Mission Faithwalk

                W here can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. (Psalm 139:7-12) Normally, when I read this section of this psalm, I think in terms of rebellion against God. That’s certainly part of what’s here. It may be all of what’s here. But today, I’m thinking a little differently. When things go wrong in our lives, we absolutely turn toward God. Sometimes, however, I think we try to run away from the things that go wrong without noticing that God is in them. Or, w...

                  You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you percive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. (Psalm 139:1-6)                 This is the last of the wisdom psalms mentioned in the book I’m reading. It’s also my favorite psalm and today’s part of it is my favorite part. It also came up as the passage of the day on a drama queen day. Queue the dramatic music. Because of the problems my left knee has been causing, my thoughts are starting down the “I’m going to lose my job. I’m going to have ...

                     How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity! It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron’s beard, down on the collar of his robe. It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion. For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore. (Psalm 133)                 Today’s passage is outside of our culture. While we can imagine dumping a barrel of sports drink, or some ridiculous amount of ice water on someone’s head, the idea of pouring some sort of oil, and especially an oil that was restricted only to that purpose, sounds a little strange. If we add that the oil represented the Holy Spirit or the presence of God, it makes it even stranger. It helps me to know that the oil was made of olive oil, myrrh, cinnamon, and ca...

                   Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in obedience to him. You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house;  your children will be like olive shoots around your table. Yes, this will be the blessing for the man who fears the Lord. May the Lord bless you from Zion; may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life. May you live to see your children’s children— peace be on Israel. (Psalm 128)                 What are the results of being blessed? According to this psalm, it’s domestic prosperity. You get to eat what you’ve earned. Your family will grow. Your homeland will peacefully prosper, which means that you’ll be able to eat what you’ve earned and your family will grow. Of course, this was writ...

                 Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain. In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat— for he grants sleep to those he loves. Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their opponents in court. (Psalm 127) I’ve said before that wisdom is understanding and dealing with reality as reality. So how do we handle this wisdom psalm? Has anyone ever seen the Lord build a house? One day, the lot across the street is empty. Then, while no one comes to do any work, a basement appears, then the framing, etc. Or the whole thing instantly appears. While...

                 Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart—   they do no wrong but follow his ways. You have laid down precepts that are to be fully obeyed. Oh, that my ways were steadfast in obeying your decrees! Then I would not be put to shame when I consider all your commands. I will praise you with an upright heart as I learn your righteous laws. I will obey your decrees; do not utterly forsake me.   (Psalm 119:1-8) So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject t...

             Hear this, all you peoples; listen, all who live in this world, both low and high, rich and poor alike: My mouth will speak words of wisdom; the meditation of my heart will give you understanding. I will turn my ear to a proverb; with the harp I will expound my riddle: Why should I fear when evil days come, when wicked deceivers surround me— those who trust in their wealth and boast of their great riches? No one can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for them— the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough— so that they should live on forever and not see decay. For all can see that the wise die, that the foolish and the senseless also perish, leaving their wealth to others. Their tombs will remain their house ]  forever, their dwellings for endless generations, though they had named lands after themselves. People, despite their wealth, do not endu...

              I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread. They are always generous and lend freely; their children will be a blessing. Turn from evil and do good; then you will dwell in the land forever. For the Lord loves the just and will not forsake his faithful ones. wrongdoers will be completely destroyed; the offspring of the wicked will perish. The righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever.             The mouths of the righteous utter wisdom, and their tongues speak what is just. The law of their God is in their hearts; their feet do not slip. The wicked lie in wait for the righteous, intent on putting them to death; but the Lord will not leave them in the power of the wicked or let them be condemned when brought to trial. Hope in the Lord and keep...

                 For those who are evil will be destroyed, but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land. A little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look for them, they will not be found. But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy peace and prosperity. The wicked plot against the righteous and gnash their teeth at them; but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he knows their day is coming. The wicked draw the sword and bend the bow to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose ways are upright. But their swords will pierce their own hearts, and their bows will be broken.   Better the little that the righteous have than the wealth of many wicked; for the power of the wicked will be broken, but the Lord upholds the righteous. The blameless spend their days under the Lord’s care, and their inheritance will endure forever. In times of disaster th...

  Of David.   Do not fret because of those who are evil or be envious of those who do wrong; for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away. Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. (Psalm 37:1-8) Psalm 37 is the third wisdom psalm, but it’s too long to cover in one day. Like Psalms 1 and 14, it focuses on relationships. Today’s section is book-ended with “Do not fret” and the apparent prosperity of those who do wrong. It’s the bread of the passage. In between, there’s a ...

  For the director of music. Of David. The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no  one who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. All have turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one. Do all these evildoers know nothing? They devour my people as though eating bread; they never call on the Lord. But there they are, overwhelmed with dread, for God is present in the company of the righteous. You evildoers frustrate the plans of the poor, but the Lord is their refuge. Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion! When the Lord restores his people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad! (Psalm 14) The second wisdom psalm begins with the same idea. Mind the company you keep. There are people who claim “There is no God.” They think they’re smarter than everyon...

                   Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers. Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.   For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction. (Psalm 1)             Yesterday, two tracks of thought met. One was to focus on the four cardinal virtues (Prudence/Wisdom, Justice, Temperance, and ...

                  For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. (I Peter 1:18-19) All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world . (Revelation 13:8)                 I’m not finding the passage I want to right now, which speaks of God’s plan for the sacrifice of Jesus from creation, or possibly before. Since I can’t come up with the right words for the search engine, Revelation 13:8 will have to do. It says what needs to be said, that the death and res...

                  It is written: “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will acknowledge God.’” (Romans 14:11)                 Here we go, once again, we’re being told that God can’t cope without our constantly reminding Him that He’s so much better than we are. His ego just can’t it if we don’t treat Him like He’s special. Isn’t that precisely what the Pharisees had against Jesus? He insisted on claiming that He was better than they. Not only did He use messianic titles like “Son of Man,” but He even claimed that “the Father” (AKA God) and He were one. What audacity! The hubris was beyond measure.                 Now, suppose you walked up to a vehicle in a parking lot and someone shouted, “Stop! What do you think you’re doing?”  ...

              For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse . (Romans 1:20)                 Oh boy. Say something like this to many people and you’ll get laughter, eyerolls, and possibly argumentation that probably includes lots of name-calling and gaslighting. But if you ask them how the universe began, they are likely to say that 1) it didn’t, it’s always existed, 2) the Big Bang, or 3) some combination of the two in which the universe cycles through multiple Big Bangs with billions of years of development and destruction between them. Mind you, there is no good evidence for possibilities 1 or 3. Most cosmologists claim that some variation on the Big Bang theme is best answer to the question of how th...

                   I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.  Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30)                 First, a side note and answer to prayer. My boss gave me the rest of the week off to recover from my knee “ injury. I’m angry with myself for the injury but I’m grateful to Terry and God for the time. Part of the anger is that the time feels like it’s lost. I don’t get paid and I’m not getting things done at home, either. I’m healing from something I inflicted on myself while trying to fix what I thought was wrong. I think. Stupid, stupid….                 Now, to today’s passage. You...

                 Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” (Isaiah 30:21)                 It’s been spring for a month, and my vegetables and herbs aren’t in the ground. Forget the fact that it’s too cold and that they generally look better than any of my previous sets of seedlings. It’s a week before my birthday, and I’m feeling set adrift – no goals, no plans, no ideas for direction other than the same direction that hasn’t proved wildly successful yet. I did something to my left knee yesterday, enough that I had to call off work, which is irritating my right knee. And, I’m having a pity party. OK, maybe it’s not quite as bad as all that, except when I start wallowing in it. But it is enough that I appreciate the reassurance that God is still guiding me and s...

                 A person’s own folly leads to their ruin, yet their heart rages against the Lord . (Proverbs 19:3)                 A man rages at God because the alcohol he’s consumed for decades has finally destroyed his liver. If God were a good God, alcohol in excess would do no harm. People move into an area near the sea where the land’s altitude is below sea level and when the tidal surge of a hurricane destroys their  homes and ruins their lives (in some cases for the second or third time), they rage at God. If God were a good God, there would be no hurricanes and their land would rise sufficiently that even if there were, the tidal surge would do no harm. People get out of their vehicles and stroll within feet of an American Bison and grumble in their hospital beds about how God could make fluffy cows with such rotten dispositions.  W...

                  This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor. (Roman 13:6-7)                 Pay taxes? Pay revenue? Pay respect ? Pay HONOR? Didn’t Paul read the Declaration of Independence?  We must fight for our freedom! We might fight for the freedom and dignity of others! He didn’t understand what we face and have faced! Well, except the Jews were conquered by the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes and Persians, Greeks, and Romans before Paul’s time and Rome still controlled Israel at the time Paul wrote, and what’s more, the Christians (not called that yet) were being persecuted and martyred.    ...

              For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (I Corinthians 1:18)                 You’ve seen the movies or read the book. Someone (usually a scientist) comes forward with some warning about a disaster, and “everyone” laughs. Then it happens. The boy cries “Wolf!” repeatedly, and then he cries “Wolf!” because there really is a wolf. The cliché of “a wise man raises an alarm and is called a fool” is alive and well and thriving in our culture. I suspect it is in every culture and always has.                 This is just reality. Last week, I mentioned schismogenesis, and it comes into play again. We can warn everyone, and we’ll be ridiculed and worse, because they have a choice between their worldview, which ...

                     Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. (Romans 13:8)                 Debt: something owed: obligation                 Financial advisors tell us to get out of debt. Even if they don’t, at least some of us have the sense that debt is a bad thing. It may be something we believe we’ll never escape, but when one is in debt, one is not free. Some people think that certain people owe endless debts to others that we can only repay by handing over everything we own and spending the rest of our lives as their slaves. In a sense, they’re right, but I do not hate those to whom I am indebted in this way to require that they take on the role that they described as evil when ...

                 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. (Romans 10:9-10 NIV) This is a case where I am not satisfied with the NIV translation. Anyone can declare anything. We lie through our teeth in our declarations. Supposedly, declarations are given in a solemn and emphatic manner. The NASB uses “confess” instead. And again, a person can make a false confession, but it in terms of the words, I prefer “confess.” What is truly significant is the combination of the declaration/confession and the belief. This is because “belief” that does not produce declarations, proclamations, or confessions and other actions or behaviors is not belief. The other thing that needs to be noted, however, is the tense of the verb in th...

                 Whoever heeds life-giving correction will be at home among the wise . (Proverbs 15:31)                  The first reason those who heed life-giving correction will be at home among the wise is that they will be alive to give it.                 The second reason they will be at home among the wise is that, by listening to life-giving correction, they will grow in wisdom.                 The third reason they will be at home among the wise is because the wise will recognize that allowing this person to be among them won’t be a waste of time and breath. Instead of suddenly not being home or having pressing business elsewhere, the wise will invite them to stay for tea.    ...