My Journey Journal

Then David praised the LORD in the presence of the whole assembly: “O LORD, the God of our ancestor Israel, may you be praised forever and ever!
Yours, O LORD, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty. Everything in the heavens and on earth is yours, O LORD, and this is your kingdom. We adore you as the one who is over all things.
Wealth and honor come from you alone, for you rule over everything. Power and might are in your hand, and at your discretion people are made great and given strength.
“O our God, we thank you and praise your glorious name!
But who am I, and who are my people, that we could give anything to you? Everything we have has come from you, and we give you only what you first gave us!
We are here for only a moment, visitors and strangers in the land as our ancestors were before us. Our days on earth are like a passing shadow, gone so soon without a trace.
“O LORD our God, even this material we have gathered to build a Temple to honor your holy name comes from you! It all belongs to you!
I know, my God, that you examine our hearts and rejoice when you find integrity there. You know I have done all this with good motives, and I have watched your people offer their gifts willingly and joyously.
“O LORD, the God of our ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, make your people always want to obey you. See to it that their love for you never changes.
Give my son Solomon the wholehearted desire to obey all your commands, laws, and decrees, and to do everything necessary to build this Temple, for which I have made these preparations.”
Then David said to the whole assembly, “Give praise to the LORD your God!” And the entire assembly praised the LORD, the God of their ancestors, and they bowed low and knelt before the LORD and the king.
1 Chronicles 29:10 – 20 NLT  Read more... (1314 words, 1 image, estimated 5:15 mins reading time)

But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,
so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. –
Galatians 4:4-5 NASB

I don’t know any details of God that He hasn’t shared with everyone but I take the clause here “… in the fullness of the time ….” to apply to history.

Jesus was born when God, the Father, planned; not before, not after; His birth wasn’t hastened or postponed by anything.  Read more... (607 words, 1 image, estimated 2:26 mins reading time)

I grew up in smaller churches. I served in a smaller church. We never needed small groups; the whole congregation was a small group. The families knew each other, the kids played together and we’d never been introduced to deconstructionist theology; we simply believed the Bible to be infallible and inerrant. The fellow Christians with whom I served likewise didn’t know better than to confess to one another and pray together earnestly. It never occurred to me to view my faith as anything other than vibrant and alive as a child and young man. Our Wednesday night meetings were several congregational songs followed by the whole church coming forward to the dais, sitting in the first few pews for those who were older, sitting or kneeling at the altar to share prayer requests aloud with one another and then spend time as first one person and then another prayed for the requests aloud with one designated member closing the prayer meeting. Singing and praying; it was a series of events enjoined in devotion and sincerity that I can only now begin to appreciate.  Read more... (866 words, estimated 3:28 mins reading time)