Wednesday... Everything is better. It really is.

Proverbs 15:17 (NLT) says, "A bowl of vegetables with someone you love is better than steak with someone you hate." Hate in no way makes anything better.

There are three comic strips that I read everyday in my newspaper. Oh, yes, I read two newspapers everyday. I know, I'm old. But I also have a computer and an IPhone and I use both. But back to the comics. The other day in the Family Circus comic strip one of the little boys asked the waitress in a restaurant, "Dose Children's Plate mean no vegetables?" Good question.

I heard Pastor Andy Wood of Saddleback Community Church in Lake Forest, California say that a better translation is "A bowl of vegetables and steak are better with someone you love" and that is true but that is not what this proverb says. "A bowl of vegetables with someone you love is better than steak with someone you hate."

Hate spoils everything. It really does. Now there are some things we are to hate. We are to hate the actions of evil people but not the people. Christ died and rose again for everyone. Hating actions and not passing it over to the person takes a life filled with God's love. Remember, Jesus said while hanging on the cross, "Father forgive then, they don't know what they have done." But that takes a love greater than we can produce. It comes from a heart that is filled with God's love.

Now there is a lot of hatred going around even in the church. Hatred can spoil our love, can't it? Now we can disagree with someone. We can hate what they stand for but not hate them. That is where being a Christ follower filled with God's love makes a difference. It really does.

So, what if someone hurt you, even abused you? Now loving them is impossible on your own but you need to see that hatred can make you an angry person. Yes, you may need to go for counseling, a lot of counseling, especially highly trained and qualified counseling from a Christian perspective. Hatred no matter the reason can get in the way of living a happy, fruitful and anger free life. But as you take care of it, you will find that God will use your experience with others who also have deep hatred.

The Message says, "Better a bread crust shared in love than a slab of prime rib served in hate." And that is so true. So let's not let hatred spoil the life that Jesus died for us to have and live. 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...

Tuesday... Each one of us see and describe what we are going through differently but...

Tuesday... Each one of us see and describe what we are going through differently but... We each one have our own way of explaining what we are going through, don't we? Some of us are maximisers, other are minimizers and neither one is better. We each one are different and we see what we are facing differently but no matter what it is and how you see it and describe it, God can handle it! Now the writer of Psalm 46 shows the extremes. In verse 1 he states the basic reality and then he moves on into our fears and he maximizes them to make sure we really understand. Here is what Psalm 46:1-3 (NLT) says, "God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. So we will not fear when earthquakes come and the mountains crumble into the sea. Let the oceans roar and foam. Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge!" So what do you fear? The Amplified Bible says verse 1 this way, "God is our refuge and strength [mighty and impenetrable], a very presen...

Wednesday... It didn't just happen.

Psalm 16;10 (NLT), "For you will not leave my soul among the dead or allow your holy one to rot in the grave." Wednesday... It didn't just happen. We are headed into a weekend of deep emotion. One that we really really love was killed and it didn't just happen. David in Psalm 16:10 (NLT) writes of this happening. He says about God, "For you will not leave my soul among the dead or allow your holy one to rot in the grave." We read over in the Gospels at the beginning of the New Testament in the Bible of the life of God's Son who came to earth to be our sacrifice so that our soul would not be left among the dead. Jesus came so that we wouldn't have to be buried at death and just left there. But he also shares that Jesus who was going to be killed as a sacrifice for our sins would not have to rot in a grave. David many generations before foretold this and that is what happened. Now that had to be a God thing. We can guess a lot about our future and we d...

Todays Beginning

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