Day 100
Deuteronomy 13:1-14:29, Luke 13:1-30, Proverbs 9:1-12
The Soul Survivor blog makes a wonderful point today about how Israel stands out like a beacon among the other nations, with its practices of holiness and its giving and help of the poor. It is a model that we could do well to follow.
We might think that the food practices are somewhat odd, and we are right to think that through Jesus all things are clean, but we can easily see the challenges for today. There are many books, films, websites, programmes, magazines ... that could quite easily be labelled as unclean. The people of Israel marked themselves out, people saw the things that they did to lessen the gap between themselves and God. Idol worship was rife, other God's were ten a penny, not that many people actually worshipped the Lord. So, for a whole nation to ditch the lot, to focus their worship in one direction, was noticed, it stood out like a sore thumb.
There are times when we dismiss the Old Testament and fail to see the depth of the message that is there. We fail to see the call to charity, to showing the love of God to people who need it in their darkest moments. Sat within a portion on tithes, we see the giving to the fatherless, the widows and the aliens. Giving to others is part of our giving to God, what we do for others is part of what we do for God.
In the Gospel, Jesus is calling people to live a life worthy of following him, and more importantly, worthy of the coming kingdom. The theme is the same, live a life that people will observe. God calls Israel to live in this way in the hope that they would be the yeast that worked through the nations around it. Just like the mustard seed, one small nation could change something much bigger.
As we await the coming kingdom, the race continues and the baton has be passed to us. We might be able to eat pork, but are we willing to change the things that aren't clean and do the things that are? Are we ready to be the yeast that will change the whole dough?
The Soul Survivor blog makes a wonderful point today about how Israel stands out like a beacon among the other nations, with its practices of holiness and its giving and help of the poor. It is a model that we could do well to follow.
We might think that the food practices are somewhat odd, and we are right to think that through Jesus all things are clean, but we can easily see the challenges for today. There are many books, films, websites, programmes, magazines ... that could quite easily be labelled as unclean. The people of Israel marked themselves out, people saw the things that they did to lessen the gap between themselves and God. Idol worship was rife, other God's were ten a penny, not that many people actually worshipped the Lord. So, for a whole nation to ditch the lot, to focus their worship in one direction, was noticed, it stood out like a sore thumb.
There are times when we dismiss the Old Testament and fail to see the depth of the message that is there. We fail to see the call to charity, to showing the love of God to people who need it in their darkest moments. Sat within a portion on tithes, we see the giving to the fatherless, the widows and the aliens. Giving to others is part of our giving to God, what we do for others is part of what we do for God.
In the Gospel, Jesus is calling people to live a life worthy of following him, and more importantly, worthy of the coming kingdom. The theme is the same, live a life that people will observe. God calls Israel to live in this way in the hope that they would be the yeast that worked through the nations around it. Just like the mustard seed, one small nation could change something much bigger.
As we await the coming kingdom, the race continues and the baton has be passed to us. We might be able to eat pork, but are we willing to change the things that aren't clean and do the things that are? Are we ready to be the yeast that will change the whole dough?
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