Today's Beginning

Psalm 102:2b (NLT), "And answer me quickly when I call to you." Tuesday... It really does get in the way. I arrived at my coffee shop, Aspire, a little earlier today. I got my normal table but I had to wait in line to get my coffee and I'll be honest, I can have a problem at waiting. When I finally got my coffee and sat down I started thinking about my response inside that I had to wait and it came to me how much pride I have and of how it gets in the way. Yes, pride gets in the way of our enjoying life. I got my coffee and then started reading Psalm 102:1-2. Here is what it says, "LORD, hear my prayer! Listen to my plea!" Notice that both sentences end with exclamation marks. Verse 2 goes on, "Don't turn away from me in my time of distress. Bend down to listen, and answer me quickly when I call to you." Notice in these 2 verses there are 3 my's, two me's and one I. I was thinking back to yesterday morning. Down at the corner before my coff...

Psalm 101:2b (Msg), "I'm doing the best I can, and I'm doing it at home, where it counts." Monday... He gets to the point. David knows what is best. In Psalm 101:2b (Msg) he says, "I'm doing the best I can, and I'm doing it at home, where it counts." Now in the first part of the verse he says, "I'm finding my way down the road of right living, but how long before you show up." Yes, we really do need God's help especially at home. Someone has said that the weakest link in our Christian life is at home. And in reality, it is the most important. Now David starts in verse 1 by saying, "My theme song is God's love and justice, and I'm singing it right to you, God." And David knows that we need to sing and live that song especially at home. Yes that needs to be our prayer to live and sing that song. Verses 1-2 in the Amplified Bible says, "I will sing of [steadfast] lovingkindness and justice; to You, O LORD, I will...

Isaiah 8:11a (NLT), "The LORD has given me a strong warning not to think like everyone else." Friday... It depends on our focus. There is so much in the Bible for our daily walk and attitude and we need to spend time of focus and obeying it. Isaiah, one of the major prophets in the Old Testament of the Bible writes in 8:11a (NLT), "The LORD has given me a strong warning not to think like everyone else." Isaiah was in a very difficult time and we are too. There was and is so much to cause us to think like everyone else. Now Isaiah said in verse 12, "Don't call everything a conspiracy, like they do, and don't live in dread of what frightens them." Verse 13 (AMP), "It is the LORD of hosts whom you are to regard as holy and awesome. He shall be your [source of] fear, He shall be your [source of] dread [not man]." And if we do that, verse 14 says, "Then He shall be a sanctuary [a sacred, indestructible shelter for those who fear and trust...

Luke 24:6 (NLT), "He isn't here! He is risen from the dead! Remember what he told you back in Galilee" Tuesday... There is so much frustration. And so many times that is so true of us. The last chapter of Luke starts on Sunday morning with some women coming to the tomb where they thought Jesus was buried after his crucifixion on Friday. Saturday was the Sabbath and because of their Jewish belief they couldn't come but here on Sunday they came with spices they had prepared. In other words they came to show how much they loved Jesus but they found the tomb empty and they were so frustrated and discouraged and terrified. And so many times in our life we have deep emotions because life isn't going the way we planned. It is so easy for us to have problems with God because of our life not turning out the way we thought it should. Many times we too are frustrated, discouraged and even terrified. We wonder why God isn't taking care of us the way we think he should. He...

Luke 23:49 (NLT), "But Jesus friends, including the woman who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance watching." Wednesday... Have you ever felt this way? You feel like your world is falling apart. So what did you do? Luke 23:49 (NLT) says, "But Jesus friends, including the woman who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance watching." Now verse 47, right before this verse says, "And when all the crowd that came to see the crucifixion saw what had happened, they went home in deep sorrow." They were there to see if this man, Jesus was who he said he was and it seemed that they hadn't really put their lives, their trust in this man so they went home with disappointment. But the ones in verse 48 were different. They believed with all their heart that Jesus was the one and the fact that he died shook them but they didn't run. Their world it seemed died and they didn't really understand what was happening but they still held on a...

Psalm 95:7b (MSG), "Drop everything and listen, listen as he speaks." Tuesday... Let's do it. There is so much that goes through our mind and it isn't all for our good. Now God's voice is not always the loudest. So what do we do to hear him because what he says is so. so important? Psalm 95:7b (MSG) says, "Drop everything and listen, listen as he speaks." Yes, the drop everything is so important. There is so much that goes through our mind and as I said, it isn't all for our good. So this is a great piece of advice. "Drop everything and listen, listen as he speaks." Now this statement is at the end of two important verses. Verses 6 -7b in the New Living Translation says, "Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our maker, for he is our God. We are the people he watches over, the flock under his care. If only we would listen to his voice today." Yes, there are so many voices striving to get our attention and...