Greetings and blessings to you all. I am finding that the constant feeling of being behind and needing to catch up is an exhausting feeling. However, last night I crawled into bed about seven and was asleep by nine. I was very tired from a major lack of sleep from this weekend, but I feel must better today after a good, long nights sleep. This weekend was a blast. I left Friday morning about three twenty in the morning central time and made it to Michigan to meet up with my friend and his family at about eleven thirty eastern time. We dropped the girls off at the house where stage one of the bachelorette party was taking place. Then us guys drove to the groom's grandparents' house where we grilled lunch and played golf with foam golf balls in the back yard. They live right on a lake so it was a beautiful property. Then we had a private brewery tour which included a free beer. Then we had tickets to a comedy club. I had never been to one before, but it was a lot of fun and we got a lot of laughs out of the whole thing. Then we hit one last bar quick before we headed back to the grandparents' house. My friend, the bachelor, was well ready for bed we'll say when we got back, so we put him to bed. The rest of us stayed up and played cards for a couple hours, again filled with many laughs. They taught me Euchre which is a pretty fun game. The next morning we got up and drove to the golf course, but right as we got there it started to rain and radar showed it wasn't going to stop any time soon. So we changed our plans and went bowling instead. The rehearsal and rehearsal dinner were Saturday night, and then we just went back and hung out in the hotel. Sunday morning, I watched some T.V. and got some reading for class done in my hotel room before the wedding. The wedding was beautiful and everything went perfect. The reception was very classy and a ton of fun. I decided to go back to the after party at the hotel, which was also very fun. I got to talk to my friend's cousin, who is a fellow seminarian. We got to know each other last year when he was on campus, but this year he is on vicarage so it was good to see him and catch up with him again. Monday morning I was on the road by six Michigan time and was back on campus by noon our time. I took a quick nap before class and then made it to class at two. So while it was a very busy weekend, constantly on the go, not much sleep, just over 1200 miles on my car, and a little bit of money, it was totally worth it to be there to help my friends celebrate their special day, get to know their families better, and get a mini vacation all at once.
This week is a busy week of catch up and try to get ahead. I have another wedding, I am actually in this one, next week in Lincoln. I am excited, but again it is forcing me to stay on top of homework. If I can survive the next two weeks, the rest of my quarter will be a breeze. I just thank the good Lord he has given me the ability to be able to do all this extra stuff while still completing all my school stuff.
I am writing a book report on a book titled The Destiny of the Righteous in the Psalms, written by Jerome Creach. It is an amazing book and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for good material to read. For me it brings the Psalms alive, makes them understandable, and most importantly practical for our lives today. It is a pretty easy read, and only 155 pages. I will definitely keep it on my shelf and read it more than once in my life time. I will let you buy the book (it's not very expensive) and read it for yourself, but today I want to share one small part of it with you. This is a quote from chapter two titled: "The Activity of the Righteous". "Praise is not just a way of speaking about or to our God; it is also a way of living in light of one's relationship with God. Praise is the most basic "activity" of the righteous, the action from which all else emerges." (p.31). The book defines "the righteous" not as moral purity, but rather as essentially a relational term, referring to our righteousness being only from God. It is the understanding that at all times and in all places "the Lord reigns". He is creator and we are creatures who depend on Him. So when we know that He reigns, and we depend on Him, we should live our lives through praising Him. This then goes back to the fact that praising Him does not mean we sit around and talk or sing praise to Him (not that we shouldn't do this), but more importantly that praise should be everything we do in actions and words. Living a life that is pleasing in His sight and through all we do and all we say gives the glory to His name. People should be able to see through our lives that we know, understand, and live by the fact that we are creatures created by the creator, our Great Lord and God. I brought this out with my Galatians Bible study through the most dreaded verse by Lutherans, James 2:17, "So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead."(ESV). We Lutherans do not like this verse because we're scared it will sound too much like works righteousness. However, we know we are saved by faith in Christ alone by his grace. So not that we know that, we should not sit idly by and not work for fear of looking like works righteousness, but praise Him in the sense that we live the activity of our righteousness to show we know our relationship with Him. Now I know this is easier said than done, because trust me I fail at this day in and day out too. However, the more we try and ask the Spirit to give us the strength to live a life of praise (by the above definition), the more we will find ourselves actually living that life of praise. All Praise (as an activity and song) be to Him who is our creator, creating us in a life that is in relationship with Him, making us His righteous children.
LSB Hymn 558 (1,4)- this hymn is written based on Psalm 115
Not unto us, not unto us be glory, Lord
Not unto us but to Your name be praise
Not unto us but to Your name all honor be giv'n
For matchless mercy, forgiveness, and grace
Not unto us but to Your name be glory, Lord
For grace so rich, so wide, so high, so free
Abide with us, till trav'ling days are over and done
And pilgrim feet lead us home, Lord, to You. Amen.
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