December 11
Scripture focus: The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you in singing. Zephaniah 3:17
What if much of what we have believed about God is…wrong? Or at a minimum, distorted? Most of us would agree theologically that God is a God of grace. Many of us have accepted grace as a means to salvation. But have we accepted grace as the only way to experience transformation? I fear that we have accepted God's grace for the salvation of our souls, but believed erroneously that the repair of our souls was a do-it-yourself project.
We're about to move into the crazy Christmas holiday season. We may find our personal ponderings about who God is and how we relate to him shoved aside as we bake and buy and bustle around hastily preparing for our guests and gifts.
After all the hustle and bustle dies down and the credit card bills seek to steal your January joy, might I suggest two good books that might challenge our believing?
Soul Repair, by Dr. Dale and Juanita Ryan and Jeff Vanvondoren
And
TrueFaced by Bill Thrall, Bruce McNicol and John Lynch
If you haven't finished your shopping, do what I do. Buy one for a person on your gift list, and one for yourself!
The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you in singing. Zephaniah 3:17
Be ye blessed.
2 comments:
Often times I have difficulty really getting the picture of what God is saying so I look at different translations to help. The amplified version of Zephaniah 3:17 helped me on this passage.
"The Lord my God, is in the midst of me, a Mighty one, a savior (who saves). He will rejoice over me with joy; He will rest (in silent satisfaction) and in His love He will be silent and make no mention (of past sins or even recall them); He will exalt over me with singing."
I am so grateful that He does not throw my messy life in my face. And as a result, I am learning to understand and know that He not only accepts me, but that He loves me and parties over me. This is amazing grace!
What an interesting journey we are on as we go step by step.
zephaniah 3:17-18 is one of my favorite scripture passages of all time. in the 'rsv' version of the bible (presbyterian) it reads [17] "the Lord, your G-d, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will renew you in His love; He will exult over you with loud singing as on a day of festival. [18] ["I will remove disaster from you, so that you will not bear reproach for it."] in my bible,verse, 17 is the last verse on pg. 945, and verse 18 is the first verse on pg. 946. decades ago in one of my numberless word studies over the years, i found verse 18, and cried out to G-d that i was in desperate need of that very thing-a removal of disaster. five days after crying out, i was released from an obligation i couldn't keep. i had asked several times before and been turned down. six months later i learned verse 17 as a scripture worship song. i'll be singing that song quietly to myself all day long today. (i like the amplified version, too) a.'nanny'mouse
Post a Comment