Psalm 36:5-9

5 Your lovingkindness, O LORD, extends to the heavens,
Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
6 Your righteousness is like the mountains of God;
Your judgments are like a great deep.
O LORD, You preserve man and beast.
7 How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God!
And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.
8 They drink their fill of the abundance of Your house;
And You give them to drink of the river of Your delights.
9 For with You is the fountain of life;
In Your light we see light.

These are qualities of God:

• His goodness, kindness and faithfulness (also reliability) extends farther than we can reach.
• His righteousness (justice) is solid, strong, and firm (unmovable).
• His judgements are full of wisdom that is deeper than we can comprehend.
• He preserves us.
• He is a shelter for us.
• He provides an abundance from His overflowing (fatness) resources.
• He lets us “drink” from the torrent (not just a trickle) of eden (It’s interesting that we tend to think of delights as having the things we want, but the word used for delights refers to the garden where Adam and Havvah had unbroken fellowship and relationship with YHWH.  I wonder if these delights aren’t physical delights but rather refer to our relationship with YHWH – in other words, we are filled and satisfied with the rushing torrent, the overwhelming flood, of His presence.)
• He is life
• He instructs us and gives us light to live by, walk by, and prosper by.

Psalm 5:1

To the choirmaster: for the flutes. A Psalm of David. Give ear to my words, O LORD; give heed to my groaning.

Azan Azan emer Yehovah biyn hagiyg is the transliterated phrase.  Azan Azan is listen listen (or pay attention pay attention).  The repetition is like putting an exclamation point on these two words – Listen to me! emer is speech.  I’m sure the next word is obvious. biyn means understand, and hagiyg is mutterings or murmerings…  So the verse, more literally says:

Pay attention/Listen! to my speech Yehovah! Understand my mutterings.

It’s kind of  a different idea.  It sounds frustrated, like I get when things aren’t going well.  It’s not a question of whether God will hear, it’s a cry of “listen up!”  I know most translations say consider my groanings or meditations, and perhaps there’s something beside the literal meaning of the word that changes it’s meaning, but when I read mutterings I think of those times when I’m irritated, and I don’t say what I’m thinking out loud, but rather half-speak it.  God not only hears those words, He also understands them and our frustrations.  David knew this and he wasn’t afraid to express his feelings to God.  Neither should we today be afraid to bring those things and feelings before Him.  He does pay attention and He does understand, even when I vent.  That’s quite comforting when I’m frustrated.

Galatians 3:17

This is what I am trying to say: The agreement God made with Abraham could not be canceled 430 years later when God gave the law to Moses. God would be breaking his promise.

One thing I realized when I was reading this is that this applies to any promise God made in the Old Testament.  The promises of God aren’t cancelled out when Jesus came.  They were renewed when Jesus came, and many of them were fulfilled when Jesus came.  Sometimes I have a hard time telling if something is a promise or if something is merely a man proclaiming God’s goodness.  Take David for example.  Many of the Psalms talk about God’s faithfulness.  Are those things promises or are they David talking about how he’s found God to be?  If they’re how he found God to be, characteristics of God, then isn’t that kind of like a promise because God is God and He never changes?  (Clearly I think too much, or maybe not enough, at 5am after being up all night with a sick child.)  It’s nice to know the promises don’t come with an expiration date, though.

Amos 4:13

For the Lord is the one who shaped the mountains, stirs up the winds, and reveals his thoughts to mankind.  He turns the light of dawn into darkness and treads on the heights of the earth.  The Lord God of Heaven’s Armies is his name!

This is a powerful name.  It’s also one that you don’t necessarily hope to hear in the context that Israel heard it.  In this verse we get a small glimpse of some of the power associated with The Lord God of Heaven’s Armies.  He shapes mountains.  He stirs up winds.  He turns the light of dawn into darkness.  He walks on the heights of the earth.  But my favorite is He reveals His thoughts to mankind.  These are no small feat.  I don’t know about you, but I can’t remember the last time I shaped mountains or stirred up the wind.  This name is indicative of God’s power and authority, not just over Heaven’s armies, but also over mankind.  Things that are impossible for us are child’s play for The Lord God of Heaven’s Armies.  That’s pretty intense.

So what?  I don’t know.  For me this reminds me that God is more powerful than I usually remember.  Therefore, He’s able to take care of any situation I’m in.  If He can shape mountains, then shaping my life and my situations should be pretty easy.  It also reminds me that He has great authority at his beck-and-call.  One word from Him and the armies of heaven rally to my defense.  And that’s nice backup!  In this context, it’s a warning to behave, too.  That’s what this name means for me.  Your turn!

Hosea 11:8-9

“Oh, how can I give you up, Israel?   How can I let you go?   How can I destroy you like Admah or demolish you like Zeboiim?  My heart is torn within me, and my compassion overflows.  No, I will not unleash my fierce anger.  I will not completely destroy Israel,  for I am God and not a mere mortal.  I am the Holy One living among you, and I will not come to destroy.”

It’s easy for me to forget that God is full of emotion, too.  I often think of His as very stoic, loving, stern, but never overly emotional.  But these verses show a God who is anguished over the punishment His people deserve.  I picture Him pacing in circles, tearing at his hair as tears stream down his face.  His hands cover his eyes as he sits on the steps of His throne, his head hanging and shaking in frustration.  He is a God in love who is deeply torn between the need to punish and the passion He, even now, feels towards His people.

In the last line, God makes an interesting statement that He is not a mere mortal, but the Holy One living among us.  This was before the time of Jesus, before the sending of the Holy Spirit.  I’ve always assumed that God dwelt in the temple and not among the people… but maybe I’m wrong and God got out more often that I thought.  This makes Him a much more personal Lord.  He isn’t a mere mortal, He is God, and as such He can do anything He chooses.  He is also not aloof high above and distant.  He is living among us, and therefore, He knows what goes on in our lives.  He’s personal, He’s loving, He compassionate, He’s in love, and He is full of emotion.  I think that’s pretty amazing.

1.  Romans 12:3 – God has dealt to every man the measure of faith.  Pastor Allen pointed out that it says “the” measure of faith, not “a” measure of faith…  That means that everyone gets the same amount of faith.  It’s just that some people tap into more of it.  We all have faith, it’s just exercising that faith that we all do at different levels.

2.  Faith is my confidence in and response to someone who believes in me.  My God believes in me unconditionally.  I can make decisions that will affect how my friends and family see me, be there isn’t a single decision that I can make that will change how God sees me (especially since he knew about all my decisions long before I ever made them).  Because God’s belief in me and love for me will never change, I can trust Him.

3.  Uncertain times may change our plans and how we get there, but it doesn’t change the vision that God has for our lives (where we’re going, our destination).  It also doesn’t matter how much I’ve failed, if I’ve been bruised, or if I’ve made mistakes; it still doesn’t change God’s view of me or His vision for me.  We may change our opinion of Him, but He won’t change His opinion of me.  For example, Jesus told Peter that he’d deny Him three times but the next thing He said was to not let his heart be troubled.

Jesus answered, “Die for me? I tell you the truth, Peter—before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny three times that you even know me.  Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. ² There is more than enough room in my Father’s home.^[j] If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?^{[k] 3} When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. (John 13: 38-14:3)

Even though Peter would deny Him, it didn’t change that Jesus wanted Peter with Him in heaven.  Even though Peter would deny Him, Jesus told Peter not to be troubled about it.  Imagine if Peter had focused on his failure.  He might never have gone on to be the Rock of the church and to spread the gospel to so many people!  Momentary failure doesn’t change God’s vision for our life.  That is SO cool, especially for those of us who have made mistakes…

4.  We tend to see God as some great disciplinarian who comes down hard on us and gives us really tough punishments for our mistakes.  But, imagine a parent.  If that parent punished their child by breaking his/her legs for not obeying, we’d throw them in jail for child abuse.  We know that that’s not right!  So, how come we think God will do something like that?  We don’t see God IS love.  God loves us and isn’t trying to figure out how to hurt us the most when we make mistakes.

Those are my interpretations of what Pastor Allen said.  Very awesome.  So faith is seeing God as love and seeing myself the way God sees me and knowing that I am loved and valued by God unconditionally.  I love the way he put that.  Thanks Pastor Allen!

Jeremiah 23:6

And this is his name: The Lord Is Our Righteousness…

My first thought was, “Cool, a name of God.”  My second thought was, “What’s righteousness?”  My third thought was, “Thank goodness for dictionary.com!”  So, I looked up what righteousness is, and it said, “The state of being righteous.”  Uh, ok.  Not very helpful there.  I looked up righteous.  To be righteous is to be upright and moral.  Synonyms include good, honest, fair, and right.  Better.   I also looked up moral and found that it means knowing the distinction between right and wrong.  That makes sense.  God is upright, and He certainly knows the difference between right and wrong.  He loves us, but He is also just.  The Israelites at this time had sunk to horrible levels of wrongdoing, violating God’s law to a huge degree.  God is promising that He will send a new ruler to Israel (once he’s scattered them and then gathered them again) – Jesus.  The Lord In Our Righteousness.

Interestingly, I just realized that the name is The Lord Is Righteousness.  It says He’s Our Righteousness.  Jesus is named for a quality that we will possess.  He is our morality; He is our difference between right and wrong.  He is our ability to be right and good and honest and fair.  His life is a model for what ours should be.  By looking at Him, we learn to be like Him and become righteous, too.  He Is Our Righteousness.  Cool!  That brings a measure of hope into the picture.  Although, truly, we will never be truly righteous until we get to heaven.  But by His love, His grace, His sacrifice, we are made whole and new; and by His power we can be righteous.  Yeah God!

Jeremiah 12: 15-16

But afterwards I will return and have compassion on all of them.  I will bring them home to their own lands again, each nation to its own inheritance.  And if these nations quickly learn the ways of my people, … then they will be given a place among my people.

I never knew that God would eventually forgive and restore all the nations, even those that He used to bring destruction on Israel!  He promises that after destroying the nations around Israel (and Israel, too) he will eventually restore them to their own lands.  And, if they acknowledge God they will be part of His people.

It’s a good thing to remember.  We may not be part of the original Israel, and we may have been broken and crushed, but God promises to restore all the nations and give us a place with His people.  When we become part of God’s family, through trusting Jesus with our lives, that promise is fulfilled.  It’s pretty cool that God didn’t decide to crush the nations and leave them that way.  Despite all they had done, he promised to have compassion on them and eventually restore them, too.  Our God is forgiving, compassionate, and eternally loving.

Philippians 4: 4, 6-7, 13

Always be full of joy in the Lord.  I say it again – rejoice!… Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.  Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.  If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand.  His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus…For I can do everything with the help of Christ who gives me the strength I need.

I can see God up there smiling as I read this morning.  These verses aren’t anything new.  I even have them memorized.  But, for them to be part of what I’m reading this morning, when I’m trying not to worry, when I have a great need, when I greatly need peace, and when I have no idea how to be strong, is such a huge affirmation that God does care about my feelings and about the situations that I find myself in.

So, I will find joy in Him, I will thank him for His many blessings (and they are numerous), and I will tell Him what I need (or what I think I need).   He knows, He cares, and He’s got all the resources of this universe and millions of others at His fingertips.  He sends rain to thirsty flowers and gives food to hungry birds.  How much more does He love me and take care of me?  I can’t decide if I want to laugh or cry.  Yeah God!