When I say

After Exodus 20:2-4 

When I say I am

the Lord your God,

have no other gods

before me, I’m serious,

deadly serious, for it is

a matter of life and

death. I am the Lord.

I am.

 

When I say you shall

have no other gods

before me, I mean none.

That includes politics,

work, celebrity,

self-beauty, animals,

smart phones, the number

of likes and followers,

public acclaim, money,

possessions, your house,

your garden, your car,

your dreams, your degrees,

your jewelry, your art,

your music, your hopes,

any of your created things,

any of your imagined things,

anything that you would

think you can replace me

with. I am a jealous God;

don’t think you can

replace me with anything.

Before you were,

I am.

 

Photograph by Michael Kroul via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

Onesiphorus: courage in a time of persecution, part 1 – Michael A.G. Azad Haykin at Historia ecclesiastica. 

 

Letter #142: Will God Save Us? – Andrw Klavan at The New Jerusalem.

 

Blue Light – poem by Stella Nesanovich at Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin). 

 

Beginning of Months – poem by Cody Ilardo at Power & Glory.

 

Rain on the Window – poem by Seth Lewis.

Filling the emptiness

After Exodus 20:1-3 

To follow other gods

is to worship self,

really. The heart

pumps the blood

of self and ego,

grasping anything

that feeds our

belief that we are

the center of

the universe, that

no one, no thing 

is more important.

Nothing else is

allowed to sit

on the throne

of the human heart,

the empty throne,

the empty heart.

Only one thing

fills the empty

heart.

Only one.

 

Photograph by Vlad Kutepov via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

Who Were the Hittites? – Robert Marineau at Tyndale House.

 

I Asked the Lord That I Might Grow – Jacob Crouch.

 

No Little People, No Little Places – Randy Alcorn at Eternal Perspective Ministries. 

 

The Problem of Faith Today – Josef Pieper at The Imaginative Conservative. 

 

Idols and gods

After Exodus 20:1-3 

I’m not a pagan, 

worshipping any and

all, including unknown

gods. I know my faith;

I know who my one,

true God is. I tithe.

I serve. So what do

you mean to tell me

not to worship 

other gods? What is

this you hand me,

this list? (Reading.)

Money, Security. 

Success. Comfort. 

Recognition. Politics.

Beauty. Books. Power.

Popularity. Influence.

Control. Being obeyed.

Philosophy, Knowledge.

Education. Wealth.

Gluttony. Lust. 

The list goes on and

on, unending.

Oh.

 

Photograph by Egor Myznok via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

Bells Toll – Paul Phillips at He’s Taken Leave.

 

The Daily Dance of Family Life – Seth Lewis.

 

The Normalization of Slander – Trevin Wax at The Gospel Coalition.

The voice that shakes

After Hebrews 12:18-29 

His is the voice

that shakes the earth,

his is the voice

that shakes the heavens,

the shaking removing

what is made so that

only the unshaken

remains. The temporal

passes, crumbling into dust.

Only the true, the eternal

remains, the kingdom

that remains unshaken,

the kingdom of the one

who is the consuming

fire.

 

Photograph by Brandon Morgan via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Reading

 

30 Pieces of Writing Advice from C.S. Lewis – Barnabas Piper.

 

Neil Postman on Words and Images: An Antidote to Truth Decay – Douglas Groothuis at Christ Over All.

 

“Methought I Saw My Late Espoused Saint,” poem by John Milton – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Some Stories Read Us: Why Jesus Spoke in Parables – Matthew Harmon at Desiring God.

 

How to Hate the Vulnerable – Samuel D. James at Digital Liturgies.

The house or the builder

After Hebrews 3:1-19 

What deserves the reputation,

the glory, the house or

the builder of the house?

Which is greater, deserving

our praise? We can admire

the house, but it is the builder

to whom, of whom, we

sing our praise.

 

Because the builder is

the greater, we put our faith

in him. Remind each other,

daily, encourage each other,

daily, not to fall away, not

to harden our hearts, not 

to be imprisoned within

the deceitfulness of sin,

the deceitfulness of our

own hearts. Hold firm,

to the end.

 

Photograph by Jacek Dylag via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

Mothering Sunday – sonnet by Malcolm Guite.

 

Two Common Mistakes Christians Make about Government – Robby Lashua at Stand to Reason. 

 

How Christians Should think about IVF-Created Embryos – Joe Carter at The Gospel Coalition.

 

The Surging Growth of K-12 Classical Education – Keri Ingraham at Real Clear Education.

 

Beauty, Nature, & the Quest for Meaning in Sigrid Unset’s “The Wild Orchid” – Mark Bjelland at The Imaginative Conservative. 

Broken pieces

After Psalm 122

Take one broken piece,

join with another broken piece,

collect all the broken pieces

and place the broken pieces

together and in proximity,

all these broken pieces

assembled to create 

a body

a gathering

a church.

Photograph by Nick Herasimenka via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Noises of the city

After Psalm 122

It is the silence I hear first,

but soon the noises overcome,

the bleating and lowing

of the animals.

Drawing closer, it is the sounds

I hear next, the sounds

of laughter and argument and 

rejoicing and singing and

prayer, the words spilling

from reservoirs and fountains.

It is the clicking of my feet

in shoes I hear next, the sounds

of hard leather 

clicking in the cobbles,

adding to the music.

Photograph by Hanny Naibaho via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Stones under my feet

After Psalm 122

These stones under my feet

are singing as I walk,

each step a note

each pace a refrain

each stride a psalm.

They sing together,

these stones, they sing

in harmony, the sound

rising upward like a prayer,

the music of the spheres,

the language of heaven.

Photograph by Bastian Ignacio Vega Cani via Unsplash. Used with permission.

The place we gather

After Psalm 122

We walk the stones of the streets

of this city, the houses of rock

packed together, a closeness

compacting the hearts and emotions

and thoughts and all that we are

together.

And those who come up for a time

walk the stones of the streets,

words of praise on their lips

as they walk to the thrones

the thrones of house,

the thrones of the house 

of David.

Within these walls,

these stones under our feet,

these rocks has aping houses

and palaces and citadels and temple,

we seek peace,

we seek security

we seek blessing

and find all three.

Photograph by Simon Matzinger via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Rejoicing on the mountain

After Hebrews 12:22-29

The mountain is there,

the sacred place, the city

joyful, the church

joyful, the church

of the firstborn

joyful, the assembly

rejoicing, one hears

the voices singing,

full-throated joy pouring

from hearts made righteous

made perfect by the word

that hovers over the hearts

formed and filled

by the word speaking,

the voice shaking

the created things so that

only the unshaken remains.

Photograph by Mike Wilson via Unsplash. Used with permission.

“Songs from the Heart” by Tim Riordan

What if the psalms in the Bible are meant to be sung?

What if that’s how they were written and first heard?

Tim Riordan, author and pastor at SonRise Baptist Church in Newman, Georgia, makes a strong case for singing and studying the Psalms in Songs from the Heart: Meeting with God in the Psalms, originally published in 2014. He could have taken a more theological bent, but he didn’t. Instead, Songs from the Heart is engaging, approachable, and fascinating, as he takes the reader on a journey through the psalms.

Riordan begins by telling a fiction story of some 2,500 years ago, how the psalms would have been enmeshed not only in formal ceremonial and worship events but in everyday life. Then he provides a “big picture” view of what the psalms are about, the different kinds of psalms, who wrote them, and how they would have been used. Why is this important? “Psalms is one of the most loved and most read books of the Bible,” he writes. “It is difficult to fully grasp the impact that this central book of God’s Word has had upon humanity.”

Psalms is a book of poetry, he points out, but it’s more than that, and includes a number of literary sub-genres. The word translated as “psalm” comes from a Hebrew word that “literally means ‘to pluck a strong,’” Riordan says, meaning that from the beginning, the psalms were poems meant to be set to music and sung. And there are seven different kinds of psalms – hymn, lament, processional, royal, thanksgiving, reflection, and wisdom. They are organized in the Bible in five different groupings, believed to be aligned with the first five books of the Old Testament, or the Pentateuch.

Tim Riordan

The bulk of the Songs of the Heart is an extended discussion of how the psalms can be used today. Riordan takes 30 of the 150 psalms and explains what they mean, how they were likely used, what was their context, and how they apply to basic questions (and often struggles) people still have today. And that’s a bedrock theme of this book – people still struggle with the same questions and issues that they did when the psalms were written.

Riordan, in addition to his SonRise pastoral duties, received a degree in music from the University of Georgia, a Master of Divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and a Doctorate of Ministry degree from the Baptist Theological Seminary in New Orleans. He is also the author of Immovable: Standing Firm in the Last Days (2014), The Published Pastor – Book One: Expanding Your Ministry Through Writing and Publishing (2015), and The Published Pastor – Book 2: How to Write and Publish Books (2015).

Songs from the Heart is an engaging overview of why the psalms are important and how they apply to worship and faith today.

Top photograph by Bryan Minear via Unsplash. Used with permission.