Praise the Lord!

Praise the Lord!

The shortest chapter in the Bible is Psalm 117, it is just two verses. Yet these two verses are immensely profound in their simplicity. You want to boil things down to the minimum and just look at the core of human existence? Then here you go:

“Praise the Lord, all you nations! Worship Him, all you peoples! Because God’s faithful love towards us is strong, the Lord’s faithfulness lasts forever! Praise the Lord!”

It doesn’t get much simpler than this, Praise the Lord. Worship Him. Because, He is faithful. His love is strong towards us and He is forever faithful. Thus, we should, Praise the Lord! No matter what you are facing, no matter what difficulties or trials befall you, Praise the Lord! In the good and in the bad, Praise the Lord! In the sun and in the rain, Praise the Lord! In life and in death, Praise the Lord! In sickness and in health, Praise the Lord! In the hardest of times and in the best of times, Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!

Praise the Lord,

you are loved,

cj

Perfection!

Perfection!

How many of you are perfectionists? You do, and do and do until, in your eyes, the thing you were doing is perfect, unless in your eyes perfection isn’t attainable. In which case you don’t even attempt it for fear of failure! How many of you have given up on perfection as an unachievable mark? There is no way it will ever be perfect so why bother! Then there are those that do without any prejudice or thought it is just that you do things and good is good and bad is bad; therefore you strive for good, which varies by activity. We have talked before about how we should aim for the target. Why would we aim or shoot for anything else?

If the goal is to love our neighbor as ourselves, why would we, on purpose, act any other way? He is an enemy? “Love your enemies, pray for those that persecute you,” it says in Matthew 5, as Jesus teaches on the mount. If we are to take after the widow and orphan, why then would we on purpose neglect them or ignore them? Of the hungry, naked, sick, in-prisoned, should we not do for the least of them as we would even Jesus Himself. As Jesus declares in Matthew 25, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”

Now if these are the goals, “To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and to Love our neighbor as ourselves.” If we aim for that target and somehow miss the mark . . . the pessimist will say, “see an impossible goal is met with imperfection!” A perfectionist will say, “I will fail, therefore, this task is not for me!” While the doer will say, “But I do this one thing:” One thing, is the difference between apparent failure and never trying, “But I do this one thing: I forget about the things behind me and reach out for the things ahead of me. The GOAL I pursue is the prize of God’s upward call in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14)

“Failure isn’t falling down. Failure is not getting up after you have fallen down.” ~Richard M. Nixon

Making the right New Year Resolution

Making the right New Year Resolution

Its that time of year again, time to make and break those New Year Resolutions. Did you know that you have less of a shot at actually keeping your “new year resolution” than you do of getting in a car wreck? But lets not talk about that…Here are the top 10 New Year Resolutions year after year:

1
Lose Weight
2
Getting Organized
3
Spend Less, Save More
4
Enjoy Life to the Fullest
5
Staying Fit and Healthy
6
Learn Something Exciting
7
Quit Smoking
8
Help Others in Their Dreams
9
Fall in Love
10
Spend More Time with Family

i find most of these interrelated. For example, if you lose weight you will naturally be more fit and healthy 1 and 5 respectively. Enjoying Life to the Fullest would probably encompass the whole of this list really. So what is the best New Year Resolution? Or a better question might be is it a good idea to even make a New Year Resolution? i personally don’t see a problem with making a resolution to change or improve your life. But i do think that if we are going to be successful we need to look at the reason and the focus of our resolution.

Psalm 51:10-11New Living Translation (NLT)

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God.
Renew a loyal spirit within me.
11 Do not banish me from your presence,
and don’t take your Holy Spirit[a] from me.

 

Philippians 3:12-15New Living Translation (NLT)

12 I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. 13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it,[a] but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.

Philippians 4:13New Living Translation (NLT)

13 For I can do everything through Christ,[a] who gives me strength.
If you are on the edge, deciding whether to make a resolution this year or not or if you have already made a list, may i make one suggestion? That you make Jesus, your New Year Resolution. Make Him the focus of 2016 and everything else will fall into place. One last verse that really is all the resolution you need for the coming year…

Matthew 6:33New Living Translation (NLT)

33 Seek the Kingdom of God[a] above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

You are Loved,

cj