Goodness and Mercy

 Goodness and Mercy

May 5, 2025

Psalms 23:5-6 (NASB95) 

5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and lovingkindness(mercy) will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

This verse at the end of the twenty third psalm reminds me of a story that one of my missionary friends told about a church in Guatemala. We had been to this church many times and had built a church and homes in a walled compound. The pastor was a local man who was a veteran of the civil wars in Guatemala. He preached the gospel fearlessly and the church was growing. This upset the local shaman, witch doctor. He threatened the pastor many times and his followers had vowed to kill the pastor.

One day, some of the elders of the church were in the village and saw the disciples of the shaman. They confronted them saying, “You have threatened to kill our pastor many times, but why have you never done anything ?”  The witch doctors men answered, “Oh, we will, as soon as those two, tall men with swords, who guard the entrance of the church compound every night, leave!” The elders went back to the pastor rejoicing, because there were no humans guarding the pastor. “Surely Goodness and Mercy will follow me all the days of my life.” That’s when I learned that there are two big angels named Goodness and Mercy!

A Clean Heart

 Give Me a Clean Heart

May 3, 2025

Psalms 51:1-2

1 Have mercy upon me, O God,

According to Your lovingkindness;

According to the multitude of Your tender mercies,

Blot out my transgressions.

2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,

And cleanse me from my sin.

Psalms 51:10

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,

Andrenew a steadfast spirit within me.

The One Shepherd

 The One Shepherd

April 30, 2025

Psalms 23:1

1 The LORD is my shepherd,

I shall not want.

The Lord is my shepherd… This harkens back to the prophecy of Ezekie of David becoming the shepherd of all Israel.

Ezekiel 37:24-28 - The Davidic Kingdom

24“My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd; and they will walk in My ordinances and keep My statutes and observe them. 25 They will live on the land that I gave to Jacob My servant, in which your fathers lived; and they will live on it, they, and their sons and their sons’ sons, forever; and David My servant will be their prince forever. 26 I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will place them and multiply them, and will set My sanctuary in their midst forever. 27 My dwelling place also will be with them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people. 28 And the nations will know that I am the LORD who sanctifies Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forever.”’”

This prophecy was only partially fulfilled in the reign of King David but will be fulfilled in its entirety by the Son of David who is King of Kings for all time. As it says in Corinthians, “now we see in part”, but soon we will see the entire fulfillment when Jesus returns and brings the Kingdom of God to earth. As we were discussing yesterday, Jesus power was declared at His resurrection, but it will not be fully visible to all the world until He returns again in power. But even now He is our God and we are His people and His sanctuary dwells within us. In truth, the Kingdom of God is real and has power, but the fullness of that power is not manifest to the people of the world. But one day soon, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Then all the nations will know that He is the Lord who sanctifies His people and His sanctuary is in their midst forever. 

Resurrection

 The Resurrection 

April 20, 2025

Luke 24:1-9

The Resurrection

1 But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. 2 And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling clothing; 5 and as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living One among the dead? 6 He is not here, but He has risen. Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee, 7 saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.” 8 And they remembered His words, 9 and returned from the tomb and reported all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.

Romans 6:4-7

4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin.

Philippians 3:10-11

10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.