Today's Beginning

Psalms 113:5-6 (NLT), "Who can be compared with the LORD our God, who is enthroned on high? He stoops to look down on heaven and earth." Friday... He really does care about what is going on. I know we can get to a place in life where we feel we are a success. And we can get to the place that we feel that we are better than anyone else. We may look down on people. Now Psalms 113:5 (NLT) says, "Who can be compared with the LORD our God, who is enthroned on high?" And that is true. None of us can compare to God and he looks down on us. But it is way different than people who think they are better than us, who look down on us. Verse 6 says, "He stoops to look down on heaven and earth." And that is a way different stooping than a lot of people around us who think they are better than us. Without a doubt none of us compare to God. Yes, he definitely is better than us and his stooping means that he really cares about us and what we are doing. The Amplified Bible ...

Psalms 112:1 (NIV), "Praise the LORD. Blessed are those who fear the LORD, who find great delight in his commands."  Thursday... Look at this. The Psalmist in 112:1 (NIV) gives some great encouragement to those who fear the LORD and who delight in following what he commands. He writes, "Praise the LORD. Blessed are those who fear the LORD, who find great delight in his commands." Now there are two words in there that are important words. One is "Blessed" and the other is "fear". So what do they mean here in the Bible? Now the Amplified Bible translation gives some more details. It says, "Praise the LORD (Hallelujah!) Blessed [fortunate, prosperous, and favored by God] is the man who fears the LORD [with awe-inspired reverence and worships Him with obedience], who delights in His commandments." The New International Version says "who find great delight in his commands." Now step back and ponder what blessed and fear means to th...

Psalms 111:2 (NLT), "How amazing are the deeds of the LORD! All who delight in him should ponder them." Wednesday... This would truly make a daily difference. There really are actions that we could do each day that would make a definite difference in our day. Let me ask you, how do you wake up each morning? Good morning Lord or good Lord it's morning. Same words but put in a different order with a totally different attitude. Now the first thing I do when I wake up and after I clean up and put on my clothes is to get my water and my coffee and my Bible and read a Psalm of the day. Today, I read Psalm 111 and in verse 2 it says, "How amazing are the deeds of the LORD! All who delight in him should ponder them." And the word that jumped out at me was the word ponder. I delight in the LORD because I ponder his amazing deeds.' Now for many the first thing they do is check the internet and all of the negative in the world. That's how they wake up. They ponder ...

1 Thessalonians 5:14b (NLT), "Be patient with everyone." Tuesday... Such good and practical advice. Paul gives such good and practical advice here in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 14. Now encouragement has different meanings for different times and different situations. There are encouraging words in the Bible that lift us up when we are going through tough times but it also means to be encouraged to do better, to try a different approach. And this verse is the second encouragement. 1 Thessalonians 5:14b encourages us to "Be patient with everyone." and that is a great encouragement but it is interesting what he says in the beginning of this verse. Now you see after you have read the beginning of this verse why he would say, "Be patient with everyone." Here is what it encourages us to do. He says, "Brothers and sisters, we urge you to warn those who are lazy. Encourage those who are timid. Take tender care of those who are weak." And then "...

Proverbs 19:11 (NLT), "Sensible people control their temper; they earn respect by overlooking wrongs." Monday... This really makes sense. It is so easy to be out there being angry at all the wrongs around us. But the problem is, we are doing it in other people instead of in ourselves. We get so angry with other people but Proverbs 19:11 (NLT) says, "Sensible people control their temper; they earn respect by overlooking wrongs." And that really does make sense. I am a retired minister and in reality I can be hard to live with. It is so easy for me to constantly be pointing out wrongs in others and getting angry but that doesn't really make sense. It is better to live as an example. Have you noticed that if I point my finger at someone else there are three fingers pointing back at me? Yes, in reality we need to be overlooking wrongs instead of getting angry. Now we are in midterm elections here in the USA and there is a lot of anger going on. "Sensible people...

Psalms 106:2 (N:LT), "Who can list the glorious miracles of the LORD? Who can ever praise him enough?" Friday... So we can try and see what happens. Now there are lists that we are really good at making. I mean, we can really list our needs, can't we? And the LORD wants us to bring them to Him. He says so over and over. But we also need to strive to remember the glorious miracles of the LORD in our life and that will lift us in our hope and our faith in times of difficulty. And Paul needed that. Over in 1 Thessalonians 3 the writer of this letter, Paul was going through troubles himself and he was worried about how the new Christians in Thessalonica were handling the troubles they were going through so he sent Timothy to find out. Now Paul was definitely a man of faith. He could make a list of times that God had brought him through trouble but he was concerned about these new Christians in Thessalonica. And verse 6 says, "But now Timothy has just returned, bringing u...