7.25.13

2 Chronicles 16:9 The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.

 

My Thoughts

God sees us when we love Him.  God searches for us when we love Him.  God does not leave any stone unturned, any cave unexplored to find us when we love Him. I love this!!  We don't have to find God, God finds us.  If we just seek after God, God will be there, anywhere we are!!  That just makes my heart feel peaceful. It makes me happy, happy, happy!! 

1 Chronicles 16:24 Publish his glorious deeds among the nations.  Tell everyone about the amazing things he does.

 

My Thoughts

These were words in a song David sung as he danced into town with a parade that was carrying the Ark of the covenant.  These words just jumped off the page when I read them!! I remember hearing my grandparents reading from the newspaper happy stories that happened in town.  Now to put a happy story, a story about a life together starting, it cost money.  To celebrate somebody's long life at the time of their death you pay for each and every word...so at a time of great expense people can't afford celebrate a life in a way that really tells the story of their loved one.  Nightly news tells stories over and over again of murder...the same murder of another murder is not grewsum enough to top the one they are talking about at the time... then they spend about a minute throwing in a good story. 

 

It is no wonder that people are doing horrible things to be famous!!  The only way to make the news is to be bad!!  What if the news was filled with all the good that God puts in the world... people would strive to be noticed by the good that they do!! 

 

When we spend time listening to all the evil in the world...we spend time meditating on what Satan has caused, what Satan has put into motion.  And those things should never be celebrated.  We need to listen to the words of wise, wise David and publish God's glorious deeds among the nations, we need to be telling everybody of the good in this world.  We need to be celebrating, meditating on what God makes happen.  Then not only would we not get so bogged down and depressed by the evil around us...there would actually be less evil.  The focus would be on God and all of His goodness...and the good would beget good!!

 

I would love to see what changes there would be in our nations if the news would spend 2 minutes on the bad we need to know about...and 28 minutes on the good things that are happening!!  How many more heros would we find...would we create...how many fame seeking killers would we stop?? 

 

As individuals we can do this... we can make the statements about others that come from our mouths be good...only good!!  I challenge you to do this with me...spend today speaking only good...and see what happens... then try again tomorrow... take it one day at a time...but try to be the verbal publisher of good... of God's good!!

7.12.13

1 Chronicles 13:13-14 So david did not move the Ark into the City of David.  Instead, he took it to the house of Obed-edom of Gath.  The are of God remained there in Obed-edom's house for three months, and the Lord blessed the household of Obed-edom and everything in it. 

 

My Thoughts

The Ark held the ten commandments.  And Obed-edom knew the importance of them...of the covenant between God and His people.  When I read this I thought in each of our houses today here in America you can probably find a Bible... the covenant between us and God.  If we love that Bible and read it... cherish what is in it... God will also bless our household and everything in it!  What if Obed-edom had put the ark in a dark corner and let it collect dust, what if he didn't try to understand it's importance?  I don't think his household would have been blessed do you?  

 

I can tell you from my own experience when I took my Bible off the shelf...blew off the dust and started reading and understanding God and His love for me, my household became blessed!!  After today I will forever see this scripture differently!!

 

7.11.13

1 Chronicles 12:17-18 David went out to meet them and said, "If you have come in peace to help me, we are friends. But if you have come to betray me to my enemies when I am innocent, then may the God or our ancestors see it and punish you."

 

Then the Spirit came upon Amasai, the leader of the Thirty, and he said, "We are yours, David! We are on your side, son of Jesse. Peace and prosperity be with you, and success to all who help you, for your God is the one who helps you." So David let them join him, and he made the officers over his troops.

 

My Thoughts

I couldn't help but think how important Amasai's answer was... those words had to have no betrayal in them at all...not the smallest trace.  These were relatives of Saul who had defected to fight against Saul with David. They could have been there to betray David.  Their words had to be convincing and God knew that...so He sent down the Holy Spirit to give Amasai the words that would comfort David.  They were the right words for Amasai and the right words for David.  God was on David's side... no doubt he sent Amasai to fight for David...and when He did...God also made sure that Amasai had the right words.

When I read this I thought  of the times in my life that I have had the right words for someone, and wondered where they came from...they came from the Holy Spirit which God sent to me to protect me or help me build up...the were the right words for me...and the right words for the person I said them to.  God was in control every time.  It is important to look back and recognize when God has been in control of our words... Because that helps us to move forward and know that when God sends us somewhere He will provide us with the words we need to say...and the words the other person needs to hear.  We don't have to wonder if we can do it...we have to have the faith that the Holy Spirit is with us and will help us even with our words!! 

7.13.12

1 Chronicles 15:9 Sing to Him; yes, sing his praises.  Tell everyone about his wonderful deeds.

My Thoughts

We need to go about telling God thank you!!... Being aware of each thing that goes right in our days and sending up a thank you to God.  Praising God constantly for the things that He does for us...then we need to tell others. What better witness is there than letting people what God does for us!!

To be able to do this we have to learn to be aware of our blessing.  We have to take notice of all the things that are good in our life, in our day, in our spouses, in our children, in our friends, in our jobs. 

The devil reminds us all the time of the things that goes wrong...partly because he is bragging.. partly because he wants to trip us up and get our focus off of God. So often a 100 things can go right and we spend the whole day focusing on the one thing that went wrong. We can decide our life is terrible because all we see is the bad things.

We can decided how wonderful our life is if we choose to focus on the good things...and there are so many good things!  Sometimes the things that seem "bad" are blessing that we don't even know happened to us.  If we loose our car keys in the morning...that may just be a blessing that kept us from being at the wrong intersection at the wrong time.

Just yesterday when I took my step-mom Gail to the doctor...she had a late appointment...the doctor told her to put on a gown and he would be right back...he forgot her!!... He did... there only 2 nurses and the doctor left...all the lights were off...when they opened the door and saw us there!!  I saw it as a blessing because it kept us from being in the 5 o'clock traffic in B'ham!!... We laughed about it all the way home.  It could have made us angry and upset the rest of our night...but we chose to see the blessing in it!  How often could we have a perfectly wonderful day in spite of a bad happening if we would just choose to see a blessing??  This was a good lesson for me!! 

We have to set about seeking after the blessings... looking for them like they are the treasures that they are.  Our blessings are more valuable than diamonds or gold... think about how we would seek those if somebody told us they were hidden somewhere in our day..we would search diligently!  Yet we tend to overlook our everyday blessings!!  It is time that we take a stand, a stand to be thankful!!  To seek and to find each and every blessing in our day!!  It would make God smile that we took time to notice what he is doing for us...and it would change our lives in amazing ways!!! 

Will you make a commitment today to seek after the blessing in your day? I will seek the blessing that God has given me today!!  When we do that God even blesses us more!!

7.12.10

I Chronicles 13:14 The Ark of God remained there in Obed-edom's house for three months, and the Lord blessed the household of Obed-edom and everything he owned.

My Thoughts

God's spirit lived inside the Ark of God when he was with  the Israelites... and because Jesus died for our sins the Holy Spirit can come and live inside of us!!... the Lord blessed the house of Obed-edom and everything, everything he owned, because the Holy Spirit lives inside of us as Christians God will bless us... I am sure that Obed-edom did everything possible to live like God wanted him to, worshiped God all the time, God was right there with Obed-edom, in his house! I believe Obed did everything he could to please God and he was blessed for it...I believe that the Holy Spirit lives inside of us when we become Christians and we should act just as Obed did when God lived with him... I believe the Ark was the center point of Obed's home...and the Holy Spirit should be the center point of our lives and we will be blessed just as Obed was... do you think God would have blessed Obed if he had put the Ark of God in the closet, hidden it from everybody??... I don't think so ... when we don't put God center in our lives we lose the blessings of God... but when we put God center in our lives...it shows in all we do and say and then God will want  to bless us just like he blessed Obed.