Bet It On The Horses

if you knew there was a sure defense against any tactic your enemy could potentially throw at you, would you sit back and concoct a scheme of your own instead of running to it? of course not. but we do this quite often, if you think about it. the eleventh psalm illustrates God as our refuge, our sure defense against the wiles of the enemy, though his bow may be drawn and his string loaded and poised to strike at a moment's notice. we know we have this refuge, yet many spend so much time worrying about what to do in certain situations.

what we have in scripture is not meant to be accessed and pored through in a panicked reaction to cataclysmic events that shake us to our core. it's not meant to be a 'last resort' or something we go looking through in times of trouble. it's a wellspring of knowledge, comfort and joy that is meant to be read, loved, cherished, memorized, studied, agonized over and instilled deep within our souls. if we do this, we will have no need to worry when troubling times come our way, because we'll have exactly what we need to overcome them — the assurance of God as our refuge and our strength. the promise of life through Christ our mediator and intercessor.

it's a suit of armor, not a hidden bunker.

this is what i learned this morning in church, and it was a wonderful sermon. i spent the bulk of the day hanging out with ken fields, one of the elders at the church, while christin was at some sort of conference for doulas in baltimore. we talked about theology, football, but mostly hong kong, as i showed him a lot of the pictures we took when we lived there. now i miss it even more than ever, though his suggestion that there are likely many abc's in the church that would be willing to take up the task of establishing a church there in the future.

one of my biggest concerns with moving back to hong kong in the future is being without a good, doctrinally solid, reformed church. as far as i can tell, it's the only real downside, aside from dsl internet and a distinct lack of mexican food. aside from a 1689 reformed baptist church on the island that we visited once [which is like 'close, but no cigar' from my perspective], there is just a huge lack of fellowship there. plenty of charismatics, plenty of anglicans, plenty of emergents. i long for a presbyterian church to be established there. someday.

i didn't get to watch the game, but the chargers lost tonight. of all teams to beat them, why must it have been the raiders? we've lost both division games, to the two historically worst teams in the division, which is just bonkers. it's not going to be a good year. rivers is throwing like mad, but as the get-up kids say, one star player doesn't make the team. amazing race tonight was pretty intense. they had me going for a minute, but team jumba is still alive and kicking! next week should be exciting. schoolwork and job search tomorrow. booooo!