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.
Psalm 55
English Standard Version
Cast Your Burden on the Lord
To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Maskil[a] of David.
55 Give ear to my prayer, O God,
and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy!
2 Attend to me, and answer me;
I am restless in my complaint and I moan,
3 because of the noise of the enemy,
because of the oppression of the wicked.
For they drop trouble upon me,
and in anger they bear a grudge against me.
4 My heart is in anguish within me;
the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
5 Fear and trembling come upon me,
and horror overwhelms me.
6 And I say, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove!
I would fly away and be at rest;
7 yes, I would wander far away;
I would lodge in the wilderness; Selah
8 I would hurry to find a shelter
from the raging wind and tempest.”
9 Destroy, O Lord, divide their tongues;
for I see violence and strife in the city.
10 Day and night they go around it
on its walls,
and iniquity and trouble are within it;
11 ruin is in its midst;
oppression and ...
