Category Archives: Book

Devotions Hebrews- 6/8/21

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It sucks I can’t drink coffee right now, haha! But it’s a “sacrifice” I am entirely willing (and happy) to make if it is, in this condition, bad for me. (It will exacerbate my physical problem).

And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10:24-25

There are a lot of churches out there: There’s what one might say good ones, the other ones but generally, if they teach the bible they are good churches. Some churches want to save the “lost” that come in, some want to hold onto the members they have for comfortability’s sake, some want to preach and rejoice and shout the word of God! Others would rather talk about Jesus in a seemingly “quieter” manner.

I say if it’s a “full Bible” institution for everything to try to be a good faithful servant, I am all for it! What do I mean by saying “Full Bible” for a church and its believers…?

I mean as in everything it says is the word and if you leave stuff out… there will be problems with spiritual life. People will toil on and on in their old lives and there will be little or no growth within the church body.

Because like a dose of medicine for the body, the Bible is vitalizing to the soul. Growth for an individual needs to happen not just depending on other people within the body. The bible needs to be the foundation of a good church. Otherwise, there is a possibility no “good” will come from that so-called Bible church.

There is a book that I am hoping to one day read that talks about churches having the conformity of the world in them. That looks like a great one. But I was kind of surprised never thinking someone would call it one for “apologetics.”

I never thought a church like “that” would need apologetics (which explains the context of the scripture from the bible) but it clicked and totally made sense!

I feel like doing that in a supposed church is not like other religions. Those religions actually teach stuff from the bible and in loving and caring for others. They also have reasons to speak badly of the bad stuff. They teach patience, “bettering” yourself.

Yet “this” kind of place of same-minded “believers”, one that is of the world before it speaks of standing out from the world, is no different than some of the worst cults out there!

I still stand by the quick quip about fan-clubs. I’d rather risk scrutiny from the world than not give the gospel. I’d rather people spit in my face because I’m speaking against “their” truth than give my own truth and claim it’s what Jesus “wanted.”

Time is ticking churches: Do you know when Jesus will come? Will you be speaking the “truth?” Is the gospel the truth in your own heart…?

Or do you believe that the rapture is something “evil” and will claim against it meanwhile all the people in your body group might still be there when the end of ends come.

Thunder rattles sometimes as if to give us fear about what might come above. What would come “from above?”

Do not be afraid of evil or Satan, churches, but be afraid of the one who might choose to “send” you to heaven or hell.

Yes I say, fear Him!

I believe I have met Michael the archangel. Is he here to stay?

I have met a different angel as well. One who has sent such spiritual encouragement.

Thank You Lord for these tough things that help me think about what I’m doing with my own life. I can’t do anything without Your amazing love, interference, and mercy and joy!

In You I can depend on life not by my own hand or strength but because of the amazing power of when You gave us Your Son to die and rise to live again and in effect, also live in our hearts. Amen!

Devotions Micah 6:8- 6/7/21

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He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God? NKJV

(~Note: Hi. Just saying, but the earlier post was not the “surprise” hahaha. That was something to say just from a few days before. The big surprise will hopefully come sometime soon~)

A judge can sometimes be harsh yet fair. What comes down on what a person “gets” sometimes is upsetting for the one on trial.

That being said, can a person who has been given their sentence have many emotions about the cruel turn out in life? What if the sentence was death!

“No. Somebody please, take this punishment that I righteously deserve!” This can’t be the end… can it?

In life there are many things. There is happiness, joy, peace, but above all else, somehow there is grace and mercy.

Surely that isn’t all there is in life? I probably used to think that was ultimately all there is in life but there is also payment of sin and death as well.

We all have sin. Also someday we will all die.

I have a problem that could kill me. That might be disheartening to somebody but it is true. If I am careful I can get this problem treated and see if I might get better.

What else is there besides people “curing”‘ other people through medicine? There is a lot more than that!

The medicine might not be the help to my body or my “soul” haha. There is so much more to life than helping the physical body get “well” by the power of medical technology.

We need something deeper than anything this world might provide.

That is where the true thing for the soul could come for us. Maybe it’s through the power of prayer. Or maybe it is asking for help in the midst of such a tough strife like a current situation.

What if all a person needed was really in all things, love?

Be just means to let one in on consequences, show what a person has done is wrong, be tough and firm at times, and let the person know the error of their ways.

But to also love mercy makes things a little complicated, doesn’t it?

Maybe those consequences should only go so far? What if you were shown more mercy than what was shown towards that person right now…!

Things get complicated as we face “trials” and times that feel so burdensome yet familiar. But we must not lose hope. We must still pray for so-called “enemies” and see if what you’ve reflected towards them in Christ will one day be the thing they seek because their tough day might be coming soon.

And we must not walk around and tell people “I am perfect” too. That is we must be humble during our walk.

We must not forget everything that happened for us was not because it was anything we did in our lives but that it was because of what Christ has done for us!

We must not give up for our friends, for our people against us, from people who are against what we stand for, and for ourselves in the refreshing blood and mercy from Jesus.

Praise You Lord for giving me the gift of grace, which I did not deserve!

Devotions Psalm 3- 6/1/21

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Salvation belongs to the LORD. Your blessing is upon Your people. Selah Psalm 3:8 NKJV

Here is the end of Psalm 3. (Wow, it’s really the end of 3..?? I will check to make sure… yep, haha!) It seems to give a beautiful send off to the “Song” or ‘Psalm’ which here it is about the Lord and tough stuff and just seeing the wonderful power and love from the Lord.

Have you ever seen police, firefighters, or just emergency workers in the middle of situations? In tough stuff, even in danger, but they were still out there in the “fire” or living against what even their selves would normally be against?

In so many ways, that is Jesus! It was Christ who went and died for not just people who were physically hurting but for altogether the sum of the people who would die with no hope.

No chance of being saved? For mankind if they were tested, there was a 0% chance of heaven. That is horrifying even if you even just start to think about it!

So Jesus was kind of like a firefighter. He saw no hope in the situation, saw that if He did nothing, people would perish in the fire (hell) and went in and saved.

Did Jesus die in that fire? No. He had the world’s evil laid on him and took the wrath of God on Himself. But then He rose again, showing that even in eternal punishment Jesus had power over death!

Did he rescue people from the fire? Yes He did. In two different ways though (maybe I will get tot hat part in a future article. Right now if I did this article would get theologically heavy and I want to keep it in simple words for this time) but before I digress, yes he pulled people from the fire.

The “fire” being eternal punishment. Eternal and the “Second Death,” which is if someone is eternally separate from God’s love.

To be like a loving female bird and try to draw all people towards the parent and yet be rejected by so many was heart-breaking to Jesus. He loved everyone! Yet people still rejected the love that existed not just in Himself but as he would say the “Father” who he always wanted to glorify, especially if He was praised for something Himself!

It is good to if you are a Christian to glorify God and Jesus and not yourself. Boy have I got stories about being prideful! Gosh… awful.

I once was writing a big movie project and kept saying over and over “It’s amazing what I will do for you…” Oh, man. That’s terrible.

I should have kept in mind it was the Lord that brought all those things together. I was the messenger to deliver a story. It was Jesus working though me, and not myself!

Over the years though I am slowly learning to be humble and not the opposite (though pride grows in me yet again and again).

One time I happened to be wearing a shirt at work that looked like I was a lifeguard. I said in sharing though a brief bit about the subject when asked about it “I am a Christian and this shirt means something like this: Jesus is my lifeguard.”.

Jesus can pull people out of horrible worlds. He can rescue people from lives of thievery, deep and self-abating from pornography, “unaccountable” lives, people who think the only thing they can do in life to “live” is to be on drugs, struggling ones who think God doesn’t love them because they simply struggle in general, the “criers”, the easily emotional, the ones hopelessly and seeming ceaselessly depressed, the ones in deep regret because they changed but realize the change was now permanent, the ones who not only can’t afford a home- but to live every day and have food…. God can bring people to a loving state in their lives and “rescue” those people spiritually!

God can and He does because He is awesome!

He not only loves and is love but He impacts lives so personally You will be surprised the day He does.

God is blessed if we have things to share with others especially if it is to tell others of the faith because of the giving of Christ’s life.

If you’re hurting because of mistakes you’ve made, know that no matter what God still loves you! He loves you no matter what has happened.

He loves you every day. All He asks is simply to know Him by an intimate relationship through Jesus Christ.

And He can save you from the “fire” today!

Pray like this if you feel led:

Lord, I am so sorry about what has happened in these past few days months, maybe more. I realize that God your love is deeper than I thought. You really gave Your life through Your Son so that You could place Your wrath onto Him? I realize that God sending His son to die from the world’s sins is such a huge thought. But I realize He died even for my sin as well! I thank You for the chance to know Him. I pray that I will experience this new life to follow You. Please be in my life and live in my for the rest of mine. Thank you for learning that Jesus really died and then He rose again. I want to experience that life in and through Christ.

Amen. Thank you for the privilege of prayer.

If you prayed I hope Jesus is now your lifeguard. And one day you will live for Him in ways you never thought possible!

—

Devotions Near End of Psalm 3- 5/31/21

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Arise, O Lord; Save me, O my God! For You have struck all my enemies on the cheekbone; You have broken the teeth of the ungodly. Psalm 3: 7 NKJV

That phrase in that song that is a psalm (I think I will only touch on part of that verse since we do not need to include that one above, the last of Psalm 3). Salvation belongs to the Lord…

What does that mean…..?

And why was the song “The Battle belongs to the Lord” written, and what does that mean?

I think we just might find this out!

Also Note: I do know the answer just something to grab your attention!

Let’s pick apart the beginning: “Arise O Lord Save me, O my God!”

The writer seems to want to be rescued! From what? Maybe from death but is crying out for the Lord to rescue him from his situation!

A lot of times we need to be rescued. Maybe we cry out to be saved from sin. Maybe we cry out because we think God should rescue us from the peril we put ourselves in…!

But all we know is we need God. We need the Lord.

“For You have struck all my enemies on the cheekbone; You have broken the teeth of the ungodly.“…. hmm

Could this be something physical? I honestly don’t know, haha!

This could be a battle that David actually fought. All I know is God did something in His power and was not much or was little of David.

David had to see what the power of the Lord would do. He had to be weak in order for the Lord’s strength to be strong!

We must not see that strength is of ourselves alone. We must not feel that we are perfect, at least we must know that the “Perfector” in our lives is the only one changing us day to day! To all the glory be to Him and not to us or through us.

And we must know that there is a “battle” every day. But it is not a physical battle (violence), but we must recognize that every day that it is actually a spiritual battle…!

Here is a verse:

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” KJV from Ephesians 6:12.

It means that we must not be like our old selves or what we were like before Christ (or to be love and not work in other ways, like to be hateful. “Be Love”).

We should pray for our enemies, not rise up and overpower them, we should be love like the Lord, not be angry and fight people not knowing what is going on, we must hope that the hopes we have will one day open the eyes to people to see His love…!

Because salvation and the battle truly belongs to our God. “Salvation” belongs to the LORD. Amen.

Devotions Psalm 3-5/30/21

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I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the LORD sustained me. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people Who have set themselves against me all around. Psalm 3:5-6 NKJV

Ever had people get, for complicated reasons, mad at you? Ever realize that those people were because of the result of spiritual warfare?

Over the years it partially gave me a lot of emotions. And one time those emotions were getting way too much and were overwhelming.

When you have people coming after you and you just want to live for God, in a way it is a good thing to have spiritual warfare. It means you’re not sitting at home and doing nothing!

God loves when we have something like Satan rivaling what we are trying to do. He’d rather we be that way than to in our hearts and actions be seen as “lukewarm.” (Revel. 3:15-16)

Just because of that, it is secretly a good thing that God blesses.

I’ve had scary stuff happen as a result of spiritual warfare. About fifteen years ago after stopping taking my meds I took the full dose. I should have weaned myself onto them because after I took them again, hallucinations came back tenfold!

Though I may not have looked frightened I was because there were horrible things happening and I felt I couldn’t even speak to my own mother during them!

I just suffered. Yet though my mother was with me during one, I felt alone in my problem. I somehow, emotionally and as if she weren’t there, felt I was completely alone. And that was so disheartening….!

From then on things just quietly got exponentially worse, it seemed. But through it all I knew God was still there. He still loved me!

He knew what was on my heart. He also knew that I was still kind and caring even while my own church had doubts about my intentions about things.

Satan even wanted a wedge between me and people I loved and cared about too!

So what I am saying believer reader is that in any circumstance we may be facing, there might seem to be thousands that are fighting against us, but if we have the confidence in God through Christ, amazing and wonderful things could happen.

We must trust (Wow, that word hit me again last night talking to a believer!). Not trust in our own circumstances but trust in Christ.

Amen.

Devotions Psalm 3- 5/29/21

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Wow I am humbled by things about David. I never sent a man to war to die but man was I a spiritual struggler in the heart about stuff…

From the bible NKJV:

LORD, how they have increased who trouble me! Many are they who rise up against me. Many are they who say of me, “There is no help for him in God.” (Selah_) But You, O LORD, are a shield for me, My glory and the One who lifts up my head. I cried to the LORD with my voice, and He heard me from His holy hill. (Selah) Psalm 3:1-4

Have you ever struggled and tough stuff just continued? I can give you examples of that but also I can also tell of times I struggled a different battle and I cried out to God so loud and I knew He had heard me.

From a worldly perspective a person who is in peril or problems people think they should just accept their “fate” and be done with life. Or they think “Oh, that person apologized? Off with their head (Well not that dramatically, but you get what I mean)!”

We live in a strange demeaning as well as seek and destroy type of culture here in America. Everything has to be protested. People must be angry about anything they see day to day or else no one will be able to understand why they are so mad.

A woman online wanted a restaurant shut down because Caucasian people were making Korean or Asian types of food. It made her furious (on Twitter, bet you didn’t see that coming…..? sarcasm) and because of cultural appropriation, some “rule” where people who are actually in and a part of the culture have to actually be the ones showing that culture she wanted the place gone since those people were doing something she saw as wrong.

Sometimes if people don’t get what they want they will get more people to fight alone with them. They will “increase” their numbers so more will see their plight and join in.

It is bad to publicly apologize it seems nowadays. Because others think it’s like you exposed a vein in your neck and so ones will say “Welp, they admitted it, let’s ‘bleed them dry’!”

There seems to be no accepting, forgiveness, and love, at least in most of the news.

Is it just the Lord who forgives now…? At least people had some form of values in the past. Forgiving was seen as a nice thing. It may not have been real biblical forgiveness seen in this culture in America but at the very least on shows in television, etc., there was media publicly “practicing” it!

Life, love, freedom from peril (at least for a while), and seeking the Lord for a dwelling place with Him was something David was all about!

Apparently it says in my bible that he wrote Psalm 3 while fleeing from Absalom who was getting ready to usurp the throne from David!

David was a king in Israel but fell after letting himself be tantalized by lusts. He went out of his way (!) to get onto the roof of his house and peered over in hopes of seeing something. He saw Bathsheba, nude.

Then he coveted in his heart, I must take her. I want her! After doing many awful things including sending a man to war to die who was her husband, he then took her for himself.

After God punished David, now he was facing consequences. His family as a result of His punishment was thrown into chaos, violence, and some death! David walked every day knowing this happened because of the awful things he did while reflecting a king (a knower of the Lord) in Israel.

If you are curious about David’s plight, read 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel in the bible: It is both amazing and sad to read the things that happened in his life!

So maybe ones David suggested said “There is no help for him in God.” had a shallow view that a lot of people felt in Israel. But that was something that Israelites did towards people who didn’t deserve any form of punishment. This was David!

King David was facing consequences for his actions. He was still being protected by the Lord (the “shield”) being His glory and being the one who “lifts up” his head when he was feeling overcome and weary by circumstances. He probably felt afraid yet encouraged that the Lord somehow was still with him, terrified at the actions he had were now turned into patterns he was facing because of his sin, and maybe humbled that He cried out to God and was heard from the “holy hill.”

Have you ever cried out to God from your circumstances? I have. I was so deep in sin I wanted some way out. I got so fed up with myself and had no one in my family to turn to so instead I threw myself onto my bed and, not just yelled to God, I cried out so loud!

I am known as a usually “quiet” person but in this case I yelled in desperate prayer so loud in my head I think the heavens heard me!

I realized after that moment I didn’t just pray to God but lamented, poured out my spirit, and I screamed because I found out I was broken and could not live without Christ.

Have you ever heard of Roman culture? The people there had many desires towards others who were winners of battles. Immoral, feelings, lusts towards the ones who won. The human body is an amazing thing but ones should not look intimately or ponder about it for too long…

Well I was like David as I coveted in my heart and had thoughts I knew were not good. I also went “out of my way” to see them, not just imagine them!

Recently a bunch of months back I checked out a “figure” online. That one was just like Bathsheba! I heard that something controversial had happened and a person who was active on social media was actually secretly on the side sharing vids and images to someone they didn’t know. I had heard for a while there was some content that people could possibly find online, so I went and sook that person out. Then I desired. Wanted. Thought I “needed” that person though it was just lustful thoughts.

Man was that wrong! It was disgusting. Messed up. And I realized that all I did was give in to stuff that was seemingly seductive in its so-called “best” places and yet actually demonic in its worst places…!

And then I battled and fought a lot not just against staying away but internally in my heart as well.

Wow this has ended up more humbling than I thought it would be! I started writing this not thinking I would share about the blog note above.

So apply your life to Psalm 3. Think of what you’ve learned. Take time to read the bible for your own spiritual life!

And also know we must live for good not because we seem good but because God makes us better and better through his Son Jesus every time we ask Him to help us! Whether we are asking for forgiveness or guidance, or if we need Him for the first time! Jesus will come and rescue you.

Cry out and He will answer you, if you are truly sorry…

Devotions Finishing Psalm 2- 5/28/21

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Now therefore, be wise, O kings; Be instructed, you judges of the earth, Serve the LORD with fear, And rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, And you perish in the way, When His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him. Psalm 2:10-12 NKJV

Wisdom is applied knowledge. Have you ever used what you know and put it to good use? I don’t know how many times I have been the opposite. That didn’t help with growth, as after a while it was like going in circles.

We should apply to our lives what we know and use it to mature otherwise we will not be helped by fully living for God.

The first part of the tenth verse says to be “wise, O kings.” If we know Jesus we must also know we are special to God also. We are like royalty.

The kings here are being told to serve the Lord with a full heart. That is they must “serve the LORD with fear… rejoice with trembling.” Now I don’t know if you saw what I said earlier. I happened to talk about fearing the Lord.

That we must fear the Lord because if we don’t we will not care about whether what we do every day or not is in our hearts wrong. It is, for example, bad to go back and sin again and again because an attitude in that could be “Well I can do that cuz Jesus will forgive me afterwards.” But if you do that, are you truly in your heart actually sorry you did it? No. And that’s not good at all.

That’s not a good attitude and that is not fearing the Lord

Anyway onwards into the verses it says to “kiss the Son,” Love the Lord Jesus. We should honor and love Him before we make any decisions in life.

If we reflect something that the Lord doesn’t and we in effect are being terrible, then as a consequence He will be angry.

I just looked up what “lest” means from the bible (I am learning about as much as you are reader, hahaha) and it says from yourdictionary.com:

Lest is defined as something done in order to avoid an undesirable consequence.

Consequences are not good if they come from the Lord. Sometimes He will be angry with what we do so we have to be careful and live in the Spirit and not of something that is not good. We must also learn to love and not strike out on others in an unhealthy manner, let’s say, if we get angry. Let us always strive and live for Christ. We cannot fail if all our goals are for Him and to have a desire to do actions through Him.

So we must love the Lord our God or else we could face some terrible consequences.

Let’s put all our trust in Him and be blessed! I hope you are doing well today.

Devotions Psalms 2:7-9 5/27/21

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“I will declare the decree: The LORD has said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will give You The nations for Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth for Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.’ ” Psalms NKJV

Ever felt that it is right to rebel, against society, against what our parents or what people in this world say is “right” according to them? In everyone we have each done our own things to rebel while others said what we were doing was not good.

It’s too easy to feel that pull and break away from the crowd and follow your own path. Believe me I’ve done so as a teenager in my own life.

A source I found online seems to directly speak about Psalm 2 as an overview. I had trouble pinning down what this entire chapter was about personally so here is someone’s idea below:

“Psalm 2 is a celebration of the unquestionable supremacy of God and his Messiah over all the rebellious forces of humanity. To attempt rebellion against God is absurd, because God has already decided the matter and has invested his power and authority into a human king, his Messiah.” ~ bitesizedexegesis.com

So God is supreme over all of humanity. That is deep and it states a lot in just that one paragraph describing the 2nd Psalm. To hear He is supreme over even the rebellious sides of humanity sounds kind of like He has an umbrella of protection over in this case Israel. They all dwell under Him whether they want to live for Him or not.

God does have the final say over our lives. The question is: Do we have to respond to live faithfully?

Yes though I admit I have “run off” and done my own things as well. We must not conform to the world but to God’s ways: There is no greater path than the one that is straight and narrow!

This section of the chapter also talks of David (according to the book of Acts, this book is actually written by David) begetting the nations as inheritance.

“Beget” usually means someone that is birthed by reproduction, but it seems to be used here to mean spiritually given an inheritance. To be “begotten” so that there is now a relationship with the Lord and anything asked if by His will would be a blessing.

God wants us to live for Him. Through His son Jesus we can have that relationship to have access to His will and live in Him for the rest of our lives until the ends of the earth come. Let’s submit to the supreme One who only wants to guide us in life and loves us deeply.

That is my will in Him today and I hope it is yours or will be yours as well!

Psalm 23 *Part 2 5/26/21

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I hope you can see this as well as the first part. For some reason it seems this site only allows one post to be visible a day. Hope that’s not true but it seemed I had no views on the last one when I did this yesterday; there were views only on part 2 for some reason….

“(the) Rod and (the) Staff they comfort me.” For the Lord’s rod and staff comfort David.

What in the world are the “rod” and “staff”?

To truly understand that aspect you have to think in the mind again of a shepherd.

A “staff” is used to help guide the flock. There are many times the sheep will wander wherever they want. But the shepherd makes sure while they find fresh grass and nourishment that they are heading the right way.

A “rod” is used for an interesting purpose. It might to some be not good: many parents may think to not punish a child, yet that kid becomes so spoiled years down the road they think that whatever is coming to them they are won undeservedly.

The rod is used for sheep not doing what they are supposed to. Anyone ever got a whooping? As in, did anyone ever get spanked for doing wrong?

I have. It was humiliating.

Yet I needed it because I was not doing the right thing.

The rod is to give a member of a flock a smacking if needed. But it is probably like a tap on the “sheepy” behind, haha……..

Anyway I was digressing. Further more is just some more words that are great because it is from the Bible.

Could God be preparing a feast now? Could be. Might be.

“(He prepares) a table before me in the presence of my enemies;…”

What is this? Is there a big feast coming? A big celebration? I am not totally sure here, all I know is it might be describing a feast at the end of times.

The end of the world.

Then it continues. Here there is a semicolon being used. For that part of the verse and then with the part following. That means that the two sentences are closely related (sorry my “teacher” side is coming out now, lol!).

“ies; You anoint my head with oil: My cup runs over.”

There are many blessings from God that come just from following Him and staying as true to His word as humanly possible. Sure we may sin time to time (we even unintentionally sin too. And also never say “I am perfect” because that’s a sin too!) but as long as we wait on His promises, keep goals we might have for Him, we can see amazing things in our lives.

Wow that was a tangent! Sorry, haha.

And in that it is sure that “goodness and mercy shall” be in tune with us all the days we are here and alive.

We should also know that we are in a dwelling if we live for Christ. We will also feel that we will live in spirit and in truth in “the house of the LORD forever.”

Do you want to truly live for God? Or maybe do you think if you follow the Lord you could win a million dollars? Just know to ask for God’s help in all times of trouble ask for God’s mercy if you end up weak, but strive and abound in His peace. He the Lord just wants to help you.

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”

Just ask God for what you wish and as long as it fits His will for you He will do great things. Amen!

Devotions Psalms 23

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The famous Shepherd Psalm. What is so beautiful about this passage, the entirety of the chapter is it not only paints a beautiful picture of calmness and serenity in the peace of God but that it is written during times of trouble.

The writer David was being pursued to being murdered by King Saul. But in all of this he was at peace in knowing that his heart was with the Lord no matter what.

To live wholeheartedly for Christ isn’t just practice per se it’s actually not even “practice” in a way at all. It’s giving up on what we expect and putting complete and total faith in Jesus Christ. Trust and to remember He is good no matter what should happen even if it might end up tragic.

Let’s break it down verse by verse!

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. What could this mean??

It means to desire the world or at least desire things in the world at all times. We should even if we may or may not be believers not be enslaved to either our old selves and only want old sins or to live not in Christ but have a heart that reflects a person that is in the world.

We shall not want. We should desire at least wanting to live for the Lord.

He (has) me lie down in green pastures. Doesn’t that sound peaceful? It sounds like the pastures are almost like a calm bed to lie in after a day’s work and the lying down makes one feel so good. Like a bed of relief! Or a place of peace.

…”Leads me beside still waters.” In the original version of my text it says “the” still waters.

In case all of this imagery is making one wonder David was a shepherd. He here is talking about being like a sheep and all of these things being as if he is being guided by a “Shepherd’ only this Shepherd being described is God.

So much being described is what a shepherd does for not only the flock but the care towards each individual sheep of that flock.

Could these still waters mean that the great Shepherd is guiding people towards a peaceful place. A place to be restored by the water. The water that is needed for living life? Here it could be that not only is it good for physical restoration but spiritual.

“…restores my soul; (and) leads me in the paths of righteousness“

What is your belief in that? Can God actually take a person who merely believes with all their heart and lead them in righteousness. It can only be by one way!

“…for His name’s sake.“ Wow this feel’s prophetic in a way! I don’t think I rarely ever hear a book of the Old Testament say that God has a name. That is astounding! But David probably didn’t know that that name was (Jesus. The good shepherd).

David was talking also about how He is restored in Him. But we could say we can apply this to now. Living for goodness that is God through the Lord.

“Truly, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death” Whoa, is this about hardships or is this just some imagery? “I won’t fear evil for You’re with me.”

Was David facing possible death from King Saul’s hands? Then why was he at such peace in the midst of all those circumstances?

I used to be afraid of many things. I didn’t know how to deal with them until I started to be a stronger person in faith. This was not really because of any specific ritual or thinking patterns… I started to pray to the Lord and then scares about things as seemingly little as very stormy weather had me over time experience the peace and living while keeping my soul focus off those storms and praying that He would keep me safe. That is kind of like Peter from the bible only he took his eyes off of someone to trust and then sunk like a stone in the water because of the stormy terrors around him.

Are you afraid of the circumstances going on around in this world? Pray. Maybe God will open something for you in your life.