Todays Beginning

Psalm 127:1 (NLT), "Unless the Lord builds a house, the work is wasted. Unless the Lord protects a city, guarding it with sentries will do no good." Friday... So who gets the credit? We do so much and we need the credit. It seems that our worth is attached to what we do. But Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived says in Psalm 127:1, "Unless the Lord builds a house, the work is wasted. Unless the Lord protects a city, guarding it with sentries will do no good." Yes, he understood this. Now we give him credit for building the first Temple of God. It took seven year for it to be built and it happened during his reign over Israel. Now his father, King David wanted to be the one to build the first Temple but because he was a man of war God didn't allow him to build it and he was a man after God's own heart. He was a great King, the second King of Israel and it seems that he should have been the one to build it, but he didn't. Now it is so important in our li...

Matthew 22:37 (NLT), "Jesus replied, 'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.'" Thursday... Now we all have questions. And Jesus was asked questions all the time while he was here on earth. Some of the questions came from searching hearts but others came from people trying to trap Jesus.  Now one question in Matthew 27 was a question by an expert in religious law and he was trying to trap Jesus but Jesus knew what he was doing and he used it. It did not throw him off track he used it. He didn't let the expert catch him off guard.  It would be so good if we didn't let people get to us.  Verse 36 (NLT) is the question and it is, "Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?" Now this guy knew the answer because he was an expert. He knew what Deuteronomy 6:5 said. Yes, we can be so prideful about what we know and we want to show off and also put down. And that is in no way a good th...

Psalm 125:1 (AMP), "Those who trust and rely on the Lord [with confident expectation] are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved but remains forever." Wednesday... They have been a constant. I have lived in Las Vegas, Nevada two different times for a total of 19 years. Now when we first moved here there were mountains all around this city. And they still are there. I'm sure that these same mountains were here when the first explorers had a drink in the Meadows. And I'm sure they were here way before anyone ever saw them. These mountains have been a constant. When we first came here in the nineties, there were many people. But we now have houses where there were no houses back then. This town has grown but something could happen and all humans could leave but the mountains will be a constant, they will still be here. Now it is important for us to see that God has been a constant even before the mountains and before people. He has for sure been a constant. Now I remembe...

Matthew 20:31 (AMP), "The crowd sternly told them to be quiet, but they cried all the more, 'Lord, Son of David (Messiah) have mercy on us!'" Tuesday... He rewards persistence. Over in Matthew 20 there is a great story in verses 29-34. It seems there were these two blind guys who were sitting beside the road and a large crowd was following Jesus and when they heard that Jesus was passing by they wanted his attention. We have this dog whose name is Turner and he can cause problems when he wants something. Now we can take the fact that it is in the middle of a TV show when he starts barking as an annoyance. And we can look at him and say that he is just doing that to get attention and correct him. Maybe even put him in time out. But if we go through all his needs we can usually come to what he is asking for and one of us gets up and takes care of the problem. Of course we can be so self-focused that we just correct him and not strive to find the problem. But many times ...

Deuteronomy 3:24 (NLT), "O Sovereign Lord, you have only begun to show your greatness and the strength of your hand to me, your servant. Is there any god in heaven or on earth who can perform such great and mighty deeds as you?" Monday... We haven't see anything yet! I am in my seventies and I have seen God work in so many ways. I really have. I love looking back and remembering and Moses seems to be doing the same thing here in Deuteronomy 3:24 (NLT). He writes in his old age, "O Sovereign Lord, you have only begun to show your greatness and the strength of your hand to me, your servant. Is there any god in heaven or on earth who can perform such great and mighty deeds as you?" And of course the answer is no. Yes he had gone through so much but there was more to come. Now he had seen the burning bush, he had seen all of the plagues in Egypt and then the crossing of the Red Sea on dry ground. But he also saw the 40 years of disobedience by the Children of Israel...