Sowing & Reaping

Today’s message comes to us from Psalm 85. It’s very encouraging, and hopefully, it will strengthen your faith and your commitment to God.

“LORD, you were favorable to your land; you restored the fortunes of Jacob. You forgave the iniquity of your people; you covered all their sin. Selah You withdrew all your wrath; you turned from your hot anger.” These are verses 1-3 of the psalm. (ESV) This is a reminder of our salvation; of God’s love for, and toward us. Look closely. God covered ALL of our sin, and withdrew ALL of His wrath, turning from His anger. That means when you do mess up, you can go boldly to the throne of grace, confess to Him, and be, not only forgiven, but be instructed and helped to make it right. (Heb. 4:16) Is that awesome?! Yes!

Verse 5 asks the questions: “Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations?” That was answered in part, in the first three verses. God does not punish the generations behind us for our sins, or for the sins of our fathers, and so on. (Deut. 26:24) There’s a promise regarding generational curses in (Jeremiah 31:29). “In those days they shall no longer say: “‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’” That’s a promise that we can, and will overcome those generational curses, and all the dysfunction that comes with them, in our own generation, if we’re willing. Yay, for me and my kids, and so on, and so on!

Verses 8 & 9 are the key to making that happen. “Let me hear what God the LORD will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints; but let them not turn back to folly. Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land.”

The last four verses of the psalm show us the sowing and reaping part. “Steadfast love and faithfulness meet;
righteousness and peace kiss each other.” When we show steadfast love, we reap faithfulness, because we’re empowering trust. “Faithfulness springs up from the ground, and righteousness looks down from the sky.” The world around us (from inner circle to community) reaps the benefits, as well. “Yes, the LORD will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase. Righteousness will go before him and make his footsteps a way. When we follow in God’s footsteps, which Jesus gave us a picture of, we’re leaving footprints for others to follow.

Love you from Cafe du Mondieu

Take A Deep Breath Tuesday

Today’s message comes to us from Psalm 52. It’s a rebuke to evil and evil doers, and a reassurance to us, that God does see and hear, and He is on the throne! I hope you’ll read the psalm for yourselves. This song comes to mind as I’m struggling my way through some things. I hope it blesses you as much as it does me. Thank you, again, Tasha Cobbs and friends, for a wonderful, wonderful inspiraton!

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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

Advice For The Royals

Today’s message comes to us from Proverbs 29; and since you are a king or queen in the earth, it’s for you.

Proverbs 29: 2 tells us “when the righteous flourish, people rejoice, but when the wicked rule people groan.” Proverbs 29:14 “If a king faithfully judges the poor, his throne will be established forever.” That tells me that there is joy in the admonition, encouragement, instruction, and discipline of the Lord. It also tells me that my children will benefit much more if I raise them under the admonition of the Lord. Just as people groan under wicked rulers (parents, boss, supervisor, mate, leader), all of creation is apt to suffer because of wicked rulers. The reason for that is found in Proverbs 29:7-“A righteous man knows the rights of the poor; a wicked man does not understand such knowledge.” This why we have things like pollution, affecting air, water, earth, and the ozone layer that protects us from the sun. Proverbs 29:4 tells us that a king builds up his land by justice, but one who exacts gifts, or *taxes heavily, tears it down. Justice is not only the aim in a court of law; it includes weighing all things out correctly, looking at a thing from all sides, in order to achieve what’s best for all. Exacting a gift is forcing someone to give something to you. This is the cause of most rebellion; even in our children. Force, or duress, is not conducive of peace, which is necessary for learning. Proverbs 29:15 tells us that the rod and reproof give wisdom. The rod, in this case, is used to measure growth, progress, correctness of action. Reproof is instruction meant to correct thinking and action. Isn’t it much easier to learn something when you are made aware of your error(s) and helped to understand the correct way? Proverbs 29: 19 addresses that. “By mere words a servant is not disciplined, for though he understands, he will not respond.” But, by instruction, and with help, correction can come about. The spilt milk example fits well here. We help the child to clean up the mess, and then figure out how to avoid spilling the milk again. Punishment needs to fit the crime. {You broke the window, and must pay to replace it.} Proverbs 29:12 is an admonition to be careful who you surround yourself with; and to check facts. “If a ruler listens to falsehood, all his officials will be wicked.” Proverbs 29:22 shows us the value of peace. “A man of wrath stirs up strife, and one given to anger causes much transgression. Ever wonder why your children seem to go from being in trouble to being in more trouble, to being in even more trouble? There’s a difference between loving discipline and harsh punishment. Proverbs 29:23 tells us that “One’s pride will bring him low, but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor.” I think of (Matt. 20:28) when I read this one. Jesus came to serve; not to be served. He gave His life to ransom all who believe and receive Him. Proverbs 29:25-26 “The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is safe. Many seek the face of a ruler, but it is from the LORD that a man gets justice.” This is a warning against falling into “people pleasing,” or even expecting people to be pleased with you, actually. Trust in the LORD because He teaches us justice. (Right understanding, correctly weighing things out).

Love you from Cafe du Mondieu

The Torn Veils

Today’s (12/06/20) message from God Calling – A.J. Russell, reminds us that the way to conquer temptation is to see it as temptation.

As I read this message, I thought about Jesus, Satan, and three veils. I did a study on the veils recently. One veil is the one Satan wraps sin in, or covers our eyes with, to obscure the truth. He did this with Eve in the garden of Eden, when he told her that God knew she would be like Him when she ate of the fruit. Eve was already like God. She was created in His image; after His likeness. (Genesis 3:5) Jesus unveils our eyes so that we can see, not only the truth about the sin, but the truth about how to overcome it. (Luke 4:18) “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed..” Through Him we have recovery of sight. When the temple veil was torn, it became possible for us to realize God’s glory, or divine nature, power, and authority, and ours, in Christ Jesus. Before that, God had to veil our faces so that we would not die when we saw His glory. (Exodus 33:17-22) (Luke 24:26) “Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” (Heb. 12:1-2) “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Heb. 12:18-29)

Temptation always comes with a veil. It will wrap the sin to make it appealing, and will obscure your vision, so you can’t see the truth clearly. I’m not talking about that 3 cookie break while you’re on your diet. Although, if you’re not careful, that can lead you right down to bondage. But, you’d be surprised how much you can learn about your enemy (Satan) when you look more closely at what’s behind the veil.

Love you from Cafe du Mondieu

Break Through The Bars

Today’s message from God Calling – A.J. Russell, speaks to us of the imprisoned God. Praise, we’re told again, brings God on the scene. Praise opens the doors to the throne room of God, giving us a glimpse of who He is, who we are in Him, and all that He has put inside of us. I hope you’ll read the message for yourselves at twolisteners.org -this is one we all need from time to time.

When I read the message, this scripture comes to mind: “Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the LORD, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.” (Hosea 10:12) We often don’t reach our full potential in things because we’ve imprisoned the son of God within us. I’m not talking about Jesus; I’m talking about you and me. Although, we can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens us. We’re created in God’s image and after His likeness. That means we can be awesome when we’re working with God, instead of against Him. (Psalm 139: 13) tells us: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” God knows each and every one of us, our strengths, weaknesses, gifts, favorite things, things we don’t like, etc. He knows us intimately; even better than we know ourselves.

Here’s where that fallow ground comes in. Quite often we are, from birth, guided and led, coaxed and cajoled, and yes, often coerced into becoming people we really don’t want to be. We end up becoming people pleasers, suffering from anxieties, harboring resentments , and living bitter and unfulfilled lives. We spend most of our lives trying to become someone else’s version of awesome. When we sow righteousness for ourselves, we’re sowing God’s thoughts about us, and His Word to us into our hearts. We reap His steadfast love within us. We grow in His love for us, and we learn to love ourselves like He does. The Word of God, and His love will even break up all that fallow ground (hard, unplowed), if and when you can’t do it yourself. Breaking it up involves tearing down the strongholds and wrong attitudes and thoughts that we’ve been fed. Then, God can come in and rain righeousness on us.

Here’s a short list of some bars that surround us and keep us locked away from our full potential: “You’re never going to amount to anything.” “You can’t do anything right.” “Your brother’s/sister’s the smart one.” “I don’t know why I bother; nobody cares anyway.” “It’s too late in my life.” “I’m too old, young, shy, stupid, fill in the blank.” Are you getting the picture? These all come back to that fallow ground; to the lies we’ve allowed to be covered over, and allowed our potential to be packed down under.

Love you from Cafe du Mondieu

There’s Your Sabbath Rest

Today’s message from God Calling – A.J. Russell, reminds us that those everlasting arms are always open to us. They are our refuge. (Deuteronomy 33:27) (2 Samuel 22:33) (Proverbs 18:10)

When I think of the arms of Jesus, I think of the Sabbath rest spoken of in Hebrews 4. I want to enter in as often as I can. Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath, made exactly that possible. That’s why in Hebrews 4:16, Paul says: “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

We can approach boldly when we remember Jesus’ words: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matt. 11:28)

Incidentally, I did a study on the Sabbath principle not too long ago. The Christian church deems Sunday to be the first day of the week, and the Lord’s Day, according to first fruits principle. Jesus is the Alpha. The work week usually runs from Monday through Saturday; which makes Sunday the seventh day, or Sabbath day. Jesus is also the Omega. But, here’s something awesome. Jesus made the Sabbath rest personal to each one of us. He knew this was necessary. Can you imagine if all the hospitals, police stations, fire stations, etc., were closed on the Sabbath Day? It’s not about a day, folks. It’s about a Savior who wants to have personal and intimate time with you, to refresh, restore, recharge you. It’s about a Savior who wants to reveal Himself, more and more, to you personally.

**I am not trying to get anyone to change the way of their faith, or argue about calendars, principles, of creeds.

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