v1 God shall show himself to be the God not of Jews oly but of Gentiles also; these shall as well cry Christ as those 'Jesus'; these say 'Father' as those 'Abba'. And as there was great joy in Samaria when the gospel was there received so shall there be the like in all other parts of the earth. John Trapp
v3 Say something. There is more required than to think of God. Consideration, meditation, contemplation upon God and divine objects, have their place and their season; but this is more than that and mroe than admiration too; for all these may come to an end in ecstasies, and in stupidities, and in useless and frivolous imaginations. John Donne.
Psalm 66: Thanking God for yesterday, today and tomorrow
yesterday - 5-7
Today - 8-9
Future - 4
Friday, 25 February 2011
Psalm 66: Spurgeon
v1 the languages of the lands are many, but their praises should be one, addressed to one only God.
v2 to honour God should be our subject, and to honour him our object when we sing. To give glory to God is but to restore to him his own.
Heart worship and spiritual joy render praise more glorious than vestments, incense, and music could do.
v3 Until we see God in Christ, the terrible predominates in all our apprehensions of him.
Power brings a man to his knee, but love alone wins his heart.
v4 Acceptable worship not only praises God as the mysterious Lord, but it is rendered fragrant by some measure of knowledge of his name or character.
...expected by the writer of this psalm; and indeed, throughout all Old Testmanet writings, there are intimations of the future general spread of the worship of God.
Perverted Judasim may be exclusive, but the religion of Moses and David and Isaiah was not so.
v5 such glorious events, as the cleaving of the Red Sea and the overthrow of Pharaoh, are standing wonders, and throughout all time a voice sounds forth concerning them 'come and see.'
..this same God liveth and is to be worshipped with trembling reverence.
v6 it is to be remarked that Israel's joy was in her God and there let ours be. It is not so much what he has done, as what he is, that should excite in us a sacred rejoicing.
v7 he has not deceased, nor abdicated, nor suffered defeat. The prowess displayed at the Red Sea is undiminished: the divine dominion endures throughout eternity.
After a survey of the Red Sea and Jordan, rebels, if they were in their senses, would have no more stomach for the fight but would humble themselves at the Conqueror's feet.
v9 at any time the preservation of life and especilly the soul's life is a great reason for gratitude but much more when we are called to undergo extreme trials whici of themselves would crush our being.
v10 God has one son without sin but he never had a son without trial.
Since trial is sanctified to so desirable an end, ought we not to submit to it with abounding resignation.
v11 As in Egypt every Israelite was a burden bearer, so is every believer while he in in this foreign land.
We too often forget that God lays our afflictions upon us; if we remembered this fact, we should more patiently submit to the pressure which now pains us.
v12 Many an heir of heaven has had a dire experience of tribulation; the fire through which he has passed has been more terrible than that which chars the bones, for it has fed upon the marrow of his spirit, and burned into the core of his heart; while the waterfloods of affliction have been even more to be feared than the remorseless sea, for they have gone in even unto the soul, and carried the inner nature down into deeps horrible, and not to be imagined without trembling. Yet each saint has been more than conqueror hitherto, and, as it has been, so it shall be.
v13 The child of God is so sensible of his own personal indebtedness to grace that he feels that he must utter a song of his own.
v15 he who is miserly with God is a wretch indeed
In these three verses we have gratitude in action, not content with words, but proving its own sincerity by deeds of obedient sacrifice.
v16 Before they were bidden to come and see. Hearing is faith's seeing.
v17 Since the Lord's answers so frequently follow close at the heels of our petitions, and even overtake them, it becomes us to let our grateful praises keep pace with our humbles prayers.
Those who are least fluent with their tongues are often the most eloquent with their hearts.
v18 If you refuse to hear God's commands, he will surely refuse to hear they prayers.
v2 to honour God should be our subject, and to honour him our object when we sing. To give glory to God is but to restore to him his own.
Heart worship and spiritual joy render praise more glorious than vestments, incense, and music could do.
v3 Until we see God in Christ, the terrible predominates in all our apprehensions of him.
Power brings a man to his knee, but love alone wins his heart.
v4 Acceptable worship not only praises God as the mysterious Lord, but it is rendered fragrant by some measure of knowledge of his name or character.
...expected by the writer of this psalm; and indeed, throughout all Old Testmanet writings, there are intimations of the future general spread of the worship of God.
Perverted Judasim may be exclusive, but the religion of Moses and David and Isaiah was not so.
v5 such glorious events, as the cleaving of the Red Sea and the overthrow of Pharaoh, are standing wonders, and throughout all time a voice sounds forth concerning them 'come and see.'
..this same God liveth and is to be worshipped with trembling reverence.
v6 it is to be remarked that Israel's joy was in her God and there let ours be. It is not so much what he has done, as what he is, that should excite in us a sacred rejoicing.
v7 he has not deceased, nor abdicated, nor suffered defeat. The prowess displayed at the Red Sea is undiminished: the divine dominion endures throughout eternity.
After a survey of the Red Sea and Jordan, rebels, if they were in their senses, would have no more stomach for the fight but would humble themselves at the Conqueror's feet.
v9 at any time the preservation of life and especilly the soul's life is a great reason for gratitude but much more when we are called to undergo extreme trials whici of themselves would crush our being.
v10 God has one son without sin but he never had a son without trial.
Since trial is sanctified to so desirable an end, ought we not to submit to it with abounding resignation.
v11 As in Egypt every Israelite was a burden bearer, so is every believer while he in in this foreign land.
We too often forget that God lays our afflictions upon us; if we remembered this fact, we should more patiently submit to the pressure which now pains us.
v12 Many an heir of heaven has had a dire experience of tribulation; the fire through which he has passed has been more terrible than that which chars the bones, for it has fed upon the marrow of his spirit, and burned into the core of his heart; while the waterfloods of affliction have been even more to be feared than the remorseless sea, for they have gone in even unto the soul, and carried the inner nature down into deeps horrible, and not to be imagined without trembling. Yet each saint has been more than conqueror hitherto, and, as it has been, so it shall be.
v13 The child of God is so sensible of his own personal indebtedness to grace that he feels that he must utter a song of his own.
v15 he who is miserly with God is a wretch indeed
In these three verses we have gratitude in action, not content with words, but proving its own sincerity by deeds of obedient sacrifice.
v16 Before they were bidden to come and see. Hearing is faith's seeing.
v17 Since the Lord's answers so frequently follow close at the heels of our petitions, and even overtake them, it becomes us to let our grateful praises keep pace with our humbles prayers.
Those who are least fluent with their tongues are often the most eloquent with their hearts.
v18 If you refuse to hear God's commands, he will surely refuse to hear they prayers.
Thursday, 24 February 2011
The Bible Jesus Read: Psalms
The Psalms:
The book of Psalms comprises a sampling of spiritual journals, much like personal letters to God.
I must read them as an over-the-shoulder reader since the intended audience was not other people, but God. Even the psalms intended for public use were designed as corporate prayers: from them too God represented the primary audience.
I had been trying to subconsciously fit the psalms into the scriptural grid established by the apostle Paul.
The psalms are however not pronouncements from on high delivered with full apostolic authority on matters of faith and practice. They are personal prayers in the form of poetry, written by a variety of people – peasants, kings, professional musicians, rank amateurs – in wildly fluctuating moods.
Job and Deuteronomy offer the extraordinary cases of two renowned, righteous men trying to relate to God through difficult times. Psalms gives examples of ‘ordinary’ people struggling mightily to align what they believe about God with what they actually experience. Sometimes the authors are vindictive, sometimes self-righteous, sometimes paranoid, sometimes petty.
The psalms are not so much representing God to the people as the people representing themselves to God.
Psalms do not theologize. One reason for this is that the psalms are poetry, and poetry’s function is not to explain but to offer images and stories that resonate with our lives.’ Kathleem Norris
Neal Plantiga on Psalm 91 (protection psalm) ‘Oh? What about Christians arrested by the Nazis in World War II, orr by hostile Muslim governments today? How must the psalm sound as they read it on the eve of execution? The psalms’ sweeping promises of safety seem patently untrue.
Plantiga ‘What Psalm 91 does is express one – one of the loveliest, one of the most reassured - but just one of the moods of faith. It’s a mood of exuberant confidence in the sheltering providence of God. Probably the psalmist has been protected by God in some dangerous incident, and he is celebrating. On other days and in other moods – in other darker seasons of his life – this same psalmist might have called to God out of despair and a sense of abandonment… you need another psalm or two to fill in the picture, to cry out that under those same wings bad things sometimes happen to good people.
I come to psalms not as a student wanting to acquire knowledge but rather as a fellow pilgrim wanting to acquire relationship.
The seemingly random ordering of the 150 psalms {is explained by} the seesaw cycle of intimacy and abandonment {that} most people experience in their relationship with God.
I have learned to appreciate psalms because it does encompass both points of view, often adjoined with no calming transition. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not his benefits,’ says psalm 103. The author of its nearest neighbour is desperately trying to recall God’s benefits, no easy task in his condition, bones burning like glowing embers, on a diet of ashes and tears.
It may seem strange for sacred writings to include such scenes of spiritual failure, but actually their inclusion reflects an important principle in therapy. A marriage therapist will often warn new clients, ‘your relationship may get worse before it gets better.’ Grudges and resentments that have been buried for years may resurface. Misunderstandings must be nakedly exposed before true understandings can begin to flourish. Indeed the psalms, like psychoanalysis, may help uncover neurotic elements in us.
The 150 psalms present a mosaic of spiritual therapy in process. Doubt, paranoia, giddiness, meanness, delight, hatred, joy, praise, vengefulness, betrayal – you can find it all in the psalms.
‘psalms of disorientation’ – Walter Bruggemann to describe the psalms that express confusion, confession and doubt.
They wrestled with God over every facet of their lives, and in the end it was the very act of wrestling that proved their faith.
Praise:
Somerset Maugham had a devout relative who went through the Book of common prayer and crossed out everything on praise. People are uncomfortable with compliments to their face, he reasoned, so surely God would not want them either.
We might best imagine praise by thinking of our instinctive response to a great work of art or a symphony or extraordinary beauty in any form. The natural response is, first, to pause and enjoy the surpassing beauty – almost knealing before it- and then to announce it to others.
Lament:
Eugene Peterson comments: 'only a minority focus on praise and thanksgiving; perhaps as many as seventy percent take the form of laments. These two categories correspond to the two large conditions in which we find ourselves: distress and well-being.'
King David specifically ordered that his people be taught how to lament (2 Sam. 1:18)
Dan Allender, Christian counselor:
"To whom do you vocalize the most intense, irrational - meaning inchoate, inarticulate - anger? Would you do so with someone who could fire you or cast you out of a cherished position or relationship? Not likely. You don't trust them - you don't believe they would endure the depths of your disappointment, confusion... The person who hears your lament and far mroe bears your lament against them, paradoxically, is someone you deeply, wildly trust... The language of lament is oddly the shadow side of faith."
Cursing:
The cursing psalms are best understood as prayers... Seen this way they demonstrate what i have called 'spiritual therapy'.
Dorothy Sayer remarks: We all have diabolical thoughts, but there's a world of difference in responding with words instead of deeds, whether, say, we write a murder mystery or commit murder.
What would be gossip when addressed to anyone else is petition when addressed to God.
The book of Psalms comprises a sampling of spiritual journals, much like personal letters to God.
I must read them as an over-the-shoulder reader since the intended audience was not other people, but God. Even the psalms intended for public use were designed as corporate prayers: from them too God represented the primary audience.
I had been trying to subconsciously fit the psalms into the scriptural grid established by the apostle Paul.
The psalms are however not pronouncements from on high delivered with full apostolic authority on matters of faith and practice. They are personal prayers in the form of poetry, written by a variety of people – peasants, kings, professional musicians, rank amateurs – in wildly fluctuating moods.
Job and Deuteronomy offer the extraordinary cases of two renowned, righteous men trying to relate to God through difficult times. Psalms gives examples of ‘ordinary’ people struggling mightily to align what they believe about God with what they actually experience. Sometimes the authors are vindictive, sometimes self-righteous, sometimes paranoid, sometimes petty.
The psalms are not so much representing God to the people as the people representing themselves to God.
Psalms do not theologize. One reason for this is that the psalms are poetry, and poetry’s function is not to explain but to offer images and stories that resonate with our lives.’ Kathleem Norris
Neal Plantiga on Psalm 91 (protection psalm) ‘Oh? What about Christians arrested by the Nazis in World War II, orr by hostile Muslim governments today? How must the psalm sound as they read it on the eve of execution? The psalms’ sweeping promises of safety seem patently untrue.
Plantiga ‘What Psalm 91 does is express one – one of the loveliest, one of the most reassured - but just one of the moods of faith. It’s a mood of exuberant confidence in the sheltering providence of God. Probably the psalmist has been protected by God in some dangerous incident, and he is celebrating. On other days and in other moods – in other darker seasons of his life – this same psalmist might have called to God out of despair and a sense of abandonment… you need another psalm or two to fill in the picture, to cry out that under those same wings bad things sometimes happen to good people.
I come to psalms not as a student wanting to acquire knowledge but rather as a fellow pilgrim wanting to acquire relationship.
The seemingly random ordering of the 150 psalms {is explained by} the seesaw cycle of intimacy and abandonment {that} most people experience in their relationship with God.
I have learned to appreciate psalms because it does encompass both points of view, often adjoined with no calming transition. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not his benefits,’ says psalm 103. The author of its nearest neighbour is desperately trying to recall God’s benefits, no easy task in his condition, bones burning like glowing embers, on a diet of ashes and tears.
It may seem strange for sacred writings to include such scenes of spiritual failure, but actually their inclusion reflects an important principle in therapy. A marriage therapist will often warn new clients, ‘your relationship may get worse before it gets better.’ Grudges and resentments that have been buried for years may resurface. Misunderstandings must be nakedly exposed before true understandings can begin to flourish. Indeed the psalms, like psychoanalysis, may help uncover neurotic elements in us.
The 150 psalms present a mosaic of spiritual therapy in process. Doubt, paranoia, giddiness, meanness, delight, hatred, joy, praise, vengefulness, betrayal – you can find it all in the psalms.
‘psalms of disorientation’ – Walter Bruggemann to describe the psalms that express confusion, confession and doubt.
They wrestled with God over every facet of their lives, and in the end it was the very act of wrestling that proved their faith.
Praise:
Somerset Maugham had a devout relative who went through the Book of common prayer and crossed out everything on praise. People are uncomfortable with compliments to their face, he reasoned, so surely God would not want them either.
We might best imagine praise by thinking of our instinctive response to a great work of art or a symphony or extraordinary beauty in any form. The natural response is, first, to pause and enjoy the surpassing beauty – almost knealing before it- and then to announce it to others.
Lament:
Eugene Peterson comments: 'only a minority focus on praise and thanksgiving; perhaps as many as seventy percent take the form of laments. These two categories correspond to the two large conditions in which we find ourselves: distress and well-being.'
King David specifically ordered that his people be taught how to lament (2 Sam. 1:18)
Dan Allender, Christian counselor:
"To whom do you vocalize the most intense, irrational - meaning inchoate, inarticulate - anger? Would you do so with someone who could fire you or cast you out of a cherished position or relationship? Not likely. You don't trust them - you don't believe they would endure the depths of your disappointment, confusion... The person who hears your lament and far mroe bears your lament against them, paradoxically, is someone you deeply, wildly trust... The language of lament is oddly the shadow side of faith."
Cursing:
The cursing psalms are best understood as prayers... Seen this way they demonstrate what i have called 'spiritual therapy'.
Dorothy Sayer remarks: We all have diabolical thoughts, but there's a world of difference in responding with words instead of deeds, whether, say, we write a murder mystery or commit murder.
What would be gossip when addressed to anyone else is petition when addressed to God.
Tuesday, 22 February 2011
Is God An Egomaniac?
Notice, from the very beginning, God is seen as a giving God with no explanation as to why. I flip the pages of Scripture as if reading it for the first time and ask “Why is he doing all of this for man?” Adam was given life. God gave Adam the earth to rule over. He gave him the animals. If that weren’t enough, He then gave him Eve. Even when they rebelled, God initiated a plan to give man redemption. He gave them children and began to work through the line of one of them so that He could eventually redeem man who did not deserve to be redeemed. He gave Abraham a promise that He would be a father of many nations and that through him he would give the world a great blessing. When the fullness of time came, He gave His own Son over to a terrible death for man.
I am sorry, but I do not find an egotistical God whose sole unqualified purpose in creation is self-glorification. It is just not there, but maybe I have missed something.
...Is it egotistical for the ocean to roar. Is it egotistical for the sun to shine so bright. Is it egotistical for romantic love to make our hearts drop? Is it egotistical for chocolate to make our mouth water? Is it egotistical for the expanse of the universe to cause us to stand in awe? Is it egotistical for sex to feel good? Is it egotistical for music to effect our emotions? Is it egotistical for the sky to be blue? Yes, all of these are attributes of impersonal things. But they all call out for recognition nonetheless. This recognition brings fulfillment to us, not to the things themselves. When we see a personal God who not only created all these things that beacon us to joyful recognition but is also the very embodiment of them calling on us to glorify him, he is doing nothing else but what is expected from a loving God. He is calling us to recognize him and his beauty. In doing so, we experience the greatest pleasure existence has to offer. His call for us to recognize him is nothing other than a call for our own ultimate fulfillment.
Friday, 18 February 2011
Do Hard Things: C1
Rebelution: 'a teenage rebellion against low expectations.'
Tug of war between a hundred men and an elephant, the elephant wins every time.
Elephant handlers however only use a piece of string tied to a tree as a way of keeping the elephant under control. Despite the elephants huge potential of strength and power it is shackled in its mind, thinking that it is under the control of the handler. Are we elephants? Have we, people with incredible potential in God, become shackled by the myth of adolescence?
Definition of a teenager. someone who has a myspace page and is more likely to take a photo on their phone than on a camera. However at one time teenagers didn't exist...
The first documented use of the word teenager was in 1941 in a copy of Reader's Digest.
Historian Friedrich Heer:
'Around 1800 young people of both sexes could reckon on being considered adults as soon as the outward signs of puberty made their appearance. Girls attained marriageable age at fifteen... Boys could join the Prussian army as office cadets at the age of fifteen. Among the upper classes entry to university or to a profession was possible at the age of fifteen or sixteen. The school leaving age, and consequently the end of childhood, was raised during the nineteenth century to fourteen.'
George, David and Clara examples of people given responsibility at a young age p31-32.
adolescence literally means - 'to grow up.' Not a problem but...
'The modern understanding of adolescence literally allows, encourages, and even trains young people to remain childish for much longer than necessary. It holds us back from what we could do, from what God made us to do, and even from what we would want to do it we got out from under society's low expectations.
America In So Many Words:
'In the first part of the twentieth century, we made a startling discovery. There were teenagers among us! Until then, we had though of people in just two stages: children and adults. And while childhood might have its tender moments, the goal of the child was to grow up as promptly as possible in order to enjoy the opportunities and shoulder the responsibilities of an adult.'
Entire industries - movie, music, fashion, fast food - and countless online services revolve around the consumer habits of, you guessed it, teens.
With all this money and attention focused on teens, the teen years are viewed as some sort of vacation. Society doesn't expect much of anything from young people during their teen years - except trouble. And it certainly doesn't expect competence, maturity, or productivity. The saddest part is that, as the culture around them has come to expect less and less , young people have dropped to meet those lower expectations. Since most of us have grown up surrounded by these low expectations, meeting them is like breathing to us - we never give it a thought. And we never realize what we've lost.
As one education expert put it, "Our current ceiling for students is really much closer to where the floor ought to be." p36
Twelve year old David was expected to successfully return a ship, its captain, and its crew to the United States. We are expected to return our pillows, sheets, and blankets to their proper place on the bed. David succeeded. Did you this morning?
Studies have been done on the power of EXPECTATIONS:
Teachers were given two classes of randomly divided students. However, the teachers were told that one class was made up of the best and brightest students at the school and that the other class was made up of the slower to average students. With that, the teachers began to teach. And guess what happened?
All of the teachers' interactions with the students were tainted by their expectations. When the teachers worked with a student in the 'bright' class, they persisted with the student until he or she found the answer. But when a student in the 'slow' class didn't find the answer right away, the teachers moved on to another student. When a student in the bright class struggled, the teachers brushed it off saying that the student was just having an 'off day.' But when the students in the slow class struggled, it was just because they were slow.
Henry Ford, , founder of Ford Motor Company 'Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right.'
Isn't it ironice that many teenagers, though fluent in multiple computer languages (we're considered trendsetters and early adopters), are not expected to understand or care about things like personal finances, politics, or our faith? We're not even expected to be capable of carrying on an intelligent conversation with an adult. p41
1 Corinthians 14:20 'Brother, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults." Our culture says 'Be mature in evil, but in your thinking and behaviour be childish.'p43
Tug of war between a hundred men and an elephant, the elephant wins every time.
Elephant handlers however only use a piece of string tied to a tree as a way of keeping the elephant under control. Despite the elephants huge potential of strength and power it is shackled in its mind, thinking that it is under the control of the handler. Are we elephants? Have we, people with incredible potential in God, become shackled by the myth of adolescence?
Definition of a teenager. someone who has a myspace page and is more likely to take a photo on their phone than on a camera. However at one time teenagers didn't exist...
The first documented use of the word teenager was in 1941 in a copy of Reader's Digest.
Historian Friedrich Heer:
'Around 1800 young people of both sexes could reckon on being considered adults as soon as the outward signs of puberty made their appearance. Girls attained marriageable age at fifteen... Boys could join the Prussian army as office cadets at the age of fifteen. Among the upper classes entry to university or to a profession was possible at the age of fifteen or sixteen. The school leaving age, and consequently the end of childhood, was raised during the nineteenth century to fourteen.'
George, David and Clara examples of people given responsibility at a young age p31-32.
adolescence literally means - 'to grow up.' Not a problem but...
'The modern understanding of adolescence literally allows, encourages, and even trains young people to remain childish for much longer than necessary. It holds us back from what we could do, from what God made us to do, and even from what we would want to do it we got out from under society's low expectations.
America In So Many Words:
'In the first part of the twentieth century, we made a startling discovery. There were teenagers among us! Until then, we had though of people in just two stages: children and adults. And while childhood might have its tender moments, the goal of the child was to grow up as promptly as possible in order to enjoy the opportunities and shoulder the responsibilities of an adult.'
Entire industries - movie, music, fashion, fast food - and countless online services revolve around the consumer habits of, you guessed it, teens.
With all this money and attention focused on teens, the teen years are viewed as some sort of vacation. Society doesn't expect much of anything from young people during their teen years - except trouble. And it certainly doesn't expect competence, maturity, or productivity. The saddest part is that, as the culture around them has come to expect less and less , young people have dropped to meet those lower expectations. Since most of us have grown up surrounded by these low expectations, meeting them is like breathing to us - we never give it a thought. And we never realize what we've lost.
As one education expert put it, "Our current ceiling for students is really much closer to where the floor ought to be." p36
Twelve year old David was expected to successfully return a ship, its captain, and its crew to the United States. We are expected to return our pillows, sheets, and blankets to their proper place on the bed. David succeeded. Did you this morning?
Studies have been done on the power of EXPECTATIONS:
Teachers were given two classes of randomly divided students. However, the teachers were told that one class was made up of the best and brightest students at the school and that the other class was made up of the slower to average students. With that, the teachers began to teach. And guess what happened?
All of the teachers' interactions with the students were tainted by their expectations. When the teachers worked with a student in the 'bright' class, they persisted with the student until he or she found the answer. But when a student in the 'slow' class didn't find the answer right away, the teachers moved on to another student. When a student in the bright class struggled, the teachers brushed it off saying that the student was just having an 'off day.' But when the students in the slow class struggled, it was just because they were slow.
Henry Ford, , founder of Ford Motor Company 'Whether you think you can or whether you think you can't, you're right.'
Isn't it ironice that many teenagers, though fluent in multiple computer languages (we're considered trendsetters and early adopters), are not expected to understand or care about things like personal finances, politics, or our faith? We're not even expected to be capable of carrying on an intelligent conversation with an adult. p41
1 Corinthians 14:20 'Brother, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults." Our culture says 'Be mature in evil, but in your thinking and behaviour be childish.'p43
Surprised by Hope: C16
There is almost nothing about 'going to heaven when you die' in the whole New Testament. Being citizens of heaven (Phil 3:20) doesn't mean you're supposed to end up there. Many of the Philippians were Roman citizens, but Rome didn't want them back when they retired. Their job was to bring Roman culture to Philippi.
Wednesday, 16 February 2011
Give to the Winds Thy Fears
Give to the winds thy fears,
Hope and be undismayed.
God hears thy sighs and counts they tears,
God shall lift up thy head.
Through waves and clouds and storms,
He gently clears they way;
Wait thou his time; so shall this night
Soon end in joyous day.
Far, far above they thought,
His counsel shall appear,
When fully he the work hath wrought,
That caused thy needless fear.
Leave to his sovereign sway
To choose and to command;
So shalt thou, wondering, own that way,
How wise, how strong this hand.
Paul Gerhardt 1656
Hope and be undismayed.
God hears thy sighs and counts they tears,
God shall lift up thy head.
Through waves and clouds and storms,
He gently clears they way;
Wait thou his time; so shall this night
Soon end in joyous day.
Far, far above they thought,
His counsel shall appear,
When fully he the work hath wrought,
That caused thy needless fear.
Leave to his sovereign sway
To choose and to command;
So shalt thou, wondering, own that way,
How wise, how strong this hand.
Paul Gerhardt 1656
When the Darkness Will Not Lift: C2
One of the reasons God loved David so much was that he cried so much. p35
In fact the darkest experience for the child of God is when his faith sinks out of his own sight. Not out of God's sight, but his. Yes, it is possible to be so overwhelmed with darkness that you do not know if you are a Christian - and yet still be one. p38
It follows from this that we should all fortify ourselves against the dark hours of depression by cultivating a deep distrust of the certainties of despair. Despair is relentless in the certainties of its pessimism. But we have seen again and again, from our own experienced and others', that absolute statements of hopelessness that we make in the dark are notoriously unreliable. Our dark certainties are not sureties. While have the light, let us cultivate distrust of the certainties of despair. p42-43
In fact the darkest experience for the child of God is when his faith sinks out of his own sight. Not out of God's sight, but his. Yes, it is possible to be so overwhelmed with darkness that you do not know if you are a Christian - and yet still be one. p38
It follows from this that we should all fortify ourselves against the dark hours of depression by cultivating a deep distrust of the certainties of despair. Despair is relentless in the certainties of its pessimism. But we have seen again and again, from our own experienced and others', that absolute statements of hopelessness that we make in the dark are notoriously unreliable. Our dark certainties are not sureties. While have the light, let us cultivate distrust of the certainties of despair. p42-43
Tuesday, 15 February 2011
Surprised by Hope: C14
But with the resurrection there is a new way of telling the entire story. The resurrection isn't just a surprise happy ending for one person, but is the turning-point for everything else.
If Jesus had not been raised, Luke is saying, all you have is hopes raised once more and dashed once more.
If the messenger bringing vital news falls into the river and is then rescued, he isn't rescued for himself alone, but for the sake of those who are waiting in desperate hope for his life-giving message.
...the worldwide mission in which the nations are summoned to turn from their idolatry and find forgiveness of sins. And they are to do this, Luke implies, because in Jesus we see the true God in human form, the reality of which all idols are parodies, and the true forgiveness of sins through his cross, the reality before which all sacrifices are types and shadows.
The word through whom all things were made is now the Word through whom all things are remade.
Easter and Pentecost belong together. East commissions Jesus' follower for a task; Pentecost gives them the necessary equipment to accomplish it.
Jesus' resurrection summons us to difficult and dangerous missions on Earth.
Those who find the risen Jesus going to the roots of their rebellion, denial and sin, and offering them love and forgiveness, may well also find themselves sent off to be shepherds instead. Let those with ears listen.
There could not be a much clearer statement of intent; the kingdoms of the world are now claimed as the kingdom of Israel's God, and of his Messiah.
East was the beginning of God's new world, the long awaited new age, the resurrection of the dead.
Paul declares that the speculations and puzzles of pagan theology and philosophy could now all be put on a different footing, because the one true God had unvelied himself and his plan for the whole world by appointing a man to be judge of the whole world, and had certified this by raising him from the dead.
The difference between the kingdoms of the world and the kingdom of God lies exactly in this, that the kingdom of God comes through the death and resurrection of his son, not through naked displays of brute force or wealth.
And if we ask what on earth can possibly justify such an outrageous statement - that Jesus is already king of the world, even though Caesar seems to be, and death itself is still rampant - there can be only one answer: the resurrection.
We can, if we choose, screen out the heavenly dimension and live as flatlanders, materialists. If we do that we will be buying in to a system that will go bad, and will wither and die, because earth gets its vital life from heaven.
The Spirit, the sacraments and the scriptures are given so that the double life of Jesus, both heavenly and earthly, can become ours as well, already in the present.
Christian holiness consists not of trying has hard as we can to be good, but of learning to live in the new world created by Easter, the new world which we publicly entered in our baptism.
If Jesus had not been raised, Luke is saying, all you have is hopes raised once more and dashed once more.
If the messenger bringing vital news falls into the river and is then rescued, he isn't rescued for himself alone, but for the sake of those who are waiting in desperate hope for his life-giving message.
...the worldwide mission in which the nations are summoned to turn from their idolatry and find forgiveness of sins. And they are to do this, Luke implies, because in Jesus we see the true God in human form, the reality of which all idols are parodies, and the true forgiveness of sins through his cross, the reality before which all sacrifices are types and shadows.
The word through whom all things were made is now the Word through whom all things are remade.
Easter and Pentecost belong together. East commissions Jesus' follower for a task; Pentecost gives them the necessary equipment to accomplish it.
Jesus' resurrection summons us to difficult and dangerous missions on Earth.
Those who find the risen Jesus going to the roots of their rebellion, denial and sin, and offering them love and forgiveness, may well also find themselves sent off to be shepherds instead. Let those with ears listen.
There could not be a much clearer statement of intent; the kingdoms of the world are now claimed as the kingdom of Israel's God, and of his Messiah.
East was the beginning of God's new world, the long awaited new age, the resurrection of the dead.
Paul declares that the speculations and puzzles of pagan theology and philosophy could now all be put on a different footing, because the one true God had unvelied himself and his plan for the whole world by appointing a man to be judge of the whole world, and had certified this by raising him from the dead.
The difference between the kingdoms of the world and the kingdom of God lies exactly in this, that the kingdom of God comes through the death and resurrection of his son, not through naked displays of brute force or wealth.
And if we ask what on earth can possibly justify such an outrageous statement - that Jesus is already king of the world, even though Caesar seems to be, and death itself is still rampant - there can be only one answer: the resurrection.
We can, if we choose, screen out the heavenly dimension and live as flatlanders, materialists. If we do that we will be buying in to a system that will go bad, and will wither and die, because earth gets its vital life from heaven.
The Spirit, the sacraments and the scriptures are given so that the double life of Jesus, both heavenly and earthly, can become ours as well, already in the present.
Christian holiness consists not of trying has hard as we can to be good, but of learning to live in the new world created by Easter, the new world which we publicly entered in our baptism.
Monday, 14 February 2011
Jewish wedding
Interestingly at the Messianic-Jewish wedding they always referred to God as 'The God of Israel' which is a helpful way of describing a bit more about who God is since the word 'God' means so much to so many people. I suppose we say 'Jesus' for this reason but I think Paul used the phrase 'The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ'. Biblical theology is about how God reveals himself to people through the stories of scripture. God isn't a list of theological terms but a set of stories through which we learn how people approached him. That's why I suppose it's important to say 'the God of Israel', well that's one of the reasons I suppose.
Also they used the 'grafted in' analogy as a reminder to the gentiles present in the congregation that it was the Jewish people who were the original people of God. I find this interesting. Paul picks the image up and uses the phrase 'grafted in' but he does it to speak to gentile believers who may fall into the trap of pride and thinking that they are no. 1 since Israel messed it up. What the messianic Jews were doing today was using the metaphor as a way of boasting about their Jewish status. An interesting missing of the point and a falling back into the trap of pride and nationalism that Paul was so keen to speak out against. They would say that they do it to make a break from the negative associations with 'the church'. Paul however seems happy to say 'the dividing wall of hostility has been removed' we have to live with the negativity and move on. The way to break from past sins is to demonstrate a different type of church/people from anything anyone has experienced. Not by changing the wording and introducing new theological terms and a whole new jargon and language that makes some 'in' and some 'out' but by living differently and over time changing perspectives.
Also they used the 'grafted in' analogy as a reminder to the gentiles present in the congregation that it was the Jewish people who were the original people of God. I find this interesting. Paul picks the image up and uses the phrase 'grafted in' but he does it to speak to gentile believers who may fall into the trap of pride and thinking that they are no. 1 since Israel messed it up. What the messianic Jews were doing today was using the metaphor as a way of boasting about their Jewish status. An interesting missing of the point and a falling back into the trap of pride and nationalism that Paul was so keen to speak out against. They would say that they do it to make a break from the negative associations with 'the church'. Paul however seems happy to say 'the dividing wall of hostility has been removed' we have to live with the negativity and move on. The way to break from past sins is to demonstrate a different type of church/people from anything anyone has experienced. Not by changing the wording and introducing new theological terms and a whole new jargon and language that makes some 'in' and some 'out' but by living differently and over time changing perspectives.
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