Good morning my friend. This is the last day of 2023 and tomorrow is 2024 ! Psalm 40:3 says ” He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord. So lets take this verse and break it down. What does it mean when David said ” He put a new song in my mouth”?  In Psalm 33:3 Sing to him a new song:play skillfully on the strings , with loud shouts.” He Heals the brokenHearted. Psalms 147:1 ” Praise the Lord!  For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasent, and a song is of praise is fitting”.  If there was ever a man that understood what is was to truly see understand success and failure  it was King David. Yes he was a man that had to pay for the consequences of sin but he also was a man that understood true forgiveness from God. So going into a New Year let’s Praise the Lord for giving us a New Beginning.  Have a Happy New Year, Smile God loves you and so do I.

Good morning my friends. We are staying in a airbnb close to our daughter Abbey and her husband Mike and our grandchildren. It’s been a wonderful time to reconnect and talk to our children and grandchildren about what they are doing and what they are planning for 2024. We celebrated Christmas and also Rachel’s birthday. Each of us are in different stages in our lives and want the assurance from our peers and from the Lord that we have their approval. My bible reading today is about the excuses that Moses kept giving to God about “his next venture” in life.  And I think, “Come on, Moses, why do you keep making excuses? Just do it!”  But I do the same thing. Over the past 30 years, I have witnessed hundreds of answers to questions I had at the time and saw God do what only He could do and yet I’m at this new stage in my life and I keep looking for approval. What if this isn’t the thing to do? But the Lord has once again brought me back to where I say, “Lord, use me the way I can be most effective.” I start classes this

This morning I was reading Revelation 21:3-6, “I heard a SHOUT from the throne. It will be like attending a homecoming party and the voice says ‘LOOK, God’s home is now among his people! He WILL live among them, and they will be HIS PEOPLE. God HIMSELF will be with them. He WILL wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All  these things ARE GONE FOREVER.’ And the One sitting on the throne said, ‘LOOK, I AM making EVERYTHING NEW!’ And he said to me (John), ‘Write it down, for what I tell you is TRUSTWORTHY and TRUE.’” I always thought the tears was remembering the past, but could it be that God is wiping away tears of joy? Today I choose to share in the joy of His Salvation! The best is yet to come. Smile God  love you! Hang in there, we are almost home. I know this because God said so.

Habakkuk lived in a time with a lot of challenges where it seemed like God was either not present or not loving. But yet, he chose to rejoice as he sang, “Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will REJOICE in the LORD! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!” Hab. 3:17-18 Even when the circumstances of God’s people seemed dire (and it was), Habakkuk chose to rejoice in the Lord. This takes me to a time when my 5-1/2 month old son died of SIDS. No explanation, no signs, no perceivable reason. Did I ask God why He took my son from our family? Yes! But honestly, if God Himself came down to tell me all the good things He was going to do because of Bobby’s death, it wouldn’t have made sense to me or been a good enough reason in my mind’s eye, my fiercely protective mother’s reasoning. I had to choose, like Habakkuk, to rejoice.