Author: Pastor Bryan Lowe

A repentant rascal with definite issues, but who is seeking to be authentic in his faith to Jesus Christ. An avid reader and a hopeful writer. Husband and father. A pastor and Bible teacher. A brain tumor survivor. Diagnosed with clinical depression, and now disabled. Enjoys life, such as it is, in Alask.a (Actually I have it pretty good.)

Significant Worship

A Psalm Study, 108:1-6

A Song. A Psalm of David.

 1 My heart is confident in you, O God;
      no wonder I can sing your praises with all my heart!
 2 Wake up, lyre and harp!
      I will wake the dawn with my song.
 3 I will thank you, Lord, among all the people.
      I will sing your praises among the nations.
 4 For your unfailing love is higher than the heavens.
      Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
 5 Be exalted, O God, above the highest heavens.
      May your glory shine over all the earth.

6 Now rescue your beloved people.
      Answer and save us by your power.

–Psalm 108:1-6, NLT

David has tapped into strength and significance.  The astounding part of it is–it’s a Person, not a method.  He has a relationship that alters the reality around him.  David is outrageously enthusiastic about this.  He exudes a confidence that can’t be contained.  Our strength is in a person!  (Not religion, a moral code, ethics or even discipleship.)  It’s Jesus, it is a relationship, that is personal–a intimate friendship.

David refers to a ‘harp and lyre.’  These are obsolete for the most part.  But I think any musical instrument can be used.  A piano or a guitar, (even a cherry red Stratocaster) is quite acceptable.  But there is an interesting shift.  David’s heart and soul is his musical instrument!  Worship starts right there, not in a set of drums.  His heart is the primary place of worship.  That is where worship must happen.  And we can easily confuse this.

King David understands innately the significance of worshipping God.  He visualizes going out to all the peoples of the world–not as a diplomat, but as a worshipper.  That is his central thought and theme.  No trade treaties, or ambassadors or even peace envoys.  But Jehovah God is his ingrained purpose.

And worshipping Him is a reasonable thing.  David proclaims two attributes that are ‘sparkplugs’ for his spiritual life, (v.4).

  1. Love
  2. Faithfulness

These ignite his love and worship.  When King David thinks about them, he can’t help but sing and worship.  And they are extremely significant for us as well.  When you think of God’s love and His unceasing faithfulness–and if they are properly seen, and understood, you too will worship.  As a matter of fact the existence of heart worship is evidence of a healthy spiritual heart.

David wants to God to show Himself to the whole earth–everyone!  Far jungle tribesman and Eskimos, all need to see God!  Everybody gets to see Him. That is the wonderful purpose of Christian missions.  David wants desperately to share this with all.  He has a true zeal (and sometimes that scares us).

Verse 6 hints of the existence of sin and evil.  These are things so engrained and prevalent in our society, and in our hearts–we need a deliverer and a savior.  Jesus has to step in.  We have no other options, and our creator has got to be our Savior.  When we begin to realize our desperate predicament, all the vanity (an old fashioned word) and emptiness, we are halfway there. I encourage you to worship, everyday.

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ybic, Bryan

 

Related articles

Mental Illness Makes You a Target

MONDAY, DEC 10, 2012 6:01 PM UTC, Posted on Salon.com

Half of people shot by police are mentally ill, investigation finds

A Maine-based study found a lack of training and oversight and a system that justifies deadly use of force

BY 

An investigation by the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram has found that a disturbingly high percentage of individuals shot by police suffer from mental health problems. There are no federal statistics on police shootings of mentally ill people, but according to the investigation published this week, “a review of available reports indicates that at least half of the estimated 375 to 500 people shot and killed by police each year in this country have mental health problems.”

The newspapers analyzed in detail the incidents of police deploying deadly force in Maine — a state with a comparatively low crime rate — since 2000. The report noted:

42 percent of people shot by police since 2000 — and 58 percent of those who died from their injuries — had mental health problems, according to reports from the Maine Attorney General’s Office. In many cases, the officers knew that the subjects were disturbed, and they were dead in a matter of moments.

cop-gunIn September, as I noted here, police in Houston shot dead a wheelchair-bound double-amputee diagnosed with severe mental health problems when officers saw him wave a shiny object (which turned out to be a pen) in the air. The Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram cited this and a number of other incidents this year, which garnered national attention:

In Saginaw, Mich., six police officers gun down a homeless, schizophrenic man in a vacant parking lot when he refuses to drop a small folding knife. In Seattle, Wash., a police officer fatally shoots a mentally ill, chronic alcoholic as he crosses the street, carving a piece of wood with a pocket knife. In Portland, Ore.,police check on a man threatening suicide and wind up killing him with a single gunshot in the back.

The report notes a lack of police training in crisis intervention as fueling the problem, undergirded by a lack of oversight and accountability: “While the Justice Department counts every assault, robbery and drunk-driving arrest — as well as every police officer shot on duty — it gathers no numbers on mentally ill people shot by police,” the report stated.

Meanwhile, the FBI does not quantify police shootings that are found “unjustified”: “the FBI tallies only police shootings that result in ‘justifiable’ homicides; 373 to 411 of these shootings occurred each year from 2006 through 2010. Unjustified police shootings are counted among all other homicides. The FBI doesn’t specifically count any incidents involving mentally ill people.”

Deadly force is rarely ruled unjustified — the investigation noted that in Maine, for example, the Attorney General’s Office has justified every single police shooting since 2000. Corroborating statistics in other states, although rarely collected, attest to the near-ubiquity of justification of use of deadly force. Colorines found that in Chicago between 2000 to 2007, only one police shooting out of 84 was considered to be “unjustified” (meaning no probable cause was found for believing a suspect to be a threat).

Despite the lack of national data, the investigation was able to piece together specific findings in other states outside of Maine:

In New Hampshire, four of five people shot and killed by police in 2011 had mental health issues (80 percent); a sixth person shot by police also was mentally ill but survived, according to reports from the state’s Office of the Attorney General. All six shootings were found to be justified. A review of the New Hampshire attorney general’s reports on police shootings from 2007 through 2012 showed that seven of nine people killed by officers during that period had mental health issues (78 percent).

In Syracuse, N.Y., three of five people (60 percent) shot by police in 2011 were mentally ill, according to news reports. One of three people who died in those shootings was mentally ill…

In Santa Clara County, Calif., officials reported that nine of 22 people (41 percent) shot during a recent five-year period were mentally ill, according to a crisis intervention training guide.

In Albuquerque, N.M., 75 percent of police shootings in the last two years had a “mental health context,” the state’s Public Defender Department noted in its annual report for fiscal 2012.

Cutbacks in mental health services nationwide, along with the return of veterans from war, concern experts as exacerbating conditions for more deadly police encounters, the investigation noted.

Salon.com

http://www.salon.com/2012/12/10/half_of_people_shot_by_police_are_mentally_ill_investigation_finds/

 

Top 10 Reasons God Created Eve

Sunday Funnies:

The Top 10 Reasons God Created Eve

10. God was worried that Adam would frequently become lost in the garden because he would not ask for directions.

9. God knew that one day Adam would require someone to locate and hand him the remote.

8. God knew Adam would never go out and buy himself a new fig leaf when his wore out and would therefore need Eve to buy one for him.

7. God knew Adam would never be able to make a doctor’s, dentist’s or haircut appointment by himself.

6. God knew Adam would never remember which night to put the garbage on the curb.

5. God knew if the world was to be populated, men would never be able to handle the pain and discomfort of childbearing.

4. God knew that as the keeper of the garden, Adam would never remember where he left his tools.

3. God knew that Adam would need someone to blame his troubles on when he was caught hiding in the garden.

2. The Bible says, ” It is not good for man to be alone.”

And finally, the Number 1 reason why God created Eve……….

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1. When God finished the creation of Adam, He stepped back, scratched his head and said, “I can do better than that.”


 Source: Public Domain Internet

Reformation is Coming

The door that began it all

Today is known in many churches as Reformation Day. On October 31, 1517, we remind ourselves of the amazing reformation that came as young Martin Luther made his way up the steps of the church of Wittenberg to nail a list of 95 theses speaking of the objections he and others were having with the Roman Catholic Church. (BTW, the doors were used as community ‘bulletin boards.’)

The RCC at the time was dealing with bad doctrine and even worse policies. There were many voices of dissent on many issues, and perhaps the most difficult was the issue of indulgences. Essentially, they were being sold to many who wanted to be forgiven. This generated revenue for the pope’s treasury.

Thesis 86, which asks: “Why does the pope, whose wealth today is greater than the wealth of the richest Crassus, build the basilica of St. Peter with the money of poor believers rather than with his own money?”

Wikipedia says “Luther objected to a saying attributed to Johann Tetzel that “As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory [also attested as ‘into heaven’] springs.”

Luther insisted that, since forgiveness was God’s alone to grant, those who claimed that indulgences absolved buyers from all punishments and granted them salvation were in error. Christians, he said, must not slacken in following Christ on account of such false assurances.”

Below are some of Luther’s quotes, which are worth your time in reading. These are taken from Crossquotes.org, a site I set up to pass on some significant words to this generation of Christian believers.
Luther’s Seal

Martin Luther– Top 15 Quotes

Every man must do two things alone; he must do his own believing and his own dying.

In our sad condition our only consolation is the expectancy of another life.

Faith is permitting ourselves to be seized by the things we do not see.

A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject of all, subject to all.

I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. Amen.

The first thing I ask is that people should not make use of my name, and should not call themselves Lutherans but Christians. What is Luther? The teaching is not mine. Nor was I crucified for anyone. How did I, poor stinking bag of maggots that I am, come to the point where people call the children of Christ by my evil name?

Be a sinner and sin strongly, but more strongly have faith and rejoice in Christ.

To do so no more is the truest repentance.

Faith is a living and unshakable confidence, a belief in the grace of God so assured that a man would die a thousand deaths for its sake.

So when the devil throws your sins in your face and declares that you deserve death and hell, tell him this: “I admit that I deserve death and hell, what of it? For I know One who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God, and where He is there I shall be also!”

I would not give one moment of heaven for all the joy and riches of the world, even if it lasted for thousands and thousands of years.

Is it not wonderful news to believe that salvation lies outside ourselves?

My heart, which is so full to overflowing, has often been solaced and refreshed by music when sick and weary.

Next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world.

If you young fellows were wise, the devil couldn’t do anything to you, but since you aren’t wise, you need us who are old.

Either sin is with you, lying on your shoulders, or it is lying on Christ, the Lamb of God. Now if it is lying on your back, you are lost; but if it is resting on Christ, you are free, and you will be saved. Now choose what you want.

from Crossquotes.org

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ybic, Bryan