He Is God and I Am Not

Good morning. It is Thursday, August 21, 2014.

Today is Poet’s Day. There a number of poets in the WordPress blogosphere, so I wish them all happy Poet’s Day! I’m not going to try to tag them all, because I’ll forget someone. But if I make it over to their blogs today, I will make sure and wish them a happy Poet’s Day “in person.”

I worked late again last night, and still had a bit of work left on my cart. Hopefully, we can all pitch in and get it done before the 24 hour window is up, this morning.

Apparently, I have been challenged in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, or whatever it’s called. I’ll have to try and get that done after work today.

I picked up Stephanie’s new laptop at Best Buy on the way home from work yesterday. She really loves it. She may have the best one in the house, now, and it was the cheapest one, too. If you catch them at the right time, some of those “open box” deals at Best Buy are excellent!

TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL

Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name.
Psalm 86:11

(From The Divine Hours)

O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
Psalm 51:15-17
Hide not your face from your servant; . . . make haste to answer me. Draw near to my soul, redeem me;
Psalm 69:17-18
But I, O LORD, cry to you; in the morning my prayer comes before you.
Psalm 88:13
Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up; God is our salvation. Selah.
Our God is a God of salvation, and to GOD, the Lord, belong deliverances from death.
Psalm 68:19-20
For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him.
He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God.
Psalm 62:5-7

The Gloria
Glory be to God the Father,
God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning,
so it is now and so it shall ever be,
world without end.
Alleluia.
Amen.

Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.
Romans 2:1
Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
James 4:11-12

Today’s Gospel reading

Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 5:1-3

We really begin to get into the meat of the words of Jesus in Matthew’s gospel at this point, so I’m going to go a little slower through this part. Today’s reading begins the well-known section we call “The Beatitudes.” Jesus begins by pointing out that those who know their deep spiritual need already own the Kingdom of Heaven. As any evangelist knows, it is very difficult to get someone to accept the teachings of the Gospel when they have no perception of their spiritual need. Those of us who are aware of our spiritual poverty are more likely to depend on God alone for everything, because we know we have nothing in and of ourselves.

Today’s reading in Reflections for Ragamuffins is “No Apologies.”

My heart’s desire is to share Jesus’s “intimate experience of God as Father.” One of the meanings of that word “father” in Scripture is “lord and ruler, full control and authority.” We see Jesus acknowledging this aspect of God his Father. He never tries to defend or justify God when it comes to tragedies that occurred. “Jesus makes no effort to exonerate God from the scandal of suffering, to bail him out, to rationalize or minimize the presence of tragedy in his world. He surrenders without reservation to the infinite wisdom and awesome majesty of God.”

This reminds me of a favorite verse in the Psalms. Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases. (Psalm 115:3) This is the answer to the cop-out question that so many unbelievers ask. You know the one: “If God is loving and merciful, why is there so much suffering in the world.” We need not try to answer that question with any deep theological meanderings. If Jesus didn’t try to defend his Father in that area, who are we to attempt to rationalize an answer that the Bible doesn’t give? (One of my pet peeves is when pastors and preachers make up answers to difficult questions, instead of admitting that they just don’t know.) From now on, if anyone asks me that question, I will shrug my shoulders and quote Psalm 115:3 to them. God is sovereign. I don’t understand everything that he does or allows. He is God and I’m not.

And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD,
in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God.
And they shall dwell secure,
for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth.
Micah 5:4

Father, I pray that we will stop trying make excuses for the things that you do and allow in our world. Yes, there is suffering, but we can’t know why, so we need not make up reasons. You are sovereign, and I accept whatever you allow or do in my world. Yes, there might be times when I do throw my hands up and cry out, “WHY??” to you. But, in truth, I expect no answer, because you most certainly do not owe me an answer to anything! May your Spirit constantly remind me of this, as I walk through my days. May you help us to simply accept these things and, when other people ask us questions that would tempt us to make excuses for your actions, may we just throw back your word to them, telling them that you are in heaven, and you do whatever you please. You are our creator. We all belong to you, whether we acknowledge this or not. You are sovereign.

I pray for this day. I pray that you would grace us with safe travel to and from work. I pray for Christi’s last few days at this job to go well. I also pray that we will be able to get all our work caught up this morning. I pray that Stephanie will have a good day, and that you will draw her closer to your heart and show her your unfailing love.

May your sovereignty reign in my heart today!

May we all remember the words of Psalm 115:3 today.

Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.

Grace and peace, friends.