April 29, 2020

SING TO THE LORD

Psalms 103:33-34 (104:33-34)

I will sing to the Lord all my life;
I will sing to my God as long as I exist;
May my words be pleasing to Him,
And I shall be glad in the Lord.

Personal Challenge

Is it really possible to sing to the Lord in days like we are in today? Dealing with a pandemic, sequestered in our homes, some of us laid off from work, conspiracy theorists, and those loving anarchy ramping up. So many see these as hard and difficult times. But are they? We are not being pulled from our homes and sent to concentration camps because we proclaim Christ as our Lord. We are not being branded and sent to gas chambers because of our nationality. We are still free, just being asked to do what is deemed prudent to curtail an unprecedented virus. Yes, it is an inconvenience. Yes, in some cases it means an impact on our income. But is truth, we have so much that we can sing to our Lord about. Maybe we should focus our energies and our commentaries on praising our Lord for all that He has done for us and given to us rather than focusing on conspiracies and rantings that tickle our ears and make us feel superior to others. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

April 28, 2020

MERCY AND RIGHTEOUSNESS

Psalms 102:17-18 (103:17-18)

But the mercy of the Lord is from age to age upon those who fear Him,
And His righteousness upon children's children,
To such as keep His covenant
And remember His commandments, to do them.

Encouraging Words

God is faithful, even if we are not. He gives His mercy and righteousness to us when we keep His covenants. And when we do not, He remains ready to forgive us of our sins because He loves us. Glory be to God!

April 26, 2020

OUR SINS AND TRANSGRESSIONS

Psalms 102:10-13 (103:10-13)

He did not deal with us according to our sins,
Nor reward us according to our transgressions;
For according to the height of heaven from earth,
So the Lord reigns in mercy over those who fear Him;
As far as the east is from the west,
So He removes our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion on his children,
So the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him,

Encouraging Words

We have so much to be thankful for when it comes to God's compassion toward us who fear Him. We sin and transgress against Him. Sometimes we do this without intending to, but usually, it is our defiant choices that we make. God, however, does not deal with us according to what we deserve for those sins and transgressions. Instead, He pours out His mercy and compassion on us. He removes our sins from us. He shows us His love. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

April 25, 2020

Saint of the Week

St. John Climacus

April 24, 2020

HOW TO BE

Psalms 102:8 (103:8)

The Lord is compassionate and merciful,
Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.

Personal Challenge

Since this passage praises our Lord for being compassionate and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy, then why am I categorizing this as a personal challenge. Because, as a follower of Christ, we are expected to become like Him. To live our lives in such a way so as to be Him to those around us. This means that I too must be compassionate and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy. This is indeed the personal challenge. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

April 23, 2020

BLESS THE LORD, O MY SOUL

Psalms 102:1-6 (103:1-6)

Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And everything within me, bless His holy name.
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget not all His rewards:
Who is merciful to all your transgressions,
Who heals all your diseases,
Who redeems your life from corruption,
Who crowns you with mercy and compassion,
Who satisfies your desire with good things;
And your youth is renewed like the eagle's.
The Lord shows mercies
And judgment to all who are wronged.

Encouraging Words

Once again, the Psalmist reminds us of how much we have to be thankful for. We are indeed blessed by our Lord. He pours out His mercy, healing, and redemption upon us. He crowns us, meets our desires for the good things, and renews our strength. We are His and He deserves our blessings. Glory be to God!

April 22, 2020

WHEN WILL YOU COME

Psalms 100:2 (101:2)

I will sing and understand in a blameless way;
When will You come to me?
I walked in the innocence of my heart in the midst of my house.

Personal Challenge

Every year we go through the Lenten and Paschal cycle where we remember Jesus and all that He did to defeat death on our behalf. We also look forward to that day when He will return to take us to our true home and put away the misery of this fallen world. Do we sing and understand in a blameless way that He is coming and we need to be ready for Him to arrive? Do we spend our lives walking in the innocence of heart that we should be walking to be prepared for Him? This is our personal challenge. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy as me, the sinner!

April 20, 2020

SHOUT ALOUD

Psalms 99 (100)

Shout aloud to the Lord, all the earth;
Serve the Lord with gladness;
Come before Him with great joy.
Know this: the Lord, He is God;
He made us, and not we ourselves;
We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving
And into His courts with hymns;
Give thanks to Him; praise His name;
For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting,
And His truth is from generation to generation.

Encouraging Words

Bad things do happen to us. We are caught in pandemics. There are tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, and other calamities. We lose our jobs and our loved ones. Life can be harsh. But in all of this, we can still shout aloud about the beauty of our Lord and how much He loves us. We can shout about His goodness and mercy proclaiming it in our lives. Glory be to God!

April 18, 2020

Saint of the Week

St. Mark the Ascetic

April 17, 2020

HATE EVIL

Psalms 96:10 (97:10)

You who love the Lord, hate evil;
The Lord keeps the souls of His saints;
He shall deliver them from the hand of sinners.

Personal Challenge

Jesus charged us with two commandments. They are to love God and love our neighbor. Everything that we do is supposed to be couched in these two commandments and every other rule or guidance that we are given needs to be based on this love. So when we see the statement, "hate evil", it does not mean that we hate the person who is doing evil. We hate evil, but we are to love the person. This can definitely be a challenge. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

April 16, 2020

ENCOURAGEMENTS

Psalms 93:19 (94:19)

O Lord, according to the abundance of grief in my heart,
Your encouragements consoled my soul.

Encouraging Words

One of the beautiful things about our God is that He is not all about rules and regulations. He is about relationships. He loves us. That is the bottom line and the whole story. He loves us. In that love, He is there to console our soul through His encouragements. Glory be to God!

April 15, 2020

NO WRONGDOING IN GOD

Psalms 91:16 (92:15)

So as to proclaim, “The Lord my God is upright,
And there is no wrongdoing in Him.”

Encouraging Words

We believe in, and worship, a God who has always been righteous and upright. He has always been pure and without blemish. He is the One who created us in His image and it was us that spoiled that image. And yet, He still loves us and is constantly wiping the mud of sin off of His precious children, His diamonds in the rough. Glory be to God!

April 14, 2020

GOD WILL...

Psalms 90:14-16 (91:14-16)

“For he hoped in Me, and I will deliver him;
I will shelter him, because he knew My name.
He shall call upon Me, and I will hear him;
I am with him in affliction,
And I will deliver and glorify him.

With length of days I will satisfy him,
And show him My salvation.”

Encouraging Words

What a blessing, what rewards, we receive for putting our hope in God. He promises to deliver us, to shelter us, to hear us, to be with us in our affliction, to deliver and glorify us, to give us length of days, and to be our salvation, when we put our hope in Him. Glory be to God!

April 13, 2020

OVERSHADOWED

Psalms 90:4 (91:4)

He shall overshadow you with His shoulders,
And under His wings you shall hope;
His truth shall encircle you with a shield.

Encouraging Words

I am so thankful that I was blessed with the opportunity to grow up in a rural community, with farm animals, gardens, and orchards to tend. These life experiences have made it so much easier to understand so much of the imagery in the scriptures. When you see a mother cow overshadowing her young calf and protecting that precious offspring with all of her being you see the love of God in this portion of the verse toward His children, us. When you see a mother hen collect her chicks under her wings to guard and protect them, you see God's desire to protect us and care for us. God is the one who loves and protects us with His shield. Glory be to God!

April 12, 2020

GOD'S HELP

Psalms 90:1 (91:1)

He who dwells in the help of the Most High
Shall lodge in the shelter of the God of heaven.

Personal Challenge

Once again, we are reminded that we are to put our trust, our hope, in our Lord, the Most High. It is so easy to abandon this and put our hope in ourselves, or the government, or anyone or thing else other than God. Putting our trust and hope in God alone is what it means to dwell in the help of the Most High. When we truly do this, our lodging will be His shelter, which nothing can prevail against. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

April 11, 2020

Saint of the Week

St. Anthony the Great

April 10, 2020

REMEMBER ME, O LORD

Psalms 88:48-49 (89:47-48)

Let my substance be remembered, as to what sort it is,
For did You create all the sons of men in vain?
What kind of man is there who will live and not see death?
Will he deliver his soul from the hand of Hades?

Personal Challenge

The Psalmist knows that there is no one who can escape death except God alone. He knows that because of our sinfulness we are destined for Hades. That is why he pleads to God to remember him, to remember that he was created by God and that God does not create anything in vain. That is why he, and we like him, can call out to our Lord to remember us, o Lord when we die. We also plea that God remembers the work His Son did to deliver our souls from the hand of Hades. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner and remember me!

April 9, 2020

BUT YOU, O LORD...

Psalms 85:15 (86:15)

But You, O Lord, are compassionate and merciful,
Longsuffering and very merciful and truthful.

Encouraging Words

I feel sorrow and compassion for many of my western Christian friends who have embraced the doctrine that our Lord is an angry and judgmental God. The teaching goes so far as to say that He had to kill His only Son in order to pay off His anger toward us. I am so appreciative that in our eastern Christian teaching we see our Lord as loving, compassionate, and merciful. We are taught that Jesus became incarnate and died for us so that He could put eternal death, or separation from God to death. He broke the bonds of death that were the result of Adam and Eve's sin so that we could all have life, abundant and eternal life. Glory be to God!

April 7, 2020

GIVE THANKS

Psalms 85:12 (84:12)

I will give thanks to You, O Lord my God, with my whole heart,
And I shall glorify Your name forever;

Personal Challenge

What do we have to give thanks to God for? Everything! We have nothing in our lives that does not originate from Him. Even the very breath that we take and the beat that our heart produces comes from Him. I shall glorify His name forever!

April 6, 2020

TURN US O GOD

Psalms 84 (85)

O Lord, You were pleased with Your land; You turned back the captivity of Jacob;
You forgave the transgressions of Your people;
You covered all their sins. (Pause)
You ended all Your wrath;
You turned from the wrath of Your anger.
Turn us, O God of our salvation,
And turn away Your anger from us.
Will You be angry with us forever,
Or will You prolong Your anger from generation to generation?
O God, You will turn and give us life,
And Your people will be glad in You.
Show us Your mercy, O Lord,
And grant us Your salvation.
I will hear what the Lord God will speak in me,
For He will speak peace
To His people and to His holy ones,
And to those who turn their heart to Him.

His salvation is very close at hand to those who fear Him,
That glory may dwell in our land.
Mercy and truth met together;
Righteousness and peace kissed each other;
Truth arose from the earth,
And righteousness looked down from heaven.
For the Lord will give goodness,
And our land shall yield its fruit.
Righteousness shall go before Him
And establish His footsteps as our pathway.

Encouraging Words

This is a Psalm that could apply to our lives today. First of all, I will not jump on the bandwagon proclaiming that God is using this pandemic to punish us for our sinful ways. That is not the God that I worship. Secondly, if we proclaim to be followers of Christ then we must remember that we are citizens of the heavenly kingdom and now living as ambassadors for Him on this earth. It is our responsibility as ambassadors to represent Him, especially in times such as this pandemic. How do we do this? By loving our neighbor and taking care of those in need around us. By being beacons of hope showing to everyone around us that our God has our eternal lives in His strong and protective hands. By being obedient to the laws of the land that He has placed us in, as His representatives. Now is the time for His followers to turn to Him and really follow in His footsteps, even to the cross, for Him and our neighbor. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

April 5, 2020

BLESSED IS THE MAN

Psalms 83:12-13

For the Lord God loves mercy and truth;
He will give grace and glory;
The Lord's hand will not remove good things from those who walk in innocence.
O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man who hopes in You.

Encouraging Words

Do we want to be blessed by our God? Do we want to see His hand at work in our lives? I believe we all do have this desire. We receive this blessing by putting our hope in Him. We put all of our dependency on Him and not ourselves or the things of this world. This means we shift our focus off of what is going on around us, no matter how good or how bad, and put our focus on Him. He is our God and He loves mercy and truth. He will give us His grace and His glory. He will bless us if we walk in innocence, or humility, before Him. Glory be to God!

April 4, 2020

Saint of the Week

St. John Chrysostom

April 3, 2020

BLESSED DWELLINGS

Psalms 83:2-3 (84:1-2)

How beloved are Your dwellings, O Lord of hosts.
My soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord;
My heart and my flesh greatly rejoice in the living God.

Encouraging Words

In these unprecedented days of the closure of schools, businesses, and even our churches, we might begin to think that our Lord has abandoned us. That is not so. The Psalmist reminds us that the dwellings of our Lord of hosts are beloved. He also cries out saying that our soul longs and faints to be in the courts of the Lord. Skip ahead in time to our Lord Jesus Christ and we are told by Him that He will dwell in our hearts until He comes again. Our hearts are the dwellings of the Lord of hosts that are beloved and we can meet Him there, in His courts, every moment of every day. Think about it! Glory be to God!

April 1, 2020

GOD'S COUNSEL

Psalms 72:24 (73:24)

With Your counsel You guide me,
And with glory You take hold of me.

Personal Challenge

So, if I never spend time with God, in worship, in prayer, in the reading of His scriptures, then how will I ever receive His counsel? I will not. Our relationship with God is not just a one-sided relationship with Him doing all the work. We must engage Him, pursue Him, submit to Him if we are to receive His counsel and glory. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

April 2, 2020

O GOD OF MY HEART

Psalms 72:26-27 (73:26-27)

My heart and my flesh fail,
O God of my heart; and God is my portion forever.
For behold, those who keep themselves far away from You shall perish;
You destroy away from You all who act unfaithfully.

Personal Challenge

Is my God the God of my heart or just something that makes me feel good when I need Him? Is my relationship with Him a total commitment or one that is based on my fickle whims? Have I given my all to Him? If we live our lives with our hearts of stone and our fleshly desires only, we will fail. By loving this way we will find ourselves far away from Him, perishing, and feeling destroyed. Jesus promised us that if we follow Him and abandon this world, this life of the flesh, that He will replace our heart of stone with a heart for God, a new heart. Now is the time to abandon the world and to pursue Him! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

March 31, 2020

FROM MY MOTHER’S WOMB

Psalms 70:6 (71:5)

By You I have been supported from birth;
From my mother's womb You have been my protector;
My song shall be always of You.

Encouraging Words

It is so encouraging to know that our relationship with God doesn't start when we say some prayer or make some kind of a decision. He was there when we were formed in our mother's womb and He will be with us through­out eternity. He has always, and always will, be our protector. Thank you, God!

March 30, 2020

IN GOD I HOPE

Psalms 70:1-3 (71:1-3)

O God, in You I hope; may I never be put to shame.
Deliver me in Your righteousness, and set me free;
Incline Your ear to me and save me.
Be to me a God for protection
And a strong place for salvation,
For You are my foundation and my refuge.

Encouraging Words

I love how the Psalmist so often praises the Lord for the wonderful things He does and at the same time words it in such a way so as to be pleading with God to do those things. It is our God that we put our hope, not man. It is our God who will deliver us, set us free, hear us and save us, protect us, and be our strong foundation. He is our hope. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

March 28, 2020

Saint of the Week

St. Paisios

March 27, 2020

FOLLOWING HIM

Psalms 62:9 (63:8)

My soul follows close behind You;
Your right hand takes hold of me.

Personal Challenge

It is one thing to say that we are a follower of Christ, and it is an entirely different thing to actually follow Him wherever He leads. We have so many apostles, disciples, saints, and martyrs that have shown us that the path of Christ is not an easy path. It is a path of sacrifice and humility. For Christ, it was a path that led to the cross. What the Psalmist is saying here is that to be a follower of our Lord we must be walking close behind Him, our footsteps in His footsteps, giving up our selves, and taking hold of His strong, guiding hand. Glory be to God!

March 26, 2020

HIS MERCY

Psalms 62:4 (63:3)

Because Your mercy is better than life,
My lips shall praise You.

Encouraging Words

His mercy is better than life. Life on this earth is temporary. We have a life of eternity before us. A life that has the promise of no more pain, no more sorrow, no more sickness. It is because of this promise and the mercy that we are given by the owner of that promise, that our lips shall praise Him. Glory be to God!