Peter Misselbrook's Blog

Mar 17 2019 - Psalm 27 – The Lord my light and salvation

This is a beautiful Psalm with its wonderful opening affirmation:

The LORD is my light and my salvation –
    whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life –
    of whom shall I be afraid?

We can readily identify with the words of David. The light of God's presence and glory has shone into our hearts in the Lord Jesus. He has saved us through his death and resurrection – the Lord is our light and our salvation. We are more than conquerors in Christ who loved us." The Lord is the stronghold in which we have taken refuge; we need fear nothing.

David expresses his confidence that God will keep him safe in time of trouble. This psalm may have been written when he was being pursued by King Saul, or when he had to flee from Jerusalem because of the rebellion of his son, Absalom (see 2 Samuel 15:25-26). In the face of such troubles, David expresses a single-minded longing in v.4, a longing that should be echoed in the heart of every Christian.

One thing I ask from the LORD,
    this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
    all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the LORD
    and to seek him in his temple.

David longs to live in God's house all the days of his life. David longs to live in close fellowship with God himself, to live consciously in God's presence and under his Fatherly care day by day.

He longs to gaze on the beauty of the Lord – longs to see more of the beauty of God's character; he wants to know God – to appreciate more of the beauty of who he is. He wants to see more of the beauty of God's holiness, the beauty of his faithfulness, mercy and love. He wants to know God better and to love him more.

The beauty of God's character is revealed supremely in the Lord Jesus Christ – the one who is the image of the invisible God. He is the one in whom God has revealed his glory and shown us the depth of his mercy and love. So surely, we want to gaze upon the beauty of God's character displayed in Christ and to bask in the light of the glory of God that has appeared in the face of Christ Jesus. We want to know him more and to love him more fully.

David longs to seek the Lord in his temple, that is, he longs to know God's will and to walk in it.

This single-minded desire with its threefold expression provides a wonderful picture of the desires that should shape the Christian life. And they are something that David seeks from the LORD. They are gifts of God, which we nevertheless are to seek from him with all our heart and energy. The diligence of our seeking is an expression of the measure and reality of our desire for God.

Father God, as you have shown us the glory of your grace in the Lord Jesus, so we seek you in him. We want to know him better, to love him more and to follow him more closely and constantly. Help us by your Spirit to live in close fellowship with you daily, enjoying the blessings of your protection and care. May the Lord Jesus be the central object of our desires and at the heart of our conversations, that others also may come to seek you through him and find in him their light and their salvation.

Mar 17 2020 - Galatians 5:13-26 – The fruit of the Spirit

This world has become a battleground. God created it to be a place of blessing, a world that would reflect his own character and glory. He created us in his image that we might reflect his character in all our actions and relationships. But something has gone horribly wrong. An enemy has sown his own seed in the Garden of God and it is bearing an ugly and poisonous fruit springing up from the seed of self-interest and selfish desire.

The Message expresses this well: “It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community” (5:19-21). These are the things that mar God’s world and reflect the activity of the evil one.

But God has not given up on his world. He loved the world so much that he gave his Son for its salvation. His death is God’s verdict on a dying world. By his resurrection he has created the possibility of new life. He sets us free from bondage to sin and self that we might live for him: “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free” (Galatians 5:1). God is at work to reclaim his lost world.

But, “The battle line between good and evil runs through the heart of every man” (Alexander Solzhenitsyn). It continues to run through us until that day when Christ shall come and we shall be made perfectly like him. Left to ourselves, we do not have the power to live the life of God’s free children. We need to live by the power of the Spirit; “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want” (5:16-17).

The great battle for Mansoul is still going on in the life of the Christian, a battle between the flesh and the Spirit. Our fallen human nature, would draw us back into behaviour inconsistent with the kingdom of God, into a life centred in ourselves with its insistent demand for self-satisfaction and for having our own way.

God has given us his Spirit that we might be transformed from within; that his image within us might be restored – that we might be made like Christ. The Spirit is reshaping our lives that we might abound in the fruit of “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (5:22-23). Paul urges the Christians in Galatia (and us), “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit” (5:25). The Spirit is the one who has given us life in Christ; so let us live by the power of the Spirit, keeping in step with him as he leads us on in following Jesus Christ.

How is this fruit, in all its beautiful forms, developing in you? And how is God, by his Spirit, at work through you to bring healing and wholeness to his broken world?

Father God, I am conscious of the pull of the flesh, of the ways in which my recalcitrant nature fights against your work within. Forgive my sin for the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, who died for me. Heal my brokenness and fill me with your powerful and persuasive Spirit. Help me to keep in step with your Spirit today. May my life bear an abundant harvest of the Spirit’s fruit, to the blessing of others and to the glory of your name.

Peter Misselbrook