The Shelter of God’s Forgiveness – Psalm 51

Posted on April 17, 2019 by dkoop

What do you do with a guilty conscience?  A few days after Tax Day, I guy wrote into the IRS and said, “I haven’t been able to sleep since I filed my taxes.  I was not honest with what I owed, enclosed is a check for $500.  If I still can’t sleep, I’ll send in the rest.”

Guilt is a powerful emotion that many people try live with.  I read that the director a mental institution in London once told Billy Graham that half the people in his mental hospital could be released if they could find forgiveness.

Forgiveness is available to each of us through Jesus Christ.  We don’t have to carry around the heavy burden of guilt.   This psalm explains the nature of sin and the character of God’s forgiveness.

This is one of the few psalms where we are given the reason why it was written.  The inscription reads, “A Psalm of David when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.”

The background of the psalm includes David and Bathsheba. David had broken at least four of the 10 Commandments in this incident.   The whole story is found in 2 Samuel 11.  Here’s the abbreviated version:  One spring instead of leading the army David stays home.  Walking on the roof he sees a woman bathing (Bathsheba), (he covets), has her brought to him, has sex with her (adultery) and sends her home.  Later she sends word that she is pregnant, her husband, a soldier in David’s army, was away fighting for his king.  When David learned that she was expecting a child, he panicked and tried to cover up. He ordered the husband home from battle and sent him down to his home, hoping that he would sleep with his wife and the child would then be accepted as his own (lying.) But Uriah was more honorable than David, a committed soldier and though he came home at the king’s orders, he would not go down to his own house but slept with the soldiers at the palace and returned to the battle the next day.   David then arranges for Uriah to be killed in battle (murder) so he could take Bathsheba for his own wife. About a year after these initial events, God sent Nathan the prophet who confronts David about his sins, an event which is recorded in 2 Samuel 12:1-13. The results of that confrontation and David’s desire for forgiveness are expressed in Psalm 51.

Here we learn some lessons how we can overcome guilt in our lives.  Psalm 51 breaks down into three simple prayers:

Verses 1-6 Prayer of Confession

Verses 7-12 Prayer for Restoration

Verses 13-17 Prayer of Witness

  1. Confession (1-6): It means to agree with God.

Like the sting of a scorpion, David feels the painful sting and guilt from what he has done to himself, others, and to God. His heart is crushed and broken by the weight and guilt of his sins. Let’s not be fooled by the accolades of those who are party animals and like to live a wild crazy lifestyle. Sinful living is painful and we cannot escape the consequences.

The burden which had weighed so heavily on David’s life had taken its toll mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually was about to be lifted. The anticipation of it being removed brought relief to a weary man. Having been exposed as an adulterer and a murderer David casts himself on the merciful compassion of God. Note how in these verses David not only faces up to the revelation of his sin and guilt but also how he takes personal responsibility for his sin and guilt. Note how he speaks of ‘my sin’ and ‘I have sinned.’ David does not try to evade his guilt but faces it and admits it openly. David does not try to make excuses for his sin, nor does he try to pass the blame on to someone or something else.   So there is the first lesson in overcoming guilt – we must admit or confess our sin and guilt.    Then we find forgiveness.

1 John 1:9 reminds us of this very truth:  “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

  1. Restoration (7-12):

When David has confessed his sin and sought God’s forgiveness for his guilt he then calls upon God to restore him. I find that interesting. David was not content just to be forgiven. He wanted more than the guilt to be removed from his soul – he wanted a right relationship with God restored.   David asks God to cleanse him with hyssop – this was the action of the OT priest to declare the penitent ceremonially clean and acceptable for participation in worship. David asks God to declare him acceptable in his presence. He asks God to restore to him the joy of salvation which he once knew but was lost because of sin. Do we hear what we lose as a result of guilt?  When guilt burdens our soul then it steals the joy that we once knew in salvation. However, the result of forgiveness by God is joy restored. Here is the beginning of David experiencing not only forgiveness but freedom from guilt. When God forgives he also restores!  He not only blotted out David’s guilt, he washed him thoroughly and declared him acceptable in his presence.

This is exactly what we experience in Christ:  But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, Titus 3:4-6

Do you ever feel stagnant in your faith, as though you are just going through the motions? Has sin ever driven a wedge between you and God, making him seem distant?  David felt this way, in his prayer he cried, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation.” God wants us to be close to him and to experience his full and complete life. But sin that remains unconfessed makes such intimacy impossible. Confess our sin to God. We may still have to face some earthly consequences, as David did, but God will give back the joy of your relationship with him.

  1. Witness 13-17

When God forgives our sin and restores our fellowship with him, we want to reach out to others who need this forgiveness and reconciliation. The more I have felt God’s forgiveness, the more I desire to tell others about it.

Yes, David really messed up.  We mess up too.  That doesn’t change God’s love for us.

Notice 2 Samuel 12:24 : The LORD loved David so much that He forgave David, He forgot about the sin, and He blessed him with another son, Solomon.

God loves you that much too. He wants us to be forgiven and cleansed of the sin in our life. God sent Jesus to die on a cross so that we could be free from guilt and shame.  Jesus restores joy to our lives and gives us peace and purpose.  May you experience these truths as I have.

Darrell

 

Sources:
 Life Application Study Bible, (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale, 1988), WORDsearch CROSS e-book, 898.
Rod Mattoon, Mattoon’s Treasures – Treasures from Treasured Psalms, Volume 2, (Springfield, IL: Lincoln Land Baptist Church, n.d.), WORDsearch CROSS e-book, 150-199.
https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/overcoming-guilt-alan-mccann-sermon-on-discipleship-89668?ref=SermonSerps
https://www.raystedman.org/old-testament/psalms/how-to-handle-a-bad-conscience

 

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Encouragement in Times of Depression –Psalm 42

Posted on April 12, 2019 by dkoop

What do you do when your tears are your food day and night?

3  My tears have been my food day and night

What do you do when people taunt you and speak against you?

…while men say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”

When we find ourselves facing discouragement and depression, how do we find encouragement?

In the last post we saw one step to encouragement is to Worship God.  Being with the people of God, who are singing and praising lifts us when we are down.  The word of God also encourages us and is a part of our worship.

The next step to encouragement is to Remember what God has done in the past.

My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you

This is a strong expression of determination. The psalmist is determined to remember how God has helped him in the past. That is one of the greatest things we can do when we begin to experience depression.  Think back to what God has done for us in the past.  Remember how God was there for you in the past.  Remember those who prayed for you. Remember how God has answered your prayers in the past.  Remember the day that you gave your life to Christ.  Remember when you were baptized.  Remember the times that God was faithful to you.

Have you ever known someone that has a habit of remembering only the bad things? They date everything by these negative events. “That was the day the toilet overflowed.  And that day is the day my cat ran away.”  That’s no way to live.

But here the Psalmist is showing us that memory can be an important aid by remembering the positive experiences of God’s blessing. “I will remember you,” he says, the times when God caused my heart to be full of joy.

Last year for Kaleb’s senior year and last year at home we went skiing at spring break. Kaleb and I would ski until the lifts closed but the girls would often go back to the car early and wait for us. They would rest and listen to the radio.

On the third day when Kaleb and I got down there and tried to start the car it wouldn’t start, the battery was dead. I immediately went to the office to see if they could give me a jump start. They said all their employees were busy closing down lifts, processing ski returns, etc. and it would be two hours before they could help.

I went back to the car opened the hood and started to wait.  Not long after a man parked near us, a friendly Texan asked if I needed jumper cables.  We got the car started and were delayed about an hour going down the mountain.  On the way down we saw police cars and a cleanup crew. We later found out that there had been a severe accident involving multiple cars.  Several people were dead and injured. If we had left at the time I wanted, we would have been part of that accident. Now when I find myself with a frustrating delay, I remember that God may be delaying me for a specific purpose

 The next portion of this poetic passage needs some explaining..

My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon–from Mount Mizar.
7  Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.

He remembers an experience that he had when he was in the northern part of Israel near Mount Hermon, at the head of the Jordan River, on a little peak of the range where Mount Hermon is located, called Mount Mizar (which, incidentally, means “little mountain”).  Snow from Mount Hermon would melt flowing down to form the Jordan river that would then flow into the Sea of Galilee. On that occasion he could hear the waterfalls of that mountainous region with thundering cascades. He became aware of how they seemed to be calling to one another, “deep calling unto deep,” and it reminded him that the deeps in God call out to the deeps in man.

One of the amazing things about nature is the silent voices that call to one another across vast spaces. The moon calls to the deeps in the sea, raising the tides. Twice a day the waters rise in tides across the earth, because of the moon calling to the ocean. The sun and the rain call to the deeps in a seed, causing it to stir with life and to spring up and grow. There are vast distances that call to the deeps in wild birds, causing them to wing their way across long distances to lay their eggs; there are voices that call to certain fish, sending them across the sea to spawn up into a mountain stream. In this way the Psalmist is reminded that God also calls to man. There are deeps in God that correspond with deeps in man, and he calls to them. The Psalmist specifically names two here: the deeps of the love of God, and the joy of God, calling out to the corresponding deeps of prayer in the believer.

Which leads us to the next way we are encouraged in times of depression; Prayer.

In the last post, I shared about Abraham Lincoln and his struggles with depression and how he found help in God’s word and in attending church, but he also depended on prayer. Perhaps Lincoln’s most famous words on the subject of prayer reflect an awareness of his great responsibility and personal inadequacy: “I have been driven many times upon my knees,” he once confided in an associate, “by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.”

The psalmist has the same conviction…

8  By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me— a prayer to the God of my life.

In the next verses we will see the Psalmist prayer.   It’s honest, it’s real and its raw. Do you feel you can be completely honest with God in prayer?  Can you tell God how you really feel?  The Psalms tell us it’s ok to be angry with God, to be frustrated and share hurts with God.

9  I say to God my Rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?”
10  My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, “Where is your God?”

Years ago on a Sunday morning after the service I left for home, Danielle was still at church but I thought she was with Niki.  Niki thought she was with me, so we went home and left her. Of course, as soon as we reached home we realized our mistake and I came right back. I found her waiting for me, tears in her eyes and with disappointment  in her voice she said, “Daddy, you forgot me!” What a horrible feeling it is to be forgotten!

That is the feeling expressed here, and what a terrible feeling it is. How honest and real.

The first step to overcoming depression is to admit it. The psalmist readily admits, both to himself and to God, that he is in despair.

There is a saying that I agree with, “Without revealing, there is no healing.”  We must be honest and open to get better.  Prayer is the revealing that leads to healing.

As the Psalm ends and his prayer ends, he moves from Talking to God to talking to himself.

11  Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him,

Martyn Lloyd-Jones, a doctor who became a pastor in his book, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure ([Eerdmans], pp. 20-21), comments,

“Have you not realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they start talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment was this; instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself….

The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. You must say to your soul: ‘Why art thou cast down’–what business have you to be disquieted? You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself: ‘Hope thou in God’–instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way. And then you must go on to remind yourself of God, Who God is, and what God is and what God has done, and what God has pledged Himself to do. Then having done that, end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with this man: “I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance, who is also the health of my countenance and my God”.

We find encouragement from God’s Word, God’s People, Remembering the good God has done and Praying to God.

I hope that you may be encouraged this week.

Darrell

www.Upwards.Church

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Depression and the Bible – Psalm 42

Posted on April 10, 2019 by dkoop

At a local Jr College the Psychology professor asked his class to read a chapter on mental health.  In order to see what they learned he asked, (hoping to get the answer, “manic depression”),  “How would you diagnose a someone who walks back and forth screaming at the top of his lungs one minute, then sits in a chair weeping uncontrollably the next?”

A student in the back of class raised his hand and answered, “A basketball coach?”

We may think that story is funny but depression is no laughing matter.  According to Very Well Mind, 16.2 million adults in the United States, equaling 6.7 percent of all adults in the country—have experienced a major depressive episode in the past year.  15 percent of the adult population will experience depression at some point in their lifetime.

What is depression? According to Bridges to Recovery, clinical depression and major depressive disorder, is a type of mood disorder that is characterized by negative patterns of thoughts and emotions. Depression causes intense sadness that persists. It causes physical pains, changes in eating and sleeping habits, irritability, difficulty thinking, concentrating and making decisions, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

It should not be surprising that the Bible has much to say about depression, especially in our Psalm today, Psalm 42. The Psalmist meets the definition of being severely depressed.  He is not alone, neither are we.

Note the psalmist’s description of himself: He mentions his countenance (42:11). A depressed person looks sad or down. A loss of appetite and frequent crying are often present (42:3). He describes his anguish as “pouring out” his soul (42:4); he felt emotionally drained. He felt as if he were in the deep, being overwhelmed by the waves (42:7). Often depressed people feel overwhelmed by circumstances to such an extent that they are immobilized. They don’t know how to cope or where to begin.

The enemy’s relentless taunts felt like a shattering of the psalmist’s bones (42:10). Often physical symptoms such as headaches, digestive disorders, and chronic pain accompany severe depression. He repeatedly describes himself as being in despair (hopeless) and disturbed (anxious; 42:5, 6, 11). The psalmist feels abandoned, even rejected by God, and he’s confused by it (42:9). Feelings of guilt and rejection are common symptoms of depressed people. In addition are often fatigue, a loss of motivation to do anything, difficulty in concentrating, sleep disturbances (either insomnia or excessive sleep), and thoughts of suicide.

Many people in the Bible suffered through depression and suicidal thoughts:  Naomi, Job, Jeremiah, (known as the weeping prophet) Elijah, David, Jonah. and even Jesus encountered a time of depression.  Some well-known Christian ministers encountered times of depression. Martin Luther, Charles Spurgeon, John Knox, John Bunyan, Lottie Moon, and even Rick Warren have mentioned specific times in their ministries when they encountered depression.

While some Christians will want to deny that they can go through depression, it does happen. And it happens quite often.

It’s been described that going through depression is like walking down a staircase into a dark basement.  The sun may be shining outside but it feels dark inside.  In addition the person can’t see the base of the staircase to get back out.

Have you ever felt this way?  I go through periods where I don’t enjoy things I used to enjoy; like working in the yard.  I’ve had my doctor test me twice for depression and I’m not clinically depressed but by her definition, “mildly depressed.”  For me I have to watch what I eat, exercise, make sure I deal with loss and disappointment appropriately,  manage job stress and ask for others to help since I have a tendency to take on too many things at once.   I’ve discovered that many of us have periods of mild depression, seasonal depression or high numbers on The Stress Scale due to life’s experiences, but if the depression or stress leads to you not being able to handle daily activities for two weeks  please see your doctor as I did.

Here are 3 steps to take, that God uses to encourage us in times of depression. 

  1. God Encourages Me as I Worship Him.

2 …“When can I go and meet with God?”…  4 These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng.

 “Meeting with God” and being with others in “the house of God” among those singing with joy and expressing positive emotion will help in our times of low emotion.   The very thing we may not want to do, such as be around other people, and sing are the very things that we need the most.

Psalms were originally songs that were sung in public worship gatherings.  People say, “I can worship God on the golf course, on my boat or in nature,” which may be true but there is also something very powerful, exponential, contagious and encouraging about being with other people worshiping God.

We may not want to sing but being around others that sing will lift our spirit.  When I attend church and see toddler age kids and preschoolers (I don’t have any at this stage in my life), their energy and faith speaks to me.  When I see others that have hard periods in life such as: troubled marriages, finances or health issues but they continue to come their faith inspires me and encourages me.  I need the faith, energy, positivity from others when it is lacking in me.  God uses people, praise, His presence and His word to encourage us when we are discouraged.  We can’t get out of the basement ourselves, so God gives us light.

Did you know that Abraham Lincoln was severely depressed and even suicidal?   Here are some quotes from associates and friends:

His law partner William Herndon said, “His melancholy dripped from him as he walked.”

Robert L. Wilson, who was elected to the Illinois state legislature with Lincoln in 1836, said one day Lincoln told him something surprising. “he told me that he was so overcome with mental depression, that he never dare carry a knife in his pocket.”

Lincoln “told me that he felt like committing suicide often,” remembered Mentor Graham, a schoolteacher, and his neighbors mobilized to keep him safe. One friend recalled, “Mr Lincoln’s friends … were compelled to keep watch and ward over Mr Lincoln.” [i]

What changed for the future president?  His friend Joshua Speed’s mother gave him a Bible in 1841.  When Mr. Lincoln returned to the judicial circuit that fall, he wrote Speed’s sister: “Tell your mother that I that I intend to read it regularly, it is really, as she says, the best cure for the ‘Blues’

Lincoln said, “In regard to this Great book, “it is the best gift God has given to man.”

Lincoln biographer William E. Barton wrote that Mr. Lincoln “read the Bible, honored it, quoted it freely, and it became so much a part of him as visibly and permanently to give shape to his literary style and to his habits of thought.”

In a letter to his old friend Speed, Lincoln wrote, “Take all of this book upon reason that you can and the balance on faith, and you will live and die a happier and better man.’” Lincoln scholar Wayne Temple wrote: “Lincoln had greatly modified his religious beliefs since 1841. It appears, the longer Lincoln lived, the closer he felt to God and the more he relied upon God for sustenance.’ [ii]
Lincoln met with God and it changed his life as read the bible, attended church and prayer meetings weekly.

Like president Lincoln we can be encouraged by God as we do the same.  I too have been greatly encouraged as I read the Bible and see that I am not alone in my times of depression.

In the next post we will see two more steps God uses to encourage us as we face depression.

Darrell

www.Upwards.Church

 

[i] http://www.abrahamlincolnsclassroom.org/abraham-lincoln-in-depth/president-lincolns-moods/

[ii] http://www.abrahamlincolnsclassroom.org/abraham-lincoln-in-depth/abraham-lincoln-and-the-bible/

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The Shelter of God’s Power – Psalm 95 – Part 2

Posted on April 3, 2019 by dkoop

The same hands that hold the universe together will hold you together.

In the last post we examined what worship is (assigning ultimate value to something),  how to worship (with all our heart, mind, strength and soul)  and why (God is a sovereign or supreme king) and in this post we will see two more why’s.  First,  God is a Powerful Creator.

4  In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him.
5  The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.

God created the depths of the earth’s molten core and the heights of Mount Everest. Every part of the earth and sea were created by God.

It’s a shame that in today’s culture that we even have to defend the fact that God is our creator.  It should be so evident when you have a design it points to a designer.

Think about it, if you asked a friend, “What kind of phone is that, Samsung or Apple? If they said, “I had several pieces of metal in my pocket and they jingled around in there for about a week and then I pulled it out and it was this phone!  The accidental by chance phone?  I would look at them as if there’s something the matter with them!  If you have another friend and asked, “Where did you get that car? And they said I was driving by the junkyard and there was a tornado and after the tornado passed there was this car ready to go!” Again, if it were my friend, I would think they’re out of their mind.  Yet there are those that try to say that the living organisms we see, the laws of physics, the incredible design of life from the micro level to massive level of vast the universe (which have WAY more design than phones are cars) just happened by accident? And we’re supposed to accept that?  I see great design in all the earth, its life and in our universe and I hope that you do too.

God is a powerful creator, but He’s also a personal creator.

6  Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker;
7  for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.

 God is not only a powerful creator who created the universe, He is a personal creator who created you.

The same hands that hold the universe together will hold you together.

The same God who created a beautiful world created a beautiful you.

Those are good reasons to worship God.

Lastly, God is a Righteous Judge.

As this Psalm ends it seems negative.   Some commentators I read and listened to wished that they could add a positive ending to this psalm.

We go from worship to warning. We see God as creator to now God as judge.

Let’s look at it…

Today, if you hear his voice, 8  do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the desert, 9  where your fathers tested and tried me, though they had seen what I did.
10  For forty years I was angry with that generation; I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways.” 11 So I declared on oath in my anger, “They shall never enter my rest.”

What’s going on here? This event mentioned took place in Exodus 17.  God had delivered the people out of slavery in Egypt.  They had seen 10 powerful plagues against the Egyptian gods, they saw God part the Red Sea, they had received quail and Daily Bread from heaven called Manna. They had seen the pillar of Fire to guide them, yet one day they didn’t have enough water.  Instead of saying, “God, you have been faithful and have provided for us yo this point, we need some water.”  They complained, they acted if God didn’t exist. They gave God an ultimatum, “give us water or we’re done with you.”  Most were done and wanted to go back to Egypt again.   “Meriba” means quarrelling in Hebrew, “Massah” means testing, both of which the people did to God.

This event is mentioned over 11 times in scripture:  three times in Numbers, twice in Deuteronomy and 2 more times in Psalms (81 & 106) as a warning of how NOT to act. It’s easy to think,  “This is Old Testament this doesn’t apply to us!” We are a New Testament people.  Actually this event is also referred to in Hebrews 3 and 1 Corinthians 10. It does refer to us.

Here’s how:

We all have two choices to make: we can either “hear” and respond to God, or secondly we can “harden our hearts” and not believe. “Today” is the day to believe. We’re not guaranteed tomorrow.

If we “harden our hearts,” it is revealed by complaining, testing God and a perpetual state of wandering leading to frustration and anger from God. We can have God’s rest or Gods anger, which will we choose?

I choose to listen to God.

This Psalm seems to end negative but to me it’s positive because of Christ.

It reminds me of the story of a little boy that was very handy with his hands and he was really good at building things. One day he created what he thought was his masterpiece. He made a beautiful sailboat that he was so proud of; he was so excited to take it down to the river to let it sail.  He build it so well and it sailed so well that it quickly sailed out of his grasp.  He ran as fast as he could along the riverbank but the little boat sailed away.  He was heartbroken and I thought he’d lost his sailboat. A few weeks later when he was in town he saw his beloved sailboat there in the window of a store! He went into the store and told the store owner, “that’s my sail boat, I made it. May I have it back?”  The store said, “No people say that all the time, if you want this sail boat, you have to pay the price.”  The boy was sad because it would take him two weeks work to be able to buy back his sailboat.  He quickly went home, got to work earning the money and eagerly came back two weeks later.  He paid the listed price and as he was leaving was filled with emotion.  He looked down at the sail boat and said, “My beloved boat, you are twice mine! Not only did I make you I also bought you!”

This is exactly what Jesus has done for each of us: he created us and then he bought us by dying on the cross for us.

Yes God is a righteous judge. But if you’ve ever had a ticket and had to go before a court to pay for your transgression, just imagine that you are getting out your cash, checkbook or credit card about to pay your fine, all of the sudden the judge stands up and says,  “No put that away. I will pay your penalty myself.”

That is exactly what our righteous judge has done.  We have transgressions but instead of being stuck to pay them all, Jesus paid them all!  He paid for our transgressions himself by his death on the cross.   We worship God because he is our Sovereign King he’s a Powerful and Personal Creator and he is a Righteous Judge who takes our judgment if we will allow him to.

Thank you Jesus

Darrell

www.Upwards.Church

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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