I'm reading and rereading Psalm 102 today and it is so good. I'm writting this on my lunch break. The 'preface' to this psalm is very short but also very important.
"A Prayer of one afflicted, when he is faint and pours out his complaint before the LORD...." - Psalm 102:1a ESV
We must see and absorb this perspective. This is a vunerable person talking to God in a very emotionally charged way. The inspiration of this psalm is that it truly shows this man's humanity. He isn't right. He is arguing with God and says things about God that are colored by hurt, helplessness and distance.
"A Prayer of one afflicted, when he is faint and pours out his complaint before the LORD. Hear my prayer, O LORD; let my cry come to you!" - Psalm 102:1 ESV
He talks like a man who isn't sure God hears him. He uses God's intimate name that orthodox Jews of today never use or even write down on paper. He uses this intimate name in a plea that shows that he is unsure that God is caring or even noticing him.
"Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress! Incline your ear to me; answer me speedily in the day when I call! For my days pass away like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace. My heart is struck down like grass and has withered; I forget to eat my bread. Because of my loud groaning my bones cling to my flesh. I am like a desert owl of the wilderness, like an owl of the waste places; I lie awake; I am like a lonely sparrow on the housetop. All the day my enemies taunt me; those who deride me use my name for a curse. For I eat ashes like bread and mingle tears with my drink, because of your indignation and anger; for you have taken me up and thrown me down. My days are like an evening shadow; I wither away like grass." - Psalm 102:2-11 ESV
Wow.
'...you have taken me up and thrown me down...'
Ever feel like that? It isn't true. God has never done that but at times it feels like he has.
After verse 11 there is a major shift...
"But you, O LORD, are enthroned forever; you are remembered throughout all generations. You will arise and have pity on Zion; it is the time to favor her; the appointed time has come. For your servants hold her stones dear and have pity on her dust. Nations will fear the name of the LORD, and all the kings of the earth will fear your glory. For the LORD builds up Zion; he appears in his glory; he regards the prayer of the destitute and does not despise their prayer. Let this be recorded for a generation to come, so that a people yet to be created may praise the LORD: that he looked down from his holy height; from heaven the LORD looked at the earth, to hear the groans of the prisoners, to set free those who were doomed to die, that they may declare in Zion the name of the LORD, and in Jerusalem his praise, when peoples gather together, and kingdoms, to worship the LORD." - Psalm 102:12-22 ESV
A moment of clarity! A person who knows God's intimate name gets to see this. We see him seeing this and it is like we are seeing it. This Is the alpha and omega. He has Been and will Be into forever but we are human and hurting. Knowing this is a bridge into forever but we are 'afflicted'.
"He has broken my strength in midcourse; he has shortened my days." - Psalm 102:23 ESV
For a second there we see the inside of a person speaking to himself. He gives this great discourse talking to God about who He Is but then he takes a sentence to talk to himself and say.
'He has weakened me.'
God slowed him down and allowed circumstances to bring the psalmist to this place.
" 'O my God,' I say, 'take me not away in the midst of my days - you whose years endure throughout all generations!' Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end. The children of your servants shall dwell secure; their offspring shall be established before you." - Psalm 102:24-28 ESV
I read this psalm and feel like I have God's permission to be a bit messed up sometimes. Feeling distant doesn't mean God has cut you or I off. He understands this. Jesus sweat blood the night before His cruxifiction. He needed all His strength to carry that cross the next day but some of it was taken the night before.
You and I think we need to be strong to face things but that isn't what we need at all sometimes. God knows what we need. We need to see Him and get a glimpse of His foreverness. He Is always seeing us but we forget what He looks like often because of our limits and make up.
Today I'm reading this psalm and 'pouring out my complaint' to Him. I am also in awe of His glory. The 'conversation' will become a paragraph in the biography that is my life. God is the main character not me.
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Thursday, June 4, 2020
Saturday, May 30, 2020
Those Terrible Crucifixions
I was thinking today about cruxification and that it was something that was done regularly in Jesus' time. His crucifixion was not rare. It was unusual because of it's timing on a holiday.
Luke 9:23 KJV "And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me."
Jesus didn't rail against Rome because they crucified people. He said, 'Remember those poor people you saw dragging those crosses through Jerusalem. I am one of them. Follow me and be one of them.'
Crazy!
Jesus talked a lot about how wonderful His Father's kingdom Is. There are many mansions there. Heaven has no pain, death, sickness, jealousy or cruxifications.
Every human institution is littered with atrocity. Every generation has it. Jesus says, 'I am that person you visit in prison. Bring a cup of cold water to them and you are bringing one to me.'
{Sigh} Tears fill my eyes... We are so quick to hurt one another and point fingers. Jesus has risen from the dead. That is the 'sign' He left us with. I want to spread that hope. That hope outlives every generational outrage.
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Luke 9:23 KJV "And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me."
Jesus didn't rail against Rome because they crucified people. He said, 'Remember those poor people you saw dragging those crosses through Jerusalem. I am one of them. Follow me and be one of them.'
Crazy!
Jesus talked a lot about how wonderful His Father's kingdom Is. There are many mansions there. Heaven has no pain, death, sickness, jealousy or cruxifications.
Every human institution is littered with atrocity. Every generation has it. Jesus says, 'I am that person you visit in prison. Bring a cup of cold water to them and you are bringing one to me.'
{Sigh} Tears fill my eyes... We are so quick to hurt one another and point fingers. Jesus has risen from the dead. That is the 'sign' He left us with. I want to spread that hope. That hope outlives every generational outrage.
--
Friday, May 22, 2020
Responding To Goodness
- God is good. Mankind isn't.
- We can respond to 'good' but we can not initiate true goodness on our own. Self preservation or gain is always in the mix.
- We can however initiate based on what we have recieved. God's Spirit leads us down a road we would not go on our own. That is the only kind of initation that does not add to the corruption we see around us.
"What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building." - 1 Corinthians 3:5-9 ESV
I have not seen this belief system anywhere else but in the Bible and it is the only way I see to have a truly healthy self image.
If we abandon trying to do 'good' and exalt the One who has done 'good' then we find ourselves living life in a different way without guilt or shame.
I am suspicous of and eventually must denounce any theology or philosophy that does not promote this view because it obscures who God Is and pushs people to try to perform in a way that is impossible.
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- We can respond to 'good' but we can not initiate true goodness on our own. Self preservation or gain is always in the mix.
- We can however initiate based on what we have recieved. God's Spirit leads us down a road we would not go on our own. That is the only kind of initation that does not add to the corruption we see around us.
"What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building." - 1 Corinthians 3:5-9 ESV
I have not seen this belief system anywhere else but in the Bible and it is the only way I see to have a truly healthy self image.
If we abandon trying to do 'good' and exalt the One who has done 'good' then we find ourselves living life in a different way without guilt or shame.
I am suspicous of and eventually must denounce any theology or philosophy that does not promote this view because it obscures who God Is and pushs people to try to perform in a way that is impossible.
--
Tuesday, May 19, 2020
My Box Of Unfinished Busniess
I'm praying for bravery this morning... for you and for me.
We are brave people... i think we can forget this... obstacles, fears, complexities, unknowns... we have faced them before and we can face them again... but will we? Yes... we will... the box of 'unfinished business', the conversation, looking at the thing we have avoided looking at... God will go with us if we invite Him and then take a step... the complex thing can be broken down into little steps... the hard thing is only too hard if we get overwhelmed by the wind and the waves... focus on Jesus and move towards His outstretched hand... I like to picture Him in my problem smiling at me... laughing maybe but not in a mocking way but the way a friend who cares for you and is on your side might laugh and say, 'Don't be afraid. I AM here.'
You are brave. No. No arguments. You are. That giant is blind as a bat. He hopes you get close enough and afraid enough to stay away or just do something stupid. His loud words are just words. Face him with your sling. Pick some stones and take aim. Don't rush in but don't hold back. Aim for the head. There is danger but you are brave and smart.
I got on my knees this morning and put all my 'unfinished business' in a box. It isn't going into the attic. God is going to be with me as I finish each thing. He promised me that He would never leave me or forsake me. (see Deut 31:6, 8; Heb 13:5)
I plan to recycle this box... rip off the tape, flatten it and recycle it.
"For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up." - Galatians 6:8-9 ESV
Yes.
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We are brave people... i think we can forget this... obstacles, fears, complexities, unknowns... we have faced them before and we can face them again... but will we? Yes... we will... the box of 'unfinished business', the conversation, looking at the thing we have avoided looking at... God will go with us if we invite Him and then take a step... the complex thing can be broken down into little steps... the hard thing is only too hard if we get overwhelmed by the wind and the waves... focus on Jesus and move towards His outstretched hand... I like to picture Him in my problem smiling at me... laughing maybe but not in a mocking way but the way a friend who cares for you and is on your side might laugh and say, 'Don't be afraid. I AM here.'
You are brave. No. No arguments. You are. That giant is blind as a bat. He hopes you get close enough and afraid enough to stay away or just do something stupid. His loud words are just words. Face him with your sling. Pick some stones and take aim. Don't rush in but don't hold back. Aim for the head. There is danger but you are brave and smart.
I got on my knees this morning and put all my 'unfinished business' in a box. It isn't going into the attic. God is going to be with me as I finish each thing. He promised me that He would never leave me or forsake me. (see Deut 31:6, 8; Heb 13:5)
I plan to recycle this box... rip off the tape, flatten it and recycle it.
"For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up." - Galatians 6:8-9 ESV
Yes.
--
Monday, May 18, 2020
Newness In Christ
Take a look with new eyes and you will see that all things have become new again.
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." - 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 ESV
People who have an identity crisis either crystalize or start over. This passage informs me that because of Christ I don't have to lose it all circumstantially in order to begin again.
"Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." - Romans 6:11 KJV
I like the KJV for this passage. We must say, 'What I do can not separate me from God. What Jesus has done has reconciled me to God forever.' and that gives a place for newness.
Celebrities reinvent themselves with new clothing, hairstyles, and altered styles but God has reinvented us in Christ with mercy. It happens again and again and we need it to happen over and over again for each day and each season. Our mind needs renewal.
"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." - Romans 12:2 ESV
The pressures of life will push on us and can block the light we need to see. Depressions are caused by pressures. Renewal is needed.
"...the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds," - Ephesians 4:21b-23 ESV
What you want will kill you an inch at a time but what you have can renew you of you enter into the renewal that Jesus has won for you.
--
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." - 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 ESV
People who have an identity crisis either crystalize or start over. This passage informs me that because of Christ I don't have to lose it all circumstantially in order to begin again.
"Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." - Romans 6:11 KJV
I like the KJV for this passage. We must say, 'What I do can not separate me from God. What Jesus has done has reconciled me to God forever.' and that gives a place for newness.
Celebrities reinvent themselves with new clothing, hairstyles, and altered styles but God has reinvented us in Christ with mercy. It happens again and again and we need it to happen over and over again for each day and each season. Our mind needs renewal.
"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." - Romans 12:2 ESV
The pressures of life will push on us and can block the light we need to see. Depressions are caused by pressures. Renewal is needed.
"...the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds," - Ephesians 4:21b-23 ESV
What you want will kill you an inch at a time but what you have can renew you of you enter into the renewal that Jesus has won for you.
--
Thursday, May 7, 2020
A Formal Request
Today I am equating prayer, the supplication kind (asking for something), to a form that needs to be filled out or formal request of some kind. Almost all governments and organizations of any size have something like this. A 'ticket' is created to document that there was a problem then that 'ticket' gets closed.
"And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, 'Give me justice against my adversary.' For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, 'Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.' And the Lord said, 'Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them?' " - Luke 18:1-7 ESV
Was the form filled out? Who gets the form? Do they care about the issue? Can the people who get the request fix the issue? Do they have the power? These are questions we ask and must answer about any formal request.
In the parable, the woman knew the judge had the power so she kept coming.
'And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them?'
Jesus said this. What is our answer to His question?
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"And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, 'Give me justice against my adversary.' For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, 'Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.' And the Lord said, 'Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them?' " - Luke 18:1-7 ESV
Was the form filled out? Who gets the form? Do they care about the issue? Can the people who get the request fix the issue? Do they have the power? These are questions we ask and must answer about any formal request.
In the parable, the woman knew the judge had the power so she kept coming.
'And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them?'
Jesus said this. What is our answer to His question?
--
Wednesday, May 6, 2020
Our Original Confidence
Wow. This next passage is loaded.
"Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called 'today,' that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end." - Hebrews 3:12-14 ESV
Our 'original confidence' is vital. Jesus is alive and if we know God there was this moment that we became aware that He was aware of us. A transaction happened. A saving. We knew it. A dead soul was suddenly alive and the Spirit of Grace ignited a confidence in us.
'Day-to-Day while it is called today' we encourage each other that this living God still sees us and things are happening even if we don't see evidence that they are.
"Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.' So we can confidently say, 'The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?' " - Hebrews 13:5-6 ESV
Like a sheep, I am prone to wander. My heart can harden out in the wilderness as I seemingly fend for myself but Jesus leaves the ninety-nine to find His wandering lambs.
The cross is a big landmark that I can look to and lift up. He can be found in His word and where two or more encouraging and encouraged hearts gather and say His true name. He Is Saviour, shepherd, physician and the living God. When His nature is revealed our confidence returns and rests on Him and His willingness to affect situations for us and through us.
--
"Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called 'today,' that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end." - Hebrews 3:12-14 ESV
Our 'original confidence' is vital. Jesus is alive and if we know God there was this moment that we became aware that He was aware of us. A transaction happened. A saving. We knew it. A dead soul was suddenly alive and the Spirit of Grace ignited a confidence in us.
'Day-to-Day while it is called today' we encourage each other that this living God still sees us and things are happening even if we don't see evidence that they are.
"Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.' So we can confidently say, 'The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?' " - Hebrews 13:5-6 ESV
Like a sheep, I am prone to wander. My heart can harden out in the wilderness as I seemingly fend for myself but Jesus leaves the ninety-nine to find His wandering lambs.
The cross is a big landmark that I can look to and lift up. He can be found in His word and where two or more encouraging and encouraged hearts gather and say His true name. He Is Saviour, shepherd, physician and the living God. When His nature is revealed our confidence returns and rests on Him and His willingness to affect situations for us and through us.
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