Psalm 9:1-8
This Psalm is titled I will recount your wonderful deeds, and yet many a follower of Christ is only doing this with others of like faith. But are we not instructed to teach these truths to our children at home, where are we told to let someone at church do our teaching?
“I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing the praises of your name, O Most High. My enemies turn back; they stumble and perish before you. For you have upheld my right and my cause, sitting enthroned as the righteous judge. You have rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked; you have blotted out their name forever and ever. Endless ruin has overtaken my enemies, you have uprooted their cities; even the memory of them has perished. The Lord reigns foreve: he has established his throne for judgment. He rules the world in righteousness and judges the peoples with equity.”
This Psalm brings conviction to my life and reminds me of many things I am told by God speaking through Isaiah 41:10, “Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.” In Matthew 10:26-28, Jesus tells us the following; “So have no fear of them, for nothing, is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
I’ve shared my faith with my family, and I mean wife and daughter, and Christian brothers and a few of the sisters. But I’ve dropped the ball proclaiming to all I come in contact with in my concentric circle. And there can only be two reasons: I do not care if they know about the life I have in Christ, and that He alone is the giver of life now and eternal life. The other is I have a fear of being rejected, and I allow my pride to rule. In both ways, I am not showing love, and so how can I say I’m a follower of Christ and not do as He has instructed me to do?
The second part is what God will do with the wicked, and do not take this word to mean only people like Hitler, for anyone who rejects God’s Son will fall into the same punishment as Satan. We all have both family and friends that have decided to reject God’s love gift. But do they understand what they are declining, it not a religion, it’s a person who loved them so much that He did the will of His Father, and the Creator allows Himself to become lower than the angels He had created, and take on the form of a man. Being in sales most of my life, I always look at the features, advantages, and benefits of a product and how could I make the customer desire to own it. So allow me to share what Jesus Christ has done for me. The blood that He shed on the Cross covered my sins, past and present. He intercedes for me with the Father, and His Holy Spirit that lives in me gives me a way out when temptation comes, and they do arise. His Spirit that lives in me has opened my eyes and heart to understand what I need today to live life on planet earth. And one day, when all my neighbors and family and friends gather at my funeral and talk about me in the past, I will have been received by my Redeemer into His heaven and be alive. He and the Father will call me righteous, but not because of my actions on earth, but because of what Jesus Christ did when I ask Him to forgive my sins and come into my heart.
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice
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