The Lord bless and keep you - Numbers 6:24

This Valentine's Day, I want to wish this wonderful old blessing to you:

"The LORD bless you and keep you;

the LORD  make his face shine on you and

be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you

and give you peace." 

We see from the text this is what the Lord wanted Moses to tell Aaron how he should bless the Israelites.   This has been the priestly blessing used for many years.  As the priests chanted this over the people, they would lift their hands in the air - thumbs together - and it was believed that the Lord's presence would shine through their fingers upon the people.

We are in much need of the Lord's blessing today and every day.  Are we praying for our leaders - in the church and in our country - to seek wisdom and blessing from the Lord?  We will not prosper unless the Lord blesses...the Bible is full of instructions to seek Him and Him only.

Are we blessing each other by seeking the Lord to be at work in our families, in our neighborhoods, in our schools?  There is such hostility everywhere you look today, we can be a part of pleading for blessing...not cursing.

This is what D.L. Moody said about this verse:

Here is a blessing that can give all the tme

without being impoverished.  Every heart may utter it,

every letter may conclude with it, every day may

begin with it, every night may be sanctified by it.  Here is a blessing -

keeping - shining - the uplifting upon our poor life of

all heaven's glad morning.  It is the Lord Himself who

(gives us) this bar of music from

heaven's infinite anthem."

Happy singing, sweet friends!

For further study: Gen. 12:2-3, Deu. 30:1-3, 15-16, Psalm 1:1, Psalm 33:12, Psalm 112:1, Ezekiel 34:26, Matt. 5:3-10, Romans 12:14, Eph. 1:3, James 1:12.  

Be blessed in your understanding of God's word~

Happy Valentine's Day,

Holly  

 

In all things God works for the GOOD of those who love him - Rom. 8:28

Maybe it's because it's winter; maybe it's because the political season is here; maybe it's because we're too busy, but there seems to be a lot of complaining and negative talk going on.  I don't thrive in a negative environment...do you? Why do we let negative thinking make us negative?

One of the reasons may be because our minds have been too distracted to change the way we think.  Steven Parton has written an article saying:

 "The thoughts you have actually reshape

your brain connections and make your brain more 

likely to have those thoughts again...and again..." 

In other words, the more we think negative the more ingrained our brains become at thinking that way.  We can do as Phil. 4:8 says: "if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things."  John Lubbock says:  "What we see depends mainly on what we look for."  What are you looking for today?

One of my favorite sayings is: "God is GOOD all the time."  He has set the standard for goodness - in the beginning what He created He described as "very good".  Not only that, He has given us his Holy Spirit at salvation to indwell us and to develop His fruit in us. Gal. 5:22-23 says we can exhibit goodness because He is goodness!  We can think goodness.  We can share goodness.  We can choose goodness!

Sherry Surratt, MOPS International President, says:

Imperfect thoughts...are going to come.  But

I can choose to meet these thoughts head on with what 

God says.  He made me. On purpose...He  promises to

 help me if only I will ask.  Then he gave me  a choice.

  I can sit and soak in all that's wrong and imperfect or 

I can notice what I have been given and how much God loves

me.

Today, I choose goodness because God is good!

For further study:  Ex. 33:19, Neh. 9:33-35, Psalm 23:6, Psalm 145:9, Matt. 19:17, Eph. 5:8-10, Phil. 1:4-6, 2 Thess. 1:11, 2 Peter 1:3, James 1:17.

Be blessed in your understanding of God's word.

Love,

Holly

 

"Let everything that has breath praise the Lord" - Psalm 150:6

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  New Year's resolutions make me nervous and I am not likely to make many.  However, I do believe our Lord gently (most of the time!) nudges us toward growth particularly at the start of a new year.  

One of my most meaningful lessons in 2015 came in preparing a talk for a women's group.  Isaiah 43:7 tells me God's purpose in creating His people was for His glory.  If that is my purpose, then how will I do that?  I think it means to be intentional about displaying His greatness and majesty...to share what He has done in my life and what He is doing in the world today...to tell about His great love for everything He created and how He wants every person to know Him as Lord through His Son, Jesus Christ. His power is enough for a changing and disobedient world...that is worth telling others about!

I sense the Lord wanting me to be unhindered in my praise of Him...RECKLESS, as Jeremy Camp sings:

I wanna be reckless cause You are endless

I wanna be shameless and shout Your greatness

I will not be afraid to surrender my way

And follow who You are 

I was out of town last Sunday and visited a local church with my sister.  The worship inspired me...I found myself clapping and singing loudly to hymns!  This was not a contemporary service, but all ages were moving and joyful!  God is worth singing about...He is worthy of my praise...and I want to tell others with every breath I have.  Will you join me?

For further study:  1 Chronicles 16:24, Psalm 34:1-3, Psalm 40:1-10, Psalm 89:1-2, Isaiah 12:4-6, Matthew 5:16, John 4:39, 1 Cor. 10:31, Eph. 6:19-20, 1 Peter 2:9.

Be blessed in your understanding of God's word.

Love,

Holly  

In all things God works... - Rom. 8:28

This verse is one of the greatest promises in the Bible...but I believe we often make it say to us what it doesn't really say.  We want to believe that it means everything in our lives will always be GOOD...rather than that God is always working!  In fact,  the "good" is actually defined a little better in verse 29 where it says that He determined ahead of time that we might "...be conformed to the image of His Son".  That's what is good about what God is doing...He is making us look and act more like Jesus!

 

What gives me the most confidence is that GOD IS AT WORK in me.  To those who love Him and are called (and answer), He does the work in us.  He cannot do His work in us if we haven't opened our hearts to receive Him as Lord and allowed His Spirit to do the guiding toward truth (John 16:13).

 

If God is at work in us...why do we live such defeated lives?  I believe one of the reasons is because we doubt He is able to rescue us from ourselves.  Holley Gerth in her book YOU'RE ALREADY AMAZING (purchased at Altar'd State, if you need an excuse to go shopping!) she says:

 

God has physically wired me with strengths

that let me fulfill his purpose for my life.  Our

divinely created strengths (fueled by God's power)

are actually supported by our weaknesses because

if we were good at everything, we wouldn't focus on

much of anything.

 

In other words, He has a plan for who He made you to be...you are already equipped to do amazing things - SERIOUSLY!!  In fact, she says: "when you attack yourself, you side with the enemy.  God is always for you - that means you can be too".

 

All that to say, if the God who created the whole universe thinks you are amazing - because He made you that way - then set out today to find out what He wants you to do.  He has already told us it is going to be "good"...so head out, friends, to walk that way with Him.

 

For further study: Genesis 1:26, 1 Chronicles 16:11, Psalm 73:26, Ecc. 11:5, John 9:1-5, Acts 5:38-39, 1 Cor. 2:9-10, Eph. 2:10, Phil. 2:12-13,1 John 4:12.

 

Be blessed in your understanding of God's word.

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Love,

Holly

 

 

  

Grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ - 2 Peter 3:18

Recently I noticed a spider in her web and she stayed in the same place forever...it seemed like.  She's not very pretty but thought you might like to see her:

 Our neighbor told me she was a good spider and to not disturb her...not something I planned to do anyway!!  It turns out the female Golden Garden Spider tends to often stay in one place throughout much of her lifetime...which makes me sad because it's in my space she is hanging out but also because it's a sad way to live.  That's not what our verse says today.  The Scripture is filled with admonitions for us as believers to "grow" in our faith...to NOT stay in the same place for long.

I can remember when Don was recovering from his cancer diagnosis in 2007 one of the verses that I felt the Lord impress upon me was the passage in John 15 on the vine and the branches...how we are to be the branches of His vine...always connected and always seeking nourishment - i.e., being fed - from Him....bearing fruit that lasts! Do a study on fruit-bearing and see how healthy fruit happens!  We can get stuck...and I have been stuck!  The Lord wants us to grow in our grace and knowledge of Him because He wants us to glorify Him...when we get stuck we usually are intent on glorifying me, myself and I. 

I believe the hymn "Spirit of the Living God" by Daniel Iverson  gives us the formula to grow in Christ:

Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on me;

Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh on me.

Break me, melt me, mold me, fill me.

Spirit of the Living God fall fresh on me. 

When we ask Him to fall on us, we are relinquishing control...He breaks our self-centered focus, He melts the habits that keep us independent from Him, He molds (or transforms us) to the image of Himself and then fills us to the brim with His holiness!  If those things are not happening in my life, I am stuck in one place...maybe for a lifetime....and it grieves Him and we are ineffective...useless.   Our nourishment comes from spending time with Him, in prayer and study, in assemblies with other believers and, in worship.  We can do that all day long...not just on Sunday mornings.

One suggestion for you is to order Kay Arthur's LORD, HELP ME GROW SPIRITUALLY STRONG  IN 28 DAYS...Amazon has it for pennies.  Ask Him - our great and awesome Vine - to give you a desire to get out of that web, to grow and develop a passion for Him and then help those around you to want to do the same.

For further study: 1 Samuel 2:26,  Psalm 92:12-15, Mark 4:26-32,  1 Cor. 3:6-7, 2 Cor. 10:15-18, Eph. 4:15-16, Col. 1:9-:10, 2 Thes. 1:3, 2 Tim. 2:15; 2 Peter 1:5-9.

Be blessed in your understanding of God's word.

Love,

Holly

 

Be still before the Lord and wait for Him - Psalm 37:7

I apologize, sweet friends....this is the second blog in a row on "waiting".  I'm guessing the Lord is trying to get me see something I need more work on!  It appears from what we read about King David, he was struggling with the same thing.  This particular psalm has him fretting over the wicked vs. the righteous...you must read the whole psalm to see so much of our frustrations in our world today.  The good news is that last verse:  "The Lord helps...and delivers...he delivers them...because they take refuge in Him." 

We must be dependent upon our Lord in all that we do.  His presence is our strength!  In our pillow verse today we see that 1) we must be still 2) our stillness must be in His presence and 3) in our stillness we are waiting for Him...not necessarily what we want but what He wants.

We are so "activity minded" we are always looking for the next thrill...whether it be in pleasure, a meal, a relationship, an activity or whatever...stillness is not a priority in most of our days.  I have learned stillness from my sweet introverted husband whose very soul requires a great deal of quiet in order to do the work God has given him to do.  I am a chatterer...I have had to learn to be busy in quietness when he is close.  That's part of my assignment to care for him and I am grateful to have learned the value of it.

Oswald Chambers says:

When we are in an unhealthy state physically or emotionally,

we always want thrills.  In the physical domain this will lead

to counterfeiting the Holy Ghost; in the emotional life it leads

to inordinate affection and the destruction of morality;

and in the spiritual domain if we insist on getting thrills,

on mounting up with wings, it will end in the destruction of

spirituality.

Think about this:  for next week, add an hour of quiet/study/reflection ("before the Lord") for every day in the week.  See if you don't end the week in a better place than you did this week without it!

I'm reaching for my calendar right now!

For further study:  Psalm 40:1, Psalm 46:10, Isaiah 15-18, Isaiah 40:31, Zechariah 2:13, 1 Corinthians 15:58, Colossians 3:15-17, 1 Peter 3:4.

Be blessed in your understanding of God's word.

Love,

Holly

Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord - Ps. 27:14

Are you a good "waiter"...I'm not!  In fact I've never worked in a restaurant probably for that very reason!  Waiters need to be flexible, patient, eager, submitted, gracious and self-less.  I was in trouble from the first word!  The Hebrew word for "wait" denotes a stretching/twisting, a kind of tension in the enduring.  It is also expectant and hopeful.  Does it matter how we wait?  Yes, I believe it does.

The psalmist wrote about what it takes to be a good "waiter".  It takes strength and he knew that kind of strength only came from the Lord.  David had a long and blessed history with his Lord and he fully trusted him in whatever mess he was in this time.  I believe our frustration in waiting often comes from what James talks about in Ch. 4:1-4.  He says quarrels and fights come from "your desires that battle within"...I see in my own life that my frustrations and impatience come from the same place...wrong motives.  His blessings come to us when we are patient in our waiting.

Listen to Andrew Murray in WAITING ON GOD:

It is in waiting upon God that our eyes are

opened to believe in His wise and sovereign will,

and to see that the sooner and the more completely

we yield absolutely to it,

the more surely His blessing can come to us.

I am convinced God's purpose in our waiting is to learn to trust more fully in His best for us.  We need to change those wrong motives within to become someone He can use...no self-seeking ones on His team!

Our newspaper this morning has a story about one of our new NBA players to come to San Antonio.  There seemed to be a question about whether he could be a team player (which our Spurs are!)  or whether better stats for himself were his goal. The editor wrote:  "Sometimes when a player has been consumed with individual goals, he changes when he's around those who aren't".  I'm thinking that's one of God's purposes for us:  to be a part of a body of believers that glorifies Him and exemplifies in their lives their patient and constant dependence upon God.

I'm feeling a little stronger in my waiting today...how about you?

For further study: 2 Sam. 22:33,  Psalm 37:7, Psalm 40:1, Isaiah 30:18, Isaiah 40;31, Acts 1:4, Romans 8:23-25, Phil. 4:13, 1 Thess. 1:8-10, Titus 2:11-14.

Be blessed in your understanding of God's word.

Love,

Holly