If your God is Mighty enough to ignite the sun, could it be that He is mighty enough to light your path?

God is for you. Not “may be”,  not  “has been”,  not  “was”,  not  “would be”, but “God is”!
He is for you. Today. At this hour. At this minute. As you read this sentence. No need to wait in line or come back tomorrow. He is with you. He could not be closer than he is at this second. His loyalty won’t increase if you are better nor lessen if you are worse. He is for you.

God is for you. Turn to the sidelines; that’s God cheering your run. Look past the finish line; that’s God applauding your steps. Listen for him in the bleachers, shouting your name. Too tired to continue? He’ll carry you. Too discouraged to fight? He’s picking you up. God is for you.

God is for you. Had he a calendar, your birthday would be circled. If he drove a car, your name would be on his bumper. If there’s a tree in heaven, he’s carved your name in the bark.  We know he has a tattoo, and we know what it says.  “I have written your name on my hand”, he declares (Isaiah 49:16).

You can comment on this devotional online at:

You can comment on this devotional online at:
http://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/2010/03/16/ml_cheering/

Not to be reprinted without permission
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Max Lucado
From: Let the Journey Begin:
God’s Roadmap for New Beginnings
(J Countryman 2009)

To learn more about Max Lucado visit his website at:
http://www.maxlucado.com/about/

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“Alive, alert, awake, enthusiastic! Alive, alert, awake, enthusiastic”!

We sounded the words to the rhythmic clapping of our hands. Faster, faster, faster. Alive, alert, awake, enthusiastic! This morning drill formed part of our early morning leaders meeting at Winners’ Camp, a residential camp for teenagers on the beautiful island of Oahu, Hawaii.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm”. As we went off to our daily tasks of shaping the lives and hearts of a troupe of teenagers—some more privileged than others—it wasn’t difficult to be enthusiastic about the day. I remember those seven days with such fondness. And I still remember many of the faces.

I learned a few years ago that the word “enthusiasm” comes from the Greek term “entheos”, meaning “God within”.

When we can be enthusiastic about something, perhaps it is also an indicator that we are doing what we were meant to; that we are about the things that were set out for us on this earth to do. I find God in the places where I am most enthusiastic.

As another day dawns, am I alert, awake and enthusiastic about the possibilities that lie ahead? And if not, why not?

Dear God, today I invite you into every activity I put my hand and heart to. Thank you for filling me with enthusiasm as I go about the work you set out for me to do. Amen.

You can comment on this devotional online at:
http://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/2010/03/16/im_enthusiasm/

“If we confess our sins…”  1 John 1:9

Cameras recorded the public official’s unwise and potentially dangerous behavior. Although initially denying the gravity of the situation, his eventual public statement included these words, “I sincerely apologize for allowing myself to be placed in that situation where there’s a perception of wrongdoing”.

We might at first dismiss and decry such words as cautious “politikspeak”,  but they reveal a practice we often adopt in our own approach to confession—to both God and our fellow travelers. Frequently we couch our apologies in protective words like “I was stressed…or tired…or hungry”. “I was just doing what everyone else does”. “I never learned how to do it right”.  Or—even more wounding—“You did (that) so I did (this)".

How strikingly different was David’s response when faced with his heinous wrongdoing. “I have sinned against the Lord…I acknowledged my sin…I will confess my sin”.

To confess sin means “to agree with God”, about it, to have His view toward it. With that kind of honest confession and determination to turn from the sin comes the incredible flood of forgiveness: “…He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness”.

Father, forgive my tendency toward self-justification instead of honest confession. Help me learn to understand the difference between “God is love, BUT God hates sin”, and “God is love, SO God hates sin”!

You can comment on this devotional online at:
http://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/2010/03/15/me_lost-art/

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"And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD"  Joshua 24:15

Recently, I was touring through a school, being shown around by the principal when a poster on the wall caught my eye.

You are not born a winner, You are not born a loser, You are born a chooser!

It really got my attention and I thought what a great message for students…. No a great reminder for everyone. Life is full of choices. Every day brings new challenges and decisions for you and me and everyone around us. Every day is a new day, and every day means we either choose to live for God, by the standards He lays down in the Holy Bible, or we live for ourselves by our own standards of right and wrong, as in the days when, ". . . every man did that which was right in his own eyes" (Judges 21:25).

We are free to make choices and we have to live with the consequences of those choices. Whether it is the career we select or the mate we choose or what we order from a menu. We experience the consequences of our choices.

I thought of this question: How does the Christian learn to make right choices and live in the center of God's will every day? These choices are not new. The people of Joshua’s time had to make choices as they took the promised land, but they made a choice, the right choice, declaring “but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD"

Too many people today want to have a foot on each side of the fence. They want the path to heaven but want it to wander through the streets of the world.

Jesus said:
"No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon (money)" (Matthew 6:24).

So remember that the choices are yours and may we all decide we and our house will serve the LORD. Think about it. It’s your choice!
(a thought from John Grant)

You can comment on this devotional online at:
http://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/2010/03/15/jg_choices/
John Grant is a former Florida State Senator and is a practicing attorney

“I will rejoice and be glad in Your lovingkindness, because You have seen my affliction; You have known the troubles of my soul”.  Psalm 31:7 (NASB)

Known – Omniscience.  Oh, it’s a great doctrine.  God knows everything that can be known.  It’s a significant statement about the scope of His observation and understanding.  But it’s kind of sterile.  It’s one of those big ideas that lends itself to debates like, “If God already knows what I am going to do tomorrow, can it really be my free choice"?  I wonder if David ever concerned himself with such cognitive issues.  David’s approach is far more personal.  God knows the troubles of my soul.  When it comes to my relationship with the Lord, this might be all I really need.

The verb is quite familiar.  Yada covers the widest range of knowing in Hebrew, from knowing the facts about the enemy army to knowing the sexual intimacy of marriage.  It’s worth reflecting on this range.  We have many distinct verbal expressions for different kinds of knowledge.  We categorize our information.  There’s a box for facts, a box for opinions, a box for theories, a box for observations, a box for involvements, etc.  Nice, neat compartments where we can “know” the right thing in one area but never let it touch the things we feel or observe in another area.  But yada reminds us that everything is connected.  It isn’t possible to “know” something and keep it neatly separated from the actions that make up who we are.  If God knows the troubles of my soul, certain implications about this fact must follow.

God knows my tsarah.  He knows the distress I encounter, the adversities I face, the troubles life hands me and the vexations that plague me.  God knows these things.  That does not simply mean He observes them as facts. Yada-ata.  He knows them.  He experiences my troubles.

Think about this.  When I weep, is God weeping with me?  When I rejoice, does He dance?  When I shake with fear, is He there beside me?  When I battle with decisions, does He fight for the right?  Yada says “Yes"!  The full range of relationship dynamics is known to Him.  He is not the God of disengaged research or the moral policeman.  He is as close as my breath, my sight, my thoughts and my sighs.  He is the God in my need.

Would it make a difference in our struggles for righteousness if we contemplated the God of yada?  Would we feel His comfort, His guidance or His warning just a little more intensely if we engaged the Hebrew umbrella of knowing.  David worships a God who is intimately involved in life.  He doesn’t sit on His throne in Zion waiting for quarterly reports on our progress.  He sits by our side, asking us to lean on Him.  He is the ‘ezer', the benefactor who comes to our aid in times of need.

You can comment on this devotional online at:
http://thoughts-about-god.com/blog/2010/03/14/sm_knows-me/
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