Psalm 147

¹⁰ His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse,
       nor his delight in the legs of a man;

 ¹¹ the LORD delights in those who fear him,
       who put their hope in his unfailing love.

Its not in what you can do that He delights

Its not in what you achieve

Its not even in what you are

What does He desire?

What does He want?

Not what do I or you want?

What does He want?

For in knowing the answer to this you find the answer to what you want.

If He delights in Himself and He is still totally humble and holy

How amazing must He be?

Father, Son, Spirit

Delighting in each other

For each give to each other with no hesitation

Each love without merit

Each glorify without end

If Jesus can delight in doing only what the Father wants how much more should I delight in putting all my hope in His unfailing love.

Un...........failing.........

The psalms loves putting things in couplets - ie. saying the same thing twice in two different ways

So He is not into the strength of the things we own - horses

He is not into your legs....or where you can go or what you can do - your ability

So what he wants is for you to Fear Him

Which is to put your Hope in Him which is all of your wanting being placed in His unfailing Love

So what he wants is for you to Hope in Him

Which is to fear Him which is realizing He is what this 'whole thing' is about and loving that

Don't love that?

Simply turn back to Him and behold His glory

Repent.

The gift of repentance is the gift to know Him.

Right now that gift is before you to be opened.

Something like this "Jesus you are God....and I am sorry.....forgive me Lord....thankyou....you know my heart...I place my faith, hope and love in you today....help me to follow you with all that I am...with all of my life....so that I might know you and others might see you"

Your turn.

It all hangs on this...

+jk

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”- Joshua 1:9


I love that God asks questions...that makes me smile.

It is interesting what God commands of us
Sometimes in religious piety we are tricked into thinking God has commanded us to be weak and afraid...
But perhaps what we miss is that we are weak without being commanded to be weak - that's why we need grace

God's saving work through the CROSS+ is so confronting to me
I realised last sunday that I murdered God

Seriously...

Yet the Father allowed His son to take all our murderous sin upon himself
Jesus did it willingly out of love for His Father and for a fallen humanity

Who do I think I am to be afraid or insecure when a Most Holy & Perfect God died for me?

So today I receive the command of God...

BE STRONG & COURAGEOUS
DO NOT BE TERRIFIED
DO NOT BE DISCOURAGED


Why and How?

Because the CROSS+ has shown me that the Lord God will always be with me wherever I go.

He meets me at my point of weakness everyday through the cross, looks into my eyes and commands me to:

BE STRONG & COURAGEOUS
DO NOT BE TERRIFIED
DO NOT BE DISCOURAGED


it all hangs on this
+jk