The Follow Up Talk

I recently started the book of Proverbs. The author, King Solomon, seems to use a logical, teaching style that brings you to a firm conclusion. That's probably one of the reasons I enjoy Proverbs along with Solomon's other book, Ecclesiastes. Solomon is known for being one of the wisest kings in history, so it's not surprising that he starts off Proverbs by discussing wisdom. At work, we did a get-to-know-you activity where we shared our likes, dislikes, and a superpower we'd love to have. I chose wisdom - pretty tame compared to the powers of invisibility and flight, but pretty important to me. I'm sure my colleagues thought my choice was pretty weird, but I like to think I am so "cool" that they didn't bother questioning the "weirdness". Unlike my choice of superpower, all the other choices were things that could never be achieved. Unless science comes up with some pretty cool discoveries, we will never be invisible or fly without some so...

How do you find hope when hoping hurts? What do you do when your heart is heavy from the burden of disappointment after being filled with so much unabashed trust? Today was a very hard day for me so I read a few Psalms that were next in my line up - Psalm 146 and 147 . Here are the verses that stood out to me: While I live will I praise the Lord: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being. Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help... Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God. ( Psalm 146:2-5 ) Praise ye the Lord: for it is good to sing praises unto our God; for it is pleasant; and praise is comely... He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds...  Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God: Who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains. He giveth...

Unfortunately, I’ve been having notification issues on blogger. Google+ will soon be discontinued and I’m experiencing the effects of it now. This morning I was reading my Bible and because I wasn’t at home I had to use my Bible app. I realized that there’s a notetaking feature in the app that I could use to communicate my thoughts. So, I’m planning on using both this blog and my YouVersion app for posting. It’s my hope that you’ll be able to keep connected with me in one of those two ways. If you’d like to follow my postings on the Bible App, just add me as a friend there: Maureen S. Below is my first note: ************** Hello fellow Bible loving friends! Hello friends who are working on developing their love too! As some of you may know, the past 3 months has been an exciting time for me where I’ve grown to love God’s Word. You may also know that I have started a blog within this time too. (https://thefollowuptalk.blogspot.com) Because of email subscription and tech issues, Go...

A few mornings ago I read one of King David’s chapters, Psalm 139 . David described the extent of God’s knowledge of him. God knew him before he was born and had protected David in his mother’s womb. God knew every thought in his head and could see every step David took. There was no secret thing David could do or secret place David could go that was hidden from God. As a kid, I had this keen awareness that God was always watching me. At one point the thought made me nervous because this meant I had no real privacy to use the bathroom. God was watching! Thankfully, those thoughts didn’t hinder me from continuing our cultural ritual of daily cleansing, and I still take showers to this day. Still, the truth of David’s words was real to me then and now. God knows and sees all that we do and think. David’s words in verses 19-22 made me pause. First I thought – there’s our David, the warrior, ready to slay evil men. His words were passionate and told God, I do not like those evil peopl...

As Psalm 126 consists of just 6 verses, I was not anticipating a deep message to spurt forth from this short chapter. However, the last two verses made me really think. In my faith journal I was looking for three things that stood out to me from this chapter. I wrote down: (1) sow/reap, (2) tears/joy, and (3) seed. The psalmist prayed for God to change the miserable situation he and his people were facing. The people were in agony and in bondage of some sort. The psalmist used a beautiful simile to ask God to free his people from their situation and bring them to a place of having joy and blessings. I have read and heard preachings on verse 5 in the past and understood the general message of, "When you are God's child and you cry, you should not lose hope because your situation is only temporary. Later you will experience peace." This can generally be true. However, I didn't really see verse 6 where the psalmist talks about "precious seed". That made me...

So, what's my favorite psalm? My all-time favorite is Psalm 121 . One thing that I've started to do is put a musical note next to Bible verses that are songs. People have made a ton  of songs based on the verses in the book of Psalms! When I got to Psalm 121 last week, I couldn't even read it without music playing in the background in my mind. I couldn't just see the words written on the page - I saw a choir dressed in white. You see, this is my favorite psalm because it transports me back to when I truly decided for myself that I wanted to follow Jesus. I can't remember where I was, location-wise, however, I was attending a concert and the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir was worshipping with a song based off Psalm 121. Back then I'm not sure I knew who this choir was, but a group of friends and I had decided to attend their concert. What I remember most from this concert was being moved by the words of their song, My Help , and having an experience with Jesus. I la...

A couple weeks ago I blogged about my idea of collaborative worship and the response I got was inspiring. I wrote about being anchored where you are despite your circumstances because we know that God knows who we are, sees where we are, cares about our experiences, and is mighty to protect and save us. God is so Almighty, we don't have to fear life and death. He is real and when you give yourself completely over to him, you can experience his peace and love. Even more amazing, you will experience the gratitude that comes from knowing that you are so wanted and beloved. Inspired by this perspective, I was drawn to Psalm 103 . This chapter talks about how God forgives us, redeems us, satisfies us, and shows us mercy. He remembers how frail we are and how short our days are on this earth. The psalm tells us to bless the Lord with all our soul, because for those that believe and hold on to the truth of God's Word, they and their children's children will receive everlasting m...

Earlier in the week my son woke up very early in the morning from a bad dream. He was so scared that he clung to us. Since he was up just before the time I would have got up for my devotions, I decided to let him join me. He was still in his "let's be quiet and just cuddle" mode, so I figured I could read my Bible and hold him at the same time without incident. It turned out that Psalm 118 was a good chapter to read out loud with him. Together, we learned that God helps us when we are in trouble, God is our strength and song , and we praise God because he treats us with mercy.  Even though he's only two, my son listened to some of the words I read. We did some active listening and I had him repeat a few verses after me. Here are a few verses I asked him to repeat: v. 6 : The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me? v. 14 : The Lord is my strength and song, and is become my salvation. The rest of the chapter has good truths to hold on to ...