May 16th

May 16th -- Psalm 103 (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%20103&version=NLT)

Read to see. I am not summarizing. Too short to bother, and summarizing Psalms is like summarizing poems - that's not done for a reason.

Let all that I am praise the Lord. Not, "Let all I am on Sunday praise the Lord" or "Let all I am when my parents are around praise the Lord" or even "Let all I am when I am at school praise the Lord." Simply, "Let all that I am praise the Lord." This means that no matter where you are, what you are doing, and who you are with, you should be praising God. This can be by sharing the Good News, singing praise songs, using God's talents He gave you, or just intentionally avoiding sin. The point though, is that you don't worship Him 99% of the time, or when it's easy, or when it's not going to endanger opinions of friends - you worship ALL the time so that you worship with ALL of you.
Then, in case reasons why we should weren't clear, a TON are listed in this passage.
For example, He:
-forgives us of sins
-heals diseases
-redeems us from death
-crowns us with love and mercies
-fills life with good things
-gives righteousness and justice
-loves unfailingly
-doesn't constantly accuse (though He has all good reason to)
-doesn't punish us for all our sins, even though that's what we deserve
-removed our sins from us as far as the east is from the west
-etc.
I used that last one as my last one for a reason. HE HAS REMOVED OUR SINS FROM US AS FAR AS THE EAST IS FROM THE WEST. Where ^ is north then > is east and < is west. Now, the distance between < and > ? Well, it's sort of endless. We have all sinned, and deserved eternal Hell (literally) for that. Yet, God has forgotten those because His son has redeemed us, and now our sins are endlessly removed from us.  Wow. Just wow. We're just messed up people, born into and often - knowingly- choosing the path of sin, but HE LOVES US THAT MUCH. I hope that all of me praises Him. I know I mess up, but I want for ALL of me to praise Him, because all is still far less than He deserves, but it's the best I have to give.

God bless! Shalom!

P.S. I have Overflow (a youth retreat) this weekend. I'm staying in a hotel. In theory, it has Wifi, so I should be able to do Fri and Saturday nights' posts while up there (bringing my laptop). However, I may a) not have Wifi or b) not be back until way too late and not have time to do the posts (curfews >.< ). SO, if I CAN I will, but if I CAN'T, I'm not skipping them - just expect three on Sunday night!