Author: missionspaul

Psalm 68

Day 68: Be blessed!
God is never dormant.
He is rising v1: There may be a need today to pray “God arise in my situation”. So often people try and get the enemy out when we should focus on getting God in!
He is riding v4-6: the clouds of life are the vehicle for carrying His presence.
The clouds of having no one to guide and instruct you, v5
The clouds of feeling vulnerable and unprotected, v5
The clouds of loneliness, v6
The clouds of feeling trapped, v6

He is marching, v7: He is making a way before us so that we follow.
The march is a walk of dedication. It is a walk only for the desert for determinations is for when it is tough and when you want to give up.

He is a moving God.

Psalm 67

Day 67: Be blessed
Here in this Psalm we are right back to the Aaronic Blessing of Numbers 6. Let us never be anxious to move away from it either:
May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us.
But now we have further understanding. The song gives the answer to why should we seek to be blessed.
a. For mission, v2. We are not living to be blessed to feel good, but we live for others. Bless me God so that I can reach others with your ways and your love!
b. For Praise to God, v3-5. Not just ourselves, or the church, but the blessing is for the whole world to praise Him!
c. For purpose, v6. Blessing precludes knowing fruitfulness, purpose, a harvest. The world will never be fulfilled until it knows God.
God will bless you and me again and again so long as our focus is on the world that He loves, v7.
It is the way to stay blessed.

Psalm 66

Day 66: Be blessed
Blessing is often crafted from the place of pain. Since we began this journey of a chapter of the Bible each day, over the last 18 months we have seen God’s people become held against their will, burdened heavily (v11), been walked over and journeying through dangers (v12) and yet through it all God uses every experience as a testing and a refining, (v10).
You may be facing a tough time but think about how God is using this to craft you to be the person He has created you to be.
Years ago, there was a master violinist in Europe. He would play in concerts, and he had a magnificent Stradivarius violin, extremely expensive. He would play the Stradivarius violin in concert and everyone would whisper in the crowd, “Listen to the beautiful sounds of the Stradivarius.” He would play in churches, and people would say, “Listen to the beautiful sounds of the Stradivarius.” He even played before kings and queens, and they, too, would turn to one another and say, “Listen to the beautiful sounds of the Stradivarius.” All the glory went to the instrument.
Then one day this master violinist was walking by a pawn shop. He noticed an old, beat-up, worn-out violin. He walked into the pawn shop and asked how much it would cost. The owner of the pawn shop told him the American equivalent of five dollars. He bought the violin, and he took it home. He polished it, and he refined it, and he tuned it, and he re-tuned it, and he built some character into that violin. Then, when he was to play the greatest performance of his life in a concert hall, he took out the little, five-dollar, worn-out, beat- up violin that he had polished and refined. He put it up to his chin, and he began to play, and everybody in the concert hall whispered, “Listen to the beautiful sounds of the Stradivarius.””Rejoicing in Our Suffering,” Preaching Today, Tape No. 74.
It matters not how you start or what you go through but what happens to you in the hands of God that will determine…

Psalm 65

Day 65: Be blessed
In 2010 there were 2.18 billion Christians around the world, nearly a third of the global population.
279 million (12.8% of the world’s Christian population) identify themselves as Pentecostals, 304 million (14%) are Charismatics, and 285 million (13.1%) are Evangelicals, or Bible believing Christians.
In the unevangelised world, there are 20,500 full-time Christian workers and 10,200 foreign missionaries.
In the evangelised non-Christian world, there are 1.31 million full-time Christian workers.
In the Christian world, there are 306,000 foreign missionaries to other Christian lands. Also, 4.19 million full-time Christian workers (95%) work within the Christian world.
Approximately 78.5 million Bibles are distributed globally per year.
An average of 159,960 Christians worldwide are martyred for their faith per year.

David wrote, “Those living far away fear your wonders.” V8.

You are not alone today. You are part of something global. Even people reading this devotion are doing so from the furthest points of the world. What unites us is that we are in awe of the wonders of God!
What unites us is that we are indeed blessed!

Psalm 64

Day 64: Be blessed
They sharpen their tongues like swords and aim their words like deadly arrows.
David laments about those who have spread slanderous messages of him and who try to intimidate him by the choice of words.
We’ve all heard the old adage, “If you can’t find anything nice to say about someone, don’t say anything at all.” In a recent article for Salon.com, Lauren Frey Daisley tried to follow that advice for one month. She titled the article “My month of no snark.” (“Snark” is a slang word that combines “snide” and “remark” and refers to sarcastic comments.)
Daisley writes: “It started when my husband, baby and I drove away from a visit with my aunt, who has Stage 4 breast cancer. I thought back on the 30-some years I’ve known her. I have never once in all that time heard her say anything unkind. Not even in the subtext of her words. That’s one [heck]—or, in this case, heaven—of a legacy…. I began to wonder, how would holding my tongue—or at least changing what came off it—alter my relationships?”
That’s when she began her “month-long campaign” to practice kindness in her speech. Daisley discovered that it’s not easy to live without snark. Instead, she wrote, “It’s so much cooler to be more sarcastic …. It says, I am so above this scene—above other people, even.”
After her month-long experiment she concluded, “Kindness [of speech] doesn’t have to imply repression. It doesn’t rein in humour or impede the fight for justice. But it does require discipline and substantive engagement with others.”
Lauren Frey Daisley, “My month of no snark,” Salon.com (3-28-11)
Maybe everyone reading this has experienced the sharpened tongue from a person at work, in the family, neighbourhood or church. Bring the experience to God as David did. At the same time resolve to hold your own tongue towards others. It is the way to remain blessed!