Today Our Daily Bread Psalm 100 & 2 Cor 2:14

Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her daily journal.

Psalm 100:1-5
A Song of Praise for the Faithfulness to His People A Psalm of Thanksgiving.
~Lena’s Journalin’~
Have you ever given thanks for someone before they earned it? Before they “deserved” it? Before they were “worthy of praise”, before they really and truly showed themselves faithful? If you have, you have displayed the prophetic and faith-filled nature of God!
God saw something in the vision of His mind, in His mind’s eye. He spoke out into atmosphere’s what He “saw” inside of His person, what He wanted to happen. Then He made it happen, by opening the floodgates of heaven, His mouth. Out of His mouth flowed creative power, after He spoke, He saw what He had seen in the unseen realm come into being, put on substance (Heb 11:1-2) His words brought evidence of His faith, the power of His faith was demonstrated in His words.
Ya know, He made us exactly that way too, with that kind of creative power.
Did you know we do have power in our words and we are living with what we’ve released out into the atmospheres of our world?
Words such as, “I’m always so tired, I’ll never get over the symptoms of this cold, they always seem to stay with me, follow me wherever I go”,” Ya know, he’ll never amount to anything really, we knew that as soon as we heard she was pregnant with so and so’s child”, “My job stinks, my boss is so unfair, I’m always underpaid…” etc etc…WOW, huh? Do we desire those words to happen, bringing these things in from the unseen realm into the seen realm? Of course we don’t, but we can’t seem to stop them from happening, or can we? It depends. We have the power to, because God gave us the same power He gave Christ & Adam. We have used it, and we have abused (misused) it. The fist step is to look at the words that have now gone out into the atmosphere and say to ourselves- Do I REALLY want those words to bring into my life what they were set out to bring into my life? This is words spoken over myself and over others. Do I really want them to continue to act the way they have been acting from now on? Or do I love them enough to begin to use the power of God’s words on them? These would consist of words of blessing, words of motivation etc. The words are like prayers to God. No they don’t “deserve” them, neither did we when someone was so kind as to speak any blessing over our lives! It’s the end result we look for, and it takes time to tear down walls of cursing we and others have spoken over a person’s life. I’ve heard a few different accounts., such as: It takes 9 words of affirmation to take down a wall built up with 1 criticism. See how it is not magic and will take a new tongue to do this? A new way of speaking to undo and not add anymore to the detriment of another? The old walls have to be broken down, and the new walls have to be built, with words. Ps 127:1 says-Unless the LORD builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Is the Lord and His character in those words you are speaking? Over yourself? Over your household? Over your job & your bosses? Over your relationships? If He’s not in those words- Repent, change, let them remain unsaid and purposely release words that will build God a house, and we are the house of God, the temple of God’s spirit. (1 Cor 3:16-17 16 Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 17 If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. 1 Cor 6: 19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body[a] and in your spirit, which are God’s.) Look at this one- 2 Cor 4: 12 So then death is working in us, but life in you. 13 And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,”we also believe and therefore speak, 14 knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. And this – Rom 8 ( I love Rom 8 ! ) 10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.)
How do we think this happens? The spirit infusing of life into us , etc? The same way life was infused into Adam, God said, God saw. We say, we see. It’s death or life people, there is no middle ground! God made it so, and so it is.
This Psalmist knew God, so He also knew this, Things are not worthy of thanks, but Give it anyway, people act as though they are our enemies, find something prophetic to give thanks for anyway. My circumstances are horrid. What have you been building with your tongue? Tongues of men, tongues of angels (angel means messenger of God), Which would you rather speak? Words of God or words of mere men? Words that tear down or build up, God’s kingdom on earth?
It seems a simple choice, till it is really time to walk it out.
One more thought for today,
I think I wrote this before, because it is fresh on my heart and since I know not everyone reads this through everyday, it is worth repeating:
As I just wrote man is made as God is. The end portion of this Psalm gives us some hints on how to effectively converse with God and approach God.
Enter Gates- thanksgiving
Enter Courts – Praise, Be thankful, Bless His name
For He is Good
His mercy everlasting

How do we find that goodness and mercy? How does it follow after us wherever we go? We obtain the taste of it and the wisdom on how to live it out in God’s presence. We know Him there so we can make Him known in all other places. When we go to make Him known, how do we get entrance through a person’s security gates? How do we come through the doors of their minds, which have built up walls of protection against people who have torn them down, destroyed their trust etc?
Approach, enter with thanksgiving (give thanks for them ahead of time, many times over in prayer) When you approach, bring your gifts of thankfulness. If they allow you entrance and an audience, continue into their lives with praise and blessing.
You’ll be invited in again and again, You’ll become a trusted family member there. Because you entered with respect for them, as you would enter the presence of God with respect for Him, they were able to see His love for them through you. You gave honor to God when you did this, when you do this, God is glorified, the name of Christ is lifted High! When we do this Christ is given entrance built on a foundation of trust, it shows God has time for them, will take and make time for them. Others in their life did not take or make time for them, but you did, in the name of Christ. Christ has broken through, through you! He is Lord of the breakthroughs! 1 Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands! 2Serve the LORD with gladness; Come before His presence with singing. 3Know that the LORD, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; F91 We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. 4Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. 5For the LORD is good;His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations.
Footnotes F91: 100:3 Following Kethib, Septuagint, and Vulgate; Qere, many Hebrew manuscripts, and Targum read we are His.
(daily repetitive verse)
2 Corinthians 2:14
Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.