Birds sing the most beautiful songs. It is so amazing the diversity of creation. The sound of the wind and waves. The songs of the small birds. The laughter of children.
Our lives are so fleeting. One moment we are here and the next we are gone.
So why do we do what is wrong? It should not be: Do what ever you want for soon you will be gone.
For every moment we have is a blessing from God. So show God how thankful we are. Live a life where God is upon our hearts and loving our neighbors is in our actions.
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
I teach problem solving and logic a lot. And I always want my students to know what they think and why. Why do they believe what they believe. Why do they have their opinions. If they can defend them. To know when to doubt what they are being told. To know when someone else is manipulating them with words.
The wisdom of man has become an idol for us today. We listen and obey what "a better" has told us. We don't inform ourselves of the truth, because we are told what it is.
But, the wisdom of God destroys our faith in our own hands. And in the faith in the hands of man.
Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.
I was thinking about the times that God has made me glad. Usually they were when I was outside and part of His creation.
When I was running on the backside of 400 meters in track. When the wind was at my back, the world went silent, and the only thing I heard was my own feet hitting the track.
When the sun just came up as I was watching the deer wake from up in my tree stand. And I never had a chance to take a shot. So I just watched and listened.
When an owl about landed on my head in the same tree stand.
Yelling "Hmm BAAA!" across the pasture as I went to get the dairy cows in for Grandpa. And having no idea what "Hmm BAAA!" means.
Finding out that when adult beavers are playing in the creek they sound like puppies squeaking.
... one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
The most merciful person I know is my wife. She has an amazing heart for helping others. And an amazing mind for getting it done right. She got that heart from her mother. And the most cheerful person in their mercy I know of is my wife's Mom.
As a proper son-in-law I do make fun of her. But, I can say that God has given her a merciful heart. Enough of one that she can take a movie with a sad ending and think up the "actual" happy ending that occurs just after the movie ends. Because God put upon her heart a heart of mercy. One that seeks to help others and give them joy.
And through all that she does it cheerfully.
For the rest of us who scratch our heads at being happy in times of pain ... where mercy is most needed ... she is happy and finds people who need it. It is confusing for us, because we need to give more mercy to others and more cheer. And God may not have given us that gift.
But to the wicked God says: “What right have you to recite my statutes or take my covenant on your lips? For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you. If you see a thief, you are pleased with him, and you keep company with adulterers.
“You give your mouth free rein for evil, and your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother's son."
As I listen to the chapters for each day I usually write down a small note on what comes to mind in a particular chapter. This is what I had for this section ...
Ps 50 - My Nation
So many just give lip service and then deny the LORD's truth.
Our current financial situation exposes us as a nation of thieves. As a nation that takes from its children to pay for the pleasures of the adults.
We hate discipline rather than understand that we need to be corrected from doing wrong.
I pray that God will give Christians the strength of will to stand up and say enough. Or that He will rise up and humble us.
For it is not an enemy who taunts me — then I could bear it; it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me — then I could hide from him.
But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend. We used to take sweet counsel together; within God's house we walked in the throng.
Choose your friends wisely. Something I worry a lot about for my kids? Who they will grow up with.
Once our children are in school their days will have them asleep for about 10 hours, with you for about 6 hours, and with their friends for about 8 hours. And as they grow the hours will strongly shift to their friends and away from you.
And peer pressure can be applied for evil or good.
So apply a little bit of positive pressure as well. Not just on your kids, but on their friends. How? Just be involved in their lives. Teach in Sunday school. Help coach the sports team. Show them and their friends that you love them as Christ loves them. Model what is right and true.
For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.
Isn't that the truth.
Take some time today to go outside to walk, watch, and listen. Find a quiet spot to just meditate on God and what He has made for you to enjoy.
The below images are from a Kansas Reader textbook printed about 1920 by the State of Kansas for local schools. Click on them to read. And ... yes ... these are from the State of Kansas. It is amazing how far away the modern concept of 'separation of church and state' has removed our nation from the LORD.
In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’
Today working hard is a rarity. My grand parents worked harder than I do. And today the rage is "work smart not hard".
Work is a blessing from the LORD. To be able to produce and create is a gift not a burden. To often we look at leisure as the goal rather than work and its bounty.
Work hard while you can. And give away the results of that work the LORD has blessed you with ... while you can.
Today we live in a time of refrigerators and anti-bacterial soap. Interesting facts about food and Leviticus ...
Did you know you hunt rabbits after the first really hard freeze? That way all the sick ones will be dead and only healthy ones are left. You really don't want to try and eat them at other times. Good way to get sick.
The gecko, the monitor lizard, the lizard, the sand lizard, and the chameleon? Salmonella.
Huh ... God had some really good food rules for Israel.
At work we had a room with leaky windows. Over time the sheet rock on the wall got mold in it. They tore out a few pieces ... then some more ... and finally to get rid of it they had to seal the room and tear everything out.
Bet you didn't know Leviticus had the same rules for house contamination.
We have no idea what real power is. I have always disliked how Christ is portrayed in movies. All soft and wimpy.
Christ was the most powerful man to have ever lived or will ever live on the earth. With a single thought all of creation could have been wiped out. With a single word every living man on earth could have been destroyed.
For us power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. And Christ was fully man. For every temptation we have had, he would have felt. Yet Christ chose not to destroy us ... even though we deserved it. Christ chose to save us.
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the door posts of your house and on your gates.
Why audio? We are called to teach the word. To talk of it. Over my years of teaching I've learned that it is in speaking and listening that I understand. It isn't just in passively taking something in ... but participating. So let us take the time in our lives to listen to God's word.
As You Rise ... Genesis 1-10
"Who created God?" "What was before God?" Those are two questions that kids tend to ask. Strangely those two questions are based on time. To create needs a start ... that is time. Before ... that is time as well. But God created time itself. There is no "before" with Him. He Was and He Is. That is all.
As You Walk By The Way ... Genesis 11-19
As I listened to Abram's story I thought ... "Why couldn't God pick someone not so messed up!? To give his wife away to keep himself safe?" But, then I realized that there are no better people. We are all flawed. A fake story would create a better "hero". The Bible shows us the truth, as painfully honest as it is.
When You Lie Down ... Matthew 1-6
From the flawed Abraham ... to the harlot Rahab ... to the flawed man David. All the way down to a carpenter, Joseph. Our salvation couldn't come from our own flawed flesh. It could only come from the perfect Son of God. For Christ came to fulfill the law of God, to die upon the cross, to take our sins upon Himself.
Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Matt 6:34
