Monday... I'm back and ready to go.

We have gone from Vegas to Colorado, to Maryland, Florida, Bahamas, Cuba, Mexico and back to Vegas. Well we weren't in Cuba but we cruised close to it. Yes we have been flying and cruising and now we are back home and I'm sitting here in my special coffee shop, Aspire, ready to write a word of encouragement for us.

So how are you doing? What is your Monday like? Are you ready to face another day, another week or are you ready to give up. Yes, yes, life can be difficult. It really can be tough. So how are you handling what you are facing?

There is a phrase in Psalm 119:8b (NLT) that says, "Please don't give up." And that is a very good word of encouragement. But that is not what it says here. Yes, it is so easy sometimes for us to want to give up, to just want to stay in bed and not get up. It does say that in many other Psalms but that is not what is says here in verses 7-8.

Verses 7-8 says, "As I learn your righteous regulations, I will thank you for living as I should! I will obey your decrees. Please don't give up on me." And that is maybe what we could be saying in the midst of what we are going though. But here is the truth. He will never give up on us, on you and me. He may step back and wait on us to learn and lean on his righteous regulations and to thank him for giving us the desire to obey what he says but he will never give up on us.

So no matter what you are facing today, he has not given up on you.

Over in Exodus 15 the children of Israel were on the other side of the miracle of walking through the Red Sea on dry ground, of escaping their slavery in Egypt but they couldn't find any water and they were complaining. No they weren't thanking, they were complaining. Now they did find some water but it was bitter. Verse 25 says, "So Moses cried out to the Lord for help, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. Moses threw it into the water, and this made the water good to drink. It was there at Marah that the Lord set before them the following decree as a standard to test their faithfulness to him."

Verse 26, "He said, 'If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his sight, obeying his commands and keeping his decrees, then I will not make you suffer any of the diseases I sent on the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you."

As you continue the story of the children of Israel they didn't follow this but God didn't give up on them and he hasn't give up on us. Now God used a tree to fix the bitterness in that water. And throughout the Bible as we read it we will see that a tree represents the cross of Jesus. The cross provides the main form of healing that we all need most: healing from sin. That tree, the cross, means we get to live and it means that God has not and will not give up on us, on you and me.

So don't give up doing what he says for us to do and remember that he hasn't given up on us.

Verses 5-8 (MSG) says, "You, God, prescribed the right way to live; now you expect us to live it. Oh, that my steps might be steady, keeping to the course you set; Then I'd never have any regrets in comparing my life with your counsel. I thank you for speaking straight from your heart; I learn the pattern of your righteous ways. I'm going to do what you tell me to do; don't ever walk off and leave me."

So, let's do what he wants us to do and believe that he hasn't given up on us. Yes, yes! #todaysbeginning

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

Search This Blog