Post Sunday May 24 2009

Psalm 107:43 “Whoever is wise will observe these things, And they will understand the lovingkindness of the LORD.”

Alright I’ll confess. This morning while I was reading and reflecting I did that “zone out” thing while I was reading. I was thinking about the past few days, thinking about what I needed to accomplish for the day, wondering why I didn’t accomplish yesterday what I want to accomplish today, thinking about my kids, my wife, my finances, my friends, why David Ortiz isn’t hitting and a seemingly endless number of other topics and then my mind clicked back into focus for the final verse of Psalm 107, which reads with great personal conviction after zoning out for the past 5 minutes: “Whoever is wise will observe these things, And they will understand the lovingkindness of the Lord.”

Because I was zoned out during the reading of the entire 107th Psalm, my immediate reaction was observe what things? Since I did not know what to observe then the negative conclusion according to this verse was that I will not understand the lovingkindness of the Lord. Immediate consequences. Was it God’s fault that I was zoned out? Well, I guess I could blame it on Him if I want to, I mean He could have been like the elves in the fable of the shoemaker and the elves and He could have accomplished all my stuff for me while I was sleeping, He could bless my bank account, make my wife suddenly healthy again (she has been sick for the last few days), renew my children’s passion for school, clear up the issues for my friends and provide us with unlimited BBQ and hang out time and of course if He has time get David Ortiz’s swing back on track. Sure I guess God could do that and I could grow bitter and slothful while I wait for Him to do it.

Or…

I’m blessed with the fact that I have things to get done today. I’m blessed with the fact of having a wife and children to care for. I’m blessed with incredible friends who I today have the opportunity to pray for, encourage when the opportunities present themselves and have the excitement of seeing the talents of others shine through in varying areas today. And….

I’m blessed with the fact that God has left us His Word for me to learn from, draw guidance from and be encouraged by. It is the original Word, given by the only God. So I prayed, cleared my mind and read once again Psalm 107. This time with the attitude of, HEY ERIC (yes, I’m shouting) YOU CAN LEARN AND GROW FROM WHAT YOU’RE READING, BUT YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE TO PAY ATTENTION AND TAKE ACTION! So I read it again and uncovered more than I can make use of in a 24 hour period. I enjoyed it so much that I think I’m going to read that Psalm again slowly before I go to bed tonight. If God takes the time to stop and say: “Whoever is wise will observe…” Then that to me says, wake up Eric! God wants to teach you! I want to be wise, because all the things I was zoning off about (minus the David Ortiz thing) are things that I long to be wise about. They are things I long to be loving toward, to show kindness toward, to show strength toward and not oddly enough I can find and uncover all these things within God’s Word.

Therefore, what we talked about on Sunday, that the Original (God) made a couple of individuals in His image, man and woman and then called men and women to join together to become one flesh, yes two differing individuals coming together to form a more complete image of God, to bear His glory on this earth, how can we better learn to do this? Men! We are to love our wives as Christ loved the church! How did Christ love the church, well, dig into the gospels and observe and learn from Christ and begin applying that to your relationship! Women, you are to submit to your husbands as to the Lord! How are we to submit to the Lord? Dig into Exodus, Numbers and Deuteronomy and observe and learn from God’s interactions and commands to His people and when and how things worked well and when they didn’t. You’ll learn a ton about submission to the Lord by taking your time through those books. Both men and women, read the Bible with eyes of faith and trust. Stop saying, oh that won’t work or that doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t work in 3 minutes, make life long applications with God’s Word. Yes, life long applications are possible, you are currently subscribing to some sort of life long application to your life so why not change it to God’s ways as your life long application if you haven’t already done so? Yes, some of it will be difficult, but Love does not simply give us what we want, it gives us what we need, thus love will never, ever, ever, ever simply give into sin, because sin is not what we need! If there is sin in your life, love will not placate it, but rather will do things to eliminate it because that is what you need! Understand the lovingkindness of the Lord (Psalm 107:43)

I loved the reaction of most of our teens from Sunday. “Why do I need to be here, Pastor is talking about marriage and I’m not married.” Teens! What a great opportunity to have a better picture of marriage TODAY so you’ll know what better to look for while dating TOMORROW so you’ll have a better marriage in the FUTURE! I mean isn’t that a goal of yours? To have a great marriage?

I can guarantee you this, the more we “zone out” from God’s Word the more likely we will hone into our own definitions of life. The more we hone into our own definitions of life the further we get away from the Original. (Just a hint: The Original in Genesis (first book in the Bible) is the same Original that is still standing in Revelation (last book in the Bible), which happens to be the end of time as we know it. So alternatives to God’s definitions of life in Genesis that seem “right” in our eyes or trendy or whatever else, WON’T be left standing at the end, don’t stray from the Original.)

I’m glad God stopped me in my tracks to re-read Psalm 107. It still isn’t too late to listen to Sunday’S message again if you happened to “zone out.” The recording didn’t come out well (it’s really soft), but it survived and with careful attention it can still be heard and learned from.

Questions to Ask Yourself:

1. How have I been living lately? Zoned out or Plugged in?
2. What impact does that have on my day to day life?

Pastor e