Commit Your Way

Commit your way to the Lord
Psalm 37
Our way needs to become His way.
His way?

📖 Do not fret because of those who are evil
or be envious of those who do wrong;

for like the grass they will soon wither,

like green plants they will soon die away.

Trust in the Lord and do good;
dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.

Take delight in the Lord,

and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord;

trust in him and he will do this:

He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn,
your vindication like the noonday sun.

Be still before the Lord
and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when people succeed in their ways,
when they carry out their wicked schemes.

Refrain from anger and turn from wrath;

do not fret—it leads only to evil.

For those who are evil will be destroyed,

but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land.  

The salvation of the righteous comes from the Lord;
he is their stronghold in time of trouble.

The Lord helps them and delivers them;
he delivers them from the wicked and saves them,

because they take refuge in him.

                                                                Psalm 37:1-9,29-30

My summary of "His Way"

Don't worry,
trust the Lord
do good
enjoy loving the Lord
make His way your way
trust Him
quiet your heart/soul
be patient for His direction
do not get angry, turn away from it
do not worry

AND if we make our way His way....
righteousness, salvation, protection, help, deliverance, refuge.

📝 Please note; TRUST IN the LORD and DO NOT WORRY are listed twice!  A great reminder for me!  How about you?

As we walk this path of life...with His WAY at the forefront,  it becomes clearer and clearer and we find peace.
 ^📖 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7

🙏My prayer for you this week is that you find peace in walking the Lord's Way!❤

I'm Gonna Sing!

The message on Sunday was from Acts chapter 16

📖  22 The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. 23 After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. 24 When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. 27 The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!”

29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.”

Several things popped out at me; 

Paul and Silas were going about their business, which was the business of the Lord. In the verses previous to this passage they had been traveling where God led them. At one point  looking for a place to pray, when they met up with a group of women with whom they shared the gospel. A woman, who was a worshiper of God, named Lydia was so moved by Paul's words she was baptized and invited them to come to her home. They spoke truth and the gospel to her and her whole household worshipped the Lord in action.
They continued on and met up with a fortune telling, demon possessed woman who harassed them for days until Paul had had enough and cast the demon out.  Which angered the men who exploited her because their money maker was a changed woman.
This is what caused the men to bring Paul and Silas before the authorities and ended with them being beaten and thrown into prison.

Now on a side note....Roman prisons in biblical times were NOT like prisons today...at least not the Modern facilities we have around my area.

They were dark, dank holes in the ground or built of rock. They were large holding "cells" meant for detaining criminals only until their trial and or punishment. Rarely was it meant as long term punishment. Hence such basic necessities such as bathroom facilities, light, or fresh air were not thought to be too important.

Also..because it was one large holding area those imprisoned were bound individually by shackles (wrist irons and chains) to ankles, hands or both. This large cell was then guarded by a large iron door manned by Roman soldiers or guards.

So you can imagine the conditions for Paul and Silas. They would have been aware of what prison conditions were like, but doing God's work, when the opportunity arose, was more important. 

Another thing was the fact that they were singing songs of praise..AFTER being beaten and thrown into this dark cell and chained.

And not quietly amongst themselves...how do I know this...because of the statement that jumped out at me.

"We are ALL here"!

When the God induced earthquake thundered through the prison it broke all the shackles and opened the gates....but nobody left! Why would that be?  Fear, some might say...but I dont think fear would hold everyone there, especially when the very glimmer of escape might be a ray of hope worth the risk....I believe it was another Ray of Hope that grabbed them....the one that was introduced when Paul and Silas began singing songs of praise!

Do you think the jailer would have responded the way he did if a handful of prisoners...or just Paul and Silas had stayed behind? I don't...he would have continued with his plan of running himself through with his own sword...or been frantic trying to search and seize the escapees.

Paul and Silas did not let their circumstance change their love and joy for the Lord...and anyone around them knew that!  And it changed lives!

Why do we grumble so when we have to stand in line at the store, stay late at work, are asked to do extra jobs....even when we are sick? And all the other times we grumble?

📖 Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door! James 5:9

These are all opportunities to sing praises to God and have a peaceful countenance..so that we can affect those around us.

We too can change lives!

You know that even if noone is around...God still hears us...whether it is grumbling or praising!

And He desires to hear our praises!

📖 This is what the Lord says: “Sing with joy for Jacob; shout for the foremost of the nations. Make your praises heard, ....Jeremiah 31;7

📖  Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Psalm 150:6

That doesn't mean we can't cry out to Him in prayer over our circumstances....but after we have done that...praise Him for hearing, being there and trust He will see us through!

So start singing those praises!

🎵 How Can I Keep From Singing - Chris Tomlin

Between Christmas and the Cross (rerun)

I don't usually repost... but this blog from 2-13-2017 was exactly what I wanted to say this week of Valentine's. 

I have updated the picture...but that is the only change.

Between Christmas and the Cross 

There is a day set aside that we are reminded to love

There are hearts and flowers and remembrances all around

Valentine’s, as we call them, are sent and received.

Displays of affection seem to abound 

But let’s think, for a moment,

about two days that are more special

Christmas is one

And Easter the other 

God sent his son to earth as a man…..because He loves us

that Man suffered and died on a cross…..because He loves us

HE rose from the dead; was not held by the grave….because He loves us! 

This day, called Valentine’s,

that falls in between Christmas and the Cross,

should be used as a reminder of love,

the great love God has for us! 

As we hand tokens to one another

we should remember God’s example from above,

and remember the command that Jesus gave,

to love each other with that kind of love. 

                 ©Tracey Thompson 2/2006             Reworked from the 2001 writing

Between the previous poem and the following scripture I didn't think that there was too much more I could say!
 “For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 (HCSB)
The WORLD means YOU!

 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God—God remains in him and he in God.  And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.
In this, love is perfected with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, for we are as He is in this world. There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because He first loved us. 1 John 4:15-19 (HCSB)
We MUST respond to His love for us.

 “As the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you. Remain in My love.  If you keep My commands you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commands and remain in His love. “I have spoken these things to you so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. This is My command: Love one another as I have loved you.  No one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you."
John 15:9-14(HCSB)
We love because HE commanded us to

One of the scribes approached. When he heard them debating and saw that Jesus answered them well, he asked Him, “Which command is the most important of all?”
 “This is the most important,” Jesus answered:

Listen, Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.

“The second is: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other command greater than these.”

Mark 12:28-31 (HCSB)

Loving God with ALL that we are is FIRST and then that love will spill out to those around us!

If I speak human or angelic languagesbut do not have love,
I am a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
 If I have the gift of prophecy
and understand all mysteries
and all knowledge,
and if I have all faith
so that I can move mountains
but do not have love, I am nothing.
 And if I donate all my goods to feed the poor,
and if I give my body in order to boast
but do not have love, I gain nothing.
 Love is patient, love is kind.
Love does not envy,
is not boastful, is not conceited,
 does not act improperly,
is not selfish, is not provoked,
and does not keep a record of wrongs.
 Love finds no joy in unrighteousness
but rejoices in the truth.
 It bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends.
But as for prophecies,
they will come to an end;
as for languages, they will cease;
as for knowledge, it will come to an end.
 For we know in part,
and we prophesy in part.
 But when the perfect comes,
the partial will come to an end.
 When I was a child,
I spoke like a child,
I thought like a child,
I reasoned like a child.
When I became a man,
I put aside childish things.
 For now we see indistinctly, as in a mirror,
but then face to face.
Now I know in part,
but then I will know fully,
as I am fully known.

 Now these three remain:
faith, hope, and love.
But the greatest of these is love.  1 Corinthians 13 (HCSB)

THIS is what Christ like love should look like!

I pray today that you can say that you claim Jesus as your Savior and you can call Him FRIEND, that you understand how much He loves you and what that love motivated Him to do.  To me it is such an awesome concept...that when Christ took the punishment for the sins of the world....that was MY sin.  If I had been the only person in the world He still would have died on that cross for my sins....if YOU were the only person in the world He would have died on the cross for YOUR sins!

What do we do with that knowledge, that understanding, with that kind of love????

We pass it along.....we LOVE!  it is not complicated...it may not be easy, but it is not complicated!

We love Him with every fiber of our being, and then we show that to as many people as we can in the time God gives us here on earth!

AMEN??

AMEN!!

You have already gotten the BEST valentine ever!!

When We Have to Keep Our Thorn

Yesterday was blog posting day and as I looked over some of my thoughts and ideas ...He wasn't moving.  He didn't  seem to have anything for me to share.

Does that sound familiar?
"I keep asking for one thing and the opposite seems to be the answer."
Sadness, sickness and sin seem to continue to abound.
Where did He go?
Is He asleep? too busy for me?  or just doesn't care?

📖 The pangs of death surrounded me,
And the floods of ungodliness made me afraid.

The sorrows of Sheol surrounded me;
The snares of death confronted me. Psalm 18:4-5 (NKJV)

📖 Why do You stand afar off, O Lord?
Why do You hide in times of trouble? 
 Psalm 10:1 (NKJV)

We are not the first and will not be the last to feel these feelings or even to ask these questions.  David lamented and cried out in anguish feeling separated from God, helpless, and almost hopeless.
 📖 My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?
Why are You so far from helping Me,
And from the words of My groaning?
O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear;
And in the night season, and am not silent.  Psalm 22:1-2 (NKJV)

But in his despair he would take a step back from his sufferings.  Would try to look at the bigger picture, so to speak.

 📖  When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,

The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,

What is man that You are mindful of him,

And the son of man that You visit him?

For You have made him a little lower than the angels,

And You have crowned him with glory and honor.

You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands;

You have put all things under his feet,

All sheep and oxen—

Even the beasts of the field,

The birds of the air,

And the fish of the sea

That pass through the paths of the seas.

O Lord, our Lord,

How excellent is Your name in all the earth! Psalm 8:3-9 (NKJV)

It would remind him of who God is, and that He is still working, still answering.  Also, of who we are in God's plan! We are made only "a little lower than the angels"!  We are crowned with honor and glory!
If we hold that place with God, He has not forgotten us!
And David was reminded of that too!

📖 But You, O Lord, are a shield for me,
My glory and the One who lifts up my head.

I cried to the Lord with my voice,
And He heard me from His holy hill. Selah Psalm 3:3-4 (NKJV)

David would praise God...
📖 I will praise the Lord according to His righteousness,
And will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High. Psalm 7:17 (NKJV)
But he praised  God according to God's righteousness... not according to what David felt was right and just.  

In the New Testament Paul understood this as well. Learning to be content in all circumstances. Paul had sufferings of his own, persecution, his life was threatened, ship wrecked, thrown in prison, some sort of infirmity that we only know as "a thorn in his flesh" 
📖 Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.  But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.  That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 
2 Corinthians 12:7b-10
When we do not understand God's answers we should hear Him say; "My Grace is sufficient for you, My power is made perfect in YOUR weakness"
My response should be...."make me weaker LORD!"

Paul was content in that weakness or in whatever circumstance he found himself.

📖 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do all this through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:11-13

God is God I can not pretend to understand His plan and process.  What I can do is TRUST!

📖 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

    neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.

“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways    and my thoughts than your thoughts. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. 
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways    and my thoughts than your thoughts.   Isaiah 55:8-9

God knows best, not just for me, but for everyone.  IF I put my life, my faith and trust in Him then no matter what the answer is...I have to believe He has it...He has me 
📖 I call on you, my God, for you will answer me;
    turn your ear to me and hear my prayer.


Show me the wonders of your great love,
    you who save by your right hand
    those who take refuge in you from their foes.


Keep me as the apple of your eye;
    hide me in the shadow of your wings  Psalm 17:6-8
We know that we can not be in this world and not suffer, in some way or part.  When sin entered the world in the Garden of Eden it doomed us all to suffer.  And it never said the suffering would be balanced with the sin.  There is suffering.  Sometimes the righteous suffer horribly and the unrighteous (in our thinking) suffer very little.  But we need to leave that to God, and know that we will have suffering in our life and everyone's looks different.  BUT what is important is that God can use that suffering to do a great work!

📖 Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. James 1:12

📖 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;  perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. Romans 5:3-5

We may be in a dark place, feeling there is no light, no answers, or all the wrong answers.  BUT we have to hold on to the truth  that darkness can not win!
^📖  In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:4-5

Even Jesus was going to feel alone, abandoned

📖 “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.

 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”  John 16:32-33

But He knew He was not alone and neither are we!  Our Father is with us!  Jesus Christ is with us, and we have the Holy Spirit to comfort us.  AND we too can OVERCOME!

📖 In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. 1 John 5:3-5

I do NOT understand why God answers the way He does.  Why He heals one and not the other, why He allows for such pain and suffering.  BUT I do know that I am not supposed to know...but one day I will.

📖 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 
1 Corinthians 13:12-13

Verse 13 ends with "the greatest of these is LOVE...because that is what matters in the end...the LOVE God has for you, IN your suffering, AROUND your suffering and THROUGH your suffering.

AND in, around and through the answers.

I DO KNOW that no matter our prayer, ....no matter the answers...

🎶  Stay in the fight 'til the final round
You're not going under

'Cause God is holding you right now

You might be down for a moment
Feeling like it's hopeless
That's when he reminds you
That you're an overcomer

See don't quit, don't give in
You're an overcomer 

(Lyrics from Overcomer Written by: BENJAMIN GLOVER, CHRISTOPHER E. STEVENS, DAVID ARTHUR GARCIA  performed by Mandisa)

IF we LIVE for Christ, in all our situations, the "final round" will be our greatest reward!

📖 I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! Philippians 1:20-22

🙏My prayer for you is Psalm 20. 📖

May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble;
May the name of the God of Jacob ^[a]defend you;

May He send you help from the sanctuary,
And strengthen you out of Zion;

May He remember all your offerings,
And accept your burnt sacrifice. Selah

May He grant you according to your heart’s desire,
And fulfill all your purpose.

We will rejoice in your salvation,
And in the name of our God we will set up our banners!
May the Lord fulfill all your petitions.

Now I know that the Lord saves His ^[c]anointed;
He will answer him from His holy heaven
With the saving strength of His right hand.

Some trust in chariots, and some in horses;
But we will remember the name of the Lord our God. 

They have bowed down and fallen;
But we have risen and stand upright.

Save, Lord!
May the King answer us when we call.     ❤

🎵Overcomer  by Mandisa (inspirational and emotional video)

🎵Overcomer by Mandisa (Lyric video)

Another Song I had to include...I feel it speaks to this blog as much as Overcomer

🎵  Even IF by Mercy Me