THURSDAY, January 29th, 2009

Hey Ya'll, I hope you will be faithful in your devotions today! I am excited about spending time with you guys next week! Hey, If I want to throw together a "Man Vs. Wild" activity for the guys next week, who would be interested? Let me know!

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 day time, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.
3 But thou art holy, O thou that 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: let him 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 gaped 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.

Today, I want you to take a second and imagine what it would be like to truely be seperated from God like we read her ein this passage! Shouting out to God!! MY GOD!! MY GOD!! WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME!! Can you imagine the pain, the loneliness if that were your story? The fact is, you will never be able to honestly say that if you have accepted Christ as your savior! God will never leave or forsake you!!! This Psalm has a familiear tone to it... do you know why?

It is horrible to imagine being abandoned by God Himself!! It is scary! But the fact is that while Christ was on the cross, He said these same words!!! As Christ took upon Himself the sins of the world, God the father had to look away! Can you imagine the loneliness that Christ felt on the cross as he paid for the burden of our sin!!! What a great God we serve!! I am so thankful that He was willing to endure affliction like we talked about last night in church!! And He endured it FOR MY SAKE!!! Thank you Lord!!

This whole chapter is really tough! As I read it, I find myself saying: I never want to have it as rough as this person, but the fact is this person who had it so bad was Jesus Christ, and He had it so bad because of My Sin!!! I want to avoid sin AT ANY COST!!!! I do not want to hurt Him, my savior!!