It’s a familiar phrase, isn’t it, that what we do is to “God’s glory.” It was to Jesus too, as in John 14:13, when he said, “I will do whatever you ask in my name so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.” And in John 17:4, when praying to his Father, “I have brought you glory on earth.” 

And the purpose for us being “the first to hope in Christ,” Ephesians 1:12, is “for the praise of the Father’s glory” too. We get the point, that what the Father accomplished for us humans in his Son makes him justifiably glorious. “To the praise of his glorious grace” in verse 6, summarizes our existence as humans and Christians perfectly. 

But is “glory” only defined by God’s greatness and grace? Or is there another meaning to the word “glory”?

Yes, there is, in English too, because when we “glory” in something, like a child’s first steps or first words, or the growth of our kids into strapping, powerful men, or into beautiful, skilled women – there’s something else we mean, isn’t there? It means we’re “getting huge pleasure” out of something, like rousing music, or learning a skill, or being fit, or overcoming a bad habit. 

Apply that meaning, then, to “God’s glory,” and it comes out as doing what we do for his pleasure. And it’s spot on biblically too, because Ephesians 1:4 tells us he adopted us as his children “in accordance with his pleasure,” and in verse 9, “he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure” too. God does things for us because it gives him great pleasure doing so. 

So, what if what we do is for the same reason – knowing that what we’re doing, thinking and saying, gives him great pleasure? We have that power, so to speak, to make God extremely happy. I love the bit in the movie, Chariots of Fire, when Eric Liddle is thundering round the 400 metres final in the 1924 Olympic Games, arms flailing, head back, and we hear his voice saying, “God made me fast. And when I run, I feel his pleasure.”

I bet Jesus felt his Father’s pleasure too, when he heard a voice saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” in Matthew 3:17. Can we “hear” him saying the same thing of us, then? Yes, we jolly well can, because in Jesus’ words, “He who loves me will be loved by my Father,” John 14:21. When we’re obeying anything Jesus taught, the Father’s doing cartwheels.  

Part 2, King Ahaz, Isaiah 7 (part 1 was on Jan 9)

Since the stories of Israel in the Old Testament are examples for us now (1 Corinthians 10:11), what’s in the story of Ahaz for us? 

Ahaz, for instance, was in much the same situation we found ourselves in at the beginning of the pandemic in early 2020. People were dying and panic set in, so politicians worked frantically to dispel our fears by promising the rapid deployment of a novel medical intervention.

And intervention for Ahaz came in a novel form too, in the prophet Isaiah and his son dropping by with a message from God contained in the boy’s name. How the boy ended up with a name that meant a remnant will return is unknown, but it was designed to have the same impact on Ahaz as the arrival of the promised medical intervention in late 2020: to dispel our fear with trust. Ahaz needed to trust God to remove his fear, just as we were called on to “trust the science” to remove our fear.   

But trust for Ahaz was a tough call, because he’s young and he has no  experience to fall back on that God will step in and save them. And many people found trusting the science a tough call in the pandemic too, when faced with a novel medication that had no record to fall back on that it would save lives either. Politicians, media, doctors, and the companies producing the medication all said it was perfectly safe and nothing to worry about, but like Ahaz, in the real world of human emotion, diving into the unknown can be truly daunting.  

But God was sympathetic to Ahaz’s hesitancy. He offered Ahaz a “sign,” and of his own choosing too, and with no limits either. It could be anything “in the deepest depths or in the highest heights” (verse 11). To God, then, it didn’t matter how extreme Ahaz’s request was, so long as the lad ended up being fully convinced and comforted. 

So this was how God dealt with a hesitant, doubting young man. And how different it was to what we’ve witnessed our leaders doing during the pandemic. God, for instance, didn’t unleash a string of disparaging, humiliating names for Ahaz because of his hesitancy. Nor did he try to coerce Ahaz into doing something he wasn’t ready for. 

It’s a great insight into God and how he works with us often frightened and doubting humans. And it’s a great example as well, because imagine how different our world would be if we had leaders who treated us like that too (more in part 3, next Friday). 

One likely answer would be “knowing how to get back to normal,” having had our lives turned upside down for three years, and now having to face the consequences of stringent government mandates.   

Consequences like mental issues from lockdowns, adverse health effects, excess deaths, the economy in a tailspin, etc. It’s not surprising, then, that Greta Thunberg, the world renowned teenage expert on all things, said there’s “no back to normal.” 

So where’s that leave us? If what we had has been battered beyond repair, what would give meaning to life now? Well, how about this prayer heard by 23 million people in response to the frightening cardiac arrest suffered by Damar Hamlin (and who hasn’t heard of what happened to him?) Here was the prayer:

“God we come to you in these moments that we don’t understand, that are hard, because we believe that you’re God and coming to you and praying to you has impact. We’re sad, we’re angry, we want answers, but some things are unanswerable. We just want to pray, truly come to you and pray for strength for Damar, for healing for Damar, for comfort for Damar, to be with his family, to give them peace. If we didn’t believe that prayer worked, we wouldn’t ask this of you, God. I believe in prayer, we believe in prayer, and we lift up Damar Hamlin’s name in your name, Amen.”

That prayer was made while Damar Hamlin lay motionless on the field of play, and for at least nine minutes all attempts to revive him failed. So, was it that prayer and the prayers of many others that saved Damar’s life? And not just save his life, because just over a week later Damar was well enough to get so excited in hospital watching a football game that he set off the alarms in the ICU. So, was it prayer that did that for him? Who knows?

But one thing we do know is that millions of people immediately prayed. The players on both teams knelt down on the field, out in the open for all to see, and prayed. It just came to them to do that, as if it was quite normal.

So when we talk about getting back to normal, this was normal. Faced with a scary, extremely distressing situation, millions of people accepted it as quite normal that there’s another world in operation on this planet, that cares for us when we’re feeling helpless. 

Well, that’s something meaningful, isn’t it? – the knowledge that, tucked away inside us, it’s normal for us to turn to God when faced with scary, distressing situations. And that normal, Greta, IS possible to get back to, because it just happened, and to millions and millions of people all at the same time.    

On December 6, 2022, a woman was arrested in the UK for silently praying outside an abortion clinic. She was charged on December 15 with four counts of breaching the Public Space Protection Order, which criminalizes people if, within a restricted buffer zone around an abortion clinic, they are perceived to be “engaging in any act of approval or disapproval or attempted act of approval or disapproval (of abortion),” including through “verbal or written means, prayer or counselling.”

The Order is meant to protect women in crisis from intimidation, protest and harassment. But this woman wasn’t protesting, wasn’t harassing, wasn’t engaging in any act of approval or disapproval by verbal or written means, neither was she holding a sign, or accosting anyone to pray for them or counsel them. She couldn’t anyway, because the abortion clinic was closed at the time. 

Instead, she was standing near the clinic, not saying or doing anything. She was approached by a police officer, however, who asked her: “Are you here as part of a protest? Are you praying?” 

It was the praying part that did her in. Because when she answered, “I might be praying in my head, but not out loud,” she was arrested, searched and interrogated as to what thoughts she had in her head when she was praying. Which seems a bit off, but earlier in the year a Scottish Government’s lady chief legal officer testified in the Supreme Court that silent prayer may be “psychologically damaging to women.”  

To this lady, therefore, even a silent prayer, that no one even knew was being offered, was a scary proposition. Which is fascinating, because she’s admitting that prayer has an effect. But, poor lady, she can only associate that effect as “damaging,” which makes her even more afraid of prayer.   

But would she have good reason for believing prayer is scary? Well, yes, because in Scripture, when James had his head chopped off and Peter was arrested and flung in jail in Acts 12:2-4, “the church earnestly prayed to God for Peter,” verse 5, and not much later, in the same chapter, the pompous, non-God respecting instigator of this outrage was struck down by an angel (verse 23).    

So, yes, I can see why people might be afraid of Christians praying, because the lady was right; when Christians pray, things happen (James 5:16).

I mean, that’s the proof of a Christian, right? Christians are so much nicer and kinder and more compassionate and sociable, and never would an angry, nasty, impatient, judging word spill from their lips. 

But what if you’re not a Christian, but you’ve grown up in a loving family, where you were deeply valued and respected, and life was full of joy and good times together, so you ended up being a jolly nice, well rounded, thoroughly balanced, and exceedingly well liked person that people loved to be around? People would probably think by your good manners and pleasing demeanour that you’re obviously a Christian, even though you aren’t one.   

Compare that to a person who toddles off to church every Sunday, who therefore would be thought of as Christian, but he’s not a very nice person at all. In fact, he’s morose, negative, complains a lot, is highly opinionated, doesn’t listen to anyone else’s point of view, and he’s on your doorstep moaning about your dog barking, and dead branches from your tree dropping on his flower beds. And he calls himself a Christian? 

But what if he’d grown up in awful surroundings, in a mildewed apartment with an alcoholic father who treated him like a punchbag, and his mother filled him with TV dinners with all nutritional brain developing nutrients stripped out of them? And to survive the bullies and drug pushers he became tough and surly, and rather scary to be around, because he’d flare up easily and yell, and stab you in the chest with his finger to get his point across.

And yet he says he’s a Christian. He goes to church. But what would identify him as a Christian other than going to church? Well, why not ask him? And what if he said in reply, “I know what I’m like and how really horrible I am, and there’s no way I can ever change what my upbringing made me, but Jesus said, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance’ in Luke 5:31-32. And I took that to mean he can take a hopeless case like me and make me into something new. It’s going to take time, I realize that, but that’s why I’m a Christian, because that’s what Jesus came to do for people like me.”

But would the person who grew up in ideal surroundings, who enjoys a good life and lots of friends, and has little trouble socially, and no trouble with bad moods, feel that same need for Jesus’ help to make him into a new person? What “new” thing would he need, he might ask, when he’s already been thought of as “a jolly good fellow”? 

So who’s the Christian? The nice person who sees no need to repent or change, or the nasty person who hates who he is and throws the awful mess he’s become into Jesus’ hands, to see what Jesus can make of him instead? 

The influential and powerful people in our world today have taken the view that us ordinary folks are a danger to ourselves and to the planet, so our behaviour needs to be closely monitored and regulated, which will likely mean more restrictions on our freedoms in 2023, and more sacrifices on our part that may well cause even more frustration, anger and hurt. 

With that in mind, are there stories in the Old Testament in God’s dealings with Israel that may offer us some useful tidbits for coping with what may be coming up this year – that help heal the hurts and give us hope when things seem hopeless? Well, several stories came to mind, but how about this one to start off with….

It’s the story of king Ahaz, crowned king of the Jews at the tender age of twenty, whose reign kicked off with a hopeless situation. Two other kings had joined forces and invaded his country, killing thousands of his fellow Jews and carting off thousands more as prisoners. But both kings felt justified in their vicious attack on non-violent innocents because Ahaz wasn’t complying with their narrative, that they should all join forces together to keep their people safe from terrorists, in their case the Assyrians. 

So they put the fear up Ahaz to get him to comply, which worked surprisingly well, because “Ahaz and his people were shaking like trees in the wind” (Isaiah 7:2). Mass hysteria rapidly spread through the land, paralyzing them all in helpless, shivering panic, so that no one had any idea what to do. 

Which God was aware of, because he contacts Isaiah and tells him to take his young son Shear-Jashub (Shee’ar-Yashub) with him for a chat with the king. It seems like an odd idea taking his boy with him, because the little chap doesn’t actually say or do anything when they meet with Ahaz. 

But the message for the king wasn’t in what the boy said, it was in the boy’s name, because it meant A Remnant Will Return. It means, Ahaz, that even if your people are all dragged off as prisoners and life seems hopeless, God will make sure that some will return to settle and rebuild. In other words, this isn’t the end of the world, Ahaz. The planet will survive and so will your nation, despite what the fear mongering alarmists are saying.

So Isaiah’s advice from God to Ahaz is, “Stay calm, and don’t be frightened by those pompous windbags, because to God they’re just a couple of smouldering stubs of firewood (verse 4), all smoke and no flame. Oh, they’ll spout and threaten if you don’t comply with their demands (verses 5-6), but – and here’s the point you need to get, Ahaz (verse 9) – that if you don’t stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.”  

(Continuing in part 2 on Friday – taking into account 1 Corinthians 10:11, that “These things happened to them (Israel in the OT) as examples for us”)

God gets quite picky on who he chooses for what and when. 

In Exodus 19:5, for instance, he chose Israel “out of all nations” to be his “treasured possession.” And to Israel exclusively, Romans 9:4-5, he gave “adoption as sons, divine glory, covenants, the law, temple worship, promises, patriarchs, and the human ancestry of Christ.” And to the Samaritan woman in John 4:22, Jesus stated the exclusivity of the family of Judah as playing the leading role in salvation. 

He also chose Abraham and his descendants, and exclusively Isaac and Jacob, to be the family line that led up to the birth of Jesus (Matthew 1:2-16) who would bring about the promised “blessing of all nations.” Tell that to the globalist elites who think they and their “Great Reset” are going to solve the world’s problems. Sorry, God exclusively reserved that job for Jesus. 

“Salvation is found in no one else (but Jesus)” too, Acts 4:12, “for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” Tell that to those who believe all religions are equally valid as paths to eternal life. Sorry, God exclusively reserved that path for Jesus.

And Jesus wasn’t shy about confirming it either, when he stated openly in John 11:25-26 that “I am the resurrection and the life…and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” And a couple of chapters later when he said, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” Tell that to those who believe the founders of their religions are divine. Sorry, only Jesus is.   

He’s also the only one “appointed” by God to “judge the world with justice,” Acts 17:31, the proof of which God gave by “raising him from the dead.” Tell that to those who believe they’ve been exclusively appointed to bring about global unity and a new world order. Sorry, only Jesus has been appointed to do that. And, what’s more, he’s only doing it through those who are “chosen by God and precious to him,” 1 Peter 2:4. 

But doesn’t all this make God a tad unfair?  

No, because in God’s exclusive choice of personnel, from Noah, Abraham, Israel and Jesus, to the ones he’s training on this earth right now to accompany Jesus in setting up heaven on earth, his one great desire in all of it is to bring about a world of total inclusivity, where everyone is valued and respected, and the whole planet flourishes. 

Which we’ve never been able to do. Because only he can.  

The catchy words in our culture are “diversity, inclusivity, and equity,” the first letters of which spell D.I.E., which is unfortunate, because these three words are supposed to bring L.I.F.E. into our world, according to those who believe our present world needs to be dismantled and given a reset.   

The second of the three, inclusivity, gets the lion’s share of the “great reset” they believe this world needs. And rightly so when defined as “everyone feeling valued and respected,” because “God (also) is no respecter of persons,” Acts 10:34. The Greek word for “respecter of persons” in that verse is taken from two words, “face” and “perceive,” meaning someone who judges you worthy of respect, or not, on face value, not on knowing you.  

This would spell real trouble if you were hauled up in court before a judge whose view of you was skewed by your outward appearance or social status, or by your race, ethnic group and gender – but God’s not like that. 

He does not “show favouritism (or partiality),” Romans 2:11, which Peter understood to mean “I should not call anyone impure or unclean,” Acts 10:28, because no one is viewed by God as being above or below anyone else. There’s no such thing as a globalist elite to God, therefore, because “He doesn’t care how great a person may be. He pays no more attention to the rich than to the poor.” Job 34:19. 

It must have been a shock of earthquake proportions, then, when the Jews found out that God “accepts people from every nation,” Acts 10:35, when their Jewish law stated it was forbidden “for a Jew to (even) associate with a Gentile or visit him,” verse 28. 

And maybe it’s a shock for us too that God blesses evil people with sunshine and rain just as much as good people (Matthew 5:45). It’s amazing, isn’t it, that God allows even his worst enemies to enjoy good weather, good crops, good food, good marriages and loving families. 

And why is that? Because “when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son,” Romans 5:10. It’s because his Son “died for all,” 2 Corinthians 5:14, that God can include everybody, even his worst enemies, in his forgiveness.

So God’s inclusive all right. He leaves no one out when it comes to his mercy. On that point he views and values everyone equally. But does that mean he can’t be exclusive as well?….(coming up next)  

God gave himself this same challenge with the Israelites: How to prove to them that they could trust him? 

In Exodus 19 he explained how he went about it. First of all, verse 4, “You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you out myself.” So, first of all, God made himself known to them by some pretty impressive miracles. And miracles that meant a great deal to them personally too, because they were trapped in a hopeless existence, with no way out. 

I can vouch for that in my own life. As a teenager I was stuck in a life I hated, and there was nothing I could see in my future that even remotely made life worth living. But then, out of the blue, the one thing I’d dreamt of happening all through my teenage – that I’d given up on ever happening – actually happened. It was God’s way of making himself known to me, because it was so perfectly tailored to my need that even I could see it was him. So, first step done. And the same for the Israelites; they knew their escape from Egypt was God’s doing too.

To the next step, then, in verse 5: “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.” And somehow I got that point too, because I found myself seriously wanting to obey God, something I’d never done before. And I was the only one “out of all” my friends as well, just like Israel was. And it soon became obvious by the things I was learning and the changes in my mental state, that God was treating me like a “treasured possession” too. 

And that’s how God proved to me I could trust him. And it could have been that way for the Israelites too, because they started off really well (verse 8). But, now that they knew God could be trusted, would they trust him? God had passed the trust test, but would they? Would they return the favour, so to speak, and fulfill God’s dream? The dream simply being that they’d trust him whenever things got rough in the future. And isn’t that the same for all of us too? Life is an endless challenge of situations and issues that constantly call upon us to trust him.       

But that was the challenge the Israelites never rose to, because when things got rough, they gave up on God (Hebrews 3:9-10, 12). And what a pity that was, because the reason God allowed situations to keep cropping up was to prove to them even more that he could be trusted, in how he always came to their aid. 

The result of which, for the Israelites. would have been “entering God’s rest” (Hebrews 3:11), that wonderful state Paul described in Philippians 4:12, in which “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation.” The secret being? Verse 13: “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” 

And that’s how God proves to us we can trust him, again, and again, and… 

Why would “the Lord say, ‘Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans’” in Jeremiah 17:5?

“Cursed”? That’s a bit tough, isn’t it? But in context the Hebrew word means causing anger, rage or indignation. Humiliation too. All of which a person feels when let down by someone who does not come through as promised.  

It made me wonder why any of us make promises at all, because there’s always that danger that we cannot fulfill them. We say we’ll meet someone “on the dot” at 6:00 pm; a fixed and certain promise. But on the way to the meeting we slip on a banana peel, crash head first into a fire hydrant, roll into the road unconscious, and get run over by a motorbike. Leaving the poor chap waiting for us fuming – because in his mind we didn’t stick to what we promised. 

And wedding vows. Why do we make them? A list of “I promises” the couple make to each other, when there’s no guarantee that either of them can, or will forever, fulfill them. All sorts of things crop up, as nearly half the married couples who split up discover. But they “vowed,” didn’t they – believing at the time that each of them could be fully trusted to do their bit.  

Because we put so much weight on trust. And easily fall for, or commit to, someone who seems trustworthy. The pandemic was a classic case in point, because as scary stories emerged early on, it was jolly comforting to hear from politicians, doctors, and drug companies that they had a cure that was totally “safe and effective.” And I, like millions of others, trusted them, that what they said was true. 

There are now a lot of “cursed” people – indignant, furious and enraged – as facts are coming to light about the cure and the motives behind those pushing it, that tell of deliberate hiding of the dangers, and by people we trusted with our lives too. No wonder so many people are saying they will never trust doctors, drugs, mainstream media, or politicians again. 

Which is tragic, because who’s left to trust in instead? 

On the other hand, maybe it’s good, because “Jesus didn’t entrust his life to people – because he knew them inside and out, and how untrustworthy they were,” John 2:24-25. 

So if our Creator viewed people with a large pinch of salt….