The verses set for reading and meditation are beautiful, that give us an image of how He looks at us – as members of His Church, His Bride (Ezekiel 16:1-14, (NLT):

“Then another message came to me from the Lord: “Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her detestable sins. Give her this message from the Sovereign Lord: You are nothing but a Canaanite! Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. On the day you were born, no one cared about you. Your umbilical cord was not cut, and you were never washed, rubbed with salt, and wrapped in cloth. No one had the slightest interest in you; no one pitied you or cared for you. On the day you were born, you were unwanted, dumped in a field and left to die.

“But I came by and saw you there, helplessly kicking about in your own blood. As you lay there, I said, ‘Live!’ And I helped you to thrive like a plant in the field. You grew up and became a beautiful jewel. Your breasts became full, and your body hair grew, but you were still naked. And when I passed by again, I saw that you were old enough for love. So I wrapped my cloak around you to cover your nakedness and declared my marriage vows. I made a covenant with you, says the Sovereign Lord, and you became mine.

“Then I bathed you and washed off your blood, and I rubbed fragrant oils into your skin. I gave you expensive clothing of fine linen and silk, beautifully embroidered, and sandals made of fine goatskin leather. I gave you lovely jewelry, bracelets, beautiful necklaces, a ring for your nose, earrings for your ears, and a lovely crown for your head. And so you were adorned with gold and silver. Your clothes were made of fine linen and were beautifully embroidered. You ate the finest foods—choice flour, honey, and olive oil—and became more beautiful than ever. You looked like a queen, and so you were! Your fame soon spread throughout the world because of your beauty. I dressed you in my splendor and perfected your beauty, says the Sovereign Lord.”

These verses give us a wonderful sense of what we all share in His love.

Selwyn, again makes the point, that ‘for Ruth to be in God’s story it did not follow that she had to be a passive player. Even though she is a foreigner and had been born outside the boundaries of the covenant nation of Israel, she enters the central action of the story when … she takes the initiative and speaks her own lines. The consequences are outstanding. She takes her place in history as the great-grandmother of King David and an ancestor of Jesus … ”

The challenge for us is to believe that we are part of God’s great story and to be prepared to play our part each day and speak our own lines, confident that what we say, has been woven into His glorious, loving story. (Read the above verses from Ezekiel again, to better understand that we all started our lives dirty and dead – He has given us life - He has said to each one of His followers – ‘Live!’)

This is one of those days when I find it hard to make any comments – it’s fairly obvious that we should humbly ask God, in prayer, for His help in what, we see, as our needs. He will sort out our real needs, which will help develop our spiritual character – from our list of ‘wants’.

Perhaps these words, written by Selwyn, present a reasonable summary of today’s study: “Be assured of this: you will not be excluded from God’s story when you speak the lines that come from your own heart rather than those that are imposed on you by others.”

To develop our relationship with Jesus we must always be prepared to speak to Him about the true desires of our heart. All relationship grow when both parties honestly share their thoughts – can there be any other way?

Selwyn continues to highlight the fact that seemingly insignificant people, like Naomi and Ruth, play an important role in God’s great rescue plan.

His conclusion, brings to the surface another important consideration – God hears our prayers, our cries, our celebrations and our complaints – yet, many times His response to our prayers is not identified (and, often its missed completely) because it might be quite some time before His actions unfold in our lives. Maybe, we need to be moulded and refined - a little more, to be prepared for His response. In many cases we will not know His ‘story line’, this side of the grave. In this time of not knowing we must trust in His perfect love – I know, often that is easier said than done.

This is what Selwyn has written: “Notice that when Naomi first uttered her complaint God did not immediately intervene and give her an explanation of His ways. Instead she found herself, as one commentator describes it, ‘in a living, developing set of relationships that extend into the future’. Her negative feelings were not edited out of God’s story but integrated into it.”  

I really think that these words ‘we are in a living, developing set of relationships that extend into the future’, summarise what most of life is about. We are designed to seek and form a relationship with Jesus, our God, and He uses ALL our human interactions – family, friends and ‘strangers’ we meet, as we go about our everyday lives – to enable us to strengthen our relationship with Him - to love Him with all our strength, mind, heart and soul. Out, of our relationship with God – is reflected how we deliver our love to our neighbours. These relationships, with our brothers and sisters, last for eternity.

What’s your view on today’s study?

Selwyn looks at the book of Ruth, as an example, of a story about an ordinary person, a woman – ‘who was not born into the Jewish faith’.  ‘Ruth was an inconsequential outsider whose life is essential for telling the complete story of salvation.’

If you have not read Ruth’s story recently, why not pick up a Bible and read her story, now! Keeping in mind what Selwyn has been writing about, over the past few days. Look for the three funerals and a wedding – you will find that the book of Ruth is a much better story then any modern story about the same type of events.

The prayer for today is good, as it brings home the point that God does shower His amazing love and compassion on the ordinary person going through a difficult time.

“Father, I see that negative feeling or even complaints that are voiced do not preclude us from contributing to Your story. You treat our complaints seriously. For that I am deeply grateful. Amen.”

Selwyn starts today’s study with: “Yesterday we commented that one of the saddest things that can happen to a Christian is failing to recognise that our personal story is congruent with the story God is telling. … (too many Christians) … can’t believe that their lives has any place in the eternal scheme of things. They consider that they are too small and insignificant to have any part in God’s cosmic purpose.”

I sometimes wonder, when I read what Selwyn has written, if such people (as he describes) have too small a view of God’s great love for them. All followers of Jesus should consider this: if you were the only sinner who needed saving out of all humanity – Jesus would have died on the cross – for you. Personalise, the death of Christ for yourself, imagine that as the blood flowed from His body – there were some red blood cells with your name branded on them. His death and resurrection has paid the penality, due to you, as punishment for all the sins you have committed. His love for you as an individual enables you to have eternal life in paradise.

He knows you and calls you by name – it’s that personal for Him.

Consequently, God looks at you as an heir to His kingdom  - and has given you position, significance, security and self-worth. If you see yourself as insignificant – then you don’t understand the huge price God has paid; to give you, as an unique individual, eternal freedom and peace.

Can there be, any other view?

This is another day when Selwyn exposes a sore nerve in the life of many, modern Christian communities.

He says: “Christians go to church on Sunday, and for a while the waters of chaos and confusion roll back as they focus on the worship of God. For an hour or two truth clears away the fog that swirls in their minds … within hours of getting home the waters are again overflowing the banks … If Christians have no sense of a divine story – the waters soon rush back in waves of confusion and distress.

God is at work, taking everything that goes on in our lives and weaving it into His salvation story. If we do not view the details of our existence as chapters in God’s story then we will easily fall prey to gloom and pessimism.”

The issue is this – if we do not see that the hand of God is touching our lives, every day  – then we tend to look for meaning and purpose only in the big events of our lives. As we have not exercised our vision and practised our sense of God’s presence each and every day – we will also fail to see the significance and meaning of those major life events – we will have blinded ourselves by failing to learn, how to see. WE can address this issue, by seeking God’s help – the power of His Holy Spirit can give sight to the blind. Believe, ask; and; you will be healed – what do you think?

There’s nothing, that I can think of, to add to today’s study.

This extract, is worth printing out and sticking up on your fridge: “Many Christians’ lives are flawless in terms of morality but yet are flat in terms of passion. They know how to apply particular Bible texts to life’s issues but they cannot see beyond the texts of Scripture to the bigger story. They are driven people rather than drawn people.”

I also liked the verses set for reading and meditation, they highlight the fact that there are many people who can quote large slabs of the Bible. Yet, these same people can make serious errors in their interpretations of verses found in their Bible.

Mark 12:18-27 (NLT): “Then Jesus was approached by some Sadducees—religious leaders who say there is no resurrection from the dead. They posed this question: “Teacher, Moses gave us a law that if a man dies, leaving a wife without children, his brother should marry the widow and have a child who will carry on the brother’s name. Well, suppose there were seven brothers. The oldest one married and then died without children. So the second brother married the widow, but he also died without children. Then the third brother married her. This continued with all seven of them, and still there were no children. Last of all, the woman also died. So tell us, whose wife will she be in the resurrection? For all seven were married to her.”

Jesus replied, “Your mistake is that you don’t know  (understand) the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God. For when the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage. In this respect they will be like the angels in heaven.

“But now, as to whether the dead will be raised—haven’t you ever read about this in the writings of Moses, in the story of the burning bush? Long after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had died, God said to Moses, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ So he is the God of the living, not the dead. You have made a serious error.”

i was reading some Bible study notes this morning on Matthew 3:7-12. I’ve reproduced here, some interesting notes contained in the  study on the Sadducees: “The Sadducees didn’t believe in any resurrection so they didn’t have to worry about how they lived, because there were no consequences to consider – everything was here and now. … They were few in number and extremely wealthy, one of their main roles was to manage the temple. They believed only in the books of Moses, the Pentateuch – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

The writer of the Bible study notes, makes an extremely important observation: ” – there are only two religions in the world: the religion of divine accomplishment which says that God did it all, we just believe it and receive it. The second is the religion of human achievement which says you’ve got to do some of it or all of it yourself. This second religion has been promoted by Satan since the fall.” There are a number of Christian groups, which have adopted the key aspect of the second ‘false’ religion.

The Sadducees, whole reason for existence, was to become rich and to enjoy the good life by managing the financial affairs of the temple in Jerusalem. They disappeared from history with the destruction of the temple. How sad is that? This sadness is ongoing, there are many more, living today – who will also, not be with Jesus, after their resurrection – for the same reason.  What’s your view?