Look up!

Our world is full to people looking for happiness, peace, power, love, wealth, comfort, and joy. All around us are people amusing themselves to death playing their favorite game on their android or iPhone. They are completely unaware that their hunger is not a psychological one but a spiritual one. Before we can find out the answer to the hunger of our heart, we need to recognize that whatever we are using to stave off the hunger will not meet our deepest need. Over 3,000 years ago the Psalmist realized that he was living in a place where there was no water would quench the deepest thirst he was experiencing; he wrote:

You, God, are my God,
   earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
   my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land
   where there is no water. – Psalm 63:1

As one of my friends often reminds me, “Look up!” – Ron Friesen

God is your refuge...

One of the great joys I have each week is to worship with a group of people who know what it means to live in suffering and fear. My fellow worshippers have come from places where they saw suffering and who experienced suffering as they fled their war-torn countries. They tell harrowing tales of escape in the darkness, fleeing flying bullets and standing up to men brandishing weapons of death. Starvation, rape and vicious brutality marked their lives. Living for years in a tent in a refugee camp with unsanitary conditions, listening to their crying, hungry children, wondering if this their sealed doom. Yet they kept their faith through it all. Remember where they have been, they gather to thank God for their new lives. There lives express the truth the Psalmist understood:

Trust in him (God) at all times, you people;
   pour out your hearts to him,
   for God is our refuge. – Psalm 62:8

Whatever experience you are in today, my friends would tell you, “God is your refuge.” – Ron Friesen

Think God has abandoned you ?

Are there days when God feels more than just far away? It actually feels like God is against you! We all have such days. Despair over despair tumbles over our lives like a great torrent of water going over Niagara Falls. We are drowning in helplessness. We are not alone; over 3,000 years ago the Psalmist cried out,

You have rejected us, God, and burst upon us;
   you have been angry—now restore us! – Psalm 60:1

Notice the Psalmist was not struck dead on the spot for his honesty; nor will we. There is too much empty triumphalism in the American church. Not every day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before, even though the hymn says it is so. God is much more accepting our honest anger than we are of our own. Mad at God? Let God know. – Ron Friesen

Stop the Violence!

I wish I could say that our homes are becoming more loving places where peace reigned. In the time it takes you to read this blog at least three women will have been attacked by an intimate partner; in the coming year about1.3 million women in the United States will be abused by someone they are intimate with. Yet the issue of domestic violence is not new to the 21^st Century. Many scholars of the Bible believe that these words written over 3, 000 years ago by the Psalmist addressed the domestic violence prevalent in his community:

My companion attacks his friends; he violates his covenant.

His talk is smooth as butter, 
yet war is in his heart;


his words are more soothing than oil,
yet they are drawn swords. – Psalm 55:20-21 

Marital abuse is a violation of the marriage covenant. No one stands before a minister or a justice of the peace declaring their love to the other agreeing to be abused. No marriage covenant contains permission to abuse. Notice that the psalmist addresses not just physical violence but also verbal and emotional violence.

If you are in a relationship where violence is occurring, please get help. Here is a national website that will direct you to services in your community: http://www.ncadv.org/ - Ron Friesen

How good are we?

It is popular today to argue that we are good people and given the chance we will all do right. Yet, various studies show that between 75% and 98% of college students admit to having cheated while in high school. A recent study revealed that 95% of all employees steal from their employees. Over 50% of married people admit to cheating on their spouse. Maybe we are not all good people. Writing over 3,000 years ago, the Psalmist would have agreed with 21^st century research:

God looks down from heaven on all mankind


to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.

Everyone has turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one. – Psalm 53:2-3

Let’s just admit it: we are a flawed people. Maybe we should just admit that we are rotten to the core; it would be the honest thing to do. Do we do some good some days? Sure, we do many good things everyday. We are not as evil as we could be. Yet we all have the potential to be ______ (think of the most evil person you can think about). I contend we would actually be a better world if we all admitted that we are not perfect and we really do need some divine redemption. – Ron Friesen

Sources:

http://www.stanford.edu/class/engr110/cheating.htm

http://www.awarenesstechnologies.com/blog/2013/05/23/95-of-employee-steal-from-their-employers/

http://www.statisticbrain.com/infidelity-statistics/

God is crazy about you!

Ever doubt if you are good enough for God? You are not alone. It is a doubt shared by most of humanity. Why would a holy, perfect Being accept little ole me? Yet this is the scandal of the Gospel: God accepts us the way we are. No clean up necessary! The Psalmist understood this when he wrote,

But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God;


I trust in God’s unfailing love forever and ever. – Psalm 52:8

Anything we think we can bring to convince God to love us diminishes the great Gift. God is crazy about you and me! May this truth sink deep into our souls today. – Ron Friesen