Category: A Life Worthy

Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not his benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases…( Psalm 103:3).

Newsflash—followers of Christ get cancer

and brain tumors

and diabetes

and sometimes they die.

So…what does this verse mean? Because, well, God doesn’t heal all our diseases.

But he doesn’t lie, either.

This is the part where I remind you that I am not a Bible scholar.  I’m just a guy who likes to run off at the mouth—or the keyboard, as the case may be.

But here’s what I think.

First off, I don’t buy the “lack of faith” argument.  I’ve known too many Christlike people who have died for that to be true.

Nor do I think this verse is only referring to “spiritual diseases”—AKA sin.  That’s a copout, and God doesn’t need us to cover for him.  Besides, he already talked about forgiving our sin.

I think this verse is a reminder that God has power over all diseases.  There is nothing he can’t heal, when he chooses.

So why, sometimes, does he choose not to heal?

Well, Beloved, I guess it’s for the same reason that he allows car crashes and school shootings.  Our world is broken, and these things are the consequences.  Sometimes he saves us from them, and sometimes he saves us through them.  Sometimes he heals us here, and sometimes he heals us there.

Sorry if that sounds like a copout, but it’s the best I can do.  He will heal, Beloved.  You can bank on that.

Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not his benefits—who forgives all your sins…( Psalm 103:3).

Hey, wanna compare sins?  You know, see who’s got the bigger, badder, darker innards?

Me neither.

It’s not that I’d lose..or that I’m afraid I wouldn’t.  It’s that it doesn’t matter.  Whether your worst sin is chewing gum in school or cannibalizing small children or…you know, that thing you do—the penalty is the same.

Death

The big empty Forever

I know you know this, and I know you know that Jesus took that punishment for you.  He died a death he didn’t deserve so that you can live a life you could never earn.

I know you know.

But, do you remember?

Every day…even on a Wednesday?

Praise the Lord, Beloved.

And forget not.

Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not his benefits… (Psalm 103:2).

I’m not saying that you should serve him because of what he does for you.

Although—Wow, what he does for you.

Choosing to serve Christ is not subject to a cost-benefit analysis.  We should serve him because he is Lord.  It’s the natural thing, the only right thing, to do.

And yet, we are called to remember.

Remember his goodness

His love

His grace

While you’re in memory mode, remember who you were without him.

Lost

Empty

So very alone

I don’t know about you, Beloved, but I’m glad we serve a God who has earned our worship, even though he didn’t need to.

Yeah, it’s good to remember, Beloved.

Happy Tuesday

We’re detouring away from Genesis for a bit.  I guess my ADHD is getting the best of me…

Praise the Lord, O my soul, and all my inmost being, praise his holy name (Psalm 103:1).

This verse isn’t commentary—it’s a command.

Praise is a matter of will.

See, my soul does not always feel like exalting anything or anyone other than itself.

The rebellious streak—the Pride—runs deep, and I have to command my heart to deny itself and praise him.

I don’t think I’m alone in this.

At least—I really hope not.

Most people think of praise as an emotion.  You throw your hands up and sing loud and get the holy tingles.  But I’ll tell you, if I left it up to emotions, my Lord would not get the praise he deserves.  Because my emotions are fickle, foolish things.

So, I command my soul, my heart—all my inmost being—to set aside the Pride and bow to the King of the Universe, reminding myself once again that Christ, not Michael, is the worthy one.

Care to join me, Beloved?

And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night…and it was so.  God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night.  He also made the stars.  God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness… and there was evening and there was morning—the fourth day (Genesis 1:14-19).

“When I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers,

The moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

What is Man that you are mindful of him,

The son of man, that you care for him…”(Psalm 8:3-4)

When was the last time you went out and stared up into the night sky?  My boy and I were camping in the desert a few weeks back, and I got a reminder of just how many stars you can see on a truly clear, really dark night.  It was astounding…or maybe astrostounding.

Sorry

His beauty, his power, majesty, his creativity—it’s all written there in the stars.

He’s just so…much.

If you get a chance this weekend, look up.

It’ll be worth it, Beloved.

And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear…Let the land produce vegetation…” and it was so…And there was evening and there was morning—the third day (Genesis 1:9-13).

And next up on God Made That…plants!

I’ve kinda got a theme going here.  Hope you don’t mind.

Think of the most beautiful forest you’ve ever been in, with strong trees reaching to the heavens.  Think of the loveliest garden, with roses competing for your praise.  Think of the prettiest hillside, covered in lush grass and wildflowers.  Think of crisp apples and ripe berries and spicy peppers and Brussels sprouts—

No…don’t think of Brussels sprouts.  Never think of Brussels sprouts.

Again, Beloved, all by his hand.

And all for you.

Yes, you are worth it.

Happy Thursday, Beloved.

And God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters…So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it.  And it was so.  God called the expanse “sky.”  And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day (Genesis 1:6-8).

Today is International Sky Day. You are required to look up all day long, and to say, “Wow, lookadatsky!” once per hour.

I just made that up, but I’m going to stick with it.

Think about it.  God spent a whole day on the sky.  Given what he can do with just a word, an entire day seems pretty significant.  So whenever you do look up today, consider what you’re seeing.  The blue expanse, or the stormy gray, or the cotton ball clouds, or the smoggy sunset—God created that.

OK, we made the smog…but God made it pretty.

And by the way…he made it for you.

His Beloved.

And it’s not even your birthday.

God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.”  And there was evening and there was morning—the first day (Genesis 1:6).

Not bad for a day’s work.

Beloved, I am not going to enter into the, “Was it a literal day, or multiple millennia” debate.  It’s not that I’m chicken and afraid of losing seven of my twelve readers.

Mostly

It’s that, ultimately, I’m not convinced that it matters.  I’ve heard the arguments on both sides, and I tend toward the young-earth-six-day-creation story, but if God chose to take his time about it, I’m good with that.

I think the bigger point here is that Creation was not random.  Light and dark and day and night and you and I did not just happen.  God’s not making all this up as he goes along.  He has a plan, from the first ray of light to the final “Amen.”  I don’t know all the details of that plan, but I know that you’re in it, and that I’m in it, and that it’s awesome.

And you know, Beloved?  That’s enough to know on a Tuesday.

…and he separated the light from the darkness (Genesis 1:4).

He seems to do a lot of that.

Separating light from darkness.

Light from darkness.  Wheat from tares—which are weeds, by the way.  Sheep from goats.  It’s a common theme in Scripture.

Did you ever notice that there’s no in-between?  I mean, God doesn’t separate light from darkness from twilight.  He doesn’t separate wheat from weeds from cabbages.  Or sheep from goats from poodles.

Just two choices—light and darkness.

Right and wrong.

Good and evil.

So, why does the world always want to paint things grey?

Why do you think, Beloved?

God saw that the light was good… (Genesis 1:4).

Light is good.

Have you ever been in complete darkness?  I mean, where it’s so dark that you literally can’t see your hand in front of your face?

It’s disturbing.

When I was nineteen, I lived in a little cabin in the woods.

No, really.

One night, I left a friend’s house to return home.  It was night, and I didn’t have a flashlight because I hadn’t planned to stay so late and because I was new to the woods and unfamiliar with real darkness and because I was nineteen and living on my own for the first time and my mom wasn’t there to tell me to take a flashlight.  My cabin was about 100 yards through the trees.  With light, maybe two minutes.  In the dark, fifteen of the most harrowing minutes of my life.

Confusion

Lonliness

Wrong Turns

Fear

Bad Choices

Despair

I felt it all as I stumbled through the darkness, looking for home.

I didn’t appreciate the spiritual metaphor at the time, because, well, I thought I was about to be eaten.  But I’m sure you get it.

The smallest checkout-counter keychain flashlight would have transformed that darkness…

Hey, whaddaya say we all hold hands and sing, “This Little Light of Mine?”

OK, well, maybe next time.

Happy Friday, Beloved.