Today's Beginning

Monday... Ok, Sunday is over and it's now Monday. Look at this, Psalm 150:1 (MSG) says, "Hallelujah! Praise God in his holy house of worship, praise him under the open skies." We tend to dictate how others do stuff dependent on our own ways of doing them. Yes, Church is a great place to praise God but so is being out in nature. Yes Sunday is a great time to praise him but it is not the only time. We each are uniquely created by God. Yes we praise him on the weekend in a building but we also can and need to praise him the rest of the week in other places besides a church building. Praise isn't based on where or when. Verse 3 says, "Praise him with a blast on the trumpet, praise by strumming soft strings." God loves it when we praise him. Do you realize he created trumpets and he created soft strongs? Maybe you were created for loud or maybe you were created for soft.  Now he doesn't limit us in how we praise him, he just wants us to praise him. Verse 6 (N...

Saturday... From my point of view it doesn't look new. It really doesn't. I'm looking out of the window of the Skye Canyon Starbucks at a parked RV that looks like it has been used and maybe abused. For sure it has a flat tire so it is not going to be driven off the parking lot. But it's possible that someone slept in it last night. Now I haven't been in it so I don't know what it is like on the inside. But from my point of view it doesn't look too good but what if a new owner took over that RV? Changes could happen on the inside.  Our lives can be like that, can't they? Now we would like to change our outside but time can hinder that but Christ can change our inside which affects our outside.. 2 Corinthians 5:16-17 says, "So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new pe...

Friday... The weekend is coming. For many Friday is the last day of the work week and the weekend is coming. And they are so excited. I have a standard joke that I know some get tired of me saying. But I say that I never have a day off, I never have a vacation, I am always retired and it took me a lifetime to get this job. And all of that is true and for many that is what they are looking forward to. There are so many that would love to just quit what they are doing.  The truth is, I loved what I was doing and I had some problems with retirement until I realized that God still had a purpose for me and that I wasn't quitting, I was still living the life God had given to me.  Now there is this verse written by Paul in his 2nd letter to the Corinthians church. It is in chapter 4 verse 1 (NLT) and it says, "Therefore, since God in his mercy has given us this new way, we never give up." Another way to say the word way in this verse is ministry." We are not doing what we d...

Thursday... Here are two of them. As you read through the Scriptures you will pick some of them up. In Psalm 147 there are two of them. In verse 5 (NLT) two of God's attributes are mentioned. It says, "How great is our Lord! His power is absolute! His understanding is beyond comprehension!" He is all powerful and all knowing. We don't serve a God who is weak and doesn't know anything.  The Amplified Bible says, "Great is our [majestic and mighty] Lord and abundant in strength; His understanding is inexhaustible [infinite, boundless]." So what are you going through? Could it be that our God has what it takes to handle it? The answer is yes.  And then there is another one, down the way.  Look at this. Verses 8-10 (NLT) says, "He covers the heavens with clouds, provides rain for the earth, and makes the grass grow in mountain pastures. He gives food to the wild animals and feeds young ravens when they cry. He takes no pleasure in the strength of a hors...

Wednesday... Our load can get so heavy, can't it? And we need all the encouragement we need, don't we? Look at this. David in Psalm 146:1 & 2 (NLT) says, "I will exalt you, my God and King, and praise your name forever and ever. I will praise you every day; yes, I will praise you forever."  Now our praise seems to get our eyes off of the impossible situation that we are facing. And there are so many who are in impossible situations and that is all they see. And that is so understandable. But David is saying that we need to exalt not the problem but our God. And in that our faith will grow even just a little bit and our hope catches a spark. And in that our mind starts to look for solutions instead of discouragement. Verse 3 says, "Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise! No one can measure his greatness." Verse 5, "I will proclaim your majestic, glorious splendor and your wonderful miracles." Think back on other impossible situations tha...

Tuesday... Our questions and answers tell a lot.  Psalm 145:2 & 3 (NIV) says, "Why do the nations say, 'Where is their God?'" The answer is, "Our God is in heaven;" and I love this, "he does whatever pleases him." Three important words here, why, where and whatever." First of all, "Why do the nations say?" Well, it may be because of what they are going through and they know where their gods are and how useless they are, so they want to know. Verses 4-5 says, "But their idols are silver and gold, made by human hands. They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see." Yes they know where their gods are but they don't do anything, they don't make a difference. Maybe they are looking for a god that will make a difference in their lives. So why ? So many times we think that they are putting us down but maybe they really want to know. So then where, "Where is their God?" We don't see him so maybe...

Monday... Yes, we are. Yes, we are.  We may not think we are as important as many may think they are but we are important. Yes, we are. I was headed into Aspire Coffee this morning to get a cup of coffee and do my writing and I heard someone calling my name. It was the manager who came to tell me that the air conditioning was out and that it might be a good thing for me to go to Starbucks. Now she didn't need to do that but she did. She was thinking about my comfort. And I appreciated it. Now I wasn't the only one that she did that too but I did appreciate it. Look at this. Psalm 144:3 (NLT) says, "O Lord, what are human beings that you should notice them, mere mortals that you should think about them?" He's talking about God here and he's talking about you and me.  It is true that we think about ourselves, it seems, all the time. We for the most part don't think about people around us, we don't even notice them. They are just mere mortals and I am rea...