Sept 19

Psalm 146:1-10

1 Praise the LORD! Let all that I am praise the LORD.
2 I will praise the LORD as long as I live. I will sing praises to my God with my dying breath.
3 Don’t put your confidence in powerful people; there is no help for you there.
4 When they breathe their last, they return to the earth, and all their plans die with them.
5 But joyful are those who have the God of Israel as their helper, whose hope is in the LORD their God.
6 He made heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them. He keeps every promise forever.
7 He gives justice to the oppressed and food to the hungry. The LORD frees the prisoners.
8 The LORD opens the eyes of the blind. The LORD lifts up those who are weighed down.
The LORD loves the godly.
9 The LORD protects the foreigners among us. He cares for the orphans and widows,
but he frustrates the plans of the wicked.
10 The LORD will reign forever. He will be your God, O Jerusalem, throughout the generations.
Praise the LORD!

God did not create everything. Does that statement surprise you? It's true. Oh, he created the universe, with its countless galaxies of stars and planets, asteroids, and black holes. He created this earth and all its rivers and oceans, mountains and valleys, rocks and grass and trees. He created all the fish and creatures in the sea. He created dolphins, whales, swordfish, and tuna. He created the glassy eyes of the shark. He created the spoon-shaped tail of the manatee. He created the poisonous fins of the lionfish and the eerie sleekness of the manta ray. He created the broad wings of the condor and the rapid, darting flight of the hummingbird. He created the tufted ears of the Canada lynx and the long neck of the giraffe. He created the odd waddle of the armadillo, the grace of the antelope, the powerful jaws of a crocodile, and the purr of a kitten. But God did not create everything. He didn't create truth because he is truth. Truth is a part of his nature. Of course, there are some people who believe that there is no such thing as truth. "Truth is relative," they say. "It is different for each person." But even those who say such things believe that their own statement is true, or they would not say it. But truth does not only exist, it is eternal and unchanging because it is a part of the nature of God. As Moses said, "He is ... a God of truth" (Deuteronomy 32:4, KJV). Truth also can be our guide, for we can pray as the psalmist did: "Lead me by your truth and teach me, for you are the God who saves me" (Psalm 25:5).

REFLECT: Why does today's reading say that God did not create truth? How is truth related to God? Do you think it makes sense for someone to say that there is no such thing as truth? Why or why not?

PRAY: Look up Jesus' prayer for his disciples in John 17:17. Pray that verse aloud, making it your own prayer by saying me every time you see the word them.

hey guys i have loads of homework from my two days absense so i will do this devo tomorrow!

When I think of truth, I think about the bible.
How it doesn't change, how it stays consistent ALL throughout.
In my opinion, God does seem less merciful in the old testament, but it does show consistency.
Truth reminds me of promise. Which God's covenant, said by Jesus himself, was promised to us.
And just how God promised to us, we should be able to live in truth.
I wonder how different my relationship with God would be if He didn't love us or if He wasn't the "truth".

A lot of this was about praising God because well....he deserves it. Of course as part of leadership and praise team, we do think that were praising god by going up on stage every Sunday, but how much of our own praise do we give by ourselves the times were not on stage?
I thought back to the quiet time each of us had wih God at the summer retreat this year. I don't know about anyone else but I really enjoied that time. Some people fell asleep durin that time instead of using that precious time with god wisely. That's like praise. Sometimes I wonder. How many people sing to the songs on Sunday but actually mean the words that they're singing out o their mouths? Use that precious time of praise and truly give thanks to god wether you're on stage, by yourself, or with others in the audience.

~Audrey~

To be honest, this confuzzled me quite a bit...


But, I did understand the basic message of how truth is something that comes naturally to God.
Like it is said in John 14:6 "I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

ummm that's all I could really think of.
Bye!

I somewhat understood this but still not too sure if i understand it. I understand that God didnt make truth because he is truth himself and he made it so that we would trust in him. Does that make sense? idk....

8 The LORD opens the eyes of the blind. The LORD lifts up those who are weighed down.
The LORD loves the godly.

God looks over us, he takes care of us. He is our sheppard and we are his sheep, we have to trust him for us to survive and i think that is what it means by God is trust. We have to trust in him to be able to move on and get closer to him. Without God there would be no trust and there would be nothing to look forward too.

All i got still a bit confused -_-

Brainfart.


Truth in the word. Live by the word. Make that choice between blind faith, and faith with the hunger to learn more.
I really don't know. But. Yeah. Faith with the hunger for Christ.

Brainfart.

5 But joyful are those who have the God of Israel as their helper, whose hope is in the LORD their God.

Did anyone else notice how the word "helper" is used to describe our Lord? Our Creator? Is anyone else amazed by his ability to humble himself, be born in a manger, live and be around filthiness, wash disciples' feet, AND call himself our helper?
The God of everything called himself a helper. That's really the first thing that caught my eye. I don't know how you guys feel about it, but I'm so grateful to have a God who would bring himself down to our level and even lower, to help us and always be there for us.

That's about it!
Yay for math tests! Huzzah!

3 Don’t put your confidence in powerful people; there is no help for you there.
4 When they breathe their last, they return to the earth, and all their plans die with them.

WHY do we put our confidence in powerful people at times? AND not God??
We know that WE are not forever, only God is, so why do we do?
It's easy to put confidence in those around us simply because, we're 100% sure that those people exist...because come on, we see them, hear them, are able to touch them. (Keep it PG-13 though)
However, it's not easy to do those things with God, some of those things are impossible.
No matter what though, we MUST be reminded all the time, these people are not the ones who we put our trust in. IT's GOD. And sometimes he really does feel absent, but he's always there, watching. We just dont notice all the time.

hey sorry for not posting yesterday...my week has been hectic with TONS of homework...
anyways, i got kind of confused with this story. i did get the general message that God is the truth and keep faith in Him at all times. sorry kind of confused with this one...i will reread and see if i can clear up any confusions.

What i got was that God is always there for us and watching over us. Guiding us in our paths.
1 Praise the LORD! Let all that I am praise the LORD.
2 I will praise the LORD as long as I live. I will sing praises to my God with my dying breath.
Everytime we praise, we should praise with a passion and as if it is our last.

God created everything. Which was good. There was no true or false existing... We made that happen. God is pure and is the "truth" and we should thank him for all he has done for us.

This was somewhat of an odd devotion topic... I felt the relation was kinda weak, and so I didn't get much from this devo. It is obvious that God is truth and love and all the good of this world, but they explained it in a very roundabout way. So always trust in God because he is the truth.