God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling.
"Be still and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!"
The LORD of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress. Verses 1-3,10-11
I love this Psalm! Very encouraging to me.
Oh, dear. I just discovered that I somehow missed two "days" of the devotional book. One was a reading and the next was supposed to be the last review. Oops. I'll skip back to the reading I missed tomorrow. OK, on to the review.
Day 190--THE BALANCE BETWEEN BEING JUST AND BEING MERCIFUL--Zephaniah 1:7-11
The title explains this one very well. There is a true balance within God between justice and mercy. God will punish sin, as is seen in the passage listed. But he loves us and will show us mercy, as well. We must fear his justice while loving his mercy.
Day 191--GOD SHOWS UP--Zephaniah 2:3,6-10
God rescues those who are mercilessly taunted and mocked by his/their enemies.
Day 193--TURNAROUND NEEDED--Haggai 1:3-6,8-11
Apparently I skipped another one here...gotta be more careful.
This is where God really started speaking to me this week. He showed me how I/we need to be caring for the body; the body of Christ. His temple. His church. God loves the church and cares very much for his temple. There is no longer a physical temple, even though the Bible does speak of the rebuilding of the temple. The church is the temple. And I must be active in caring for this temple, rebuilding it and repairing it when necessary.
Day 194--HANDING OUT WHOLENESS AND HOLINESS--Haggai 2:1-9
God is living and breathing among us right now. The power that we need to accomplish the directive in the previous day is with us. And through his "temple," God will hand out wholeness and holiness to the earth. This is huge. Really huge. I'm still reeling from this revelation.
Day 195--THE PROACTIVE NATURE OF GOD--Zecharaiah 2:1-5,10-13
God is on the move. He is active. So much so that he moved into our "neighborhood," to live with us. This was directly fulfilled by the birth of Christ, when God came to earth physically. He continues to be active and on the move in our present day, and still lives here, only now in the form of his holy spirit, which resides in his temple, which is the church, hence the link to the previous two days. More huge stuff here.
That's it for this review. I have to remember somehow that I have two days to go back and catch up on. On which to catch up. On which up to catch? Oh, heck. Even I can't figure that one out.
Grace and peace, friends!