Thanks for giving me my stuff!

I have really been enjoying my study in Psalms. esp. the last couple of days. I started ch 50 today and I want to share what I have learned from it so far. 

The Psalmist starts out the chapter talking about the wrath of God and how it will be displayed at the tribulation (I think that is what it is talking about) and how God will gather up His saints. He will come with vengence and fire. Then the rest of the chapter is divided into two sections were God gives a message to the saints and the wicked. I only finished the part about the saints so I will post the rest about the sinners later.

Saints,

"First of all, I am your (personal) God! I am not reprimanding you for your sacrifices, but in reality... they aren't your sacrifices. I own the cattle on a thousand hills, I know all the birds and the beasts, and they are mine. So, I don't neeed you or your sacrifices. If I was hungery, I would not go to you for help. I reminded you in verse one that I am the creator, I make the sun rise and set. I made it all out of nothing. Yet, you like to think you are great for handing out a tract. (btw, keep handing out tracts!) Just remember every good gift and every perfect cometh down from the Father of lights. (then he ends with) Offer me your thanksgiving and pay your vows to me. (I love you even though you are worthless) call upon me in the day of trouble: I WILL deliver thee, and as a result, your natural response will be to glorify me."

We serve an awsome God! He is like none other! 

Keep praising God!

John

More thankful reflections

I was reading in Psalms 45 this morning. I was having a hard time understanding what David was trying to say, and who the psalm was talking about. If you read it, it looks like he is writing a secular king. But, how does that apply to my personal walk with God? So, I looked it up in the New American Standard Bible and it had this footnote which I thought was very insightful.

Psalm 45:1 Jesus spoke of what was written of Him "in the Psalms" (see Luke 24:44). This is one such Messianic psalm. However, the capitalization indicating the deity is offered provisionally. The chapter is written against the background of a secular royal wedding. But the New Testament reference to this psalm in Heb. 1:8, 9, where verses 6 and 7 of Psalm 45 are quoted and applied to Christ, makes any other interpretation seem incidental in importance.

So now as I look over it again, it makes sense that the psalmist IS writing this as if it was to an earthly monarch. But it refers to Christ!

I am thankful to God for the resources that I have to help me understand him better. I was preparing for my sermon Sunday and I was using the bible software that Jesse bought. It has almost every resource imaginable. So, if I had a question about anything I could get it answered with the click of a button.

I am also thankful for the godly men that have translated the bible and written those resouces so that I could know my God better

John

^{vs 17} I will make thy name to be remembered in all generations: therefore shall the people praise thee for ever and ever.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow...

Psa 43:4 Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy: yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God my God.

Psa 43:5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.


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Last night at church, I had a very refreshing time focusing on the goodness of God displayed in my fellow believers lives. There was also testimony of ones who had accepted Christ later in life, and though they thankful for the forgiveness of God, one could still sense the regret. So today I am thankful that Christ has forgiven my sins, and that I gave my life over to Him before I could really do something dumb. I am also thankful for a godly parents, who put me in a godly home so that I would still be tender enough for the Spirit to work. I know myself! If I had been in any other home I probably would still be wallowing in my sin! I still have a hard enough time with it, now that I don't want it! But God is good and he orchestrated and shaped my life so that I would have the positive influences around me!

Striving for Excellence!
John P. Dierking