A Piper book is sitting on my coffee table right now - God is the Gospel. Every good news we receive in life is b/c of God - His grace. But, the greatest "good news" is the gospel - is God Himself - that we get to be in His presence! When we get focused on other things...that is when we start putting our hope and attention to those things. Even in the good things, the celebrations in life - may we hope in the God of the Gospel - the God who is the Heavenly Lights (James 1.17). The song I'm listening to right now is Captivate by Watermark. "Captivate us Lord, Jesus - with you". One of my fave songs by the best female singer in any music today - in my humble little opinion.
This is a busy day (pictures will be uploaded tomorrow night) with the wedding spectacular - but today is also Rick and Stac's 6th wedding anniversary - that is them at the top. They have two kids: jacob and noel. Rick just had knee surgery - get better soon! Stace has been a good friend of mine since we met - will be real and honest with me, and shows me most how to keep her trust in a rock solid belief in the sovereignty of God. Happy anniversary guys - I love you, hopefully may see you at some point in the near future - its been almost a year since the Piper conference. Thank you for your continued advice, love, and theology (learning).
Ps 18 today
This was sung to the Lord by King David when he had been delivered from Saul - his greatest enemy probably. But at one time, I'm sure David had respect for Saul - as his sovereign. I wonder if this deliverance had any sense of bitterness to it? Anyway...
Verses 1-3 give great names that we can use as we call upon the Lord in bitter, hard, and even great times: Lord, strength, rock, fortress, refuge, stronghold, God, deliverer, shield, worthy, salvation.
Verse 30 speaks of God's truth...
This God—his way is perfect; the word of the Lord proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him. This God refers to all the things before hand - the one strong, defeater of the wicked, keeper of the pure, giving glory to His Own Name.
Verse 49-50 - David was literally going to take the doing of the Lord into the nations. He had defeated Saul and now David was going to be able to go further into the world with the name and Lordship of Yahweh.
Bitterness isn't my refuge, friends or events aren't my refuge. God is my refuge - my stronghold - my strength, my rock, my deliverer. May I ever rest in that.
In the words of a puritan prayer:
" When thy blessings come I begin to idolize them, and set my affection on some beloved object - children, friends, wealth, honour...Cleanse this spiritual adultery and give me chastity close my heart to all but thee." (prov 4.23)
And in closing another line from the above prayer:
"Fill me with grace daily that my life be a fountain of sweet water."
1 comment:
Kim, thank you so much for the sweet words celebrating our anniversary. We watched our wedding video this morning and we laughed about what we "thought" our marriage would be like. It's so much better and so much harder than we thought it would be. We smiled thinking about the absolute grace and providence that had brought us exactly where we are at this point in our lives. It's a great place to be. Bless you, dear friend!! We love you!
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