July 2011 – LOVE | ACCEPT

Psalm 105–Don’t Know Much About History

Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done.

Sing to Him, sing praise to Him; tell of all his wonderful acts. (Psalm 105:1-2)

The awe of the sovereign God of the universe is sufficient inspiration to invite the totality of our worship. He is the God of all creation, the giver of life and the sustainer of souls. Worship-worth/ship-should be the natural relationship between created and Creator.

Then the mind gets in the way…

The brain tells the heart to justify the worship. Give me a reason, it says. The psalmist knows this tendency well. To call Israel to worship he rehearses the glory of Yahweh’s interactions with His people.. Glory in his holy name…Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced.

He remembers his covenant forever..He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree

They wandered from nation to nation…He allowed no one to oppress them

Have you spent the time allowing God to remind you of your history together? The wonders that He has worked in your life, the trials he has sustained you through, the love He blankets you with. The act of rehearsing your history may be a personal motivation that deepens your worship to depths you have yet to experience.

Praise the Lord. (v45)

image bjornmeansbear

23 Nuggets

The Little Red Book of Wisdom by Mark DeMoss

In a compact volume that begs to be reread and handed out to everyone you know, author Mark DeMoss collects twenty-three chapters of proverbial wisdom applicable to anyone with enough discipline to apply it. DeMoss highlights his own experiences but the lessons learned at the side of his father and through the lives of others form the fabric that knits it all together. This is a book you will give to your son or daughter, your associates while keeping one copy for yourself close by for regular refreshers. This would be an excellent companion to P.M. Forni’s Choosing Civility.

So many books in this category (Business and Economics) purport to teach wisdom but, more often than not, they disappoint. The critical difference between these and The Little Red Book of Wisdom is a lack of clear integrity. This is not to say that other business authors lack integrity but their focus on profit, growth and self-advancement shadow their wisdom. DeMoss approaches life differently, in the same vein as Truett Cathy, and he places God and Christian-rooted ethics first. The lessons that emerge from his experience can then be traced back to a singular source of truth.

While there are no chapters that you will be tempted to skip, there are many standouts in the book’s pages. Turning nearly to the end, I found the chapter having to do with deathbed regrets especially poignant. Mark points out the advantage of thinking early in life to avoid the regrets later in life that arise from unwise choices in youth. If my son can benefit from a single chapter, I hope it is this one as his whole life unfolds ahead of him.

Savor this book. You can read it quickly in a couple sittings but you will miss the benefits that come from letting his thoughts sink in and bang around a bit. Much like the book of Proverbs he references so often, small sips of wisdom are all the Spirit needs to embed in your character in order for your integrity to be polished and put on display for the world to see.

Thomas Nelson – The Little Red Book of Wisdom

I am grateful to Thomas Nelson for supplying this copy for review.

Psalm 104–The Beams of His Upper Chamber

He wraps himself in light as with a garment; he stretches out the heavens like a tent and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters. (Psalm 104:2-3)

Feeling the rays of the sun upon our face is one of the simple joys we take for granted. The warmth that brings rejuvenation, a reminder that we are alive. It relaxes us and reminds us of our toil while inhabiting this mortal coil.

The fragility of our skin in the sun’s rays is also a reminder of the source of those rays. We cannot stay long in even the mildest weather as the unseen wavelengths do their work on us. As the beams of His upper chambers strike us our façade, no matter how thick, we are reminded of how His holiness envelopes us. We cannot hide our failings in the light and we are brought to confession and repentance.

Bathe in the light.

Grace and peace to you.

image Roger Foo

Psalm 103–So Great Is His Love

The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. (Ps 103:8)

Of all of the great promises in Scripture, this stands out for those who only see God in terms of His wrath. For many within His people and many more who still stand apart, the image of the Holy Father is not one of love, but one of a God of vengeance, sweeping His eyes east and west watching for any infraction that might be an opportunity to visit retribution upon their heads.

While we are wrong to discount His anger at the ways in which we treat one another upon His creation, we also err when we see His holiness only in terms of righteous wrath. God is patient, demanding holiness, but teaching rather than terminating. When you live with the constant fear of failure and its outcome, the fruit of joy is never harvested in your life. Many Christians have followed this path, living their entire lives with a very narrow understanding of God’s character.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. (vv 11-12)

This unmatched, vast and measureless forgiveness is one of the prime character traits of God. Far from the hair-trigger vengeful God of lore, He desires a loving relationship rooted in love much more. When we look to the cross, we don’t see charges waiting to held against us, we see a fresh start that is refreshed by our prayers of repentance and our journey toward greater and greater holiness.

Praise the Lord, all his works everywhere in his dominion.

Praise the Lord, O my soul. (v22)

Grace and peace to you.

image Ministerios Cash Luna