Solid Foundations With God -Psalm 93
Carrying Things
What is the most important thing to carry with you all the time?
The most important thing I carry with me is my mindset.
It shaped how I perceive the world, respond to challenges, interact with others, and navigate success or failure.
Most people may think of physical things that they carry, like cell phones, wallets or keys, or weapons while these items matter. it’s the internal perspective that seals how they use those things. Their beliefs, attitudes, and intentions that influence everything they do.
A strong and thoughtful mindset can turn setbacks into lessons and opportunities into achievements. It travels everywhere, even when you’re empty handed.
Anointed With Joy And Gladness
I would hate to have to endure life without joy and gladness these days without knowing Jesus. Without the Word of God at work in me through all the challenges I’m sure I would have caved by now.
Throughout my life, I’ve had to face what seemed like insurmountable obstacles and what I feel were attacks from the enemy trying to take me out.
Thank God I’m still advancing and moving forward. I’m still not quite sure if I have a special anointing on my life or have learned a few things through the struggles I’ve experienced.
I have learned that when it appears that when life seems to be unraveling, plans have turned to ashes, and the pain and misery of a life’s heart breaks have left me mourning that’s when God will lift me up above these things and sets me on the side of victory.
The Holy Spirit’s anointing of joy and gladness is reserved for God’s people. Isaiah 61:3 says,
“To provide for those who mourn in Zion, to give to them a beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning. The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. That they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”
God has permanently placed before His followers things we will need in times of mourning, calamity, and trouble. His plan is for His people to be anointed with the oil of joy and gladness. However, unless we allow Jesus to anoint us continually with this oil of joy and gladness, life may become little more than a miserable existence.
Proverbs 15:15 in the Amplified Bible tells us,
“All the days of the deponding and afflicted are made evil by anxious thoughts and foreboding, but He who has a glad heart has a continual feast regardless of circumstances.”
When we praise God and allow Him to anoint us with joy and gladness, our life becomes a celebration regardless of our circumstances.
I think many churches over the decades have gotten the religious idea that crying was acceptable, but laughing, shouting for joy, of dancing were not. The truth of the matter is, the Bible had far more to say about rejoicing than it does weeping.
Joy comes from being in the presence of God and receiving His anointing of joy and gladness is deposited in us when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
Until joy is returned to the church, and we allow the Holy Spirit to anoint us with the oil of joy and gladness even in difficult times in our lives, I don’t think we will be effective in reaching lost hurting people.
When the 120 believers were filled with the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, the joy of the Lord was an obvious manifestation. That is why people thought they were drunk.
It was only then that they began to impact those in Jerusalem. Then it continued to spread to others both Jews and Gentiles until eventually the gospel of Jesus was spread throughout the world.
I believe the church’s religious beliefs have dampened the effect of what the Holy Spirit can do.
So, if you’re weighed down with what’s going on around you, why not let the Lord anoint you with the oil of joy and gladness?
God’s Faithfulness
Do you ever go to seasons for God does a miraculous work in your life from freeing you of sins of you from your past, or answering a specific prayer. You find yourself in so much awe of Him, His Word, and His faithfulness, that you vow to never stop praising Him.
But if each day passes from the divine marked moment, we forget that moment of Him miraculous handiwork on our life. When the next new circumstance comes up in our life where we need help or answers, we can to find ourselves doubting God. We begin leaning on our own understanding. An overtime we begin trying to control the situation on our own, forgetting God‘s faithfulness.
It’s easy to let God’s faithfulness slip from our minds. Especially when He is not answering our prayers, moving in our situations, or speaking in the moment that we need Him to.
Deuteronomy 4:9 tells us,
“Only be on guard and diligently watch yourselves so that you don’t forget the things your eyes have seen and so that they don’t slip from your mind as long as you live. Teach them to your children and your grandchildren.”
I can’t help but think that too. Exodus when Moses held out his staff, and God parted the waters of the Red Sea. Once Israel, like such safely crossed, Moses dropped his staff, and the sea closed, drowning the pursuing Egyptians. This miraculous work of God is something they saw with their own eyes. Yet they had forgotten, but God had done for them. I hope that I will never forget the Almighty God’s personal sovereignty and protection freeing me of my horrible situations in the past.
But being human we forget too fast God‘s faithfulness. It’s important to remember that God is working in our because he is faithful no matter the situation we find ourselves in. He has proven time and time again, throughout every story in the Bible, throughout every story of our lives. Let’s not forget what He has done and will continue to do.
No matter what don’t stop praising Him, that our worship be a reminder to never let His faithfulness slip from our minds.
Making Changes To My Blog
What change, big or small, would you like your blog to make in the world?
I hope my blog is making even a small difference to someone who needs to hear it.
So many churches tell us information or give rules they say we need to live a godly life. But don’t give us the wisdom on how to live it.
I believe some preachers or teachers are afraid to tell people exactly what the Bible says for fear of offending someone. And lose people and money. I have never sugar-coated anything. It’s not about tickling anyone’s ears, but teaching truth straight from the Bible.
I have been thinking about writing a small book with the basics of how to live a godly life. Right now it’s just a thought. I’m still praying about it to have wisdom.
Entering An Alternate Universe
Describe your life in an alternate universe.
My alternate universe would be peaceful, no hate or evil. No violence or hunger. No disease, no suffering, no pain.
A place where a king will wipe away all my tears. A place free from the brokenness of the world we have today.
The Forces That Rule The World
Albert Einstein once said the world is ruled by three forces: stupidity, fear, and greed. He wasn’t wrong. These three forces shape everything around us, they shape history, dictate the rise and fall of nations and determine whether people succeed or remain trapped in mediocrity.
Stupidity:
Stupidity blinds people to reality. Greed drives them to take more than they need and fear keeps us paralyzed and unwilling to challenge the status quo. When all three work together, they create a world where progress is stifled, and people willingly participate in their own downfall.
Most people think stupidity is about intellect. It’s not. Some of the dumbest people have Ivy League degrees. I think stupidity is about the inability or even refusal to see what reality is. It’s about making choices based that logic, and ignoring the truth because it’s of its inconvenience or even worse it forces accountability.
If you look around it’s pretty clear. The people in government and the media spew nonsense and people eat it up like it’s the gospel. Businesses make the same mistakes over and over driven by arrogance disguised as “expertise.” Individuals stay in toxic relationships, dead-end jobs, and self-destructive cycles, and they convince themselves that change is impossible.
Stupidity thrives on arrogance. It’s the person who refuses to listen, the leader who doubles down on bad decisions instead of admitting they were wrong. People spend more time complaining than improving. The person who ignores every red flag and then is amazed when they get burned.
But the worst part is that stupidity doesn’t just hurt the stupid person it drags everyone else down with them. A single bad decision by someone in power destroys lives, economies, and futures.
Greed:
Greed is the disease of the power hungry. Forget what they told you -greed isn’t about wanting money. It’s about never being satisfied. It’s an addiction to power, status, and control. It’s the belief that having more makes you more. More important, more valuable, and more worthy.
Greed is why billionaires hoard their money while others barely survive. It’s why companies cut corners, exploit employees, and destroy the planet. It’s why they sell each other out for personal gain.
The real tragedy with greed isn’t just about the powerful it affects everyday people too. It’s why co-workers sabotage others for promotions or take credit for work they didn’t do. It’s even why people we call friends show up only when they need something.
Greed convinces people that success is a zero-sum game, that for them to win, someone else has to lose. And when greed rubs unchecked, it eats through trust like acid. It turns partnerships into power struggles, relationships into transactions, and societies into battlegrounds.
The cure for greed is to have a real purpose. It’s about choosing to build something bigger than yourself and stop chasing the numbers and begin chasing impact.
Fear:
Fear is the ultimate control mechanism. Nothing manipulates people more than fear. Fear shuts down logic (we’ve seen this during covid). It stops progress in its tracks and makes people easy to control.
Fear is why people stayed in their houses during the lockdown. Fear is why stores ran out of supplies. In my small community, I couldn’t even buy toilet paper. Fear is why people keep their mouths shut when they see corruption. It’s why governments can sell war, corporations sell security, and media sells outrage.
Fear convinces people that the unknown is worse than the miserable reality they already have. That the price of standing up for ourselves is too high and that failure is worse than regret.
Fear is why dictators rise, and why most people never live the life they actually want. Fear doesn’t need chains to keep us imprisoned. It just needs doubt.
When stupidity, greed, and fear work together, you get what the U.S. went through the last 4 years. We are still experiencing the effects of this and will for a long time long time I think. We’ve seen people too ignorant to see the problem, too selfish to fix it, and too afraid to fight it.
That’s how corrupt leaders stay in power, bosses thrive, and why wealthy people get richer and richer, why everyone else gets stuck in survival mode.
This cycle doesn’t break on its own. The only way out is to wake up and realize we were being played. Stop being part of the problem and find solutions. And never let fear dictate our choices.
The world isn’t controlled by geniuses, it’s controlled by those who understand how to manipulate the stupid, exploit the greedy, and weaponize fear.
Once you see the game they are playing, it’s hard to unsee it. And once you learn how it works, you can choose not to play.
“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” -John 10:10
Expensive Meals
What’s the most money you’ve ever spent on a meal? Was it worth it?
It’s no surprise restaurant prices have gone through the roof.
My family go on a trip to Las Vegas every year. That’s usually when I spend the most on meals. Prime rib for 6 comes out about $350.
For any other large meals I usually cook a fancy meal at home.
How To Get Right With God
Sometimes smart people do dumb things, wise people do foolish things, and Godly people do sinful things. Some of those things are big, dark, and ugly that may be clouding the past, and keeping them from a great future. Maybe it’s a secret we’ve never told anyone like an abortion, an affair, or stealing something, a lie we’ve told.
Regardless of how we have messed up, the one thing many people is that we have all made mistakes. Romans 3:23 says, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Yet, many of us don’t know how to recover afterward.
In today’s world things are getting dark. It’s becoming harder and harder to ignore the signs of the times. It might be a good idea to get right with God.
So, how do we get right with God after we’ve done something entirely wrong?
The Bible tells of an account of David which is one of the best examples of someone who blew it big time and then got his life right with God. David was one of the most Godly men in the Bible. He loved the Lord, yet in his weak moments he found himself committing adultery with Bathsheba and then trying to cover it up by murdering her husband.
Psalm 51 gives us a mental image of what’s going on inside David’s heart after Nathan the prophet confronts David about his sin. 2 Samual 12 shows us the steps David took on his road to spiritual recovery.
Here’s a breakdown of the steps David took to get tight with God:
Step 1: Come clean with God. Get honest and get your mistakes out in the open. Sometimes we become afraid of losing our reputation or being publicly exposed. And sometimes we’re afraid of losing the security we get from indulging in our “favorite sin.” But the peace we get in return for coming clean will be worth it. We can trust that God’s ultimate outcome will be good.
Step 2: Ask God for forgiveness. We have to ask God to wash, cleanse, and forgive us. David doesn’t try to negotiate a deal with God or minimize His sin. He says,
“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love, according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions” -Psalm 51:1
Step 3: Own responsibility for your sin. We need to own our part in our mistakes and also their consequences.
“For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, and you only, I have sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight, that you may be proved right when you speak, and justified when you judge” -Psalm 51:3-4
Step 4: Accept God’s forgiveness and cleansing. Like David, once we confess to God that we messed up and tell God we want a restored relationship with Him, at that very moment we receive His grace and forgiveness. But in order to experience God’s forgiveness, we first need to believe we are forvgiven, accepted and loved unconditionally by Him.
Step 5: Request a fresh work of grace. Maybe you’ve been tempted and found yourself saying, “I’ll go ahead and sin and then ask for grace later.” What we need is for God to create a fresh work in our hearts so that we don’t want anything to do with sin. Like David, we need to pray, “create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast Spirit within me.” (Psalm 51: 10).
Step 6: Resolve to use past failures for God’s work. God wants to use the most difficult, sinful thing we’ve ever done and make us a trophy of His grace. God will use all of our sins to glorify Him if we let Him. David tells God, When you do this new work in me, “then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you. Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise” ( Psalm 51: 13, 15).
Step 7: Pray for limited fallout. Our sin never affects just us individually. But we can pray that in His grace, God will minimize the damage our sins might have had on those around us.
Over and over in the Bible, we are reminded that we serve a God who, although He doesn’t treat sin lightly, understands that we are human and struggle with sin. And out of His life for us, He wants to forgive us and take our very worst moments and claim them for Himself.
If you’re like me I was taught that if I make a mistake or do something bad God will punish me for it. Psalm 103:12 says that God removed our sins as far as the east is from the west.
“As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.”
Uninteresting News
Scour the news for an entirely uninteresting story. Consider how it connects to your life. Write about that.
I am not interested in too much news. Most of the news is propaganda, taken out of context and fear mongering.
It tries to influence opinions and is not based on facts.
All news is uninteresting if it’s not based on truth.
God Is Our Mighty Fortress
We are born into a world that is hostile to God. Humanity is at war with God, but thank God, He can make peace with us. God is so full of great mercy, grace and love for us, that He sent a peacemaker. We can be brought into fellowship with God by Jesus’s sacrificial death on the cross. Jesus signed the peace treaty between us and God with His blood so now whoever comes to Him in faith is pardoned their sin, and brought into peaceful fellowship with God, and adopted into His family.
But what happens when the world threatens our peace? Challenges and difficulties can shake us, but don’t let them question your commitment to God. It is in these times that our faith can be refined and deepened, much like gold that is purified by fire.
The world tries the disconnect us from God and make it harder to feel God’s love, and guidance that can result in spiritual emptiness and even a loss of joy and peace.
This can become a catalyst for seeking God more earnestly and discover His presence and strength in new ways. It’s when we feel burdened beyond our strength than we a learn to rely on God rather than our own abilities.
Be careful there is also potential for spiritual stagnation or backsliding. If it’s not handled with faith and intention, worldly pressures can lead us where our growth in faith is hindered.
It is at these times we must remind ourselves that God’s love is unwavering and His promises are true.
Spending time with Him can anchor our hearts and minds in God and can deepen our relationship with Him.
Seeking others who are like-minded who can offer support, encouragement, and. accountability, and share our experiences and pray with them can help us maintain peace with God.
We can identify situations and relationships that pull us away from God and then take preventative measures, choosing righteous living and aligning with God’s principles can also help us be more at peace.
Using scripture as a sword of the Spirit can help us combat negative thoughts and strengthen our resolve. So memorizing a few can really make a difference.
Focusing on gratitude can help us shift our perspective from our struggles to God’s purpose and love.
Above all we can trust in God’s plan, even if it involves suffering, or unanswered questions. Remember God can use even difficult times to refine our faith and bring good in our lives.
Ultimately, maintaining peace with God when the world threatens it involves actively choosing to stay connected to Him and trusting in His unfailing love and promises. This can require intention, dedication, and a willingness to embrace spiritual growth over worldly situations.
Things That Make Me Happy
List 30 things that make you happy.
Real happiness does not come from others or the world it comes from within. It took me years to realize I had to be happy and love myself to feel content in this broken world we live in.
That being said my happiness comes from a few things:
A deep connection with God.
Being a part of the church body.
Being able to experience God’s grace and forgiveness.
Seeing others come to the body of the church.
Helping people in need.
Raising children to be valuable members of society.
Peace in the middle of chaos.
Seeing beauty in nature because of God’s creation.
The simple blessings I receive every day.
From Pity to Praise 