233 Friday, August 21, 2009

233 Psalms 001 – 006; Philippians 004

Prayer, worship, intimacy, feelings, soul searching, and plain out right getting real is all found in the Psalms. The people of God need to know how to sing to their Maker and the Psalms(songs) tells us how to do just that. The mind boggling discovery that you will make is how real the songs are that they sang to God. We should sing the same songs. In the Psalms, in the O.T. Psalms we find these believers bringing their trust, their doubt, and their real selves to this Holy God. We live in the N.T. and God tells us to come boldly before the throne of grace--do you?--do we? There is a lot of boldness before the throne of God in these Psalms. May we learn how to be bold and respectful from these Psalms. Psalm one sets the record straight that God loves a righteous path and His followers should stay on that path. The reward for staying on that path is we will bear fresh fruit--we will be alive! The real alive not the fake alive.

Euodia and Syntyche are in a fight and of course the church is being dragged in to it. Paul in a letters calls them out and tells them to fix it. Paul wants peace in the church and he wants peace in the hearts of Christ's followers. Don't fret or worry, but pray and let the peace of God (His wholeness) fill you up. How do we do this Christian life? Paul says, "Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized." Put into practice means obedience. We must learn to obey at every stage of our lives. So today--practice!