This Week's Suggested Reading - Psalm 8

Greetings brothers and sisters in Christ. This week the suggested reading for Project Ezra is Psalm 8. It is one of the shorter passages we have read, but is amazingly rich in truth.

First and foremost, God is glorified in this chapter. God’s glory is said to be greater than the heavens. In many places God’s word makes it clear that He can not be contained even by the vastness of the physical world. He does not live in temples built by hands, and is not served by hands, since he gives all me life, and breath and everything else (Acts 17:25). One commentary I read on this chapter noted that even the creation of the universe did not tax God’s power, but was merely the work of his fingers. As when the scriptures state that He created with a word, this again emphasizes that the creation of the universe in all it’s splendor was nearly effortless on God’s part. His power and majesty is beyond our comprehension. So preach on the glory of God, and the wonder of His creation, which proves His existence and power beyond doubt (Rom 1:20), and challenge those listening to consider the implications of these truths.

Out of the mouth of babes and infants He has ordained praise. This is both a prophecy fulfilled in the life of Christ (Matt 21:16), and a reminder that God uses the weak and the foolish to display his glory and confound the wisdom of this world (1 Cor 1:27, 2 Cor 12:9). The majority of the disciples were uneducated, common men (Acts 4:13), yet they stood fearless before the powers of that day to preach the truth of the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit, and the world has never been the same. In the same way, we need to preach the folly and the stumbling block of the gospel, praying for the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, and knowing that even when the world mocks us, the preaching of the cross is the means God chooses to use to draw people to Himself (1 Cor 1:21-23).

As we move on, we indeed have to wonder how God could be mindful of us, in comparison to the vastness and greatness of His creation. But we are told that we were made just a little lower than the heavenly being, and crowned with glory and honor. Humankind is the pinnacle of God’s creation, and has been given dominion over everything He has made (Gen 1:28). But this passage also refers to Jesus Christ, and the fact that the second Adam, through the cross and the resurrection, is given dominion over all creation, including us, and is given the glory and honor of God. Several places in the New Testament it speaks of everything being put under Jesus’ feet (1 Cor 15:24-25). So when you preach the death and resurrection of Christ, preach of His glory and majesty as God the Son as well. The wonder of the cross is not the death of a man for sin, but the creator and lord of all that exists humbling Himself and dying for sin, so make sure glorify Christ as God when you share the gospel.

At the end of the chapter, once again, the author gives glory to God. And we too should give glory to God from beginning to end in every gospel presentation. We should always try to present the gospel in a way that is clear and logical to the person or people listening, but we should also remember that it is God that saves, and it is the Holy Spirit that changes people, regardless of the quality of our presentation. The quality is not in us, the sowers, but in the seed of God’s word, and He will bring the increase. It is not our responsibility to convert anyone, but only to focus on trying to be faithful to God’s word, and making every witnessing encounter an act of worshipping God in spirit and in truth.


As I mentioned last week, the Facebook Halloween event is now up here:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=143522982357744
We have about 40 people signed up for the event so far, and another 50 considering participating, which is great! For those of you who are on the maybe list or have not responded yet, I would encourage you to participate. There are very few times of year where there will be as many people who are out and about and thinking about spiritual things. We will be reading Revelation 20-22 again, and Revelation is one of the books of the bible everyone seems to have read or is interested in. So get some brothers and sisters in Christ together, get yourself some Halloween tracts, and hit the streets.

I am still working on updating our Project Ezra YouTube video, and I would still like additional pictures and videos, if you have them available. The original video is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BS3jigtVnU
If you have any good pictures or video you have not posted, please send them my way.

Have a great weekend and please pray that hearts will be changed and souls will be saved by God working through you and other members of Project Ezra.

For the praise of His glory,

Dan