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Morning Devotional...

Psalm 28

It's approximately six in the morning, and the ram's horn has sounded atop Zion.  The people's leader David wants to accomplish three things.  He wants to move the people 1) to pray for their needs for that day, 2) He wants to move them to pray against their enemies, and 3) wants to move them to praise the Lord for His gracious help.   What a wonderful way to start the day!  Each and every one of the people needs very much to start the day with this kind of dependence upon their Lord, with this kind of reaffirmation of his/her relationship to Him in every aspect of daily life.

The first thing they need to do is to confess their absolute dependence upon their Lord. They need to begin by telling Him that in all likelihood they're going to be crying out to Him many times that day, and that they'll very much need to know that He hears them each and every time.  So they sing, "To You I will cry, O Lord my Rock: do not be silent to me!"  They're just asking Him not to "tune them out" when they call.  Of course, He wouldn't actually "tune them out," but He wants them to pray this so that they'll be more aware of His close personal relationship to them.

The alternative they mention is awful indeed!  They sing, "Lest, if You are silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit!"  In other words, each singer confesses that his courage and success in each situation of daily life is absolutely dependent upon a hearing God, an answering God, and a God Who actually acts on his behalf. Those who descend into lthe "pit," the place of the dead, have no further hope.                 

So of course each of them wants to be heard and answered each and every time he cries out to the Lord, each and every time he "lifts up his hands toward Your holy sanctuary."  The "sanctuary" is the place God commanded to be built to remind every worshipper about His Providence and mercy! 

Having sung this prayer for the needs of that day, the worshipper then prays for his continued safety from God's enemies.  He doesn't want to become at all like them, because they "speak peace with their neighbors, but evil is in their hearts."  So, he prays instead that these enemies  will get just what their evil actions deserve.

We might tend to think that this is an unusually vindictive prayer and that  instead God's people should pray for the welfare of their enemies. But we need to be aware of two things: 1) this isn't a personal prayer against individuals, but a general prayer against enemies of God and of God's people. The worshipper who prays this prayer might at the same time pray for the repentance of individual enemies.  Secondly, God's people should have God's perspective.  They need to remember that God says, "they do not regard the works of the Lord, nor the operation of His hands." So, paraphrased, they're saying, "Lord, STOP them!  Don't let them hinder Your work!" God will  answer that prayer.  So the worshipper sings, "He shall destroy them and not build them up."

Finally, each worshipper is led to praise the Lord for actually hearing and answering him!  He sings, "The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped; therefore my heart greatly rejoices, and with my song I will praise Him!"  It's an expression of confidence in the living Jehovah.

The song ends with a climactic chorus of praise to Him Who ALWAYS hears, Who ALWAYS blesses His dear people, and Who in fact blesses them by means of their anointed King.  So they joyfully sing that God "is their strength, and He is the saving refuge of His anointed." 

Our Lord Jesus Christ is our anointed King, and, through Him God will hear YOU today!  So - when you pray for your church today - you too can have the confidence of this psalm, and you can close by singing, "Save Your people, and bless Your inheritance; shepherd them also, and bear them up forever!"

Do you begin your day this way?  Do you realize that you're going to need His grace and strength  many times each day, and that you should be prompted to cry unto Him on each occasion? Do you pray that He'll hear you each and every time?  Do you realize that it's His day, not yours, and that you're prayers will therefore not only result in your success, but also in His glory?  He's an ever-present God!
Al Moak

Here's a hymn that reflects these thoughts.  Just click to hear the music.

I love the Final Chorus, "We shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever"
    We are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and it is such an honor to have the Spirit of the Living God dwell within us, I thank God for being with me everyday my brother....

      LarryBoy

Amen to that!  Considering our rebellion against Him, the wonder of wonders is that we're even able to know Him at all!

I am going to have a busy day today.  It has rained for three days so I have to mow today while the sun is shining.  I have small pools of water in the low places but I will just mow around them.  If I don't mow, I will have to make hay while the sun shines next!! 

Then I have to shower, wash my hair and be at Kitty's by 4pm.  We will go out to eat and then to Photo Guild by 5:30pm.  I got my 4 pictures emailed yesterday. 

That's about it!

Hi everyone.  Al, another fine devotional on the Psalms.  You can really explain them in a way that helps us hear the meaning of the words.

We had a cool but not cold morning.  At 12:30 today we are meeting at the Longhorn Steakhouse with our church birthday group for the monthly get together.  We are celebrating 2 birthdays.  We are picking up one of the honorees as she doesn't drive and the person who usually stops to get her isn't able to attend today.  Another couple will take this lady home.  That is all that is one my schedule for today, which is just the way I like it as have already had coffee with the retirees this morning and walked laps at the gym.  

When we took our daughter home yesterday I put in the new sound card in her computer and was able to get sound on it once again.  We stopped at a Firehouse Subs shop for a sandwich on the way home.  They make a delicious sub.  Then had a nice quiet afternoon and evening.  

Janet, I was happy to read that you didn't let the lack of the calls from your children get you down.  We can't know the reasons someone else doesn't do something and therefore we accomplish nothing by making ourselves miserable over something we can't control.  

Marilyn, it sounds like you had a nice weekend with Keith.  Hope your family liked him and that he liked them.  It does sound like you all ate very well.  

Etta Sue, the musical program sounds like it was great even if it was long.  Hope they had comfortable seating.

Gord, we are finding that doing one or two things a day is enough for my wife and I and we still accomplish what we need to do.  Glad your DIL was not seriously hurt.

Summicron, that was a very interesting explanation of the scripture.  

Ruth Ann, if you had had a sail in the bed of your pickup truck you could probably have sailed right over to Memphis.  Seriously, glad you had a nice trip and the flower sound lovely.  

Hi Samantha.  Good to see you posting.

Understand The Times supports over 100 children and adults who have been devastated by the disastrous cyclone that struck Yangon and the surrounding area. While all of these dear people survived the storm, they are in desperate need of assistance for food and other necessary items. UTT has established a Myanmar Relief Fund where concerned people can donate to this cause. One hundred percent of the funds received will go to the victims of the Myanmar disaster - to the people we care for and others who our representatives will reach out to in the surrounding area. The Myanmar Relief Fund is located at the top of our web page http://understandthetimes.org  Thank you for you support at this critical time.



Note from Roger Oakland: I have been in touch with Philip [from the orphan home in Yangon, Myanmar] on a regular basis - only Myanmar citizens are allowed into the severely damaged areas to assist. Many people are trying to get out of the devastated areas and are coming into Yangon. The junta (mob) are taking the supplies that come for humanitarian assistance from countries and organizations and packaging them as gifts from the Myanmar army.



The degree of injustice there is deplorable. It causes me great sorrow and grief - I have been there, I have seen the people and their need before this event - now, they are being put through such torment - it is easy to shut one's eyes and ears and do nothing. I know we must do what we can at this time.



T. W. is scheduled to go to Yangon by May 22 - he will take cash. There are others who are applying for visas who can do the same. We are organizing P., M., E., I. and others to assess what they can do with their people as we provide the cash for them to purchase needed supplies. We will use our Bible school facilities for an outreach center.



There have been many generous donations coming into the web site - close to $15,000 now. Others have promised to help.

Christian Photographers website will be unavailable from tonight until late tomorrow as the webhoster will be migrating our site to a new server.

The work will start in the middle of the night.

So, please do not upload any photos or start any new topics or post any messages after 6 pm this evening or they will be lost.

Thank you for your understanding.

Pat

8500 die in earthquake today in China

I'm home for a couple of hours, then have to go back to work.  My sister's knee went out and she is having a lot of pain, so I am covering her shift today.    So I am going to lie down for a bit.

So many tragedies in the world, coming faster and faster.  We truly are living in the end of the end times.

See you later--probably tomorrow.

Well, everyone...  Not sure when we'll shut this site down but please don't stay away.  As soon as the site is migrated, then we'll be back

Well, here we are back!

Now, let's all post lots of messages!

Al, what a wonderful devotional!

I love the Psalms and you make them live! 

Praise to "... to Him Who ALWAYS hears, Who ALWAYS blesses His dear people, and Who in fact blesses them by means of their anointed King."

Now, if you haven't voted please do!

I fell yesterday and I am still hurting. I misstepped going off the step and landed  in the grass with my right arm up like I was protecting my face, therefor I do believe I have pulled the muscles  under my right arm and down quite away down that side. I did go to Curves for my workout and only skipped a couple of the machines. I am so glad I didn't break any ribs or bones.

I'm so sorry, Marilyn. 

That's too bad.  It's horrible to fall.

Well, I'm glad we're back!  I checked this morning and saw the site was unavailable then.

Sorry about your fall, Marilyn.  Not fun at all.  Hope the soreness passes quickly.

Boy, was I tired after working a double shift yesterday.    I told Darrel I don't believe I will be doing that again!  His response "Well, you SHOULDN'T!!"

We are still working toward having this place cleaned and spruced for the reunion, now only one month away!  Today involved cleaning the refrigerator and freezer in the back kitchen, putting up some cabinets, putting doors on others and adding the pulls.  Is the end in sight?  Not yet!

I ate with my Youth Friends for the final time this term today.  So that's one thing off my schedule for a while!

Our Mother-Daughter banquet at the Senior Center is this Friday night.  Diane and Abby will come and go with me, I'm happy about that.  The theme this year is a cruise.

I hope you all have a great evening!

Marilyn I pray that you are doing better today!  It never feels good to fall, I just found out my own Mom fell today just checking the mail, she too is alright, but scraped and bruised, a bit.....I pray that you are not injured and are already up and about.....KYIP
  (keeping you in Prayer)
        Have a blessed day..
              LarryBoy

Sure glad to see the site back.  Our thanks should certainly go to our webhosters and Pat for getting all this done!

Sure sorry about that fall, Marilyn.  People have told me that if I fall I shoulld try to fall on my head.

Thanks for the prayers regarding my fall, Pat, Larryboy, Al , and Janet. I am sure I will be better soon. At least it didn't interfere with my sleep last night, I was so concerned that  laying on that side would  be painful, but I did  just fine. today what irritated it  a lot  was dragging my garbage out to the road to be picked up tomorrow.

Thanks for remembering Ian, our webhoster, Al.  He does try to keep us going and now we're hoping to introduce new gallery software that will enhance our site so much!  I'm so thankful to Oldiesmann for the help he is as well.

So glad the server move went well.  Good morning to everyone from Japan.



After a busy couple of weeks, I've had some time to take a picture or two, and will post some here soon.

Until then, take a peek at my blog when you have a minute.

http://pastorkevinspicts.blogspot.com/

Please pray for the earthquake survivors in China!

In His Grip,
Kevin

Such a troubled world, Kevin. 

My heart goes out to the folks in Myanmar who can't be helped by the international world due to the terrible government in power there.  How many more will die and they just need food and water!!!

And the China earthquake is so terrible.  Yes, we must continue to pray for these people.


Love the curlew photos in your blog, Kevin.

Glad we are back.  I was just ready to turn out the lights and go to bed when I remembered to check to see if CP was back.  Yeah!!! 

Not too much was done here today.  A leisure day of catching up on the computer and the TV. 

Marilyn ~ So sorry you had a fall.  But so happy no broken bones!  We get fragile in our old age....

Anyone who uses PSP ~ How do you do vignetting on a photo with PSP?  Guild that uses PhotoShop talks about darkening the corners and edges (vignette) but I can't figure out how to do that on PSP.  I learned today how to get rid of the power lines when I take photos out my bathroom window...use the Scratch Remover tool (on Corel X).  Now for vignetting! Email me if you know how and share your secret!

Etta Sue, if I even learn HOW to get a digital photo downloaded from camera to computer and then uploaded to a web site will be a MAJOR accomplishment. I have no idea (except I want to spend a good bit of time on it after retirement) how to do any of this stuff...YET! 

Janet, be good to yourself - you deserve it.

Y'all have a wonderful evening.

I'm glad your fall wasn't too bad Marilyn.

Gosh...everyone must still be sleeping!! 

Not much going on in Indiana at my place today.  I have been doing a bit of house cleaning for possible company tomorrow.  It is cloudy and rainy again.  Ponds and small lakes everywhere!  Need to mend a blouse this afternoon and Tony is coming tonight to do maintenance on the lawn tractor. 

That's about it!!

G'day everyone.  Today at work has been a madhouse.  I was alone and the phone kept ringing and the customers were steady.  I missed a few calls, I really wish people would leave a message.  One customer called and said that she had broken her needle plate for her serger, could I get another one for her.  Two companies later I found one.  Her particular machine has been discontinued, thus no parts.  That is too bad as the machine is only 10 years old.

I am looking forward to our holiday weekend.  One of my favourite customers gave me a box full of perennial plants that she had thinned out of her garden.  Soooo I will be gardening if it doesn't rain.  I also have a dress to buikd for a certain wedding that is coming up.......

I must run  phone ringing again
JudyB

Well I do think I have broken a couple of ribs, because I sure do hurt this morning much worse than yesterday. I didn't go to Curves either. I think I did more damage when I  dragged the garbage out to the road yesterday. I do not want to go to ER because I would be around sick people and would have to be there hours  waiting around for them to do the x-rays. I think I will call my DR's office and see about just getting a referral straight to x-ray.

I still have to go to work we are getting their house ready for guests who will be arriving on Saturday from Georgia for 10 days. I know I won't be able to vacuum it hurts to much.

Edit: She told me I don't have to vacuum until I feel better. I wrote the post early this morning and it wouldn't post, good thing I had it my clipboard.

My dear Marilyn...  Please get to the doctor.  You must find out if you've cracked some ribs.  I'm so sorry you are going through this.

Please keep us posted.