SQJ Taipei

Hello… I’m still here. Really busy lately… if your only point of contact with us is this blog… you don’t really know the whole story. I’ll try to fill you in… later.

For now… I’ve gotta share this with you.

We have a house church meeting here on Saturday nights. It is great. We have Taiwanese and American people… and even a Kiwi. It is great… did I mention that? In some ways, it is an experiment of sorts… because we’ll be moving this fall to a new area to help start a new church and it will be a “house church network”. We are leaving for a 6 month home service starting in April so our time with this particular group is limited. We’ve been going through the major events and people of the Bible since we started several weeks ago, but this week, I felt like God really wanted us to read some Psalms and John chapter 1. So I made a plan.

In 1992, Joe Belzer from Campus Christian Fellowship at Truman State University pointed out to me something about reading the Psalms. I’m sure others do this also… but it was the first I’d heard it. Take the day of the month… for example, today is the 28th. Then you read Psalm 28 and keep adding 30… so Psalm 58, 88, 118, and 148. 5 Psalms a day and in 1 month you read them all. Pretty cool.

So… I decided to use that plan for our reading Psalms that day. I made a sheet which had the English and Chinese for each of the Psalms… 24, 54, 84, 114, 144. Then, as I was explaining to the group what we’d do that night instead of our regular lesson… Allen pointed out to me… that… it wasn’t the 24th… but actually the 25th.

Oh great… I got a message from the Lord… to read the Psalms and to use Joe’s plan for choosing them… and then (probably because I didn’t go to bed one night last week) I was a day off… and probably screwed up everything right? NOPE. God is faithful and he leads his people according to our weaknesses. Like God didn’t know that I was off a day in my head? Please…..

These 5 Psalms ministered to all of us… some of us VERY DEEPLY. I’m going to share a link to each of them with you… and an excerpt…
Many Blessings,
SQJ

PSALM 24

Who may go up on the mountain of the Lord? Only those with clean hands and pure hearts, who have not worshiped idols, who have not made promises in the name of a false god. They will receive a blessing from the Lord; the God who saves them will declare them right.

PSALM 54

I will offer a sacrifice as a special gift to you. I will thank you, Lord, because you are good. You have saved me from all my troubles, and I have seen my enemies defeated.

PSALM 84

One day in the courtyards of your Temple is better than a thousand days anywhere else. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the Temple of my God than live in the homes of the wicked.

PSALM 114

The Red Sea looked and ran away; the Jordan River turned back. The mountains danced like sheep and the hills like little lambs. Sea, why did you run away? Jordan, why did you turn back? Mountains, why did you dance like sheep? Hills, why did you dance like little lambs?

PSALM 144

Lord, why are people important to you? Why do you even think about human beings? People are like a breath; their lives are like passing shadows. Lord, tear open the sky and come down. Touch the mountains so they will smoke.

ENJOY!