Psalm 38

The sickness got me down yesterday. Even to the point that I made the teary phone call to my mother. The one where someone out of a mixture of sobs and blowing my nose like mad and hic cups she got "allergy, ear infection, ear drops, can't breathe."

However with her sound adivce (cool mist humidifier and vicks vapor rub) and the Lord (the breathing part) we are back in action.

So the way I've been working this is just kind of opening the bible where it will and reading a chapter or two or even the when it strikes me. So today we flopped open to Psalm 38. And first of all the psalms as a thing are interesting to me. The study bible I'm looking at right now tells me this about the psalms "a collection of 150 songs and poems written by various authors the Pslams have been used for worship sinc ethe very beginning...The Psalms have provided comfort and encouragement to believers for thousands of years, and they'll do the same for you."

This same study bible tells me that Psalm 38 is a psalm of David to bring us to the Lord's rememberance.

Many people (the three commentaries I quckly read on the internet) think that this Psalm was written after David slept with Bathsheba/ had Uriah killed and was called on it. So yeah, he was feeling some guilt.

(biblegateway link: in the message http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm%2038;&version=65; and now in the NIV http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm%2038;&version=31;)

So needless to say in my curren state the first thing that jumped out at me was the sickness and the almost seemingly God afflicted sickness. I'm glad I read it in the Message and the NIV though because I think that in those versions you see it's so much more what the guilt is doing to David. It's not God. God wants to heal us. I mean yes when we sin there is a price to pay, but God's ultimate want is to heal our bodies, heal our minds, and to make us Christ-like. That's why David is calling out. He wants God to come quickly to help him. It almost seems like while David is miring around in all this he hasn't asked God for help. That he's found himself in the pit and that he's wallowed for a bit instead of just crying out to God. And it also shows the slope. That it's not just one aspect of our lives that ends up getting the muck on it it's all the aspects. And we have to call out to God to help heal all those aspects and all those hurts or otherwise we're just swimming around in the pit...or what was it the message said, "my life is a vomit of groans." ANd that's never good.

Lord heal all the hurts, clean up all the muck. Help us to be more Christlike, to not wallow in the mess but to show us the way out and let us walk with you and for you.

Hosea 13-14

First, I'm sick...so the temptation to not do this at all was huge. I've been laying around all afternoon watching movies, and drinking tea and sleeping. I left work early and went to the store for allergy meds and tissues. I then came home and put on my nightgown and haven't moved from my bed since. I was a good pet owner and let the dogs out and fed them. It's so hot outside they go out just long enough to do their business and then they are immediately back in the house.

So I got a bible off the bookshelf and opened it up to where God should want me and I found myself in Hosea. This is the NLT (the other translations are in the car) I went ahead and posted a link here in case you wanted to read it or be reminded (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hosea%2013-14&version=51)

Anyway 13 starts out talking about the tribe of Ephriam. It's another one of the cases that we see all through the bible where the people that were the most in tune with God have fallen and are now worshipping idols. This of course puts me in mind of the Casting Crowns song Slow Fade. Because it never happens over night. You aren't totally in with God doing what you need to do finding yourself in God's will and then BAM the next day you find yourself "making silver idols to worship" (Hosea 13:2). But it starts slowly and little by little the world creeps in. And most of the time it starts with thinking. Thinking, "the world doesn't really have a problem with xyz. In fact literally everyone appears to be doing xyz. Even other people called by God's name. So you give a little and you fall away bit by bit. And then you find yourself in the whole wondering how in the world you got there.

In chapter 13 Verse 9-11 really got to me. It reminded me about God's conversation with Samuel when he appointed Saul. The Isrealites seeing that everyone else had kings and begged God for a king of their own and God gave them one. But it wasn't the right king because the timing wasn't right. Our time versus God's time. In verse 11 God says, "In my anger I gave you kings, and in my fury I took them away." I want to work with that a little more. I know there's something big there that God is trying to show me.

So Hosea 13: 12-16 is all the bad stuff that's going to happen because the Isrealites didn't listen up to God before hand. And it's not pretty, very violent. But from that we move directly into chapter 14 which the NLT titles "Healing for the Repentant" These are the verses that really hooked me
"Bring your confessions, and return to the Lord.
Say to him, “Forgive all our sins and graciously receive us,
so that we may offer you our praises. 3 Assyria cannot save us,
nor can our warhorses. Never again will we say to the idols we have made,
‘You are our gods.’ No, in you alone
do the orphans find mercy.”

4 The Lord says, “Then I will heal you of your faithlessness;
my love will know no bounds,
for my anger will be gone forever." (Hosea 14:2-4)

What I love is that you come to confess to the Lord so that he may forgive us, recieve us and we may praise him. That we admit that we know we can't do it ourselves and then HE says, "I will heal you of your faithlessness."

What struck me is that in the end that's what turning to our man made idols is. It's saying to God. I believe in you, but just in case I'm going to place some bets here. And just in case I'm going to do most of what I'm supposed to but I'm going to play the field a little too. And the grand slap in the face is that it is also saying, "God, you're not enough." Which to think even everything in me screams, "NO! He is more than enough." But that's what bringing in the idols does. THat's what it says.

In verse 8 you hear God cry out, "Oh Isreal." You can almost hear the love in his voice. "Oh Isreal." Then he reminds us "I am the one that looks after you. I am like the tree that is always green, giving to you throughout the year."

Dear Lord, let me be reminded that you are the tree that is always green, that it is your grace feeding me. Help me to repent of my idols and let me let go so that you may heal my faithlessness. Amen

Romans 13:11-14

11And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. 14Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

So we're starting off pretty difficult, but this is kind of pointed to where it should start. Where we should begin. Verse of 11 says, "let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light." What does that mean. I think for our purposes it's starting with looking at that change of focus. Moving from a focus on the world (the deeds of darkness) and changing that focus to God (the armor of light).

This of course sends off bells about the armor of God 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:14-17) . And all of this keeps pointing me back to the beginning. And that is to be there and shaking off the world and being a part of God's plan for me. I have to pick up His armor and I have to be armed with the sword, His word.

So here I am on the internet at way too late/ too early in the morning. And I'm thinking this is good.

Because I think that, okay I know that I had started to slip down the path that was the world's. And my focus was not on the things of Jesus.

So keep me honest. Keep me on task. Pray for me that the busy-ness and the business of day to day does not keep me away.

Premise and what I'm thinking

This started in bible study. We're working our way through Romans in bible study. And we stumbled across the verse that we as gentiles are wild olive shoots grafted onto the holy root that is God's love and blessing.

So here I am. I love the name wild olive shoots. I like the thought of seeing myself grafted in, grafted on, blessings and love.

This blog is about taking in that love, drawing it up the vine and producing fruit. So here we go.