3 November 2010
Psalm 72; Ecclus 43.23-33; Rev 16.1-11; Luke 13.10-17

We could say more but could never say enough; let the final word be: ‘He is the all.’ What a wonderful thing to read first thing in the morning! We need to do as the writer says, marvel at the works of the Lord, praise Him for all He has done, glory in Him and exalt Him as much as you can, give thanks to Him and adore Him. He is indeed worthy of all our praise, all our worship, all our adoration, all our thanksgiving, all our strength, soul and mind. Let us resolve this day to begin our day with praise to the Lord who has created all things, sustains all things, our strength and redeemer. Remember, Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

The woman who was healed glorified God but the ruler of the synagogue was indignant at the healing because it occurred on the Sabbath. Can you imagine what Jesus’ inner reaction was to the indignation? The spiritual blindness of the leader is amazing yet we often do similar things when we judge the worship of others when it differs from ours. God’s way of working is frequently not our preferred way and we should join in the chorus of heaven that the Lord is working among us even when it doesn’t fit our model. Fortunately, the people joined in the woman’s praise and glorified the Lord for Jesus’ works.

The bowls of God’s wrath are poured out on the earth and what is the reaction of man? They did not repent and give Him glory. How could this be? Look around us today and you will see the answer. Because we believe the universe to be a closed system, closed to God, we see the problems as other than God’s judgment, other than His call to us to repent. We believe that since the system is closed we can more or less work on things and come up with solutions to problems and if we can’t at the moment we believe that in the future we will certainly know enough to fix them, thus the belief in cryogenics, the freezing of bodies rather than burying them so that later we can be fixed and running again. Natural disasters are indeed often natural in the sense that because of sin the whole creation participates in the fall and bad things happen but they should call us to consider God’s original creation when all things worked together to produce beauty and fruitfulness.

Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel,
who alone does wondrous things.
Blessed be his glorious name forever;
may the whole earth be filled with his glory!