Today's Reading:
Psalms 59-61
Acts 28:16-31
My Response:
I am on daddy duty tonight so if the little one starts crying I am going to have to end abruptly and take him away from Dawn so that she can get some sleep. We alternate days for this so that each one of us can get some sleep sometimes! Teamwork!
Okay so in our reading today we start with a prayer from David while Saul's soldiers were attempting to entrap him at his home. We find the recorded story of this in 1 Samuel 19:10-17. It appears as though David felt hunted and continually refers to Saul's soldiers howling and snarling like dogs. Can you imagine having men hunting you like this and yet you are still able to pray this:
Psalms 59:9-10
9 O my Strength, I watch for you;
you, O God, are my fortress,
10 my loving God.
God will go before me
and will let me gloat over those who slander me.
While still being hunted. David had such deep and devote trust in God and it puts me to shame. I get one little sickness and I lose my trust in God. This is a major area of weakness that I have had for the last few years, but God has begun a good work in me on it, to make me more like David. I believe and trust in the Lord and know that He has a good plan for my life. I just want more faith and trust like David had!
Psalms 60 is a Psalm of discouragement because of some failed wars against the Syrians and Edomites. This story is recounted in 2 Samuel 8:3-14 and shows us why they were discouraged. Everyone gets discouraged in their lives and that is not to say that they are not trusting in God. In fact God wants us to bring our discouragement to Him, because in this He can show Himself mighty and just. That is why we see such prayers going up as:
Psalms 60:4-5
4 But for those who fear you, you have raised a banner
to be unfurled against the bow.
Selah
5 Save us and help us with your right hand,
that those you love may be delivered.
Even in the midst of battles and failures we should be calling out to God. For some of us, this is the only time that we cry out to God, and that is not right. But in our moments of great need God wants to hear from us. I believe that He wants us to call upon His name so that He can show us and remind us that He has everything in His hands. I know that in my own life when I have called upon the Lord in my hour of need He has been faithful to answer. It is because of this that I can profess a real and relevant God to the world. I have no doubts that the God I speak of exists because I can see the supernatural things that He has done in my life. It is not because I am someone great or special, it is because my God is great and special!
Okay daddy duty has begun:
My Prayer:
Lord please bless this night and help it to go smoothly. I love You Lord and praise Your mighty name.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
December 31st, 2008 Bible Blog
Today's Reading:
Psalms 56-58
Acts 28:1-15
My Response:
Well tonights post is going to be significantly shorter as I have not received a great deal of sleep. Both my boys were up last night and consequently I received very little sleep. I am tired and barely even able to type because my mind is operating slow and my hands keep typing the wrong letters. But here we go, onward and upwards!
Psalms 56 is a prayer for deliverance from the Philistines and is very similar to that of Psalms 34. This is the time when David pretended to be insane so as to escape capture, but the entire time David also trusted in God. I am encouraged by this portion of his Scripture:
Psalms 56:3-4
3 When I am afraid,
I will trust in you.
4 In God, whose word I praise,
in God I trust; I will not be afraid.
What can mortal man do to me?
First off, not that I wish bad things on people, but it is good to see that even a great and mighty king (or soon to be) was at times afraid. Being afraid is not wrong, however it is in these moments that we should trust in the Lord. Well actually we should trust in the Lord at all times. When David says this prayer he is saying that when he becomes afraid he throws all his trust on the throne of God. Because of this God was always faithful to take away David's fears and give him a spirit of boldness to get through the hard times.
In our NT reading today we have a brief accounting of Paul and Luke shipwrecked on Malta. Here we see a few things that I would like to comment on. First and foremost Paul was a practical and hard working man. The native people of this land started a fire and Paul doing what he did well, went to work and collected more wood for the fire so as to keep it going. What does this show us about Paul. Well he was practical, he knew that people would need to be warmed and comforted from the tragedy that they had just escaped. But also here we see a man that did not consider himself above positions of lowly work. Paul set in to begin collecting even though it is likely that there were others beneath him that could have or should have done the work. This shows the character of Paul. He was a man that worked hard and never felt that he was too great to do something. If only more Christians, including myself, were so noble. I think that many of us do things hoping that people will see us and praise us. We need to be like Paul who simply saw a need and pressed on to take care of that need.
In this story we also see Paul heal the father of the chief official of the Island of Malta. This was great in that Paul was of course able to continue showing people the power and majesty of God despite the fact that he was a prisoner. But then we see something of note that should be discussed in verse 9:
Acts 28:9
9When this had happened, the rest of the sick on the island came and were cured.
The actual word for were cured (healed in some translations) was the word for those who had received medical attention. So what many scholars believe is that here we see the first medical missionary statement ever recorded, and of course it would have been Luke the physician performing these cures. Again, this is the obedience of one man, in this case Luke, taking the skills that God had given him and using them for the glory of God. We all need to focus ourselves on the things that God has blessed us with and use them for His glory.
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me of my sins. Lord I pray that You would keep us all safe this New Years and be with us all. I pray Lord that You would provide us all with a plan and a course for our lives for this upcoming year. I pray that this year people would come to know You in a much deeper and more profound way. I ask Lord that You would unite Your Body and use us to accomplish many great things in '09.
Lord please bless my sleep tonight and help both of our boys to sleep soundly. God You know that I am exhausted and I pray that You would help us all to sleep well. Thank You for all of Your wonderful blessings. I love You Lord and I lay my life down at Your feet.
Psalms 56-58
Acts 28:1-15
My Response:
Well tonights post is going to be significantly shorter as I have not received a great deal of sleep. Both my boys were up last night and consequently I received very little sleep. I am tired and barely even able to type because my mind is operating slow and my hands keep typing the wrong letters. But here we go, onward and upwards!
Psalms 56 is a prayer for deliverance from the Philistines and is very similar to that of Psalms 34. This is the time when David pretended to be insane so as to escape capture, but the entire time David also trusted in God. I am encouraged by this portion of his Scripture:
Psalms 56:3-4
3 When I am afraid,
I will trust in you.
4 In God, whose word I praise,
in God I trust; I will not be afraid.
What can mortal man do to me?
First off, not that I wish bad things on people, but it is good to see that even a great and mighty king (or soon to be) was at times afraid. Being afraid is not wrong, however it is in these moments that we should trust in the Lord. Well actually we should trust in the Lord at all times. When David says this prayer he is saying that when he becomes afraid he throws all his trust on the throne of God. Because of this God was always faithful to take away David's fears and give him a spirit of boldness to get through the hard times.
In our NT reading today we have a brief accounting of Paul and Luke shipwrecked on Malta. Here we see a few things that I would like to comment on. First and foremost Paul was a practical and hard working man. The native people of this land started a fire and Paul doing what he did well, went to work and collected more wood for the fire so as to keep it going. What does this show us about Paul. Well he was practical, he knew that people would need to be warmed and comforted from the tragedy that they had just escaped. But also here we see a man that did not consider himself above positions of lowly work. Paul set in to begin collecting even though it is likely that there were others beneath him that could have or should have done the work. This shows the character of Paul. He was a man that worked hard and never felt that he was too great to do something. If only more Christians, including myself, were so noble. I think that many of us do things hoping that people will see us and praise us. We need to be like Paul who simply saw a need and pressed on to take care of that need.
In this story we also see Paul heal the father of the chief official of the Island of Malta. This was great in that Paul was of course able to continue showing people the power and majesty of God despite the fact that he was a prisoner. But then we see something of note that should be discussed in verse 9:
Acts 28:9
9When this had happened, the rest of the sick on the island came and were cured.
The actual word for were cured (healed in some translations) was the word for those who had received medical attention. So what many scholars believe is that here we see the first medical missionary statement ever recorded, and of course it would have been Luke the physician performing these cures. Again, this is the obedience of one man, in this case Luke, taking the skills that God had given him and using them for the glory of God. We all need to focus ourselves on the things that God has blessed us with and use them for His glory.
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me of my sins. Lord I pray that You would keep us all safe this New Years and be with us all. I pray Lord that You would provide us all with a plan and a course for our lives for this upcoming year. I pray that this year people would come to know You in a much deeper and more profound way. I ask Lord that You would unite Your Body and use us to accomplish many great things in '09.
Lord please bless my sleep tonight and help both of our boys to sleep soundly. God You know that I am exhausted and I pray that You would help us all to sleep well. Thank You for all of Your wonderful blessings. I love You Lord and I lay my life down at Your feet.
Monday, December 29, 2008
December 30th, 2008 Bible Blog
Today's Reading:
Psalms 53-55
Acts 27:26-44
My Response:
Today we begin with Psalms 53 which discusses the universal sinfulness of man, and is that ever the case. Its funny to me that Christians try to always put up this facade that we have it all together, that we are perfect. Then the moment that we step out of line we get our faces rubbed into it. This is part to blame on us I think though. We as a body of Christ need to stand up and say "Hey we're all sinful, including me, the only difference is that I have been saved by the blood of the lamb". And this is the truth, we are no better out there then any other sinful person in the eyes of God. This is what Psalms 53 speaks of, the sinfulness of all mankind. We see this sentiment present in these two verses:
Psalms 53:4-5
2 God looks down from heaven
on the sons of men
to see if there are any who understand,
any who seek God.
3 Everyone has turned away,
they have together become corrupt;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.
Psalms 54 shows us David crying out to the Lord. This cry out to God is because men had turned David's whereabouts over to Saul. David was always eager to approach God with all his needs. Even in Psalms 55 David sings before the Lord despite the fact that his friends had turned against him. David was betrayed by those that were close to him, yet he still trusted in God. We see what David is speaking of here:
Psalms 55:13-14
13 But it is you, a man like myself,
my companion, my close friend,
14 with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship
as we walked with the throng at the house of God.
And then we see what David's response was during this dark time:
Psalms 55:16
16 But I call to God,
and the LORD saves me.
David knew that the hand of God would deliver him from his enemies. David was ever trusting in God to provide for him and take care of him. And then we receive our encouraging word from David just a few verses later:
Psalms 55:22
22 Cast your cares on the LORD
and he will sustain you;
he will never let the righteous fall.
I am encouraged by this. All God asks me to do is live righteously and He will sustain me. To me this means that no matter what if I am striving to be like God He will take care of me. Sure I am going to fail, sure I am going to mess up, but I will approach God on my knees and seek His forgiveness. I will live as righteous as I can trying to push my flesh aside. I will make my requests before the Lord because here we see that God cares about me. How awesome and powerful this is, God cares about me and He is going to sustain me. He is going to take care of me, all I have to do is obey Him.
In our NT reading we see the fateful end of their voyage towards Rome. Of course we know that Paul and all the people on the ship were shipwrecked, but every single one of them survived. As I stated yesterday here we see that Paul rises once again as a leader despite the fact that he is the prisoner. People looked to Paul here at the end of the voyage and received his instructions to eat and be well nourished. Why was Paul so calm? Well because God had spoken to him, God had told him that not a single person on that ship was going to die. Paul did what Paul did best, and that was follow the guidance of God. In this case Paul's listening to the Lord saved a ship of over 200 men and his leadership skills shined even in the midst of captivity.
I really believe that God is looking for more leaders like Paul to rise up in the church. People that, even in shackles, are professing the goodness of Christ and the One who sent Him. Are we doing all that we should be doing? Am I doing all that God wants of me? I don't know for sure, but I am sure going to keep striving for this kind of lifestyle.
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me of my sins and release me from my past. Lord I want to be more like You. I want to be closer to You. I pray that You would give me strength to overcome the enemy in my life. Lord I submit all that I am and all that I have to You.
God You are my refuge and my strongtower. In You I place all my trust. This world has and will let me down but I know that You are always there for me. I praise Your mighty name and worship You with all that I have.
Lord please bless our sleep tonight. As You know it has been rough around here since Ethan has been born and Dawn and I really could use a good night sleep. Please help us to sleep soundly and get a good nights sleep.
Psalms 53-55
Acts 27:26-44
My Response:
Today we begin with Psalms 53 which discusses the universal sinfulness of man, and is that ever the case. Its funny to me that Christians try to always put up this facade that we have it all together, that we are perfect. Then the moment that we step out of line we get our faces rubbed into it. This is part to blame on us I think though. We as a body of Christ need to stand up and say "Hey we're all sinful, including me, the only difference is that I have been saved by the blood of the lamb". And this is the truth, we are no better out there then any other sinful person in the eyes of God. This is what Psalms 53 speaks of, the sinfulness of all mankind. We see this sentiment present in these two verses:
Psalms 53:4-5
2 God looks down from heaven
on the sons of men
to see if there are any who understand,
any who seek God.
3 Everyone has turned away,
they have together become corrupt;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.
Psalms 54 shows us David crying out to the Lord. This cry out to God is because men had turned David's whereabouts over to Saul. David was always eager to approach God with all his needs. Even in Psalms 55 David sings before the Lord despite the fact that his friends had turned against him. David was betrayed by those that were close to him, yet he still trusted in God. We see what David is speaking of here:
Psalms 55:13-14
13 But it is you, a man like myself,
my companion, my close friend,
14 with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship
as we walked with the throng at the house of God.
And then we see what David's response was during this dark time:
Psalms 55:16
16 But I call to God,
and the LORD saves me.
David knew that the hand of God would deliver him from his enemies. David was ever trusting in God to provide for him and take care of him. And then we receive our encouraging word from David just a few verses later:
Psalms 55:22
22 Cast your cares on the LORD
and he will sustain you;
he will never let the righteous fall.
I am encouraged by this. All God asks me to do is live righteously and He will sustain me. To me this means that no matter what if I am striving to be like God He will take care of me. Sure I am going to fail, sure I am going to mess up, but I will approach God on my knees and seek His forgiveness. I will live as righteous as I can trying to push my flesh aside. I will make my requests before the Lord because here we see that God cares about me. How awesome and powerful this is, God cares about me and He is going to sustain me. He is going to take care of me, all I have to do is obey Him.
In our NT reading we see the fateful end of their voyage towards Rome. Of course we know that Paul and all the people on the ship were shipwrecked, but every single one of them survived. As I stated yesterday here we see that Paul rises once again as a leader despite the fact that he is the prisoner. People looked to Paul here at the end of the voyage and received his instructions to eat and be well nourished. Why was Paul so calm? Well because God had spoken to him, God had told him that not a single person on that ship was going to die. Paul did what Paul did best, and that was follow the guidance of God. In this case Paul's listening to the Lord saved a ship of over 200 men and his leadership skills shined even in the midst of captivity.
I really believe that God is looking for more leaders like Paul to rise up in the church. People that, even in shackles, are professing the goodness of Christ and the One who sent Him. Are we doing all that we should be doing? Am I doing all that God wants of me? I don't know for sure, but I am sure going to keep striving for this kind of lifestyle.
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me of my sins and release me from my past. Lord I want to be more like You. I want to be closer to You. I pray that You would give me strength to overcome the enemy in my life. Lord I submit all that I am and all that I have to You.
God You are my refuge and my strongtower. In You I place all my trust. This world has and will let me down but I know that You are always there for me. I praise Your mighty name and worship You with all that I have.
Lord please bless our sleep tonight. As You know it has been rough around here since Ethan has been born and Dawn and I really could use a good night sleep. Please help us to sleep soundly and get a good nights sleep.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
December 29th, 2008 Bible Blog
Today's Reading:
Psalms 50-52
Acts 27:1-25
My Response:
Today we begin with Psalms 50 where we find the Psalmist relating God's view of money and wealth. Essentially here God is saying that He cares not about wealth or power. He is not at all impressed by it. In fact this Psalm reminds us that hat we have was given to us from God anyways. We ought not feel special about our worldly possessions because God has only loaned them to us for a brief time. For some reason verse 9 cracks me up when God is saying that He has no need for our sacrifices because He already owns the cattle on a thousand hills! How small and insignificant we are in comparison to God, yet He still loved us so much that He came down to us to redeem us. That in my eyes makes us all wonderfully valuable!
Psalms 51 is another Psalms where we see David's repentive heart. David knew that he had fallen short of what God wanted of him, and so David did what he knew best, he got on his knees before God. I still need to improve on this. I especially love this portion of the reading:
Psalms 51:10-13
10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will turn back to you.
This of course was turned into a beautiful worship song of repentance which I still love to this day. We all fall short of the glory of God and this should be the cry of our heart. Lord create in me a clean heart and renew Your Spirit in me that I might defeat the enemy in my life. God wants us to ask for His Spirit to be poured upon us to refresh us and make us strong enough to defeat our flesh. By our own power we cannot possibly overcome our flesh, our sin nature, but through the power of the Spirit we can. We need to be singing this song over and over as a prayer before the Lord.
In our NT reading today we see Paul begin his journey to Rome. This of course would end up being quite an adventure to say the least, but in this we see some great things. Most of what I really want to comment on is going to need to be at the end of this chapter because it sums it all up quite nicely. But to begin we should see that while Paul was a prisoner, he begins to take the position of a leader on this ship. During a time when the ship began to be destroyed by the weather and the waves Paul stood head and shoulders above the rest. Paul stood up when others were fearful and full of worry. Why was this? Aas it because Paul was some great man like none the earth has seen since? Absolutley not, the answer is that the same Spirit that lived in Paul lives in us, we merely need to begin operating fully in the Spirit.
The Spirit brings in peace and comfort even in the midst of the most trying times, and it steers people to a God that loves and cares for them. We need to live our lives in the Spirit so that during this tumultuous period in our nation the Church will stand out differently. We need to show the world the rock on which we have built our foundation. The Rock that gives us protection and walks with us in our time of need. This is what will bring people to Christ, not us thumping them in the head with our Bibles.
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me of my sins and release me of my past. God my body and flesh our weak and I know that I have failed You. Lord I don't know why I give in to my flesh, deep down inside I hate this struggle with my flesh. God I want to be near to You and I want to honor You with all that I am and all that I have. My sinful nature gets in the way though. I thank You for Your grace and mercy because without it I am utterly lost Lord. I praise Your mighty name for what You have done for me. Lord please save me from my transgressions and renew Your Spirit within me. Lord don't cast me away for giving into unrighteousness, rather draw me closer to You that I might become more like You.
God I love You and I worship You. You are my King. You are my Rock. Your are my Refuge. I trust entirely in You Lord. Without You I have no hope and no future but with You I have an eternity of praise to look forward to.
God please bless this nights sleep and help the entire Golobay family to sleep soundly. As You know the doctor has said that Ethan's fussy time is in the middle of the night, but I ask that You change that so that our household can get some rest. I pray that You would help Ethan to sleep through the night and then be happy and awake during the day. I thank You for what You are teaching me through this process and I worship Your mighty name.
Psalms 50-52
Acts 27:1-25
My Response:
Today we begin with Psalms 50 where we find the Psalmist relating God's view of money and wealth. Essentially here God is saying that He cares not about wealth or power. He is not at all impressed by it. In fact this Psalm reminds us that hat we have was given to us from God anyways. We ought not feel special about our worldly possessions because God has only loaned them to us for a brief time. For some reason verse 9 cracks me up when God is saying that He has no need for our sacrifices because He already owns the cattle on a thousand hills! How small and insignificant we are in comparison to God, yet He still loved us so much that He came down to us to redeem us. That in my eyes makes us all wonderfully valuable!
Psalms 51 is another Psalms where we see David's repentive heart. David knew that he had fallen short of what God wanted of him, and so David did what he knew best, he got on his knees before God. I still need to improve on this. I especially love this portion of the reading:
Psalms 51:10-13
10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will turn back to you.
This of course was turned into a beautiful worship song of repentance which I still love to this day. We all fall short of the glory of God and this should be the cry of our heart. Lord create in me a clean heart and renew Your Spirit in me that I might defeat the enemy in my life. God wants us to ask for His Spirit to be poured upon us to refresh us and make us strong enough to defeat our flesh. By our own power we cannot possibly overcome our flesh, our sin nature, but through the power of the Spirit we can. We need to be singing this song over and over as a prayer before the Lord.
In our NT reading today we see Paul begin his journey to Rome. This of course would end up being quite an adventure to say the least, but in this we see some great things. Most of what I really want to comment on is going to need to be at the end of this chapter because it sums it all up quite nicely. But to begin we should see that while Paul was a prisoner, he begins to take the position of a leader on this ship. During a time when the ship began to be destroyed by the weather and the waves Paul stood head and shoulders above the rest. Paul stood up when others were fearful and full of worry. Why was this? Aas it because Paul was some great man like none the earth has seen since? Absolutley not, the answer is that the same Spirit that lived in Paul lives in us, we merely need to begin operating fully in the Spirit.
The Spirit brings in peace and comfort even in the midst of the most trying times, and it steers people to a God that loves and cares for them. We need to live our lives in the Spirit so that during this tumultuous period in our nation the Church will stand out differently. We need to show the world the rock on which we have built our foundation. The Rock that gives us protection and walks with us in our time of need. This is what will bring people to Christ, not us thumping them in the head with our Bibles.
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me of my sins and release me of my past. God my body and flesh our weak and I know that I have failed You. Lord I don't know why I give in to my flesh, deep down inside I hate this struggle with my flesh. God I want to be near to You and I want to honor You with all that I am and all that I have. My sinful nature gets in the way though. I thank You for Your grace and mercy because without it I am utterly lost Lord. I praise Your mighty name for what You have done for me. Lord please save me from my transgressions and renew Your Spirit within me. Lord don't cast me away for giving into unrighteousness, rather draw me closer to You that I might become more like You.
God I love You and I worship You. You are my King. You are my Rock. Your are my Refuge. I trust entirely in You Lord. Without You I have no hope and no future but with You I have an eternity of praise to look forward to.
God please bless this nights sleep and help the entire Golobay family to sleep soundly. As You know the doctor has said that Ethan's fussy time is in the middle of the night, but I ask that You change that so that our household can get some rest. I pray that You would help Ethan to sleep through the night and then be happy and awake during the day. I thank You for what You are teaching me through this process and I worship Your mighty name.
Saturday, December 27, 2008
December 28th, 2008 Bible Blog
Today's Reading:
Psalms 47-49
Acts 26
My Response:
Psalms 47 and 48 are both songs of praise to God who reigns. In this Psalms reading we are told to:
Psalms 47:6
6 Sing praises to God, sing praises;
sing praises to our King, sing praises.
The psalmist is saying to sing praises to God because He reigns, because He is great and mighty, because He is faithful to deliver us in our time of need. The Psalmist reiterates what he is saying and says in this one verse alone "sing praises" four times! Do you think that this was an important aspect of their life with God? Shouldn't this be how we approach God still to this day singing praises to His great and glorious name. Our God has delivered us from the pit of hell and we have so much to praise His name for. This is what God wants from us, He wants us to have that same spirit of praise as these Psalmists did. Is God any different today than He was back in these days, absolutely not for we are told that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So as a body we need to be singing praises!
Psalms 49 is a Psalms about the vanity of riches. This is an important lesson for us to learn especially in light of our current economic situation. In the USA we believe that wealth and power are what matter, but this is not how God looks at it, and neither did this Psalmist.
Psalms 49:12
12 But man, despite his riches, does not endure;
he is [g] like the beasts that perish.
People want to believe that their wealth is going to save them from all distress. They lean upon their house, their credit cards, their nice vehicles, their botox treatments, etc... but this in the end will not save them from the inevitable truth that we all will die. All the money in the world will not bring about salvation from death, we all will perish. It is either focus on being comfortable in this world or comfortable for eternity. I for one will focus on eternity and walk away from focusing on earthly wealth. God I devote my life to You! There is another truth which we should adopt:
Psalms 49:16-17
16 Do not be overawed when a man grows rich,
when the splendor of his house increases;
17 for he will take nothing with him when he dies,
his splendor will not descend with him.
We should not be envious of those that have more than us. We should not despise them because we know that they are merely building an earthly kingdom for themselves that will be divided when they die. Man comes into this world naked and poor and leaves just the same. We should not be frustrated by another mans wealth but instead treat him/her as our brother and sister in Christ. We should also not judge those that have plenty when we have little, for once again God's eyes on this matter are greatly different than ours. God blesses some with wealth while others are living in poverty. I have no answer why this happens, but God has a method to it all and we need not judge those that are living comfortably and well. God has a plan for their life and their wealth just as He has one for our lives and our wealth.
Again I don't have much to say on our NT reading today. Here we see Paul stand yet another trial where he states his case to Agrippa. Paul starts by telling Agrippa that he too was once like that of the Jews. He was raised as a Pharisee and had in fact set out to destroy the Christians completely. Paul tells that he was there approving of the killing of the saints desiring to see them all perish, but that Christ did something in his life.
One thing that we should take from this is the good Godly men/women admit their past failures. Paul did not want to hide that which he had done wrong. He had no desire to try and keep his past silent because in his life the transformation that took place could only be explained by the redemptive power of Christ. We are not called to be perfect because as humans, we cannot be. I think that this is one way that the Christian community has failed the unsaved. We try and show ourselves as perfect and pure rather than admitting our faults the way that Paul does here. We try to keep it hidden and present some sort of perfection. This is not reality at all, we are sinners just like everyone else, the only difference is that we have been saved by the blood of the Lamb.
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me of my sins. I am weak and I am a failure. I praise Your name for Your redemption of me when I was still unworthy. You are my God and my King and I praise Your mighty name. Even when times are rough in my life I still will praise You. Lord as my son cries out in anguish I still praise Your name because I know that You have a plan. I know that You are working out all things for Your glory.
Lord please touch my son Ethan and help him to be healed. Help his body to process gas in a way that is not so painful. Lord Gabe has been praying for his brother which touches my heart, I pray that You would hear his prayers and answer them. I especially ask this because I want Gabe to learn at an early age that You are a real God who listens and who cares. I pray that Gabe would get to see the benefit of his requests to You. Lord heal Ethan and touch his body tonight and bring change.
I praise Your name o Lord. You are my King and I submit all to Your throne. Lord I pray that You would bless Sun Glow and bring business to us in this difficult time. Lord help us to provide for the families that work for us. I pray that as Sun Glow thrives in this market that people would attribute it to Your provision. I thank You Lord and I worship You alone.
Psalms 47-49
Acts 26
My Response:
Psalms 47 and 48 are both songs of praise to God who reigns. In this Psalms reading we are told to:
Psalms 47:6
6 Sing praises to God, sing praises;
sing praises to our King, sing praises.
The psalmist is saying to sing praises to God because He reigns, because He is great and mighty, because He is faithful to deliver us in our time of need. The Psalmist reiterates what he is saying and says in this one verse alone "sing praises" four times! Do you think that this was an important aspect of their life with God? Shouldn't this be how we approach God still to this day singing praises to His great and glorious name. Our God has delivered us from the pit of hell and we have so much to praise His name for. This is what God wants from us, He wants us to have that same spirit of praise as these Psalmists did. Is God any different today than He was back in these days, absolutely not for we are told that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So as a body we need to be singing praises!
Psalms 49 is a Psalms about the vanity of riches. This is an important lesson for us to learn especially in light of our current economic situation. In the USA we believe that wealth and power are what matter, but this is not how God looks at it, and neither did this Psalmist.
Psalms 49:12
12 But man, despite his riches, does not endure;
he is [g] like the beasts that perish.
People want to believe that their wealth is going to save them from all distress. They lean upon their house, their credit cards, their nice vehicles, their botox treatments, etc... but this in the end will not save them from the inevitable truth that we all will die. All the money in the world will not bring about salvation from death, we all will perish. It is either focus on being comfortable in this world or comfortable for eternity. I for one will focus on eternity and walk away from focusing on earthly wealth. God I devote my life to You! There is another truth which we should adopt:
Psalms 49:16-17
16 Do not be overawed when a man grows rich,
when the splendor of his house increases;
17 for he will take nothing with him when he dies,
his splendor will not descend with him.
We should not be envious of those that have more than us. We should not despise them because we know that they are merely building an earthly kingdom for themselves that will be divided when they die. Man comes into this world naked and poor and leaves just the same. We should not be frustrated by another mans wealth but instead treat him/her as our brother and sister in Christ. We should also not judge those that have plenty when we have little, for once again God's eyes on this matter are greatly different than ours. God blesses some with wealth while others are living in poverty. I have no answer why this happens, but God has a method to it all and we need not judge those that are living comfortably and well. God has a plan for their life and their wealth just as He has one for our lives and our wealth.
Again I don't have much to say on our NT reading today. Here we see Paul stand yet another trial where he states his case to Agrippa. Paul starts by telling Agrippa that he too was once like that of the Jews. He was raised as a Pharisee and had in fact set out to destroy the Christians completely. Paul tells that he was there approving of the killing of the saints desiring to see them all perish, but that Christ did something in his life.
One thing that we should take from this is the good Godly men/women admit their past failures. Paul did not want to hide that which he had done wrong. He had no desire to try and keep his past silent because in his life the transformation that took place could only be explained by the redemptive power of Christ. We are not called to be perfect because as humans, we cannot be. I think that this is one way that the Christian community has failed the unsaved. We try and show ourselves as perfect and pure rather than admitting our faults the way that Paul does here. We try to keep it hidden and present some sort of perfection. This is not reality at all, we are sinners just like everyone else, the only difference is that we have been saved by the blood of the Lamb.
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me of my sins. I am weak and I am a failure. I praise Your name for Your redemption of me when I was still unworthy. You are my God and my King and I praise Your mighty name. Even when times are rough in my life I still will praise You. Lord as my son cries out in anguish I still praise Your name because I know that You have a plan. I know that You are working out all things for Your glory.
Lord please touch my son Ethan and help him to be healed. Help his body to process gas in a way that is not so painful. Lord Gabe has been praying for his brother which touches my heart, I pray that You would hear his prayers and answer them. I especially ask this because I want Gabe to learn at an early age that You are a real God who listens and who cares. I pray that Gabe would get to see the benefit of his requests to You. Lord heal Ethan and touch his body tonight and bring change.
I praise Your name o Lord. You are my King and I submit all to Your throne. Lord I pray that You would bless Sun Glow and bring business to us in this difficult time. Lord help us to provide for the families that work for us. I pray that as Sun Glow thrives in this market that people would attribute it to Your provision. I thank You Lord and I worship You alone.
Friday, December 26, 2008
December 27th, 2008 Bible Blog
Today's Reading:
Psalms 44-46
Acts 25
My Response:
Tonight I need to start out in prayer because of some stuff going on that has me a bit distracted. Lord please forgive me for my sins, I repent if in any way I have been disrespectful of my elders. Lord I feel as though I get dumped on sometimes and that I need to stand up and defend myself, but I know that this is not my responsibilty. Lord forgive me for trying to take on more than I should and not allowing You to handle all aspects of my life. I pray for reconciliation Lord and peace. Forgive me Lord and fill me with Your presence. Help me to keep my mind on You tonight and at all times Lord. I love You and I worship You alone.
Okay, I am feeling a bit blue at the moment and wish that in life I could change things at the pace I want them changed at. What can I say other than that I am a work in progress. So in our reading today we continue on with the Son's of Korah Psalms beginning with chapter 44. Here we see this Levite clan of musicians crying out in despair because of a national disaster which was the result of their army apparently being defeated. There was one Scripture in particular that really spoke to me:
Psalms 44:4-8
3 It was not by their sword that they won the land,
nor did their arm bring them victory;
it was your right hand, your arm,
and the light of your face, for you loved them.
4 You are my King and my God,
who decrees [b] victories for Jacob.
5 Through you we push back our enemies;
through your name we trample our foes.
6 I do not trust in my bow,
my sword does not bring me victory;
7 but you give us victory over our enemies,
you put our adversaries to shame.
8 In God we make our boast all day long,
and we will praise your name forever.
Here the Psalmist says what David always says and the lesson that I really have to learn over and over. Israel and Christians are not delivered because of their own strength or because of their weaponry, but because of the strength and majesty of their God. In God we can boast all day long because we know that without Him we are weak, but with Him we can overcome all obstacles. In my life far too often I try and rely on my own strength, wisdom, and knowledge. I don't necessarily do this intentionally, I just allowed myself to become preoccupied and distracted. At all times and in all circumstances I need to give my life to God. Not just a percentage and not just what I have left to give at the end of the day, 100% of who I am and what I have. This is the Lord's will for our lives. In giving everything over to Him we can then boast as to how great God is because He will deliver us from the hands of our enemies or our circumstances. This is the God of grace, love, and mercy that we serve.
Psalm 45 is believed to be a song of our Messiah. We can see this in verses like:
Psalm 45:6
6 Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever;
a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom.
God brought justice to all the world through His Son Jesus Christ. He also set up his everlasting Kingdom by means of Jesus, and we all have benefited greatly because of it! This gives us cause to celebrate each and everyday!
Lastly in Psalms 46 we see some beautiful things that really speak to me even in my given state of mind and spirit. I am not going to post all the verses that spoke to me because it is basically the entire Psalms. Basically this reminds me that God is my strength and my refuge. In Him and Him alone I can place all of my trust. He is there in my time of need, and to be honest I feel that I need him a lot right now. Lord thank You that You are here for me when I need You. I praise Your mighty name. You are my King and I worship you alone.
I don't have a lot to say on our NT reading today other than that the Jews once again were plotting to kill Paul and then when he stood trial threw slanderous lies before the courts. Paul asked for a trial before Caesar which ended up not quite like he had imagined. Paul was a strong and courageous man that fought for everything that God called him to and nothing more. We all need to live such strong lives.
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me of my sins and release me of my past.
Psalms 44-46
Acts 25
My Response:
Tonight I need to start out in prayer because of some stuff going on that has me a bit distracted. Lord please forgive me for my sins, I repent if in any way I have been disrespectful of my elders. Lord I feel as though I get dumped on sometimes and that I need to stand up and defend myself, but I know that this is not my responsibilty. Lord forgive me for trying to take on more than I should and not allowing You to handle all aspects of my life. I pray for reconciliation Lord and peace. Forgive me Lord and fill me with Your presence. Help me to keep my mind on You tonight and at all times Lord. I love You and I worship You alone.
Okay, I am feeling a bit blue at the moment and wish that in life I could change things at the pace I want them changed at. What can I say other than that I am a work in progress. So in our reading today we continue on with the Son's of Korah Psalms beginning with chapter 44. Here we see this Levite clan of musicians crying out in despair because of a national disaster which was the result of their army apparently being defeated. There was one Scripture in particular that really spoke to me:
Psalms 44:4-8
3 It was not by their sword that they won the land,
nor did their arm bring them victory;
it was your right hand, your arm,
and the light of your face, for you loved them.
4 You are my King and my God,
who decrees [b] victories for Jacob.
5 Through you we push back our enemies;
through your name we trample our foes.
6 I do not trust in my bow,
my sword does not bring me victory;
7 but you give us victory over our enemies,
you put our adversaries to shame.
8 In God we make our boast all day long,
and we will praise your name forever.
Here the Psalmist says what David always says and the lesson that I really have to learn over and over. Israel and Christians are not delivered because of their own strength or because of their weaponry, but because of the strength and majesty of their God. In God we can boast all day long because we know that without Him we are weak, but with Him we can overcome all obstacles. In my life far too often I try and rely on my own strength, wisdom, and knowledge. I don't necessarily do this intentionally, I just allowed myself to become preoccupied and distracted. At all times and in all circumstances I need to give my life to God. Not just a percentage and not just what I have left to give at the end of the day, 100% of who I am and what I have. This is the Lord's will for our lives. In giving everything over to Him we can then boast as to how great God is because He will deliver us from the hands of our enemies or our circumstances. This is the God of grace, love, and mercy that we serve.
Psalm 45 is believed to be a song of our Messiah. We can see this in verses like:
Psalm 45:6
6 Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever;
a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom.
God brought justice to all the world through His Son Jesus Christ. He also set up his everlasting Kingdom by means of Jesus, and we all have benefited greatly because of it! This gives us cause to celebrate each and everyday!
Lastly in Psalms 46 we see some beautiful things that really speak to me even in my given state of mind and spirit. I am not going to post all the verses that spoke to me because it is basically the entire Psalms. Basically this reminds me that God is my strength and my refuge. In Him and Him alone I can place all of my trust. He is there in my time of need, and to be honest I feel that I need him a lot right now. Lord thank You that You are here for me when I need You. I praise Your mighty name. You are my King and I worship you alone.
I don't have a lot to say on our NT reading today other than that the Jews once again were plotting to kill Paul and then when he stood trial threw slanderous lies before the courts. Paul asked for a trial before Caesar which ended up not quite like he had imagined. Paul was a strong and courageous man that fought for everything that God called him to and nothing more. We all need to live such strong lives.
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me of my sins and release me of my past.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
December 26th, 2008 Bible Blog
Today's Reading:
Psalms 41-43
Acts 24
My Response:
Today we begin in our reading with David pleading for deliverance from God. This is thought to have taken place during Absalom's uprising and plot to take over the kingship of Israel. This would have been a time when David's health was still not good and such a plot would have been easier to act out.
Psalms 41:4
4 I said, "O LORD, have mercy on me;
heal me, for I have sinned against you."
David had no feelings of bitterness towards God for the sickness that he was dealing. He was not upset with God that even his own son turned his back on him. David knew that it was his unrighteousness that placed him in his current plight. Rather than whining to God David did what David did and that was to cry out to the Lord for mercy.
Psalms 42 and 43 really are joined together to form one large poem. This Psalm was written by a family of poetic Levites that were organized by David into a musical group. These two Psalms are really beautiful and of course start out with what became one of my favorite worship songs of my youth:
Psalms 42:1-2
1 [b] As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?
What a beautiful word picture of the deer panting for water. Are our souls panting for God as deer thrirst for water? Are we thirsty for more of God or are we content living with our current closeness to God? Are we asking the Lord "When can I meet with You"? These are tough things to live out in our lives because there is so much demanding our time from us. Our jobs, our friends, our spouses/boyfriend/girlfriend, our family, our hobbies, etc... all take up our time and what we are left with we then give to God. The Psalmist here is saying "no Lord I don't long for anything but closeness with You". This needs to be our heart each and everyday. Somewhere along the way most of Christians lost sight of things and we only give God what we have left at the end of our day rather than giving God our all. I know that I have fallen way short on this my entire life. I don't pray enough, I don't worship enough, I don't give God my life enough, and because of that I am thirsty. Lord my soul pants for You! I want to be close to You and see You, when can I meet with You?
In our NT reading today we see Paul under trial before Felix and a lawyer named Tertullus spoke lies regarding Paul. Their hope of course was to see Paul taken out of the picture for a very long time if not forever. Tertullus' address to Felix reminded me of every courtroom drama that I have ever seen. It begin with flattery and then ended in down right lies attempting to win over the court. Then we hear from the defendent and Paul speaks with such excitement and tension that some of his sentences were disconnected and left questions.
This shows us just how human Paul was. Paul was not willing to back down from the fight that he had on his hands. Here Paul had come to Jerusalem to bring money to the poor and essentially live according to the Lord's Law. If we remember Jesus Christ tells us that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord our God...but closely behind that was to love our neighbor as ourselves. Acting these out was to act out the Law of God. Paul was acting out the Law of God and here the Jews are saying that he is not. Yet in the midst of all this, we never see Paul become bitter towards his position. It is never seen that Paul loses his cool and becomes upset with God. Paul continues on his course. Even when he was wrongfully thrown in prison for two years he does not become bitter. Why is this? Well it is because Paul knew what he was called to do, and he was not going to allow anyone or anything stand in his way. He knew that God has a plan for his life and he was going to act that out. It just so happened that part of God's plan for his life was to be in prison on false charges for two years. How many of us would have such courage and stamina for our faith? Paul's life should push and inspire us to be better, stronger, and bolder Christians.
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me of my sins and release me of my past. God I need You. Lord my soul thirsts for You. I can see that my darkest times have been when I was not close to You. I recognize that now and I ask that You draw near to me. Bring me close to You and meet with me. Show me Your glory and reveal Your will for my life.
God I worship and adore You. You are so great and mighty and in You I know that my life is secure. Without You I am nothing Lord. Thank You for listening to me and answering my prayers. God I pray that You would empower me with Your Holy Spirit and help me to accomplish all that You have planned for my life.
I pray Lord that as we are back home that You will help Dawn and I to get Gabe and Ethan back into a routine that is healthy and good for us all. I pray that Your Spirit would reside in this household and that You would bless this weekend. I love You Lord and I lay my life down at Your feet. I am Your servant.
Psalms 41-43
Acts 24
My Response:
Today we begin in our reading with David pleading for deliverance from God. This is thought to have taken place during Absalom's uprising and plot to take over the kingship of Israel. This would have been a time when David's health was still not good and such a plot would have been easier to act out.
Psalms 41:4
4 I said, "O LORD, have mercy on me;
heal me, for I have sinned against you."
David had no feelings of bitterness towards God for the sickness that he was dealing. He was not upset with God that even his own son turned his back on him. David knew that it was his unrighteousness that placed him in his current plight. Rather than whining to God David did what David did and that was to cry out to the Lord for mercy.
Psalms 42 and 43 really are joined together to form one large poem. This Psalm was written by a family of poetic Levites that were organized by David into a musical group. These two Psalms are really beautiful and of course start out with what became one of my favorite worship songs of my youth:
Psalms 42:1-2
1 [b] As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?
What a beautiful word picture of the deer panting for water. Are our souls panting for God as deer thrirst for water? Are we thirsty for more of God or are we content living with our current closeness to God? Are we asking the Lord "When can I meet with You"? These are tough things to live out in our lives because there is so much demanding our time from us. Our jobs, our friends, our spouses/boyfriend/girlfriend, our family, our hobbies, etc... all take up our time and what we are left with we then give to God. The Psalmist here is saying "no Lord I don't long for anything but closeness with You". This needs to be our heart each and everyday. Somewhere along the way most of Christians lost sight of things and we only give God what we have left at the end of our day rather than giving God our all. I know that I have fallen way short on this my entire life. I don't pray enough, I don't worship enough, I don't give God my life enough, and because of that I am thirsty. Lord my soul pants for You! I want to be close to You and see You, when can I meet with You?
In our NT reading today we see Paul under trial before Felix and a lawyer named Tertullus spoke lies regarding Paul. Their hope of course was to see Paul taken out of the picture for a very long time if not forever. Tertullus' address to Felix reminded me of every courtroom drama that I have ever seen. It begin with flattery and then ended in down right lies attempting to win over the court. Then we hear from the defendent and Paul speaks with such excitement and tension that some of his sentences were disconnected and left questions.
This shows us just how human Paul was. Paul was not willing to back down from the fight that he had on his hands. Here Paul had come to Jerusalem to bring money to the poor and essentially live according to the Lord's Law. If we remember Jesus Christ tells us that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord our God...but closely behind that was to love our neighbor as ourselves. Acting these out was to act out the Law of God. Paul was acting out the Law of God and here the Jews are saying that he is not. Yet in the midst of all this, we never see Paul become bitter towards his position. It is never seen that Paul loses his cool and becomes upset with God. Paul continues on his course. Even when he was wrongfully thrown in prison for two years he does not become bitter. Why is this? Well it is because Paul knew what he was called to do, and he was not going to allow anyone or anything stand in his way. He knew that God has a plan for his life and he was going to act that out. It just so happened that part of God's plan for his life was to be in prison on false charges for two years. How many of us would have such courage and stamina for our faith? Paul's life should push and inspire us to be better, stronger, and bolder Christians.
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me of my sins and release me of my past. God I need You. Lord my soul thirsts for You. I can see that my darkest times have been when I was not close to You. I recognize that now and I ask that You draw near to me. Bring me close to You and meet with me. Show me Your glory and reveal Your will for my life.
God I worship and adore You. You are so great and mighty and in You I know that my life is secure. Without You I am nothing Lord. Thank You for listening to me and answering my prayers. God I pray that You would empower me with Your Holy Spirit and help me to accomplish all that You have planned for my life.
I pray Lord that as we are back home that You will help Dawn and I to get Gabe and Ethan back into a routine that is healthy and good for us all. I pray that Your Spirit would reside in this household and that You would bless this weekend. I love You Lord and I lay my life down at Your feet. I am Your servant.
Merry Christmas!!!
Hey Everyone!
Dawn and I just wanted to wish you a very merry Christmas. We hope that you have a good time with friends and family today, but we all need to try and remember what this day is really about. Today we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ who came to earth so that we might once again be allowed in the presence of God. Jesus the perfect Sacrifice that was the final atonement for all of our sins.
The Real Christmas Story
I hope that you take a moment today to read this story and remind yourself of the significance of this day. Our God is good, great, and mighty, and He has provided a way for us to spend eternity with Him!
My Prayer:
Praise Your name alone oh Lord! Thank You for what You did for us all. You are the King above all kings and the Lord above all Lords! I will proclaim Your name to all people for what You have done for me. Thank You Lord that You sent Your Son for my sins while I was still unworthy. I love You Lord and I lay my life down at Your feet. Please bless this day and be with us all today. Help all of our family time to be blessed and great.
Dawn and I just wanted to wish you a very merry Christmas. We hope that you have a good time with friends and family today, but we all need to try and remember what this day is really about. Today we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ who came to earth so that we might once again be allowed in the presence of God. Jesus the perfect Sacrifice that was the final atonement for all of our sins.
The Real Christmas Story
I hope that you take a moment today to read this story and remind yourself of the significance of this day. Our God is good, great, and mighty, and He has provided a way for us to spend eternity with Him!
My Prayer:
Praise Your name alone oh Lord! Thank You for what You did for us all. You are the King above all kings and the Lord above all Lords! I will proclaim Your name to all people for what You have done for me. Thank You Lord that You sent Your Son for my sins while I was still unworthy. I love You Lord and I lay my life down at Your feet. Please bless this day and be with us all today. Help all of our family time to be blessed and great.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
December 25th, 2008 Bible Blog
Today's Reading:
Psalms 38-40
Acts 23:12-35
My Response:
Well first off, merry Christmas everyone! I know that I already did a seperate post on this, but it needs to be said. We should remember this day everyday and remember what our God did for us. It is funny because this is what David knew would happen. David knew and understood that a Savior would come to die for all and here we are reading his songs about it.
So in our reading today we begin by reading a Psalm of David written in anguish. This is a penitential Psalms as it appears that David was suffering from a skin disease which was caused by his own sin. Because of this his closest friends and relatives left his side and at the same time his enemies were multiplying and becoming bold. Again this Psalm reminds me that even the "man after God's own heart" had problems that resulted from his own unrighteousness. However, the thing that it also does is encourage me to come before the Lord asking for forgiveness. David did not back down from pursuing the Lord because of his sin. For me sometimes when I know I have sinned I struggle with coming before the Lord, but I need to come before Him as David did.
Psalms 40 was a praise for God's great deliverance. David was a great man that loved to wait upon the Lord:
Psalms 40:1
1 I waited patiently for the LORD;
he turned to me and heard my cry.
David waited patienty for the Lord to speak to him rather than just talking all the time like we do. It is so hard to patiently wait for God to speak to us, so instead we keep opening our mouths asking for guidance, but sometimes we need to shut our mouths and wait upon the Lord. It is hard, but sometimes God cannot answer us because we keep talking. It is great to read all that David praises God for. There si so much that we have to thank God for, are we doing it?
In our NT reading today we see the plot to murder Paul and once again we are reminded of just how often Paul's life was on the line, however he kept on moving. One of Paul's nephews overheard the plot and spoiled the plans of the Jews. It is funny because the Jews were willing to toss aside the Law if they felt that their morals were threatened. We see that the only reason Paul is saved is because he declares his Roman citizenship which scared the daylights out of everyone because if you harm a Roman citizen you were endangering your life.
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me of my sins and release me of my past. God I pray that You would show me Your glory. Reveal Yourself to me and show me Your face. I pray Lord that I would glorify You in all that I do. I want to help advance Your Kingdom in every aspect of my life. I love You Lord and I lay my life down before Your throne.
Lord thank You for answering prayers this Christmas day and showing me once again that You listen to me and answer me. You are a God that listens and cares and I praise Your mighty name. Thank You for hearing me and taking care of my family. You are a good and great God. I worship You alone.
Please be with us today Lord and save us from the hard economic times. Thank You for providing for my family and for those that work with us. I will glorify Your name to all people in all nations. Praise be to Your name alone.
Psalms 38-40
Acts 23:12-35
My Response:
Well first off, merry Christmas everyone! I know that I already did a seperate post on this, but it needs to be said. We should remember this day everyday and remember what our God did for us. It is funny because this is what David knew would happen. David knew and understood that a Savior would come to die for all and here we are reading his songs about it.
So in our reading today we begin by reading a Psalm of David written in anguish. This is a penitential Psalms as it appears that David was suffering from a skin disease which was caused by his own sin. Because of this his closest friends and relatives left his side and at the same time his enemies were multiplying and becoming bold. Again this Psalm reminds me that even the "man after God's own heart" had problems that resulted from his own unrighteousness. However, the thing that it also does is encourage me to come before the Lord asking for forgiveness. David did not back down from pursuing the Lord because of his sin. For me sometimes when I know I have sinned I struggle with coming before the Lord, but I need to come before Him as David did.
Psalms 40 was a praise for God's great deliverance. David was a great man that loved to wait upon the Lord:
Psalms 40:1
1 I waited patiently for the LORD;
he turned to me and heard my cry.
David waited patienty for the Lord to speak to him rather than just talking all the time like we do. It is so hard to patiently wait for God to speak to us, so instead we keep opening our mouths asking for guidance, but sometimes we need to shut our mouths and wait upon the Lord. It is hard, but sometimes God cannot answer us because we keep talking. It is great to read all that David praises God for. There si so much that we have to thank God for, are we doing it?
In our NT reading today we see the plot to murder Paul and once again we are reminded of just how often Paul's life was on the line, however he kept on moving. One of Paul's nephews overheard the plot and spoiled the plans of the Jews. It is funny because the Jews were willing to toss aside the Law if they felt that their morals were threatened. We see that the only reason Paul is saved is because he declares his Roman citizenship which scared the daylights out of everyone because if you harm a Roman citizen you were endangering your life.
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me of my sins and release me of my past. God I pray that You would show me Your glory. Reveal Yourself to me and show me Your face. I pray Lord that I would glorify You in all that I do. I want to help advance Your Kingdom in every aspect of my life. I love You Lord and I lay my life down before Your throne.
Lord thank You for answering prayers this Christmas day and showing me once again that You listen to me and answer me. You are a God that listens and cares and I praise Your mighty name. Thank You for hearing me and taking care of my family. You are a good and great God. I worship You alone.
Please be with us today Lord and save us from the hard economic times. Thank You for providing for my family and for those that work with us. I will glorify Your name to all people in all nations. Praise be to Your name alone.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
December 24th, 2008 Bible Blog
Today's Reading:
Psalms 36-37
Acts 23:1-11
My Response:
Okay living in someone else's house is not easy to stay on track with the blogging but I am keeping it together to the best of my ability. So sorry that these posts are much shorter, but it is significantly harder to keep this going. I am also on dial-up which takes F.O.R.E.V.E.R. ( a little sandlot reference thrown in there for you).
So in today's reading we basically have two Psalms that speak of David's trust in God. In Psalms 36 David speaks of the wickedness of men and yet the mercy and faithfulness of God. Isn't our God great and merciful to us. We were not worthy of His love or His Sacrifice, but He gave it to us while we were still unworthy. David speaks of some of mans struggles, and unfortunately they speak of me too.
Psalms 36:4
4 Even on his bed he plots evil;
he commits himself to a sinful course
and does not reject what is wrong.
I can think of times where wicked sinful thoughts raced through my mind while I was lying on my bed. I think that it is at these times that sometimes our mind wanders away from God. Nevertheless it also interests me that mankind in the days where God was so easily seen struggled with the same sinful nature that I do. Not that it excuses my behaviors but it helps me to understand that I am not alone in my battle.
Then we go into the verses 5-7 which was song that Third Day did and really speaks of just how great our God is. I love it. Your love oh Lord is like the mighty mountains. Think of how large, great, magnificent and strong a mountain is and this is but a glimpse of just how much our God loves us despite the sinful nature that David just wrote about.
Psalms 37 we see the same theme of David commenting on the rise of wickedness but David teaches us what we are to do in times like these:
Psalms 37:3-8
3 Trust in the LORD and do good;
dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
4 Delight yourself in the LORD
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
5 Commit your way to the LORD;
trust in him and he will do this:
6 He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn,
the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.
7 Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when men succeed in their ways,
when they carry out their wicked schemes.
8 Refrain from anger and turn from wrath;
do not fret—it leads only to evil.
Basically David's rule of thumb in wicked times was to do good, trust God, and don't worry. This was exhibited throughout all of David life. We need to wait upon the Lord when times are tough. In the midst of these struggles we also need to still be looking at doing good for fellow man, and most importantly we need to trust that God has our lives in His great and mighty hands. If we can do this then David's third step is quite simple. "Don't worry, be happy...Don't worry be happy now...oooo...ooo...ooo" God has us in His care and there is no place that I would rather be!
Okay more after I put Gabe to bed, I hope!
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me of my sins and release me of my past. God I am a wicked man who gives in to his sinful nature and I know that I let You down. God I hope that my heart is enough to show You just how important You are to me despite my failures in righteousness.
God I love You and I thank You for sending Your Son to this earth. While I was not worthy You took care of me. Thank You for answering my prayers and listening to my requests. I worship You and You alone. You are my King and I lay all that I am down at Your feet. Praise be to Your name alone.
Psalms 36-37
Acts 23:1-11
My Response:
Okay living in someone else's house is not easy to stay on track with the blogging but I am keeping it together to the best of my ability. So sorry that these posts are much shorter, but it is significantly harder to keep this going. I am also on dial-up which takes F.O.R.E.V.E.R. ( a little sandlot reference thrown in there for you).
So in today's reading we basically have two Psalms that speak of David's trust in God. In Psalms 36 David speaks of the wickedness of men and yet the mercy and faithfulness of God. Isn't our God great and merciful to us. We were not worthy of His love or His Sacrifice, but He gave it to us while we were still unworthy. David speaks of some of mans struggles, and unfortunately they speak of me too.
Psalms 36:4
4 Even on his bed he plots evil;
he commits himself to a sinful course
and does not reject what is wrong.
I can think of times where wicked sinful thoughts raced through my mind while I was lying on my bed. I think that it is at these times that sometimes our mind wanders away from God. Nevertheless it also interests me that mankind in the days where God was so easily seen struggled with the same sinful nature that I do. Not that it excuses my behaviors but it helps me to understand that I am not alone in my battle.
Then we go into the verses 5-7 which was song that Third Day did and really speaks of just how great our God is. I love it. Your love oh Lord is like the mighty mountains. Think of how large, great, magnificent and strong a mountain is and this is but a glimpse of just how much our God loves us despite the sinful nature that David just wrote about.
Psalms 37 we see the same theme of David commenting on the rise of wickedness but David teaches us what we are to do in times like these:
Psalms 37:3-8
3 Trust in the LORD and do good;
dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
4 Delight yourself in the LORD
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
5 Commit your way to the LORD;
trust in him and he will do this:
6 He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn,
the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.
7 Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when men succeed in their ways,
when they carry out their wicked schemes.
8 Refrain from anger and turn from wrath;
do not fret—it leads only to evil.
Basically David's rule of thumb in wicked times was to do good, trust God, and don't worry. This was exhibited throughout all of David life. We need to wait upon the Lord when times are tough. In the midst of these struggles we also need to still be looking at doing good for fellow man, and most importantly we need to trust that God has our lives in His great and mighty hands. If we can do this then David's third step is quite simple. "Don't worry, be happy...Don't worry be happy now...oooo...ooo...ooo" God has us in His care and there is no place that I would rather be!
Okay more after I put Gabe to bed, I hope!
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me of my sins and release me of my past. God I am a wicked man who gives in to his sinful nature and I know that I let You down. God I hope that my heart is enough to show You just how important You are to me despite my failures in righteousness.
God I love You and I thank You for sending Your Son to this earth. While I was not worthy You took care of me. Thank You for answering my prayers and listening to my requests. I worship You and You alone. You are my King and I lay all that I am down at Your feet. Praise be to Your name alone.
Monday, December 22, 2008
December 23rd, 2008 Bible Blog
Today's Reading:
Psalms 34-35
Acts 22
My Response:
David was a man that went to God whenever he was in trouble. But the great thing is that David didn't stop there. David also went to God and gave Him praise for delivering him from the hand of his enemies. This is what we find in Psalm 34.
Psalms 34:17
17 The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them;
he delivers them from all their troubles.
This statement that David makes was so true in his life their was no disputing it. David cried out to the Lord and the Lord answered him. David led a righteous life in most respects and because of his devotion to God the Lord rescued him. We too need to learn from this. If we want God to answer our prayers we need to be living for Him entirely. Living for righteousness.
I will have to write more tomorrow because we are displaced from our home right now and this computer is in the same room as where Gabe needs to go to sleep. Check back in tomorrow for my completion of my comments...
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me of my sins and release me of my past. Lord help me to defeat the enemy in my life and live in righteousness. I pray that You would be with us all tonight as we are staying in a different home for the next few nights. Please help us all to sleep well and wake up refreshed tomorrow.
I love You Lord and I praise Your mighty name. You are my King and my Rock. I worship You with all that I am and all that I have.
Psalms 34-35
Acts 22
My Response:
David was a man that went to God whenever he was in trouble. But the great thing is that David didn't stop there. David also went to God and gave Him praise for delivering him from the hand of his enemies. This is what we find in Psalm 34.
Psalms 34:17
17 The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them;
he delivers them from all their troubles.
This statement that David makes was so true in his life their was no disputing it. David cried out to the Lord and the Lord answered him. David led a righteous life in most respects and because of his devotion to God the Lord rescued him. We too need to learn from this. If we want God to answer our prayers we need to be living for Him entirely. Living for righteousness.
I will have to write more tomorrow because we are displaced from our home right now and this computer is in the same room as where Gabe needs to go to sleep. Check back in tomorrow for my completion of my comments...
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me of my sins and release me of my past. Lord help me to defeat the enemy in my life and live in righteousness. I pray that You would be with us all tonight as we are staying in a different home for the next few nights. Please help us all to sleep well and wake up refreshed tomorrow.
I love You Lord and I praise Your mighty name. You are my King and my Rock. I worship You with all that I am and all that I have.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
December 22nd, 2008 Bible Blog
Today's Reading:
Psalms 31-33
Acts 21:15-40
My Response:
Well I again need to start off by praising God's name. If anyone follows this blog anymore then you will know that I have been praying for snow and that the weather men would be wrong on their weather predictions. It just so happens that they have been wrong and we have received records amount of snow! I love it, tonight Gabe and I spent nearly three hours outside playing in it. It is beautiful and just what I was praying for, so praise God. Thank You Lord that You are a God who listens to our prayers!
Now on to the reading. Once again I am exhausted so I will try and be brief. Just for your info if you can please be praying for Ethan, he has been really struggling with gas, and no not the kind that smells, you know the kind that gets trapped in your body and hurts. Well that is why I am not feeling too energetic these days, Ethan has been struggling to sleep because of this gas so please be praying for him and us.
Psalms 31 speaks of David's trust in the Lord. Jesus recited David's words in verse 5 which is found in Luke 23:46. David trusted solely in God and because of it God took great care of him. God really loves to protect and bless those that lean on Him, and David was no exception to this rule.
Psalms 32 is a song of repentence. This is likely because of what occurred with Bathsheba and here we can see just how full of remorse David is. David was not a bad man and not a man that wanted to walk away from God, his flesh simply got the better of him. However upon realizing what he had done David got on his knees and pleaded for God's forgiveness. I too often don't approach my sin this way, I let it sit unconfessed and undealt with. Lord please forgive me of my sins, I am weak and need Your help. Please wash me clean and help me to be the man that I should be from my family and for You.
In our NT reading today we see Paul come to Jerusalem. This is an interesting story because upon his arrival their was a dispute that Paul was telling Jews that they no longer needed to abide by Moses' laws. This was in fact false and the only thing that Paul ever did was tell the Gentiles that they did not need to follow all commandments the way the Jews did. Specifically they did not need to be circumcised as the Jews did. Anyways, Paul was asked to help four men cover their costs of taking the Nazarite vow which many could not afford. Paul, undoubtedly begrudgingly, agreed to take part in this. It is not that Paul didn't believe in the Nazarite vow, it is simply that he likely did not care to dispute manners like this. To Paul this was undoubtedly a distraction from the works that he should be doing. However, what do we see? Paul agrees to it and from this I learn that sometimes rather than fighting the greater strength is found in the one who agrees. The world today wants to tell us that we should fight against everything, especially the establishement. I used to listen to a band "Rage Against the Machine" and this was their entire moto that was spewed to people in my age group. Many of us bought into it. But Paul would not have necessarily bought into it. We need to ascertain each situation and see if fighting it really would be beneficial or detrimental to the body. This is what Paul did and he laid his life down for the Body.
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me of my sins, I am weak and fail You Lord. God I want to be like You and I want to be near to You but so often I allow myself to be distracted. Please forgive me and help me to keep my eyes affixed to Your Throne.
Lord as You know Ethan has not been sleeping well at night and has had a couple of rough days with gas pains. Lord I pray that You would touch Ethan's body tonight and heal him. Help his body to digest the gas and break it down rather than sit in his intestines where it is so painful. I pray that Ethan would sleep well tonight and that Dawn and I both would get a restful night sleep.
Thank You Lord that Gabe prayed for the very first time ever to You tonight. I am blessed to have heard my son pray to You and ask how to do it. This is another prayer that You have answered for me God and I praise Your mighty name. I pray that You would continue this good work in Gabe and that You would continue to draw him near to You. Lord hear his prayer and touch Ethan's body so that I can show my son the power of praying to our God. I worship You and I lay my life down at Your feet. You are my God and I love You.
Psalms 31-33
Acts 21:15-40
My Response:
Well I again need to start off by praising God's name. If anyone follows this blog anymore then you will know that I have been praying for snow and that the weather men would be wrong on their weather predictions. It just so happens that they have been wrong and we have received records amount of snow! I love it, tonight Gabe and I spent nearly three hours outside playing in it. It is beautiful and just what I was praying for, so praise God. Thank You Lord that You are a God who listens to our prayers!
Now on to the reading. Once again I am exhausted so I will try and be brief. Just for your info if you can please be praying for Ethan, he has been really struggling with gas, and no not the kind that smells, you know the kind that gets trapped in your body and hurts. Well that is why I am not feeling too energetic these days, Ethan has been struggling to sleep because of this gas so please be praying for him and us.
Psalms 31 speaks of David's trust in the Lord. Jesus recited David's words in verse 5 which is found in Luke 23:46. David trusted solely in God and because of it God took great care of him. God really loves to protect and bless those that lean on Him, and David was no exception to this rule.
Psalms 32 is a song of repentence. This is likely because of what occurred with Bathsheba and here we can see just how full of remorse David is. David was not a bad man and not a man that wanted to walk away from God, his flesh simply got the better of him. However upon realizing what he had done David got on his knees and pleaded for God's forgiveness. I too often don't approach my sin this way, I let it sit unconfessed and undealt with. Lord please forgive me of my sins, I am weak and need Your help. Please wash me clean and help me to be the man that I should be from my family and for You.
In our NT reading today we see Paul come to Jerusalem. This is an interesting story because upon his arrival their was a dispute that Paul was telling Jews that they no longer needed to abide by Moses' laws. This was in fact false and the only thing that Paul ever did was tell the Gentiles that they did not need to follow all commandments the way the Jews did. Specifically they did not need to be circumcised as the Jews did. Anyways, Paul was asked to help four men cover their costs of taking the Nazarite vow which many could not afford. Paul, undoubtedly begrudgingly, agreed to take part in this. It is not that Paul didn't believe in the Nazarite vow, it is simply that he likely did not care to dispute manners like this. To Paul this was undoubtedly a distraction from the works that he should be doing. However, what do we see? Paul agrees to it and from this I learn that sometimes rather than fighting the greater strength is found in the one who agrees. The world today wants to tell us that we should fight against everything, especially the establishement. I used to listen to a band "Rage Against the Machine" and this was their entire moto that was spewed to people in my age group. Many of us bought into it. But Paul would not have necessarily bought into it. We need to ascertain each situation and see if fighting it really would be beneficial or detrimental to the body. This is what Paul did and he laid his life down for the Body.
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me of my sins, I am weak and fail You Lord. God I want to be like You and I want to be near to You but so often I allow myself to be distracted. Please forgive me and help me to keep my eyes affixed to Your Throne.
Lord as You know Ethan has not been sleeping well at night and has had a couple of rough days with gas pains. Lord I pray that You would touch Ethan's body tonight and heal him. Help his body to digest the gas and break it down rather than sit in his intestines where it is so painful. I pray that Ethan would sleep well tonight and that Dawn and I both would get a restful night sleep.
Thank You Lord that Gabe prayed for the very first time ever to You tonight. I am blessed to have heard my son pray to You and ask how to do it. This is another prayer that You have answered for me God and I praise Your mighty name. I pray that You would continue this good work in Gabe and that You would continue to draw him near to You. Lord hear his prayer and touch Ethan's body so that I can show my son the power of praying to our God. I worship You and I lay my life down at Your feet. You are my God and I love You.
College Age Recap...Oh Wait a Minute...
So once again we find ourselves missing a College Age gathering due to God's beautiful storm. While we miss seeing you all I must say I love the snow. Yesterday consisted of a tremendous amount of snowboarding and riding snow skates.
At our house we built a sweet table top kicker as well as some smaller kickers, and many of us enjoyed them for a few hours. My body is sore and I am reminded today of just how out of shape I have become. But I digress!
Here are some pictures of what things look like at our house today, I must say walking on the packed snow with a thin layer of ice covering is not as easy as it looks.
At our house we built a sweet table top kicker as well as some smaller kickers, and many of us enjoyed them for a few hours. My body is sore and I am reminded today of just how out of shape I have become. But I digress!
Here are some pictures of what things look like at our house today, I must say walking on the packed snow with a thin layer of ice covering is not as easy as it looks.
As for College Age we really do miss not getting to see you and hearing how God is working in your lives. Just through text messaging I have heard from some of you that God really is doing great things. Tom has received a promotion and others are doing well too! God is good and he provides for us when we are faithful to Him.
Next week we will hopefully be back to our regularly scheduled program, hopefully. The weather is supposed to be warming up and we should be able to meet. So remember that we will be meeting at 5PM to share a meal and have some fellowship. That will be followed with worship and teaching. Please make it a point to be there. Other than that have a very merry Christmas. God bless you all.
The Golobay's
Saturday, December 20, 2008
December 21st, 2008 Bible Blog
Today's Reading:
Acts 21:1-14
My Response:
I am really going to strive to keep me response short tonight as I have a busy morning tomorrow and I need to get to bed on time tonight. In our reading we begin with Psalm 28 which is a prayer to God. It begins with a prayer to God and then David rejoicing because of God's answer to prayer. I especially like:
Psalms 28:7
7 The LORD is my strength and my shield;
my heart trusts in him, and I am helped.
My heart leaps for joy
and I will give thanks to him in song.
David trusted in the Lord and because of it he was helped. God worked with David, took care of David and was his guide. Because of this David's heart lept for joy and he sang songs to the God of Heaven and earth. I need to rely on God more than I do, I need to really have it set in my mind that God is my strength and my shield rather than rely upon myself and who I think that I might be.
Psalms 29 is a song where David tells the people to speak and sing of the Lord's greatness. And how great is our God. Should our praises ever cease? David tells of how powerful God is in just a few short verses as if reminding the people in song just how small they are in comparison to God. We too need to remember this. Our praises should never cease for our God is great, good, and all powerful. He can rescue us and "bless us with peace" so long as we are willing to turn our lives over entirely to Him.
Psalms 30 we see David singing to the Lord for the dedication of his palace. David had conquered Jerusalem and made it the capital of the Israelites. During the span up to this point however David's life many times looked perilous. Many times David was near death, yet he was not upset with God for the road that he had to walk down. Instead in this Pslam we see David glorify the name of God for all that He had done. David praised God despite the road of suffering that he had to endure because David didn't look at it this way. David saw his suffering and hardships as a time that God would and did show Himself faithful.
In our NT reading I don't have much to say other than the fact that we should note that every point that Paul stopped he found "disciples" and "brothers". This should remind us that this body of Christ even back then was large and surrounded their then small globe. If that was the case for Paul when the church was young and just beginning, think of how it stands today! At any moment of any time we could go to nearly any place in the world and find fellow Christians that were willing to assist and love on us the way that we see people do with Paul. It is quite amazing to think just how big our body of believers are and just how large of a prayer army we have on this earth right now. I guess I never really thought of it that way, but we are all one body, and it is a massive body of believers. It's crazy to think of how something so small became something so large!
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me of my sins and help me to be the man of God that You want me to be. Lord my flesh is weak but my Spirit is willing. Lord I want to be more like You and less like this world. I thank You for all of the maturing that You have been doing in me this last year. Even during this last eight months of reading and doing devotions I have grown. God You are good and I love being near to You.
Lord please bless my family and help us all to have a great week. I pray that we all would remember what this Christmas season is all about, You. Lord I pray for all of my brothers and sisters in Christ that are struggling right now. I pray that You would fill them with Your presence and bring them peace, joy, and happiness. Lord I pray that You would redeem Your church in this nation while hard times come. I pray that just as You were glorified through David's life that You too would be glorified by lifting up Your body in the United States and redeeming it much to the enemys dismay.
I love You Lord and I worship at Your throne. You are my King and I praise Your mighty name. Please bless this week and continue to work in my sons lives. Bring them near to You. I pray blessings over them of good health and happiness. I submit all that I am to Your throne Lord.
Acts 21:1-14
My Response:
I am really going to strive to keep me response short tonight as I have a busy morning tomorrow and I need to get to bed on time tonight. In our reading we begin with Psalm 28 which is a prayer to God. It begins with a prayer to God and then David rejoicing because of God's answer to prayer. I especially like:
Psalms 28:7
7 The LORD is my strength and my shield;
my heart trusts in him, and I am helped.
My heart leaps for joy
and I will give thanks to him in song.
David trusted in the Lord and because of it he was helped. God worked with David, took care of David and was his guide. Because of this David's heart lept for joy and he sang songs to the God of Heaven and earth. I need to rely on God more than I do, I need to really have it set in my mind that God is my strength and my shield rather than rely upon myself and who I think that I might be.
Psalms 29 is a song where David tells the people to speak and sing of the Lord's greatness. And how great is our God. Should our praises ever cease? David tells of how powerful God is in just a few short verses as if reminding the people in song just how small they are in comparison to God. We too need to remember this. Our praises should never cease for our God is great, good, and all powerful. He can rescue us and "bless us with peace" so long as we are willing to turn our lives over entirely to Him.
Psalms 30 we see David singing to the Lord for the dedication of his palace. David had conquered Jerusalem and made it the capital of the Israelites. During the span up to this point however David's life many times looked perilous. Many times David was near death, yet he was not upset with God for the road that he had to walk down. Instead in this Pslam we see David glorify the name of God for all that He had done. David praised God despite the road of suffering that he had to endure because David didn't look at it this way. David saw his suffering and hardships as a time that God would and did show Himself faithful.
In our NT reading I don't have much to say other than the fact that we should note that every point that Paul stopped he found "disciples" and "brothers". This should remind us that this body of Christ even back then was large and surrounded their then small globe. If that was the case for Paul when the church was young and just beginning, think of how it stands today! At any moment of any time we could go to nearly any place in the world and find fellow Christians that were willing to assist and love on us the way that we see people do with Paul. It is quite amazing to think just how big our body of believers are and just how large of a prayer army we have on this earth right now. I guess I never really thought of it that way, but we are all one body, and it is a massive body of believers. It's crazy to think of how something so small became something so large!
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me of my sins and help me to be the man of God that You want me to be. Lord my flesh is weak but my Spirit is willing. Lord I want to be more like You and less like this world. I thank You for all of the maturing that You have been doing in me this last year. Even during this last eight months of reading and doing devotions I have grown. God You are good and I love being near to You.
Lord please bless my family and help us all to have a great week. I pray that we all would remember what this Christmas season is all about, You. Lord I pray for all of my brothers and sisters in Christ that are struggling right now. I pray that You would fill them with Your presence and bring them peace, joy, and happiness. Lord I pray that You would redeem Your church in this nation while hard times come. I pray that just as You were glorified through David's life that You too would be glorified by lifting up Your body in the United States and redeeming it much to the enemys dismay.
I love You Lord and I worship at Your throne. You are my King and I praise Your mighty name. Please bless this week and continue to work in my sons lives. Bring them near to You. I pray blessings over them of good health and happiness. I submit all that I am to Your throne Lord.
Friday, December 19, 2008
December 20th, 2008 Bible Blog
Today's Reading:
Psalms 25-27
Acts 20:17-38
My Response:
Well first off, I must say that this weather is awesome!!! God really answered my prayer as far as the snow was concerned and I am praying that it will keep coming down long into tomorrow and that their forecast for freezing rain is wrong! The only perfect weatherman is our God, can I hear an amen!!! If you can't tell I get giddy with snow fall, I love it. To me there really is something peaceful and majestic about snow. Anyways, on with the reading.
Psalms is full of so many nuggets of praise that I have such a hard time selecting what spoke to me. Today's reading is especially that way. I am going to start today with a truth that we all must cling to in the times that I believe our nation is facing:
Psalms 25:3
3 No one whose hope is in you
will ever be put to shame,
but they will be put to shame
who are treacherous without excuse.
I believe that we are facing some tough times as a nation, but I am encouraged by this reading today. We, as Christians, need to be placing our hope solely in God. David did this everyday of his life and because of it he was never put to shame. Even when times get hard God protects those who lean on Him and serve Him faithfully. We need to fight off our flesh because David tells us that those who rebel against God will be put to shame. I fear for those in our nation who have been treacherous because they will some day have to deal with the shame of their offenses. I don't wish that upon them and we need to be encouraging all to live right lives.
In Psalms 26 David protests his innocence and I have to say I can't ever imagine being able to do that before God. I cannot even fathom standing before God telling Him how innocent and pure I have been. David really must have been a great and mighty man of God to be able to call out to God and say to him that I lead a blameless life. I really wish that I could, and I strive to be blameless, but my flesh is weak. Lord help me to be more like David, a mighty man of God.
In our NT reading today we see Paul pushing on towards Jerusalem. The elders of the Christian churches kept telling Paul not to go to Jerusalem for they all feared what the Jews might do to him, but again we see the heart, strength, and resolve of Paul.
Acts 20:22-24
22"And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. 23I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. 24However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace.
Paul knew and understood what his likely destiny was, but it did not matter, he pressed on. Paul knew that he was facing hard times, but he pushed anyways. Paul considered his life nothing unless he was doing the will of the Lord. How many of us can make this claim in our lives. I know that I fail at this on so many different levels. Lord forgive me for my greedy selfish ways. Help me to be a servant as Paul was a fearless servant.
One other thing that interests me is something that I have commented on before but will comment on again. Paul's conversion must have been an amazing thing and he had to have seen clearly the God whom he was persecuting. What else can explain such an amazing transformation of someones life. Paul went from putting Christians into prison and supporting their stoning, to a man of Christ that did not care any longer about his own life. Paul only cared about the advancement of the Gospel of Truth. What an awesome change.
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me of my sins and release me of my past faults. God I know that I am impure and not worthy of Your love. That is why I praise Your mighty name. You have shown me grace and mercy even when I didn't deserve it. You are an awesome God. Lord help me to lead a blameless life and be able to make claims as David did. God I want to be clean and pure before You.
Lord thank You for this day and for the beautiful snow. I pray Lord that You would keep it around for some time and that there would not be any freezing rain. I pray that You would bless us with this wonderful weather and keep us safe while we are enjoying it.
God, please be with my family and help us all to sleep soundly. God I pray that You would be with Gabe and touch his back. He has once again been complaining about his back and the enemy wants me to fear what it means. I know that You have told me he is healthy, and I know that he is, so Lord please take care of whatever is ailing his back and help him to remain healthy and whole. I pray blessings of long life and good health over both of my sons and my whole family for that matter.
Lord tough times are coming in this nation, I can feel it, but I know that You will provide for us as You always have. I pray that during this time this nation will be more open to hearing Your message of love and forgiveness. Use me for the glory of Your Kingdom. I praise Your mighty name.
Psalms 25-27
Acts 20:17-38
My Response:
Well first off, I must say that this weather is awesome!!! God really answered my prayer as far as the snow was concerned and I am praying that it will keep coming down long into tomorrow and that their forecast for freezing rain is wrong! The only perfect weatherman is our God, can I hear an amen!!! If you can't tell I get giddy with snow fall, I love it. To me there really is something peaceful and majestic about snow. Anyways, on with the reading.
Psalms is full of so many nuggets of praise that I have such a hard time selecting what spoke to me. Today's reading is especially that way. I am going to start today with a truth that we all must cling to in the times that I believe our nation is facing:
Psalms 25:3
3 No one whose hope is in you
will ever be put to shame,
but they will be put to shame
who are treacherous without excuse.
I believe that we are facing some tough times as a nation, but I am encouraged by this reading today. We, as Christians, need to be placing our hope solely in God. David did this everyday of his life and because of it he was never put to shame. Even when times get hard God protects those who lean on Him and serve Him faithfully. We need to fight off our flesh because David tells us that those who rebel against God will be put to shame. I fear for those in our nation who have been treacherous because they will some day have to deal with the shame of their offenses. I don't wish that upon them and we need to be encouraging all to live right lives.
In Psalms 26 David protests his innocence and I have to say I can't ever imagine being able to do that before God. I cannot even fathom standing before God telling Him how innocent and pure I have been. David really must have been a great and mighty man of God to be able to call out to God and say to him that I lead a blameless life. I really wish that I could, and I strive to be blameless, but my flesh is weak. Lord help me to be more like David, a mighty man of God.
In our NT reading today we see Paul pushing on towards Jerusalem. The elders of the Christian churches kept telling Paul not to go to Jerusalem for they all feared what the Jews might do to him, but again we see the heart, strength, and resolve of Paul.
Acts 20:22-24
22"And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. 23I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. 24However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace.
Paul knew and understood what his likely destiny was, but it did not matter, he pressed on. Paul knew that he was facing hard times, but he pushed anyways. Paul considered his life nothing unless he was doing the will of the Lord. How many of us can make this claim in our lives. I know that I fail at this on so many different levels. Lord forgive me for my greedy selfish ways. Help me to be a servant as Paul was a fearless servant.
One other thing that interests me is something that I have commented on before but will comment on again. Paul's conversion must have been an amazing thing and he had to have seen clearly the God whom he was persecuting. What else can explain such an amazing transformation of someones life. Paul went from putting Christians into prison and supporting their stoning, to a man of Christ that did not care any longer about his own life. Paul only cared about the advancement of the Gospel of Truth. What an awesome change.
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me of my sins and release me of my past faults. God I know that I am impure and not worthy of Your love. That is why I praise Your mighty name. You have shown me grace and mercy even when I didn't deserve it. You are an awesome God. Lord help me to lead a blameless life and be able to make claims as David did. God I want to be clean and pure before You.
Lord thank You for this day and for the beautiful snow. I pray Lord that You would keep it around for some time and that there would not be any freezing rain. I pray that You would bless us with this wonderful weather and keep us safe while we are enjoying it.
God, please be with my family and help us all to sleep soundly. God I pray that You would be with Gabe and touch his back. He has once again been complaining about his back and the enemy wants me to fear what it means. I know that You have told me he is healthy, and I know that he is, so Lord please take care of whatever is ailing his back and help him to remain healthy and whole. I pray blessings of long life and good health over both of my sons and my whole family for that matter.
Lord tough times are coming in this nation, I can feel it, but I know that You will provide for us as You always have. I pray that during this time this nation will be more open to hearing Your message of love and forgiveness. Use me for the glory of Your Kingdom. I praise Your mighty name.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
December 19th, 2008 Bible Blog
Today's Reading:
Psalms 22-24
Acts 20:1-16
My Reponse:
Wow! Well today we begin our reading of Psalms with an absolutely amazing song about Jesus. At first glance this Psalms appears as though David is crying out in anguish, but as we look closer we see so many incredible similarities to the end of Christ's life. I am going to briefly outline a couple of them here:
Psalms 22:1
1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
The last words that Jesus spoke just before life passed from His body.
Psalms 22:7-8
7 All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads:
8 "He trusts in the LORD;
let the LORD rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
since he delights in him."
Jesus' enemies were mocking Him to the very end. The way that they were mocking him is very similar to what is described here in Matthew. They hurled insults and verse 8 is very similar to the story in the gospels of the end of Jesus' life on earth.
Psalms 22:16
they have pierced [c] my hands and my feet.
Of course we now know this as Christ being nailed to the cross by the hands and feet.
Psalms 22:18
18 They divide my garments among them
and cast lots for my clothing.
This fulfills the prophecy that David made that they would divide Christs clothes by means of casting lots. We can find a recount of this in Matthew 27:35. All of these Psalms show us just how close David was to the Lord. David was given some of the greatest glimpses of what would happen in Christ's life. I believe that it was in knowing all that Jesus was coming for the David took such joy in His salvation. David knew that just as God would not allow Jesus' body to see decay that neither would David's soul be distanced from God after death. This brought David great joy and peace.
Our next Psalms is of course one of the most well known chapters in the OT if not the entire Bible. It is believed that David created this song while he was tending to his sheep still just a young man. It was in this field that nearly a 1000 years later the angels came announcing the arrival of Christ. David in the song speaks of how God walks with him during the peaks and the valleys. Even at a young age David knew that God would protect him even during troubling times. This Psalm gives many people hope and peace in their suffering.
In our NT reading today we see the story of one of the early church services. Something to note is that twice in this recount we see that the Christians broke bread. This shows us that in fact they did share a common meal when they all got together. The first meal was what was called a love feast and everyone shared in it. All people sat together in one accord both slave and master. They sat together as equals and shared a meal loving on each other. The other meal was the Lord's Supper which was completed after the love feast. Why was food so important to the early church? I don't know for sure, but even watching our College Age group there is something great and good that occurs when we share a meal together. Walls seem to come down and the divide is broken. Could it be that God wanted us all to eat together for a purpose? Have churches really lost out on this function? The body of Christ was meant to be united and one, are we not doing a good enough job at this?
One other thing to note is that the church services all happened at night. This is likely because it was at this point that all people could attend the service. Everyone worked during the day at their skilled trades, and even the slaves were released for the evenings. This was the time of day that they all could convene and be united as a body.
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me of my sins and help me to fight off the enemy in my life. Lord I know that I fail you and I know that I am weak, but in the power of Your Holy Spirit I can overcome all things. Lord I praise Your mighty name and worship at Your footstool. You alone are God and I praise Your name.
Lord I pray that You would bless this weekend. Help us all to have a relaxing and restful weekend. I pray that as Christmas nears You would help us all to remember what we are celebrating, the birth of Your Son Jesus Christ in whom salvation of our souls rests. I thank You God that You sent Your one and only Son to die for a sinner like me. I will worship You all the days of my life for what You have done for me.
I love You Lord and I lay my life down at Your feet. I pray that You would bless us with a great snowfall early in the day so that we might be able to enjoy it. I pray God that we would not have freezing rain and that the snow would last for some time. In the snow I find peace and I see your creative hand. I praise You Lord and I love You.
Psalms 22-24
Acts 20:1-16
My Reponse:
Wow! Well today we begin our reading of Psalms with an absolutely amazing song about Jesus. At first glance this Psalms appears as though David is crying out in anguish, but as we look closer we see so many incredible similarities to the end of Christ's life. I am going to briefly outline a couple of them here:
Psalms 22:1
1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
The last words that Jesus spoke just before life passed from His body.
Psalms 22:7-8
7 All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads:
8 "He trusts in the LORD;
let the LORD rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
since he delights in him."
Jesus' enemies were mocking Him to the very end. The way that they were mocking him is very similar to what is described here in Matthew. They hurled insults and verse 8 is very similar to the story in the gospels of the end of Jesus' life on earth.
Psalms 22:16
they have pierced [c] my hands and my feet.
Of course we now know this as Christ being nailed to the cross by the hands and feet.
Psalms 22:18
18 They divide my garments among them
and cast lots for my clothing.
This fulfills the prophecy that David made that they would divide Christs clothes by means of casting lots. We can find a recount of this in Matthew 27:35. All of these Psalms show us just how close David was to the Lord. David was given some of the greatest glimpses of what would happen in Christ's life. I believe that it was in knowing all that Jesus was coming for the David took such joy in His salvation. David knew that just as God would not allow Jesus' body to see decay that neither would David's soul be distanced from God after death. This brought David great joy and peace.
Our next Psalms is of course one of the most well known chapters in the OT if not the entire Bible. It is believed that David created this song while he was tending to his sheep still just a young man. It was in this field that nearly a 1000 years later the angels came announcing the arrival of Christ. David in the song speaks of how God walks with him during the peaks and the valleys. Even at a young age David knew that God would protect him even during troubling times. This Psalm gives many people hope and peace in their suffering.
In our NT reading today we see the story of one of the early church services. Something to note is that twice in this recount we see that the Christians broke bread. This shows us that in fact they did share a common meal when they all got together. The first meal was what was called a love feast and everyone shared in it. All people sat together in one accord both slave and master. They sat together as equals and shared a meal loving on each other. The other meal was the Lord's Supper which was completed after the love feast. Why was food so important to the early church? I don't know for sure, but even watching our College Age group there is something great and good that occurs when we share a meal together. Walls seem to come down and the divide is broken. Could it be that God wanted us all to eat together for a purpose? Have churches really lost out on this function? The body of Christ was meant to be united and one, are we not doing a good enough job at this?
One other thing to note is that the church services all happened at night. This is likely because it was at this point that all people could attend the service. Everyone worked during the day at their skilled trades, and even the slaves were released for the evenings. This was the time of day that they all could convene and be united as a body.
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me of my sins and help me to fight off the enemy in my life. Lord I know that I fail you and I know that I am weak, but in the power of Your Holy Spirit I can overcome all things. Lord I praise Your mighty name and worship at Your footstool. You alone are God and I praise Your name.
Lord I pray that You would bless this weekend. Help us all to have a relaxing and restful weekend. I pray that as Christmas nears You would help us all to remember what we are celebrating, the birth of Your Son Jesus Christ in whom salvation of our souls rests. I thank You God that You sent Your one and only Son to die for a sinner like me. I will worship You all the days of my life for what You have done for me.
I love You Lord and I lay my life down at Your feet. I pray that You would bless us with a great snowfall early in the day so that we might be able to enjoy it. I pray God that we would not have freezing rain and that the snow would last for some time. In the snow I find peace and I see your creative hand. I praise You Lord and I love You.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
December 18th, 2008 Bible Blog
Today's Reading:
Psalms 19-21
Acts 19:21-41
My Response:
Today we read David speaking of the greatness of God. The Heavens declare His greatness and the earth bows down before Him. God's truths are good and are meant to keep mankind righteous and pure as David tells us in this verse:
Psalms 19:8
8 The precepts of the LORD are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the LORD are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.
God's commands are not meant to harm us or restrict us, they are in fact meant to help us find righteousness, and in righteousness there is life to be found. The world wants to tell us that God stops us from having fun, but how wrong this is. David knew that living according to God's will and design brings joy to us all. I also love the way this Psalm is completed:
Psalms 19:14
14 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be pleasing in your sight,
O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.
Too often my mind does not think this way and this really needs to be my prayer on a daily basis. I need to be better at focusing and making sure that all that I say and think about would be pleasing to God. Man is that tough or what!
Moving on in our reading Psalms 20 is a song of trust in God. David speaks of how the world trusts in other things but that they were called to trust in God. This is not any more clearly spelled out than here:
Psalms 20:7
7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
Is this not the case in our world today? The only difference is that we don't trust in chariots and horses, nations trust in their WMD and their wealth. What a sorry state we have fallen in. Even Christians alike have fallen to the world of fear of what the Taliban and other militant groups may be planning against our nation and others. We are not meant to place our trust in military power, wealth, and health. Our trust needs to solely rest in the Lord, in Him we will never be let down. Our God is far bigger than anything that we will ever face. We can stare down a WMD missile with a smile on our face knowing that if worse comes to worse we are headed to see our Savior! This is what David knew and understood. This is what David clung to and this is what this song speaks of.
In our NT reading today I am going to comment on only one short excerpt. While this passage is short it contains something very important for the body of Christ.
Acts 19:21-22
21After all this had happened, Paul decided to go to Jerusalem, passing through Macedonia and Achaia. "After I have been there," he said, "I must visit Rome also." 22He sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia, while he stayed in the province of Asia a little longer.
While this is skipped right over here we will read more about this portion of the story in other letters that Paul writes. We see here that Paul decided to go to Jerusalem, however Luke does not record why that is. The church in Jerusalem was extremely poor and needed assistance financially. While Paul was working his way through his missionary journey, he began to take "offerings" for the church in Jerusalem. This taught the early church and even Christians the need of community. When one part of their body was hurting, all parts of the body must hurt. We are to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. Paul wanted the church to be bound together, to know each others needs and be there for each other. Paul wanted us to know that when there was a need that we needed to act.
Today we feel that we hear too often from pastors that they need our money, but it is not for us to feel this way, it is our responsiblity to act! When we hear that people need assistance our first reaction should not be to doubt them, but to solemnly pray and then act it out. We can never go wrong airing on the side of compassion and grace.
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me of my sins and wash me clean of all unrighteousness. Lord even the things that I am not aware of that I do that do not line up according to Your will I seek Your forgiveness. Lord purge me and show me the areas that I need to improve upon. Lord use me for the glory of Your Kingdom.
God I thank You that both of my boys seem to be doing better. I have no one to praise but Your mighty name. You are a great and mighty King that hears my requests and I praise Your name for all that You do. I thank You that You are such a loving and caring God that listens to my prayers and acts on them. Lord may I always please You in everything that I do.
I love You Lord and I praise Your mighty name. You are my King and I lay my life down before Your throne. I will worship You all the days of my life. Help me to remain healthy and whole so that I can help Dawn to raise to Godly men. I worship You Lord with all that I am.
Psalms 19-21
Acts 19:21-41
My Response:
Today we read David speaking of the greatness of God. The Heavens declare His greatness and the earth bows down before Him. God's truths are good and are meant to keep mankind righteous and pure as David tells us in this verse:
Psalms 19:8
8 The precepts of the LORD are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the LORD are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.
God's commands are not meant to harm us or restrict us, they are in fact meant to help us find righteousness, and in righteousness there is life to be found. The world wants to tell us that God stops us from having fun, but how wrong this is. David knew that living according to God's will and design brings joy to us all. I also love the way this Psalm is completed:
Psalms 19:14
14 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be pleasing in your sight,
O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.
Too often my mind does not think this way and this really needs to be my prayer on a daily basis. I need to be better at focusing and making sure that all that I say and think about would be pleasing to God. Man is that tough or what!
Moving on in our reading Psalms 20 is a song of trust in God. David speaks of how the world trusts in other things but that they were called to trust in God. This is not any more clearly spelled out than here:
Psalms 20:7
7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
Is this not the case in our world today? The only difference is that we don't trust in chariots and horses, nations trust in their WMD and their wealth. What a sorry state we have fallen in. Even Christians alike have fallen to the world of fear of what the Taliban and other militant groups may be planning against our nation and others. We are not meant to place our trust in military power, wealth, and health. Our trust needs to solely rest in the Lord, in Him we will never be let down. Our God is far bigger than anything that we will ever face. We can stare down a WMD missile with a smile on our face knowing that if worse comes to worse we are headed to see our Savior! This is what David knew and understood. This is what David clung to and this is what this song speaks of.
In our NT reading today I am going to comment on only one short excerpt. While this passage is short it contains something very important for the body of Christ.
Acts 19:21-22
21After all this had happened, Paul decided to go to Jerusalem, passing through Macedonia and Achaia. "After I have been there," he said, "I must visit Rome also." 22He sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia, while he stayed in the province of Asia a little longer.
While this is skipped right over here we will read more about this portion of the story in other letters that Paul writes. We see here that Paul decided to go to Jerusalem, however Luke does not record why that is. The church in Jerusalem was extremely poor and needed assistance financially. While Paul was working his way through his missionary journey, he began to take "offerings" for the church in Jerusalem. This taught the early church and even Christians the need of community. When one part of their body was hurting, all parts of the body must hurt. We are to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. Paul wanted the church to be bound together, to know each others needs and be there for each other. Paul wanted us to know that when there was a need that we needed to act.
Today we feel that we hear too often from pastors that they need our money, but it is not for us to feel this way, it is our responsiblity to act! When we hear that people need assistance our first reaction should not be to doubt them, but to solemnly pray and then act it out. We can never go wrong airing on the side of compassion and grace.
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me of my sins and wash me clean of all unrighteousness. Lord even the things that I am not aware of that I do that do not line up according to Your will I seek Your forgiveness. Lord purge me and show me the areas that I need to improve upon. Lord use me for the glory of Your Kingdom.
God I thank You that both of my boys seem to be doing better. I have no one to praise but Your mighty name. You are a great and mighty King that hears my requests and I praise Your name for all that You do. I thank You that You are such a loving and caring God that listens to my prayers and acts on them. Lord may I always please You in everything that I do.
I love You Lord and I praise Your mighty name. You are my King and I lay my life down before Your throne. I will worship You all the days of my life. Help me to remain healthy and whole so that I can help Dawn to raise to Godly men. I worship You Lord with all that I am.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
December 17th, 2008 Bible Blog
Today's Reading:
Psalms 17-18
Acts 19:1-20
My Response:
Psalm 17 and 18 contrast each other so nicely. Psalm 17 is David's further plea for protection from the unrighteous. David comes before the Lord speaking of his own righteousness and asking God to protect him because of it. We need to remember that the righteous cry out and the Lord hears them, just as we see in the story of David. David cried out to God in his hours of need and because of David's righteousness and love of God, God took great care of him.
That is why I say that verse 17 is such a nice contrast of chapter 18. The last couple of Psalms we have seen David asking for the Lord's protection, and then we come to Psalms 18 where we see David placed into kingship. His days of running from Saul are over and David now begins his reign. What is important to see here? Well to me, most important is that David gives all the glory to God. David never forgot who had placed him there. David never forgot all of the prayers that he brought before God, and he never forgot how God answered those prayers. So when the moment came where God's spoken word through Samuel came to pass, what was the natural response for David? It simply was to praise the name of his Lord!
There are so many wonderful pieces here that I could not even begin to say what they all mean to me. But the very two first verses really open it up quite nicely to what David sings about in the rest of this Psalm:
Psalms 18:1-2
1 I love you, O LORD, my strength.
2 The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.
He is my shield and the horn [a] of my salvation, my stronghold.
David loved God and he trusted God all the days of his life. David looked to God for all things at all times in his life and leaned not on his own understanding but upon God's. When we do this we cannot fail! David found his strength in the arms of his God and I am encouraged with how he consistently came before God and glorified his name. I think too many times we forget to really praise God during the good times. We forget to give Him the glory that is due to His name. We need to try and be more like David and sing praises to our God. Tell God how much we depend on Him and need Him. Without our God we are lost and nothing, with our God we have focus and direction and a future! That is enough to praise God for I think.
In our NT reading today we see Paul in Ephesus meeting up with 12 men whom were Christians but had not yet been filled with the Holy Spirit. Their Christianity was incomplete, and Paul helps them to see this. The baptism of water is a baptism of repentence as Paul tells us in verse 4, but our Christian walk is not complete yet without the Holy Spirit. In the baptism of repentance we acknowledge that we are sinners and we repent, but we are still battling against our human flesh, and to be honest we, by ourselves cannot overcome our sinful nature. That is one of the greatest importances of acting in the Holy Spirit. The Spirit gives us power from on High to do the things that we never would have been able to do on our own. This kind of power helps us to resist temptation and stand firm when times are hard. It is for this reason that Paul takes these 12 young Christians and baptizes them in the Holy Spirit. They needed it to really initialize that change that Christianity should bring in our lives.
Later on in this reading we see Paul shift from preaching in the synagogue to the hall of a philosopher named Tyrannus. Other manuscripts that have been found tell us that Paul would preach in this hall during the hours of 11AM-4PM which makes since because Tyrannus would need his hall during the other hours. It was also spoken of that the heat in Ephesus was most extreme and that more people were asleep in Ephesus at the 1PM hour than any other hour because of the heat. So what is the importance of all of this? Well we must remember that Paul as a "Rabbi" could not accept donations for his teachings, so he had to support himself. Paul likely supported himself by being a tent maker and it is believed that Paul likely worked all morning and all evening as others did in Ephesus, but when others were resting Paul was busy about his other work. This shows us just how driven Paul was to profess the name of Christ and how eager the early churches were to hear. When others were sleeping Paul was teaching and helping young Christians to grow in their relationship with Christ. Paul is an inspiration.
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me of my sins and wash me clean. Lord lift me up and dust me off. Direct my paths and help me to walk according to Your will. I love You Lord and I praise Your mighty name. You are my King and I lay my life down before Your throne. Lord I am nothing without You. As David spoke in Psalms 18, You are my rock, my redeemer, my deliverer, my fortress, and my strong tower. I look to You for all things and lay my life before You.
Praise Your name Lord for answering so many of my prayers. Please forgive me God for not always praising You the way that I should. Lord I am going to strive to be better at this. God You really are good to me and I am thankful that You care so much for me. I worship and adore You.
Please bless our sleep tonight and bless the rest of this week. I love You Lord and I praise Your name alone.
Psalms 17-18
Acts 19:1-20
My Response:
Psalm 17 and 18 contrast each other so nicely. Psalm 17 is David's further plea for protection from the unrighteous. David comes before the Lord speaking of his own righteousness and asking God to protect him because of it. We need to remember that the righteous cry out and the Lord hears them, just as we see in the story of David. David cried out to God in his hours of need and because of David's righteousness and love of God, God took great care of him.
That is why I say that verse 17 is such a nice contrast of chapter 18. The last couple of Psalms we have seen David asking for the Lord's protection, and then we come to Psalms 18 where we see David placed into kingship. His days of running from Saul are over and David now begins his reign. What is important to see here? Well to me, most important is that David gives all the glory to God. David never forgot who had placed him there. David never forgot all of the prayers that he brought before God, and he never forgot how God answered those prayers. So when the moment came where God's spoken word through Samuel came to pass, what was the natural response for David? It simply was to praise the name of his Lord!
There are so many wonderful pieces here that I could not even begin to say what they all mean to me. But the very two first verses really open it up quite nicely to what David sings about in the rest of this Psalm:
Psalms 18:1-2
1 I love you, O LORD, my strength.
2 The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.
He is my shield and the horn [a] of my salvation, my stronghold.
David loved God and he trusted God all the days of his life. David looked to God for all things at all times in his life and leaned not on his own understanding but upon God's. When we do this we cannot fail! David found his strength in the arms of his God and I am encouraged with how he consistently came before God and glorified his name. I think too many times we forget to really praise God during the good times. We forget to give Him the glory that is due to His name. We need to try and be more like David and sing praises to our God. Tell God how much we depend on Him and need Him. Without our God we are lost and nothing, with our God we have focus and direction and a future! That is enough to praise God for I think.
In our NT reading today we see Paul in Ephesus meeting up with 12 men whom were Christians but had not yet been filled with the Holy Spirit. Their Christianity was incomplete, and Paul helps them to see this. The baptism of water is a baptism of repentence as Paul tells us in verse 4, but our Christian walk is not complete yet without the Holy Spirit. In the baptism of repentance we acknowledge that we are sinners and we repent, but we are still battling against our human flesh, and to be honest we, by ourselves cannot overcome our sinful nature. That is one of the greatest importances of acting in the Holy Spirit. The Spirit gives us power from on High to do the things that we never would have been able to do on our own. This kind of power helps us to resist temptation and stand firm when times are hard. It is for this reason that Paul takes these 12 young Christians and baptizes them in the Holy Spirit. They needed it to really initialize that change that Christianity should bring in our lives.
Later on in this reading we see Paul shift from preaching in the synagogue to the hall of a philosopher named Tyrannus. Other manuscripts that have been found tell us that Paul would preach in this hall during the hours of 11AM-4PM which makes since because Tyrannus would need his hall during the other hours. It was also spoken of that the heat in Ephesus was most extreme and that more people were asleep in Ephesus at the 1PM hour than any other hour because of the heat. So what is the importance of all of this? Well we must remember that Paul as a "Rabbi" could not accept donations for his teachings, so he had to support himself. Paul likely supported himself by being a tent maker and it is believed that Paul likely worked all morning and all evening as others did in Ephesus, but when others were resting Paul was busy about his other work. This shows us just how driven Paul was to profess the name of Christ and how eager the early churches were to hear. When others were sleeping Paul was teaching and helping young Christians to grow in their relationship with Christ. Paul is an inspiration.
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me of my sins and wash me clean. Lord lift me up and dust me off. Direct my paths and help me to walk according to Your will. I love You Lord and I praise Your mighty name. You are my King and I lay my life down before Your throne. Lord I am nothing without You. As David spoke in Psalms 18, You are my rock, my redeemer, my deliverer, my fortress, and my strong tower. I look to You for all things and lay my life before You.
Praise Your name Lord for answering so many of my prayers. Please forgive me God for not always praising You the way that I should. Lord I am going to strive to be better at this. God You really are good to me and I am thankful that You care so much for me. I worship and adore You.
Please bless our sleep tonight and bless the rest of this week. I love You Lord and I praise Your name alone.
Monday, December 15, 2008
December 16th, 2008 Bible Blog
Today's Reading:
Psalms 13-16
Acts 18
My Reponse:
Okay, so I have to start off today by giving God praise! God, through this cold weather storm, is opening up the work store houses for Sun Glow as I recently prayed for. As most of you know work has been slow and hard to come by, but this cold weather is bringing in all kinds of service work. I have had to run four techs full time for the last couple of days and it will likely keep on running. This has been a great blessing from God and I have to thank Him because He has heard my prayers and answered them. God You are faithful and I am thankful for all that You do for us. Praise Your name for seeing Sun Glow through this hard financial time. Please keep bringing in the business. Thank You for hearing me Lord and for answering me!
Okay, now as for the reading goes we start out in Psalms 3 which is a carry over Psalm of the two previous and begins the same but I love the way that it ends:
Psalms 13:5-6
5 But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing to the LORD,
for he has been good to me.
David has spoken cried out to God how all those who chase him seem to prosper. He talks to God about the wickedness of man that seems to be prevailing, yet in that circumstance David still places his undying trust in the love of God. David speaks of rejoicing for the Lord's salvation. He sings to God because He is good to him. How many of us can do that during dark times in our lives. We all should strive to be like David in this way.
Psalms 14 speaks of how foolish the wicked are and how there days are numbered but that the chosen people of God will have a day of celebration while those who have entered into His grace will be celebrating. We see this in verse 7 where David speaks of the day when we all will celebrate. I look forward to that day when I can give praise in "person" to the One who set me free.
Psalms 15 discusses who the "true citizens of Zion" are. They are the righteous, the just, and honest. Essentially if you or I are Christ like then we are citizens of Zion. To duplicate Christ is to be righteous, just, and honest, as well as many other attributes. David's question was:
Psalms 15:1
1 LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary?
Who may live on your holy hill?
So if we live according to all that he answers below it we will be citizens of Zion and receive our inheritance of the Promised Land. Psalms 16 speaks of the resurrection of Christ. At first glance it seems that David is speaking of himself in this Psalm but then in verse 10 we see how it is applied also to Christ:
Psalms 16:10
10 because you will not abandon me to the grave, [d]
nor will you let your Holy One [e] see decay.
David would not be abandoned to the grave because upon Christ's arrival he would be set free from the grave. Of course the Holy One speaks of the Messiah that would die yet body and soul would not decay. Christ is the only one to have never seen "decay" in the sense of a human body decaying in the earth. This same Scripture was spoken by Peter in Acts 2:27 and was meant to remind the people of these songs that they have sung had deeper meanings.
In our NT reading there is really quite a bit that happened and I don't have time to discuss all of it tonight. First thing first we see that Paul was a skilled craftsmen in that he was a tent maker. This actual translation is not simply for tents but also for leather. In this day and age men were taught that if they did not teach their sons a skilled trade then they were being treacherous. Work was important to them and even the teachers in the Jewish faith needed to know how to be more than simply a teacher for they were not supposed to be supported by by their preaching and teaching. Isn't it funny that Christ the one true Rabbi, the greatest Teacher, was also known as a Carpenter!
Anyways, we see Paul also continuing to preach despite opposition. In fact this actually just spoke to me:
Acts 18:5-6
5When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.[a] 6But when the Jews opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am clear of my responsibility. From now on I will go to the Gentiles."
Paul was devoting time trying to convert the Jews to Christianity but they were not receiving it, in fact they were trying to kill him because of it. What we see is Paul shaking off his clothes in protest and matter of factly telling them that their blood was on their own heads and that he was going to reach those that really wanted what Christ offered. This spoke to me because as Christians we get stuck in this mindset of "I am going to convert this one person" but that one person is not necessarily in the place or position where they are willing to receive it. It is in those moments that we need to be like Paul and say "I have done what God has called me to do, now I must look for those that are open to hear and accept."
In my life I have spent time investing in people and feeling like I had to fight to convert them. In fact I have felt like I have even had to do that with some Christians that just didn't want to receive. Ultimately we all must reach a point where, like Paul, we release that individual and look for where people will receive rather than reject.
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me for my sins. Today I allowed my anger at times to get the best of me, and while this affected no one directly I know that I behaved in manners that were not fitting to Your Kingdom. Lord I thank You for the busy work, and I praise Your name. I pray that You would continue to bless the work and continue to keep the cold weather here. I pray that You would also bless us with a tremendous amount of snow Lord. I love spending time in the snow and pray that You would dump it on us! It is absolutley beautiful and reminds me of just how great and majestic You are.
I thank You Lord that Ethan slept better last night and I pray that You would continue that good work in Him. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayers Lord, I praise Your mighty name. I also pray that You would be with my son Gabe and love on him when I can't because work is too busy. Help him to know that he has a daddy that loves him and wants to be with him. I also pray that You would help him to continue to be obedient. I thank You that there have been vast improvements and that You have answered that prayer too!
You are so good to me and You are faithful. I praise Your name and I lay my life down at Your feet. I am Your servant and I ask that You use me to glorify Your Kingdom. Give me wisdom, knowledge and understanding!
Psalms 13-16
Acts 18
My Reponse:
Okay, so I have to start off today by giving God praise! God, through this cold weather storm, is opening up the work store houses for Sun Glow as I recently prayed for. As most of you know work has been slow and hard to come by, but this cold weather is bringing in all kinds of service work. I have had to run four techs full time for the last couple of days and it will likely keep on running. This has been a great blessing from God and I have to thank Him because He has heard my prayers and answered them. God You are faithful and I am thankful for all that You do for us. Praise Your name for seeing Sun Glow through this hard financial time. Please keep bringing in the business. Thank You for hearing me Lord and for answering me!
Okay, now as for the reading goes we start out in Psalms 3 which is a carry over Psalm of the two previous and begins the same but I love the way that it ends:
Psalms 13:5-6
5 But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing to the LORD,
for he has been good to me.
David has spoken cried out to God how all those who chase him seem to prosper. He talks to God about the wickedness of man that seems to be prevailing, yet in that circumstance David still places his undying trust in the love of God. David speaks of rejoicing for the Lord's salvation. He sings to God because He is good to him. How many of us can do that during dark times in our lives. We all should strive to be like David in this way.
Psalms 14 speaks of how foolish the wicked are and how there days are numbered but that the chosen people of God will have a day of celebration while those who have entered into His grace will be celebrating. We see this in verse 7 where David speaks of the day when we all will celebrate. I look forward to that day when I can give praise in "person" to the One who set me free.
Psalms 15 discusses who the "true citizens of Zion" are. They are the righteous, the just, and honest. Essentially if you or I are Christ like then we are citizens of Zion. To duplicate Christ is to be righteous, just, and honest, as well as many other attributes. David's question was:
Psalms 15:1
1 LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary?
Who may live on your holy hill?
So if we live according to all that he answers below it we will be citizens of Zion and receive our inheritance of the Promised Land. Psalms 16 speaks of the resurrection of Christ. At first glance it seems that David is speaking of himself in this Psalm but then in verse 10 we see how it is applied also to Christ:
Psalms 16:10
10 because you will not abandon me to the grave, [d]
nor will you let your Holy One [e] see decay.
David would not be abandoned to the grave because upon Christ's arrival he would be set free from the grave. Of course the Holy One speaks of the Messiah that would die yet body and soul would not decay. Christ is the only one to have never seen "decay" in the sense of a human body decaying in the earth. This same Scripture was spoken by Peter in Acts 2:27 and was meant to remind the people of these songs that they have sung had deeper meanings.
In our NT reading there is really quite a bit that happened and I don't have time to discuss all of it tonight. First thing first we see that Paul was a skilled craftsmen in that he was a tent maker. This actual translation is not simply for tents but also for leather. In this day and age men were taught that if they did not teach their sons a skilled trade then they were being treacherous. Work was important to them and even the teachers in the Jewish faith needed to know how to be more than simply a teacher for they were not supposed to be supported by by their preaching and teaching. Isn't it funny that Christ the one true Rabbi, the greatest Teacher, was also known as a Carpenter!
Anyways, we see Paul also continuing to preach despite opposition. In fact this actually just spoke to me:
Acts 18:5-6
5When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.[a] 6But when the Jews opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am clear of my responsibility. From now on I will go to the Gentiles."
Paul was devoting time trying to convert the Jews to Christianity but they were not receiving it, in fact they were trying to kill him because of it. What we see is Paul shaking off his clothes in protest and matter of factly telling them that their blood was on their own heads and that he was going to reach those that really wanted what Christ offered. This spoke to me because as Christians we get stuck in this mindset of "I am going to convert this one person" but that one person is not necessarily in the place or position where they are willing to receive it. It is in those moments that we need to be like Paul and say "I have done what God has called me to do, now I must look for those that are open to hear and accept."
In my life I have spent time investing in people and feeling like I had to fight to convert them. In fact I have felt like I have even had to do that with some Christians that just didn't want to receive. Ultimately we all must reach a point where, like Paul, we release that individual and look for where people will receive rather than reject.
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me for my sins. Today I allowed my anger at times to get the best of me, and while this affected no one directly I know that I behaved in manners that were not fitting to Your Kingdom. Lord I thank You for the busy work, and I praise Your name. I pray that You would continue to bless the work and continue to keep the cold weather here. I pray that You would also bless us with a tremendous amount of snow Lord. I love spending time in the snow and pray that You would dump it on us! It is absolutley beautiful and reminds me of just how great and majestic You are.
I thank You Lord that Ethan slept better last night and I pray that You would continue that good work in Him. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayers Lord, I praise Your mighty name. I also pray that You would be with my son Gabe and love on him when I can't because work is too busy. Help him to know that he has a daddy that loves him and wants to be with him. I also pray that You would help him to continue to be obedient. I thank You that there have been vast improvements and that You have answered that prayer too!
You are so good to me and You are faithful. I praise Your name and I lay my life down at Your feet. I am Your servant and I ask that You use me to glorify Your Kingdom. Give me wisdom, knowledge and understanding!
Sunday, December 14, 2008
December 15th, 2008 Bible Blog
Today's Reading:
Psalms 10-12
Acts 17:16-34
My Response:
Last night was not a good night sleep at all so I am going to keep my post tonight as short as possible so I can get some rest. In Psalms 10 David speaks of the rise of wickedness and asks the Lord why he is standing off from them. David could not understand why these wicked people chose to rebel against God. In David's book there were the righteous and the wicked. Here David must have been seeing wickedness prevail for a time that is why I believe he asks God why He is standing off.
Chapters 11-12 discuss the rise of wickedness and how the righteous are fleeting. Yet in the midst of this time David still trusted in the Lord. David was confident that even though unrighteousness appeared to be all around them that God would take care of them. We see this evident in:
Psalms 12:7
7 O LORD, you will keep us safe
and protect us from such people forever.
It is encouraging me to see David trusting in God even when he sees the wicked thriving. I often times feel this way in business. I see corrupt men and women who have turned their backs on God and done anything in life to succeed. Sometimes it feels as though they get ahead in life and that God's judgement is not on them. But I then must remember that my blessing is not to be had here on earth necessarily but in Heaven.
In our NT reading we see Paul alone in Athens. Athens was the location of scholars and people that wanted to learn. It was a great city filled with intelligent men who were set in their ideas of what life was all about. Paul undoubtedly saw this as yet another God given opportunity to preach the good news of Christ. In the city of Athens there were two prominent people the Epicureans and the Stoics which both had their ideals on what life was about and who God was or if there was even a God. This was a daunting place to share the message of Hope, but as in all things, Paul showed himself as a servant to God. Paul did not back down and was able to state the case of his faith with clarity and intelligence. Because of this the scholars were intrigued and even some of them accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
Now this is a tough thing as I have witnessed to some people that really wanted to think of themselves as scholars, people intelligent and having all the answers. It is tough to share you faith with these people because they can sometimes challenge you in ways that make you feel inept, but we need to have the heart of Paul that shared his love of Jesus with everyone no matter who they were or what their standing was.
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive my sins and release me from my sinful past. I pray that You would remove the temptation that rises up within me and help me to fight the enemy off in my life. Lord please bless our sleep tonight and work in Ethan's body to help him sleep soundly. As You know last night Dawn and I did not get any sleep because of Ethan and I really need to get sleep. I also cannot stand seeing my son in pain so I pray that You would please help Ethan to digest any air that we could not get out and sleep through the night.
Lord I thank You for the increase in business and I pray that You would keep the phone lines ringing. Help us to bring work in and sell jobs for installation. I love and trust You Lord to provide all the needs of my family. You are the one and only God and I lay my life down before You.
Psalms 10-12
Acts 17:16-34
My Response:
Last night was not a good night sleep at all so I am going to keep my post tonight as short as possible so I can get some rest. In Psalms 10 David speaks of the rise of wickedness and asks the Lord why he is standing off from them. David could not understand why these wicked people chose to rebel against God. In David's book there were the righteous and the wicked. Here David must have been seeing wickedness prevail for a time that is why I believe he asks God why He is standing off.
Chapters 11-12 discuss the rise of wickedness and how the righteous are fleeting. Yet in the midst of this time David still trusted in the Lord. David was confident that even though unrighteousness appeared to be all around them that God would take care of them. We see this evident in:
Psalms 12:7
7 O LORD, you will keep us safe
and protect us from such people forever.
It is encouraging me to see David trusting in God even when he sees the wicked thriving. I often times feel this way in business. I see corrupt men and women who have turned their backs on God and done anything in life to succeed. Sometimes it feels as though they get ahead in life and that God's judgement is not on them. But I then must remember that my blessing is not to be had here on earth necessarily but in Heaven.
In our NT reading we see Paul alone in Athens. Athens was the location of scholars and people that wanted to learn. It was a great city filled with intelligent men who were set in their ideas of what life was all about. Paul undoubtedly saw this as yet another God given opportunity to preach the good news of Christ. In the city of Athens there were two prominent people the Epicureans and the Stoics which both had their ideals on what life was about and who God was or if there was even a God. This was a daunting place to share the message of Hope, but as in all things, Paul showed himself as a servant to God. Paul did not back down and was able to state the case of his faith with clarity and intelligence. Because of this the scholars were intrigued and even some of them accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
Now this is a tough thing as I have witnessed to some people that really wanted to think of themselves as scholars, people intelligent and having all the answers. It is tough to share you faith with these people because they can sometimes challenge you in ways that make you feel inept, but we need to have the heart of Paul that shared his love of Jesus with everyone no matter who they were or what their standing was.
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive my sins and release me from my sinful past. I pray that You would remove the temptation that rises up within me and help me to fight the enemy off in my life. Lord please bless our sleep tonight and work in Ethan's body to help him sleep soundly. As You know last night Dawn and I did not get any sleep because of Ethan and I really need to get sleep. I also cannot stand seeing my son in pain so I pray that You would please help Ethan to digest any air that we could not get out and sleep through the night.
Lord I thank You for the increase in business and I pray that You would keep the phone lines ringing. Help us to bring work in and sell jobs for installation. I love and trust You Lord to provide all the needs of my family. You are the one and only God and I lay my life down before You.
College Age Cancelled Have A Great Week
Hey Everyone!
I think that the video pretty much speaks for itself, but there was no College Age so I don't have any lessons to post here. We sincerely hope that you had a wonderful and restful weekend and missed not seeing you. If you head out this week drive safe and watch our for the crazies on the roads, i.e. me!
Next week we will be back on schedule so long as the weather clears up a bit. James will be speaking and I am sure that we all are looking forward to hearing this passionate man preach the Word of God to us all.
Have a blessed week and we will talk to you all soon. Please let us know if there is anything that we can do for you! Remember that you can email us here if you need prayer for anything. We love you all.
The Golobay's
Saturday, December 13, 2008
December 14th, 2008 BIble Blog
Today's Reading:
Pslams 7-9
Acts 17:1-15
My Response:
In Psalms 7 today we see another earnest prayer from David for the Lord's protection. This prayer was concerning the fact that David was being pursued by Cush who was likely one of Saul's officers. David cries out to the Lord regarding his righteousness.
Psalms 7:1
1 O LORD my God, I take refuge in you;
David did take refuge in God. David turned to God in all situations and at all times. David trusted in God and believed that He would provide a way out. If this is in the time that David was being chased by Saul's people, we know that David showed great character. Many of us could not stand under this kind of pressure, but David did not do it alone. He took refuge in God, and I need to do this on a daily basis. David is being hunted and yet after his lament he ends this Psalms with:
Psalms 7:17
17 I will give thanks to the LORD because of his righteousness
and will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High.
How many of us can do this? How many of us can take the heat like David did and yet still give thanks to God? David in the midst of his trials is thanking God because He is righteous. David knows that because God is righteous that He will take care of him. Because of this David can sing praises in the most peculiar of times.
Psalms 8 speaks of man being the "crown of Creation". Here we read some insightful things about how God views us, and in fact this Psalm was quoted by both Jesus and Paul. In this chapter we learn that God made:
Psalms 8:4-5
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?
5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings [f]
and crowned him with glory and honor.
We were made just a little lower than the heavenly beings, how awesome is that. There is power in who God has made us! We have power through the blood of the Lamb that we need to start living out. The enemy wants us to think that we are nothing, yet here David speaks of how great man is in God's eyes. Who are we that we should be anything before God, yet He loves us and has crowned us with glory and honor. He has a plan for our lives and it is good! As David said in this Psalm "O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!" Lord God You alone are great and worthy!
Psalms 9 is David giving thanks for the Lord's victories. David not only prays and sings to God for his redemption, he also sings songs of praise before the Lord. We need to have the heart of David that seeks God in all situations!
In our NT reading today we see Paul's preaching in Thessalonica. Immediately Paul headed for the synagogue so that he could preach the Gospel. Luke writes:
Acts 17:4
4Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women.
Although some of the Jews were receiving the Message, Paul's teaching really seemed to captivate the audience of the Gentiles. Here we see a large number of God-fearing Greeks (Gentiles) receive Christ. This angered the Jews because they viewed these people as a part of their community and Paul was removing them at an alarming rate. The sheer fact that Paul continued to show up in the synagagues shows just how set he was in preaching the news of Jesus. He knew that he would face opposition yet he went. This inspires me because in our obedience, even in the trying times, God will do miracuously large things for His Kingdom.
The other thing that I want to look at takes place in the town of Berea. The Christian brothers sent Paul and Silas away from Thessalonica under cover of darkness because the Jews were angered with them. They headed to Berea and there we see something that I really like. Paul preaches the Gospel and the people accepted it to a point, but they also looked hard to check into what the Scripture really said about this Jesus man.
Acts 17:11
11Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
This just reminds me that we are to "test the spirit's". We need to know if those that are leading us are speaking truths, and how do we know this if we are not getting into our Word. It is important that we are set in our faith not because a preacher convinced us of it, but because we have seen the prophecies and done our homework. When we dive into our Word it seems difficult to understand how anyone could not believe in Jesus, but we all must do that homework for ourselves. We need to look and see that what we are being taught is from God.
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me for my sins and help me to fight the enemy off in my life. God I don't want to wrestle with my flesh any longer but I know that as long as I am living here I must fight against it. Lord I want to be close to You and see You. I love You and I lay my life down before You.
God thank You for answering my prayers with Gabe. Today was a great day and I give You all the glory for it. I know Lord that You hear my requests and that You honor them. I pray that You would continue Your good work in Gabe and thank You for such a wonderful day with him. I love both of my sons and I pray that You would draw them near to You. Keep them close to You at all times Lord and watch over them.
Lord I pray that You would bless Sun Glow this week. I pray that this colder weather would push people into making new purchases. Lord You know that things have been slow and hard this year, but I am placing my trust in You. I pray that You would open up the storehouses and pour out the blessings on Sun Glow so that others can see that You have taken care of us. I pray that Sun Glow would be a light that would shine for You. I thank You for this business and this provision for my family and I pray that You would bring an abundance of work this week. I praise Your name and I worship You alone. I love You Lord and I lay my life down at Your feet.
Pslams 7-9
Acts 17:1-15
My Response:
In Psalms 7 today we see another earnest prayer from David for the Lord's protection. This prayer was concerning the fact that David was being pursued by Cush who was likely one of Saul's officers. David cries out to the Lord regarding his righteousness.
Psalms 7:1
1 O LORD my God, I take refuge in you;
David did take refuge in God. David turned to God in all situations and at all times. David trusted in God and believed that He would provide a way out. If this is in the time that David was being chased by Saul's people, we know that David showed great character. Many of us could not stand under this kind of pressure, but David did not do it alone. He took refuge in God, and I need to do this on a daily basis. David is being hunted and yet after his lament he ends this Psalms with:
Psalms 7:17
17 I will give thanks to the LORD because of his righteousness
and will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High.
How many of us can do this? How many of us can take the heat like David did and yet still give thanks to God? David in the midst of his trials is thanking God because He is righteous. David knows that because God is righteous that He will take care of him. Because of this David can sing praises in the most peculiar of times.
Psalms 8 speaks of man being the "crown of Creation". Here we read some insightful things about how God views us, and in fact this Psalm was quoted by both Jesus and Paul. In this chapter we learn that God made:
Psalms 8:4-5
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?
5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings [f]
and crowned him with glory and honor.
We were made just a little lower than the heavenly beings, how awesome is that. There is power in who God has made us! We have power through the blood of the Lamb that we need to start living out. The enemy wants us to think that we are nothing, yet here David speaks of how great man is in God's eyes. Who are we that we should be anything before God, yet He loves us and has crowned us with glory and honor. He has a plan for our lives and it is good! As David said in this Psalm "O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!" Lord God You alone are great and worthy!
Psalms 9 is David giving thanks for the Lord's victories. David not only prays and sings to God for his redemption, he also sings songs of praise before the Lord. We need to have the heart of David that seeks God in all situations!
In our NT reading today we see Paul's preaching in Thessalonica. Immediately Paul headed for the synagogue so that he could preach the Gospel. Luke writes:
Acts 17:4
4Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women.
Although some of the Jews were receiving the Message, Paul's teaching really seemed to captivate the audience of the Gentiles. Here we see a large number of God-fearing Greeks (Gentiles) receive Christ. This angered the Jews because they viewed these people as a part of their community and Paul was removing them at an alarming rate. The sheer fact that Paul continued to show up in the synagagues shows just how set he was in preaching the news of Jesus. He knew that he would face opposition yet he went. This inspires me because in our obedience, even in the trying times, God will do miracuously large things for His Kingdom.
The other thing that I want to look at takes place in the town of Berea. The Christian brothers sent Paul and Silas away from Thessalonica under cover of darkness because the Jews were angered with them. They headed to Berea and there we see something that I really like. Paul preaches the Gospel and the people accepted it to a point, but they also looked hard to check into what the Scripture really said about this Jesus man.
Acts 17:11
11Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
This just reminds me that we are to "test the spirit's". We need to know if those that are leading us are speaking truths, and how do we know this if we are not getting into our Word. It is important that we are set in our faith not because a preacher convinced us of it, but because we have seen the prophecies and done our homework. When we dive into our Word it seems difficult to understand how anyone could not believe in Jesus, but we all must do that homework for ourselves. We need to look and see that what we are being taught is from God.
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me for my sins and help me to fight the enemy off in my life. God I don't want to wrestle with my flesh any longer but I know that as long as I am living here I must fight against it. Lord I want to be close to You and see You. I love You and I lay my life down before You.
God thank You for answering my prayers with Gabe. Today was a great day and I give You all the glory for it. I know Lord that You hear my requests and that You honor them. I pray that You would continue Your good work in Gabe and thank You for such a wonderful day with him. I love both of my sons and I pray that You would draw them near to You. Keep them close to You at all times Lord and watch over them.
Lord I pray that You would bless Sun Glow this week. I pray that this colder weather would push people into making new purchases. Lord You know that things have been slow and hard this year, but I am placing my trust in You. I pray that You would open up the storehouses and pour out the blessings on Sun Glow so that others can see that You have taken care of us. I pray that Sun Glow would be a light that would shine for You. I thank You for this business and this provision for my family and I pray that You would bring an abundance of work this week. I praise Your name and I worship You alone. I love You Lord and I lay my life down at Your feet.
A New Feature On Our Blog
Hello Everyone!
Okay, so I have been playing around with our blog and finding all kinds of awesome things that I can do through Blogger, and I must say that it is cool what you can do these days. Well anyways, every week you can check in here and get the actual lesson that was preached by me with the notes included. I thought that this might be a nice way for those of you who sometimes miss a Sunday evening to catch up on what we discussed. This will be especially helpful if we are in the middle of a series and you miss a week.
Anyways, I hope that this helps those of you who have missed to stay with the group on all that we are doing. So without further ado, here is the link to last weeks lesson. Just click on it and it will open up a new webpage with the lesson:
Servants of Christ
God bless and have a great week. Remember that this week College Age will be meeting at the church in the fellowship hall. We will be doing all of our regular things, its just a venue change so that Dawn can have some time to relax at home with the new baby. James will be speaking this week and I know that it will be awesome! Talk to you all on Sunday.
Okay, so I have been playing around with our blog and finding all kinds of awesome things that I can do through Blogger, and I must say that it is cool what you can do these days. Well anyways, every week you can check in here and get the actual lesson that was preached by me with the notes included. I thought that this might be a nice way for those of you who sometimes miss a Sunday evening to catch up on what we discussed. This will be especially helpful if we are in the middle of a series and you miss a week.
Anyways, I hope that this helps those of you who have missed to stay with the group on all that we are doing. So without further ado, here is the link to last weeks lesson. Just click on it and it will open up a new webpage with the lesson:
Servants of Christ
God bless and have a great week. Remember that this week College Age will be meeting at the church in the fellowship hall. We will be doing all of our regular things, its just a venue change so that Dawn can have some time to relax at home with the new baby. James will be speaking this week and I know that it will be awesome! Talk to you all on Sunday.
Friday, December 12, 2008
December 13th, 2008 Bible Blog
Today's Reading:
Psalms 4-6
Acts 16:16-40
My Response:
Psalms, blessed Psalms! Man I am loving it right now, I look forward each day to reading my Word because of these songs. David and others really had the heart to worship God. They knew how great, mighty, and powerful He was, and they chose to glorify Him in song. I only wish that I could write out songs the way the Psalmist's did.
In Psalm 4 we see a common theme. Trust in God. David was full of joy and even in the midst of strife held on to the joy that his God had all of his needs taken care of. David never doubted what God would do for him. David could rest easy even when men were trying to take his life because he trusted wholeheartedly in the Lord. I need to learn this lesson. I need to trust in God the way that David did.
Psalms 4:8
8 I will lie down and sleep in peace,
for you alone, O LORD,
make me dwell in safety.
I wish that I could say that I always feel this way, but it is because of my flesh that I struggle with this. There are still parts of me that want to control all of my life. There are areas where I still struggle to relinquish control to God, and I don't think that this is something that David struggled with. Lord help me to be more like David and trust in You the way that he trusted in You. I know that You have always taken care of me and that my life is in Your hands, but sometimes my flesh still gets in the way.
Psalms 5 and 6 are prayers to God for deliverance. Again we see the trust of David in God. David knows that God abhors sin, and David knows that he is sinful, and so he falls upon the Lord for His mercy and grace asking for deliverance from his enemies. David was not free of sin, but his heart caused him to repent and move forward. His eyes were almost always on God.
In our NT reading today we see two great acts take place. We begin with the story of Paul and Silas being tormented by the slave girl that was possessed. Paul having had his fill of it turned and cast the demon out of the girl and releasing her from her own personal torment. Of course this was not good business for the slave girls owners and they were upset that their fortune teller was no longer able to earn them money. The end result of this was that Paul and Silas ended up in prison.
What we see in prison is a wonderful story of redemption in what seems like the most unlikely place. First off, I was so encouraged by this portion of our reading:
Acts 16:25
25About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.
I am encouraged by the fact that these two men were praising God with song and praying in the midst of their wrongful imprisonment. They had broken no laws yet they were thrown in to prison. Here they still were on fire for God and never once stopped to complain or whine that they were struggling. They took their unfair punishment in stride and even after being beaten they still sang to God. What drive and ambition.
One thing to note about the last three conversions of people is that we see once again that the Gospel of Christ was shared with all social and economic divisions of people. There were three converts in Chapter 16; Lydia, the slave girl, and the jailer. Lydia represented the wealthy class of people and she was a woman without means and with connections. Then we have the slave girl who was just that, a slave. She was poor, destititute, and ran by others. She was low income and likely barely making it in life. Lastly we had the jailer that we just read about, the jailer was likely what would be considered middle income. The neat thing about these three converts is that once again when we look at the big picture we see that Jesus came for all people, rich, poor, and in between. Jesus did not segregate and He did not want His followers to either. There is no difference between any of us, He loves us all just the same.
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me of my sins and wash me clean from my past. I am a weak man that is not worthy of Your love. I fall short of Your glory every day and wish that I could rid myself of this unclean nature. Lord help me to defeat the enemy in my life and help me to be the man of God that You want me to be. Lord I am weak but in You I know that I am strong. Please forgive me and help me.
God I love You and I thank You for all the blessings in my life. You are my King and I worship You alone. I pray that You would bless this nights sleep and help Dawn to get well rested tonight. Lord help Ethan to sleep through the night and help him to develop good sleeping habits. I also lift Gabe up to You and ask that You would work in him. Help him to know that he is loved and cherished despite the fact that he has a new little brother that requires attention.
Lord I love You and I praise Your name. I ask that You would help me to be a stronger man so that I can accomplish many great things for Your Kingdom. God use me for Your glory and help me to win souls for You. I praise Your mighty name and I lay my life down before You.
Psalms 4-6
Acts 16:16-40
My Response:
Psalms, blessed Psalms! Man I am loving it right now, I look forward each day to reading my Word because of these songs. David and others really had the heart to worship God. They knew how great, mighty, and powerful He was, and they chose to glorify Him in song. I only wish that I could write out songs the way the Psalmist's did.
In Psalm 4 we see a common theme. Trust in God. David was full of joy and even in the midst of strife held on to the joy that his God had all of his needs taken care of. David never doubted what God would do for him. David could rest easy even when men were trying to take his life because he trusted wholeheartedly in the Lord. I need to learn this lesson. I need to trust in God the way that David did.
Psalms 4:8
8 I will lie down and sleep in peace,
for you alone, O LORD,
make me dwell in safety.
I wish that I could say that I always feel this way, but it is because of my flesh that I struggle with this. There are still parts of me that want to control all of my life. There are areas where I still struggle to relinquish control to God, and I don't think that this is something that David struggled with. Lord help me to be more like David and trust in You the way that he trusted in You. I know that You have always taken care of me and that my life is in Your hands, but sometimes my flesh still gets in the way.
Psalms 5 and 6 are prayers to God for deliverance. Again we see the trust of David in God. David knows that God abhors sin, and David knows that he is sinful, and so he falls upon the Lord for His mercy and grace asking for deliverance from his enemies. David was not free of sin, but his heart caused him to repent and move forward. His eyes were almost always on God.
In our NT reading today we see two great acts take place. We begin with the story of Paul and Silas being tormented by the slave girl that was possessed. Paul having had his fill of it turned and cast the demon out of the girl and releasing her from her own personal torment. Of course this was not good business for the slave girls owners and they were upset that their fortune teller was no longer able to earn them money. The end result of this was that Paul and Silas ended up in prison.
What we see in prison is a wonderful story of redemption in what seems like the most unlikely place. First off, I was so encouraged by this portion of our reading:
Acts 16:25
25About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.
I am encouraged by the fact that these two men were praising God with song and praying in the midst of their wrongful imprisonment. They had broken no laws yet they were thrown in to prison. Here they still were on fire for God and never once stopped to complain or whine that they were struggling. They took their unfair punishment in stride and even after being beaten they still sang to God. What drive and ambition.
One thing to note about the last three conversions of people is that we see once again that the Gospel of Christ was shared with all social and economic divisions of people. There were three converts in Chapter 16; Lydia, the slave girl, and the jailer. Lydia represented the wealthy class of people and she was a woman without means and with connections. Then we have the slave girl who was just that, a slave. She was poor, destititute, and ran by others. She was low income and likely barely making it in life. Lastly we had the jailer that we just read about, the jailer was likely what would be considered middle income. The neat thing about these three converts is that once again when we look at the big picture we see that Jesus came for all people, rich, poor, and in between. Jesus did not segregate and He did not want His followers to either. There is no difference between any of us, He loves us all just the same.
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me of my sins and wash me clean from my past. I am a weak man that is not worthy of Your love. I fall short of Your glory every day and wish that I could rid myself of this unclean nature. Lord help me to defeat the enemy in my life and help me to be the man of God that You want me to be. Lord I am weak but in You I know that I am strong. Please forgive me and help me.
God I love You and I thank You for all the blessings in my life. You are my King and I worship You alone. I pray that You would bless this nights sleep and help Dawn to get well rested tonight. Lord help Ethan to sleep through the night and help him to develop good sleeping habits. I also lift Gabe up to You and ask that You would work in him. Help him to know that he is loved and cherished despite the fact that he has a new little brother that requires attention.
Lord I love You and I praise Your name. I ask that You would help me to be a stronger man so that I can accomplish many great things for Your Kingdom. God use me for Your glory and help me to win souls for You. I praise Your mighty name and I lay my life down before You.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
December 12th, 2008 Bible Blog
Today's Reading:
Psalms 1-3
Acts 16:1-15
My Response:
Oh I have been looking forward to this day, the day where we get to start reading the book of Psalms! I love Psalms, I love everything about it. Psalms is a great book full of songs that were meant to be, yeah you guessed it, sung. Moses taught Israel first to sing their praises to God when they were delivered from the Egyptians at the parting of the Red Sea. David, a man who loved to worship God, was responsible for many of these songs of worship. That being said there were other contributors as well:
73 Psalms attributed to David
12 Psalms attributed to Asaph
11 Psalms attributed to the sons of Korah
2 Psalms attributed to Solomon
1 Psalms attributed to Moses
1 Psalms attributed to Ethan
50 Psalms are annonymous
There are many people that believe that David wrote a large sum of those Psalms that are annonymous based upon the writing styles. I love Psalms because it is all about worshipping God, and that really is my favorite thing to do. I love praising His name because He is worthy to be praised. Just an interesting side note, David had an orchestra of 4,000 people whose responsibility was to lead these songs of worship. Talk about a big band!
Psalms 2 really is written about the coming Messiah. David was so close to God that he knew there would be a coming King that was greater than he. David clung to this and we will see it apparent in many of his Psalms. David was looking forward to the coming of Christ.
Psalms 2:6-8
6 "I have installed my King [c]
on Zion, my holy hill."
7 I will proclaim the decree of the LORD :
He said to me, "You are my Son [d] ;
today I have become your Father. [e]
8 Ask of me,
and I will make the nations your inheritance,
the ends of the earth your possession.
God was already beginning to reveal his plan to David, the plan for a King greater than any king Israel or the rest of the world had ever sen. This King however would rule over all nations and possess all of the earth. This was the promise to you and I that the Jesus Christ would come not only for Israel but for all those that would throw themselves on His grace and mercy. Even in David's time God was trying to prepare people for the coming Messiah who would bring freedom to all nations. Thank You Lord for Your Sacrifice!
Psalms 3 is written during the time that David was fleeing from his son Absalom. It is a great Psalm because it shows David trusting in the Lord despite people chasing him to kill him. Even though his own flesh and blood had turned on him David trusted in the Lord. David always trusted in God and relied upon the Lord for his strength. I need to learn this lesson. I need to have the kind of faith that David had in God. God has proven Himself worthy to me time and time again yet my flesh leads me to fear. God place in me the heart of David. Help me to trust in You everyday the way that David did.
In our NT reading today we see Paul begin his second missionary journey which is shown on this map:
Psalms 1-3
Acts 16:1-15
My Response:
Oh I have been looking forward to this day, the day where we get to start reading the book of Psalms! I love Psalms, I love everything about it. Psalms is a great book full of songs that were meant to be, yeah you guessed it, sung. Moses taught Israel first to sing their praises to God when they were delivered from the Egyptians at the parting of the Red Sea. David, a man who loved to worship God, was responsible for many of these songs of worship. That being said there were other contributors as well:
73 Psalms attributed to David
12 Psalms attributed to Asaph
11 Psalms attributed to the sons of Korah
2 Psalms attributed to Solomon
1 Psalms attributed to Moses
1 Psalms attributed to Ethan
50 Psalms are annonymous
There are many people that believe that David wrote a large sum of those Psalms that are annonymous based upon the writing styles. I love Psalms because it is all about worshipping God, and that really is my favorite thing to do. I love praising His name because He is worthy to be praised. Just an interesting side note, David had an orchestra of 4,000 people whose responsibility was to lead these songs of worship. Talk about a big band!
Psalms 2 really is written about the coming Messiah. David was so close to God that he knew there would be a coming King that was greater than he. David clung to this and we will see it apparent in many of his Psalms. David was looking forward to the coming of Christ.
Psalms 2:6-8
6 "I have installed my King [c]
on Zion, my holy hill."
7 I will proclaim the decree of the LORD :
He said to me, "You are my Son [d] ;
today I have become your Father. [e]
8 Ask of me,
and I will make the nations your inheritance,
the ends of the earth your possession.
God was already beginning to reveal his plan to David, the plan for a King greater than any king Israel or the rest of the world had ever sen. This King however would rule over all nations and possess all of the earth. This was the promise to you and I that the Jesus Christ would come not only for Israel but for all those that would throw themselves on His grace and mercy. Even in David's time God was trying to prepare people for the coming Messiah who would bring freedom to all nations. Thank You Lord for Your Sacrifice!
Psalms 3 is written during the time that David was fleeing from his son Absalom. It is a great Psalm because it shows David trusting in the Lord despite people chasing him to kill him. Even though his own flesh and blood had turned on him David trusted in the Lord. David always trusted in God and relied upon the Lord for his strength. I need to learn this lesson. I need to have the kind of faith that David had in God. God has proven Himself worthy to me time and time again yet my flesh leads me to fear. God place in me the heart of David. Help me to trust in You everyday the way that David did.
In our NT reading today we see Paul begin his second missionary journey which is shown on this map:
This journey brought a lot of confusion to Paul. Paul leaves Antioch with Silas after his split from Barnabas. Undoubtedly this change was not easy for Paul as Barnabas was the man responsible for the Christian church trusting him. Barnabas was the first to stand up and speak in favor of Paul when he came to Jerusalem. I am sure that in their three years of mission time they drew quite close to each other. Paul and Silas left Antioch and headed to Lystra where they ran into Timothy. Now here we see something that might seem odd. Paul wanted to bring Timothy with him on the mission, but first circumcised him. Now the question is why would Paul who had just fought to make sure that Gentiles were not required to take part in the ritual of circumcision have Timothy circumcised? The answer is most likely this. Paul believed in training people up to take his place, and he undoubtedly saw this in Timothy. It is likely that he wanted Timothy to experience the greatest ease in preaching and teaching to people of every demographic and that included the Jews. So to keep things in a positive light Timothy was circumcised essentially to please the Jews.
Now there came a time in Paul's life here where he was confused, he had lost his direction, and partly this could have been due to his health, or the thorn in his flesh. The Scripture says that the Spirit of God would not allow them to preach in these cities. Perhaps that was by causing his affliction to flare up. Paul then received a vision of a man in Macedonia who many people believe could be Luke. There are many reasons why this is believed, the most important being that the writing style changes when they prepare to head for Macedonia. In verse 10 there is a passage that uses the word "we" which brings about a change from third person writing to first person writing. We must remember that the author of this book is Luke and that he was a physician. It is thought that God sent Paul a vision of the man in Macedonia so that he could receive some healing from the doctor Luke. During the time previous to this Paul had once again fallen ill and it seems very likely that God sent him to see Luke. God knew what Paul needed and he showed him, however it took the obedience of Paul to follow through. I am amazed at Paul's relentless zeal for preach the Gospel of Christ. I am encouraged by it in fact!
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me of my sins and help me to be the man of God that You need me to be. I love You Lord and I praise Your mighty name. You are my King and I worship You alone. Lord You are magnificent, You are mighty, You are worthy of my praise, You are strong and merciful, You are good and perfect, You are faithful, You are my rock, my refuge, my strong tower, and my strength. In You I have a future and a hope and I thank You for all that you have done.
Lord I pray that You would bless my family. You know that Gabe seems to be struggling some now with the changes that have taken place. God I pray that You would give Dawn and I wisdom on how to help Gabe feel comfortable with these changes. Lord do a good work in him as You have done so many times before. Help Gabe to feel loved and cherished. Lord I love both of my sons and I am thankful for them. I pray that You would help me to raise them in a Godly way.
Lord I pray that You would bless Sun Glow. I pray that right now You would bring this cold weather in and use it to help bring sales to our business. It is our desire to glorify You by through Sun Glow. I trust in You Lord to bring the opportunities and I will remain faithful to work hard for You. I praise Your name and trust in You alone.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
December 11th, 2008 Bible Blog
Today's Reading:
Job 40-42
Acts 15:22-41
My Response:
The first part of our Job reading today reveals the true heart of Job I believe, the Job that God took pleasure in. After God's first round of confrontations Job answers the Lord:
Job 40:4
4 "I am unworthy—how can I reply to you?
Job knew where he fell in the order of things, and that was that God was so much greater than he was. He knew that he was nothing in comparison to the Lord. Unfortunately in today's society people have lost touch with this and look more for self glorification rather than glorifying God in Heaven. While this is not as apparent in the Christian church as it may seem in the world, I believe that we still all struggle with this inner pride from time to time.
Next we continue with God further rebuking Job. He speaks to Job of the behemoth and the Leviathan. There has been much speculation as to who or what these creatures were. The behemoth could have been a dinosaur but most scholars believe that it is more likely that God is speaking of the rhinoceros. The Leviathan was likely to have been a crocodile. The point of these two stories is that they begin as normal creatures but then things become chaotic at the end. These creatures are larger than life and they are fearsom creatures. However God reminds Job that He had made them and that He had created them, and only He could control them. This was to remind Job just how small he was in comparison to His greatness.
Part of Jobs problem is that he felt entitled to prosperity because of his righteousness. God in this story shows man that in and of themselves they deserve nothing. God owes man nothing. We must remember this, God owes us nothing. It is just fine to ask, but the moment that we begin to believe that God owes us because of our righteousness we enter into a dangerous land. God does not want us to live righteously for selfish gain, He wants us to live righteously because He told us to do so.
However, in the end, God makes it all right by restoring Job and all his wealth. God taught Job some lessons, but I think in this story God has taught us all a few lessons. First off, lets not be like Job's friends condemning him and acting as if we know and understand God. Secondly, we cannot feel entitled to anything because of our righteousness because in the eyes of God we are all unclean. Only through His power, grace, majesty, and might can He love us in spite of these things.
In our NT reading today we see the Church in Jerusalem send out the verdict of their judgement on Gentiles and Christianity. The Apostles showed great wisdom in not only writting the letter but also sending men with them. Judas and Silas accompanied the letter and served as the verbal authorization that what the letter said was true. Without this people could have doubted what the ruling in the matter was, but with these two men their was no disputing it. In our reading today I really like this part:
Acts 15:32
32Judas and Silas, who themselves were prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the brothers.
Why do I like it you ask? Well I like it because these two men who were sent to Antioch to deliver the message didn't just turn back around and say "well, we did what we were sent to do lets go back home", no instead they stayed and worked with their brothers. We also see here that strenthening and encouraging brothers and sisters in Christ must be part of being prophets. Here it says that Judas and Silas were both prophets and so they stayed to encourage and strengthen. But mainly I just like to see that the messengers stuck around and did more than what was requested. They had the gift of prophecy and they used it even though they were sent on a seemingly meaningless task.
As we continue on we see that Paul grows restless and wants to go back on the road. He wanted to head out and enourage all those whom they had witnessed to. Unfortunately this ended in a sharp dispute between Paul and Barnabas that put an end to their working together. Barnabas wanted to bring John Mark (Mark) but Paul wanted nothing to do with Mark as he viewed him as a deserter. The two could not resolve the matter and went their seperate ways. Barnabas did indeed travel with Mark and undoubtedly helped to raise him into the man that he would become. In the end Paul valued Mark and even asked for him to be sent to him while he was in jail. Paul took Silas and headed for his second missionary journey. Tomorrow I will post another photo of Pauls route of travels on this next mission.
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me for my sins and help me to defeat the enemy in my life. Lord I want to be close to You and I know that the only thing that seperates us is my sinful nature. Lord I love You and I lay my life down before Your throne. You are my King and I will exalt Your name to the nations.
Thank You Lord for all of the wonderful things that You are doing for me and my family. Thank You for providing for me and our business. Thank You that You are watching over us and guiding us. I praise Your mighty name. Lord please give me wisdom, knowledge, and understanding on how to run a business, live an active life in ministry, and raise a Godly family.
I pray Lord that You would bless my sons and keep them near to You all the days of their lives. Show me how I can encourage them to pursue a deep relationship with You without making them feel pressured. I pray that You would bring them up to be Your servants. God I also pray that You would bless Dawn abundantly for her faithfulness to You, her role in ministry, and the raising of our boys. I thank You Lord for such a wonderful and supportive wife. Please bless our sleep tonight and help me to wake up on time tomorrow. I love You Lord and I lay my life down at Your feet.
Job 40-42
Acts 15:22-41
My Response:
The first part of our Job reading today reveals the true heart of Job I believe, the Job that God took pleasure in. After God's first round of confrontations Job answers the Lord:
Job 40:4
4 "I am unworthy—how can I reply to you?
Job knew where he fell in the order of things, and that was that God was so much greater than he was. He knew that he was nothing in comparison to the Lord. Unfortunately in today's society people have lost touch with this and look more for self glorification rather than glorifying God in Heaven. While this is not as apparent in the Christian church as it may seem in the world, I believe that we still all struggle with this inner pride from time to time.
Next we continue with God further rebuking Job. He speaks to Job of the behemoth and the Leviathan. There has been much speculation as to who or what these creatures were. The behemoth could have been a dinosaur but most scholars believe that it is more likely that God is speaking of the rhinoceros. The Leviathan was likely to have been a crocodile. The point of these two stories is that they begin as normal creatures but then things become chaotic at the end. These creatures are larger than life and they are fearsom creatures. However God reminds Job that He had made them and that He had created them, and only He could control them. This was to remind Job just how small he was in comparison to His greatness.
Part of Jobs problem is that he felt entitled to prosperity because of his righteousness. God in this story shows man that in and of themselves they deserve nothing. God owes man nothing. We must remember this, God owes us nothing. It is just fine to ask, but the moment that we begin to believe that God owes us because of our righteousness we enter into a dangerous land. God does not want us to live righteously for selfish gain, He wants us to live righteously because He told us to do so.
However, in the end, God makes it all right by restoring Job and all his wealth. God taught Job some lessons, but I think in this story God has taught us all a few lessons. First off, lets not be like Job's friends condemning him and acting as if we know and understand God. Secondly, we cannot feel entitled to anything because of our righteousness because in the eyes of God we are all unclean. Only through His power, grace, majesty, and might can He love us in spite of these things.
In our NT reading today we see the Church in Jerusalem send out the verdict of their judgement on Gentiles and Christianity. The Apostles showed great wisdom in not only writting the letter but also sending men with them. Judas and Silas accompanied the letter and served as the verbal authorization that what the letter said was true. Without this people could have doubted what the ruling in the matter was, but with these two men their was no disputing it. In our reading today I really like this part:
Acts 15:32
32Judas and Silas, who themselves were prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the brothers.
Why do I like it you ask? Well I like it because these two men who were sent to Antioch to deliver the message didn't just turn back around and say "well, we did what we were sent to do lets go back home", no instead they stayed and worked with their brothers. We also see here that strenthening and encouraging brothers and sisters in Christ must be part of being prophets. Here it says that Judas and Silas were both prophets and so they stayed to encourage and strengthen. But mainly I just like to see that the messengers stuck around and did more than what was requested. They had the gift of prophecy and they used it even though they were sent on a seemingly meaningless task.
As we continue on we see that Paul grows restless and wants to go back on the road. He wanted to head out and enourage all those whom they had witnessed to. Unfortunately this ended in a sharp dispute between Paul and Barnabas that put an end to their working together. Barnabas wanted to bring John Mark (Mark) but Paul wanted nothing to do with Mark as he viewed him as a deserter. The two could not resolve the matter and went their seperate ways. Barnabas did indeed travel with Mark and undoubtedly helped to raise him into the man that he would become. In the end Paul valued Mark and even asked for him to be sent to him while he was in jail. Paul took Silas and headed for his second missionary journey. Tomorrow I will post another photo of Pauls route of travels on this next mission.
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me for my sins and help me to defeat the enemy in my life. Lord I want to be close to You and I know that the only thing that seperates us is my sinful nature. Lord I love You and I lay my life down before Your throne. You are my King and I will exalt Your name to the nations.
Thank You Lord for all of the wonderful things that You are doing for me and my family. Thank You for providing for me and our business. Thank You that You are watching over us and guiding us. I praise Your mighty name. Lord please give me wisdom, knowledge, and understanding on how to run a business, live an active life in ministry, and raise a Godly family.
I pray Lord that You would bless my sons and keep them near to You all the days of their lives. Show me how I can encourage them to pursue a deep relationship with You without making them feel pressured. I pray that You would bring them up to be Your servants. God I also pray that You would bless Dawn abundantly for her faithfulness to You, her role in ministry, and the raising of our boys. I thank You Lord for such a wonderful and supportive wife. Please bless our sleep tonight and help me to wake up on time tomorrow. I love You Lord and I lay my life down at Your feet.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
December 10th, 2008 Bible Blog
Today's Reading:
Job 38-39
Acts 15:1-21
My Response:
Well, what can be said but uh oh! How would any of us respond if God called us out like he did Job? I would be shaking, and I mean shaking to have God speak to me like this. God is aksin Job questions that there is no possible way of responding. Behold the greatness of God and try and answer His questions. Job of course does the right thing as we will see and repents immediately! There is no possible way that we humans could respond to the infinite wisdom of God.
Here God is reminding Job that He controls all things at all times and man cannot even fathom how it all happens. God is challenging Job's way of thinking and reminding him that He is able to do whatever He wants whenever He wants, and it is not up to us to challenge Him on these matters. Does that mean that God desires to see bad things happen to us, absolutely not, but when they do we cannot accuse God of being short sighted.
In our NT reading today we see the church having more internal issues which centered apparently in Antioch where Paul and Barnabas were staying. Essentially the Jews were telling the Gentiles that they must first become Jews by adopting all of their beliefs before they could completely become Christian and thus be saved. Paul and Barnabas both knew that this was not what God had planned, however they sought an audience with the center of the church in Jerusalem. The question, do Gentiles have to adopt all of the rules and regulations of the Jewish faith first in order to then become Christians.
Peter spoke up and said his peace that he knew God wanted all mankind to be given the gift of salvation without feeling as though they had to earn it. There was still a group of Christians, most likely the Pharisees that had been saved, that believed that they were justified through their works. Peter stood up and spoke that man was not justified by his works he was justified through the grace of God and that we all should throw ourselves upon that grace. Peter said:
Acts 15:9
9He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith.
We are not purified by our actions we are purified by our belief in the redemptive power of the blood of Christ. Peter wanted all the church to no longer see a difference between Jew and Gentile because God did not see a difference. We were all justified by him and not the other way around. The next set of Scripture cracks me up:
Acts 15:10
10Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear?
These men were attempting to place the same kind of bondage that they had been under upon the Gentiles. What cracks me up is how matter of fact Peter is about it. He reminds them that none of them have been able to live up to God's standards and none of them were worthy of the grace that God had given through His Son Jesus Christ. In fact the Law was meant to show man how utterly hopeless they were at saving themselves. All of the OT points to the need of a Savior. The people whom God had revealed Himself to many times over could not live according to the Law, and here they are trying to impose that upon the Gentiles even though Christ brought forth a kingdom based upon grace. Which brings us to the next Scripture:
Acts 15:11
11No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are."
Grace, grace, grace, grace. There is nothing that we can do to earn this gift of salvation. We are wretched in comparison to God yet He loves us so much that He provided a way out. We could not do it on our own, God had to do it for us, and thank You Lord that You did!
As if to seal the deal James, the brother of Jesus, stood up in agreement with Peter. James was a great leader of the Jerusalem church and people listened to what he had to say. James was indeed the brother of Jesus, however for Jesus' life on earth James rejected Him not believing in Him. Upon Christs death and resurrection there too was a heart change in James. In fact James had his very own resurrection appearance of his brother Jesus. Because of these two men the deal was sealed. You and I are free from eternal seperation from God because of this defining moment in the Christian church. If it were not for this Christianity would simply be just another sect of Judaism, but that was not God's intention!
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me of my sins and release me of my past. God I am a weak man and I need Your grace each and every day. I love You Lord and I want to be close to You all the days of my life. Lord I want to hear Your voice and see Your face. Please help me to overcome the enemy in my life.
Lord I pray that You would be with us all. Over the course of the last few days it is apparent that Gabe is developing a bit of an angry attitude. Lord I pray that You would give Dawn and I wisdom on how to deal with it. Lord I also pray that You would fill Gabe with peace, joy, and most importantly love. I love Gabe and I know that You have blessed me with him. Thank You for Gabe and thank You for the struggles with him. I know that You have Your hand in all of those situations and that You are working all these things together for good.
I pray that You would bless our sleep tonight. As You know Dawn is exhausted and we all need to sleep well. I pray that You would place us all in a deep spleep tonight. I praise Your name Lord. You are my King and I worship Your name alone.
Job 38-39
Acts 15:1-21
My Response:
Well, what can be said but uh oh! How would any of us respond if God called us out like he did Job? I would be shaking, and I mean shaking to have God speak to me like this. God is aksin Job questions that there is no possible way of responding. Behold the greatness of God and try and answer His questions. Job of course does the right thing as we will see and repents immediately! There is no possible way that we humans could respond to the infinite wisdom of God.
Here God is reminding Job that He controls all things at all times and man cannot even fathom how it all happens. God is challenging Job's way of thinking and reminding him that He is able to do whatever He wants whenever He wants, and it is not up to us to challenge Him on these matters. Does that mean that God desires to see bad things happen to us, absolutely not, but when they do we cannot accuse God of being short sighted.
In our NT reading today we see the church having more internal issues which centered apparently in Antioch where Paul and Barnabas were staying. Essentially the Jews were telling the Gentiles that they must first become Jews by adopting all of their beliefs before they could completely become Christian and thus be saved. Paul and Barnabas both knew that this was not what God had planned, however they sought an audience with the center of the church in Jerusalem. The question, do Gentiles have to adopt all of the rules and regulations of the Jewish faith first in order to then become Christians.
Peter spoke up and said his peace that he knew God wanted all mankind to be given the gift of salvation without feeling as though they had to earn it. There was still a group of Christians, most likely the Pharisees that had been saved, that believed that they were justified through their works. Peter stood up and spoke that man was not justified by his works he was justified through the grace of God and that we all should throw ourselves upon that grace. Peter said:
Acts 15:9
9He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith.
We are not purified by our actions we are purified by our belief in the redemptive power of the blood of Christ. Peter wanted all the church to no longer see a difference between Jew and Gentile because God did not see a difference. We were all justified by him and not the other way around. The next set of Scripture cracks me up:
Acts 15:10
10Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear?
These men were attempting to place the same kind of bondage that they had been under upon the Gentiles. What cracks me up is how matter of fact Peter is about it. He reminds them that none of them have been able to live up to God's standards and none of them were worthy of the grace that God had given through His Son Jesus Christ. In fact the Law was meant to show man how utterly hopeless they were at saving themselves. All of the OT points to the need of a Savior. The people whom God had revealed Himself to many times over could not live according to the Law, and here they are trying to impose that upon the Gentiles even though Christ brought forth a kingdom based upon grace. Which brings us to the next Scripture:
Acts 15:11
11No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are."
Grace, grace, grace, grace. There is nothing that we can do to earn this gift of salvation. We are wretched in comparison to God yet He loves us so much that He provided a way out. We could not do it on our own, God had to do it for us, and thank You Lord that You did!
As if to seal the deal James, the brother of Jesus, stood up in agreement with Peter. James was a great leader of the Jerusalem church and people listened to what he had to say. James was indeed the brother of Jesus, however for Jesus' life on earth James rejected Him not believing in Him. Upon Christs death and resurrection there too was a heart change in James. In fact James had his very own resurrection appearance of his brother Jesus. Because of these two men the deal was sealed. You and I are free from eternal seperation from God because of this defining moment in the Christian church. If it were not for this Christianity would simply be just another sect of Judaism, but that was not God's intention!
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me of my sins and release me of my past. God I am a weak man and I need Your grace each and every day. I love You Lord and I want to be close to You all the days of my life. Lord I want to hear Your voice and see Your face. Please help me to overcome the enemy in my life.
Lord I pray that You would be with us all. Over the course of the last few days it is apparent that Gabe is developing a bit of an angry attitude. Lord I pray that You would give Dawn and I wisdom on how to deal with it. Lord I also pray that You would fill Gabe with peace, joy, and most importantly love. I love Gabe and I know that You have blessed me with him. Thank You for Gabe and thank You for the struggles with him. I know that You have Your hand in all of those situations and that You are working all these things together for good.
I pray that You would bless our sleep tonight. As You know Dawn is exhausted and we all need to sleep well. I pray that You would place us all in a deep spleep tonight. I praise Your name Lord. You are my King and I worship Your name alone.
Monday, December 8, 2008
December 9th, 2008 Bible Blog
Today's Reading:
Job 35-37
Acts 14
My Response:
Well after today we get to God speaking to Job, and I must say that I am really looking forward to it. Its funny because these men in this story of Job all profess to know the heart of God and the way that God works, but really to me it seems that they are prideful. Man cannot wrap his mind around God and understand and explain all that He does. Yet here the men desperately try to bring their "wisdom" and "knowledge" about God. We will see that God corrects them soon enough!
In Job 36:26 Elihu says:
26 How great is God—beyond our understanding!
Yet he persists in telling Job how God works! Seems to me that he says one thing and then does another, but oh yeah, I do that too! None of us are worthy of God and that is why He had to show His grace and mercy through His Son Jesus Christ. Again reading this I have learned that often times it is simply better to bite my tongue and simply love people, not try to correct them.
In our NT reading today we see the strength and courage of Paul. I really am blown away by his drive and ambition towards preaching the Gospel. The story that is most intriguing to me is when Paul is stoned in Lystra which we find accounted for in:
Acts 14:19-20
19Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. 20But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe.
First off we should see just how threatened the Jews were of him that they had followed him wanting to get rid of him and his bold speaking. Paul and Barnabas were creating waves and they wanted him gone. They came from Antioch and Iconium specifically to see him stoned. So they were able to get the crowd riled up and stoned Paul to the point that they thought he was dead. Fearful of Roman correction, which would have been swift and hard, they dragged Paul's body outside of the city to remove the evidence.
And now we come to the strength, drive, and courage of Paul. What does Paul do? He stands up, undoubtedly dusts himself off a bit, and marches right back into the city that just left him for dead. He went there and just his presence probably spoke more than many sermons he could have given. Don't you imagine that people would wonder what was giving Paul his strength and courage? Don't you think that they would wonder why he was so persistent? I know I sure would have. Paul pushed and pushed and because of it many people received salvation. Paul did not go back to the city looking for a fight, he went there to show them that God had other plans. I don't know about you, but I often times don't feel like I have that kind of courage. I feel that I back away when I sense hard times, but I need to be more like Paul. Even if I am beat up and abandoned I need to continue on the course that God has planned for me.
We see this very attitude in the heart of Paul when he says to the Christians in:
Acts 14:22
"We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,"
Paul is warning those early converts, and us still today, this was never meant to be something easy. When we accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior we then entered into a battle. Like it or not that is what you and I have done. We can choose to sit on the sidelines or get in the game and fight. Paul wants us to fight, and so do I!
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me of my sins. Today Lord I lost my patience and did not resemble You. Lord I love You and I want people to see You through me, but I know this won't happen when I am acting out in anger. Lord please continue to work in me and help me to be the man of God that You want and need me to be.
Lord I love You and I thank You that Dawn and Ethan are home safely. I pray that You would bless us all with a good night sleep and help us all to wake up tomorrow feeling rested and relaxed. Help Ethan to sleep through the night and develop good sleep habits.
I continue to pray for Gabe and that he will not feel threatened at all. It has been great to watch Gabe interact and love Ethan and I pray that You would continue to do a good work in Gabe. Give Gabe a true servants heart. I worship You Lord and I lay my life down at Your feet.
Job 35-37
Acts 14
My Response:
Well after today we get to God speaking to Job, and I must say that I am really looking forward to it. Its funny because these men in this story of Job all profess to know the heart of God and the way that God works, but really to me it seems that they are prideful. Man cannot wrap his mind around God and understand and explain all that He does. Yet here the men desperately try to bring their "wisdom" and "knowledge" about God. We will see that God corrects them soon enough!
In Job 36:26 Elihu says:
26 How great is God—beyond our understanding!
Yet he persists in telling Job how God works! Seems to me that he says one thing and then does another, but oh yeah, I do that too! None of us are worthy of God and that is why He had to show His grace and mercy through His Son Jesus Christ. Again reading this I have learned that often times it is simply better to bite my tongue and simply love people, not try to correct them.
In our NT reading today we see the strength and courage of Paul. I really am blown away by his drive and ambition towards preaching the Gospel. The story that is most intriguing to me is when Paul is stoned in Lystra which we find accounted for in:
Acts 14:19-20
19Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. 20But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe.
First off we should see just how threatened the Jews were of him that they had followed him wanting to get rid of him and his bold speaking. Paul and Barnabas were creating waves and they wanted him gone. They came from Antioch and Iconium specifically to see him stoned. So they were able to get the crowd riled up and stoned Paul to the point that they thought he was dead. Fearful of Roman correction, which would have been swift and hard, they dragged Paul's body outside of the city to remove the evidence.
And now we come to the strength, drive, and courage of Paul. What does Paul do? He stands up, undoubtedly dusts himself off a bit, and marches right back into the city that just left him for dead. He went there and just his presence probably spoke more than many sermons he could have given. Don't you imagine that people would wonder what was giving Paul his strength and courage? Don't you think that they would wonder why he was so persistent? I know I sure would have. Paul pushed and pushed and because of it many people received salvation. Paul did not go back to the city looking for a fight, he went there to show them that God had other plans. I don't know about you, but I often times don't feel like I have that kind of courage. I feel that I back away when I sense hard times, but I need to be more like Paul. Even if I am beat up and abandoned I need to continue on the course that God has planned for me.
We see this very attitude in the heart of Paul when he says to the Christians in:
Acts 14:22
"We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,"
Paul is warning those early converts, and us still today, this was never meant to be something easy. When we accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior we then entered into a battle. Like it or not that is what you and I have done. We can choose to sit on the sidelines or get in the game and fight. Paul wants us to fight, and so do I!
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me of my sins. Today Lord I lost my patience and did not resemble You. Lord I love You and I want people to see You through me, but I know this won't happen when I am acting out in anger. Lord please continue to work in me and help me to be the man of God that You want and need me to be.
Lord I love You and I thank You that Dawn and Ethan are home safely. I pray that You would bless us all with a good night sleep and help us all to wake up tomorrow feeling rested and relaxed. Help Ethan to sleep through the night and develop good sleep habits.
I continue to pray for Gabe and that he will not feel threatened at all. It has been great to watch Gabe interact and love Ethan and I pray that You would continue to do a good work in Gabe. Give Gabe a true servants heart. I worship You Lord and I lay my life down at Your feet.
December 8th, 2008 Bible Blog
Today's Reading:
Job 33-34
Acts 13:24-52
My Response:
Well as you can see today has pretty much been a complete whirlwind! I am very tired and really cannot type a large response for what we read today. I can barely keep my eyes open right now. However I did do the reading and I am fighting in the midst of crazy busy times to stay on track with my devotion time. Maybe that is what I should be writing about, how important devotion time is, and I have learned this last 6 months just how important it is. I really encourage any of you who are out there still reading this to get active in you Word. God teaches me and inspires me every day when I read His Word. There is so much that I need to learn and do as a young Christian. Make sure that you too are getting time in the Bible not only reading it but studying it. It is really amazing how everything comes together!
As for our reading in Job, well what can I say other than that I am looking forward to hearing God speak! Elihu continues to reproof Job and correct him. Essentially to me Elihu seems like the most arrogant person in the group, and he is of course the youngest. I think that this speaks to the attitude that youth have had since the dawn of time, and that is that they will up show their elders. We are called to treat our elders with honor and deep respect. Elihu needs a lesson in this it appears.
In our NT reading we see Barnabas and Paul preaching the truth of Jesus. At first we see that the Jews seem to be receiving it, in fact they invite them back to preach more on the following sabbath. The only problem was that when they did this there was a massive group that showed up and they became jealous of them. They then began to contradict Barnabas and Paul and ended up running them off. Once again, the two preached that the Gentiles would be the ones that would embrace what Christ had done.
My Prayer:
Lord thank You for this day. Thank You for blessing me with another beautiful, healthy, baby boy. I pray blessings over Ethan tonight and ask that You pour Your Spirit out upon him. Help him to eat the proper amount and thank You that he seems to be such a peaceful and gentle boy. Lord I love him and I thank You for blessing us with him. Please help Dawn and Ethan to sleep soundly and get great rest. Be with the both of them.
I pray that Gabe and I would also sleep well and have a restful night sleep before bringing Ethan home. Thank You Lord for the easy delivery and for answering all of our prayers today. You are a faithful and loving God.
I love You Lord and I praise Your name. You are the King above all kings and the Lord above all lords and I submit all that I am and all that I have to Your throne. Please use me for the glory of Your Kingdom. God I want to do great and mighty things for Your name. Please be with us the rest of this week and help us to transition here at the Golobay household. I love You Lord.
Job 33-34
Acts 13:24-52
My Response:
Well as you can see today has pretty much been a complete whirlwind! I am very tired and really cannot type a large response for what we read today. I can barely keep my eyes open right now. However I did do the reading and I am fighting in the midst of crazy busy times to stay on track with my devotion time. Maybe that is what I should be writing about, how important devotion time is, and I have learned this last 6 months just how important it is. I really encourage any of you who are out there still reading this to get active in you Word. God teaches me and inspires me every day when I read His Word. There is so much that I need to learn and do as a young Christian. Make sure that you too are getting time in the Bible not only reading it but studying it. It is really amazing how everything comes together!
As for our reading in Job, well what can I say other than that I am looking forward to hearing God speak! Elihu continues to reproof Job and correct him. Essentially to me Elihu seems like the most arrogant person in the group, and he is of course the youngest. I think that this speaks to the attitude that youth have had since the dawn of time, and that is that they will up show their elders. We are called to treat our elders with honor and deep respect. Elihu needs a lesson in this it appears.
In our NT reading we see Barnabas and Paul preaching the truth of Jesus. At first we see that the Jews seem to be receiving it, in fact they invite them back to preach more on the following sabbath. The only problem was that when they did this there was a massive group that showed up and they became jealous of them. They then began to contradict Barnabas and Paul and ended up running them off. Once again, the two preached that the Gentiles would be the ones that would embrace what Christ had done.
My Prayer:
Lord thank You for this day. Thank You for blessing me with another beautiful, healthy, baby boy. I pray blessings over Ethan tonight and ask that You pour Your Spirit out upon him. Help him to eat the proper amount and thank You that he seems to be such a peaceful and gentle boy. Lord I love him and I thank You for blessing us with him. Please help Dawn and Ethan to sleep soundly and get great rest. Be with the both of them.
I pray that Gabe and I would also sleep well and have a restful night sleep before bringing Ethan home. Thank You Lord for the easy delivery and for answering all of our prayers today. You are a faithful and loving God.
I love You Lord and I praise Your name. You are the King above all kings and the Lord above all lords and I submit all that I am and all that I have to Your throne. Please use me for the glory of Your Kingdom. God I want to do great and mighty things for Your name. Please be with us the rest of this week and help us to transition here at the Golobay household. I love You Lord.
An Addition to the College Age Family
Hey everyone!
Well last night at 1AM I awoke to Dawn going into labor. We quickly got everything pulled together and called Chris and Stephanie. They came over to be at our house in case Gabe woke up and they stayed until Dawn's sister arrived.
Dawn and I got to the hospital around 2AM and found out that she was dilated to 6 centimeters. It was not long after that that she dilated the full 10 centimeters and the show was on the road. So at 4:49AM our son Ethan Joel Golobay was born.
Both mother and son are doing extremely well and recovering from their early morning events. God has definetely blessed us with another beautiful baby boy. Here is a quick slide show with a few pics from this morning, I am sure that more will follow.
We love you all very much and we are so blessed to be your pastors. Please be praying for us that Dawn and Ethan will continue to do well and that the whole Golobay family will adjust well to the changes. God bless and stop by if you would like.
Well last night at 1AM I awoke to Dawn going into labor. We quickly got everything pulled together and called Chris and Stephanie. They came over to be at our house in case Gabe woke up and they stayed until Dawn's sister arrived.
Dawn and I got to the hospital around 2AM and found out that she was dilated to 6 centimeters. It was not long after that that she dilated the full 10 centimeters and the show was on the road. So at 4:49AM our son Ethan Joel Golobay was born.
Both mother and son are doing extremely well and recovering from their early morning events. God has definetely blessed us with another beautiful baby boy. Here is a quick slide show with a few pics from this morning, I am sure that more will follow.
We love you all very much and we are so blessed to be your pastors. Please be praying for us that Dawn and Ethan will continue to do well and that the whole Golobay family will adjust well to the changes. God bless and stop by if you would like.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
December 7th, 2008 Bible Blog
Today's Reading:
Job 31-32
Acts 13:1-23
My Response:
Well today we see the end of Job's speaking. His intelligence and arguments silenced his three friends, but oh wait, what is that, one more person wants his turn to rebuke Job. Elihu will consume the next four chapters of this book. Elihu will cling to the fact that Job has to be hiding something because God does not condemn the righteous.
One thing about this book, even though after a while it gets difficult to read, all the arguments end up saying how infinitely large our God is. None of them really dispute that God is big, bigger than all of our problems, and able to handle all things at all times. Essentially what they are all disagreeing about is who understands God more, who has more wisdom, who can figure out what God is doing. I am going to say again just as I did yesterday, none of us can ever fathom the greatness of God. None of us are ever going to be able to fully think like God. We all should try, but we will not achieve it. None of us should presume to know why a fellow Christian is suffering.
In our NT reading today we come back to the life of Paul. Here in this Chapter we see the beginning of Pauls first missionary journey. And what an exciting journey this must have been. The mission trip in all lasted about 3 years with Paul traveling to many destinations and accomplishing many great things. Take a look at this map as we progress this his first journey:
Job 31-32
Acts 13:1-23
My Response:
Well today we see the end of Job's speaking. His intelligence and arguments silenced his three friends, but oh wait, what is that, one more person wants his turn to rebuke Job. Elihu will consume the next four chapters of this book. Elihu will cling to the fact that Job has to be hiding something because God does not condemn the righteous.
One thing about this book, even though after a while it gets difficult to read, all the arguments end up saying how infinitely large our God is. None of them really dispute that God is big, bigger than all of our problems, and able to handle all things at all times. Essentially what they are all disagreeing about is who understands God more, who has more wisdom, who can figure out what God is doing. I am going to say again just as I did yesterday, none of us can ever fathom the greatness of God. None of us are ever going to be able to fully think like God. We all should try, but we will not achieve it. None of us should presume to know why a fellow Christian is suffering.
In our NT reading today we come back to the life of Paul. Here in this Chapter we see the beginning of Pauls first missionary journey. And what an exciting journey this must have been. The mission trip in all lasted about 3 years with Paul traveling to many destinations and accomplishing many great things. Take a look at this map as we progress this his first journey:
The first thing to note is that this is the churches first real large move to preaching to all people of all nations, including the Gentiles. We see here that the early church included prophets and teachers. The prophets were the ones responsible for going out and converting people, and the teachers were those that became responsible for guiding and instructing the people in their new found faith. When we read this list of prophets and teachers we need to see that there is great diversity amongst the early church, in fact this diversity would help to move the church quickly through the world. Here is a brief look at a few of them: - Barnabas was a Jew from Cyprus
- Lucius came from Cyrene in North Africa
- Simeon was also a Jew but had a Roman name of Niger which meant he likely moved about in Roman circles (we will discuss a bit more about this)
- Manaen was a man with aristocrat ic connections
- Paul was also a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia and was a trained Rabbi
Now briefly back to Simeon just for some fun facts. There are some scholars that believe that Simeon (Niger) was responsible for many great things in Africa hence the name Niger. This same man by some scholars is speculated to be the same as Simon of Cyrene who carried Jesus cross in Luke 23:26. If this is the case think of just how great a thing this is. Undoubtedly this Simon who had to carry the cross was bitter for the hard labor that he had to do, but could it be that this very same man is responsible for then turning around and bringing people to Christ. Something to ponder and think about!
Okay, sorry for that side step. Anyways, off the three of them went. Paul, Barnabas, and John Mark. They began their mission work in Cyprus which if you remember is where Barnabas came from. Undoubtedly Barnabas wanted to go back to his hometown and proclaim the name of Jesus that he might save those whom he had once known. They were successful and brought people to Jesus despite the attempts of a sorcerer attempting to stop them. Next they head on to Perga. At this point we see John Mark leave the other two for reasons that were uknown to anyone. In fact this would later cause a great problem between Barnabas and Paul that would lead to their seperation in minsitry. Just proof that even the greatest of men in the Bible struggled from time to time to see eye to eye. Later on Paul learned to love John Mark and in fact requested that he be sent to him. We will never know why it is that John Mark left at Perga, but in the end they reconciled, and that is all that matters.
They did not spend spend very much time in the area of Pamphylia preaching and later we find out that it was because Paul had was sick. This sickness was in fact what Paul speaks of when he says that he has a thorn in the flesh. The word thorn is more closely related to a stake and most scholars agree that Paul suffered from malarial fever that gave him such intense headaches that they resembled that of migraines. The great thing to see from this is that even in spite of physical pain, Paul pressed on. He did not turn around and wait to get better, he moved ahead and continued to carry the message of Jesus Christ. Man something had to really have happened for a man like Paul (Saul) who had persecuted Christians to now be pushing the Gospel of Christ the way he did. Even in the face of great pain and anguish he proceeded on. We all can learn from this attitude.
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me of my sins and help me to be a better man of God. Lord I love You and I praise Your name. God I pray that You would give me the stamina that Paul had. Help me to be like Paul fervent in my relationship with You, empowered by Your Holy Spirit, and active in the body of Christ bringing souls closer to You.
Lord I love You. I worship and adore You. You are my King and I will glorify Your name all the days of my life. You bring me hope and give me reason to work hard and survive. I want to be more like You. I want to be near to You. Bring me close to You and show me Your ways. Use me for the glory of Your Kingdom. I pray that You will bless this evenings College Age and just help us all to learn to be more like You.
God bless these next couple of days and keep me from stressing about the birth that will happen at any moment. God I pray that You would make it be sooner rather than later so that our son will have some space between his birthday and Christmas. I pray for an easy going child in Ethan. I pray blessings over our son and ask that You save his soul at a young age. Praise be to Your name alone Lord.
December 6th, 2008 Bible Blog
Today's Reading:
Job 29-30
Acts 12
My Response:
In our OT reading today nothing much spoke directly to me. Essentially here we see Job holding on to his innocence and his righteousness. In fact he speaks against some of the very things that his friends accused him of. For instance Job speaks of how he took care of those who were in lowly positions. He cared for the poor and took care of the elderly. His friends, who had known him all these years, began speaking that he was oppressing others and that was one of the reasons that he had incited the wrath of God.
In Chapter 30 we see Job speaking of how all have turned away from him. Even those that he had helped had turned from him and were mocking him. Job felt alone and hurt. It goes to show that the Proverb that says the wealthy will have many friends but the poor and needy will have none is true. When Job was wealthy and of great power there were many that shared in his glory, but as the Lord allowed it all to be taken away even his friends and family turned from him.
Job continues to fight for his innocence. These three friends have done nothing to help Job, and it reminds me that we are not called to judge those who are going through bad times or even good times. We are simply supposed to rejoice with those that rejoice and mourn with those that mourn. I think that one of the worst things we can do as Christians is exactly what Job's three friends did. For instance, when natural disasters have hit the US there have been some well known Chrisitians in the past that have come immediately out and said it was because of sin and unrighteousness. While this may be the case for some people, there are even innocent people that have suffered losses. To stand up and tell them that it is because of their unrighteousness does no good for anyone. We need to remember this. Even when calamity comes upon the wicked, we need to support them and love them, not try and show them why they are wicked and deserving of God's wrath.
In our NT reading we see a new wave of persecution hit the Christian church. Herod Agrippa began to attack the Christians not for his own convictions or frustrations but because he liked the popularity that he received from the Jews. Herod Agrippa observed all of the Jewish festivals and days of significance and thus was liked by the Jews. When the Christian church was rising up and threatening the Jews they became frustrated and Herod apparently saw this as an opportunity to further his fame in the Jewish culture.
Even the taking of Peter and holding him in prison shows that Herod Agrippa observed the Jewish week of unleavened bread. During this time the Jews would not allow trials or exectution. So we see Peter thrown in jail with every precaution made to keep him there. But shackles and men are not strong enough to stand against our God. Our God rescued Peter from the grips of death. There are a couple of things that really spoke to me in this reading.
Acts 12:5
5So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.
The church was earnestly praying. In fact when Peter arrives at Mary's house, this house seemed to be the headquarters of the Christian church and was the site of the Last supper, the Christians there were on their knees interceding. This to me simply reminds me that I need to be praying. In fact we all need to be praying for our brothers and sisters. We need to stand behind eachother the way that the early church did. They did not give up hope when times got hard, they did not hide out, they simply knelt before the Lord and lifted their concerns to Him. Essentially they were looking to God for all things.
Acts 12:9
9Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision.
The early church was so used to the supernatural that when things happened in real life they were not even sure if it was real or not. I want my life to be like this. I want God to be speaking to me so much that I am expecting visions from Him. Peter was so used to seeing God's plan for things that when something was actually happening it was hard to tell if it was just another vision. How awesome to be living that close to God. Lord please fill me in this way, draw me so near to You that I see things Your way.
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me for my sins and please forgive us all for our judgemental spirit upon the world. Lord I feel that myself and many Christians are too eager to be like Job's friends and judge people's lives. Lord I repent of that and I pray that You would give me Your heart of grace and mercy. Lord please forgive me for losing my cool with Gabe tonight and raising my voice to him. Lord I want him to see a Godly father in me. God I want to steer both of my sons to You. Please continue to work on me and my patience.
Lord I trust entirely in You. You are my King and I worship You alone. Please be with us this weekend and help us to get everything done and ready for Ethan to be born. I pray that Ethan will be born healthy, whole, and ready to do Your will. I pray that both of my sons will choose to serve You all the days of their lives.
God You are great and I lay my life down at Your throne. Draw me near to You that I might be able to hear and see you the way that Peter and Paul did. I want to be close to You God. I want to be used by You in any way that I can. I love You and worship You.
Job 29-30
Acts 12
My Response:
In our OT reading today nothing much spoke directly to me. Essentially here we see Job holding on to his innocence and his righteousness. In fact he speaks against some of the very things that his friends accused him of. For instance Job speaks of how he took care of those who were in lowly positions. He cared for the poor and took care of the elderly. His friends, who had known him all these years, began speaking that he was oppressing others and that was one of the reasons that he had incited the wrath of God.
In Chapter 30 we see Job speaking of how all have turned away from him. Even those that he had helped had turned from him and were mocking him. Job felt alone and hurt. It goes to show that the Proverb that says the wealthy will have many friends but the poor and needy will have none is true. When Job was wealthy and of great power there were many that shared in his glory, but as the Lord allowed it all to be taken away even his friends and family turned from him.
Job continues to fight for his innocence. These three friends have done nothing to help Job, and it reminds me that we are not called to judge those who are going through bad times or even good times. We are simply supposed to rejoice with those that rejoice and mourn with those that mourn. I think that one of the worst things we can do as Christians is exactly what Job's three friends did. For instance, when natural disasters have hit the US there have been some well known Chrisitians in the past that have come immediately out and said it was because of sin and unrighteousness. While this may be the case for some people, there are even innocent people that have suffered losses. To stand up and tell them that it is because of their unrighteousness does no good for anyone. We need to remember this. Even when calamity comes upon the wicked, we need to support them and love them, not try and show them why they are wicked and deserving of God's wrath.
In our NT reading we see a new wave of persecution hit the Christian church. Herod Agrippa began to attack the Christians not for his own convictions or frustrations but because he liked the popularity that he received from the Jews. Herod Agrippa observed all of the Jewish festivals and days of significance and thus was liked by the Jews. When the Christian church was rising up and threatening the Jews they became frustrated and Herod apparently saw this as an opportunity to further his fame in the Jewish culture.
Even the taking of Peter and holding him in prison shows that Herod Agrippa observed the Jewish week of unleavened bread. During this time the Jews would not allow trials or exectution. So we see Peter thrown in jail with every precaution made to keep him there. But shackles and men are not strong enough to stand against our God. Our God rescued Peter from the grips of death. There are a couple of things that really spoke to me in this reading.
Acts 12:5
5So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.
The church was earnestly praying. In fact when Peter arrives at Mary's house, this house seemed to be the headquarters of the Christian church and was the site of the Last supper, the Christians there were on their knees interceding. This to me simply reminds me that I need to be praying. In fact we all need to be praying for our brothers and sisters. We need to stand behind eachother the way that the early church did. They did not give up hope when times got hard, they did not hide out, they simply knelt before the Lord and lifted their concerns to Him. Essentially they were looking to God for all things.
Acts 12:9
9Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision.
The early church was so used to the supernatural that when things happened in real life they were not even sure if it was real or not. I want my life to be like this. I want God to be speaking to me so much that I am expecting visions from Him. Peter was so used to seeing God's plan for things that when something was actually happening it was hard to tell if it was just another vision. How awesome to be living that close to God. Lord please fill me in this way, draw me so near to You that I see things Your way.
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me for my sins and please forgive us all for our judgemental spirit upon the world. Lord I feel that myself and many Christians are too eager to be like Job's friends and judge people's lives. Lord I repent of that and I pray that You would give me Your heart of grace and mercy. Lord please forgive me for losing my cool with Gabe tonight and raising my voice to him. Lord I want him to see a Godly father in me. God I want to steer both of my sons to You. Please continue to work on me and my patience.
Lord I trust entirely in You. You are my King and I worship You alone. Please be with us this weekend and help us to get everything done and ready for Ethan to be born. I pray that Ethan will be born healthy, whole, and ready to do Your will. I pray that both of my sons will choose to serve You all the days of their lives.
God You are great and I lay my life down at Your throne. Draw me near to You that I might be able to hear and see you the way that Peter and Paul did. I want to be close to You God. I want to be used by You in any way that I can. I love You and worship You.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
December 5th, 2008 Bible Blog
Today's Reading:
Job 26-28
Acts 11
My Response
I am going to keep things brief today as we just had our company Christmas dinner which is tiring enough as it is, and on top of that I had my flu shot which always makes me feel sick, so this will be a shorter post tonight.
The reading in Job was a great night because to me it did not seem like the same old negativity. We do start out with Bildad speaking his peace yet again followed quickly by Job telling him he is wrong, but then in Chapter 28 we go into Job speaking on wisdom. I love wisdom, wisdom is what I seek. It is great to see here how Job describes wisdom.
At the end of Chapter 28 we find out what Job says wisdom is all about:
Job 28:28
28 And he said to man, 'The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.
Here we find out the wisdom is fearin the Lord. Fearing the Lord is laying your life down out of reverence to Him that sits on the throne. That seems pretty easy, but we as humans really struggle with this.
In our NT reading we see Peter reporting that the Gentiles too have received salvation. I really like how Luke puts this whole salvation things into words "repentance unto life". I believe one major reason why people don't receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior is simply because they don't want to hand over their lives to God. They think that they are in control and they want it to stay that way. Unfortunately, repentance brings life. Those that hold onto their lives will lose it, those who lay down their lives will in the end gain it. Repentence that leads to life. We repent and lay our life down before God and in return we are blessed with an eternal hope.
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me for my sins and help me to be the man that I need to be. Lord I love You and I worship You alone. Thank You for all of the great things that You are. I am in awe at how good You are to me.
Please bless our sleep tonight and help me to arise tomorrow morning feeling healthy and whole. I love You God and I worship Your name.
Job 26-28
Acts 11
My Response
I am going to keep things brief today as we just had our company Christmas dinner which is tiring enough as it is, and on top of that I had my flu shot which always makes me feel sick, so this will be a shorter post tonight.
The reading in Job was a great night because to me it did not seem like the same old negativity. We do start out with Bildad speaking his peace yet again followed quickly by Job telling him he is wrong, but then in Chapter 28 we go into Job speaking on wisdom. I love wisdom, wisdom is what I seek. It is great to see here how Job describes wisdom.
At the end of Chapter 28 we find out what Job says wisdom is all about:
Job 28:28
28 And he said to man, 'The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.
Here we find out the wisdom is fearin the Lord. Fearing the Lord is laying your life down out of reverence to Him that sits on the throne. That seems pretty easy, but we as humans really struggle with this.
In our NT reading we see Peter reporting that the Gentiles too have received salvation. I really like how Luke puts this whole salvation things into words "repentance unto life". I believe one major reason why people don't receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior is simply because they don't want to hand over their lives to God. They think that they are in control and they want it to stay that way. Unfortunately, repentance brings life. Those that hold onto their lives will lose it, those who lay down their lives will in the end gain it. Repentence that leads to life. We repent and lay our life down before God and in return we are blessed with an eternal hope.
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me for my sins and help me to be the man that I need to be. Lord I love You and I worship You alone. Thank You for all of the great things that You are. I am in awe at how good You are to me.
Please bless our sleep tonight and help me to arise tomorrow morning feeling healthy and whole. I love You God and I worship Your name.
Official '08 Beach Retreat Post
Hello Everyone!
It has been a couple of weeks, but here is the official post about our first ever retreat. What a great time it was! A small list of the events included:
Other than that it was a great first retreat. This was the first one that Dawn and I ever setup and ran and we felt like it was a success, we hope that you did too. Look forward to more of these in the future. It has been great doing College Age and we are blessed to be your pastors. If you have any ideas for our next retreat please email them to:
collegeage@sunnyside4.org
God bless you all and make any comments that you like on this to say what you enjoyed at retreat! Enjoy this short little slide that we put together for you all!
It has been a couple of weeks, but here is the official post about our first ever retreat. What a great time it was! A small list of the events included:
- Food
- Worship
- Teaching
- Some sadistic shock game - look for the videos on this one!
- Polar Bear Plunge
- Frisbee
- A Warm & Inviting Beach Bonfire
- Good Talk
- Various Board Games
- Movies & Murder (sorry James)
Other than that it was a great first retreat. This was the first one that Dawn and I ever setup and ran and we felt like it was a success, we hope that you did too. Look forward to more of these in the future. It has been great doing College Age and we are blessed to be your pastors. If you have any ideas for our next retreat please email them to:
collegeage@sunnyside4.org
God bless you all and make any comments that you like on this to say what you enjoyed at retreat! Enjoy this short little slide that we put together for you all!
Some Format Changes
Hey Everyone,
I am not sure if anyone here still reads this, but I am going to go back to the way that I had originally planned on doing this blog. I am going to do the main post including what I believe this days reading said or spoke to me. This will allow me to post some pictures of maps and other things that I would like to include in my writing that I otherwise cannot do when typing a response. If any of you do still read this and would like larger file sizes of any of the maps that I post then let me know and I will be happy to email them to you. All you need to do is simply email us at: collegeage@sunnyside4.org
At the bottom of each and every post for that date you will find the comment link just like you have been able to do in each one before. There will also be a link that allows you to click on the days reading just as always.
Anyways, I encourage you to do the reading and to post your comments. God has taught me a lot during this last 6 months of reading and studying my Word and I am loving every minute of it. God less you all and I hope to someday see some of you posting here!
David Golobay
I am not sure if anyone here still reads this, but I am going to go back to the way that I had originally planned on doing this blog. I am going to do the main post including what I believe this days reading said or spoke to me. This will allow me to post some pictures of maps and other things that I would like to include in my writing that I otherwise cannot do when typing a response. If any of you do still read this and would like larger file sizes of any of the maps that I post then let me know and I will be happy to email them to you. All you need to do is simply email us at: collegeage@sunnyside4.org
At the bottom of each and every post for that date you will find the comment link just like you have been able to do in each one before. There will also be a link that allows you to click on the days reading just as always.
Anyways, I encourage you to do the reading and to post your comments. God has taught me a lot during this last 6 months of reading and studying my Word and I am loving every minute of it. God less you all and I hope to someday see some of you posting here!
David Golobay
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
December 4th, 2008 Bible Blog
Today's Reading:
Job 23-25
Acts 10:24-48
My Response:
Here is a map of Job that gives us a glimpse of what we are reading about. There is nothing terribly conclusive about this map but for people like me this helps us to really picture what is taking place. I hope that this helps some of you get a clear picture of this story.
Job 23-25
Acts 10:24-48
My Response:
Here is a map of Job that gives us a glimpse of what we are reading about. There is nothing terribly conclusive about this map but for people like me this helps us to really picture what is taking place. I hope that this helps some of you get a clear picture of this story.
Well, I don't know what more else I really can say about this story of Job at the moment. I do believe that although this book becomes difficult to read and follow that there are some very important lessons to be learned here. I have spoked on most of those already and won't go into much more detail here today. I think the very important lesson here is that we cannot think to understand how God operates. He is so much bigger than you or I and His ways are so much more complex than ours. Spending time trying to wrap our minds around it will be about as futile as it was for Job and his three friends. We simply must trust in God.
In our NT reading today we see the end to the story of Cornelius. Now I have alluded to the fact that this is an important piece of Scripture for the last two days. The reason that this is so important is because this is the first that we really see the Gentiles accepting and receiving Christ as their Lord and Savior. Without this evidence yours and my existence might be uncertain, but here we that Jesus came not only to save the Jews but also the Gentiles. Peter had to be taught this lesson through visions and life experiences. However, there was no disputing with this story of Cornelius and his followers that Christ came to save all people of all nations. And thank God for that!
Acts 10:44-45
44While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. 45The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. 46For they heard them speaking in tongues[a] and praising God.
The evidence of all of this was the Holy Spirit descending upon the Gentiles. Something that strikes me as interesting here is that they did not have to have hands laid upon them for the blessing of the Holy Spirit. It says that while Peter was still sharing the gospel that the Holy Spirit came down on those who were listening. The Jews (uncircumcised believers) that were with Peter were astonished because they believed that the Gentiles still had no inheritance in God's Kingdom. However, at this moment the Gentiles experienced not only salvation but also the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Now there was no more ability to argue the point, Jesus came to save us all. Without Him we are all destined for failure and seperation from God, with Him we are destined for eternal salvation. Thank You Lord!
My Prayer:
Lord please forgive me for my sins. Lord I want to be effective for You. Lord I pray that You would pour Your Spirit out upon me as You did here with the Gentiles. Lord use me for the glory of Your Kingdom. I worship and adore You, I love to spend time in Your Word. God I want to be near to You, I want to see Your face, feel Your breath, and hear Your voice.
God I pray that You would open my eyes to see the things that need to be done for Your Kingdom. Use me each and every day Lord. I know that in this world there will be struggles and trials and so I pray that You would simply walk through those times with me.
Lord Gabe is sick and has not slept well. I pray that You would bless him with good sleep. Please heal his body. Your Word says that by your wounds we have been healed, and I claim that over Gabe and even myself. Please touch my hip and help the doctors to know if there is anything that needs to be done. I believe that You have told me it is nothing and I am believing Your word spoken to me. Thank you for all of the great and wonderful things that You do for me. I praise Your mighty name. I love You Lord and I lay my life down at Your feet.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Monday, December 1, 2008
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