Only You Are God

•February 5, 2013 • 2 Comments

This weeks Psalm is Psalm 99

It is an opportunity to focus on God, to bring him our praise and our worship.

Let your mind wander over theses verses, take your time.  Talk to God about the things it brings to your mind

Our Lord Is King

99 Our Lord, you are King!
You rule from your throne
above the winged creatures,
as people tremble
and the earth shakes.
2 You are praised in Zion,
and you control all nations.
3 Only you are God!
And your power alone,
so great and fearsome,
is worthy of praise.
4 You are our mighty King,
a lover of fairness,
who sees that justice is done
everywhere in Israel.
5 Our Lord and our God,
we praise you
and kneel down to worship you,
the God of holiness!

6 Moses and Aaron were two
of your priests.
Samuel was also one of those
who prayed in your name,
and you, our Lord,
answered their prayers.
7 You spoke to them
from a thick cloud,
and they obeyed your laws.

8 Our Lord and our God,
you answered their prayers
and forgave their sins,
but when they did wrong,
you punished them.
9 We praise you, Lord God,
and we worship you
at your sacred mountain.
Only you are God!

Posted in bible, faith, God, Lectionary, Religion, theology
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Shining Brightly

•February 4, 2013 • Leave a Comment

When we were young, apparently we could all “glow to school” if only we’d had our Ready Brek.  An encounter with Ready Brek made you so warm you were glowing all day.

Moses had a glowing experience, not from his choice of breakfast cereal, but from an encounter with God:

Exodus 34:29-35

Moses Comes Down from Mount Sinai

29 Moses came down from Mount Sinai, carrying the Ten Commandments. His face was shining brightly because the Lord had been speaking to him. But Moses did not know at first that his face was shining. 30 When Aaron and the others looked at Moses, they saw that his face was shining, and they were afraid to go near him. 31 Moses called out for Aaron and the leaders to come to him, and he spoke with them. 32 Then the rest of the people of Israel gathered around Moses, and he gave them the laws that the Lord had given him on Mount Sinai.

33 The face of Moses kept shining, and after he had spoken with the people, he covered his face with a veil. 34 Moses would always remove the veil when he went into the sacred tent to speak with the Lord. And when he came out, he would tell the people everything the Lord had told him to say. 35 They could see that his face was still shining. So after he had spoken with them, he would put the veil back on and leave it on until the next time he went to speak with the Lord.

Moses had been on Mount Sinai.  He had heard from God.  And that encounter had changed him.

There are three interesting points from this story:

  • Moses was changed – but he didn’t know it.  It was the people who saw the change in him.
  • He was changed – to enable him to bring God’s message.  The people realised something important had happened by the change they saw in him – so they listened.
  • Moses’ meeting with God on the mountain wasn’t a once for all encounter – he kept on meeting with God, to hear what he wanted to say to him and the people.

I wonder if people see the difference in me when I’ve met with God?  Does it change me?

And do I keep going back?  Or expect one encounter to last a while?  Our relationship with God needs to be an ongoing one.

Does God shine in and through me day by day?

I need to take time to be in his presence, that it may be so

Lord,

I come into your presence,

seeking to be changed,

longing to be different.

I come,

to allow the light of your presence

to light my life.

I come

again

and again

to hear your voice.

Make a difference in me

Lord

I pray

Posted in bible, faith, God, Lectionary, Religion, theology
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Book Review: A Year of Biblical Womanhood by @rachelheldevans

•January 31, 2013 • 1 Comment

Rachel Held Evans, like many of us I suppose,  has grown up receiving lots of mixed messages about the appropriate role of women in the home, the church and society – often with the claim that it was “God’s perfect will” that all women everywhere do this or that. Though it turns out different people have a different understanding of what the this or that are.  “Biblical Womanhood” was big on the agenda.
And so begins Rachel’s exploration of what “a woman’s place” is.  Is there a single formula for how to be a woman put forward in the bible?  So what does “biblical womanhood” look like, literally?  And A Year of Biblical Womanhood is born.

A Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband "Master"

Rachel sets out her Ten Commandments for the year, and then adds actions that she explores further each month.  Interwoven with the chapters are the stories of biblical women – maybe not stories we are used to hearing.

Rachel takes time and effort to find out context of oft quoted passages about what women should and shouldn’t do, and explores other passages, not so often quoted that add illumination.  But she does also follow through on the supposed “golden rules” to see how living them out goes.

This is an honest, intelligent, reflective and amusing book.  It speaks much sense as it broadens what was actually being said in the bible, and explores how women in different communities are living as “Women of valour” (The Proverbs 31 woman), in their place and community.

For me the project and the good common sense of it are summed up in two paragraphs on p294:

“The Bible isn’t an answer book. It isn’t a self-help manual.  It isn’t a flat, perspicuous list of rules and regulations that we can interpret objectively and apply unilaterally to our lives.
The Bible is a sacred collection of letters and laws, poetry and proverbs, philosophy and prophecies, written and assembled over thousands of years in cultures and contexts very different to our own, that tells the complex, ever-unfolding story of God’s interaction with humanity.”

In the bible, as in life, there are many different women, with many different gifts, that God uses.  The “woman of faith” is not one-size-fits-all.  “It is not our roles that define us, but our character” (p295)
A delightful book that should be read by all women wanting to live their lives God’s way – and their menfolk.

Posted in bible, Book Review
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