Showing posts with label team. Show all posts
Showing posts with label team. Show all posts

Saturday, January 30, 2016

Thanks Living: Thundering Noise

That I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all Your wondrous works. Psalm 26:7
Proclaim: to hear, understand intelligently, make proclamation to
Voice: call aloud, thundering, noise, yell
Thanksgiving: in songs of liturgical worship, adoration; specifically, a choir of worshippers — sacrifice of praise
Tell: to score with a mark as a tally or record, to enumerate; intensively, to recount
Wondrous works: wonderful acts of— in judgment and redemption; to be surpassing or extraordinary

Thundering noise. 
We shout loud for our Teams and even louder in the last few moments of a close game. They even have "thunder sticks" so that we can make even MORE noise. Those around us KNOW who we are cheering for by the sounds we make. And those teams don't even do anything really great—they just play a game. 

Since we are willing to make a thundering noise for a group of people (who we really don't even know), shouldn't we be willing to make that much noise about our great God? 

Thundering noise.
A noise of thanksgiving. Think for a moment of some of the extraordinary things God does. The sunrise—spectacular colors intermingled with different cloud formations. The way He keeps the Earth tilted at just the precise angle so that everything works in harmony; the tides, the weather, sunrise, sunset, the moon. And keeping a record of the extraordinary things God does creates an intelligent understanding that produces a proclamation—loud and proud—of worship to God! 

Thundering noise. 
A life of Thanks Living is to produce a desire to YELL, make a thundering noise of thanksgiving to God! The thanksgiving is to be accompanied with a tally of the extraordinary things God does—and that should make the thundering noise even louder! 

Saturday, March 16, 2013

A Star Player


This year, I'm sharing my "Treasures" of my study of my "Ponder the Morsels" book. I've picked 31 Psalms to study throughout 2013. Today I studied Psalm 11. Here is what I learned.

The Lord ·tests [examines] ·those who do right and those who do wrong [the righteous and the wicked], but he hates those who love ·to hurt others [violence]. Psalm 11:5 (EXB)

The Lord tests and proves those who are right and good and those who are sinful. And His soul hates the one who loves to hurt others. Psalm 11:4 (NLV)
The Lord trieth the righteous,.... As gold is tried in the fire, by afflictive providences; hereby he tries their graces, their faith, and patience, their hope, and love, and fear; and, by so doing, expresses his love to them, since this is all for their good... Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
The Lord trieth the righteous - He does not abandon them; he tries them to show their faithfulness, and he afflicts them for their good. Clarke's Commentary on the Bible
Q: Why is training necessary? A: Training is necessary because if you don't train, you won't be able to figure out the flaws of what you doing. For example, say a professional basketball player wasn't very good at dribbling. If he doesn't train, he might not perform well in his game, but if he does, chances are he wouldn't do as bad as he would have if he didn't. Keep in mind that just because you train one day doesn't mean that you are going to get better by a significant amount. You have to train excessively. 

We train in all aspects of our lives. And with training comes testing. When we were children, the training and testing was a constant at school, and in sports. Then as we grew older our jobs have “performance evaluations”.  Our employers want to know if we were being effective in our jobs.

However, when God trains and tests us, we get bothered, upset, and at times angry. “Why me?”, is often the first sound we make when being trained and tested. 
   
But as God tests us, He is highlighting the areas that are successful and identifying those which need revision in our lives. The only way to really understand something is to put it into practice. If a football  player only studies the play book, and never suits up for practice or plays a game, how does he know if he can really play football. Head knowledge is only PART of life. Experience provides an opportunity to see if we really have learned! We have the opportunity to practice what we know. 

Training and testing is part of all aspects of our lives. And when God trains and tests us, it’s not punishment, rather He is allowing us the opportunity to be a “star player” and learn our strengthens and weaknesses. The only way to learn and master anything is to study, train, and be tested. 

Having the opportunity to train, and be tested on God’s team is challenging, but so very rewarding and is the only way to create not only a positive day.... but a positive God-designed life, and maybe become a “star-player”. 

The master answered, ‘You did well. You are a good and ·loyal [faithful] servant. Matthew 25:23 a (EXB)