Verse of the Week - John 15:12 - June 5, 2017

Jesus stressed this commandment to the disciples; it is the new commandment of the New Testament. 

Loving others the way Jesus loved the disciples is tough. However, we do have the Holy Spirit, God, and Jesus to help us through the times when it is tough to love a fellow Christian, or unbeliever. 

WWJD

I choose to use the 1990's slogan, What Would Jesus Do?, to help me follow Jesus' commandment to love one another as he loved us.

Psalm of the Week - 25:10 - June 5, 2017

Mercy and truth will meet together in the case of those who, however they may have sinned, meekly submit themselves to God's guidance, and from then on keep his covenant and his testimonies.

Pulpit Commentary www.biblehub.com

Walk the walk to find mercy and truth from God as He walks down the paths of his infinite purpose. SalleeB

Verse of the Week- 1 John 1:5 May 22, 2017

My husband shared his philosophy for living a Christian life with me early in our marriage. 
He lives his faith walk by testing everything with this saying: "Good God - Bad Satan." 

I decided to try out this outlook for a while, after all Bill is the spiritual leader of our home AND Bill has a peace and calmness that I wanted to have too. 

After a month or two, I realized that life is much simpler when measured by "Good God - Bad Satan." 

Today, I have lived by this philosophy for six years and find myself with some of the peace and calmness of my spouse.

Good God - Bad Satan
The things of God do not show darkness because God is light and in him is no darkness at all. I do not blame God for doing bad things because God cannot sin or do anything wrong. God is light and in him is no darkness at all.

Am I living life in the darkness or in the light? 
The answer to this question lies in my attitude and actions. My attitude and actions show where I am living. Therefore, a daily inventory of my attitude and actions is in order at the end of each day because I want to stay firmly in the light of God.

Bad things come from the world and the ruler of this world is Satan.
I assign the blame where it belongs - with Satan. My God isn't a tempter, Satan is the tempter. Am I feeling tempted? Then I need to get back into the light (shelter) of the Lord. I do this by submitting all areas of my life to God. He is Lord of my whole life, not just a part of my life. When I submit my entire life to God, Satan will FLEE! Satan cannot stay in the light of God.

John 8:12  
Then spoke Jesus again to them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life

Psalm of the Week - 84:11 - May 22, 2017

The author of this psalm is King David.  

David's life shows how he walked closely with God, then let the world move him from God, and after he admitted his mistakes, he once again walked closely with God. 

• The Lord God is a sun — He will enlighten, direct, and comfort all his people; in contrast people that live without God in the world walk in darkness and do not know where they go, (John 12:35) 
• and shield — He will defend them from all their enemies, and from those awful and destructive problems which happen to all other men. 
• The Lord will give grace — His favor and friendship, which are better than life. Psalm 63:3. And all the blessed fruits of it, especially the influences, gifts, and graces of his Spirit; 
• and glory — Not the vain glory and splendor of this world...but the honor which comes from God here, and that eternal...glory saved for God’s people in the future world. 
• No good thing will he withhold — Nothing that is truly good in itself, and which would be good for them...While the good things of this world ...would be very hurtful to them, as is verified by frequent experiments. 
• From them that walk uprightly — That worship and serve God sincerely, and order their conversation aright. 

Any bad that happened to David, was his own fault. 

David here assigns the true reason, which was not any defect in God’s goodness and all-sufficiency, but only his own misconduct, whereby he had clouded this sun, and cast away this shield, and forfeited these privileges by departing from his integrity.

Bullet points and ending paragraph of this post are adapted from the Benson Commentary. 

Psalm of the Week - 84:10 - May 14, 2017

Let us account one day in God's courts better than a thousand spent elsewhere; and deem the meanest place in his service preferable to the highest earthly preferment.  

Matthew Henry's Bible Commentary