Monday... Here are four important words for today.

Let me ask you, do you strive to widen your vocabulary each day? Let me give you four words to dwell on and meditate on today that can make a difference for tomorrow. Here they are: careful planning, hurry and scurry. These are words that I need reinforced in my mind today.

Proverbs 21:5 (MSG) says, "Careful planning puts you ahead in the long run; hurry and scurry puts you further behind." Now that may not make sense but it is very wise.

I don't know where I'm going but I'm ahead of schedule. Now that doesn't make sense but that is the way that so many people live. They are always, always in a hurry.

This verse in the New Living Translation says, "Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty." The NIRV says, "The plans of people who work hard succeed. You can be just as sure that those in a hurry will become poor."

We can be in such a hurry that we can't even see the signs along the road that are there to protect us and to guide us.

Verse 29 (NLT) says, "The wicked bluff their way through, but the virtuous think before they act."

Verse 11 (MSG), "Simpletons only learn the hard way, but the wise learn by listening." But learning by listening takes time. Yes it does. "Careful planning puts you ahead in the long run."

And then verse 21 (NIV), "Whoever pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity and honor."

Again verse 5 but in the Amplified Bible, "The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance and advantages, but everyone who acts in haste comes surely to poverty."

So let's slow down and and do some careful planning. Yes, yes! #todaysbeginning

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Friday... Yes, we need them. We really do

Psalm 8:3-4 (NLT), "When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers - the moon and the stars you set in place - what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?" Friday... Yes, we need them. We really do. No, not the fact that I can go out my front door and look out at night at the marvels of the sky. I can do that and it is amazing and it takes my breath away each time I see it. Yes, that is a fact but the reality of who did that and the wisdom and the faith that I have to believe that and to marvel that the one who did that cares about me makes such a difference in how I live my life. Yes, God really does. That is so wonderful for us to believe. And that is why faith and wisdom are so important. Now whatever belief you have at how that marvel happened must also be believed through faith. And the sad thing to me is that more and more people have been taught that there is no God and therefore he did not have a h...

Monday... Three ifs and two thens. They go together!

Monday... Three ifs and two thens. They go together! They really do. And this is what caught my attention this morning as I was reading Proverbs 2. Verse 1 (NRSVUE) says, "My child, if you accept my words and treasure my commands within you." Verse 3 (NIV), "Indeed i f you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, Verse 4, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, Verse 5, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God." And verses 9-11, " Then you will understand what is right and just and fair - every good path. For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you." There will always be some effort we must do, some ifs for the thens to be realized in our lives. So many of us want to understand without the ifs. But the thens are so worth, so very worth the effort. Verses 5-6 in the Ampli...

Wednesday... Our unless can turn into useless.

Wednesday... Our unless can turn into useless. It really can. I have found that unless I give the correct email of my wife then I can't get what I wanted. I put an extra i in her email and I have been working for 5 days to get it changed. Unless has been useless. The writer of Psalm 94 uses this word and shows how important it is. Verses 17-19 (NLT) says, "Unless the Lord had helped me, I would have soon settled in the silence of the grave. I cried out, 'I'm slipping!' but your unfailing love, O Lord, supported me. When doubts filled my mind, your comfort gave me renewed hope and cheer." "Unless the Lord had helped me." So many people go on and on and on striving to live their life on their own but they keep slipping and doubting and living without hope and cheer. Yes the Lord has such unfailing love for us, he really does but unless we have a relationship with him and we turn to him and ask him for help then the unless turns in to useless because h...

Todays Beginning

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