Today's Reading August 12

Happy Sunday! We'll be off to church in just a bit here. It will be a bit strange, we'll have a guest preacher this morning as our former pastor has left to take up a new ministry in another state. We wish Brother Steve and Sister Rhonda all the best, but it will, as I said, be a bit strange without them.
This morning we continue in the Psalms, looking now at Psalms 93, 94, and 95. These are, all of them, good Psalms to pray, and you will find that phrases from them have been included in a number of hymns and praise songs. They have, for me, a depth of meaning that reminds me of the times I have read, sung, and prayed them. They hold a lot of personal meaning. But they also reflected the experiences of the writers, it makes it clear that they truly knew the Lord in a very real way, and that His inspiration during the composition was not the first encounter they'd had with Him. They left these Psalms as a tribute.
Question for all of us: what have we left as a monument?

Chapter 95
1 O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.
3 For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also.
5 The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.
6 O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.
7 For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice,
Heb 3:7, 4:7
8 Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
Heb 3:8, 15

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This evening we return to chapter 11 of Paul's letter to the Romans, starting with verse 22 and continuing to the end of the chapter. Paul is really addressing both the Jewish believers (and unbelievers) and the Gentile Christians. He has a couple of themes here, one being that in Christ there is no distinction between the two - a radical thought at the time - and primarily the doctrine that the distinction in not between Jew and Gentile but in Christ and not. Our focus must be and must remain on Jesus. We see that still today, those groups that lose focus on Jesus and instead place the significance on other things seem to founder and lose their way. Paul speaks to that, and much else besides.

25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
Isa 59:20
27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
Isa 59:21
28 As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the father's sakes.
29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
30 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.
33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
34 For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?
Isa 40:13
35 Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
Job 41:11
36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.