Psalm 29

   The LORD gives strength to his people; the LORD blesses his people with peace.

{Psalm 29:11}  (NIV1984)

Our Lord ends His sermon on the mount, with a parable of a wise man and a foolish man and the impact of storms on their lives. Storms of life come quickly; they may gather slowly. We see the clouds building, they seem so far away, and then crash - the storm arrives and all we can do is seek shelter. The storms come to reveal to us the foundations of our lives. 

Psalm 29 is a comfort to all who face a storm. This psalm declares that we should ascribe to the LORD glory for the storms that cause destruction. Why should we give God glory for destructive storms? Because He sits enthroned above the flood; He is enthroned as King. The Lord Jesus came and spoke to us. His words were meant for good in our lives. The storms will come and the storms will go, but whoever hears the words of Jesus and puts them into practice will stand firm. 

The psalmist ends his psalm with 2 lines of encouragement. Friend, is there a storm in your life today? Listen to the Word of the LORD; In the midst of the storm that the LORD has ordained, He will give you strength, He will give you peace, He is blessing you with this storm. Trust HIM!

Galatians 5:13-26

 "The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbour as yourself.”

{Galatians 5:14} (NIV1984)

The apostle Paul wrote the letter to the people in the Galatian church for the purpose of keeping them from falling into the deceitful trap of following the law, in order to be right with God. He tells them that it was for freedom that Christ set us free. That no one has to be circumcised in order to be righteous before God. That nothing we do to our bodies or with our bodies count, all that counts is faith expressing itself in love.

Why then should a Christian obey the law? Simply because our Lord obeyed the law, and His Spirit is alive in us. And we live our lives in these bodies through faith in the son of God who loved us and gave himself for us. (Gal. 2:20). If the Lord Jesus is alive in my heart, I will want to obey the law, and I will love my neighbour as myself. The Holy Spirit will always lead me to love God and others.

May we keep in step with the Spirit and love one another today. May we rejoice in the freedom that our Lord brought us, and may we use that freedom to love God and each other. Look at the great steps He took to love humans. Is there a human in your life today that you can do something for to show your love? Of course there is, let us this day love someone as our Lord loves them! Love is an action.

2 Kings 5

"So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, 

for this sums up the Law and the Prophets."

{Matthew 7:12} (NIV1984)

There are a lot of words in the Old Testament. When Jesus says 'Law and Prophets', He is referring to the entire Old Testament. If you read all of those words, our Lord tells us that they can be added to up into one rule; the golden rule. 'Do to others as you would have them do to you'. The law of love. It seems hard to accept at first. There are a lot of commands in the Old Testament, and many of them seem to be about us and our relationship with God. However God describes Himself based on how He treats humans, and our relationship with Him is proven by how we treat our fellow humans. 

A great example of this golden rule lived out, is the little Israelite slave girl in 2 Kings 5. She had been forcibly captured and enslaved by her enemies, and yet when her master was struck with leprosy, she came forward to suggest that he go to God’s prophet and be healed by the LORD. Our Lord held out the healing of Namaan as an example of how far away from the LORD Israel was, in those days. But we know that at least one little girl, loved her LORD God, loved her enemy, and by her actions her enemy was healed and saved. May we be inspired by this little one, and may we this day; Do to others as we would have them do to us!

Romans 4

"Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them."

{Romans 4:8} (NIV1984)  

King David loved God’s law, and he also broke God’s law. In Psalm 32 he expresses the state of blessedness that a person is in when God forgives their sin, and does not count their sin against them. God is a God who forgives. God described Himself to Moses as, “the compassionate, gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin…” (Exodus 34:6)   

When God forgives, He removes our guilt from us, as far as the east is from the west, which means we will never see our guilt again. It is God who declares us FORGIVEN! It is God who decides that He will not count our sin against us. As I think about the amount of sin that I myself have committed, I realize the tremendous amount of that sin, and I realize that I don’t know the half of it for there is much sin that I commit that I am not even aware of! Yet God has forgiven me. I am blessed because God doesn't count my sin against me. How do I know? Because God declares people righteous on the basis of belief. I believe that Jesus is God’s only Son, I believe that He died in my place for my sins. I believe that God raised Him from the dead. I believe, therefore I am clean. Friend, may we be encouraged today as we meditate on the blessed state we have in Christ!

Psalm 119:73-80

"Your hands made me and formed me; give me understanding to learn your commands."

{Psalm 119:73}  (NIV1984)

Here we have the plainest statement of why a human should love the law of YHWH. The LORD made us. Not only did He create the heavens and the earth, the stars and the planets, the land and the sea, the fish, birds and animals – BUT - the LORD made me! He set His mind toward me. He found my mother and formed me inside her. He chose my features and my form. He set me in my century, in my country, in my land. These facts should cause me to love His law! He wrote these commands that I might live and prosper. He wrote them for me, for my good. 

Oh friend, do we believe this! Away from me, the lies of Satan who tells me God wants to limit me, and keep me from being all that I can be! No my friend, His purpose, His Words are to bless me, to prosper me and to bring me life.

"May my heart be blameless toward your decrees,
    that I may not be put to shame." {Psalm 119:80}

Psalm 119:161-168

"Great peace have they who love your law, and nothing can make them stumble."

{Psalm 119:165} (NIV1984) 

What a blessing peace is! To be at peace with your loved ones is bliss. To be at peace with yourself is healthy. To be at peace with your Holy Creator brings you into alignment with the Sustainer of all life. 

How true is our Lord’s statement to His disciples: "My peace I leave with you, my peace I give you" (Jn. 11:27). This peace He gives is a great peace! A peace that comes to us through faith in His person and His work of atonement for us. The psalmist tells us that great peace comes to those who love God’s law. Love is an action, which means that the psalmist is describing more than a good attitude or a desire for the law of God. To love God’s law means that a person reads God’s laws, considers those laws and brings their life in line with His laws. This love of God’s law brings great peace. My behaviour towards others is not offensive. My conscience is clean, and most important of all, my God is pleased with me and His face shines upon me (Num. 6:25). 

Our Lord loved God’s law while He walked on this earth, and each of us who live our lives by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us (Gal. 2:20) - cannot help but to love God’s law. He bought us peace; may we continue to live our lives in great peace. May each us love God’s law today.

Deuteronomy 32

"They are not just idle words for you—they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess."

{Deuteronomy 32:47} (NIV1984) 

These words are your life! Life for you right now, right where you are, in the land you live in. There are TV shows galore; Dr so and so, Judge so and so, groups of people sitting together, all of them speaking words. Words for us, they say. Words that will help us live a better life right now. Words that teach us what to eat, how to get along with others, who to vote for, etc, etc. 

Moses knew that the words of God, given to his people through the Law, are words of life that bring real benefit to people in the land they live in. People think of the Bible as words for heaven, for our second life. Moses knew, and all Christians know, that God’s Words are for this life as well as the next. As Peter said to the Lord; “Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68). 

Friend, where are we going for words that benefit us in this life? Do we go to the Old Testament, and the New Testament, or do we go to magazines, and TV shows? May we read and meditate on the true words of life today!  

Sing them over again to me, wonderful words of life, … beautiful words, wonderful words, wonderful words of life. {Philip P. Bliss, 1874}