Yes, Over ALL The Earth!

Today’s message comes to us from Psalm 47. It is a praise offering to the LORD, by the sons of Korah. The psalm is a short one, so I’ll post the whole thing here.

Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy! For the LORD, the Most High, is to be feared, a great king over all the earth. He subdued peoples under us, and nations under our feet.
He chose our heritage for us, the pride of Jacob whom he loves. Selah God has gone up with a shout,
the LORD with the sound of a trumpet. Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises! For God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with a psalm! God reigns over the nations;
God sits on his holy throne. The princes of the peoples gather as the people of the God of Abraham.
For the shields of the earth belong to God; he is highly exalted!

Does that stir you up? It fills me with a deep and awesome joy; and I can’t help but praise Him! Verse 1 tells us God is a great king over all the earth. That means there is nothing outside of His control; nothing. Verse 4 confirms that God chose us! Not only that, but He chose us to be His children! Is that awesome?! Hallelujah! In verse 8 we are assured that He reigns over all the nations, and that He is definitely on the throne! In verse nine our royal status is confirmed. But, when Jesus died and rose again, He raised that status. We are kings and queens in the earth. We are, in Christ Jesus, seated at the right hand of the Father. That’s both awesome and more than a bit scary, isn’t it? It lets us know though, that we have a responsibility to the earth and its inhabitants. Remember Jesus’ words? He came to serve; not to be served. There’s a reference in this verse to the shields of the earth. When I researched it, I found that Jupiter, the magnetosphere, and the atmosphere are called shields of the earth. Here, actually on Earth, “a large area of exposed Precambrian crystalline igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks that form tectonically stable areas. These rocks are older than 570 million years and sometimes date back 2 to 3.5 billion years.” These are also called shields. They have to do with the earth’s crust, and plates that shift or don’t shift. Can you imagine God’s workload? These things are changed every time there’s a fire, flood, earthquake, or tornado and hurricane. (volume and weight) He has to adjust for all the depletion of the forests, the strip-mining, etc. WOWWWWW!!!!! Just think, if the weight of the earth was thrown all to one side? We could be careening through outerspace at breakneck speed and on a collision course with another planet. We might even be shot straight into the sun. No God? I beg to differ with you! This made me think of Psalm 104-a must read! That one will leave you awestruck and breathless.

Love you from Cafe du Mondieu

The Power Of Knowledge

Today’s message comes to us from Psalm 44. “We have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us the work You did in their days, in the days of old.” This is the very first verse of the psalm; and it speaks loudly to us of the power of knowledge. Here’s how it works: Until you can see/realize the truth, you may not be able to discern the right or wrong of something you’re doing, something that’s going on, etc. Until you see/realize, and accept that truth, you cannot change it. Satan is a master of deception, illusion, and a false sense of security, pride, and worth.

Verses 2-8 of this psalm tell us who’s responsible for that empowerment. “…You are my King, O’God…through you we repel our foes…you save us…” We need to choose life for our children, and make it our creed. (Joshua 24:15) It’s through our standards and boundaries that they overcome the darkness and destruction in the world. *This works both ways. When we choose the wrong standards and don’t establish boundaries, or enforce them, the darkness and destruction in the world overcomes them.

Verses 23-26 Let us know that they can’t do it without us. Without us they will be afflicted and oppressed. This makes me think of Jesus’ words: “In the world you will have tribulation.” (John 16:33) “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.” (John 15:18-19). When we teach our children God’s Word, testify about His love and working in our lives, we are empowering them with the knowledge of God. *Actually, God’s Word empowers us with the knowledge of good and evil. When we do this, we empower and reinforce, and redeem, identity, dignity, peace, power, and authority. We also strengthen and preserve the bond of relationship.

Love you from Cafe du Mondieu

You Cannot Serve Both

Today’s message from God Calling – A.J. Russell, bids us to ask ourselves whether we are serving God, or serving money/riches. Mammon, it is called in the Bible.

As I read the message, I recalled a conversation I had recently, about someone being refused a meal because they wouldn’t give up their personal information and register. They were told the reason was that if they didn’t register, the church couldn’t get paid for the meal by the government. Jesus tells us, in Matt. 6:24, that we cannot serve both God and money. Either we will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. This is very true. We prove it. I don’t think there’s a Christian that hasn’t experienced this conflict in one way or another. And, the love of money will definitely cause conflict in your life. With it comes debt, deceit, stress, all kinds of stumbling blocks.

Some of us who have held down two, and sometimes three jobs, just to make ends meet, know what a cruel Lord money can be. Work, work, work; and there’s still nothing left over, and still no chance of getting ahead. Some of us have fallen into the prestige and power trap. We sold ourselves to the “up and coming crowd;” the “Haves.” Some of us got caught up in the money trap because we tried to replace our self respect and/or dignity with stuff, stuff, and more stuff. We have to be very careful with our attitudes about money/mammon, because mammon is a very sneaky adversary. I say that, because the spirit behind it and the world’s ideas of wealth, are at work for the powers, principalities, and hosts of spiritual wickedness in the heavens. In reality, it is only sidewalk. It’s what the streets in Heaven are paved with.

Solomon said that money answers everything. It does. It pays the rent, puts food on the table, fills the car with gas, etc. But, money is to serve us; not vice versa. Keeping our attitudes about it in line with God’s Word, and practicing good stewardship/management, are the keys to staying free of bondage to it. There’s also that checklist of things like pride, fear, greed, and the like, to reckon with. We can easily fall into the money trap by way of these.

Love you from Cafe du Mondieu

Suffering That Saves

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Today’s message from God Calling – A.J. Russell, reminds us that sorrow and suffering don’t have to dictate who we are.

We’re bid to offer up our suffering and/or sorrow to the Lord. Use that suffering to help another, and it becomes a pleasing sacrifice unto the LORD. Help another, bless another, love another, in spite of your sorrow and/or suffering, and it becomes a gleam of joy and pride in His eyes. It becomes a seed sown into eternity; a treasure laid up in Heaven. “Behold, my son/daughter, in whom I am well pleased,” He says.

That’s the suffering that saves, not only others, but our own soul; our own spirit. Jesus never stopped blessing, never stopped praying, never stopped teaching, never stopped being Jesus…no matter the rejection, the doubt, the scorn, the sorrow. He prayed, even on the cross, “Father, forgive them.” The whole world, every human being ever born, was, is, and will be saved from eternal damnation-if they choose to be.

What that does for our own soul or spirit, is immeasurable. It brings peace, strength, joy, love, freedom, and life. That’s just part of the list. We don’t really think about those little things we do for others, even when we’re hurting ourselves, in terms of the ways in which they might come back to us. As Jesus said, some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred fold. Now He said this about grasping and living out God’s Word. But it is that very Word, that very love, that empowers us to give in such ways, and at such times. “He sent His Word and healed them,” applies to every sinner that gets saved. Finally, there are the words of our Lord, Jesus. “Give, and it will be given unto you; pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will men give into your bosom.

This is an oldie, but goodie! Steven Curtis Chapman, thank you for this old favorite of mine.

Love you from Cafe du Mondieu