This morning, Jesus is in the grave. Regardless of whether you believe he was crucified on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, this morning, he is silent (at least physically), cold, "dead." Three days, three nights. One more day and one more night to go.
For God�s help and insight for the Secretary of Health and Human Services in working to improve healthcare and social services in our country
Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.
�III John 1:2
Great and beautiful God, it is only in You that all things find �shalom�--the sense that all is just as it should be. We praise and bless you today for being our ultimate source of well-being and health, and we praise You for how we are fearfully and wonderfully made. You have shown Your great creativity and Your wise and intelligent design in the marvelous inner workings of the human body. We praise and glorify You for this today, O Lord!
Today we bring before You our nation�s Secretary of Health and Human Services, asking that You impress him or her with the sense of Your authority and power, that they may serve Your purposes and highest priorities as they step up to help citizens with their health needs. Lord, bless this person with Your wisdom and grace, that You may be seen and glorified. I ask this in Jesus� name, amen.
9 The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth
and strips the forests bare,
and in his temple all cry, �Glory!�
10 The Lord sits enthroned over the flood;
the Lord sits enthroned as king forever.
11 May the Lord give strength to his people!
May the Lord bless his people with peace!
"As men profit not so much in the common school of Nature as to submit themselves to God, David wisely says especially that the faithful sing the praises of God in his temple, because, being familiarly instructed there by his fatherly voice, they devote and consecrate themselves wholly to his service.
It is the doctrine of salvation alone, therefore, which cheers our hearts and opens our mouths in his praises, by clearly revealing to us his grace, and the whole of his will. It is from thence that we must learn how we ought to praise him."
(Commentary from Heart Aflame: Daily Readings from Calvin on the Psalms)
"Playing for Keeps"
Philippians 3:12-16
13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
"The Christian life is a heated battle against the world, the flesh, and the Devil, and it is not for the faint of heart. In this war we will suffer seeming defeat and enjoy God-given success. At times we will be exhilarated, and at other times loss will discourage us. Yet we must never give up. Jesus' victory over Satan at the cross has decided the war. Victory is guaranteed for God's people, and it is now slowly working itself out in our lives and in the created order.
Philippians 3:12-16 calls us to forget what is behind us and press on toward the goal."
Our reward is in Christ. We will receive that reward by pressing on, by "straining forward." And it is, indeed "straining." As Relient K said, "We all struggle with forward motion."
This passage contains several very significant events in the life of Abram. The first is God's covenant, not just with Abram, but with all of his people. It is in chapter 15 that God first tells Abrah to look at the stars and says to him, "So shall your offspring be." When Abram questions God on this, God tells Abram to go and get some animals. He then cuts them in half. After a time, Abram fell into a deep sleep. During this sleep, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch appeared and passed between the halves of the animals.
There are differing opinions of what happened here. The most likely is that, by doing this, God invoked an oath upon himself that sealed his covenant with his people. He can swear on no higher authority, so he swears by Himself to keep the covenant.
The next event occurs when Abram gets ahead of God and tries to help the plan out. Actually, it was initiated by Sarai, his wife. After they have lived in Canaan ten years and still didn't have a child, Sarai took Hagar, her servant and gave her to Abram "as a wife." Hagar conceived with Abram's seed, and the Middle East is still reeling from this action today. Right off the bat, Hagar looked at Sarai with contempt. Then Sarai got mad at Abram (go figure??).
The third event is the name changing for both Abram and Sarai. Abram, which meant "exalted father," was changed to Abraham, which means "father of a multitude of nations." Sarai is changed to Sarah. Both names seem to be variants meaning "princess." However, her birth name seems to look back on noble descent, and her covenant name looks ahead to noble descendants.
The fourth event actually happens between Abraham's and Sarah's name changes. Abraham is circumcised as part of this covenant. The act of circumcision shows that someone is a member of the covenant community.
Here's what I hear from this. First of all, God has made a covenant with us, and he will keep it. He is sworn on his own Name that he will keep it. Therefore, we have no worries as to our destiny.
Second, as discussed in previous entries, I need to be careful about trying to "help" God work the plan. Anytime I go off "half-cocked" with some idea that I think will help God or speed things up a bit, it usually has the opposite effect.
Third, God may not have officially changed my name as he did Abram and Sarai, but I am in covenant with him, and there will be a new name for me someday. Even so, when I became a believer in Christ, I was given a new nature.
And finally, we still have an outward manifestation of our covenant membership. It is no longer circumcision, although, as a general rule, our society still practices that to some degree. It is my opinion that baptism has replaced circumcision as our outward display of joining into the covenant community.
I thank you for changing my "name." I thank you that you gave me a new nature many years ago, when I believed in you. Keep my belief strong. Strengthen my commitment to be your follower. I look forward to hearing my new name when I receive my robe of righteousness in heaven.
This is our hope in God. He hears our plea. He accepts our prayer. His covenant is solid, his promise is sure.
Grace and peace, friends.