Real Life in The Psalms

“The Psalms are profoundly subversive of the dominant culture, which wants to deny and cover over the darkness we are called to enter. Personally we shun negativity. Publicly we deny the failure of our attempts to exercise control. The last desperate effort at control through nuclear weapons is a stark admission of our failure to control. But through its propaganda and the ideology of consumerism, our society goes its way in pretense. Against all of this the Psalms issue a mighty protest and invite us into a more honest facing of the darkness. The reason the darkness may be faced and lived in is that even in the darkness, there is One to address. The One to address is in the darkness but is not simply a part of the darkness (John 1:1–5). Because this One has promised to be in the darkness with us, we find the darkness strangely transformed, not by the power of easy light, but by the power of relentless solidarity. Out of the “fear not” of that One spoken in the darkness, we are marvelously given new life, we know not how. The Psalms are a boundary (Jeremiah 5:22) thrown up against self-deception. They do not permit us to ignore and deny the darkness, personally or publicly, for that is where new life is given, whether on the third day or by some other uncontrolled schedule at work among us.”

from 'Spirituality of the Psalms' by Walter Brueggemann

http://ref.ly/o/spiritltypsalms/8261 via the Logos Bible Android app.

I Feel Alive Today

I feel alive today
As I water the terrace.
Noticing the bees & their ways,
Our own little slice of Paris.

Going between the sun and the shade,
The simplest things provide wonder.
This is a moment that will not fade,
The stirring of life's full thunder.

Tending our garden with showers,
Planting the seedlings so cared for,
Peace and contentment are ours,
Gratitude towards our worthy Lord.

Says my gorgeous wife,
"We have contributed to life!"

  

Holy Spirit Renewal

An encouraging thought and reminder to allow the Holy Spirit to renew and fill our souls this morning and all day long.

John Merritt "As we humble ourselves, and look up to The One who is bigger and mightier and wiser than any one of us, may we begin to sense a fresh breeze of God's Spirit blowing wind into our sails, strengthening us, encouraging us, loving us, moving us forward."  ~John Merritt Shared from a Google+ post.

What Can I Do

What Can I Do
(By Tye Tribbet)

Tell me what can I do
Cause I can't live without
I can't live without you

So here's my heart.
Here's my mind
I give you my soul
Need you to take control

Cause I've tried it
Tried it on my own but
what i found is
I can't make it
on my own

Spoilers to The Gospel

― J. C. (John Charles) Ryle, Knots Untied 1885

“You may spoil the Gospel by substitution. You have only to withdraw from the eyes of the sinner the grand object which the Bible proposes to faith,—Jesus Christ; and to substitute another object in His place,—the Church, the Ministry, the Confessional, Baptism or the Lord’s Supper,—and the mischief is done. Substitute anything for Christ, and the Gospel is totally spoiled! Do this, either directly or indirectly, and your religion ceases to be Evangelical.” 

“You may spoil the Gospel by interposition. You have only push something between Christ and the eye of the soul, to draw away the sinner’s attention from the Saviour, and the mischief is done. Interpose anything between man and Christ, and man will neglect Christ for the thing interposed! Do this, either directly or indirectly, and your religion ceases to be Evangelical.”

Wow. A 19th century quote and it is so true today. Because our current language speaks of Jesus coming to have a relationship with us and not to establish religion I would say, using today’s vernacular, if you lose sight of Jesus by these two distractions (or any other) you become religious.

How easy it is for us in the church in America to glance off of Jesus and put other good things in front of us. As Luis Palau says, those distractions might be good but they are not the Good News. That is why we must keep grace before us; remember we are saved and grow Spiritually by Jesus!

If you are interested I put a prayer guide for National Day of Prayer on our church site. www.windbornchurch.org