The Question
Reading: Romans 6:1-23
Text: Colossians 1:13
“He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom
of his beloved Son.”
In 1875, at just 27, William Ernest Henley wrote a short
poem titled Invictus, Latin for invincible or unconquerable. He had
battled a tuberculosis of the bone and lost a leg to it. He
would eventually die of it at 53. An avowed atheist, he defied
God in his misfortune and sought strength in himself. In the
last of the four verses of his poem, he writes:
It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.
Henley was very much a man of his Victorian age. The
Enlightenment army was advancing at full trot, with men
like Darwin and Nietzsche manufacturing ammunitions for
atheists. Typically, like many post-moderns today, Henley
thought himself independent, autonomous, unconquered.
In the early part of the following century, American
journalist Dorothy Day (1897-1980) wrote a counter poem
titled Conquered. In the last of its four verses, she writes:
I have no fear though straight the gate: He cleared from punishment the scroll.
Christ is the Master of my fate! Christ is the Captain of my soul!
Each states the case for the two sides of an eternal reality:
everyone belongs to one of two masters. The atheist believes
he is his own master. He is deceived. Satan is his master. The
theist believes in God or gods. True is the theist who bows
to Christ as his Lord. He finds God. Nobody is autonomous.
Every person has a Master. The question is ‘Which one?
Prayer Dear Father, we rejoice to know Christ as our Master and pray to be helped to
bring others to know Him as theirs too in Christ’s name, Amen
Monday 11 January 2021
The Humility of His Highness
Reading: John 1:29-34
Text: John 1:45 “We have found him . . . Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
Text: John 1:10 “He was in the world, and the world was made through him,
yet the world did not know him.”
12 January 2007. 7:51 am. Rush hour at a busy subway station
in Washington, DC. A man walks in with his violin and, for
about 47 minutes, plays pieces from Bach and Schubert. After
the first eight minutes, “the violinist receives his first dollar. A
woman throws money in the hat and, without stopping,
continues to walk.” 1,097 people walk by him. Only six people
actually stop to listen. Only one woman out of 1,097 recognize
him. A 30-year old man listens to him for the longest period of
time: six minutes. “He finishes playing. Silence takes over. No
one notices and no one applauds. There is no recognition at
all.” His total earnings: $32.17.
Yet this is the world- renowned
violin prodigy Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the
world. He used his Stradivarius violin, worth $3.5 million. Three
days earlier he played a sold-out concert in Boston where bad
seats cost about $100 each. This subway show was a Washington
Post experiment into the listening habits of people. Likewise,
God came and lived amongst humanity but was hidden in plain
sight. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the
world did not know him… We have found the Messiah… Behold, the
Lamb of God, says John. Had Christ been born in the palace of
Rome or descended in chariots of fire asking a grand fee for
salvation there would be a stampede to follow Him. But
coming in a manger, and growing up in poor Nazareth, did not
endear Him to humanity. It still doesn’t. Yet He was who He
was: His Royal Highness, The Son of God. And He is who He
is: His Royal Majesty, the King of Kings. Bow before Him.
Prayer Dear Father may we know the humility of Your Son in Christ’s name, Amen.
Ephesians 3: 17-19
“. . . that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength
to comprehend . . . the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know
the love of Christ . . . that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
Unfortunately, ancient farming communities often didn’t
have enough. Even with the best will in the world, their
barns were often undersupplied. The rains probably didn’t
come in time and/or were not enough. Or the crops were
visited by a severe disease. Sad stories of want and woe,
including displacing whole communities in search of life,
were not uncommon.
Paul says there is no such want in God’s library. His barns
are never depleted. There is always more than enough. As
God is unchangeable, so His stock is irreducible. A million
may feast at once and nothing is lost from being taken away.
All who come are enriched. Bankrupt billions have come to
the barns and drunk from the fountains of living water. Still,
they flow. Unceasing. Undiminished. Bone-tired billions
have come to the barns and been succoured at their wells.
Still, they are full and fresh and sweet. Thousands of years
have passed. But they are never ancient. Never jaded. Never
dated. Always filled with marrow-sweet nourishment.
Always much more than enough. No one can plumb the
depths of His riches. But Paul prays that we may. For we will
be well rewarded in the attempt though we’ll never exhaust
the breadth and length, and the height and depth of His love.
Prayer Dear Father, may we be stronger in our rootedness and dive further afield
into the inexhaustible reaches of Your love in Christ’s name, Amen.
Day 4 A Beautiful Library – More Than Beautiful Words
Ephesians 1: 17
“That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of
wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him.”
Fathers built barns in ancient farming societies. And filled
them with all the produce from the harvest – mainly yam
tubers of various kinds in many sub-Saharan African
communities. Four walls and a roof, all in thatch, to provide
ventilation. Inside were rows of standing wooden beams,
like bookshelves in a library. On these beams hung the yam
tubers, each neatly tied to the beam, and lying latitudinally
atop each other. A beauty to behold, different sections held
different yam varieties, like classified bookshelves in a huge
library. Wealthy was the patriarch who could boast a barnful
of a wide variety of yams and feed his family from harvest
to harvest. Wealthier still he who raised his sons to follow in
his footsteps first, by having mini-me farms of their own,
stocked with a wealth of the different varieties, and learning
the craft of the barn.
Filled with awe at the glories of the Gospel, Paul prays that
God would help the Christians in Ephesus to know Him so
that they may also be enriched by, and enjoy, the same
glories of the Gospel. He wants them to know their assets:
the hope, the riches, and the power that belongs to them so that
they may more particularly relish their high privilege as
believers and cherish the God whose generosity is being
lavished upon them. The same glories await all the saints
who today will seek to deepen their knowledge of the Lord.
Prayer O Lord, may Your love keep us in Your library this year in Christ’s name, Amen.
Pastor Greg Obong Oshotse a former journalist, was a Marxist and an atheist before he came to faith in Jesus Christ and was called to preach the gospel. He trained for the Methodist ministry at Wesley House Cambridge and has degrees in theology from the universities of Cambridge and Wales. He and his wife live in the United Kingdom. Pastor Greg is the author of If the Angelic Postman Never Knocks on My Door: Christian Commitment in a Confused World.
