Winding River RV Resort, Grand Lake, Colorado
A malicious man disguises himself with his lips, but in his heart he harbors deceit. ~ Proverbs 26:24
We went to church today!
Unfortunately, no one else showed up for Cowboy Church – – including the pastor.
We were sooo disappointed! Blaine had called the office to make sure they were still having it, and verify the location, about 20 minutes before it was supposed to start. (“behind the barn and walk to the river.” “Where the horses are now?” “Yes”) We waited around for an extra 15 minutes, making friends with a mule that was penned nearby, then we took our chairs, face masks and bibles and went home to listen to The Chapel on-line. It was a good message on Psalm 150 – the last one in the book – about praise. (by the way – on Wednesday, we discovered where the church was actually supposed to be. It was in a clearing, surrounded by bushes just on the other side of where we were sitting. However, it was close enough that we’re pretty sure we would’ve heard voices and/or singing if they were there.)
The psalm begins with “Praise the LORD.” The original Hebrew word for this phrase is “Hallelujah” (boast or brag about the Lord), which is all our Pastor shared with us. I wanted to check on this – – not because I doubted the speaker, but because I don’t like to share/teach information without looking into it myself (something I learned from the first Baptist preacher I sat under). So anyway, I found the following on israelbiblecenter.com:
There is probably not a single person alive who isn’t familiar with the word “Hallelujah”. We’ve all heard this word repeated time and again in various contexts. Hallelujah is a Hebrew loan word, incorporated into the English language from Hebrew. But what does this word mean in Hebrew?
The word “Hallelujah” (הללויה) is actually a compound word (two individual Hebrew words put together): “Hallelu” (הללו) and “Yah” (יה). “Hallelu” is an exhortation to a group people to praise someone or something. The old English translation of “Praise, ye” is, therefore, a very accurate translation.
“Yah” (יה) is a version of “YHVH” (יהוה) – an English transliteration of the covenant name of Israel’s God. Jewish belief holds that this name is too holy to be pronounced at all. In fact, no one really knows how to pronounce it correctly. Ancient Hebrew did not use vowels, but only consonants. In translating “YHVH,”, both Jewish and Christian translators substituted the word “Lord” – a rough translation of another Hebrew name for God (אֲדונָי) – Adonai. To signify that “YHVH” was the original Hebrew word used in the text – it was printed in “all capitals,” (LORD and not simply “Lord”) in English translations.
Now that you’ve had your Hebrew lesson for the day (Yes, we did read it, but will we remember it? 😊), let’s get to the heart of the lesson.
1. What are we told to do? Verse 1 – We are told to praise the LORD (Yaweh or in Hebrew YHWH) and to praise God (El)
2. Where do we praise? Verse 1 – In His sanctuary (corporate gathering) as a reason to praise, not just to socialize, learn, etc. The term, ‘mighty heavens’, signifies everywhere. So we are to praise God everywhere, not just during the hymns at church.
3. Why do we praise? Verse 2 – For what He’s done (creation, revelation, salvation, preservation), and also for Who He is. At this point, the Pastor gave an illustration from the life of Lemuel Hayes. I mistakenly assumed I could gather the information he shared on-line, but I don’t have the list of his trials and tribulations, but I at least uncovered something. The point of this portion of the message – – we continue to praise God for Who He is and what He’s done, regardless of our circumstances.
Lemuel Haynes was born on July 18, 1753, in West Hartford Connecticut. Haynes’ parents abandoned him as an infant, leaving him assigned as an indentured servant to the house of Deacon David Rose, in Granville Mass. He would stay there until his 21st birthday.
Haynes worked on the farm, and attended school at night. As a religious household, Saturday evenings were spent reading sermons from their local church. One Saturday night, Haynes read a very powerful sermon, and when asked about the author, he admitted that he had written it.
Deacon Rose began having Haynes write, proofread and give sermons.
Once Haynes reached twenty-one, he was freed from indenture. He enlisted in the Minutemen right after the battle at Lexington and Concord. Soon after he became one of three black men assigned to Ethan Allen’s famous Green Mountain Boys.
After the war, he continued to study theology and Latin. In 1780, Haynes was licensed to preach which he began to do at the Congregational Church of Middle Granville. He became the first black minister of an all-white congregation.
In 1785, Lemuel Haynes became the first ordained black minister. In 1787,he began preaching at the West Parish congregation in Rutland, Vermont, staying there for 31 years. He was passionately anti-slavery and oppression. His sermons talked of interracial benevolence, natural rights, and justice, and were shared internationally.
At Middlebury College’s second commencement, in 1804, Haynes received an honorary Master of Arts degree. This was only the 4th degree given by the school, and the first given to a black person.
Rev. Haynes died on September 28, 1833, at the age of 80. His home in South Granville, NY is now a museum. ~ the optionalfacts.com
4. How should we praise? Verse 3-5 – We are to praise joyously. Our face should reflect our heart.
5. Who should praise? Verse 6 – All of us, regardless of our circumstances. We can praise in trials because our focus is on the end of the story (eternity with the Father), not current events. We can lament (a passionate expression of grieve or sorrow), but we are to look in anticipation toward Jesus’ return.
He ended the message by looking at Revelation 19:1-8. If you’re interested, you can look it up, because even though it’s only 8 verses, it’s pretty long. 😊
My friend, Karen, has undergone many trials and tragedies in her life, but whenever she’s asked by someone how she manages, she has always responded, “Praise Him! Praise Him! Praise Him! No matter what, never stop praising Him!”
We hung out at home today until after dinner, then we drove into the Park again to visit the historic site we skipped over yesterday. It was a nice stop, that included a short walk to get to, and a moose sighting.
It turns out, it’s more like a driveway, because we discovered there’s a Park Ranger who lives back in there.
Further up the road from here, people had spotted a moose off in the distance.
You could see her, but she was too far away to even think about taking a picture. : (
Still hard to believe this turns into the raging river we envision from the Grand Canyon.
We were still a good distance away, plus we were on a hill,
but it seems she wasn’t happy to have company and she took her calf and headed into the woods.
Don’t know, but it sure is one huge hunk of solid, heavy wood!
Nice place, if you don’t mind people milling about your yard from sun up to dark.
On the way home, we had two separate moose sightings! One was as we walked another short trail and discovered a cow by the river.
After that, we came upon hordes of people hanging out, not only by the side of the road, but also up on a small hill. Moose sighting! There were three – two bulls and a cow! They didn’t seem too awfully concerned about the humans gawking, pointing and talking about them, but we didn’t stay long. Just in case they decided they’d had enough.
That car in front of us? Stopped.They moved up when we approached.
We’d seen enough for one evening, and continued on to home.
That’s it for today. Tomorrow we take on a long hike.