Prayer
Dear Lord, help me to forever be seeking your presence and your companionship. Help me to recognize your presence through your awesome Holy Spirit. As I seek you Lord I ask that you deminish my fears and restore my fortunes according to your designs; according to your will and grace. Lord, I pray that all people would come to realize your greatness and the great joy that comes in holding to you, day in and day out, in Jesus name, Amen.
Psalm 53
Reflection
"Fools say in their hearts, "There is no God"... God looks down from heaven on humankind to see if there are any who are wise, and who seek after God" What do we get when we seek after God? The Psalmist doesn't exactly say... he does say that when deliverance comes fortunes will be restored and God's people will rejoice. What the Psalmist does spend more time on is talking about what is bound to happen to those who say in their hearts, "There is no God". Here the Psalmist is clear. "There they shall be in great terror, in terror such as has never been". Those who do not call on the Lord are headed for sure disaster. God will "scatter their bones", the Psalmist warns. Well, this is warning enough for me! Lord help me to find you this day and to call on you moment by moment, in and out of need. That I might know your presence and reep the benefits of your blessings... this day and everyday. Amen.
Monday, March 31, 2008
My Today
Everyone at the Sabin household are up and at em' this morning. Deb is at work. Jacob, Mitch, and Ben are at school. This morning I am going out to Jessie Jean's Coffee Beans for a Poor Man's Breakfast and Brother's Coffee. Should cost me $6.12 and it's worth it. I will read the local newspaper from Ogden cover to cover. I will think about my day and week and make a few valued notes to myself. Then it's off to my study at work... I enjoy Mondays alot because it is usually very quiet in terms of phone calls and emails... It allows me to get ahead of my week. I hope all is well with you and that you have a great day. Blessings and Joy!
Friday, March 28, 2008
My Devotion
Prayer
Dear Lord, be my stronghold this day. Come to my aid as I have need of you and your unfailing love. Be my guide this day, that I might walk in your ways and treat others the way that you would have me treat them... with your unfailing love all day long. Amen.
Psalm 52
Reflection
"Why do you boast of evil, you mighty man... surely God will bring you down... the righteous will see and fear; they will laugh... saying, "Here now is the man who did not make God his stronghold but trusted in his great wealth and grew strong by destroying others" The psalmist makes a case for making God your trust. I remember seeing the bumper sticker, maybe you do too, 'He with the most toys wins', that may be a terrible truth. You win the Lord's wrath. You win increased worries and concerns. You win disillusionment and dispair. You win, you win, you win! Toys will mean nothing on that day when you have to give an account before the Lord... your wealth and properity will not guard you against God... how you treated others will be the only thing that counts... beginning with how you treated your God. So make God your stronghold this day... trust the Lord in all your ways and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths.
Dear Lord, be my stronghold this day. Come to my aid as I have need of you and your unfailing love. Be my guide this day, that I might walk in your ways and treat others the way that you would have me treat them... with your unfailing love all day long. Amen.
Psalm 52
Reflection
"Why do you boast of evil, you mighty man... surely God will bring you down... the righteous will see and fear; they will laugh... saying, "Here now is the man who did not make God his stronghold but trusted in his great wealth and grew strong by destroying others" The psalmist makes a case for making God your trust. I remember seeing the bumper sticker, maybe you do too, 'He with the most toys wins', that may be a terrible truth. You win the Lord's wrath. You win increased worries and concerns. You win disillusionment and dispair. You win, you win, you win! Toys will mean nothing on that day when you have to give an account before the Lord... your wealth and properity will not guard you against God... how you treated others will be the only thing that counts... beginning with how you treated your God. So make God your stronghold this day... trust the Lord in all your ways and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths.
My Today
Friday is my Shabbat! Cease... from work... from worry... from being busy... slow down... relax... and rest in God's arms... Cease has the word ease in it... go easy... be easy... stay easy... it's easy... like no problems man... not today... so... I am at home... in jeans... in a baseball cap... and as soon as Jacob and Mitch are off to school... I am alone in the house... I will light a candle... I will take out my guitar and sing a song or two with my Lord... Food is already prepared... then I will talk and tell the Lord my sorrows, joys, and concerns... I will cast my burden unto Jesus... I will listen... I will sleep... I will just hang out in his presence... I may read a Word from his WORD... I may light another candle to symbolize a prayer or person or new thought or confession or new direction... so... happy shabbat! And good day...
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
My Daily Devotion
Prayer
Dear Lord, create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me... cast me not away from you presence O Lord and take not your Holy Spirit from me... restore unto me the joy of your salvation and renew in me a willing spirit. Amen.
Psalm 51
Reflection
"Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy..." I love the beginning of this Psalm. The measure the Psalmist requests is dependent upon God's steadfast love; God's abundant mercy. He does not ask that the measure depend upon himself or upon any other human being or upon the church or upon the world... he is asking that the measure of love; the measure of mercy be determined by the LORD and his steadfastness and his abundance... I've always said that the LORD is much more merciful than any and all of us. If we were in charge of mercy... if we were in charge of grace... the world and all humankind would be lost! Instead... the measure we deserve is not the measure we get; the measure we get is far more than we could ever deserve. Praise God! Thank you Jesus! Therefore... "Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity... cleanse me from my sin... create in me a clean heart O God, and put a new and right spirit within me... my one and only true response is that I want to be clean and to be made new... that I might not sin against you; that I might be for the praise of your glory... now and always.
Dear Lord, create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me... cast me not away from you presence O Lord and take not your Holy Spirit from me... restore unto me the joy of your salvation and renew in me a willing spirit. Amen.
Psalm 51
Reflection
"Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy..." I love the beginning of this Psalm. The measure the Psalmist requests is dependent upon God's steadfast love; God's abundant mercy. He does not ask that the measure depend upon himself or upon any other human being or upon the church or upon the world... he is asking that the measure of love; the measure of mercy be determined by the LORD and his steadfastness and his abundance... I've always said that the LORD is much more merciful than any and all of us. If we were in charge of mercy... if we were in charge of grace... the world and all humankind would be lost! Instead... the measure we deserve is not the measure we get; the measure we get is far more than we could ever deserve. Praise God! Thank you Jesus! Therefore... "Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity... cleanse me from my sin... create in me a clean heart O God, and put a new and right spirit within me... my one and only true response is that I want to be clean and to be made new... that I might not sin against you; that I might be for the praise of your glory... now and always.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
My Devotion
Prayer
O God, who through the gace of your Holy Spirit, pours the gift of love into our hearts... grant us health, both of mind and body, that we may love you with our whole strength, and with glad hearts may perform those things which are pleasing unto you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Psalm 50
Reflection
"Call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me" In midst of our troubles there exists ready and able savior to deliver us. Some of us who find trouble or trouble finds us, fail to recognize the deliverance from our God. We think that our deliverance should be thus or this and we do not once understand what it is that truly holds us captive. There was a time in my life when I owned my own business... or should I say a business owned me... when things were going bad in terms of my ability to keep this business afloat, I prayed with the full conviction that deliverance meant my financial gain... actually, what the Lord did in allowing my business to run aground has served for his glory and my deliverance, though at the time I could not and did not see it that way. There are many times in our gospel texts that Jesus overlooks the very thing that we consider deliverance and instead he delivers us from what he believes is our true captive... the Psalmist reports the Lord's directive today to call on him in our day of trouble... and the promise it made by God that he will deliver us... resulting in our praise and adoration... resulting in his glory. I have to asked myself when I call on the Lord what it is that I am asking for? His results or my own? His glory of my own? His deliverance or my own? Lord, grant me insight this to seek what you seek and to embrace your deliverance... for your glory. Amen.
O God, who through the gace of your Holy Spirit, pours the gift of love into our hearts... grant us health, both of mind and body, that we may love you with our whole strength, and with glad hearts may perform those things which are pleasing unto you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Psalm 50
Reflection
"Call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me" In midst of our troubles there exists ready and able savior to deliver us. Some of us who find trouble or trouble finds us, fail to recognize the deliverance from our God. We think that our deliverance should be thus or this and we do not once understand what it is that truly holds us captive. There was a time in my life when I owned my own business... or should I say a business owned me... when things were going bad in terms of my ability to keep this business afloat, I prayed with the full conviction that deliverance meant my financial gain... actually, what the Lord did in allowing my business to run aground has served for his glory and my deliverance, though at the time I could not and did not see it that way. There are many times in our gospel texts that Jesus overlooks the very thing that we consider deliverance and instead he delivers us from what he believes is our true captive... the Psalmist reports the Lord's directive today to call on him in our day of trouble... and the promise it made by God that he will deliver us... resulting in our praise and adoration... resulting in his glory. I have to asked myself when I call on the Lord what it is that I am asking for? His results or my own? His glory of my own? His deliverance or my own? Lord, grant me insight this to seek what you seek and to embrace your deliverance... for your glory. Amen.
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