Love Came Down

In Your Presence - Jenn Johnson

John Mark McMillan "Carbon Ribs"

Laura Story - Blessings

"My God Reigns" Performance | ALM:uk

Lara Martin The Voice of Hope Worship Video with Lyrics

Offering - Paul Baloche

Encouragement: life to those who find them

Today I bring you encouragement from Proverbs 4:20-23

My child, pay attention to my words;
listen attentively to my sayings.
Do not let them depart from your sight,
guard them within your heart;
for they are life to those who find them
and healing to one’s entire body.
Guard your heart with all vigilance,
for from it are the sources of life.


Biblical Studies Press. (2006; 2006). The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible (Pr 4:20-23). Biblical Studies Press.

Life can be full of challenges and experiences.  Some are positive and some pull you to the depths of despair.

Our human nature is funny, the tougher the trip the more we try to make it in our own strength.

God heeds us to pay attention to His Word. 

We are not to let His Word out of our sight, for they are life to those that find them and healing to one's entire body. 

Let the Word be written in your heart and guard your heart with all vigilance. 

So when you find yourself perhaps in a situation where you find it uncomfortable to be, perhaps a time where you have been entrusted with leadership and decision making, grasp for God's Word and never let His Word be out of your sight.

God's Word is the measure to what is just and true. 

The world may change but God is the same, yesterday, today and tomorrow.  

Put your trust in Him and His Word


Amen

Music Encouragement

Glorious - Paul Baloche

Encouragement Can I really know it all

Here is your daily encouragement words and thoughts.
Today I bring you encouragement from
Ecclesiastes 8:16-17

When I tried to gain wisdom
and to observe the activity on earth –
even though it prevents anyone from sleeping day or night –
then I discerned all that God has done:
No one really comprehends what happens on earth.
Despite all human efforts to discover it, no one can ever grasp it.
Even if a wise person claimed that he understood,
he would not really comprehend it.


Biblical Studies Press. (2006; 2006). The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible (Ec 8:16-17). Biblical Studies Press.

We in our modern society place a lot of emphasis on gaining knowledge and figuring out how every thing works. With my science background I have spent a lot of time in the problem solving business and expend considerable effort making things work. These pursuits often result in lack of sleep.

Even when we stop our work, we often continue to think on the problems, either being internally tied up with how it all works or in knots fearing that we will not figure it out. If we had a good day and have figured it out the problem of the day, we then move on to worrying what we will do next. We often feel we are trapped at the center of it all and it is all on our shoulders.

This mind set can even carry over to our study of God's word and our relationship with God. We can pour over scripture over and over and then try to find proofs or historical references to capture it all and make it part of our wisdom.  We want to be able to sit down and say we have it all figured out.

But what does our text say

No one really comprehends what happens on earth.
Despite all human efforts to discover it, no one can ever grasp it.
Even if a wise person claimed that he understood,
he would not really comprehend it.

Can we really comprehend it all?  Maybe what is important is that only in God can comprehension be found.  All that happens in this world is much larger than we can comprehend. Even if we claim we have it figured out, our view of the world, is just too small. No one can ever grasp it fully.


A long time ago I posted a link on the right side of this page  entitled

An Indescribable God - Louis Giglio

"A message that helps define just how big God is..."

If you have not had a look at it or have not viewed this video for a long time, it is worth a second look.  It is a good description of just how big God is.

Coming to terms with just how big God is and how small we are in the grand scheme of things is just so important.  We need to find places to go and put our lives in perspective. I like to go to mountains in Western Canada and hike up to the top and look out at the mountains all around me.  It helps me to realize how small I am in comparison with all that is around me.

We can seek all that God has done, but we must accept that what God does and has done is far more than we can comprehend . Through this discovery we can allow ourselves to pursue life more fully, with joy and confidence that the world and the universe is not all on our shoulders and that God is in control.  We just need to serve Him. 

Amen

Musical Encouragement:  "God is in Control - Avalon"

Encouragement: Do not doubt

 Today I bring you encouragement from Matthew 21:18-22

Now early in the morning, as he returned to the city, he was hungry.After noticing a fig tree by the road he went to it, but found nothing on it except leaves. He said to it, “Never again will there be fruit from you!” And the fig tree withered at once. When the disciples saw it they were amazed, saying, “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” Jesus answered them, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. 22 And whatever you ask in prayer, if you believe, you will receive.”

Biblical Studies Press. (2006; 2006). The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible (Mt 21:18-22). Biblical Studies Press.

These few verses are packed with things to ponder. What I want to focus on today is verse 21. Jesus says "if you have faith and do not doubt..." I had never noted that before, that you can have faith to move mountains but if doubt creeps in then the mountain may not move.


So it is not a matter of how deep your faith is that stands in your way, but just that doubt has entered into your field of focus. We see the same message in the story where Peter takes a few steps on the water and then notices the wind and the waves and he started to sink. Again circumstances around you that allow doubt to creep in.


The world we live in is one of doubt and despair. So much of the news we watch is bad news, this bad news conditions us to have a doubting attitude to the world around us.

Jesus is the good news. Jesus tells us here to exercise our faith and not to doubt or let doubt creep into our thinking and in that frame of attitude "What ever you ask in prayer, if you believe, you will receive."


Amen

Kutless "Everything I Need" (Official Music Video)

Heaven Song by Phil Wickham

Bebo Norman - Nothing without You

This song says what I encounter in my walk here on earth.....

"Take my time here on this earth, and let it glorify all You are worth For I am nothing without You....."

Encourragement: righteous by faith

Here is your daily encouragement words and thoughts. Today I bring you encouragement from Romans Chapter 4

.
Romans 4:22
So indeed it was credited to Abraham as righteousness.
But the statement it was credited to him was not written only for Abraham’s sake,
but also for our sake, to whom it will be credited, those who believe in the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.
He was given over because of our transgressions and was raised for the sake of our justification.
Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand,
and we rejoice in the hope of God’s glory. 
Not only this, but we also rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
and endurance, character, and character, hope.
And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

Biblical Studies Press. (2006; 2006). The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible (Ro 4:22-5:6). Biblical Studies Press.


Our lives all have challenges, we need to remember that these challenges produce endurance and endurance, character, and character, hope. Jesus with his sacrifice opened the door for us to have access to God simply through faith. We often find it hard to just accept this grace. We often want to find a way to somehow be worthy of the gift, but the hard fact is that Jesus's work is done.

We just need to learn to accept the gift in faith, and in doing so we will be changed from within by the Holy Spirit.



Amen

Musical Encouragement

Brandon Heath: What If We - No Not One

Music has a way to reach into our hearts and grab our attention.
I am always on the lookout for new Christain Songs that help us focus on Jesus
This song does just that. 
May it be a blessing......

Encouragement: I have taken shelter in You.

Today I bring you encouragement from Psalm 16: 1-2
  
 Psalm 16

   Protect me, O God,
   for I have taken shelter in you.
   I say to the LORD,
   “You are the Lord, my only source of well-being.”

Biblical Studies Press. (2006; 2006). The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible (Ps 16:title–2). Biblical Studies Press.

Some days are just "shelter" Days.   You know the kind of day, the ones where you wake up to meet a challenge even before you get out of bed. 

Some times we need to just tuck as close into God as possible, that we may endure the storm.

In that time it will not be easy to proclaim
“You are the Lord, my only source of well-being.”

But that is the key to it all.  In making that proclamation we move the focus off ourselves and what we can do in our on strength and we transfer over our "situation" to God's control.  He is the One who works with knowledge of the big picture.

Be assure if you face trials, God is using you, knowing that His good servant can endure the storm and be able to proclaim with confidence at the end of the day, “You are the Lord, my only source of well-being.”

Musical Encouragement: 

Lincoln Brewster - God You Reign

This is what I need to hear today.......................

Set me Free Drama

This video says it all.....................