O Lord, you are my God;
I will exalt you; I will praise your name,
for you have done wonderful things,
plans formed of old, faithful and sure.
For you have made the city a heap, the fortified city a ruin;
the foreigners' palace is a city no more;
it will never be rebuilt.
Therefore strong peoples will glorify you;
cities of ruthless nations will fear you.
For you have been a stronghold to the poor,
a stronghold to the needy in his distress,
a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat;
for the breath of the ruthless is like a storm against a wall,
like heat in a dry place.
You subdue the noise of the foreigners;
as heat by the shade of a cloud,
so the song of the ruthless is put down.
Isaiah 25:1-5
After a hard day’s work yesterday (the boys officially began their mowing and cleanup business), our 7-year-old didn’t realize it wasn’t Sunday this morning. We were going to get their mower fixed, and he comes out in jeans, buttoning up a long sleeved shirt, and dressing for church. We chuckled a bit, and told him it was only Saturday. Immediately he was crushed! He buried himself under some pillows on the couch. At first, I thought it was because we had teased him a bit, but when I asked him why he was so upset he tearfully and emotionally intoned “I thought it was Sunday. I want to worship God!” This took me aback! I was so proud to know that was what he wanted. It was then that I told him, “we don’t have to wait until Sunday to worship (though I know he wanted to gather together with the saints); let’s right now, and always let everything we do, worship!”
I want to be like my 7-year-old. I want to worship God! I want to worship Him separately, and I want to worship Him as we gather with other believers. Lord Jesus, let me have a heart like that! Let my heart seek you always, and desire you so much that it brings me to tears!
Matthew 18:1-4
At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
“Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.”
Psalm 95
Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
For the Lord is a great God,
and a great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also.
The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.
Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.
Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
when your fathers put me to the test
and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
For forty years I loathed that generation
and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart,
and they have not known my ways.”
Therefore I swore in my wrath,
“They shall not enter my rest.”
