“Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest,
So is my beloved among the young men.
In his shade I took great delight and sat down,
And his fruit was sweet to my taste.
⁴ He has brought me to his banquet hall,
And his banner over me is love.
⁵ Refresh me with raisin cakes,
Sustain me with apples,
Because I am lovesick.
⁶ His left hand is under my head,
And his right hand embraces me.”

Song of Songs 2:3-6

One of my favourite people (Andrew Giles) shared about these verses last night in a small cold hall in an obscure town in the middle of Ireland. This morning I am sitting under the apple tree.

God is singing to me a song from Van Morrison: “Have I told you lately that I love you.” As I sit He tells me that I, and others like me who take the time to be with Him, fill His heart with gladness.

I encourage you to sit with Him under the apple tree and don’t strive. He loves you because He loves you.

What is He saying to you?

¹⁴ And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵ so that everyone who believes will have eternal life in Him.

John 3:14-15

⁶ Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. ⁷ So the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the Lord and against you; intercede with the Lord, that He will remove the serpents from us.” And Moses interceded for the people. ⁸ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and put it on a flag pole; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, and looks at it, will live.” ⁹ So Moses made a bronze serpent and put it on the flag pole; and it came about, that if a serpent bit someone, and he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.

Numbers 21:6-9

In the introduction to Episode 7 of Season 1 of The Chosen there is a typically brilliant interpretation of a hypothetical conversation between Moses and Joshua while Moses is hammering out Nehushtan (2 Kings 18:4). Joshua expresses astonishment that Moses is making a pagan symbol and questions whether Moses had really heard God.

This bears some thinking about. It wasn’t that long before that Moses himself had got very enraged at the people of Israel for making another pagan symbol – the Golden Calf (Exodus 32). Now God had told him to make an image of the devil himself (Genesis 3:1) and put it up on a pole. Snake bitten people would then look at this image and be healed!

Jesus made sense of it when He became sin (2 Cor. 5:21) and was put up on the cross. The devil was pinned there too crucified with our Lord, the flesh and the world (Romans 6:6; Galatians 2:20, 6:14; Colossians 2:14-15).

It is no wonder that healing, both spiritual and physical is at the centre of Jesus’ ministry.

The devil’s main poison is to make us think wrongly about God. Look at the love of God expressed through the death of His Son on the cross and have your mind changed about him*. The healing of that poison is only part of the story. Eternal life comes that way also.

*The Greek word μετανοια used in Acts 2:38 and elsewhere is often translated by the word “Repent” which, by misuse, now carries other connotations than the original Greek word held. It is better translated as “change your mind”.

You are the salt of the earth.

Matthew 5:13

⁴ For if God …. did not spare the ancient world, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; ⁶ and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example of what is coming for the ungodly; ⁷ and if He rescued righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the perverted conduct of unscrupulous people ⁸ (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds), ⁹ then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from a trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, ¹⁰ and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt passion, and despise authority.

2 Peter 2:4-10

Recently I was having coffee with a (much) younger colleague at work and he asked me an interesting question: What did I think was likely to happen to the world in the future?

He had in mind, Covid and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Both of those events pose potential existential threats to the human race, one through disease and the other through nuclear Armageddon. At the very least he felt that they, and other things such as climate change, are threatening the way of life he had come to know and enjoy here in the West. There are many more people in the Western world feeling insecure and afraid after the events of the last couple of years than before.

I explained to him, that as a Christian, I could point to some precedents in the Bible but that I didn’t really know how the coming months and years will work out. They could work out in one of several ways: the Western world as we know it might be destroyed or it might not. Or maybe something in between will happen. Or maybe it will continue to prosper as it has for the last few centuries.

The second letter of Peter quoted from above includes the main elements of what Christians call the Day of Judgement: Judgement on the ungodly and salvation of the righteous. As Christians we know that the Day of Judgement is coming on the whole earth, but when? And would that be the same as judgement on the Western world as we know it?

As a precedent for a more local judgement (as opposed to a worldwide judgement like the flood or the coming Day of Judgement) let’s consider the case of Sodom.

Ezekiel had this to say, from God, about why Sodom was destroyed:

Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. ⁵⁰ And they were haughty and committed abomination before Me; therefore I took them away as I saw fit.

Ezek. 16:49-50.

The thing that is striking is God’s description of what was wrong with Sodom. I mean Sodom gave its name to Sodomy so you would have thought that that would have been the most obvious thing to say about Sodom! But God doesn’t do that. Instead He starts with the root of Sodom’s problems.

When it comes to Sodom, it would be hard not to draw parallels with a lot of what is happening in today’s Western society. Here are the main characteristics of Western society that it shares with Sodom:

Pride: The extraordinary achievements of Western society are without parallel. But if you look into why we have achieved so much you will find that nearly all the mainsprings of these achievements have arisen during the Reformation, in 19th century Christian Britain and the 20th and 21st Century Christian US. Individuals read the Scriptures, heard from God and obeyed Him. You can look at any field in which Western society has excelled from physics to medicine, to government and justice, police and emergency services, social welfare and alleviation of poverty and you will see the name (character) of Jesus all over it. The light of the gospel has spread over all the earth and continues to transform the kingdoms of this earth.

But man in his folly thinks he has done it and is better than God. That is pride and it is the root and main reason why destruction could come upon the West. In TED talks and The Economist or any number of other mainstream Western intellectual outlets you can boast about man and his achievements to your heart’s content but, whatever you do, don’t mention Jesus. Keep Him for evangelical church preaching platforms on a Sunday.

Humanists, who give a philosophical basis to man’s extraordinary pride, claim that all the good that we see around us in Western society can be traced back to the Enlightenment period which they claim for their own because of a few things a few French humanists wrote. None of that popular thinking bears serious scrutiny but it is a very convenient lie (along with evolutionary thinking but that is a topic for another blog).

Fulness of Food: This is not a bad thing of course. Except when you don’t give thanks to the One who supplied it to you. Obesity is one of the Western world’s most besetting health issues.

Abundance of idleness: In Western society millions of people are given money for doing nothing. We all complain more than we should. But when you are being given money for doing nothing then somehow the complaining seems even more reprehensible.

Neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy: When you have an abundance then giving is something that should be happening right? The UN set a goal of 0.7% of GDP giving per nation. Only six countries have ever met the target, and the OECD (rich countries) average has never exceeded 0.4%.

And they were haughty and committed abomination before Me: So because of their pride and the other things they became haughty and committed the abominations that some Christians love to focus on. Of course there is a lot of that going on.

So will this generation of Western Society be judged?

Hear me carefully about this: I don’t know. It could be this generation or it might be many generations in the future. The Day of Judgement is coming but I don’t know when. Maybe you do. I have yet to read anyone who can convince me that they know.

Is some kind of lesser judgement coming on the Western world before the Day of Judgement? Again, I don’t know.

One of the reasons I don’t know is because the wrath of God was fully spent on Jesus on the Cross. On Himself that is, not us.

Another is the biblical precedent of Sodom and Abraham. Like anyone who has known the grace of God, God considered Abraham righteous through faith not his works. And he had an interesting conversation with God about Sodom and Gomorrah before they were destroyed:

²² Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, while Abraham was still standing before the Lord. ²³ Abraham approached and said, “Will You indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? ²⁴ Suppose there are fifty righteous people within the city; will You indeed sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it? ²⁵ Far be it from You to do such a thing, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?” ²⁶ So the Lord said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare the entire place on their account.” ²⁷ And Abraham replied, “Now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord, although I am only dust and ashes. ²⁸ Suppose the fifty righteous are lacking five, will You destroy the entire city because of five?” And He said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.” ²⁹ And he spoke to Him yet again and said, “Suppose forty are found there?” And He said, “I will not do it on account of the forty.” ³⁰ Then he said, “Oh may the Lord not be angry, and I shall speak; suppose thirty are found there?” And He said, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.” ³¹ And he said, “Now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord; suppose twenty are found there?” And He said, “I will not destroy it on account of the twenty.” ³² Then he said, “Oh may the Lord not be angry, and I shall speak only this once: suppose ten are found there?” And He said, “I will not destroy it on account of the ten.” ³³ As soon as He had finished speaking to Abraham the Lord departed, and Abraham returned to his place.

How many Abrahams are on the earth today having similar conversations with God about the Western world?

If 10 righteous people would have been enough to save Sodom (Genesis 18:32) how many does it take to save the Western world from judgement?

[Secondary related questions: How many people were in Sodom anyway? How much salt does it take to preserve something (say meat) as a percentage of the whole? I have no idea how this works.]

However I would recommend this: If you are one of those chosen by God for eternal life, give thanks and rejoice and worship God. Your praise and prayers may be more important to the future of this generation than you think.

You are the salt of the earth.

⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; ⁹ not a result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰ For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

Ephesians 2:8-10

There is no more succinct and accurate expression of the relationship between grace, faith and good works in the bible than in Ephesians 2:8-10.

Grace means undeserved favour. The grace of God comes with all the salvation power of God to forgive our sins, heal all our diseases and to deliver us from every demonic attack. Its basis is the death of Jesus on the Cross and His victory over death, the devil and the world. Its channel is faith in the resurrection power of Jesus in our hearts through the Holy Spirit whom He gave us when we were born again and baptised in His Spirit.

Faith is the channel of the grace described above, the confidence in the truths we cannot see now but believe. Its also a gift from God.

Good works are being done through Christ’s body, His Church, on the earth all the time since Pentecost, transforming people’s lives and society for the better, bringing heaven to earth as we can see all around us. We live better than our forefathers and any king of old but, sadly, even many of us Christians are not thankful for this even while we benefit from the many comforts and pleasures that were won for us through the obedience of Christians to their Lord in very specific ways in past centuries and even in the present. As we walk with our Lord in the good works that He is doing, we are the salt of the earth, preserving it from destruction and bringing light and life everywhere we go.

In order to keep on receiving grace through faith we need to hear and obey the specific word of God to us now (Romans 10). What are you seeking? Where is He now for you? What is He telling you to do now? What is He warning you not to do?

When you know you are walking in the good works that God prepared beforehand for you to walk in then you are in the channel of faith through which saving grace comes and brings you and those around you Shalom:  peace, harmony, wholeness, completeness, prosperity, welfare and tranquility.

That is what the Scripture says. I pray that it may also be your experience as it has increasingly become ours.

For who has despised the day of small things?

Zechariah 4:10

The Lord speaks to Zerubbabel the high priest through the prophet Zechariah and tells him something very important about how He does things:

“Not by might, nor by power but by my Spirit”

God is extreme, He never says something half-heartedly. When He says not by might nor by power, He means it.

The context is so important since there are many places where God demonstrates both might and power (creation, the Flood and the Resurrection of Jesus to mention but three). In Zechariah 4 the context is the Church, or more specifically, anointed ministry within the Church.

Lampstand = church – Rev. 1:20

Olive oil = Anointing – Psalm 133:2, etc.

Olive trees = Witnesses (Revelation 11:3-5) or more obviously, ministry through which anointing comes.

Paul explains this kind of ministry in 1 Corinthians 1:18-31. These verses give hope to us all:

¹⁸ For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 

…….but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness, ²⁴ but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵ For the foolishness of God is wiser than mankind, and the weakness of God is stronger than mankind.

²⁶ For consider your calling, brothers and sisters, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; ²⁷ but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, ²⁸ and the insignificant things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, ²⁹ so that no human may boast before God. ³⁰ But it is due to Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, ³¹ so that, just as it is written: “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Jesus’ ministry epitomises this approach. He was happy to have just 12 disciples and even they forsook Him in the end. His greatest work was done when He could do nothing. Life flowed out of death through resurrection to the world. And so it has ever been. All Godly ministry has at its heart the humble heartbeat of the carpenter from a remote backwater of the empire, who wrote nothing and:

He has no stately form or majesty
That we would look at Him,
Nor an appearance that we would take pleasure in Him.

Isaiah 53

So, if you are a minister, are you easily despised? That’s a good thing. Do you know nothing but Christ and Him crucified? That’s all you need to know.

It has been said many times that God’s ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55).

Are you foolish enough and weak enough for God to use you? We all are really, the only difference is that some of us are more aware of it, and Him, than others.

The question then becomes:

How creative can He get with you?

Walk in the Spirit and find out.

[Footnote: I set the featured image of this post as a star field. Stars look very small but they aren’t really. They are powerhouses.]

Speaking the truth in love

so that you might grow up in all things into Him who is the Head, that is, the Christ

From whom the whole body being fitted and united together

through each supporting ligament

according to the working within its zone of influence of each individual member

causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

Eph. 4:15, 16.

make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is impaired may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.

Hebrews 12:13

The phrase “zone of influence” is the word μετρον (“metron”) in Greek. The idea Paul is bringing out is that you as an individual are a member of the Body of Christ and vitally connected to other members. These other members are those that are within your zone of influence.

You have a responsibility towards those members of the body that are within your zone of influence that you do your part in building them up. Don’t wrench yourself from them or try to get away (or your way). God has placed you there, do your part in causing growth.

The opposite side of the coin is that you should also mind your own business. Don’t interfere where you are not connected. So many people think they have influence where they actually do not. If you are not vitally connected to someone don’t interfere with what God is doing with them.