1-2 O my soul, bless God. From head to toe, I'll bless his holy name!
O my soul, bless God,
don't forget a single blessing!
3 He forgives your sins�every one.
He heals your diseases�every one.
(Note that the traditional versions say, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me...")
"Not content with calling his soul (by which he unquestionably means the seat of the understanding and affections) to bless God, the prophet expressly adds his inward parts, addressing as it were his own mind and heart, and all the faculties of both. When he thus speaks to himself, it is as if, removed from the presence of men, he examined himself before God."
(Commentary from Heart Aflame: Daily Readings from Calvin on the Psalms)
"The Internal and External Call"
Acts 6:1-7
Reading from the English Standard Version:
6:1 Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. 2 And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, �It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. 3 Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. 4 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.� 5 And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. 6 These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.
7 And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.
When we talk about God's will, a lot of people are really looking for what God wants them to do in the way of employment; the question of vocation.
This turns out to be an intensely spiritual question. We are all called to be active members of the body of Christ. We are all called to serve, or minister to, one another. Often, though, we forget that our work outside the church can be a way for us to serve others. Doctors serve sick people. Mechanics serve people whose cars are malfunctioning.
When we speak of full-time Christian service, we often speak of an internal and an external call. "The internal call is that inward, subjective desire on the part of the individual to serve the church and the personal sense that God has in fact chosen him for that task." The "external" call is simply the recognition by other Christians that a person has been chosen for that vocation. Today's passage is just such an example.
Therefore, it is not wrong to look for confirmation from other people if we feel that we are "called" to a specific vocation.
"Contentment"
Philippians 4:11
Reading from the English Standard Version.
Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.
There is a legitimate place in our lives for discontent. We should all, to some degree, be discontent with our state of spiritual growth. We should be discontent with injustice and evils in society. "But there's also a sinful discontent that negatively affects our relationship with God. It can easily lead to resentment or bitterness toward God or other people."
We need to recognize that this type of discontentment is sin. We get used to responding to difficult situations with anxiety, frustration, and discontentment, so we consider them normal reactions. "When we fail to recognize these responses to our circumstances as sin, we're responding no differently from unbelievers who never factor God into their situations." Ouch.
In Psalm 139:16, David said this: Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them. This should help us deal with circumstances that tempt us to experience discontentment.
No matter what our circumstances, no matter how difficult (or even great) they may be, the truth is that God has ordained all our days. It's all part of his plan for our lives. "God does nothing, or allows nothing, without a purpose. And His purposes, however mysterious and inscrutable they may be to us, are always for His glory and our ultimate good."
I also praise you that your plan for me included being a worship leader. I have experienced both the "internal" and the "external" calls that were written about in that article. It is my desire to use my life to lead and inspire others to worship you, the One True God. You are the only one that is worthy of anything remotely resembling worship, and I devote my life to that "cause."
And in light of that, I call upon every ounce of my being to praise you! From my head to my toe; my soul, mind, and body...Praise your holy name!!
Pray for an economic rebound and for jobs for those Americans facing unemployment.
The President says he expects unemployment will be a "big problem" for at least another year. Speaking during taping of "The Late Show", Obama called the $787 billion economic stimulus program that Congress enacted earlier this year a "tourniquet" that stopped the economic bleeding. Without that spending, he said another 1.5 million jobs, or more, would have been lost. But the President said it's going to take time for the economy to become whole again.
(Headlines in local newspapers the other day gave the unemployment rate in Texas as 8%, the highest reached in a long time, if not ever.)
Grace and peace, friends.