Psalm 63:8 (62:9 LXX)
My soul follows close behind You;
Your right hand takes hold of me.
Encouraging Words…
There is a reason to follow closely in the steps of my Lord…the closer that I am to Him the sooner I will be held by Him when He takes hold of me.
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Proverbs 17:1
Better is a morsel with enjoyment in peace
Than a house full of many good things and unrighteous sacrifices with quarreling.
Personal Challenge…
This verse does not say that it is wrong to have “stuff” in our lives. It speaks to how I look upon this stuff, how I hold on to it. If my stuff, my motorcycle, my computer, my…, becomes my god then what I do with this stuff becomes unrighteousness and discontent and the environment of quarrelsomeness follows shortly. If I can be content with the small things and learn to hold on to them lightly, as if they are loaned to me to be a caretaker of them, then contentment and the environment of peace and enjoyment follows. Glory be to God for entrusting me to be His steward of His possessions.
Titus 2:9-10
Exhort bondservants to be obedient to their own masters, to be well pleasing in all things, not answering back, not pilfering, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things.
Personal Challenge…
We don’t live in a day and age of bondservants, but we do live in a day and age of employer/employee arrangements. This passage so clearly applies to me and the work ethic that I must have with my employer, managers, and coworkers. I must regretfully admit that this is an area of my life where I do not always “adorn the doctrine of God my Savior in all things.” Lord have mercy on me a sinner. Time to behave like a bondservant of Christ.
Psalm 73:26 (72:26 LXX)
My heart and my flesh fail,
O God of my heart; and God is my portion forever.
Encouraging Words…
As long as I am living in this temporal I will stumble and fall. However, the God of my heart is my protector. He will always catch me and heal me as I run back to Him.
2 Timothy 4:1-4
I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
Personal Challenge…
In many of the Christian research circles today the term “consumerism” has been applied to those people that attend their church to be entertained, served, delivered what they want to hear the way that they want to hear it. They are consumers. Who would have known that Paul was exhorting Timothy to be prepared for this 2,000 years ago. One of the things that I have come to appreciate in the Orthodox Church is that our liturgy is the same one that has been delivered for nearly 1,600 years. It is not up to me to want something that tickles my itching ears or makes me feel good all over, but it is up to me to step into the traditions of my Church and meet God there. That is where true worship is found. This passage reminds us, actually commands us, very boldly to stand firm in the truth of the Church and to be ready to share it at any time.
Psalm 73:24 (72:24 LXX)
Encouraging Words…
As the psalmist so clearly reminds the reader…my God will guide me through life with His counsel. That counsel comes through His written word, through the traditions of the Church, through the wise advice of those whom He has placed in my life…past, present, and future, through the guidance of the indwelling Holy Spirit. He holds me with His glory and by His grace. What more could I ask for?
Psalm 143:1 (142:1 LXX)
Encouraging Words…
Why do I pray…because my Lord hears my supplications. He is Truth and He will answer my prayers in His righteousness. He knows me and what is best for me and therefore His answers are always the right ones.
Matthew 4:4, 7, 10
But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.‘”
Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.‘”
Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.‘”
Encouraging Words…
Jesus was fully God, but He was also fully man…just like you and me. He was a man when the Spirit took Him out int the wilderness. He was a man as He fasted for 40 days. He felt the pangs of hunger and was truly tempted in His flesh by the greatest tempter of all. However, He denied the temptations, He exercised His free will to withstand the tempter, He used His training in the scriptures to defend His stand. And in doing this He gave us all the example to follow. We too are being lead by the Holy Spirit so we can rely on Him to help us be strong in times of temptation. We too have the power and authority to tell the tempter to go away. We too have the opportunity to practice fasting so that we can develop the power we need over our flesh and free will. Glory be to God.
2 Corinthians 4:7-10
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard- pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.
Encouraging Words…
With the grace of God being poured into us we have the poer of Christ in our physical lives where we are dying regularly to the flesh and being made alive in the Spirit. It is because of this living grace that we can press on through the things that the world throws at us.
Verse of the Day 