Praise God - why?

Several months ago I moved to the book of Psalms in my quiet time. This course was started as I had the continual thought that my greatest need as a man is to know God. The God of the Bible, Creator God, the Self Existent God, Eternal God, the One who has always been.

Today I finished Psalms. I wish that I had notes from all my morning meetings, but I did not write them all down...there is great value in the writing down of one's thoughts.

The book of Psalms is a fantastic place to go and see many of God's characteristics. I saw His love for His name, His love for me, how He rejoices over His people, His lovingkindness, His tender mercies, His steadfastness, His grace, my sins, how He led His people, how He leads me....many more that I can't even write now.

Many of these days I would read only one Psalm, but I would read it several times and meditate on the meaning. Always, my prayer was for God to reveal Himself to me that day.

Today, I read the last Psalm (150) a couple times, then re-read the last 5 Psalms in order. The overwhelming message in these Psalms is for us to praise God. Everything from the highest heavens to the depths of the sea is commanded to praise God. We know that He is worthy of our praise. There is no other God besides Him. He is El Sheddai (God Almighty).

So, the question is.... Why does God tell us to praise Him? Make no mistake. I praise Him and only Him!! The question is to see why God wants us to praise Him.

Thanksgiving family time

We have had a great weekend with family at home. We watched a lot of football and ate a lot of food. I have no idea why I do this, but it is fun.

I have more to be thankful for than I can imagine. I am thankful for the point of my salvation (I was 31 years old). I am thankful for God working His salvation in me every day. I thankful for the Peace of God in my life and my family. There is no way to determine the value of this gift or the depth of it's importance. This peace truly is indescribable, incomprehensible, and transends everything we can imagine.

THANK YOU LORD !!!

Faithful: Are we faithful?

Today was great. This morning in Psalms I was reading of God's commentary (through the Psalmist) on His word. This takes place in the 119th Psalm. As I read, I came across a passage where the writer says to God "...revive me according to Your lovingkindness.." v.88

This led me to follow the chain reference in my Bible. While walking through the verses, God led me to pray for Him to quicken (revive) my spirit so I would let Him love people through me today. How appropriate for Him to do that on a day when I would be helping deliver hot Thanksgiving meals to people needed them. What a blessing that was this evening to follow through on this mission with my children.

Thank you Lord for being faithful to lead me where You wanted me today and giving me everything that I needed to accomplish Your purpose in my life today.

God is faithful. He is my Rock, my Strong Tower, my Healer, my Peace. God is Love. God please make me a faithful follower of You.

What are you struggling with?

Hey guys, we did not really get to this question last night. So, what are you struggling with now?

I guess we did talk a little bit about some things going on in our lives, but did we get beneath the surface??

My quiet time this morning was good. I was reading in Psalm 118 about the "name of the Lord". As part of this, I followed the chain reference about the name of the Lord and was reminded of the greatness of our Lord's name. It is everlasting. It is a refuge. I also thought about the fact that as a child of God, I bear His name. The word teaches us that God is serious about His name. "Thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain". A name was given to reveal characteristics of a person. God reveals some of His characteristics to us in the names He reveals to us about Himself.

If I call myself a christian, "Christ like", then I should be very careful how I live and move while on this planet. "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind."

May I bear the name of my Lord with honor, all for His glory.

Wow !!

Who would've thought that I would ever publish anything? Nevertheless, here I am. This is the perfect place to write things that I might never say for fear of someones response. Let it not be so.

So, why a Blog called Who's your leader? "The one that you follow will ultimately determine where you are going."

Speaking of going, I just returned from another mission trip to Romania. This was a fantastic project with a great team of people. We left Nashville, TN on October 31, 2008 and returned on November 10, 2008. Our base of operations was in the city of Oradea, Romania (about 20 minutes from the Hungarian border).

Our mission had two parts. One was to lead a discipling conference (in Oradea) for several Baptist pastors. The second was what we call a "foot washing" ministry to a small village called Baleni (about an hour from Oradea). This year our team spent four afternoons cutting and stacking firewood for some of the elderly people in the village. I believe the Lord will use this in a mighty way toward reaching these people for His kingdom. To God be the glory.

By the way.........

As for me and my house, we follow the Lord JESUS CHRIST.