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Category: Psalms (Page 1 of 14)

Good News > Bad News

April 21, 2025 / / 0 Comments

“By his power, God raised the Lord from the dead! And he will raise us also!” ~ 1 Corinthians 6:14

The world demonstrates power by taking life. Our God demonstrates his eternal power by giving life. It takes divine power to raise the dead–the kind of power that produces deep faith and hope and joy.

The power that raised Jesus from the grave and gave him final authority over all things belongs to us. This power that defeats sin and death and Satan forever–we experience that power when we hear the Good News. Because it means there is nothing — NOTHING! — nothing bad, nothing wrong, nothing evil, nothing dark in your life that hasn’t already been overcome by God in Christ!

The Bible says our God “gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were” (Romans 4:17).

So, maybe the odds are stacked against you. Maybe you feel like an outsider. Maybe all the bad news in our world is driving you to despair. Maybe the bad news at work or at the doctor’s office is overwhelming. Maybe the bad news in our marriage or with your kids or your parents really is too much. Maybe the bad news of your past sins or the bad news of your current sins has you paralyzed. The odds might be against you.

Okay, let’s talk about bad news.

The bad news is that Pharaoh’s army is going to win at the Red Sea. The Egyptians were huge favorites that day; the over/under was three-million dead Hebrews. The bad news is that the little shepherd boy and his sling is no match for a trained warrior giant. The bad news is Peter cannot walk on water. The bad news is nobody’s ever escaped from a Philippian jail. The bad news is the world’s authorities crucified our Savior. The bad news is all dead people stay dead.

Thank God for the Good News of the resurrection of Jesus!

The declaration of the angels and the testimony of the witnesses is true: Jesus is alive! Jesus lives! That stone was rolled away, not so Jesus could get out, but so we could look in and see for ourselves, so the truth could be seen and proclaimed.

Our God gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were! He calls things that are wrong in your life right. He calls things that are broken in your family fixed. He calls things that are missing in your soul, the things that are lacking and lost, he calls them found and saved and overflowing with goodness and life!

“The one who belongs to God has no fear of bad news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.” ~Psalm 112:7

Peace,

Allan

Stillness in Fear

May 21, 2024 / / 0 Comments

I hear fear. I hear it every day. I believe it is because fear sells, fear makes people a lot of money, and smart people have figured out how to make tons of it preying upon and stoking our fears. Christians express fear out loud quite often. The fears are varied and they are constant. We’re anxious about so many different kinds of perceived danger and threat to our personal safety, to our “religious freedoms,” to our way of life. We’re more aware now than ever before about our societal woes and political insecurities–it surrounds us.

We are allowing our fears and burdens to overwhelm us and, as a consequence, the common ground even in our churches has eroded. Very much like the world we are in but not of, our space and capacity for rational conversation is disappearing. We’re not really talking anymore, we don’t have the desire or sense the need to listen to anybody with whom we disagree. One buzz word or catch phrase from another person and we’ve got them immediately labeled and tagged so there’s no need for conversation.

Today, I am largely stealing from Sandra McCracken’s article in the latest issue of Christianity Today. You can find her article here. If you don’t read the whole thing, please give a couple of minutes to these important excerpts. I pray these words are an encouragement to you and a challenge if and where you need it.

Unchecked fear keeps us on the run and fuels our disagreements, but God’s power and providence over us allow us to find security in his care. When we look to him, he will deliver us from all our fears and give us the wisdom to navigate the complexities we face.

We need wisdom in troubled times, but we cannot conjure it by ourselves. If we seek him, God’s wisdom abounds to us–the same wisdom that enables him to be the one who “breaks the bow and shatters the spear,” and “makes wars cease to the ends of the earth” (Psalm 46:9). These passages outline God’s poetic power, and the psalm concludes with a word to us: “Be still and know that I am God… I will be exalted in the earth” (46:10).

In an anxious age, this stillness might be just one of our greatest acts of worship. Before you watch or read the news, stillness. Before you cast your vote, stillness. Before you make dinner, stillness. To worship God in this way is to point to his faithfulness, past, present, and future. It bolsters our hearts to endure more of this present reality–not as avoiders or cynics, but as messengers of hope.

When our anxious fears take their place under the holy fear of the Lord, we become teachable (Proverbs 1:7). The fear of the Lord calls us to admit when we’re wrong. The fear of the Lord gives us courage to speak up for what is right, even when it’s unpopular. And the fear of the Lord reminds us that we are not our own but belong to Christ, that he is God and we are not. He draws us out of hiding, engaging us to be ministers of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18).

Peace,

Allan

A Confessing Posture

February 28, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Has it been a while since you openly and honestly confessed your sins to our Father? When’s the last time you got down on your knees, alone in the presence of our Holy God, and confessed your shortcomings and failures? These first days of Lent are a good time to re-engage this scriptural, historical practice.

Maybe you have a hard time getting started. If so, I would humbly suggest something like this. It’s both a terrible and beautiful experience for me. It’s devastating and liberating. Not easy at all, but needed. Desperately needed.

Block out twenty minutes when you can be totally alone with our Father. Not in the back bedroom of a crowded house; I mean in the back bedroom of an empty house. Totally alone. Nobody around. If you have to go to the shed in the backyard, do it.

Now, physically get down on your knees and physically open your hands with your palms up toward heaven. Now, just sit there in silence for a full five minutes – no cheating! – in the presence of God. After those five minutes, read one of the penitential psalms to the Father out loud. It’s important that you read out loud, that you hear with your ears your own voice articulating these words to the Lord. I’m partial to Psalms 32 and 51, but you could try Psalm 6, 38, 102, 130, or 143.

At this point, I am acutely aware of the presence of God and my own sinful soul. Like Peter, my first thoughts are, “Get away from me, Lord, I am a sinful man!” My feelings are like those of the prophets who proclaimed their own demise in God’s presence. I am ruined. I am dead. I am not worthy. And then I confess my sins out loud to God. And they are many.

I believe the silence and the physical posture of humility and prayer and the holy words of the psalms work together to prime the pump so that what’s in the deepest part of my soul comes gushing out. It can’t be stopped. And it needs to come out. I need to be open and honest about my sins with my loving and forgiving Father. I need to experience his forgiveness and his blessing, his pardon and approval.

You do, too.

Whatever it takes. Don’t let this 40-days of prayer and fasting come and go without spending some time in personal confession to our God.

If you need another suggestion, you might consider the words of this prayer of confession we prayed  together with our brothers and sisters at First Methodist during last week’s Ash Wednesday service:

“Most holy and merciful Father, I confess to you that I have sinned by my own fault in thought, word, and deed; by what I have done, and by what I have left undone. I have not loved you with my whole heart and mind and strength. I have not loved my neighbors as myself. I have not forgiven others as I have been forgiven. I have been deaf to your call to serve, as Christ serves me. I have not been true to the mind of Christ. I have grieved your Holy Spirit. Have mercy on me, O God, and in your mercy, cleanse me from all unrighteousness. Hear me now, as I continue to confess my sins to you…”

Most Christian traditions begin every worship assembly with a time of corporate and personal confession. We don’t. We have to work on it. Now’s a good time.

Peace,

Allan

Surround Us, Lord

May 3, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Surround us, Lord.
Surround us with the light of your presence, bright within this dark world.
Enable us to be overcomers of fear and temptation.
Enable us to be victors over sin and despair.
Enable us to become that which you would desire.
Lord of creation, Lord of salvation,
surround us with the light of your presence.

Surround us, Lord.
Surround our family within the shelter of your outstretched arms.
Protect them in each moment of their daily lives.
Protect them in the decisions they face.
Protect their homes and relationships.
Lord of creation, Lord of salvation,
surround our families with the light of your presence.

Surround us, Lord.
Surround this city with your love and hope.
Create a desire to listen to your message.
Create a willingness to understand and respond.
Create a need to reach out to Christ Jesus.
Lord of creation, Lord of salvation,
surround this city with the light of your presence.

Surround us, Lord.
Surround this world with the joy of your salvation.
Where there is sickness and disease, bring healing.
Where there is hunger and despair, bring hope.
Where this is violence and oppression, bring release.
Lord of creation, Lord of salvation,
surround this world with the light of your presence.

Amen.

Peace,
Allan

A Table Before Me

November 16, 2021 / / 0 Comments

“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” ~Psalm 23:5

The central image in the great 23rd Psalm is the prepared table, an obvious symbol of provision and honor. The fact that our Shepherd/King provides for us and honors us “in the presence of my enemies” paints a beautiful portrait of our God’s protection and blessing while we journey through life on earth. A life lived in the presence and power of God is still life lived in a world not yet restored to the wholeness he intends. So, even though we presently experience his divine presence and reward, we are still among enemies.

We should recognize that being in Christ doesn’t mean the troubles, cares, pains, and dangers of this world are removed from us. We remain “in the presence” of our enemies. However, we should ask ourselves and reflect on the ways, day after day, our Father is setting a table for us in the presence of those enemies.

One of those ways our Lord protects us and provides for us is in acts of love and service done for us by our Christian brothers and sisters. When the culture and the world seek to taunt us and tear us down, we find comfort and strength in the handshakes of friendship, the hugs of caring, the community of fellowship, and unity in the blood of Jesus.

These acts of love toward us become tables prepared by God – through his people – in the presence of our enemies who want to ridicule us and steal away our hope.

God prepares the table of provision and protection and honor. I challenge you, today, to become a caterer at that table. Join our God in setting tables of blessing for those we know and love who are currently surrounded by enemies.

Peace,

Allan

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