Daily Meditation

The Piercing Power of the Word

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

John Piper

The Word of God is our only hope. The good news of God’s promises and the warnings of his judgment are sharp enough and living enough and active enough to penetrate to the bottom of my heart and show me that the lies of sin are indeed lies.

Abortion will not create a wonderful future for me. Neither will cheating, or dressing provocatively, or throwing away my sexual purity, or keeping quiet about dishonesty at work, or divorce, or vengeance. And what rescues me from this deception is the Word of God.

The Word of God’s promise is like throwing open a great window of bright morning sun on the roaches of sin masquerading as satisfying pleasures in our hearts. God has given you his good news, his promises, his Word to protect you from the deep deceptions of sin that try to harden the heart and lure it away from God and lead it to destruction.

Be of good cheer in your battle to believe. Because the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword and it will penetrate deeper than any deception of sin has ever gone and reveal what is truly valuable and what is truly worth trusting.

Daily Devotional

Life Hangs on the Word of God 

John Piper

He said to them, “Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law. For it is no empty word for you, but your very life, and by this word you shall live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.” (Deuteronomy 32:46–47)

The Word of God is not a trifle; it is a matter of life and death. If you treat the Scriptures as a trifle or as empty words, you forfeit life.

Even our physical life depends on God’s Word, because by his Word we were created (Psalm 33:6; Hebrews 11:3) and “He upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3).

Our spiritual life begins by the Word of God: “Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth” (James 1:18). “You have been born again . . . through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Peter 1:23).

Not only do we begin to live by God’s Word, but we also go on living by God’s Word: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4; Deuteronomy 8:3).

Our physical life is created and upheld by the Word of God, and our spiritual life is quickened and sustained by the Word of God. How many stories could be gathered to bear witness to the life-giving power of the Word of God!

Indeed, the Bible is “no empty word for you” — it is your life! The foundation of all joy is life. Nothing is more fundamental than sheer existence — our creation and our preservation.

All this is owing to the Word of God’s power. By that same power, he has spoken in Scripture for the creation and sustenance of our spiritual life. Therefore, the Bible is no empty word, but is your very life — the kindling of your joy!

Meditation on the Text of the Week

Faith And Its Counterfeits

Therefore, keep up your courage, men, for I believe God, that it will turnout exactly as I have been told.
Acts 27:25

The final two chapters of the book of Acts are remarkable in many ways. Luke takes us on an extended travelogue, as Paul is transported by ship as a prisoner to Rome, in order to have his case heard before Caesar, to whom he had appealed. Many have wondered why Luke became so discursive at the end of Acts, providing so many details of a journey from Caesarea to Rome, about storms, sailing tactics, shipwrecks, life threatening circumstances, the interaction with Maltese rescuers, and so forth.

But the point is obvious. Paul began the journey as a prisoner at the hands of pagans; he ended up commanding and counseling the centurion, the ship, and the Maltese, through service, servanthood, and doing good to all he met. Luke (and therefore the Lord) has him serve as a prototype of the New Covenant man; the microcosm of Paul's journey to Rome provides a type of how the people of God transform the world from the bottom up, with no ambition other than to be a bondslave of the Lord Jesus, and a servant to all men. The mode and method of the arrival of Paul in Rome actually are a harbinger of Rome's fate. It would eventually succumb peacefully to the Gospel, despite its best endeavours to stamp out followers of the Way. It would be broken and torn down by a Kingdom not made with hands.

Amidst the events of the journey, Paul reveals the faith that drives him, assures him, makes him calm and certain amidst severe storms. An angel of the Lord had appeared to him, declaring to him that not only would be survive the storm and the shipwreck, but that all the lives of those who sailed with him would also be saved (Acts 27:24) Paul, like Abraham before him, simply believed God—that it would happen and turn out exactly as God declared and promised. This is the faith that conquers kingdoms amongst other things (Hebrews 11:33).

It is precisely at this point, however, that many make a shipwreck of their faith. Operating on a half truth, many Believers in our day correctly grasp that faith is a matter of trusting and believing God—that what He has said, and what He has promised will surely come to pass. Then comes two untruths: the first is that faith makes these things come to pass, or makes God do things. The second, is that rather than understanding that special revelation, as Paul experienced it, has ceased, they believe that God continues to reveal special, pointed, and individual promises and commands to Believers.

Both are mistakes and errors with tragic consequences. The first error—our faith makes God do things—continues the vulpine apostasy of old, but now subtly clothed in lambskins. It makes man the director, commander, and manipulator of the Almighty. One has a disease: if one believes hard enough that God will heal one, it will move and persuade God to accede, and the healing will indeed eventuate. To state the case is to expose its disgusting idolatrous spirit.

The second error—that God continues to provide specific special revelation to direct and command Believers—is not an idolatry, but a childish and naïve error. It is something Believers need to grow up out of as they mature in faith. Part of the glory of the New Covenant is that special revelation ceases, for it is full and complete in Christ. Special revelation was only necessary whilst it remained incomplete. Being incomplete, it was inadequate—partial, limited, and a darkened, dim mirror. Once Christ revealed God fully, by His redemptive works and the inspired commentary upon, exposition of, and interpretation of His work through His apostles, all special revelation ceased. The Scriptures were then sufficient for every good work (II Timothy 3:16,17), even down to directing us how to perform even the most mundane tasks in life, such as eating and drinking properly (I Corinthians 10:31).

The force of our text, once stripped of these modern popular perversions, remains. Faith is trusting that what God has promised will certainly and infallibly come to pass. Faith that all enemies will indeed be placed under His feet; that the earth will be filled with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea; that every knee will bow before Him and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father, that all creation will be redeemed, once the sons of God are revealed—and so forth. Faith in these things—believing that what God has said will surely come to pass—makes us steadfast and faithful in the little things of day-by-day living, the daily tasks of servanthood. The immediate consequences and effects of our lives and service we leave with God; the final consequences we already know, for He has declared them to us already.

We know they will turn out exactly as He has said. Therefore, we are able to keep up our courage, and maintain steadfastness.

Meditation on the Text of the Week

If God Speaks, Those Who Hear Will Live Forever

But know this, first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
I Peter 1: 20, 21

At no time in the entirety of human history was man ever able to exist or to function apart from God. For all that is not God lives and moves and has its being in God. Human autonomy is, therefore, the most grotesque and asinine of myths.

Before the Fall, Adam and Eve had their existence structured not only by the laws, patterns, and institutions of creation itself, but by the Words of God. Perfect, sinless man could neither exist nor function apart from the Living God speaking to him. Thus, God's revealing Himself to man via human language is intrinsic to human existence itself. This will continue to be true for all eternity.

After Adam's sin, God spoke to man again. The very fact of God speaking again to our first parents after their sin in itself brings hope that salvation may actually yet come to the human race. Utter devastation as the due punishment for sin—death—was all that was now “owed” Adam and Eve as a result of their high handed rebellion against their Creator. If God continued to speak to man after the Fall it gives reason to hope that somehow man's sin was not to be the end of mankind. It leads us to believe that God is not finished with us.

God's speaking to mankind via human language (that is, so we, the finite can know truthfully and meaningfully something of God) after the Fall implies that man's career is not over, since from the very beginning of his existence that same word was given to Adam to structure, shape, and make his existence meaningful.

If God continues to speak, salvation and redemption is necessarily implied. If God does not speak, but remains silent, death and damnation is certain and irrevocable.

Thus, if any human being, regardless of class, creed, race, or people-group, is to have any hope of salvation, of deliverance from the guilt of sin, God must speak to him—in human language. Now this does not mean that God must speak to each individual individualistically—that is, with a message in human language that is individual and distinct to each person. Such an idea would make a nonsense of the unity of the human race. But it does mean that God must speak, and that man must hear. Without this, there is no hope of salvation or redemption of anyone.

God has spoken. He spoke to Adam and Eve after their sin—and therefore also to all people who are descended from them. He also spoke to Israel, and therefore also to all people, since Israel was a kingdom of priests—representing all mankind before God. Lastly, and finally, and completely He spoke in and through and by the Lord Jesus Christ.

And then He finished speaking—for nothing more needed to be said. Nothing more could be said, for the works of salvation and redemption were completed in Christ and finished by Christ.

Our text tells us how—the medium—by which God has spoken to us. He spoke to us via the “forthtellings” or prophecies of Scripture. For Scripture, while human, is not man speaking to man—but none other than God Himself speaking to man. That is what our text asserts. Peter says that no prophecy (including his own) ever came by means of human design, invention, will, or act. While it uses human language embedded into human history and culture it is not itself human, but divine—just as when God spoke to Adam in the Garden, the words were human words, human syntax, human language so that humans could understand, but the words were God's, the content and meaning of the words were divine. It was indeed God speaking to man.

And that is precisely what Peter tells us about the Scripture. Men and their language were agents, but they were carried along by the Holy Spirit, such that when they spoke, the source and content of their declarations was not them, but the Holy Spirit, so that their words were the words of God Himself.

But that is just part of the “equation.” If man is to be redeemed, God must first of all speak to him. And He has. God has spoken. His words and acts are now indelibly part of human history and of humanity. His revelation can never be taken away, removed, or eradicated—just as Messiah's work of atonement for the sins of His people cannot be undone, removed, or reversed. But to be redeemed, not only must God speak, but man—each individual—must hear what God has spoken. Only if man hears can he then believe in God and in His Christ, and in believing have eternal life.

Man can only hear when God's Spirit unblocks his ears, so that when he hears and reads the words of Scripture he knows for certain that he is hearing and reading the very words of the Living God. That is why one person will read a passage and it will remain dark and vain to him; while another will read exactly the same passage, and he will believe for the first time, and unto death, that he has read the very words of God Himself. It is God who converts the soul, making wise the simple. It is the Spirit who comes out of nowhere regenerating the deadened heart and mind so that he hears God speaking in the Scripture.

Without God speaking to us, we perish. If God were to speak, and we were to hear and believe, we would live forever. God has spoken, and by His grace, His elect are made to hear and believe. To Him alone be all glory, praise and honour.

Myth and Superstition on the Rise

A Man Has Got to Know His Limitations

Absolute brute objectivity is a myth as far as man is concerned. Absolute rationality is an idealistic abstraction. It does not exist. Objectivity and rationality are always to be written in lower case: it is a necessary and inevitable consequence of being a creature, not the Creator.

Only the Living and Eternal God is absolutely and infinitely objective and rational. Infinite objectivity and rationality arise from God being omniscient—of His infinite knowledge of all things, including His knowledge of Himself. Being a creature, our knowledge is conditioned firstly by our constitution—by the way we are made. It is also conditioned by our finite limitations. Our knowledge, being limited, can never be absolutely objective nor rational. It will always be constrained and limited by what we do not know—and we do not know what it is we don't know.

As Job said so eloquently, when we know all that we can know of God, we have merely touched the hem of His garment, the word we hear, although true, is limited and faint. None can understand His mighty thunder. (Job 26: 14)

Human rationality and objectivity, then, is a function of conforming our truth to the Truth which God has revealed to us. As we do this, we become more reasoned, more objective, more truthful.

But mankind has a third impediment. To these limitations of being, shared with all creatures, even the angels, we must add the corruption of sin. Since the Fall, objectivity and rationality are not only limited, but they are distorted by our sinful prejudices and predispositions. The Scripture characterises the Unbeliever as blind and deaf. All the thoughts and intentions of his heart are only evil continually. He pathologically resists God at every point and seeks to exclude Him from the universe. This is such a massive distortion of the truth, such a colossal deceit, that every thought of man is twisted and distorted in some degree by this Great Lie. As Jeremiah observed: “the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)

The Enlightenment promoted the myth of pure Reason—of definitive rationality as the handmaiden of Truth. Yet even a brief reading of the philosophers and men of letters of the Enlightenment quickly shows them to be people of enormous prejudice, reflecting the preconditioning of their time. Who can forget, for example, Rousseau's myth of the Noble Savage. Or the appeal to the Laws of Nature and Reason to justify the Reign of Terror in France. Their much vaunted rationalism can be seen now as little more than propaganda and its apologia.

The sad reality is that every fallen Athenian culture regards as rational that which is merely widely held. The more widespread a prejudice is, the more reasoned and rational it seems to be. Each age in Athens succeeds the former, looks back and with contempt or with condescension on the ages which have gone before, and dismisses them as ignorant, prejudiced and irrational. Why? They had to be ignorant, because they believed in slavery. Or, because they were prejudiced because they thought the earth was flat, or the sun revolved around the earth. Or, they were irrational because they thought that white races were superior--and so forth.

But it turns out each of these former ages firmly believed that their positions were based on reason—profoundly so. They believed they were acting rationally—emphatically so. Just as the philosophes of the Enlightenment so believed, yet espoused so many things no longer given even a moment's credence today.

This leads to the promulgation of Tertullian's Law of Athenian rationality: in Athens, authoritative rationality is a function of social currency. In other words, the more widely held a belief, the more rational it appears.

Now, modern Athenians will be quick to claim that a belief can only achieve widespread currency if it is rational in the first place. They see this as the Great Contribution of the Enlightenment to human civilisation. Autonomous man, supposedly freed by the Enlightenment from cant, prejudice, and superstition, now is able to think truthfully, according to the facts—just the fact, baby. Thus, in such a climate, only those beliefs which are already rationally grounded, can and will win widespread currency.

Clearly, modern Athenians have not read much of the Enlightenment, otherwise they would never make such specious claims.

But consider the logical fallacy involved in this particular piece of irrational legerdemain.

If a belief is rationally grounded and proven, it will achieve widespread currency.
Therefore, all beliefs which are widely held today must be rational and proven.

The fallacy of affirming the consequent—a prime example of which is displayed above—is as irrational today as it always was.

If one were to take any dogma which has achieved widespread acceptance and currency in our day and question it, two things would almost certainly follow. Firstly, the questioner would be assailed as ignorant, irrational, unreasonable, primitive, etc. etc. Secondly, no-one would even bother to discuss the rational foundation of the popular dogma in defending it. The presumed rationality of modern dogma is beyond question, simply because it is widely held. There are some things too obvious even to bother to defend.

For example, consider the nature and tenor of the outcry if we were to make the following propositions in the public square:

The Lord created the heavens and the earth in the space of six days, by the Word of His mouth, out of nothing.

Life begins at conception: the fertilized egg is a human being.

There is but one God and the Lord Jesus Christ is His Messiah. All other religions, including secular humanism, are idolatrous and untrue.

Government enforced redistribution of private property is theft.

Of course the outcry and scandal would be prodigious. But the tenor of the objection is what interests us. Modern Athens sees such propositions as inherently ridiculous, stupid, foolish—irrational. Why? Because the opposing propositions are rationally grounded, and comprehensively argued? Not at all. They just appear more rational, by virtue of their being widely held.

Increasingly, Athenian society is becoming superstitious. It is dominated by ideas and beliefs that have little, if any, genuine rational foundation, but are believed beyond doubt, nonetheless. The ultimate proof of these propositions is a democratic one. “Everyone believes in x; no-one any longer believes y. Therefore x must be reasonable and true”

An indication of the just how superstitious and unreasoned modern society has become is provided by the febrile insistence that “the vast majority is senior and responsible scientists believe that earth's climate is getting warmer.” The polling booth has replaced reason and truth. In such a climate, to prove your case you have to have the numbers. If you have the numbers, the rationality of the case is thereby most certainly demonstrated.

Of course this is completely contrary to the logic of scientific discovery. In principle, all it takes is one accurate contrary observation to call into question an entire edifice of universally believed theories.

Ironically, it is precisely the insistence by modern Athens that autonomous Man has achieved absolute rationality and objectivity, that seduces him so crucially to the willing acceptance of superstition and myth.

ChnMind 2.3 The Constitutionalist Nature of the Kingdom

The Kingdom That Maximises Liberty

In these series of “Constitutionalist Essays” we are concerned to trace out what the Kingdom of God looks like as it comes to pass upon the earth. All kingdoms or societies or cultures have conventions, institutions, legal systems, and governmental systems. The Kingdom of God is no exception. What is unique about the Kingdom of God, however, is that its constitutional documents are the Holy Scriptures.

In the first place, we should state the obvious. The Kingdom of God is not a democracy (although it has democratic elements); it is not a republic (although it has features often found in republican forms of government); neither is it a dictatorship (although its Leader has totalitarian authority over everyone and everything.

The Kingdom of God is a monarchy—it has a King. The King is a heavenly Man: His authority and power are so limitless and vast that His realm touches and rules even the thoughts and intents of every other human heart. But—and here is a vital point—His Kingdom exists in and through the created world. His rule and government is through the means of His creatures. He delegates His authority to servants, to stewards who by His Spirit think, act, work and rule according to their responsibilities, each according to His command.

The citizens of the Kingdom, of Jerusalem, think every thought after Him, bring every thought captive to Him, and learn to obey every teaching and every command which He has given. The extent of His reign is so comprehensive, His commands and realm reaches even to the way we eat and drink (“Whether then you eat and drink, or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God.” I Corinthians 10:31). It also reaches to the greatest of earthly lords—who are likewise, mere servants and subordinate magistrates, to the King of all kings. It includes the natural order. It embraces the legions of angels. All these, from the least to the greatest, are His servants, His ministering angels, to do His bidding and command. His Kingdom has both come, and is therefore coming.

Over all this entire realm stands His law and directives. These directives function as the Constitution of the Kingdom, since all facets of the Kingdom are subordinate to Him and are His accountable servants. These directives are found in the Holy Scriptures. Consequently, the Holy Scriptures are the Constitutional Documents of the Kingdom of God. They are the higher law, to which all human activity, all human government, all culture must subject itself—lest it be found in rebellion and opposition to the King, Himself.

It is essential, if we are to understand and participate in the Kingdom as truly profitable servants, that we have a clear understanding of the nature of these Constitutional Documents.

Firstly, these Constitutional Documents are unique. They alone, out of all writings, are definitively His Word. They bear, carry, and represent all His power, authority, majesty and dominion. Consequently, by them mankind must live. (“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:4). He has bound Himself in His dealings with us to these Constitutional Documents: He commands and requires that we do the same.

Secondly, these Constitutional Documents are common, near, accessible, and open to all in the Kingdom, since everyone in the Kingdom is His servant and steward. It is part of the great wonder of the Kingdom that His words and commands are not difficult to get, nor are they far off. Instead they are here, amongst us, accessible to us, in terms, concepts, and cultural constructs that we can understand. The Scriptures represent the incarnation of God's Word into humanity in such a way that it is accessible to everyone. As He says in the wonderful words of Deuteronomy:

For this commandment which I command you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach. It is not in heaven that you should say, “Who will go up to heaven for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?”
Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will cross the sea for us to get it for us and make us hear it that we may observe it?” But this word is very near you, in your mouth, and in your heart, that you may observe it. (Deuteronomy 30: 11—14)

Thirdly, the universal accessibility of the Word of God means that in the Kingdom of God, no entity or institution can claim prior rights to that Word, nor be regarded as its infallible interpreter or keeper. The least individual who stands upon the authority and teaching of Scripture with respect to himself has as much or higher authority that the highest judges, for no-one “owns” or “keeps” the Constitutional Documents. Out of this reality comes the notion of true Liberty of Conscience in the Kingdom.

The Westminster Confession briefly touches on this most important concept:

God alone is Lord of the conscience, and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men, with are in any thing contrary to His Word; or beside it, if matters of faith and worship. So that, to believe such doctrines or to obey such commands, out of conscience, is to betray true liberty of conscience: and the requiring of an implicit faith, and an absolute and blind obedience is to destroy liberty of conscience and reason also. (Westminster Confession of Faith 20:4)

Fourthly, the Constitutional Documents are final and complete, and do not require constant addition, correction, emendation or amendment. The Constitutional Documents are not “dynamically evolving—which would be to say they were failures and inadequate to serve as a true Constitution—but they are complete and infallibly adequate. To the Unbelieving Mind—this (along with everything else in the Kingdom) is an impossibility. But for the Kingdom itself, and all its citizens, it is necessarily true.

Only the omniscient God could give the Kingdom a Constitution that was so final, so complete, so infallible, so sufficient that it has addressed all circumstances of all cultures in all times in the past, the present, and in the long years ahead in such a way that the Holy Scriptures are sufficient and adequate that His people know what to do, what He commands, and what will please Him in whatever circumstances come to pass.

Only the Almighty God could so superintend and govern all human history that every manifestation and circumstance of human existence would not be “new” or beyond Scripture, but would remain adequately addressed and comprehended by it, despite the fact the Scriptures were completed nearly two thousand years ago.

The Scripture itself testifies to its own completeness and finality. They now contain the full, complete, and exact representation of God (Hebrews 1:3) whereas prior to the manifestation of the Son of God, they contained partial and incomplete information. They are now sufficient to bring every thought captive to Christ (II Corinthians 10:5). They are now adequate to instruct in every good work (II Timothy 3: 17). “Every good work” is so extensive, that, as we have seen, it includes even the most mundane activities, such as eating and drinking, right through to whatever we do. (I Corinthians 10:31)

The glory of the Holy Scriptures is that they are comprehensive, full, final, adequate, and complete. Thus, they alone, can serve as the Constitutional Documents of the Kingdom—for every individual, and for all its institutions.

A necessary corollary of this is that within Jerusalem the authority of all human institutions and entities is therefore limited and proscribed. This, in human terms, means that the Kingdom of God is the city where freedom (both individual and corporate) is maximised in a way that Athens cannot replicate or ever hope to achieve. There are many passages of the Constitution which could be cited to demonstrate this, but one will suffice: when the Lord met with Peter at Galilee after his denial, and both restored and instructed him, Peter, feeling under pressure, saw the disciple, John close by. We read: “Peter therefore seeing him [John] said to Jesus, 'Lord, and what about this man?' Jesus said to him, 'If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!'” (John 21: 21,22)

By that one sentence, our Lord prohibits all tyranny in His Kingdom. All must respect His higher direction, will and appointment. All must accede to the rights of the King. It means that Athens and its power structures have no place in Jerusalem. In that Holy City, because Christ commands everyone in His Word, we (both individually and collectively) are left free from the tyranny of man lording it over us.

Sabbath Meditation

The Grace of A God Bound and Obligated

We have noted in earlier posts that the Reformers developed the concept of the Means of Grace. This understanding of how Jerusalem or the Church was to work has largely been lost today. It needs to be recovered.

The concept of the means of grace is important because it tells us how God works in our lives, conforming us as individuals, and the Church as a whole, more and more into the image of Christ. Once we are clear on how God works in our lives, we can willingly co-operate, thus making the means of grace even more powerful and blessed. Our responsibility is to take up these means of grace, use them, and believe that the Lord will use them to bless us with His presence and transforming power.

The means of grace are not magic talismans. They do not manipulate the Lord in any way. They are not a kind of incantation. They are rather institutions put forth and established by God Himself as the means by which He comes to His people and blesses them, accomplishing His salvation within them, their families, and their communities.

We have said that the greatest means of grace is the Sabbath day—greatest because the first. On that holy day, as we observe and celebrate the Sabbath all the other means of grace are available to us as well, and on the Sabbath all the other means of grace are especially effective and powerful. It has pleased the Lord that it should be so.

A second means of grace is the Word of God. God's Word not only constitutes reality out of nothing, it also shapes, governs and conditions that reality once created. Once again, the Word of God is not a magical talisman. Rather, it is God's revelation of Himself, His plan and accomplishment of redemption, and His promises.

The Word of God, and in particular the promises that God has made in His Word, are the foundation and ground of all faith. We can believe because what is said in His Word is absolutely certain; it is absolutely certain because God has said it. The Word of God is more real, more solid, more dependable than anything else in the universe. Heaven and earth may pass away, but His Word will never pass away. His people are thus to live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

God binds Himself to His Word—He cannot be or do otherwise, since He is the God of truth and truthfulness. Once spoken, never forgotten. Because of His Word, God allows Himself to be bound to us. His Word creates a binding obligation upon God to do as He has promised, to be what He has declared, to accomplish what He has foretold. As the Word of God is opened to us, as we believe it and take it seriously with all reverence, so God becomes obligated to be and do as He has spoken to us.

So, for example, as our Lord has promised, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” and we believe that, so it proves true indeed: He never does leave nor forsake us. Our whole lives are transformed in principle by that one promise (and it is just one amongst many, many promises). As we take up that promise and build our lives upon it and in terms of it, so we are transformed more and more into the image of Christ Himself. We progressively become the people that we are meant to be.

God's Word comes to us in ways that are particularly powerful on the Sabbath day, in public worship. Here His Word is opened and proclaimed to us. Here we are exhorted to believe and obey. The binding and transforming nature of the Scripture is vividly evident in the lives of the community, of those with whom we join in worship. The Spirit of God moves over the congregation, opening ears and understanding, increasing faith, hope and love in each heart.

It is particularly true that on the Sabbath day, in the midst of the congregation of the Lord, the Word of God, in the hands of the Spirit, becomes living, effective, and sharper than a two edged sword, piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, judging the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Hebrews 4: 12).

It is significant, is it not, that this utterance, the word concerning the Word, is given to us in the very passage that speaks of the Sabbath rest of God's people.

On this holy day, may the Word of God, by His Spirit, live amongst us in great power and blessing. As the Emmaus disciples professed: “were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?”

Meditation on the Text of the Week

The Real Songs of Bombadil

The Psalter opens with short song, which, like the songs of Tolkien's Bombadil, is a song of power. It sings up one of the most—if not the most—fundamental pattern of human existence. This song both creates and shapes the course and outcome of cultures and history, families and nations, rulers and ruled.

While the Psalm is addressed to an individual (“blessed is the man”), the Bible elsewhere makes it clear that it is a characteristic type that is being presented. The same applies equally to corporate entities which delight in the law of the Lord and meditate day and night in it. (For example, “blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.” Psalm 33:12)

The image of the fruitful tree is one which resonates deep within--(and very Bombadil-like). The streams of water give the tree verdant life. The consequent fruitfulness of the tree shows that it brings life and blessing to others. The person whose life is molded by God's Law is both prosperous and successful. He becomes powerful.

To delight in God's Law means ipso facto that one must spurn and reject the counsel, wisdom, advice, ways, and the seats of the wicked—who mock and despise God and His Law, either overtly and militantly, or by means of dismissive disregard—considering both the Lord and His Law relegated to the dustbin of history.

So normative and dominant is this pattern of divine governance over humanity that the Bible takes care to provide an explanation when it does not appear, at first glance, to be working. Psalm 73 when Asaph was envious of the initial success of the wicked and arrogant is a case in point. In Isaiah 42, when Israel lay plundered and despoiled, the Lord is particular to explain that while He had made the Law great and glorious, the people o f the Law were now plundered because they had chosen the seat of the scoffers and had not walked in the ways of the Lord. (Isaiah 42: 19—25)

The course of the Kingdom of God in the earth is a movement from a position of extreme insignificance to one of world-wide, universal dominance. Its commencement in any particular nation or culture is always very small (the mustard seed)—a mere two or three gathered together, yet with the Lord in the midst of them. Eventually, it fills the whole nation.

The extent, richness, profundity, and depth of the blessedness promised in Psalm 1 is magnified many times over as the Gospel takes more and more hold in a society, as Jerusalem grows and Athens weakens. The blessing moves from strength to strength, as it were. In our generation, however, we live in a temporarily post-Christian world, a latter day Babylonian captivity. For us, many of the blessings we experience are more personal, individual, familial and congregational. But because Christ has ascended to the Throne at the right hand of God, the time is coming when the hills will once again be torn down and the valleys filled. The blessings of Psalm 1 will be multiplied and magnified many times over.

As Bombadil's songs shaped fictional Middle Earth, so the Lord of the Heavens and the Earth has given us this non-fictional song of power to sing that our lives might be shaped to the Law of the Lord and so God's rich favour and power might flow down upon us and all with whom we are in covenant.

Meditation on the Text of the Week

Meditation on Isaiah 55: 10,11

One of the reasons to develop a truly Christian Mind is a pragmatic one. If we think about the world as it truly is we will operate far more effectively and powerfully. The Christian is called to be powerful and influential in the Creation. Adam was a powerful person before the Fall. In Christ, we are to be powerful again as He teaches us to think properly about His world.

In the verses immediately before our text of the week, (Isaiah 55: 8,9) the Lord declares that His thoughts and ways are higher than ours—not just higher and greater in conception, grandeur, glory and wisdom—but also in their primacy and importance. His thoughts and His ways are constitutive. They shape us. Our thoughts and actions do not shape God.

A fundament of proper thinking is to realise that “things are not always what they seem.” We mean by this that the most powerful realities are invisible. Of course, the most powerful of all is the Omnipotent God.

God has a plan for the world—its destiny is prescribed. That plan incorporates God bringing forth the fruit and results that He has intended and decreed for the world. The fruit is produced, comes into being, through His Word which conveys His thoughts and ways.

He employs the analogy of rain to help us grasp the truth. When the rain falls, it has an inevitable effect upon the land. Life, fruit, and sustenance results.

God sends His Word forth from His mouth. Some of these commands we never hear, although we see their result. His commands shape the day to day experiences of all mankind—calling forth all the circumstances of each individual's life every day. Those unheard commands shape the entirety of our lives and circumstances. We call these commands “providence”—meaning, God's provision for us.

Then there is another “set” of commands which God has allowed us to hear. He has revealed these things to us directly and inscribed them in a library we call His Word, the Holy Scriptures. This Word is near us; it is in our language; we can access it; we can understand it. There is no conflict or disagreement between the Word-which-we-do-not-hear, and the Word-which-we-hear. The Word which we hear is for our sake. It enables us to make sense of the entire world. It enables us to understand the content of much of the unheard Word in the same way that a cause can be derived from observing its effect.

In the context of Isaiah 55, the Lord tells us what kind of fruit His Word will produce. It will bring a salvation that is so powerful, so comprehensive, so compelling that the whole creation will celebrate: the mountains and hills will shout for joy, the trees will clap their hands, the cypress and myrtle will replace the thornbush. This is the fruit that His Word will produce. It will be a veritable memorial to the Lord.

God gave this Word to Israel when they were on the verge of going down into a second slavery. We believe that Israel's coming out of Babylon to the Land of Promise, glorious in itself, was but a mere antetype, a pale and weak foreshadowing of the world-wide, global salvation wrought by the Son of Man—even Jesus our Lord. All of creation, all the universe, all the world is now being bent and shaped by this “higher Thought” of God. All circumstances, all events, all Providence is now aligned to bring forth this global redemption that will effect even the cypress and the myrtle tree.

Our duty is twofold: firstly, to believe it; secondly, to work. If we do neither, we will spend all our life kicking against the goads.