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!

Psalms 19:7-11 (18:8-12 LXX)

The law of the Lord is blameless, converting souls;
The testimony of the Lord is trustworthy, making children wise;
The ordinances of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;
The commandment of the Lord is bright, enlightening the eyes;
The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring unto ages of ages;
The judgments of the Lord are true, being altogether just.
More to be desired are they than gold and a very precious stone,
Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
For indeed Your servant keeps them;
In keeping them there is great reward.

Encouraging Words
Living in the society that we do today, the concept of value, especially as it relates to gold and precious stones is so much different than what the psalmist is talking about. Only after you have given your life over to God and put all of your trust and hope in Him can you begin to see all of the promises and praises of this passage become manifest. The important thing to remember in all of this is that the focus has shifted from how important we think we are or how much we elevate the things of the world to who God is and what does and has done. When we shift this focus in our lives we definitely begin to see these verses become manifested in our lives and our desires shift from the riches of this world and we begin to taste the glory of our God that is sweeter than honey a honeycomb. Glory be to God!

Deuteronomy 4:31

for the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not forsake you nor annihilate you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers, which He swore to them.

Encouraging Words

This verse comes after a section of the Bible that describes what will happen to those who choose to practice idolatry. We are told that because we have abandoned God that He will allow us to become consumed by the ways of the land that we are in and further separated from Him. He will allow this to happen to the point where we remember Him, remember how much He loves us and cares for us, and begin to desire to be with Him again. Through this tribulation and separation, we will choose to abandon these fake gods that we have idolized and return to Him. This passage is then ended with this verse reminding us that God is a merciful God who will never forsake us even though we have forsaken Him. He will always remain true to us and receive us, as the prodigal father, with arms wide open. We must all ask ourselves, “What idol am I worshipping in place of God?” Lord, have Mercy! Lord, have Mercy! Lord, have Mercy!