Greetings to you in he name of Lord Jesus Christ. This morning it is a perfect 57 degrees outside. I love waking up to the chilly breeze blowing through my window and across my bed. It makes the warmth of my comforter that much better. The only hard part is getting out of bed. And now as I sit in my office with a delicious cup of dark coffee, windows open letting the cool fresh air in, and the classical music of Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart and others playing in the background, it is the perfect atmosphere to sit and ponder on this weeks sermon. I feel so old and mature having my own office and actually enjoying classical music that once found boring. My sermon for this week is on Ephesians 5 -Wives submit and Husbands die- text. I am excited to see how it turns out. All of my sermons should be posted on our church website one of these days so you can listen to them on there. I have kind of gone away from writing full manuscripts, so I am glad we record my sermons so you can still enjoy them.
This morning's devotion continued with the story of David and Bathsheba. It was the portion of the story where Nathan confronts David with the parable of the rich man stealing the poor man's sheep. What a genius way to call someone out on their sin. However, the devotion also paired it with Psalm 51 which is perfect since David wrote Psalm 51 as he was reflecting on his sin with Bathsheba. So we have the text of 2 Samuel showing us David being confronted and called out for his sin. We see him mourn the child until it died. And then we get David's thoughts, feelings, and conflicting emotions from the Psalm. What a perfect way to read the story and see the struggle of sin we all go through. None of us like to be confronted with our sins and truth be told we really don't even like to confess them. However, along with the self-loathing and despairing emotions of David's confession, we also get the beautiful words of forgiveness and how wonderful our Lord is to have mercy on us. That is the precious beauty of our Lord's mercy and forgiveness. When we feel our worst, when we realize we have sinned against God Himself and feel as worthless as the worst person alive, He picks us up, He gives us our comfort and hope. He creates a clean heart in us and restores a right soul within us. He doesn't casts us from His presence, but draws us ever closer. He doesn't take His Holy Spirit from us, but instead revives us through His Spirit. He restores the joy of His salvation to us and lifts us up with His free Spirit. Thanks be to God He has had mercy on us and through His SOn Jesus Christ does forgive us. Amen.
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