“O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!  You have set your glory above the heavens.  Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.  When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?

Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.  You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.  O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”

Dwell on these sayings for a few minutes, pray about them, and let’s get our minds right as we prepare to worship our LORD.

This is something that we should completely take a time out for.

So for the next couple of weeks, I want to highlight some Psalms that I love, and I want you to talk about them.  Talk about them with your family, your friends, your co-workers, the elders here at ARCOC, the teachers here, and Drew and me.  Tell us what you think, ask us what we think.  Chew on them; enjoy them; dwell on them:

Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot in vain?  The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”  He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.  Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”  I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.  Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.  You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”  Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled.   Blessed are all who take refuge in him.     –Psalm 2

It is a series on fundamentals.  Fundamentals are important.  Something is “fundamental” when it is basic or essential to the overall structure it helps to construct.  Remove just one of the fundamentals, and it is like knocking a load-bearing wall out of a house–the entire building collapses.

There are five things Christianity cannot do without:

1. God.  Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”
2. Revelation.  The Bible is the revelation of God’s will for mankind.  Without it, it would be impossible to build faith, for “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17).
3. Redemption.  The gospel is the good news of Jesus’ mission of redemption.  Mankind is lost in sin, but the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost, shedding his blood as a ransom for many (Lk. 10:19; Mt. 20:28).
4. Community.  In every dispensation God has required his people to worship and fellowship together.  We are stronger when we practice our faith alongside other believers.  Some will say, “I have a relationship with Christ, but I don’t believe in organized religion.”  God invented organized religion.  It is called the “church,” and he expects us to be involved in this community, which was built by his Son (Mt. 16:18).
5. Resurrection.  Paul says, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.  Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.  If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Cor. 15:17-19). Christians are able to face adversity and even death because of their “living hope” (1 Pet. 1:3).  This is what makes them stand out from the rest of the world.

One of the objectives of this series is to gain a second visit from guests who have visited Ashville Road in the past.  We have designed postcards to advertise the series and have mailed several of them out.  Maybe you know about someone who is open to hearing more about the Christian faith.  Share one of these postcards with them and extend a personal invitation.  Perhaps hearing the basics of Christianity will help them cut through the confusion of the religious world to the essence of what God expects has offered the world through his Son.

We don’t actually want peace.

We like to talk about it.  We like to wish for it.  We like to pray for it.  But we don’t actually want to have it.  We would rather have all the other complications and hang-ups that plague us in our lives.  We like to be confused and chaotic in our spiritual lives, wondering whether we are just getting by, or drowning in a sea of doubt, confusion, anger, and sin.

Karen Bean has convinced me to run a 5K sometime in the near future.  As mentioned before, I am not an endurance runner.  But I have told myself that I am GOING to run this race, and hopefully lose some weight and get back in shape while I am at it.   But I am not going to finish this race unless I begin working for it now.  If I were to take things in stride and not work for what I want, then when race day comes I will fall flat on my face in a fit of dehydration and hyperventilation.  We need to remind ourselves of this same fact: that we must work for what we want.  You want inner peace?  What are you doing to work for it?

… Let us run the race with endurance.

Having run track in high school, I can tell you that endurance is a hard thing.  I was a sprinter; I was fast; I was through after 10 seconds of running.  The endurance runners had to go on for what seemed like hours.  They could not simply give up once they got tired, they had to keep on going.  And more often than not, they kept on going until they finished the race.  Even if they told themselves they were through, they still finished.  Such is the case for us.  Keep on running!  Don’t give up!  Don’t let yourself give up…

I think that this is a pretty good question; I think that this is a question that we all need to ask ourselves.  We walk around pretending that our lives are ok, and that we are doing just fine: be it socially, economically, spiritually, or physically.  This is dangerous for us to think, though.  Because when the storms in life hit us, the fact that we thought we were invincible before only augments the troubles in our life.  As a result we lose faith; we lose strength; we lose love; we lose just about everything.  The storms in our life are inevitable.  I know what you are probably thinking to yourself, “Neil is getting pretty depressing in his niche nowadays.”  But I am not typing this to scare you, and I am not typing this to bring you down.  I am typing this to reassure you.

As Christians on this Earth, we are never truly safe from danger.  At any given moment our businesses, families, spirituality can fail.  But it is at that time that we can see God the most.  God is there for us no matter what.  Sure, God might not “give” you what you were wanting specifically.  Sure, God might not save a failing business, or completely remake a broken marriage, but God is there.  In the dark times, God’s light shines the brightest.  God loves us, and He wants nothing more than to care for us, and get us through these times.  We are never really safe in life, but the great thing is that God constantly shows us just how caring He is; how much He wants to be a part of our lives.  And it is at a time when we are down; when we are broken; when we are humbled, that God completely shows us who He is, and what He can do for us.

Remember that.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. (1 Corinthians 13:13)

I think of three things together that will get me through any tough time that I run into.  I see three things together that “abide” (according to another translation).  What a great word!  What abides?  Faith.  Hope.  Love.

These things “abide” within me, these things transcend all the mess that my life is and turns it into something great…something to look forward to.  Remember that.  Remember when you hit a brick wall, and you’re not in a good place, remember what abides.  Help them to abide.

As the deer pants for lowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.  When shall I come and appear before God?  (Ps. 42:1-2)

Implied in Jesus’ beatitude is the notion that our hunger for righteousness is satisfied in the nourishment of God’s Word.  When he was being tempted by the devil, Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 8:3, which says, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”  The Bible contains the essential spiritual nutrients for the soul.  That is why Peter encourages us to desire the “sincere milk of the word” (1 Pet. 2:2, KJV).  Without it, that innermost part of us that makes us who we are withers and eventually dies.

That is why I am dismayed by certain individuals claiming to be spiritual leaders, who discourage people from reading the Bible.  Take this statement, for example, from Stanley Hauerwas’s book Unleashing the Scripture:

The reformation doctrine of sola scriptura, joined to the invention of the printing press and underwritten by the democratic trust in the intelligence of the “common person,” has created the situation that now makes people believe that they can read the Bible “on their own.” That presumption must be challenged, and that is why the Scripture should be taken away from Christians in North America (emphasis added).

Hauerwas’s suggestion is the spiritual equivalent of a bad diet.  If followed, it will lead to a weak, emaciated soul.

You don’t have to be a controversial leader in a questionable religious movement to go on a bad diet.  People do it all the time.  Some waste away because of a lack of study.  Others know the Bible but have no faith in inspiration, arguing that the Bible is just another dusty old book.  Still more choose to follow their emotions over the truth and have no anchor in a world pulling them in all directions.  Others approach Scripture with so many preconceptions and false assumptions that they are unable to make out what God is saying.

Hosea lamented a people who were destroyed for a lack of knowledge (Hos. 4:6).  A spiritual diet is a bad idea.  Never forget the importance of the nourishment that comes from God’s Word.  Without it, survival is impossible.

The most common intention on New Year’s Day is to lose weight.  One woman thought she caught her husband taking a shortcut to weight loss when she saw him standing on the scale in their bathroom, sucking and pulling in on his stomach. Bemused by all of this, she said, “Honey, you know that’s not going to help.”  To which he replied, “Sure it is. This way I can read the numbers.”  Losing weight is a good goal, but isn’t it a little shallow compared to some of the things Christians ought to be resolving to do in the next year?

What is a resolution?  We normally look at a resolution as a promise to yourself that, if kept, will make a better you.  But is this the way Christians ought to make resolutions? When we make promises to ourselves, there is no outsider holding us accountable.  That is why they are rarely kept.  It’s human nature to perform poorly when nobody’s watching.

We are notorious for breaking resolutions. Twenty-two percent of resolvers fall off the wagon after a week, according to a paper published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology. And after three months, half the adults surveyed had called it quits.

What if we actually kept our resolutions?  What if our congregation gave what was purposed for 2010?  What if everyone who resolved to bring someone to Christ actually followed through with his intentions?  What if every family that decided to improve its attendance continued to visit all the church services through the entire year?  What if today’s attendance was our lowest of the year, and we started to build on it?  What if we grew without the usual pattern of “two steps forward, one step back?”

For Christians, the key to keeping resolutions is to make deep, important commitments to God.  It is not enough to make promises to yourself.  You won’t keep them.  Resolutions that are made to God, on the other hand, have staying power, if they are made sincerely.  Fewer of us would break our promises if we considered that God was holding us accountable.

Jesus is the Lord of our lives. Our resolutions and promises ought to be made to him.  He calls us to follow him and deny ourselves (Mt. 16:24).  All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him (Mt. 28:18).  He is “Lord of all” (Acts 10:36); the Father has put all things under his feet and has made him head of the church (Eph. 1:22-23).

Remember what you want to improve upon this year. Don’t forget the promises you have made to yourself and, more importantly, to God. Don’t lose your resolve!