Day 6

All things new are beautiful in a way. The sanctuary has a new look. Certain pastors have new haircuts. And we’re starting a new series.. Well, a new set of messages leading to our Anniversary at the end of the month, anyway… which, in itself, is a commemoration of a new year for the Good News Community Church.

Father, truly, You make all things new, and we behold this, through Christ. We thank You for new opportunities, new ways to look at things, new thoughts, new inspiration, new strength and new wisdom. Your mercies were new for yesterday, Your mercy will be new tomorrow, and today, at this moment, we celebrate new mercy, here and now. Thank You for being with us, and thank You for loving us. Speak to us today, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

We’re going to be doing some warming up, stretching, jumping, and turning this afternoon, just to keep y’all awake. I’d like us, first and foremost, to look back into the days of Moses and Aaron as they returned to Egypt after the former’s encounter with the Burning Bush in the wilderness. We all know the story. They turned rods to snakes, they turned water into blood, they brought on frogs and fleas, disease upon livestock, hail upon crops, locusts on the leftovers, darkness over the land, and death upon the firstborn.

The stage was set, and depending on where you were at the time, you certainly saw how the past, present, and future of a nation was absolutely decimated in a small period of time. A popular perspective, which I still subscribe to, suggests that God demonstrated His absolute power over all the deities of ancient Egypt through these plagues.

If you’ve noticed, when we talked about the Names of God, we have also actually elaborated on how God is superior over more than just religious deities that we can think of, but also over anything and everything we can certainly make our gods. After talking about the Names of God, we have essentially established that we have a God who is a reliable Provision whether we are in poverty or plenty.

We have a God who proves Himself as powerful in our victories, and just as potent in our weakness.

We have a God who who flies high as our Banner, representing us in our highs and lows. As such, we have a God who is our peace, keeping us from getting too reckless when things go well according to our perspectives, and keeping us together when things are falling apart.

Friends, we have a God who is certainly greater than all other gods, a God who is greater than anything that could affect us in this reality.

We’ve started off in Egypt, and stretched out throughout the entire Old Testament. Fast forward to Jerusalem, outside the temple; in the fullness of time, Jesus Christ crafted a whip out of cords and proceeded to turn tables over, and drive away the merchants and the money changers, saying, ‘stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace! It is written that my house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it into a den of thieves.’

The serpent deceived Adam and Eve by claiming a created fruit can make them like the Creator, who made the heavens and the earth, from the greatest galaxies to the tiniest of particles in such precision and timing.

Consequently, these folks were claiming that the offering had more weight than God, who, over the generations, has demonstrated His power and might over the gods of Egypt and the nations, and over anything and everything that could ever shake us or affect us. In essence they were downplaying God’s grace and glorifying our works, and Christ would not have it.

The folks in the temple (who were probably in cahoots with these businessmen) wasted no time in confronting Jesus and challenging His authority. But He was ready – not stooping down to their level of thinking, and in love, challenging them to think beyond the conventions that are killing them without their knowledge, He responded by saying He will ‘tear down this Temple and raise it up again in 3 days.

And with great love and power, our Savior lay down His life, King of Kings presenting Himself as sacrifice for all sacrifices. And in His greatest humiliation, naked, bloodied and hanging on a cross, He demonstrated His absolute superiority over poverty, sickness, weakness, sin, and death, far beyond the powers of any gods the Egyptians or any of us could ever conjure with our own limited minds.

Being torn down, so we were town down, and having been raised from the dead, so we were made alive, and new creations, no longer dependent on sacrifices, no longer looking to the temple, no longer subject to the powers and principalities of this world, but fully known and fully loved by our God, fully reconciled by the finished work of Jesus Christ.

Since the beginning of time we have tried to glorify ourselves as greater than God, and each and every time, God responds, not just by His grace, but by His power. This was brought to a conclusion at the cross, when Christ settled once and for all that we are fully known and loved by God, no matter what we think or what other people would have us think.

To be honest, this is as far as I think I can go with this. I had so many thoughts in mind, and in trying to cram them all in, well, the boat gets too heavy and sinks. I need a break.

---

So before this, I was able to get out of bed at around 6:30AM. I did a 25×4 workout which went as follows: 25 twist pushups to 25 reverse lunges, 25 archer pushups to 25 lunges, 25 prowler pushups to 25 power squats, 25 close-hand pushups to 25 squats, all before a cold bath. Also did the Cilantro and finally got to cutting the barley grass. I have the wheatgrass seeds also soaking and both are ready for processing tomorrow. All this done before 8AM. I was typing and typing, I guess, until around 11:30AM, and at that point I had lunch – at least 2 plates of spaghetti before heading out to Good News.

Preached at church. Just want to say, glad I got that out of the way. I was more exhausted by the meeting I went to after that, when I suppose I didn’t learn anything (again) from the folks I was with. This was in SM. To be honest I stayed there too long. I could have made headway with the Data Science assignment but now I’m going to have to cram tomorrow.

Soon as I left I went to shoot the sunset, and then remembered I needed to buy red wine for our stocks. So I headed back, and then tried shooting from another spot before finally heading home. Soon as I got home we worshiped, and I don’t know why I ate again but I did.

Ended up playing Fallout 4, and now I’m typing this before I head upstairs to sleep.

HIGH: Preached today. Got that out of the way.
LOW: Ate like shit today. Could have done Data Science. Didn’t. Now I need to rest early, and power through tomorrow.

• Paraway/Aloe Vera: Done
• Workout: 25×4
• Run: None
• Food: Recorded
• Plants: Done
• Room/Sala: Deep clean tomorrow, no for real this time
• Steps: 6420
• Trades: None, weekend
• Worship songs: God Is Good, Lord I Give You My Heart, I Sing Praises To Your Name

Yesterday’s Tasks:

• Buy wine for communion
• Sunday Message prep and delivery
• Possible Amazing Sunday Meeting
• Workout
• Further enhance routine. Progression on Data Science (see below).

Tomorrow’s Tasks:

• Data Science FINAL
  • Do LinkedIn
• Reach out to Ms A re: VA EST
• Bring cats to vet
• Meet Donn and Ian in the afternoon

Additional Thought: I need to put a routine together to get done every morning, and then think of seeing self-work as projects, giving time for what the rest of the world needs from me, while considering how they tie in with my projects.