Psalm 65:1-2

God alone hears prayers. He alone is He to Whom we should prays: oh You who hears prayer, to you all flesh shall come! We go to God like animals go to the last pond in Africa. In times of severe drought even the lions (though they drink first!) allow other animals to drink as well. Likewise, we must all drink from the o ly source of water in town. EVERYONE must come to God; even if they spit in His face while they do it.

Oh, let us be them who thankfully and joyously love Him who gives is the Water of Life!

Praise You Father for water!
Praise You Son for blood!
Praise You Spirit for Prayer!

Praying with you,
Pastor Greg

Zechariah 4:6

Why do I continue to seek to do things on my own strength? A fool never forgets his folly! Forgive me Lord and give me the grace to hear and obey!

Blessings,
Pastor Greg

Haggai 1:5

Haggai 1:5

 

If you and I don't consider our ways we will slip both unconsciously and terminally into sin.  Our atmosphere is sin, our hearts are deceitful, we don't have a chance of avoiding habitual sin if we do not consciously work to avoid that sin.  Consider your ways oh Church!  Consider your ways!

• How do I relate to my God?
• How do I relate to the family I live with?
• How do I relate to my coworkers?
• How do I use my discretionary time?

Not easy questions: but we must ask them.  Then we must have the courage to actually pay attention to our own answers.  Do you have the courage?  Ask your Heavenly Father to give you that courage. 

 

Psalm 32:5 NIV

     Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity.

      I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD"-- and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah

 

Your Father will forgive your sin:

1 John 1:9 NIV

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

 

Then He will continue to work in you for His glory.

Philippians 1:6NIV

 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

 

Praise You Father for forgiveness.

Praise You Son for saving my soul.

Praise You Spirit for grace upon grace.

 

Forgive us Father as we sin,

Pastor Greg

Zephaniah 3:17

Zephaniah 3:17
This is one of the first verses I found that really communicated the love of God to me. I seek to rest in the fact that He loves me enough to 'sing' over me! Praise Jesus!

Praise You Father for rejoicing over me!
Praise You Son for making that possible!
Praise You Spirit for telling me!

Blessings,
Pastor Greg

Psalm 46:10-11

Psalm 46:10-11 ^ESV

"Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!" ¹¹ The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

 

You have nothing to worry about.  The Lord of the Armies of God is with you.  The God who made Jacob into a nation of nations is protecting you.  Therefore, relax.  Trust God.  He will make His name exalted among all the peoples of the world; He will be exalted wherever the cosmos remains.

 

Praise You Father that You are glorious.

Praise You Son that You are glorious.

Praise You Spirit that You are glorious.

 

Praising Jesus with you,

Pastor Greg

 

Micah 7:18-19

Micah 7:18-19(ESV)
*Who is a God like you, *pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression *for the remnant of his inheritance?
*He does not retain his anger forever,
because he delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.

Amen! The Jews knew the grace of God's forgiveness, and they knew it was by grace. Let us with Micah celebrate His goodness to us!

Praise You Father for giving us forgiveness!
Praise You Son for rising again!
Praise You Spirit for speaking grace to our hearts!

Rejoicing in His forgiveness with you,
Pastor Greg

Jonah 2:8

Jonah 2:8 ESV

Those who pay regard to vain idols

forsake the hope of steadfast love.

 

Jonah 2:8 NIV

Those who cling to worthless idols,

forsake the grace that could be theirs

 

I'm reading the ESV right now (25 more pages and I will have finished reading it through).  But I memorized the verse several years ago in the NIV.

 

An interesting question in regards to this verse is, "To whom is Jonah referring here, himself or the Ninevites?  I am inclined to believe he is talking about himself. And I think the idol he is referring to is the bitterness he nurtured in his own heart so that he was unwilling to love the Ninevites enough to share God's love.  The grace or steadfast love He forsook was that of joy and peace.

 

Of course, an argument can be made for him referring to Nineveh because he obviously hadn't learned the lesson by the time the events of chapter 4 came about (I happen to believe he wrote Jonah and that ultimately he did repent!).

 

The point is that if you are clinging/paying regard to idols then you will not experience God's grace.  Therefore, whatever you hold to higher value than God or obedience to God you must reject it at the poisonous vomit that it is.  Cling to your God and you will have the steadfast love (correct translation) you need.

 

Praise You Father for steadfast love.

Praise You Son for forgiving us so we could experience steadfast love.

Praise You Spirit for moving in and through us so we can share that steadfast love.

 

Hoping in steadfast love with you,

Pastor Greg

Proverbs 17:9

Proverbs 17:9 ^ESV

Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends.

 

A good friend of mine, Michelle Winger, gave me a great piece of advice once: ‘never take offence where none is intended.’ Excellent advice!  Put your pride away.  Forget to be offended.  Seek peace and pursue it.  Move on with it.  Get over it.  Look to Jesus.  Grow up.

 

Praise You Father for forgiveness.

Praise You Son for peace.

Praise You Spirit for joy.

 

Forgiving others with you,

Pastor Greg

 

Proverbs 16:4

Proverbs 16:4 ^ESV

The LORD has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.

 

The Lord is sovereign.  He is also sovereign over the wicked.  Nothing is out of His sovereign control.  Amen.

 

Praise You Father that You will not allow the wicked to get away with wickedness.

Praise You Son that You died to save this wicked man.

Praise You Spirit that You reveal your righteousness and mercy to wicked men and women that we may repent.

 

Repenting along with you,

Pastor Greg

 

Proverbs 15

Proverbs 15:1 ^ESV

A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

Proverbs 15:2 ^ESV

The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouths of fools pour out folly.

Proverbs 15:4 ^ESV

A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.

Proverbs 15:5 ^ESV

A fool despises his father's instruction, but whoever heeds reproof is prudent.

Proverbs 15:7 ^ESV

The lips of the wise spread knowledge; not so the hearts of fools.

Proverbs 15:8 ^ESV

The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is acceptable to him.

Proverbs 15:11 ^ESV

Sheol and Abaddon lie open before the LORD; how much more the hearts of the children of man!

Proverbs 15:12 ^ESV

A scoffer does not like to be reproved; he will not go to the wise.

Proverbs 15:13 ^ESV

A glad heart makes a cheerful face, but by sorrow of heart the spirit is crushed.

Proverbs 15:14 ^ESV

The heart of him who has understanding seeks knowledge, but the mouths of fools feed on folly.

Proverbs 15:18 ^ESV

          A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger quiets contention.

Proverbs 15:23 ^ESV

To make an apt answer is a joy to a man, and a word in season, how good it is!

Proverbs 15:26 ^ESV

The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the LORD, but gracious words are pure.

Proverbs 15:28 ^ESV

The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things.

 

Proverbs 15 has much to say about words.  The use of words bring peace, joy, life, wisdom; the use of words also brings folly, anger, perverseness, crushing, and death.  Words are significant because words come from the heart.  And it is the heart that determines the destiny of a man.

 

Use God’s Words for your own and you will never be disappointed.

 

Praise You Father for wise words.

Praise You Son for saving words.

Praise You Spirit for heard words.

 

Speaking the Truth in Love,

Pastor Greg

 

Proverbs 13:19

Proverbs 13:19 ESV

     A desire fulfilled is sweet to the soul,

     but to turn away from evil is an abomination to fools.

 

Having the view of inspiration of Scripture that I do, I look at this verse and believe that the two halves of the proverb were not arbitrarily put together: there must be a meaning that can be discerned by God's children so they can profit.

 

The key in this verse seems to be 'desire'.  Chapter 13 talks a lot about desire:

 

Proverbs 13:2 ESV

     From the fruit of his mouth a man eats what is good,

     but the desire of the treacherous is for violence.

 

Proverbs 13:12 ESV

     Hope deferred makes the heart sick,

     but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.

 

Proverbs 13:25 ESV

     The righteous has enough to satisfy his appetite,

     but the belly of the wicked suffers want.

 

In common among these verses is the universality of desire: both the righteous and the wicked experience desire. Also significant among these verses is the nature of the desire: the righteous desires the good, but the wicked desires that which is evil: and that God will fulfill the desire of the righteous but the desire of the wicked will ultimately be thwarted.

 

So, back to verse 19.

The desire of the wicked is evil, so to turn away from his desire is ridiculous!  Why would I do that??? It is an abomination to him: religiously he rejects that demand because it is the opposite of what he is pursuing.

 

Now take the [presumably] righteous; when he gets his desire it is sweet.  I want to comment on 'is sweet'.

 

In many things in life there are opinions: some particular food is delicious for one while disgusting for another.  There are many reasons for this; the reasons are unimportant, what matters is the fact that this is true.  One of the things that a person may find enjoyable more than another is the sweetness of something.  I have known many Europeans and have offered them root beer.  To a person they have all rejected root beer as ekelhaft (disgusting).  Now, I haven't asked them, but I believe they thought it was too sweet (this experiment was done on Germans (mostly) and a few French).  The argument was not that the root beer was or wasn't sweet, the argument was that it was too sweet. (I believe this also because while in Europe I noticed that most things were not as sweet as they are in the US, and not as cold either.)

 

So, when we get to Prov 13:19, I think we must believe that Solomon is making more than a value statement, I think he is making a statement that the desire fulfilled is sweet (putting aside now whether it is disgustingly sweet, I'm pretty sure he would have chosen a different word).  The desire (in this case the righteous desire) fulfilled is sweet, it is good, it is not bitter.  In verse 12 he calls it 'a tree of life'.

 

God is not a cosmic killjoy; God is one who longs to fulfill our deepest longings.  Unfortunately he finds our desires too weak, we desire things of this world that only partially and only temporarily satisfy instead of that which answers our deepest needs and desires.

 

So how might this work in the 'real world'?

For the wicked, his desire is for wealth that is gained through deception or other wicked plan.  Verse 11 tells us that wealth gained hastily will dwindle.  How many lottery winners who are now bankrupt and miserable do we need to hear about before we recognize this. 

 

But the righteous who gather little by little in a godly manner who do not cheat and have no reason for regret; these are the people who by training and by blessing maintain their wealth and indeed are truly wealthy because they have something better than money: peace.

 

Choose to be truly wealthy.  Choose to have desires fulfilled and sweet.  Choose life.

 

Psalm 37:3-4 ESV

     Delight yourself in the LORD,

     and he will give you the desires of your heart.

 

Praise You Father for fulfilled desires.

Praise You Son for good desires.

Praise You Spirit for transformed desires.

 

Desiring the best with you,

Pastor Greg

Psalm 37

Psalm 37:1-7 ESV

OF DAVID.

Fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers!

2 For they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb.

3 Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.

4 Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

5 Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act.

6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.

7 Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;

fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,

over the man who carries out evil devices!

 

Psalm 37 is a psalm of waiting. But not of waiting in a dreary sense; David is concerned to remind us of the loving protection and provision of God.  It behooves God's people to wait for God's protection and provision because He provides great blessings to those who wait (Heb 11:6).

 

So, we must wait.  But psalm 37 does not ask us to wait idly.  Instead David gives us a whole list of promises in the form of commands.  'Fret not', 'be not envious', 'trust in the Lord', 'do good'... Waiting in Scripture DOES NOT mean that you should do nothing; waiting for the Lord means to actively trust His promises for you in Christ. When we so live we will find plenty to 'keep us busy'; we will find plenty to occupy us with the grace and goodness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

 

Praise You Father for excellent promises.

Praise You Son for being our 'yes' to all those promises.

Praise You Spirit for speaking those promises to our hearts.

 

Trusting the promises of God for us in Christ with you,

Pastor Greg

Psalm 36

The best book on psychology is the Psalter. No where else do you get such instruction with very practical advice on how to have a healthy psyche. 'Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart;" is of course profoundly true. It is equally true as you read the following verses about how the wicked think; what is altogether awful is that I recognize these tendencies in me as well!

Praise You Father for giving me you sufficient Word.
Praise You Son for forgiving me my sins.
Praise You Spirit for speaking deeper than my sin.

Studying psychology with you,
Pastor Greg

Proverbs 10:19

Proverbs 10:19 ^ESV

When words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent.

 

Oh Lord, let my words be few.  Give me wisdom to know when to keep my mouth shut so that I can keep an appearance of being wise J!

 

Praise You Father for wisdom.

Praise You Son for forgiveness for my idle words.

Praise You Spirit for moving through me for Your glory.

 

Speaking little for God’s glory,

Pastor Greg

 

Psalm 34:4-7

Psalm 34:4-7 ^ESV

I sought the LORD, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.

 ⁵ Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed.

⁶ This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.

⁷ The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.

 

I memorized these verses years ago and they have stayed with me ever since.  They are an encouragement to my heart when I am tired and lonely and frustrated.  Praise Jesus!  Stay close to God’s Word and He will stay close to you.

 

Praise You Father for holding in my memory this Word.

Praise You Son that You encamp about me.

Praise You Spirit that You cause me to be radiant in Your glory.

 

Radiant with you,

Pastor Greg

 

Contrasting Verses

Psalm 33:1 ^ESV

Shout for joy in the LORD, O you righteous! Praise befits the upright.

Proverbs 2:14 ^ESV

who rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil,

 

Praise befits the upright!  Amen. Another verse is “It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace.”  Hebrews 13:9

 

That which is ‘good’ or ‘right’ or ‘befitting’ (we don’t use that word much anymore…) connects, it becomes (used in a way we don’t use much anymore).  An upright person is one who because of his/her nature automatically praises God for the good seen around him.  An upright person notices when God’s glory is on display and acknowledges that glory by praising God.

 

An evil person on the other hand ‘delights in the perverseness of evil’.  He finds joy in the ‘wrongness’ (note: not just whatever ‘gain’ he might get because of the evil, but in the mere fact that it is ‘just wrong’) of the evil he perpetrates or notices. 

 

Life really is all about the heart.  What does your heart find joy in; that will tell you whether you are fit for Heaven or Hell. The people who ultimately end up in Hell couldn’t live in Heaven; it would be Hell for them as well.  Let your heart be shaped by that which is true (God and His Word) instead of by what the world tries to ‘sell’ you.  When you do your heart will be shaped to fit into heaven.

 

Praise You Father for praise.

Praise You Son for the opportunity to praise.

Praise You Spirit for placing praise in our hearts to praise.

 

Praising God with you,

Pastor Greg