Salvogesis

  We have a lot of scripture readings again because I want to chat some more about a truth that this is a common theme throughout the Bible: “Set the captives free!” Most of the time when we, in church, read about the captives being set free it is in the context of the Kingdom of God. The Gospels say that the Kingdom of God is at hand. In theology we use the term ‘prolepsis’ to refer to the time when the Kingdom of God begins, which is now, the time between the resurrection of Christ and His return at the eschaton. This is the time we are living in now and as Christians it is our responsibility to try to make this time as close to what the world will be like when Jesus comes back at the end of time – which is perfect.   The Bible repeatedly tells us what Christian nations look like, what we as Christians need to work toward in our country. Psalm 146 is example of how we can be a part of God’s Kingdom:   Psalm 146 1 Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, my soul. 2 ...

  7 Sing to the Lord with grateful praise;     make music to our God on the harp.   8 He covers the sky with clouds;     he supplies the earth with rain     and makes grass grow on the hills. 9 He provides food for the cattle     and for the young ravens when they call.   10 His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse,     nor his delight in the legs of a man [or ‘the warrior’]; 11 the Lord delights in those who fear him,     who put their hope in his unfailing love.   Psalm 147:10 : “His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of a man.” I thought this was an appropriate passage to look at on Robbie Burns Day. For Christmas one year Susan bought me some Bible Commentaries on Psalms. In one of these books the author, Peter C. Craigie, from Scotland, writes:   …. It was the custom in Scotland for boys to ...

This has been a tough week or two. I am so thankful for DHQ and THQ support. These past couple of weeks we have been working on budgets. I am so thankful for Oxana, who works at headquarters, she has been doing an amazing job coordinating our budget because – as you may know – it is more complicated than ever before as we may be officially folding the Bread of Life into The Salvation Army and we have a new contract with BC Housing to provide a shelter for 25 people in the Bread of Life building and we have a lot of renovations, and we still have all of our other departments to budget for, as well.   We have also had a risk management assessment this week – this is an audit of sorts – and I am sure we have a lot to work on when we receive the completed report. All this work will actually be a good head start because this coming year we will need to be accredited because of our shelter – I am very thankful for all the help Terri Thompson from THQ is offering through this process. ...

  I am not going to go through all of the stanzas of this, the Bible’s longest Psalm, but I will take a quick look at the third letter of the Psalm 119 Alphabet Book. The third letter – with which every line of this stanza begins – is Gimel. This page in the Alphabet book reads:   ג  Gimel 17 Be good to your servant while I live, that I may obey your word. 18 Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law. 19 I am a stranger on earth; do not hide your commands from me. 20 My soul is consumed with longing for your laws at all times. 21 You rebuke the arrogant, who are accursed, those who stray from your commands. 22 Remove from me their scorn and contempt, for I keep your statutes. 23 Though rulers sit together and slander me, your servant will meditate on your decrees. 24 Your statutes are my delight; they are my counselors.   This stanza does not offer as much new information as the first to stanzas which is understandable – they formed the opening argumen...

 P salm 119 is a unique psalm for a couple of different reasons: 1)        It is the longest Psalm in the Bible 2)        It is like an Alphabet Book of Sorts (It is the most developed instance of an acrostic poem in the Old Testament) [1]   For Christmas or for Susan’s birthday a year ago we made her an ABC recipe book. Psalm 119 is like an ABC Psalm book. Each of the different sections is based on another letter of the Hebrew alphabet, i.e.:  ·          A is for Apple and Alligator, ·          B is for Bear and Barium, ·          C is for Canada and confetti, and so on.   The ABC Psalm has 8 lines dedicated to each letter of the Alphabet. And – this is really neat – each line starts with the same letter (in Hebrew, not in English). So for example if this was a contemporary English languag...