The Scheme for January and February can be found here
Job 22-23; Acts 9; Psalm 42
As Saul will himself tell us, when the scales fall from his eyes – ‘We are the body of Christ’. He who hears the voice saying, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting, is under no illusions. The Church, full of the Holy Spirit is the One whom Paul persecutes. It strikes me that the Church shrinks in fear from this – as perhaps it should. It is only with fear and trembling that we can begin to comprehend the immeasurable and terrible significance of this. Christ’s identification with his church is total. If his church is persecuted, He is persecuted. If his church is reviled, He is reviled.
Throughout Acts we have seen the significance of the holiness of the church – most especially in the death of Ananias and Sapphira. This Holiness only finds its true parallel in the Holiness of God as revealed in the Old Testament – for example in the Ark of the Covenant, which Uzzah saw fit to touch.
Perhaps there is no greater need in our age, than to recover with fear and trembling that vocation, to be the Body and perhaps to cry out, to so thirst for God that he will refresh and restore us in holiness of Life. Perhaps in a dry and weary land, Psalm 42 ought often to be on our lips.
the elves are heading west 