'For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.' i mean, that's quite an intro already, right? and possibly carries a profoundly deep message in terms of really getting our minds around the fact that David, altho he had messed up horribly, still ends up at the feet of God, rather than simply trying to hide or run the other way... [...]
i don't feel very strong right now. i feel wronged. badly done by. hurt. betrayed. disappointed. and yet again and again it comes back to me that the call is on me to forgive. pride. ego. self-righteousness. my idea of "justice". all these things rally against me, trying to convince me that i am in the right [maybe i am] and that the other should approach me [maybe they should] and seek peace and restoration. [...]
a few years ago i visited new york with a good buddy of mine, justin paton, and one of the touristy things we came across was the Charging Bull, a 3,200-kg (7,100 lb) bronze sculpture by Arturo Di Modica that stands Wall Street in Manhattan. being a touristy symbol, we had to wait a fair amount of time to get a picture with it and so naturally when we did i had to be a [...]
this may be one of the tabooist topics [especially in the church, not a lot of sermons preached on this in my experience] and it's time to bring it into the light. i have a story to share and i am hoping that this will help people towards a journey of healing, restoration, self-forgiveness, hope and sexual purity. i do wish my story went something like this - i used to struggle with pornography and [...]
'Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath. Your arrows have pierced me, and your hand has come down on me. Because of your wrath there is no health in my body; there is no soundness in my bones because of my sin. My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear.' [vs. 1-4] Um, wait, what? This must be one of those other psalms, right, [...]
it has been in the context of 'being wronged' that i have noticed it. and also brought up by an email i received the other day asking how we can be okay with the fact that God ordered genocide in the old testament [a really important question which i have grown up not asking - killing of many in the old testament was always seen as okay because it was 'the goodies killing the baddies' [...]
psalm 19 is a tough one. because there is just so much in it. it is a beautiful, beautiful psalm. make sure you read the whole thing. It starts so powerfully with a declaration of who God is: 'The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.' [Psalm 19.1] This makes me think of Jesus calming the storm in the boat ['The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Master, [...]
and on to Psalm 5: this is an interesting one. powerful line in verse 5 - 'You hate all who do wrong.' is that true? of course it is. it is true to where david is at the moment of writing and what he is feeling [and maybe secretly wanting] but is it Truth? absolutely not. we know from reading the rest of scripture that God does not hate anyone - His desire is that [...]
i have seen this video around on FB for the last long while and wanted to check it out but not enough to actually do so and so i didn't til today - it's called 'Why I hate religion, but love Jesus' and it's a spoken word piece by a young guy called jeff bethke. i didn't watch it til i started skim reading this really good but really too long for me to read [...]
so a quick recap then: # everyone has sinned and as the bible says "fallen short of the glory (or high standard) of God" # the wages/punishment/outcome of sin is death (both now in various areas, but also spiritually and eternally at the end) # on Easter Friday, the man many believed had come to save the world is lying stretched out on a cross, dying an agonising death. # one of the statements Jesus [...]