Today's Beginning

Psalm 118:8-9 (GNT), "It is better to trust in the Lord than to depend on people. It is better to trust in the Lord than to depend on human leaders." Friday... We want the best, don't we? When we are in trouble we want someone that we can really trust, don't we? If we have a job to be done, we want the best.  Psalm 118:8-9 (GNT) says, "It is better to trust in the Lord than to depend on people. It is better to trust in the Lord than to depend on human leaders." Back in the last section of Exodus, Moses got specific instructions from God to build a Tabernacle and how to it. God had brought these people out of Egypt and they were wandering through the desert and they needed and wanted a place to worship God. Down the road it was a permanent Temple they would build but in their wandering they needed a place that they could put up and take down where they could worship and it needed to be the best. God wanted the best.  Now God knew what he wanted and he knew wh...

Psalm 117:1-2 (NLT), "Praise the Lord, all you nations. Praise him all you people of the earth. For his unfailing love for us is powerful; the Lord's faithfulness endures forever." Thursday... It is amazing what a difference His love makes. This is the shortest chapter in the Bible but it gets right to the point. Psalm 117:2a (NLT) says, "For his unfailing love for us is powerful." Yes, love is powerful.  I was driving out of our neighborhood coming to my morning time at this coffee shop and I saw a coyote wandering through the neighborhood, looking for food and I called my wife and told her to not let our dog, Turner out by himself. Now I love that dog and no way did I want anything to happen to him. My love for him does all it can to keep him safe. Yes, love is powerful. They told us while we were checking in to Sun City to when we walk our dog to have them on a leash to protect them from coyotes.  Now that was just me striving to protect my our dog. Yes, even...

Psalm 116:1 (AMP), "I love the Lord, because He hears [and continues to hear] my voice and my supplications (my pleas, my cries, my specific needs)." Wednesday... He continues, so I can too! The writer of Psalm 116:1 (AMP) says, "I love the Lord, because He hears [and continues to hear] my voice and my supplications (my pleas, my cries, my specific needs)." But the writer doesn't stop there, in verse 2 he continues and says the reason why, "Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I will call on Him as long as I live." It is so important that we start our day remembering what God has done and believing what he will continue to do if we through faith believe that he will continue to hear us. We just need to believe. Over in Matthew 16, Jesus was talking about one thing but his twelve followers were thinking he meant something else. Verses 5-6 says, "Later, after they crossed to the other side of the lake, the disciples discovered they had f...

Psalm 115:16 (NLT), "The heavens belong to the Lord, but he has given the earth to all humanity." Tuesday... So whose fault is it, really? Yes, we love to play the blame game. When something happens in our world so many want to blame God. It's his fault. But is it really? The Psalmist writes in Psalm 115:16 (NLT), "The heavens belong to the Lord, but he has given the earth to all humanity." If I am given something then how I use it or abuse it is my fault.  Let's say that our children blame us as parents. Well, we did have a hand in bringing them into the world. They didn't choose to be born but they do have a responsibility as they grow older. We each one are free to make our own choices and we are responsible for those choices. But it is so fun to play the blame game. Yes, we as parents must take some responsibility because we are not perfect but that is not true of God. He had this world all laid out for us but our representatives made a self-centered...

Psalm 114:3 (NLT), "The Red Sea saw them coming and hurried out of the way! The water of the Jordan turned away." Monday... Such a tremendous perspective. I have read a chapter this morning in Exodus, Psalms and Matthew and it seems that the Psalmist hooks them together. Here is what Psalm 114:3 (NLT) says, "The Red Sea saw them coming and hurried out of the way! The water of the Jordan turned away." And then verse 5, "What's wrong, Red Sea, that made you hurry out of their way? What happened Jordan River, that you turned away?"  I love that. Some wish to worship nature but nature serves the one who is in control. Now the tremendous perspective is that God can take care of what gets in our way. The Children of Israel were running from the great army of Egypt and the Red Sea was in their way but "The Red Sea saw them coming and hurried out of the way!" And then they were heading into their Promised Land and another river, the Jordan River was ...

Psalm 111:10 (AMP), "The [reverent] fear of the Lord is the beginning (the prerequisite, the absolute essential, the alphabet) of wisdom; a good understanding and a teachable heart are possessed by all those who do the will of the Lord ; His praise endures forever." Friday... We really do need to understand what is important! Over in Exodus 33, God had gotten so frustrated with the people he had brought out of Egypt and who he was taking to a promised land. They just did not want to do his will. Verses 1-2 NLT) says, "Get going, you and the people you brought up from Egypt. Go up to the land I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I told them, 'I will give this land to your descendants.' And I will send an angel before you to drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, and Jebusites.'" He would not go back on his promise. And then in verse 3 he says, "Go up to the land that flows with milk and honey. But I will not travel with you, for you a...

Psalm 110:7 (NLT), "But he himself will be refreshed from brooks along the way. He will be victorious." Thursday... We need it too, yes we do. David in Psalm 110 ends this Psalm in verse 7 (NLT) by saying, "But he himself will be refreshed from brooks along the way. He will be victorious." I am also reading in Matthew 12 and of how the Pharisees were having trouble with Jesus and the law of the Sabbath. And of course, Jesus took care of their legalism. They asked Jesus in verse 9, "Does the law permit a person to work by healing on the Sabbath?" Yes God had told us in his 10 commandments to not work on the Sabbath. (Six days you will labor but on the seventh rest." But this was being taken too far. And Jesus said in verse 11b, "Yes, the law permits a person to do good on the Sabbath." We take our legalism a little too far sometimes and don't see the reason for the law. In the OT God made laws for our benefit and our health. Now over in P...