Zeros

This week we begin worship with:

Psalm 93:3-4
The floods have lifted up, O LORD, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their roaring. 

Mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea, the LORD on high is mighty!

 In high school I memorized this Psalm in German as a homework assignment.  The first verses begin:

Psalm 93:1 

Der Herr ist König, mit Majestät bekleidet;
der Herr ist angetan, ist umgürtet mit Macht;
auch der Weltkreis steht fest und wird nicht wanken.

The phrase "umgürtet mit Macht" or in English "girded with power" always stuck with me, partly because how funny it sounds in German, but also because it is true.  

When one takes a moment to realize that God hung a rock in space that weighs 81,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons, so precisely, so that it paints its shadow on the earth -- you begin to sense the power.

In our verse, the God's might is compared to the waves of the sea.  With each crash, the waves of the sea from around the world produce 30,000,000 kW of energy, which is the equivalent to the energy in 625,000 gallons of gasoline and there are at any moment 850 trillion waves in the ocean.  

So, let's do the math (. . . "carry the one").  The collective energy of the waves of the sea is approximately 5,200,000,000,000,000,000,000 gallons of gasoline.

Das ist Macht!

Land

 Today we begin worship with:

Exodus 3:7-8
Then the LORD said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey."

The ancients did not have a highlighter or a type font with bolded or underlined characters.  Here "surely seen" is the Hebrew word for "seen" rā'â repeated.  Three words are repeated three times in scripture:

• Woe, Woe, Woe (Revelation 8:13), which announces the seven trumpets of judgement.
• Holy, Holy, Holy (Isaiah 6:3, Revelation 4:8), which is an attempt to put into words purity and character of the LORD God almighty.

The third word repeated three times brings us back to our call to worship.  It is land, land, land (Jeremiah 22:29).  

We often think too little of our community and the purpose God has for us here.  With or without "milk and honey" He has brought us to this place.  We need to be observant, then, of our responsibility in this place.

Peace

This week we begin worship with:

1 Peter 3:8

Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.

Covey, who wrote "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People", said in one of those famous habits "Begin with the end in mind".  We laugh at people who paint themselves into a corner having not done just that, but do we really start each day with a goal set and a plan to achieve it?

Peter in our verse today gives us the goal we should set for every interaction we have with people.  He quotes it from (Psalms 34:12-14):

1 Peter 3:10-11

For

“Whoever desires to love life

    and see good days,

let him keep his tongue from evil

    and his lips from speaking deceit;

let him turn away from evil and do good;

    let him seek peace and pursue it.

Our goal should be peace.  

But do we sympathize sufficiently to understand the other person's point of view?  Are we concerned more about them, than whatever we will have to postpone or forgo to love them in the moment?  Is our heart tender enough and our mind humble enough that being right is not important?

Zechariah at the birth of his son John, prophesied that John would prepare our Savior's way and that our Savior would "guide our feet into the way of peace" (Luke 1:76-79).  Let that be our prayer that we follow.

Sun

Today we begin worship with:

Colossians 2:8

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

Tomorrow is the eclipse.  Robyn and I are up North hoping to see it.  I expect the viewing site we have chosen will be crowded and some present will be worshiping the sun.  They will be caught up with the creation and ignore the creator.

This verse also speaks of others that are trapped and even deceived by their own world view that pushes away the simple truth that God made them and loves them.

Let us not. Let us rest in that love and enjoy what God has done for us (Colossians 2:8-15).