Redemption (Psalms 24-26)

I love reading the Psalms in this format because once a week I get to peek what's on David's Heart.  Today in two of the Psalms we read how David wants redemption for his nation and for himself. 

My favorite stories are redemption stories.  I fear that we want nice and easy stories without a lot of confusion.  One's with definite heroes and definite villians with as little sex, cussing, and violence as possible.  And while I think we can write scripts that are devoid of bad elements (or at least present them in a way that doesn't make a child loose his/her innocence), we miss plot lines because we refuse to describe our heroes as faulty. 

I love movies like "Catch Me if You Can" because someone finds a hero in a villian's life.  It is a real tale of redemption, and gives the hope that someone can turn their life around.  Which we all can in Christ, that's why He died for us. 

Since my last post...

Since my last post, you may have noticed some things in the Bible.  Abraham lied again, Isaac married Rebekah, Jacob stole a blessing and wrestled with an angel, 7 cycles of Judges passed, friends accused Job of sin, Job defended himself, Israel is getting destroyed, Israel will be restored, Jesus preached and taught valuable lessons, and we are done with the book of Romans.  A lot has happened since I last posted.  And I apologize.  I need to be more disciplined with this blogging. 

In today's reading, I found something profound.  The last verse of what we read in Judges says, "In those days, there was no king.  Everyone did what was right in his own eyes."  And if you read today's reading, you'd know there was some messed up stuff going on.  A woman makes an idol to God.  A man hires a Levite, who then gets persuaded to leave by the tribe of Dan.  Another levite gets his concubine raped, and starts a civil war after chopping her up and sending her to the 12 tribes of Israel.  To end the civil war, a village gets massacred so the tribe of Benjamin can have wives.  Quite messed up stuff. 

2 things to glean: First, if we are never wrong, we may not be following God.  These people did messed up things because they did what was right in their own sight.  Any one of us can mess up, especially if we are always right.

Second, God still loves us.  We don't hear about impending doom here like we do in the prophets.  God was patient with Israel, and He'll be patient with us, also. 

I need an intercessor (Job 9 & 10)

Sorry for the long delay in blogging.  I hope you've been reading.

We'll skip the commentaries, I missed.  It'd be worthless to try to put them in right now.  But this one is fresh from today's reading.

Today, Job is once again pleading his case to his friends.  And he says something interesting at the end on chapter 9.  "God and I are not equals...I wish I had an intercessor." 

Sometimes we take for granted that we can present anything to God because of what Jesus did for us.  Some of us don't understand the Blood of Jesus and won't present anything to God out of fear.  But we have one advantage that Job didn't: an intercessor.  Because of what Jesus did, don't have to worry about how "clean" we are, Jesus has taken care of the sin department.  We can present our case to God without worry.

God is Here (Psalm 9-11)

God's presence in our lives should be of comfort.  To David, God was a great comfort.  Psalms 9 & 11 celebrate that fact.  But then we get to Psalm 10, and apparently there were those who lost faith in God.  David encourages God to "get moving" (The Message).

The most talked about subject by some is "Why does God let bad things happen to good people?"  Now, we can deflect that question by saying that there is no one good (Romans 3).  But that fails to show God's care.  God does know and care, and may want to use us as instruments to bring a person close to God.  Or he/she may need to be broken of something. 

Much of the pain we suffer we won't be able to resolve on this side of eternity.  The one thing we can do is invoke God's presence in our lives.  Then Psalm 10 turns into Psalm 9 or 11 for some. 

The posts I've missed

Sorry that I never got to this like I should have daily.  Some things came up that needed to be attended to.  I should have blocked my time out better. 

Friday the 22nd (Isaiah 12-17)
     It seems that Israel is favored.  Everyone else is going to be destroyed, including Assyria who was labeled God's instrument of judgment.  But Israel gets promises of restoration.  It goes to show God's faithfulness. 

Saturday the 23rd (Matthew 5-7)
    The sermon on the mount is one of the most read, beloved, and talked about passages in the Bible.  We see how hard it is to do what God really wants for us.  We see the attitudes we need to take.  We're warned not to take the words Jesus spoke lightly. 
     Sadly, it's also one of the least applied passages in the Bible.

Sunday the 24th (Romans 5 & 6)
    Paul begins to talk more about grace, and how a life of grace means death to sin.  When we are baptized, we died to sin.

Monday the 25th (Genesis 12-15)
    God calls Abram and Abram obeys.  What's interesting about this is that God calls Abram to a "strange land".  So many of us are called by God, but we're only willing to do it if we completely understand it first.  I know with myself, I've had a hard time when I didn't understand where God was taking me.  I was always thankful later, but hindsight is always 20/20.  The important thing is to follow God, and not just when we agree with it.

Tuesday the 26th (Joshua 16-20)
    Today's reading starts with Israel still dividing the land.  But the interesting part about this is that even though Israel did get the land, they never were able to drive everyone out.  Judges 1 has an explanation for this, but I'm going to save that for when we get there.  The only thing I will say is this is the start of trouble for Israel. 
   The Israelites start coming up with Assylum Cities, the cities people can go to so they won't be killed in case of accidental death.  It's interesting the God has always come up with help for problems.  He truly is wise. 

I know these are snippets and I would have probably written more if I would have taken the time.  I apologize for this.  But I want to still encourage you to keep reading.  Don't stop. 

Sounds like a minister I know (Job 5-6)

I sometimes think that my brother's grief counseling class that he took while studying to be a mortician was more for my benefit.  While taking that class, my brother challenged me.  Apparently, most people do not turn to ministers and doctors in time of grief because they come off as cold and calculated.  So Matt's challenge was, "Don't be like those people." 

In Job's grief, his friend Eliphaz finishes his sermon by telling Job that if he were really just, God would protect him.  The flaw in Eliphaz's is thinking that everyone on the path of following God experiences blessings while those who do evil experience curses.  In a perfect world that would be true.  However, our world is far from perfect. 

Bernie Madoff experienced plenty of wealth and comfort while doing evil things.  And while he got caught, there are probably a few more like him that won't.  On the other hand, Christians are the victims of bad things all the time.  It may be something as small as gossip (Job 5:21) or as large as dying for your faith. 

Once again, we see these ideals sink in our world.  The only thing to cling to is God. 

Yours, Mine, and His is something else (Psalm 6-8)

Each of us have to deal with the sins that come in our lives.  No one is exempt.  I think CS Lewis's idea of the closer we get to God the more we understand our sinfulness really applies to Psalm 6.  David starts out, "God, please, no more trips to the woodshed." (The Message)  When we sin, or when God wants to shape us into better people, God instills discipline in our lives.  And it's never fun, but it's because God loves us (Hebrews 12).  Still, God is big enough to hear our cries when we don't understand the discipline we go through. 

Others are going to do us wrong.  When that happens, the temptation is to do wrong to others.  What should happen is that we should pray.  It's what David did (Psalm 7), and it made a big difference.

God, on the other hand, doesn't sin.  He is holy, majestic, and for whatever reason He loves us.  Psalm 8 is one of the best Psalms to know for this reason.  It keeps the wonder of and for God in our hearts.