Friday... We each have our own perspective.

Psalm 112:4a (NLT), "Light shines in the darkness for the godly."

Friday... We each have our own perspective.

We really do.

David starts Psalm 102 by saying in verse 1 (NLT), "Praise the Lord." and no matter what we are facing today that is a great place to start. And then he says in verse 4a, "Light shines in the darkness for the godly."

I read this morning in Facebook of the death of one of our friends. It was sudden and I am so sorry to those of her family. That is definitely a dark place. And again, I am so sorry.

Now death may not be a part of your situation that you are facing today. Yes, we each one have our situation and for many they are dark. But David says "Light shines in the darkness for the godly." And that probably is hard for us to see as we face our dark situation.

I also in my reading this morning read in John 11 of some bad news that one of Jesus' good friends was very sick and about to die and his sister had sent a message to Jesus to come fast. She knew he could heal him but Jesus looked at this situation from a different perspective.

Verse 4 says, "But when Jesus heard about it he said, 'Lazarus's sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this.'" And that is definitely a different perspective. And maybe that darkness you are facing and you are praying to God to take care of may be happening from God's perspective. Remember, "Light shines in the darkness for the gody." If we have given our darkness to God then we must trust him.

Now Jesus didn't come when they asked him to come and Lazarus did die so when he did come, it was when everyone was grieving and verse 35 says, "Then Jesus wept." He emotionally saw this from these people's perspective. Yes, Jesus cares in what is happening to us. But from his perspective death was not suppose to happen. God had a different plan but sin came into the Garden of Eden and God's plan changed. This darkness came because of disobedience. Death was not God's plan and Jesus wept because of their grief.

Yes, Jesus did bring his friend back to life but down the road everyone is going to die. But in this darkness, believers will have the reward of eternal life. John 3:16 says, "For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life." Death for the believer is just a moving to a new home forever. Yes, those who are left behind feel the emotions of separation and again that wasn't God's plan and this verse tells how he took care of it.

Now there was one other group who should have been excited about what happen but the religious leaders saw it as a problem. They saw from their perspective that people were going to turn from follow them to following Jesus so they set out to kill him and also Lazarus but again John 3:16 shows how God used the darkness for good. Jesus was resurrected from the dead.

So in your darkness first of all turn to God and praise him and then believe that "Light shines in the darkness for the godly." That is the perspective that we can have because it is true. Yes, yes! #todaysbeginning

Thursday... Maybe we need this word today.

Psalm 57:1b (NIRV), "There I will stay until the danger is gone." Thursday... Maybe we need this word today. There are words in life that give us confidence no matter what we are facing. Now we have to believe them in order for them to have an impact. David wrote Psalm 57 while he was in a cave hiding from Saul who wanted to kill him and he says in the last part of verse 1, "There I will stay." It was a safe place and Saul didn't know that he was there. But he doesn't stop there. With confidence he said, "There I will stay until." And until is definitely a word of faith and confidence. "There I will stay until the danger is gone." Do we need that today? Let me give you the whole verse. In verse 1 David says, "Have mercy on me, God. Have mercy on me." And that is a great place to start in times of trouble. Maybe that is what we need to pray today, "Have mercy on me, God. Have mercy on me." It is so great to have someone...

Tuesday... We just have trouble listening.

1 Corinthians 13:7 (NLT), "Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance." Tuesday... We just have trouble listening. Over in Jeremiah 25:4 (NLT) it says, "Again and again the LORD has sent you his servants, the prophets, but you have not listened or even paid attention." And Jeremiah went on to tell what was going to happen. There will be consequences if we do not listen to what God says through his Word. Now the Apostle Paul over in 1 Corinthians was having a problem with some professed Christ followers who were having trouble at listening. And we too can have problems at listening. We can think that being a Christ follower means we do a lot of finger pointing and we give up on people who don't do what we say. We can even do that in our families. But Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13:7 (NLT), "Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance." In verse ...

Friday... It is so exciting but wait a minute.

Proverbs 19:2 (NLT), "Enthusiasm without knowledge is no good; haste makes mistakes." Friday... It is so exciting but wait a minute. This time of the year is so exciting. We get our paycheck from work and then we head to the store or Amazon and buy and buy and buy all those presents and then our check is gone Proverbs 19:2 (NLT) says, "Enthusiasm without knowledge is no good; haste makes mistakes." But buying gifts can be so much fun and seeing how happy they are when opening those presents makes us feel so good. But then verse 3 says, "People ruin their lives by their own foolishness and then they are angry at the Lord." Now for some that is their life. They get money and they spend it on their wants with no thought of what needs to be paid. An important lesson that we have learned is just because you have money in the bank doesn't mean you must spend it. But our enthusiasm takes over. But the problem is when it is gone and there is no money to pay th...

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