Our world calls people blessed when they're successful, secure, admired and in control.  In contrast, in his Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5), Jesus describes people who know their need before God, who grieve over what is wrong with the world and refuse to dominate others with their strength.  These are the ones, Jesus says, who are truly blessed and whose reward will be great in heaven. 

The testing of God reveals the heart....but, of course, this sentence has a double meaning.  Firstly, how will you test God — how will you find out if God is true and good and whether he loves you? But secondly, how will God test you — are you true, are you good and do you love him?

In Matt 22, Jesus is publicly questioned by the Pharisees, Herodians and Sadducees: questioning designed to trap him in his words, stir up division and diminish his authority and popularity.  Jesus not only avoids their trap, but he exposes the assumptions beneath their questions in order to reveal deeper truths about God, our responsibilities in the world and our hope beyond death.

Who will be chosen by God to be part of his kingdom?  In the parable of the wedding feast (Matt 22), Jesus teaches that God wants His kingdom to be full of joyful people and the invitation to come is offered freely, but we can't presume to attend on our own terms.

Psalm 19 teaches that God reveals himself to us by both general revelation in creation (v1-6) and special revelation in his word, the Bible (v7-14).

Psalm 78 teaches us about legacy building: the older generations have a responsibility to tell the younger generations about God's goodness and loving kindness, his faithfulness despite their sinfulness and his glorious deeds.

God's people are called to be both a remembering people (v5) and a telling people (v1).  Psalm 105 begins with thanksgiving (remembering) and ends with praise (telling), and that is where the remembering of God's people should always lead...not merely to reflection on the past but to worship, thanks and praise to God in the present.  Where do you need to remember God's faithfulness to you today?  

In Romans 14, the Apostle Paul urges Christian believers to not pass judgement on one another. "If the master of the house is accepting of the servant, who are you, as a guest, to come in and not do likewise?" (v4 paraphrase).  After all, if God accepts our Christian brother or sister, with all their whims, quirks and difficulties, who are we not to?

How should a Christian think about and respond to governing authorities?  In Romans 13, the Apostle Paul shows us that God himself institutes earthly authority (v1) and that Christians should obey the authorities to remain in good conscience before God and others (v5).

Have you checked your BMI lately?... In Romans 12, the Apostle Paul lists a kind of "Biblical Maturity Index" (BMI): a list of attitudes, behaviours and practices motivated by genuine love and enabled by the indwelling work of the Holy Spirit in the Christian's life.

What does it mean to be a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God? It is to bring our whole selves, body, mind and spirit, to Him in response to His mercy and as an act of spiritual worship. 

Like a wild branch grafted into a cultivated root, in Romans 11 the Apostle Paul declares Gentile (non-Jewish) believers have become co-inheritors of the promises of God.  Our salvation is by grace alone so that no believer, Jew or Gentile, may look down upon another.

Each of us can become "beautiful feet" (v15), bringing the good news of the Gospel to those around us with a simple phone call, a listening ear, an offer of prayer or an act of service. 

In Romans 9, Paul announces a paradigm shift for his Jewish contemporaries and for the growing number of Gentile believers in Rome: that our adoption into God's family "depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy." (9:16).

God is working to conform us to the image of his Son (Rom 8:29), so that the loveliness of Jesus and the beauty of his character will be reflected in our lives.

How we spend our Sabbath reveals what we truly worship. In Christ, we have both the freedom and the responsibility to discern what God wants us to do with his gift of Sabbath. Every weekly gift of rest from God, one day in seven, is a foretaste of the feast to come and the rest he will give us forever.

Jesus offers us joy to the full, sheer delight, but often we settle for mere pleasure. Delight entrances, refreshes and satisfies us...but pleasure leaves us wanting more pleasure.

Jesus invites all who labour and are heavy laden to come to him and find true soul rest. Because in him, you have enough, and in him, you are enough.

The rest we long for, what we ache for, is not another sleep in, it's not even another holiday in Fiji, it's not a minimalist phone...true soul rest is found in Jesus alone.