Wednesday, February 12, 2025

Praise the Lord!

 Hallelu yah!  (Praise Yahweh)

Praise God in his sanctuary;

praise him beneath the massive sky!

Praise him for his acts of power:

praise for his greatness - in its multitude, abundance and excellence!

Praise him with the blast of trumpets 

and clashing cymbals!

Praise him with your whole body -

dancing and singing!

Everyone, everywhere, every creature with breath

(and every animal, too)

praise the Lord!

Hallelu yah!

Psalm 150


This is my favorite psalm...and it makes me think that I don't praise very well in church worship.  These actions describe how I act at football games and concerts, so I know how to praise!  We were made to praise! 

What has caused us to eliminate praise from worshiping God?

I looked up all the words translated for "praise" in the Old Testament.  They describe what our praise should look like:

rum - extol and exalt - raise up above all others.

barak - bless - kneel before, congratulate; thank

halal - praise - shine a light on; clearly reveal and make known

gush - celebrate - pour out; belch out

sabah - praise - stroke, address in a loud tone

sapar - proclaim/tell - recount; rehearse; keep a record

naba - eagerly utter

ranan - shout joyfully - cry out; ring out; sing out

t'hilla - praise - a song of adoration; especially a song of public praise

I like old hymns and some modern praise and worship songs, but very few of them do the kind of praise we are called to do before the Lord. I am ashamed to say my greatest practice of praise has been in support of my alma mater's football team.  I love when the ENTIRE crowd sings the fight song, then the football team joins in and sings the alma mater.  The fight song is sung raucously!  The alma mater is sung almost spiritually.  One calls us to the battle; one calls us together.

What would be our Christian, God-raising fight song?  Definitely think trumpets and cymbals!  Actually, songs we sang as children rise to my mind:  I'm in the Lord's Army!  Father Abraham!  I've got the Joy, Joy, Joy, down in my Heart!  These are enthusiastic!  We would have hand motions;  we would march and sing loud!

Then the ones that call us together.  Of course, Jesus Loves Me.  The B-I-B-L-E.  I've got Peace like a River...these draw us in.

As adults, I think we need to be more deliberate in our praising.  Sorry, choir leaders and worship leaders, sometimes we drone on in long-winded, low-affect, not-God-focused songs.  I personally feel a revamp on my praising.

What about a crowd chant.  One side of the pews do one part; the other side responds.  I've actually done that in church (and the football stadium).

Hallelu  yah!






Wednesday, February 05, 2025

The Wealthy

Tell the wealthy:  In regard to this season of life, don't become arrogant and don't put your hope in your wealth, which can be uncertain (name all the ways), but rather put your hope in God, who abundantly provides us with all things for our enjoy enjoyment.

Here's how:  

  • do good (work good, do well, act right)
  • be rich (abundant, use your resources) in good deeds (your business, any labor)
  • be generous (ready to distribute)
  • be ready and willing to share (liberally).
In this way, the wealthy will lay up treasure (Paul's compounding of words to exaggerate meaning - amass/reserve) for themselves a good foundation (first principles/underpinnings) for the basis of actions that demonstrate what you care about and will build toward your expectations.  Then you will have life indeed!  1 Timothy 6:17-19 

Our pursuit of wealth is misplaced, of course, we would say, but in America, in a culture of wealth - accumulation, it is difficult for us to be separate ourselves from it.  Yet Paul tells Timothy, let's reconfigure what the pursuit is.  Truly, we could all agree that our pursuit is the good life, the God life, a happy life... but our culture has taught us all the wrong ways to define it.  We measure the God-blessed life as one of (material) blessing.

I think the original language deserves exploration for this "life."  The word used is "Zoe."  It has literal and figurative meanings when used in the Bible.  Most of all, it means to possess vitality:  the energy for what life brings.  This means that life is full of meaning, passion and pursuit by for the essential and immediate needs (i.e. food) and an ethical pursuit.  What if I pursued ethical standards as energetically as I pursued a good steak or an abundance of my favorite dessert?

To really pursue an ethical life is to get a full understanding of the "why" of life and to filtrate and prioritize values.  Too often we have a set of values that are thin and wavering.  Sometimes we have to exercise prioritizing values which come into conflict with each other.  How does that happen?  I say I value my family and my career...and it is the easiest example to demonstrate values which can come into conflict.  Prioritizing says I know which one leads.

Zoe can also mean life that is real and genuine, especially in devotion to God.  My life's meaning comes from a relationship with God that is lived:  when belief is translated into action and love into loyalty for God.  And not lazily.  A Zoe life is an active and vigorous pursuit of devotion and demonstration of the Triune God.

English translations often translate Zoe into "heaven" or "eternal life."  The original, not so much.  To have the "good" life now, fully is to enhance the "good" for all - those in need, those in our family, the community of believers - and to give as if your life depended on it...because it does!

Friday, January 31, 2025

Now

 Yet, a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.  God is spirit and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.  John 4:23, 24

Now - nyn - in the present moment, in the presence of

This is Jesus' lesson for the woman at the well.  She and her culture had misplaced their object of worship to a place and not a person.  Do we do the same?  Do we cause our object of worship to be a place, like our church, or even something that might seem worship-center, like in nature?  Jesus' lesson is that worship takes place in the heart and in relationship with God.

How do we translate Jesus' statement to ourselves?  Does only the moment matter?  Does only our focus matter?  I want to see NOW as the moment where I understand/plug into the full weight of glory, full of meaning and full of gratitude for having the presence (Spirit of God) with me now.  

I want to find ways to be aware of God NOW - in traffic, in front of my computer, cooking at the stove, in exercise.  I want to capture that essence in the here and now!  The world may careen down its path to some end.  I want to bask in the sense of God's presence now and take in the experience of now.

Can I mentally sit still?

Can I take it in?

Can I love it and bask in it?

My head is ringing.  The list for today is long.  Someone wants to eat.  How can my spirit find the "space" for my soul to connect with the Spirit and her true nature that is calling me towards the Triune God in every situation?

In heaven will there be no passage of time?  Will only the moment matter?  I am going to seek to make this moment be filled with the weight of glory and full of meaning, mostly because it means so much to God.


Amen.


Thursday, September 19, 2024

God loves me!

 When the time was right, Christ died for me while I was far from God, powerless and weak.  (Romans 5:6)

I could do nothing for myself, so my Daddy did it all.  I am weak and incomplete, but still have favor with him. This move by Christ put me in right position with God, as his daughter - now rescued from a wasted life and at peace with God.  It is cause for constant celebration.  (Romans 5:7-10)  

So, God is for me and nothing can stand against me.  No one can condemn me.  Nothing can separate me from God and his promise of deliverance.  Nothing will remove me from His love, which is at work even in trouble, hardship, persecution, hunger, poverty, danger, or even death.  (Romans 8:31-34)

It is his love I need (and have) most as the difficulties come.

First, we loved ourselves for our own sake.

Then we loved God for our sake.

Next, we loved God for his sake,

and then we love ourselves for God's sake. 

              (Bernard of Clairvaux)

Dear Lord, let your love permeate every relationship I have, even the relationship I have with myself.  Amen.

Wednesday, August 28, 2024

Long Thoughts

 I was listening to a great interview of James Taylor, who was reminiscing about his childhood in the Carolinas.  He remembered the woods where he spent time with the trees and there he could have "long thoughts" with himself.  How little our thoughts are "long" any more.  We exist with sound bites, trailers, ditties, the shunted language of the digital world.

I am thinking about the places I have been able to have long thoughts with myself:  in a cabin in the woods, on a wooded hill, on a bus trip in Scotland, on a jet ski on a lake in the Tehachapi Mountains, laying in the grass below El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.  The visual memory is vivid.  The message just as clear in each.  

I even remember being stuck inside my house in a snowstorm, in a cast for a broken ankle, my kids out-of-state.  No way to go anywhere.  Even there, God had a word for me.  "Be still and know that I am God," he says.

There is never enough space for God.  He can fill me and, more expandedly, have me fill the space he creates.  Will I ever be still enough to hear it all?

Do less, so you can be more.

Monday, July 15, 2024

The Path

 You make known to me the path of life...(Ps 16:11)

Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies...(Ps 27:11)

Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in them.  (Ps 119:35)

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path... (Ps 119:105)

He will...guard the paths of justice and watch over the way of His saints.  Then you will understand righteousness, justice and equity and every good path.  For wisdom will come into your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.  Discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you.  (Prov 2:8-11)

The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day. (Prov. 4:18)

Ponder (make level, weigh carefully) the path of your feet then all your ways will be sure.  (Prov 4:26)






Friday, June 28, 2024

For Living

 Christ died, he took the entire rule-dominated way of life down with him and left it in the tomb, leaving you free to be in relationship with him and each other so that you could bear fruit (deeds, fruit of one's self, true self, "right" self) and conduct oneself in alignment with your "true north."  Romans 7:4 The Message

When my decisions don't result in right actions, something has gone wrong deep inside me.  I truly delight in God's desires, but parts of me covertly rebel and just when I least expect it, those parts take charge!  Who will help me?  Jesus Christ!  He acted to set me right in a life of contradictions. Romans 7:22-25 The Message

In Christ's presence, we no longer live under this black cloud.  A new power is in operation Romans 8:1-2. The Message

Those who trust God's action and find God's Spirit working in them are the children of God. Romans 8:11 The Message

It's interesting that washing "cleans up" a person's motivations and actions:  we are now clean, clear, justified, translucent, and innocent all the way through.  I do feel contaminated by my involvement in a contentious world.  I wanted to change it; instead, it changed me.  Hose me off!  Get behind my ears!  Rinse out my mouth!

To stay clean, I remove myself from the mud-slinging and, instead, focus on the priorities of justice.  I was oppressed.  I felt attacked.  I felt stripped of safety and I felt the need to protect my country, which in its better days, felt like a vehicle of protection.  Not always today.

I am actually ashamed of it.  Disappointed in that I didn't see it sooner.  I call it out now.  I support the oppressed now in new ways.  The facade of "America" seems to no longer hold for many.  Are we lost forever? Is taking it down the only choice?  

I can't focus on the institution that way.  I must utilize its power for good.  Remember that power shared is power gained and I must join with those in power and those who are marginalized and become as part of the Kingdom of God.  Only you can make it so, Lord.  Amen!