Daily devotion

I Will Sing!

/ pastorpete51 / 4 Comments 
Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.
Exodus 15:1 KJV

When the idea of singing is referred to in the Bible most of us think of David’s Psalms. Yes, the Psalms is virtually littered with incidences of David singing, but he was by no means the only singer/songwriter in scripture. Moses wrote the lyrics and then led millions of people in singing after God led them through the Red sea. (Exodus 15:1)Fast forward to the book of judges and we find Deborah and Barak singing together words they collaborated on after God had delivered them in battle. (Judges 5:1-2). Isaiah sang in his prophecies (Isaiah 5:1), Both Mary after the conception of Jesus and Hannah after the birth of Samuel composed songs. While they were in prison, Paul and Silas even sang in their jail cell at midnight, and then God sent an earthquake. (Acts 16:25). Of course we recall angels rejoicing as they announced the news to the shepherds and Revelation is filled with multitudes of saints singing in Heaven, but the most amazing singing I can think of is when Jesus led the disciples in a song at the end of the last supper.

And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives Matthew 26:30

Can you even imagine Jesus leading you in song? Some of us (myself included) seem to have difficulty even singing in church. We reason that others are singing better so we will just listen, or we might not care to learn a new song, think it is too high, too low or too loud. The problem we are having is because we forget that singing to the Lord does not originate in our voice box, it begins in our hearts. As Paul tells the Ephesians believers, we are to be.

Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, Ephesians 5:19 ESV

I hope that today, whatever your circumstances, whether you are in battle, in trouble, in prison or in church, that God will help you to focus again on Him. He is the inspiration for our song lyrics, our melodies and our praise. Why not sing to Him a new song or an old hymn. He is listening and best of all, He loves to join us when we praise!

The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing. Zephaniah 3:17 KJV

I do hope you will like our singing of this hymn, which reminds of these truths and that you might even sing along a bit as we let the song that Jesus gave us, ring through our hearts in melody today!

Heavenly Bodyguards

/ pastorpete51 / 6 Comments 
For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. 
Psalm 91:11 KJV

In the early 1980’s I spent a couple of Summers as part of the tree crew on the Estate of Brooke Astor. Now, I wasn’t assigned the job of working there for my great talents as an arborist, but because the other guys hated working at Holly Hill (By switching a couple of letters, they had another name for the place). I discovered that remaining on the job at the Astor Estate called for a certain level of patience with the fussiness of the head grounds keeper, a quirky Scotsman who ruled his large crew like a horticultural dictator. But I loved working there because of the guests, such as the Friday we were asked to manicure the gardens with extra care, and on Monday morning finding out that President Reagan and his wife Nancy had popped in for the weekend! Another day, the special visitor was Pérez de Cuéllar, who at the time was serving as the Secretary General of the United Nations. I have no idea what he and Mrs. Astor talked about that day, but their conversations led them down the garden path that meandered between the giant hollies, that her property was famous for. And coming right behind Señor de Cuéllar and Mrs. Astor as they ambled down the path were two hugely muscular bodyguards with machine guns strapped over the backs!

Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com

After forty years, the image of those big guards watching out for their small and vulnerable charges still sticks in my mind and reminds me of the guards that God has set over us. The angels that the Bible says God has given charge over us, are definitely not the winged effeminate types depicted in some of the old paintings. These angels are big, they are powerful and when provoked have been known to wipe out entire armies which threaten their people. And today, when the news seems bent on bringing new things to be terrified about, it is more important than ever to trust that God is still in control. He hasn’t gone on break, left for vacation or decided to let us fend for ourselves. If we simply commit our way to Him, He has promised to not only direct our steps, but to assign heavenly bodyguards to watch us and to keep us as we walk down whatever garden path lies ahead for you today!

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He Died To No One’s Regret

/ pastorpete51 / 2 Comments 
Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. Matthew 7:24-25 ESV
Photo by Oanu0103 Andrei on Pexels.com

The Bible is written to give us examples for life, but some of them are not good ones, but rather warnings. Recently, my wife and I read about a King named Jehoram. He killed off all his brothers, brought back idol worship and even though it became obvious that he was on a collision course with disaster, he still insisted on his own way. At the end of his short and dismal reign, he died of a terrible disease. Then the scripture ends the account of his days with the statement, “And he died to no one’s regret.” That struck us as both darkly humorous and an awful kind legacy we definitely do not want to leave behind for our children. He lived the opposite of today’s verse. Instead of building his house on a rock, he threw away all the blessings his family had given him and built on the quicksand of his own desires.

Though we usually think Jesus is talking about our individual lives, the term house can also be used to describe an entire family. (as in household). What kind of foundation we have built for our families? The answer to that will not be shown by how we make it through sunny days, but by how we weather storms. Though we may have every privilege handed to us on a silver platter, what will describe our legacy is whether we put our trust in Jesus and His words or we have decided to do our own thing. If we will stand together for God, no matter what comes, rather than, ““They died to no one’s regret.” May our children be able to say, “We know they are with Jesus, because they lived for Him, and we can’t wait to see them in Heaven!”