Category: guest post

 
This is certainly a Psalm of two halves and today’s verse is the dividing line. Verses 1 to 7b is full of praise, worship and adoration for how great God is. From verse 8 to 11 the singer is taken back to the Exodus experience where the people did not always listen. Or if they did, it did not always result in obedience. Our worship needs to connect to our behaviour.

Reflection
‘So the worshipper singing this psalm is reminded to ask himself how he hears – will it be obediently? – and for whose voice he listens.’ (Derek Kidner)

QUOTE FOR TODAY
Our worship together is a way of rehearsing our hope in order to embed it deep within us.
 
(Glenn Packiam, Worship and the World to Come, p. 3)
 

 
God’s people are on the move from Egypt and being pursued by their captors. As they look back and see the dust clouds being thrown up by hundreds of chariots, they begin to lose heart and fear for their lives. They complain to Moses and are on the verge of surrender. Moses encourages his people to stand firm because God is coming and will rescue them in their moment of danger.

Reflection
Sometimes all we have to do is stand firm and trust God.

QUOTE FOR TODAY
Drawing on historical Christian affirmations of hope, the most succinct line from early Christian communities is the one which ends the Nicene Creed: “We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.”
 
(Glenn Packiam, Worship and the World to Come, p. 85)
 

 
It would be a remarkable sight to see a paralysed man, who had been lowered down through a roof, restored to physical health walking home. For the man it would mean a dramatic change in his life going forward. But it was not just the physical that had been changed. There was also a spiritual transformation for his sins had been forgiven. A life had been transformed by the words of Jesus.

Reflection
Give thanks for every life that has been changed by the presence of Jesus.

QUOTE FOR TODAY
Christ has come and the kingdom has begun, even here, even now. We glimpse signs of this new creation as we see transformed lives, most poignantly when the baptized emerge from the waters – restored relationships, reconciliation, reversals of injustice, and more.
 
(Glenn Packiam, Worship and the World to Come, p. 2)
 

 
It is the mid-5th century BC and although the Jerusalem temple has been rebuilt after the Babylonian exile the city walls lay in ruins. It was a source of shame for the returning exiles, and for Nehemiah. As a cupbearer, checking for poisoned drink and food, he had privileged access to the ruling foreign king, Artaxerxes. However, the request for leave and resources to rebuild the walls was preceded by mourning, fasting and prayer.

Reflection
What should we do to prepare for our own important ‘today’?

QUOTE FOR TODAY
… we wait with hope. We work with hope. And we worship with hope.
(Glenn Packiam, Worship and the World to Come, p. 2)
 

 
I am sure that the shepherd’s night shift had begun normally enough. The handover from the day shift, a reporting of any issues and the building of a fire against the cold. But today was going to be unlike any day before or since. This is the day that the sky was cracked, the day that the darkness gave way to light, the day that made the angels sing, the day that shepherds trembled, the day that God’s promise has arrived.

Reflection
Just ordinary shepherds open to the things of God, are we?

QUOTE FOR TODAY
The ultimate hope of the world is the fully manifest presence of God.

(Glenn Packiam, Worship and the World to Come, p. 181)
 

 
In these words James is challenging boastfulness which is something he refers to in verse 16. The attitude that declares, ‘I am in charge of my planned future and God can tag along if God wants.’ Now, James is not against forward planning but rather he wants his listeners to humbly factor in today what God’s will and purpose may be for their tomorrows.

Reflection
Is God only Lord on Sundays and not our other ‘todays’?

QUOTE FOR TODAY
[People] were able to keep singing, keep praying and keep showing up at worship services because their hope was anchored in God rather than in themselves.

(Glenn Packiam, Worship and the World to Come, p. 179)
 

 
Joseph is in prison. Two years earlier he helped someone, also in prison, by interpreting a dream which gave the cupbearer of our text hope for his future. Upon his release he forgets all about Joseph until the Pharaoh has a dream of his own that no one could interpret. When the cupbearer hears about this, he remembers his old cellmate, and his abilities, which will eventually lead to Joseph’s freedom.

Reflection
Does the state of the world around us remind us today of our own shortcomings to be hope and light?

QUOTE FOR TODAY
‘The fractured and broken world will one day be put back together again, and the church is a signpost now of what will then be.’

(Glenn Packiam, Worship and the World to Come, p. 2)
 

 
Yesterday we left the Exodus people as they were about to enter the Promised Land with the choice of obedience or disobedience with its subsequent blessing or curse. Today, we find ourselves years later, about 530 years, with Jeremiah referring back to that moment. Sadly, it seems that God’s people chose disobedience and curse, despite King Josiah’s reforms (2 Chronicles 34), and judgement is coming.

Reflection
In our own ‘today’ what blinds us to God’s grace to us and God’s pleadings for faithfulness?

QUOTE FOR TODAY
In a postmodern world, where everything is reduced to the moment and being present in it, the church can offer the wonder of being part of a drama already in progress. More than that, it is a drama with a good beginning – a good God who made a good world.

(Glenn Packiam, Worship and the World to Come, p. 197-198)
 

 
As with yesterday’s devotion we are in the world of the Exodus and the next footsteps will touch the Promised Land. But before God’s people is a decision, the consequence of which will result in either a blessing or a curse. It is worth noting that the word ‘known’ here suggests an intimate knowledge of someone rather than an intellectual awareness. Other gods do not know God’s people like God does, so the choice should be easy, yes?

Reflection
Our ‘today’ choices will have future consequences.

QUOTE FOR TODAY
All day long we are confronted with news of evil, we are hemmed in on all sides by the word of despair. Yet when the Christian comes to worship, she hears a different word. She enters a community that orients her toward a different future.

(Glenn Packiam, Worship and the World to Come, p. 3)
 

 
Surrounding these verses is the journey of God’s people ‘in the Old Testament from Egypt to Canaan. They were moving toward promised rest, and in the same way we are moving toward promised rest when we will see Christ and be made like him.’ (Sam Perry) As the Exodus people struggled to keep faith, so the early church, and today’s church. Part of the solution is to trust in God and to encourage each other daily in our Christian walk.

Reflection
Today take a moment to pray for someone who needs encouragement.

QUOTE FOR TODAY
Discipleship is … a faithful waiting for the imminent return of Christ.

(Glenn Packiam, Worship and the World to Come, p. 127)