PSALM 104 - The Grand Master in His Studio

Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord, my God, You are very great! You are clothed with splendor and majesty, covering Yourself with light as with a garment, stretching out the heavens like a tent. He lays the beams of His chambers on the waters; He makes the clouds His chariot; He rides on the wings of the winds, His ministers a flaming fire. He set the earth on its foundations, so that it should never be moved. You covered it with the deep as with a garment. The waters stood above the mountains. At Your rebuke they fled. At the sound of Your thunder they took flight. The mountains rose, the valleys sank down to the place that You appointed them. You set a boundary that they may not pass, so that they might not again cover the earth.
(Verses 1-9)

Man is the only created being who can fully appreciation creation. We are born with a sense of wonder and awe at things too great for us. The Grand Canyon is called just that "grand." So magnificent we catch our breath. The ocean when it's calm or roiling, filled with sea life we are still discovering. So deep that volcanoes spew beneath the service and squid live their lives in depths we haven't delved into. Forests covered in butterflies so thick we can't see the vegetation for their habitation on the limbs of every available tree. Flowing streams with fish that jump for joy. Highest peaks, snow-capped and glistening pink in the sunset of winter. Color, texture, composition all speak  of the One Who composed it for our delight.

Man is the only created being who can express appreciation for creation. Dogs don't write songs about the beauty of their surroundings. We do. Monet used to sit and paint one scene as it looks in the morning, midday and evening. To capture its beauty as if with a time-lapse camera. Hymns and symphonies extol the wonders of the universe. Only man looks at the stars and wonders how far away they are. Sets about discovering the indiscoverable out of the awe inherent in us.

Man is created to worship the Creator. To look to the One Who is behind designing the tiniest cell in our bodies, programmed to predict and produce one unique human being. To long for relationship with God out of the sheer amazement at His brilliance. At His immensity. At His complexity. God made us in His image so we'd want to know Who our real Father is and look for Him. The created universe assures us that we don't have to look very far nor very hard. God wows me with the new bird of paradise that just peeped out of its green shoot this morning to greet me when I walked out onto my patio. The hummingbird singing in the tree outside my window today as its little chest heaves and its feathers vibrate with the work of it feels like a tiny gift to me as it winds its way from flower to flower. Like my Father is winking at me. "Slow down and look around at all I've made. It will still you. Center you. Make you look at Me." And it does. The God of All, paintbrush in hand, with our joy in mind, spent six days splashing color and texture, with broad strokes and finite details, onto Earth's canvas so we'd look upon it as an artist studies a masterpiece in the National Museum of Art. Studying His technique. Appreciating His talent. Adoring His mind. The grand master is still lord over all of it. And I am His.

PSALM 103 - God Is Not An Egomaniac

The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His kingdom rules over all. Bless the Lord, O you, His angels, you mighty ones who do His word, obeying the voice of His word! Bless the Lord, all His hosts, His ministers who do His will! Bless the Lord, all His works, in all places of His dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul!  (Verses 19-22)

 Every country has its Obama, Putin, Castro, Queen Elizabeth or Assad. Rulers freely chosen or those who've taken over in tyranny. Somebody heads us up wherever we live. A certain eminence accompanies their reign. The position brings, to a greater or lesser degree, weightiness. Glory. CEO's are paid more than hourly employees. Bosses have more power than the ones they manage. And, the greater the power, the greater the responsibility. Greater honor for the good; deeper ignominy for the bad. It's interesting to me that we all recognize this until it comes to God. I've heard people castigate our God for seeking glory for Himself. For wanting us to praise Him--creating us for that purpose. The irony, of course, is that since He has dominion over all things, He doesn't need for us to honor Him. It doesn't massage His ego as it does the pride of men and women. Our God simply deserves all honor, glory and praise because He is! The Lord of all--every dominion, kingdom, republic, monarchy--rules all. Unquestionably, eternally, benevolently. All heads of state, all lowly servants, will answer only to Him. Do answer only to Him whether acknowledged or not.

Around the mighty throne are living beings and angels. Praising Him day and night. When God speaks to the angels, they listen to His words and obey His commands. Often on our behalf. Hebrews says "they are sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation (Chapter 1)." In our world today, angels move among us, seen and unseen, doing what Jesus tells them to. Protecting or announcing, serving or directing, they ascend and descend at any given moment from the throne room to us. Straight from His presence into our chaos. They know what we don't. They see what we can't, yet. How thrilling to serve the Almighty One this way. We are made a little lower than they, yet our salvation is something they will never experience. The plan of God--the mystery of the ages--to tabernacle in mankind was revealed to the angels in the death and resurrection of Christ. God didn't tell His angels what He was doing beforehand (Ephesians 3). It was a mystery into which they longed to be included (1 Peter 1). So God didn't necessarily explain to Gabriel the entire plan when the angel was sent to speak with Mary about the baby conceived of the Holy Spirit. But imagine the crackling energy it created in him to finally announce part of it. God born of woman. Both God and man. Trusted enough by the Father to carry the message to Earth. The angels have eyes to see all we will one day marvel at. Our salvation will be central to their praise. O bless our God, you His angels!

How blessed are the armies sent to do battle for Him. Who are assured of victory even before pursuit. The hosts of heaven. Since Earth's foundation, God's hosts have battled for those God loves. Elisha saw them when the king of Syria was after him in Dothan. Surrounded by an army with horses and chariots, Elisha was unafraid. Told his trembling servant, "Those who are with us are more than those against us." God opened the servant's eyes to see a mountain filled with horses and chariots of fire all around them. Then there was Michael, the archangel, whose fight with the princes of darkness who controlled Persia and Greece was revealed to Daniel. Mighty warriors facing off in a realm that controls the event of ours. Yet given the privilege of announcing God's heart to those who wait for an answer from Him. The hosts of God. Revelation 19 describes the armies of heaven following Jesus as He captures the beast, who has gathered the armies of the world to make war against Him at the end of it all. The outcome? The destruction of evil forever. Imagine seeing God the Son hung in shame on a cross on a hill on our tiny planet. Disturbed and curious, outraged and at the ready, to rescue Jesus from the brutality of the men and women their God made. How they must have had to stand their ground, feet firmly planted on heaven's firmament, unmoving, and without command from the Lord of Hosts. Faithful warriors who attend the imperatives of the Almighty God had to stand aside and watch the Lamb of God slaughtered. But what rejoicing there was when Jesus entered heaven and sat down in His rightful place beside the Father. Shouts of victory! Blessings to their God! And a first glimpse into the Godhead's great salvation.

Oceans, plants, streams and stars proclaim the unmatched brilliance of our Lord. The singing of the birds, the movement of Earth upon its axis, the changing tides, hurricanes and earthquakes, sunshine and twilight, mountain heights and volcanoes in the depths of the sea all proclaim the imagination of a Creator too vast to fully comprehend. DNA--a single cell--the blueprint for every function of each individual's design. No two people alike. God's incomprehensible attention to detail. The colors that brush across the sky at sunset, the dew that wets the grass at dawn, the warm hand of a child, the encouragement of a smile...we bless Him with our acknowledgment that He is too wonderful for us. That we acquiesce to the fact we are small and He is great. Not so we grovel. But so we rejoice that a personality so far beyond our grasp chooses to engage with our humanity because He loves us. God wants us to marvel at and bless Him. To bask in the glory Jesus died to share with us. To dwell with our God forever in the splendor He has lavished upon us.

PSALM 103 - I'm Blown Away

Human life is like grass. We grow like a flower in the field. After the wind blows, the flower is gone, and there is no sign of where it was. But the Lord's love for those who respect Him continues forever and ever, and His goodness continues to their grandchildren, and to those who keep His agreement and who remember to obey His orders.  (Verses 15-18)

On April 10, 1979, we closed escrow on our new home in Wichita Falls, Texas. We were moving back to Texas from California and were staying in a motel in downtown Wichita Falls. I was unfamiliar with the town, so my daughters and I spent the morning discovering where the local bank was located, and the grocery store, the Jo-Ann's Fabric store (I made all our clothes back then), the dry cleaners...every place I knew we'd be needing in the coming weeks. We visited our new home once more before we headed back to have dinner at the Wendy's restaurant (term used loosely) near the motel. The dark green storm clouds were whirling even then, curling into tiny funnels. By the time we got downtown, the tornado sirens were blaring and we were forced into the meat locker at Wendy's while an F-4 tornado ripped our side of town to shreds. In the morning light of the next day, as we traveled back to our house, the devastation was absolute and seemingly random. Like an enormous monster movie giant had crashed through the southwest side of town stomping it down with his weight and bulk. Our home was still standing. Only lost a few shingles. While others a block away had been carried completely away by the storm. Gone as if they'd never been there. As were the grocery store, the bank (except for the vault the brick structure was simply gone), and every other landmark my children and I had discovered the day before. Vanished in the wind. Bricks and semis. Homes and office buildings. Taken up into the sky and deposited in desultory fierceness somewhere else. There one moment and gone the next. With no sign, save the cleared foundations, that anything had been there.

Our lives are like that. Bill and I were speaking last night of deaths of his sister and her husband. He was near death from pancreatic cancer. Had days left. Everyone wondering what his sister would do without her husband of forty years. Pati got up on a Monday morning and staggered out of her bedroom, needing help. Fell against the hallway wall. Asked for her phone which by then she couldn't see. And then she was gone. Just like that. Tom left this world ten  days later. And it was over. There isn't a trace of them now. Home sold. Belongings dispersed. Only the memory of who they were. Flowers taken by the wind. Uprooted.

We are evanescent. Built to die. But the love of God continues into forever from forever and is lavished on Earth and into eternity upon those who love Him. A simple promise filled with unbelievable hope. When I'm gone, I can be assured that His love for me does and will extend to my grandchildren. I love and obey Christ and He is so thrilled by that, He will bless my kids and their kids. Nothing can blow that love away. It's indestructible and sure. And here's what I think. If we love the Lord now with all our hearts, bless Him with our whole beings, we are reflecting to our children God's glory, which is His goodness. Our obedience doesn't necessarily assure our children of salvation, as they come to Christ themselves, but it does give them a world rich with the cream obedience out of love for Christ brings to the top. Our children should live in the sweet overflow of our faith and joy. They should feel alienated and strange in a different world. Like paupers when they are princes and princesses. And they should come running home if they do stray. Because obedience and love for Christ has benefits! Remember? Forgiveness of sins, healing of diseases, salvation from our pit dwelling, crowns because of love and mercy, renewed strength for this life and satisfaction loaded with good things. Lavish love. Unbridled mercy. Protection, peace and joy. The ice cream of life fed to us by the hand of God. If we are living life to the fullest, which can't be done without obedience to our benevolent Father, our kids should be basking in the Sonshine every day. And want that for themselves.

And we don't vanish forever. We transition. Unlike the flower, forgotten and replaced by its seeds, we live on to enjoy, face to face, our Father and His kingdom. Hanging fruit, a mighty rushing river, a city glistening with colored jewels, massive choirs of angels, breathtaking vistas and quiet oases and, in the middle of it all, Jesus, waiting with open arms to show us our new home. A home that winds can't blow away. A life now safe with Him. And joy unspeakable and full of glory. We obeyed because He died. We follow His rules because we love Him. We live forever because He lives forever. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits! 

PSALM 103 - What Are You Made Of?

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear Him. For He knows our frame. He remembers we are dust. (Verses 11-14)

Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of His inheritance? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in steadfast love.
Micah 7:18

Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for a friend. You are My friends if you do what I command you. Jesus. John 15

The heavens and earth were finished. And God rested from the work of creation. He looked over it, and there wasn't yet a bush on any of the land or even a small plant anywhere. There hadn't been rain. And there was no one to work the ground. One morning in the early mist that covered the whole earth, the Lord took up a fist of dust and formed a man--Adam. Into the form God blew His own breath. And the man became a living creature. Just like that. And God has never forgotten that day. He sees it with all other days past and yet to come in one timeline stretched before Him. Our God knows what we're made of. So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created them, male and female He created them (Genesis1).

The God Who made us, loves us. Delights to love us! Steadfastly and ferociously. Jealous over His people, for He bought us back from the slippery snake and our bent to sin. Our Father doesn't want to be mad at us. Contrary to the belief of some, Abba wants to give to us. "It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom (Luke 12). He wants children on whom He can lavish His steadfast love. Some of us don't have a father we can understand in this context. Some don't have experiences in the local church that uphold this ideal of our Father. There He's often the master of the house, barking rules that He can't wait for us to break so that He can call down fire from heaven. So maybe that's why it's hard for us to embrace the Father of the Bible. The One Who sings over us with gladness and quiets us with His love (Zephaniah 3). The One Who loves us so much our names are etched on the palms of His hands (Isaiah 49). Our Father swears that even though a mother might be capable of not having compassion on the child of her womb (oh, my, that's another story altogether), He will never forget us (Isaiah 49). Lovingly our Father knitted us together in our mother's wombs, forming our inward parts. He watched as we grew in the secret place of our mother's bodies and wrote our individual stories as our cells multiplied and our features were formed (Psalm 139). In His last words to His disciples before His crucifixion, Jesus proclaimed, In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf, for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me (John 16). You and I have a Father Who knows our name. It delights Him to love us. He knows we're not perfect, but if we have done the one thing that pleases Him most, believe in the One Who came to die in our place as the ultimate sacrifice for sin, we are children of the Living God. We can dance in circles around the throne, delighting our Father with our joyful, thankful, whole hearts. Obeying Him is our glory. Reflecting the light of His face. Not trudging through life and hoping to get lucky some day and be in heaven. But experiencing the benefits of heaven here and now. We can only do that when we know how precious we are to the Father Who remembers what we're made of.

We are a generation that throws many of our babies into the trashcans of America's abortion clinics every minute of every day. So maybe it's become more difficult to understand the sheer pleasure God takes in those of us who've chosen to follow His Son into adoption as children. The kind of love that looks at a newborn and knows for certain that we are looking at the first person we've ever met that we'd unquestionably die for. We'd lay down our lives for the vulnerable and beautiful flesh of our bodies. It's the way God loves us. To the moon and back...as high as the heavens are above earth. He loves us this much. It's why He forgives us...and forgets our sins. Not because of our first birth, but because we were born again into His family. That is the birth that makes the angels sing Hallelujahs all over heaven. It's God's intent to slather us with compassion, mercy, protection, purpose, power, joy, peace and faithfulness. Do you know you are loved like that? Do you know this Father Who would stoop down on His haunches to look you in the eye and instruct you in greatness (Psalm 18)? Who is a God like Him Who would lay down His own life for ours? And our response to so great a love? For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not irksome (burdensome). 1 John 5

It's what makes us serve the Lord with gladness and come into His courts with praise. To slam tambourines, pound drums, strike chords and sing with all our might! I am loved! Bathed in its purity and clothed in its honor! All the mundane minutes of my day and all the switchbacks on my path are carefully overseen by my Father's watchful eyes. He knows my name and my way. It's written down and sure. Carried along by the One Whose arms I finish to fall into.

PSALM 103 - Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God

The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the people of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will He keep His anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay according to our iniquities. (Verses 6-10)

God had had it with Israel. Sure, He'd let them go on in to the Promised Land, but without Him. To His very core He was done with their sinfulness and complaining. Moses was on Mt. Sinai with his God for over a month, receiving from Him the instructions for the covenant of the law written by the hand of God on two tablets of stone. But...when Moses came back down the mountain, aglow with the residual presence of God and carrying the sacred law, the people were dancing around naked and stoned to foreign music around a giant golden calf before which they'd fornicated and worshipped. Aaron was stuttering something about throwing in all the jewelry and "out came this calf," when Moses threw the words of God to the ground, breaking them. What an unholy mess.

"I'm not going with you," God told Moses. "They make me so mad--this stiff-necked, stubborn people--that if I go I will consume them with anger on the way."

"Show me Your ways, if I have found favor with You. You have said you know me by name, and I've found favor in Your sight. So help me know what I need to do to with this nation of people who belong to You." Moses changed God's mind.

"I will go. But not with this generation."

The next morning, very early, Moses met God again on Mt. Sinai. Just God and His friend. No animals could graze nearby. No one else could be on all the mountain. Carrying two new stone tablets, Moses alone met with God, Who descended in a cloud and stood with him. There God proclaimed His name. "The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but Who will by no means clear the guilty" (Exodus 34).

Israel tried again. Cleansed themselves in order to receive the law on the second set of tablets. And God allowed them to wander in the wilderness until they died off. It was the next generation who saw the land promised to them. Joshua and Caleb led them in. What did the first generation say to the ones who finally conquered to make them ready? I think, "God was merciful to us. Didn't kill us in the wilderness. There is still a land out there, son, that we'll never see, but you will. Just wait." Forty years. A long time. Will it ever manifest? It was a rocky journey to fulfillment. And mercy took them there.

The ten plagues, the Passover of the angel of death, the parting of the Red Sea, the drowning of the Egyptian army, manna, springs of water gushing out of rock, flocks of birds for food and the very presence of God leading His people by night and day in cloud and fire. They should've known their God better than they did. Intentionally, sovereignly, He'd seen their need in Egypt, the deaths of their baby sons, the oppression of the government on their heads, and clutched a baby from a gentle stream to save them years before they even knew it. Thinking ahead about how He would deliver His precious people from bondage. Because He loves them. Couldn't watch them suffer any longer. Knew He needed to deal with their oppressors. Steadfast love. It doesn't change. And for the eighty years Moses had to grow into his leadership position, were they complaining? Thinking their God just didn't care? See where I'm going with this?

It wasn't enough. The Presence in the tabernacle. Ten laws became hundreds as man decided to fine tune the old covenant into a morass of tenets impossible to keep. So they could brag about how good they were and how bad the next person. The very law they claimed to keep showed what big sinners they actually were. The society of the self-righteous was as oppressive as the Roman government.

"We must show them." The Godhead, ready for the plan to save us all--not just Israel any more.

And Steadfast Love. The Lord. The Lord, Merciful and Gracious, Slow to Anger, the Faithful One did for us what we couldn't do. Enough of watching us struggle with our sinful nature that forgets Him and builds idols to replace our God in times when we can't understand His ways. In the years when He seems silent while perhaps He lets His anger rest...taking it slow...so as not to consume us. All along He's forming a plan for the deliverance of His stiff-necked children. No more smoky mountain tops or God-filled clouds of guidance. "I must go down to them."

In death, our God released His Spirit into carnal flesh to live forever among and in our flawed world. To tabernacle in all the earth in little temples of glory. Changing from the inside what the law of Moses couldn't. Our hearts. Oh, Jesus didn't deal with us according to our sins! No! The Lord, the Lord wrote a new covenant that wiped them completely away, smearing His blood on the tablets of our hearts when what we deserve is the death penalty. The All-right, All-just Judge of All robed me in His perfection, dissolved my wrongs in dust, and declared me "Not guilty!" Because...because He took my place. The Almighty God descended onto the whole earth, not just Mt. Sinai, this time, and became, instead of a golden calf, the Lamb of God Who took away the sins of the world. The Lord! The Lord! Bless the Lord, O my soul!

PSALM 103 - What's In It For Me?

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits, Who forgives all your iniquity, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from the pit, Who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, Who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. (Verses 1-5)

What a way to start the week! I couldn't wait to get to Psalm 103 and now I feel daunted at the idea of doing it justice in any way. However, if you awakened with the Monday blues, repeat these verses over and over again to your soul!

Self-talk. What to say to my soul today to enliven and rejuvenate it. Espresso for the spirit. Bless the Lord! Everything in me! A mighty shout. A glorious song. Hands up, head heavenward, cry out, my soul! Because I know this God, my Father, the Savior of my soul and Lord of my life! Exhale the doubt and fear that hides or hovers. Breathe in the joy of sins forgiven and a life redeemed! Whether we feel like it or not today, bless His name! For in so doing, we remember Who He is and Whose we are.

I am a sinner. He is a Savior. My God knows I need to be rescued from my carnality and the repercussions of my bending to it. I must be redeemed from the claws of the enemy of my soul and washed clean of the filth attached to my disobedience and rebellion. My God loves me so much, and He loved me before I ever gave Him a thought. "I will bleed and save her," Jesus declared. "I will enter the amphitheater of her challenge and defeat the roaring lion." But that's not all. Jesus then forgave me all the treachery that brought me to the battle I deserved. Put a royal robe on me and said, "All your sins are forgiven. Every single one. Now and forever more." I don't have to hope He'll look with favor on me. Scared at every turn that if I get it wrong, though I try to get it right, that Jesus will one day look at my puny performance and kick me out of the family. And when I've confessed my sinfulness to Him then bring it up again, my God says, "What are you talking about?  I forgot about all of that. It's back there covered in redemptive blood (Psalm 103:12)."

I am sick. God is my healer. Not just of my physical ailments. Sin makes us sick. Look around. I don't have to look further than the story of my own life. Depression. Fear. Addiction. The mutinies of our souls without Him. He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed. For you were like straying sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls (1 Peter 2). Jailed by the heaviness of my soul's afflictions, I'm hopeless until He touches me. Leprosy of spirit, cancer of soul, diseased of heart and lame, blind and deaf--my condition when we met. Jesus didn't draw back in disgust, though He should have. Instead His holy hand deigned to touch my neediness to trade His purity for my afflictions. Whole now! Bless the Lord, O my soul!

I am a pit-dweller. Jesus if my heavenly SEAL. Sea, air or land. No matter where I dig my pit, no matter how hopelessly stuck I am in its mire, not matter how deep the ocean or how high I float above it all in some sin-induced stupor, my God will find me. Where shall I go from Your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, You are there! (Psalm 139) Made a bed in hell lately? Ever? Personally, I know what it feels like to have Jesus walk into that fiery hot mess and say, "Enough!" I've felt the arms of rescue as He yanks me out of the quicksand into which I've fallen. I've seen the light of day as my Savior brings me up from the darkness of my near demise. Oh, Bless the Lord, O my soul!!! I am delivered from myself.

I am a plebeian. He is a prince. But if all the other benefits weren't enough, Jesus gives me a crown. Blessed is the one who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love Him (James 1). The King of Kings and Lord of Lords has made me His sister. I am a princess. Don't laugh! I am! I'm part of a holy nation, a royal priesthood. Adopted through the blood of Christ into God's own family! Because of His great love and stunning mercy, God chose me before the foundations of the earth to be His daughter (Ephesians 1). He loved me while I was still sinning away. Cognizant or incognizant of His far-reaching knowledge of my every thought and action. My God saw me sweeping chimney ashes, beaten down by my aggressor and decided I needed a pair of golden slippers. The King to Whom I belong is the Wonderful Counselor, the Prince of Peace, Mighty God and Everlasting Father! I may look like Cinderella before the ball, but my Father has given me a royal tiara. More and more I want to be comfortable in the regal garb and act like a proper princess should. Bless the Lord, O my soul! Would you look at me now!

My soul is uniquely unsatisfied in this life. My God renews and satisfies. He made us for Himself. Created us to love. Him. First. When Moses asked to see God's glory, God's answer was, "I will make all my goodness pass before you." Goodness is the very glory of my God. We've been tricked into thinking God only wants to control us. Not so! He wants to be good to us. To be the One thing that deeply satisfies our hearts. To provide for us. To protect us. To teach us wisdom. To give us a hope and a future. Uh...when was the last time our current addictions brought such depth into our puny existence? God wants me strong all the way into His arms. Bless the Lord, O my soul! My God is all I need!

Arms raised! Head heavenward! Heart beating with joy! Bless the Lord! Bless Him with your whole being! He deserves it, enjoys it, waits for it and acknowledges it! O, how I love Him, benefits and all!
 

PSALM 102 - Are You Listening?

Of old You laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. They will perish, but You will remain. They will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away. But You are the same and Your years never end. The children of Your servants shall dwell secure. Their offspring shall be established before You.
(Verses 25-28)

I am He. The first and the Last. My hand laid the foundation of the earth and my right hand spread out the heavens. When I call to them, they stand forth together. Isaiah 48

In the beginning was the Word (Logos), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him. Without Him nothing was made that was made.  John 1

Logos. The Greek word for word. Divine self-expression or speech. Jesus is how God speaks. Jesus is the One Who said: "Let there be light." And there was light. Nothing that we see, touch, taste or feel came into being without Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together (Colossians 1:17). Jesus made it all and keeps it from falling apart. In the vastness that is forever, Jesus is I AM (Exodus 3). The First and the Last. The Alpha and the Omega. In everything and before everything from A to Z. Jesus is God. The part of the Triune Godhead Who speaks life into being. It is He Who chose to come to earth, touch our dust, eat our food and die our death. It is He Who now drives history toward its final hours. Jesus is the One worthy to open the scroll of the end times and speak the world's events into being. Jesus is the One Who speaks with a still small voice to our hearts. We, His sheep, can hear the Logos in our ears. Are we listening?

It is amazing to me how powerful the Word of God is. When Bill and I were first married, we found ourselves discipling several students who came to the Lord while I was teaching. We spent Bible study and worship time with them each week on Saturday, but many of them were in and out of our home during the week, also. One of the young men stopped coming for a while. Though we were concerned about him, we didn't pressure him to attend the coffee house Bible studies. But a few weeks down the line, we were all at a potluck supper together. Bill always waits until the last to go through the line. (Which, by the way, always made me antsy, as all the best pieces of fried chicken were always gone by the time we made it through.) This young man noticed. "You and Kay are way back there," he said with a smile. "And the first shall be last," Bill quipped, not thinking of ministry but of being funny. But the high schooler was back at Bible Study the next week. "When you quoted that scripture, Bill, it changed my heart." Hmmm.

I have a friend who was not a Christian when I first met her. At least, if she was it wasn't the driving motivation of her life. But I really loved my friend. She was always and is always there for me. In a God-breathed quest to understand the Bible better, she began attending an in depth study once a week. There was lots of homework between sessions that she was willing to do. Though the teacher began with Genesis, my friend was blown away by the God revealed in His Word. After a year of this, everything about her is different. That's what she says. The Bible changed her heart. She simply didn't know God until she read His mind. And in so doing discovered His heart.

If the One Who spoke the world into being and continues to hold it together has something to say, shouldn't we find out what that is? Wouldn't it be important to memorize and meditate upon the thoughts of such a One? For the Logos of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of the soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and discerning the intentions and thoughts of the heart (Hebrews 4). For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct Him. But we have the mind of Christ (I Corinthians 2). The miracle is that Jesus, the Logos, the verbal expression of God, speaks a never-changing, heart melting, mind bending, life altering message to the world. Some sit with their hands over their ears. But those of us who have ears to hear, must listen. For the Lord Himself will shake the foundations of this earth as one shakes out a robe, and it will be gone. But He will remain forever. And He wants us with Him.