July 31 ... Isaiah 13 - 17 "The Holy One of Israel will silence them with a Word"

Isaiah 17: 7 -8   Yes, the Day is coming when people will notice The One Who Made Them, take a long hard look at The Holy of Israel. They'll lose interest in all the stuff they've made—altars and monuments and rituals, their homemade, handmade religion—however impressive it is.

Isaiah 17: 10 - 11 You have forgotten God even though you are very religious.  Even though you work very hard. 

Isaiah 17:13 God will silence them with a word. 

Have I taken a hard look at the Holy One?  Isaiah 30:1 are words that will soon come from Isaiah's mouth.  "Woe to those who carry out plans that are not mine...Isaiah 30:11 stop confronting me with the Holy One of Israel.  Have we forgotten our God?  What word is God speaking to us through the prophet Isaiah?

"My love makes people holy.  "Only those who know they are unholy, who hate their unholiness more than their pain and emptiness, experience the transforming power of My Love.  Only holy people live well.  Only holy people love."  66 LL  Do I hate my unholiness more than my pain?  More than my emptiness?

July 30 ... Isaiah 9 - 12 "Love Pays Any Price to Bless Another"

I WALK IN DARKNESS THIS DAY YET I SEE A GREAT LIGHT LEADING ME.
Isaiah 9:2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. His names will be: Amazing Counselor, Strong God, Eternal Father, Prince of Wholeness.

I AM CONVINCED THAT MY BEAUTIFUL GOD WILL FINISH WHAT HE STARTED IN ME.
Isaiah 10:21 The ragtag remnant—what's left of Jacob—will come back to the Strong God...The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, will finish here what he started all over the globe.

THE GOD WHO HOVERED OVER DARKNESS IN GENESIS 1, STILL HOVERS THIS LAST DAY IN JULY TO GIVE DIRECTION AND BUILD STRENGTH.  THAT'S A PROMISE. STANDING IN AWED ATTENTION!
Isaiah 11:2-5  The life-giving Spirit of God will hover over him, the Spirit that brings wisdom and understanding, The Spirit that gives direction and builds strength, the Spirit that instills knowledge and Fear-of-God...His words will bring everyone to awed attention.

I CAN KNOW SOMETHING TODAY FROM THIS PROPHET THAT I DIDN'T KNOW YESTERDAY.  EVERY DAY HOLDS SHIFTS IN LIVING KNOWLEDGE FROM A GOOD GOD, OCEAN-DEEP AND OCEAN-WIDE SHIFTS INTO KNOWLEDGE.
Isaiah 11:9  The whole earth will be brimming with knowing God-Alive, living knowledge of God ocean-deep, ocean-wide.  Here's a shift for me:  "Faith to believe God is good in any circumstance and love that pays any price to bless another both spring from hope."  66 LL

July 29 - Isaiah 5 - 8 "Think "God-With-Us" Journey Not Solutions"

Isaiah 5:  10  I wonder if we can hear the God-of-the-Angel-Armies say today: "Those mighty houses will end up empty. Those extravagant estates will be deserted...they have nothing to do with the work of God."  Oh God, may we spend the rest of our days advancing your Kingdom---it's our prayer that we work righteousness, Isaiah 5:17.  Would you please, Holy God, show up and show us what "holy" is through these words of Isaiah?
 
Isaiah 6:1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Master sitting on a throne—high, exalted!  Would you expose what men and women we put up on a pedestal thinking they are stronger, wiser like this king who caused a stir in his death.  May we follow no man?  Attach me to No One but You.

Isiah 6:8  Gone your guilt, your sins wiped out." And then I heard the voice of the Master:  Whom shall I send?"  Would You help us deal with our sins this day, this moment?  Our lack of love.

Isaiah 7:2  "When the Davidic government learned that Aram had joined forces with Ephraim (that is, Israel), Ahaz and his people were badly shaken. They shook like trees in the wind."  What they feared wasn't even legitimate.  Why am I shaking like a tree in the wind?  What do I fear?  What is my terror?

Isaiah 7:10 - 12  "Ask for a sign from your God. Ask anything. Be extravagant. Ask for the moon!"  But Ahaz said, "I'd never do that. I'd never make demands like that on God!"  Ahaz almost missed hearing the prophecy of Jesus.  I love Isaiah 7: 14 - the Master is going to give you a sign anyway.  God, would you give us this day what we are missing?  God-With-Us.

Isaiah 8:10   "All your talk is mere talk, empty words, because when all is said and done, the last word is Immanuel—God-With-Us."  Am I really convinced that God is with me in this?


Isaiah 8:16  While I wait for God as long as he remains in hiding, while I wait and hope for Him, I stand my ground and hope.  In the midst of confusion, will you wait in hope with me?  Will you redefine your problems as God-With-Us on a Journey---not solutions for our suffering.  God-With-Us in His Providence has allowed what you face today.  Providential Suffering.  Face the silence and wait in hope with me. 

  

July 28 ... Isaiah 1 - 4 "Brought to My Knees by my Sorrows"

I know my definition of love needs radical revision! 

Here come the prophets "boiled over with what they had seen:  dreadful terrors and unimaginable beauty.  They spoke to change our understanding of love to what it needs to be if we're to know that God loves us, no matter what we are going through. He's doing us good right now...He is powerful enough to remove every block to holiness so we can be happy."  66 LL That's why there is rest in sorrow...a friend just sent me an e-mail tonight and it was not "good news" for her family with a brain and lung cancer diagnosis.  Her take on it was:  "Joy is often wedded to sorrow and peace often accentuated through pain."

Isaiah 1:1 - The vision: 
God Himself had children and raised them well and they turned on Him.  Running here and there, doing this and that— walked off and never really came back but thought they were okay.  "No matter what is happening to you, your worst problem is in you.  And that problem is not how badly you feel, it is how poorly you love.  Your failure to love Me above all else and to love others at any cost to yourself defines your unholiness.  When you recognize your unholiness and own it without excuse, your ears will be opened to hear My words of comfort and hope.  And those words will set you on the narrow road to relating with holy love."  Oh! God! Would you open our ears through conviction of sin in reading the words of Isaiah.  Woe is me.  Please reveal your Love to "win our day." 

I ask you to make these words sink so deep into each of our weathered souls.  It's all about journey not solutions.  Sentiments.  "Lying in a cancer ward or worried about a troubled child or mourning a loved one's death or feeling alone and insecure (all of which I have experienced) tends to take the focus off holiness and put it on solutions.  Especially when life is tough, love is assumed to mean someone else's cooperation with our agenda to feel satisfied, full, happy, complete."  Oh my word.  Woe is me.  Would you speak to us from Isaiah's words.

Isaiah 1:13 Quit your worship charades. I can't stand your trivial religious games:  meetings, meetings, meetings.  I'm sick of your religion, religion, religion, while you go right on sinning...   Clean up your act.  Isaiah 3:1  The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, is emptying Jerusalem and Judah of all the basic necessities like preachers.

Isaiah 3:26 - A city long ago, a person typing these words both brought to their knees by their sorrows.

July 27 ... Song of Solomon 1 - 8 "Crushing Hope of Satisfaction Apart from Him"

Song of Solomon 2:15 - it's the little foxes that spoil the vine as I look for my dear lost love.  Seems like it really is the little things in life that get to me rather than the really big stuff that you brace yourself to prepare for. 

These two are so full of connection but it's called communion.  She is mine and I am hers.  Do I know in my heart today that I am His.  He is mine, no matter what. 

It's clear from this love letter that the happy couple has found true love.  But is God committed to our happiness if we don't have this splendid kind of love?  "You're not committed to our happiness, at least not for now and certainly not on the basis of having all the blessings we want.  If you were, You would be doing a better job."

"I AM committed to your happiness but only to your happiness in Me  There is no other kind, not now, not later.  Only counterfeits."

St. John of the Cross wrote that the Holy Spirit cannot walk by an empty heart without filling it with Himself.  Am I allowing  God to empty my heart of those things, good things, that give me temporary bliss, momentary relief, a picture of what I think I need to have?   "God is claiming every corner of our hearts, crushing every lingering hope of satisfaction apart from Him."  66 LL

July 26 ... Ecclesiastes 9 - 12 "A Hole in My Heart"

Eccl 9:3 - Any wonder people go crazy right and left...life leads to death.  The Quester purges all pleasures, "legitimate and illegitimate, moral and immoral---they won't bring more than temporary relief to your empty soul...more will not fill the emptiness in your heart."  Yet we keep striving for the wind.  I have nowhere else to turn for the "satisfaction of my soul's desire but Him...not to music, not to prayer, not to friends, not to church."  It's an alone moment facing that. 

Eccl 12: 13-14 - There's no end to the publishing of books, and constant study wears you out so you're no good for anything else. The last and final word is this: Fear God. Do what he tells you.

So where am I today?  Am I trying to be understood?  Am I trying to connect?  A friend told me last summer that there is a hole in my heart.  What will fill that hole?

July 25 ... Ecclesiastes 5 - 8 "Am I Alive for God's Glory?"

Eccl. 5:1 - God is in charge, not you...the less you speak the better.  Silenced by a holy God.  Haunted by the thought He wants to find me leading a quiet life, not the big bang I want. I want to make the most of everything.  What are the questions Solomon asked but couldn't answer?  The wisest person who ever lived configures that life amounts to a heap of smoke.  "Many churches declare the truth that living for My Glory answers those questions but they repeat it glibly with all the depth of a sales clerk wishing you a good day as you exit the store."  What really changes people to make them live for God's Glory?  What is really going on in the depth of my heart?  "I know the right answer to Solomon's questions---it's what You said:  Living for Your Glory by depending entirely on You for my acceptance and satisfaction is the answer Jesus taught me to believe."  66LL Has it reached me as deeply as I wish it would?  Am I following my Christ or following strong people?

July 24 ... Ecclesiastes 1 - 4 "What Music am I Listening To"

Eccl. 1:1 - It's smoke!  Spitting in the wind.  How does Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, amass silver and gold and the treasure of kings and refuse his heart no pleasure (2:8)...and arrive at the conclusion:  I hate life (2:17).  Smoke.  Chasing after the wind.  What was Solomon missing in all his stockpiled wisdom and knowledge? Why was his heart not stirred with hope?  Is my heart stirred this day with hope or despair over my circumstances?  Solomon was desperate for what?  He couldn't get answers to his questions, could he? Maybe it wasn't the answers that the wise Solomon wanted.  "Until you stop running from real darkness into artificial light, until you hear the bad news that life is empty, that you are empty, you will not hear the GOOD NEWS My Son came to bring...I lower you into the depths of despair to lift you into the heights of joy.  The way up is the way down.  There is no other way.  You will not hear My song of love until you hear no other music."  66 LL.  What music am I listening to that keeps me from hearing His Song of Love?  It could be literal music or music to my ears or music to my heart or music to my eyes that keeps me from hearing His Song of Love. "Every moment of your life is a perfectly tuned note in the Eternal Harmony."  That is if I have ears to hear.  Let those scales fall off my eyes.  Let me hear the music of heaven.

July 23 ... Proverbs 30 - 31 "Live Til You Run Out of Words"

What verses linger with you from Proverbs? 

I want to reflect on what it means to try not to figure out everything on my own but to run to God (3:5), to guard my heart (4:23), to write His Word on the back of my hand and awake and get ready for Him each morning (7:4), to not explode in anger but shrug off insults and stop letting people know they annoy me (12:16), to know that I can laugh and ache at the same time without hypocrisy (14:13), to remember that God doesn't miss a thing (15:3), to overlook an offense and bond a friendship (17:9), to see a Powerful Advocate at work every day (23:11), to not work myself into the spotlight (25:6), to not call attention to myself (27:2), to know what it means that my face mirrors my heart (27:19), to never whitewash my sin (28:13), and to live clothed with strength & dignity and face tomorrow with a smile.

The unexamined life isn't worth living.  These verses strengthen my resolve to want to be holy.  There is so much hope for our sin.  "With God's help, I shall become myself."  S.K.  "Continue asking your questions. They are good. But stop demanding answers. Live those questions long enough in My Presence until you run out of words. You will then catch a brief glimpse of who I AM that will seal your lips."

Are my lips sealed?  There is only a God-shaped life (Prov 11:28), "a narrow road that exposes foolishness, crushes arrogance, whets appetities for holiness, releases love, and fills with hope."  66LL.   There is so much hope for our sin.  Deeply encouraged as we close the pages of this book on this Narrow Road.

July 22 ... Proverbs 27 - 29 "Your Face Mirrors Your Heart"

Proverbs 27:2 - Don't call attention to yourself; let others do that for you.
Wonder why I am so dramatic at times?  Isn't that calling attention to myself?

Proverbs 27:5 - A spoken reprimand is better than approval that's never expressed. 
Wonder why I won't give my approval to some people.  Do I think that if I give the approval they will want more from me?

Proverbs 27:19 - Just as water mirrors your face, so your face mirrors your heart.
None of us have ever seen our face.  Ever.  But you have and I wonder what you see?  Do you see irritation, distance, arrogance or love and kindness?  Do I allow my family and friends to read my face?

Proverbs 27:13 - You can't whitewash your sins and get by with it; you find mercy by admitting and leaving them. Doesn't matter how someone else deals with their sin against you.  Am I whitewashing my own sin?

Proverbs 27:21 - Playing favorites is always a bad thing; you can do great harm in seemingly harmless ways. How many times we declare a person is our favorite?  A child is our favorite?  Wonder why our society values playing favorites?

Proverbs 29:18 - If people can't see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves; But when they attend to what he reveals, they are most blessed. Am I stumbling over myself today?


Proverbs 29:21 - If you let people treat you like a doormat, you'll be quite forgotten in the end. Wonder why I want to allow my friends to treat me like a doormat?


Proverbs 29:25 -  The fear of human opinion disables; trusting in God protects you from that. In letting go of some things in my life, I value human opinion on what I've done.  Wonder why I don't see that trusting God will protect me from being disabled.  What do I want more than the love of my Christ? 

July 21 ... Proverbs 24 - 26 "Strengthen Our Resolve to Be Holy"

Proverbs 24
  ¹⁰ If you fall to pieces in a crisis, there wasn't much to you in the first place.

Prover bs 25
  ^{6 -7} Don't work yourself into the spotlight; don't push your way into the place of prominence. It's better to be promoted to a place of honor than face humiliation by being demoted.

   ⁸ Don't jump to conclusions—there may be a perfectly good explanation for what you just saw.

   ^{9 -10} In the heat of an argument, don't betray confidences; Word is sure to get around, and no one will trust you.

     ¹³ Reliable friends who do what they say are like cool drinks in sweltering heat—refreshing!

     ¹⁴ Like billowing clouds that bring no rain is the person who talks big but never produces.

     ²⁸ A person without self-control is like a house with its doors and windows knocked out.

Proverbs 26   

       ²⁸ Liars hate their victims; flatterers sabotage trust.

 These verses above speak to my heart.  I desire good health, good relationships, and better finances. May the challenges we face this day strengthen our resolve to be holy, as Crabb says:   "Let every desire for long life, vibrant health, intimate relationship, material comfort, and meaningful activity strengthen your resolve to be holy...Let the wisdom of Solomon guide you to the narrow road that will expose your foolishness, crush your arrogance, whet your appetite for holiness, release your love, and fill you with hope."  We must ask ourselves:  Do we have that kind of hope?

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July 20 ... Proverbs 22 - 23 "A Powerful Advocate"

Proverbs 22 -

   ¹ A sterling reputation is better than striking it rich; a gracious spirit is better than money in the bank.

   ³ A prudent person sees trouble coming and ducks; a simpleton walks in blindly and is clobbered.

Proverbs 23
      ^{10 -11} Don't stealthily move back the boundary lines or cheat orphans out of their property, For they have a powerful Advocate who will go to bat for them. 
    11:23 - Buy truth—don't sell it for love or money; buy wisdom, buy education, buy insight.
 
"As you live more wisely, you will be inclined to regard a life well lived as an end in itself and to believe that making wise choices will reliably fill  your soul with meaning and joy.  It won't."  66 LL.  I feel that after reading Proverbs.  I want to go and "do" right.  But this is all about being human be-ings not human do-ers. Colossians 1:29 - there is an Energy inside of every Christian.  It is an outrageous power at work.  "To this end I labor with His Energy so powerfully at work inside of me."  So, Whose Energy am I living in this day?  

July 19 ... Proverbs 19 - 21 "Continue Asking Questions; Stop Demanding Answers"

"Continue asking your questions.  They are good. But stop demanding answers.  Live those questions long enough in My Presence, and you will run out of words.  You will then catch a brief glimpse of Who I AM that will seal your lips." 66 LL  Tremble before my power and surrender to God's Goodness.  This is about God changing me on the inside.  From the Inside Out.  Not just about keeping my mouth shut.  What would it look like for me to live those questions long enough in God's Presence, no matter how I look?

P:roverbs 19:21 - We humans keep brainstorming options and plans, but God's purpose prevails.
Proverbs 20:5 - 5 Knowing what is right is like deep water in the heart; a wise person draws from the well within.
Proverbs 21:23 Watch your words and hold your tongue; you'll save yourself a lot of grief.
Proverbs 21:30-31 Nothing clever, nothing conceived, nothing contrived, can get the better of God.
Proverbs 19:31 Do your best, prepare for the worst— then trust God to bring victory.

July 18 ... Proverbs 16 - 18 "With God's Help, I Shall Become Myself."

Reading Proverbs is the Shame of Exposure or the Appeal of Wisdom.  I'm being haunted or hunted.  "With God's help, I shall become myself."  Soren Kierkegaard.

Proverbs 16
   ¹ Mortals make elaborate plans, but God has the last word.
   ² Humans are satisfied with whatever looks good; God probes for what is good.
   ⁷ When God approves of your life, even your enemies will end up shaking your hand.
   ⁹ We plan the way we want to live, but only God makes us able to live it

Proverbs 17
⁹ Overlook an offense and bond a friendship; fasten on to a slight and—good-bye, friend!
²⁷ The one who knows much says little; an understanding person remains calm.
 
Proverbs 18
   ¹⁵ Wise men and women are always learning, always listening for fresh insights.
   ²¹ Words kill, words give life; they're either poison or fruit—you choose.
   ²² Find a good spouse, you find a good life—and even more: the favor of God!
   ²⁴ Friends come and friends go, but a true friend sticks by you like family.

"Do you ponder all I have created and recognize a wisdom you lack?  Do you observe life and see your God whose Sovereign Power shuts your mouth, whose uncompromising Love opens your ears to hear Me speak?  If not, you have no fear of Me.  You have not even the beginnings of wisdom?"  66 LL.  Do I really fear God?  Is my hand over my mouth? 

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July 17 ... Proverbs 13 - 15 "Unexamined Life Not Worth Living"

Walk with the Wise

Socrates said that an unexamined life is not worth living.  One cannot read the proverbs without feeling a Holy Searchlight revealing, as Crabb calls it, "the Shame of Exposure or the Appeal of Wisdom."  Romans 2:4 says it is the Kindness of our God that leads us to repent. I can't stop thinking about verses like one we read yesterday in Proverbs 12:16 about fools on a short fuse exploding in anger instead of being prudent and quietly shrugging off the insults.  Oh, that's how I want to live with a Quiet Heart.  Fight or Flight takes over in me.  God, please give me and my friends here a quiet heart (Psalm 131:2) in our mess.  The verses of Proverbs haunt and allure.In today's reading I was stirred in shame and appeal by several verses.  Here are some:

Proverbs 13:
   ² The good acquire a taste for helpful conversation;
      bullies push and shove their way through life.
  ³ Careful words make for a careful life;
     careless talk may ruin everything.
  ⁷ A pretentious, showy life is an empty life;
     a plain and simple life is a full life.

Proverbs 14

     ³ Frivolous talk provokes a derisive smile;
       wise speech evokes nothing but respect.
    ⁷ Escape quickly from the company of fools;
       they're a waste of your time, a waste of your words.
   ²⁷ The Fear-of-God is a spring of living water
       so you won't go off drinking from poisoned wells.

Proverbs 15

   ³ God doesn't miss a thing—
      he's alert to good and evil alike.
   ⁹ A life frittered away disgusts God;
     he loves those who run straight for the finish line.
   ¹¹ Even hell holds no secrets from God—
      do you think he can't read human hearts?
   ³² An undisciplined, self-willed life is puny;
       an obedient, God-willed life is spacious.
   ³³ Fear-of-God is a school in skilled living—
       first you learn humility, then you experience glory.

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July 16 ... Proverbs 10 - 12 "Makes You Feel Shame or Appeal"

   Proverbs 10:8
   The homes of good people hold together.

   Proverbs 10:9
   Better to be ordinary and work for a living
   than act important and starve in the process.

   Proverbs 10:25
  Worry weighs us down;
  a cheerful word picks us up.

These 3 verses make me feel shame and appeal.   "Expect to feel the shame of exposure..I made life to work only if lived according to My Design."  Thy Will be done...my will undone.

July 15 ... Proverbs 7 - 9 "Write Word on Back of your Hands"

Provers 7: 4 
Write my teachings out on the back of your hands; etch it on the chambers of your heart...the returns on me exceed any imaginable bonus...awake and get ready for Me each morning.  There is a foundational truth in Proverbs:  "You will hear and live My Wisdom only if first you fear Me, if you fall before Me in desperate terror and draw near to Me in trusting awe."  66LL

July 14 ... Proverbs 4 - 6 "The Brighter You Shine"

“The ways of right-living people glow with light; the longer they live, the brighter they shine. But the road of wrongdoing gets darker and darker...so keep vigilant watch over your heart for its where life starts."  No manual for living right. No formulas.  God gave us hearts that want to walk the Narrow Road and feel this appeal of wisdom or feel the shame of exposure... Respect this letter as a guide to skillful living that MAY produce blessings today and WILL produce blessings when My Son returns.  And in this life, skillful living witll better accomplish My Purposes."  66 LL.  So don't just live to "escape the flames."  If you don't want to know Him better here, You won't want Him there.  What stands in your way of wanting the Love of your God more than anything else?

July 13 ... Proverbs 1 - 3 "Don't Lose Your Grip on Love & Loyalty"

Proverbs 3:3-7  Don't lose your grip on Love and Loyalty.
   Tie them around your neck; carve their initials on your heart. Earn a reputation for living well
   in God's eyes and the eyes of the people. Trust God from the bottom of your heart;
   don't try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God's voice in everything you do,    
   everywhere you go; He's the one who will keep you on track. Don't assume that you know it all.
   Run to God! Run from evil! Honor God with everything you own;
   give him the first and the best. ... No need to panic over alarms or surprises.


I have lived a frenetic life at times---that's my default mode.  Someone please help me.  Someone please rescue me.  There's Only One Who can Rescue us from darkness.  May we be more concerned about being rescued from darkness than rescued from my pain.  It doesn't come from a good place in my heart when I try to ease my pain, minimize my pain, silence my pain.  I've so wanted answers for my panic.  And here is my God saying:  Don't try to figure out everything on your own.  Listen for God's Voice."  Am I listening this day for His Still Small Voice?  Or am I trying to figure out life on my own?  Everything.  Everywhere.  Listen for His Voice today in the mundane and marvelous.  And go be Prov 3:29---God's Hand to someone this day.

July 12 ... Psalm 146 - 150 "An Anchor in My Storm"

As we close the Book of Psalms, what did our Beautiful God stir in you that comes to mind?  What is stronger in you?  What are you afraid of?  What is God stirring up?  What lingers?

Psa 146:3 - Don't put your life in the hands of experts who know nothing of salvation life...get help from the God of Jacob, put your hope in God and know real blessing...He defends the wronged, He feeds the hungry.  God frees prisoners, He gives sight to the blind.  He lifts up the fallen.  At this juncture of my life, I feel like I have fallen short in ways.  How arrogant to think if I had to do it all over again, I could do better---no, I'd just make different mistakes.  No perfect people.  Why am I so hard on myself? 66 LL says: No guarantees in life.  Only one:  God will lead me through even this to know Him better.  Thank you, Lord.

Psalm 147:2 God is the One who rebuilds our lives, Who regathers us when we distance ourselves.  He heals the heartbroken and bandages our wounds.  I need a Savior this night to heal my broken heart as I deal with some hard realities about my life.  Our Lord is great with limitless Strength; we'll never comprehend what He knows and does.  God puts the fallen on their feet again.  I'm standing up.

Psalm 147:11 God's not impressed with horsepower; the size of our muscles mean little to him.  We live in such a celebrity society that so grabs the attention of people from storied athletes to cute speakers with energy.  God's not impressed by it all.

What lingers with me is that our desires to live are good but the road to get there can be a bad one.  "You assume I relieve struggle and replace it with rest.  But I use struggle to uncover a rest beneath the struggle that no anguish can destroy.  The struggle with fear and pain will continue.  Only in the storm will you know there is an anchor."  Do I feel that Anchor this night?  
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July 11 ... Psalm 140 - 145 "God, Come Close"

Psalm 141

1 -2 God, come close. Come quickly! Open your ears—it's my voice you're hearing!

Treat my prayer as sweet incense rising; my raised hands are my evening prayers.

As the sun sets on a day in all of our stories, may we allow Him to cultivate a quiet heart in each of us.  A little more restful.  A little more dependent.   A little more stable.  I need my God this night to come close to me.  Come quickly.  I've been thinking so much about "prayer" over the past year.  Whose voice is God hearing today?  What is stirring in my heart?  What's stronger?  What do I need to "let go" of this night?  God, come close.  Come quickly.  I need you so!

July 10 ... Psalm 133 - 139 "Are People Attracted to My Flesh"

Psalm 135 God, you'll never be out-of-date. God, you stand up for your people.  God, you hold my hand through this wedding day.  Psalm 136 Your Love will never quit.  Psalm 137 We cried and cried and cried... Psalm 138 Thank You for what You have done!  Everything in me says "Thank You!"  Angels listen as I sing my thanks.  I kneel in worship this wedding morn.  Thank you for Your Love.  Most Holy is Your Name.  The moment I called out, You stepped in; You made my life large with Strength.  Would you do it again this day for all of us.  Make our lives a little larger.  And where people are attracted to our flesh, reveal to us the way of escape to let You step in.  Finish what you started in me, God...and in Annette, another wedding mom.  And help us to be open books to you that we share the thoughts and intentions of our heart. Psalm 139 We cannot begin to count Your Thoughts any more than we can count all the sands of the sea.  Let us rise this wedding morning and live for You.  Wake us all up.  Alive in You and not alive in our flesh.  What is about our lives that attract people to our flesh?  Dead to self.  Alive in You!

July 9 ... Psalm 120 - 132 "Denouement---Cultivate a Quiet Heart"

A few verses stir my heart in ways I can't even write about.  There's a lot going on in my heart and God knows, no surprises there.  He's been so good to me!  Here are the verses that jump off my pages:

Psalm 121: I look up to the mountains; does my strength come from mountains? No, my strength comes from God, who made heaven, and earth, and mountains. He won't let me stumble.  My Guardian God won't fall asleep. Not on your life! He is right at my side to protect me this wedding week and forever more.  God guards us from evil, He guards our very life.  He guards me and you today when we leave and when we return.  Always.  I need to know that God is moving on my behalf this day and stirring up good things that we may know Him - He will raise my valleys and lower my mountains that I may know Him, not that things will work out for me.

Psalm 122 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.  Live in peace.  I am very aware that I must be more concerned about how I am impacting other people than how they are impacting me this wedding week and forever. 

Psalm 123 I look up to You for help.  Like servants, alert to their master's commands, like a maiden attending her lady, We're watching and waiting, holding our breath, awaiting your word of mercy. Mercy, God, mercy!

Psalm 125 Those who trust in God are like Zion Mountain: Nothing can move it, a rock-solid mountain
you can always depend on.  What is stronger in me?  To depend on what I want to see happen?  To depend on life turning out the ways I want it to turn out?  To depend on strong people to come through for me?  No and No and No.  What is stronger in me---to depend on circumstances and people or to depend on an Invisible Hand on my life?  Yes, God's Hand is turning my tide!

Psalm 130  Help, God—the bottom has fallen out of my life! Master, hear my cry for help! Listen hard! Open your ears! Listen to my cries for mercy.  For those things I hold in my heart, I cry for help!

Psalm 131 Denouement. This is what my God is saying to me right now in my life.  This chapter.  Cultivate a quiet heart. Wait for God.  Wait with Hope. Hope now; Hope always!  Will you wait in Hope with me for our God to show up this day and stir our hearts for good?  Hope now; Hope always!

July 8 ... Psalm 119: 89 - 176 "Put Iron in My Soul"

What you say goes, God...By your words I can see where I'm going; they throw a beam of light on my dark path. Everything's falling apart on me, God; put me together again with your Word...You are my place of quiet retreat; I wait for your Word to renew me...Stick with me and I'll be all right; I'll give total allegiance to your definitions of life. Your mercies, God, run into the billions; following your guidelines, revive me...Put your hand out and steady me since I've chosen to live by your counsel.  So what does my life look like to give total allegiance to God's Definition of Life....what is life to me this day?  Is that what's life to God?

I love it when you show yourself!... Use your decrees to put iron in my soul. And should I wander off like a lost sheep—seek me! I'll recognize the sound of your voice.   Two metaphors here:  "iron in my soul" is a beautiful prayer on my lips.  Oh, God, have mercy.  Do I recognize Your Voice this very day?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Amazing how these words were written thousands of years ago yet it's as though this very evening, God wrote them and sent them to me:  God, put me together again with your Word.

July 7 ... Psalm 119: 1 - 88 "Revive Me in Your Ways"

Psalm 119: 41 - 45

Let your Love, God, shape my life. 

Oh, I'll guard with my life what you've revealed to me,

guard it now, guard it ever;

And I'll stride freely through wide open spaces

as I look for Your Truth and Your Wisdom.

So grateful this day that your Truth and Wisdom does not depend on my performance.  Never dependent on how strong I am.  Your pleasure isn't in the strength of our legs or the weapons of our armies.  May we not live in the past of how good it was.  May we not live in the future of how good it might be. The enemy of my soul invites me to be content in the past or future.   Catch me, dear God, when I am not living in the present.  I've never seen my face before.  May my world, my circumstances, reflect what is going on---on my face and in my heart.  May we live only in the present and deal with the fray of our heart. 

How I love the last verse of today's reading.

Psalm 119:88

Revive me O God according to your Word and I will obey you.  Revive us all, O God!

July 6 ... Psalm 115 - 118 "The Hand of God Turned the Tide"

Psalm 115:  1 -3 GOD DOES AS HE PLEASES
Not for our sake, God, no, not for our sake, but for your name's sake, show your glory.  Our God is in heaven doing whatever He wants to do. Their gods are metal and wood, handmade in a basement shop.  A friend of mine facing one of life's cruelest chapters, his 17-year-old son's suicide, preached this verse when he stood up again.  I'll remember this verse forever. Bless the small, bless the great. 

Psalm 116:  1 - GOD TAKES THE HAND OF THE HELPLESS
I love God because He listened to me, listened as I begged for mercy. He listened so intently as I laid out my case before him. Death stared me in the face, hell was hard on my heels. God takes the side of the helpless; when I was at the end of my rope, he saved me.

I said to myself, "Relax and rest.
Soul, you've been rescued from death;
Eye, you've been rescued from tears
Foot, were kept from stumbling."
I'm striding in the presence of God,
Alive in the land of the living!
Something about these verses stirs up something so good in me.  Rescued by a very Good God.  Striding in His Presence in the humdrum and holy business of this day.  Alive!  And, despite a ton of bad luck!  Ha.

Psalm 117:  1 - 5  GOD IS MY CHAMPION
Praise God, everybody! Applaud God, all people! His love has taken over our lives; Pushed to the wall, I called to God; from the wide open spaces, he answered. God's now at my side and I'm not afraid; who would dare lay a hand on me? God's my strong champion; "The hand of God has turned the tide!

Brings to my mind:  The LORD is my Shepherd, I shall not want.  So what does that mean as I read these verses about a Present God?  Maybe the only thing we know will never let us go is God. Listen to my life.  What do I want more than my Shepherd?

July 5 ... Psalm 108 - 114 "God's Hand is in this."

3 Thoughts Linger from Today's Reading:

Psalm 108 - AWAKENED TO LISTEN.  Am I really awake or just trying to live an encouraging positive life?  Listen to your life!  Am I ready to raise a God-song?  If so, my soul must be awake or it's empty notes.  For the sake of the one you love so much, reach down and help me---answer me! Human help is worthless. 


Psalm 109 - GOD'S HAND IS IN THIS.  Does my world recognize Your Hand is in this...and if yes, then how do I respond to that?  My God, don't turn a deaf ear to my hallelujah prayer. I'm at the end of my rope, my life in ruins.  Save me through your Wonderful Love.  Then they'll know that your hand is in this.  I so believe you wrote this psalm for me.  In some ways, I am at my wit's end but I believe your hand is in this.   It would be really good for me, I think, if others knew Your Hand was in this.

Psalm 113 - RESCUED FROM DARKNESS NOT PAIN . 
From east to west, from dawn to dusk,
keep lifting all your praises to God!
So very grateful to you God for You rescue the wretched who have been thrown out with the trash.  You seat them among honored guests.  And you give the childless joy as the parents of children.   sent from phone

July 4 ... Psalm 106 - 107 "They Traded the Glory"

Psalm 106 -

He gave them exactly what they asked for—

but along with it they got an empty heart.

They traded the Glory

for a cheap piece of sculpture.

They forgot God, their very own Savior,

who turned things around in Egypt,

who gave that stunning performance at the Red Sea.

They found fault with the life they had

and turned a deaf ear to God's voice.
Over and over God rescued them, but they never learned—

until finally their sins destroyed them. Psalm 106:43


Psalm107

Oh, thank God—he's so good! His love never runs out.

All of you set free by God, tell the world!

Tell how he freed you from oppression,

Then rounded you up from all over the place,

from the four winds, from the seven seas.

God got you out in the nick of time. 

He put your feet on a wonderful road

that took you straight to a good place to live.

He led you out of your dark, dark cell,

broke open the jail and led you out.

So thank God for his marvelous love,

for his miracle mercy to the children he loves;

He shattered the heavy jailhouse doors,

he snapped the prison bars like matchsticks!

Psalm 107:17

July 3 ... Psalm 103 - 105 "Signs of God's Presence"

Psalm 103 - O my soul, bless God. From head to toe.
He forgives your sins—every one.
He heals your diseases—every one.
He redeems you from hell—saves your life!
He crowns you with love and mercy—a paradise crown.
He wraps you in goodness—beauty eternal.
He renews your youth—you're always young in his presence.

As high as heaven is over the earth, so strong is his love to those who fear him. And as far as sunrise is from sunset, he has separated us from our sins.

Jan, Cici, Michele, Mary Lou,  Kim, He know us all inside and out, keeps in mind that we're made of mud.

Psalm 105
Annette, Sylvia, Ang, Nise, Deborah, Keep your eyes open for God, watch for his works; be alert for signs of His presence.

God speaks.
It may be in the humdrum of life or it may be in hurts that pierce our hearts and make our blood run cold.
God speaks.
"And the reason that His Words are Impossible to Capture in Human Language is of course that they are ultimately always Incarnate Words. They are words fleshed out in the everydayness, no less than in the crises of our own experience." (Buechner). Whether you heard him in the humdrum or hurts of this day, keep your eyes open for Him.  What sign was His Presence to you this day?

July 2 ... Psalm 96 - 102 "Sovereign Still"

Can I let go and leave my hurts in His Hands?
 Psalm 96 - God is coming to set everything right on earth.  (God said this 4 times.).  So, I can let go any insults, any harm done to me for my King will set it straight someday.  

 

Am I arrogant in how I talk about other people?

 Psalm 97:8 - Am I proud of my ragamuffin gods?  I hope not.

What's my password?
 Psalm 100:1-4 - On your feet now—applaud God.  Sing yourselves into his presence. Enter with the password: "Thank you!"
    

What is God doing in my pain?

 Psalm 102: 1, 12 - Listen to the pain in my cries...I am a withered weed.  Yet You, God, are sovereign still.

Psalm 102:23 - God sovereignly brought me to my knees; He cut me down in my prime.

July 1 ... Psalm 90 - 95 "Life Itself is Grace"

Psalm 90: 12 -17 Oh! Teach us to live wisely and well!
Surprise us with Love at daybreak. 
God ordered his angels to guard you wherever you go.
If you stumble, they'll catch you. 

"Listen to your life.  All moments are key moments."
Whatever we face this day:  pain or rain, loneliness or connections...
there's a quote from Frederick Buechner that touches deep parts in me...

"Listen to your life.  See it for the fathomless mystery that it is.
In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness:
Touch, Tase, Smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it
because in the last analysis, all moments are key moments, and
Life itself is grace."   Am I listening to my life today?