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Psalms 25:8-11 (24:8-11 LXX)
Good and upright is the Lord;
Therefore He will instruct sinners in His way.
He will guide the gentle in judgment;
He will teach the gentle His ways.
All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth
For those who seek His covenant and His testimonies.
For Your name’s sake, O Lord,
Pardon my sin, for it is great.

Personal Challenge

This passage tells us so much about our God that is encouraging. He is good and upright. He instructs us in our ways, even when we live our lives in sinful ways. He guides us and teaches us. His ways are merciful and truthful. He pardons our sins. However, what this passage shows is how we should live our lives is what makes it a personal challenge. He is calling us to live gentle lives. This means humbling ourselves before Him, loving Him, and loving our neighbor. it also asks us to seek Him throughout our lives in order to receive all that He promises us. Once again, this reminds me that my salvation is an interactive journey including God, my neighbor, and myself. Glory be to God!

Deuteronomy 8:2-5

Now you shall remember the whole way the Lord your God led you in the desert, to deal harshly with you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. So He dealt harshly with you and weakened you with hunger, and fed you with manna, which your fathers did not know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word proceeding from the mouth of God man shall live. Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your feet become callused these forty years. You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you.

Matthew 10:38-39

And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.

Personal Challenge

Today we are all faced with another historical day. Our country has once again exercised our right to vote, and like every other post-election day that I have been blessed to live through (and there have been many), we are hearing that it is the end of the world or the opposite, that our country’s savior just got elected. Either way, our process has worked again, as it has for 240 years. And I believe it is a good process compared to so many others out there. Is it perfect? Far from it. I have, however, had the opportunity to see up close and personal other ways to do this and I am not willing to give up what we have. I was in Thailand 2 months after the military coup in 2006 and praise God, we have never had a coup in this country. I was in Haiti in 2011 when the Martelly railroad ran through the country and once again, praise God that our leaders and system are not as corrupt as they are there. Debatable, I know, but you have to experience it to understand it. I can go on with other countries, but that is not the point. The point is that we have a system that is working better than many others out there. I, for one, believe that I have been blessed to be able to live where I do and when I do. And that blessing for me goes back many generations. As I have been working on my ancestry, I have found that over 90% of my 9th Great Grandparents were born here on this great pre-American soil. Their parents came here as the first settlers of this vast country. We are talking about the mid-1600’s, 176 years before the foundation of our country. That is some pretty deep roots. What I am learning from this election cycle is to be thankful for the heritage that we have here and to trust the system, At least we have the opportunity to work within the system, even if it takes the rest of our lives to affect any change. The other and the most important lesson in all of this is that I must always remember that my true citizenship is not of this world and that my real responsibility in my life is to take up my cross, moment by moment, and follow my Lord. That is where I will find true life, true liberty, and true peace. Glory be to God!

Psalms 24:4-5 (25:4-5 LXX)

Make known Your ways to me, O Lord,
And teach me Your paths.
Lead me in Your truth and teach me,
For You are the God of my salvation,
And on You I wait all the day.

Encouraging Words

I love how the randomness of how I choose the verse of the day never really appears to be random from where I see it. All too often the verse that comes up fits so well in the events that are going on, or that have just transpired. The Word of God is living and true and if we keep the eyes to our heart and mind open to our Lord we will see how His Word speaks into every aspect of our lives, every moment of the day. Today, as our country goes to the polls to elect our next president, this passage rings so true. It is our God, and only our God, that can make His paths known to us. He is our great Teacher. And if we submit our lives to Him, and more importantly our wills to His, then He will lead us in His truth. We are so blessed to live in a country and a time where we can express our opinion on who should lead our country, but no man or woman can truly lead us on the true path of righteousness and salvation. Only God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit can do that. Glory to Him and Him alone.

Deuteronomy 7:9-10

Therefore know, the Lord your God, this God, is a faithful God, who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments; and He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack with those who hate Him; He will repay them to their face.

Encouraging Words

I have always liked the first part of this passage because it promises that if I love my God and keep His Commandments, then not only will I be blessed with His mercy and love but so will by offspring, for a thousand generations. If nothing else, this gives me a reason to love and follow my God, so that my children, their children, and on and on will be touched by my Gods’ love and mercy, Why would I choose to give the generations that follow in my footsteps any less? The second half of this passage also tells me a lot about my loving God. If anyone chooses to deny Him, He promises to deal with them on their own decision. He does not visit this error on the offspring of the defiant one. However, as with everything in our lives as parents, we play a significant role in the formation of our children. Choosing to live a life defiant of God sets our children up to do the same, just like choosing to live our lives full of negative and destructive behaviors sets our children up to do the same. For me, I choose to live for the Lord, for Him and for my children.

Matthew 10:32-33

“Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.”

Encouraging Words

Confessing our Lord before those around us is such a blessing because it is one of the ways that we can share how much He loves us and cares for us. But it is also a great challenge and sometimes very painful. It seems that more and more, people do not want to have anything to do with God. So because of this, they become very harsh, and even sometimes become vicious with those of us who choose to strive to live godly lives. We are often labeled as rude or arrogant, haughty or demeaning, even judgmental. I know that this should not surprise me, for my precious Lord made it very clear that even His people who had waited thousands of years for Him, turned on Him and crucified Him, so too would people in our lives persecute me if I live my life for Him. So be it! I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt how much He loves me and will hold onto Him throughout my days here on earth. Glory be to God!

Psalms 23:6 (22:6 LXX)

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord to the end of my days.

Encouraging Words

This is the conclusion to the famous 23rd Psalm that so many of us are aware of. What this tells me is that if I strive to live my life walking along the path of my Lord, then His goodness and mercy will be poured out upon me all the days of my life. This path will be filled with mountains and valleys, rivers of torrent and streams of peace, rough times and easy times. But God will be with me all of the time. Often, this journey will require that I separate myself from those around me who are not interested in being a part of this kind of journey and who will do whatever they can to pull me off of the path of my Lord. What does He expect me to do in these situations? First, He wants me to love these people as He does and to pray for them. But it then sometimes becomes necessary to continue on His path and to let these people go their way. It is between them and God as to whether or not they want to hear and heed His voice. This is never easy but is the kindest and most loving thing to do. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me the sinner?

Deuteronomy 5:29

Would they had such a heart in them so as to fear Me and guard My commandments all the time, that it might be well with them and their sons forever.

Personal Challenge

It is so easy to become self-righteous in our attempts to be godly people and then look around us and accuse everyone else of being self-righteous and ungodly people. Unfortunately, entire faith practices have developed doing this and accusing everyone that does not believe what they believe unsaved. This is not the first time this has happened. This behavior goes all the way back to the day of Moses when God gave us the ten commandments so that we would be constantly reminded to look to Him. He makes it so clear in this verse that the problem exists within our hearts. We continue to shift our focus off of God and onto us and our own desires. We are the ones with the hard hearts that God desires to soften. He is the one that has continually pursued us and poured out His love on us. He is the one that gave His Son up for us so that we could have Him live within us rather than having to be continually driven by the law. My response to all of this must be to humble myself before His greatness and submit my all to Him. Only then can He soften my heart. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner?

Matthew 10:28

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Encouraging Words

How is it possible to go through life with no fear? It is only possible to do this through faith. If we truly believe that God is the creator of the universe, that He holds eternity in the palm of His hand, that He sent His only son to live and die for us, and that He will keep His promise to never leave us or to forsake us, then we can the our lives without fear. As I have been on a journey for the last year reading through the early church fathers and the writings of our early church, it has become so clear to me that our church ancestors had no fear for their physical lives because they knew that their spiritual lives were safe and secure in Gods’ hands. We see this today with our Orthodox Christian brothers and sisters in the middle East who are willing to give up their lives rather than denounce their God. This kind of faith does not come from a feel good kind of religious practice. It does not come from religious voodoo and hocus pocus. It only comes from the object, the person, in whom we put our trust. Glory be to God, and God alone!