Thanksgiving is kind of one of those holidays isn’t it? It’s one where the first things that leap to mind are fun and sometimes even funny.
We think of turkeys and football, families hanging out, meals that are too big to eat, people dressed up in silly costumes trying to bring the story to life, all that good stuff.
But we also realize that it’s a day that’s supposed to make us think of something deeper, an appreciation for the blessings given by God. The skit guys are pretty reliable in putting out something that combines these two elements, funny, but also a thought that pushes us to dig deeper. I like this video because it reminds us this year, a year when many families are finding things tighter financially, a year when we all know others who are facing struggles, to give thanks to God, not just in times when the blessings are overflowing, but also when life is a little messy.
Tags: Thanksgiving
Recently, I was honored to be part of the North Texas LCMS mission festival which was held at our church. It was great to listen to the speakers, eat different foods, and join together with Christian brothers and sisters reaching different people in different ways, but with the same Word of Gospel and the same sacraments at the center.
But there was one thing that you couldn’t help but notice. We were united in so many things, but people like to praise God in different ways. There were so many different sounds that came together that night and I loved it. Ok, I’ll admit that not every style of music is one that connects with me most deeply, but they were all so clearly centered on God and his praise. And as I looked out at the faces, you could see people being moved by the music, and by the simple act of being joined together.
Psalm 150 closes the psalms and one of the things I’ve enjoyed is listening to various Sons of Korah renditions of the psalms. Part of what I liked was that they offered so many different styles of music in giving praise to God. And that’s exactly what Psalm 150 is calling for. Praise God with trumpets, tambourines, dancing, flutes, strings, cymbals…. The idea is simple. Whatever the musical choice, praise him!!!
So as we close this series, I ask that you take a moment to praise him and appreciate the praise of God in so many different styles. Here’s just a little bit of the diversity of praise given to God.
A “traditional” choral arrangement.
I could include so many more, but I hope this makes sense. The psalms are about God’s people reaching out to him. Reaching out to him with their pain and sorrow, with their hopes, with their fears. They’re about God’s people remembering his stories. They’re about God’s people remembering his promises. They’re about God’s people singing his praise, for all he has and will do for them. They’re about God’s people praising him in song!
I remember once when I was listening to someone read the story of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem when one of those little pieces of a story really stuck out to me. Jesus was talking to the crowd and some were saying that Jesus should tell them to quit shouting. His response was that if the people quit shouting praises, even the rocks would cry out.
I found that odd. After all, what would that mean for rocks to cry out. Was Jesus kind of speaking in exaggerated terms that he could even grow mouths on rocks to shout praises if necessary. Maybe, but this psalm (and there are others) also gives mention to the idea of creation praising the Lord.
Read through Psalm 148. Listen to the words and look at the images…
It calls for sun, moon, stars, waters, sea creatures, oceans, lighting, hail, snow, clouds, storms, mountains, hills, fruit trees, cedars, wild animals, cattle, small creatures, and flying birds to praise god. Wow, that’s quite a list isn’t it? What does that mean?
Well, it’s not just speaking in exaggerated terms, because all these things can praise God. They can do so simply by existing. When the sun gives light and warmth to our planet, it praises God because it exists and does what God intended for it to do. When sea creatures swim, they’re praising God simply by their existence. When fruit trees bear fruit, God is praised. When cows moo, praise to God. You see, all these things in existing as God designed, they are praising God according the first article. They are being the work of his hands and pointing to him as a glorious creator.
But Psalm 148 also mentions people. It calls kings and princes, rulers, young men and maidens, old men and children (that means everyone!) to praise God. And we can do so on the first level by existing. Simply by being his creatures and walking, talking, working the earth, having babies, to some extent there is praise delivered to God. But we are unique from the other creatures. For us vs. 14 says he has raised up a “horn”, that means his anointed, the messiah. For us, God has a deeper praise in mind, to praise him for our salvation, and to point others to that praise as well.
So yes, living our daily lives is praise to God. It is essential and sometimes we can forget that. Don’t! But at the same time, we cannot let the daily creation kind of activities deflect us from our special and unique job to praise God for bringing us out of sin and back into complete relationship with him.
May the created things praise God! May we his people also praise him! Amen!
So this weekend at Messiah we’re going to start something new and we’re starting it this weekend to honor Reformation Day.
Yes in our worship we’ll sing “A Mighty Fortress is our God”, and we’ll talk about the 95 Theses in the sermon, and all that good stuff, but one of the ways I think we can best honor Martin Luther is by applying some of his concepts to the way we carry out the faith.
We can see clearly in his teaching that families passing on the faith was very important. He spoke often of how parents were supposed be teaching their children, the home was to be the first Christian school, and in part he wrote the Small Catechism to give parents basic questions and answers so they could be comfortable teaching their children.
He kind of modeled this in his own home with what has been called the “Table Talk”. In the evening around the dinner table Martin Luther would speak with family, students, and guests about various questions and matters of the faith. Yes it was dinner time, but it was also a chance to as a family or unit really dig into what they believed and apply it. There are some wonderful little stories and teachings we have because students wrote them down during these “table talks”.
So we’re going to start combining those concepts at Messiah. Every two weeks we’re going to pass out “table talks” at church. These will be short devotionals that combine questions about church and Sunday School, with action points, memory verses, and prayer time. It doesn’t have to take long and in fact, we’re designing it so that it can be done as soon as church is finished, when the family gathers around. . . you can guess it. . .
the table… for dinner. Whether you’re a member of Messiah or some other church, it’s not a bad example to follow. When you get together with people after church for dinner, why not take some time to talk about the faith, pass it on, in our families, and in all our relationships. What a way to honor Martin Luther this Reformation Day and beyond!
Tags: family devotions, martin luther, reformation day, table talk
How big are your muscles?
That’s a point of pride for some folks, but definitely not most. But are there muscles that you do take pride in? Maybe it’s your intellectual might? Maybe strength of personality? Artistic abilities? Singing? What is it for you?
God’s given us all different gifts and it is essential to the Christian life to find and use them, but the downside to strengths is that we can start to depend on them. We start to use these things to get us through life and as we succeed with these efforts, sometimes we can start to forget that it’s all from God and that we are in fact entirely reliant upon God.
This doesn’t need to happen, but it can. In psalm 147, we’re directed to think first of God and his strengths. When we look at his vastness, at his power over all of creation ( “he determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name) to his knowledge (”his understanding has no limit”) to his rule over the people and politics of this world (”he casts the wicked to the ground”) we are humbled.
We also start to realize that while God may have given us gifts, his greatest joy is not in our strengths, but in how we relate to him as our God (”His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse nor his delight in the legs of a man; the Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love”).
This psalm was probably written by God’s people after they returned from a long exile in Babylon (cf. vv. 2-3) and in the context of their rebuilding the city of Jerusalem and it’s walls (vv. 13-14, Neh. 12:27-43). This was a time where everything was looking up for them, when they perhaps felt their strongest, and yet it was most importantly a time to remember when it all came from God as his gracious gift.
If you’re at a low point, it’s good to feel like you can lean on God, but even when we’re at our highest and strongest points, we need to do the same thing, lean on God.
Tags: lean on God, psalm 147, strength
Lord teach us to pray.
Following these words from the disciples Jesus gave them the Lord’s Prayer. These words are to be prayed by us and to be used as a model. These are the words we go to first when thinking of prayer, but there are many prayers within the Bible. Indeed, most of the psalms qualify as prayer and there are many types.
Psalm 144 specifically is important because it gives us an expansive view of a way to pray. There are steps in the prayer that lead us well. It starts with calling on the names of God as reminders of God’s promises. Then it moves to a statement of humility. We don’t call God on his promises without reminding ourselves that they are gracious promises, not based on our own goodness. Then it moves to the specific petition followed by praise of God for his coming answer and this incredible vision of what things will look like when that answer comes.
That’s intriguing isn’t it? Praising God and imagining the future even before it comes, but this is how one prays in faith, trusting that God is indeed for us and does indeed have a hopeful future coming. The final verse is a simple statement, but it’s profound. “Blessed are the people of whom this is true; blessed are the people whose God is the Lord”. We are indeed blessed beyond imagining and what I like about this is the final statement isn’t one you need to yell or shout or anything like that. It’s one you close with peacefully. The prayer has moved through so many places and finally it ends with just this simple and peaceful though, “wow, I am blessed to have you God”
(I moved through these steps quickly, but for a fuller explanation check out how Sons of Korah explains it in the study section of their website.)
Stearns doesn’t mince words.
That’s kind of a nice thing because it makes it easy to figure out what he’s saying. There is very little ambiguity in his book. And that makes for some wonderful quotes and ideas that I’ll try to communicate to others, but it also means there are some zingers in here that people might think sound good, but the Bible would have issues with.
In part two, Stearn is examining this famous Christian question of the relationship between God’s love to us and our good works. Does God demand good works? Are they part of our salvation?
He starts this section by examining a number of Scriptures, but focuses mostly on Isaiah 58 and Matthew 25. Both of these go to this question and what he says in this section is basically good. As you read these Scriptures, it’s clear that God is saying the lives of his people should be transformed. Isaiah 58 rails against people who act superficially like they believe, but don’t have anything real flowing from their heart. Matt. 25 essentially does the same thing. And Stearn does clearly state that the good works mentioned here are not seen as actually satisfying God and earning salvation but rather as signs of authentic relationship with Christ. The Christian life should be a transformed one. Yes!!! Good trees should bear good fruit, that is good works. I see that as very faithful to the Bible.
He also has a good chapter talking about not just the two great commandments, but the 3 Greatest Commandments. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: fruit, good works, necessary, salvation, tree
God knows everything- about you, about this world, about the past and the future. . .
God sees all. He sees every moment of you life. He sees even your innermost thoughts. . .
God reigns over all things. There is not one thing outside of his control. . .
Do you treat that like a good thing or bad thing?
I like the way Psalm 139 (listen to a great version here) treats all these subjects, the fact that God is all those “omnis”- omniscient = knowing all, omnipresent = everywhere, omnipotent = all powerful. There seems to be a realization in this psalm that sometimes we don’t like that. That we might try to “flee from your presence” or that we might sit sometimes realizing God’s “knowledge is too lofty for me to attain”. Sometimes the bigness of God can be intimidating. And sometimes we chafe against God’s knowledge, control, and power. Sometimes we just want to be on our own. And no matter how good God might we we want control and we try to run away. Sometimes this can be very obvious, and sometimes are hiding can be more subtle. Little sins we hold onto. Little beliefs we know aren’t quite right, but we don’t want to give them up. There’s that stubborn spirit within trying to hold on.
What are yours? . . .
Now take a big breath. . .. Maybe sigh. . . And give it up. Read the rest of this entry »
In the first part of his book, Stearns seeks to make us understand that the hole in the Gospel is a problem for all people, including himself.
He actually spends quite a bit of timing telling his story, how he became a Christian, about his absolute commitment to putting Christ first and money and other things to the side, about his rise within corporations, about humbling experiences as an executive, and finally how he came to be head of Lennox, a big corporation, complete with the big paychecks, big home, and all the other perks. And even while he was there, he was an active member of a church, gave sacrificially, etc. He wasn’t a bad guy. But then came the call, a call from a member of World Vision’s board, asking him to take a position as their President. A call that would require him to step down from his job, give up the big paycheck, house, perks, and relocate. Not only that, it would also require him to delve into issues of poverty very closely and see them face to face. He didn’t want to do it. And he managed to put off their request for a long time, and with many words that seemed reasonable.
But the call kept coming, and they kept pursuing him, and he kept feeling God’s hand. Finally, he realized that he had to do this, and so he took the job. As he was thinking through all of this, he talks about God’s calls to discipleship in the Bible. He mentions a number of instances, including the rich man who asks if he can follow Jesus. The reply, “sure, when you sell everything and give it to the poor, then you can follow”. The man walked away sad. Stearns makes a great summary of Jesus’ calls to discipleship- you can’t be a disciple and then attach a list of conditions.
I love this point and that really resonates with me. Of course, there’s also some discussion in this first part that is a little bit more questionable. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: hole in the gospel, narrow and broad sense of gospel, sterans, world vision
Have you ever heard that hymn, “Heaven is my home?” There’s also a more contemporary song by that title. What do you think of this thought, that heaven is our real home?
In some senses, it’s not true. God’s created us to live here. He created us, our bodies, this world. And even with sin, he wants us to be part of working in this world to bring about tastes of his kingdom. But there is something very right in these words as well. We sense the brokenness around us and we know that God has something greater in store. Part of that we can get in heaven, that place we go after we die, but we’re actually looking forward to something even better. We’re looking forward to the day when Jesus returns and he remakes heaven and earth and brings it all together. We’re longing for that!
And we need to keep longing for that. Sometimes we can get too comfortable in this world, even in its fallen state. That’s what’s driving psalm 137. These word we hear were originally sung by God’s people as they reflected on their time of exile in Babylon. They realized it wasn’t where they belonged. And the reality is that many of them actually prospered in Babylon. But it wasn’t where they belonged. They had to long for Jerusalem, the place God meant them to be. That was the place of the Temple, the place of sacrifice and forgiveness.
And we need to make sure we have that same kind of longing. Yes, we can work and live and love in our present world, but we need to remember that it is broken and not get so used to the brokenness around us that we start to pretend it’s normal. That can happen. We can get so used to sin, that it starts to seem ok. We need to keep alive that longing. For us, not a longing to go to Jerusalem, but for God’s kingdom to start coming now, and for that greater kingdom to come when he returns. So occasionally, a focus on pain (like the people singing the psalm are doing) is ok. It reminds us that in some senses, this is not our real home. It reminds us that God has something better yet to come, but until then, he has work for us to do here, in the now, even as we remember what is not yet.
Tags: heaven is my home, psalm 137, sons of korah
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