Living Story Grace

It’s time to get this Saturday started with some celebration of the Son of Righteousness…listen to this by Welcome Wagon and read the lyrics below.

But for you who fear my name,
the sun of righteousness will rise
with healing in his wings.
And you shall go forth again,
skip about like calves
coming from their stalls at last.

You shall be my very own
on the day that I
cause you to be my special home.
I shall spare you as a man,
as compassion on his son
who does the best he can.

But for you who fear my name,
the sun of righteousness will rise
with healing in his wings.
And you shall go forth again,
skip about like calves
coming from their stalls at last.

You shall be my very own
on the day that I
cause you to be my special home.
I shall spare you as a man,
as compassion on his son
who does the best he can.

(instrumental)

But for you who fear my name,
the sun of righteousness will rise
with healing in his wings.
And you shall go forth again,
skip about like calves
coming from their stalls at last.
[ But For You Who Fear My Name Lyrics on http://www.lyricsmania.com/ ]

As promised, today, more of Psalm 145.  The same challenge — to read it aloud, pray it to God.   You might find that some of what the Psalmist prays doesn’t seem true of your life today. I encourage you to ask your honest questions of God about what He is up to in this world. As Eugene Peterson might put it, “Be real with God because He has been real with you.”

¹³ Your kingdom is a kingdom eternal;

you never get voted out of office.

God always does what he says,

and is gracious in everything he does.

¹⁴ God gives a hand to those down on their luck,

gives a fresh start to those ready to quit.

¹⁵ All eyes are on you, expectant;

you give them their meals on time.

¹⁶ Generous to a fault,

you lavish your favor on all creatures.

¹⁷ Everything God does is right—

the trademark on all his works is love.

¹⁸ God’s there, listening for all who pray,

for all who pray and mean it.

¹⁹ He does what’s best for those who fear him—

hears them call out, and saves them.

²⁰ God sticks by all who love him,

but it’s all over for those who don’t.

²¹ My mouth is filled with God’s praise.

Let everything living bless him,

bless his holy name from now to eternity!

Psalm 145, The Message

I love Psalm 145 and I landed here this morning.  Two strong suggestions to try at least twice today:

1.  Read the Psalm aloud. (I only included the first half.  The second half comes tomorrow, so if you are down and out and not feeling the reasons for praise, hang in there…

2.  Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you some of God’s marvelous doings in your life or the life of the cosmos that are “headline news.”

145 I lift you high in praise, my God, O my King!
and I’ll bless your name into eternity.

² I’ll bless you every day,

and keep it up from now to eternity.

³ God is magnificent; he can never be praised enough.

There are no boundaries to his greatness.

⁴ Generation after generation stands in awe of your work;

each one tells stories of your mighty acts.

⁵ Your beauty and splendor have everyone talking;

I compose songs on your wonders.

⁶ Your marvelous doings are headline news;

I could write a book full of the details of your greatness.

⁷ The fame of your goodness spreads across the country;

your righteousness is on everyone’s lips.

⁸ God is all mercy and grace—

not quick to anger, is rich in love.

⁹ God is good to one and all;

everything he does is suffused with grace.

^10–11 Creation and creatures applaud you, God;

your holy people bless you.

They talk about the glories of your rule,

they exclaim over your splendor,

¹² Letting the world know of your power for good,

the lavish splendor of your kingdom.

Okay, at least one more day this week, maybe more, as I’m really enjoying Kevin DeYoung’s commentary on it:

2.  Q: “What must you know to live and die in the joy of this comfort?”

A:  Three things:  first, how great my sin and misery are; second, how I am set free from all my sins and misery; third, how I am to thank God for such deliverance.

DeYoung points out that some have criticized the Heidelberg catechism because it begins with man’s “comfort,” in contrast to the Westminster Catechism, which begins with the glory of God:  ”What is the chief end of man?  To glorify God and enjoy him forever.”  He comments, “…if we want to be picky, Westminster can be criticized for starting with what Christ has done for us, like the Heidelberg.”  And then he goes on to say they BOTH begin in the right place, Heidelberg with grace and Westminster with glory.

Question 2 deals with how we receive comfort from knowing that we belong to Christ.  Knowing that Christ has fully paid for all our debts and freed us from the tyranny of the devil is meaningless if we don’t know we need to be freed.  DeYoung remarks that the rest of the Catechism follows a three-fold outline:  sin, salvation, sanctification to serve:

“All three things are necessary.  If we don’t know about our sin — which brings a true sense of guilt — we will be too confident in our abilities to do right and make the world a better place.  We will ignore our most fundamental problem, which is not lack of education, or lack of opportunity, or lack of resources but sin and its attendant misery.  But if we don’t know how we are set free from this sin and misery — which comes through God’s grace — we will try to fix ourselves in futility or give up altogether in despair.  And if we don’t know how to thank God, showing gratitude for such deliverance, we will live in a self-centered, self-referential bubble, which is not why God saved us from our sin and misery in the first place. “

What do you think?  Is it necessary, as DeYoung says, to know about our sin in order to receive comfort and joy in belonging to Christ?

How do you see guilt, grace, and gratitude played out in your life?

“What is your only comfort in life and in death?”  Heidelberg Catechism, Question 1

I am back to Heidelberg.  Probably not a daily series as I’ve done before, but a few quotes from this great little book a friend just told me about:  Kevin DeYoung’sThe Good News We Almost Forgot. (What a great title, right?)

Here’s what he says about Heidelberg Question 1:

“Heidelberg’s first question is so striking because of the word ‘only.’  If it asked ‘what comforts’ you, that would be a polite but underwhelming question.  I’m comforted by sleep, chocolate chip cookies, a good book, the soundtrack to The Mission. But when the Catechism asks what is your only comfort, it is getting at something deeper.  ’Comfort’ translates the German word trost, which was in turn, rendered consolatio in the first official Latin version.  ‘Trost’ is related to the English word ‘trust’ and has the root meaning of ‘certainty’ or ‘protection.’ Heidelberg is asking, ‘What is your solace in life?  What is your only real security?’

…[it] poses the most important question we will ever face.  What enables yoiu to endure life and face death unafraid?  Is it that you read your Bible every day?  That you attend church every Sunday?  That you give to the poor?  That you have a cushy retirement account saved up?  That you haven’t committed any of the big sins of life?

We live in a world where we take comfort in possessions, pride, power, and position.  But the Catechism teaches us that our only comfort comes from the fact that we don’t even belong to ourselves.  How countercultural and counterintiuitive!  We can endure suffering and disappointment in life and face death and the life to come without fear or judgment, not because of what we’ve done or what we own or who we are, but because of what we do not possess, namely, our own selves.”

WOW, WOW, WOW, and WOW!!

Think about it:  What gives you comfort in life?  What difference does it make in the challenges and joys of the day ahead that you belong to Christ?

“That I am not my own, but I belong, body and soul, in life and in death, to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.”  (First part of Heidelberg Answer #1)