When considering for 'My Fellow Prisoners' on Sunday, and the idea of being held 'captive with Christ', we were led to the description of our Lord Jesus Christ as our 'hiding place. It seems odd to the natural mind that the Bible encourages us to come out of our caves, and yet — at the same time — seek another place to hide.

We all need a hiding place; somewhere to run to when life gets too overwhelming; a place of peace and respite from the troubles of everyday life, no matter how large or small those troubles are.

He has probably already hidden in some pit or cave. [2 Samuel 17:9a NKJV]

In 2 Samuel, the hiding place is a place of security from which a murderous attack could be launched, and in another side to the same scenario, we have David and his mighty men hiding in the Cave of Adullam.

So David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. Soon his brothers and all his other relatives joined him there.
Then others began coming—men who were in trouble or in debt or who were just discontented—until David was the captain of about 400 men. [1Samuel 22:1-2 NKJV]

This time it was for the Lord’s purpose. Can we always tell? Not always, but maybe you can see where we are headed with this. A cave, a hiding place, is somewhere to hide and gather strength before going out into the world; into a place of danger or conflict; out to - maybe - fulfilment of a destiny. Remember Jesus, laid to rest in a cave until a supernatural force rolled the stone away and released a promise that changed everything for eternity!

Our Lord Jesus Christ offers us nothing less than that miraculous change for every one of us; but first we must be hidden in the depths of Him. We must drink of the water of His word, that we may be refreshed; we must live under the shadow of His hand that we may be nourished, and only when fully equipped with His protective armour, can we stand against the enemy’s assaults.

Our hiding place is the place of growth and maturity, which only our Saviour can provide - the only sure place of refuge and restoration; of strengthening and sustaining; our all in all.

Today’s title is also the title of a recent, provocative but insightful secular book written by political commentator Douglas Murray. The book examines issues of sexuality, gender and race, arguing that much of today’s activism in social justice and identity politics is verging on a form of mass hysteria, based on ill-founded ideologies.

The book title reminded me of the account of Jesus being examined by Pilate. The record of his interrogation finishes with these sobering words, ‘wishing to satisfy the crowd … he handed Jesus over to be crucified’. The pressure of the angry voice of the crowd was too difficult for Pilate to counteract with his own sense of justice regarding Jesus.

When the rule of godly and established law is surrendered to the perceived rights of the crowd, it’s very likely that society will suffer rapid decline, a situation, I suggest, that is worryingly apparent in much of the world today. Interestingly, it was not many years after this world-changing decision by Pilate, that Jerusalem was utterly destroyed.

Today, biblical truth seems to be facing a mass of angry opposing voices, demanding adherence to ill-defined slogans of equality, diversity, inclusivity and freedom. Followers of Jesus should not be surprised, in these end days, by the strength of opposition to God’s ways, but He asks us to simply stand in a place of grace and truth with Him, believing that His ways are right.

Prayer: Father God, I ask for the strength and courage to keep going with You and not with the crowd, however challenging that may be, in a world that advocates the rights and power of public opinion, rather than biblical truth and justice. Amen.

“as it is written.”
Here Paul is quoting from Habakkuk 2:4; Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith. To be clear, ‘his faith’ refers to ‘the just’ and not to ‘the proud’ in this sentence.

“revealed from faith to faith,”
The Amplified Bible shows this in a clearer way, translating Paul’s Greek as For in the Gospel a righteousness which God ascribes is revealed, both springing from faith and leading to faith [disclosed through the way of faith that arouses to more faith]. Thus we see that God is in the process of faith-building, injecting new life into His faithful ones.

God knows His own people and seeks to draw each one away from the paths of wickedness, such as those described in Romans 1:18-32, and in Habakkuk 2:5-20. For both Paul and Habakkuk, the major part of their writing is focussing on what the Lord is saving us from; details of the sin nature that He can and will lift us out of.

I well remember that before coming to faith, asking myself “Do I need to do this? After all, you need to have faith to have faith, don’t you? Life seems OK without this.” And then ...

I can only assume that The Lord whispered in my ear the thought, “How do you know?” That question dogged me for months, until I accepted that the only way to know if God is good or not, is to follow Him in faith ... and having seen, I can testify that He is good and just and worthy of all and more than I can ever give.

If you follow Christ — having faith in Him — you find the way of the just, which brings life. You are living by faith. Hallelujah!

The Just Shall Live By Faith — Majesty Music

In Romans 16, Paul sends greetings to a long list of believers, nearly thirty of whom he mentions by name, among all the saints who are with them. It may seem odd that he reserves his greetings until the end of the letter, but Romans 16 is really Paul’s personal statement to those he knows in Rome and of lesser significance than the great pronouncement on Christian faith, which is chapters 1 to 15.

Among those named are Andronicus and Junia who were in Christ before me. These he names as my fellow prisoners and of note among the apostles. Verse 7 has engendered much debate as to Paul’s meaning; principally regarding his fellow prisoner, Junia and her status. Is she a ‘he’ (as the name could refer to either male or female); and are they both apostles, or merely considered highly by the apostles? We cannot know, and really this is only of academic interest. The point, surely, is that Paul considers Andronicus and Junia worthy of special mention among the saints.

Placing them together in one verse tends to suggest that they were a husband and wife team and that Paul knew them well enough to recognise their faithful walk with The Lord; and as such they were fellow prisoners, or ‘co-captives’ with him in Christ. They may genuinely have a shared experience of imprisonment for their faith, but we have no record of that for Andronicus and Junia.

Such a great testimony and a wonderful encouragement for them; but also for us. When we, as fellow captives, encourage one another in faith; lifting one another in prayer, and opening our hearts to one another in phileo love, we are keeping our eyes on Jesus Christ. We find ourselves casting off selfish concerns, worries and anxieties. We feel the Father’s love envelope us as part of the body of Christ. Paul adds these words to his greetings:

Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them. For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple. For your obedience has become known to all.
Therefore I am glad on your behalf; but I want you to be wise in what is good, and simple concerning evil.
And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.
[Romans 16:17-20 NKJV]

We can all rejoice at having been prisoners, set free by Jesus to make our calling and election sure.

“Seek My face,” says The Lord, and my heart said to You, “Your face, LORD, I will seek.”
In the next line comes Do not hide Your face from me! There seems an element of uncertainty here. A firm decision to seek His face, followed by the doubt or worry that He might conceal Himself.

Psalm 27 is a personal favourite. It begins with confidence, but then dissolves into asking Him to live up to that confidence — which is not confidence at all — and resolves in the statement, “I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.”

I do not know what is been revealed here, but I sense - or maybe The Holy Spirit is revealing — that in the course of the Psalm there is a shift in attitude; a move from confidence to humility. “I would have lost heart ...“, instead of, “... “my heart shall not fear” So what changed?

The centre of the Psalm (literally) revolves around verses 7 and 8:

Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice! Have mercy also upon me, and answer me.
When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You, “Your face, LORD, I will seek.”

That change from exuberant confidence to humble trust came about pivotally on that commitment to seeking — not just Him — but His face. This is a move from emotion to spirit reality, an understanding of Him at the deepest level; a move from self-centred to Jesus-centred. We all need to come to that place.

It comes by meeting Jesus face-to-face. That is the intimacy He desires for each one of us; knowing the close detail of one another; looking into His eyes and experiencing the inseparable connection of incredible love — the love that will not let you go — for it is through the eyes that we see the heart of one another.

Turn your eyes towards Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will go strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.

What then shall we say to these things? 'These things' are all that was stated in the earlier part of Paul's discourse, including the oft-quoted and often misunderstood line  "And we know that all things work together for good", which needs qualification with the completing words "to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose."
In the verses quoted in our header; Paul asks seven questions, and makes only two statements, which are:

• It is God who justifies.
• It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 

These are Bible 'facts'; verifiable from elsewhere in Scripture. Bible facts are not what reason dictates, but what the Holy Spirit raises reason to be. They reveal an understanding far beyond our natural capabilities; and Paul is arguing to lift us up to Holy Spirit reasoning.

"If God is for us, who can be against us?" is a question, and Paul is putting a case together to convince us of something which is a matter of belief. It is only true for you if you believe. There is that word 'if' again. Yet, even in the questions there is the implicit Bible fact, that this is true regardless of whether your rational mind believes it or not. Paul says that he "is persuaded", but this is not a question of "on balance I shall think this way"; more, that it is an incontrovertible fact, just as two plus two equals four, or in the spirit, seven questions plus three Bible imperatives reveals the ten of God's perfect order*.

The reality behind Paul's words is the certainty of God's truth being unveiled; being released in the most powerful God-inspired way, leading to the conclusion; the third Bible fact in this sequence ...

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 
For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
[Romans 8:37-39 NKJV]

* "It has been already pointed out that ten is one of the perfect numbers, and signifies the perfection of Divine order, commencing, as it does, an altogether new series of numbers. The first decade is the representative of the whole numeral system, and originates the system of calculation called "decimals," because the whole system of numeration consists of so many tens, of which the first is a type of the whole.
"Completeness of order, marking the entire round of anything, is, therefore, the ever-present signification of the number ten. It implies that nothing is wanting; that the number and order are perfect; that the whole cycle is complete." [E W Bullinger: 'Number In Scripture']

This 'End Time' prophecy from the Book of Daniel, has, like so many prophetic voices attracted a huge variety of interpretations. What is meant by this or that utterance? The only answer that can be relied upon is in the Bible itself. Daniel has difficulty with the Archangel Michael's prophecy to him, so he relates the answer that is given to him:

Then I said, “My lord, what shall be the end of these things?” And he said, “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, made white, and refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand.
“And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination of desolation is set up, there shall be one thousand two hundred and ninety days. Blessed is he who waits, and comes to the one thousand three hundred and thirty-five days.
“But you, go your way till the end; for you shall rest, and will arise to your inheritance at the end of the days.”
[Daniel 12:8b-13 NKJV]

It seems that whatever the trouble may be, The Lord's people need patience and must wait, knowing that in the end will be an inheritance and rest. Blessed is he who waits.

Intriguingly, a time frame is given between the setting up of the abomination of desolation and the end of the days - between one thousand two hundred and ninety days and one thousand three hundred and thirty five days. This would appear to be forty-five days, which on the basis of Scripture numerology speaks of 'preservation', 'the temple' and 'pillars'.

From what I have read on this subject, Daniel 12 is the resolution of a number of prophetic visions building a revelation which shows the statement in Daniel 8:14b; "then the sanctuary shall be cleansed.” In other words, The Lord is working - He will have His Holy church; His temple made without hands, but that the work requires our patience, for God is doing this in His time. Blessed is he who waits. As the song says, There may be trouble ahead, but while there's music and moonlight and love and romance, let's face the music and dance. Wait on the Lord.

Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
[Matthew 5:11-12 NKJV]

Some see The Bible as a list of rules and regulations that we must follow; but really it is God's revelation of Himself to mankind, through His Word, and it should therefore come as no surprise that Jesus is described as The Word.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. [John 1:1-2 NKJV]

Two very important words in scripture are 'Therefore' and 'If'. 'Therefore' says "accepting what has been written before, it follows that ..."; and 'if' adds the terms and conditions which will apply, should we wish to take action. This is beginning to sound like an elementary English class back in our schooldays, but I feel it is important, that we should remind ourselves from time to time of our Lord's guidance through scripture. He does not say to us "Do this ...", or "You must ...", for God has given us free will to choose our path.

Instead, with amazing love and grace, He argues the case for coming to Him. In our image above, we can see the quote from John 15; If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love. Follow this way; follow me, for I am the way. It is always about relationship - He shows us how to get the best from it by revealing Himself, so we are freed from any condemnation.

In Colossians 2:20 (above), Jesus Christ shows us that we are not brought into relationship by rules and regulations; instead, He transforms us and all we are to reconcile us to the Father, making the relationship complete. Our possessions, our bodies, our beliefs are all changed in an ongoing process that produces His life in us.

Amazing love, how can it be, that Thou my God should die for me! Lines from one of the most popular hymns, written by Charles Wesley, shortly after He gave himself to Christ through Romans 8:

But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. [Romans 8:9-11 NKJV]

Nowadays, the song Praise Is The Power of Heaven is rarely sung outside of a few groups, so I have been told. If true, it is a shame because it is a beautiful song, although that is not the reason we sing it, or many others like it. We sing to give thanks and to worship God, because praise has a unique place in our spiritual life; the very act of giving voice through song, however performed, brings a strengthened connection to the Almighty.

Many times I have heard Christians say that they love praising; that it is the centre of their worship and lifts the spirits delighting the heart ...

While I live I will praise the Lord; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. [Psalm 146:2 NKJV]

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; [1 Peter 2:9 NKJV]

... and it brings joy to the heart of God also. Psalm 22:3 tells us that He inhabits or is enthroned in the praises of His people, meaning that focussing our voices in song to Him is where His Holy Spirit finds a dwelling place. Beginning a meeting with praise raises us out of the everyday into the heavenlies and sharpens our senses to hear the word of an anointed preacher with true understanding.

Sadly, in these dark pandemic days when praise is prohibited lest we spread the virus, fear and anxiety has been given free rein. No wonder mental health problems are on the rise, even among the faithful; but we can be assured that our Lord will carry us through these testing times. I believe that, though we cannot gather in the usual way, though we cannot sing praises to Him in the usual way, yet we remain joined with Him in the Holy Spirit and that He hears the praise soaring within us, seeking release, for He is our praise.

You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him, and to Him you shall hold fast, and take oaths in His name. He is your praise, and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen.
[Deuteronomy 10:20-21 NKJV]

We can sing out by ourselves, with those in our homes until we can gather again, but we can also praise inwardly, as Paul says in Romans 2:29, but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God. 'Jew' comes from 'Judean', or 'belonging to praise'. Hallelujah!