Deus Misereatur

  Face to Face with God: A Biblical Theology of Christ as Priest and Mediator T. Desmond Alexander IVP Academic IVPress.com ISBN:9780830842957; March 2022; $24   There are those places in Sacred Scripture, filled with the minutiae and meticulous details, where one least expects to find gold or diamonds. Part of that is because of our present moment and our lack of experience. We bumble through those passages struck by how distant we are from sacrifices, blood, ashes, priestly functions, etc. T. Desmond Alexander, senior lecturer in biblical studies and director of postgraduate studies at Union Theological College in Belfast, Northern Ireland, has given us a hand in his new 176-page paperback, “Face to Face with God: A Biblical Theology of Christ as Priest and Mediator”. It is a straightforward, in-depth biblical study into priesthood and tabernacle, and the ascended role of Jesus as great high priest in the heavenly sanctuary. This volume is part of the Essential S...

  [This particular congregational prayer walks through all of Psalm 56] Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me; all day long an attacker oppresses me; my enemies trample on me all day long, for many attack me proudly. When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me (Psalm 56:1-4) ?  Lord, our oppressors are the world, the flesh, and the devil. May our trust in you raise us up above fear and dread. Sometimes it feels like our own bodies and life circumstances are our worst enemies, walloping us with maladies, heart disease, mental darkness, disorientation, heart aches and heart breaks. We pray for those going through the thick and thin of it right now (…). Bring them through it all with faith, hope, love, and the smile of your face. Hear our prayer, O Lord, and let our cry come to you! All day long they injure my cause; all their thoughts are against me for evil. They stir up strife, ...

  (My heart breaks for a friend of mine as I write this.) O LORD, God of my salvation, I cry out to you in this time because salvation and hope seem so far away. The darkness is thick as mud. The dread is deep as a pit. I cry out with the Psalmist, " Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in Abaddon? Are your wonders known in the darkness, or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness " (Psalm 88:11-12)?  The way ahead seems lost in the haze. I have no where else to turn. " But I, O LORD, cry to you; in the morning my prayer comes before you. O LORD, why do you cast my soul away? Why do you hide your face from me " (Psalm 88:13-14)? My only comfort is that your Son has entered this darkness with me and for me, " Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani? " (...) " My God, my God, why have you forsaken me " (Mark 15:34)? Come, Lord, take this pain away. Come and remove the grief in my heart! Oh dear God, why? Why this? I feel w...

 This book was loaned to me by a friend. He had been a Green Beret in Vietnam and recently passed away. As I read about General “Chinese” Gordon, I saw a lot of my friend. Charlie Gordon won the loyalty of those who served with and underneath him. He strove hard to maintain his integrity in some of the most dangerous of situations, and succeeded. And when he failed at times, his integrity showed by his seeking forgiveness and making amends. Charlton Heston played General Gordon in the 1966 movie “Khartoum”. Charlie Gordon comes through in this biography with clarity. A Christian (though slightly off here and there) he masterfully served in the Crimean War, in putting down the Taiping Uprising in China, and facing off against the Mahdi revolt (where he was overthrown and died). He also, momentarily, ended the slave-trade of Sudan a few years earlier. These episodes, and others, are carefully chronicled in this volume. He was also a man of compassion. He spent years helping young str...

  Your righteousness is like the mountains, O God; your judgments are like the great deep; man and beast you save, O LORD (Psalm 36:6); therefore we implore you to give your much needed assistance, provision, direction, comfort, strength and restoration to our brotherhood throughout the world, specifically where they are facing heat and hostilities, such as in Yemen, Nigeria, Uganda, Syria, Israel, Egypt, Eastern Europe and Indonesia. O Lord, hear our prayer . We pray for all the nations of our world and our own country. Guide the leaders and peoples – and specifically the leaders of Russia and Ukraine – toward peaceful civility and justice. And may neighborly love strongly help those who need to rebuild and pull their shattered, broken lives back together. May the inhabitants of every nation enjoy safety so that your church may be unmolested, and your Gospel go forward unhindered. O Lord, hear our prayer . For this congregation we ask: give us, O Lord, purity of lips, clean ...

  (This illumined version of Psalm 128 comes from Rosemary Buczek at The Gilded Quill ). Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in his ways! You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you (Psalm 128:1-2) . Since Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, we pray for the church here and world over, for this congregation, as well as Mt. Lebanon Baptist, Mt. Moriah Baptist, Mt. Olive Baptist, and Mount Triumph Baptist Church. We ask that by his blessing, by the reforming and revitalizing work of your Holy Spirit, by the faithful reading, preaching, and teaching of your Scriptures, and by the right administration of your sacraments, Jesus might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish (Ephesians 5:25-27). And we ask you to be with those ...

  (The following is from the letter I wrote my congregation today, 4 May 2022) The Sage makes this wise observation in Proverbs, “ Whoever diligently seeks good seeks favor, but evil comes to him who searches for it ” (Proverbs 11:27). What you look for you often find, because what you expect to see is what you look for. Well, during my devotional reading on Monday, I was caught by an incident in the Old Testament that seems to go along with this Proverb. It’s about the perspective of God’s people who flipped redemption into ruin. It’s quite startling. First, let me set up the scene.   Moses is recounting Israel’s history in the wilderness, and starting at Deuteronomy 1:18 he retells the moment when they were just on the cusp of entering the land of promise decades before. The people wanted spies to reconnoiter the land. Twelve were chosen, and set out to explore and evaluate. They returned and told all the wonders and wealth of the land (1:22-25). But the expectations of th...