Psalm 49 is a great reminder that we need to see our earthly troubles, and the earthly success of the wicked, through the eyes of eternity. It is so hard for us to do that sometimes - we are timebound creatures and really have no way to truly grasp the concept or reality of eternity. Yet, as much as we are able, we must. By faith.
Psalm 50 is a reminder that ritual and sacrifice do not impress God - we need to worship Him from the heart.
In Acts we see the prescription of a healthy church. They came together on the Lord's Day to be strengthened by hearing the Word and fellowshipping together, which gave them the energy they needed to live and serve in their individual stations during the week.
It's interesting to note what happens immediately after Paul raises Eutychus from the dead - they continued on with the evening, fellowshipping together and celebrating the Lord's Supper. As Rayburn says.... The church's life is sustained primarily and most importantly by Word and sacrament, by the fellowship of the saints, and miracles are just the icing on the cake.
I love the humanity of this story - Eutychus falling asleep during the sermon. Being Christians doesn't make us infallible.
Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: Psalms 51-53; Acts 20:17-38
2 comments:
Truly no man can ransom another,
or give to God the price of his life,
8 for the ransom of their life is costly
and can never suffice,
No mere human can pay the debt that Jesus paid...the debt was too high.
I did some reading about Sheol after Conrad and I were curious about it. Here's what I found:
In the Hebrew Scriptures, the word used to describe the realm of the dead is sheol. It simply means “the place of the dead” or “the place of departed souls/spirits.” The New Testament Greek equivalent to sheol is hades, which is also a general reference to “the place of the dead.” The Greek word gehenna is used in the New Testament for “hell” and is derived from the Hebrew word hinnom. Other Scriptures in the New Testament indicated that sheol/hades is a temporary place where souls are kept as they await the final resurrection. The souls of the righteous, at death, go directly into the presence of God—the part of sheol called “heaven,” “paradise,” or “Abraham’s bosom” (Luke 23:43; 2 Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:23).
The lake of fire, mentioned only in Revelation 19:20 and 20:10, 14-15, is the final hell, the place of eternal punishment for all unrepentant rebels, both angelic and human (Matthew 25:41). It is described as a place of burning sulfur, and those in it experience eternal, unspeakable agony of an unrelenting nature (Luke 16:24; Mark 9:45-46). Those who have rejected Christ and are in the temporary abode of the dead in hades/sheol have the lake of fire as their final destination.
(http://www.gotquestions.org/sheol-hades-hell.html)
"For they will take nothing with them when they die". Psalm 49:17a
It is hard to find comfort in the whole concept of not having earthly treasures. After all, we work hard to be able to enjoy some of these things. This earth is temporary just like everything in it.
Like Tammy said, we must place our faith in God and try to grasp our eternal success.
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