Greetings to you in the name of Christ. I have not been doing much of anything lately other than working, doing homework, and trying to get to some sleep. We did win our IM Frisbee Championship today, so that was a pretty good feeling. Especially since the only thing my team won last year was volleyball and I never played because of work. Tomorrow is my last day teaching and I did a project where the kids had to come up with a devotion on a text from the Old Testament. The assignment is to explain the text, explain the theme of the text, tell how the text points to Jesus, and how the text applies to us in today's world. I am curious to see where they pick out Jesus in these Old Testament stories and what kind of applications they come up with. I think it will be a fun last day.
My thought for the day comes from Psalms and Writings class. We discussed the theme of warfare in both the Psalter and the Bible as a whole. Now it was probably a twenty minute discussion with about a page and a half of notes, but I will give you the abridged version. We discovered there are two very important things we see on the theme of warfare. In the Psalter, a couple different places, God fights these giant armies with their horses and chariots. The people of God are outnumbered and surrounded, but God comes in to save them. However, God does not use horses or chariots. He uses His Word. He does not rely on human war strategy, but on the power of His voice, conquering all. Psalm 46 is a great example of this where it talks about God gave His voice, and the foreign sovereign territory melted away. He annihilates them, their multitude of horses, chariots, and soldiers all with His voice. The second theme we looked at was what the people of God did. They did not rely on horses or chariots either. Instead, when they are standing there starring into the huge number of their enemies on the opposite side of the battle field, they praise God and thank Him before the battle even starts. Psalm 149, verse 6 states that the high praises of God in their throats is like a double edged sword in their hands. Praising God with your voice is as good as a sword in your hand when it comes to battles and you know God is on your side. We can see this even more clearly in Acts 16 when Paul and Silas are in prison. They are in the prison cell, singing praises to God when the earth quakes and they are freed. (Dr. Lessing made the joke that this was the first real jail house rock). We can also see it in the beautiful example in Matthew 26 verse 30 when Jesus knows He is about to be betrayed, denied, and killed on the cross; He leads His disciples in a hymn of praise to God. He is staring death literally in the face and sings praises to His Father. This is how we are to live our life. We know God rules and conquers all by the mere power of His voice, and we know His praises in our throats is as good as a sword in our hands. We are to praise Him in the face of all troubles and temptations, knowing He is with us. So next time you are facing spiritual warfare in the face, stop and sing a hymn of praise to the God who you know is always with, always loves you, and has claimed you as His own out of His grace and mercy.
Dear Heavenly Father,
We sing Your praises louder than ever, knowing there is no foe or enemy we face that You do not have the power over. We know in the protection of Your hands, we can sing Your praises, trusting in You. And then when You deliver us as You always do, we can sing evermore the loud our Thanksgiving to You for all you have done, the protection You give us, the freedom You give us, and the salvation and eternal life You freely give us. In Your Son's most holy and precious name we pray, Amen.
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