The Gathering Place Where Family Matters

This will not be a new, never heard of statement to you. But it is important for us to remind ourselves that Satan is a liar, a deceiver, an accuser, and tempter. He delights in making the believer feel useless, a failure, defeated, and unloved.

So today, without comment, just listen to what the Lord says about you if you know Christ as your Savior.

“He will rejoice over you with joy…” (Zephaniah 3:17).
“The LORD takes pleasure in them that fear Him…” (Psalm 147:11).
“The LORD takes pleasure in His people…” (Psalm 149:4).
“I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness…” (Isaiah 61:10).
“Behold the tabernacle of God is with me, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God” (Revelation 21:3).

For today: Indescribable. That’s what the love and grace of our awesome Lord really is. I pray that this greatly impacts your life for the rest of your life!

In the rush and busyness of your day, here is something to take with you.

“Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits” (Psalm 103:1-2).

The word “bless” is the Hebrew word barak, pronounced (baw-RAK), and has the idea of kneeling, to be praising, to recognize His worthiness and respond in submission and love. .

Here is the powerful proof of our blessing the LORD. It will be demonstrated by our “forgetting not.” The Hebrew word for “forget” is sakah, pronounced (shaw-KAKH), and means “to ignore, to let wither, to cease to care.”

Forgetting is something that is common to all of us. We forget names, addresses, phone numbers, and sometime even appointments. Probably most of us have all these things stored in our smart phones, but there is something even more important to remember than anything else. That is, forget not all His benefits. Do not let our memory wither because of ignoring that we must have an attitude of bowing before Him and remembering Him throughout our days.

For today: You and I need to be extra careful today to bless the Lord, remembering with gratitude and worshipping Who He is and what He is doing.

Yesterday I began a few thoughts concerning the family will. What will we leave our children and grandchildren?

“A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children” (Proverbs 13:22).

I am all for leaving our material possessions and wealth (most of us smile when using the word “wealth” in representing our finances!) to our children and ultimately to our grandchildren. But very honestly, there is something much more important that we should be building, communicating, demonstrating, and then leaving as a legacy when we go Home to be with the Lord someday.

Here are the five things that I want to be investing in today and leaving as a good reminder for my children and grandchildren when I go Home to be with the Lord. I want my children and grandchildren to be able to say the following things about me as part of their spiritual inheritance.

1. Concerning Christ, he trusted Him. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart” (Proverbs 3:5a).
2. Concerning the Bible, he treasured it. “Therefore I love Thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold” (Psalm 119:127).
3. Concerning sin, he turned from it. “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound” (Romans 6:1).
4. Concerning blessings, he thanked the Lord. “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name” (Psalm 100:4).
5. Concerning my children, he taught them. “And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all think heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children…”(Deuteronomy 6:5-7a).

For today: That’s the spiritual part of the inheritance I want to leave. Friends, we must be working on building our lives in these areas if we want to have a legacy that testifies to these matters.

And now for the reading of the family will…

What picture does that simple statement evoke in your mind? Can you picture the survivors eagerly sitting around the lawyer’s conference table awaiting the reading of the will of their deceased acquaintance? Some are probably sure that they are going to leave wealthy. Some are perhaps surprised to even be there as they couldn’t imagine being remembered in the will.

If your family is like mine, they are not going to be the recipients of material wealth at the reading of the family will. However, there is another kind of wealth that you and I must be providing right now as well as when we go Home to be with the Lord. In addition to whatever funds remain after we go Home to be with the Lord, what will be left as part of your legacy? I ask this question based on this very pointed verse.

“A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children” (Proverbs 13:22).

Quite a powerful statement, if we are “good” we will leave something very special to our children and grandchildren. The word “good” speaks of the believer and is the Hebrew word tob (tove) which speaks of being excellent, of value in estimation, appropriate or becoming.

For today: Tomorrow I will share with you the five things I want to leave with my children and grandchildren that I am consistently seeking to create today. How will Proverbs 13:22 impact your life today?

To be very honest with you, I have absolutely no idea where folks come up with these things.

Today is Wednesday March 22nd, and the following are declarations of holidays to be observed today. Among the list, here are a couple that caught my attention:

International Day of the Seal
National Sing Out Day
International Talk Like William Shatner Day
Nation Goof Off Day
And this one is my favorite, As Young As You Feel Day!

Well, friend, how young do you feel? There certainly are times that I don’t feel very young. However, I can tell you that I rejoice in the faithfulness and goodness of our Lord even on those days when I don’t feel very young.

I love Jeremiah’s perspective. He said, “It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-23).

For today: Whether or not you choose to observe any of these holidays, please do celebrate the fact that our awesome LORD has brand new mercies and compassions every morning. Great is His faithfulness.