I will delight myself in Your commandments

I know "coffee and the Word" has become a vastly overused, typical "Christian girl" phrase. But, when it comes down to it, is there really anything sweeter?
It's a delightfully slow summer morning here at home. The locusts, crickets, and birds hum their morning tunes outside my window, creating a summer symphony. As I sit in my room with a warm red mug of, yes, coffee in my hand and the living Word of God in my lap, I am overwhelmed with thanksgiving.
Who am I to hold the words of the living, powerful Creator and Sustainer and Ruler of all things?
Yet He has chosen to give these words to men--to us--to me.
Why? I don't know, except that He has chosen to do so. All we can do is read and live. In light of this living Word, how shall we then live?

Psalm 119 is full of thanks to God for the gift of His words and commandments. The Psalmist writes in Psalm verses 10-11:

"With my whole heart I have sought You;

Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments!

Your word I have hidden in my heart,

That I might not sin against You."

In verses 47-48:

"And I will delight myself in Your commandments,

Which I love.

My hands also will lift up to Your commandments,

Which I love,

And I will meditate on Your statutes."

And again in verses 103-105:

"How sweet are Your words to my taste,

Sweeter than honey to my mouth!

Through Your precepts I get understanding;

Therefore I hate every false way.

Your word is a lamp to my feet 

And a light to my path."

You can either choose to neglect or delight yourself in the Word of God today. Which will it be? 

The Psalmist cries out,"My soul faints for Your salvation, but I hope in Your word. My eyes fail from searching Your word." He was so much in the word that his eyes literally began to grow weak from searching it! Do yours?

About the Scriptures J. C. Ryle says,

"I want people to fill their minds with passages of Scripture while they are well and strong, that they may have sure help in the day of need. I want them to be diligent in studying their Bibles, and becoming familiar with their contents, in order that the grand old Book may stand by them and talk with them when all earthly friends fail. From the bottom of my heart, I pity that person who never reads their Bible. I wonder how they expect to draw their consolation in their time of need."

'You are My people'

I woke up to a dark, cloudy sky that made me want to stay in bed forever, which is how I feel basically every morning a feeling I never, ever experience, I assure you. Mornings like these remind us how lucky we were to have a day like yesterday. . .

The sun was shining, the birds were whistling, and I was driving home with the sun roof open and the Punch Brothers singing. I couldn't resist a run in this blissful spring, slightly sweltering warm weather. Still huffing, puffing, and gasping for breath breathing hard, I crawled walked onto the back porch to see Jer shooting his bow, Jonathan slowly, rhythmically swaying in the hammock, and Macy close behind, her tail wagging violently.
I had to pause and thank the Lord - for the chance for my boys to just be boys (something so many boys completely miss out on these days); for the good old south in April; for days like today; for God's overwhelming love in every little thing, even when I am ungrateful and presumptive. His blessings are all around me and continue, whether I have thanked Him or not.
Can you imagine such selfless love in a human? Just think of it: a man or a woman who continues to pour out love even when that love is not the slightest bit reciprocated? That is surely a rare thing, if not an entirely impossible thing. Picture the greatest, kindest, most selfless human being ever to walk the earth. Observe as he not only cares for the dirtiest, scummiest, most self-absorbed human being that ever lived, but he takes him into his home, adopts him, and loves him as his own son - even when that son goes about his business and forgets this man's unspeakable kindness. Now multiply that x 100 and you'll get some faint idea of God's love for us.

In Hosea 2:23, the Lord says to a rebellious, stiff-necked Israel:

"And I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy;
Then I will say to those who were not My people,
‘You are My people!’
And they shall say, ‘You are my God!’”

It was too perfect not to soak in every last bit of sunlight. I pulled out my paints and the boys rotated to the trampoline. 

Today, in spite of the clouds, there is so much to be thankful for. Have you thanked Him for His many kindnesses? Look around you and be thankful. The true child of God ought to be the happiest being in all the world.

They shall sing in the ways of the Lord

I know to many of you this blog has long been dead. But I'd like to think he's only been sleeping, gone on an extended vacation; hibernating; but still very much alive.
And in the hope of awakening this old Blog o'Mine, I'd like to share a page out of Spurgeon's Morning + Evening from February 1st that I've found to be such a help to me and, I hope, to you as well.

"They shall sing in the ways of the Lord."

Psalm 138:5

The time when Christians begin to sing in the ways of the Lord is when they first lose their burden at the foot of the Cross. Not even the songs of the angels seem so sweet as the first song of rapture which gushes from the inmost soul of the forgiven child of God. You know how John Bunyan describes it. He says when poor Pilgrim lost his burden at the Cross, he gave three great leaps, and went on his way singing—

“Blest Cross! blest Sepulchre! blest rather be The Man that there was put to shame for me!”

Believer, do you recollect the day when your fetters fell off? Do you remember the place when Jesus met you, and said, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love; I have blotted out as a cloud thy transgressions, and as a thick cloud thy sins; they shall not be mentioned against thee any more forever.” Oh! what a sweet season is that when Jesus takes away the pain of sin. When the Lord first pardoned my sin, I was so joyous that I could scarce refrain from dancing. I thought on my road home from the house where I had been set at liberty, that I must tell the stones in the street the story of my deliverance. So full was my soul of joy, that I wanted to tell every snow-flake that was falling from heaven of the wondrous love of Jesus, who had blotted out the sins of one of the chief of rebels. But it is not only at the commencement of the Christian life that believers have reason for song; as long as they live they discover cause to sing in the ways of the Lord, and their experience of his constant lovingkindness leads them to say, “I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.” See to it, brother, that thou magnifiest the Lord this day.

“Long as we tread this desert land,

New mercies shall new songs demand.”

Deuteronomy 6

In verses 6-9, God instructs us how we ought to respond to the Word He, in His kindness, has given to us:

“And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."

Believer, this is how you ought to live - with His Word hidden in your heart and always before your mind. Teach it, speak of it, think on it - constantly. I want to know this Book more than any other, and His words more than anyone else's.

And how could I not? Verses 20-23 say:

“When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which the Lord our God has commanded you?’ then you shall say to your son: ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand; and the Lord showed signs and wonders before our eyes, great and severe, against Egypt, Pharaoh, and all his household. Then He brought us out from there, that He might bring us in, to give us the land of which He swore to our fathers."

As a believer, you are separated unto God. As a result, you look very strange to the world. As you should. God has set you apart and made you different. When they wonder at you and ask why? Why are you so odd? You should want nothing better than to tell of God's mercy and His great work in your heart! This should be your answer: That you were a slave. You were dead in your sins and subject to the chains of this world. But now you have been transferred into the kingdom of the Son of His love! Now you are under the happy bondage of our good, kind Lord and Master. There is no happier position, no better place. 

The Holocaust and Abortion

Please take some time to watch this.

Psalm 113: 4-9

"The LORD is high above all nations, His glory is above the heavens. Who is like the LORD our God, who dwells on high, who humbles Himself to behold the things that are in the heavens and the earth? He raises the poor out of the dust, and lifts the needy out of the ash heap, that He may seat him with princes- with the princes of His people. He grants the barren woman a home, like a joyful mother of children.

Praise the LORD!"

Isaiah 45

²² “ Look to Me, and be saved,
All you ends of the earth!
For I am God, and there is no other.