Category: Psalms

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Big Mess!

One of our grandsons had a saying when he was about two, “Ooo mess”! This was his comment when things were out-of-order or just didn’t look the way he felt they should.

On occasion I have looked in the mirror and thought ooo mess. Have you? I’ve sometimes felt that I was the world biggest mess.

Let’s evaluate yesterday. Was it a good day? Was I productive and helpful or did I let self-pity and hurt feelings rule? Was my speech kind or harsh? Was I critical or complimentary? Did I look like Jesus or did everyone see an old version of myself, that should be buried?

Were the words “ooo mess” the best description of my day or was it “wow, message”?

If you were more of a mess than a message I have good news for you.

“The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. 23 Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. 24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!” 25 The Lord is good to those who depend on him, to those who search for him.” Lamentations 3:22-25 NLT

As I sit here looking out my front window the sun hasn’t come up yet. It’s still dark but I know a new day is coming and with it I have God’s promise of mercy for whatever the day holds.

I am so thankful that the Lord doesn’t look at us and say – ooo, mess. Instead He sees us and says “wow, I have a message of mercy for you”. It’s a new day and the Father is covering us with mercy.

“‘Come now, let’s settle this,’ says the Lord. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool.'” Isaiah 1:18 NLT

The little boy in this morning’s picture was a mess; his Mom saw a masterpiece. Her lovingkindness covered him with warm water and soap bubbles and what had been a mess was now clean.

“O God, favor me because of Your loving-kindness. Take away my wrong-doing because of the greatness of Your loving-pity. 2 Wash me inside and out from my wrong-doing and make me clean from my sin.”Psalm 51:1-2 NLV

The message of this morning is this: yesterday’s mess, big mess, has been taken care of. The Lord has washed and cleansed us with His love and mercy. Before the sun comes up, He has given us new mercies for the day and He is faithful to His word, “come boldly to the throne of grace and find mercy and grace in our time of need”.

We are no longer a mess but our life is a message!

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Trust & Wait

I woke up several times in the night and these words filled my mind every time I did, “Trust in the Lord and wait patiently on Him”. Over and over again the words came. When I woke and knew it was time to get up I laid there for a few minutes longer, pulling together my thoughts and everything left except “Trust and Wait”.

“Depend on the Lord. Trust in him, and he will help you. 6 He will make it as clear as day that you are right. Everyone will see that you are being fair. 7 Trust in the Lord and wait quietly for his help.” Psalm 37:5-7 ERV

Both the trusting and the waiting can be hard and they are only developed through experience. The word depend also means to commit. One version of the verse reads “Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you.” (NLT)

Everything.

We are to involve the Lord in everything we do. He will prove Himself faithful. Some people are of the mindset that they won’t bother God with the small things; those they can handle themselves. It’s only the “big” things that they feel they should bother the Lord with.

Things that are big to us barely make a blip on heaven’s radar. What could we possibly bring to the Father that He considers big? When we fail to bring Him the things we consider small issues we will find that we lack the experience to trust Him with life’s larger challenges.

David, as a young shepherd, saw the Lord’s faithfulness while taking care of his father’s sheep. He depended on the Lord to help him keep the sheep safe and so when the lion and the bear came to attack his flock he knew God was with him to defeat them. When the time came to face Goliath David was ready. He had already experienced God’s faithfulness in smaller things.

“Sir, I have killed lions and bears that way, and I can kill this worthless Philistine. He shouldn’t have made fun of the army of the living God!” I Samuel 17:36 CEV

Answerrs to small prayers give us courage to face down the giants.

“But I trust the Lord God to save me, and I will wait for him to answer my prayer.” Micah 7:7 CEV

Waiting on the Lord for answered prayer isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of great strength. It takes strength to pray and ask God for the next meal to feed your family and not worry. It takes strength to wait on the Lord to bring you to the next job when the company you worked for closed. It takes strength not to crumble when the doctor gives you a bad report.

That strength comes from trusting, depending on, being committed to dependence on our heavenly Father and His word.

“Even very young men get tired and become weak and strong young men trip and fall. 31 But they who wait upon the Lord will get new strength. They will rise up with wings like eagles. They will run and not get tired. They will walk and not become weak.” Isaiah 40:30-31 NLV

Trust and Wait! It’s there we find strength.

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The Big Picture

For a good portion of our marriage Dave and I have lived a rural lifestyle. I wouldn’t change it for a thing!

We’ve lived in populace areas like metropolitan Phoenix and San Diego but that wasn’t us. Too much activity – too many freeways – too much noise – not enough solitude.

In a country setting it’s easy to see the big picture. All we have to do is look up.

“I lift up my eyes to You, O You Whose throne is in the heavens. 2 See, the eyes of servants look to the hand of their owner. The eyes of a woman servant look to the hand of her owner. So our eyes look to the Lord our God, until He shows us loving-kindness. 3 Show loving-kindness to us, O Lord. Show loving-kindness to us. For we have had our fill of hate.” Psalm 123:1-3 NLV

Our view at night is magnificent – the stars are so bright and the sky so clear. Its as if we could just reach out our hand and touch them. It’s something that we sometimes take for granted.

Nights in the city are different. Many nights the light of the stars is diminished, blocked by haze or tall buildings . There is a lesson to be gained here. Life can be compared to the city – so much going on, things moving so quickly, distractions and dangers divert our focus.

It’s good to pause and look up!

The stars that have stayed their course for eons. Their path through the heavens remains and so does their brilliance. That’s the way it is with God’s love.

Things in life may distract or even block our view temporarily but when we look up, we find that His love remains and endures forever.

“He made the sun to rule the day. His faithful love will last forever. 9 He made the moon and stars to rule the night. His faithful love will last forever. ” Psalm 136:8-9 ERV

The Lord has provided us with a big picture of His love!

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Beauty Comes Through

For a number of years Dave and I lived in northwest Idaho where we had lots of snow each winter. Much like what a good portion of the country is experiencing now. We received our first snow about November 1 and the last one sometime in April. But I always knew the snow would be gone by Mother’s Day.

It was a big adjustment our first couple of winters. You see, I had come from spending my entire life in Arizona with a three year interlude of living in the San Diego area. I was completey unaccustomed to colder temperatures and had no knowledge of the day-to-day living with snow covered earth.

Just when I felt ready to complain about a frozen world, icy roads, hauling in firewood and cleaning the wood burning stove I would be reminded of the beauty of late Spring that was coming.

Just off my front porch was my flower garden area. Tulips set the border, wild geranium was a protective ground cover, poppies sprung up with random abandon and the hyacinths added an extra pop of brilliant color. But my favorites were the crocus.

They werer the first to appear, generally about the first of April. I never saw their struggle of pushing through the crusty snow, they were just there! In the midst of the white, their vibrant purple was outstanding. Their arrival signaled the end of cold temperatures and the warmth of Spring.

New life was coming.

Millions are experiencing the cold of winter; power outages, icy roads, treacherous conditions but even millions more are living with cold and frozen hearts. It seems that everything in life has gone dormant. To each of you I say, look for the beauty – look for the crocus!

There is life, just under the surface. It’s fighting frozen ground and crusty snow as it pushes upward toward the Son. There is beauty to behold, we just have to look for it! God’s love will bring a radiant warmth to our hearts; they will melt and a joy for life will sprout.

“He heals those who have a broken heart. He heals their sorrows. 4 He knows the number of the stars. He gives names to all of them. 5 Great is our Lord, and great in power. His understanding has no end. 6 The Lord lifts up those who are suffering, and He brings the sinful down to the ground. 7 Sing to the Lord with thanks. Sing praises to our God on the harp. 8 He covers the heavens with clouds. He gives rain for the earth. He makes grass grow on the mountains.” Psalm 147: 3-8 NLV

When I went out yesterday to tend and water my plants there they were. The crocus and the hyacinths were breaking ground. Soon their color and fragrance will be evident to all.

Look around – the Lord gives each of us little signs to remind us that He is still there, even in our wintery times, He has not abandon us.

Look! The beauty comes through.

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Some Things Never Change

Every morning I sit down to read my Bible and pray. Every morning I am encouraged by what I read. There are a few places in my Bible that have been underlined repeatedly. Some of these verses I have read hundreds of times in the last 30+ years. Each morning I read them again and am impacted by the message.

Some things never change.

I hope you all had a good weekend and that you enjoyed time with family and friends. I hope that you rested and were strengthened in your spirit but I know not all of you were. I’m not sure of the reasons, there may be many, but some of you are dreading getting up today. Some of you would just like to go back to bed, pull the covers over your head and let the world pass you by.

If that’s you I have some good news. These words were written thousands of years ago but they still hold true today.

Some things never change.

“So my spirit grows weak within me. My heart within me is afraid.5 I remember the days long ago. I think about all You have done. I think about the work of Your hands. 6 I put out my hands to You. My soul is thirsty for You like a dry land.

7 Hurry to answer me, O Lord! My spirit is becoming weak! Do not hide Your face from me, or I will become like those who go down to the grave. 8 Let me hear Your loving-kindness in the morning, for I trust in You. Teach me the way I should go for I lift up my soul to You. 9 O Lord, take me away from those who hate me. I run to You to be safe.

10 Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God. Let Your good Spirit lead me on a straight path. 11 Give me new life, O Lord, because of Your name. Bring me out of trouble because You are right and good. 12 In Your loving-kindness cut off those who hate me. Destroy all those who make it hard for my soul, for I am Your servant.” Psalm 143:4-12 NLV

When we pour out our hearts to the Lord he is faithful to answer and bring the help we need. That’s who He is.

Some things never change!

Look up! He has your answer. Don’t be discouraged! He heard your prayer.

“Let us go with complete trust to the throne of God. We will receive His loving-kindness and have His loving-favor to help us whenever we need it.” Hebrews 4:16 NLV

Whenever we need help, He is there!

Some things never change and that’s a good thing. God’s love never changes, He is always there!

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World Changing Love

Yesterday on our drive home I was thinking of how blessed I am! I often take time to meditate on the blessings the Lord has given me.

Family, friends, health, joy, peace, confidence…blessed!

One verse kept coming to the forefront of my mind – really it was just a phrase from a verse- “Faith worketh by Love”.

“We are waiting for the hope of being made right with God. This will come through the Holy Spirit and by faith. 6 If we belong to Jesus Christ, it means nothing to have or not to have gone through the religious act of becoming a Jew. But faith working through love is important.” Galatians 5:5-6 NLT

I’ve heard message after message on being built up in faith and how it is impossible to please God without faith and those messages are true but if they are separated from the key element of love – God’s love for us, our love for God and our fellowman -those words are in vain.

If I don’t have a firm understanding of how much the heavenly Father loves me I won’t be able to trust Him, or put my faith in His word. In the natural, we put our faith in friends and family because we know they love us and wouldn’t do anything to knowingly hurt us. Love is the basis for our faith.

God is LOVE! We can trust Him to keep His word.

“For the Lord is good. His loving-kindness lasts forever. And He is faithful to all people and to all their children-to-come.” Psalm 100:4-5 NLV

This is the type of love and faithfulness we should be showing to those around us. When we have faith in God’s love for us we can share it with ours. Displaying a true love, genuine and unconditional, will draw our family and friends close. They will be secure in our presence; they will have faith in our words and actions.

And they will see Jesus in us!

“I give you a new command: Love each other. You must love each other just as I loved you. 35 All people will know that you are my followers if you love each other.” John 13:35 CEV

We can change the world one person at a time by loving the way God does. Faith increases when love is present; hope is unwavering when love is present; the world is changed when love is present.

“Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.” I Corinthians 13:13 NLT

Happy Valentine’s Day – you’re a world changer!

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Made in Heaven

The last couple of days I have taken our morning thoughts from Ephesians, chapter 5. This is the Apostle Paul’s teaching on marriage. The marriage union is God’s idea; He wanted each of us to experience the joy of companionshipship and sacrifical love.

However, we find that Paul is using our earthly marriage as an example of the relationship that Christ desires to have with us.

A match made in heaven!

“In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. 29 No one hates his own body but feeds and cares* for it, just as Christ cares for the church. 30 And we are members of his body.” Ephesians 5:28-30 NLT (*cherishes)

Christ loves for us is deeper than we can imagine!

It’s amazing when we realize that Jesus took on our sin to give us His righteousness. He made us completely new creatures; we are given a new life because He was willing to die for us.

“But if you join yourself to the Lord, you are one with Him in spirit.” I Corinthians 6:17 NLV

Cherish is a word that means to hold dear, to protect, to cling to. Jesus cherishes us, we are His wife. This truth can and will dispel every feeling of depression and inferiority that we encounter.

We are the chosen wife of Jesus Christ.

“As the Scriptures say, ‘A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’ 32 This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one.” Verses 31-32 NLT

Marriage is a two-way street.

Jesus left His Father to come to earth and oversee all the marriage arrangements. His number one priority was to see that his new wife would be abundantly provided for in every area of her life. We, as His wife, give up any past attachments that would distract us and keep us from being completely committed to Him.

This is God’s plan concerning Christ and the church.

Jesus is our loving husband. He has done all to fill our lives with His love. He desires to provide the absolute best for us, He will overlook our short comings, and forgive us when we fail. He won’t remind us of our past but instead provides us with a glorious future. He sees us as His bride.

“Bride of the king, listen carefully to me. Forget your own people and your father’s family. 11 The king is your husband, so do what he desires…Your bride, my king, has inward beauty, and her wedding gown is woven with threads of gold. 14 Wearing the finest garments, she is brought to you, followed by her young friends, the bridesmaids. 15 Everyone is excited, as they follow you to the royal palace.”  Psalm 45:10-15 CEV

Christ came to earth to declare His love for us. He gave His all to provide us with a new and better life. His love is unconditional and eternal. Our part is to accept His proposal of new life and be joined to Him.

Truly, a match made in heaven!

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No Two The Same

A couple of days ago we had our winter snow. It happens once, maybe twice, a year. It’s generally only here a day and then its gone. I really look forward to it.

This year I was able to capture some beautiful images of the mesquite trees in our front and back yards, flocked with white. I must admit that I spent a good portion of the day staring out my window at the beauty.

When I uploaded the pictures from my phone to my computer I paused again. I did take a couple of videos when the snowflakes were softly falling. They were so big and fluffy. Junior High Science class taught me that no two snowflakes are the same…

Imagine – no two the same. I had no way of counting the hundreds of thousands of snowflakes that fell that day. My front yard, my back yard, the neighborhood, the canyons and the mesas all were covered and no two were the same.

The State of Arizona was blanketed in white. Even Scottsdale got snow. How many millions or billions of snowflakes fell in Arizona in just that one day? How many trillions of snowflakes fell around the world and how many have fallen since the beginning of time?

No two are the same.

What an amazing God we have!

If He creates each snowflake with its own unique characteristics then how much time does He devote to developing our individual uniqueness? He knows how many hairs we have on our head – He has given us disintictive fingerprints and our DNA is one-of-a-kind.

No two of us are the same! God’s love and power in creating our individuality is almost unfathomable.

“Rain and snow fall from the sky and don’t return until they have watered the ground.
Then the ground causes the plants to sprout and grow, and they produce seeds for the farmer and food for people to eat. 11 In the same way, my words leave my mouth, and they don’t come back without results. My words make the things happen that I want to happen.
They succeed in doing what I send them to do.” Isaiah 55:10-11 ERV

God’s purpose for the snow is to nourish the earth and He says the purpose of His word is similar. His word nourishes our lives and causes us to grow and succeed.

“‘I say this because I know the plans that I have for you.’ This message is from the Lord. ‘I have good plans for you. I don’t plan to hurt you. I plan to give you hope and a good future.'” Jeremiah 29:11 ERV

Just as the ground welcomes the moisture from the snow, we should keep our hearts open and ready to receive the good plans that God desires to bring into our lives.

No two of us are the same and that’s by God’s design. Each of us have unique, God-given talents and abilities. We each have a divine purpose. Like the snowflake, we are truly a one-of-a-kind masterpiece of God.

“Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.” Psalm 139:14 NLT

Next time you see the snow fall I hope it reminds you of how wonderful you are to our heavenly Father. There’s no one else like you.

No two are the same!

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More Than a Building

When you hear the word “church” what do you think of? Is it a building, an event or something more personal?

In this day and age, it has generally been accepted that “the church” isn’t just a building on the corner but is instead those who believe Jesus to be the Son of God, their personal Savior and soon coming King.

However, in years past, it had been the common conviction that a certain building was a holy place and it was there and there alone, that God could be worshipped…

Have you ever heard someone say, “Don’t do that in church or you shouldn’t act like that, you’re in church”? That person is holding a building in reverence. The true church is not made of brick and mortar but of living stones – people set apart and dedicated unto the Lord.

Dave and I had the privilege to hold Cowboy Church meetings at High School, College and Junior Rodeos for several years here in Arizona…Our gatherings were in arena grandstands, pastures, and open clearings next to a set of corrals. This is where the church came together for fellowship and worship.

We were at a Junior Rodeo in Florence, Arizona when I had a mother of one of the competitors tell me that their Youth Pastor had told the kids that if they truly loved the Lord they would have to give up rodeo because it stopped them from coming to church.  You can imagine my shock!

These kids attended every service; they brought their Bibles and listened attentively while the teaching was being given. Then they would leave and go compete in their events. They honored God at every rodeo.  I had one girl come to me crying when one of the services was over. Her horse had pulled up lame and she was beside herself with worry.

I asked if we could go look at her horse together. She took me to where it was. Sure enough, he couldn’t put any weight on his back left leg. There was no way she was going to be able to compete, or at least that is how it appeared.

I asked her a couple of questions – do you love the Lord? Do you know that God loves you? Do you think God is a good God?  She answered yes to all of them. Then I told her we were going to pray and ask the Lord to heal her horse and that I believed He would.

“The Lord will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord, endure forever—forsake not the works of Your own hands.” Psalm 138:8 AMPC

“Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” Jeremiah 33:3 KJV

I explained these verses to her. Since she was concerned about her horse Psalms stated that God would make perfect the things that concern her. Then in Jeremiah, we are told to call on the Lord and He will show us great and mighty things. So, we were going to pray and tell the Lord what concerned her, ask Him to heal her horse and ask the Lord to show us great things.

We did and He did!

Now that my friend is having church. This young woman left the rodeo that weekend knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that God met her there. She knew He loved her and was involved with what concerned her. Her horse was healed, and she was able to compete, and she gave God all the glory!

We, followers of Christ, are the church and whenever we get together, He is present with us.

A lot has been said about limited gatherings during COVID but a virus can’t stop church. We can experience God’s presence camping, on the phone, through an email, streaming through the airways or with two or three friends.

The Church triumphant is alive, we are alive, and well!

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Come On In!

In the kingdoms of the world very few people are allowed access to the throne room. But in God’s kingdom we are welcomed – invited in without hestitation.

The book of Psalms has so many verses which emphasize the blessings of the righteous man. Now, as I read them, no longer is my thought “I wish that could be for me” but it is “Praise God, that’s mine!” Our righteousness is part of our inheritance, we are joint heirs.

Let us look at a few of these verses in Psalms that hold promises for the righteous man. I will leave a few here for you to read and then at the end of this chapter there will be a list of other verses that you will want to read.

“For You, O Lord, will bless the righteous; With favor You will surround him as with a shield.” Psalm 5:12 NKJ

“Less is more and more is less. One righteous will outclass fifty wicked, For the wicked are moral weaklings but the righteous are God-strong.” Psalm 37:16-17 MSG

“Once I was young, and now I am old. Yet I have never seen the godly* abandoned or their children begging for bread.” Psalm 37:25 NLT *righteous

David was now an old man and he said that in all his years he had never seen God desert those that He called righteous. Praise God, He has voluntarily made provision for our righteousness!

“The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.” Psalm 92:12

The palm tree is resilient and can grow even in the hottest climates with very little water. They become tall and beautiful shade trees. The cedar tree is a sign of strength and endurance. By comparison the righteous man will grow tall and strong because of the Lord’s blessing upon him.

“Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with. Elijah, for instance, human just like us, prayed hard that it wouldn’t rain, and it didn’t—not a drop for three and a half years. Then he prayed that it would rain, and it did. The showers came and everything started growing again.” James 5:16-18 MSG

In this verse we find that we are to confess our faults to one another. Faults are shortcomings or situations in our lives that need to be corrected and by the prayer of a righteous man they will be rectified.

The prayers of a righteous man are tremendously effective in obtaining answers from the Lord. Why would his prayers be more effective than an unrighteous man? I am glad you asked.

The righteous man is in a place of authority; he believes God’s Word and put it to work in his life. Verse seventeen of this chapter shows us the power in a righteous man’s prayer. It says Elijah prayed and it did not rain for three and a half years, then he prayed again, and it rained. Now that is a powerful prayer. The prayer of a righteous man is strong.

Righteous means we have been placed in right standing with God. This realization should never create an attitude of arrogance, but it should bring a sense of worthiness and confidence. We no longer need to crawl on our hands and knees before the Lord feeling we have no right to bother the King of Kings. No, we are entitled to come boldly to the throne.

Enter the throne room. The door is open and the Father is waiting for you!

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