Monday Morning Cover to Cover

Major life changes going on over here. I’ll be back tomorrow to blog about it. Meanwhile, a good sovereign God has so shown up this week and engineered what only He can do. Psalm 45:5 was such a word to me this week from the heart of our God as we read together the chronological Bible. I could only read and weep and linger there. We read not for insight to apply to our world to gain a better life here, but we read to connect with a holy God Who is so committed to our lives and Who really wants to know us. We read to live for another world and find HIM Here on our journey to There. So share one thing that LINGERED with you and LINK us to your post. Pick one question below and ask God what He is doing in your life. I’ve seen this week that instead of being consumed with what I need to do, I am focusing on what HE is doing in our lives---and that is a lot!

DO WE THINK TOO SMALL? God’s power is protection for the righteous and judgment for those who do not follow HIM. He doesn’t leave the guilty unpunished. The Lord is good, a STRONGHOLD in the day of our troubles---right in the midst of our confusion, betrayals, dilemmas. He is good. He cares for those who trust in HIM. Nahum 1:7 Nahum warned Nineveh with a vision of doom, “I am against you.” Nahum 2:13. Nahum describes Nineveh’s fall and the corpses of people piled high to the sky surrounded by the darkness of noon, billowing bursting clouds of black sky. It’s a dark day. Beth Moore said an interesting quote yesterday---wonder if when we get to heaven, “we will say that we should have thought bigger than we did.” You know, every day we either live for God or we live for ourselves. Every decision we move toward redemption or destruction. Wonder if we are thinking too small this day?

WHAT IF CIRCUMSTANCES PROVE GOD IS NOT GOOD?
Circumstances do not prove the goodness of God nor His Love. Josiah reigned 31 years bringing his people back to God. He was accused of opposing God cause he went to battle against the king of Egypt. “Stop opposing God, Josiah, for God is with me not with you” says the wicked king. That was not right with God, O braggy King of Egypt. The battle cost Josiah his life but we look not to circumstances to prove that God is good; to prove that God is present for Josiah and you and me; to prove that God is Love to us all. No, we look to God Himself Who promises in Psalm 81 to restore each of us with words in our mouths when we put away our idols and surrender to God. “In your distress, you called and I rescued you…I tested you…have no other gods among you…open wide your mouth and I will fill it.” Psalm 81:10

WHY IS THERE SO LITTLE HEALING IN MY LIFE? DO I HAVE MY OWN REMEDY FOR SUCCESS? Woe to Him who builds his house by unrighteousness. “I will build myself a great palace.” V. 13 There is so much more to life than security, stability, being safe in a great house. “Does it make you a king to have more and more?” v. 15 Do I defend the cause of the poor and needy? Isn’t that what it means to know God? v. 16 Is there no balm in Gilead? Jeremiah 8:22. Is there no physician there? Why is there no healing for the wound of my people? Wonder why our healing is so little in our lives? Is it because, in Jeremiah 9:13, God says you have forsaken the Word of God and have followed the stubbornness of your heart. You’ve followed images and lies that are a fraud; they have no breath in them. Jeremiah 10:14. Only the breath of God gives life. As soon as Jeremiah spoke those words that God commanded him to say, they seized him to kill him. But the LORD had hidden Jeremiah in 36:26. We are hidden from adversity when we follow the image of God. I’ve thought so much this week about Jeremiah who was asked by God to not take a wife and to have no children. Jeremiah followed God’s plan, not what he wanted out of life. A normal guy like you and me, but a follower attached only to God breathing His Word of Life in him. Am I following images that are frauds or Friends? Am I multiplying what I think is a remedy for success but there’s no healing for you. Jeremiah 46:11. Here’s a follower who didn’t buy into the success story. In Daniel 1: 8, Daniel resolved not to defile himself by the status quo. No, he pleaded for mercy from the God of heaven. His God answered him. And Daniel’s reply? “God changes times and seasons; He sets up and He deposes. He reveals deep and hidden things to us in our darkness." Daniel 2:21,22. Praise to our God Who makes known what we ask of HIM.

SHOULD YOU SEEK GREAT THINGS FOR YOURSELF? And here is the verse that is spoken by God for all of us this very day… Jeremiah 45:5 "Should you then seek great things for yourself?" Seek them not. I read this verse as we walked into our last prayer time with our God about moving to Austin. I was feeling that we were losing so much after living in this town for 33 years. That image is a fraud. Empty breath. We go where we are called to live for God, not for this world, and to not seek great things for ourselves.