Re: Only God can bring us back home (Psalm 23:3)

Dr. Ben and my friends. Thank you for your report and brotherly love for me. Though small, I pray for West Loop daily. 

May the Lord bring all of us new life, free from condemnation, liberate us so that we may freely choose to do your will. 

Praise God. 

Happy New Year! 

Joshua Hong

On Tue, Dec 28, 2021 at 8:08 PM Benjamin Toh <benjamintoh@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Joshua, this is my brief report.

In the last few years at West Loop UBF, Ben Toh preached through:

• Matthew's Gospel [mainly referencing Stanley Hauerwas].
• Parables of Christ [as explained by Kenneth Bailey, who's book "Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes" won Christianity's book of the year].
• 1 Corinthians [from commentaries by Richard Hays and Gordon Fee], and 2 Corinthians.
• Currently, we began studying Exodus [by Jewish professors Robert Altar and Leon Kass].

A few brief things we learned in the last few years:

• "He brings me back" or "My life, He brings back." From Psalm 23, the King James Bible popularized the phrase "he restores my soul," which has inspired and encouraged multitudes of Christians over the centuries. The NIV translates it as "he refreshes my soul" (Psalm 23:3). But it is a paraphrase from the Hebrew which literally says, "He brings me back" or "My life, He brings back." Just as the good shepherd [representing God/Christ] finds and brings the lost sheep back (Lk 15:1-7), and the woman combs through her house to find her lost coin (Lk 15:8-10), and the father who longs to bring back both of his lost sons (Lk 15:11-32), the psalmist King David confesses that God brought him back to Himself. We are encouraged to learn that only God can restore a lost sinner.
• Freedom from judgment. Consciously or not, we often judge others and then insist that our judgment is absolutely correct. But Paul says, "I care very little if I'm judged by you or by any human court...it is the Lord who judges me" (1 Cor 4:3,4). We learn that one is truly free when they live before the judgment of God rather than the judgments of men.
  
• "New creation" (2 Cor 5:17). We incline toward doing things--even good things--habitually. But in Christ every single day, every single morning, every single moment is a brand new day and a brand new morning, not the same old, same old boring habitual predictable routine.
• Liberation from...liberation for. As we now begin studying Exodus, we learn that God gives us freedom not to do whatever we want, but that we can now freely choose who to serve: Pharaoh [boss, leader, supervisor, a human being] or God alone.

Attached are the couples of West Loop.