4 Themes After Soaking in the Psalms

 In 2025 my New Year's Resolution was to read a psalm every day and write in my journal about it.  I read the entire book of 150 psalms twice and ended on Psalm 65 my third time through.  During this year I got some great personal devotional time in Psalms and I also got to share what I learned through texts to friends, talking with my small group, preaching on Psalm 46 and praying the text by myself.  I will say without reservation that my favorite way to experience Psalms in 2025 was reading and studying them with my eldest son (explaining has always made me slow down and think so much more clearly).

In past years I have resolved to read more books and to stay in the Gospels for a whole year.  I thoroughly enjoyed both but there is a distinct blessing to soaking in one particular genre or book of the Bible for an entire year.

In 2025 soaking in Psalms a few themes stuck out that come to my mind now.  These themes are by no means exhaustive... 365 days bathing in 150 songs can't be boiled down into one short post here.  However, I do want to share a few themes that have engrained themselves into my mind and hopefully my soul and character.

1) Pour Out Your Heart to God

This theme can't be missed while reading Psalms.  Many of us are strangely polite in our prayers.  Not the psalmists.  Whether it's David, the sons of Korah or an unnamed author the words of the songs are shockingly honest.  

Pour out your heart to God.  It's not disrespectful or sacrilegious.  Pouring out your heart honestly is encouraged and at times demanded.  I hope my 2025 in Psalms will vastly improve my prayer life and therefore my intimacy with my God.

2) Only the Humble will be Saved

If you read all 150 psalms and come away thinking that God is okay with your pride then you might be illiterate.  Humility isn't a nice attribute for the most holy of people to weave into their character.  No, humility is necessary for our salvation.  God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6).  Psalm 138:6 tells us that God knows the haughty from afar.  Jesus tells us that only the humble will see God (Matthew 5:8).  No one will enter Heaven's gates and experience God from afar.  If God is opposed to you, who could be for you?

I pray that the last 365 days in Psalms has decreased my pride and increased my humility.  I pray looking at the psalms has given me more looks at God in His high position and fewer looks at myself in a poorly perceived high position.

3) God Loves the Lowly, Down and Out, and the Righteous

God loves everybody the same is not a statement you would say freely if you soaked in the psalms.  It is clear over and over that God has a special affection for the lowly, down and out, and the righteous.  It is clear over and over that God has a combative relationship with the fat cats, the oppressors, and the wicked.

If God is near to the brokenhearted, the lowly, and the despised, then why aren't I?  If God has a particular distain for the fat cats of society, then why do I desire to cozy up to them?

I hope that my 2025 resolution has helped me have a more godly approach to who I value, who I associate with, and how I see myself.

4) God Alone is Our Refuge and Strength

When the words of the 150 songs in this book wash over you again and again you end up with a lower and lower view of man and a higher and higher view of God.  We functionally put our trust in a myriad of things.  Pastor Craig Groeschel titled his 2011 book perfectly when he called it The Christian Atheist.  Horses and chariots, high walls, strong leaders, wealth, and great strategies are nice to have but they are not and cannot be our refuge and strength.  Over and over we are implored in the psalms to lift up our view of the Almighty and to lower our view of the things we lean on.  

After spending the last year in this one book I expect that in 2026 I can more honestly sing, "I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name."  I pray that I will trust more and rely more upon God and less on my propped up functional saviors and comforts, especially the abominable fleshly self.

There's so much more that I gleaned from a year in the same Biblical field.  However, these four themes, I think and hope, will stick in my pores this year.  In 2026 my resolution is to read the epistles of the New Testament all year.  I'm not sure if I will do whole chapters each day or partial chapters.  I tell you this so you can hold me accountable and ask what I'm reading.  I tell you this because I have an expectation that I will have much to share in 2026 and that it will begin today.

5 Star Books of 2025

 In 2025 I read fewer books than I did the previous year.  I honestly had a good year of reading going and slowed way down in the second half of the year and finished with 16 books, not counting the novels read with the kids. I rated each book with a max of 5 stars.  Looking back I was almost certainly too hard on some books with some by authors like C.S. Lewis, John MacArthur and Dallas Willard falling in the 3 and 4 star range, but I'll stick with what I originally rated each.

Below are the books I gave a 5 star rating and would recommend to you:

The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy- Excellent novelization of death and the wasted life.

The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer- Tremendous book.  Not a simple read and made me think deeply.

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom- A must read for all.

Enjoying God by Tim Chester- Great little book for a Bible study.  Easy and deep.

Generations by Jean Twenge- Insightful for parents, leaders and pastors.  Good sociological diagnosis that needs the Gospel applied to it once read.

If you're resolution or goal in 2026 is to read more good books then feel free to use any of these five as a launching pad.  Have a great final day of 2025 and maybe start a new book today.

Christmas Letter 2025

 Merry Christmas from the Rays.

This has been another jam-packed year that has flown by quickly.  We've had a number of adventures this year, but none bigger than our van trip to Colorado.  We went with Christine's parents, Steve and Karen, and Matt's mom and husband, Kathie and Curt.  It was a time for majestic views and lots of family time.  It also was neat for Matt and Christine to revisit the places they went on their honeymoon.  As if Colorado wasn't enough adventure, the Rays also went to the bi-annual Ray Family Reunion in Minnesota.  That is always a great time to reconnect at a beautiful location where the kids can live in and on the water.

Matt is still working at KWAY radio and has been able to work with the youth at church.  He also enjoys getting to volunteer in children's church and loved getting the opportunity to preach one Sunday.  Christine is still working very part-time at the walk-in clinic in Waverly while mostly getting to be a stay-at-home mom.  This February she got an insulin pump and that has been a huge help in regulating her type 1 diabetes.  She also enjoys being active in Bible Study Fellowship in town.

Jamari is living and working in Texas after moving from Georgia.  This summer he moved into his first apartment all to himself, which was a big goal of his.  He'll turn 21 on Christmas Eve. 

Joshua is in 3rd grade this year and enjoys reading, playing outside with his friends in the neighborhood, being involved in Trail Life and doing sports like baseball and football.  Unfortunately, he missed some of football due to a buckle fracture in his thumb.  He got to be the first kid in the family to break a bone.  Father's Day weekend Joshua took a big step in his life and was baptized.  Since then he has been working on reading through his Bible.

Anna is in 1st grade and is in love with learning.  She loves Mondays and hates Saturdays because she wishes she could go to school every day.  Anna enjoyed playing baseball and soccer but loves doing arts and crafts at home most of all.  She hopes to one day be an illustrator.  This summer she also got to go to camp for three nights the first time.

Gideon is 4 and in his last year of preschool.  He is the biggest character in the house right now and keeps us on our toes.  This November Gideon complained of side pain.  Next thing you knew he was having surgery to remove his appendix.  He's doing well now but he got to be the first kid in the family with a major surgery.

Faith turned 2 in August and is the favorite of all the other kids.  She is cute and knows it.  She, like all the other kids, has found her voice and will talk your ear off.  She also loves to sing and dance.  It's hard to believe she'll be in school this coming Fall because she's the baby in the family and proud of it.

2025 was a year of extreme normality mixed with literal mountaintop experiences with a side of medical interventions.  Through it all we have found the hope that Christmas proclaims: an Immanuel God whose steadfast love endures forever.  We pray that you have found this for you and your family this year as well. 

Merry Christmas and a Happy 2026 from the Rays.

A Christian Response to the Epstein Files

 Unless you live in a duplex under a rock you've heard about, thought about and talked about the so-called Epstein Files.  In a rare act of near unanimity congress voted to direct the Department of Justice to release in thirty days the information it had on the case regarding the dead child sex offender and financier Jeffery Epstein and his accomplice.  Only one of the 535 members of congress voted against this bill and the president signed it into law.

There is, and has been for years, much talked about regarding this.  The alleged, heinous actions are gross and scandalous.  It is no joy of mine to think about rich and powerful people flying to a private island to engage in criminal sexual activity with minors who were scouted and trafficked there.

As a Christian how should we think and talk about this?  How should a biblical faith engage with this? 

I won't go so far as to say I will offer up the principles to guide us but I would like to propose a way to Christianly respond.  I would like to propose three principles that can guide a Christian.

1) This is not political. Don't make it.

I'm saddened to see how this Epstein garbage has been made political.  Politicians are likely involved in the darkness of Epstein's crimes, but that doesn't make it political.  It will undoubtedly have massive political implications, but that doesn't make it political.

If your heart reacts to this news with a hopefulness that more blues than reds are involved, I think your moral compass is out of whack.  If one of the politicians on the side you pull for is involved and you want to ignore it, I think your moral compass is broken.  If you are okay with more cover up and strategic delaying of the truth, i fear your moral compass needs repair.  Recall the story of the prophet Nathan.  Nathan had to call out King David's heinous sexual sin and the deadly coverup that followed it.  Nathan didn't reason that David was too good of a king to rock the boat.  Nathan didn't consider the military power and economic success of Israel as something worth more than calling his king to repentance for rape, murder and a gross political coverup.  Neither should you.  

We must think about right and wrong not right and left.

2) God hates this!

You cannot read your Bible and think that God doesn't hate when the rich and powerful abuse and plunder the weak and lowly.  You can't read your Bible honestly and think God doesn't burn with wrath over the crimes reported to have been done by this syndicate of sin.

According to Matthew 18:6 Jesus says it would be better for a large millstone to be tied around the neck of these creeps that would sexually violate these girls and then toss the creepos off the so-called "Pedophile Island" and into the sea.  It's undeniable that God hates this.

Hell is evidence of God's hatred of sin and Hell itself is a comfort in situations like this.  Christopher W. Morgan and Robert A Peterson say that, "... the biblical writers underscore the justice of hell in order to comfort persecuted believers.  Indeed, we could speak of the 'comfort of hell.'... hell reassured God's people that ultimately evil and evildoers would be defeated."

If God hates this, you should hate this.  Don't become calloused to the disgusting sinfulness of this Epstein crap.

3) Even pedophiles can be saved.

I think in the United States of America in 2025 sex crimes against children is considered more deeply unthinkable than even murder.  There's something righteous and burning hot about the rage that bubbles up when we hear about sexual abuse against children.  I think this is right and good.  

There is probably no class more ostracized and vilified than that of sex offenders.

Don't hear me wrongly.  I'm not saying it is Christian to ignore sexual abuse.  I'm not by any means saying that the Christian response to this is to preclude firm justice.  I'm not saying it's Christian to be foolish and let your children stay overnight at someone on the sex offender registry.  

What I am saying is that the Gospel is good news even for the pedophile if he will repent and believe.  Jesus' saving work is applicable, even to those that heinously violate children.

"The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost." 1 Timothy 1:15

Christians, this good news isn't a get out of jail free card.  This gospel certainly does not and should not pervert earthly justice.  Sex crimes deserve justice.  What this good news does is cause us to awe and wonder at how good Jesus is.  What this gospel does is provoke us to tell it to all, even those we have a hard time imagining it is for.  What the good news of Jesus' propitiatory death on the cross for sins does is demand that we pray for the salvation of sinners, even sinners that we also pray that fair justice lands on.

Don't engage with this Epstein stuff as the non-Christians do.  We must be Bible-informed and Gospel-shaped people.  So, don't make this excrement political, hate this sin like your Heavenly Father hates it and remember and proclaim that the Gospel extends even to those who sin monstrously today.

Will Your Lips Exploit or Lament?

 Do you ever pay attention to the news and politics in your nation or state and wonder if everyone is crazy? 

David wrote Psalm 12 as a community lament about 3,000 years ago and it feels like it could have been written today.  The psalm is a way for the community to complain to God about how it seems that liars dominate society and run things.  Read it and you'll see what I mean.

"Save, O LORD, for the godly one is gone;
for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man.
Everyone utters lies to his neighbor;
with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.

May the LORD cut off all flattering lips,
the tongue that makes great boasts,
those who say, 'With our tongue we will prevail,
our lips are with us; who is master over us?'

'Because the poor are plundered, because the needy groan,
I will now arise,' says the LORD;
'I will place him in the safety for which he longs.'
The words of the LORD are pure words,'like silver refined in a furnace on the ground,
purified seven times.

You, O LORD, will keep them;
you will guard us from this generation forever.
On every side the wicked prowl,
as vileness is exalted among the children of man." Psalm 12

Do you feel like David felt while writing this psalm?  Does it feel like everyone is a liar?  Do you examine politics or the culture and conclude the place where you live is run by boastful, lying, God-ignoring men and women?

David taught the people singing this psalm to see this injustice and to ask God to do something about it.  He taught God-honoring complaining versus God-dishonoring complaining.  He instructs us on how to ask God to work, even violently, to make things right and good.  David goes even further and shows us how we can and should trust that God will rise up and make things right.  David implores us to sing with confidence that while all men may be liars, God will not lie.  In sharp contrast to the words of these men, God's words are pure and trustworthy.

Before we leave this eternally timely psalm, let's look at what the turning point of the psalm is.  What it is that arouses God to enact justice.

"'Because the poor are plunder, because the needy groan, I will now arise,' says the LORD. 'I will place him in the safety for which he longs." v. 5

I have been reading the psalms daily during this year.  You cannot soak in the psalms and not see that God is for the poor and needy and the outcasts.  God is for these people and the wicked prowl around and look to devour them just like the Devil does (Psalm 12:8; 1 Peter 5:8).

Do you see this in our culture and nation and world?  Do you see that "vileness is exalted among the children of man"?

We see things that exploit our young men, like the sports gambling industry, being labeled good, clean fun.  The murder of the unborn is called healthcare.  The lottery is said to be a fundraiser for schools and an opportunity for riches while it is actually a heavy tax on the poorest among us.  

Christians, are we involved in exploitative endeavors or industries?  Do we prop up the things that wickedly plunder the poor and cause the needy to groan?

Even the things that are mostly good must be done in a Christian fashion.  For example, we see from Psalm 10 and 12 that capitalism without a morality, and I'll argue at the very least a Judeo-Christian influenced morality, will end in gross injustice because of our own wicked bend.  That isn't an argument necessarily to get rid of it but to have all of our lives, even and perhaps especially our economic lives, dripping with Gospel morality.

Don't lie for ill-gotten gain or lie to yourself in order to ignore the vileness you end up promoting.

Will you be the one who laments and calls out to God for your nation/culture or will you be a participant and promoter of the vileness that God says arouses Him to righteous anger?  Read Psalm 12 and pray for God to make things right and good again today.

A Psalm for the Persecuted Church

 Today is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.  It is this Sunday that we especially take time to pray for our Christian brothers and sisters around the world that are facing extreme persecution.

Our local church has a personal connection to the extreme, violent persecution of Christians in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Below is a video that was shown in service highlighting what some believers there are experiencing now.

Because this is the day to pray I wanted to share some ways you can pray for the persecuted church using Psalm 3.

"O LORD, how many are my foes!
Many are rising against me;
many are saying of my soul,
'There is no salvation for him in God.' Selah" v. 1-2

The psalmist, David, cries out to the LORD.  In this particular time he was fleeing from a rebellion led by his son Absalom.  

David cried out to God and laid out his situation before God.  Did God need to be informed?  Absolutely not, but we can and should pray like this.  Get informed about a particular situation impacting the persecuted church and pray about it today.  It's fine to for the persecuted church in general, but how much more fervent will your prayer be when you put your whole heart into crying out for a particular need!

"But you, O LORD, are a shield about me,
my glory, and the lifter of my head.
I cried aloud to the LORD,
and He answered me from His holy hill. Selah" v. 3-4

Pray today that God would shield and protect those brothers and sisters in harms way.  Pray that they would experientially know that the God of the Universe is their shield.  Pray that God would lift their heads.  Pray that they might be encouraged... because they need courage.  Pray that God would hear and answer their cries.  Ask God to encourage them with the truth that He always hears them.

"I lay down and slept;
I woke again, for the LORD sustained me.
I will not be afraid of many thousands of people
who have set themselves against me all around." v. 5-6

Oh, that God would give these poor people good sleep. Can you imagine how sleepless you would be if you worried that your children would be chopped to death by a machete?  Pray that God would given them peace in the crisis that passes all understanding.  Pray that God would wake them in the morning.  I never have to think about how vulnerable I am while unconsciously asleep.  These men and women do.  Even when out of harms way sleep is difficult.  Pray that they would have unnatural courage.  That they could be fearless even though the odds are seemingly stacked against them!

"Arise, O LORD!
Save me, O my God!
For you strike all my enemies on the cheek;
you break the teeth of the wicked." v. 7

We are to be faithful in the midst of trial but we aren't asked to not desire physical salvation here and now.  Pray fervently that God would save them.  That He would use any variety of means to stop the violence and persecution.  Many Christians would say that the only way to pray in regards to the oppressors is that they would experience a radical conversion like the Apostle Paul did.  Please pray for that.  That is a wonderful prayer.  But we can also pray that God would beat the tar out of the violent, unjust people that are doing these terrible things.  It is a Christian prayer to pray for God to strike the wicked.  

For more context, Psalm 7:12-13 say this: "If a man does not repent, God will whet His sword; He has bent and readied His bow; He has prepared for him His deadly weapons, making His arrows fiery shafts."

Pray that the violent men be stopped and stopped suddenly by either radical conversion or holy violence.

"Salvation belongs to the LORD;
your blessing be on your people! Selah" v. 8

Earlier David said people taunted him by saying that there is no salvation for him in God.  Here David proclaims that salvation belongs to the LORD.  Pray that the persecuted people of God would know their soul's salvation and experience the temporary bodily salvation they desperately desire as well.  Pray that their lives be a testimony against the lies the wicked spew.  Pray that the people of God be blessed.  Pray for an end of violence and ask for God to do abundantly more for them.

Please take time to pray for the persecuted church today.

Saved Alone: The Story and Soul Behind a Beloved Hymn

 In 1871 Horatio G. Spafford lost almost all his wealth in the Great Chicago Fire.  About that same time Spafford lost his four year-old son to Scarlet Fever.  In 1873 while trying to solve a business issue in Chicago he sent his wife and four daughters on a ship back across the Atlantic.  

Spafford received a chilling telegraph that read simply: "Saved alone."

Just two years after losing his son he lost all four daughters in the sinking of a ship.  Spafford crossed the chilly ocean to join his grieving wife.  While on the voyage the captain of the ship informed Horatio when they reached the spot where his daughters had drowned to death.  In his grief and because of his intense faith and hope he penned the poem that became "It Is Well With My Soul".

"When peace like a river attendeth my way,
when sorrows like sea billows roll;
whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul."

You can well imagine tears rolling down his cheeks and splashing onto his paper as he jotted down these lines.  Sorrows like sea billows were certainly rolling and he was fighting to be able to say like Job, "The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD." (Job 1:21).

On that ship Horatio Spafford was expressing the beauty of God's sovereignty in the midst of tragedy like I can't imagine.  Where did he find the ability to write such lyrics at the location of his four daughters' death?  I believe the answer can be seen in the next verses.

"Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
let this blest assurance control,
that Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
and has shed His own blood for my soul."

Spafford finds a reason to hope in the goodness and good sovereignty of God in the midst of this massive tragedy by thinking about his own salvation.  Why does he do this?  Why when grasping for hope and meaning at this fatal locale did he think of his own salvation?  I believe he must have thought of Romans 8:32:

"He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?"

Paul's argument was that if the Father would sacrifice His own Son then we can trust that there is nothing He won't do to give us all things.  And if that is true then Horatio could trust that his Heavenly Father somehow, someway, was doing him good even in this tragic moment.  What trust could be rooted in this sort of Gospel logic.

"My sin... oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more.
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, o my soul!"

In the painfulness of life... a painfulness I hope to never hit... Spafford was able to experience the joy of his salvation.  Sin was defeated on the cross.  Not part of his sin, but the whole!  But how does this help poor Horatio Spafford in this exact moment floating over the sea graves of his four daughters?  For this we look at the next verse which is rarely, if ever, sung but was in the poem written by Spafford.

"For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan shall above me shall roll.
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life,
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul."

Horatio understood the Gospel and understood Philippians 1:21 which reads: "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." For Spafford to continue living without the five of his children was Christ and for them to die was gain.  

"But Lord, 'tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
the sky, not the grave, is our goal;
oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord!
Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul!"

1 Thessalonians 4:13 tells the Christian that he or she will grieve but not as those who have no hope.  In the Bible we read and in the creeds we confess that we believe and hope in the resurrection of the dead.  The sky, not the grave, is our goal.  Spafford would not permanently lose his children.  Yes, there was certainly grief.  Yes, there was certainly hope.

"And Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,
the clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
the trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend.
Even so, it is well with my soul."

We who have this hope say, "Come back quickly, Jesus!"  In the second coming Jesus will make all things new and death will be no more.  In the most painful moments of life we who believe cry out for Jesus to hurry up and return.  Spafford clearly means this as the last verse of his poem echos the end of the entire Bible in the King James Version he would have been reading.

"Surely, I come quickly'.  Amen.  Even so, come, Lord Jesus." Revelation 22:20

How did Horatio Spafford respond to a nearly unthinkable tragedy?  With the Gospel applied.  And that is why this hymn that was put to music by Phillip Bliss still brings tears to eyes and strength to souls.

I got to hear an incredible arrangement and performance of this song today by the Wartburg Choir.  The recording below is older but take a few minutes to listen and understand what Spafford wrote and what brought tears of joy to my eyes today.