I'M TRADING MY SORROWS ~ YES LORD YES LORD......~

Trading My Sorrows

I'm trading my sorrow
I'm trading my shame
I'm laying it down for the joy of the Lord
I'm trading my sickness
I'm trading my pain
I'm laying it down for the joy of the Lord

Chorus:
And we say yes Lord yes Lord yes yes Lord
Yes Lord yes Lord yes yes Lord
Yes Lord yes Lord yes yes Lord Amen

I'm pressed but not crushed persecuted not abandoned
Struck down but not destroyed
I'm blessed beyond the curse for his promise will endure
And his joy's gonna be my strength

Though the sorrow may last for the night
His joy comes with the morning

SUPER SUNDAY ~ "God's transformation power......... ~

Romans 12:2 (King James Version)

²And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Romans 12:2 (New International Version)

²Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Romans 12:2 (New Living Translation)

² Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Transformation: How Does It Happen?

by Nancy Leigh DeMoss

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Romans 12:2).

Recently I ran into a woman I had not seen for several weeks. I hardly recognized her. Her hair, usually blonde, had turned completely white. The transformation was dramatic; she looked like a different person. All it took was 40 minutes and some bleach!

If only spiritual transformation were that easy. Just read a book, see a counselor, attend a conference, make a fresh commitment, resolve to be different, shed a few tears at an altar, memorize a few verses ... and, presto, out comes a mature, godly Christian.

To the contrary, the experience of many believers looks like this:

Commit. Fail. Confess.

Re-commit. Fail again. Confess again.

Re-re-commit. Fail again. Give up.

After all the struggle and the effort, we tend to want a "quick fix" - a book, a conference, a counselor, an encounter, a miraculous deliverance, a program - something that will be effective, and preferably pain-free. We want God (or someone else) to do something to us for a once-for-all victory so that we won't have to keep wrestling with the same old issues.

In my own walk with God, I have discovered some helpful principles about how spiritual change takes place.

1. Deep, lasting spiritual change is a process. It rarely happens overnight. It involves training, testing and time. There are no shortcuts.

We hear of people being dramatically delivered from drug or alcohol addiction, and we may wonder, "Why doesn't God do that for me? Why do I have to struggle with this food addiction; with lust, worry, and fear; with an unbridled tongue?"

Occasionally God does grant instantaneous victory, but more often He leads us through a process that requires obedience, faith, discipline and time. God is committed to winning the hearts, developing the hearts and developing the character of His people.

2. Spiritual change requires desire. We need to ask ourselves: Do I really want to change, or am I content to remain as I am? How important is it to me to be like Jesus? What price am I willing to pay to be godly?

Deep within God's children is a desire to please Him. That desire is nurtured by prayer (acknowledging our dependence on Him) and by meditation on Christ, the object of our desire.

As I read the Scripture and gaze on the Lord Jesus, I long to be like Him - humble, holy, compassionate, surrendered to the will of God, sensitive to the promptings of the Spirit.

When our desire to be holy is greater than our willingness to stay where we are, we have taken a big step toward spiritual transformation.

3. Spiritual change flows out of an intimate relationship with Jesus. We want to please those we love, and we are grieved when we offend them. The more we love Jesus, the greater will be our motivation to obey Him and to make the choices that please Him.

The ultimate issue in life is what or whom we worship. The process of true change takes place as we are weaned from our love and worship of self, pleasure, and this world; and our hearts become wholly devoted to Christ.

4. Spiritual change requires discipline. I can remember as a college student sitting for hours on end in tiny, windowless practice rooms, playing the same piece of music again and again. I knew that I never would reach my goal - to make beautiful music - without that rigorous discipline.

Discipline for the purpose of godliness is not the same as self-effort. Rather, it means consciously cooperating with the Holy Spirit - yielding to Him so that He can conform us to the image of Christ.

The problem is, we want the outcome without the process. We want victory without the warfare.

Praying and hoping for spiritual change is futile if we sit glued to a television set or neglect the means that God has provided for our growth in grace. Bible study, meditation, worship, prayer, fasting, accountability and obedience are disciplines that produce a harvest of righteousness in our lives.

5. Spiritual change is brought about by the Holy Spirit, as we exercise faith and obedience. So which is it? Does God do the work, or do we? According to Scripture, the answer is "yes"; "Work out your salvation, . . . for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose" (Philippians 2:12-13).

True spiritual change is initiated and enabled by the indwelling Spirit of God; it is all of grace, which we receive as we persevere in humility, obedience and faith.

6. Spiritual change is possible (and assured) because of the new life we received when we were born again. According to God's Word, at the point of regeneration we became "a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" (2 Corinthians 5:17). For believers, holy living is not a matter of trying harder, but rather of walking in the reality of a supernatural change that already has taken place.

Sanctification is the process by which the change of God has wrought within us is worked out in our daily experience, as we "are being transformed into [Christ's] likeness" (2 Corinthians 3:18). It is a lifelong - and sometimes painful - process. But we have the confidence that one day the transformation will be complete, and "we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is" (1 John 3:2).

This article was taken from DECISION magazine, May, 2001; ©2001 Billy Graham Evangelistic Association

Well i think the message with all these "food of thought"came across on this last Super Sunday installed by our host Peggy from Amazing Grace Mazes,Messes and Miracles. I so enjoyed linking-up at her place every week.
Today i also linked-up with " Spiritual Sunday's" for the 1st time and think my postings on Sunday's will be linked at there place from now on.


I finalize my packed post with a video i could not resist to ad this video of a preaching of Pastor TD.Jakes.....I love the energy what comes acrosswhile he is preaching . It stirs me up ,it motivates ......and that is God's spirit it wants to bring the best out of us it wants to transform us...just like the same power what transforms the catapillar in a beautifull butterfly!
I pray that we will encounter an energetic and transforming week with our Lord Jesus Christ!

THAN SING MY SOUL SATURDAY ~ El Shadai ~

Website singer

FEARLESS FRIDAY ~ JESUS PRAYED @ IS PRAYING ~

About Fearless Fridays

Come to Fearless Fridays, a day where bloggers commit to share their prayer requests and pray for one another. To participate in Fearless Fridays, come to Free Spirit Haven and add your site to Mr. Linky.

I hope you will join Fearless Fridays and see the power of prayer in your lives and others.

“They do not fear bad news; they confidently trust the Lord to care for them. They are confident and fearless and can face their foes triumphantly.” ~ Psalm 112:7-8 NLT

"Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14 NLT

Goodmorning my friends
This is the day the Lord has made let us be glad and rejoice in Him !. Let we storm to His throne with our prayers and with the prayer requests of others.

Scroll around on my blog ( at the left and under) are buttons with names for family members from bloggers who need healing in there body. Others are linked to blogsite's where prayer requests are posted!There is a lot of need.......and our GOD IS MORE THAN ABLE ...........He will HEAL,GIVE STRENGHT and PEACE in His time and His manner !!

The whole week one picture i got in my spirit mind last Sunday stayed with me the whole week! With the words...JESUS CHRIST prayed and is praying ........!!?

For you and for me........

I went to look -up the prayer Jesus prayed in JOHN 17 and i know He had US in mind!

John 17

Jesus' Prayer for His Followers

^1-5 Jesus said these things. Then, raising his eyes in prayer, he said:
Father, it's time.
Display the bright splendor of your Son
So the Son in turn may show your bright splendor.
You put him in charge of everything human
So he might give real and eternal life to all in his charge.
And this is the real and eternal life:
That they know you,
The one and only true God,
And Jesus Christ, whom you sent.
I glorified you on earth
By completing down to the last detail
What you assigned me to do.
And now, Father, glorify me with your very own splendor,
The very splendor I had in your presence
Before there was a world.

^6-12I spelled out your character in detail
To the men and women you gave me.
They were yours in the first place;
Then you gave them to me,
And they have now done what you said.
They know now, beyond the shadow of a doubt,
That everything you gave me is firsthand from you,
For the message you gave me, I gave them;
And they took it, and were convinced
That I came from you.
They believed that you sent me.
I pray for them.
I'm not praying for the God-rejecting world
But for those you gave me,
For they are yours by right.
Everything mine is yours, and yours mine,
And my life is on display in them.
For I'm no longer going to be visible in the world;
They'll continue in the world
While I return to you.
Holy Father, guard them as they pursue this life
That you conferred as a gift through me,
So they can be one heart and mind
As we are one heart and mind.
As long as I was with them, I guarded them
In the pursuit of the life you gave through me;
I even posted a night watch.
And not one of them got away,
Except for the rebel bent on destruction
(the exception that proved the rule of Scripture).

^13-19Now I'm returning to you.
I'm saying these things in the world's hearing
So my people can experience
My joy completed in them.
I gave them your word;
The godless world hated them because of it,
Because they didn't join the world's ways,
Just as I didn't join the world's ways.
I'm not asking that you take them out of the world
But that you guard them from the Evil One.
They are no more defined by the world
Than I am defined by the world.
Make them holy—consecrated—with the truth;
Your word is consecrating truth.
In the same way that you gave me a mission in the world,
I give them a mission in the world.
I'm consecrating myself for their sakes
So they'll be truth-consecrated in their mission.

^20-23I'm praying not only for them
But also for those who will believe in me
Because of them and their witness about me.
The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind—
Just as you, Father, are in me and I in you,
So they might be one heart and mind with us.
Then the world might believe that you, in fact, sent me.
The same glory you gave me, I gave them,
So they'll be as unified and together as we are—
I in them and you in me.
Then they'll be mature in this oneness,
And give the godless world evidence
That you've sent me and loved them
In the same way you've loved me.

^24-26Father, I want those you gave me
To be with me, right where I am,
So they can see my glory, the splendor you gave me,
Having loved me
Long before there ever was a world.
Righteous Father, the world has never known you,
But I have known you, and these disciples know
That you sent me on this mission.
I have made your very being known to them—
Who you are and what you do—
And continue to make it known,
So that your love for me
Might be in them
Exactly as I am in them.

THANKFUL THURSDAY ~ SUMMER BLESSINGS ~

SUMMER BLESSINGS !!
THANKFUL THURSDAY at
Truth4the journey

IRIS IS BACK

@ Grace Alone

and will be hosting

starting in August

THANKFUL THURSDAY

this week is with LYNN

one more time as hostess at

Spiritually Unequal Marriage.

Today was my 1st workday.
And the topic for this TT that Lynn brought forth made me remember the blessings/ fun moments what i had with my family and what i love about SUMMER....

* NO ALARM....LATE TO BED AND SLEEPING INS

*SUMMER FRUIT and VEGETABLES and ICE_CREAM

* OUR LOCAL PARK>>>>>FUN TO PICNIC and PLAYING ON THE PLAYGROUND , MAKING HUTS and KANOEN......

* OUR BEACHDAY....

*YESTERDAY'S OPENDAY AT AJAX ( Amsterdam s soccer club)

*SUMMERCAMP COMING WEEK ; so thankfull for the organization and church youth leaders who gave there time to this weekcamp!

JOIN OTHER THANKFUL HEARTS @ above blogspots!

Blessings to You!

WFW~ TRUST~

But I trust in you, O LORD;
I say, "You are my God."
PSALM 31: 14

Click on the button for more WFW's or make your own.

Weekly Memory vers ~ Philip. 1:21 ~

Our

Weekly Memory Verse

@

The Power of Your Love

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Philippians 1:21 (NASB)

Alive, I'm Christ's messenger; dead, I'm his bounty. Life versus even more life! I can't lose.
Philippians 1:21 ( MSG)
(NLT)
²¹ For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better

The memorizing of this verse made me reflect on many things; my Life,my relationship with Christ....,What He endured for my sins....How He gave His ALL out of LOVE for humanity.......
My life is bought and paid by Christ.........He saved " humanity " me from dead...He showed us "THE WAY " to The Father ........Living with and for Him is heavens gain!
So the lyrics of this song is my pledge to My Savior King!

I make a vow
My life will always honor you
Whether I live or die

I belong to Him
He bore my sin
I owe this life to my saving King

Hallelujah, I am not my own
You are in control
Hallelujah

For me to live is christ
And to die is gain
No matter what price i pay
I choose to give this life away

Only by the cross I am saved

SOUL SECRETS of a frustrated mother ( TD JAKES )

This morning i shared out of my devotional bible; Holy Bible " WOMAN Thou Art Loosed " The writings in it of Pastor TD Jakes are short quotes or devotionals or sharing thoughts with The Lord called " Soul Secret ".To share them with you is a pleasure to me.

Lord, I am finally bringing this pain to You. I do not know what to do.Parenting is though! Forgive me for criticizing my parents. I never knew how difficult their job was. Now,all my ideas about children and parenting have shipwrecked. I'm sorting through the debris of my mistakes,looking for Your direction.
At times,I have acted more childish than the children.I have not been a witness behind closed doors. My temper and my attitudes have not reflected You.My lack of control and other shortcomings have come back to haunt me through my children,and i do not like it.
I know that You are the Master Parent. You have such patience and such wisdom with me. Help me to reflect those same graces as I raise my children. You are great at loving damaged children who often fail.Make me the kind of parent to my children that You are to me.
I am through trying to control things that are in Your hands. I repent of my worry and i trust You now to strengthen our relationship with each other and with You. Help me to appreciate the good things and good times we do have. I know that, in the end, things will work out. I claim the promise of the Scripture that says " all things work together for good " to those who love the Lord.Thank You for being my Daddy. I leave my troubles in the lap of Your love.

SUPER SUNDAY ~ "I AM".....praying for you !! ~

JESUS CHRIST prayed and is praying ........!!?










These where the first words i got in my Spirit mind this morning........
Went to take my devotionale bible ( picture) to look up the prayers Jesus prayed......
* The Lords prayer
*i wanted to find the "High Priest" prayer ( i believe it is called like that)

But i was drawn to a devotion about ; A woman GOMER talked about in Hosea 1:2,3;2:4,5;3;1-3
The story blessed me and draw me closer to my Savior JESUS CHRIST !!

"GOMER"

She had been around,And around,And around,And finally she had arrived.No one would believe how far she had traveled to become a respectable woman. Respectable indeed. Who would have ever suspected that this woman who was now a wife and mother had once been a mistress of the night!
Only the Lord knew how far she had come. The bible doesn't tell us what led to her indiscretion.For she was already in the sewers of sexual promiscuity when she stepped onto the pages of the text. Even God called her a harlot. This was no wild rumor bandied about by bored housewives who had nothing better to do. The Almighty Himself had labeled her.
Amazing,isn't it, that God can know you're a loose woman and still offer a candle to light your way from the darkness of the night into the brightness of the light.
And so this woman had begun her long,tempestuous journey-her movement from midnight to daylight. She moved with the slow and hesitant pace of a bride approaching her groom. Destiny was waiting for her. Since none of us are where we are without leaving where we were, she started the steps that were necessary for real transformation.And what a long flight of steps. She left her ankle bracelets,her tingling bells, and her artifacts of prostitution along the way. She was snatched out of the arms of men who bought her like a piece of meat, into the arms of a Redeemer who procured her like a diamond in the rough.
How difficult it must have been for a woman who had been passed around to believe that someone could find her valuable and attractive.
People have a way of defining who we are by what we do. When God called her a harlot, He was speaking of her profession. But when He addresses her personally, He calls her Gomer, " Beloved."What a contradiction! Still it let us know that God calls those things that are not as though they are because He has the power to bring them into being.
Just about the time Gomer got to the top step and Hosea made her his wife, she reverted to her previous lifestyle. She slips out of the marital bed and slides into the night. She finds herself right back in the old rut, wondering if she'll ever be free of the mess she's in.
Now the scriptures are quite candid about Gomer's sins. She made mistakes,ruined opportunities,embarrassed herself,disgraced her children,and disappointed her husband. But still wanted her. He even searched the streets,looking for the wife who kept running away,She was his wife even when she didn't act like it. She was the mother of his children and perhaps someone else's children,but he wanted her. She had been molested and mauled by other men, but he still wanted her. So Hosea,whose name means " Salvation'" kept calling her: " Gomer.....my Beloved."
Other men might have seen her on the slave table,abused and battered,tattered and torn,her belly stretched from bearing children. She was no more the glamour queen she had once been. They may have laughed and turned away.
But to Hosea, she was as lovely as a breeze singing from a mountain stream. And standing afar off with tears in his eyes, he looked past the di-sheveled hair,the bruised skin,the lacerated flesh,the portly body, andhe loved her. He could have said,"That woman has hurt me,humilated me,failed me,even backslidden." He could have left her there on the auction block. Instead, he said, " I want her," and he emptied his pockets to redeem her." Here," he said, " I will pay the price to buy her back."
Now perhaps you've been around the blocks a few times and made some mistakes and blown some chances, and the enemy has said to you that you are beyond repair. But God keeps calling you by your name and not your shame. Listen to Him. You must hear God Call you by name until you are so filled with whose you are that you forget what you have done. He is saying," Beloved,I want you. I've already paid the price to buy you back. Come home."

PLEASE JOIN US FOR A VERY SPECIAL PRAYER/FAST

FOR THIS UPCOMING MONDAY

FOR CINDY from FAITHFUL PROMISES

(mother of 10 with cancer)

For more information, please go to any below:

@ the Lighthouse of Prayer,

@ Shortybear's Place

@ A Place Called Simplicity

(Linny, another mother of 10)

the OBEDIENT ORIGINATOR of THIS DAY

and many more...

Won't you PRAY?

"Faith is the bucket of power

lowered by the rope of prayer

into the well of God's abundance.

What we bring up depends on what we let down."

- Virginia Whitman

Sight seeing part 2~ HOLLAND " AMSTERDAM"

"AMSTERDAM "

The city i come to love along the years!
It is known about the "good" and the "bad".......I treasure the good things and prayed for the bad scenes and aspects not to overshadows what is good and wonderful in God's sight .......

To see along the years clearly the good and the bad made me remember a word from GOD'S WORD

Isaiah 65:8 (New International Version)

⁸ This is what the LORD says:
"As when juice is still found in a cluster of grapes
and men say, 'Don't destroy it,
there is yet some good in it,'
so will I do in behalf of my servants;
I will not destroy them all.

This is t"The sign" of this city



Entering Amsterdam at CENTRAL STATION you can't escape the scene of bike's.












This stadium make my son dream more about playing "prof"soccer with his favorite club AJAX !!

Amsterdam ArenA opened on 14 August 1996. From that day on the Netherlands has had a multifunctional stadium in Amsterdam. A spectacular venue that offers all kinds of possibilities. From football matches to pop concerts, from dinners to kick-off meetings the possibilities are endless.It is for example the first stadium in the world with an underground passageway and the first stadium in Europe with a sliding roof. The Amsterdam ArenA is the headquarters of AFC Ajax. The Amsterdam football club plays all of its home matches here. The club has all of the necessary facilities, such as locker rooms, a weight room, a gym, a boardroom, a players' lounge and much more. In addition to Ajax's 17 First Division matches, the stadium also hosts European Cup matches, KNVB international matches, cup and friendly matches. Furthermore, MOJO Concerts and Rocket organises concerts of major artists and groups in the ArenA, and every year ID&T puts on the largest indoor dance parties, Sensation & Black. The Amsterdam ArenA is also the ideal place for events including product presentations, theatre performances, sales training sessions, company parties and more.

CANNELS narrow streets BRIDGES over the canals!
# One picture "the snow-cone seller" is not made in Amsterdam but outside Rotterdam to show a sister how snow -cone is vented in "Surinamstyle" at some places in Holland.Other wise it is made in a machine......named "Slush-puppy"

DAY VERSES ~ My mouth is filled with your praise and with your glory all day long.@ It is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks~

Saturday, July 25


Psalm 89:19-29
Isaiah 49:22-51:16; Colossians 1:1-14

My mouth is filled with your praise and with your glory all day long. Psalm 71:8
Just as each day brims with your beauty,
my mouth brims with praise (MSG)

It is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks. Luke 6:45
You must begin with your own life-giving lives. It's who you are, not what you say and do, that counts. Your true being brims over into true words and deeds.( MSG)

O delightful God, you fill our lives with wonder and joy and we thank and praise
you! Help us to live our days with gratitude and praise for all that you do.
Please show us that, even at difficult times, you are there beside us to uplift
our souls and strengthen us. Amen.

THAN SING MY SOUL SATURDAY

This week i came across music with lyrics that touched me allot.
All about the LOVE of CHRIST!
His Grace and Mercy!
Our RELATIONSHIP with Him and longing for this intimate relationship.
I could not choose... so be blessed and have a beautiful day of praise and worship!



( Close your eyes and listen........)

FEARLESS FRIDAY ~ Basic-Instruction-Before-Leaving-Earth....!!~

About Fearless Fridays

Come to Fearless Fridays, a day where bloggers commit to share their prayer requests and pray for one another. To participate in Fearless Fridays, come to Free Spirit Haven and add your site to Mr. Linky.

I hope you will join Fearless Fridays and see the power of prayer in your lives and others.

“They do not fear bad news; they confidently trust the Lord to care for them. They are confident and fearless and can face their foes triumphantly.” ~ Psalm 112:7-8 NLT

"Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14 NLT

Goodmorning my friends
This is the day the Lord has made let us be glad and rejoice in Him !. Let we storm to His throne with our prayers and with the prayer requests of others.

Scroll around on my blog ( at the left and under) are buttons with names for family members from bloggers who need healing in there body. Others are linked to blogsite's where prayer requests are posted!There is a lot of need.......and our GOD IS MORE THAN ABLE ...........He will HEAL,GIVE STRENGHT and PEACE in His time and His manner !!

Above ALL He want us to PRAISE HIM .....To pray just like KING DAVID.......

We are just like King David.....Princesses and princes of the Lord chosen....anointed....
David wasn't perfect in God's eyes.........but God..... God's POWER comes to light more clearly and brightly in weakness and imperfection.When you least expect it .......
So let's take an example at David a servant of God just like we are...isn't it?!

If you are no servant yet Give your heart to Jesus the Christ who openend the way to God for us again....Who bear all our sins on the CROSS and RISE-UP from THE DEAD and sits now at the right hand of the father INTERSCEADING for us,praying for us.....
He walked on earth and lived a Godly life untill His last breath on the cross.He wants to come and live in our heart and lead us daily on the way we have to go untill we can meet Him again face to face sitting at the right hand of His father OUR father our Creator our God.......!
When you make this choice you will leave behind your old-life and you will come to know...and "eat" from THE WORD....The LIVING WORD !

Come and read this with me out of God's Word.... The BIBLE
( Do you know this accroustic ); B- ( Basic), I-( Instruction), B-( Before), L-( Leaving), E-( Earth) !

Psalm 89

An Ethan Prayer

^1-4 Your love, God, is my song, and I'll sing it! I'm forever telling everyone how faithful you are.
I'll never quit telling the story of your love—
how you built the cosmos
and guaranteed everything in it.
Your love has always been our lives' foundation,
your fidelity has been the roof over our world.
You once said, "I joined forces with my chosen leader,
I pledged my word to my servant, David, saying,
'Everyone descending from you is guaranteed life;
I'll make your rule as solid and lasting as rock.'"

^5-18 God! Let the cosmos praise your wonderful ways,
the choir of holy angels sing anthems to your faithful ways!
Search high and low, scan skies and land,
you'll find nothing and no one quite like God.
The holy angels are in awe before him;
he looms immense and august over everyone around him.
God-of-the-Angel-Armies, who is like you,
powerful and faithful from every angle?
You put the arrogant ocean in its place
and calm its waves when they turn unruly.
You gave that old hag Egypt the back of your hand,
you brushed off your enemies with a flick of your wrist.
You own the cosmos—you made everything in it,
everything from atom to archangel.
You positioned the North and South Poles;
the mountains Tabor and Hermon sing duets to you.
With your well-muscled arm and your grip of steel—
nobody trifles with you!
The Right and Justice are the roots of your rule;
Love and Truth are its fruits.
Blessed are the people who know the passwords of praise,
who shout on parade in the bright presence of God.
Delighted, they dance all day long; they know
who you are, what you do—they can't keep it quiet!
Your vibrant beauty has gotten inside us—
you've been so good to us! We're walking on air!
All we are and have we owe to God,
Holy God of Israel, our King!

^19-37 A long time ago you spoke in a vision,
you spoke to your faithful beloved:
"I've crowned a hero,
I chose the best I could find;
I found David, my servant,
poured holy oil on his head,
And I'll keep my hand steadily on him,
yes, I'll stick with him through thick and thin.
No enemy will get the best of him,
no scoundrel will do him in.
I'll weed out all who oppose him,
I'll clean out all who hate him.
I'm with him for good and I'll love him forever;
I've set him on high—he's riding high!
I've put Ocean in his one hand, River in the other;
he'll call out, 'Oh, my Father—my God, my Rock of Salvation!'
Yes, I'm setting him apart as the First of the royal line,
High King over all of earth's kings.
I'll preserve him eternally in my love,
I'll faithfully do all I so solemnly promised.
I'll guarantee his family tree
and underwrite his rule.
If his children refuse to do what I tell them,
if they refuse to walk in the way I show them,
If they spit on the directions I give them
and tear up the rules I post for them—
I'll rub their faces in the dirt of their rebellion
and make them face the music.
But I'll never throw them out,
never abandon or disown them.
Do you think I'd withdraw my holy promise?
or take back words I'd already spoken?
I've given my word, my whole and holy word;
do you think I would lie to David?
His family tree is here for good,
his sovereignty as sure as the sun,
Dependable as the phases of the moon,
inescapable as weather."

^38-52 But God, you did walk off and leave us,
you lost your temper with the one you anointed.
You tore up the promise you made to your servant,
you stomped his crown in the mud.
You blasted his home to kingdom come,
reduced his city to a pile of rubble
Picked clean by wayfaring strangers,
a joke to all the neighbors.
You declared a holiday for all his enemies,
and they're celebrating for all they're worth.
Angry, you opposed him in battle,
refused to fight on his side;
You robbed him of his splendor, humiliated this warrior,
ground his kingly honor in the dirt.
You took the best years of his life
and left him an impotent, ruined husk.
How long do we put up with this, God?
Are you gone for good? Will you hold this grudge forever?
Remember my sorrow and how short life is.
Did you create men and women for nothing but this?
We'll see death soon enough. Everyone does.
And there's no back door out of hell.
So where is the love you're so famous for, Lord?
What happened to your promise to David?
Take a good look at your servant, dear Lord;
I'm the butt of the jokes of all nations,
The taunting jokes of your enemies, God,
as they dog the steps of your dear anointed.
Blessed be God forever and always!
Yes. Oh, yes.

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Friday, July 24


Psalm 89:9-18
Isaiah 48:7-49:21; Philippians 4:14-23

The Lord has sent me to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of
vengeance of our God. Isaiah 61:1-2 (NIV)

Since we belong to the day, let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith
and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. 1 Thessalonians 5:8

Trustworthy God, we thank you so much that you have sent us a friend, our Savior
Jesus Christ. Through our faith, hope, and love we welcome Jesus into our
hearts. We walk into the day knowing that we have your protection. Amen.