Verse of the Day

June 12, 2020

PRAISE THE LORD

Psalms 145:1-2 (146:1-2)

Praise the Lord, O my soul.
I shall praise the Lord while I live;
I shall sing to my God as long as I exist.

Encouraging Words

We follow and serve a God whom we can praise and sing to every moment of our lives. Not only does He deserve this from us, but He is worthy of it. We owe everything to Him. The least we can do is praise Him with every breath that He gives us and sing to Him every day that gives us to live. Glory be to God!
June 11, 2020

HE IS NEAR

Psalms 144:18 (145:8)

The Lord is near to all who call on Him,
To all who call upon Him in truth.

Personal Challenge

The Lord is near to all of us who call upon Him, but with a caveat. We must call upon Him in truth. What truth? Even Pilot asks that question of Jesus. “what is truth?” Jesus is truth. He is the source and completion of truth. So the caveat here is that if we want the Lord to be near to us, or better yet for us to be near to Him, then we must call out to Him in Christ. That means we are living in Christ and being His child as we call out. Glory be to God!
June 10, 2020

THE LORD IS…

Psalms 144:8-9 (145:8-9)

The Lord is gracious and merciful,
Longsuffering and abundant in mercy.
The Lord is good to all, And His mercies are upon all His works.

Encouraging Words

Sometimes we just need some encouragement in our lives. The Psalmist provides this in his proclamation about our Lord. Our Lord is gracious and merciful, long-suffering, and abundant in mercy. He is good to all, no matter who we are and if we worship Him or not. He pours out His mercy upon His works, His creation. We are blessed by His love, Glory be to God!
June 9, 2020

HIS WILL

Psalms 142:10 (143:10)

Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God; Your good Spirit shall guide me in the land of uprightness.

Personal Challenge

It can be dangerous to our comfort zone to ask God to teach us to do His will. However, this should be our constant prayer. God knows what is best for us and would like us to follow His journey for us that will lead us to His land of uprightness. If we love Him, this is where we should desire to be. Glory be to God!
June 8, 2020

HEAR MY PRAYER

Psalms 142:1 (143:1)

O Lord, hear my prayer; Give ear to my supplication in Your truth; Answer me in Your righteousness;

Encouraging Words

Our God hears our prayers. Every single one of them. Whether spoken out loud or spoken within the depths of our hearts, He hears our prayers. He also answers our prayers, but not always in the way that we want. He knows what is good for us. He knows what is good for those around us. His answers come from His truth and righteousness and are therefore the answers that we need. Maybe our prayer should be that He changes our minds and hearts so that we joyfully accept His answers. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!
June 7, 2020

OUR MOUTH AND LIPS

Psalms 140:3 (141:3)

Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth,

A door of enclosure about my lips

Personal challenge

Our mouth can get us into so much trouble or it can calm the storm. Throughout the scriptures, both Old Testament and New, we are told just how powerful and dangerous the mouth and lips can be. Jesus took it farther and told us that what comes out of our mouth is that which resides within our hearts. It is our heart that drives what we think, say and do. If we want to be godly in our thoughts, actions, and most importantly what comes out of our mouth (or keyboard), then we need our Lord to be the one who watches over our heart and put a door over it to monitor what comes out. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!
June 6, 2020

Saint of the Week

St. Isaac the Syrian
June 4, 2020

TEST, EXAMINE, AND LEAD

Psalms 138:23-24 (139:23-24)

Test me, O God, and know my heart;
Examine me, and know my paths,
And see if there is a lawless way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.

Personal Challenge

I must ask myself if I am able to ask God to test and examine me to determine if I am ready to be led by Him. He already knows the state of my heart and the path of life that I am choosing to follow. Am I ready for Him to reveal that to me and take me on His way, His path? My prayer is that He will guide me to this place in my life. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!
June 3, 2020

MIND YOUR TONGUE, OR BETTER YET, YOUR KEYBOARD

Psalms 138:4-6 (139:4-6)

For there is not a word on my tongue,
But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether,
The last things and the first things;
You fashioned me, and placed Your hands on me.
Your knowledge has become too wondrous for me;

It has become too overwhelming;

I am unable to grasp it.

Personal Challenge

We have gotten so good at pigeon-holing God and putting Him in a small compartment in our lives. We take Him out when we want to play with Him and put Him back so that we can go on doing what we want to do. We do this more and more today in the social media world. We hide behind the personas we build out there and speak what is truly on our hearts. We do this thinking that God doesn’t know what we are up to, but He does? It is time to make a choice. We need to decide are we going to follow Jesus and abandon the things of this world or continue to abandon Him and do what we want. It really is an either-or decision because you can’t have both. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!
June 2, 2020

DUALITY

Psalms 138:1-3 (139:1-3)

O Lord, You test me and know me;
You know my sitting down and my rising up;
You understand my thoughts from afar;
You search out my path and my portion, And You foresee all my ways.

Personal Challenge

We have become a people that live lives of duality. On Sundays, or other days that are convenient for us, we go to our churches and act like we are all godly and righteous. We proclaim that God is love and that we are His. Then as soon as we leave the church we put on our secular persona and spew hatred and contempt for those whom we disagree with, or better yet, who disagree with us. We proclaim that our church life is different from the rest of our life and that we have the right to say and do what we want Good luck with that! God does not just exist inside the four walls of the churches that we go to. He is everywhere and sees everything. He knows the true nature of our hearts. If we choose to follow Christ, then that does not just mean we do what He wants when we want to. We can no longer live dual lives. A Christian life is an all or nothing life. His ways, His teachings, His expectations must inform and shape everything that we do and say. If they do not, then we are not His followers. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!