Month: February 2023

Psalm 29:1 (NLT) – Honor the Lord, you heavenly beings;
honor the Lord for his glory and strength.
² Honor the Lord for the glory of his name.
Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness.

³ The voice of the Lord echoes above the sea.
The God of glory thunders.
The Lord thunders over the mighty sea.
⁴ The voice of the Lord is powerful;
the voice of the Lord is majestic.
⁵ The voice of the Lord splits the mighty cedars;
the Lord shatters the cedars of Lebanon.
⁶ He makes Lebanon’s mountains skip like a calf;
he makes Mount Hermon leap like a young wild ox.
⁷ The voice of the Lord strikes
with bolts of lightning.
⁸ The voice of the Lord makes the barren wilderness quake;
the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
⁹ The voice of the Lord twists mighty oaks
and strips the forests bare.
In his Temple everyone shouts, “Glory!”

¹⁰ The Lord rules over the floodwaters.
The Lord reigns as king forever.
¹¹ The Lord gives his people strength.
The Lord blesses them with peace. 

The story behind this Psalm was that David had watched a storm move across the land.  The power of the storm that David witnessed turned his thoughts towards God.  Many of us have witnessed firsthand the results of severe weather.  At such a time it is easy to think of the power of God.

The storm that David witnessed must have made him think of God speaking, for seven times we are told about the ‘voice of the Lord’.  The voice of the Lord echoes; is powerful; is majestic; splits the mighty cedars; it strikes with bolts of lightning; it makes the wilderness quake; it twists mighty oaks and strips the forest bare.  Wow!  Who could ever miss the voice of the Lord?

Well, I think we all miss the voice of the Lord at times.  I find it interesting that this Psalm, which at first glance seems to be all about hearing the voice of the Lord, begins with three calls to honor the Lord, and one call to worship the Lord.  Could there be a connection between our honoring and worshipping the Lord, and our ability to experience the voice of the Lord?  Yes, most certainly!

I’m sure that we would all love to hear from God.  When we have decisions to make, hearing from God would be great.  When life confronts us with what appears to be a dilemma, hearing from God would be welcomed.  Let’s strive to honor God with our lives.  Let’s worship God as we are able.  Let’s do this, and then let’s listen for the voice of God.

Posted by Ramón Torres

1 Corinthians 12:4 – There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. ⁵ There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. ⁶ God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us.

⁷ A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. ⁸ To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge. ⁹ The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. ¹⁰ He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. ¹¹ It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.

¹² The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. ¹³ Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit. (NLT)

Spiritual Gifts. The Holy Spirit. These are words that scare many Christians!  I believe it to be tragic that many Christians steer clear of all things ‘spiritual’.  Why fear God’s Spirit?  By definition, Christians should be Spirit filled!  Verse seven tells us that the Spirit is given to each of us – so that we can help each other!

There are two powerful things about verse seven that speak to me.  First, it says that each of us has been given some spiritual gift.  You may not know what it is, but you’ve got one!  This list of spiritual gifts that Paul gives here is not an exhaustive list, and there are other gifts mentioned in other New Testament passages.  However, each of us should pray that we would come to know what gift has been given to us.

Secondly, our spiritual gifts are given to us for the purpose of helping one another.  Spiritual gifts are not given to build ourselves up, but instead to build up others.  In this chapter, Paul goes on to illustrate how we are the Body of Christ, and the body is put together so that all its parts benefit the body.  Likewise, we are ‘put together’ here on earth so that we would benefit one another.

Today, let’s do what we can to benefit one another!   

Posted by Ramón Torres

1 Kings 8:54 – When Solomon finished making these prayers and petitions to the Lord, he stood up in front of the altar of the Lord, where he had been kneeling with his hands raised toward heaven. ⁵⁵ He stood and in a loud voice blessed the entire congregation of Israel:  ⁵⁶ “Praise the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel, just as he promised. Not one word has failed of all the wonderful promises he gave through his servant Moses. ⁵⁷ May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our ancestors; may he never leave us or abandon us. ⁵⁸ May he give us the desire to do his will in everything and to obey all the commands, decrees, and regulations that he gave our ancestors. ⁵⁹ And may these words that I have prayed in the presence of the Lord be before him constantly, day and night, so that the Lord our God may give justice to me and to his people Israel, according to each day’s needs. ⁶⁰ Then people all over the earth will know that the Lord alone is God and there is no other. ⁶¹ And may you be completely faithful to the Lord our God. May you always obey his decrees and commands, just as you are doing today.”

⁶² Then the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifices to the Lord. ⁶³ Solomon offered to the Lord a peace offering of 22,000 cattle and 120,000 sheep and goats. And so the king and all the people of Israel dedicated the Temple of the Lord.     ⁶⁴ That same day the king consecrated the central area of the courtyard in front of the Lord’s Temple. He offered burnt offerings, grain offerings, and the fat of peace offerings there, because the bronze altar in the Lord’s presence was too small to hold all the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings.

⁶⁵ Then Solomon and all Israel celebrated the Festival of Shelters in the presence of the Lord our God. A large congregation had gathered from as far away as Lebo-hamath in the north and the Brook of Egypt in the south. The celebration went on for fourteen days in all—seven days for the dedication of the altar and seven days for the Festival of Shelters. (NLT)

In this passage we have Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the temple.  This passage is actually the latter part of the prayer, which takes up most of 1 Kings 8.  There is much to learn from this prayer, but unfortunately many people just focus on what seems odd to us – peace offerings with tens of thousands and even hundreds of thousands of animals.  I try not to get hung up on such matters, but it does remind me that peace with God comes at a mighty cost.  Indeed, we know that our peace with God came at the cost of God leaving heaven, coming to earth through Jesus, and dying for our sins.  That was costly! 

Unlike Solomon, we don’t need to sacrifice animals in an effort to have peace with God.  Romans 5:1 tells us, “we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Since our peace with God has been made, what now?  I think we can look to this prayer from Solomon for the answer.  In verse 58 Solomon asks that God would give us the desire to do God’s will in all things.  Jesus also teaches us to pray this prayer (Luke 11). Furthermore, Solomon knew that there could be no better witness for God than for he and his people to be truly living out God’s will (verse 60).

Today, let us seek God’s will for our lives so that others may know of God!

Posted by Ramón Torres

Psalm 33:12 – What joy for the nation whose God is the Lord,
whose people he has chosen as his inheritance.

¹³ The Lord looks down from heaven
and sees the whole human race.
¹⁴ From his throne he observes
all who live on the earth.
¹⁵ He made their hearts,
so he understands everything they do.
¹⁶ The best-equipped army cannot save a king,
nor is great strength enough to save a warrior.
¹⁷ Don’t count on your warhorse to give you victory—
for all its strength, it cannot save you.

¹⁸ But the Lord watches over those who fear him,
those who rely on his unfailing love.
¹⁹ He rescues them from death
and keeps them alive in times of famine.

²⁰ We put our hope in the Lord.
He is our help and our shield.
²¹ In him our hearts rejoice,
for we trust in his holy name.
²² Let your unfailing love surround us, Lord,
for our hope is in you alone.

Recently, an out of work money manager in California who had lost his fortune murdered his family, and then he killed himself.  In Massachusetts, a housewife hid her mounting financial crisis, and then wrote a note to the mortgage company warning them: “By the time you foreclose on my house, I’ll be dead.”  A 90 year old Ohio widow shot herself in the chest as authorities arrived to evict her from her home.  Sad stories.  Tragic stories.

What is even more tragic is that similar stories play out each and every day.  In addition, countless marriages and families across our country and in our own communities are being torn apart over financial worries.  Verse seventeen warns us not to count on our warhorses to give us the victory.  What is a warhorse?  The ancient Hebrew word referred to a strong horse, which was a very valuable piece of property. What are our warhorses?  What are the things of this world that we look to for a victorious life? Our homes? Our bank accounts and our retirement accounts? Our stuff?

Let us remind ourselves that our hope is in the Lord (verse 20).  Our strength needs to be found in the unfailing love of the Lord (verse 22).  Today, let us share our hope with someone! 

Posted by Ramón Torres