Category: Our Exceptional God

God First

Is God First In Your Life?

is God first in your life

Admittedly, there are days when I don’t spend time with God.

Sometimes there are appointments to get to or other pressing demands that take up the day.

Those aren’t excuses, mind you, and I feel disappointed in myself later.

I want to have time with God every day.

For me, that means reading the Bible and praying, but sometimes it just doesn’t happen.

That’s on me.

Has that happened to you, too?

While I do talk to God every day, I want less distractions and more devoted time to reading my Bible.

For awhile there, I was up around 4:30am in my office.

I appreciated the stillness.

Just me and God in my thoughts.

Considering all of the amazing blessings He has given me and His presence during some of the most difficult times in my life, I want to do better.

After all, giving Him all the glory is why we’re here.

The Lord Before Me

Our Sovereign God knows everything about us – including our busy schedules.

A “skip” here and there isn’t a big deal, but Satan knows how to use distractions to keep us away from our Bible studies.

With that in mind, here’s a verse to treasure from Psalm 16:8.

In the Psalm, David issues a declaration that he will make God first in his life. 

I have set the Lord continually before me;
Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. – Psalm 16:8, (NASB).

God First

The first thing I see after lifting our window shades in the morning is a sunrise.

God first

So beautiful.

I wake up and see beauty like this and it reminds me that, while I was sleeping, God was “up” the entire time and on His throne.

The bad things that are happening in our world right now – God has got this!

I found a great poem that I believe attests to this.

It’s by an anonymous Christian poet.

If I had to pick, I think the second stanza is my favorite.

God will not go back on His promises to save His faithful people.

“God hath made His saints victorious.

Sin and death shall not prevail.”

Now those are words we can count on for eternity!

Praise the Lord, Ye Heavens, Adore Him 

Praise the Lord: ye heavens, adore Him;
Praise Him, angels in the height.
Sun and moon, rejoice before Him;
Praise Him, all ye stars of light.
Praise the Lord, for He hath spoken;
Worlds His mighty voice obeyed.
Laws which never shall be broken
For their guidance He hath made.

Praise the Lord, for He is glorious;
Never shall His promise fail.
God hath made His saints victorious;
Sin and death shall not prevail.
Praise the God of our salvation;
Hosts on high, His power proclaim.
Heaven and earth and all creation,
Laud and magnify His Name.

Worship, honor, glory, blessing,
Lord, we offer unto Thee.
Young and old, Thy praise expressing,
In glad homage bend the knee.
All the saints in heaven adore Thee;
We would bow before Thy throne.
As Thine angels serve before Thee,
So on earth Thy will be done.

Anonymous Christian Poetry
Public Domain

# # # 

1Scripture quotation is from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.

Share

God’s Delightful Creatures

God’s Delightful Creatures

There’s exciting news around our house!

God's delightful creaturesMeet “Ellie” – the newest addition to our family.

Granted, this isn’t like my usual blog posts, but she’s one of God’s delightful creatures and I couldn’t wait to share her photo.

We are so thankful she’s become a part of our family.

Our new girl is a Siberian Husky and a former show dog.

We like to think that we rescued her.

Her life as a former “beauty queen” was very different from what you might expect.

She spent a lot of time traveling, staying in hotel rooms in various towns, in her crate for many hours, and she didn’t have much play time.

Today, she is a happy and spoiled “companion” dog in our home.

sweet Ellie

She’s full of energy too.

For instance, we were sitting on the couch the other day and she leapt into our laps wagging her tail and wanting to be petted.

We love her so much.

Bonus: She gets along with our other Sibe perfectly.

delightful creatures

After losing our sweet Jazz a few months ago, Ellie is a blessing.

We’re thankful to God for bringing her to us – yet one more reason we delight in Him!

# # # 

 

Share

Eyes on Him Not Them

Keep Your Eyes On Him Not Them

Have you ever heard the expression, “Keep your eyes on Him, not them”?

That means us, Church!

Let’s face it: It’s hard.

fear-mongering

It’s very difficult at times to not get caught up in the bad news and fear-mongering coming from the mainstream media, or the rampant immorality and harmful content in the entertainment world.

There’s more.

protect the innocence of children

Even in school systems across the country, there are radical programs – all of which affect the next generation.

The downward spiral of family values is heartbreaking.

Lord, please make it stop.

How can any person, any school system, any agenda, think it’s okay to steal the innocence of children?

We can’t be alright with a world that encourages these things which ultimately represents hostility towards God and His design for the human race.

Thankfully, brave and concerned parents are speaking out against this.

There’s no quick fix.

The devil fights hard.

We’ve got to be ready. 

How about a New Year’s resolution to pray more than ever before?

We need to pray to Jesus.

Not to His mother Mary nor any saint, nor any religious leader for that matter who takes our eyes off of our only Triune God who deserves our prayer and worship.

eyes on Him not them

We must keep our eyes on Him and His promises.

Whatever happens, we can’t let these upsetting changes “take over” our lives and stall us in our mission to keep praying for others, and help reach the lost for Christ.

There are many issues dividing our communities right now: abortion, gender identity, human sexuality, racial tensions, religious liberty, and education, among others. But the gospel offers a light to our path! The scriptures are full of good news about our inherent value as humans, from our mother’s womb all the way to natural death. And about how God has uniquely made men and women. And there’s good news about His design for marriage as a reflection of Christ and the church. We need to share it! As citizens, we need to be advocates for sound policy. But as we do so, we should always seek to be as bold and truthful as Jesus, and we should also always seek to be as loving in our approach. – Dobson Policy Center.

Are we ready?

# # #

– Quotation from Dobson Policy Center. “An Important Resolution for 2022.”. January 6, 2022., para. 6. Accessed 10 January 10, 2022. Retrieved from https://www.drjamesdobson.org/news/important-resolution-2022

Share

The Same God

The Same God

the same God who created the dragonfly

Have you ever looked closely at a dragonfly?

They fly pretty fast so my own close-up encounter happened one afternoon in a friend’s garage.

A dragonfly flew in and landed on a nearby box.

I was fascinated because, close-up, he was kind of adorable.

Huge eyes that look like sunglasses

A colorful body

Light, but perfect wings.

I’d never seen a dragonfly that close before.

Did you know that these fascinating insects are better skilled than any human pilot?

“No flying machine or other creature has the aerial dexterity of the dragonfly. It can fly upside-down and backwards as easily as straight ahead. And it moves so fast that researchers have to use high-speed cameras to study it.” – (Thomas, 2021)1

When you think about it even deeper, the same God who created the dragonfly also created the nations.

God created the nations

That means that the same God who created the magnificent Grand Canyon, also created the refining processes that form ocean sand.

the fingerprints of God

Look up at the night sky sometime.

There are billions of galaxies up there.

Our galaxy—the Milky Way—is a remarkable demonstration of God’s power and glory. True to its name, it appears as a faint, cloudy band stretching from the northeast to southwest in our summer night sky. A telescope reveals that this band is the combined light of over one hundred billion distant stars. Each of those stars is a “sun” much like ours. Each releases more energy in a billionth of a second than a major city on Earth could use in an entire year. And that is just our galaxy. We now estimate that there are over one hundred billion galaxies in the visible universe. Yet, God created all this merely by His spoken Word. – Courtesy of The Institute For Creation Research.2

Billions of Galaxies . . . And Us

The same God who created the galaxies, billions of them, created you and me.

the same God who created the galaxies created you and me

Thankfully, more people are catching on to this.

The fingerprints of God on creation are everywhere.

Biblical creation has always seemed foolish in the world’s eyes, but this is not because evidence for creation is lacking. The ranks of biblical creationists include researchers recognized as world-class scientists.– Courtesy of the Institute For Creation Research.3

Our God is nothing short of wonderful.

Many, Lord my God, are the wonders which You have done,
And Your thoughts toward us;
There is no one to compare with You.
If I would declare and speak of them,
They would be too numerous to count. – Psalm 40:5, (NASB).4

# # #

1Quotation from Brian Thomas, PH.D., Author, Teacher, and Research Scientist, Institute For Creation Research. From the book, Creatures by Design. “The Dexterous Dragonfly” – first printing: July 20, 2021., p. 45, para. 1. Accessed 15 December, 2021.

2Quotation courtesy of The Institute For Creation Research. From “The Knowledge of the Night”, n.d. para. 1. Web. Accessed 17 December, 2021. Retrieved from https://www.icr.org/creation-galaxy/

3Quotation from Dr. Jake Hebert, PH.D. From “Biblical Creation and Intellectual Foolishness” November 30, 2021, para. 5. Web. Accessed 15 December, 2021. Retrieved from https://www.icr.org/article/biblical-creation-and-intellectual-foolishness/

4Scripture quotation is from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.

Share

Happy New Year 2022

Wishing You a Happy New Year 2022!

You know how things can fade over time?

a shirt fades

A piece of jewelry

Your favorite shirt

An old photograph

A memory

Aren’t you thankful that God’s love for us never fades?

He does not and will not ever fade with time.

In fact, God is timeless.

His majesty is eternal.

The Lord reigns, He is clothed with majesty;
The Lord has clothed and encircled Himself with strength.
Indeed, the world is firmly established; it will not be moved.
Your throne is established from of old;
You are from eternity. – Psalm 93:1-2, (NASB).

No doubt the year 2022 will come with a lot of challenges to our country,  and even more importantly, to our faith.

Don’t let satan rob you of your joy.

The evil one will strike you where you are most vulnerable.

Our faith in Jesus and God’s Word are our strength.

With that in mind, you might want to consider reading the Bible all the way through this year with a good commentary.

You can also memorize verses in Scripture so that they’ll come to mind and encourage you when you’re under a spiritual attack.

We will all suffer for a time, but we have the return of our Savior to look forward to.

He will end all suffering and pain and, with His return, our sorrowful tears will turn to tears of joy.

For this reason, friends in Christ – we must stay strong!

From our home to yours, we wish you a very happy and safe New Year 2022!

Happy New Year 2022

# # #

1Scripture quotation is from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.

Share
1 … 22 23 24 25 26 … 93