“Praise the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty.”
~ Psalm 104:1
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you know in whose world you are living? Is James trying to live in James’ world? Is Ellen trying to live in Ellen’s world? Do you think that every single guy, gal and kid who has lived, is living and will live on planet Earth has their own world in which they have tried, are trying and will try to live? Your grandpaa believes that kids today are being environmentally and culturally conditioned by societal norms and mores to believe that they are always to be in the process of creating their own world in which to live in and be the god of. A kid who believes that he or she is the god of his or her world believes that he or she has inclusive control over everything in his or her unfolding world. Existentialist philosophy – which is a philosophical movement that stresses that guys, gals and kids are in a unique position to be able to make meaningful, authentic choices in life or in the world that is perceived to have no purpose or reason for its existence – and which is seen as being in absolute chaos, is the forerunner of postmodern thinking. Guys and gals who call themselves postmodernists are convinced that they are being constantly morphed by daily life influences. A postmodernist believes that he or she will never reach perfection in his or her world. A postmodernist believes that there are absolutely no absolutes in his or her world. The world of an existentialist and postmodernist has the guy or gal being the god of his or her world. The world of an existentialist or postmodernist does not have a Divine Being in it. Your grandpaa hopes that you do not think that he is an expert on existentialism or postmodernism because the fact is, your grandpaa really does not know very much about these two philosophical mindsets. Your grandpaa though is convinced that if a guy or gal seriously claims that he or she is an existentialist or a postmodernist that the guy or gal has a gnawing emptiness in the pit of his or her stomach. Your grandpaa believes that a guy or gal is on a futile life journey if he or she is proactively trying to achieve life satisfaction through trying to do what he or she can do to personally self-determine the kind of world in which he or she can totally control.
You are living in God’s universe tent. You are God created creatures. You exist today on planet Earth to serve God’s purpose of having a created creature who will desire to reflect His glory back to Him through praising Him. You exist today on planet Earth to admire God’s awe-inspiring handiwork that is clearly visible in both the big and minute pictures. A poet one day scribed a poem to God to express to God his absolute wonder and reverence of everything that he could see. The poet’s poem became a psalm poem. This psalm poem is Psalm 104. This psalm poem has a one verse introduction with the next three verses focusing on the celestial majesty of the universe, the next five verses focusing on the ordered creation of planet Earth, the next nine verses focusing on the continual controlled maturation of all the living things that are living on planet Earth, the next five verses focusing on the mandated functions of the sun and moon, the next thee verses focusing on the nautical playgrounds that cover portions of planet Earth, the next two verses focusing on how God did it and the final three verses being a wish epilog – that God would be praised through singing to Him and meditating on the purpose of His unparalleled, incomparable handiwork and that God would remove all the wickedness and all the sinners from His spectacular, awe-inspiring creation. A celebratory tone was set for this psalm poem when the poem’s author wrote in verse 1, “Praise the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty.”
Are you giving God one hundred percent credit for everything that is taking place in the cosmic regions, on planet Earth and in your lives? Do you ever stop to ‘smell the roses’? Your grandmaa and grandpaa have assisted in one way or another with more short term ministry teams than your grandmaa and grandpaa can remember. A short term ministry team participant invariably will show up in a host country with a misguided mindset that he or she is in the host country to accomplish something. One of the very first things that your grandmaa and grandpaa will tell the short term ministry team participants is that their host country is a classroom where they will learn experientially by seeing sights, smelling smells and hearing sounds that are different than their life conditioned environs. Your grandmaa and grandpaa encourage the short term ministry team participants to consciously observe how differently lives are being lived in their host country versus how lives are being lived in their home country. Your grandmaa and grandpaa know from their own experiences that each time that they go into a new setting or place that the new setting or place will give them a myriad of brand new learning options. There may be a flower and/or fruit and/or rock formation or . . . in a new location that your grandmaa and/or grandpaa have never seen before. There may be an encounter with a guy or gal – or with a kid, that may last a lifetime. God has given you a gift. The gift that God has given to you is life. God wants you to join Him in the robe of light that He wraps Himself in each day. God wants you to eat with Him in His boundless tent that makes up His universe. God wants you to join Him in His cloud chariots that are driven by meandering winds. God wants you to join Him in the different places where He has water flowing and pooled. God wants you to join Him in the nest homes of birds. God wants you to join Him in animal lairs. God wants you to see Him everywhere. God is always with you as God the Spirit to help you to see Him and to see all that He has made and has done for you. Ask your dad and/or ma what incredible things that they have seen in God’s creation and how God has been helping them to live their lives to reflect His glory back to Him.
Psalm 104 (534)