January 12th, 2009 Bible Blog

Today's Reading:

Psalms 88-89
Romans 10

My Response:

Psalms 88 is sad Psalm from a long time shut in. This is a prayer from an individual who was dealing with a prolonged disease. If we remember the how the Israelites of this time frame dealt with those that were "unclean" we can understand just how miserable this person must have been. This is a dark and gloomy prayer and quite frankly does not contain anything uplifting. This prayer is one of despair and suffering, but what strikes me is that I don't pick up the tone of complaining throughout any of it. I also see a great deal of resemblance between this person and others that I have seen "shut in" in their lives. While it may not have been due to them being unclean in this sense, I have seen people that were this dark and gloomy. They were in despair and they were wondering where God was, however I am certain that God met this Psalmist and will meet others where they are in the darkest moments.

Psalms 89 was written by Ethan, one of David's song leaders and it speaks of the endlessness of David's throne. And what a difference this is from the Psalm that we just read!!! This Psalms speaks of God's goodness, faithfulness and love. This Psalm is an encouragement because of this portion:

Psalms 89:35-37
35 Once for all, I have sworn by my holiness—
and I will not lie to David-
36 that his line will continue forever
and his throne endure before me like the sun;
37 it will be established forever like the moon,
the faithful witness in the sky."
Selah

David's line was continued on forever because of the blood of Jesus Christ. I am a firm believer that as we read Paul speaking of, we have been adopted into the blood line of Christ. That means that we take part in the blessings of the line of David if we lay our lives before the throne of God as David did. David's life was not easy, but God had it in His hands, and that makes everything easier.

This portion also shows me just how much God knows of our future. God knew that David's sons would not follow Him the way David had. We saw this evident even towards the end of Samuel's life. David's sons walked aways from God yet God held His oath to David. And thank You Lord for doing that because I am now a part of Your family!

In our NT reading today we see that Paul still yearns to see his fellow Jews saved by the grace of God. This is important because we see that Paul maintains a healthy level of love and encouragement to those that were seeking to destroy him. Paul knew that Jesus Christ came to save all, and that included the Jews that had rejected Him. Because of this Paul is trying to guide the Jews to Christ. Paul understood that the Jews were zealous for God, however their zeal was misdirected. The Jews threw themselves on works, works to save their souls, works that were impossible to achieve. Paul knew that they did this because they wanted to please God, unfortunately their hard works were misguided and Paul wanted them to see this. God no longer wanted people to be justified by their blood line and strict accordance to rules, He wanted them to be justified through the blood of Christ.

Paul brought it all to an abrupt end when he told the Jews:

Romans 10:4
4Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.

Bam, that is it! Christ brought an end to the Age of Law. Christ came to bring freedom from the Law and bring us fullness of life. With Christ came freedom. And lastly I was encouraged by this:

Romans 10:9-11
9That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. 11As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame."

We all of course know this first part in verse 9, but isn't it great that this is all it takes to receive salvation. How could God have made it any easier to be saved? I personally don't think that He could. I am certain of one thing, deep inside of everyone there is a place where we all know that God is real and that He made a real sacrifice for our sins. This place we know as our heart, in our hearts we know and are certain that Christ came, died, and rose again. It is simply that some don't allow their hearts to make the decision. Then in verse 11 we see the Scripture that I cling to which is that those who trust in God will never be put to shame. I pray to God and remind Him of this promise that His Word contains. You know what, God has never allowed me to be put to shame when I had trusted in Him. Praise be to Your name alone oh God!

My Prayer:

Lord I pray that You would forgive me of my sins and release me of my past. Lord I am weak and I fail You far too often. Lord please forgive me for not being the man of God that You want me to be. My flesh is weak but in You I know that I am strong.

God Ethan is crying and upset and it appears that he has gas pains again. Lord I pray that You would ease his pain and help us all to get a good night sleep. Lord You have blessed us the last few nights with good sleep and I ask that You help this to continue. I praise Your mighty name for the good things that have come from that.

God I pray that You would be with Sun Glow and that You would bring the work in. Lord we need work to help us cover all the men that we are responsible for and I ask that You help this to happen. I worship Your name and Your name alone. I know that You are the great Provider and You are my source of strength. Praise be to Your name alone.