Something Greater

Psalm 13: Consider And Answer Me To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,” lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken. But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me. What do you think? David felt as if God had forgotten him - as if God had mislaid him, or was oblivious of him. In this emotional song, David says that he feels this way because of enemies and foes (hateful people; crushing, crowding things). What circumstances have recently made you feel this way? David begs God to "consider" (to look ...

Psalm 7: My Shield Is With God A Shiggaion of David, which he sang to the Lord concerning the words of Cush, a Benjaminite. O Lord my God, in you do I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers and deliver me, lest like a lion they tear my soul apart, rending it in pieces, with none to deliver. O Lord my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands, if I have repaid my friend with evil or plundered my enemy without cause, let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it, and let him trample my life to the ground and lay my glory in the dust. Selah Arise, O Lord, in your anger; lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies; awake for me; you have appointed a judgment. Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about you; over it return on high. The Lord judges the peoples; judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me. Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end, and may you establ...

A Real Relationship With Jesus Today's post is written by my wife, Robin Reynolds, taken from a message presented at a recent Healing Hearts Bible study. The message strikes deeply at the heart of what being a Christian is, and I'm grateful for Robin allowing me to post it here. Being a Christian, a follower of Christ, isn't about following a list of rules. It's not about going through the checklist...Did I read my Bible today, did I pray, did I got to church this week? No. It's about our relationship with Jesus Christ. How dare we? How dare we reduce being a Christian to a simple set of rules. How dare we act as if the King of kings and the Lord of lords did not sacrifice His life so that we can have forgiveness of sins, an abundant life, and an intimate relationship with Him? How dare we behave as if this life that He has given us is all about us and our rule-following? Sorry to burst everyone's bubble, but it isn't all about us. "Looki...

Spiritual Ignorance Paul described his past as a blasphemer, persecutor and insolent opponent. He knows firsthand how the "certain persons" are acting in Ephesus, because he once was the same. He used the Law of God as a weapon and a rod , exerting control over others and protecting his own power and influence. Paul had used the law unlawfully. But Jesus graciously forgave and transformed Paul. "But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus." 1 Timothy 1:13-14 (ESV) Ignorance causes unbelief , and actions flow from that unbelief that can hurt one's own self and others. IGNORANTLY: agnoeo (not to know, to ignore); from a (not) and noeo (to exercise the mind, to observe, to comprehend or heed); from nous (the intellect, the mind, meaning); from ginosko (to know absolutely) We use a similar word in English: agnostic. "Agnostic" ...

Scornful or Humble? "Toward the scorners he is scornful, but to the humble he gives favor." Proverbs 3:34 (ESV) SCORNERS: lis (to make mouths at, to scoff, to interpret or intercede) HUMBLE: anav (depressed in mind or circumstances, saintly); from ana (to depress) FAVOR: hen (graciousness, kindness, favor, beauty); from hanan (to bend or stoop in kindness to an inferior, to favor, bestow, implore) The word for scorn is to make mouths at , to exaggerate the sound or appearance of someone for the purpose of insult or shame. Scorners of God exaggerate or twist His Words, turning His truth into a joke or example of shame , bringing others to laughter and preventing them from taking God seriously. God allows the scorner to mock...more, God returns the scornful behavior back towards the mocker, describing truths even more incredible and incomprehensible to the scornful mind. To be humble is to be depressed, to consider oneself to be without strength, influence...

Oh! How He Loves Us! "So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind." Philippians 2:1-2 (ESV) Paul describes the reward, or the conseqence, of being in Christ : ENCOURAGEMENT: paraklesis (imploration, hortation, solace); from parakaleo (to call near, invite, invoke); from para (near) and kaleo (to call aloud) COMFORT: paramythion (concrete consolation); from paramythia (abstract consolation); from paramytheomai (to relate near, encourage, console); from para (near) and mythos (a tale, a story of fiction, "myth") PARTICIPATION: koinonia (partnership, participation, intercourse, benefaction); from koinonos (a sharer, an associate); from koinos (common, shared by all or several, profane) AFFECTION: splanchnon (the intestine, figurative for pity or sympathy); from splen (the...

The Stars What experience causes you to stand in awe of God? For me, it is looking from high above a valley well after the sun has set. The stars fill the sky so abundantly more than when I look up from my backyard. Thousands, millions, billions of stars...huge, global-sized orbs of flame and heat...pinpoints of power that is beyond even the mid-sized star we call The Sun. If our understanding is accurate regarding the speed of light, the stars are millions of millions of miles away from us! We think that the nearest star to us, aside from our sun, Proxima Centauri, just over 4 light years away . It would take four years, traveling at the speed of light, to reach this nearest star! The farthest recorded star is approximately 25 billion light years away! (http://www.astronomyexpert.co.uk/howfarawayarethestars.html) And the number of stars is uncountable! One best guess is that there may be as many as 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars in our universe. (http://www.esa.in...

Anne Jackson’s Permission to Speak Freely What is one thing you feel you can't say in church? Anne Jackson asked that question on her blog and received hundreds of responses . Out of that question she's written Permission to Speak Freely – Essays and Art on Fear, Confession and Grace . She's shared seven essays from her book on seven different blogs . Each essay ends with a link to the next essay. Her seven essays form an emotional, convicting, heart-breaking yet encouraging story of faith lost and gained...relationships betrayed and restored . To read all the essays, you can follow the route below: Donald Miller (Essay #1 – The First Brick) Jon Acuff (Essay #2 – The Final Brick) Carlos Whittaker (Essay #3 – Losing Faith) Pete Wilson (Essay #4 – Finding Love in All the Wrong Places) XXXChurch.com (Essay #5 – Shattered Pixels) Catalyst Conference (Essay #6 – Ghosts of Churches Past) FlowerDust.net (Essay #7 – Listen...