The Righteous Remnant (not as catchy as other titles but bare with), Zephaniah 3:17.

Zephaniah 3:17 “The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.”

The prophet Zephaniah lived in the decades just before the Babylonians captured Jerusalem. Chronologically the Israelites were taking the mickey, Zephaniah is the thirty sixth book of the Bible (dated to the seventh century bc). You’d think by now they’d know the repercussions of worshipping other idols and living outside of God’s love. But yet another prophet comes with harsh words for the disobedient Jews (zeph 1:1-3:8). This morning I come with the wholly positive message that if in your heart you have repented and turned to God, accepting His Son Jesus Christ as your Saviour, you’re saved from the final judgement just as the righteous few were saved in the days of destruction that fell upon the Jews.

Zephaniah 3:9-20 is both comforting to the “lowly and humble” (3:12) who would have lived in those days but also to us: “On that day I will purify the lips of all people, so that everyone will be able to worship the Lord together…And then you will no longer need to be ashamed of yourselves…And The Lord himself, the King of Israel, will live among you!” (Zeph 3:9,11,15).

In the times of Zephaniah people felt that because they were materially prosperous worshipping others couldn’t be that bad and God would just turn a blind eye. Unlike people we may know today who aren’t Christians, the Jews knew better and were repeatedly told to fix up and possibly bring about God’s mercy in time to stop their approaching destruction and yet they STILL disobeyed!

But the reason I wrote on this this morning is because God loves us. Look how many opportunities He gave the Jews to right their wrongs. And even in the face of rightfully punishing the Jews God never forgets those trying to do right by Him, flaws remaining for He never expects perfection from us. Instead He delivers us from hard times on earth and then when He welcomes us into eternity – we’ll never face them again. Our Lord the deliverer is “a mighty one who will save”, He “rejoices” over us, He calms us, fills our very being, our every cell, our every thought, our every move with peace! We exult in Him and He “will exult over you”!!! (3:17)

When I asked God to soften my heart He definitely made me quite soppy but this verse makes my heart feel like it’s going to burst. Listen to what Zephaniah is saying, inspired by God. After sin…can we just take the time to imagine a time WITHOUT sin, no matter how righteous we try to be the flesh is weak, we only know life with sin down to our physical body…and yet God says after those days of judgement, when the world as we know it is changed following those days of judgement, He will rejoice in us! Our creator, our very reason for being is the greatest superlative of a proud parent. Think of a time where your parent just beamed at you and then put God in their place. God wants to rejoice in YOU. His very nature, for He IS love (we only know how to love because of Him), will quiet us as we stand in wonder and peace in the presence of what must be the most overwhelming love we could ever receive. And then when you couldn’t get anymore overwhelmed He’ll sing in praise. Pick any psalm that David Solomon, or Asaph (yeah he was an actual person) dedicated to God and imagine Him redirecting that same passion to YOU! This is the God we serve.

We’re always told that God loves us, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Giving your Son’s life in sacrifice to your brattish, disobedient creation is quite a significant way of demonstrating your love. Yet somehow we often let God’s love for us go straight over our heads. God LOVES us. He loves us and He rejoices in us and we make HIS heart want to burst. Is that not amazing?

“God’s unfailing love for us is an objective fact affirmed over and over in the Scriptures. It is true whether we believe it or not. Our doubts do not destroy God’s love, nor does our faith create it. It originates in the very nature of God, who is love, and it flows to us through our union with His beloved Son.” ~ Jerry Bridges

God bless and keep you always x

Unfair, Habakkuk 1:2-4

“How long, O LORD, must I call for help? But you do not listen! “Violence!” I cry, but you do not come to save. Must I forever see this sin and misery all around me? Wherever I look, I see destruction and violence. I am surrounded by people who love to argue and fight. The law has become paralysed and useless, and there is no justice given in the courts. The wicked far outnumber the righteous, and justice is perverted with bribes and trickery.”
(Habakkuk 1:2-4)

Sometimes we can pray for particular things and not see those change in the way that we expect or in the timeframe we want to see them. “You do not come to save”, “You do not listen”. Habakkuk wasn’t frustrated because he’d prayed about getting a new job or working on a friendship, His people were struggling and their future looked pretty bleak. He was praying for His nation in the face of looming disaster and he wanted an explanation.

Habakkuk is one of the twelve minor prophets of the Old Testament. He saw that his people were far away from God and going to fall to the Babylonians. So he went to God….and He complained.

He knew that the punishment of the Jews was righteous for many had turned from God after numerous chances. That is pretty much the Old Testament after all: God creates man, God gives them bountiful gifts, they throw it back in His face, they realise life without Him is not that great and go back to Him, He is merciful, they throw it back in his face again and through wise men and prophets He reveals the gift of the Messiah because they keep messing up. So Habakkuk saw that God was “perfectly just” (1:13) in punishing and correcting the Jews for their sin, but the Babylonians were a “cruel”and “violent” nation, “notorious for their cruelty” (1:6,7). He felt it unfair that the “wicked [should] destroy people who are more righteous than they” (1:13).

Whilst it’s unlikely you’ve echoed this point in the same language, you’ve probably said something similar. “That person’s so lovely, it isn’t fair that they are suffering like this”, or “How can HE be doing better than SHE is, he’s a horrible person?” We recognise injustice in the everyday, the woman who gives everything she can to others but barely has for herself. And then we see their foil, the consultant whose bonus could secure ownership of her home or help support a GOSHCC initiative but instead splashes it on drinks, greed and hedonism.

Your prayers don’t have to sound pretty or be worded perfectly, Habakkuk implored of God to reveal to Him HOW such injustice could go on? And God responded. Twice.

God doesn’t work on our time scale. Why would He? If you could choose between seeing things one step at a time or the past, present and future simultaneously, which would you choose? God encourages Habakkuk to wait on Him, to trust in Him because a change gon’ come (sorry).

“Then the Lord said to me, “Write my answer plainly on tablets, so that a runner can carry the correct message to others. This vision is for a future time. It describes the end, and it will be fulfilled. If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed. “Look at the proud! They trust in themselves, and their lives are crooked. but the righteous will live by their faithfulness to God. Wealth is treacherous, and the arrogant are never at rest. They open their mouths as wide as the grave, and like death, they are never satisfied. In their greed they have gathered up many nations and swallowed many peoples. “But soon their captives will taunt them. They will mock them, saying, ‘What sorrow awaits you thieves! Now you will get what you deserve!”

The greedy oppressors will secure their death through the very same actions that made you aware of the seeming injustice in the world. Remember that your God is just.

Living by faith, is living in confidence that your God is always in control, that you will never be helpless because He orchestrates everything, and always for the good of His children. In trusting God, a person can look beyond the unpleasant exterior of things into God’s deeper purpose and find the strength to live no matter what they may see or experience. We don’t know the future but we belong to a God who exists outside of space and time, who sees all tenses as they occur, in Him we can trust fully.

A few months ago a friend told me to write down something to the tone of “by the grace of God I am happy, filled with the joy of the Lord” and wait on Him and see it come to fruition. You know how that went 😎. Wait patiently on the God who delivers His children, who sacrificed His only son to account for all of the wrongdoing which was leading us straight to death. We don’t know and understand everything but the Omniscient One does.

God bless and keep you always x

Repentance, Restoration and Purpose, Jeremiah 1:1-19

(Jeremiah 1:1-19)

If you were somehow unaware of my attachment to the Book of Jeremiah, by the end of this you ought not be. Seeing as I harp on about it, I thought I ought to minister through it today. Jeremiah had a harsh time, he had God-given messages that the Israelites were not going to be happy about (invasion, destruction and captivity are quite hard to dress up by any standard) and a God who threatened him to not be afraid of them “or I will make you look foolish in front of them” (1:17). Peak.

But through Jeremiah we can learn the importance of three key things to the Christian: repentance, restoration and purpose. The book of Jeremiah details the prophet’s attempts to forewarn the idolatrous Israelites before God would have to bring in the big guns. They didn’t listen. Instead they treated him with disdain and persecuted him. Through the book we see the importance of repenting and turning to God, we can seize this gift at any time, no matter how often we mess up; it isn’t something to be sneered at but seized immediately !

Even in the face of destruction and exile God is still preparing to restore the Israelites. He will never abandon His people. His anger is righteous and always out of love and reformation rather than sadism, after all He intended you, you’re here for a reason, and He wants you to respond to His love with the same love He has for you.

In the first chapter of Jeremiah, God tells him “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my spokesman to the world” (1:4-5). This amazing facet applies to all of us! Even before we were conceived God knew us, He planned us, formed us right down to our specific characters and genetics so that we may live out the purpose He has in mind for us. We aren’t reliant on prophets anymore, God communicates through all of us. As Christians our verbal and non verbal actions are being assessed by the rest of the world, whether you’re comfy with it or not you are a spokesperson of the Holy Spirit who lives in you (swag).

Like many of us when placed in positions of responsibility, we second guess ourself. God told Jeremiah he was to be His “spokesman to the world”, that’s a lot of pressure! Jeremiah stressed his age and inexperience but God told him to be unafraid “for I will be with you and take care of you” (1:8). Sometimes it can feel like God is asking us to take a risk. Maybe just bringing up your faith amongst friends or asking a friend to evaluate how Christ-like their behaviour is, feels like something that could be tense and awkward, or like you’d be out of your depth. But God says “nope. I’m right here, I’ll hold your hand whilst you demonstrate the strength and courage I’ve given you and see the fruits of your act”.

God didn’t stop there, He touched Jeremiah’s mouth “and said, “See, I have put my words in your mouth !” (1:10). God didn’t just stand there willing Jeremiah on nor did He simply prepare Jeremiah and go off for a cuppa and a magazine; He gave Jeremiah the very words he was to speak. Sometimes you’ll be tired or worried in a situation that asks for more from you, lean on Him, pray for His Holy Spirit to be displayed through you and it does not matter how knackered or shy you are the recipient of that talk will note that they experienced more than just someone talking at them. Believe me.

Don’t be scared to put yourself out there, to take risks for and in the name of God the Father. He’ll be with you every step of the way. We belong to the living God, He hears our cries and worries and He replies ! Thanks be to the God of Jeremiah, the God who knew us before we were born, intended us even when our parents may not have and is going to use us to make a serious impact in this world.

God bless and keep you always x