Psalm 145: How does God Satisfy?

Psalm 145:16 says,

You open your hand

 and satisfy the desires of every living thing.

This verse is one of the clearest showing God's hand in blessing all living beings. There is not a spiritual and unspiritual part of life... all of life is a blessing from the hand of God...

everything that I enjoy is from him.

But in thinking through how this sometimes does not line up with my experience, I wondered how does God satisfy?

I am sure there are more, but two ways stood out to me.

1. Sometimes God satisfies others through me.

When I am faithful to him and allow him to use me then often I find he uses me to answer the prayers of another. Or he uses another to answer my prayer. I know I can’t change the world for everyone… but I can change it for a few people if I am willing…

2. Sometimes God alone knows how he is going to satisfy needs bigger than I can imagine.

I experienced both of these truths in Ukraine in 2000. A team that I was on was able to visit an orphanage there. One of the many rooms had about 30 infants in it, and only two ladies who worked there. They also had many other rooms to attend to. While I was in the room I wanted to hold all of the babies... I wanted to take them all home with me, but my hands were not big enough… I could helped a little and for about an hour, I impacted the world of these little infants in a real way. But I was not their true provision. An even if I could have taken all 30 home, this was only one room of one orphanage in one country on one continent. God alone can sort out issues like this...

But even here... maybe he will sort it out by moving hundreds of thousands of his faithful ones to be his hands, feet, and adopted parents worldwide...

Fear or Faith (Psalm 145)

Fear is a powerful motivator.

It is used by many people to manipulate, and especially seems to be effective at making the sale, getting the vote, or getting a donation.

For example:

"Act now or you will miss out on this limited time offer"

"Give money now or the _________ (gays, abortionists, liberals, conservatives, democrats, republicans, evolutionists, christians) will get ahold of your children."

"If we don't act now then the _________ (gays, abortionists, liberals, conservatives, democrats, republicans, evolutionists, christians) conspiracy will take over the country and make it illegal to be _________ (gays, abortionists, liberals, conservatives, democrats, republicans, evolutionists, christians).

Unfortunately, fear also polarizes and divides. Its energy is largely negative, and while it is at time appropriate and helpful, it is quite often de-habilitating and destructive.

That is why God's word is so encouraging:

Psalm 145:10 All your works praise you, LORD;

 your faithful people extol you.
11 They tell of the glory of your kingdom

 and speak of your might,
12 so that all people may know of your mighty acts

 and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,

 and your dominion endures through all generations.

I understand that verse to mean that God’s Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom… this is significant in that it is a major dose of reality when facing a fearful future.

When I live in troubling and confusing times I can either respond out of faith or fear…

Will we let our fear get the best of us causing us to polarize, marginalize, and start calling people names and calling out conspiracies... or will we respond out of faith in the eternal control of God over his universe.

Psalm 145:13 is clear how we need to respond: God's control endures from generation to generation and we can trust him to take better care of the universe than we can.

If God is taking care of things, then, although we still need to do our part, we do not need to worry.

Rather than be afraid of the unknown future, we put our faith in the God who has created and revealed himself to humankind, and who continues to love us in spite of all that we do to hurt each other.

As 1 John 4:18 points out, perfect love drives out fear.

Watch Brandon & Dick's Message on Psalm 145!

If you are interested in hearing Dick and my message on Psalm 145 you can Listen Here.

Truth: System or Story.

I spend a large part of my life trying understand how Faith is past from one Generation to the next.

A big part of this discussion is about truth. The Bible reveals the truth about who God is primarily through the stories of God's mighty acts in human history.

This does not seem to be the primary way that we try to tell people about God today. Systems have won out over Story. Today, it seems more likely that a seminary degree would focus on systematic theology instead of the Biblical Narritive.

But I think it is dangerous to think that God is better described in a system than in a story.

In Psalm 145 David writes,

2 Every day I will praise you

 and extol your name for ever and ever.
3 Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise;

 his greatness no one can fathom.
4 One generation commends
your works to another;

 they tell of your mighty acts.

Vs 3 states that God is beyond any human attempt to fathom him. He is too complex and mysterious to be understood by limited mortals. But oh do we try...

We have created so many systems to describe God...

In contrast, David seems to see future generations learning about God primarily through the stories of his mighty acts. I think that part of the significance of a narrative is that all of the details have a context to help you understand and limit their meaning.

In systematic theology the same details are assembled, but without a context. While this can be helpful, it only truly works when it is done in tandem with a deep respect for the Biblical Narratives that these lists come from.

Context Matters, and the stories were God reveals himself in, are as important as what he reveals about himself. They are interrelated and lose meaning without each other.

One other interesting note is that today the best voices in education are saying that the best teaching method is in fact narrative. People have a far higher retention of things learned in a story, than they do in almost any other way.


What about you? What do you think the balance is between systems and story?

This weekend at Elmbrook!

Hey if you happen to be in Milwaukee and have your saturday night or sunday morning open this sunday, I am speaking in Elmbrook's weekend services. Dick Robinson and I will be presenting on Psalm 145 in an intergenerational team teaching opportunity that explores how faith is passed from Generation to Generation.

I could use your prayers as we prepare,

and your support through your presence in a service if you can make it.


The whole weekend is a build up to Elmbrook's Annual meeting which just so happens to be taking place on our 50th anniversary as a church!

I will be there so you can sit with me if you want!

Wednesday, Feb 20th, from 7 - 8:30. Click here for more details!

Not a bad way to spend $4000

I don't have a spare $4000, so I will not be buying this camera, but I sure would like too.

Learn more about the XL A1 here.

The truth about blog comments

Doodle by Lee. Other doodles you can use on your blog can be found at Doodles.

All too true.

New Blog Look.

As I have learned about design, I have basically avoided website design. Mostly because I just don't have a clue how do it. But, I am good at reverse engineering, so every once in a while I take a stab at trying to figure out what things in the HTML code do.



I am trying my design skills out in HTML today... I have remodeled the Legend of the Brown Squirrel....

What do you think of the new blog template...

I love simple... but this seemed to still be simple, but add some much needed style!

Communication Styles: Steve Jobs 2005 Stanford Graduation Address & The 2005 Intel Introduction

Having seen the great steve give far more technical and detailed addresses without any notes, I was surprised that he more or less read this one.

However, that aside, it is a fine example of his brilliance with words.



The second video is my favorite example of Steve in action. Giving what could be a very boring speech about processors and history... he uses the element of surprise and shock to sell his ideas.

Seth Godin: Getting your message heard in an age of message overload.

This is one of the most interesting talks on "being heard" that I have heard. Here is what Ted.com says about Seth:

Seth Godin is an entrepreneur and prolific business-book author who specializes in marketing in the digital age.

also:

"Seth Godin may be the ultimate entrepreneur for the Information Age," Mary Kuntz wrote in Business Week nearly a decade ago. "Instead of widgets or car parts, he specializes in ideas -- usually, but not always, his own." In fact, he's as focused on spreading ideas as he is on the ideas themselves.

Check out his blog as well.




PS... I will definitely be using his four square method of presentation overview soon.

What makes a good presentation?

So I talk... a lot. Most of you already know this about me. But, I give anywhere from 2-5 presentations a week. Most are to middle school students, but I also have lots of opportunities to present in other places as well.

All of this presenting has led me to try to become as good of a presenter as I can. I have learned lots of new tricks of the trade over my 9 years as a professional talker (ie... pastor).

One main places that I go to learn about who is presenting well is a little website called Presentation Zen.

This week they have a really interesting post on good presentation skills, so I thought I would do a little presentation research of my own and you get to be part of it.

Here it is:

1. Who is the best presenter that you know, and what makes him or her great?

2. From your perspective, what is the key(s) of good presentation?

3. What makes a presentation bad?

4. Powerpoint: Helpful or the most annoying application in the history of computers?

5. How important do you think good presentations are in a church setting?


If you read this, please give your opinion..

Psalm 145 what is sounds like in Hebrew

More research for my big weekend.