I’m fully aware that I don’t have a lot of time to be musing this week, considering everything going on tomorrow and on the weekend, starting Saturday. There’s possible material I want to share tomorrow, separate material I’d like to share for this coming Saturday, and then, of course, I need to keep the momentum going for Sunday.
But before all of that I think I’d like to go ahead and share something on my mind that I’ve been wanting to let out since, oh, last Saturday – Actually, it’s been brooding on my mind since Father’s Day.
June 18 wasn’t just the real Father’s Day (I say ‘the real’ because I assumed it was June 11 and I even shared my thoughts on Fathers that Day) – June 18 was also the day we celebrated my Auntie Bel’s birthday. My Mom let me know that we needed to go out for lunch before eventually heading to our afternoon service, and so we prepared to adjust our routines to accommodate this. We made our way to the Chinese restaurant (Auntie’s choice), and I made my way to our table, where the usual suspects were seated – Besides my Mom and Auntie Bel, there was Auntie Penny, and RJ, who you can call my cousin.
Seeing as this was Auntie Bel’s birthday I saw that she also invited another guest – a certain Auntie Carol, who was in the same age bracket as she was. I guess they knew each other in the same neighborhood or something like that. Mom knew her too. But anyway, we were just enjoying the food and each other’s company, and we had everything plotted out – instead of having almond jelly at that Chinese restaurant, Auntie Bel decided that they were gonna pick up a cake and we’d have it at their place.
So in my mind, I was set – Enjoy lunch, and then head out to church first to check on the team, then quickly speed out to pick mom up and possibly a slice of cake. All that was left was to just enjoy the conversation.
And that was going well, until we started transitioning out – that is, RJ and I were finishing what dishes we could, so we can clearly give the waiters what food to wrap to take home. And here’s where that Auntie Carol gave a side comment, which went something like this – ‘It’s good that you’re around, JB, to eat. You’re like your mother’s dog.’
At the time everyone was chuckling, myself included – but in the back of my mind, I was like, what the f*ck was that? I’m usually a guy who likes to laugh at myself, but for some reason, that side comment got to me, deep. Now I’m not about to go ahead and elaborate or share on my musings on why I thought that hurt a whole lot more than any other insult thrown at me as of late – well, I’ll just say that some factors included the fact that I wasn’t expecting it, and it came from someone who barely knew me. And it hurt me because it got me thinking – is that really who I am?
Fast forward to the next days, when I thought it was a good idea to start integrating a subtle reading from the book of Psalms, at the end of each workout I would record and upload to YouTube. On one particular recording I opened my Bible to Psalm 138, which reads as follows:
I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart; before the gods I sing your praise;
I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness,
for you have exalted above all things your name and your word.
On the day I called, you answered me; my strength of soul you increased.
All the kings of the earth shall give you thanks, O Lord, for they have heard the words of your mouth,
and they shall sing of the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord.
For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he knows from afar.
Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life;
you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand delivers me.
The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever.
Do not forsake the work of your hands.
Somehow I remembered Auntie Carol’s comment as I was reading through this, and found some comfort. The Kings and Psalmists were no stranger to being insulted – and I’m pretty sure they’ve seen greater and more significant threats, not only to their emotions, but to their very beings, and even against their families. But if there’s one thing I’m being led to – in this and so many other Psalms – it’s that it’s not about what the world is doing to us, not about what the world thinks about us, or what we think of the world or ourselves; These writers, so many generations ago, they chose to focus on God’s goodness. With their entire hearts, they sing praises. In the presence of other lords and other ‘gods’, they choose to sing God’s praises.
And before I go further, see here – we’ve been born so many thousands of years after these verses were first written, and they haven’t faded into obscurity; No, because of Christ and His finished work, these words have been given timeless life, and are therefore of eternal value to us. See, the Psalmist writes while in the Old Covenant, that he bows down toward God’s holy temple – But because of Christ’s birth, death, resurrection, and ascension, we’ve not only been taken out of the Old Covenant (and I stand with Andrew Farley in saying that those of us who happen to be Gentiles were never in the Old Covenant to begin with), we’ve not only been ‘brought into’ but re-created as righteous, new creations fit for the New Covenant!
This means that there is no temple for us to bow toward – we OURSELVES have been made Temples, and sure as Christ ascended to Heaven and is now seated at God’s right hand, so the Holy Spirit descends upon all of us who believe; meaning we’re not just temples, but Christ’s finished and complete work has rendered us Temples of the Holy Spirit; ALWAYS giving thanks to God for His steadfast love and faithfulness, celebrating Christ intentionally or unconsciously!
Why? Because God has ‘exalted above all things (His) name and (His) word’; What does this mean for us? We read in Philippians 2:8-11, that Paul says because of Christ’s selfless sacrifice for our salvation, God has ‘highly exalted Him and bestowed upon Him the name that is above every name. so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
If there’s anything I’d like to pull out of all of what we’re reading so far, it’s that Christ saved us – and this salvation we have in Him is not a mere term for us to understand, not a mere concept or lesson for us to grasp; No, friends, we have been saved by way of dying to our sinful old beings; We have been saved by being raised up as righteous, new creations. From being fleshly and permanently falling short of His glory, Christ’s resurrection proves that we have been re-created in righteousness, reborn into everlasting life, and brought from darkness into His light.
The salvation we have in Christ is a complete demonstration of God’s everlasting love towards us, an absolute assurance of God’s faithfulness that is always for us, and not against us. Surely, we can trust in His name, and we could depend upon His word, so highly exalted. For these reasons we are able to proclaim, with the same confidence as the Psalmist proclaims: On the day I called, you answered me; my strength of soul you increased.
We may be so brutally assaulted, much so that our entire existence is threatened… Or, in my case, I could be blindsided and insulted out of nowhere… And I know, maybe I’m taking this way out of proportion. I’m not speaking against Auntie Carol – God loves her just as much as He loves me, and Christ died and rose again for her, just as much as He died and rose again for me. But it’s because of the spirit behind her words, and those words that did come out, that I found cause to proclaim this Psalm, especially that last line, one I cry out: ‘Do not forsake the work of Your hands’.
Surely what the Lord has done for me transcends time and space, and surely it has infinitely superior weight, against the fleeting things we tell ourselves and others.
The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever.
Another Psalm I read recently was Psalm 26, and it goes as follows:
Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity,
and I have trusted in the Lord without wavering.
Prove me, O Lord, and try me; test my heart and my mind.
For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in your faithfulness.
I do not sit with men of falsehood, nor do I consort with hypocrites.
I hate the assembly of evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked.
I wash my hands in innocence and go around your altar, O Lord,
proclaiming thanksgiving aloud, and telling all your wondrous deeds.
O Lord, I love the habitation of your house and the place where your glory dwells.
Do not sweep my soul away with sinners, nor my life with bloodthirsty men,
in whose hands are evil devices, and whose right hands are full of bribes.
But as for me, I shall walk in my integrity; redeem me, and be gracious to me.
My foot stands on level ground; in the great assembly I will bless the Lord.
I guess what I’m trying to say is this. We may be hurt over things that may be glossed over by a majority of other people, same as we’re joyous over what other people may find trivial. But I dare say that the God who does know what’s best for us, loves us so much that He is willing and able to listen to us, and to know what we think is important, even if His infinite wisdom has already declared what is of infinite value to us. I’m reminded to day that our God who is our Father – Well, in my book, He’s also our cool Uncle; You know, the one who sits down with his nephews and talks to them about their favorite cartoons, and sits on the floor with them to play with their toys.
How great, indeed, is our God – He gives everything up so we could have what’s best for us in His eternal mind, He hears what we think is important, according to our limited thinking; And with compassion that only He can have, He addresses all of it, through Christ, our Lord, and our Savior.
I’m going through all this, and I think to myself, much ado over being called my mother’s dog.
Then again, it’s the pain that I felt that drove me to remembering that my being is not according to what some random person says, but it’s all been re-created, established, and forever connected to my God; And now I say, God is for me, never against me, no matter what words are said against me – all because of Christ, who is not only my Savior, but also my Vindication.
Whenever you’re insulted, remember who God is and what He’s done, before you even start to think about what was said.
Sorry. I felt I had to let this all out of my head before I went any further.
Until the next post, God bless you.
JB's Personal Brain Defragmenter 
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