How Great Thou Art

Isaiah 61:1-3
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that morn;
To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.

I read this today, and loved it. Nothing particularly new.
Just the idea that we get a blessing out of God being glorified.

Which totally makes sense, since that IS why he created us.

Also, Taylor was talking about vacuuming the church (which is something I've done a lot of) and letting your mind wander or singing your gut out and I was reminded that some of the best fellowship I've had with the Lord was at church all by myself, vacuuming the endless rows of chairs, singing at the  top of my lungs about my Saviour, breaking down crying as I realize how good He is to me.
How wonderful He is, how gracious, how patient, how generous, to such a worm as I.

I keep coming back to what David said: What is man, that thou art mindful of him?
Good question, Dave...

Lessons from my afternoon of jogging:

Doesnt that sound thrilling??

Y'all, I have moved to Florida!
The opposite corner of the country.
It's a temporary relocation. I'm going to Bible school down here.

Needless to say, Florida is HUMID in August, as well as in September, October, November, February, March, April, May, June, and July.

So when my roommate offered to drive me to the beach to jog, I gladly accepted! With the wind coming off the gulf coast, you hardly feel the humidity. YES! (Humidity and I are not on good terms. We have not yet learned how to live together)

Nothing big, original or super spiritual today, just some basic observations.

1.Have you ever been at the beach, noticed what looks like a beautiful shell half buried in the sand, bent down, picked it up, and found it was just a fragment of something broken?
 How disappointing!

2. I am easily distracted. And coral red in white sand really catches my eye. So does orange, and blue, and green and....

3. As we trying to jog along the beach of life (pardon the cheesy metaphor), we are so often and so easily distracted by what seems at first to be something beautiful shining in the sun! So we stop moving forward and take the time to reach down and pick it up. Most of the time, it turns out to be nothing more than a useless fragment whose edges had been just barely covered in the sand, hiding it's true shape.
Now, it only takes a few seconds to bend down, pick it up, toss it aside, and continue on, but add up those seconds when you go after worthless fragments over, and over, and over again.
It's really not a very good way to jog down the beach.


Or run a Christian Race.


Hebrews 12:1, 2
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

SO RUN.

No matter what.

I, personally have not yet been affected by the recent election. I'm sure it's coming but all it has done to me so far is sadden me to watch our country turn down a path that leads to destruction.

I got a blessing this morning in  1 Chronicles 16, being reminded that the Lord is always in control.

The chapter starts out right after David finally brought home the ark of the covenant, doing it the way God had previously laid out.
He then delivers his first Psalm to the priest.
You need to read the whole chapter for context, and a really good Psalm that David wrote, but what really encouraged me what this:

vs. 15 Be ye mindful always of his covenant; the word which he commanded to a thousand generations.

vs 21 He suffered no man to do them wrong; yea, he reproved kings for their sakes,
vs 22 Saying, touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.

Then it goes on to praise the Lord to vs 36 in a way that should pump Christians up to hear.

But in those last two verses, it was such a comfort to be reminded that, kings (or presidents) may be in authority, but that doesn't stop God from taking care of his people!
Things may get a little rough, but never forget who is ulitmately in control!

Aaaaand technically I already knew all that, but I obvioulsly needed reminding.

The Lord has blessed me in so many ways, it should never, EVER be a problem to rely on him.
In closing, vs 34

O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good; for his mercy endureth forever.