The Empty Grave

Live Second was a hit book, many of my friends insisted that I read it. I haven’t got to it, but my girlfriend loved it and insisted I check out the devotional. She recommended the devotional because of the original book, having never looked through it. When I got it we started going through it together. It is broken up into different sections and teaches you over the course of a year how to live second to Christ. It is more than just a Biblical passage and some text. Each week they have a video to go along with the week’s devotions. This enhances the experience much more than your normal devotional experience. Also, you can tweet with others each week because there is a hash-tag specific to each week to talk with fellow readers.

This book is fancy. As I said above it has a lot of great things. I enjoyed everything in it, however, there just wasn’t enough meat. It seemed as if it started and then finished before we knew it. Each day is a page or less and it is just hard to get much out of it. They have a lot of cool things, but it is lacking in content and discussion questions. It is great if you have never read the Bible and want to go through the Bible and get the major themes, but if you are looking for something with a little more depth I strongly recommend something else. When my girlfriend and I went through it we both felt needing more. We switched to reading the Bible for now.

3/5 stars

I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions are my own.

Psalm 2

Why do the nations rage and the people plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”

-I’m doing this from previous knowledge and any insight the Lord would happen to give me this morning. This is just my take on this Psalm and if you see an error in my ways in any of this please message me and tell.

As Christians we can look at this and blame everything on Politics and say that politics corrupts the earth and sets us apart from God. We would never think that we plot in vain against the all powerful God of the universe, which just isn’t smart. But see, I believe, everyone is to blame. We have all said in our lives, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” Maybe not verbally but through our actions we have done this; it’s called sinning. When we sin we say to God, “I got this, I figured this out without you. My way is better than your way.” We pretty much just tell God He isn’t good enough.

Sin has a rippling effect on the world. When one person sins that one sin may be witnessed to others and then passed along and passed along and passed along. Sin is an act that causes brothers and sisters in Christ to be tempted and possibly fall. We see it and it looks good, so we sometimes pursue it. So when we sin we are saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”

He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”

-“The Lord holds them in derision.” Or “The Lord holds them in ridicule.” He makes fun of them. The Lord laughs at their foolishness. Now our God doesn’t come out and say He loves us here or feels bad for us, it says he laughs at us. How could this be?

Our God has a plan. He knows the final solution. See the quote at the end of the verse – As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill. He is saying, “I Got You!” This is one of the many allusions in the Old Testament to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He is the King and the Lord has him already  in his rightful throne on the holy hill. This is how sovereign our Lord is. Even while we are against Him, He is ready to welcome us home.

I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”

-This seems to be a heavenly conversation, maybe not conversation but talk, between the Father and Jesus. The Father tells Jesus, “Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” Well the first part seems awesome but what’s this second part about being broke with an iron rod? And then dashed into pieces? That doesn’t sound pleasant to me! And it isn’t. God doesn’t tell Jesus to come down to earth with flowers and arrows and make everyone fall in Love with him, He tells Jesus to break them.  He tells him to put them to pieces. We have to be torn apart to be built back up. We are living on a faulty foundation until we take it out and put in Jesus. Now just like when you really do take out a foundation, you don’t really have anything there until you put in a new one. You have to be made into nothing for God to use you. Every piece of the old foundation has to be removed and God has to be put in completely. He doesn’t just want the second story, or a special room, He wants everything.

Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Bless are all who take refuge in him.

-We go from sinning to God telling us that He has a plan. Now here at the end it almost seems to say, “The ball is in your court.” We are to be wise, fear the Lord, rejoice with trembling, kiss the Son, and then we are blessed if we take refuge in Him. And this is all in great order. We have Sin, God’s Plan, then to take refuge in Him. Moses didn’t tell the Israelites to become holy and then I will take you over to the Promised Land. The Promise was the Promised Land and then they were to become holy after they started. The journey started with becoming holy. This is very similar to our conversation. We realize our sin and turn to God. It is an amazing display of the Gospel in all of its goodness. So today on this second Sunday of June, Rejoice! For our God has risen and is readying a kingdom for us. He is getting things prepared because He loves us. Take time today and get into the Word because it is God’s love letter to you.

Have a wonderful day and God bless!

Christ Died and Suffered …

For the Forgiveness of our Sins

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses. (Ephesians 1:7)

This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. (Mathew 26:28)

When you forgiveness doesn’t involve a payment. It is free. When we forgive someone we don’t ask for anything in return. Just look at the word. forGIVEness. I see no Get in there. You Give! So what do you give? Grace! 

This is what God does when He forgives us of our sins. He gives us Grace but he is also immensely Just! That is why Jesus had to die, he was the payment for our sins. 

So it is with God’s justice. All sin is serious, because it is against God. He is the one whose glory is injured when we ignore or disobey or blaspheme him. His justice will no more allow him simply to set us free than  a human judge can cancel all the debts that a criminal owe to society. The injury done to God’s glory by our sin must be repaired so that in justice his glory shines more brightly. And if we criminals are to go free and be forgive, there must be some dramtic demonstration that the honor of God is upheld enough though former blasphemers are being set free. 

That is why Christ suffered and died.