Peter Misselbrook's Blog
Jul 26 2019 - Micah 4:1-8; 5:1-6 – The Lord's plan

In the midst of Israel's unfaithfulness to the Lord and the Assyrian threat to destroy the nation, God speaks words of promise through his prophet Micah. The day will come when God will visit his people again and restore the glory of his temple – his dwelling place among them. Jerusalem, which has been humbled, will be exalted by God. In that day, the nations will stream to it not to wage war against God's people but will come seeking to learn about the living God; "They will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks" (4:3). The Lord will gather together his wounded exiles and will reign over them (4:6-7).

Micah chapter five amplifies on this promise. God is going to raise up a new king who will rule over his people. Like David of old, he will be born in Bethlehem. Unlike David, his "origins are from of old, from ancient times" (5:2):

He will stand and shepherd his flock
    in the strength of the LORD,
    in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God.
And they will live securely, for then his greatness
    will reach to the ends of the earth.
And he will be our peace… (5:4-5)

We know that this prophecy of Micah was fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. Even the advisors of King Herod understood that Micah 5:2 prophesied the birth of the Messiah, David's greater Son, who was to be born in Bethlehem in Judea (Matthew 2:5-6). Jesus is the Good Shepherd who has come to gather together a people for God from every nation on earth and make them one people, living securely under his care. He is our peace who has broken down the walls of hostility between ourselves and God and brought us into the embrace of the Father. He is our peace who has broken down the barriers between peoples of very different backgrounds, even people who were once enemies and at war with one another, and has made them one united family (Ephesians 2:14).

Did you notice that in Micah 4:6 it is the Lord who says, "I will gather the lame…"? Jesus is the Lord come to visit and redeem his people. God has come to us in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ to identify with us in all our weakness and need. He went to the cross on our behalf, bearing the judgment we deserved, so that we could be reconciled with God. He suffered the hatred of a divided world – Jew and Gentile – that he might heal the divisions that mark this world bringing peace and security.

Christ has come, he has died and he is risen, but we know that the work of reconciling a divided world to God and to each other is far from complete. We who have come to know the living God through the Lord Jesus Christ have been entrusted with a ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18). We are to be a people who tell the world the good news concerning the peace and security that is to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Looking at the world around us with all its hatreds, conflict, oppression and destruction, we know that this is a message our world needs to hear. Millions, or rather, billions of people are longing for peace and security.

Father God, we thank you that the words spoken long ago through the prophet Micah find their fulfilment in the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you that he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world and has brought an end to the conflict between you and ourselves. We thank you that he is the Good Shepherd who came to seek and to save those who were lost. Lord, many still are lost and need to know your saving power; many still suffer in situations of conflict and need to know your peace. Help us to overcome our fear and to proclaim your message of forgiveness, reconciliation and peace to the warring peoples of our world.

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Jul 26 2020 - Mark 7:1-23 – The inside out life

Jesus tells the Jewish leaders that their preoccupation with ceremonial purity is an exercise in missing the point. A person is not made unholy by contact with something "unclean". Holiness begins with the inner life. It flows from a living relationship with God and a desire and determination to live to please him. The quality of that inner life is then displayed in the things we say and do: "For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come – sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person" (Mark 7:21-23). Holiness flows from the inside out.

In this, Jesus was not saying anything new. Proverbs 4:23 expresses the same thought when it says, "Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it."

How does one guard the heart? I'm really not an expert on this question; in this matter I am conscious that I am still very much a learner. Nevertheless, I would suggest that guarding the heart requires firstly that we are honest with ourselves about the state of our hearts. We need to know ourselves and to be conscious of the way our inward thoughts and desires can lead us away from the life God wants us to live. Secondly, we need to learn to depend upon God and his Spirit for the help and strength we need to put the inner seeds of sin to death before they grow out of control (see James 1:14-15). When wrong thoughts arise, we need to turn immediately to Christ for help in subduing them. Above all, we need to maintain a strong and continual focus upon Christ – a delight in the glory of all that he is and a desire to grow in likeness to him: "And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:18).

We also need to remember that, while holiness begins with the inner life, it is not to be an individualistic preoccupation. We are to encourage one another in holiness – spur one another on in following Christ. Paul encourages such growth among the Christians in Ephesus when he writes, "Speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work" (Ephesians 4:15-16). We are to grow together into what God has called us to be in Christ. Then we will, "no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking" (4:17). Holiness is to be a corporate preoccupation.

Finally, we need always to remember that God's purpose is for us to be holy (like Christ), for the sake of the world. We must be careful that the desire for holiness does not separate us from the world around us in the wrong sense; that it does not encourage us to keep ourselves in our own holy huddle. We want to be like Jesus: the one who lived to bring the blessing of God to others; the one who came to bring the transforming power of God to those whose lives were broken and damaged. Holiness needs to make us like Jesus, not like the Pharisees.

Lord Jesus, by your Spirit continue the work you have begun within me to make me like you. Help me also to be a fertilising influence within the fellowship of your people promoting strong growth, beautiful flowering and generous fruitfulness. So may we bring your healing and transforming presence to those around us.

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Peter Misselbrook