Month: November 2020

“How great you are, O Sovereign LORD! There is no one like you, and there is no God but you, as we have heard with our own ears. 2 Samuel 7:22

God made a covenant with Abraham. His offspring would number as the sands on the earth and bless all people. The Hebrew nation, freed from Egyptian slavery by Moses and led back to their ancestral land, The Promised Land, was this nation. Generations later David becomes their King Through the prophet Nathan, God reveals His plan to complete His promise through David’s family. There would come a King that would reign for all eternity, but have a servant’s heart and an unconditional love that truly ‘makes the world go ‘round.’

It was David’s desire to build a temple for the Ark of the Covenant but to his great disappointment God directed him otherwise. David was a warrior king. His son Solomon, a man of peace, would build the House of God. But God revealed a great plan for David. His throne would change the world for the better. David’s response was the worship and praise above.

David praised and worshiped God because he was the one chosen to bring blessings, but we are the ‘all people’ that were/are blessed. How much more should we repeat David’s response? “You are THE ONE TRUE GOD! How unique and great You are!”

Peace to You,

Gretchen

Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? Psalm 85:6

The gift of optimism is a priceless treasure. This Psalmist sees the good in the present and distant future. Sin is a thief. It leaves a path of destruction but God specializes in revival and restoration. Salvation takes care of yesterday and today and makes tomorrow possible.

It is difficult to see the good when devastation’s threat is staring you in the face daily, but Verses 10-12, bear witness to the hope we find in God’s power and glory. The people of old needed the strength of a truthful, but positive outlook and so do we.

“Love and faithfulness meet together, righteousness and peace kiss each other. Faithfulness springs forth from the earth and righteousness looks down from Heaven.”

You are Loved,

Gretchen

He restores my soul, He guides me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Psalm 23:3

We are a dependent humanity living in a hostile world. God jealously guards us, His supreme creation, from evil and governs our moral behavior, making us righteous.

Psalm 23 is a song of trust. David wrote this Psalm while still a shepherd boy on the plains of Judea where hundreds of years later, a host of angels announced the coming of another child that would become a King, a Shepherd, the Prince of PEACE.

Each fall, millions of birds, among hundreds of species, take to the sky and make their way to warmer climates so they may live. Why? Because God made it so. He takes wonderful care of them. Only God can restore what the weariness of this world has stolen. It is not in God’s character to leave His children lost and struggling. He does not and He will not. Because we are His, He will take us where we are safe, secure and sustained and Holy.

Love,

Gretchen

Who is the King of Glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. Psalm 24:8

David’s greatest desire was to bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, to a permanent home among God’s people. A chest made of acacia wood and overlaid with gold, held the Ten commandments, a pot of manna and Aaron’s Rod. Historically and symbolically there was nothing more important to Israel than this box representing God’s love, promise and presence. David’s vision for Jerusalem was that it be God’s home, a place of refuge, security, worship and praise.

This all important vessel, THE defining object of those that left slavery in Egypt and became God’s covenant nation in the wilderness had come home. You can imagine the excitement along the streets. Victory had been won! The world and everything in it belongs to God. It was a great time of worship and celebration.

Psalm 24 was thought to have been written for the processional bringing the Ark home. Today this would compare to a Sousa March on the 4th of July. If you read the entire Psalm it speaks of gates, doors and heads lifted up. Jerusalem was a walled, fortified, gated city. The gates were closed and locked but with joy and hope a way was made clear for the presence of the King of Glory, the LORD strong and mighty, to enter and stay forever.

Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of Glory may come in. vs. 7 Make a way for God to enter your heart and remain forever. Make your heart the highest place of honor for the Lord Strong and Mighty.

Love,

Gretchen

PS As today is election day, I challenge each of you, no matter your political persuasion, to trust the LORD strong and mighty, weaver of the universe. This is a day the LORD has made and we must throw love and kindness like confetti, no matter what is going on around us. Blessings.

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10:45

Jesus is returning to Jerusalem for the final time. He tells his disciples what will happen, that He will be delivered to those who want to kill Him. How much they truly understand is unclear. Jesus is clear about His future. Other gospels show that Jesus repeatedly encourages and comforts His disciples as the days and hours of His crucifixion draw closer.

James and John, brothers, the sons of Zebedee, in response, come to Jesus and ask to share in His glory. There have been many commentaries on the actions, motivations and attitudes of the two men so bold as to ask for places number one and two at the Throne of God. The fact that matters is, they did not want to be separated from Jesus. They wanted to be where He was, in the present and certainly to the future. So they asked for a guarantee of close proximity for all ages.

There was a discussion you can read in verses 38-44, but in the end Jesus lays it out plainly: If you want to be with Me, you must be like Me and do as I do. Seems like a lot to demand, until you realize it is no demand at all, but rather an invitation to eternity that begins in this very moment.

Blessings,

Gretchen