a psalm of psalms

I've made no bones about the fact that I think Psalm 139 is one of the best sections o fthe Bible.

It contains so much assurance as well as matchless courage in who God is & complete trust in Him.

It's a psalm we all could read every day, & would receive fresh inspiration & courage from.

Every once in a while, I like to simply offer it for our reading today.

It says some amazing things – things about God, & from God.

Psalm 139

1 O LORD, you have examined my heart

  and know everything about me.

2 You know when I sit down or stand up.

  You know my thoughts even when I'm far away.

3 You see me when I travel

and when I rest at home.

  You know everything I do.

4 You know what I am going to say

  even before I say it, LORD.

5 You both precede & follow me.

  You place your hand of blessing on my head.

6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,

  too great for me to understand!

7 I can never escape from your Spirit!

  I can never get away from your presence!

8 If I go up to heaven,

you are there;

  if I go down to the grave,

you are there.

9 If I ride the wings of the morning,

  if I dwell by the farthest oceans,

10 even there your hand will guide me,

  and your strength will support me.

11 I could ask the darkness to hide me

  and the light around me to become night—

12   but even in darkness I cannot hide from you.

To you the night shines as bright as day.

  Darkness and light are the same to you.

13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body

  and knit me together in my mother's womb.

14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!

  Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.

15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,

  as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.

16 You saw me before I was born.

  Every day of my life was recorded in your book.

Every moment was laid out

  before a single day had passed.

17 How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.

  They cannot be numbered!

18 I can't even count them;

  they outnumber the grains of sand!

And when I wake up,

  you are still with me!

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;

  test me and know my anxious thoughts.

24 Point out anything in me that offends you,

  and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

who we are, & what we're to be about

Sometimes Paul gives a simple explanation of who we are as followers of Jesus, & then in turn he explains what we're to be about.

He does a good job of both in this passage in his second letter to the followers of Jesus in Corinth.

2 Corinthians 5

14 Christ's love controls us.

Since we believe that Christ died for all,

we also believe that we have all died to our old life.

15 He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves.

Instead, they will live for Christ,

who died and was raised for them.
  

16 So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view.

At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view.

How differently we know him now!

17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person.

The old life is gone;

a new life has begun!

18 And all of this is a gift from God,

who brought us back to himself through Christ.

And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him.

19 For God was in Christ,

reconciling the world to himself,

no longer counting people's sins against them.

And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.

20 So we are Christ's ambassadors;

God is making his appeal through us.

We speak for Christ when we plead, "Come back to God!"

21 For God made Christ,

who never sinned,

to be the offering for our sin,

so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

sheep & the shepherd

In John 14, Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, & the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.”

We always hear people using that quote as the primary reality to claim that Jesus is the only way to God.

Read what Jesus had to say about his role with humankind that is recorded 4 chapters earlier.

It also pokes holes in the “there is more than one way to God” theory.

Btw, I grew up on a farm. We raised primarily sheep.

The illustrations of sheep behavior & the caring for sheep that Jesus uses are right on target.

John 10

1 "I tell you the truth, anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold, rather than going through the gate, must surely be a thief and a robber!

2 But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.

3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him,

and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him.

He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

4 After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them,

and they follow him because they know his voice.

5 They won't follow a stranger;

they will run from him

because they don't know his voice."
  

6 Those who heard Jesus use this illustration didn't understand what he meant,

7 so he explained it to them:

"I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep.

8 All who came before me* were thieves and robbers.

But the true sheep did not listen to them.

9 Yes, I am the gate.

Those who come in through me will be saved.

They will come and go freely and will find good pastures.

10 The thief's purpose is to steal and kill and destroy.

My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.

  11 "I am the good shepherd.

The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep.

12 A hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming.

He will abandon the sheep because they don't belong to him and he isn't their shepherd.

And so the wolf attacks them and scatters the flock.

13 The hired hand runs away because he's working only for the money and doesn't really care about the sheep.

14 "I am the good shepherd;

I know my own sheep,

and they know me,

15 just as my Father knows me

and I know the Father.

So I sacrifice my life for the sheep.

16 I have other sheep, too, that are not in this sheepfold.

I must bring them also.

They will listen to my voice,

and there will be one flock with one shepherd.
  

17 "The Father loves me because I sacrifice my life so I may take it back again.

18 No one can take my life from me.

I sacrifice it voluntarily.

For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again.

For this is what my Father has commanded."

the bottom line

2 Corinthians 3:5

It is not that we think we can do anything on our own.

Our only power & success come from God. (NLT 1^st Ed.)

Not that we are sufficiently qualified in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us,

but our sufficiency and qualifications come from God. (Amplified)

I don’t mean that we are able to do anything good ourselves.

It is God who makes us able to do all that we do. (ERV)

Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us,

but our sufficiency is from God, (ESV)

We dare to say such things because of the confidence we have in God through Christ,

and not because we are confident of our own powers. (J B Phillips)

Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves;

but our sufficiency is of God (KJV)

Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves,

but our competence comes from God. (NIV)

Don’t be mistaken; in and of ourselves we know we have little to offer,

but any competence or value we have comes from God. (The Voice)

The longer I live, & the more I see, I understand that anything & everything we are or are able to be & do is dependent on one thing, & 1 thing only:

the favor of God.

No matter how you translate it, it's all stands &/or falls because of one thing only:

His favor,

iow, His ability to make us able to be & do

whatever,

whenever,

wherever,

however,

with whomever.

Think about that today...

we stink!

2 Corinthians 2

15 Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God.

But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing.

16 To those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and doom.

But to those who are being saved, we are a life-giving perfume.

And who is adequate for such a task as this?

I remind myself of this occasionally that try as we might there are some people who are just not gonna want to be around us or connect with what we think or believe.

And that it doesn't have anything to do with us & everything to do with that fact that who we are, that we are connected to Jesus, & the Holy Spirit lives inside us.

I don't think that those who are so thoroughly uncomfortable with us would ever quantify their negative response to us as a negative response to God inside of us – that would mean acknowledging the presence & reality of someone & something that they don't buy in to.

That doesn't mean we should not continue to reach out to them with the love & power of God channeling through us.

It does help to know that sometimes it doesn't have anything to do with us & everything to do with their response to the Holy Spirit coming out of us.

This isn't a cop out or an excuse. Sometimes we affect people for those reasons & those reasons only.

useless

This is one of the verses I feel God has given me for 2016.

It's very short, but packs quite a punch.

“Nothing we ever do for the Lord is useless.” 1 Corinthians 15:58b (NLT)

Here it is in different translations, to give us a feel of it's scope...

1 Corinthians 15:58b

...your labor [even to the point of exhaustion] in the Lord is not futile nor wasted [it is never without purpose]. (Amplified)

You know that your work in the Lord is never wasted. (ERV)

...in the Lord your labor is not in vain. (ESV)

Be sure that nothing you do for him is ever lost or ever wasted. (J B Phillips)

...your labour is not in vain in the Lord. (KJV)

...nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort. (The Message)

...your toil is not in vain in the Lord. (NASB)

...your labor in the Lord is not in vain. (NIV)

...all your labor is not for nothing when it is for God. (The Voice)

(All these translations can be found at www.BibleGateway.com)

It's just 8 words in the New Living Translation, but it has a gajillion megaton affirming impact on our lives & our outlook, if we simply choose to believe it.

And much of the interpretation comes from the emphasis we put on one of the 9 words.

Play with that concept as we look at those 9 words with the emphasis shifted.

NOTHING we ever do for the Lord is useless.

Nothing we ever do for the Lord is USELESS.

Nothing WE ever do for the Lord is useless.

Nothing we ever do for the LORD is useless.

Nothing we EVER do for the Lord is useless.

Nothing we ever do FOR the Lord is useless.

Nothing we ever DO for the Lord is useless.

Such affirming words, whether what we do is in the glamorous spotlight, or in obscurity.

There is always ripple effects from what we do for the Lord.

Think about that today...

strong & loving

Be on guard.

Stand true to what you believe.

Be courageous.

Be strong.

And everything you do must be done in love.

1 Corinthians 16:13-14

Corinth was a Greek city of around 90,000 when Paul was writing this first letter to the followers of Jesus.

It was a seaport hub, between Athens & Sparta, with trade & traders from all over the known world coming & going at will.

It was a very wealthy place, which led to the people being VERY proud, ostentatious, & really immoral – business was the trade of the day, & ruthless behavior was the norm.

Sounds like a fun place, doesn't it?

Immorality was not only tolerated, but consecrated & celebrated by the strong worship of the goddess, Venus, the goddess of love.

In the temples dedicated to Venus were numerous temple prostitutes, both women & men.

(Now that's a church job that would turn some heads! ;-) LOL)

So, yeah, this was pretty much an “anything goes” kind of place.

And as we know, Rome at that time was a significantly “anything goes” kind of world...

...kind of like America today.

So when Paul writes to the followers of Jesus in Corinth, he knows who he's talking to – he lived there with his tent making friends, the married couple, Priscilla & Aquila.

Paul knew what a sin soaked city Corinth was.

And he tells the Christ followers to be strong, courageous, & carefully on guard.

Corinth wasn't an easy place to live, but Paul encouraged them to live their lives with strength, & resist what the culture & people of Corinth would fling at them.

Paul adds one last interesting mandate for those followers of Jesus.

Even in the face of such abject immorality & ruthlessness, Paul says this...

“And everything you do must be done in love.”

So even though the believers there lived in a rabidly dog eat dog culture & population, they were supposed to return that attitude & behavior with a lifestyle & behavior that was loving.

I bet that was fun! ;-)

I don't think the situation in Corinth is any different than what you & I deal with today.

Think about it – Corinth wasn't any different than our culture & people in America today, or for that matter, in the world in general today.

Could we be any more “anything goes” than we are today?

Of course, about the time I think we've seen & done it all, something new pops up!

Anyway, I believe Paul's words are just as pertinent for us as for the Corinthians.

We as followers of Jesus should be careful, courageous, & strong, maintaining the high moral behavior indicative of Christ followers.

And at the same time, our actions should not be as some today would lead us to believe.

We should not be mean spirited, cranky, judgemental, intolerant, unaccepting, prejudiced, exclusive, racist, or just plain holier-than-thou braying jackasses.

I believe Paul would insist that we be like what he mandated the Corinthians to be,

& let everything we are be done in a loving & caring way.

Think about that today...