Buffet States Concern Over Deficit. According to billionaire Warren Buffet, the U.S. must address the massive amounts of "monetary medicine" that have been pumped into the financial system. Buffet said in his commentary published by the New York Times, that the deficit now poses threats to the world's largest economy and its currency. The U.S. budget deficit reached a record for the first ten months of the year and broke a monthly high for July to $180.7 billion. While Buffet applauds the measures to rescue our economy, he said that the U.S. is fiscally in "uncharted territory" and that the "enormous dosages of monetary medicine" will lead to many unintended side effects and consequences.
1-2 God is King, robed and ruling, God is robed and surging with strength.
And yes, the world is firm, immovable,
Your throne ever firm�you're Eternal!
3-4 Sea storms are up, God,
Sea storms wild and roaring,
Sea storms with thunderous breakers.
Stronger than wild sea storms,
Mightier than sea-storm breakers,
Mighty God rules from High Heaven.
5 What you say goes�it always has.
"Beauty" and "Holy" mark your palace rule,
God, to the very end of time. (The Message)
Second Chapter of Acts wrote a song from this Psalm. Different version, though.
"The Psalmist proves that God will not neglect or abandon the world, from the fact that he created it. A simple survey of the world should of itself suffice to attest a Divine Providence. The heavens revolve daily, and, immense as is their fabric, and inconceivable the rapidity of their revolution, we experience no concussions--no disturbance in the harmony of their motion. The sun, though varying its course every diurnal revolution, returns annually to the same point. The planets, in all their wanderings, maintain their respective positions. How could the earth hang suspended in the air were it not upheld by God's hand? By what means could it maintain itself unmoved, while the heavens above are in constant rapid motion, did not its Divine Maker fix and establish it?"
(Commentary from Heart Aflame: Daily Readings from Calvin on the Psalms)
"Scripture Alone"
Mark 7:1-13
7:1 Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, 2 they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. 3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands, holding to the tradition of the elders, 4 and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) 5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, �Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?� 6 And he said to them, �Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,
��This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me;
7 in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.�
8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.�
9 And he said to them, �You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! 10 For Moses said, �Honor your father and your mother�; and, �Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.� 11 But you say, �If a man tells his father or his mother, �Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban�� (that is, given to God)� 12 then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, 13 thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.� (ESV)
One of the underlying debates in the Reformation had to do with the Church's source of authority. "Is Scripture the final authority for faith and practice that can alone bind the conscience of the Christian, or is there another source of authority equal to or above Scripture that serves this function?"
It was Martin Luther's refusal to grant this authority to popes and church councils that got him excommunicated. Rome insisted on relying on other sources, many of which were unwritten tradition, along with Scripture. "The doctrine of justification of the Roman Catholic CHurch then and now is grounded in works of penance, the treasury of merit, and other elements established in tradition, not the Word of God."
According to Rome, unwritten traditions are equal in authority to Scripture. Paragraph 44 of the catechism states, "Both Scipture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence." In their practice, however, it is the "Church" that has the final authority, even if its binding interpretations are unfounded in the Bible.
In our passage today, Jesus made it clear that violating Scripture for the sake of tradition is wrong. Therefore, Protestantism asserts sola Scriptura: "Scripture alone is the final authority for the church." We do not believe that traditions and writings of church leaders lack authority altogether. They can guide our understanding of Scripture. Both Luther and Calvin cite Augustine on a regular basis. However, Scripture must always win out when it conflicts with tradition.
"Atonement Day"
Psalm 32:5
I acknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not cover my iniquity;
I said, �I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,�
and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. (ESV)
On the Jewish Day of Atonement, the high priest would slay a goat as a "propitiary sacrifice." He would then disappear into the Most Holy Place to sprinkle the blood on and around the mercy seat. This happened only once a year.
The people would wait anxiously for the priest to reappear, well aware that atonement for their sins was conditional on God's acceptance of his ministry.
He would finally come out and lay his hands on another goat, symbolically transferring the sins of the people onto that goat. He would then be led away into the wilderness, bearing away the sins of Israel.
There were two things necessary for this to be meaningful to the individual. They had to identify with the sins that the high priest confessed. The Jew had to acknowledge them as his own personal sins. Then he had to have faith that his sins were, in fact, being born away on the head of that "scapegoat." He didn't have to understand how this worked, he simply had to believe it. And it is important to understand that his faith was not in the goat, but in God.
"The same attitudes of penitence and faith are necessary for all of us today--who trust in Jesus as our scapegoat."
I thank you for the Scriptures and hold them as the ultimate authority in my life. I believe, as the reformers did, that Scripture is always a higher authority than tradition, written or unwritten. I pray that I will always have a love of Scripture imbedded in my heart. I pray that your Church would never lose sight of that.
I also thank you, Lord, for the atoning work of Jesus Christ, our "scapegoat." You placed on him the sins of all of us, and, by doing so, cast our sins far from us. I think there are many ways in which we still don't grasp the significance of this event. Our sins are gone! You have forgotten them! Our Savior has carried them away from us. Let us, therefore, lay everything down at his feet in worship and praise of his work. Jesus, you reign supreme! You have taken your place at the right hand of the Father, where you will stay until it is time to come back and take your Church, your Bride home forever.
No extra charge for that...
Grace and peace, friends.