Monday, April 23, 2012

April 23-29

Monday - Genesis 16
Tuesday - Judges 12
Wednesday- Psalm 41
Thursday- Isaiah 45
Friday-Zephaniah 1
Saturday- Acts 9
Sunday- 1 Timothy 4

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Gen 16:1 "God has not seen fit to let me have a child so...."

another example of control, over zealous selfish desire trumping the will and plan of God and again, what sad repurcussions it had. Absolute surrender. It's the catch phrase that keeps tumbling around in my head these past few weeks. No holds barred. Not holding on to certain dreams, desires, pursuits, areas that are too personal and intensely important to let go of... but absolute surrender. Thy will be done.

Unknown said...

well, I gotta admit... this morning was a dud. Couldn't settle, couldn't listen, couldn't concentrate, couldn't connect. Some mornings are just like that. Too distracted and giving priority to other thought processes. I trust I will have more moments throughout the day to be spoken to and to hear from God which is as it should be.

Unknown said...

Well, God indeed did speak to me at so many turns today. In Ellie's poetry selection, in Jona's read aloud (Snow White of all things...), and Ellie's read aloud later... and a few other places that don't come to mind right now. It was a good day, I was convicted, I repented, and experienced freedom. What more can a girl ask for :)

Unknown said...

"Blessed is God, always, always, always. Yes. Yes. Yes." Psalm 41:13

Made me think of the song "Blessed be the name of the Lord, Blessed be His glorious name." Rain or shine, blessings or sorrows, may I always be able to say, "Blessed be His name". Because He never changes and His mercies are new every morning.

Joan said...

Psalm 41:1 "Oh the joys of those who are kind to the poor!"
LAB says God wants our generosity to reflect His own free giving. As He has blessed us, we should bless others".

Unknown said...

"I'll go ahead of you, clearing and paving the road. I'll break down bronze city gates, smash padlocks, kick down barred entrances. I'll lead you to buried treasures, secret caches of valuables."

love this visual. go, God, go. lead on.

Unknown said...

wow. this really sums up something God has been teaching me SO well, something I've been pondering and trying to put my finger on for awhile now. When people get frustrated with other people, with church, with all the things that cause friction and challenge, and then choose to walk away from that, they are essentially walking away from the sanctification process. It is in the challenge of learning to be lovely amidst what you find unlovely that we morph into the kind of people God wants us to become. Only in the presence of dust or grime can pearls form.

Eugene Petersen's intro to Zephaniah:

"We humans keep looking for a religion that will give us access to God without having to bother with people. WE want to go to God for comfort and inspiration when we're fed up with the men and women and children around us...

Because the root of the solid spiritual life is embedded in a relationship between people and God, it is easy to develop the misunderstanding that my spiritual life is something person between God and me- a private thing to be nurtured by prayers and singing, spiritual readings that comfort and inspire, and worship with like-minded friends. If we think this way for very long, we will assume that the way we treat the people we don't like or who don't like us has nothing to do with God.

That's when the prophets step in and interrupt us, insisting, "Everything you do or think or feel has to do with God. Every person you meet has to do with God." WE live in a vast world of interconnectedness, an the connections hve consequences, either in things or in people- and all the consequences come together in God.

Unknown said...

Zeph chap 1.

if we lived every day in light of the fact that we might stand before Him today and be brought to account, for how we lived, how we loved (Him and others), how we worshiped, how we invested our time, money, talents), how different would our lives look. I try to live that way, in light of that. In light of eternity and What Really Matters. I feel that it is a constant underlying drive in me to live that way, to "turn aside" from the bustle and see every burning bush aflame, not to sit around and mindlessly pluck blackberries as some beautiful poet once put it. It's definitely a training/learning curve. To see beyond, to look beyond, to reach beyond the status quo.