This journal entry took a whole week to finish and post as you can see by the date below. The sermon I refer to here is from last week. I wish I could say that I practiced the principles outlined in my Witness section below perfectly this week, but my execution is still in the infancy stage. I hope to inculcate these principles into my life until they become holy habits.
October 15, 2017
Worship: God is My Light by Psalms Project
God is my light
And he is my salvation
I trust in Him,
Why should I be afraid?
Safe and secure
From every opposition, He is my help,
My enemies are slayed
One thing I ask,
One thing I desire;
To live within his house
My entire life
And gaze upon
The beauty of his face
Hope in the Lord and wait;
My heart, be brave!
Don't hide your face,
Be merciful and gracious,
Hear me, oh Lord,
And don't turn me away
Please answer me
And I will sing your praises
You lift me up,
And You show me the way
One thing I ask,
One thing I desire;
To live within his house
My entire life
And gaze upon
The beauty of his face
Hope in the Lord and wait;
My heart, be brave! (2X)
Words: Lee Ann Vermeulen-Roberts, 2013
Music: Elko Voss, Luca Genta, based on the tune for Psalm 27 in the Genevan Psalter
Artist: The Psalm Project
Album: I Cry To You
(I had to copy the Lyrics from the video since there was no other source online for them)
Video: https://youtu.be/LicMlPlGxPU
Witness:
As I sat down to study and journal 3 hours ago (Yes it has taken me a while to get to this portion of my journalling), I wondered what I would sing and what I would say. I pondered what I would say here in this segment of my journal. What had the Lord spoken to me about? I thought about what I heard at church tonight. There was a guest speaker. He looked familiar to me, and I couldn’t put my finger on it. When I got home, it finally dawned on me that he looked like the fictional character called Joe Isuzu in the 1980’s car commercials for Isuzu. Now Joe was a pathological liar, so I am not trying to make any comparisons here. Let me make that clear. I did get some good things out of the message.
I will say, however, that as I listened to the message, I did discern some inaccuracies and misapplications. Some I will chalk up to sermonic cleverness. An example of this would be the speakers reference to Moses at the burning bush. He said Moses had been running from his calling for 40 years. Now that is in itself is open to debate. One can only be sure that this experience at the bush was his actual calling. The speaker went on to say that Moses approached with just a stick and his sandals (I’m sure he wasn’t implying that Moses was naked :P). When God told Moses to take off his sandals, the preacher said that this meant that God was telling him to stop running. However, in Exodus 3 God gave the reason for Moses to take off his shoes.
"Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground."Ex 3:5 NIV
It is not my purpose to critique the whole sermon. In fact, I originally was going to speak about the main point which was that we were just sticks, but God can use us for His glory. I even did a search on the word stick in the Bible both in English and Hebrew. However, I finally concluded that such a task was too time consuming and counterproductive. I didn’t believe God wanted me to pursue that rabbit trail. Maybe some other time. I finally decided what I thought He might desire for me to remember when listening to a sermon even when it was marked with flaws and exegetical errors. Again, let me say before I move on, that I did enjoy the message, and I did get something out of it in spite of the imperfections mentioned above.
As an aside let me point out that much of what passes as preaching today is really just self-help or psychology sprinkled with proof texts from scripture and punctuated with pithy twitter size axioms. Literary license abounds as passages are spiritualized beyond the bounds of proper hermeneutics and exegesis. And there is no lack of plagiarism, as things are repeated without citing their source.
As I got up to make my usual raid of the fridge, some thoughts came to mind on how I should prepare myself before, during, and following a message that is being preached, or a lesson taught. Being the poetic person I am, the “before” and “during” words came easy. They were: Prayerful and Careful. It was the third word I struggled with (hence more time wasted). I finally decided on the possibly made up word “Aware-full.” See, I had to hyphenate the word to make it acceptable to the spell checker. But it rhymes!
Now I am not really breaking new ground here. These things have been said before in different ways by others. What I want to do is put it in a way that is easy to remember and hopefully helpful in putting it into practice. They are common sense practices, but not commonly practiced. I also want to extend their use to beyond the message to the whole meeting time and the aftermath.
Ø Praying that:
· God would open hearts (including ours) to worship Him
· God would be glorified, magnified, and relevantized2
· Our joy would be made full in His presence
· Others who are lost would be saved and join the company of worshippers
Ø So that:
· We are aware of His presence
· We are aware of what we are singing and praying and what the speaker is saying
o Are we focused?
o Are they true? That is- are the lyrics true or false/the prayers God-centered or self-centered? Is the message faithful to the Scriptures?
· We are worshipping in spirit and truth and not profanely
Ø Examining ourselves:
· To see if we are of the faith
· To see if the truths we heard are true in our life and practice? If not, why not? And to pray to God to examine us and show us areas we are blind to
May our worship be prayerful, purposeful, and profitable. Amen
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O Lord may I enter each day prayerfully
Seeking Your face and relying on Your grace
To live my life before You carefully
Desiring to please You and Your will embrace
So let me walk with purpose aware-fully
That Your glory and majesty I might trace
— Amen
1By “worship” I do not mean only that portion of the service in which we sing and pray, but also the message preached – for the Word of God preached should lead us to worship the God of the Word in praise and practice.
2relevantize: To make something relevant by connecting, relating, or linking it to something else. https://chandlerklebs.wordpress.com/tag/relevantize/
Yes, I had to search to see if this was a word. I found it used in philosophy and mathematics but they were irrelevant to what I was trying to convey. Here I am speaking of how we are to relate to and connect with God. How our lives become relevant in our relationship with God? It is not about making God relevant to us – for how can the Ultimate not be but relevant – but our lives relevant in the light of His truth and being!
WORD:
Ps 27:1 - 3
1 The Lord is my light and my salvation — whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life — of whom shall I be afraid?
2 When evil men advance against me
to devour my flesh,
when my enemies and my foes attack me,
they will stumble and fall.
3 Though an army besiege me,
my heart will not fear;
though war break out against me,
even then will I be confident.
NIV (84)
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Ps 27:1 - 3
1 The Lord is my light and my salvation — so why should I be afraid?
The Lord is my fortress, protecting me from danger,
so why should I tremble?
2 When evil people come to devour me,
when my enemies and foes attack me,
they will stumble and fall.
3 Though a mighty army surrounds me,
my heart will not be afraid.
Even if I am attacked,
I will remain confident.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation ®, copyright © 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
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Ps 27:1 - 3
1 The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
2 When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.
3 Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.
KJV
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Ps 27:1 - 3
1 The Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?
2 When evildoers assail me
to eat up my flesh,
my adversaries and foes,
it is they who stumble and fall.
3 Though an army encamp against me,
my heart shall not fear;
though war arise against me,
yet I will be confident.
ESV
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As David contemplated on the glorious truths found in verse one, he thought of examples in his life where this applied specifically. Many commentators believe verse two refers to something specifically in David’s past. What that is is subject to debate. Most don’t speculate as to when it occurred, but the Pulpit Commentary says it was probably some unspecified time during his war with his son Absolom. If that is the case, then David would not only be dealing with fear but emotional pain as well. Certainly, his experience with Goliath would come to mind. The giant enemy who taunted the “ranks of Israel” (1 Sam. 17:8-11 NIV). Who said he would feed David’s “flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!" (1 Sam 17:44 NIV). But look what happened! Did not Goliath, when struck in the forehead with the stone slung by David, “stumble and Fall?” In fact, the scripture says, “he fell facedown on the ground” (1 Sam 17:49 NIV).
Oh, how this convicts me. For when I face the giants in my life do I not cower like the Israelites? And if a family member betrayed me my first instincts would be to crumble into a pile of sorrow, self-pity, and pain. But this has happened to me. A family member did betray me and broke my heart. And I first retreated, being devastated by this betrayal of trust and loving loyalty. Yet, I sought the Lord and godly counsel. I grounded my self in the Word. From this treacherous act, this journal was born. You who are hurting from the unfaithful actions of another, remember the Lord, who is faithful and surrounds you in His light. Who protects you, as your fortress of strength. Who is your salvation, that is, your deliverer.
- He is greater than all our fears and tears.
- He is the place to abide when we need to hide.
- He is the light in which we see all our enemies flee.
And lest you think that I wish ill on the one who hurt me deeply. So deeply that the scars still ache from time to time every day and need the constant fresh anointing of the balm of the Lord. No, I attack the real enemy that has them bound in the stronghold of sin and pray daily for their deliverance. To this enemy, I will say, “I shall not fear you for the Lord my God fights for me. He is my “victorious shield” (Psalm 18:35). He is my “Mighty Warrior” (Zeph. 3:17). Therefore, I fight this battle on my knees, and in the car, and at work. I struggle daily, and I wrestle the enemy of my soul who seeks to pin me down. Who continually hurls his flaming darts at me. But I know this truth which makes the enemy run,
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