Wednesday, March 31, 2010

MORE PSALMS

Yesterday, I had a very early appointment to pray with a member before they had surgery.  So, I didn't have time to write my blog.  But, today, I am writing a few things that I saw from yesterday as well as what I read for today.  I have a great cup of coffee brewed from coffee given my wife and I from some new dear friends in Florida.  God has been so good to give us dear friends throughout this area, and throughout our country, and some around the world.  Thank you God!

1) LOVE AND OFFENSE-  Psalms 119:165 says:  "Great peace have they which love thy law:  and nothing shall offend them."  The teaching is clear:  To the extent that we love God's Word, we will not be offended.  When I am offended, then to that degree... I do not love God's Word.  So the more I love God's Word and absorb it into my being, the less I will be offended!  We think that being offended is caused by someone else, but the truth is clear in Scripture:  If we become offended it is our fault!  We have not loved God's Word as we ought. 

2) SO VERY GLAD!  Psalms 122:1 says:  "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD." 
Loving God and loving Church go together.  I know we live in a generation that does not see the importance of Church as in years gone by.... but they are wrong.  Yes, God's Word again is very clear.  Worshiping God in Church is a gathering of believers into one place to exalt Christ and to carry on His mission around the world.  The more involved we get in that mission, the more we fulfill God's plan for our lives!  Loving God and loving Church go hand in hand.

3) THE PRIORITY OF GOD'S WORD- Psalms 138:2 says: ".. for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name."  God's Word is to be highly esteemed.  We do not worship the Bible, but we worship the God of the Bible, and the Bible tells us about the God of the Bible.  We cannot know ONE apart from the other.  To say we love God but don't spend time in His Word is to love a God of our own making.  For God only reveals Himself to us and teaches us through the agency of His Holy Word.  All truth taught to us as believers has it's basis in the Word or it is false.  Our thinking cannot run contrary to the teaching of Scripture, or else we ourselves have become one who embraces error.  God holds His Word in priority, and so should we!

4) WHO WATCHES OVER THE DOWN TRODDEN?  Well, the short answer is.... God does!  In Psalms 140:12, it says:  "I know that the LORD will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and the right of the poor."  God does, but He also uses His children to help in this activity.  God cares about the afflicted and poor and God sees that they are taken care of.  If you travel around the world to the poorest of places, you will see that much of what is there to lighten the load of the afflicted and poor, have been put in place by God's people.  Missionary societies that have bore wells throughout the world, have set up sanitation facilities, have brought in medical supplies, have build structures for housing.  All of this done in the name of Christianity.  Show me the Hindus that care for the poor and afflicted.  Let me see what the Buddhists are doing for the poor and afflicted and how they take care of their own.  Where are the Mullums that are solving the solution of the afflicted and poor.  It will be the USA, and other Christ honoring nations that are the first to respond to tragedy around the world.  The first to help the afflicted and poor regardless of their beliefs and whether they are for or against our nation.  God does this, and God uses His children like you and me to do the same.  Yesterday, I saw a boy in our school from a needy family with the soles torn off from his shoes.  Who led me to go out and buy him some new shoes.... God did!  Not me.... Him!  God watches over the afflicted and the poor and He will use us at times to see to that.

LORD, help me today to walk with my ears open to Your voice.  To hear your quiet direction in my life.  To look for opportunities to manifest Your love to a lost and hurting world.  To help some other believer in their journey of life.  To magnify your name in my actions and thoughts.  To learn at your feet and from other believers I come in contact with.  Lord, this is your day, and I would live it for your glory.  Help me LORD, I am not super Christian, just one man who love You and desires to do Your will.  Thank you for the love I know is mine in Christ.  Thank you for the challenges that help me bow in your presence.  Love you LORD!  Amen.

Well, I have typed a lot and I have enjoyed three wonderful cups of coffee as well.  Reading God's Word and sipping on good coffee makes for a wonderful morning.  It takes me a while to do all of this, but I enjoy it and hope someone else gets a blessing as well.  I hope that today, you will walk with God and sense His presence all around. 

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