Psalms 91

1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
       will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

2 I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
       my God, in whom I trust.”

3 Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare
       and from the deadly pestilence.

4 He will cover you with his feathers,
       and under his wings you will find refuge;
       his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.

5 You will not fear the terror of night,
       nor the arrow that flies by day,

6 nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
       nor the plague that destroys at midday.

7 A thousand may fall at your side,
       ten thousand at your right hand,
       but it will not come near you.

8 You will only observe with your eyes
       and see the punishment of the wicked.

9 If you make the Most High your dwelling—
       even the LORD, who is my refuge-

10 then no harm will befall you,
       no disaster will come near your tent.

11 For he will command his angels concerning you
       to guard you in all your ways;

12 they will lift you up in their hands,
       so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

13 You will tread upon the lion and the cobra;
       you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

14 “Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him;
       I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.

15 He will call upon me, and I will answer him;
       I will be with him in trouble,
       I will deliver him and honor him.

16 With long life will I satisfy him
       and show him my salvation.”

 

This morning on my way to work I saw a sticker on a car window that just said “PSALMS 91”.  So of course the first thing I did when I got in my office was to look that up and see what that Psalm said.

Right now on Rex’s Daily Bread blog we are reading through Psalms.  One of the pictures of God that is shown over and over is that of protector…our Rock, refuge, shelter, shield, and deliverer.  Look at all the references in this Psalm alone!! Rest, refuge, fortress….on and on. 

Do you think God wants us to get it? To see His power and realize His strength is there FOR us? To protect us? To deliver us?  And the best yet…to save us!!??!! He’s not looking for opportunities to zap us.  He’s looking for opportunities to rescue us.  He wants us with Him.  The entire Bible is a love story showing what lengths He is willing to go to get us back with Him! The ultimate act of love? Jesus on the cross!!

 “For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

That’s not just a verse to be memorized and recited back during Bible class.  That’s the truth about God’s love for us! So let’s live today with that knowledge.  God is our shelter.  God is our salvation.  God wants us to be with Him eternally.  So much so that He sent Jesus to suffer and die to make that possible. 

“…and Sherry will be teaching”…WHAT??

I did something this past weekend that I never, ever thought I was capable of doing.  I taught people by just opening my Bible and telling them about Jesus. I know other people can do it…I’ve seen them. I have sat right there and heard it done.  But I never thought that I would be the one doing it!

All of my life, I have known that I am NOT teacher material.  I am one of those people that would rather do it all myself than take the time to teach someone else how.  I find it incredibly difficult to not just tell my children the answer when they need help on their homework.  I find it hard to not take the pencil and do the math problems for them…to complete the word search or correct the spelling.  I do not have the patience to teach my kids how to play the piano, even though I have all my beginner books to teach from. I pay big bucks to have someone else teach them how to drive. I have to sit on my hands at work when I am telling my co-workers how to do something on the computer.  I want to grab the mouse and do it for them!! I AM NOT A TEACHER!!

But somehow I ended up being in the spot to teach. (I blame Rex) Someone said “This is the perfect chance for you to go ahead and step up and do that” (Rex again).  This same person stated not even a week ago “You would have to hold a gun to Sherry’s head to get her to stand up in front of folks and teach” (Sound familiar Rex??)

I will admit I was a little nervous before we started. I cleaned all four bathrooms at the building, wiped cabinets, cleaned the glass door, set up tables, cleaned them, took them back down, put them back up. A little nervous? Maybe.  Full blown panic?? Definitely!!  

But I knew that I was prepared for the topic I was going to cover.  And once I opened my mouth to begin, it just flowed.  God is so good…and has given us everything we need to lead people to Him! It was joyful (that’s not a word I use too often…but it fits this perfectly!)  to watch those women learn something about Jesus they had not known before. 

Now mind you, I am teaching again this weekend and I don’t have as much confidence.  But I will study..I will read and read and re-read.  I will ask God to help me show the beauty of His word.  There are many things I want to share.  I hope that I can find the way to tell them in the way they deserve to be told. 

It seems so odd to me to be teaching.  My prodigal days took their toll on me and I feel like I am starting all over again in learning about God.  I forgot so many things that I had known before.  But in a way maybe that is good.  Because the things I have learned since coming home a couple of years ago…I have learned with my heart.  They are not just words to be recited back and then forgotten.  They are not just black and white words on a page that applied to those people in those times but not to me.  They are not something to be taken out and looked at on Sunday and Wednesday.  These lessons are reality.  I can apply them to my life.  I have seen how God is able to take weaknesses and use them to bring glory and honor to His name.  I understand when David cries out  “Arise O LORD, Deliver me”.  I understand why Peter went and wept bitterly.  I know how Paul feels when he says “What a wretched man I am!” (just substitute woman) 

One thing I have prayed over and over since I came home: Please Father God use my stupidity, my mistakes for some sort of good.  Please let my bad be used for someone else’s good.  Maybe this is God’s answer to that.  Maybe I have the experiences that will enable me to understand someone’s pain.  Maybe I can offer comfort and compassion to a bruised heart. 

So…please keep me in your prayers as I get ready to share the story of Jesus.  It’s not something I can do for them this time.  It is something beautiful that I want them to hear and understand.  It is too good..too wondrous…not to share!  (Thank you Rex…I really do love you!)

Old me vs. New me

“So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.” (Romans 7:21-8:4 NIV)

Have you felt this way? Have you felt like you were somewhere between the good that you want to be and the bad that you used to be? And the bad just keeps on rearing its ugly head?  I think Paul was right on the mark when he said “What a wretched man I am!”  The new me “delights” in God…I so want to do what is right and good all the time.  But the old me, keeps getting in the way.  The old ways of thinking keep popping back up.  It is a constant struggle.  So who can save me from that vicious cycle? Jesus!! And only Jesus! The old law required a sacrifice for the atonement of sin. That law depended on man, and man had to struggle to attempt to live up to God’s requirements…man just could not live perfectly.  Jesus became a man to be that sacrifice…the life perfectly lived…the sacrifice that met the requirements and satisfied the law forever. 

So, we have no condemnation because of Christ! We are free from that burden. We get to live…no longer chained to our patterns of sin…but free in Christ! We get to live under the law of the Spirit of life. There is a line in a song that says “we worship with the sound of broken shackles falling to the ground”.  I love that picture.  Jesus has set us free from the shackles of our old nature…the old patterns.  He freed us from the law that said “you sin, you die”.

He knows that we will struggle against our old thought patterns and behavior.  We will still struggle with the helplessness and worthlessness we feel because we cannot live the way we want.  Jesus understands.

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses”. (Hebrews 4:15 NIV)

I think it may be BECAUSE we have the gift of grace…free and completely undeserved…that we are more aware of our sin and the struggle it causes in us.  I feel so unworthy to have received forgiveness and mercy and grace…anything from God.   I know…I KNOW…that no one can earn grace.  It wouldn’t be grace if you had to earn it.  Grace is a gift…a free gift. But I remember the old me.  I remember the sin.  I remember the coldness of my heart.  BUT…and thank you Father…God’s grace is so much greater than our sin!!

“This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in His presence whenever our hearts condemn us.  For God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything.”

(1 John 3:19-20 NIV)

 

I admit that sometimes have a hard time understanding what Paul writes.  I find myself reading back over it, one phrase at a time, trying to grasp the full meaning of the words.  So I may have missed some huge issues here…and may have misunderstood the things I wrote about.  But one thing I completely understand the struggle to live a life wanting to do what is good, but having to fight the evil that is right there.  It is a comfort to know that Paul…mighty, powerful, faithful apostle and servant of God…felt that same struggle.  There might just be hope for me after all.