Monday, April 20, 2015

Day of Uplifted Hands!

Text:  Psalms 63:4  Thus will I bless thee while I live:  I will lift up my hands in thy name.
Hebrews 12:12   Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down….
We see in the 63rd division of Psalm where God satisfies the thirsting soul of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah.  Being in Judah, David couldn’t do anything but give God praise.
Judah in the Hebrew is yeh-hoo-daw’, which means to celebrate and is derived from yah-dah, meaning to praise and give thanks; to worship with extended hands!
Now Hebrew chapter 12, verse 12, was written in the context of God’s chastening and correction.  Lift means to set up; straighten up; upright.
The question is, “Why would we want to lift our hands in praise in the middle of a test or disciplinary moment when we are being chastened or corrected?”

Monday, April 6, 2015

Trusting in Something We Cannot See



Text: Proverb 3:5-6Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths”.

Remember the days when we all used paper road maps to plan our trips and get from Point A to Point B?  I remember my Dad mapping out our vacations or even a day trip to visit relatives by using the map and calculating the mileage from our house to where we were going.  He determined the best route to take based on the types of roads there were.  He then figured out how long it would take us to travel that distance based on the speed limit and the number of stops we would make.  


Or sometimes we just knew the route when going to visit a relative or a friend.  We had travelled the route so many times that it was ingrained in us.  Even today, we may direct others to a certain destination by the number of houses to pass or even landmarks because we never paid attention to the street names.  But suffice it to say that we had our ways of getting from point A to point B.  And if there was ever a time that we did not know the way, we stopped to ask someone, and typically they could direct us.


Now I wonder how many young people know that there is such a thing as a paper map and how to read it.  Why would I ask that?  Because of something called a GPS or Global Positioning System.  They are everywhere these days.  You can find them on your smart phone, your smart tablet, your smart computer or in your smart car.  Not just any device will do - it has to be smart!


The GPS is the electronic-age device which takes the place of the paper map.  It tells us and shows us how to get from Point A to Point B.  They have become common-place, and we heavily depend on them to lead us on our journey or our path.


But did you know that God operates a GPS?  This GPS is known as God’s Pilot System.  The word pilot in Greek and Hebrew means  helmsman, the master, the shipmaster, and as a verb, it means to make straight, to steer, and to guide.