Be With Me: 7 Minutes of Biblical Wonder

I'm embarrassed to say this, but I didn't know that PRAISE can mean "TO THROW". Ps42 is about what we "throw at God". It is about our PRAISE, but when ? When tears are on the menu for breakfast. lunch and dinner. What do we throw at God when circumstances are not as we prefer? We dictate the direction and the content of what we throw at God. Are we throwing our best a...

The honesty of Ps42 is a little uncomfortable to hear.  It is like reading someone's diary of longing and difficulty. If you want brutal honesty, read Psalm 42. Things are not going well circumstantially as we step into this psalm. That's where the blues come from.  Watch psalmist:   Get honesty before the Lord right Get the heart longing right Get the head remembering right Get the habi...

We may be strangers here, but we are guests of the Lord.  Part of that is His call to be holy, which is the same thing as saying be corrected on a regular basis. I think this is true: to perceive His presence , is to perceive His correction . (tell me if you agree with me) So if you are a believer, you probably should feel like a stranger and alien here.  Even his ways are wild: the Lord is asks e...

The whole world asks what is an essential spiritual question: How can I be forgiven? Fortunately, Scripture is not silent on the answer. Psalm 39 finds David sinning in his HOT HEART. He thinks he's OK, but the Lord STRIKES HIM suddenly, and he is hit with the reality of his transgression. He then teaches us what to do when we find ourselves on the short end of sin. This might be the most imp...

You'd think that step one, "guarding your mouth with a muzzle", would be all that the good Lord requires of us.  Nope. There is another step:  watch what happens inside.   Does the muzzled anger burn a hole in your heart?  I held my peace inside, but got no peace? I ate my words and they ate me up? If so, there is yet another problem to address. Join me if you just might need more t...

This Psalm had me at the title. Even before  the title, because of the instructions. This song is to be sung after I am dead at the opening of the temple. If you wrote a song to be sung long after you are gone, what would you say?  David, the realist: Weeping my tarry for the night David, the optimist: but JOY comes with the morning. You have turned my mourning into DANCING. I leave you with joy. ...

Here it is: Be still and know that I am God. I think this would be my mother's favorite verse.  It was one of the first passages she underlined in her bible. She's passed from this world now, so she really now knows that He is God! Meantime, for us we can be still and know some truths in Psalm 46. Join me and my mother today. https://youtu.be/asL_FfGmw7E

May the Lord visit you on this morning; on this day May the Lord be so close as to talk to you and test you. May you see that the Lord has set His heart on you May you appreciate that the Lord has made much of you Perhaps we could respond: You have made much of us, the least we can do is make much of you> As Chief Brody said in Jaws when confronted with the enormity before him:  " We’re go...

There is a season in the development of little humans when they cannot yet talk.  Ironically, the Lord uses this season for them to PRAISE and to LEAD in PRAISE.  If you have ever seen a baby up close, you might have cooed and admired and commented as to their glory.  This is the Lord's doing.  He uses such little ones to praise Him.  He uses such little ones to lead adults in praise.  He use...

If we could look inside the mind of God, what would we find?  The answer might surprise you.  It certainly surprises me, every time I think about it: He thinks about MANKIND.  He thinks about women. He thinks about men. He thinks about us.  How do we know, He tells us in the powerful and personal Psalm 8.  Join me there right now to hear what the good Lord is thinking about. Subscribe for more tho...

The path of an ongoing relationship to a God MUST be marked with conviction, correction, repentance and forgiveness.          Otherwise we cannot be in relationship with a holy God. He warns us about this: don't be MULE HEADED in resistance.  The wonderful forgiveness of the Lord accessed by the heavy hand of conviction. When God's hand weighs heavy upon you, listen and respond. But firs...

I'd love to say that the presence of God always feels joyful, intimate and enjoyable.  Sometimes, though, it feels like a HEAVY HAND. Yikes. This heavy hand is directionally moving us towards something: forgiveness.  It is the most important of life skills. Without the skill of repentance, your life will be an ongoing testimony to one wrecked relationship after another--including with the Alm...

Not every story ends with rainbows.  Similarly, some psalms stop in the middle of hardship.  They are called laments.   Today will be about how to live when there is not a rainbow at the end of the day.  With what insight does this psalm leave for us when the day does not end with rainbows.  Subscribe please: https://youtu.be/6ML7QZ4ceQY

David wonders in Ps51 why God might be so good to him. He asks for mercy first, then more than mercy. He asks for a fully restored, even thriving relationship.  Why? So he can be educational So he can be evangelical So he can be worshipful So he can intercede for the house of God. Don't let this great sin go to waste. https://youtu.be/IRv3OSeGA-M

Happy Thanksgiving.  I'll hope I can give you something to be thankful for in these 7 minutes.  David starts with murder. Not only does he ask for MERCY, he asks for MORE THAN mercy. Sure, he wants forgiveness and for the almost-impossible process that sin becomes UN-SEEN forever. But wait, he wants MORE:  David wants the BIG ASK: PROXIMITY to God; PRESENCE of the HS; and the PLEASURE of a re...

Shouldn’t David be "the Jeffery Dahlmer" of the Bible? Isn’t David “as bad as Hitler?”  Yes, except that Psalm 51 happened. David has committed Lust, adultery, and murder.  You cannot sugar coat this.  He has misused the power that was supposed to be used to care for a nation, to kill and covet parts of that kingdom.  He has betrayed this family; he has been disloyal to his office; he ha...

My prayer for you is that you become a blessed, prosperous, known, fruitful man/woman.  How can this happen?  Ps1 tells us:  Don’t do some stuff: with your words, your ways, and stay away from wicked. Do do some stuff: be planted, be powered, be producing,  be principled under law of Lord and be pleased by the Person of God. This is how you get to be a powerhouse, a spiritual powerhouse. Subscribe...

So why can we rest, be quiet, be still, and wait quietly? Because the Lord has got this.  He is not still.  He is busy being steadfast.  He is busy keeping us.  We can be still because He is not still. We can be still because He is being steadfast.          Stillness is our SUPERPOWER The meek shall inherit the earth. Stillness is our strength, because it is rooted in His strength. Stillness is ou...

Jesus was so excited about Psalm 37 He based the Sermon on the Mount on it. Perhaps we might pay close attention. The meek shall inherit the earth.  It means the bowed; the bent .  The bent can get a whole kingdom.  It just depends on what you do with your bend.  Join me in Psalm 37 and let's do the right thing with our bent.   https://youtu.be/KiQbkcmvXdk

W onder with me: What do the OLD know that the young do not?  Psalm 37:25 tells us.  It is a psalm that ONLY the old could write. It is a psalm whose truths have enjoyed the run of the years.  25  I have been young, and now am old,   yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken Listen 7 minutes to:  the psalm with gray hair Subscribe if you plan on living another day. https://youtu.be/-AQmudfGu2U

The Lord has a heart for the Jewish people.  The Lord has a heart for the non-Jewish people. He told us this in the famous "Great Commission" passage of Matt 28: 19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations..." Our Psalm today, psalm 96, reveals that a thousand years before the "Great Commission" God was greatly commissioning Jews and Gentiles to get busy and ge...

This is either the most selfish psalm in the world (if you only read verse 1) or This is the most UNSELFISH psalm in the world (if you read the other 6 verses). It asks that the Lord shine His face on US.  So is it just for those who know Him, for those that are already in His family? Or, is it ultimately that the whole world would know Him?!  This is the most UNSELFISH psalm in the world because...

"God loves you and has a purpose for your life". I've heard this said many times. Well, it comes from Psalm 138. If you want to understand where YOU are going, you'd best understand where GOD is going, (and where God has been.) The Lord will fulfill His purpose in me.   If you need purpose, Ps 138 is a great place to start. For further details on your purpose tomorrow, please s...

In a strange spiritual metaphor, God plants TREES inside buildings. They are big, healthy, growing trees.  Why? to give fruit. How? by paying attention to the basics of plantsmanship.  In the church, what characteristics have been attended to to result in fruitful plantings? They are people who have paid attention to fellowship, to service, to study and to AWE. Join me for 7 minutes as we do exact...

STUPID is a rare word in scripture.  It is used only 12x in 1000 pages. When the stupid speak then, we probably should listen.  Specifically, listen what NOT to do.  The stupid never ask a little question that we are going to ask: Am I being stupid? It is a brave question.  Join me for 7 minutes as we ask it.  https://youtu.be/n0BUhiJ3i4o