PSALM 4

Chapter 4 deals with an age old question that non-believers constantly try to attack us with. Does God hear our prayers? Duh!! As Christians God has given us a direct line of communication with him to discuss or request whatever our hearts desire. There is no middle man, we speak to The Father which is a gift that most other religions cannot offer their followers. It is almost like we have an upper hand on our salvation, because anytime we want to pick up the prayer phone our Father will answer. The line is never busy and we are never disconnected, it is an amazing feeling we can never take for granted. It is up to us not to buy in to the garbage these people try and sell us based on prayers not being answered in a "timely" fashion. "But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself; the Lord hears when I all to him." He hears us, hear keeps account of all our prayers we send up. Along with our prayer God wants us to take the time to sit alone and meditate in a silent place that is away from everything. It is not enough to pray and pray along we need to clear our minds when we do, and I know if you are like me you pray on little things all day it can be hard to get in a quiet place, but at least once a day it is good. Chapter 4 also says, "Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the Lord." The things I love the most it seems at times are sweets and other fatty foods, so those are the things i sacrifice to the Lord. It may sound some but there is no small our large sacrifices if they come from the heart. It is one thing to send our request up to the Lord, but we also need to do our part. We must abide by the guidelines that He has laid out for successful prayer. We cannot imagine getting our needs met if we don't meet our Father's. People will use every angle to get us off our pivot, we have to be an example to these people because the moment you decide you are a follower of Christ all eyes will be on you. You have to understand the love that the Lord puts in our heart out weighs all things earthly. People will attempt to tempt you with everything under the sun so you can be more like them but we have to stay steadfast in our faith and have the courage to be different. We have to strive not be like everyone else, to be peculiar! They cannot offer you anything that the Lord cannot deliver 10 fold, the choice is ours to stay upright or falter. Remember that the Lord always has our back if we are part of his flock, but do we have the courage to be the example for the masses and have his?

PSALM 3

We all have been in situations where we felt like people were out for our heads. Every turn we make we see another foe looking to destroy everything we stand for. Where do we turn? Who has our back? God does, God has and will always be in our corner to tackle every facet of adversity that gets thrown our way. What is scary is that the people the devil sends out to overtake us know that The Lord is in our corner so they try to weaken that hold by saying faith in God will not help you against us. " Many are saying of my soul, there is no salvation for him in God." O for real? So the same guys that set out to destroy you in the same wind have the audacity in telling you that salvation will not be found in our Lord and Savior! Its amazing the methods the devil employs to trap us in his net. I look at football as an imitation of life, in what you deal with on the field prepares you to handle life cirumstacnes off the field. This is no different. In a week leading up to a game a team will watch film, discuss tendencies, and talk about the opponents adjustments. My bible is no different than my playbook! It tells you before hand every way the devil will attack you and how to defend yourself against it. All we have to do is make "the play" when the play comes. God is our ultimate Left Tackle, he protects our blindside from every blitz the devil can send after us. The bible states, " But you, O Lord are a shield about me, my glory, and lifter of my head." I for one gain a sense of bravado knowing the He will protect me from all of the nay sayers and attacks they have planned for me. It is much easier to walk with your chin up and chest when you already have the answers to the test before hand. The Lord handles our foes a we sleep, we wake up to find that they are already delivered into our hands. It does not matter how many people come after us, if we stay in the Lord we will prevail. " I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around." There it is right there in our playbook in black and white. We stay in the Lord and we cannot be beat! That's exciting man, we are winners of a fight that the Lord sent his only Son to win for us ahead of time. All we have to do is be humble and obedient enough to except the victory!

PSALM CHAPTER 2

Chapter 2 of Psalm first three verses ask a question that has been the basis of many Holy Wars throughout Earth's history. It tells us how the people in positions of power, the so called "anointed" kings come together to cast out the Lord and his teachings. Maybe they feel that their ways and beliefs are better and with the Lord's word eliminated they can brainwash the masses to follow them and only them. " Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us." The essentially want to do away with the competition. As believers we know that God is the end all be all, the alpha and omega so competition for him does not exist. It is actually just an exercise in futility! They are wasting their time. Many men in positions of power now think that breaking the bond between God and the people is feasible. They feel that if less attention is given to the word more will fall on their shoulders in situations where counsel is needed. I call it blasphemy but they like to call it Separation of Church and State. Let us call a spade and spade. You are trying to divert our attention from the Lord long enough to push your Godless agenda into our heads. I want stand for it! I read verses like Psalm 2 and get the waring of another way the devil will come and attack us. Am I calling all men/women is these power positions faithless?? Of course not, I am simply saying that if you are a believer and hide it to fit in you are doing (A) The same thing Peter did by denying Christ and (B) acting no different than the rulers spoke about in Psalm 2. Psalm 2 goes on to say the Lord is laughing at these rulers. He knows exactly what they are trying to do and knows his word is far too powerful for these bush league tactics they are trying to employ in order to garner earthly power and control. Earth...we talking about power on earth? The same earth it took God to make in six days with time to rest on the seventh? This is where you want your power? Something that was made so easily by our Lord and Savior? I guess that is good but I rather sit next to him in Heaven as his child than be on earth a minon of your presumed power. The power they seek will not go unanswered by the Lord as stated in verse 5, " Then he will speak to them in his fury saying, (6) As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill." God goes on to assure us that in him he will give us the power to thrash all of these rulers who attempt to turn their backs on him. He will give all his believers the land they walk as their in heritage! We will have the earth as a possession if we stay in him. God will deliver on every promise he makes with our faith in him. Our obedience allows his promises to come to fulfillment. Psalm 2 closes with a promise from the Lord that states, " Serve the Lord in fear, and rejoice with trembling." There is nothing wrong with being voted as a ruler of men, but don't for one second think that gives you authority over the word of God. Know your place "Kiss the Son" and in all you do give the Glory to God. If not then you leave a forgiving God no choice but to send down a wrath never before seen. I for one will never force God's hand, I can tell the fire is hot without touching it.

PSALM CHAPTER 1

We are all in search of a blessing. It does not matter what sort of blessing, help with illness, bills, or even just finding your keys when you are late for work. The size of the blessing isn't important, but to receive that blessing we all look forward to. In Psalm 1 we learn right off the bat that we are blessed by our positive actions as believers. If we want to continue to fall under that blessing we should watch for the company we keep. Be weary of who we let in to our circles because the moment we let our guards down and the circle is infiltrated by the wicked we now find ourselves in danger of losing our blessings. A blessed man(woman) is well aware of this and rather than risk the lost of their blessings chooses rather to drown themselves in the word and God's laws with constant meditation. I for one found myself in many of circumstances where my guard was down do to the company I kept and surroundings. For me it was after a long week of practice or a big win and to unwind you have a few drinks with teammates in one of those spots where the lights are low and the music is high. Women are in abundance and bad decisions are not far off. Verse 3 says that, "the blessed man is like a tree in water that bears seasonal fruit, never withers and is successful in all he does." Now how on earth do I expect to bear fruit in a dark place with no light or water just achohol and house music? To look at ones self as a tree, we know what trees need water and sunlight to grow and prosper. Well, the same can be said about our spirit, we need to be in positive settings or we will surely wither away. The wicked do not want that, they are not concerned about growth. In their eyes It's All Good doing the same things that seem fun in the short term, but ultimately will be the destruction of them. They rather continue doing the things that cause them to be," like chaff that the wind drives away." To me that does not sound like living but just existing. I want to live God's plan for us to the fullest and not block any blessing that he has in store for my growth as a Christan and as a man. In order to prevent this we need to keep our eyes open because verse 5 states,"Therefore the wicked will not stand in judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;" Wow... that confirms the example of being a tree rooted in a positive enviorment. We don't see big oaks growing alongside withering weeds. And why? We don't see it because those puny weeds are intimidated by the big strong oak trees. The weeds know that next to the oaks they are nothing and rather than allow themselves to be embarrassed or judge they stay away and with other weeds. Is this the same way most sinners stay away from ones they deem righteous in hopes they can avoid being judged? I ask who are we to judge? I say we have a mission to spread the blood of Jesus regardless the circumstances. Jesus died for all of our sins the least we can do is open our mouths and try to bring others in. We no the way of the wicked is death. We know if they stay on their current path they will perish. Salvation is a gift not a secret, it is our duty to try to help these weeds so they too can be as strong as oaks. Yes be aware of who you let in your circle, but don't completely turn them away without trying to show them the joys of accepting God's grace and getting their blessing. You may feel that they didn't earn it therefor they don't deserve it, but guess what pilgrim, we didn't earn it either at first, but it is ours! That's what is so wonderful about our Father's grace, it is there for us even though we don't always deserve it!  STAY THIRSTY MY FRIENDS!!!