1 Pet 4:7 - 5:14

Goals for 2011:
1. Live as though earth is not my "home."
2. Heaven is my home - therefore, I cannot get comfortable here.
3. Make each day count for my future home.
4. Value this life God has given and take care of my earthly body.

Overview:
Since the end is near, take Christ's 2nd coming seriously! Live as Christ taught - live a godly life without grumbling or complaining. Use the gifts that God has given you for the good of other Christians. (4:10) Do your best!!
Don't be surprised when terrible troubles come your way. Nothing strange is happening - God has not left you, rather these difficulties are to test you. Don't suffer for doing wrong, that doesn't bring God's blessing, But if you suffer for being identified with Chirst, you will be blessed. Furthermore, rejoice because God has called you worthy to suffer for Him!
Serve one another with a spirit of humility, considering other's well-being as more important than your own. Put all your worries and troubles on God because He can bear them and He cares for you.
Be on guard for the devil who is prowling about seeking to entrap you and keep you from doing what God wants you to do. Resist his temptations and stand firm in your faith. Any suffering you are going through remember other brothers and sisters in Christ are going through the same things all over the world.
Promise: (5:10) After you have suffered a little while, Christ will restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you!

Application:
I have not been promised an easy life here on this earth. Rather I am to follow in Christ's footsteps - a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief. He led a life where He was mocked and and suffered for His beliefs. If I am following Him, I must expect that this will be my lot as well.
God does not want me to be comfortable here, therefore, He may have to stir up my "nest" so that I long for heaven - my true home. If I am making this home comfortable and am satisfied with "here," then I am not living the way He wants for me to live. I need to be looking toward heaven and my eternal reward. This world is temporary, and as one said, a clean bus station at best. I am wasting my time trying to make this the best it can be. It will never be close to being heaven and all the rewards that are promised me there. Why settle for a hovel, when God wants me to have a palace?!
Difficulties, death and desolation are what I need to expect here. Stop being surprised when that is what I encounter! This is not heaven - this is not perfection!! It never will be.

Psalm 2

Observations:
The psalmist exhorted the pagan nations to abandon their rebellious plans against the Lord and His anointed king and to submit to the authority of the Son whom God has ordained to rule the nations with a rod of iron.
Application:
This is a great Messianic Psalm. Who else but Jesus could the "Son" refer to? He will rule the nations - that's prophetic of what He will do in the end times, although in the present He rules over all the earth, but not as a benevolent dictator. God who sits in the heavens "laughs" at man's puny ways of ignoring Him or attempts to rebel. We must really be a source of laughter to Almighty God these days as man is doing all he can to try to take God out of Christmas - does anyone see the first 5 letters of Christmas - "Christ!!" Kind of hard to take something out that is right there in front of our faces. Perhaps that's why "Happy Holidays," is the new fashion. I enjoy saying "Merry Christmas" to folks and watching them break out in a broad smile. Let's keep Christ in Christmas and be less of a source of laughter for God!

Psalm 1

Personal Reflections:
The kids all came home for Thanksgiving and all made it back to Nashville safely. Thank you, God!  Had a lovely time, although I think the kids are finding mom and dad a bit boring compared to their busy schedules. We like to sit and talk, and they want to get up and move - just different stages of life.
Observations:
You are blessed if you don't hang out with those that are unsaved and mock the things of Christ. A Christian's happiness should be in God and he should be studying the Word continually. If he does this, he will be firmly rooted in the faith and will be able to withstand troubles that come his way. The unsaved are not so favored, but are blown away in the wind because they have no roots. God knows the ways of the righteous and the ungodly. They all will be judged one day. Instead of being in the assembly of the righteous the wicked will perish.
Application:
Hanging out with the unsaved is a dangerous proposition. We think too highly of ourselves - that we will be able to "change" them and that they will not change us. All too often they end up changing us! This chapter warns of that. First you have casual contact with them (walk with them). Then it gets a little more intimate - you stand with them and talk. You are beginning to listen to them. Finally, it says you sit with them - you are spending time and eating "hanging out" with scoffers - those that despise the One you say you love. If someone were to make fun of one of my children or husband - the last thing I would do would be to sit down with them and listen to their tirades! Why then, do I put up with those who mock my Lord?!
The other challenge of this passage is to be firmly planted - have roots that go down deep. Trials will come to all of us. Others will know how deeply we are rooted by the way we handle those problems. A healthy tree needs to be yielding fruit. How much fruit am I producing? Do I even care?! Do those around me that don't know the Lord, do they know there is a difference between me and them? Do I make Christ "attractive to them - seeing Christ in me should make them desirous to have Him too. I fear, that I am not hidden in Christ, but rather He is hidden in me, and others can't see Him - they only see me.
"Lord, make me a firmly rooted Christian who bears fruit for you. Don't allow me to be comfortable around those who mock your name. Give me a holy anger towards those who scoff the things of God."

Thanksgiving Eve

Psalm 9:1
I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart;
I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.
Psalm 9:1
The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice
glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly,
I will show the salvation of God!"
Psalm 92:1
It is good to give thanks to the LORD
To sing praises to your name, O Most High;

Psalm 119:169-176

Observation:
The psalmist begins and ends this last portion with the cry of the lost sheep that has gone astray. He realizes his need for understanding of the Word. He pleads for his crys to be heard and for deliverance. Lips to sing praise, and a tongue to sind the Word are his further desire. He asks for God's hand to always be at the ready to help him. He longs for God to save him and affirms that God's Word is always uppermost in his thoughts and his life. When he goes astray, he asks for God to seek him out because he has kept  God's commandments.
Application:
All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned, everyone, to his own way. BUT God laid on Jesus our punishment for straying and turning away. May I be like the psalmist desiring God to find me when I inevitably turn away! May I not stubbornly keep going away from the One who can save me!

Psalm 119:161-168

Observation:
The writer says that though powerful people hate him without cause (persecute), he will continue to stand by God's Word. He gets excited when he discovers the treasures (great spoil) he finds there. He says he prayers seven times a day because it brings him peace (shalom). He knows that God's salvation from his troubles is coming because he has been obedient to the Word. His obedience comes from his love of the Word and the knowledge that God both knows and directs his path.
Application:
To be so focused on God that I am in an attitude of praise and worship throughout the day is a goal to strive for. I get so busy in doing things that I all too frequently crowd God out! When I am living in this frenetic way, I will not experience the great shalom the writer speaks of. Don't we all want peace in our lives - I know I do!
Prayer:
Lord help the children as they sing tomorrow to sing to You! May you be pleased with the praises we bring. Help me to direct them properly and don't allow my nerves to show. Let me be an example of calmness and trust in You! May we continually learn the lessons from Hebrews 11:6 - "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone that comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him."

Psalm 119:153-160

Observation:
David tells God to look at his affliction and rescue him because he has been faithful to God's Word. God, be my advocate and plead my case; redeem and revive me. The wicked will not be saved because they don't seek You. He has lots of persecutors and adversaries, but still keeps God's laws. He contrasts the wicked who are treacherous and loathe God's Word with his love for God's precepts.
Application:
God's compassion is great to me (156) just as it was to David. I need to show compassion to those around me. It's not enough to receive God's grace to me - we are to give to others what we have been given. If that truly was how I lived my life, people couldn't help but be attracted to the light of Jesus they'd see in me!