Music

Psalm 95:1-7 NLT

Come, let us sing to the LORD!

Let us give a joyous shout to the rock of our salvation!

Let us come before him with thanksgiving.

Let us sing him psalms of praise.

For the LORD is a great God, the great King above all gods.

He owns the depths of the earth, and even the mightiest mountains are his.

The sea belongs to him, for he made it. His hands formed the dry land, too.

Come, let us worship and bow down.

Let us kneel before the LORD our maker, for he is our God.

We are the people he watches over, the sheep under his care. 

Oh, that you would listen to his voice today!

Isaiah 1:21-23 Makes Me Sad

I was just reading Isaiah 1:21-23 and I began to feel so sad and wanted to cry. God's people, the Israelites, were making Him sad. He wanted to have a personal relationship with His people, but they didn't want anything to do with Him. 

Jerusalem was once so faithful-now they became like a prostitute.

Once the home of justice and righteousness-now filled with murderers.

Once like pure silver, now they had become like worthless dross.

Once they were pure-then they became like watered-down wine.

Its leaders were all rebels and companions of thieves. They all took bribes and refused to defend the orphans and widows.

Can't you hear the sadness and pain in these words?

Book Review

I have just read a fabulous Christian book entitled The Carpenter and it is written by Jon Gordon. 

It is a story about two men and how their lives came together. One owned a business and the stress of everyday life overtook him and he collapsed on the street as he was running. Another man who was known as The Carpenter came and helped him and saved his life. 

All through the story, as the Carpenter is helping our main character make an entertainment center, gives our business man advise on how to live.  The Carpenter made a heart out of wood and craved in the words LOVE, SERVE, CARE Each word is talked about and the main character sees how he can make his life and his business better. 

Very clear message of how we can too live our lives as better Christians and disciples for the Lord.

You can go to Jon Gordon's web site to get a look at the book and where you can get the book. Here are the sites you can go to.

jon@jongordon.com
http://www.jongorden.com

I believe you will like this book very much. 

The Day After

For us in the United States we celebrated the Fourth Of July on July 4th. It was raining so didn't have a picnic outside but had one inside. Our daughter and her family came. So we got to see our grandchild (3 of them) ages 16, 12, 10. Then our youngest son came with is wife-to-be and this time they brought their dog Lucky which is always welcome and fussed over as is our children welcome and hugged a lot. 

While we waited for Jason and Pema to come the rest of us played games and we just had a great time together.

I hope all of you had a great day also. 

Today went to church and we said the Pledge to the flag and sang The Star Spangle Banner and other songs. We had a great message and also two people were baptized today. So it was a great morning. 

I pray that all of you will have a good week.   

Rejoice!

When are we to rejoice? We rejoice when things are going good and then we can praise our God for what He has done for us. That seems very logical. But I read in James 1:2-3..."Consider it wholly joyful, my brethren, whenever you are enveloped in or encounter trials of any sort or fall into various temptations. Be assured and understand that the trial and proving of your faith bring out endurance and steadfastness and patience.

The verses that follow continue on with why we can rejoice. But do we rejoice when we are going through trials? It is not an easy thing. Maybe you are going through some illness. Maybe it is lost of a love one etc. Instead of complaining and whining we are to do what-rejoice. 

My prayer for you today is to read James 1 at least if not the whole book and find some very inspiring and helpful verses to show you how you can rejoice in your trials. I know all about trials and so I know that these verses helped me through them all. 

A Good Report

Tonight my husband and I received an unexpected phone call from our oldest son. It was a surprise and very well received. He doesn't call much, but he was just checking in on us to see if we were ok. 

We also got news on our new granddaughter is doing. She is gaining weight as she should be. She is very hungry all the time so when she sees the doctor tomorrow I imagine the doctor will give them information on what to do. Other than that she is turning herself over already. She is only four weeks old. My son said that they have to put five blanket all around Chase so that she will not turn over while sleeping. She tried to crawl up his chest today. 

Grandpas and grandmas often brag about their grandchildren. We have ten now. And it is so amazing to me how God makes every baby different. I am sure glad of this as I world would be a very dull place if everyone were the same. We would be like robots.

I am talking more about this baby because for me she is our miracle baby. Actually she is our third miracle baby. God is so good. This baby should have never been conceived as her mother had cancer and she was just getting over her last treatments. That is why she didn't know she was pregnant until she was four months along. She thought it might have something to do with her cancer. 

At four months she weighted one pound and when she was born she weighted five pounds so the Lord allow her to grow and she is doing fine and is a good baby.  

Thank you Father for all your kindness to us. 

Behind The Scenes

Our Pastor, the other night, asked all of us at the service if we appreciated all those who did things behind the scenes. Those who cleaned the church, those who practiced hours before playing their instrument, or those who sing in the choir or praise group. If so then go to that person and thank them for what they do.

It goes with the verse I was looking at in Matthew 6:1 and that is "Take care not to do your good deeds publicly or before men, in order to be seen by them; otherwise your will have no reward that is awaiting you with and from your Father Who is in heaven." 

If these people do the things they do in order to get praise from people then they are doing it for the wrong reason. They will have their reward down here and that is all. It is nice to tell someone that you were blessed by what they did. But they only know their attitude. 

I get my greatest joy and feel most rewarded when I do something for someone and they don't know that it came from me. Helping a child go to camp, things like that. We don't always have to be recognize in things that we do, we just need to have a right heart and the Lord will know what we do and what our heart is like. If He is pleased so am I.