Psalm 29
1 Ascribe to the L
ORD, O heavenly beings,
ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.
2 Ascribe to the L
ORD the glory due his name;
worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness.
3 The voice of the L
ORD is over the waters;
the God of glory thunders,
the LORD, over many waters.
4 The voice of the L
ORD is powerful;
the voice of the LORD is full of majesty.
5 The voice of the L
ORD breaks the cedars;
the LORD breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
6 He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf,
and Sirion like a young wild ox.
7 The voice of the LORD flashes forth flames of fire.
8 The voice of the L
ORD shakes the wilderness;
the LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
9 The voice of the L
ORD makes the deer give birth
and strips the forests bare,
and in his temple all cry, Glory!
10 The L
ORD sits enthroned over the flood;
the LORD sits enthroned as king forever.
11 May the L
ORD give strength to his people!
May the LORD bless his people with peace!
These waters speak in a whisper as I watch them. It is clear that I will never understand the massive power of God. God controls these waters, he put them in motion with the moon and stuff, creating tides. Crazy right? I thought about that when I was taking this picture. That the power of the LORD can control everything. As the Psalm above says even the sound of his voice can break cedars and is compared to thunder. Imagine that for a second, a voice that can turn trees to splinters and make light and life with a word. That's what the voice of the one and only true God can and does do. He is pretty freaking awesome.. So, when I think about life, you know the trials we all go through, big or small, it helps me to remember that I have a God that has power over things that I could never dream of controlling, like the seas for instance. The ocean can be both beautiful and destructive. Forty foot waves hit coast lines a destroy cities as well as thousands of lives or they can be as calm as the ones above bring peace and a relaxing atmosphere for the onlooker.
You may wonder why God lets the forty foot waves happen, the answer, I don't know. I've been asked this a lot lately. I don't know if I have an answer. But, here is the thing, God does all things with a purpose. Who are we to question His actions. We can't always understand why He does things. Likewise, a child doesn't understand why a mother locks the cupboard under the sink where she keeps the cleaning supplies. Another thing, the Bible is very clear that we are in no way good people. So, asking why does a "good" person go through struggles. Well, you can't ask that question. No one is good, we are reminded of this in Romans 3:8 "But, God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." We are fallen and what we should really be asking is why God allows us to be rescued by Him.
A really, really, really.... really important part of the Bible to remember is Job. Job had everything, then lost everything. His family dies, he looses his home and belongings. He ends up covered with boils and stuff. God allows all this to happen to him, yet Job, being an incredible man of God, never curses God. Crazy right, a lot of times in our own lives one little thing goes wrong (or in some cases a really big thing) and we are look up to heaven and yelling at God like He is our child (how foolish we can be). Here is the greatest thing anyone going through something bad can say, and Job said it first 1:21 "The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away, may the name of the LORD be praised." It's a truly incredible attitude. When I think about this verse I think about the song Blessed Be Your Name, Tree 63 does it, and probably like 10 million other bands. But, give that song a listen today, think about the words and whether trials come into your life or not, continue to say "Blessed be the name of the LORD." His majesty and wonder is worthy of all of our praise, whether we are under raging seas or calm waters.
This post is way longer than expected. My apologies.
-Smitty
Where did art go in church? Churches haven't built like this in a long time it seems. Churches like this are beautiful and extravagant, like they probably should be. They don't always have to be the biggest or most efficient places to worship. This church on the outside actually appears rather small, but they do put a lot of work in making the place look really nice. I haven't seen a better looking place. It has more character and emotion then any modern day church I have seen. A couple of my teachers have talked about this lately, wanting to go back to building churches so that they are artistic and really sweet. I agree with them. Lets start putting everything into some art in church... It would be a sweet way to worship.
