ezekiel, augustine and the poor in spirit

It amazes me how often the various things I read during my time with God tie together, therefore reinforcing what He is teaching me! (He knows I have to hear things more than once to get it.) This morning I read this in Ezekiel 33:10-11:

"And you, son of man, say to the house of Israel, 'Thus have you said: 'Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we rot away because of them. How then can we live?"' Say to them, '"As I live," declares the Lord GOD, "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?"'"

Then I read this prayer in The Confessions:

"Let them turn back, and seek You, for You do not forsake Your creation as they have forsaken their Creator. Let them only turn back, see! there You are in their hearts, in the hearts of all those who confess to You, who fling themselves into Your arms and weep against Your breast after their difficult journey, while You so easily will wipe away their tears. At this they weep the more, yet even their laments are matter for joy, because You Lord, are not some human being of flesh and blood, but the Lord who made them, and now make them anew and comfort them.

 And what of myself: where was I as I sought You? You were straight ahead of me, but I had roamed away from myself and could not find even myself, let alone You!"

All of this while meditating on Matthew 5:6 for camp: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

safe home

with this title, i can go a couple of different directions today (and neither will have to do with baseball)...

1. we've been working on memorizing Psalm 119 this summer, so at lunch time we were practicing. the second section of 8 verses falls under the heading of the Hebrew letter Beth, which means "house" (Psalm 119 is an acrostic poem using one of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet to begin the verses of each 8 verse section). Psalm 119:9 which begins the section says, "How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to Your word." the "house" section, "guarding it according to Your word" - sounds like a "safe home" to me ;) (i know, a terrible pun.)

2. but truthfully, the reason why this title came to mind was because after lunch i was singing through several selections from Gadsby's Hymns (which i got from amazon last week - 1156 hymn texts!!!). i came to one by Joseph Hart which reminded me of the way our pastor often closes our evening worship services, "Goodnight, and safe home" (he's from Northern Ireland). the verse reads:

This God is the God we adore;

Our faithful, unchangeable Friend;

Whose love is as large as His power,

And neither knows measure nor end.

'Tis Jesus, the First and the Last,

Whose Spirit shall guide us safe home:

We'll praise Him for all that is past,

And trust Him for all that's to come.

AMEN!

adding my amen!

this morning i read a prayer of Augustine's in The Confessions:

O Lord our God,
grant us to trust in your overshadowing wings:
protect us beneath them and bear us up.
You will carry us as little children,
and even to our grey-headed aged you will carry us still.
When you are our strong security, that is strength indeed,
but when our security is in ourselves, that is but weakness.
Our good abides ever in your keeping,
but in diverting our steps from you we have grown perverse.
Let us turn back to you at last, Lord, that we be not overturned.
Unspoilt, our good abides with you,
for you are yourself our good.
We need not fear to find no home again
because we have fallen away from it;
while we are absent our home falls not to ruins,
for our home is your eternity.

AMEN!!!

10 reasons i'm excited summer quizzing starts today

1. i love Bible quizzing
2. the chance to see some new faces giving quizzing a try
3. the chance to see some new faces develop a love for Bible quizzing
4. more than Bible quizzing, i love the Bible
5. Bible quizzing is a great encouragement to memorize large chunks of the Bible
6. the chance to see some new faces be encouraged to memorize large chunks of the Bible
7. we are quizzing on Psalm 119 - probably the greatest exposition on the Bible ever written
8. the chance to see some new faces (and old ones) develop a love for the Bible through memorizing large chunks of the Bible that speak about the great worth and importance of the Bible
9. more than the Bible, i love the God who reveals Himself to us through the Bible
10. the chance to see some new faces (and old ones) get to know the God (and get to know Him better) who reveals Himself through the Bible as they memorize large chunks of the Bible and experience a growing love for Him and His Word!

God, use Your Word today! (1 Peter 1:23-2:3)

a good thing...

back in the day, when we were doing a Bible study through the book of Hebrews, we had a standard comment in reference to Hebrews 11:6 (which says that "without faith it is impossible to please Him") which would pop up again and again in ensuing studies: "pleasing God is a good thing."

well, today as i was reading 2 Corinthians 5:9 the phrase "we make it our aim to please Him" really jumped out at me. i found it especially intriguing that there are "why's" going in both directions from the phrase:

first, the verse begins with the word "so" - "so whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him." why the "so"? - well, looking back in the preceding verses, Paul is talking about our hope of eternity - our eternal dwelling with God - that here and now we are in a "tent" away from the Lord, living by faith rather than by sight... SO the first "why" of aiming to please Him is that we are looking ahead to BEING WITH HIM.

second, verse 10 begins with the word "for" - another "why" looking back to verse 9: "for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil." the second "why" is that although the here and now may be temporary, there is a judgment for it.

so there you have it - two reasons to aim to please the Lord, one positive (eternity with Him), one potentially negative (judgment) - and the reminder, "pleasing God is a good thing... and the alternative is wrath." best to make it our aim to please Him! (and praise God that in our failures - our righteousness is found in Christ!!! 2 Corinthians 5:17)