Sunny day

Pslm 97:11 

Light is sown for the righteous and joy for the upright in heart 

I love a bright sunny day. Especially when there isn’t a cloud in the sky, and this is exactly what I pictured when I read this verse. The sun being the brightest light we have in the sky; yet even it pales compared to the light of Christ which was sown for us. He makes us righteous through faith and then in His eyes we become upright in heart and receive His Joy.

Jesus is our sunny day so wake up sleeper, rise and shine for the light has come!

I will celebrate the light of Jesus everyday. He is the source of real joy!

Holy Father

Come and fill me its your joy, and let me walk in your light

Amen

Life Shock

1 Thessalonians 2:13 And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

 There is an item that you toss into a koi pond if you have green water that releases millions of bacteria that immediately  go to work to restore it’s clarity helping to balance the ecosystem. God’s word is like that in our lives. His word if allowed in immediately goes to work and  balances out the ecosystem of our lives. It corrects us, changes us,and makes us better people…His people. The problem is most Christians don’t get into their Bible for themselves. So we flounder in the green water of sinful thoughts, habits, and words. Never changing; always remaining the same. We need His word at work in us to restore clarity and balance

I’m going to continue to make reading God’s word a daily priority and habit. I will continue to allow it to change me.

Holy Father,

Your Word is living and can be active in me from within, but only if I get it into my life daily. I know it will work on my hidden sin and make me more like you. So I will make your word a daily priority.

Amen.

By the way green water is usually caused by too much fish waste. So essentially they are swimming in their own filth. Don’t swim in your filth give your life a shock and make reading the Bible a priority.

Inside Out

Matt 23:25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
I saw a preacher who was holding a cup in his hand ask a woman who had volunteered to vigorously shake his hand while he held the cup. Water spilled out over the rim and onto the floor. Then he asked her “Why did the water spill out of the cup when you shook my hand?” She replied with the obvious “Because that was what was in it.” “Exactly!” He said. His point was this: when we experience a shaking what comes out of us is that which is in us…Wow! I don’t know about anyone else but I am ashamed by what too often comes out when I’m shook.

I want to be so changed by Jesus and God’s word that I’ll be an empty cup where nothing will come out when shook. Because God has washed it clean. He is the source to wash away all my filth and empty the cup of my life making it new.
Holy Father,

Do your work in me! Change me and make me clean. Holy Spirit have your perfect work in me until it is finished.

Amen

What do you value

Pslm 139:17

How precious to me are your thoughts oh God! How vast is the sum of them.

Today we value so much stuff that really has no effect upon our lives. Things like sport, possessions, celebrities. Sure they may provide some short term pleasure or diversion, but do they really change us, or somehow make us better? No. Jesus said where your treasure is there your heart will be. In this verse we see that the thoughts of God are precious and vast. So I wonder what would happen in each Christians life if we valued above all else the thoughts of God? what kind of people would we then be? 

Far different than we are I am sure.

I will make the thoughts of God precious and search the vastness of them

Holy Father

Help me to know your thoughts, and search the vastness of them and be changed.

Restrained

Scripture 

1 Samuel 25:26 Now then, my lord, as the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, because the Lord has restrained you from bloodguilt and from saving with your own hand, now then let your enemies and those who seek to do evil to my lord be as Nabal.
Observation 

We are so prone to make rash decisions when our ego has been bruised, or when we feel someone has failed to treat us the way we treated them. Yet if we will listen and pay attention instead of allowing our anger to make us deaf. God will keep us from sinning. To do this He may use His word, or another person to speak to us and keep and keep us from acting, or behaving in a rash manor. Because the truth is…only God can save. Only He can deliver and restore us. Restoring our reputation, emotions, and our lives. We need to quit reacting first when we’ve been wronged or feel we’ve been. God wants to deliver us from this, and save us from ourselves if we will just listen.

Application

I will allow God to speak to me and slow me down when my emotions are running high, and I am about to act in a manor that will destroy what He wants to do through me.

Prayer
Holy Father 

Keep me in check and change me. Touch my life and help me see that you are my salvation and deliverer.
Amen.

Thanksgiving

What God showed me this morning. (I put an explanation of my devotional method at the end)

S: Psalm 50:23 The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God.
O: Sometimes thanksgiving is truly a sacrifice. When we find ourselves in deep grief, and sorrow, or we are under intense emotional distress. It can feel almost impossible to find a way or reason to offer thanksgiving. Yet, if it is nothing more than just being thankful for salvation we glorify God; and that’s the start of the road to healing.
A: Even when it’s hard I will find a a way to offer up thanksgiving as my sacrifice. Because I want to glorify God.
P: Holy Father, today I offer up my thanksgiving to You. For I am thanking you for what You have done for me in Jesus my Lord, and all you have brought me through and given me.

Amen
I use a devotional method that uses the acronym S.O.A.P. Scripture, Obsrevation, Application, Prayer. Some may be familiar with it, if not let me briefly explain how it works. You have a Bible in a year reading plan and you read the chapters for the day while asking God to speak to you through what you read. Then when a verse jumps out at you write it down that’s the S. Then the O is what did you observe about that verse, or what is it saying to you. The A is how will I live differently because of what I saw in the Observation. And the P is pray that application or observation into your life. Give it a try God might just work in you through it.

Where’s your mind?

Col. 3:1 Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, Keep seeking the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

I’ve heard it said that Christians can be so heavenly minded that they are of no earthly good, but today it seems that they can be so earthly minded they are of no heavenly good.

Jesus said “Seek first the Kingdom” and “to store up your treasures where neither moth, rust nor thieves can break in and steal.” Paul tells us in this verse to seek the things above where Christ is seated.

What all this means for us then is that we should as Christians become so Heavenly minded that we effect the earthly for His kingdom. We are to be in the world but not of it.

Set your mind upon Him and make a difference here!

 

He is faithful

1 Cor. 1:9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into fellowship with his son, Jesus Christ our Lord. (NET)

So many times we are tempted to doubt the faithfulness of God. Perhaps it’s circumstances that blind us to this truth, or maybe it’s the lies f I’m the enemy that we have believed. Whatever the case this eternal truth remains even when we fail to believe it. 

I’ve decided that no matter what may befall me I will stand in this truth…..God is faithful!

A Grandfathers discovery

Guess what I just discovered something as a Grandfather and I really believe that what I discovered is one of the reasons grandchildren bring us so much joy. This thing may also be why Grandkids love their Grandparents in a way that is different from their Parents.

Now I am not saying parents that they love us more. Rather they love us differently from you. Uniquely.

So what am I talking about?

Well simply put it is the way Grandparents celebrate the ordinary.

See I’ve noticed something about myself as a grandfather. Everything that my grandkids do is important to me. Oh don’t get me wrong I took joy and pleasure in the biggies like the first word, and steps, but I also take joy in the normal things they do. Like givimg them cookies, or a Popsicle on a hot day.

I don’t recall these things being as important to me as a parent. I was to busy providing and caring for them to notice the simple things…the ordinary things.

Now though as a Grandfather I get joy in providing the ordinary. Why? Maybe it’s because the pressures off so I can relax and notice the ordinary things like popscicles and cookies. The funny way they go about doing things like getting their toys out of the toy box.

I really believe God is like this also. Jesus tells us in Luke 12:23For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.
24 “Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap; they have no storeroom nor barn, and yet God feeds them; how much more valuable you are than the birds!

Also I believe that God calls our ordinary extrodinary! Just like Grandparents who make a big deal of little things that parents are to busy to notice at times. Grandparents aren’t and so we call attention to it and celebrate it.

God wants us to celebrate the ordinary in the lives of our grandchildren and children. So embrace His gift of life and celebrate it even if it’s ordinary.

Real social justice

Often I hear Christians talk about social justice in the sense of feeding and clothing the poor. Most of the time it’s to alieviate some strange sense of guilt they feel about their economic situation or out of some twisted way of thinking that believes that the poor are some how more righteous than the rich.

They become outraged over perceived injustices against people of a lower socio-economic position than they find themselves in. So they point out how God loves the poor, and believe that faith in action is caring for the poor and fighting for them.

Is this really social justice?

To be honest God does love the poor, but he doesn’t love them any more than the rich. They are no more righteous than the wealthy just because they are poor. This isn’t social justice either. Rather it is Marxist theology that is a false view of the gospel.

If you and I want real social justice then let’s stand and fight drugs and alcohol. Think of the homes destroyed that you know of from alcohol alone. How many children have been abused by a drunk mother or father? How many children are wards of the state because of the drug epidemic? Homes destroyed grandparents raising grandchildren because of drugs and alcohol abuse. Where is the Christian brother or Sister helping them?

God is concerned for the poor no doubt but what about the wealthy alcoholic or heroine addict? Why do we not stand up against these sins as a real fight for social justice?