Everyone is Included!

SCRIPTURE
Ezekiel 47:21-23
21 "You are to distribute this land among yourselves according to the tribes of Israel. 22 You are to allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the aliens who have settled among you and who have children. You are to consider them as native-born Israelites; along with you they are to be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. 23 In whatever tribe the alien settles, there you are to give him his inheritance," declares the Sovereign LORD.


OBSERVATION
It is clear that God wants to make a way for those who are not born into Israel, be a part of Israel's inheritance. This is clearly a foreshadowing of the incredible extension of God's love to the WHOLE WORLD when Jesus came. This is not the only place in the Old Testament, where the Israelites are reminded to include the foreigner who has decided to live among them. But what is most interesting here is that the foreigner is to be given a portion of the inheritance of the Israelites!


APPLICATION
God makes a way for all those who desire to be a part of His Kingdom! He also gives us our "fair share!" He includes us in the inheritance distributed to His children, because He considers us as His children! We are a part of His family and treated, not as half or step children but as whole sons and daughters without distinction. How awesome!

PRAYER
Thank you God for including us in the inheritance of your people! Thank you Jesus for making a way!

SCRIPTURE
Boy! Today it was hard to narrow in on just one scripture. Daniel 3 &4 one of my favorites and Revelation too, but Psalm is one of my favorites so...Psalm 81 it is!
Psalm 81:11-14
"But my people would not listen to me; Isarel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices. If my people would but listen to me if Israel would follow my ways, how quickly would I subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes!


OBSERVATION
Here it is again! God wants to move on Israels' behalf, they just won't listen! They're stubborn and trying out their own way...again! The win over their enemy could "come quickly" if they would just listen and follow God's way and not their own.


APPLICATION
Its so simple! Who doesn't want to win over the enemy in their life? And yet, I am just like the children of Israel! And if you're honest about it, so are you! All we have to do is give up our own stubborn ways and follow God's. All we have to do is just listen to Him! So often when we feel like we are loosing in some area of our life we think God is holding something back from us or we wonder why we continue to struggle over and over and over. It might just be the time to give up our own stubborn ways and follow His?
PRAYER
Lord, help me to listen and hear you! Help me to lay down my ways and take up yours. Help me to submit my stubborn heart to You! Show me your ways so that I may walk in them always! And Lord, this is also my prayer for my husband and my son and all those who know you! And as we do, I pray that those who do not yet know you are drawn to you because they see you at work in us!

This I call to mind

SCRIPTURE
Lamentations 3:21-23 and vs 40
21-23 "Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
40 "Let us examine our ways and test them and let us return to the Lord."


OBSERVATION
Lamentations is full of lamentations! The writer talks about being in darkness, despair, a broken body, bitterness, no escape, being dragged and mangled, left without help, a pierced heart, being a laughingstock, deprived of peace and the list goes on. All of these word pictures evoke a whirlwind of emotions that all of us can relate to on some level. but in verse 21 "Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope." and here the writer calls to mind God's great love, that His compassions never fail and even more that they are new every morning! But in verse 40 we are called to do something and here it is "Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord."

APPLICATION
God doesn't change! He is forever compassionate, He is faithful! and everday He is ready to face a new day with us. He is "good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;" But we have to examine ourselves, test our motives, heart, actions, choices and then we have to "return to the Lord." correct our course!

PRAYER
Lord, I have great hope whenever I think on who you are! Please put your light on my life when we examine me and test my ways and help me always to be easy and quick to return to you and your ways when I'm off, which is more often than I'd like to admit.

Heard and Seen

SCRIPTURE

Psalm 48:8 & Psalm 48:14
"As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord Almighty, in the city of our God: God makes her secure forever."
"For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end."
OBSERVATION

Its one thing to hear about God and even to know some things about Him and about what He has done for others, but when you have your own first hand experience with Him, it will change you! Everything is settled in Him forever!

APPLICATION

I can look back over my life in Christ and recall even to today the things I see Him at work in. It causes me like the Psalmist to say "O God, I meditate on your unfailing love." and because not only have I heard about Him but I've actually experienced Him moving in my own life and the life of others around me it causes me to see Him. Nicole C. Mullen sings a song "You ask me how I know He lives? I know He lives because I spoke with Him this morning." He moves from being a God you've heard about to the God of your very own life and all its activity! Look at vs 14 "For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end."
PRAYER


Lord, daily I am thankful for your unfailing love. That you have proved yourself in my little life. I'm thankful that it actually brings joy to you when you show yourself in our lives. Help me to lead others who have HEARD about you to places for them to SEE you and know you for their own. Help me and those who know you to remember and be thankful for all the times you show yourself and prove yourself, You are Our God and we love you!

SCRIPTURE
Psalm 111:10
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom;
all who follow his precepts have good understanding.
To him belongs eternal praise.

OBSERVATION
To have respect for the Lord is the starting place of wisdom. But it is not enough just to respect/fear, if you want a fullness of understanding you must follow His precepts. I know many people who are "God-fearing". They are good people and they tend to live good lives, but that is as far as their commitment to follow the Lord goes. There is something lacking, and it is the decision to put the Lord at the center of their lives.


APPLICATION
Sometimes we can forget to put the Lord at the center and we start to live "in the fear of the Lord" and we do the right things, but we haven't allowed His precepts — His ways — to inculcate themselves into our heart. Our lives are changed, but our hearts are not.

My desire is to walk in the fullness of wisdom — to fear the Lord AND to obey Him.

PRAYER
Lord, I have a tendency to get unbalanced in life. It seems so easy to emphasize one extreme over another, and so difficult to walk in balance. Before I know it, I end up somewhere I don't want to be. Help me to live a life that keeps you always right at the center. To keep my heart in tune with your commandments and to allow my behavior to flow out of that heart. Amen.

Only One is Worthy of All Glory

SCRIPTURE
(Revelation 4:11) "Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for Thou didst create all things, and because of Thy will they existed, and were created."

OBSERVATION
John envisions the throne room of God and sees four living creatures and twenty-four elders around the throne. In this time and place they fall on their faces before Him and begin to chant how worthy God is.

APPLICATION
When we enter the throne room of God through our praise and worship, the focus should be all upon God and who He is. To focus upon ourselves and ask for personal needs in this time and place of worship and holiness is sacrilegious and out of order. To make personal requests here is to exalt yourself to a position of priority. There is no one, except God, who is worthy of all focus and attention. Don't pollute holy worship with self-gratification. There is a time to make your requests known to God, and there is a time to focus solely upon Him.

PRAYER
Lord, Your word says You know what I want and need even before I ask. I trust Your provision and desire to come to this holy place of total worship and focus on You alone. You are holy and righteous and worthy of all praise and honor.

What Made God Sick?

SCRIPTURE
(Revelation 3:15 & 16) "I know your deeds, that your are neither cold nor hot; I would that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth."

OBSERVATION
Another one of the churches that had compromised their walk with God was the church at Laodicea. These Christians had become lukewarm or complacent in their worship and service. God's desire is that they were either sold out for Him or not a follower at all. Their half-way commitment makes God sick, so to speak, to the point that he vomits them out of his mouth.

APPLICATION
Partial commitment is the seed bed for discontentment in any relationship. Setting conditions for our worship is not worship at all but a contractual agreement based on reciprical benefits. We must either serve God whole heartedly with no reservations, or not at all because God won't take second place in our life. That makes Him Sick!

PRAYER
Lord, I will serve You, and have no other god's before You. With all that I am I will give praise to You. I give You first place in my life.