Daily Devotions for Difficult Days [149] Blessing and Persecution

 

Todays devotional is written by Mike Loveridge 

Assistant pastor Manor Park Church 

Sermon on the Mount 9 – Blessing and persecution

 

Today we look at the final Beatitude which can be found in Matthew 5v10:

 “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”

 This final Beatitude turns the attention from what true believers are in their character to what true believers will experience as a result of their righteous character, behaviour and attitude. Like all of the Beatitudes this one is utterly shocking to worldly logic. Worldly logic would say that if you are following the right way and acting in the right way then you will enjoy prosperity and peace, wealth and happiness. But Jesus is saying here that if you live the life of a true believer, as laid out in the previous Beatitudes so far, then the result will not be an easy, comfy life but one of hardship, difficulty and persecution. Jesus, through this final Beatitude, lays bear the cost of truly following him. But we should not be surprised by this since Jesus himself was hated by the world. As the previous Beatitude taught us, Christians should be working for and praying for peace in the world, but the reality of the gospel message is that it will often bring conflict, hatred and persecution as it is shared. It is the inevitable outcome of a clash of two opposing views.

Why are believers persecuted?

The simple answer that Jesus gives is that it is for righteousness’ sake. It is a persecution that is unique to followers of Jesus as they are seeking to live lives in obedience to God. That is what righteousness is. Righteousness is obedience to God’s will for our lives that is revealed through His word as we seek to serve God. Living a righteous life does not merely mean doing good works - unbelievers can do that! It is about the heart attitude behind those good works.

When we become a follower of Jesus, through the power of the Spirit our hearts are regenerated, the heart of stone is removed and a heart of flesh given. At that point we decide to no longer live the way of the world but to put to death sinful desires and live a life worthy of being sons and daughters of God. This life is an ongoing daily battle but that is the life of a Christian. That life is radically different to the life of a non-believer who is still enslaved to sin and seeks to satisfy the desires of the flesh. As Christians we live in the world but we are not of the world and it is that tension that leads to persecution. Since as Christians we will continue to sin, we need to be careful at times that we do not confuse suffering because of our wrong attitudes (arrogance, unlawful or obnoxious behaviour) with persecution as a result of righteous living. Jesus is only talking here about persecution that comes as a direct result of godly, righteous living.

What does persecution involve?

Persecution begins with hatred. When living in a non-Christian culture as a follower of Jesus, you come to despise sin within your own life and in the world. As you then live out that life amongst non-believers there will be some who are offended by your views that hold to biblical truth and some who hate you because your righteous living highlights their sin and depravity. Christians become hated because as they live a gospel-centred life, the gospel they display convicts and condemns those who do not follow Jesus.

After hatred comes exclusion. Luke 6:22 shows us this. “Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you”. Exclusion includes social, economic and religious exclusion. Because of your faith in Jesus you may not be allowed into certain places or you may be denied certain jobs or friends may shun you from a group.

 

Persecution can and probably will involve insults. People will mock you for the way you live. They will point and laugh because they think that your decisions and life choices are stupid because they are not the way the world would do things.

 

So, persecution includes being hated, excluded, ridiculed, mocked, abused even to the point of death. Sadly, for many of our brothers and sisters around the world all of this is extremely common in their everyday lives, yet for the sake of living for Christ they endure it. I don’t think we as Western Christians truly understand persecution as a result of our faith.

The blessing as a result of persecution

Jesus gives the blessing here as He did with the first beatitude. The blessing is that ‘theirs will be the kingdom of heaven’. Those who are persecuted for Christ’s sake have already received this blessing since it is because they are a citizen of heaven that they are being persecuted. They have already been justified, sanctified and adopted into God’s family. They are saved and its a result of that salvation that is bringing the persecution.

As Christians our homes may be destroyed, we may endure insults being thrown at us, we may be excluded and we may even loose our lives for the sake of Jesus but as Christians we have an inheritance in a place that no robber can break in and steal. We have a citizenship in a place where there are no tears, pain or injustice and we have it all because of Jesus. Paul in Romans 8:18 said, “The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us”. Paul here shows us that the best way to cope with present persecution is to have a future perspective. When we focus on what is to come the trials of now fall into the background.

Jesus himself tell us in Matthew 5:12 that when we are persecuted we should rejoice and be glad because great is our reward in heaven. God knows and sees what happens to us here on earth as we live to display his glory and he will reward us for living righteous lives.

Prayer for today

Loving heavenly Father,

We thank you for your word that teaches us about who you are but also leads and guides us to the lives you would have us live. We ask now that through the power of your Spirit you may show us where in our lives we are not living as true disciples of you.

Father we ask today that you will help us to live righteous lives in obedience to you. We ask that as we live to serve you, that you will use us to bring your light to this dark world.

Give us strength in the face of persecution and endurance to run the race before us.

We ask all this in Jesus name,

Amen

Song for today

I think this song sums up the heart desire of a Christian who wants their life to best display Christ to the world as they seek to put the beatitudes into action in their own lives. The song is ‘Take my life and let it be’ you can listen here

1 Take my life and let it be
consecrated, Lord, to thee.
Take my moments and my days;
let them flow in endless praise,
let them flow in endless praise.

2 Take my hands and let them move
at the impulse of thy love.
Take my feet and let them be
swift and beautiful for thee,
swift and beautiful for thee.

3 Take my voice and let me sing
always, only, for my King.
Take my lips and let them be
filled with messages from thee,
filled with messages from thee.

4 Take my silver and my gold;
not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect and use
every power as thou shalt choose,
every power as thou shalt choose.

5 Take my will and make it thine;
it shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart it is thine own;
it shall be thy royal throne,
it shall be thy royal throne.

6 Take my love; my Lord, I pour
at thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself, and I will be
ever, only, all for thee,
ever, only, all for thee.

Daily Devotions for Difficult Days [148] Don't mess with Sin

 

  Today's devotional is written by Pastor Roy Summers

A Sad Memory

Many years ago I went to visit a single young Christian man in my church. I was not planning to visit him that day, but prompted by the Spirit of God, I stopped by on my way to somewhere else.

In his flat I found the wife of another member of the congregation with her little child. When I questioned the rightness of being alone in the same house as a man she was not married to, she justified her actions! And so did he. They were just talking church stuff......

Warning Verses!

There are a number of serious warning verses in Scripture. And if we are humble we all need to both hear and heed them.

In heaven we will need no warnings! But here below we have an old fallen nature which is bound up with our old dying bodies, and they war against the Spirit in an infernal and perpetual battle.

Here below we have a heart that is "deceitful above all things...." 

Ask anyone who has been on the road for a few decades. Ask them - Is it now easier than it was when you began? They will say No! Some will say the fight gets ever more difficult because the now-ageing flesh lets us down more regularly! 

Our memory verse for today is a warning against sin:

"Your sin will find you out." (Numbers 32:23)

I sadly report that the marriage mentioned above dissolved, because "your sin will find you out."

Besetting Sin

In one way or another, at one time or another, our sin will find us out. Paul says something interesting about this in 1 Timothy 5:24, "The sins of some are obvious, reaching the place of judgment ahead of them; the sins of others trail behind them." Some sins are just so obvious "out there" sorts of sins, that no-one is surprised when judgement catches up. Other sins are far slower to emerge from the shadows. 

But, says our memory  verse, one day all sins will come out, fast sins and slow sins, open sins and secret ones too.

Oh, perhaps we may be able to hide them even the whole of our lives, but they will come out in the world to come, on the day of judgement, for of our God it is said, "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account." (Hebrews 4:13).

Another true story.

An elder in a church displayed a puzzling behaviour. He would be very light on sinful behaviour in the church, always wanting his fellow elders to overlook it. The other elders read this as gracious, though sometimes they were puzzled, because there is a time to act when the glory of God is at stake.

Well one day he himself was caught stealing money from older members! As a financial wizard they would consult him about financial matters and he managed to diddle lots of them out of their cash.

The strange laxity towards other sinful believers was now understandable - he was deflecting attention from his own sin and salving his conscience; and his secret sin was now exposed, for:

  "Your sin will find you out." (Numbers 32:23)

Summing it All Up

Oh pastor, I'm reading this blog over morning coffee and croissants! You've upset me! Not at all - not if you are wise.

When I approach a steep bend in the road, black and white chevrons warn me to slow down. They are not there to hurt me but to help me.

So too all the warnings of Scripture. They are healing words.

Today's words are for some reader who thinks they will get away with it. God says you won't. Repent while you can. Repent today. Repent before...

These words are for anyone thinking about sinning - don't. Your sin will one day find you out.

And these words are for those who have been found out and now need to sincerely repent and return, and the Lord will receive you gladly. Like the prodigal's father he is waiting for his repentant "I am not worthy" son to return!

A SONG FOR THE DAY

Come, thou Fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing thy grace
Streams of mercy, never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it
Mount of thy unchanging love

Here I raise mine Ebenezer
Hither by thy help I'm come
And I hope, by thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home
Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wandering from the fold of God
He, to rescue me from danger
Interposed his precious blood

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be
Let thy goodness, like a fetter
Bind my wandering heart to thee
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it
Prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart, O take and seal it
Seal it for thy courts above

Come, thou Fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing thy grace
Streams of mercy, never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it
Mount of thy unchanging love 

 

John  Wyeth 

You can sing along here.

A PRAYER FOR THE DAY

 Our loving Father in heaven,

We thank you for your Holy Spirit who makes us holy and convicts us of our sin. We confess that our hearts are deceitful and so we pray that you will search us and try us. Expose our sin and give us the grace, wisdom and power to turn away from it.

We pray for brothers and sisters caught up in sin, that they will be convicted of their sin before it finds them out.

We thank you that for all you sincerely repent and turn to you, there is the welcome of the younger son, the embrace of the Father and the feast of the fattened calf.

Teach us the paths of daily holiness and repentance,

In Jesus' name we pray,

Amen

Photo by Michel Paz on Unsplash

Daily Devotions for Difficult Days [147] Only By Grace

The Muddy Victorian Path 

 

Today's Devotional is written by Pastor Roy Summers

 

The story is told of a journeyman who sets out on a moonless night walk to a big city. Muddy ditches formed by horse cart wheels are filled with water, so little by little his clothes become fouled with Victorian grime.

 

But he does not really notice it without moonlight.

 

Ah, but then the light of the big city begins to illuminate his clothes and he realizes, the closer he gets to the city, just how dirty he really is. And the more he sees his dirt the more he tries to rid himself of it, but alas he arrives at the city soiled by the journey of life.

So too, the Christian journey. Before we are converted, we think we are good, we think we are righteous. Then the light of the heavenly city, the illumination of the Holy Spirit makes us realize we are sinners.

And the closer we get to heaven the clearer we see all our sin. And it's not a pretty sight. So the more we try to put to death, by the Spirit, the misdeeds of the flesh. 

But all the way to heaven's pearly gate we will be caked in the grime of sin. In God's eyes made righteous through his Son's perfect life, and by his death forgiven, but still, in practice,  at the very gate of the heavenly city, a sinner saved by grace.

Every believer should enjoy the comfort of our memory verse today:

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no-one can boast." (Ephesians 2:8,9)

Faith vs Works

The instinctive impulse of every fallen human being is "I can get right with God with good works." It's where all religion comes from  - human self-righteousness. We can't accept our inability to get right with God. We can do something to gain God's favour. Count beads, climb a mountain on our knees, pray, go to church, whatever! 

But since the best of our works is as filthy rags in the eyes of God, earning our salvation just can't be done. The only way we can be put right with God is if God does something, and he has! By his wonderful grace he has taken away our sins and clothed us in the righteousness of his Son! These salvation  gifts then provide the motive for living a humble righteous life in the power of God's Spirit: but we will never become more than a pale shadow of what we should be and what we will be in the world to come.

Purely by faith

The point Paul wants to make so forcefully in this verse is that the gift of God's grace comes to us by faith, by merely believing. So much is salvation a gift, he says, that even the faith with which we first believe is itself a gift!

Salvation is a gift.

The faith by which we take hold of that salvation is also a gift!

So we contribute zero to our salvation.

So we cannot boast in our glorious and full salvation, because we have contributed nothing to it, not even believing in it!

 

And so we do not need to fret about the security of our salvation when we let the Lord down, for our works, past, present and future contribute nothing to our salvation! 

Summing it all Up

Once we know that salvation is all of God, it frees us from the fallen religious impulse to perform. We want to live godly lives because of the grace of God, but we know that at the end of the day, nothing we have done contributes to salvation - that, Jesus has paid, in full.

Like the Victorian traveller of old, the longer we travel on this road, the more we will see our sin. We might even think we are becoming worse sinners as the days go by! We aren't, but it might seem that way; it's just that the light of the city, the knowledge of God's holiness is illuminating new and untouched sinful areas of our lives, which God in his mercy did not illuminate the day we first believed.

Let us daily rejoice in the pure gift of salvation! And respond to the unmerited gift of God by living a holy life pleasing to God.

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no-one can boast." (Ephesians 2:8,9)

A SONG FOR THE DAY
Our song for the day rejoices in this wonderful truth.

Only By Grace Can We Enter
Only By Grace Can We Stand
Not By Our Human Endeavor
But By The Blood Of The Lamb
Into Your Presence You Call Us
You Call Us To Come
Into Your Presence You Draw Us
And Now By Your Grace We Come
Now By Your Grace We Come

Lord If You Mark Our Transgressions
Who Will Stand
Thanks To Your Grace
We Are Cleansed By The Blood Of The Lamb, Precious Lamb
Lord If You Mark Our Transgressions
Who Will Stand
Father Thanks To Your Grace
We Are Cleansed By The Blood Of The Lamb

Only By Grace Can We Enter
Only By Grace Can We Stand
Not By Our Human Endeavor
But By The Blood Of The Lamb
Into Your Presence You Call Us
You Call Us To Come
Into Your Presence You Draw Us
And Now By Your Grace We Come
Now By Your Grace We Come

Gerrit Gustafson

You can rejoice HERE. 

A PRAYER FOR THE DAY

Our gracious Father,

We acknowledge our sin to you and freely confess our iniquities. We realize, the closer we reach the gates of heaven how sinful we are in thought, speech and actions.

We thank you that salvation comes to us as a free gift of your grace. We thank you that we do not need to do any religious works to be accepted but merely need to believe in the name of Jesus.

Keep us from spiritual pride and help us to walk humbly with our God, all the days of our lives.

We ask this in Jesus' Name,

Amen 

 

Daily Devotions for Difficult Days [146] Exalted Nations

                            

 Today's Devotional is written by Pastor Roy Summers

The Litmus Test of any People

In the eyes of God, the test of any individual or group of people or nation is their righteous behaviour. And in Scripture, that includes the heart. Indeed Scriptural righteousness abides in the heart and then makes its way out to life. So we are encouraged to guard our hearts for they are the wellspring of life (Proverbs 4:23).

Nations and peoples judge themselves very differently. They judge themselves by how "woke" they are, by how wealthy they are and by how educated they are, and how well they (think) they are governed. But God says, in our memory verse for the day:

"Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people." (Proverbs 14:34)

Our Western Nations

Western nations, who have been so deeply privileged by Gospel influence in past centuries often think of themselves better than their non-western counterparts, and even go to war to help "sort out" those poor uncivilised folk; if need be, by removing their "wicked" leaders.

But are western nations, in the eyes of the Lord, any better than their non-western counterparts? Most probably not. 

Western nations tolerate the killing of millions of unborn human beings each year - in the name of all things, human rights. In western nations as many idols are worshipped as you will find in any Hindu temple. Idols of pleasure, idols of money, idols of fame, sport....  Western nations have been at the forefront of advocating immorality of all kinds including homosexual sin; we are guilty of confusing the world over something as simple and straightforward as male and female. We have arrogantly imagined that only one form of government is the way to rule a nation, and in our arrogance judged nations who do not run by democracy. 

And our guilt is compounded because we have turned our back on the truth. It is one thing to be an ignorant Sodom and Gomorrah, it is another thing to know that sin is wrong and yet boast about it and spread it by propaganda.

By the standards of God, we are a disgrace.

The Gospel Alone

There is no human solution to the problem of sin. Our memory verse just presents the stark diagnosis. The only way a nation can be changed is by preaching the Gospel and making disciples of all nations. This is how the Gospel changed the Roman empire and how it has changed individuals and then nations since.

So our response to the terrible verdict of God, that we live in a disgraceful nation, is to preach the Gospel. It sounds simple, but the true Gospel will always raises stiff opposition because it addresses unrighteousness with the demand to repent. From the very first sermon ever preached "repent and believe" to every revival sermon since, "change the way you live" has been the core demand of all Gospel preaching. So though it is God's answer to godless nations, the Gospel requires courage to preach it.

Summing it all Up

This may seem to be a strange devotional for difficult days, but having this memory verse in our minds will keep us from imagining - especially we in the west - that we live in upright nations. It will keep us from arrogance and teach us to pray for revival.

But it will also remind us of our need to repent of our own sins, for what is true of nations is true of every individual within that nation. The Lord wants his people to live upright holy lives, by the power of his Spirit, in fellowship with their brothers and sisters, by the grace of his Word. To live in unrepentant sin is a disgrace; to live an upright life, by the Spirit's power alone is life and peace.

A SONG FOR THE DAY

Let's make this personal and ask the Lord to make us holy. 

Take time to be holy, speak oft with thy Lord;
Abide in Him always, and feed on His Word.
Make friends of God’s children, help those who are weak,
Forgetting in nothing His blessing to seek.

Take time to be holy, the world rushes on;
Spend much time in secret, with Jesus alone.
By looking to Jesus, like Him thou shalt be;
Thy friends in thy conduct His likeness shall see.

Take time to be holy, let Him be thy Guide;
And run not before Him, whatever betide.
In joy or in sorrow, still follow the Lord,
And, looking to Jesus, still trust in His Word.

Take time to be holy, be calm in thy soul,
Each thought and each motive beneath His control.
Thus led by His Spirit to fountains of love,
Thou soon shalt be fitted for service above.

William Longstaff

You can sing it HERE.

A PRAYER FOR THE DAY

Our merciful Father in heaven,

We pray for the nation we live in. You have reminded us of the way you judge nations, and how different from the way they judge themselves! Help us to see with your eyes the wickedness of our nation and the disgrace we are in your eyes. 

Then teach us to pray for the Gospel to flourish. We pray for evangelists and pastors and churches as they share the Gospel with the lost. Help us to play our part in giving our money to share this news and letting our own light shine in this dark world.

And help us to live upright and godly lives.

We ask this in Jesus' Name,

Amen

                                  Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Daily Devotions for Difficult Days [145] Our One Hope

Reading the Old Testament through New Testament Eyes

Our short memory verse for today is this:

"O Israel, put your hope in the Lord, both now and forevermore."  (Psalm 131:3)

What shall a New Testament believer do with that word "Israel?" How can we apply this verse to ourselves? And should we?

Well, one key to applying so much of the Old Testament to ourselves is to understand that while the covenant God made with Israel was different from the new covenant God has made with people from all nations through his Son, the God of Israel is our God too. He has not changed. 

Another key when we come to words like "Israel," "Jerusalem" and "Zion" is to realise that they stand for "the people of God." 

Just as there were twelve tribes of Israel, so Jesus chose twelve disicples to figuratively begin the new Israel, the new covenant people of God, the church.

So on many occasions we can take words addressed to Israel in the Old Testament and apply them directly to ourselves. The same God of the nation of Israel is the God of the Church and he has not changed. Our verse for the day is one of those instances.

So "O Israel, put your hope in the Lord, both now and forevermore."  (Psalm 131:3)

reads for us: "O Church, put your hope in the Lord, both now and forevermore."  (Psalm 131:3)

Other Hopes

Churches and Christians can put their hope in many things. Churches can hope in their buldings, their wise leadership teams, their spiritual gifts, their size, their finances, their doctrine, their understanding of truth, and on it goes.

Old Testament Israel also found things to trust in. Sometimes they trusted in horses and chariots. Sometimes they trusted in alliances they made with neighbouring nations. 

What do we trust in? Secretly? Our family? Our jobs? Our wealth? Our health?

One way to know if we are trusting in something is to ask what happens when it lets us down. Whenever an idol or a hope lets us down we are crestfallen, distressed and upset. It's a sign.

The Psalmist is encouraging us, indeed urging us, to put our hope in the Lord. Which means renouncing all other hopes and idols. That doesn't mean leaving our families or careers, but it does mean that we no longer put our ultimate trust in them and we are not surprised at all when they let us down.

Both now and for evermore

The Lord will never let us down, but all earthly hopes will. One day, sooner or later, all idols fail, all earthly hopes give way. You may not have experienced that yet, so you may still be clinging to an idol. But one day that idol will let you down, so don't trust it.

The psalmist, able to predict that day of hope-failure urges us to hope in the Lord not only today, but always.

A SONG FOR THE DAY

Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord
We will wait upon the Lord, we will wait upon the Lord
Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord
We will wait upon the Lord, we will wait upon the Lord

Our God, You reign forever
Our hope, our Strong Deliverer

You are the everlasting God
The everlasting God
You do not faint
You won't grow weary

Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord
We will wait upon the Lord, we will wait upon the Lord
Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord
We will wait upon the Lord, we will wait upon the Lord

Our God, You reign forever
Our hope, our Strong Deliverer

You are the everlasting God
The everlasting God
You do not faint
You won't grow weary

You're the defender of the weak
You comfort those in need
You lift us up on the wings
Like eagles

Our God, You reign forever
Our hope, our Strong Deliverer

'Cause You are, You are the everlasting God
The everlasting God
You do not faint
You won't grow weary

You're the defender of the weak
You comfort those in need
You lift us up on the wings
Like eagles

From everlasting to everlasting
God, You are everlasting

Brenton Brown  & Ken Riley

You sing along HERE.

A PRAYER FOR THE DAY

Our trustworthy Father in heaven,

We confess our sinful tendency to turn to earthly hopes and idols. Our hearts so easily wander. Forgive us we ask. Help us to put our hope in you both now and forevermore, for you alone can save us, and you alone can help us.

Help us for our good and your great glory,

For we ask these things in Jesus' Name,

Amen

Photo by Nareeta Martin on Unsplash

Daily Devotions for Difficult Days [144] The Holy Kiss

 

                                      

 Today's Devotional is written by Pastor Roy Summers

Oxytocin tells a Story

Eva Hemsley! What a Yorkshire Saint! Eva was a larger than life tell-it-like-it-is Yorkshire believer. She had lost her husband and then she lost her own life to cancer. Yvonne and I knew her between those deaths.

But what I remember most of all about Eva was this: whenever she came into a room full of Christians, she went round, one by one, and gave them all a holy kiss. If she was late, this caused quite a stir!

Those kisses did much good because  a wonderful molecule courses through our bodies called oxytocin. This little molecule, a hormone, makes us happy and well. It helps to suppress other hormones which might make us feel anxious and angry. It even helps to protect the body from disease.

But how does this little molecule get made? What triggers its manufacture?

When people shake hands or touch one another in friendship or even spend time in each other's presence this molecule gets made.

(This molecule helps baby and mother form a close bond with one another.)

 The command to Love

Our short memory verse today reads:

"A new commadnment I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." (John 13:34)

This is a very wide commandment, but I want to focus on one aspect of what it means to love someone, one we are learning in our lockdown era.

We love people by seeing them face to face and by some form of affection. It is not by accident that five times in the New Testament we are commanded to "greet one another with a holy kiss." (Romans 16:16, 1 Cor 16:20, 2 Cor 13:12, 1 Thess 5:26, 1 Peter 5:14).

The command to Kiss

In all the references except the last it is called a holy kiss. In other words, there are to be no sexual overtones, the kiss is to be merely a sign of affection. In the last reference, 1 Peter 5:14, it is called the kiss of love.

We are commanded to express our love for one another in a physical way, which means we must be in the same room with them.

Whether a kiss or a handshake, or a pat on the back may be immaterial, what is important is the touch, the affection.

A mental health spike

It is my guess that the attention given by governments to death figures is greatly skewing the policies they are making. Everything is bent towards preventing deaths. But the cost of doing this, the social distancing, the wearing of masks, is developing in our population all kinds of mental problems. We are inadvertently storing up for ourselves enormous social problems for tomorrow. And since mental and physical health go together, we are also potentially storing up for ourselves health problems too.

Why we need sight and touch

Away from politics and back to church life! We need to see one another and we need to be affectionate to one another. When we see each other little misunderstandings go away. When we touch one another little bonds are formed. It's the God way, the oxytocin way.

At what point then, does the church say to the state, "It's time to relax social distancing, it's time to allow us to meet up and obey the law of Christ?"

In the meantime, Christians need to take up every opportunity to see one another, to invite one another into homes and gardens, to meet up for coffee, and to fulfill the new commandment to love one another.

A SONG FOR THE DAY

Our song for the day is based on our memory verse.

A new commandment I give unto you,
that you love one another as I have loved you,
that you love one another as I have loved you.
By this shall all know that you are my disciples,
if you have love one for another;
by this shall all know that you are my disciples:
if you have love one for another.

Roy Crabtree

You can listen in HERE.

A PRAYER FOR THE DAY

Our ever-loving Father in heaven,

We marvel at how fearfully and wonderfully we are made! In these strange days, help us to find and to create every opportunity to meet up with our brothers and sisters, to express our love, which can never be properly expressed at a distance.

We pray especially for brothers and sisters who are on their own, not only that you would keep them, but that you would help us to love them by meeting with them, as and when we can.

We thank you that the love of God led the Son of God to come down and dwell with us, setting us the example of nearness.

We worship you, in Jesus Name,

Amen

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash