Pictures and spears

When i was around 4 and 5 I had a picture bible. It was pretty good, and pretty graphic. pictures of arms getting cut off, spears through chests and all that great stuff. even with all the guts everywhere my favourite part was the picture of David as an old man, and Psalm 23 is written on a scroll. it is the only psalm that was fully written in that particular bible, but it had left a lasting impression on me. so much so that since that moment, my father, who was ill at the time, made a tradition of taking me up beside him in the bed and reading me a psalm a night. It's still so vivid, a dark, green, leather, red-letter bible.
Psalm 23 leaves a sweet taste in my mouth, because as soon as you read it, it becomes apparent that nothing, not even the fear of death can come close to the relationship and rest we find in Jesus.

The educated say David wrote this psalm when he was older and probably coming to the end of his life. I think that if we grasp this concept today, then there's no end to what we can do for Jesus in this world.

read Psalm 23
the 'shadow of death' is only a shadow, because in reality, death(spiritual) died with Jesus. when he rose again it stayed in the grave.
If we understand that our eternal life in God starts today, then we can move on from this physical world and live in spiritual awareness. there's no end what we can for God when we realise we've already won.

tc//Px

beards

I need a poll. With the flavio beard or without. Pictures courtesy of the hack and photo booth.

tc//Px

Anthems

Anthems are everywhere. I personally love some of those 80's power ballads, they get me going. in Ireland our rugby anthem is a joint effort by north and south (its a unified team too) and it goes by the name of 'ireland's call'
its quite powerful as an anthem in landsdown road (or croke park these days) when it is sung out by 80,000 fans.

but what is our own personal anthem? what song is our identity?


David's Psalm 21 is his anthem. it is a post war song, and he has it signed to be sung at dawn. Its the song that shows his heart and his dependence and thankfulness to God. As king, David faced many wars, and he was always sure to show that his strength lay in God and not in men. Throughout the OT Israel's enemies were always looking for the secret to their strength (samson and delilah being one example) but the secret is exposed by david in the first line of the psalm.

O LORD, the king rejoices in your strength.
How great is his joy in the victories you give!

This is a constant challenge to me, that I need to rely on God's strength for the victories I'm working towards and not rely on my own independence. Its a challenge, but the victories we receive when we rely on God give us great Joy as we see above.

tc//Px

SOCOM

One of my all-time favourite PS games is socom navy seals. what an incredible game, get online with some friends and take down some terrorists in brazil. awesome.
I was chatting to a man today, (whom will for obvious reasons remain nameless) who served in the british marines. he tells the story of how once he was engaging in some routine training, and as he was moving stealthily through some undergrowth, he suddenly heard a voice whispering 'get off my back!'. He was standing on a sniper and he didn't even realise it. In fact, he still couldn't see or feel the sniper even when he knew he was there! lucky for him the they were on the same side!

Psalm 20 tells of how Israel was preparing for war, and the over-riding theme is dependence on God! The people of Israel suddenly became more spiritually motivated when they were faced with the prospect of war! So they wanted to make sure their leader (King David) was spiritually in-tune with God and dependent on Him. That can be quite similar to us, that when we find ourselves in trouble we often find our spiritual voice again and aren't afraid of asking for God's help.

Our society can get so caught up in spiritual wandering. we look for answers in tarot, crystals, palm readings and ouija boards, even sometimes we look to 'holy' men for help.

when sometimes God is just asking us to trust Him.

Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed; he answers him from his holy heaven with the saving power of his right hand. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. Psalm 20

Lets not wait for a war to begin before we go looking for help. lets get our get our spiritual fitness up before we run the marathon.

tc//Px