Our Wednesday Night Prayer meeting has been featuring a Psalm each night. We are ready for Psalm 14 for Wednesday, April 14th, 2021. If you live in the Danville Illinois area, consider visiting Edgewood Church at 6:15 pm.
Click to listen to Psalm 14:
Click to listen to the audio of this post being read by the author: Me!
In The Fellowship of the Ring, the first book of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, the Fellowship (the group that has been tasked with protecting the ring-bearer and escorting him to Mordor) find themselves traveling through a mountain via some ancient Dwarvish mines. Though always looking to Gandalf the Wizard as their guide, they find themselves more dependent on him in the Mines, seeing as he is the only one who has actually made this particular journey. The movies portray this moment well, but I would like to share the book's version of this part of the story:
It was after nightfall when they had entered the Mines. They had been going for several hours with only brief halts, when Gandalf came to his first serious check. Before him stood a wide dark arch opening into three passages: all led in the same general direction, eastwards; but the left-hand passage plunged down, while the right-hand passage climbed up, and the middle way seemed to run on, smooth and level but very narrow.
'I have no memory of this place at all!' said Gandalf, standing uncertainly under the arch. He held up his staff in the hope of finding some marks or inscription that might help his choice; but nothing of the kind was to be seen.
Click to Listen to Pastor Matt read Psalm 13
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
[1] How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
[2] How long must I take counsel in my soul
and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
[3] Consider and answer me, O LORD my God;
light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
[4] lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”
lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.
[5] But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
[6] I will sing to the LORD,
because he has dealt bountifully with me. (ESV)
Today marks the date of my 25th wedding anniversary. In this post, you will not see any jokes about how she stuck with me or vice versa. No comments about any drudgery in the process or how much time it actually felt like. There won't be any of that in this post. It isn't because neither one of us could or couldn't make those jokes (and laugh them off... trust me... we can laugh!), but that simply isn't what I'm thinking about.
For me, I consider it a genuine honor that God has allowed me to spend my life with this person. My theology dictates my understanding of how this world works: and it is a world orchestrated by a good and sovereign God. And my God, in His Sovereign Goodness, gifted me with a life shared with this one particular person... my wife Charity. That God would bless me in such a way, lies outside of my ability to either comprehend or explain in any reasonable terms, and over these last 25 years this life together has increasingly been experienced as a cherished honor.
She is my best friend: the one that I share everything with. We've traveled together through work, life, family, and love. We relate every story, unfold every experience... sharing both joys and sorrows. She's my TV watching buddy, my coworker in the kitchen, my business partner and partner in crime... She's my traveling companion, my couch counter-part, and my forever date.
After 25 years, I can barely remember life before marriage, nor do I care to. I sense genuine confusion within myself when I try to relate to people who love the single life. I just don't get it. That isn't what is good... Good is what I have with her.
Babe, my life with you has been amazingly profound. I wouldn't trade a minute of my life with you for anything else. Even the darkest minutes and the hardest days have simply served their ordained purpose to bring life and light to our shared weeks, months, and now - years.
I love you.
The scripture that we (at Edgewood Church) will be covering on Sunday, April 4, 2021 will be Luke 5:1-11. Listen to me (Pastor Matt) read through this portion of scripture in preparation for church tomorrow.
Listen to the sermon from Edgewood Church on March 28, 2021:
Listen to me read Psalm 11...
Psalm 11
To the choirmaster. Of David.
[1] In the LORD I take refuge;
how can you say to my soul,
“Flee like a bird to your mountain,
[2] for behold, the wicked bend the bow;
they have fitted their arrow to the string
to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart;
[3] if the foundations are destroyed,
what can the righteous do?”
[4] The LORD is in his holy temple;
the LORD’s throne is in heaven;
his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man.
[5] The LORD tests the righteous,
but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.
[6] Let him rain coals on the wicked;
fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.
[7] For the LORD is righteous;
he loves righteous deeds;
the upright shall behold his face.
Sermon Number 16 from Luke: Jesus Preaches in Nazareth
Luke 4:13-30
