Praise God that through Jesus we have been saved and can have a relationship with him!

Jacob’s Ladder

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Jacob’s Ladder

He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

Genesis 28:12

My friend Jeff studied at Bath University. Whilst he was based in Bath, I took the opportunity to visit him, and to look around this beautiful city. There are so many fantastic things to see in Bath (not least, the Roman baths which give the city its name), but the sight I remember best is Bath Abbey. What particularly grabbed my attention was the carving on the west front, which depicts a ladder, with Christ at the top and angels climbing up and down, between heaven and earth. Rather amusingly, whilst the angels climbing up the ladder are the right way round, the angels climbing down from heaven are upside down!

There are several stories about how this sculpture came into existence, but for me, it is a clear depiction of what is often known as “Jacob’s Ladder,” which features in today’s verse. In the dream, Jacob sees the ladder, and God reaffirms the promises he made to Jacob’s father, Isaac, and grandfather, Abraham. God promises Jacob that the land he is lying on will be given to him and his offspring, that his offspring will spread across the earth, and that all of humanity will be blessed through his family.

Yesterday we saw how humans tried to ignore God’s command to “cover the earth,” preferring to stay together and build a tower to heaven. They were keen to show that they did not need God. Today we see the reverse; we see God building a ladder between heaven and earth, reaching out to his people. The Tower of Babel, built at man’s initiative, failed to unite heaven and earth. The ladder, though, which is God’s initiative, succeeds where the tower failed, and links heaven and earth. There’s an important message for us here. Whilst we might try to get to heaven through our own strength and through our own efforts, it cannot be done. The only way of getting from earth to heaven is through God, through the ladder that he provides. There is nothing that we can do that will get us to heaven; if it were down to us, we would fail every time. It is only through the mercy and love of God that can reach heaven.

Give thanks to God today that he willingly bridges heaven and earth, despite our failure to acknowledge him, and our blatant disregard for his laws and commandments. Praise God that we do not have to trust in our own feeble strength but his unending mercy to reach heaven!

The Tower of Babel

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The Tower of Babel

Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

Genesis 11:4

If you’ve been to London in the last few years, you will no doubt have noticed ‘The Shard’ a recent office development near London Bridge station. You may even have caught a glimpse of it if you’re watching The Apprentice on BBC1 since it features heavily in the programme’s title sequence. This vast building is over a thousand feet tall, and is, at present, the tallest building in the European Union. I have to admit that when the design was unveiled, I was sceptical. Skyscrapers are all well and good in New York, but do we need them in London? Since its completion, though, I have have grown to quite like its graceful lines and what it brings to London’s sky line.

Humans have always wanted to build tall buildings. In today’s reading, we see perhaps the human race’s first attempt to build a skyscraper. Known to us as the Tower of Babel, the designers wanted to construct a building that would reach to the heavens, and demonstrate the ingenuity of humans. Another important factor in the decision to construct this tower was to try and keep people together, and prevent them from being “scattered over the face of the earth.”

Of course, if you know this story, you’ll know that it ultimately ended in failure. The tower displeased God; he changed human speech so that rather than speaking just one language, as had previously been the case, humans spoke lots of different languages. Not only that, but God scattered the people far and wide, he “dispersed them from there over the face of the earth.”

Why did God act in such an extreme way? He responded the way he did because humankind was not interested in honouring God, and placing him first in all they did. Rather, they were only interested in trying to “make a name” for themselves. They were trying to demonstrate that they had no need for God anymore, that they could get by on their own. God was also disappointed because they were openly disobeying the command he had given them to “fill the earth.” They were concerned that if they dispersed, they would be weak and so decided that the best thing to do to keep everyone together in one place was to build upwards.

Are we like the builders of the Tower of Babel? Do we openly disobey God’s commands to us? Do we place our trust in our own abilities, or in God? Are we more concerned about making a name for ourselves, or about trusting God? Why not reflect on these questions today, and pray that God will help us to lean on him, not on ourselves.

Originally published 19th July 2011. Modified 30th January 2015.