I will share about Christian books I have read or listened to.
I will be sharing about my life before and after Christ. I will include stories about my pet and other pets I have encountered.
A Sacrifice of Praise
Have you ever thought about how your life brings pleasure to God? All throughout Scripture, we learn about how we can use our lives to please God. In fact, we were created for God’s pleasure.
Since we have been given new life in Christ, and we’ve experienced God’s grace, we should desire to please God. Since He has given us everything in life, we ought to give Him everything we are.
The writer of Hebrews tells us two distinct ways we can please God. The first is in Hebrews 13:15. The writer says that our first sacrifice to God is praising Him. This is what the Bible calls "worship."
Worship is the orientation of our entire life to live in awe of who God is and what He has done for us. We can worship God not only by the songs we sing, but also the way we live our lives.
Hebrews 13:16 tells us another way that we can please God: by loving others. When we love others, we are reflecting the love that God has for them. That is why it matters how we treat people.
Our actions are a reflection of how God has loved us. And since we’ve been loved by God, we ought to do good to those around us.
These are two ways that we can bring pleasure to God—by worshiping Him and loving others. This is similar to what Jesus says the greatest commandment is in Matthew 22:36-40. He sums it up by telling us to love God and love others. We love God by worshiping Him and praising Him. We love others by doing good to them and sharing with them.
How are you doing at loving God and loving others? Do you spend time each day in Scripture and prayer, praising God for who He is? If we don’t love God first and foremost, we won’t be able to truly love other people in our lives.
He Comforts Us
In ancient Israel, the rod and staff of a shepherd protected and guided the sheep, and even reminded the sheep that the shepherd was there. And so King David (who was a shepherd as a boy) used the metaphor in Psalm 23:4 to convey this truth: God was his protector and guide.
King David faced death many times and had enemies bent on killing him. He also dealt with his own sin issues and personal mistakes. But in the midst of all this, he repeatedly turned his attention to the faithfulness and assurances of God.
Where did he find these assurances?
King David would have been a student of the Hebrew Scripture, the Torah—the first five books in our Bibles.
To a Hebrew, the Torah wasn’t just a story about God, it was the very Word of God. It was authority, promise, and guide. It was this Word that David based his life—and his psalms—upon. David could write about God’s character because:
1. He knew the Word of God.
2. He experienced the faithfulness and goodness of God based ...
