Today Our Daily Bread Psalm 50 & 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 50
1 A Psalm of Asaph.
The Mighty One,
God the Lord, Has spoken and called the earth From the rising of the sun to its going down.
2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God will shine forth. 3 Our God shall come, and shall not keep silent;
A fire shall devour before Him, And it shall be very tempestuous all around Him. 4 He shall call to the heavens from above, And to the earth, that He may judge His people:
5 "Gather My saints together to Me, Those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice."
6 Let the heavens declare His righteousness, For God Himself is Judge. Selah
7 "Hear, O My people, and I will speak, O Israel, and I will testify against you;
I am God, your God! 8 I will not rebuke you for your sacrifices Or your burnt offerings, Which are continually before Me. 9 I will not take a bull from your house, Nor goats out of your folds. 10 For every beast of the forest is Mine, And the cattle on a thousand hills. 11 I know all the birds of the mountains, And the wild beasts of the field are Mine.
12 "If I were hungry, I would not tell you; For the world is Mine, and all its fullness. 13 Will I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of goats?
14 Offer to God thanksgiving, And pay your vows to the Most High.
15 Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me."
16 But to the wicked God says: "What right have you to declare My statutes, Or take My covenant in your mouth, 17 Seeing you hate instruction And cast My words behind you?
18 When you saw a thief, you consented F42 with him, And have been a partaker with adulterers.
19 You give your mouth to evil, And your tongue frames deceit. 20 You sit and speak against your brother; You slander your own mother's son.
21 These things you have done, and I kept silent; You thought that I was altogether like you; But I will rebuke you, And set them in order before your eyes.
22 "Now consider this, you who forget God, Lest I tear you in pieces, And there be none to deliver: 23 Whoever offers praise glorifies Me; And to him who orders his conduct aright I will show the salvation of God."
FOOTNOTES:F42: Septuagint, Syriac, Targum, and Vulgate read run.

~Lena’s Journalin’~
The MIGHTY ONE, God the LORD. It is HE who has called the earth,
Zion is His nation of people. This is what He’s named His worldwide corporate Body, those who love and serve Him, when they used to serve other gods, other things, their own desires, They changed citizenship and identification and name when they were of another nation-the World (Babylon).When they were of another, they chose Him. Some were born in Zion, some came there. These are those who he will perfect beautifully and show His light in.
Do you realize that we think God does not speak to us, but He does? He is always speaking, always speaking to us, he is not silent Then why do we feel He does not speak? Will we hear what He has to say? Can we handle what he has to say without getting our feelings hurt or rising up rebelliously?
God is calling Heaven and earth together for one purpose, according to an eternal plan. He’s saying, let Me tell you what I plan to do, using you.
Yesterday we spoke about Fire, the fire of God at our cell mtg. What is fire, what does it do? The sum of all we brought up was that it changes things, people, from one state to another state. One cannot go through fire and come out unchanged, un affected. So it is with the presence of God and from hearing the voice of God. When one is in God’s presence and hears God’s voice change is inevitable.
Gather MY saints (Believers, those who serve Me, love me, are called Mine) un to ME. There are many, many reasons people gather together, not all are “God” reasons. He’s calling meetings that are ordered by God reasons. Saints have to make sacrifices to even be there. Sacrifices come in every form imaginable. In order to have a covenant there had to be some form of sacrifice. Covenant is more than just an agreement, Covenant is life, death for life. In death the sacrifice is made. Your good at My expense. There are agreements, contracts, etc. They can be broken, but a Covenant, if it is a true covenant, is for life. There don’t seem to be very many people out there who enter into lifelong sacrificial,” till death do us part”, covenants. People desire a Covenantal God, who will never leave them or forsake them, but do the people desire to be a covenant people, who never leave or forsake their God’s purpose, dream and plan? To the death of self? We expect God to uphold His covenant, and he does, yet covenant is not a one way testament. It is for the two to become one. So, can God trust in our keeping “our end of this “bargain”?” Do we even know if we can answer that question? The reason we hesitate is we want to know what He’d ask us to do, we want to know ahead of time, so we can weigh everything and then sayl, by counting, as it were,” the cost”. The price is our lives, all of it, every part, no matter what comes up or how things play out. It amazes me how we get married, not knowing at all what is ahead, but have a hard time deciding for God’s covenant and our part in it, when he’s extended His love towards us more than any ever will be able to. Maybe our experiences with natural covenant relationships are our hesitancy to dive in? We see the cost, we’ve been paying the price and we’re “burned” by it and are cautious, doubting our own ability to sacrifice any longer. That’s where the exchange of strength and a heightened trust comes into play with God. We’ve got to remember God does not act and think as men do, but men are supposed to model God. They don’t always do a fine job of it, sometimes, as the enemy of God would have it, they fall, they make mistakes, they fail. God NEVER fails us, NEVER.
God is so gracious, he won’t rebuke us for that which we cannot or do not offer. He says all of it belongs to Him anyway, it’s not at all about His need for the things we make or do. It is about the extension of our lives, of our hearts, of our time, of our hands towards Him. It’s about gestures of praise being given to Him, when they could be given to so many other things. It’s about intimacy with Him. In so coming, in so sacrificing, we are changed, with much needed change, we are blessed with much needed blessings, we are led into light with much needed vision. It is all towards Him, but oh the benefits of those sacrifices that are for us!
It’s about knowing Him, more of Him, we may know one aspect of him, he wants to show us more of who He is continually.
Do we know anything about what He desires? Do we ever ask? Or when we get with Him, do we use the time and conversation to tell Him about all we want, all we are and where we are going, and then ask His blessing on what we’ve thought to do? Did we ever slow down to think about what He wants and how we might be able to make any of His dreams come true?
If I were hungry…..I wouldn’t (be able to) tell you….WOW!
What kind of conversation is “right” conversation? Conversation that is filled with thanksgiving- This opposed words of complaining and criticism. If you find yourself speaking complaints and criticism today- repent and cancel out the effects of those words by right speech- being thankful. Praise is also right speech. The lingo of the world actually points fun at speaking dread, evil, complaints, etc. Can we praise God instead? Yes, we can, absolutely. It is a decision of our hearts.
Let’s use our mouths to speak thanksgiving and praise to God- TODAY.
(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.