Blessed are those who search out His testimonies; They shall search for Him with their whole heart.
Personal Challenge
Don’t we all desire to be blessed, especially by God? We can be! One way to do this is to be constantly searching for Him and His testimonies with our whole heart. We will find Him and be truly blessed. This means, once again, that being a Christian is a verb and not a noun. It is not a label that we polish up every Sunday when we go to church. It means that we are actively seeking out God and doing his acts of love and mercy every moment of every day. Glory be to God!
This is the day the Lord made; Let us greatly rejoice, and be glad therein.
Personal Challenge
Life is full of challenges and the road to eternity sometimes feels more like a rollercoaster than a paved road. As followers of Christ, we can choose to fret and complain about our road like so many of the world choose to do or we can choose to remember this verse. Today has been made by God and every aspect of it, good or bad, is for my growth and santification. My choice is to greatly rejoice and be glad in this day that I have been given. Glory be to God!
It is good to trust in the Lord Rather than to trust in man; It is good to hope in the Lord Rather than to hope in rulers.
Personal Challenge
Two extremely important actions for every one of us to take in our lives are trust and hope. We truly cannot make it through a day without doing these. It is part of our nature. What is critical to these actions is always the object, or entity, that we put our trust and hope in. We do not put our essential life trust in man for we will surely be disappointed at some point. We do not put our hope in rulers for they too will disappoint, especially when power corrupts them. It is the Lord, and Him alone, that we put our trust and hope in. Glory be to God!
They did not keep God’s covenant, And they did not desire to walk in His law; And they forgot His good deeds And His wonders He showed them
A Quote from St. Basil of Caesarea (350-379 AD)
In our part of the world, most honourable brothers, everything is in a feeble condition. The Church has fallen before the non-stop attacks of her enemies, like some ship in the middle of the sea, pounded by continual batering waves. O that there might be some swift visitation of God’s mercy…
The teachings of our godly fathers are scorned. What the apostles have handed down is vilified. The inventions of modernisers are fashionable in the churches. Instead of being theologians, men are now fabricators of devious new systems of belief. The glory of the cross has been rejected, and the wisdom of this world wins the top prizes. The shepherds are driven away, and in their place dreadful wolves come in, hounding the sheep of Christ. The houses of prayer stand empty; mourning crowds have retreated into the desert. The older folk weep when they compare the present with the past. The younger folk are to be pitied all the more, for they don’t even know what they’ve lost.
All these things are sufficient to arouse compassion in those who have learned the love of Christ. However, my words fall woefully short of the true condition of things. “If there is therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels of mercies” (Phil. 2:1), be awakened, O brothers, to help us! Let zeal for godliness inspire you to save us from this storm! May that celebrated doctrine of our fathers always be confessed among us with outspoken courage…
From The Early Church Fathers, edited by Nick Needham, 2021, page May 27
Here we are again fighting the battle for the true church against heretics trying to reshape it in their nationlist image. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!
Alleluia. Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles; Praise Him, all you peoples, For His mercy rules over us; And the truth of the Lord endures forever.
Personal Challenge
We are encouraged by the Psalmist to praise the Lord. All people, including those who do not know Him, have the opportunity to praise the Lord for His mercy that rules over us. As followers of Christ, we are to be doing this constantly. Whether someone believes in God or not, His truth still endures forever and His mercy is poured out upon us. Thank you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
Alleluia. Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; For His mercy endures forever. Let the house of Israel say that He is good, For His mercy endures forever. Let the house of Aaron say that He is good, For His mercy endures forever. Let all who fear the Lord say that He is good, For His mercy endures forever.
Encouraging Words
It is not my responsibility to try to make others believe in a God that loves us so deeply that He became one of us, lived a perfect and sinless life, died for us, breaking the chains of death, and then rose from the dead paving the way for us to do the same some day. It is my responsibility, and my privilege, to share how much I have seen this mercy in my life and the lives of others that I have known. He is good all the time. His mercy endures forever. Praise be to Him that we are all recipients of His great love and mercy.
Alleluia. I have loved, because the Lord Shall hear the voice of my supplication; For He inclined His ear to me, And in my days I shall call upon Him.
Encouraging Words
We are not sojourners on our journey of life alone. God is on our journey with us. He inclines His ear to us and hears our supplication. This gives us the ability to Love Him and others more deeply because we experience His love all our days. Glory be to God!
From the rising of the sun to its setting, Praise the name of the Lord.
Personal Challenge
When are followers of Christ supposed to praise His name? All the time! What about when things are not going the way that we want them to? Yes! Praise His name. What about the times when the enemy seems to be winning? Yes! Praise His name. No matter what is going on in the world around us, if we focus on praising His name, those things get minimalized and become just trivial things. Always praise His name.
Verse of the Day 