Issue 174
Look around you – there are people everywhere: colleagues, competitors, secretaries, bosses, support staff and senior, middle, or junior managers. There are cleaners, suppliers, and auditors. You may, if you work from home, find yourself considering clients or neighbours that you can’t see at the moment but with whom you interact.
Some of the people with whom you work you may class as friends. You like them andget on with them; they are kind, helpful, and a pleasure to be with. However you view them, it is important to ask a question about people on a regular basis: is this person acting, working, and living as a friend or enemy of God? It’s a very hard question because it is not wholly related to whether you like them, get on with them, or work well with them. It is not about whether they are nice or awkward, but it has to do with a deeper reality. To be an enemy of God is to reject his love. It is to deny his existence and refuse to believe in the work that he has done to rescue us from ourselves and our behaviour. It is to attempt to live a life and build a career without reference to him and function as if one is king in one’s own kingdom or boss in one’s own business. It is to avoid the invitations of Jesus of Nazareth to drink, to rest, to eat, to walk with him in exquisite pleasure and profound wisdom. It is to run one’s affairs according to another paradigm where the Lord is not Lord of anything. It is to ignore the opportunity to enter into an intimate, dynamic, life-changing relationship with the living Creator of all that there is.
David describes this behaviour or lifestyle as wicked. He argues that the wicked will perish. This is very hard to take as you look around. It smacks of religious fundamentalism and narrow-minded vindictiveness. It leaves a bad taste in the mouth. How can such nice people be called wicked and destined to perish? David describes them as enemies of God, stating that like the beauty of the fields or smoke they will simply vanish.
It hurts to think about it. It goes against the grain. It makes you want to say “no”, but think about it for a minute – what other result can there be? If you reject the love, kindness, intimacy and presence of God how can you continue to exist? If you reject life how can you live? If you refuse support how can you stand? If you live in conflict with the power of God how can you win?
As you look around you, remember that David describes the wicked as like the beauty of the fields: it looks fine, but will go. Remember too that David’s son invited us to look around us. He also pointed to the fields – ready for harvest. He called for workers to go into the fields – he wanted the wicked to live and enemies to become friends, so he calls you to work to such ends. Hard though it is to see people as wicked enemies of the Lord the vision he wants us to implement involves a gracious, firm invitation to live not die and to remain and not vanish. It’s time to stand up for the good news, Christmas is coming.
Please note the next 4 wake-up calls will be about Christmas and written so that you can share them with those who may have no faith at the moment.
Psalm 37
1 Do not fret because of those who are evil
or be envious of those who do wrong;
2 for like the grass they will soon wither,
like green plants they will soon die away.
3 Trust in the LORD and do good;
dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
4 Take delight in the LORD,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
5 Commit your way to the LORD;
trust in him and he will do this:
6 He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn,
your vindication like the noonday sun.
7 Be still before the LORD
and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when people succeed in their ways,
when they carry out their wicked schemes.
8 Refrain from anger and turn from wrath;
do not fret—it leads only to evil.
9 For those who are evil will be destroyed,
but those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land.
10 A little while, and the wicked will be no more;
though you look for them, they will not be found.
11 But the meek will inherit the land
and enjoy peace and prosperity.
12 The wicked plot against the righteous
and gnash their teeth at them;
13 but the Lord laughs at the wicked,
for he knows their day is coming.
14 The wicked draw the sword
and bend the bow
to bring down the poor and needy,
to slay those whose ways are upright.
15 But their swords will pierce their own hearts,
and their bows will be broken.
16 Better the little that the righteous have
than the wealth of many wicked;
17 for the power of the wicked will be broken,
but the LORD upholds the righteous.
18 The blameless spend their days under the LORD’s care,
and their inheritance will endure forever.
19 In times of disaster they will not wither;
in days of famine they will enjoy plenty.
20 But the wicked will perish:
Though the LORD’s enemies are like the flowers of the field,
they will be consumed, they will go up in smoke.
21 The wicked borrow and do not repay,
but the righteous give generously;
22 those the LORD blesses will inherit the land,
but those he curses will be destroyed.
23 The LORD makes firm the steps
of the one who delights in him;
24 though he may stumble, he will not fall,
for the LORD upholds him with his hand.
25 I was young and now I am old,
yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken
or their children begging bread.
26 They are always generous and lend freely;
their children will be a blessing.
27 Turn from evil and do good;
then you will dwell in the land forever.
28 For the LORD loves the just
and will not forsake his faithful ones.
Wrongdoers will be completely destroyed;
the offspring of the wicked will perish.
29 The righteous will inherit the land
and dwell in it forever.
30 The mouths of the righteous utter wisdom,
and their tongues speak what is just.
31 The law of their God is in their hearts;
their feet do not slip.
32 The wicked lie in wait for the righteous,
intent on putting them to death;
33 but the LORD will not leave them in the power of the wicked
or let them be condemned when brought to trial.
34 Hope in the LORD
and keep his way.
He will exalt you to inherit the land;
when the wicked are destroyed, you will see it.
35 I have seen a wicked and ruthless man
flourishing like a luxuriant native tree,
36 but he soon passed away and was no more;
though I looked for him, he could not be found.
37 Consider the blameless, observe the upright;
a future awaits those who seek peace.
38 But all sinners will be destroyed;
there will be no future for the wicked.
39 The salvation of the righteous comes from the LORD;
he is their stronghold in time of trouble.
40 The LORD helps them and delivers them;
he delivers them from the wicked and saves them,
because they take refuge in him.
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Work well
Geoff Shattock
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