Pastor Glenn’s Weblog

            Friday I drove to Cheyenne to spend some time with my parents and then Saturday on to Casper for the Foundation for Christian Discipleship board meeting.  FCD oversees a number of student ministries on campuses in Wyoming, Nebraska and South Dakota called Campus Ventures.  I enjoy these twice-a-year meetings in spite of the long days getting there and back for church on Sunday.  I enjoy the fellowship of men and women committed to biblical discipleship.  One of our discussions on Saturday lead me to believe that our campus leaders and students don’t really know God in his glory, greatness and grace as they should, and that has been the root of some personnel problems we’ve faced in recent years.  The longer I live and preach, the more I believe Calvin had it right almost 500 years ago when he said all of our problems stem from the fact we don’t really know God.

            While driving home I pulled over at a rest stop I’ve visited several times (at least once each trip to Casper or to Ayres Bridge where my family has camped the last few summers).  While walking around the driveway to stretch my legs, I saw a sign pointing to a scenic overlook.  I was surprised I’d never seen it before, so I walked the path to some benches a few hundred yards away.  Just as I came to the end of the path, the sky turned bright orange and pink with some grey cloud wisps above the Laramie mountain range and Laramie Peak.  It was possibly the most gorgeous sunset I’ve witnessed in my life.  It took my breath away, and I said out loud, “Wow! You are an awesome God!”  I stood there speechless for a few minutes, just admiring God’s beauty, then prayed that I would be able to teach the next generation just how awesome God really is.

            “The heavens declare the glory of God!”  May I too declare that glory!

            The tag line for my blog is “a teaching pastor’s devotional and theological thoughts.”  In that light, I have tried to avoid political comments.  There are plenty of blogs out there with those anyway!  Yet sometimes, theological/devotional thoughts overlap with political ones.

            This morning in my devotions, I read this question from Psalm 58:  “Do you rulers indeed speak justly?  Do you judge uprightly among men?”  And the answer is not a wishy-washy answer, “No, in your heart you devise injustice, and your hands mete out violence on the earth.”  That sounds like many politicians in power in the USA today.  They don’t speak what is best for men, though they couch everything they say in terms that sound good, at least to some; instead they mete out what amounts to violence and injustice.  I have heard references in recent months to some who have hoped for and prayed for Obama’s failure as a president.  Though I believe we must pray for his salvation, this psalm seems to indicate there’s nothing wrong with praying that sinful and misleading programs, and politicians, fail.  So seems to be the indication of verse 6-8 – a harsh prayer against David’s enemies.

            To the end that Obama’s programs further entrap the poor in poverty, while giving more to those in power, I pray that he fails, even if I personally think they’re wonderful programs.  To the end that his programs genuinely help with the injustices in the world, I pray that he succeeds, even if I am personally against such programs.  Ultimately, however, we want to see God glorified and people coming to know him, as the last verse of the passage indicates:  “Then men will say, ‘Surely the righteous still are rewarded; surely there is a God who judges the earth.’”

          My wife mentioned the other day that her Sunday School class had a discussion about the prayer requests we make in churches today, that most all of them are for temporal rather than eternal matters.  The next morning I read the following verse in my devotions, “Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.’” (Luke 12:13)  I laughed when I read it, because it is exactly like us, asking God to intervene in a matter of temporal importance, while ignoring the eternal.  Now there’s nothing wrong with prayer requests of a temporal nature; Jesus taught us to ask for our daily bread, and he answered requests for physical healing, food, and even wine.  The problem is that most of us live our lives there, and never get beyond the temporal.  When Jesus fed the 5,000 he used it as a lesson in eternal matters (see John 6:26-69 and Mark 8:14-21).  He operated on both levels with an emphasis on the eternal; we tend to operate on only the temporal level, or we operate on both but emphasize the temporal.  In the follow up to the demand to arbitrate the inheritance, Jesus mentioned many things about the eternal.  To the man who made the demand, Jesus responded, “A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” (v15)  He then told a story of a man who built bigger barns for his abundant crop and decided to “eat, drink, and be merry.”  (Did you know that famous phrase came from Jesus’ lips?)  God took the man’s life away that night, and Jesus concluded, “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself, but is not rich toward God.” (v21)  After a command not to worry about temporal things, Jesus added “Seek his kingdom and all these things will be given to you as well” (v31)  And finally he concludes the entire section with “Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (33-34)  Along with our constant pursuit of the temporal, let’s seek purses that will not wear out, let’s seek God’s kingdom first.