Hi First Presbyterian Church,

It’s time for our Mid-Week Meet-Up! I told you last week that, by today, our Vision Team would have convened at another Faith Forward retreat this past weekend, but you have probably also seen/heard that our consultant Kevin was ill and couldn’t travel to Pittsford. We canceled the retreat and are working on rescheduling it for the near future.  

I hope you are continuing to read along with us on our one-year Bible-reading journey. I also wanted to highlight that our families in the church have the opportunity to encourage their kids to participate in a daily Bible devotional called Jesus Listens. It’s a great resource to introduce young people (aimed at those 12 years old and younger) to the practice of daily prayer and Bible-reading. If you have one of these devotionals, I encourage you to try using it with your kids! 

Today is Day 143 of our Bible-reading journey. In our Psalms readings this past week, I was struck by just how many of the Psalms (from this week alone!) described God as loving and merciful. Just consider these examples. Psalm 116 said, “The Lord is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion” (v. 5). Psalm 117 exclaimed, “Great is God’s love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever” (v. 2). Throughout Psalm 118, this refrain was given, “God’s love endures forever.” These words of praise really stayed with me this week. Why is that? 

When you read through the liturgical and other writings of the other people that lived around ancient Israel, like in Babylonia and Assyria, one thing will stand out: They hardly ever describe their gods as loving, patient, compassionate, gracious, or merciful! What should we infer from this comparison? 

While modern readers of the Old Testament (like us) may come away and say, “God seems so vindictive and angry,” if we were ancient readers, our opinion of God would likely be very different - especially when compared to the foreign gods! We would probably have the same opinion of God that the Israelites did - we would see the mercy and grace of God everywhere! I would encourage us all to try to read the Old Testament as the original audience would have read it. They were overwhelmed by God’s goodness and love, and, if we look through their eyes, we will be, too. This emphasis on God’s grace only grew clearer and greater over time, until we eventually see it most clearly in Jesus Christ. Thanks be to God!

Peace,
Pastor Aaron