When you feel that you are forgotten;

When you have sorrow in your heart day and night;

When you are overcome by sickness;

When you are overwhelmed by difficult circumstances;

This is how David encouraged himself in the Lord:

‘But I have trusted in your mercy (or unfailing love);

my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.

I will sing to the Lord,

because He has dealt bountifully with me.” (Psalms 13:5-6)

I always feel grateful for what God has done when I looked through my old calendar at the beginning of the year. There are so many things to be thankful. When I read my bible this morning, I found Psalms 147:13-14 describes the best.

He strengthens the bars of your gates and blesses your people within you. He grants peace to your borders and satisfies you with the finest of wheat.

O, Dear Lord: Thank you so much for your abundant blessings.  You strengthened our body, soul, and spirit, our job, our ministries, and our finance. You blessed my children, my loved ones, my brothers, and my mother. You watched over us and protected our going and coming. Peace in my house, Peace in my relationship with friends and families,  and peace in our bodies. We had a great harvest from our garden that we were able to bless others with our produce. We enjoyed eating them and were satisfied by them because these are organic and nutritious.

O Lord, once again, continue to bless us in 2018.  For

His peasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of the warrior; the Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love. (psalms 147:10-11)

In Jesus name, I pray, Amen!

My friend has been helping fix stuff in the church for years. He does not want to get paid but purely wants to serve God in His temple.

How do you feel when you receive the message from the pastor to a group of leaders: “Dear all: The thing, that was done by so&so(my friend’s name) a couple years ago, broke last night. These are the pictures I took when I walked into the hallway this morning. ………….”.

I was shocked to see this message. We have a good relationship with the pastor. The pastor often thanks for my friend’s great help. But this message makes me feel that he is blaming my friend. Is that really necessary to mention his name?  Later, it found out that it was not my friend’s work.  Even it was, what are you going to do? sue the person? or ask the person to fix it? My friend is just a volunteer, not a paid worker.

I don’t know what the pastor was thinking when he wrote this message. Maybe he didn’t think about anything…However,

“The heart of the righteous weighs its answers, “(proverbs 15:28)

“A soothing tongue [speaking words that build up and encourage] is a tree of life, But a perversive tongue [speaking words that overwhelm and depress] crushes the spirit”.(proverbs 15:4)

The pastor could have just sent the message directly to the person, or to the group without mention who did it. If it was done by my friend, he would come out to fix it.

Knowing the pastor for years, I still believe he had a good intention but his words hurt!

The Lord is good.

The Lord is good to all.

The Lord is compassionate.

The Lord has compassion on all he has made.

The Lord is slow to anger.

The Lord is rich in love.

The Lord upholds all who fall.

The Lord lifts up all who are bowed down.

The Lord gives food at the proper time to all who look to Him.

The Lord satisfies the desire of every living thing.

The Lord is near to all who call on him in truth.

The Lord fulfills the desires of those who fear Him.

The Lord watches over all who love Him.

The Lord is righteous in all his ways.

The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises.

The Lord is faithful in all he does.

We celebrate the Lord’s abundant goodness.

And joyfully sing of His righteousness.

The Lord is great.

And no one can fathom His greatness.

We will meditate on His wonderful works.

We will tell of His mighty acts.

We will tell of His power.

We will speak of the glorious splendor of His majesty.

We will speak of the glorious splendor of His Kingdom.

We will praise His name forever and ever.

So that people, generations to generations,

may know of God’s everlasting Kingdom and His mighty acts.

Jesus Christ is the Lord.

I am blessed because I am His.

(from Psalms 145)

Bless you, my sons and my daughter!

I bless you that you do not walk in the counsel of the wicked,

or stand in the way of sinners,

or sit in the seat of mockers.

For  your delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law you meditate day and night.

You will be like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season.

and whose leaf will not wither.

Whatever you do prosper!

God bless you, for the Lord watches over the way of the righteous!

~~~~psalms 1

1 Corinthians 14 teaches us …

Constantly pursue LOVE

Constantly seek the edification of the congregation

Be zealous for Spiritual things

Must seek continually prophesy & speaking in tongues

Constantly be watchful

Steadily stand firm in the faith

Habitually conduct yourselves in a courageous way

Continually increase in strength

Always be done in love

Unavoidably , we are all busy all the time. But we should be busy with things above first.

Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.(2 Corin 7:1)

Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. ¹¹ See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter.(2 Corin 7:10)

And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. ² In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.(2 Corin 8:1)

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.(2 Corin 8:9)

From these scriptures, I see the evidence of God’s grace.

God’s grace is to bring up what our inner man (or born by the Holy Spirit)  is in God. Our external conditions (either by environment or our flesh) are bad, but through God’s GRACE, we can live well and godly (the fruit of Holy Spirit).

We might be in the midst of a server tribulation (external), but through God’s Grace, we have over flowing joy.

We might be very very poor, but through God’s Grace, we still give generously.

We sin, but through God’s Grace, we repent so the area of our soul is sanctified (or saved).

Through God’s grace, our godly grief helps us to see how bad the sin has caused us, to hate sins, and to desire to turn away from it. There is no guilt, no low self-image, and no self-pity. We only feel love. God’s love softens our heart and leads us to repent so we can be redeemed.

Worldly grief leads us to hate ourselves, to feel hopeless, to feel I am no good, to feel doomed. It brings us into more darkness such as depression or become careless because there is no hope.

The Grace of God is not cheap. It is not to use to justify our sins. We sin daily so we need God’s grace daily.  It is God’s loving kindness power tool to help us overcome our sins and to transform us to be Christ-like.

 

 

Read Psalms 30

People often do counting blessings during Thanksgiving.

We should counting what God has done in our life EVERY DAY.

We forget things easily when years go by.

When I was down, I would go back to read my journal.

And I was amazed to find out how many times God has answered my prayers and how many favors God has given to me.

Then my faith is lifted up and I started to give thanks to my Lord.

From Psalm 30,

Once,  God lifted me out of the depths.

Once, God healed me.

Once, God brought me up from the realm of the dead.

Once, God spared me from going down to the pit.

Once, God turned my wailing into dancing.

Once, God removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy.

I can go on and on and on …..

When we start to count what God has done in our lives,  we start to praise God, thank God, bless God and sing to God.

Through praising, Joy of the Lord will fill our heart.

This is one of ways to be a overcomer!

 

 

Psalms 5

In Psalms 5, the trouble that David was talking about was people’s tongue.

Lies, deception, accusation, slander, threatening and etc.

For there is nothing trustworthy or steadfast or truthful in their talk; their heart is destruction [or a destructive chasm, a yawning gulf]; their throat is an open sepulcher; they flatter and make smooth with their tongue.(v.9)

What would you react?

Through my experience, I was bothered a lot by what people said about me or what I did.

When it was not true, I got upset and wanted to revenge.

I could not sleep well. All day long, I was thinking about it. It was a terrible feeling.

The more I thought about it, the worse I felt.

I would pray but it was a pitiful prayer or a self-center prayer.

However, here David praised!!!!!

But let all those who take refuge and put their trust in You rejoice; let them ever sing and shout for joy, because You make a covering over them and defend them; let those also who love Your name be joyful in You and be in high spirits.

¹² For You, Lord, will bless the [uncompromisingly] righteous [him who is upright and in right standing with You]; as with a shield You will surround him with goodwill (pleasure and favor).(v.11-12)

This is the wisdom of God~~

Take refuge in God. How? Give Praise and Thanks! Sing! Shout!

Praise what? Praise His Holy Name!!! Praise who He is.

But we are in a very bad mood, how can we pray with a joyful heart?

No. we can’t. We can’t change our mood, but we can do it by will.

That is why it is called the sacrifice of Thanksgiving!

Then the Spirit of Joy will finally come upon us and fill us.

If this becomes our lifestyle, then we will be in good health physically and are happy spiritually.

The joy of the Lord is your strength. (Neh. 8:10)

A happy heart is good medicine and a cheerful mind works healing,  but a broken spirit dries up the bones.(prov. 17:22)

We do our part—praise and thanks.

God will do His part—

1) He will make a covering over us. We will be protected.

2) He will defend us.

The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.(prov. 18:10)

3) He will bless us—fill us His joy and strengthen us.

4) He will give us favors–many many unmerited favors

So ‘take refuge in God’ is not passive action like hiding and self-pity. It is a positive response.

We don’t need to response to  the wicked person or matters.

We go to God and engage in His presence, enjoy Him.

God will take care of us.

Amos 5:1 Seek me an live

5:6 Seek the Lord and live.

5:14 Seek good, not evil, that you may live.

This is what the Lord said to Israel when judgment comes.

This will be what God’s people should do in the midst of trouble in order to live—

Seek the Lord, know His way, and obey His Word!!!

Psalms 119

(v.28) My soul is weary with sorrow; strengthen me according to your word.

(v.50) My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life.

(v.121) I have done what is righteous and just; do not leave me to my oppressors.

(v.133) Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me.

(v.144) Your statutes are always righteous; give me understanding that I may live.

(v.156) Your compassion, Lord, is great; preserve my life according to your laws.

(v.165) Great peace have those who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble.

(v.170) May my supplication come before you; deliver me according to your promise.

(v. 175) Let me live that I amy praise you, and may your laws sustain me.

(v.116) Sustain me, my God, according to your promise, and I will live.