FBC Daily Devotional – August 31, 2021

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, a good Tuesday morning to you. I hope your day is getting off well, and perhaps you started it off in the right way by opening up the

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Word today and reading a passage or so from the Scriptures. Maybe you read in our

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Bible reading plan Psalm 102. Anything in that Psalm that resonates with you does with me.

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You know, this crazy, crazy chaotic world in which we're living right now.

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We're rightly concerned and grieved over the deterioration that's taking place, the changes, the chaos that's taking place.

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I'm recording this ahead of time. It's not Tuesday when I'm recording this, but as I'm recording it,

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I'm looking ahead and realizing that when you watch this, it's going to be August 31st, which is that deadline that is established for getting

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Americans out of Afghanistan and getting really everybody that should get out, out.

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And we, as I speak, have no idea what's going to come after that day.

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And that kind of uncertainty and chaos and really deterioration of our nation and of the welfare and security of the world is of great concern.

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And you know, the older we get, the older we get, we also can turn inward and get very, very concerned and frustrated perhaps with the deterioration and the changes that are going on even in our own bodies.

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I think of what the Psalmist writes here in verse 23. He says, he weakened my strength in the way he shortened my days.

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Speaking of what the Lord has done, he goes on to say, Oh Lord, don't take me away in the midst of my years.

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Your years are throughout all generations. And he's lamenting the changes that are taking place in his own body.

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And we can see these things that are happening to us physically, knowing that our time is limited.

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Our time is limited and the day will come. Sooner will come the end of our life for many of us than it's been since the beginning of our life.

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So we see this coming and it leads us, and then we see all the stuff going on in our world and deterioration and the chaos and the decay.

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And we are rightly concerned about the welfare of the future generations.

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What in the world is in store for my grandchildren and their children, should the

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Lord tarry? You know, what are they going to face? But this Psalm is very reassuring because it points out that even though there is all of this chaos and all this stuff that's going, even in my own physical life and so forth, there is no chaos with the

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Lord. There are no changes with him. There is no deterioration. Listen to what he says in verse 12 of Psalm 102.

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He says, But you, O Lord, shall endure forever. And the remembrance of your name to all generations.

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You will endure forever. I'm going to pass off the scene someday and sooner rather than later, perhaps, but the

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Lord will endure forever. And then he goes on to say in verses 25 through 28, he says,

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Of old, you laid the foundation of the earth thousands of years ago now, and the heavens are the work of your hands.

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We look up in the sky at night time and we see the stars and we see the photographs from Hubble and all this stuff that it displays the universe in all of its depth and glory.

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And this is all something that God created thousands and thousands of years ago.

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And the, and the earth as well, he says, but he goes on to say, they will perish.

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The earth will perish. The heavens will perish. They will perish. But you

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Lord will endure. Yes, they will all grow old, like a garment, like a cloak.

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You will change them and they will be changed, but you are the same and your years will have no end.

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Now, what that does is it gives the psalmist and it should give us, as we look at, as we look at decay, as we look at chaos and deterioration, it gives the psalmist and it should give to us the confidence that the

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Lord who never changes will be there for his people in the generations to come.

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In fact, he says as much in verse 18, he says, this will be written for the generation to come that a people yet to be created may praise the

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Lord. And in verse 28, he concludes the Psalm by saying the children of your servants will continue and their descendants will be established before you.

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So even though I may look at my own life and see changes take place that evidence, you know, decay, physical decay, and I may look at the world around me and see evidences of political and national decay and deterioration and all of that may leave me fearful for the generations to come.

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I don't need to be. Why? Because the Lord who is there for me, who has rescued me, who has given to me eternal life and has secured my soul's destiny will be there for the generation to come, even those that have yet to be born because he never changes.

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He never changes. Let's give thanks to our God that he never does change.

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And we do thank you, oh, our God. We thank you and praise you that we can have a measure of confidence and peace, even in times of chaos and deterioration and decay, even in times of personal deterioration.

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Lord, give us that confidence. Encourage us in that glorious truth, we pray. And this we ask in Jesus' name.

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Amen. All right. Well, you have a good rest of your Tuesday. I trust the