Today Our Daily Bread Psalm 116 & 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 116:1-19
Thanksgiving for Deliverance from Death
1 I love the LORD, because He has heard My voice and my supplications. 2 Because He has inclined His ear to me, Therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live. 3 The pains of death surrounded me, And the pangs of Sheol laid hold of me; I found trouble and sorrow. 4 Then I called upon the name of the LORD: “O LORD, I implore You, deliver my soul!” 5 Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; Yes, our God is merciful. 6 The LORD preserves the simple; I was brought low, and He saved me. 7 Return to your rest, O my soul, For the LORD has dealt bountifully with you. 8 For You have delivered my soul from death, My eyes from tears, And my feet from falling. 9 I will walk before the LORD In the land of the living. 10 I believed, therefore I spoke, “I am greatly afflicted.” 11 I said in my haste, “All men are liars.” 12 What shall I render to the LORD For all His benefits toward me? 13 I will take up the cup of salvation, And call upon the name of the LORD. 14 I will pay my vows to the LORD Now in the presence of all His people. 15 Precious in the sight of the LORD Is the death of His saints. 16 O LORD, truly I am Your servant; I am Your servant, the son of Your maidservant; You have loosed my bonds. 17 I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving, And will call upon the name of the LORD. 18 I will pay my vows to the LORD Now in the presence of all His people, 19 In the courts of the LORD’s house, In the midst of you, O Jerusalem. Praise the LORD!
~ Lena’s Journalin’~
Did you realize that when you were “Born Again,” it was your spirit that was delivered from the death and doom of hell? From the debt of the payment of sin required of everyone? You were rescued from an eternal death in the “hereafter”. The thing is, that we live here on earth now, until we die, and we have a whole lot of living on earth still left to do.
How do we do that in a spiritually alive way? By God’s spirit alive inside of us. His Spirit shows God to us and how to live here right now.
He saves our souls. Salvation is for every part of our being- our spirits, our souls and our bodies. Salvation is really a process inside of a lifelong commitment of faith. When I believe and show my belief by a lifestyle change (i.e. repentance). My spirit is saved from death’s grip on my life. If I die, my destiny is decided, and I go to a better place than the place I was headed before faith came and was activated inside of me. It is faith that led me to the belief in Jesus Christ.
After I come to believe in Him, I have new and daily opportunities to follow Him. I have new opportunities to become like Him and learn from Him how to do that. That process is the deliverance or salvation of my soul. I thank God I have His daily example, in His word, without it, I’d never be able to save my own sou.
How do we rest in God? Rely on Him, believe in Him, trust Him, surrender to Him? When we do not, we struggle. We have to give it all up. We have to let it all go!
How does the Lord deal bountifully with us?
Bountifully, could mean an extra amount, a lot, regularly, often. When I am in fellowship with Christ regularly and I’m surrendered and given over to Him, I’m dealt with often and it does not take years to be changed into His image and become like Him!
What can we give to God for what He’s done for us? Life. Love, Faith…Did you ever think that the fruits of the spirit are gifts we can give to God? (Galatians 5:22- Love, Joy, peace, patience , kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness & self-control) If we love or have joy or are patient who is magnified, who is seen? Especially, if we are not ordinarily this way? Who shows up, when someone irritates us and we don’t lash out on them? Us? Or Christ in us? Ya know what actually happens in an instance as that? We laid down our innate flesh man’s desires to satisfy ourselves and our soul’s appetites to get what’s due or give what’s coming to someone. If we do not give in to that, we are exercising trust in God, by not taking control of the situation, we show God we can give the situation and the person over to Him and His plan, if we just offer fruit. Only fruit. We are allowing God to arise and deal with enemies, because we allowed Him to deal with us.
To me one way we can read the next passage is that when a man lays down His (or her) (self insistent, selfish demanding of desires which cry out, “I have to have it my own way!”) life, it is precious to the Lord! Oh so precious to the Lord! When someone trusts Him enough to lay down His innate intitial reactive desire to be right or prove himself, and instead he chooses to display God’s personality, rather than His own inborn natural personality, that behavior is so precious to the Lord!
That’s when someone is truly God’s servant, truly shows sacrificial thankfulness in demonstration, is paying God some sort of appreciative gift for His loving-kindness by response rather than reaction.
Where does our Christianity “count”? Where people are, where God is demonstrated without shame, where He is glorified in us. At home, in church, at work, in the marketplace, before sinners and saints, in every place, a Christian. Not one way now, another way later. ONE WAY! Jesus.

(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.