3 Episodes In

We hope you have been encouraged and blessed by the Podcasts so far.  It has been great seeing the downloads and hearing the responses. Today we have posted Episode 3 which is called "A Hopeful Realism."  I wanted to share what has been on my heart this past week.  We have been talking about Hopeful Realism in the beginning of our Podcast.  It cannot get more Real than in the Psalms.  In fact Martin Luther one of the Protestant Reformers called the Psalms "A Little Bible."  It covers everything there is in life.  In my church (Scott here) one of our Pastoral Interns gave a sermon on Psalm 73.  I was reminded while listening to this Sermon that this is a Psalm of Hopeful Realism.  It begins with the reminder that God is good.  Yet the Psalm then moves through a struggle with the success of whom the Psalmist calls the "wicked."  So often our emotional struggles begin when we look at others.  We want what they have.. and we wonder why they don't struggle like we do.  We obsess about ourselves which is exactly what the world wants us to do.  Then the Psalmist finally remembers who the Holy God is and his need for a mediator. 

 Like a dream when one awakes,
  O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.
When my soul was embittered,
  when I was pricked in heart,
I was brutish and ignorant;
  I was like a beast toward you.
  Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
  you hold my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel,
  and afterward you will receive me to glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you?
  And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
  but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
 (Psalm 73:20-26 ESV)

So keep your Hopeful Realism grounded in the Scriptures and your God.  He is your strength and your portion.  He will be your guide.  Remember the importance of setting your mind of the things above.  If you are in Christ you are a new creation, fix your eyes on Him!