2 - "The Morning Stars Still Sing" Genesis 4-6; Matthew 2

Ask yourself why you are angry, what's really going on with your responses? Why is your face sad? Genesis 4:6-7. What's going on within? #60000thoughtseveryday #1thoughtfortoday  #talkingtomyself

                                                                  

I taught my preschool kids Genesis 4:6-7 because the verse before it says: "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast?" I wanted them to learn to deal with their own hearts and not everybody else's, especially siblings. But, it's for me on so many mornings. I'm waiting out a call from my oncologist plus waiting out a very long recovery from a freak fall.  Still having awful spasms in my back from the spill.  But more than what is happening physically, I need to look at my own heart, deal with my own stuff. And as I do ...  Things aren't as they appear. And a tear falls. What's really going on within me? I'm just not where I thought I would be in life or in soul or story or in friends. So, I'll keep walking in that darkness, trusting, no light. And I'll keep asking the same question the 3 Wise Men asked in Matthew 2---where is He? The North Star brought them to the Savior in a Manger. The North Star sang. The Morning Stars still sing. Job 38:7---from that First Day of Creation to this very day. I need deliverance from what grabs my soul that is not right and good and just. I've been more concerned about my body healing than my soul healing. 

Herod showed his anger in Matthew 2:16  ^"Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem."  But Herod wanted to worship the baby.  How quickly his resolve to worship melted to evil.  Real Evil.  Either we are headed toward redemption or destruction in every act. How way-too-quickly in my own life does my good intentions melt into dark actions?  Solzhenitsyn said that it's not just the communists that are evil, it runs right through all of us. Lord, have mercy on us!

PHOTO:  Stars singing. Stock photo. Free Images. Copyright free. 

#counseling #counselyourself---whatisreallygoingonwithin #counselyourself---whatrunsrightthroughyoutoday #changedlives

1 - "One Grand Providence" Genesis 1-3; Matthew 1

Wonder about Creation. Spoken by a Word, not for your curiosity, but for your soul to know this---There Is A Creator brooding over the burgeoning darkness and giving energy to a nascent world. What will you do with that thought this moment you are in? Genesis 1 #60000thoughtseveryday #1thoughtfortoday #talkingtomyself 

God is Brooding over our very lives this very day. Genesis 1:2.                                                                Darkness was on the face of the deep.                                                                                                                                  

It's a soundless moment. Then, a Word Spoken and a Creation painted for us, not for our curiosity, but for our very souls to know this---There is a Creator. Genesis 1:3. And He knows you.                              

And once upon that blackness, that Creator moved over the burgeoning darkness and gave energy to a nascent world.  He brooded like a mama bird over its young, says the Hebrew commentaries.  And it was George MacDonald who alluded that we were then born in His Thoughts in that darkness. Beams of dazzling light began to unwrap, unravel, undo the chaotic mass. Creation. Man. And the sounds of God.

The Creative Spirit of God is the principle of all life.  This is the only Center we have and know.  And He is still hovering over you and your life this new day, this brand new year.  I pray you may know deeply His moves, His hovering. Especially over your darkest spots. The dark nights have always been the hardest of times for me.  Still are. This I know:  A Good God is brooding over all my nights and days. George MacDonald called it: "One Grand Providence--- if we just believe.

There are names listed in the genealogy I do not know.  There are some names, we know too well for their impropriety, their immortality, their idolatry.  This is who God sent His son to save.  He sent His Son to save me from myself. A Holy God broods over all my darkness.  

PHOTO:  30,000 feet above the Earth. A blanket of clouds covering Kansas City where God is brooding.

#Godbroods #darknightofthesoul #counselyourself---whereareyou? #liveinthepresentmoment #wonder #soundsofGod

365 THOUGHTS in 2026

Reading the Bible cover to cover: Daily selections from the Old Testament and New Testament

#1 Wonder about Creation. Spoken by a Word, not for your curiosity, but for your soul to know this---There Is A Creator brooding over the burgeoning darkness and giving energy to a nascent world. What will you do with that thought this moment you are in? Genesis 1:2 #60000thoughtseveryday #1thoughtfortoday #talkingtomyself 

#2 Ask yourself why you are angry, what's really going on with your responses? Why is your face sad? Genesis 4:6-7. What's going on within? Who gets your anger?

#3 The Lord shut Noah in an ark for one year. Has the Lord "shut us in" to make us holy? Genesis 7:16. And when you come out of the ark - Live to "cover" not to "expose." Genesis 9:26.

#4 Don't live in contempt of court. It's not right to live to make a name for yourself." Genesis 11:4

#5 We are all headed to a heavenly country. What's the next stop along the way? Genesis 13:1. What is going on inside of you? 

#6 - You are a God of Seeing---my betrayal, my flight, my thirst, my hunger to be known, my desire to be loved, my hope for a child. Genesis 16:8   

#7 God opens swollen eyes---there is a well of water in grace. God rises on swollen souls. Genesis 18   #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself   

#8 “But I thought” —- we all have to wrestle in our hearts with the Truth. If it truly were a matter of the mind, we could change our minds. Genesis 20:11 #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself 

#9 What competes in our hearts for sovereignty? Open our ears to hear Your words. Open our eyes to see—-even in our wilderness. Open our hearts to embrace what You are doing in our lives. Genesis 22:1   #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself  

#10 Live loosely with the attachments to this life. Our chief concern always should be: With Whom shall we rise. Genesis 24:1  #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself 

#11 Go to “The Well of the One Who Sees Me” and live in dependence on the right things. Genesis 25:11 #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself 

#12 Live with your longings, don’t bargain for a birthright like Jacob did. Genesis 26. #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself                 

#13 Very well could be that God is in this place, and I know it not. Genesis 28:16 #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

 #14 God never intended for us to be attached to anyone else but Him. Genesis 29:34. #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

#15 Lift your eyes as if to signal through future scores of generations: I am changed. I am both forgiven and forgiving. Genesis 33:5 #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

#16 Go back to the place where God answered you. Genesis 35:1. Find what is most alive in you. #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself             

#17 - The worst thing is never the last thing. So, hold in your heart what God has already promised.  Genesis 37:5 #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself       

#18 - The infamous Judah is chosen—-just like us—-by God’s grace, not by merit. #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself         

#19 Even so, the Lord was with Joseph in prison. God is with us in our afflictions. Genesis 39:21 #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself  

#20 We must not think it strange in this world if slights are returned for our kindness. Live content to prove yourself innocent—-don’t upbraid others with their guilt.  Genesis 40:23. 

#21 All things that are working against me will actually work for my good and the good of others. Genesis 42:36. #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

#22 Live in the humble beginnings where God has placed you. May we see that all what happens in our lives as from God—-it was not you who sent me here, but God. Genesis 45:8 #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself       

#23 Am I in the place of God? Genesis 50:19. Dare I usurp the prerogative of God. (Poole). The concourse of Providence directs my story. 

#24 God remembers to listen to our every moment. He sees and understands everything we face. Genesis 2:24 

#25 Can you answer him by heart when he calls your name: “Here I am.” Exodus 3:4 #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

#26 God trumped Moses with His Power—-Who made your mouth, Moses? Go. And God Himself will be with your words, Exodus 4:11-12

#27 Do we love success more than God? What about better circumstances? Moses’ thoughts in Exodus 5:23: “From the moment I spoke in Your Name, things have gotten worse.” How many times in a day do we think: if I do the right thing, then life is going to get better? #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself.        

#28 To live for this life bows our head to the temporal not the eternal. Exodus 9:3. You cannot live every day for one gold medal. Submit not knowing the outcome. The finger of God writes your story. Exodus 8:19.  But the Pharaoh still didn’t feel the wrongs in his “person.”

#29  No difference between princes and paupers. So, bow low to your Maker. God is doing something new here after 430 years. Exodus 12:1. #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

#30 Do we live on God’s terms or our own terms? When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them through the shortest way lest they might change their minds. #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

#31 God is never more present than in the depths of our problems. So, what is stealing my joy? Exodus 15:2, 5.

#32 Do we know God’s Presence only when things go right? God rains down hidden manna every single day of our lives. Exodus 17:7  #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

#33 God wrote the Ten Commandments not to make us feel guilty but to lift us up to Himself. God wants to write his law on our hearts. We want to write it on our to-do lists. Exodus 20:20. Don’t be afraid. God has come to instill a deep and reverent awe within you. #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

#34 God’s words interpret us 2,000 years later for we are bound by an amazing debt to respond. #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

#35 Look through the clear lens of the Word of God and listen to the 66 books. Face yourself honestly —- it will do you more good than anything else.

#36 Make much of the tabernacle—-keep your lamps burning bright. Eternal flames. Do not be fixed on this world. The Gospel is a Person not a Place. Exodus 27:21 #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

#37 There I will meet with you and speak with you. Exodus 29:42. A new covenant. Here on This Day, I will meet with you and speak with you. To this very day, Christ lives to make intercession for His Church. #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

#38 Turn back to the finger of God written in His Word and hang on tight. Ask and Seek the favor of God in your perplexing difficulties This Day. Exodus 32:11 #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself                    

#39 Tuck this thought under your pillow Tonight: “I will give you Rest.” Exodus 33:14. Sleep in peace. Rest in Him not in solving perplexities, not in connecting with a person or place. #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself                          

#40 God is merciful when people tell us what’s wrong with us; when our friends swindle us; and when we are the self-swindlers. He is making sure that we know that. Exodus 34:6. #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself 

#41 God put in their hearts to work and it stirred them up in a wilderness. Exodus 35:34. What an exact work ethic! Do we approach our tasks this way? A debt of love not a debt of labor. #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

#42 The Divine light and fire then and now will overpower the strongest heads and hearts. #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

#43 Lives “curved in” (Augustine) on ourselves will focus on the smaller story of our lives from our birth to death—-and we will misunderstand everything that matters. #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

#44 Our daily offerings—-is it fulfilling to just check off the box? Our validation in life is that we answer God’s invitation. Leviticus 1:17. #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

#45 Leviticus reveals what is most wrong in our lives that blocks our joy.  Holiness.  We want God to solve our problems but we have a worst problem—-distance from God. Don’t keep your distance. #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

#46 Think about redeeming grace for the secret sins and the sins against humanity. Nothing can snatch us out of his redeeming grace. #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

#47 Look before you at your very steps. May we be found waiting and watching. #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself 

#48 Fire came out from the presence of the Lord. Aaron remained silent. Aaron held his peace. Lost boy of his boys in that fire.  #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

#49 The Israelites were looking forward. We no longer look backwards. We have Him here. Partakers of the Divine Nature. God is engineering all things. Don’t be nurtured in accomplishments, achievements, and possessions. Give Thanks. #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself 

#50 All Done! All the regulations done. Done out of love for God. #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself         

#51 Spiritual leprosy causes us to distance ourselves from our enemies and those who disagree but we must treat them as friends. How? #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself 

#52 Am I more concerned about my relationship with God than I am with these rough circumstances trapping me in? #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

#53 When did it become okay to work harder to be holy?” Leviticus 19:1 #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself 

#54 In the midst of the OT offerings, there is a “call to holiness,” that is lifted central in the lives of every Israelite and their community. Same for us: a call to holiness individually and collectively in America. #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

#55 We put God on trial every time we evaluate if He is good. God is not on trial; we are. God is the Judge. Humble your soul. Come to Him first all day long. Leviticus 23:27. #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

#56 So what’s the point of Leviticus. The laws were written for our instruction. So what did I learn that applies to my society? “Rest.” May we find true rest in God, not in the tangibles of life.  #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself    

#57 Moses was a prince in a grant. Marshalled in rank and file. Moveable. Pitch your tent and pressd on. Pressing on for the prize of Christ Himself and that future state of ours. #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

#58 Step into your calling even if the world might recognize you as returnable. Numbers 3:34. #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

#59 Every man carried out his work as assigned but never looked into his own heart. Numbers 4:49. They did what was right in their own eyes. #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

#60 God’s will is for me to become holy not to solve all my problems. Moses led 2 million on a trip of joy that should have taken 11 days not 40 years. Concerned more with comfort than holiness. #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

#61 Put God's Name on every face you meet. Numbers 6:24-26. The Lord bless you and keep you. Covers all your work here on earth. No conditions. May God lift His Face on you: a gracious movement of God toward you. #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

#62 The Lord matched their magnanimous offerings with his very own Audible Voice. Buechner says: If I see you, I experience you as an object in space. If I hear you, you bring me into the innermost secrets of who you are. #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

#63 God’s movement in our lives belongs to Him and His will for us. It may be quick like Jonah or years like Joseph. It is not for us to say. It is there for us to follow. #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

#64 Never try to live on old manna or replace it for better. Nor seek help in Egypt. “All must come from Jesus or you are undone.” Spurgeon #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

#65 Caleb means “all heart.” A spirit of holy heat, noble daring. May God stir the heart of the un-Caleb people we live with. (Spurgeon). #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

#66 The whole 2 million people in the community forgot what they just read. Numbers 16. Forgot the feeling of the ocean floor they just crossed. #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

#67 Does my happiness depend on others treating me well and things going my way? Numbers 17 #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

#68 Moses and Aaron against one million people. How do you know in your heart God brought you to this place and one million people do not know? #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

#69 Moses and Aaron just did the same thing the one million Israelites had been doing. Do we think we have to protect God's reputation? Speak as you walk through life. #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

#70 It’s A Beautiful Thing when the Angel draws the line and God stands in our way and we look within and God opens our eyes. Numbers 22:31 #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself        

#71 God let every male over 20 years old wander for 40 years and die. 603,548. Gone. They never looked deep enough inside to see what was terribly wrong in their own hearts. Caleb and Joshua walked away from a wildersness—-what did they see that half a million people did not see. Divine Power. Hope. Move forward and occupy. Numbers 26:65. #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself 

#72 If God answered all your prayers today, would it change the world or change you? Moses could no longer enter the Promised Land so he prayed, not for himself, but for the appointment of a worthy successor. Numbers 27:12-17. #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

#102 Last Words! Love the Lord your God and walk in His Ways and cling to Him with all your heart and soul. God Himself puts to flight a thousand for you. Joshua 22:5-6 #60000thoughts

#103 The stone will be a witness against you. It has heard all the words spoken. Joshua 24:27104 Am I more afraid of losing the blessings or losing my relationship with God?Am I more afraid of losing the blessings or losing my relationship with God? #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

#104  Something Worse than a difficult life. Something Worse than all this pain & suffering. Something Worse than all the bad things that happen to us. Am I more afraid of losing the blessings or losing my relationship with God? #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself                                

#105 The book of Judges is not about returning to God, finding God for the good life. This book is how our relationship with God is our greatest good. #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself 

#106 Gideon was more than weak, beside himself in a predicament. The Presence of God, the Eternal Word of God comes to Gideon and is with you, too, this very moment. God is with you, O Mighty Warrior. Believe God. Judges 6:12. 

142 - The Messianic Presence is always "with" us. God's Eyes are watching us day and night. God hears every word, every tear, every cry, every plea.  #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

MATTHEW

Are you the One we've been expecting or are we still waiting in a prison cell? Matthew 11:3 #60000thoughts #talkingtomyself

BIBLIOGRAPHY 2026

                                                            B I B L I O G R A P H Y

Alcorn, Randy

Bible Hub

Buechner, Frederick Beyond~” Words: Daily Readings in the ABC's of Faith. (San Francisco, Harper & Row, 2004).

Buechner, Frederick Telling Secrets. (San Francisco, Harper & Row, 1991).

Buechner, Frederick The Sacred Journey. (San Francisco, Harper & Row, 1982).

Chan, Francis Passion Conference Sermon. January 2014.

Chesterton, G.K. 

Crabb, Larry 66 Love Letters. (New York, Thomas Nelson, 2011).

Gill Commentary

Lewis, C.S. The Weight of Glory, 

librarysearch.stthomas.edu

MacDonald, George The Best of George MacDonald. Honor Books. Trade Paperback. 

MacDonald, George and Larsen, Timothy Diary of an Old Soul. IVP Academic/ ePub. 

Matthew Henry Commentary

Metaxas, Eric 7 Men and the Secret of Their Greatness (Thomas Nelson, 2015).

Patrick, St. The Confession of St. Patrick. (Grand Rapids, Michigan, Mt. Christian Classics Ethereal Library, c. 390).A

Wesley, John Sermon

364 - Level My Soul This Last Day of the Year@ Malachi; Revelation 22

 

We take down the "high thoughts" and we make room for the Gospel in our hearts. 

Matthew Henry calls John 3: "levelling the soul and removing all that hinders us in the way of Christ and grace." 

Give up your sins for the Savior.  And a teenager whispers in my ear:  I just want to have fun in this world so I cannot follow Him.  What are the limits to your fun?  Remove all that hinders us from bringing our thoughts into obedience or we will not be redeemed.

The fruits must meet with repentance.  We can say we love, we live, we learn by Christ.  But what does my life look like today?  We don't accept Christ's offer of salvation without true repentance, once and for all that we do.  The evidence and the effects mark us for life. 

Man lives by every word out of the mouth of God.  Luke 4:12.  We walk according to Providence and Promises.  This Word.  It is our sword.  We do not live by bread alone but by every Word out of the mouth of God.  It has been 400 years of waiting for this Word.  Malachi told us to study it and make sense of it.  And here it is.  Invading our hearts.  And His Word was with Power.  Luke 4:32.

363 - “Don’t Despise Small Beginnings” Zechariah; Revelation 21

                                                   

Only in darkness could Mother Teresa learn to say 'my agony of desolation is so great and at the same time the longing for the Absent One so deep, that the only prayer which I can still say is---Jesus, I trust in Thee. I will satiate Thy thirst for souls.' "  66LL

"If you could see right now what is happening in the Unseen World, you would be filled with hope.  You must trust Me for whatever tastes of Glory I choose to provide in this life as you continue to build the Temple. You have become a prisoner of hope."  66 LL

Yet we all live in days gone by:  You wonder how you failed (3:1), contributing to your children's failures.  You worry that your faith was too small.  "Satan encourages an obsessive and superstitious look at your failure."  I see all your failure---I bathe you until you become a Sweet Fragrance.  66 LL

"The legalist in you will want to mourn what was painful in the past and what is still painful today (7:2-3).  You will want to focus more on healing past wounds and filling present emptiness than living in hope.  Do not obsess over yesterday's troubles or today's problems."  66 LL  Live in hope!

Find the present hope...
1:2 - Come back to me and I'll come back to you. Don't be like your parents. 

Enter into the present hope...
1:5  Put up your measuring tape.  Don't try to figure things out.  "I'll be right there with you—God's Decree—a wall of fire around unwalled Jerusalem---your own city with no walls--- and a radiant presence within."  Nothing will happen to you or any of My Followers that has the power to destroy My Plan A.  66 LL  God is on the move!

Dress in the present hope...
3:3 - Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes.  What am I dressed in this day?  

Live as a prisoner of the present hope...
or you will be a slave to the past...
4:9  "Don't despise This Day of Small Beginnings."  A Day of Small Things.  Right on Time.  Right Direction.  Fully Alive. 

PHOTO: My darkness matters to me, to Him. But it is not the Greater Story being told. There is Light that permeates the darkest of times.  The smallest of beginnings. 

362 - “Consider Your Ways” Haggai; Revelation 20-21

 

A church without doors.

Well, you can't get in!

Lots of people feel this way.

The truth is that we want what is outside the doors

more than what is inside.

"The unexamined life is simply not worth living." So says Socrates.  

Do I own up to examining, not as though doing penance, but taking a good hard look at what stirs within.  Why am I jealous? 

What about my sorrow over not being used by God?  

What's with this hidden anger that no one sees but I harbor and hold and hate?  

What about the rotten pride of not wanting to be a part of certain things, people, events?  

What's up with this distance I am trying to honor from my family?  

Why are other things more important than God?  

How can I spend ten times the amount of time on stuff that only matters on earth?

Two little words in this first chapter.  Not yet!  Haggai 1:2 - 

The time has "not yet" come to do God's work.  Well, when will I do it?  

 

Haggai 1:5 Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Consider your ways! You have sown much, but harvest little; you eat, but there is not enough to be satisfied; you drink, but there is not enough to become drunk; you put on clothing, but no one is warm enough; and he who earns, earns wages to put into a purse with holes.”

Haggai 1:14 - Oh God, stir us all up! They knew the exact day. May we know the very moment.
The Lord is with you! Take courage. My Spirit is abiding in your midst. Haggai 2:4-5. O God, open the doors of heaven.  Shake the heavens and the earth.  Open the church doors. 

Photo Credit:  Flickr, the Commons.  Van Gogh

12/26

361- “He is Here” Zephaniah 1:3; Revelation 18-19

 

The Lord is Mighty to save.  He will save us!
He will be God to us!  He will be our All!
The Mighty One!  For the least of all.  For the worst of all.
The Lord is in our midst, Zephaniah 3:17
the Mighty One to save.
He will rejoice over us.
No matter what has happened to us---what shame, contempt, dishonor---
the LORD will honor us.  He will take care of His own.
In this life there will be tribulation.
Many are the troubles of the righteous,
but the LORD delivers him from all.
We can always rejoice in the love of our God.
No matter what befalls.
Father, what causes us to cling?  What troubles push us to depend?  What contempt makes us seek You?  Our troubles are many but Your Love overwhelms all.  Please show us this day that whatever falls in our paths, we can still rejoice in your love.  

PHOTO:  The ocean.  Thinking about whatever befalls, we can always rejoice in God's Love.  That can never be taken away from us.  

360 - "Forward Faces Coming Against Us" Habakkuk; Revelation 16-17

In the midst of all we have going on...

In the midst of all we need to trust you blindly...
In the midst of all we don't even know...
Revive us.
Show Your Work.

Here's an honest prophet
who doesn't mince his words.
"The unexamined life is simply not worth living." Socrates.
Are we self-aware?  Do we really know what stirs within?

We prayed tonight together for things to fall where God wills.
We prayed for Grace and Favor and Mercy.
"Though the fig tree should not blossom,
    nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
    and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
    and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord."
Habakkuk 3:17-19

Oh God!  Help us see through what stirs within, the good stirrings, that Your Power is the Energy that will help us make it through this crazy maze.  Col 1:29.  

PHOTO:  Standing on this Brazos river bank thinking about the unexamined life in me and those I love. Have mercy O God. 

359 - "Live Obscure in this World" Nahum; Revelation 15-16

"The LORD is good,

a Stronghold in the day of trouble;

He knows those

who take refuge in Him." Nahum 1:7

What do I take refuge in this day?

Here are the Ninevites 100 years down the road.  They repented at the voice of Jonah's preaching and God saved the city but they went down a very wrong path.  Here, today, God's Goodness is juxtaposed against His anger.  But for the righteous, we read this and rest.  There is no rest for the wicked. 

One commentary spoke of how we can live obscure lives in this world.
But, the LORD knows you.
And isn't that all that truly matters.
So, when I am overlooked and overused,
this Jehovah God is intimately acquainted with me.

This is right where I sit, Father.  and desire to trust and wait and rest and repent.  Infuse us with Your Power to walk down the right path and depend on You, a very Good God.

PHOTO:  Sitting on a cliff.  An eagle flies overhead.  My heart soars to new depths.  This Stronghold has shown up for me.

358 - "Part with Your Sins---And Hope Will Swell" Micah; Revelation 13-14

              

Hope swells on this Christmas morn for the baby born in a manger. C.S. Lewis said the manger was bigger than our whole world. 

Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?

Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,
    the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
    And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
    and to walk humbly with your God."

Micah 6:7-8

"All proposals of peace, except those according to the gospel, are absurd. You could not answer the demands of Divine justice, nor satisfy the wrong done to the honour of God by sin, nor would you serve at all in place of holiness of the heart and reformation of the life. Men will part with any thing rather than their sins; but they part with nothing so as to be accepted of God, unless they do part with their sins."

We cannot search for the good through penance.
We so want, at times, to pay for our sins.
"Deep conviction of guilt and sin 
will make you seriously pursue Peace and Pardon.

And hope swells.I am so stirred by one verse in Micah ...  and by doing "the will of God" after reading through Micah. Someone once said: God's will be done and our wills be undone. And hope swells. 

Let the will of the Lord be done.  Bad Prophets cry "Peace" when they have something to eat. Micah 3:5. But do those same bad prophets cry "Peace" when they are treated poorly and good withheld. No, those bad prophets "Declare War" against him who puts nothing in their mouths.

Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? The people are groping for the good through penance. Their proposals are absurd---men will part with their firstborn before they part with their sin? "He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you. To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." MICAH 6:7-8. Real conviction of sin makes you pursue peace and pardon. 

PHOTO:  Ponder these words in the closing of the day. Is hope swelling in your heart?

357 - "The Glass of the Commandments" Obadiah 1; Jonah

Somewhere in my thinking, I believe I can get away with stuff.

I mean, I don't want to.

But it comes pouring out of me, shocking me to no end.

"As you have done, it shall be done to you;
your deeds shall return on your own head."

Obadiah 1:15

One of the commentaries shared it this way:

Sin, thus looked upon in the glass of the commandment, will appear exceedingly sinful. Those will have a great deal to answer for, who are idle spectators of the troubles of their neighbors, when able to be active helpers."

The glass of the commandment.  We see through the glass to read the promptings.  And the Word sees through the glass right back at us.  So ... Don't miss the grace of God.

Who am I that you take care of me?
Who am I that you think of me?
The God of all Goodness and Grace.
Always doing us good.
Even though we may not see it today.
If we are following God,
we will be influenced by that Goodness.
We will resolve to follow further, deeper in.
But it's not just a decision!
It is Grace!
May we not miss the Grace of God
in all our little big problems.
Those times when a whale swallows us.
May we pray like Jonah to resist the idols
and receive the Grace & Goodness of God!
Jonah 2:8 who pay regard to vain idols
    forsake their hope of steadfast love.

Jonah 2:8. 

The basis of the spiritual life is humility. Not the haughty attitude that I know what is right and I am going to let you know. May we not distance ourselves.  May we not miss Your Grace & Goodness! Even in the belly of a whale.  And that's about the toughest circumstances around.  

No light.  No exit.  No advocate.  No explanation.  No way out.  

Unless God does something.  And He did.  

PHOTO:  A glass of water.  Dallas, Texas.  May we look deeply into the glass of your commandments.

356 - "Woe To Those Who Live in Luxury and Expect Everyone Else to Serve Them---There Is A Plumbline" Amos 4-7; Revelation 10-11

Amos 6:4  Woe to those who live in luxury and expect everyone else to serve them! Woe to those who live only for today, indifferent to the fate of others! Woe to the playboys, the playgirls, who think life is a party held just for them! Woe to those addicted to feeling good—life without pain!  those obsessed with looking good—life without wrinkles! They could not care less about their country going to ruin. Luke 9:62  

Put your hand to the plow 
with tears running down and 
questions swirling round.
And don't look back
for there's nothing you lack.
5 Loaves & 2 Fish in a sack.

People say every day that they want to follow Christ with all their heart.  
Use the plumbline of the Word of God  (Amos 7:7) in Luke, Chapter Nine, to reveal what's not straight, what's going on inside of your hearts:
* Verse 40 - Do you believe in His Power to change the very circumstances you are in?
* Verse 44 - Do you realize there are some Words that may not be sinking into your ears and hearts?
* Verse 46  - Are you climbing the social ladder? Who is great? Is it Beth Moore? John Piper? Are there people whom you ignore---pass over their comments, don't return their friendship?
* Verse 47 - Do you see the competition in your own heart to be somebody great, as you measure days by people's responses and what's worked in your favor? 
* Verse 53 - How do you treat those who do not want Christ as their LORD?

Jesus turned the world upside down. 
And He had nowhere to lay His Head.
Fold up your social ladders.
Withdraw from the blogging competition. 
Adjourn your family from the courtroom.  
Play like a little child today in humility and gratitude.  
Live in the risky poverty that your Sovereign LORD has arranged for you.  
I am so preaching this sermon to myself.
He is oh-so-more concerned about you than you will ever know.  He sees what is happening and He is writing the next chapter.  Let Him write it.

Put your hands to the plow. Let the tears fall. And don't look back.

PHOTO: OH, the Joy in holding you! I pray for you both that you will spend all of your days putting your hands to the plow!

355 - “The Lion Has Roared” Amos 1-3; Revelation 8

Another prophet in the picture.

While Isaiah is dealing with his strongholds, Amos is saying this:

The lion has roared;
who will not fear?
The Lord God has spoken;
who can but prophesy?”

Amos 3

So speak to to those strongholds.

They must go.

They have no hold on me.

Wrestle well.

You know what is right to do.

O Father, may we hear your Voice saying this is the way walk in it.  May we grasp a little more deeper this day that You are roaring in our lives for goodness, for justice, for love.

PHOTO:  Santa Rosa Island.  In those quiet moments today, may we move to do away with the strong holds on all our lives.  Those strongholds that stop the very blood flow of life to us.   

354 - "Always a Valley of Decision" Joel 3; Revelation 7

It's always a Valley of Decision ~

What will I do with this one life of mine?

 I was in a Valley of Decision one day whether I would remain faithful to an absent God.  Fast forward to today's Valley and I'm faced with little hope of recovery.  That is, if I'm living for this life.  But, I'm not.  What's different about this valley of decision is that I know that life will never work as it should until That Day when we are with Him Forever.  This is a broken world.  We are broken people.  God superintends this world in His Will and I must blindly trust even when I do not see how He is working this all out.  Rend my heart.  "Let the weak say I am a Mighty Man."  Joel 3:10.  "Let every difficulty, big or little, reveal whether you are God's faithful or adulterous wife.  Repent as necessary and surrender more fully to God's plan.  God's plan is to make you fully alive with joy, meaning, and love."  66LL

353 - "Rend Your Heart Not Your Garments" Joel 1-2; Revelation 6

                                                              

"Yet even now,” declares the Lord,
    “return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
13     and rend your hearts and not your garments.”

Joel 2:13.

Return to the Lord your God,
    for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;
    and he relents over disaster.
14 Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,
    and leave a blessing behind him.

One of the lowest points of my life. 

I went to my friend Larry for help. 

He referred my impossible situation to God. 

He told me to go to another room and just listen.

He said I was way too frantic.  

Sitting alone in a very unfamiliar place, 

I randomly opened the Bible to the Book of Joel. 

I put my bony finger on the page and

it landed on Joel 2:13. 

I'll never forget the moment. The Presence of God. 

And the same thing happened tonight. 

Fighting back tears, I sat alone at a restaurant and read:

Joel 2:13.

And the rain came down on my soul. Poured down!

How do I rend this heart of mine?

PHOTO: The rain clouds are about to burst in my heart. 

352 - "Bend Down To Us, O God" Hosea 9-12; Revelation 5

                                                   

It's a Beautiful God Who pursues us when we are unlovely.

"I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness,

and speak tenderly to her."

And I weep.  

There.

I will give her a door of hope.

Hosea 2:14-15.

And I will have mercy on No Mercy.

And I will say to Not My People, You are my People."

Hosea 2:23.

So stirring.

May Hosea be ever so real in each of us.  

May we cry from our hearts for what affects us so this day.  

No wailing from our beds, O God!  

Help us to truly repent as the Great Story beckons.  Help us to find You.  

PHOTO: Outside my classroom door for 15 years. Common Grace is always here. Redeeming Grace is forever mine. 

Come, O God, Like the Rains.

Unannounced.

Unnoticed.

So Needed.

She followed her lovers and forgot God, even when she was married---still an adulteress.  Consulting wooden idols.  Asking diviner's wands to inform them.  "Playing the harlot, departing from God."

God says:  He will go away until you acknowledge your guilt and seek His Face.  He does not say when you learn to be grateful or once you are doing well or when you do the right things.  No, it's when we acknowledge our guilt and seek His Face not seek changed lives/changed behavior.  He will come back when we repent not when we just recall good things, count our blessings.  

Hosea 6:1 - “Come, let us return to the Lord.

For He has torn us, but He will heal us...

Let us press on to know the Lord.

And He will come to us like the rain,

Like the spring rain watering the earth."

Hosea 6:3

PHOTO:  Day is done. Where am I? Striving to be grateful or humbling myself before a Righteous God. picture of life, at times.

Desolate, Drought, Devastating.

Bend Down, O God, and hear our prayer.

"Ephraim has hired lovers.  Even though they hired allies among the nations.  They multiplied altars for sin... They forgot their Maker while multiplying fortified cities."  Hosea 8:8-10.  
They played the harlot and loved the earnings. 
There's a point here. 
God's Words, His Story of Hosea and a harlot represents a welcome, a wooing, a wonderful invitation for more.  More than what this old world offers.

God yearns your way.
From the days of old, your very first days, He was there.
"Yet it is I who taught Ephraim to walk,
I took them in My arms;
But they did not know that I healed them...

And I bent down and fed them.  Hosea 11:4
But they were bent on turning from Me.  Hosea 11:7
Am I bent on my own will?
Do I feed on the wind? Hosea 12:1

The Lord is His name.
Therefore, Return to Kindness and Justice.
Wait for your God continually.  Hosea 12:6
Expect Him to do much.  He has.  He is.  He will.

"You will be irresistibly drawn to My Love and able to give it to others when you discover in your own experience that the love I have planted in your heart can never be destroyed by rejection, betrayal, criticism, or any other form of unlove you receive.  True love re eals itslef as the strongest of all passions when your impulse to hate those who hurt you is fully felt."  66LL

PHOTO: A desolate place in Des Moines.

351 - "God Comes Unannounced Like the Rains" Hosea 5-9; Revelation 4

It's a Beautiful God Who pursues us when we are unlovely.

"I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness,

and speak tenderly to her."

And I weep.  

There.

I will give her a door of hope.

Hosea 2:14-15.

And I will have mercy on No Mercy.

And I will say to Not My People, You are my People."

Hosea 2:23.

So stirring.

May Hosea be ever so real in each of us.  

May we cry from our hearts for what affects us so this day.  

No wailing from our beds, O God!  

Help us to truly repent as the Great Story beckons.  Help us to find You.  

PHOTO: Outside my classroom door for 15 years. Common Grace is always here. Redeeming Grace is forever mine. 

Come, O God, Like the Rains.

Unannounced.

Unnoticed.

So Needed.

She followed her lovers and forgot God, even when she was married---still an adulteress.  Consulting wooden idols.  Asking diviner's wands to inform them.  "Playing the harlot, departing from God."

God says:  He will go away until you acknowledge your guilt and seek His Face.  He does not say when you learn to be grateful or once you are doing well or when you do the right things.  No, it's when we acknowledge our guilt and seek His Face not seek changed lives/changed behavior.  He will come back when we repent not when we just recall good things, count our blessings.  

Hosea 6:1 - “Come, let us return to the Lord.

For He has torn us, but He will heal us...

Let us press on to know the Lord.

And He will come to us like the rain,

Like the spring rain watering the earth."

Hosea 6:3

PHOTO:  Day is done. Where am I? Striving to be grateful or humbling myself before a Righteous God.

350 - "I Will Give You A Door of Hope" Hosea 1-4; Revelation 3

It's a Beautiful God Who pursues us when we are unlovely.

"I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness,

and speak tenderly to her."

And I weep.  

There.

I will give her a door of hope.

Hosea 2:14-15.

And I will have mercy on No Mercy.

And I will say to Not My People, You are my People."

Hosea 2:23.

So stirring.

May Hosea be ever so real in each of us.  

May we cry from our hearts for what affects us so this day.  

No wailing from our beds, O God!  

Help us to truly repent as the Great Story beckons.  Help us to find You.  

Oh! Laodicea, you thought you were doing okay.  But, no.  You talked your way right into heaven but you didn't end up there: "I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing." Rev 3:17.  And, God spits you out of his mouth.  Don't you know that you were wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.  Yet, where we are today, we cannot easily say those kind of statements or we miss the revelation of our purpose here.  The whole Bible is revelatory. 

PHOTO: Outside my classroom door for 15 years. Common Grace is always here. Redeeming Grace is forever mine. 350 

349 - "White And Tried" Daniel 11-12; Revelation 2

 

White and Tried. This life. Go your way til the end of this year, til the end of all days. 

"Amid the crash of matter and the wreck of worlds,
the Lord Jehovah will preserve His own." C. Spurgeon
We need not fear.  Let us go on our way.
Find rest for our souls.  This world knows so little.
When have we truly been at rest in our souls?

Go.
Rest.
Stand.
This is your lot.
This is your life.
No fiery furnace.  No den of lions.
Can keep us from walking with God.
May we become a parade of pleaders who won't let go.

Who will keep on.
To the end of our days.

100 Years Ago … Charles Spurgeon wrote:
May we live - "calm resolute in duty, brave in conflict, patient in suffering,
let us go, keeping to our road, and neither swerving from it nor loitering in it." (Spurgeon)

John, abandoned on an island, calls for holiness not happiness here.  Sovereign Dominion over all things beckons us to go deeper into love and life.  Shall the One Who carried the Cross for our shame withhold any good thing from us?  "Tokens of Love."  I know your tribulations.  I know your poverty.  Rev. 2:9.  

348 - "Set A Hundred Bell Tower Alarms to Pray" Daniel 9-10; Revelation 1

Oh may we be caught praying! "While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my plea before the Lord my God, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the first, came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice." Daniel 9:21. We may never ever see an angel deliver our prayer, but we hold fast to the very Word of God for His Precious Promises are all "yes." And we wait in prayer.  Confessing our own sin.  Daniel pointed the finger at himself first.  He is dealing with what stirs inside of him---though pale in comparison to the depths of sin surrounding him. 

And the angel clarified: "At the beginning of your pleas for mercy a word went out, and I have come to tell it to you, for you are greatly loved." Daniel 9:23.  And how the Promises and the Passion of being greatly loved just melts our hearts. 

This prayer life intrigues and invites.  Make me want to set a hundred Bell Tower alarms as reminders to pray.  

Oh Father, teach us to pray.  Every day, I say the "Our Father," hallowed be Thy Name.  Give us today our daily bread and forgive us like you do for the Daniels of the world who are so in touch with the darkness that lurks within---right smack dab in the middle of all the Goodness. Send your Mercy. Make us Good.  You Alone are Good!  We long for You, Our Father.  

The man who had seen so much was 92-year-olds.
Held captive of sorts on the Isle of Patmos.  
GUILTY of preaching the Gospel.
Some say waiting wearily.

John says: John 1:17 ~ When I saw God\\\
I fell at His Feet as though dead*****
But HE *laid* his RIGHT HAND on me, 
Sayinhg: "~Fear not~, I AM
The First & the Last,
I AM the Living One.

His Eyes as a ^Flame of Fire^
"May represent his Knowledge 
of the secrets of ALL hearts, 
and of the most distant events."
                                        Matthew Henry

A severe depression hit me in 2006. I no longer could stand. 
Doesn't matter what caused it as much as
the tsunami that overflowed 
the banks of my soul.
Doesn't matter what it appeared 
that people did to my family as much as
the tornado of thoughts and actions 
that I must repent of.
I was about half dead, 
not functioning well physically. My Fault.
God brought this very story to mind 
as I lay helpless for weeks ...
John was old, weary, weak, captive.
God laid His Right Hand on John's shoulders
I don't espouse to know a whole lot about such Mystery.

But this I know:  
My God raised me back up from the dead, the lifeless.
He knows the Secrets of my heart 
The most distant events of my past that haunt 
The most distant events of my future that terrify.
Fear Not
The Flaming Fire, The Living One is white hot here.
And this isn't about Works Righteousness.
No, it's all about His Righteousness that stood me back on my feet. 

PHOTO:  Watching the Texas sun rise in the sky. Thinking here about being back of my feet and still   "greatly loved" and what that really means for me today.