Daily Meditations

Hebrews 1:2 Heir of all things Phew! How do we embrace all the truths that are wrapped up in this short verse that extols and expands the roles and the significance of God’s Son? Firstly, He is God’s declaration to the world; every word and every action of Christ Jesus is a word to us from heaven. He is the outspeaking of God which is why John confidently refers to Him as the “the Word.” (John 1:1) He is the fulfilment of the predictions of the prophets, He is the explanation and the extension of everything that had been previously known, Jesus is God speaking to us.  We should never underestimate the power, authority or significance of Christ for this world, indeed the entire universe, was created by Him and for Him, and will, one day, be ruled over by Him. The insignificant rabbi from Nazareth, dismissed and ignored by so many, is actually the ultimate inheritor of our planet and will rule over it in the ages to come. Everything and everyone that God created, is intended for Him....

Hebrews 1:1 God speaks through His Son Remember, this wonderful book of the Bible is written primarily to Jewish believers, men and women steeped in the Scriptures and who have made their faith into a religion that stood head and shoulders above any of the world’s great faiths. Does this mean that Hebrews is not really for us Gentiles? Of course not! What it does is to bring the Jews and the Church seamlessly together and it shows how both have an equal part in the plan of Almighty God.  The Jews are highly privileged; they are God’s earthly people with a heritage that includes a specific land and access to all the revealed words of God up to the coming of Christ. When we read about “the Scriptures” in the New Testament the authors are not talking about the Gospels or Paul’s letter or any book of the Bible between Matthew and Revelation; the Scriptures are the Tanakh or what we call the 39 books of the Old Testament. When Paul wrote  “ All Scripture is God-breathed and is usef...

  After a wonderful pilgrimage through the Psalms of the Bible, it became a dilemma to try to work out where to go next in our musings. I pondered Ephesians, since that is a wonderful, heavenly explanation of who we are and all that the Lord has done for us, it also covers the relationship between Jews and Gentiles and the nature of the spiritual war that we are involved in. However, it is impossible to take a verse from Ephesians and writer a bite-size commentary on what it means! Then it became clear, it has to be Hebrews. No Scriptures are more quoted in the Book of Hebrews than the Psalms, in fact the writer composes much of his letter as a series of arguments from the Psalms showing us how Jesus came to fulfil so much of what is written by the ancient songwriters. The Book of Hebrews was written for Jewish believers in Christ, and it sets out to confirm that He fulfilled the Old Testament Scriptures particularly as High Priest.  The author of Hebrews remains anonymous alt...

Psalm 150:6 Praise the Lord! In terms of our journey through the Psalms, this is a sad moment indeed. The last verse of the last Psalm is before us. It has been such a rich and fulfilling expedition that I am tempted to go back and start all over again! The Lord has led us through green pastures beside still waters, He has also carried us through the valley of the shadow of death and bid us dine with Him at His banqueting table. Personally, I have faced death on three separate occasions whilst being on this journey and yet, here I am, living and breathing and still praising the Lord! It’s time to move to pastures new and I invite you to come with me. However, before we leave, there’s one more anthem to sing, one more special offering to bring before the altar of our God. If we are living, breathing creatures, then we are called to “Praise the Lord.” That is partly what our lungs and our tongues are for, to take deep breaths and then utter exclamations of glory and honour to the incredi...

Psalm 150:3-5 Praise Him! Although it means we end the Psalm rather more abruptly than we hoped, it would be a bit of a task to write daily thoughts about the next 3 verses! They are basically saying one thing, “ Let the whole of the orchestra praise the Lord! ” So, eight instruments are mentioned embracing wind, strings and percussion, and right slap-bang in the middle, is dancing! Praise music across the world has moved on from days of just church organs or pianos, which were mighty instruments of worship indeed. Modern congregations like to hear guitars and drums and keyboards and possibly a wind or brass instrument too! If we do not have the musicians, then we can watch and participate with online celebrations and we thank God for that! The one thing that has changed, that was unthinkable in my youth, is that dancing, movement and banner-waving are all legitimate and acceptable expressions of worship today.  The other point that we should remember, even though we are near the e...

Psalm 150:2 God's acts of power and His surpassing greatness Verse 1 of this Psalm tells us where the Lord our God is to be praised, now we read the reasons why He is to be praised. Two prominent reasons are given; firstly, we must praise Him for His acts of power and secondly, for His surpassing greatness.  God’s acts of power are revealed primarily in creation, for the Word teaches that all of this amazing, glorious universe that He has made came about simply by Him speaking or commanding! There were no intricate factory workshops, God did not need zillions of tons of raw materials to convert, He was not assisted by computer technology or by AI! He just spoke and such is the authority and power in His Being, that all things came about and obeyed His voice. I find this incredibly hard to taken on board, don’t you? If this is a true reflection of who God is, then who or what are we? Nothing by comparison! God’s acts of power are not just confined to creation for He has revealed His...