I thank God for my kids. They’re young adults in a world that gets crazy with sin.  I pray for them each day.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Protect my kids today. In a world where sin is rampant like a plague, help them remember to follow you, Jesus, today. Help them today to gain wisdom from the Bible and keep those words in their thoughts. When confronted with a choice of right and wrong, strengthen them to you choose You.

Most sincerely,

Me

Psalm 119:

How can a young person stay pure?
    By obeying your word.
¹⁰ I have tried hard to find you—
    don’t let me wander from your commands.
¹¹ I have hidden your word in my heart,
    that I might not sin against you.
¹² I praise you, O Lord

Psalm 119:

How can a young person stay pure?
    By obeying your word.
¹⁰ I have tried hard to find you—
    don’t let me wander from your commands.
¹¹ I have hidden your word in my heart,
    that I might not sin against you.
¹² I praise you, O Lord;
    teach me your decrees.
¹³ I have recited aloud
    all the regulations you have given us.
¹⁴ I have rejoiced in your laws
    as much as in riches.
¹⁵ I will study your commandments
    and reflect on your ways.
¹⁶ I will delight in your decrees
    and not forget your word.

I thank God that His grace and love shines the most in our lives when we are humble. For a while, almost a year, I have been personally writing down verses referring to humbleness when they cross my path as I read the Bible each day.  I put my list at the end of this entry. It helped me realize humbleness is important if you want God to really use you. You have to be yielded to what He wants. In the following six verses, James stressed it three times.

James 4:

⁵ Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to him. ⁶ And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say,

⁷ So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸ Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. ⁹ Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.

My humble little list~

Proud/Humble verses

Stay humble. Trust God.

Ps 138:6 lowly

Pr 18:12 haughty, humility

Pr 21:24 mockers proud

Ps 149:4 takes pleasure in humble

Ps 149:1 humble have victory 

Pr 11:12 pride— disgrace

Ps 18:27 humiliate the proud

Pr 21:4 proud heart

Pr 22:4 reward

Pr 29:1 hardens his neck 

Isaiah 2:11 (2:17) human pride God exalted

2 Chronicles 33:12 Mannasseh humbled

2 Corinthians 10:17-18 boast only in God

Is 26:5-6– proud cities are given to the poor

Eph 3:8-:21 Paul’s humbleness

Eph 4:2 humble and gentle

Is 45:16-17 Israel not humiliated

Ps 69:32-33 David’s enemies humbled him. His emotional cry to God

Philippians 2:6-11 humble Jesus, the name above all

Philippians 2:3

Is 66:2 tremble at God’s Word

Ps 74:21 downtrodden not humiliated

Jeremiah 13:15-16 no arrogance, praise God

Ps 101:5

Hebrews 1:13– Your humbled enemies

I thank God that on this day I go to a humble job where I care for a class of two year olds. I can give their parents peace of mind that I will take good care of and love their children. I’m thankful it is a way I can fulfill the verses found in James 2.

Faith in God goes hand in hand with helping others.

James 2:

¹⁸ Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” But I say, “How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.”

¹⁹ You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God.^[a] Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. ²⁰ How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless?

I’m thankful to God for direction the Bible provides.

At the end of James 1, there is instruction of how to truly serve God. The most important part that stands out to me is to care for the widows and the orphans.

Last night I was watching PBS. A documentary about women Indian doctors was airing. One doctor cared for children. Once, when she delivered a baby the mother was an alcoholic. When the baby was born even the amniotic fluid strongly smelled of alcohol. The baby had several birth defects and the mother rejected him. The small town Indian doctor took the baby in as a foster child and later adopted him. He would become the oldest of six children. He had many struggles, even to just speak but he was loved by his family and they did everything together. This doctor made James 1:27 a reality.

I thank God Christmas is coming. It’s definitely the giving season of the year and great opportunities are everywhere to help the struggling and less fortunate. We have opportunity to be servants to the helpless.

James 1:

²⁶ If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless.²⁷ Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.

I’m so thankful to God for new and interesting insight into His Word.

The book of James was written by the brother of Jesus. He was a skeptic about Jesus until later in his life. James 1 begins talking about rejoicing when you have troubles. A little later it talks about enduring and overcoming temptation to do wrong so that God can richly reward you.

I find it interesting sandwiched in between the topics of troubles and temptations in James 1, he talks about the rich and the poor. He said the poor can boast and the rich are humbled by God. All through the Bible God contrasts humbleness and pridefulness. God has honored the poor and the achievements of the rich will fade.

This passage talks about troubles at its start. When I think of trouble, I think mainly of the poor with money troubles. Then later in James 1, it talks about temptation. The rich most likely deal with temptation more than the poor. But, of course, in a general sense everyone deals with both.

Right before the passage about the rich and the poor there is a verse in which God encourages us to ask Him for wisdom. The powerful wisdom of God will see us through all troubles and deliver us from all temptations.

Continue reading →

I love this truth ~ Jesus is the good Shepherd! I’m so thankful today that I am one of His sheep. I’m reading through the book of Ezekiel which has many chapters and is probably a book most Christians wouldn’t think of reading but I’m so glad that I am doing that.

God was trying to awaken His people to the reality that all their many wrongdoings had to be stopped. Their sin interfered with the relationship with God, in all His holiness and sinlessness. Oh, how He craves to love and build a close relationship with His own. He said over and over in the Old Testament, “I will be their God and they will be my people!”

In Ezekiel 34, God prophesied that the greedy, corrupt leaders of His people would be removed and He would provide a better leader! And He truly did when He provided Jesus. And Jesus was leaps bounds better, by far, than any of the selfish leaders previously described.

Jesus, a descendent of King David, gave the answer to this prophesy when he said in John 10, “I am the good shepherd. I lay down my life for my sheep!” It doesn’t get better than that! God greatly blesses all who follow Him even today, through Jesus!

Ezekiel 34:

1Then this message came to me from the Lord: ² “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds, the leaders of Israel. Give them this message from the Sovereign Lord: What sorrow awaits you shepherds who feed yourselves instead of your flocks. Shouldn’t shepherds feed their sheep? ³ You drink the milk, wear the wool, and butcher the best animals, but you let your flocks starve. ⁴ You have not taken care of the weak. You have not tended the sick or bound up the injured. You have not gone looking for those who have wandered away and are lost. Instead, you have ruled them with harshness and cruelty. ⁵ So my sheep have been scattered without a shepherd, and they are easy prey for any wild animal. ⁶ They have wandered through all the mountains and all the hills, across the face of the earth, yet no one has gone to search for them.

⁷ “Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: ⁸ As surely as I live, says the Sovereign Lord, you abandoned my flock and left them to be attacked by every wild animal. And though you were my shepherds, you didn’t search for my sheep when they were lost. You took care of yourselves and left the sheep to starve.⁹ Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. ¹⁰ This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I now consider these shepherds my enemies, and I will hold them responsible for what has happened to my flock. I will take away their right to feed the flock, and I will stop them from feeding themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths; the sheep will no longer be their prey.

¹¹ “For this is what the Sovereign Lordsays: I myself will search and find my sheep. ¹² I will be like a shepherd looking for his scattered flock. I will find my sheep and rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on that dark and cloudy day. ¹³ I will bring them back home to their own land of Israel from among the peoples and nations. I will feed them on the mountains of Israel and by the rivers and in all the places where people live.¹⁴ Yes, I will give them good pastureland on the high hills of Israel. There they will lie down in pleasant places and feed in the lush pastures of the hills. ¹⁵ I myself will tend my sheep and give them a place to lie down in peace, says the Sovereign Lord. ¹⁶ I will search for my lost ones who strayed away, and I will bring them safely home again. I will bandage the injured and strengthen the weak. But I will destroy those who are fat and powerful. I will feed them, yes—feed them justice!

¹⁷ “And as for you, my flock, this is what the Sovereign Lord says to his people: I will judge between one animal of the flock and another, separating the sheep from the goats. ¹⁸ Isn’t it enough for you to keep the best of the pastures for yourselves? Must you also trample down the rest? Isn’t it enough for you to drink clear water for yourselves? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet? ¹⁹ Why must my flock eat what you have trampled down and drink water you have fouled?

²⁰ “Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will surely judge between the fat sheep and the scrawny sheep.²¹ For you fat sheep pushed and butted and crowded my sick and hungry flock until you scattered them to distant lands. ²² So I will rescue my flock, and they will no longer be abused. I will judge between one animal of the flock and another. ²³ And I will set over them one shepherd, my servant David. He will feed them and be a shepherd to them. ²⁴ And I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David will be a prince among my people. I, the Lord, have spoken!

²⁵ “I will make a covenant of peace with my people and drive away the dangerous animals from the land. Then they will be able to camp safely in the wildest places and sleep in the woods without fear. ²⁶ I will bless my people and their homes around my holy hill. And in the proper season I will send the showers they need. There will be showers of blessing. ²⁷ The orchards and fields of my people will yield bumper crops, and everyone will live in safety. When I have broken their chains of slavery and rescued them from those who enslaved them, then they will know that I am the Lord. ²⁸ They will no longer be prey for other nations, and wild animals will no longer devour them. They will live in safety, and no one will frighten them.

²⁹ “And I will make their land famous for its crops, so my people will never again suffer from famines or the insults of foreign nations. ³⁰ In this way, they will know that I, the Lord their God, am with them. And they will know that they, the people of Israel, are my people, says the Sovereign Lord. ³¹ You are my flock, the sheep of my pasture. You are my people, and I am your God. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!”

I’m thankful that I belong to the God who rules an unshakable kingdom and is as powerful as a consuming fire.

Hebrews 12:

²⁵ Be careful that you do not refuse to listen to the One who is speaking. For if the people of Israel did not escape when they refused to listen to Moses, the earthly messenger, we will certainly not escape if we reject the One who speaks to us from heaven! ²⁶ When God spoke from Mount Sinai his voice shook the earth, but now he makes another promise: “Once again I will shake not only the earth but the heavens also.”^{[a] 27} This means that all of creation will be shaken and removed, so that only unshakable things will remain.

²⁸ Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe. ²⁹ For our God is a devouring fire.

I’m thankful that I can trust in God day by day. In Hebrews 12 it talks about correction from God. Honestly, I really don’t want to go through that. But step by step and day by day I walk by faith and not by sight. Jesus promised in this world we will have tribulation but He also told us to be of good cheer because He has already overcome the world. So I rest in that important promise. But this is also good to know, when God corrects us He is putting us with the huge crowd of people we read about all through the Bible that have been highlighted in Hebrews 11. I admire many of those people and even though they had imprefections God has used their examples for a few thousand years! Wow!

Hebrews 12:

⁵ And have you forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you as his children? He said,

⁷ As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children. Who ever heard of a child who is never disciplined by its father? ⁸ If God doesn’t discipline you as he does all of his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really his children at all. ⁹ Since we respected our earthly fathers who disciplined us, shouldn’t we submit even more to the discipline of the Father of our spirits, and live forever?

¹⁰ For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness. ¹¹ No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.

¹² So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees. ¹³ Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong.

Wow! There are many great riches to be discovered in God’s Word! I thank God so much for His amazing truth. I cling to His promises especially for my family and then for my church, my friends and myself!

This morning I boldly go to the Throne of Grace that Jesus has given me privilege of attending there as much as I desire! And I proclaim and speak out Psalm 112 for all those I care about! I know I’ve read Psalm 112 in the past but reading it this morning was like opening a giant treasure chest and admiring all the sparkling jewels and glistening gold and then suddenly in all the attractive objects to look upon I catch a glimpse of an object that is far more beautiful than every other. I reach and pull it from all the amazing treasure. There it is. Gorgeous and I claim it as my own.

So that’s what happened this morning. The gorgeous treasure of Psalm 112. It is mine. At the start of this day, I pray it aloud over my loved ones. And then trust God that it will shine forth in our lives so that others would be drawn to the amazing treasures of our Heavenly Father who’s love is unending toward us.

Psalm 112:

It’s 5:47 in the morning! I want to the first or among the first to honor God early today during this Thanksgiving season. He deserves much honor for all His goodness and greatness! I’ve been studying Him and the Bible everyday for a few years now. I see His provision fulfilled in my life and my family’s life.

Thank you, Heavenly Father, for all you do. Thank you for your Son Jesus, who covers for my wrongdoings and thank you for the unexpected blessings that help me and give me added happiness.

I live my life to say thank you.

.

Psalm 111: