Psalms 69:29-33 NLT
I am suffering and in pain.
Rescue me, O God, by your saving power.
Then I will praise God’s name with singing,
and I will honor him with thanksgiving.
For this will please the lord more than sacrificing cattle,
more than presenting a bull with its horns and hooves.
The humble will see their God at work and be glad.
Let all who seek God’s help be encouraged.
For the lord hears the cries of the needy;
he does not despise his imprisoned people.
Psalms 68:34-35 GW
Acknowledge the power of God. His majesty is over Israel, and his power is in the skies. God, the God of Israel, is awe-inspiring in his holy place. He gives strength and power to his people. Thanks be to God!
2CO 5:21 ESV
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
PSA 61:4 ESV
Let me dwell in your tent forever! Let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings! Selah
Psalms 37:1 NLT
Don’t worry about the wicked or envy those who do wrong.
Psalms 32:8-9 NLT
The lord says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you. Do not be like a senseless horse or mule that needs a bit and bridle to keep it under control.”
Psalm 1:2-3 ESV
but his delight is in the law of the Lord , and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.
PERSONAL COMMENTARY
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I used to call myself a Christian because I had grown up in church and I knew the basic facts of “the Christian religion”. But I definitely didn’t “delight in the law of the Lord” – in fact, my life was proof that I delighted in all kinds of sin in my life. And I definitely didn’t meditate on his law day and night – in fact, I used what little I knew about grace as an excuse to stay far away from the law, shrugging it off as “that old covenant stuff”, satisfied that I had my “get out of Hell free card” in my back pocket.
But you see, I knew about religion – but my life was fruitless. There was no active relationship with a living God, there was no Holy Spirit guiding me, teaching me, and comforting me.
It’s pretty scary when I look back and realize that I was blind to the blessings, I was veiled and stumbling in darkness. And it concerns me when I wonder how many that call themselves Christians are leading fruitless lives of their own. I wonder how many opportunities are being missed to share hope, mercy, love, forgiveness, and all of the blessings of a Christ filled life with others.
What would the world look like if we lived like Christ? If we loved like Christ? If we put others needs ahead of our wants? If we genuinely cared about the lives of those around us – even those we will only meet once while passing through a restaurant or store.
Wouldn’t the world look a lot different than one group of religious folks complaining about what another religious group has wrong?
Wouldn’t the world look a lot different than a group of religious folks condemning and accusing and attacking others – even the rulers of their own nation that they are supposed to honor and pray for?
Wouldn’t the world look a lot different than a group of religious folks looking down their noses at others that don’t pray the way they do, or sing the way they do, or gather the way they do, or judge the way they do?
Yes, Jesus is alive and His Kingdom work is being done in the world today. He works through a living relationship, not dead religious practice –
Through Him we know that all of the Law and the words of the prophets hang on loving God and loving others. This is the voice of the Holy Spirit that teaches me to delight in the law, to delight in Love, undeserved grace and mercy and forgiveness – and I meditate on it daily, even moment to moment, as I try to keep my eyes on Christ in this new relationship with my risen Lord and Savior.
I don’t have time to check my own branches for fruit, because there is much work to be done. The harvest is great, but the workers are few.
So I hope that we will all do our work, friends -that we will all share this love if we have it, or go get it if we haven’t received it yet. I hope that each will be fruitful in their relationship, and that when the time comes, we will be proven as faithful servants.
I love you, friend. Have a blessed day.
Psalms 25:4 NLT
Show me the right path, O lord ; point out the road for me to follow.
PERSONAL COMMENTARY
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Am I asking Him to make clear the road ahead and to show me the way?
Or am I choosing a path that I want to follow because of my own personal desires and then asking God to bless it as if it was His will?
How much time do I spend telling Him what I want – instead of listening to Him since He knows what is best for me?
Do I want to settle for my own desires?
Or experience the fullness of the purpose that He has for my life?
If prayer is just me talking and not listening, what kind of relationship does that demonstrate?
Does it demonstrate that I value God’s will and purpose for my life, and that I honor Him as Almighty God and as the Lord of my life?
He will show us the right path. The question is – Are we seeking it?
If you have not yet received Christ into your life, if you have not received the baptism of his Holy Spirit living in you and through you in your daily life, if you find yourself wandering through each day without purpose – CALL OUT TO JESUS – He will save you, He will renew you, He will change you and show you a purpose and a path beyond anything you could build for yourself.
And if you have found Christ, are you clinging to Him today? Are you IN LOVE with this God that died for you on a cross, who loves you even when you were trapped in your sin? Are you FREE today?
I love you, friend. Have a blessed day. May His Spirit guide you and lead you, and may He shine so brightly in you today that the world cannot ignore the Christ that lives in YOU!
The 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud lady, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o’clock, with her hair fashionably coifed and makeup perfectly applied, even though she is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today. Her husband of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary.
After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, she smiled sweetly when told her room was ready.
As she maneuvered her walker to the elevator, I provided a visual description of her tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on her window. “I love it,” she stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.
“Mrs. Jones, you haven’t seen the room …. just wait.” “That doesn’t have anything to do with it,” she replied. “Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn’t depend on how the furniture is arranged … it’s how I arrange my mind.
I already decided to love it … “It’s a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice; I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do. Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open I’ll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I’ve stored away … just for this time in my life.
Old age is like a bank account … you withdraw from what you’ve put in .. So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories
Thank you for your part in filling my Memory bank. I am still depositing.
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Remember the five simple rules to be happy:
1. Free your heart from hatred.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less.
No one can go back and make a brand new start.
Anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.
God didn’t promise days without pain, laughter without sorrow, sun without rain, but He did promise strength for the day, comfort for the tears, and light for the way.
Disappointments are like road bumps, they slow you down a bit but you enjoy the smooth road afterwards.
Don’t stay on the bumps too long. Move on!
When you feel down because you didn’t get what you want, just sit tight and be happy, because God has thought of something better to give you.
When something happens to you, good or bad, consider what it means.
There’s a purpose to life’s events, to teach you how to laugh more or not to cry too hard.
You can’t make someone love you, all you can do is be someone who can be loved, the rest is up to the person to realize your worth.
It’s better to lose your pride to the one you love, than to lose the one you love because of pride.
We spend too much time looking for the right person to love or finding fault with those we already love, when instead we should be perfecting the love we give.
Never abandon an old friend. You will never find one who can take his place. Friendship is like wine, it gets better as it grows older.
May today there be peace within you. May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be. “I believe that friends are quiet angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly.”
— Author Unknown
PSA 8:1-9 ESV
O Lord , our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.
When I look at your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,
all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
O Lord , our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
PERSONAL COMMENTARY
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Oh, to have faith like a child.
This world around us breeds doubt and lays tricks for us.
When we see how tiny we are compared to the lengths of this earth, when we see how far the expanse of the heavens extend, when we see how wonderful your design is even at the microscopic levels, when we learn the sciences of the amazing physical world that surrounds us – it is hard for us to understand why you would be mindful of us, mere mortal human beings. But even that is not trusting in your creating us originally with that purpose in mind, when you created us in your image and breathed life into us.
Yes, you made us with a purpose.
Faith like a child. Isn’t that who we are if we are yours? We are like children, clinging to you in faith. We are your chosen, elected, and adopted children. You have extended your mercies to us, and we have accepted your offer of grace, of salvation, of a renewed life in Christ.
And yes, there is a difference in accepting this offer of grace and in loving and serving our of grattitude and our of a changed attitude on the inside, which is the whole point of this Good News of the gospel – a cleaning of the inside of the cup – a relationship with Christ alive in us –
Instead of just outward action striving to earn favor or rewards under our own power, making a presentation to others that we are clean and worthy, playing the part on the outside with works and words, while dead and empty of fruit on the inside, this is religion.
And sadly, many will see the two and confuse one for the other, because the enemy is a trickster, and he tries his best to imitate the things of God and lead others astray.
But like a child who knows the voice of his father, I listen for that voice of love – because that is the voice of my father. Even in his correction, He corrects me with Love and patience. He does not crush me under the stone, He sets me on it as my firm foundation.
And I fear for where I would be if I was not in His hands, because He protects me, and He guides me, and He loves me, and He rescues me from those traps the enemy lays before me.
I do not know His wrath, I only know His love – so it is difficult for me to share that other voice that I hear many so often using to talk about God. The consequences that I have faced in this life were of my own choosing, and He has even rescued me from so many of those. The love and peace and joy heavy always come from walking in His ways.
So I don’t know this God of wrath and punishment and anger that many fear and run from. No, my Father is there with open arms, waiting for me. And I don’t run into His arms because I fear His wrath and punishment, I run to His arms because I know His love, and His mercy, and His forgiveness, and His grace, and His honor, and His glory, and His power.
I’m not a hired hand, working to try and earn favor or build up treasures for myself – a hired hand will desert the flock in times of trouble because they are working for their own gain and honor.
No, and I am not a shepherd myself, and I am not a teacher, but the Good Shepherd walks with me, and He lives in me, and He guides me when I follow, and He teaches me when I listen, and He loves me and protects me.
So I follow Him, because He is my Father, and I know His voice.
If you do not hear that same voice of love, surrender your life to Christ, see past the religion that focuses on a life of self. If I’m only worried about:
How do I keep from going to hell?
How do I get to go to heaven?
How do I earn favor with the Lord?
How do I avoid the wrath of God?
How can I get the Father to love me?
I might only know a religion that is focused on ME.
But there is a relationship that was purchased for YOU and ME with the blood of Jesus Christ, God come in the flesh:
Lord, I know that I deserve eternal separation from you by the worthless works of my life, but I trust in your promises, please remember me.
Lord, my time spent with you, learning from you, praising you, worshipping you, is such a blessing, thank you for the opportunity to experience a foretaste of your kingdom even now.
Lord, use me however you see fit, let me be salt and light in this world of darkness, let them see you in me, so that they might hear your voice and see your love and we might fellowship together as your children even as a foretaste of your kingdom.
Lord, please have mercy on those still held in captivity, those that do not know your voice and your touch – those that need your renewal – those that need to be healed from their spiritual blindness – those that need to be healed from their deafness to your truth – so that they too will hear your voice, the voice of a loving Father.
Lord, please have mercy on us when we stumble, and correct us gently in your loving hands – but apply the pressure necessary to crush the will of those in opposition to you so they might repent of their evil ways and know a full life. And who can refuse you, Lord, if they are yours and encounter your voice? Who would turn away your love and mercy and forgiveness?
Lord, you are worthy of all honor and praise. My works are worthless rags in your eyes, but your works done through Christ living in me are wonderful. Those works are Yours, not mine, and that is why I lay down any crowns at the feet of Christ, because I do not deserve any honor or glory or title or exaltation – You alone, Lord, deserve honor and praise.
Harold J. Ballinger 