From My Archives


Have you ever been thinking about a Scripture passage, only to have it read for the service the following Sunday? That happened to me since my last entry.


I was praying because I felt stressed by inability, when Psalm 34 came to mind. Focusing on that changed my whole perspective.

Have you ever come across a set of notes from someone's sermon, only to have that same someone preach the following Sunday?


This happened to me just two days ago.

However, the passage which Bill preached Sunday was not the same as that on which these notes are based.

Context: a meeting held September 8 2004

Challenged, my mind kind of wandered, making connections not precisely in the text from which he was speaking, but close enough to it, I think.

Bill laid out six encouragements from Phil. 3:12-16:
Be realistic
Be steadfast
Be earnest
Be motivated
Be honest
Be perfect


Somewhere in the explication of those points, my mind latched on to some of the shows I have recently come to enjoy, such as Mission: Organization and Clean Sweep.


Now why would shows such as these come to mind? or, to my mind?


The premises of those shows are that the people involved, whether being organized or swept, have lost control of their possessions, and are frustrated by the mass of "stuff" which needs serious dealing with.


I think it was when Bill got to #3: be earnest, and mentioned Paul's statement, "But one thing," and then even more the dual aspects of putting behind [forgetting] and reaching forward, followed in close succession by #4, be motivated--pursuing one goal--that somehow the thought gelled that to accomplish the goal--Christlikeness--all else has to be "clean swept" from life and no more clutter allowed to accumulate as diligence takes the place of diffidence--which long term will pay eternal dividends.

Although I originally crafted this while participating in a small group Bible study, recent experiences have reinforced these to/for me.

Our/My Responsibilities Toward God

What are my/our responsibilities toward God?
To worship Him repentantly,
Revering His holiness,
Recognizing His omnipresence and omniscience and omnipotence, Trinitarian,
Rendering Him all that is His due in all that I do, or don't do.
To worship Him through trusting obedience,
Reserving all that is in me to all that He Is,
Repentant before His eternal presence,
Rejoicing in being in Christ because He has chosen to put me there.
To worship Him rejoicingly,
Exultingly,
Wondering,
Awed.

Although I posted this late Tuesday, it truly came as



Meditations on a Tuesday morning



In the beginning God

And through all time
Both outside and inside of time
The Holy and Divine

Our Father Who is in heaven

Created the heavens and the earth
With purpose and with glory and with perfection

Hallowed be Your name

--let me recognize that Your name is holy already and behave accordingly

Your kingdom come

Your will be done

--am I willing to see that?
--am I willing to participate in that?
--am I willing to obey that?

On earth as it is in heaven

--immediately
--joyfully
--fully
--reverently

Give us this day

--not yesterday
--not tomorrow

Our daily bread

--this reminds me of these verses:
Proverbs 30:7-9:
Two things I ask of you; deny them not to me before I die:
Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, "Who is the LORD?" or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.

And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors

--presupposes a willingness to forgive on our part
--and times without number

And lead us not into temptation

--To quote James: Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God," for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. "

But deliver us from evil

--To quote James again: But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

For Thine is the kingdom

--eternal kingship
--the realm in which your will is fulfilled

and the power

--sovereignty
--authority
--jurisdiction
--dominion

and the glory

--praise
--honor
--distinction
--renown
--magnificence

Forever

--eternally

Amen

--and Amen.

When I first wrote this, several friends of mine were dying. As they were belivers, I envied them the fact that they would soon be home.

On the Edge of Heaven

How glorious it would be to stand on the edge of Heaven,
To know that a glorious entrance awaits, entrance into
The presence of the King, which is glory enough.

How glorious it would be to stand on the edge of Heaven,
To know that serenity which only those who have residential rights there can know,
Those whose passports read "resident-to-be of glory"

How glorious to know that the last earthly breath will bring you over the edge into heaven,
His, now your, eternal residence.

How glorious!

How painful for those who do not yet find themselves
On the edge of heaven
But see those who are on that edge

A meditation which began with seeking a verse on health and ended elsewhere


This all began when I was looking for a verse or for verses which pertained to health situations.
Through the use of a concordance, I found myself reading the first three verses of Psalm 41.


Blessed is the one who considers the poor!
In the day of trouble the LORD delivers him;
the LORD protects him and keeps him alive;
he is called blessed in the land;
you do not give him up to the will of his enemies.
The LORD sustains him on his sickbed;
in his illness you restore him to full health.
[Psalm 41:1-3; ESV]


This section of the psalm begins and ends with blessing, which the LORD himself gives:
delivers, protects, keeps alive, sustains, and restores.


I am sure "consider the poor" is more than a fleeting intellectual recognition of "the poor" as a discrete category or even of a poor person [individual].


The NASB version reads "considers the helpless"


This brought to my mind the following questions and ruminations:

• To what extent are "the poor" also "the helpless"?
• Persons may be poor because they are helpless or poor because they can work but do not [including lack of opportunity, not just lack of the will to work].
• Are the helpless equal only to the [physically] disabled, or can people be helpless in some other way [disregarding infants, et al]?
• Are the helpless always included in the poor?
• Someone may be helpless in some way, yet not necessarily poor; someone may be poor, yet not necessarily helpless.

Here, in the opening verses of Psalm 41, we have a group which includes both the poor and the helpless, or God would not bless anyone who considers them.


It would seem that they don't include idle, able-bodied believers because of what Paul wrote in 2 Thessalonians 3:6, 10-12.