Simple Thoughts

Psa 37:4 NKJV - Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart. I love Psalm 37:4.   I hear it quoted a lot.   "Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart." I think, however, that often people quote this verse because they like the latter half of the verse.   Everyone likes the idea that God would give the desires of their heart.   Most people, though, leave out the qualifier - Delight yourself also in the LORD - or they don't address it, maybe because they do not understand it.   After all, what does it mean to "delight yourself in the Lord"? I've heard many people's definitions.   Recently, I read a verse that had the phrase "delight yourself in the Lord" and believe there is a connection.   Isaiah 58:13-14 says, "If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, [From] doing your pleasure on My holy day, And call the Sabbath a delight,...

Carefully protecting. Making sure it has everything it needs. Learning exactly what makes it tick and how it responds different ways to different stimuli. Cleaning and caring for it. Everyone else may be occupied but her assignment is the secret weapon. A few days ago, and for a few months now for that matter, I've struggled with what many moms struggle with. I was watching the productivity of others around me. I was watching my husband learn new things in preparedness... HAM radio, canning, etc. I was watching others respond in disasters and help pass things out to people that were in need. Even seeing ministry opportunities that would be done easier without a baby on the hip. I was really struggling with my contribution to society, to my value to those around me. It wasn't a hard struggle. Just a every-few-days-wrestle. I understand that being a mom is the most important thing you could do but hearing that and having a heart understanding of that is very diff...

Luke 22:7-13 Then came the Day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover must be killed. And He sent Peter and John, saying, "Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat." So they said to Him, "Where do You want us to prepare?" And He said to them, "Behold, when you have entered the city, a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him into the house which he enters. Then you shall say to the master of the house, 'The Teacher says to you, "Where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with My disciples?" ' Then he will show you a large, furnished upper room; there make ready." So they went and found it just as He had said to them, and they prepared the Passover. God has been speaking to Adam and I about the issue of preparation.   For years, we have heard Him speaking to us to prepare.   We don’t always have a sense of what is coming or when, but one thing we know – He wants us to prepare.   ...

Luke 21:34 "But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly.” That Day.   What is “that day”? It’s the Day of the Lord.   The Day of His return.   In Luke 21, Jesus describes the events leading up to his return.   (See also Matthew 24). People have many opinions regarding when the return of Jesus will be.   For example, will it be before the tribulation, in the middle, after, etc.   I personally believe He will return at the seventh trumpet (seals, trumpets, bowls) to come down with the saints and make war on injustice and take His rightful place as King.   If you would like to discuss – I am more than happy to discuss the issue … just not on this blog. I want to focus this blog on being ready. Jesus tells us to take heed to ourselves - be careful, beware, be watchful, attend to yourself. Why? Because if we aren’t cautious, we...

In this blog, I want to look at a man who probably asked himself if Jesus really meant what He told him to do.   When this man asked Jesus a question and got an answer from Him, I’m sure He walked away thinking “Really? You want me to do WHAT? You cannot mean that.   You don’t know what kind of situation I’m in…” Often times, we try to reason out our way of why we shouldn’t be obligated by what Jesus commanded or taught.   We decide that our current way of living is more important… we determine that “Surely Jesus didn’t mean that to apply to ME.” Read this passage. Mark 10:17-27 Now as He was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, "Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?"   So Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one [is] good but One, [that is], God. You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery,' 'Do not murder,' 'Do not steal,' 'Do not bear ...

I’ve been asking the question, “What if Jesus meant what He said?” He gave us a new commandment when He was on the earth.   Surely that must be important.   His new commandment was for us to love one another. Jhn 13:34-35 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." Jhn 15:17 "These things I command you, that you love one another.” Okay… love one another… But what does that look like? Be nice to the people I see at church and tell them to “Be blessed!”? What does it truly look like to love one another? RIGHT after Jesus tells us to love one another as the new commandment, He tells us how.   He said, “…as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” Jesus will measure our love for one another by HIS love for us.   Whoa! And how did Jesus love us, you ask? I’m glad you asked!! C...

The complacency of Christians is the scandal of Christianity. Time is short, and eternity is long. The end of all things is at hand. Man has proved himself morally unfit to manage the world in which he has been placed by the kindness of the Almighty. He has jockeyed himself to the edge of the crater and cannot go back, and in terrible fear he is holding his breath against the awful moment when he will be plunged into the inferno. In the meantime, a company of people exist on the earth who claim to have the answer to all life’s major questions. They claim to have found the way back to God, release from their sins, life everlasting and a sure guarantee of heaven in the world to come. These are the Christians. They declare that Jesus Christ is very God of a very God, made flesh to dwell among us. They insist that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. They testify that He is to them Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification, and Redemption, and they steadfastly assert tha...