Psalm 110 directs us to a mighty king who brings peace, a priest who offers bread and wine and blessing. He already exists and yet is coming. He will share rule with the I AM himself. Remind you of anyone? This swirls our minds. But we need to realize the depth of the person of Jesus. To know him rightly, we need to see how Jesus alone pulls all the threads of Scripture together. He is our savior. He is our Lord. He is also our priest who offered the perfect sacrifice to God: himself on the cross. He also continues in the role of priest, connecting God and humanity.
THE Wedding Invitation
April 21, 2024 • Scott Graham • Psalm 96:10–13, Revelation 19:9, Revelation 19:11–16, Psalm 96:1–6
Sin isn’t a spiritual parking ticket, or a little too much dessert after a nice meal. Sin is adultery. It is a betrayal of our love, and a profoundly hurtful act. It’s saying we can be engaged to two fiancés at once, that the bloodshed, the life given up on our behalf is a laughable, somewhat provincial gift, and we’re trading it for the latest trending fashion to come across our phone. I’ve seen it happen to friends, parishioners, and fellow pastors.
It seems so exciting and exotic for a moment, maybe awhile. But it leads to a “mouthful of gravel.”
Who Shall Ascend?
April 14, 2024 • Colton Underwood • Psalm 24
If Christ has ascended as the one who can rightly stand before his Father, and more, to sit at his right hand with clean hands and a pure heart, we have hope to follow after him. Where he is, there we shall be. And much of the reason why is because when Jesus went up to be exalted at the Father’s side, he did not shed his physical human form. No, he took it with him. So now, for the first time ever, glorified human flesh dwells in the heavenly throne room. Even more, a man — the Man — sits on the throne of heaven.
I Love the LORD!
April 7, 2024 • Gerrit Dawson • Psalm 116:1–9
What a great opening line to a psalm. “I love the LORD.” Boom. Mike drop. That’s all there is about it. I love the LORD. That’s the heart of me. That’s the truth of me. I love the LORD. There’s no question about where this psalm is going. Deep into heartfelt praise. I love the LORD. That’s bold. Can you and I say that? Do we say that enough?
You Have Drawn Me Up!
March 31, 2024 • Gerrit Dawson • Psalm 30
These terrible pains, these days of falling into dark wells, get used by our gracious Father to create resurrection hope in us. They are not punishments. Our Father does not delight in them with some perverse pleasure in our suffering. But he has provided a way that they need not destroy us. In fact, our broken hearts can open a path to becoming compassionate people. Uniting what has been done to us to the cross of Jesus, we can find freedom so fresh it feels like resurrection.
He makes us new, drawing us up from all the thousand ways of death. He restores us from the pit.
Counting on the Corner
March 24, 2024 • Gerrit Dawson • Psalm 118:19–29
Jesus is the cornerstone on which our new lives can be built. Jesus is also the rock of truth against which we can wreck our lives. This is true if you’ve never been a Christian, someone joined to Christ. You can continue on your own, and never solve guilt, never solve loneliness, never solve death. Or, you can cry out to Jesus, “Lord, save! Hosanna” and discover that he answers all those questions. This is true if you’ve been a Christian forever, but you’re holding back parts of your life. Thats exhausting and futile. Peace lies just the other side of crying out, “Lord, save. Hosanna!”
Jesus understands fully our experiences of betrayals great and small. He knows the pain more deeply than anyone has ever felt. We can draw on the times we have been betrayed to connect to Jesus. To tell him we know a bit about what he was feeling. We can sorrow with him. We can tell him we would like to stay with him when others desert him. We share a bond of emotions with Jesus in his betrayal. But we don’t only use that bond for our comfort. We use it to offer Jesus devotion. To offer him love. To yearn to give him some care, some relief, some hope.
Reproaches Fell on Me
March 10, 2024 • Gerrit Dawson • Psalm 69:6–13
Jesus zeal for his Father led him to enter the city and bear the reproach of disappointing all those awaiting a military messiah. He who loved the Father with all his being would be slandered as a God-hater and a blasphemer. Jesus’ passion for his Father would lead him to take a heap of shame on his Father’s behalf.
God is light, salvation, and strength. The enemy may seem larger than life to us. But the enemy is not as big as our God. The LORD reigns. He is sovereign over all. Enemies can hurt us, no doubt. But on another level, they can’t hurt us. They can’t reach beyond this life to the next. They can’t make good come out of suffering. They can’t possess our peace, our faith and our love.
#enemies #companioninjesus #Psalm27 #leadusnotintotemptation #theLord #forgiveness
The Son Does What He Sees
February 25, 2024 • Gerrit Dawson • Psalm 103:1–14
Jesus the Son is an imitator. Jesus does what he sees his Father doing. Jesus the man enacts the personality, the mission, the passion of his heavenly Father. In all he does, Jesus reproduces what he has seen his Father doing. That’s why Jesus can say such outrageously huge things about himself and not seem like an egotist. Because Jesus is not about himself. He is about his Father.
The gospels recount historical events in Jesus’ life. But Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are not mere reports. Something else happens when we read that record in reliance on the Holy Spirit. These events from two thousand years ago become charged with present power. We meet the Jesus who lived then right now. These stories have immediate potency.
