From Dusk to Dawn

Hallelujah! You who serve God, praise God! Just to speak his name is praise!
Psalm 113:1 The Message

Just to remember God is a blessing - now and tomorrow and always. From east to west, from dawn to dusk, keep lifting all your praises to God!

God is higher than anything and anyone, outshining everything you can see in the skies. Who can compare with God, our God, so majestically enthroned, surveying his magnificent
heavens and earth?

He picks up the poor from out of the dirt, rescues the forgotten who’ve been thrown out with the trash, seats them among the honored guests, a place of honor among the brightest and best. He gives childless couples a family, gives them joy as the parents of children. Hallelujah!

Psalm 113:2-9 The Message

Prayer:

Father,

          Forever, we will praise You for Your mighty works! For rescuing us from the pit. Let us never forget the joy of our salvation and all You have done for us. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

Friends' Favorites - Under the Influence

What I want to talk about now is the various ways God’s Spirit gets worked into our lives. This is complex and often misunderstood, but I want you to be informed and knowledgeable. Remember how you were when you didn’t know God, led from one phony god to another, never knowing what you were doing, just doing it because everybody else did it? It’s different in this life. God wants us to use our intelligence, to seek to understand as well as we can. For instance, by using your heads, you know perfectly well that the Spirit of God would never prompt anyone to say “Jesus be damned!” Nor would anyone be inclined to say “Jesus is Master!” without the insight of the Holy Spirit.
1st Corinthians 12:1-3 The Message

I saw a billboard for the anti-drug campaign, "Be Under Your Own Influence." I thought it was new, but it's actually more than a decade old and considered to be quite successful in its' appeal to teens who are trying to establish their identity in the world. 

I'm glad it's indicating success as an anti-drug campaign - I really am - but I can't help thinking how my life operates when I am under my own influence... 

The other day, I heard my adult daughter in another part of the house exclaim in exasperation, "Oh, forevermore!!" It made me laugh because I knew exactly where that expression came from. When I worked in St. Louis, I had the privilege of working with Shelia Moran who became a lifelong friend of the heart. "Oh, forevermore!" was and still is Shelia's way of expressing disbelief at the absurd, idiotic and asinine in life's adventures. In our more than a decade of friendship, I, too, now use that same expression. It's a great illustration of the impact we have on those in our sphere of influence.

So WHAT are we allowing to influence our lives? WHO are we allowing to influence us? WHERE and HOW are we spending our time... and WHY? Whether we recognize it or not, we have a sphere of influence - our families, our friends, our co-workers. Whatever influences us will definitely and directly influence them. It's our responsibility to be under the proper influence.

Prayer:

Father,
          Open our eyes to see where the changes need to be made in our lives so that we are influencing this world to see You. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen