TIME MANAGEMENT TO STUDY AND PREPARE
STUDY AND PREPARATION
My husband worked for the U. S. Forest Service for many years,
as well as pastoring small churches in the Northwest.
"Thou hast exalted thy Word far above all thy Name."
Psalm 138.2
Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path."
Psalm 119.105
PSALM 22
1.My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? why art Thou so far from
helping me, and from the words of my roaring? 2. O my God, I cry in the daytime,
but Thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent. 3.But Thou Holy One
who inhabitest the praises of Israel. 4. Our fathers trusted in thee; they trusted and
thou didst deliver them. 5. They cried unto thee, and were delivered; they trusted in
Thee and were not confounded. 6. But I am a worm, and no man, a reproach of men,
and despised of the people. 7. All they that see me laugh me to scorn; they shoot
out the lip, they shake the head, saying, 8. He trusted on the LORD that He would deliver
Him, seeing He delighted in Him. 9. But thou art He that took me out of the womb:
thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts. 10. I was cast upon
Thee from the womb; thou art my God from my mother's belly. 11. Be not far from me;
for trouble is near; for there is none to help. 12. Many bulls have compassed me; strong
bulls of Bashan have beset me round. 13. They gape upon me with their mouths, as a
ravening and a roaring lion. 14. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of
joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. 15. My strength is
dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and Thou hast brought
me into the dust of death. 16. For dogs have compassed me; the assembly of the wicked
have inclosed me; they pierced my hands and my feet. 17.I may tell all my bones; they
look and stare upon me. 18. They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my
vesture (coat). 19. But be not far from me, O LORD, O y strength, haste Thee to help me.
20. Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog. 21. Save me
from the lion's mouth; for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns. 22. I will
declare Thy Name unto my brethren; in the midst of the congregation will I praise Thee.
23. Ye that fear the LORD, praise Him; all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify Him, and fear Him,
all ye the seed of Israel. 24. For He hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the
afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto Him, he heard.
25. My praise shall be of Thee in the great congregation; I will pay my vows before them
that fear Him. 26. The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the LORD that seek
Him; your heart shall live for ever. 27. All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn
unto the LORD, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Thee. 28. For
the Kingdom is the LORD'S and he is the governor among the nations. 29. All they that be
fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him;
none can keep alive his own soul. 30. A seed shall serve Him: it shall be accounted to the
LORD for a generation. 31. They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a
people that shall be born, that he hath done this.
MY REFLECTIONS ON THIS PSALM.
Question 1: Who is speaking? Primarily this is King David who is praying in great need.
When we read God's Word, we must remember it had a TWO FOLD PURPOSE
(1) in FORTH TELLING what is known already from God and (2) FORE-TELLING what is
yet to occur.
We call this PREACHING OR SHARING THE WORD, and PROPHESYING HIS WORDS WHICH YET HAVE TO HAPPEN.
My Answer is that first of all David is torn with deep despair WHERE ARE YOU GOD ?
His despair rises from the knowledge that like everyone else, He is a sinner that sins, and it
seems at times, like God has forsaken him. The second part of my answer is that through the Holy Spirit, God gave David words that DO NOT APPLY to him, but to the COMING ONE WHO WILL
BE CRUCIFIED that all might believe. It was written in Galatians 3.10 regarding what the Torah says about it - "Cursed is every one that hangeth by a tree." Galatians states "Christ (Messiah)
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse, for, it is written, Cursed is
every one that hangeth on a tree." that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ., that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith."
Galatians 3.13,14 This was what Moses declared in the Law, Deuteronomy 21.22,23 in which no one that hanged was accursed. If a person was hanged, they did not bury him, but let the birds eat on the body till there was nothing left. To bury that person was to "defile the land" inheritance that God promised His People.
Question 2 When reading the description of the physical conditions described in this
psalm, you can take only one of two views. One, that it was far fetched and not at all true, but that is the way David felt about what he was going through, or Two, that it is a Prophetic View
that King David had of the SEED OF ABRAHAM that would come THROUGH KING DAVID'S LINE
to be the one to deal with sin and bind Satan's curse. The Promise in Genesis 3.15 is that
the seed of the woman would bruise Satan's head, although Satan would bruise "his heel".
Question 3 Why is it that the ONE WHO IS SUFFERING SEPARATION FROM GOD can DECLARE
HIS NAME "TO HIS BRETHREN?" if not that Jesus, Y'shua, actually was separated from the GOD INVISIBLE by the GOD-MAN who was very visible, and truly died a most vicious death. He
goes on to say "In the midst of the congregation will I praise Thee." Only if Jesus said He was
who He was, and if He died, the Righteous One for those who had been separated from God,
only if He took on our physical nature and became Man...would this Psalm be explained.
My plea is that if you have never seen Jesus as the Mediator between God and Man
now would be the time to give that thought a second look.
John 3.13 - 16 Jesus said Himself these words to Nicodemus, a member of the Sanhedrin,
"And no man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven, the Son of man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up. That whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. for God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." John 3.18 goes on that Jesus said "He that believeth on Him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already, because
he hath not believed in the name of the only Begotten Son of God."
In my next entry I post, I will discuss the reason why Psalm 22, 23 and 24 link together
in my mind on the matter of Jesus the Son of Man, who in the book of John declared "He that sees me seeth the Father." John 14 .7 then, right before that he said " I am the Way, the Truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father but by me."
To walk with Jesus we must first believe Who He Was, Is, and Always will be - The Living One who is The Way, the Truth and the Life.
This was Henry's desk at the Forest Service Ranger Station.
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As I look back, I am filled with a grateful sense of God's blessing in my life, because this dear man chose to manage his time in such a way that the Word of God was first in his life, and that he counted preparation as being an important ingredient to his work both for the Forest Service and for his pastoral ministry.
A young mother with three children, I found that he was flexible enough to let me call him on a Thursday or Friday morning and ask, "May we go to the Lake tonight?" And most of the time, he said yes. It meant that for my children, a chance to be with their Daddy, to be out in nature,
and to sing all the way to where we had a "picnic" by the Lake. Daddy built the fire and cooked the hamburg I had brought, and we did the rest. The girls would always want to swim. Sitting while the children played, he read the Newspaper, and cheerfully noted their activities. Heading back just as it was getting dark, my dear Henry would smile, and ask "what CODE" shall we put this under?
His little reference to the many, many codes and numbering methods the Government has for keeping track of its activities.
The children would fall asleep in the car, while Henry drove home. He had been working all day, studied in the Word of God before he had breakfast, and now was driving them home, all of them unaware of anything except full security in the knowledge that their Daddy loved them.
He would, upon arriving at home, sit down to his desk, and prepare for his message either for the Sunday morning, evening, or for the Wednesday nights in a "farmhouse" up in the mountain town of Appleton, WA.
As I remember not once did he ever complain that I was asking too much for him to go and take us for this outing. Not ever, no, never, did he complain or remark that he was pressured or not feeling like he wanted to.
Now, here I am, looking at his papers and calendars that he left as his legacy for me and the children, and reflect how much importance that STUDY TIME and PREPARATION time was for him. He fed on God's Word every opportunity that he could. And yet, he included his family in his life enough that he could be flexible and work around what he must do, and should do, to do what he liked to do - fellowship with his family.
My lesson in this post, is that I urge you to put the study of God's Word and the preparation of your Heart for what happens in your life, by preparing for the expected duties and jobs you have to do, but be flexible enough that like Jesus who never turned anyone away, you can find time for the people who love you and are closest to you. Your family is important. However, unless a man or women puts their dependence on God, and His Word first and foremost, you will not have the ability to manage your time as well as you should.
Keep Climbing. I am looking forward to this new year with a view to setting
new goals. One of these is to STUDY AND PREPARE. God takes care of the rest.
Thursday, January 21, 2016
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