Today's Beginning

Ecclesiastes 7:8 (NLT), "Finishing is better than starting. Patience is better than pride." Tuesday... Have you ever changed your mind? Have you ever started something? You believed it was a very good thing to do. You felt clear and then started it but at some point you started thinking that maybe it wasn't the right thing to do. It was too hard so you decided to not finish it. In other words, you changed your mind. Now in my reading Ecclesiastes 7 this morning I came across verse 8 (NLT), "Finishing is better than starting. Patience is better than pride." Sometimes in the middle of something that we think we are to do we start thinking that maybe I should quit. It doesn't seem like it is falling into place the way I think it should. Our pride can get in the way of our wisdom, our patience.. Again Solomon says here, "Finishing is better than starting. Patience is better than pride." At some point in this past year Margaret and I thought we were doi...

Psalm 66:5 (NLT), "Come and see what God has done, what awesome miracles he performs for people." Monday... Let's come and see! There is so much to see in God's Word. Here the writer of Psalm 66:5 (NLT) says , "Come and see what God has done, what awesome miracles he performs for people." And being in God's Word is a great place to be as we start a new day and a new week. Now the Psalmist then takes us through some past miracles from God. It is always good even on a Monday to remember what God has done and of course we are just coming out of our celebration of Jesus being resurrected from the dead. Yes, the greatest of all of God's miracles I finished yesterday reading in the Gospel of Mark and of his view of Jesus' life and death and in Mark 16 of His resurrection but today I started looking at the beginning of Jesus life in Luke's Gospel. Now in chapter 1 it starts differently of the three other gospels. In starts with an angel coming to a...

Mark 14:38 (NKJV), "Watch and pray, lest you enter temptation. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak." Friday... He was definitely an example. Jesus on this Good Friday definitely was an example for us. He knew where our battles are won. Now on the day before, Jesus had brought his disciples together to encourage them. They had heard all that He had said but they still didn't really understand what was about to happen. And that is true of us in so many situations. Yes, what we call the Last Supper was a very special time but after it the real battle began. We in our humanness have so many temptations and Jesus had a human side. He knew what needed to be done by them and by Him to face what was about to happen. His Spiritual side knew there was a battle in His human side that needed to be won. So they all headed to a Garden. I just read Ecclesiastes 3 and in verse 8b (MSG) Solomon says, "A right time to wage war and another to make peace." and Jesus knew wh...

Psalm 63:1 (NLT), "I wait quietly before God, for my victory comes from him." Thursday... So, let's wait quietly. Now waiting quietly is so difficult and it is dependent upon who we believe is in control. Now if we think it is us then we are not so quiet are we? Now King David writes in Psalm 63:1 (NLT), "I wait quietly before God, for my victory comes from him." I am also reading a chapter a day in the book of Ecclesiastes and it is a very honest book. Solomon is the writer and he is known as the wisest man who has ever lived. He also wrote the book of Proverbs and I spend a lot of time in that book.  Now in the first verse of chapter 2 (NLT) of Ecclesiastes, Solomon writes, "I said to myself, 'Come on, let's try pleasure. Let's look for the '"good things"' in life.' But I found that this too, was meaningless." And he goes on and comes to the conclusion that all in life that we really give ourselves totally to do are ...

Psalm 31:1 (AMP), "In You, O LORD, I have placed my trust and taken refuge; Let me never be ashamed; In Your righteousness rescue me." We are living in a difficult time. It seems that the way of a Christ-follower may not be a popular way especially in some circles. Now, David also saw the potential in his day. In Psalm 31:1 (AMP) he says, "In You, O LORD, I have placed my trust and taken refuge; Let me never be ashamed; In Your righteousness rescue me." Yes, he implies that if he puts his trust in God then there is a potential to be ashamed and he asks God, "Let me never be ashamed." You would think that if we put our trust in God and all that comes from that we wouldn't have problems with being ashamed but in verse 4 (NLT) he asks God to "Pull me from the trap my enemies set for me." And that is so true today. Yes, there are so many traps out there but David continues in this verse to say something that we really, really need to remember, t...

Psalm 61:1-2 (NLT), "O God, listen to my cry! Hear my prayer. From the ends of the earth I cry to you for help when my heart is overwhelmed." Tuesday... That is a very good idea, but! Yes, David knew what to do when he was overwhelmed. He writes in Psalm 61:1-2 (NLT), "O God, listen to my cry! Hear my prayer. From the ends of the earth I cry to you for help when my heart is overwhelmed." Now Jesus also had something to say about this. Over in Mark 11 it says that the day after what we call Palm Sunday, Jesus and his disciples were headed back into Jerusalem and it says in 12b, "Jesus was hungry," and he saw a fig tree out ahead but there were only leaves on it and no figs so he said, "May no one eat your fruit again!" Now the next morning as they passed the fig tree, they noticed that it had withered from the roots up and that brought up a conversation and in verse 24 Jesus says, "I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe tha...