November 3, 2016

Psalm 2

Psalm 3

Psalm 4

True Spirituality – Francis Schaeffer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_Spirituality

Does believing in Jesus really make a difference?

Can God really change lives?

After serving as a pastor for over a decade, Francis Schaeffer–founder of L’Abri Fellowship–found himself wrestling with deeply perplexing questions like these. He was tired of not seeing results in his own spiritual life and others’. He found himself talking about Christianity, but not living it. So, as a pastor, he decided to “start at the beginning”–go back to agnosticism–and reexamine his Christian faith. “Did Christianity really make any difference in my life?”

True Spirituality is the result of Schaeffer’s honest search for answers. When the book was published thirty years ago, it shook the Christian world. Young people flocked to L’Abri, his spiritual retreat center in the Swiss Alps. Today, it’s a classic book on understanding what real Christianity is all about–what it means to follow Jesus moment by moment.

The sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue,

to know the word that sustains the weary.

He wakens me morning by morning,

wakens my ear to listen like one being taught. (Isaiah 50:4, NIV)

Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the word of his servant?

Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light,

trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.

But now, all you who light fires and provide yourselves with flaming torches,

go, walk in the light of your fires and of the torches you have set ablaze.

This is what you shall receive from my hand:  You will lie down in torment.(Isaiah 50:10-11, NIV)

This example of the “universe and two chairs” leads me to comment on one of the unique aspects of the teaching of Francis Schaeffer. It is this constant bringing together of the biblical message and the challenge of the thought forms of the culture in which we live. In every sermon, in every Bible study, in every lecture (no matter what the subject), in every discussion, he would help us to see both what the Bible teaches, and how the biblical message is threatened or undermined by the ideas and practices of the culture in which we live.

…non-Christians ought to be able to see “supernaturally restored relationships” when they observe the lives of Christians.

Psalm 1 – https://www.purposedriven.ca/wiki/eng/psalm-1/

Psalm 89 – https://www.purposedriven.ca/wiki/esv-bible/psalm-89/

Seasons Of Darkness – https://www.purposedriven.ca/wiki/eng/seasons-of-darkness/

Proverb 24:33 – https://www.purposedriven.ca/wiki/ch-spurgeon/proverbs-2433/

I Will Sing of the Steadfast Love of the Lord

Psalm 89 A Maskil of Ethan the Ezrahite.

1 I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever;

with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations.

2 For I said, “Steadfast love will be built up forever;

in the heavens you will establish your faithfulness.”

3 You have said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one;

I have sworn to David my servant:

4 ‘I will establish your offspring forever,

and build your throne for all generations.’ ” Selah

5 Let the heavens praise your wonders, O Lord,

your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones!

6 For who in the skies can be compared to the Lord?

Who among the heavenly beings is like the Lord,

7 a God greatly to be feared in the council of the holy ones,

and awesome above all who are around him?

8 O Lord God of hosts,

who is mighty as you are, O Lord,

with your faithfulness all around you?

9 You rule the raging of the sea;

when its waves rise, you still them.

10 You crushed Rahab like a carcass;

you scattered your enemies with your mighty arm.

11 The heavens are yours; the earth also is yours;

the world and all that is in it, you have founded them.

12 The north and the south, you have created them;

Tabor and Hermon joyously praise your name.

13 You have a mighty arm;

strong is your hand, high your right hand.

14 Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne;

steadfast love and faithfulness go before you.

15 Blessed are the people who know the festal shout,

who walk, O Lord, in the light of your face,

16 who exult in your name all the day

and in your righteousness are exalted.

17 For you are the glory of their strength;

by your favor our horn is exalted.

18 For our shield belongs to the Lord,

our king to the Holy One of Israel.

19 Of old you spoke in a vision to your godly one, and said:

“I have granted help to one who is mighty;

I have exalted one chosen from the people.

20 I have found David, my servant;

with my holy oil I have anointed him,

21 so that my hand shall be established with him;

my arm also shall strengthen him.

22 The enemy shall not outwit him;

the wicked shall not humble him.

23 I will crush his foes before him

and strike down those who hate him.

24 My faithfulness and my steadfast love shall be with him,

and in my name shall his horn be exalted.

25 I will set his hand on the sea

and his right hand on the rivers.

26 He shall cry to me, ‘You are my Father,

my God, and the Rock of my salvation.’

27 And I will make him the firstborn,

the highest of the kings of the earth.

28 My steadfast love I will keep for him forever,

and my covenant will stand firm for him.

29 I will establish his offspring forever

and his throne as the days of the heavens.

30 If his children forsake my law

and do not walk according to my rules,

31 if they violate my statutes

and do not keep my commandments,

32 then I will punish their transgression with the rod

and their iniquity with stripes,

33 but I will not remove from him my steadfast love

or be false to my faithfulness.

34 I will not violate my covenant

or alter the word that went forth from my lips.

35 Once for all I have sworn by my holiness;

I will not lie to David.

36 His offspring shall endure forever,

his throne as long as the sun before me.

37 Like the moon it shall be established forever,

a faithful witness in the skies.” Selah

38 But now you have cast off and rejected;

you are full of wrath against your anointed.

39 You have renounced the covenant with your servant;

you have defiled his crown in the dust.

40 You have breached all his walls;

you have laid his strongholds in ruins.

41 All who pass by plunder him;

he has become the scorn of his neighbors.

42 You have exalted the right hand of his foes;

you have made all his enemies rejoice.

43 You have also turned back the edge of his sword,

and you have not made him stand in battle.

44 You have made his splendor to cease

and cast his throne to the ground.

45 You have cut short the days of his youth;

you have covered him with shame. Selah

46 How long, O Lord? Will you hide yourself forever?

How long will your wrath burn like fire?

47 Remember how short my time is!

For what vanity you have created all the children of man!

48 What man can live and never see death?

Who can deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah

49 Lord, where is your steadfast love of old,

which by your faithfulness you swore to David?

50 Remember, O Lord, how your servants are mocked,

and how I bear in my heart the insults of all the many nations,

51 with which your enemies mock, O Lord,

with which they mock the footsteps of your anointed.

52 Blessed be the Lord forever!

Amen and Amen.

Psalm 89:38-48 ESV

38 But now you have cast off and rejected;

you are full of wrath against your anointed.

39 You have renounced the covenant with your servant;

you have defiled his crown in the dust.

40 You have breached all his walls;

you have laid his strongholds in ruins.

41 All who pass by plunder him;

he has become the scorn of his neighbors.

42 You have exalted the right hand of his foes;

you have made all his enemies rejoice.

43 You have also turned back the edge of his sword,

and you have not made him stand in battle.

44 You have made his splendor to cease

and cast his throne to the ground.

45 You have cut short the days of his youth;

you have covered him with shame. Selah

46 How long, O Lord? Will you hide yourself forever?

How long will your wrath burn like fire?

47 Remember how short my time is!

For what vanity you have created all the children of man!

48 What man can live and never see death?

Who can deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah

The Way of the Righteous and the Wicked (Psalm 1:1-6 ESV)

Psalm 1:1 Blessed is the man

who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,

nor stands in the way of sinners,

nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

#TheBlessedMan

#WalkNotInTheCounselOfTheWicked

#DoNotStandInTheWayOfSinners

#DoNotBeAScoffer

2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord,

and on his law he meditates day and night.

#HisDelightIsInTheLawOfTheLord

#OnGodsLawHeMeditatesDayAndNight

3 He is like a tree

planted by streams of water

that yields its fruit in its season,

and its leaf does not wither.

In all that he does, he prospers.

#BeingRootedNearTheSource

#YieldingFruitInSeason

#WhoseLeafDoesNotWither

#InAllThatHeDoesHeProspers

4 The wicked are not so,

but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

#TheWickedAreForASeason

5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;

#HavingFavourableJudgement

#TheCongregationOfTheRighteous

6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,

but the way of the wicked will perish.

#TheLordKnows

#TheWayOfTheRighteous

#TheWayOfTheWickedWillPerish

Godlessness in the Last Days (2 Timothy 3:1-9 ESV)

3:1 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.

#LastDays

#TimesOfDifficulty

2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,

#LoversOfSelf

#LoversOfMoney

#Proud

#Arrogant

#Abusive

#Disobedient

#DisrespectfulToParents

#Ungrateful

#Unholy

3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good,

#Heartless

#Unappeasable

#Slanderous

#WithoutSelfControl

#Brutal

#NotLovingGood

4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,

#Treacherous

#Reckless

#Conceited

#LoversOfPleasure

#NotLoversOfGod

5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.

#TheAppearanceOfGodliness

#DenyingThePowerOfGodliness

#AvoidSuchPeople

6 For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions,

#BadIntentions

#CapturingWeakWomen

#BurdenedWithSin

#LedAstray

#LedAstrayByVariousPassions

7 always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.

#AlwaysLearning

#NeverArrivingAtTheKnowledgeOfTruth

8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith.

#OppositionOfGodOrdainedLeadership

#OpposingTheTruth

#CorruptedInTheMind

#Disqualified

#DisqualifiedRegardingTheFaith

9 But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.

#TheyWillNotGetVeryFar

#TheirFollyWillBePlainToAll

#Don’tBeLikeThoseMen

Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.
— 1 Corinthians 10:12

If everyday we can celebrate Christ’s birth, His Cross and His Resurrection. That is to worship The Most High. Amen.
— SK

Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!
— Psalm 90:17 (English Standard Version)

What does the New Testament say? Jesus spent 85 percent of his working life as a carpenter. The root word for carpenter is tekton, which has similar roots to “technology.” Since there was little wood in the area, Jesus was probably not a builder of cabinets or other wood products. Research has found the city of Sepphoris was being built around that time, and that Jesus and Joseph likely had jobs as stone masons, building homes and other structures for Greeks and Romans, not necessarily Jewish folks. The Son of God likely spent most of his earthly life as a builder in a for-profit business.