The Time Draws Near

“Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it; for the time is near.”

~Revelation 1:3 (NRSV)

“From that time Jesus began to proclaim, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near’.”

~Matthew 4:17 (NRSV)

The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ is written down for us in word pictures, the best the Apostle John could describe in the book of Revelation: a New Testament work without compare.

It speaks of a time to come, a time drawing ever nearer, indeed close, today.

Of course, the naysayers are in the majority. It is worthy for us to look at the difficulty of apocalyptic writing through the eyes of William Blake, who said:

“You say that I want somebody to Elucidate my Ideas. But you ought to know that What is Grand is necessarily obscure to Weak men. That which can be made Explicit to the Idiot is not worthy my care. The wisest of the Ancients consider’d what is not too Explicit as the fittest for Instruction, because it rouzes the faculties to act.”

~Letter to Dr. Trusler, 23 August 1799.

Idiosyncratic William Blake may have been God’s perfect selection to elucidate such ideas as the Apocalypse. Such ideas are not availed ‘sensible’ men—from the world’s definition of sense (go right to 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 on God’s wisdom versus humankind’s). The logical thinker will be stumped by the concepts expounded in Revelation.

Confused But Still Open-Minded

The true servant of God, as they read the book of Revelation, the Apocalypse of Jesus Christ, will often be confused by the concepts arranged in horror-movie scale. But, they will also deflect temptation to judge too easily or too quickly.

The Lord’s angel supplied John with the prophecy of the Apocalypse, an eternal event, and even the Apostle struggled to come to terms with how to describe such calamitous splendour.

The book of Revelation was not given for the sense of analysis, or diatribe, but for plain experience regarding the holiness and might and wisdom of God. It is believed by the person not demanding proof of God—the one to walk by faith, not sight.

Such a person, in William Blake’s estimation, will revel in what is “not too explicit”—seeing it as “the fittest for instruction.” Such a person willingly chooses for an open mind in the realm of things which cannot be explained, only believed or experienced.

Time Will Close Soon

What the common person can find laughable—an apocalyptic prophecy for imminence two millennia old—the believing person can see from the aspect of eternity: a concept itself not explainable with ease in human terms.

God is not goaded by the gargantuan corpus of delay; to the Lord there is no delay. The apocalyptic vision has been given and that timeline is now in play.

***

The final things may seem distantly off; but time draws near to a close. The saints and servants of God anticipate keenly for that end to come and for all things to be made right. The kingdom of heaven is near and has been eternally so. Now is the time to make things right and ready; the time is near...

© 2011 S. J. Wickham.

Image: William Blake’s, The Last Judgement.

Made in the Image of God

“Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness’.”

~Genesis 1:26 (NRSV)

“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?”

~1 Corinthians 3:16 (NRSV)

We are to live in the body in fear and trembling—well, if we read 1 Corinthians 3:17 that might be our deduction.

Yet, 1 Corinthians 3:16 is very often misread and taken out of context; the “you” is plural, meaning that Paul is referring not to a Christian’s personal body, but to the church—the body of Christ. This is why it’s said that anyone who destroys God’s temple, God will destroy them.

Those that meddle with the church, or disparage the contemporary temple of God (the church), have God alone to answer to—it’s a sin akin to blasphemy of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 12:31); i.e., it’s unforgivable, if it’s continued and not repented of.

Something that God holds absolutely sacrosanct is the idea of community—even the Godhead three-in-one is not an individual, but a Community of Oneness.

Being made in the image of God, therefore, is to see the body not just singly but, more appropriately, corporately.

A Heightened Level Of Respect

When we think about being made in the image of God, not just singly but corporately also, our interest is esteemed to a higher (and broadened) level of respect. The Lord didn’t simply have our individual persons at heart at creation, but wanted, and desperately so, to imagine everything of humanity like God (not God per se, just like God), remembering that God is three-in-one, just as the church, also, should be a-number-in-one, and therefore a unity.

The trouble is we cut out the communal meaning—being made “according to our likeness”—in our very individualistically-focused world. The ancient Hebrews would never have seen it that way; nor would the First Century church. The image of God was as much community, or unified fellowship, as it was singular.

Here we also see the thinking of God raised several, even infinite, notches above human default thinking.

Seeing The Trinitarian ‘Community’ Of God

If we cannot see the Triune God at work right throughout the Bible we may not be seeing as we would be blessed to see. And some people cannot see it; those who vouch even to be Christians.

People who struggle with the Trinitarian theology of God cannot see the oneness destined for community, for God—Father, Son, Holy Spirit—is perfect community.

The Triune God, in whose image we are made, cannot be divided. Nor should be the church—God’s temple; of which we are part.

Anyone deriding the church, certainly by the Pauline theology of 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, is party to activity set on destroying God’s temple: the church.

As God’s temple is holy, so is the church; a vestibule made in the image of God, epitomising the perfect community within the Godhead. This is why unity within the church, that which is built up and strengthened with sure foundations, is absolutely fundamental to God’s purposes on this earth.

***

Being made in the image of God is just as much about seeing the oneness in community and the community in oneness as it is identifying with God in our single being and by our single creation.

© 2011 S. J. Wickham.

Psalm 56 – Walking In The Light Of Life

“My vows to you I must perform, O God; I will render thank offerings to you. For you have delivered my soul from death, and my feet from falling, so that I may walk before God in the light of life.”

~Psalm 56:12-13 (NRSV)

To understand this 13-verse Psalm we necessarily travel back into the history of the chosen nation, Israel—to a time when David was circumscribed by the Philistines at Gath. Yet, we gain forlornly picturesque glimpses into the emotional state of this man of God simply by reading the Psalm in quiet reflection.

In wavering throughout, splitting praise with complaint, we feel the turmoil of a man struggling to exercise faith in the midst of a despicable enemy.

But, as is the feature of David’s laments, the second half of the Psalm—once the complaints have been spilled—is full of hope-bridled faith in the faithfulness of God to deliver him.

The following features are visible as we read into this text:

The Mercy Of God In Distress

Verses 1-2 detail the complaint at its source; the deep distress in David’s soul is brought about by the experience, metaphorically, of the enemy “trampling” all over him. And though this is a complaint, it is wrought by faith that David knows mercy comes from nowhere but the Lord.

He seeks a double portion of such divine mercy.

Saul was attacking David from the high position of the throne of Israel, yet the Lord would respond from a much higher position still than any mortal might attack from. This is a great encouragement, in David’s words, recognising God’s inimitable gracious mercy: “What can a mere mortal do to me?” (Verse 11b)

Brash Praise – The Feature Of Initial Prayer

As we read verses 3-4 we find something very reminiscent from our own prayer; we most easily present a stoic prayer of confidence in God before the inevitable doubts begin to surface. That is David, here. He knows the words to say and he acts in a way to think better about the problems before him.

But, as we know, such prayers don’t always work so well—the fears swarm and make their way into our consciousness, eventually. Then we’re weakened by the truth.

In this we find a feature of many of the lament Psalms: there is both premature and mature praise; the former occurring early in the psalmist’s lament and the latter occurring by the time God works into the psalmist’s heart—by intimacy of true prayer.

Honest Complaint Precedes True Praise

David’s complaint hasn’t concluded in the first two verses. Perhaps a more honest and more thoughtful mood continues to build within him in verses 5-6, which lead quickly to a consequent pleading in the earnestness of hope.

Our prayers are the same; falsity—the hankering of bravado—is removed the longer we enter into communion with the Lord. Intimacy with God cannot be nurtured by five and ten second prayer; if we really have need we spend the time. Only via time taken to build our felt intimacy with God will we find the conviction of honesty that precedes true praise.

Only when time is taken in our prayer closet will we find the words that allude to the meaning within our hearts and confusion in our minds.

There Is Nothing Like The Felt Intimacy Of The Lord

A wondrous thing occurs for the psalmist, David, in verses 8-11. True familiarity and congruence with the Divine, from the mind to the heart, is felt from within him.

Who, truly, keeps record of our tossing and turning or our tears? Only the Lord does that.

The psalmist feels the care of God in venturing frank utterances of faith, even beyond reason, for fear may continue to swarm. But intimacy with the Lord allays fear.

Finally, The Light Of Life Made Visible

Those in the faith, by their practice of faith, always and ever more a practical thing, do not surrender their faith for fear easily. Though there may be instances of giving up, when anxiety exceeds the personal capacity to bear, an underpinning faith, combining with the carrying hands of God beneath us, sees us through.

The psalmist has vowed to render thank offerings to the Lord; and such behaviour is not simply a distraction from the enemy, but faith in full glow.

The light of life is the walk of faith before our God, perhaps not because of, but in spite of the harshest of conditions. Intimacy with the Lord counters our fear.

© 2011 S. J. Wickham.

The Trinitarian Blessing

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.”

~2 Corinthians 13:13 (NRSV)

“Trinity is the Christian name for God.”

~Karl Barth

There is always far more to the mystery of God, as revealed by the Holy Scriptures, than we can beforehand tell; this is never more known than by a freshened reading of a long-acquainted text, one we thought we knew back to front, yet God thrusts a new idea regarding those very same words to the forefront of our thinking.

Think, for instance, of John 3:16—we’ve all heard that spouted hundreds if not thousands of times. Do we believe God can show us something new in those 27 holy words?

The Word of God operates many levels above our understanding—much like the fact of the salvation our Trinitarian God designed for us in love, gave us in grace, and continues to empower for us with fellowship.

The love of the Father, the grace of Jesus, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit; these three, in divine unity, compel upon us a salvation never fully understood, but all the more ever full in its reality.

Let us break down the beneficence of the Trinitarian blessing:

The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ

What might seem inordinate is the placing of Jesus before the Father, both by the Apostle Paul’s concluding benediction to the Corinthians and by this structure herein.

On the subject of salvation, the central licence of the gospel, the Lord Jesus was seen to cause the effect of something so personally, yet universally, wonderful—a word much understated.

Such knowledge is astounding:

Jesus hung on a shameful cross – for you and me, sinlessness for sin, for all eternity – is perfect, unalterable grace.

This grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, in sum, was the igniter of salvation—an eternal fact, and an event of eternal significance like no other—that vouchsafes our reconciliation into the steadfast love (hesed) of the Father.

The Love of God the Father

In and through the realm of time the Lord God is separated from all supposed deity by the fact of the covenant love (hesed) offered, originally Israel, but now to all humanity.

Not only is this God—Creator of heaven and earth—the consummate living Lord, by a Spirit given, which we shall soon cover, but this God surpasses mere need of doctrine—requiting the way to live life—that other religions major on. This God is love, and turns the entire world by love, and judges it by no other rule but love. When we reject love, we not only reject God, we reject life itself. And there is no sense in that.

This God of ours—the God of all humankind—is set apart by love. The Father Heart of God requires not simply detachment-toward-peace but investment in relationship—with God, others, and finally ourselves. There is neither simpler nor grander means to the meaning of life.

This love of God, in sum, underpins divine motive for salvation, eternally. It has sought to bless us with no better blessing than the matchless gift of fellowship with the Spirit of God.

The Fellowship of the Holy Spirit

What would life be without the Person of the Holy Spirit impelling our lives forward?

We can but wonder, pre-salvation. This fact alone compels acts of evangelism. Life without the fellowship of the Spirit is correspondingly void.

It is truly a wondrous concept that this Presence of God is not just the power for grace, love, and the capacity to live the saved life, but He is everything of God given in full quantity to each saved person. We have fellowship, and one without comparison, with the Spirit of God; an intimacy forever untapped.

In practical terms, and we don’t think this way, or at least I don’t very often, we are wedded more so to God—an eternal fact—than we could ever be wedded to another human being. The oneness in such a betrothal cannot, at a human level, be comprehended; yet we are blessed to simply marvel at it!

This fellowship with the Holy Spirit, in sum, underwrites life in a marriage covenant of salvation that can, now, never be broken.

***

Trinity is the name of our God—Father, Son, Holy Spirit. The Trinitarian blessing is the fullness of knowing all Three-in-One: the grace of the Son; the love of the Father; and the intimate fellowship of the Holy Spirit. By One we are known; by Three we are saved.

© 2011 S. J. Wickham.

General Reference: Gordon D. Fee, Listening to the Spirit in the Text (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2000), pp. 24-32.

Every Temptation, Need to Pray

“Let these words of mine, with which I pleaded before the Lord, be near to the Lord our God day and night, and may he maintain the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel, as each day requires...”

~1 Kings 8:59 (NRSV)

The obedience of faith is augmented never more than by prayer.

As we read Solomon’s caption above—part of a postscript to his prayer of dedication for the opening of the Temple—we can understand the unique desperation within his heart that the Lord’s favour would rest upon the Temple, Israel’s king, and the people; especially in the midst of a sacrosanct life bearing much temptation and danger.

Then we consider our own needs, by knowledge of spiritual trepidation, because we know we are given to spiritual disobedience all too easily, and so quickly we run to our edified understanding—prayer is entirely good for coping with the barb of temptation and the presence of danger.

Prayer Meets The Danger Of Temptation

So many things of life prove to be snares. Life might otherwise prove simple to live, but by the notion of hindsight we know that our pride blinds us and many falls could be prevented by nimble prayerfulness. Yet, we will go our own way.

If we would only pray more we might be protected more. That is the simplest analysis of a key part of the Lord’s Prayer: “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one,” and even Jesus’ instruction to Peter, James, and John at Gethsemane (Matthew 6:13; 26:41). Prayer begets power to obey.

And, of course, the Apostle Paul commends the Corinthians to prayerful obedience because God will not test us beyond our limits (1 Corinthians 10:13).

It can be commonly experienced, via the life of faith—prayer meets danger part way on its destined path toward us. It won’t always prevent such danger, but prayer does bequeath over us the gift of the Lord’s spiritual intercession.

Prayer Bequeaths The Lord’s Spiritual Intercession

In the mode of prayer we elucidate the Spirit of blessing within the Presence of God; that is the nearness of the Lord and we are, therefore, provided the inspiration, courage, and the strategy to obey.

By prayer we ask our God to maintain us and our cause in virtuosity.

And the Almighty, the living God, is not given to rejecting such requests. As the Apostle James put it, and Jesus himself also, the Lord gives good gifts, both generously and ungrudgingly (James 1:5; Matthew 7:11).

Spiritual intercession by prayer, then, plays a massive part in our spiritual fortunes. It enrols the Lord’s spiritual intercession by return; knowing the nature of our prayer is to follow the good path, by the words of our prayer, the act itself, and the will to obey, God will anoint such intent.

***

The simplicity and power of faith resounds never more than by the act of prayer in the midst of temptation and danger. Prayer is a sure way to get through both.

© 2011 S. J. Wickham.

Postscript: this is a partner article to, Prayer In the Moment’s Need.

Being Right Is Not Enough

“Do not give what is holy to dogs; and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them underfoot and turn and maul you.”

~Matthew 7:6 (NRSV)

In a world where everyone seems to have an opinion—one that, by instinct, each thinks is right—there are bound to be many who will be disappointed by the world’s nonchalant reception of such views. This is universal human experience.

The predilection to be the bearer of good news is more a temptation to the Christian than they might ordinarily foresee. When we have the key to the Kingdom at our grasp, and we are taught to evangelise, exhort, encourage and admonish, we more readily extend ‘our wisdom’ to a world that, to our surprise, often makes short shrift of such beneficent offerings.

This proverb that Jesus offers up to the disciples at the Sermon on the Mount is seriously misunderstood. It is no adage for self-righteousness. Connecting this verse with the previous five deploring the judgment of others (Matthew 7:1-5) and the following five regarding the finding of God’s kingdom (Matthew 7:7-11), we might make more sense of its literal meaning, given that Matthew has sought to arrange his account of the gospel this way.

Even the placement of Jesus’ Golden Rule in Matthew 7:12 perhaps has relevance. Reading these mini-sections together provides further topical insight.

The Exercise of Christian Discernment

Discerning God’s will is our chief interest. Many times this is simply following the Word of the Lord, as well as perceiving the flow of the Spirit within the motion of life.

Discerning God’s will is, therefore, the practice of conforming our thoughts, words, and deeds to the notion of godliness.

In the local context of Matthew 7:6, consequently, wisdom is called for in engaging with our world in ways that the world finds of value; that which, also, aligns with the truth. That is a knife-edge opportunity, right there. Such opportunities come around so infrequently we can expect to learn more from our failures than from our successes.

Not many things we will say or do will find warm reception unless we can find a niche within solidly motivated Christian humility—the act of being first by placing ourselves last (Mark 9:35). We might speak up only when such views are genuinely invited.

The Exercise of Christian Humility

Proverbs such as this—one not unlike Proverbs 23:9: “Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, who will only despise the wisdom of your words”—are the sternest and most direct reminders of the need for adroit Christian humility.

Who might we be, always far less than the Saviour, to offer up our pearls for the spiritual indigestion of the proud? Even Jesus’ wisdom was spat out by the self-righteous of his day. This is no doubt a large part of the reason Jesus focused on the poorly; acknowledged sinners—their ears were ripe for the hearing; their eyes able to see truth.

***

Being right is no qualification in itself to foist our opinion over others.

Every good word has its time, its situation, and its audience. Ours is to discern the proper time and opportunity for every thought, word, and deed. That is discerning God’s will; that, too, is where humility is personified.

© 2011 S. J. Wickham.

Psalm 92 – Expression of Thankful Worship

“It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High; to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night.”

~Psalm 92:1-2 (NRSV)

Of all the dark words we relate with in the Bible, those that speak to us and identify with our struggles and local torment, there are just as many, if not more, beautifully thankful passages that read like treacle down the visitor’s throat. Psalm 92 is such a passage—a Psalm of thanksgiving of the individual.

It is a song for the Sabbath day.

Expressing Thanks

With the first four verses, the psalmist rehearses in private what may later be practiced in public, complete with instruments converting such praise for thankfulness into expressions of song.

Their thanks are a gratitude invoked by Divine work that has made for the experience of sincere gladness; for the works of God’s hands have brought joy.

Such times we have all had. As, upon reflection, we have noted the faithfulness of the Lord as those works within life have esteemed themselves for our blessing. Such blessings, no matter how much we reflect on them, never diminish; we never quite get used to the benefit we extract from them.

But, still, we may forget all-too-soon to consider these great gifts from God.

Praising God For The Six Days

As a Sabbath Psalm we can just imagine the psalmist sitting leant by a palm tree, under the cooling breezy shade, lost in reflective musing, for the work of creation—and the outworking of that creative process within his or her personal life; as far as their eyes can see.

What a wonderful image that is!

The Lord created the heavens and earth over six days, and then rested. We, too, were commanded to rest from our work, but that rest is no legalistic one-set-day rest that was originally commanded. No, we are freed to enjoy our creative work out of the process of rest—yes, we rest first and out of that rest we create; for the blessing of God.

Sabbath Reflection – Noting The Process Toward Perfection

Spiritual perfection is both a much-vaunted and a misunderstood concept. What we strive for we shall never attain this side of eternity.

Striving for perfection is more about growth.

In verses 12-15, the psalmist completes the Psalm by suggesting the imagery of that palm tree—together with another image; the mighty cedar of Lebanon—alludes to the spiritual growth of the righteous (though contemporarily we somehow don’t like the word) in the courts of God.

Where we are able to mimic the faithfulness of the Lord in our going out and coming in we stand to produce good fruit via the future works of our God-sponsored hands; we will be evergreen and full of healthy sap, good for loving deeds evoking peace and joy.

***

Sabbath is a time for reflecting over one’s work, and the faithfulness of God toward all ends. It’s a time when we monitor progress and thank God for any growth gained. And by this we worship. And

© 2011 S. J. Wickham.

The First Noel

“When they saw that star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy.”

~Matthew 2:10 (NRSV)

The wonder that is the Christmas story, like any good story, can be taken from any angle and appreciated for the depth of meaning, and the history implicit, in one event—such is the wonder of God’s creation that semantics are rich and mean so much.

We have the shepherds’ story, that of the Magi, and Mary and Joseph, themselves. As would be typical at any birth, there is wonder; how much more so at the birth of the Saviour?

The Enactment of a Long-Awaited Hope

In all our lives the experience of hope for that which has not yet been realised is common—even if that be veneer thin.

The Jews had been waiting 700-odd years since the first prophecy announced the coming of the Messiah. The hope of the Saviour had become rhetoric; many could be forgiven for believing, within their own hearts, that such prophecy was indeed a fairytale.

And if there was a hope, it was after a military ruler; one who, like Moses, would rescue them from the tyranny of a third-class life of deprivation and social nonchalance. That was the reality for the Jews at the time of Jesus’ birth.

The long-awaited hope was realised at the first Noel.

But that long-awaited hope was not what most expected and, indeed, the hope we have experience of today bears infinite significance compared with even the hope resplendent in the crucifixion; for no one present that day would see any hope.

Time, as we understand it, has little to do with the outworking of Divine plan. The full impact of redemptive milestones is not felt immediately as we would see it. We do not see as God sees (Isaiah 55:8-9).

The Worship of Faith / Faith of Worship

The Magi, the shepherds, and indeed Mary and Joseph, all of a sense were present to worship the babe wrapped in bands of cloth.

But who (apart from parents), truly, would worship a baby without the inspiration—the revelation of the Spirit—having already overtaken them?

Yet, they who would worship this baby at the first Noel did so by trusting that voice of the Spirit. They acted in faith upon what they heard, audibly or within their own spirits. The enactment of that faith was worship—to obey the Lord, despite the lack of physical evidence that would cause many others to doubt and debunk any idea to follow.

Such faith and such worship at the first Noel is an example to us, even today, to trust in the hope that has not yet been fulfilled—a Hope that is surely coming.

But, it is also true that we can live the hope of the resurrected life in Jesus in this in-between time. The first Noel initiated that!

© 2011 S. J. Wickham.

The Eternal Word For Life

“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Go to Pharaoh and say to him, “Thus says the Lord: Let my people go, so that they may worship me”’.”

~Exodus 8:1 (NRSV)

Christians commonly look for a good word in due season; it is a prophetic utterance that speaks over their lives for a period, for purpose, to guide them along their way. These ‘words’ are Bible verses or passages, or they may be delivered, specifically, by believers with the prophetic gift.

What is said above, from the ancient book of Exodus, that which is a refrain (verses 4:23; 8:1; 8:20; 9:1; 9:13; 10:3; 10:7), is an Eternal Word. All other seasonal words may simply complement this one underpinning Word.

The Eternal Father will have humanity freed (by living condition) only that they may worship aright. That is the Eternal Word for Life: that, in the Saviour’s name and stead, all believing ones are set free to worship him.

This is a worship of truth in the midst of myriad false worship. And such truth-filled worship may occur in every dimension of life, from chores, to singing, to parenting, and even by sleeping.

Everything done right, or based in truth, is an act of worship, which pleases God.

Worship Is the Purpose of Life

From this—the act of Divine worship—do all other purposes of life report.

Without worship, correct in its objective and alignment, all of life is spent foolishly, wasted for all manner of reason, a mere spinning of the mortal wheels against the immortal flow of God; just like virtue without love is meaningless.

Worship is the one thing we are to carry close to our hearts through the entire journey of life; only this way will we experience freedom.

One Thing to Carry Close to the Heart

It is the base human predilection to search for meaning, and in that obtain a meaningful Word that will direct all of life.

The trouble is, with so much input, and so many stimuli, especially in today’s globalised Internet world, that meaningful Word is crowded out by other noisy words sounding much the same; deceiving us by promises of meaningfulness. Our spiritual focus is, hence, diluted and rendered possibly directionless.

We seek just one Word; then we have ten or fifty or a hundred things to deal with. It’s a satanic spirit we battle with.

Our simple human minds compel us to be judicious and just carry one thing close to the heart—but we get confused, and we keep shifting our bases.

***

One thing we can trust, however, is this one Word that overlays all other words:

“Let my people go, so that they may worship me,” says the LORD.

Working in reverse, granted that we are free to worship, when we do, we are blessed with freedom, more and more. That freedom is due the right of worshipping God in Spirit and in truth (John 4:24), knowing that worshipping in truth will set us free (John 8:32).

Only those who worship aright are free. Even the believer who worships, but incorrectly or inappropriately, or worse in unfocused ways, is still bonded to something. Worship is the critical facet of life—the Eternal Word.

Choose for freedom: worship in the fullness of comparative joy.

© 2011 S. J. Wickham.