Who is Master of Your Manor?

Psalm 91:9-10
9 If you make the Most High your dwelling—
even the LORD, who is my refuge-

10 then no harm will befall you,
no disaster will come near your tent.

I read a lot of Victorian literature. Mainly because I was forced into it by the requirements put on me from school. However, I remember I took some electives also. One thing that popped out as I read Victorian novels was that every house had a "master" and the oldest son would also be called master by the servants. I kept thinking how dreadful to give a child so much power to trip over. Then a few weeks ago I watched a movie Faith Like Potatoes. The main character was not always a good man. When he dishonored God by treating his workers wrong God did not bless him. However, his life turned around and his workers began to call him "master". He was always good to them making sure they were safe and protected. That is how God wants us to be in our homes. He gives us the reign in our home but if we honor Him, He will bless us. Not only our homes but our bodies as well. If we honor God with our whole lives God will bless us. He is our Master but we are His children and He has given us authority as well.
Many of us women get a little "antsy" when we hear the word "submitting". Our deep lineage back to Eve has made us "helpmates" not "heads". The bible says in Genesis that we can not be head of our home. Our husbands will be the head of our home. Isaiah 54 says that "God is our husband". So when we are single, God is the only husband we have. When we are married, our earthly husband is the "spiritual" head of our house. That is why it is so important to choose your husband wisely. We want someone who will be a master over our house like God. We want someone who will honor God so that our home will be blessed. However, we too are required to make sure that our house runs the right way and that our children are raised to honor and obey God. Submitting isn't such a bad thing when our prize is so great. God honors us when we honor Him. If we seek Him, He will protect us and love us.

Is your home in the hands of the Master?

1 Samuel 2:30
30“Therefore, the Lord God of Israel declares: I certainly thought that your family and your father’s family would always live in my presence.

“But now the Lord declares: I promise that I will honor those who honor me, and those who despise me will be considered insignificant.

Esther: Stand Up Let Your Voice Be Heard!

Psalm 91:7-8
7 A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.

8 You will only observe with your eyes
and see the punishment of the wicked.

Continuing on Psalm 91 our woman of the week is Esther. When I saw this scripture I thought of verse 8 where it said "punishment of the wicked". Let's recap Esther for those of you who aren't so familiar. Esther was a Hebrew named Haddassah, but her uncle gave her the Babylonian name Esther so that she would be selected by the king to be his wife. Her uncle knew that God had a great calling in her life. Esther was like you and me, she was probably afraid of being used so much by God because she was not used to it. She went from a child who was raised by a man to becoming a woman who was born to be a heroin. It's a great responsibility! I am sure she had her doubts.

Don't we all have doubts at times? I know God has a strong calling in my life to be a teacher. I know He has a calling in my life to help others. When I got up in front of this first grade classroom this semester for student teaching I freaked. I kept thinking maybe God doesn't want to use me like this I'm amongst the Babylonians and I'm all for God. I don't think I fit in what's going on here? Well, perhaps sometimes it's not about fitting in. Perhaps sometimes God takes us out of our comfort zone so that He can do something AMAZING with us.

So Esther gets chosen by the king to be his wife. Esther sees her people being slaughtered by one of the kings men and knows she has to do something but is afraid to make a move. So what does her uncle tell her?

"For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:14)

For such a time as this? We are facing a world full of liberalism that is desensitized to sin. One by one we watch our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ slip away into the world getting caught up in the weeds. We need to take a stand and speak up. Reach out even if it means being fired or loosing a friend. We need to tell people the truth! We are children of God and we need to start a revival!

2 Corinthians 5:20
So we are Christ's ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, "Come back to God!"

Are You Afraid of the Dark?

Psalm 91:5-6
5 You will not fear the terror of night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,

6 nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
nor the plague that destroys at midday.

When I was a little girl I always would sit up awake at night and imagine shadows that lurked. Since my early childhood I was aware of the forces of evil and this scared me. I didn't want to think that there were demons waiting to devour me... I didn't know it only meant devour my soul. This caused my prayer life to be very abundant from a young child on. I prayed to God to protect me I released my fears to Him, and HEY! I am still here whattaya know? So, whatever your fear is whether it is relationships, boogiemen, spiders... just realize that God is bigger than the shadows. He already overcame Satan. We don't have to stand for it! and GET PRAYING!

2 Timothy 1:7
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Birds of a Feather

Psalm 91:3-4
Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare
and from the deadly pestilence.

4 He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.

A while ago an old friend of mine when to the gulf of Mexico to help with the oil spill. The pictures they took showed the birds on the posts and the oil all around them. They found refuge on the strong tower.
In a Sunday school class one year our pastor's wife read a story about a mother hen. There was a great fire and the mother hen didn't fly around and go crazy. The mother hen instead tucked her baby hens under her wings. The fire blazed and the firemen eventually put it back. When they picked up the corpse of the mother hen the babies were safe and alive.

God is our protector He even came from Heaven to earth as Jesus in order to die for us so that we would not have to face death. God loves us and He will never fly away from us during a time of trouble. He will always smother us with unfailing unconditional love and keep us safe.

I love this following scripture because whenever I am afraid or worried I remember God cares for the little birds. He protects them and provides for them. He will protect us and provide for us!

Matthew 6:26
Look at the birds. They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren't you far more valuable to him than they are?

My Strong Tower!

Psalm 91:1-2
1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

2 I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust."

Today we are beginning Psalm 91. We just ended Psalms 139 taking it two verses at a time and going into real life with it. Today our verses are about God as our shelter and our fortress. It talks about how we can find rest in God. I don't know about "you" but "I" can use some rest. When kings would build kingdoms they would often put big giant walls around the kingdom so that people could rest secured in their own homes. Even today the Great Wall of China still stands a wall big enough to keep China's enemies out... and it stretched for miles. Now that is a lot of protection! However, no matter how "great" China's wall is God can protect us even better. God reaches over our lives everyday to protect us from many things so we can rest in His peace. Sometimes God even tares down walls so that we can live in peace. Nevertheless, we can put our trust in Him to do whatever He needs to do to keep us safe. Think about walls today... do we need God to put up a wall in our life? Do you need to realize that God is your protector and ask Him to put a wall against something harming you in your life? Or perhaps you need Him to tear down a wall that you placed there yourself. He is willing to do whatever it takes to make you safe.

Proverbs 18:10
The name of the LORD is a strong tower;
the righteous run to it and are safe.

The Heart of the Matter

Psalm 139:23-24
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 Point out anything in me that offends you,
and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

Have you ever performed a virus scan on your computer? If a virus gets into your computer it can be very deadly for your computer. That is the way our hearts are. Anything that is unhealthy to our spiritual walk can also cause our lights to dim. That's why it's important for us to install our virus protection Jesus Christ into our lives. To keep updated on His word. To guard our hearts! God will point out if anything offends us even if He steps on our toes in the process. I have sat through sermons before getting pretty frustrated at the pastor because I was pretty convicted on what He was preaching on. However, I realize now that it was God and He wanted me to get my heart right. God's word is our best defense for catching any spiritual virus that may begin to attack us. The bible says that God's word have I hid in my heart so I may not sin against Thee. It's important to stay in God's word and to know it well so we know know how to be healthy. God's word is not to make us not have fun... it's to keep us safe. If you've ever had a computer virus you know that it likes to spread around. Our hearts are the same. If we don't keep protecting our hearts and if we allow bad things to enter in then they will come out eventually and it wont be pretty. So stay in God's word and remember to keep your Spiritual virus protection updated!
Luke 6:45
A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.

Anger is Not the Answer

Psalm 139:21-22
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD,
and abhor those who rise up against you?

22 I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.

Anger is not a healthy thing. It destroys us more than it destroys the people that we are angry at. In the bible people's anger has always led to destruction and mostly of themselves. Moses was angry at the slave driver for the way he treated the Hebrew slave so he killed him. Then Moses had to deal with the blood on his hands for the rest of his life. Moses to this day will never gain full honor because he dishonored God's commandment "thou shalt not murder". When we get angry we are not allowing God to control us. We let our anger control us and that allows Satan to sneak in. Have you ever gotten angry and said something that you still to this day regret saying? I know I have. When I've gotten angry in the past I didn't let God control my words that came out of my mouth. Instead I let my emotions run away and hurt someone. I had to seek forgiveness from those people afterward and it wasn't easy. Proverbs is full of scriptures about how anger can affect us as well as others. Proverbs 14 says, “People with a hot temper do foolish things; wiser people remain calm.” “If you stay calm, you are wise, but if you have a hot temper, you only show how stupid you are.” (17,29). It's true when I start screaming at someone because I'm angry I really say stupid things, things that I don't even mean. I make myself look foolish and really the person I am hurting the most is myself. We need to think like God wants us to and let Him control our thoughts. Yes, people out there will get you angry... and most of them for good reasons. Just remember that justice is in the hands of God. In the right season you will reap your harvest and they will reap theirs. So pray for them and perhaps their bitter fruit will turn sweet.

Ephesians 4:31-32 - Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.