Monday, August 13, 2012

boundary lines have fallen in pleasant places

I saw a newly surveyed area and saw flagged stakes outlining the boundary lines of the survey.
 I remembered reading in the Psalms how the lines have "fallen for me in pleasnt places,"(Ps. 16)

Each day has its challenges but we have to believe that  "the perplexing turns in our lives are going somewhere good." Each day we need to keep our eyes on the Lord,our portion.

Psalm 16
1 Keep me safe, my God,
for in you I take refuge.
2 I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;
apart from you I have no good thing.”
3 I say of the holy people who are in the land,
“They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight.”
4 Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more.
I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods
or take up their names on my lips.
5 Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure. 6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. 7 I will praise the Lord, who counsels me;
even at night my heart instructs me.
8 I keep my eyes always on the Lord.
With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
9 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure,
10 because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,
nor will you let your faithful one see decay.
11 You make known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.



Many times God works in our lives in ways we do not understand. It is at these times we recall the reasoning of the Lord and trust that His ways work for our good.

"Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord:
though your sins are
like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool. " (Isaiah 1:18)


This is from the book i was reading
A SWEET AND BITTER PROVIDENCE pg 100-101 by John Piper
Sweet and Bitter Providence



Life Is a Mountain Road
At one level, the message of the book of Ruth is that the life of the godly is not a straight line to glory, but they do get there. The life of the godly is not an Interstate through Nebraska but a state road through the Blue Ridge Mountains of Tennessee. There are rockslides and precipices and dark mists and bears and slippery curves and hairpin turns that make you go backward in order to go forward. But all along this hazardous, twisted road that doesn’t let you see very far ahead, there are frequent signs that say, "The best is yet to come."

Taken as a whole, the story of Ruth is one of those signs. It was written to give us encouragement and hope that all the perplexing turns in our lives are going somewhere good. They do not lead off a cliff. In all the setbacks of our lives as believers, God is plotting for our joy.

Life is not a straight line leading from one blessing to the next and then finally to heaven. Life is a winding and troubled road. Switchback after switchback. And the point of biblical stories like Joseph and Job and Esther and Ruth is to help us feel in our bones (not just know in our heads) that God is for us in all these strange turns. God is not just showing up after the trouble and cleaning it up. He is plotting the course and managing the troubles with far-reaching purposes for our good and for the glory of Jesus Christ." (John Piper)



2 comments:

  1. amen! that is a really encouraging explication...feel it with our bones not to know with our minds

    ReplyDelete