Precious Thoughts – Psalm 139 NASB 2 Minute Devotional

Even before my oldest daughter was born, I was thinking about her. So was my wife. After she was born, we spent a lot of time thinking about her, praying for her and caring for her. That’s a lot of thoughts!

If I could add up all those thoughts, I don’t think I could come close to the number represented by the grains of sand in the image on the left.

The Psalmist give us an idea of the vastness of God’s precious thoughts toward us. Before we were even born he was thinking of us. From the day we were born, and every day and night – his thoughts are on his children.

Dear Lord, help me to understand even a small part of your thoughts and care for me, especially in the work of Jesus – his life, his cross, his death and his resurrection!

I hope you have been blessed by Psalm 139 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.

EXTRA!

Below is an extra treat! The Sons of Korah have put Psalm 139 to music. Listen to a sample below and purchase your own copy at the iTunes store by clicking on the button.

Psalm 139 – Rain Album

God is Good – Psalm 145 NIV 2 Minute Devotional

What a glorious Psalm about God’s goodness. To ponder such great goodness, brings about praise as the Psalmist says: “Your saints will extol you.” Not only is God good now, but His goodness extends through all generations and beyond.

Sometimes I struggle with why so many bad things happen to me. Bad things are all around me, death of loved ones, job loss, family strife, natural disasters and so much more. How can God be good if that is the case?

In this fallen world, the real miracle is that anything good can happen at all! The good we see in this life is a glimpse of God’s goodness and love toward us. It is the undoing of the curse of sin. Many times we find that something good comes out of a seemingly bad situation. Even for this we can praise God.

If you look at the life of Jesus, you see the undoing of the effects of sin through healings, mastery over wind and waves, changed hearts and lives, and many other miracles. For the good things Jesus did, what was his reward? He was crucified by evil men.

All the evil in this world could not overcome the goodness of God however. After the crucifixion came the resurrection.

Dear Lord, Show me your goodness, that I might praise you. Save me from this sinful world through the work of Jesus on the cross. Raise me from the dead and give me new life. Amen.

I hope you have been blessed by Psalm 145 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.

Spurgeon on Spurgeon on “Affliction, Grace and Strength” ~ 2 Minute Devotional

Affliction is a relative thing. For some believers it means giving up their lives under severe persecutions. For others, they may loose all their possessions or be thrown in jail. For me, it may be a more trivial affliction, such as a temporary financial problem, relationship difficulty, or health problem.

Whether the affliction is great or small, whether the faith is little or great, God grants “sufficient grace” to carry us through. The result is we find new strength to endure, and a growing faith.

One thing to realize is that this growing strength isn’t like lifting weights, it’s not the result of our own work. Our sin-stained efforts are only effective because of the work of the Holy Spirit in us. It makes grace all the more precious and gives us more reason to praise God for his mercy.

I am always drawn to he cross of Christ as an example. Here was the most extreme affliction of physical suffering a human could be subjected to. In addition to the physical affliction, Christ bore my sins as well. If Jesus did that for me, then he understands my afflictions, and can bring me aid.

Dear Lord, When I am afflicted, help me to understand that you provide sufficient grace to help increase my strength. No matter the circumstance, there is always reason to praise you. 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.

Will Rogers says: “Congress Wants Everybody to go Broke!”

Will RogersThere’s a lot of “Oinking” going on in the halls of Congress. It takes a big hog waller to handle all the pork, so big in fact, that it’s impossible to manage all the hogs. They’re running here and there, squealing and oinking, as Congressmen and aids try to gather them up and ship them back to the home district. Some crooks have been caught stealing hogs by the trainload, but nobody knows how many trainloads are unaccounted for.

Many Congressmen are in the middle of the hog waller, covered in mud, yelling “More Pork! I demand more Pork!” Even the Vice President surfaced from under the mud saying “The first porkulus wasn’t enough! We need more pork to finish the job!”

A massive protest is forming called the “Wild Hog Party.” Folks are concerned that so many hogs have been taken in taxes, that in a few years there won’t be any hogs left at all on the farms. Protest signs are saying: “I gave my hog to the government, and all I got back was two lousy pieces of bacon!”

Someone asked the “Boss Hog” what was in upcoming hog-care legislation. She said: “We need to pass the bill before we can find out what’s in the bill.” “But what if we run out of hogs and go broke trying to pay for everything?” The Boss Hog said, “It’s no problem, we can always print more hogs! Oink, Oink!”

Image Information: The image is of Will Rogers, his wife Betty and their three children.

The image was taken directly from movie stills 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

Benefits of Meekness – Psalm 22 KJV 2 Minute Devotional

I just returned from a quick trip to western Pennsylvania. While trekking through some wooded areas with a friend just above the Allegheny River I noticed quite a number of chipmunks as they would dart into the underbrush. It’s a beautiful area of the country and these humble creatures seem to survive and thrive in the mountain woodlands.

Matching the image of a cute chipmunk with this Psalm seemed appropriate. Humble and meek,  the Lord takes care of His creatures, just as He takes care of us.

Satisfied with Gods provision, we should praise God and continue to seek Him in humility. We should also thank God for His work in other lands as “all the kindred of the nations shall worship” God.

I hope you have been blessed by Psalm 22 and the accompanying image taken from the Psalm Daily Quotes KJV iPhone app. Please visit our blog, twitter, or Facebook page regularly and pass these posts on to friends that need an encouraging word.

iPhone Daily Quotes by SOM – Distinctives

Matching the daily verse with a unique image is the main distinctive of the Daily Psalm and Spurgeon Daily quotes apps.

When I started working on the basic concept of the daily Psalm app on the iPhone two years ago, There were two issues that concerned me. First, was there enough space to store over 365 images, and second, was the screen resolution high enough to render a quality image? I was pleasantly surprised that the answer to both was yes! There was more than enough space, and the images were stunning, even on the small iPhone screen.

Reading through the Psalms for quotes was a joy. From there I needed hundreds of images to work with, and to keep  the cost down, I needed images in the public domain. I found that government websites were loaded with quality images. The credits with each application give a list of the websites if you are interested.

Each image is from some nature setting, and none of them show people or human objects such as roads, fences or houses. The one exception are a few images of the pyramids when the psalm mentions Egypt.

Matching an image with each quote was the next challenge. Images were matched through some keyword, thought or concept whenever possible. The result was that the image gives the verse more meaning. In some cases, the combination is quite stunning. If you go to the product pages, you can see some sample screen shots to fully comprehend what this means.

When the verse mentions “under the shadow of his wings” the images I found, include eagles with outstretched wings, or a small bird in a nest covering her young with her wings. When the verse mentions wine, an image of a grape vine might be used. In some cases the images give a bit of humor when it seems that an animal seems to be talking or gesturing. Beavers, otters, and penguins are some of my favorites.

I hope you enjoy the verses and images each day. Drop me a line and let me know what you think. Rating the application will let other know you have been blessed by the app.

Flourishing in the House of God – Psalm 52 NIV 2 Minute Devotional

What has God done in your life? Anything? If we understand the Bible, everything has purpose and is for God’s glory. Even what we might see as bad things have purpose. God is with us through it all.

In order to truly understand Psalm 52, and praise God as the Psalmist does, we must know God. Jesus made that possible for us. We can know God through his Son!

In this fallen world, the true miracle is that good things can happen to fallen people. In Romans 5:3 it says that “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” The curse of Genesis is reversed, one sinner at a time!

If we have that relationship with Christ we can begin to flourish. We can begin to trust in God’s unfailing love for ever. We can praise him for all he has done for us.

If you want to seek a relationship with God, may I suggest you read the gospel of John in the Bible. Observe how Jesus brings hope to a fallen world, and ask him to bring hope to you as well.

Dear Lord, Help me to know you, that I may flourish in your love. Help me to understand the gospel, the good news of hope that you bring to the world. Amen.

I hope you have been blessed by Psalm 52 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 Rogers on “Who Needs to Pay a Debt?”

Will RogersI don’t know much about banking, bailouts and loans, but when I read that a country is repaying a loan to the U.S. it does seem mighty strange. It was strange in Will Rogers’ day too. We had loaned vast sums of money to European countries after WWI for rebuilding, and we never saw most of it again.

We’re still giving away money – taxpayer money. We learned that money went to bail out foreign banks recently by the billions. Will we ever see any of it again? Will it produce jobs here in the U.S.? Will it help the U.S. get out of debt?

Will Rogers was a guy that believed in common sense. We can only hope (and vote) for some common sense to return back to Washington.

Wait a minute! Did I just put “common sense” and “Washington” in the same sentence? Folks, we’ve got a lot of work to do!

Image Information: Will Rogers was a frequent flyer. When he discovered that air transportation was the fastest way to get places he was constantly in the air. He started in open cockpit airplanes and became a part of the birth of commercial aviation.

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

Will Rogers on “Running the Country & Laughing Hyenas”

Well, the hyenas are laughing these days according to this Will Rogers quote! The current  administration must be full of them. There’s just no other way to explain the mess we’re in.

The problem is that the idea of this being a “good administration” as Will Rogers says seems to be nothing more than an illusion. When you pull back the curtain, or even casually look into the facts we find that the Washington rhetoric doesn’t match reality.

The spin they try to put on their policies provides more material than a good humorist can possibly keep up with. Take this quote from our Vice President: “Just because the Recovery Act was a monumental failure, does not mean that it is not working.” Or how about when the former Speaker of the House said that “We need to pass this bill so we can find out what’s in it.”

We can only hope that the laughing hyenas in this “great administration” don’t cause more damage before the next election. If the “breaks” are with us, perhaps the next administration will bring back some good old common sense to government and the laughing hyenas can go laugh somewhere else.

Image Information Will Rogers is pictured on a movie set. Over his career, Will Rogers starred in 48 silent films and 21 movies with sound (talkies). At the time of his death in 1935 he was one of the top box office draws, second only to a very young Shirley Temple.

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.

Psalm 2:7 Psalm Daily Quote KJV for iPhone

Psalm Daily Quote KJV
From a Friend

Psalm 2  ⁷I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.

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I Cried Out to God for Help – Psalm 77 NIV 2 Minute Devotional

As I read through the Psalms, it always amazes me how instinctive it is for the Psalmist to passionately set his thoughts and prayers upon God, no matter what the circumstances. My instinct is to try to figure out how to deal with the situation first, then ask God for help.

The Psalmist says: “I remembered you, O God.” Remembering comes from several places. The most important is God’s word. As we read, study and meditate on God’s word, it becomes part of us, part of our memories. This helps us to respond to situations from God’s perspective.

Remembering also comes from recalling how God has worked in our life, and the lives of others. For that we can continually praise Him, especially for salvation through Jesus, God’s son!

Dear Lord, Help me to grow in grace each day. Let my instinct be to turn to you for help in every situation, and let your praise be on my lips for all you have done for me. Amen.

I hope you have been blessed by Psalm 77 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.

Acceptable in thy Sight – Psalm 19 ASV 2 Minute Devotional

I love peaceful scenes like the one in the picture. A glassy lake, the ocean in the morning, fog settling over the mountaintops, a quiet evening at sunset are the times I remember.

With the busyness of life we enjoy the peaceful times that God gives us. As I have time to relax and enjoy a quiet moment I try to remember and be thankful to God for his blessings and provision.

In the peaceful times, and even in the hectic ones, may the words of my mouth and meditation of my heart be acceptable in God’s sight. I am so thankful he is my rock and my redeemer.

I hope you have been blessed by Psalm 19 and the accompanying image taken from the Psalm Daily Quotes ASV iPhone app. Please visit our blog, twitter, or Facebook page regularly and pass these posts on to friends that need an encouraging word.

Give Thanks! – Psalm 109 ESV 2 Minute Devotional

Why do we thank people? Normally it’s because they have done something for us and we feel some debt of gratitude. We should say “thank you” much more often – to our spouse, children, friends, pastor and others for what they do for us.

It is especially true that we should thank God more often. As Psalm 109 says, we should give “great thanks” to the lord. We should also understand that we are the “needy one” and God has saved us from death.

I love this picture of “Mr. Beaver.” It looks like it came from a Disney movie. With a raised paw he seems to be admonishing us to “Give thanks to God! Give thanks!”

I hope you have been blessed by Psalm 109 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.

Walk Blameless Before God – Psalm 119 ESV 2 Minute Devotional

How much is integrity worth? It’s hard to say, but if we are truthful and honest in our business, social and family life, we can walk blameless before the Lord. Those around us will also be blessed.

How much is lack of integrity worth? Judging from some of the huge corporate and investment frauds in recent years, it can run into huge amounts of money. The persons responsible usually go to jail, and countless investors lose their money.

Dear Lord, help me to seek you with all my heart, and walk blameless before you, and before others, that you may be honored and others may be blessed.

The butterfly in the image is a small creature, however it’s beauty is large, and pleasing to our eye. If we walk blameless in even the small things, perhaps our good works will be large before God, and pleasing to others.

I hope you have been blessed by Psalm 119 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.