Archives

Exulting Joy

Jan5

 But let all who take refuge in You be glad,
Let them ever sing for joy;
And may You shelter them,
That those who love Your name may exult in You. — Psalm 5:11

Sometimes we just need to be reminded to run to the Lord. Thankful that God’s Word is there to lead us. When we’re down and our heart is heavy, no matter the reason, we can take refuge in the Lord. It is there that we find gladness, joy that makes our heart sing and the realization that in Him we can rejoice.

Do you love the Lord? Seek His shelter and you will delight, glory and revel in His name.

To God be the glory! For in our despair He brings joy as we dwell on Him.

Continually seeking Him,

Sharon

Conviction And The Gospel

Jan4

And now, behold, bound by the Spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me. But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God. — Acts 20:22-24

How strong is your conviction to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

Continually seeking Him,

Sharon

Seek And Wait Silently

Jan3

The Lord is good to those who wait for Him,
To the person who seeks Him.
It is good that he waits silently
For the salvation of the Lord. — Lamentations 3:25-26

How are your waiting skills? Waiting and seeking brings to mind a quiet time. Time in the still of the morning before the hectic, demanding day begins to be still. To seek the Lord and His face. To wait in quiet anticipation for Him to speak to you.

How does He speak? With a quiet voice. How do you hear? With a quiet, still heart.

Many people received devotionals for Christmas presents. Have you opened yours? Have you begun this new years journey seeking Jesus through His Word? Devotions are a step, an easy step, to getting something from God’s Word everyday.

It is good for us to seek and wait. The Lord says so.

Continually seeking Him,

Sharon

Psalm 146

Jan2

Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
2 I will praise the Lord while I live;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.
3 Do not trust in princes,
In mortal man, in whom there is no salvation.
4 His spirit departs, he returns to the earth;
In that very day his thoughts perish.
5 How blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
Whose hope is in the Lord his God,
6 Who made heaven and earth,
The sea and all that is in them;
Who keeps faith forever;
7 Who executes justice for the oppressed;
Who gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets the prisoners free.

8 The Lord opens the eyes of the blind;
The Lord raises up those who are bowed down;
The Lord loves the righteous;
9 The Lord protects the strangers;
He supports the fatherless and the widow,
But He thwarts the way of the wicked.
10 The Lord will reign forever,
Your God, O Zion, to all generations.
Praise the Lord! — Psalm 146

Burning Books

Jan1

And many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of everyone; and they counted up the price of them and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing. — Acts 19:19-20

Could there be books in your life that are stunting the spread of the gospel? Is there entertainment, be it music we listen to, movies we watch, games we play that fill our minds and hearts with fantasy, temptation, things contrary to the Word of God?

I think the new year is a good time to do some burning. The weather outside is conducive to a fire and the fire in our soul could use some refueling by stoking it with the Word of God.

What’s in your life that is inhibiting the consuming fire of the gospel of Jesus Christ?

Continually seeking Him,

Sharon

Remember And Hope

Dec31

Psalm 33 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

33 Sing for joy in the Lord, O you righteous ones;
Praise is becoming to the upright.
2 Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre;
Sing praises to Him with a harp of ten strings.
3 Sing to Him a new song;
Play skillfully with a shout of joy.
4 For the word of the Lord is upright,
And all His work is done in faithfulness.
5 He loves righteousness and justice;
The earth is full of the lovingkindness of the Lord.

6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
And by the breath of His mouth all their host.
7 He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap;
He lays up the deeps in storehouses.
8 Let all the earth fear the Lord;
Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.
9 For He spoke, and it was done;
He commanded, and it stood fast.
10 The Lord nullifies the counsel of the nations;
He frustrates the plans of the peoples.
11 The counsel of the Lord stands forever,
The plans of His heart from generation to generation.
12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,
The people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance.

13 The Lord looks from heaven;
He sees all the sons of men;
14 From His dwelling place He looks out
On all the inhabitants of the earth,
15 He who fashions the hearts of them all,
He who understands all their works.
16 The king is not saved by a mighty army;
A warrior is not delivered by great strength.
17 A horse is a false hope for victory;
Nor does it deliver anyone by its great strength.

18 Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him,
On those who hope for His lovingkindness,
19 To deliver their soul from death
And to keep them alive in famine.
20 Our soul waits for the Lord;
He is our help and our shield.
21 For our heart rejoices in Him,
Because we trust in His holy name.
22 Let Your lovingkindness, O Lord, be upon us,
According as we have hoped in You.

As we leave behind 2014, remember the great things God has done, the greatest of which was Jesus. We just celebrated the birth of our Lord six days ago and now we look forward to 2015 with hope for what lies ahead. What greater hope can we possibly have than the hope we have in Jesus. May your New Year be filled with the hope found only in Jesus Christ.

Continually seeking Him,

Sharon

Blessed Be

Dec30

Thus says the Lord,
“Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind
And makes flesh his strength,
And whose heart turns away from the Lord.
“For he will be like a bush in the desert
And will not see when prosperity comes,
But will live in stony wastes in the wilderness,
A land of salt without inhabitant.
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord
And whose trust is the Lord.
“For he will be like a tree planted by the water,
That extends its roots by a stream
And will not fear when the heat comes;
But its leaves will be green,
And it will not be anxious in a year of drought
Nor cease to yield fruit. — Jeremiah 17:5-8

Where will you place your trust in the coming year? What will your harvest be this time next year? The choice is yours. Cursing or blessing.

Continually seeking Him,

Sharon

Hope And Justice

Dec29

So there is no justice among us,
    and we know nothing about right living.
We look for light but find only darkness.
    We look for bright skies but walk in gloom.
We grope like the blind along a wall,
    feeling our way like people without eyes.
Even at brightest noontime,
    we stumble as though it were dark.
Among the living,
    we are like the dead.
We growl like hungry bears;
    we moan like mournful doves.
We look for justice, but it never comes.
    We look for rescue, but it is far away from us.
For our sins are piled up before God
    and testify against us.
    Yes, we know what sinners we are.
We know we have rebelled and have denied the Lord.
    We have turned our backs on our God.
We know how unfair and oppressive we have been,
    carefully planning our deceitful lies.
14 Our courts oppose the righteous,
    and justice is nowhere to be found.
Truth stumbles in the streets,
    and honesty has been outlawed.
15 Yes, truth is gone,
    and anyone who renounces evil is attacked.

The Lord looked and was displeased
    to find there was no justice.
He was amazed to see that no one intervened
    to help the oppressed.
So he himself stepped in to save them with his strong arm,
    and his justice sustained him.
He put on righteousness as his body armor
    and placed the helmet of salvation on his head.
He clothed himself with a robe of vengeance
    and wrapped himself in a cloak of divine passion.
18 He will repay his enemies for their evil deeds.
    His fury will fall on his foes.
    He will pay them back even to the ends of the earth.
In the west, people will respect the name of the Lord;
    in the east, they will glorify him.
For he will come like a raging flood tide
    driven by the breath of the Lord.

“The Redeemer will come to Jerusalem
    to buy back those in Israel
who have turned from their sins,”
    says the Lord. — Isaiah 59:9-20 NLT

Things really have not changed since this was written in the book of Isaiah. God sent His Son. Seek Him and repent (confess and turn from your sin). Our only hope is Jesus Christ.

Continually seeking Him,

Sharon

New Year Resolutions, Part 2

Dec28

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; — Hebrews 10:23

Yesterday’s post offered a resolution for 2015. Today we see why we can keep that resolution. Because He, Jesus, is faithful.

So hold fast to the hope of Christ. He will be faithful to lead you, teach you, and guide you as you read His Word, draw near to Him and confess Him. The fruit of your hope in Christ is that you will find confessing Him before others becomes easy because your heart is so full of Jesus it can’t help but overflow, out of your mouth, for others to hear.

May God bless your New Year by His faithfulness.

Continually seeking Him,

Sharon

Draw Near To God

Dec28

A wonderful message for the New Year.

birdchirp's avatarRedbird's Roost

“Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith.” Hebrews 10:22 (NASB)
We are to draw near “with a sincere heart” — that is, with a dedicated heart, willing to be obedient to God in every respect; a heart ready to hear the Word and anxious to obey it — not in outward rituals and programs of the service, but in true worship in the spirit.
God desires worship and praise from a sincere heart. To the Samaritan woman Jesus said, “God is Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). We are invited to draw near with a sincere heart — and thus we can come to God “in full assurance of faith.”
It is true that we have weaknesses and we know our own unworthiness; but the confidence of the believer is in the worthiness of Christ…

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