No pride

Deuteronomy 9. Full of warning to Israel that future defeat of enemies will not be because of their strength or goodness but because of God's mercy, grace and power. "But when God pushes them out ahead of you, don’t start thinking to yourselves, “It’s because of all the good I’ve done that God has brought me in here to dispossess these nations.” Actually it’s because of all the evil these nations have done. No, it’s nothing good that you’ve done, no record for decency that you’ve built up, that got you here; it’s because of the vile wickedness of these nations that God, your God, is dispossessing them before you so that he can keep his promised word to your ancestors, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
And then God says it again... and goes on and on about their wickedness:
Know this and don’t ever forget it: It’s not because of any good that you’ve done that God is giving you this good land to own. Anything but!" (vv4 - 6)

It all comes down to pride, the belief that we are self-reliant. How we make an idol of it!  How we prize self-sufficiency in strong, independent people.

The Gospel turns this all upside down. We are to be dependent on God, as helpless before him as babes...we are not deserving of anything the Lord Almighty, maker of heaven and earth has done but IN HIS MERCY he gives us grace. He showers us with blessings and good fortune. He protects and cares for his. None of this is on our own merits for which we can take credit. None.

The Cornerstone

And so I seek Jesus, for he is - he HAS to be - the foundation of my life. The cornerstone.

Christ alone, cornerstone,
weak made strong in the Saviour's love,Through the storm
He is Lord
Lord of all



My hope is built on nothing lessThan Jesus blood and righteousnessI dare not trust the sweetest frameBut wholly trust in Jesus name

Christ alone; cornerstoneWeak made strong; in the Saviour's loveThrough the storm, He is LordLord of all

When Darkness seems to hide His faceI rest on His unchanging graceIn every high and stormy galeMy anchor holds within the veilMy anchor holds within the veil

Christ alone; cornerstoneWeak made strong; in the Saviour's loveThrough the storm, He is LordLord of all

When He shall come with trumpet sound,Oh, may I then in Him be found;Dressed in His righteousness alone,Faultless stand before the throne.                      Hillsong, 2012

Peter reminds that Jesus is precious to me, but not others.

"To you who trust him, he’s a Stone to be proud of, but to those who refuse to trust him,

'The stone the workmen threw out
is now the chief foundation stone.

For the untrusting it’s

'. . . a stone to trip over,
a boulder blocking the way.'

They trip and fall because they refuse to obey, just as predicted."

But i do not need to fear those who oppose the Good News:
Matthew Henry says, about Isaiah 8:14 which Peter quotes here: "The believing fear of God preserves against the disquieting fear of man."

The Lord All-Powerful
will destroy the power of death
and wipe away all tears.
No longer will his people
be insulted everywhere.
The Lord has spoken!

I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me. He is my support, everything on which my life is based:

"But you are God’s chosen and special people. You are a group of royal priests and a holy nation. God has brought you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Now you must tell all the wonderful things that he has done. The Scriptures say,

Once you were nobody.
Now you are God’s people.
At one time no one
had pity on you.
Now God has treated you
with kindness."

We ARE God's people, we who believe.

Me too. Even me.

Once I was nobody.

Now I am God's chosen.

God has treated - and treats me - with great kindness.

How can I do any less towards others?

Save me, God, from my sin and selfishness!

Desperate

Up until the plot to kill the king, Esther's relationship with Mordecai was a secret. No longer. She has now sent Hathach to find out why Mordecai is behaving as if some terrible tragedy has happened, and the detail of the account is compelling:

"Esther called for Hathach, one of the royal eunuchs whom the king had assigned to wait on her, and told him to go to Mordecai and get the full story of what was happening. So Hathach went to Mordecai in the town square in front of the King’s Gate. Mordecai told him everything that had happened to him. He also told him the exact amount of money that Haman had promised to deposit in the royal bank to finance the massacre of the Jews. Mordecai also gave him a copy of the bulletin that had been posted in Susa ordering the massacre so he could show it to Esther when he reported back with instructions to go to the king and intercede and plead with him for her people.

Hathach came back and told Esther everything Mordecai had said. Esther talked it over with Hathach and then sent him back to Mordecai with this message: “Everyone who works for the king here, and even the people out in the provinces, knows that there is a single fate for every man or woman who approaches the king without being invited: death. The one exception is if the king extends his gold scepter; then he or she may live. And it’s been thirty days now since I’ve been invited to come to the king.” "

Proverbs 20:28 says "Love and faithfulness keep a king safe; through love his throne is made secure." which the CEV translates as "Rulers are protected by their mercy and loyalty, but they must be merciful for their kingdoms to last."  Xerxes did not have love and mercy to keep him safe so, to ensure his own safety, he  had surrounded himself with such an amount of physical and legal barriers that not even his own wives could see him unannounced.

It sounded like such a simple request: just ask Esther to go and tell the king what is going to happen.

Yet it was so much more. Moredecai was well aware that the order to massacre the Jews had come, albeit through the hand of Haman, directly from the king: signed and sealed.  He must have thought so highly of Esther that he believed that she could get the king to change his mind. Was Mordecai unaware of palace protocol? Or was he so desperate that he wanted Esther to do everything in her power - and beyond it - to help save their people?

Am I so desperate to love and serve God that I will do everything in my power to save His people?


Esther 4:8 - 11

A new word

The 'buzz' on the blogs for the new year seemed to be about choosing a 'word' for the year. Others challenged us to ask God for a 'picture'. I wondered about a 'song'.  All good ideas, but what?
I could only think of 'mercy'.  To dwell on God's mercy, to aim to extend mercy, to be merciful...this is the word that has stayed with me. 
Mercy. To be compassionate, forbearing, kind...It implies forgiveness, indulgence, clemency, leniency, lenity, tenderness, mildness. 
Most of those words do not come naturally to me. I am decisive, with no natural inclination to 'suffer fools gladly'.
At least, that was definitely the teenage me.  Several decades on, I am glad to say that I am far more merciful than I used to be.
Yet still, mercy is a good word for me this year. A new word in my life.
Now I have another word, arising from the Good Morning Girls study on Ephesians. This comes from chapter 1.
Fearless. Fearlessly.

Because I am  because I am redeemed, saved, paid for, rescued...I am safe, and can live fear less! And because of that, I can also live FEARLESSLY. 

So I pray I will respond to compassionate instincts, not hold back, examine, assess, weighing up risks...but acting with mercy and kindness towards those around me.

A good idea for a new year.

(I still haven't had a 'picture' yet.)
Faith Barista offered this challenge. I love the tagcloud she made of all the words which others had been given for this year. 
                                               
Interestingly, I can't see 'mercy'.  Or 'fearless'.  Hmmm...

Act justly, love mercy - and be wise!

I had many things on my mind this morning, but somehow I ended up in 1 Samuel Chapter 14. The part where Jonathan, Saul’s son has been very brave with the result that, through his obedience to God’s prompting, the whole army rallies and defeats their enemies. Meanwhile, his father Saul tells the army they will be cursed if they eat anything: Jonathan doesn’t know this, eats some honey which revives him – while everyone else is fainting from hunger – and then Saul says Jonathan has to die because he broke the oath. Fortunately, the men won’t have any of it and rescue Jonathan.

How foolish! Among other things, power had gone to Saul’s head. The other verse I was thinking about was Micah 6:8 - He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Or, in The Message version: But he's already made it plain how to live, what to do, what God is looking for in men and women. It's quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbour, be compassionate and loyal in your love, and don't take yourself too seriously— take God seriously.

Difficult, sometimes, in our complicated lives – and no doubt too much of a challenge for Saul as king – but so simple!

Of mercy, good and evil

"I tell you, love your enemies. Help and give without expecting a return. You'll never—I promise—regret it. Live out this God-created identity the way our Father lives toward us, generously and graciously, even when we're at our worst. Our Father is kind; you be kind.
"Don't pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults— unless, of course, you want the same treatment. Don't condemn those who are down; that hardness can boomerang. Be easy on people; you'll find life a lot easier. Give away your life; you'll find life given back, but not merely given back—given back with bonus and blessing. Giving, not getting, is the way. Generosity begets generosity." Luke 6:35-37 (The Message)

I was thinking of this, reading a book about the Beatitudes which quotes Alexander Solhenitsyn: he says the the division between good and evil is not between people but can be found inside every human heart: that even the ‘best’ person has a corner of evil just as the ‘worst’ has a tiny bridgehead of good.

How, then can we pass judgement on others? We can’t.