God is like water, not any water but water that is fresh, not stagnant. #comeallwhoarethirstyISAIAH 55:1

Knowing we must drink makes our thirst heightened and desperate. I never tire of drinking from the deep well of God’s love, even when I’m waterlogged by the breakers of opposition.

Where is He? Where is God? He touches the water of my tears, He feels the pouring out of my prayers.

He watches me cast down the turmoil in my soul and brings me hope through His steadfast love and comforting song.

The deadly wound of the enemy is fought through the life-giving stream of God’s provision. #ChristJesus #springofwaterwellinguptoternalife (see John 4:14)

-Teresa #TrustHim

Psalm 42: 1-11 (ESV)

42 As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God.
² My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?^[b]
3 My tears have been my food
day and night,
while they say to me all the day long,
“Where is your God?”
⁴ These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I would go with the throng
and lead them in procession to the house of God
with glad shouts and songs of praise,
a multitude keeping festival.

⁵ Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation^{[c] 6} and my God.

My soul is cast down within me;
therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
from Mount Mizar.
⁷ Deep calls to deep
at the roar of your waterfalls;
all your breakers and your waves
have gone over me.
⁸ By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.
⁹ I say to God, my rock:
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?”
¹⁰ As with a deadly wound in my bones,
my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me all the day long,
“Where is your God?”

* photo creditPexels.com

The tree gave unreservedly that year. The fruit was sweeter and juicier, somehow more satisfying.

It may have been similar to our 2021 harvest from the Santa Rosa plum tree. Who knew that such an old, gnarly tree could still produce an abundant crop.

When the seed of God was crushed, buried and left for dead, He produced a generation of faith unlike any other time on earth. #kairos

At that moment when all seemed lost, life was renewed. He rose from the dead with a new body, no longer a seed but with a body (bread) of spiritual provision for mankind. A reconnection with the Father.

The only requirement for us is to be naked before Him. By removing our pretensions and good works, we realize how vulnerable we truly are.

We will be amazed that He is able #worthy to bring us into the Father’s presence. In that place, we can be richly clothed with the communion of our forever family. #Hisrighteousness

Job feared God and was clothed through worship. What will stop us today from truly worshiping our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ?

– Teresa #breadoflife #toliveisChrist #worshipinspiteoflife’schallenges

Job 1:20-22 (ESV)

²⁰ Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. ²¹ And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

²² In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.

*photo from http://pexels.com

While others may have opinions and tell us what they have heard, always remember that there are two sides to a story.

If it’s your story being questioned or brought into a bad light, you have God on your side as you stand your ground.

In this passage, Nehemiah disputes troublemakers who want to put words into his mouth. Instead he continues to work steadfastly with the vision from God in mind- (to rebuild the city walls of Jerusalem).

Is our vision heaven sent? If so, we should not be distracted by the naysayers who may be positioned to distract us or even worse to lure us into sinning against God. See Acts 4:19- what is right, to listen to God or to obey “misled authoritarians?”

Be strong and courageous, just as Joshua was instructed by Moses. Most work that involves a great deliverance for generations to come is met with opposition.

He will bring it to pass, faithul to complete it. -Teresa #wecannotbeshaken #taketimeforprayer #refusetimeforhearsay #God’sworkinGod’sway

Nehemiah 6: 1-16 (ESV)

6 Now when Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies heard that I had built the wall and that there was no breach left in it (although up to that time I had not set up the doors in the gates), 2 Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, “Come and let us meet together at Hakkephirim in the plain of Ono.” But they intended to do me harm. 3 And I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?” 4 And they sent to me four times in this way, and I answered them in the same manner. 5 In the same way Sanballat for the fifth time sent his servant to me with an open letter in his hand. 6 In it was written, “It is reported among the nations, and Geshem[d] also says it, that you and the Jews intend to rebel; that is why you are building the wall. And according to these reports you wish to become their king. 7 And you have also set up prophets to proclaim concerning you in Jerusalem, ‘There is a king in Judah.’ And now the king will hear of these reports. So now come and let us take counsel together.” 8 Then I sent to him, saying, “No such things as you say have been done, for you are inventing them out of your own mind.” 9 For they all wanted to frighten us, thinking, “Their hands will drop from the work, and it will not be done.” But now, O God,[e] strengthen my hands.

10 Now when I went into the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah, son of Mehetabel, who was confined to his home, he said, “Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple. Let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you. They are coming to kill you by night.” 11 But I said, “Should such a man as I run away? And what man such as I could go into the temple and live?[f] I will not go in.” 12 And I understood and saw that God had not sent him, but he had pronounced the prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. 13 For this purpose he was hired, that I should be afraid and act in this way and sin, and so they could give me a bad name in order to taunt me. 14 Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, O my God, according to these things that they did, and also the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who wanted to make me afraid.

The Wall Is Finished

15 So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. 16 And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God.

Strength and peace are byproducts of God’s gift and blessing to us.

The water of Noah’s day came as a penultimate response to man’s wickedness. Who is over the waters?

The heavenly throne of God is over the flood. Who is king forever?

He established the creation through His word. Who is the Word of God?

Jesus Christ the Lord is God’s Son and our Savior. He alone is able to provide the holy attire of our worship.

Without him, our “righteousness” is as filthy rags. WITH him, giving glory of God is part of our story.

Strength and peace come to encourage us in the midst of life’s challenges. – Teresa

#JesusmyLord #Heisworthy #thewordofGod #arkofprotectionfromtheflood (see Matthew Henry’s commentary)

Ascribe to the Lord Glory

A Psalm of David.

29 Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings,[a]
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
2 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.[b]
3 The voice of the Lord is over the waters;
the God of glory thunders,
the Lord, over many waters.
4 The voice of the Lord is powerful;
the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.
5 The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars;
the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
6 He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf,
and Sirion like a young wild ox.
7 The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire.
8 The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness;
the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
9 The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth[c]
and strips the forests bare,
and in his temple all cry, “Glory!”
10 The Lord sits enthroned over the flood;
the Lord sits enthroned as king forever.
11 May the Lord give strength to his people!
May the Lord bless[d] his people with peace!

Footnotes

Psalm 29:1 Hebrew sons of God, or sons of might
Psalm 29:2 Or in holy attire
Psalm 29:9 Revocalization yields makes the oaks to shake
Psalm 29:11 Or The Lord will give… The Lord will bless

*photo from http://pexels.com