Beauty Will Rise

Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
Psalm 73:25-26 ESV

By now you are probably aware of the tragedy that befell Stephen Curtis Chapman and his family on May 20, 2008 when their young, adopted dauthter, Maria, was struck in their driveway and killed by an SUV driven by one of the Chapman's sons.

Now, 18 months later, Stephen Curtis Chapman has released what is arguably one of the most important albums to be released in any genre this year.  The album is raw, stripped down musically, and emotionally one of the most beautiful listening experiences I've had in a really long time.

I can't stop listening to it..  I recommend it highly.  Download it (legally), find a quiet spot, listen to it...and be amazed by the awesomeness of God, even in the midst of devastation and tragedy.  There is MUCH to meditate on here!

God is good...and all things work for good for those who love the Lord and who are called according to His purpose.

Tune in tomorrow for my reflections on this past Sunday's sermon.

Sunday Video

On this, the first Sunday of Advent, I wanted to share this video as the first clip in this recurring Sunday theme...the Sunday Video. Writing in Colossians 1, Paul says of Jesus Christ that, "in Him all things hold together and have their being." This video brings that home like no other I've ever encountered. I pray this is an encouragement to anyone who finds their way to my blog today!

Have a Christ exalting Sunday!

Reflections on the First Christmas Markets of 2009

Yesterday was Thanksgiving Day for Americans. Since Samantha, Benjamin, and I had celebrated the holiday with our Home Group last week, we decided to take a short trip to Leipzig and to Dresden for our first Christmas markets of 2009. We had a nice time, but it occured to me that there are between 150-200 booths at any given Christmas market all selling essentially the same things.

There are basically 6 types of booths at a Christmas market with a few novelities thrown in for fun.

- there are food booths of two types..."food you eat now" and "food you eat later"
- there's the carved wood booth...usually about 20 variations of this same booth
- there's the medieval/fantasy booth...because nothing says Christmas like a black dragon holding a candle
- there's the table linens and lace booth
- there's the toy sellers
- there's the seller of hats, coats, and gloves...which cater to people like me who think they can tough it out and then realize 15 minutes after arriving they wish they'd brought a pair of gloves and a hat.

If you go during the day you avoid the press of humanity, but you miss out on the "holiday magic"...because nothing generates Christmas cheer quite like the entire population of the city all gathered in one square block of land.

So it occurs to me to ask the question...after centuries of German Christmas markets, what makes people continue to go to these things? And it seems to me that deep down maybe it is the need to believe in something, so we go in search of something to make our lives magical for even just a few brief moments.

Nothing sparks in us the hunger to believe quite like this season of the year. So we gather in large masses of people, all wandering around booths all selling the same things to the same groups of people who have been coming for decades...because they need a sense of magic...a sense of the miraculous...in their lives.

Maybe there's something in us that needs miracles, and living in a world that has to explain away everything miraculous leaves us all a little less...human.

But maybe that's just me...

Blessings: A Prayer For Thanksgiving

Those of you who've known me long will know how much I enjoy the book "The Valley of Vision." It is a volume of Puritan prayers that have been assembled by Arthur Bennett.

As we Americans prepare for Thanksgiving Day tomorrow, I wanted to share with you a prayer from this wonderful book. The prayer is entitled, "Blessings."

BLESSINGS

Thou Great Three-One,
Author of all blessings I enjoy, of all I hope for,
Thou hast taught me
that neither the experience of present evils,
nor the remembrances of former sins,
nor the remonstrances of friends,
will or can affect a sinner's heart,
except thou vouchsafe to reveal thy grace
and quicken the dead in sin
by the effectual working of thy Spirit's power.
Thou hast shown me
that the sensible effusions of divine love in the soul
are superior to and distinct from bodily health,
and that oft-times spiritual comforts are at their highest
when physical well-being is at its lowest.
Thou hast given me the ordinance of song as a means of grace;
Fit me to bear my part in that music ever new,
which elect angels and saints made perfect
now sing before they throne and before the Lamb.
I bless thee for tempering every distress with joy;
too much of the former might weigh me down
too much of the latter might puff me up;
Thou art wise to give me a taste of both.
I love thee
for giving me clusters of grapes in the wilderness,
and drops of heavenly wine
that set me longing to have my fill.
Apart from thee I quickly die,
bereft of thee I starve,
far from thee I thirst and droop;
But thou art all I need.
Let me continually grasp the promise
'I will never leave thee nor forsake thee."

May the God of all good gifts be the root of all you are thankful for as you celebrate His graciousness tomorrow!

Thoughts On Sunday's Sermon

REFLECTION

It is always immensely edifying to interact with our Lord in the pages of the Psalms. It seems I almost always find them far richer than I originally expected, and so I am regularly surprised by our Lord whenever I find Him in the pages there.

Enter Psalm 121...what a rich text this is!

The flow of the text moves like this...

- Why does the psalmist look up?
- He looks up because he recognizes he needs help that he cannot find within himself
- Who does he find when he looks up?
- He finds the Lord when he looks up.
- Is the Lord able to help?
- Yes, the Lord is qualified to help like no one else.
- Why is the Lord qualified to help?
- He is qualified most foundationally because He is the MAKER of heaven and earth.
- He is further qualified because He is the ever alert WATCHMAN.
- How does the Lord help?
- The Lord helps by KEEPING.
- What does the Lord keep?
- The Lord keeps my MATERIAL NEEDS (He is the shade upon my right hand)
- The Lord keeps my SPIRITUAL NEEDS (He keeps me from evil.)
- The Lord keeps my PHYSICAL NEEDS (He keeps my life.)
- The Lord keeps my DIRECTIONAL NEEDS (He keeps my going out and my coming in)

So the questions everyone of us must ask are these...
-Do I trust Him with these areas of my life?
- Will I give Him control of these areas or will I hold on to them and try to direct them myself? - Do I believe He is MORE QUALIFIED than I am to direct my life?

MEDITATION

- I've always understood there were philosophical and scientific perspectives on the creation, but I'd never really thought about the theological implications of the creation. It was challenging for me to meditate on the way I understand creation and how that understanding impacts how I relate to God. In the pages of Scripture we read things like this...

For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth
Isaiah 65:17

- God states that he will make new heavens and a new earth...but how is that possible if he didn't make this one?

For thus says the Lord,who created the heavens(he is God!),who formed the earth and made it(he established it;he did not create it empty,he formed it to be inhabited!):“I am the Lord, and there is no other.
Isaiah 45:18 (ESV)

Do you see how intimately connected are God's assertion of Lordship and His creative work? Can he truly be Lord over something if He didn't make it?

CORRECTION

I made this statement on Sunday in the sermon, and I wish I'd further clarified it.

"How can I believe God can make new heavens and a new earth if He didn't even make this yucky one?"

I should be clear that I don't believe God made this one yucky. He made it "very good." He made it "perfect." Our sin made it "yucky." The point was simply that if I don't believe God made this one, how can I possibly believe He could make a new one that will be infinitely better?

Welcome to the Blog! Hope to see you back soon!

How did God speak to you in the sermon on Sunday? What questions do you have?

Enjoying the Journey,
Pastor Dave