Tag: good

We are God’s Crown Jewels

/ CD Hamman / Leave a comment

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Summer of Psalms
Psalm 8

We are continuing our Summer of Psalms series. Something I like about the Psalms is there is a psalm for every emotion. The Psalms cover joy, praise, sadness, sorrow, anger, wonder, awe, victory, defeat, and everything in between. You name it there is pretty much a psalm that deals with it.

I want to share why this Psalm is special to me. It’s my Grandma Staten’s fault. I don’t remember exactly what year, but somewhere between 2nd and 5th, Grandma was in charge of vacation bible school. The theme song that year was This is My Father’s World, and creation was the overall theme. For the VBS program at the end of the week, Grandma wanted me to memorize and recite Psalm 8:3-9. I figured I could just read it. No one would know. The pulpit was large, and no one could see what was on it except the person standing there. Grandma and I argued even up to Sunday afternoon. Let me be clear, Grandma won the argument.

This is the first Bible verse I recall memorizing, other than John 3:16, or John 11:35 (Jesus wept).

Psalm 8 is a psalm of David. Depending on the Bible version the introduction to Psalms 8, 81, and 84 says that it is to be played on the gittith, which is derived from the Hebrew word “Gath”. Gath may refer to where the giant, Goliath was from, or a type of stringed instrument from Gath. Gath also signified a winepress in Hebrew. The psalms mentioning the gittith called for an animated music.

O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!
Your glory is higher than the heavens.
You have taught children and infants
to tell of your strength,
silencing your enemies
and all who oppose you.
When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—
the moon and the stars you set in place—
what are mere mortals that you should think about them,
human beings that you should care for them?
Yet you made them only a little lower than God
and crowned them with glory and honor.
You gave them charge of everything you made,
putting all things under their authority—
the flocks and the herds
and all the wild animals,
the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea,
and everything that swims the ocean currents.
O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth! (NLT)

Psalm 8 is often used to remind us of our duty to care for the earth, and all of God’s creation. Psalm 8 is one of several creation Psalms, including 19, 29, and 104. Bonheoffer says that Psalm 8 praises God’s name, and his gracious act to humans as the crown of His work. Today I want to focus on verses 3-5, and remind us that we are God’s crown jewel in His creation.

Bottom Line: We are the crown of God’s creation.

1) God created the entire universe.

Genesis chapters 1 and 2 tell us the story of creation. God created everything. The sun, moon, stars, plants, animals, fish, everything from the simplest element, and single celled organism, to the most complex molecules, and the most complex life. And at each stage, as He spoke each thing into existence, God called it good. The light was good. Land and seas were good. Plants were good. The sun, the moon, and the stars were declared good. Fish and birds were good. Finally, he created the animals and called it good.

There is a video on YouTube that helps explain the relative size of things in the universe. Click here to watch just the first 5 minutes. (Or watch the entire video, if you like.)

Do you feel insignificant now that you’ve watched the first five minutes of that video? Have you ever looked up at the night sky, and wondered what is out there? Does it ever make you feel small, and insignificant? I will admit to being just a little bit of a science fiction geek. And I sometimes wonder, did God create life on some distant planet, in another galaxy? Does it matter, though?

2) Even in our apparent insignificance, God has crowned us and given us authority.

The very last thing God created was humans. Genesis 1:26 tells us that God said “Let us make human beings in our image….” Only after creating humans, did God look at everything and call it very good. (Genesis 1:31) And the verses in between 26 to 31 tell us that He gave us authority. We have the authority to use the resources of His creation.

Verse 6 of this Psalm reminds us that He has put everything under our authority. That means ALL of creation. We are still exploring, and learning about just planet earth. And we have barely begun to explore just outside our own planet, and our galaxy.

Invitation:

Hebrews 2:6-8 refers back to Psalm 8:4-6.
And furthermore, it is not angels who will control the future world we are talking about. For in one place the Scriptures say,
“What are mere mortals that you should think about them,
or a son of man that you should care for him?
Yet for a little while you made them a little lower than the angels
and crowned them with glory and honor.
You gave them authority over all things.” (Hebrews 2:5-8a)

This is also a Christological Psalm, because it also refers to Christ, the Messiah. Hebrews 2 continues, beginning in the second part of verse 8 that we don’t yet see everything under our authority. But what we do see is Jesus Christ, who was briefly made a little lower that the angels, suffered and died for us, and he is now crowned with glory and honor.

We are so important to God, that even after we have sinned, deserving death, and permanent separation from God, He still made a way to redeem us, and He still calls us to Him today.

We truly are the crown jewel of His creation.

Do you know Him?

What kind of fruit are you?

/ CD Hamman / 1 Comment

“A tree is identified by its fruit. If a tree is good, its fruit will be good. If a tree is bad, its fruit will be bad. You brood of snakes! How could evil men like you speak what is good and right? For whatever is in your heart determines what you say. A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. And I tell you this, you must give an account on judgment day for every idle word you speak. The words you say will either acquit you or condemn you.” ( Matthew 12:33-37 NLTse)

I would venture to say that there is a good chance that for most of us who read this passage our thinking goes something like, “This doesn’t really apply to me. I’m a pretty good person. I attend church and tithe my ten percent and even give a little extra for missions and youth. And I’m even nice to that nasty old so and so who’s always off key and just wants everyone’s attention. Yep, I’m good. This passage is for those overly judgemental religious people like that mean old pastor of ours who’s always preaching right at me.”

The pastor’s version of thinking might be something like, “I know who needs this sermon. That old busy body, who sits second row, organ side, always telling me what I ought to be preaching. Then there’s that worship leader. I know he ain’t doing things right. He doesn’t agree with me on anything.” And the worship leader’s thinking, “That pastor of ours just don’t have a clue. He’s mean, he’s too old fashioned. And we really need a new sound person; someone who understands physics and technology.”

And to make it even more interesting all of these people are talking to each other about each other, as well as talking to others about each other. I’ve watched it happen probably ever since I was a kid. (Folks, kids see a whole lot more than we realize. Not to mention, you just never know whose watching, and listening.) I’ve seen pastors complain about their congregation, congregants complain about the pastor, ministers complain about other ministers, and the list is probably endless. Sometimes we even complain just because that’s all we know how to do anymore. But in the midst of all of our running each other, and everyone else, down have we ever stopped to listen to ourselves? For people who claim to follow Jesus Christ we can be some real jerks. I’m including myself here too, people. I’m guilty of carelessly speaking words that hurt, teardown and destroy just as much as those who have done it to me. If I’m really honest I’ve even been guilty of lying to make myself look good or to make another person look bad. And I have to ask myself, “Where is the grace that I was supposed to give?”

As I’m writing this I am reminded of a phrase I heard in an anger management course I went through once. The minister, Dr. Teresa Davis, who led the program, reminded us more than once that “Hurt people hurt people.” Let that sink in for a minute. Hurting people hurt other people. In spite of all our claims to the contrary, I suspect we have not really allowed God to heal us, so that we can stop the hurt. I’m sure we meant it when we asked forgiveness and for God to rule our lives, but for some reason we may not have allowed Him to begin the true healing. So we claim to belong to Jesus, but we hold on to the hurt. Which means we then go on to hurt others. It’s a vicious cycle. One that I cannot break on my own. And, frankly, neither can you. But there is hope. If I want to be capable of producing good fruit, I have to be good fruit. I have to let go of my hurts and give them to Jesus. I have to allow the Holy Spirit to have complete control. When we allow God to cut away the hurts and the rough edges, he can actually remove the rot, the sin, the anger, the hatred and make us to be good, holy fruit.

When we allow the Holy Spirit to make us into what God desires, then we can stop hurting others. We learn to pray for each other, lift each other up before God. That nasty and mean person who may still hate us becomes someone we pray for. You can’t pray for someone you hate. I know; I’ve tried it. It just doesn’t work. You also can’t change someone else. But you can pray that they will let God truly transform them, as you continue to allow Him to transform you.