A Poetic Visual

"The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn,

shining ever brighter till the full light of day."

When I read this, I pictured a good sunrise. Getting up at 5 in the morning when it's still pitch dark and driving is a good way to see one. You're in the car, then it starts to get barely lighter. You still can't see the sun, then suddenly it peeks over the horizon, sending light all around. As it rises it get steadily brighter until everything is bright and you pull out your sunglasses.

You don't usually think of the path of the righteous that way. But when you visualize it, it becomes a lot clearer. When you go along the good path more and more people see what you're doing, and the path gets brighter as the world grows darker, until that path eventually leads to our ultimate goal.

Anyone wanna go for a hike?

Encouragement

Last night our own Rommel planned a worship night and opened it up for everyone in our church to come. As we all know our church is small, but only our core group (less than 20 people) showed up. I was a little bummed, thinking, "how come the church doesn't come to the church stuff?" We played some worship songs (pretty badly for the most part), and Clayton, Dad, and Ms. Jeanne shared with everyone. Dad's was really good and encouraging, and made me happy that at least the people that WERE there were there! We got into groups and prayed and talked, had communion, played some more songs, and had a great time connecting with God and with each other.

(NOTE TO SELF: SCREWTAPE LETTERS is on your iPod! Don't forget it!)

The blown big break

Well, Solomon did some things near the end of his life that made God quite angry, and He swore to take the kingdom away from his son, Rehoboam. So a Man of God went to Jeroboam, one of Solomon's officials, and told him that he would be king of all Israel but 2 tribes. Whoa. Uh... ok! This sounded a lot like when Samuel called David in from watching the sheep and anointed him king! But when Solomon heard about it (the kid looking for his lost kitty came and reported it), he tried to kill Jeroboam, but he fled to Egypt.

When Solomon died and Rehoboam became king, Jeroboam came back to Israel just in time to hear Rehoboam proclaim that he would make things even harder for the Israelites. Said Israelites rebelled and joined Jeroboam. Things are sounding good for our surprise king, but when you get the power fever you do things like... mmm... make golden calves to make sure the people don't go back to worship God, then join Rehoboam again. The people loved the golden calves, and God was not happy.

Instead of becoming this great king that could've done all kinds of things, Jeroboam's whole family was wiped from the face of the earth.

Offerings

Today I read in Leviticus about the rules for making offerings to the LORD. You had to cleanse yourself, and God was VERY particular about how he wanted it to be done. There were even directions about where to throw the guts of the sacrifice birds! Why all this hubbub? Dirt and sin could not be in the presence of God! He could not even look at it. There was a gap between us and him that sin had dug out. God did not like this. There had to be a bridge over that gap.

Well all know what God did - he sent his son as the ULTIMATE sacrifice for our sin, forgiving us for all we have and ever will do! Now instead of having to cleanse ourselves before we could come before God, we can come just as we are! We are forgiven!

The Spirit

"So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit."

Our pastor is doing a series on the Holy Spirit. It has proved most thought provoking - fairly simple, yet complicated too. Today in my daily Bible reading I ran across this passage and I thought of the sermon yesterday. There was an illustration that likened us to a runner. You're running as fast as you can, and your body says, "You should really slow down. I'm tired - STOP ALREADY!!!!" But your competitive nature says, "No, lookit that guy's ahead! Get him! Get him! Catch him!"

It's the same way with our flesh and the Spirit. "the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature." They are at battle! I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. BUT the sinful nature has been crucified! If we belong to Christ, it no longer has any control over us! Let us keep in step with the Spirit!

What have we become?

Our current president has reversed the "Abortion Funding Policy" today. It "gives federal money to international groups that perform abortions or provide information on the option."

OPTION!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Tod Preston, a spokesman for Population Action International, said thus. "Women's health has been severely impacted by the cutoff of assistance. President Obama's actions will help reduce the number of unintended pregnancies, abortions and women dying from high-risk pregnancies because they don't have access to family planning."

Yeah, ok, unintended pregnancies are kinda the "victim"s' fault, funding folks that are fans of abortion is NOT (logically speaking of course) the brightest way to go about REDUCING abortions, as said Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee...

"President Obama not long ago told the American people that he would support policies to reduce abortions, but today he is effectively guaranteeing more abortions by funding groups that promote abortion as a method of population control."

Perverse. Abominable. When people killed their children in the Bible, God calls it "detestable" and when his people started doing it, he called it profanity.

Well America, I hope you're happy.

"So let's just praise the LORD..."

Have you ever prayed without asking God to do something? Not saying that God gets tired of us asking Him to do things, but we all like a conversation without requests for stuff don't we? Ever just told God how awesome He is? I don't do it nearly often enough, but today I found a Psalm that doesn't ask God to do a single thing - not even "deliver me from my enemies"!:D

Psalm 66

Shout with joy to God, all the earth!

Sing the glory of his name;

make his praise glorious!
Say to God, "How awesome are your deeds!

So great is your power

that your enemies cringe before you.
All the earth bows down to you;

they sing praise to you,

they sing praise to your name."
Come and see what God has done,

how awesome his works in man's behalf!
He turned the sea into dry land,

they passed through the waters on foot—

come, let us rejoice in him.
He rules forever by his power,

his eyes watch the nations—

let not the rebellious rise up against him.
Praise our God, O peoples,

let the sound of his praise be heard;
he has preserved our lives

and kept our feet from slipping.
For you, O God, tested us;

you refined us like silver.
You brought us into prison

and laid burdens on our backs.
You let men ride over our heads;

we went through fire and water,

but you brought us to a place of abundance.
I will come to your temple with burnt offerings

and fulfill my vows to you-
vows my lips promised and my mouth spoke

when I was in trouble.
I will sacrifice fat animals to you

and an offering of rams;

I will offer bulls and goats.

Come and listen, all you who fear God;

let me tell you what he has done for me.
I cried out to him with my mouth;

his praise was on my tongue.
If I had cherished sin in my heart,

the Lord would not have listened;
but God has surely listened

and heard my voice in prayer.
Praise be to God,

who has not rejected my prayer

or withheld his love from me!