| The Lord said to me, "You are my Son; | |
| today I have begotten you. | |
| Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, | |
| and the ends of the earth your possession." | |
| (Psalm 2:7b-8) | |
Over the past several months, I have been doing background sermon research for some of the pastors at my church. Since they are men of God, deeply discipled in the ways of the Lord, my insights—such as they have been—have often been superfluous. Nevertheless, over the next few posts, I will reproduce (with some editing) some of the research I have done for them over the course of this summer, as a way of getting this blog going.
After our church's springtime series on 1 Corinthians ended, we started a summertime series on the Psalms, starting with Psalm 2. I didn't come up with much that was uniquely insightful for the psalm, nor could I find many expository sermons by the great preachers of the past or present. Furthermore, I was simultaneously struggling with the Doctrines of Grace, in particular, the matter of Limited Atonement. The Lord seemed to be pointing me in the direction of His sovereignty over all things, however, so I prayed to Him for guidance.
A few days later, He providentially answered my prayer. Out of the blue, Pastor Roy Hargrave of Ormond Beach, Florida's Riverbend Community Church gave the opening session at the 25th annual Founders Conference outside Tulsa, Oklahoma (which I did not attend, but whose proceedings I followed online). And wouldn't you know it: it was an exegesis of Psalm 2—on the sovereignty of God! The timing was indeed providential, because the Psalm 2 sermon was coming up the very next weekend. (The session was liveblogged here and here.)
I don't have any original material of my own to provide for Psalm 2, but the events that unfolded during my research for it convicted me of the Lord's sovereign hand at work in all of creation.
Next up: Psalm 19. (Update: Actually, Psalm 13 comes next logically, although it wasn't preached next chronologically.)
10 comments:
I visited your blog for the first time today and I was blessedby your testimony. I found you on TP when you said the Finney reference was "cheeky".
Funny, and a great blog! (This from a Wesleyan)
Rick:
Thanks for stopping by, and thanks for your comments. The Finney reference was a boldly cheeky move on your part. That guy was a rascal and a scallywag—I'm sure even a Wesleyan could agree with that. ;)
One day soon, I'll put up a post for Psalm 19, then continue from there.
Hi, Sewing - stopping by here rather than hijacking Pyromaniac's thread - I'm not up on all the different Korean versions of the Bible, but I'm sure that some are more old-fashioned than others. Last year when I was in Korea I picked up a 한영 Bible, with NKJV on the side. I have no idea what translation the Korean is, but I'm just reading it out loud to improve my reading fluency. Sometimes I can even pick up some of the vocabulary, but for the most part it's way over my head. German is much easier ;)
I've started a kblog to kill two birds with one stone: practice writing Korean, and help any Koreans who want to brush up their English. Feel free to take a look! Not much, but I've got to start somewhere :)
Hi, Wordsmith:
Thanks for dropping by. Korean Bibles of practically any version seem to be very difficult for us non-native readers to understand. They sure are for me. They generally use a very formal form of the language that isn't even used in everyday formal writing (e.g., newspaper articles or books).
Probably the easiest one to understand is the 공동 번역 ("Common Version"), which is from a different translation tradition as the other ones: a new, straight translation from the Hebrew and Greek, like the NIV compared to the Tyndale-KJV-RV-ASV-RSV-ESV tradition.
...The problem being that it's by and for the Korean Catholic community (possibly also Korean Anglicans), which of course I couldn't possibly endorse! ;)
I left a couple of comments on your blog.
Sewing,
Really enjoyed reading your testimony over at Pyro. I was raised Mennonite (GC), became very liberal in theology in the 70-80's, and became self-deified in the 90's. Christ broke my self-god in 2003 (very painful and joyful) and opened the eyes of my heart.
I look forward to reading your blog. The time 'wasted' at Pyro these last few days did introduce me to your blog and to agonizomai's.
Hi, Dec:
Thanks for your comment. There are a couple of (ex-)Mennonite (GC or Brethren) lurking about TP. Imagine that...Reformed Mennonites!
Self-deification sounds intriguing; but then again, we all did that to some degree before the Lord saved us, didn't we? Like Jacob with his hip socket, I too had to be brought to my knees, rendered totally helpless, before I could be redeemed. Praise God that he broke you down in order to build you back up!
Hi, Sewing:
Thanks for taking the (Pyro) contemplative comment in jest- I thought you might.
I have no experience w/ CP. What’s "the deal" with CP anyway? Why is it that most people who get deeply involved in CP seem kinda neutered in their proclamation of the truth?
Why does repeated exposure seem to create unbridled ecumenism? It seems so experiential, is that the basic draw to the EC’rs?
Hi, All for once/once for all:
Please forgive me for taking so long to reply. I was meditating on the right answer to your comment. ;)
I never really got into it. I read a bit of the mystics when I was younger—Theresa of Avila, Thomas Merton, and the Desert Fathers—and about a year before I was saved, discovered the Jesus Prayer ("Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner").
The Jesus Prayer is really interesting because, on the one hand, it's scripturally rooted, and is even a sort of brief, partial explication of the Gospel: Jesus is the Christ (Messiah), both God and Son of God, who has the power to be merciful to me, a sinner, and to whom I should pray for such mercy.
But it appears that in the circles where it developed—among Greek and Russian Orthodox monks—it is used as more than just a verbal prayer...it is used as a "breath prayer" to center the body and attain higher states of consciousness.
Until I was reborn in Christ, I thought, "okay, maybe that's what spiritual practitioners do." After I was reborn in Christ, however, I saw the utter fallacy and emptiness—not to mention deep-rooted selfishness (self-centeredness, self-orientation)—in pursuing mystical experiences.
As to why it's so popular with others, I cannot answer definitively. It could be the experientiality. It could be the idea of "getting closer" to God. And the ecumenical angle? I guess it arises from the idea that mystical experience (which transcends not only different Christian (broadly defined) denominations, but is universal to elements in practically every religion) trumps the Word of God.
HI Sewing,
Thanks for the compliment over at Team Pryo about my blog. I deleted it because I'm beginning to think that blogging is a waste of time ( I've been doing it for about 1 year now) but perhaps I am wrong.
I appreciate your kind spirit when I read your comments and Praise the Lord He saved you! I don't know what it is like to be raised in a different faith or in your case, no faith, because my parents both became Born-Again just before my brothers and I were born. So they raised us in the Christian faith so that is all I have ever known. I have been saved for 31 years.
God bless you.
In Christ,
Cindy
Hi, Cindy:
God bless you, that you had the opportunity to grow up in a saved home!
I only popped by your blog a couple of times, but I loved the nature photos you had and the Scriptural passages. What greater testimonial is there to the Lord's magnificence than this amazing world we live in, with its natural blessings?
Blogging is somewhere between (a) a waste of time and (b) incredibly time-consuming. With commitments to church, family, and work, it becomes so hard to sustain...although thank the Lord that we have folks like Phil, Frank, and Dan to plug away at it!
Catch you at Team Pyro....
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