Day 33 - The Power

I'm full of a cold and have tonight's Connect to finish sorting but here I am blogging as promised! Hope you lucky people appreciate it :) Onto business then

Today’s readings
Job 25:1-29:25
Matthew 21:33-22:14
Psalm 18:7-15


Here we go again with Job. First we have a very short, thankfully, attack from Bildad followed by a long reply from Job. The reply goes over a couple of themes that have been familiar. That Job wishes his friends would disappear, that he wishes his situation improved, that he doesn't understand God and that true wisdom will only come from God. I like chapter 29 where Job talks about how amazing his life was. He sounds like a real celebrity but one who was celebrated for the right reasons, not just for singing a song in front of a few judges. It's hard to discern clear meaning from these rambles but maybe that's the point. Wisdom comes from being close to God and we have to trust that God can understand our rambles and pick out the wisdom needed for us. That's definitely reassuring.

Into the New Testament we sway and Jesus tells two different parables. The first is talking about Himself and how God has given us this planet to look after and prosper in but he sends people to remind us it's His. All that happens though is we ignore them and carry on doing our own thing. Jesus was saying that as the Son of God you would think that people would pay Him a little more attention  but that He knows He will die and not everyone will hear or respond to His truth. Keep your eyes open for Jesus' truth and make sure you're not guilty of ignoring it in your lives!

Then the second parable is about the great party that will be in heaven. Now here Jesus is very clear that everyone is welcome. From the richest to the poorest, all are invited. But only a few will bother to come and then even the ones who do respond, not all of them will truly believe and follow Jesus. I think we can all be guilty of paying lip service to our faith at times and pretending that we're more faithful or righteous than we really are. What Jesus challenges us with here is that we shouldn't look on Heaven as something that we're entitled to but as a party with a dress code that we have to follow to earn it. Now you'll never earn Heaven this is true but if your heart isn't dressed right in its intentions and actions then what business have you got expecting God to keep a seat for you?

Finally our Psalm continues and we read about the real awesome power of our God. This is a primal force that can cause destruction and creation on equal levels. And all of this force wants to come to our level and love and cherish us. Wow. But I think today's message to me is that God is mega powerful and we ought to respect that. We can't keep thinking that He is this all loving figure who never gets angry. God is definitely all love but He is so mind blowingly powerful that we have no business being dishonest, disrespectful or dismissive of Him.

And that's your lot for today. Lovely and concise. Yesterday's tune is here and it's a belter. Hope you all have a great week next week. Questions, criticisms and comments welcome as always,

Jon