Sons of Korah
Psalms
Those of you that follow this blog know how special the Psalms are and the blessing they can have on your life. Recently, the Sons of Korah held a concert at our church here in Upland, Indiana. They have put the Psalms to music, which adds a new dimension to the impact they can have on your life. Below are links and samples of cuts from the Rain album.
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Will RogersSome of the ideas coming out of Washington these days just don’t seem to exhibit any common sense. My first mistake is probably using the words “Washington” and “common sense” in the same sentence.
Folks have been debating disarmament since WWI and Will Rogers has a lot to say about it. I’ll sum up arguments for disarmament in one word: “cuckoo.” The happy version goes like this: Both parties get rid of lots of weapons and the world will be a safer place. The scary version is we disarm, trusting the other party to do the same, even if they lie to us. Even worse is the fact that the current administration wants to compromise our ability to even defend ourselves with treaty concessions.
Here’s a little story for you. Farmer Jones down the road is a nice guy, but he is known to have a mean streak. When he gets drunk, he threatens to blow my farm off the map, but when he’s sober, he says he’s a nice guy and suggests that I get rid of all my guns. He did blow up two of my barns one time, and cut the heads off of some of my chickens when I wasn’t looking.
I’ve found that modern inventions have done wonders in keeping the peace. When he found out that his bullets were no longer effective against my bullet defense system, he could only complain that it wasn’t fair. When he realized that my guns had twice the range of his, he calmed down pretty quick. I told him that if he ever threatened my chickens again, my chicken protection system would fill his hide with buckshot.
Farmer Jones and I get along fine now. We trade chickens, hogs and corn. We have an understanding. You touch my chickens, hogs, barns or junk and I’ll blow you to kingdom come. He knows I can do it, and he knows I mean it.
Will Rogers is a man worth remembering, and quoting. His wit, humor and insight into life will amaze and astonish you. His life will inspire you. Watch for new blog posts from my Will Rogers quotes collection.
I hope you have enjoyed this quote from Will Rogers and the accompanying image taken from the Will Rogers iPhone app. Please visit our blog, twitter, or Facebook page regularly and pass these posts on to friends that might enjoy a bit of wisdom from Will Rogers.
Will Rogers
Will RogersAfter being focused “like a laser beam” on jobs, this administration finally gave up and told us that high and rising unemployment was going to be the “new normal.” The “substantial help,” as Will Rogers puts it in his quote, was to keep extending unemployment benefits.
Common sense from Washington has always been in short supply, but do you suppose that injecting uncertainty into the economy might have something to do with many of our problems. Uncertainty over healthcare, drilling, energy, trade relations, manufacturing, insurance, banking, etc. are killing jobs.
If you don’t slop the hogs every day, they start to get cranky, and if businesses can’t depend on reliable and predictable policy coming from Washington, they get cranky too. They have to lay off people to survive.
People are getting cranky too. After so many broken promises, they don’t have much faith in the rhetoric coming from Congress. Perhaps that’s why they voted to throw so many politicians out of office in the last election. They should have known that if you can’t slop a hog right, you don’t know how to treat people right.
The image was taken directly from pictures at the Will Rogers Memorial Museum archive. I apologize for the quality of the image, but this is exactly what the 1920s photo looked like when I scanned it. In the hundreds of images contained in this iPhone application, I wanted to share as many different Will Rogers photos as possible from as wide a variety of times and situations – movies, cowboy, vaudeville, with famous people, and family scenes.
Will Rogers is a man worth remembering, and quoting. His wit, humor and insight into life will amaze and astonish you. His life will inspire you. Watch for new blog posts from my Will Rogers quotes collection.
I hope you have enjoyed this quote from Will Rogers and the accompanying image taken from the Will Rogers iPhone app. Please visit our blog, twitter, or Facebook page regularly and pass these posts on to friends that might enjoy a bit of wisdom from Will Rogers.
Will Rogers
Psalm 4 is a wonderful picture of the joy and peace that come from trust in God. But, how can this be in the fallen world in which we live?
We know, from other Psalms, that the Psalmist has been through great suffering and difficult trials. Yet this Psalm is amazingly upbeat. I think the joy mentioned here is much deeper than a few moments of superficial happiness that may come from wine or drink, or a brief time of pleasure. Such moments don’t fill our hearts with the joy and praise to God mentioned in this Psalm. It takes more than that to cause a person to sleep in peace.
Just like filling a cup with water takes time, so does filling our hearts with the joy and comfort that comes from knowing Christ as savior. Relationships take time to develop to a deeper level, and so does developing a relationship with the Lord. The deep joy will come in time, but you can enjoy as least some measure of it as you heart is filled day-by-day.
If you do not have a relationship with the Lord, you can pray for it right now. You can ask God for help today. If you do know the Lord, pray for a deeper relationship with Him.
Dear Lord, I want my heart filled with the joy that comes from knowing you. I want a peaceful sleep that comes from trusting you. I want to know that my sins are forgiven. Help me to look to you for salvation, and let the light of your face shine upon me. Amen.
Here are a few practical tips for deepening your relationship with the Lord. Read the Bible. It is how we get to know God. A good place to start is the Gospel of John. Seek out christian friends and a church where you can worship God in a community of other believers. May God bless you dear friend.
I hope you have been blessed by Psalm 4 and the accompanying image taken from the Psalm Daily Quotes NIV iPhone app. Please visit our blog, twitter, or Facebook page regularly and pass these posts on to friends that need an encouraging word.
Will RogersAccording to this Will Rogers quote, things sure haven’t changed in Hollywood since 1931, have they? I don’t even have to mention names – all you have to do is look at the tabloid covers at the grocery store to find out about Hollywood marriages.
The tabloids feature all the dirt on breakups, and all the gossip on matchups. Then there are rumors on things that might happen and who was seen with who last week.
One thing that is different from 1931 is Botox. Actually, today they can keep you looking young! The women seem to stay looking young longer than the men, however.
Interestingly, Will Rogers marriage was one of the rare Hollywood marriages that did last. For all his travels, movies and Hollywood friends, Will Rogers was faithful to his beloved wife Betty, with never a hint of scandal.
Image Information: Will Rogers was a strong proponent of commercial aviation. He was friends with many famous aviators including Charles Lindbergh, seen in the picture above.
Will Rogers is a man worth remembering, and quoting. His wit, humor and insight into life will amaze and astonish you. His life will inspire you. Watch for new blog posts from my Will Rogers quotes collection.
I hope you have enjoyed this quote from Will Rogers and the accompanying image taken from the Will Rogers iPhone app. Please visit our blog, twitter, or Facebook page regularly and pass these posts on to friends that might enjoy a bit of wisdom from Will Rogers.
Will Rogers
Will RogersWill Rogers grew up on a ranch near Claremore, Oklahoma where he learned to rope and ride. In his early career horses were part of the act in Wild West shows. Horses were also a part of many of Will Rogers’ movies.
Will kept his own stable at his ranch in Hollywood and built a polo field where he would regularly ride and compete. He made sure that his children learned to rope and ride as well.
I suppose that as Will Rogers saw the automobile take the place of the horse as the primary means of individual transportation, Will thought back through history of the importance of the horse and penned this quote.
Image information: Will Rogers always kept up with current events by reading the newspaper.
The image was taken directly from images at the Will Rogers Memorial Museum archive. I apologize for the quality of the image, but this is exactly what the 1920s photo looked like when I scanned it. In the hundreds of images contained in this iPhone application, I wanted to share as many different Will Rogers photos as possible from as wide a variety of times and situations – movies, cowboy, vaudeville, with famous people, and family scenes.
Will Rogers is a man worth remembering, and quoting. His wit, humor and insight into life will amaze and astonish you. His life will inspire you. Watch for new blog posts from my Will Rogers quotes collection.
I hope you have enjoyed this quote from Will Rogers and the accompanying image taken from the Will Rogers iPhone app. Please visit our blog, twitter, or Facebook page regularly and pass these posts on to friends that might enjoy a bit of wisdom from Will Rogers.
Will Rogers
What could a young lion possibly want. They’re at the top of the food chain! Perhaps it’s the never-ending cycle of want and hunger that the Psalmist mentions – never being satisfied.
I’m a tech guy – always wanting newer and faster computers and gadgets. Can the things of this life cause us to not fear or respect God as we should. They can and they do.
Dear Lord, help me to seek you more each day and to thank you for every good thing that comes from your hand.
I hope you have been blessed by Psalm 34 and the accompanying image taken from the Psalm Daily Quotes ESV iPhone app. Please visit our blog, twitter, or Facebook page regularly and pass these posts on to friends that need an encouraging word.
We don’t have to look far back into history to find oppression of innocent people. The holocaust during WWII certainly comes to mind along with many other cases of the brutal treatment of people whose only crime was being born in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Bible specifically records the oppression of the Jewish people under Pharaoh and Babylon.
We also see in Scripture that the suffering of God’s people did not go unnoticed. That God had a plan and a purpose all along. God would be glorified in the outcome and His people would be set free.
This is a bit hard to see when you are suffering persecution for your beliefs. The headlines today cover persecution of believers in many parts of the world. Some of them pay with their lives.
Some people will not see the day of vindication on this side of heaven, but through it all the Psalmist says the righteous “will give thanks to Your name; The upright will dwell in Your presence.”
Dear Lord, Give me strength to stand firm in my faith in the face of persecution and hard times. Let me learn to give thanks and dwell in your presence daily. Amen
I hope you have been blessed by Psalm 140 and the accompanying image taken from the Psalm Daily Quotes NASB iPhone app. Please visit our blog, twitter, or Facebook page regularly and pass these posts on to friends that need an encouraging word.
When I think of the the “love of God,” I find it easy to let the thought pass without much reflection. Three words that make up a simple, well worn phrase just don’t seem to carry much weight in our culture these days.
Spurgeon’s quote gives us a view of the infinitely vast reach of God’s love, and that exploring it will inflame our hearts. This isn’t just a feel good type of love, or even a truly deep human expressed love. It is so much more; beyond our comprehension.
God’s love is a love that reaches beyond our sin. In Romans 5:8 we read: “God shows his love for us in that ‘while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.'” Think of the most wretched human being, a person who has betrayed you, or a person who hates you. Could you love that person? Would you die for that person so they might live another day? Yet this is what Christ did for us.
Have you ever had a moment where you suddenly realized you had hurt someone deeply. Perhaps you yelled at your spouse or children in a moment of anger. Did you feel the physical effect? Did your heart burn within you? I’ve felt it on occasion.
As we grow in grace and come to more fully realize the depth of our indwelling sin, our heart should burn within us as we understand God’s love and forgiveness reach beyond our sin. Infinitely beyond! This realization should cause us to “long to love him more,” as Spurgeon says.
Dear Lord, Help me to more fully understand your love for me. Your love led Jesus to the cross, and your Holy Spirit brings grace and help every day. Because of what you have done for me, I long to love you more. Amen.
I hope you have been blessed by this quote and the accompanying image taken from the Spurgeon Daily Quotes iPhone app. Please visit our blog, twitter, or Facebook page regularly and pass these posts on to friends that need an encouraging word.
In younger days I was a surfer, and I can tell you that waves can be powerful. Riding across the face of a wave is one of the most exciting things in the world, but when the wave comes crashing down on you all you can do is hold you breath, hang on, and wait until it passes. You can feel the concussion of the crashing water and hear the roar in your ears.
The Psalm 89 excerpt in this quote reminds us that God rules all the power of the sea. He can also still the waters as we know from Mark 4:39. It is a good thing to worship an all-powerful God!
I hope you have been blessed by Psalm 89 and the accompanying image taken from the Psalm Daily Quotes ESV iPhone app. Please visit our blog, twitter, or Facebook page regularly and pass these posts on to friends that need an encouraging word.
Will Rogers is a genius! In February of 1932 he issued this quote as an observation and warning to Congress. It’s so simple: don’t spend money, until you know where it’s coming from. Even a child can figure out that you can’t spend money you don’t have.
Sad thing is, Congress never got the message. With this blog post, I’ll try and send Will’s message again. Here goes:
Hey Congress! “Every time we appropriate something we got to pass another bill along with it stating where the money is coming from.”
Up until I just resent Will’s message, you would have thought that the brilliant money men in the current administration and Congress were drunken sailors throwing money at anything and everything. They call it “stimulus” spending, but the only thing that got stimulated was the federal printing presses that churn out money.
Well, the former Chairman of the Federal Reserve said the stimulus didn’t help the economy, and the current Chairman said he doesn’t know what’s going on or how to fix it. The (formerly tax avoiding) Treasury Secretary is getting ready to jump ship, and the VP said that “just because the stimulus was a monumental failure, doesn’t mean it’s not working.” The President says we need to get used to a “new normal.”
It’s said that a fool is often parted from his money, but in this case, the fools parted us from OUR money! I hope we are able to some day soon send honest folks to Washington with some good old Will Rogers’ common sense before it’s too late.
This picture of Will Rogers entering the seaplane piloted by famous aviator Wiley Post is among the last photographs taken of Rogers before the fatal crash in Alaska on August 15, 1935.
The image was taken directly from pictures at the Will Rogers Memorial Museum archive. I apologize for the quality of the image, but this is exactly what the 1920s photo looked like when I scanned it. In the hundreds of images contained in this iPhone application, I wanted to share as many different Will Rogers photos as possible from as wide a variety of times and situations – movies, cowboy, vaudeville, with famous people, and family scenes.
Will Rogers is a man worth remembering, and quoting. His wit, humor and insight into life will amaze and astonish you. His life will inspire you. Watch for new blog posts from my Will Rogers quotes collection.
I hope you have enjoyed this quote from Will Rogers and the accompanying image taken from the Will Rogers Daily Quotes iPhone app. Please visit our blog, twitter, or Facebook page regularly and pass these posts on to friends that might enjoy a bit of wisdom from Will Rogers.
Don’t you wish you could be as happy and carefree as the sea otter in this picture? God seems to have given these playful creatures an energy and happiness above their fellow creatures. You don’t normally associate happiness with a bear, elk, tiger or walrus, do you?
So it is with us. Some people just seem to be happier. Could it be that people who love righteousness might generally be happier than those who don’t? The Psalmist indicates that the righteous person is favored with gladness from God.
In this fallen world, it is amazing that happiness exists at all. Natural disasters, wars, strife, accidents, and so many other events in our lives seem designed to rob us of any happiness at all. The pursuit of happiness seems a fruitless exercise, sadness a certain curse. Is there any hope?
God has “anointed you with the oil of gladness,” says the Psalmist. Deep happiness, gladness, joy, comes from God. God is the one who can turn back the fallenness and give us hope. This is something that we cannot do on our own.
Consider the life of Jesus. Jesus broke though the fallenness of this world with his healings, teachings and miracles, and most important, his death and resurrection. The Holy Spirit continues the work of redemption today in the lives of believers. Seek the living God today and ask Jesus for the joy and happiness that comes from forgiveness of your sins. With the help of the Holy Spirit you can “love righteousness” too.
Dear Lord, Save me from this fallen world. Help me to find true happiness, no matter what comes my way. Amen.
I hope you have been blessed by Psalm 45 and the accompanying image taken from the Psalm Daily Quotes ESV iPhone app. Please visit our blog, twitter, or Facebook page regularly and pass these posts on to friends that need an encouraging word.
I’m trying to think of times when I was excited about going somewhere. Perhaps a graduation ceremony for one of my kids. I enjoy going to ball games and concerts. A weekend campout is lots of fun.
The anticipation of going somewhere special is a great feeling, isn’t it? When you get there, you are among other people that are as excited as you. Like the penguins in the picture, everyone is headed in the same direction, moving toward the event.
In Psalm 122, the Psalmist expresses gladness in anticipation of going to the house of the Lord. Is it because of the great music, special programs or preaching? Actually, it’s a time to draw near to God as a group of believers. It’s a time to grow more secure in our faith.
Dear Lord, help me to anticipate with gladness the time when I will go to the house of the Lord. Let my visits be frequent, and let my love for you grow as I worship you in the congregation. Amen.
I hope you have been blessed by Psalm 122 and the accompanying image taken from the Psalm Daily Quotes ESV iPhone app. Please visit our blog, twitter, or Facebook page regularly and pass these posts on to friends that need an encouraging word.
Watching various posts, tweets and other social media messages, I see quite a few motivational quotes. They come in the form of “follow your dreams,” “strive to be the best,” “never give up,” “achieve your goals,” “be a winner” and so on.
These pieces of advice can be helpful, but take quite a bit of energy and determination. I have to ask myself, “Do I put as much energy into seeking the Lord as I do other things?”
The Psalmist speaks of rejoicing and praise coming from those who seek Him. The Psalmist also says that God takes thought for the poor and needy.
I admit, it’s easy to quit seeking God and pour my energy into something else. But I need to learn to love His salvation and praise the Lord more and more.
Dear Lord, Please honor my feeble attempts to seek you, and take thought for me. Give me strength and determination to seek you, rejoice and be glad in you, and love your salvation. Amen.
I hope you have been blessed by Psalm 40 and the accompanying image taken from the Psalm Daily Quotes ESV iPhone app. Please visit our blog, twitter, or Facebook page regularly and pass these posts on to friends that need an encouraging word.