Faith, Forgotten and Abandoned

REFLECTION QUOTES

“Too many Christians are doctrinally malnourished so that any bacteria or virus of heresy that comes their way wreaks havoc in their lives.”

~Conrad Mbewe, Zambian pastor and educator

“The secret formula of the saints: When I am in the cellar of affliction, I look for the Lord’s choicest wines.”

~Samuel Rutherford (1600-1661), Scottish pastor, author and theologian

“Lament isn’t the opposite of praise. Lament is a path to praise…”

~Julius Kim, author, pastor and professor

“Heaven is not here, it’s There. If we were given all we wanted here, our hearts would settle for this world rather than the next. God is forever luring us up and away from this one, wooing us to Himself and His still invisible Kingdom, where we will certainly find what we so keenly long for.”

~Elisabeth Elliot (1926-2015), author, speaker and missionary

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

~Viktor Frankl (1905-1997), Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor

“Hope is…a requirement. Hopelessness is the enemy of justice. Injustice prevails where hopelessness persists.”

~Bryan Stevenson, lawyer and activist

“In the ancient church it was not unusual to memorize the [entire Psalter]…. In one of the eastern churches this was a prerequisite for the pastoral office. The church father St. Jerome says that one heard the Psalms being sung in the fields and gardens in his time. The Psalter impregnated the life of the early Christianity. Yet more important than all of this is the fact that Jesus died on the cross with words of the Psalter on his lips”

~Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1909-1945), pastor and theologian, martyred by the Nazis

SERMON PASSAGE

Psalm 13:1-6 (ESV)

1 How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I take counsel in my soul
and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
3 Consider and answer me, O LORD my God;
light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
4 lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”
lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.
5 But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
6 I will sing to the LORD,
because he has dealt bountifully with me.