6.30.11

Ezekiel 16:49-50 The sin of your sister Sodom was this: She lived with her daughters in the lap of luxury—proud, gluttonous, and lazy. They ignored the oppressed and the poor. They put on airs and lived obscene lives. And you know what happened: I did away with them.

My Thoughts

Wow! This verse makes me know that we and individual people can not hope the rest of our country takes action.  We each need to do something. I remember reading that God said if you can find one person, one I will save the city.(Ezekiel 22:30)  We never need to hope there is one to save us...we need to strive to be the one that might save us. In the US most of us live in the lap of luxury, so many of us are proud, gluttonous (so many in the US of over weight), and lazy (I can be sooo lazy)... we ignore the oppressed and the poor (we expect the government to do something). We put on airs (keep up with the Jones')... live obscene lives (sex sells they use it even in commercials).  We can take a stand as individuals by asking God, "God what do you want me to do?" Today we can choose in some small way to make a positive difference in one person's life. Today we can choose to buy something for somebody else instead of ourselves. Today we can choose to turn off the TV to something offensive. Today we can choose to be a person that could save our country by being a person of action, a person that God would see as worthy enough to be saved from destruction. What step will you take today to make a small difference in  the life of someone around you?  Lets not let the US turn into Sodom... let us each make a choice to make a difference.



6.29.11

Psalms 147:5 How great is our Lord! His power is absolute! His understanding is beyond comprehension!

My Thoughts

I love this "His understanding is beyond comprehension!" There is nothing we can't tell God! How often do we have feelings that we want so share with somebody that we hope will understand?  We can tell God! We can tell God anything!! "If" we tell God, "then" he will help us. I think God has us ask so that we will know that He is where our help comes from. If God took care of everything for us without us asking we would be so unaware it was God.  How many times have you heard people say "I have just been lucky."? Luck has nothing to do with life.  God is who takes care of us.  When we ask God to help us we become aware of where our help comes from.  I love that when I am frustrated or when I have me feeling hurt that I can tell God!... This is so something that I am still learning to do... but when I do it I feel better....I feel the Holy Spirit inside me helping me to think things through and I feel so much better, so much sooner. God made us, he knows!... God watches us, he understands what we are living with on this earth.  God knows! God cares! and it tells us right here in Psalms that "God's understanding is beyond comprehension!" God will understand, He is just waiting for us to come to Him so that we are aware that He loves us...that He cares, and that He can take care of all of our needs.

6.28.11

Psalms 146:5 But joyful are those who have the God of Israel as their helper, whose hope is in the Lord their God.

My Thoughts

I love this... who have God as their helper... God is our helper and we can have hope that even when things seem at their worse God is there it will have His hand in making things better... God does not promise that we won't go through difficult times, after all we live on this earth. God does tell us he will be with us and help us.  When we have God in our hearts we always have hope.  Hope is a powerful thing! When we feel hopeless we give up we don't make an effort... when we have hope we push forward.  Did you every have a time when you felt like God didn't help?...I have...what I have discovered in my journey through the Bible and in Bible study is that the Bible is full of "ifs and thens".  God told Moses if you raise your staff at the waters edge then I will part the waters... God told Joshua "if" you march around the wall of Jericho and shout "then" I will make the walls fall down.  God tells us "if" we believe when we ask "then" all things are possible.  The times when I didn't think God was there...I didn't do my "if" part.... I didn't always believe, I didn't always ask...I just expected.  When I started reading my "instruction book" then I learned how....now I always have hope!!... Always!!!  Sometimes I have to stop and find my "if" to get my "then" ... but God is always there when I do!!

6.27.11

Proverbs 18:1 Unfriendly people care only about themselves; they lash out at common sense.

My Thoughts

To know this is true all we have to do is stop and remember the times we have been unfriendly. A good example is when we get behind and have to stop at the store on the way to somewhere important.  All we are thinking about is us, how we will look if we are late and the what people will think of us if we are..... we know we are not being friendly to the cashier... and even tho the people in the other cars can't hear us we are unfriendly to them.  We all have our moments!!...Those moments when we only think about ourselves. We need to remember this verse to keep ourselves in check...if we find ourselves being unfriendly we need to realize that we are in  the mist of thinking only of ourselves. When we are in the mist of being selfish we even miss out when other try to bless our days...we are seeing only ourselves so much that we don't see what others are trying to do for us. If we think of ourselves as being unselfish, but find ourselves being unfriendly, we need to stop and make a mental check and correct our actions. Kindness is never a mistake.

6.26.11

Proverbs 17:27 A truly wise person uses few words; a person with understanding is even tempered.

My Thoughts

This made think...that if we keep our mouth shut when we first feel the need to get angry...and take time to try and understand where the other person is coming from we would avoid so many misunderstandings.  We would become more even tempered..... Have you ever noticed how many older people seem to do this?  They have that wisdom to have patience...they let people finish their thoughts so they know the whole story before the speak... they are better to understand that things usually have two sides...the have wisdom of experience.  Just think how much better off we would be if we just took this verse to heart and had the wisdom to do this at an early age?  It would save us so much trouble and heart ache. We often say if we only had instructions...we do...we just have to learn to read the instructions and follow them.

6.25.11

Psalms 143:5 I remember the days of old. I ponder all your great works and think about what you have done.

My Thoughts

Ponder is defined as think about carefully. David spent time carefully thinking about all the great works of God. If we would take time to do that today it would do a couple of things for us....it would make us so aware of how God takes care of  us.  It would give us much less time to worry about the little things. It would also give us a chance to thank God for things we often over look. So many times we thank God but attribute wonderful thing to man.  We just don't stop and think...we don't ponder God's great works. Especially things that we are use to. An example of this is an appendectomy. The first appendectomy was risky...and amazing...people were aware that is was a miracle... they were in awe of how many lives would be saved. The family of the person saved were thanking God!!  Now somebody says "I have to have my appendix out." and the people around them say "Oh, no big deal..they do that all the time and you'll be fine."  The person going through the surgery doesn't even get credit for being sick or put to sleep.... for being cut on... much less God for saving them. Each and every time a person has a "simple surgery" God has a hand in it...it is still as much a miracle as it was the first time. Jesus healed more than one person it was a miracle every time... every time a person has their appendix out, or their gallbladder out...every time a person has a stint put in their veins...they have been saved from death...these things happen every day!  Yet we don't ponder how great God is.  When Jesus healed people whole towns were amazed...whole towns believed!...Now maybe the family of the person with the appendectomy knows that a life was saved. 

When Orville and Wilbur Wright flew the first plane people knew that was a miracle... people knew that God's hand was in that...now thousands of planes fly everyday and instead of being in awe, amazed and thankful, people are frustrated and angry that a plane takes off late..that they have to wait. We forget to be thankful that we can even fly.

When we find ourselves pondering how somebody has hurt our feelings...or what went wrong in a day...or how somebody cut us off in traffic...that is a good time to stop your mind from being upset and angry. A good time to stop and really ponder all the wonderful things God does in our world each day!  That is a good time to take time to be thankful instead of angry and upset. Instead of pondering our troubles...we should ponder the works of God.

6.24.11

Psalms 142:1 I cry out to the Lord; I plead for the Lords mercy. I pour out my complaints before him and tell him all my troubles.

My Thoughts

Isn't it funny how much we go to God for and then when we need to complain we find a friend? It's like we don't want God to hear us complain... we only want God to see us in our best light... but He sees us all the time...He knows all about our thoughts. We can take our complaints to God, David did!  Friends can't help us with our complaints.... God can! Sure they help by listening...but they can't really help us.  God can help us by letting us know when we have a bad attitude... or whispering to our heart what to do about the problem.  Our complaints are the very things that get gossip started!! We really do it backwards... we should want the world to see us in our best light to see our sweetness and our kindness... to see us as loving and thankful..... and we should run to God like He is such our friend that we can talk to Him about anything.  We go to our friends with our complaints because we feel they will understand... God made us.. he shaped us and molded us... God knows exactly how our minds and hearts work.  It is sad but true often our friends just like hearing the gossipy part of our complaints... God actually cares always about what we are complaining about and has the power to make it better. God should be so much our best friend that we go to Him with everything... our joy and our complaints. When we complain we are wanting this to get better. People tend to stoke the fire... God puts the fire out!  There is so much to learn from what David wrote... it didn't survive all these years just to be a story... it survive to teach us how to have a better life. When we complain to people we make the world less good...when we complain to God we make the world a better place. (Don't forget to thank God too.)