The LORD is my Rock,
Firm, steadfast, immovable.
And Satan sits beaten,
Shaken - he's removable.
My Rock is my Help,
The place where I hide,
My Anchor, my Savior
When I'm troubled and tried.
The dragon breathes fire
As he seeks to devour,
To rend and to tear me...
But I shall not cower.
I shall stand on my Rock -
I'm safe there, I know -
My Redeemer has bought me
From the hell fire below.
In His hand there's NOTHING
That can pull us apart.
Not one Devil's barb
Can pierce through my heart.
Not life, not death, not demons below,
Not height, not depth, not angels above,
Not present, past, principalities, or powers
Can separate me from my Savior's love.
Romans 8:38-39 - For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
He preaches..he teaches and sings like none other...He seeks to help everyone, even my mother...He reads and he writes and apparently does poetry too...When he's done with his sermons, we all go Whew!:)jk...Yes..he's multi-talented and he can do it all..He's Nathan the Great aka..my brother-in-law!
Psalm 2 is called a "Royal Psalm" because it points to the coming kingdom of Christ, the reign of God. The first three verses give a picture of the attitudes of men before God:
1 Why are the nations in an uproar And the peoples devising a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth take their stand And the rulers take counsel together Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying,
3 "Let us tear their fetters apart And cast away their cords from us!"
The early Christians prayed in Acts 4:25-27 the exact words from Psalm 2:1-2. They said to God, "For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel." They realized the fulfillment of the prophetic words David had written centuries ago. They only quoted the first two verses of Psalm 2, but it is evident they knew the whole Psalm. They were not discouraged. They prayed for strength and confidence. The Psalm continues with God's attitude in the face of man's schemes:
4 He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord scoffs at them.
5 Then He will speak to them in His anger And terrify them in His fury, saying,
6 "But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain."
7 "I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, 'You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.
8 'Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession.
9 'You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.'"
Whatever plans men may have against Jehovah will come to nothing. Those vine-growers in Matthew 21:33-44 thought they could kill the son of the landowner and take his inheritance. What will be their punishment? "He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons" (Matthew 21:41). When Psalm 2 says God "laughs" at the schemes of men, this does not mean He is HAPPY about it. It means He is not concerned; He is not threatened in any way by what men do. In fact, all He has to do is SPEAK and the mightiest man's knees will give way, the greatest armies will scatter, and all of man's lofty plans will come to ruin!
Embedded in this great description of the Lord's power is a promise to His Son. The phrase, "You are My Son, Today I have begotten You," is quoted three times in the New Testament, all referring to Jesus Christ (Acts 13:33; Hebrews 1:5; 5:5). The Christ ("the anointed") would have a kingdom (and indeed He DOES have a kingdom at this moment). He now has a rod of iron with which He rules with complete authority (Matthew 28:18 - "All authority has been given Me in heaven and on earth"). We are blessed to live in the time of His kingdom!
What about the existing rulers of the earth? What should they do? What should be their attitude?
10 Now therefore, O kings, show discernment; Take warning, O judges of the earth.
11 Worship the LORD with reverence And rejoice with trembling.
12 Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way, For His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!
Worship! Some translations say, "Kiss the Son." This is not a reference to Judas' betrayal kiss, but to a kiss of homage - as in kissing His feet. The kings and rulers of this earth better humble themselves before the Son, bow before Him, completely surrender to Him, or they will be broken with His iron rod and perish in His wrath!
Of course, those of us who are not rulers must also kiss the Son. We, too, are His subjects in the kingdom. Whether we choose to bow the knee now or not, we WILL bow the knee at some point. I choose to kiss His feet now. What about you?
Isn't it amazing how much beauty is in the Scriptures? Thank you for sharing this! There is much comfort in these words! I will worship MY King, Jehovah God!
My yellow platty died two days ago. He had been struggling for several weeks. He mainly rested on the bottom of the tank and did nothing because he had been damaged by a high ammonia concentration. I didn't have the heart to kill him, so I let him live out his last few weeks hoping against hope that he'd get better... Alas, it was not to be.
As I fished his corpse out with a net, my boys discovered that I was doing something. "What are you doing, Dad?" Si asked. "One of my fish died, and I have to get him out of the tank," I replied. I could see this information sink in. His eyes started watering up. He shook his head vigorously, "No...no, I don't want the fish to die," he said. "Son, he's already dead. He got sick. That's what happens to fish sometimes." But Si was already crying.
X seemed to be doing okay as I took the fish to the toilet. I asked if he wanted to flush it. He shook his head and ran out of the room...but then came back in a rush, "Yes, I want to flush!" he declared. "Okay, you can," I said. He pressed down on the handle and the water started swirling around...and, of course, the fish's body floated up in clear view so we could take in one last look. Then it descended softly into the unseen land beyond. This was too much for X, who started bawling, too. It was quite a wonderful event. I almost started crying, too, seeing their little hearts so touched.
But if I step back from this picture, I realize this is a great analogy for our country right now. For some reason, the US government seems to think companies just cannot die. They refuse to accept the fact that the free market creates natural life cycles for businesses. Some businesses struggle and finally go under - that's nature. Some businesses grow large and eat other businesses. But even large fish get sick and die. The government has been looking into the free market tank and has noticed several of their favorite fish lying on the bottom, sick as can be. So they treated the water, they put in medicine to treat business ick, they tried to do some serious water changes. I hope they can come to grips with the fact their fish are going to die no matter what they do. The problem is, they are going so far as to get in the tank themselves. They are now sharing oxygen with the fish. They are tying themselves so tightly to their pets they are in danger of being flushed down the toilet with the dead fish!
Okay, so the analogy breaks down...they all do at some point. But maybe you get the picture. The government just needs to let nature take its course, let the fish die, let new, healthy fish take their place, and everyone will be a lot happier. The more we try bailing out the dying companies, the more we invest in our own financial destruction.
Let's just flush the fish - not the whole country!
*feels sorrowful* My dear fish, Neville, seems to be on his last le...er...fins as well. He's a sweet little beta, and he's staying with a friend of ours while we're gone. I'm afraid that the poor chap'll go before we get back. o_O
But flushing down the big boys will take all the little investors with them! Grandma's grandmother had three or four deposit bank books. Her money went down the toilet when those banks failed r
I just finished putting in a new floor in our house. We ripped out all the old carpet (which includes pulling up all the tack strips around the edges of the room and all the staples which hold the carpet padding down). Then we installed laminate flooring - a floating floor, which means it's not nailed or glued down. It just locks together and looks good.
Pluses: easy installation, looks good, cheap.
Minuses: hard to repair a piece in the middle of the room...
Here are a few pictures of the finished result:
Living Room and Kid's Room
Hall and Closet Floor
And, for those of you who know us, here are a couple of recent photos of our family...
Arete? Nice. I still have my Omega jersy as well, but don't wear it. I figure the kids will get a kick out of it if they go to FC. Good job on the floors.
Psalm 2 is called a "Royal Psalm" because it points to the coming kingdom of Christ, the reign of God. The first three verses give a picture of the attitudes of men before God:
My yellow platty died two days ago. He had been struggling for several weeks. He mainly rested on the bottom of the tank and did nothing because he had been damaged by a high ammonia concentration. I didn't have the heart to kill him, so I let him live out his last few weeks hoping against hope that he'd get better... Alas, it was not to be.
