Do You Believe This?

Psalm 84-89

Reading along in the Psalms this a.m. and was crushed awake. 

“Remember what my span of life is;

For what vanity Thou has

created all the sons of men.”

89:47. 

I am sitting looking out over the Great Smoky Mountains. Each one thickly layered in fog, waiting to be painted clear by the warm summer sun.  Yesterday my wife and I hiked deep into these mountains to find our oldest son’s altar that we had built ten years ago when he went off to college.   We found the altar just as we had left it ten years hence.

God, for what vanity have You created me and mine?  These mountains will live eons on after we are dust.  Even our son’s altar will stand for centuries as his flesh will die and be accepted back to earth and eventually be absorbed into the planet and distributed to the elements. 

We are Your eternal companions, to live and to enjoy each other for when time is no more.

“Jesus told her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life.  Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying.  Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die.  Do you believe this…?”       John 11:25-26

Aaron's Altar

Whose Shadow Are You In?

Psalm 80-83

Have you ever heard of Asaph?  He wrote the last 12 chapters of The Psalms that we just read.  I have heard of him, but have never really given him much thought until this morning.  Poor guy, he always lived in the shadow of David.  Shadows are not a good place to be except on a hot day. 

“Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings…” Psalms 17:8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXX_bKUi0Mk

Well, I guess the shadows aren’t as bad as I thought!!!

Breathe

Psalm 75-79

The Psalm’s this morning are all about us forgetting God.  Can you imagine forgetting God?  We have!  Here’s a good thought.  Take in a deep breath.  Plenty of air is available!  Seems like we would have run out by now with all of us breathing, humans and animals alike.  But we know that trees give off what we need and we give off what they need.  THAT IS PROFOUNDLY SILLY!!!

Can you imagine thinking that up as the remedy for abundant breath, breath enough for all, for all time?  If it weren’t so profound I would catch myself praising right now.  All I can do is shake my head in grateful wonder. 

Don’t you just love God?   

Where Betty, me and the trees were "breathing" yesterday!!!

The Conscious Creed

Psalm 70-74

I watched Steven Hawking’s Grand Design last night.  Like Dr. Hawking the Psalmists looked at the heavens and were amazed. 

This morning I read the Psalm’s and am sitting on my back porch early in the morning as it rains.  A Blue Jay just chased off the hawk that has set up residence in my back yard.  I am drinking good coffee, have a green energy bulb to light The Word and I AM CONSCIOUS. Carl Sagan said our consciousness is “the universe considering itself.”

There is something grand and glorious about consciousness, the ability we have to be aware, but its very existence should be the first clue that we are virtually clueless.  The far greater gift of consciousness is Faith.  For what is faith other than the giving away of the reality of our consciousness for a far greater reality of belief.  By faith we hold to the truths of our consciousness.

I believe in one God,

the Father, the Almighty,

maker of heaven and earth,

of all that is, seen and unseen…  

Post Script:  I didn't have time to let Betty edit this.  I hope there are not to many grammatical mistakes!!!

Beauty Is A Gift Of Incalculable Wisdom

Psalm 66-69

“You (God) are like the wings of a dove

covered with silver,

And its pinions with glistening

         gold.”

                           68:13b

It is almost unfathomable that humans can take 26 symbols, our alphabet, and combine them with our heart and soul and come up with beauty such as this?  Beauty is one of the greatest gifts of God and one of the staunch critics of the biological evolutionary theory. 

“But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?

It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.

Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,

Who is already sick and pale with grief…”

                  William Shakespeare

Hear that lonesome whippoorwill,

He sounds to blue to fly.

The midnight train is whining low,

I’m so lonesome I could cry.

I’ve never seen a night so long

When time goes crawling by.

The moon just went behind a cloud

To hide its face and cry

Did you ever see a robin weap

When leaves begin to die

Like me he’s lost the will to live,

I’m so lonesome I could cry

The silence of a falling star

Lights up a purple sky.

And as I wonder where you are

I’m so lonesome I could cry.

                  Hank Williams

Beauty is a gift of incalculable wisdom.

The Psalm in "Forest Gump"

Psalm 58-65

The greatest art is that which exposes the sincerest truth, is readily accessible and carries universal reality.  That is why we love the Psalms so much.  Every line seems to voice the authenticity we have long held in our hearts and souls. 

There is a truth hidden in this passage that has long since past from the esteemed qualities of men.  It is found in chapter 62:8a; “Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us.”  In the civilized gatherings of humans we now count it virtuous to hold our hearts and souls in cool and deadened check.  But life rarely comes that way.  Life has a way of washing over us in torrents of reality, risks, danger, toils and ecstasies leaving us scared and stunned with a heart bursting to be poured out. 

Remember Lieutenant Dan in the movie Forest Gump, when in the midst of the storm at sea he clung to the masthead and pours out his heart to God.  That was a Psalm!!!

Do you have a Psalm in your heart?

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts

Psalm 51-57

Sometimes our praises can’t get passed our prayers.  That’s what has happened to David this morning.  We have found him knee deep in sin and trouble and have caught him crying out to God for help.  There is one verse in chapter 51 that has become one of my all time favorites:  “Restore to me the joy of thy salvation.”  52:12

Most of us consider our salvation just a ticket to heaven, not a source of our earthly joy.   Let’s consider a small thing that can daily help our joy, taste.  Don’t you love taste!  I believe that the most wonderful taste in the world is hot Krispy Kreme doughnuts.  Just think of all the joy God has provided us because He decided to invent taste and then just gave it to each of us for FREE!!! Getting taste for free should be enough to keep us “joy-filled” continually.