All I have seen teaches me to trust the creator for all I have not seen.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Psalms of Delight...
Most of the Bible's Psalms give thanks to God on one or more levels. Commanded to do so, Christians aught to make the time to praise God for His glorious nature, creative genius and many gifts to mankind.
Psalms of Delight are written in concert with Psalms in the Night. Both series contain Modern Psalms meant to comfort and inspire those seeking the Omni-God revealed in Scripture.
Creator And Savior Summary
The Amplified Bible declares "For we are His workmanship [His own master work, a work of art], created in Christ Jesus…" This assertion is in perfect keeping with absolute and scientific certainty of the existence of God. A fact, in part demonstrated by the fantastic fine tuning and astounding intricacies of actual intelligent design. As well as amazing scientific discoveries described millennia ago in Biblical passages. Seeing we are fearfully and wonderfully made, how blessed we are that God chose to be both Creator and Savior.
Creator And Savior
Modern Psalm of Delight 8
I want to thank You for being both Creator and Savior. From where I'm standing both are essential. While it's true that we wouldn't need the latter without the former, without Christ’s costly atonement we'd literally be in a hell of a lot of trouble.
Given the comforts and distractions of modern life it's easy to forget that as mortals we're only passing through. Denial runs deep. In the First World we're pretty insulated from death. We don't kill our own food. We handle serious illness and injury in hospitals. We often send the dying to rest homes or hospice. We keep death at arms distance, that is until it comes for us.
Serious suffering’s kinda taboo. It's not PC to talk about it unless it's on the screen. Religion, including Churchianity, takes it for granted. Preachers avoid it like the plague.
It's not that we've never seen it. It's on TV and movies a thousand times a day. From famine and plague to murder and torture. From conventional and nuclear war to meteor impact and alien attack. Death's passé. Were numb to it.
Then there's the afterlife to think about, or in our case not. At least not much. Modern Christendom gives topics like dying and judgment little more than lip service, preferring to place it's presumptive faith in saying a sinner's prayer. But You tell a different tale. Scripture's preoccupied with the subject. The words death and judgment are used directly 900 times and indirectly far more. Not to mention the more the 6,000 commands in Scripture, many of which are deal breakers. Every book of the Bible and every passage in them You designed to emphasize the importance of our choosing obedience over rebellion and life over death that we might obtain mercy rather than judgment and heaven rather than hell.
So Biblically, death frames life, and not in some comforting esoteric way. It's our final enemy. One that only You can give us victory over:
- "After that the end will come, when he will turn the Kingdom over to God the Father, having destroyed every ruler and authority and power. For Christ must reign until he humbles all his enemies beneath his feet. And the last enemy to be destroyed is death." 1 Corinthians 15:24-26
- "Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled: “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 1 Corinthians 15:54-55
- “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal." Matthew 6:19-20
- "And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?" Matthew 16:26
Yet Lord, what of the billions who will experience "the Second Death?"
- “Don’t be afraid of what you are about to suffer. The devil will throw some of you into prison to test you. You will suffer for ten days. But if you remain faithful even when facing death, I will give you the crown of life.' Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. Whoever is victorious will not be harmed by the second death." Revelation 2:10-12
- "This is the first resurrection. (The rest of the dead did not come back to life until the thousand years had ended.) Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. For them the second death holds no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him a thousand years." Revelation 20:5-6
- "The sea gave up its dead, and death and the grave gave up their dead. And all were judged according to their deeds. Then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. This lake of fire is the second death. And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire." Revelation 20:13-15
- "All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children. “But cowards, unbelievers, the corrupt, murderers, the immoral, those who practice witchcraft, idol worshipers, and all liars—their fate is in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.” Revelation 21:7-8
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