Wednesday, August 27, 2014

BCJ, TWGITW, A New Day, and Thanksgiving Holidays and Occasions (Aug.27.2014a)

BCJ, TWGITW, and A New Day (Aug.27.2014a) (Blessings Counted Journaling, Time with God in the Word, and a New Day)

2014-08-27 07:15:59, Wednesday

Good, beautiful, and glorious morning, Lord. I am up a little earlier and have actually gotten moving a little earlier. My goal today is to have time with You in the Bible, as well as in prayer, and reflect over my life and what You have done, are doing, and will do.

2014-08-27 08:15:30

516 B and I had some special time this morning before he headed to work.

517 God, this is our time now. (Yay!)

Psalm 118:17 New Living Translation (NLT)

17 I will not die; instead, I will live
to tell what the Lord has done.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. (518)

Amen and amen!

519 Just sent Mom an email.

Psalm 118:17 has won my heart. I will live to share what You, God, have done in my life, around my life, and through my life.

520 The blessings I count are the ones I see, notice, and observe. Therefore, they do not have to happen to me. They can happen to those in my life and around my life. I can count the blessings of Your creation as well. This is truly a blessing. It means I can count even more blessings. A blessing is a glory sighting and is how You show me favor.

521 Help my mom get a job. I thank You in advance for her permanent full-time job.

522 I thank You for how You used my husband yesterday.

I love You, Abba.

523 B and I had a good workout last night.

Isaiah 26:3 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

3 You will keep the mind that is dependent on You
in perfect peace,
for it is trusting in You.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

Amen. I want to pray on this verse, and ponder it, throughout my day today.

TIME WITH GOD IN THE WORD: PSALM 120-122 and 1 CORINTHIANS 9

2014-08-27 08:44:50

Read some and highlighted on:

https://www.biblegateway.com/.

Had to take care of laundry, got some more coffee, moved from family room to study.

2014-08-27 09:26:17

My highlights and notes did NOT save from my reading. (Seriously? Argh! And triple ugh!)

Let's try this again. It's the little things that can be the most annoying, have you noticed that? Trying to re-group. There's a reason why it was lost...

I started over and checked to see if they were being saved on BibleGateway.com and discovered they disappeared again. What on earth? (Trying not to curse or get frazzled or frustrated.)

I decided to check my highlights, notes, and annotations found here:

https://www.biblegateway.com/user/annotations/

And, guess what? Most of them were suddenly there. Thank You, Jesus! (525)

Psalm 120:1 is a really good verse and speaks to me right now.

Psalm 120:1 New Century Version (NCV)

A psalm for going up to worship.

120 When I was in trouble, I called to the Lord,
and he answered me.

New Century Version (NCV)

Then, this chapter and passage spoke even more to me. Yes. I want to ponder these verses and pray them throughout the day today as well.

Psalm 121 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

A Song of Ascents.

121:1 I will lift up my eyes to the mountains;
From where shall my help come?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.
3 He will not allow your foot to slip;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, He who keeps Israel
Will neither slumber nor sleep.

5 The Lord is your keeper;
The Lord is your shade on your right hand.
6 The sun will not smite you by day,
Nor the moon by night.
7 The Lord will protect you from all evil;
He will keep your soul.
8 The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in
From this time forth and forever.

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

535 Verse 8 is what I will pray over and ponder the most.

536 Emailed with Mom.

537 Still in my pajamas and loving it.

538 One load of laundry done. Check.

Now, wait a minute. Look at this verse:

Psalm 122:4 GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)

4 All of the Lord’s tribes go to that city
because it is a law in Israel
to give thanks to the name of the Lord.

GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)

It is a LAW in Israel to offer in the name of God THANKS.

It's the law to give thanks.

It's the law to count your blessings given to you by God.

Whoa. I need to let that roll around in my brain for a moment. Law--thanks. This is quite profound.

How is it the law?

Psalm 122:4 Expanded Bible (EXB)

4 The tribes [C the twelve tribes of Israel] go up there,
the tribes who belong to the Lord.
It is the ·rule [decree; testimony] in Israel
to ·praise [L thank the name of] the Lord at Jerusalem.

Expanded Bible (EXB)

Psalm 122:4 New Living Translation (NLT)

4 All the tribes of Israel—the Lord’s people—
make their pilgrimage here.
They come to give thanks to the name of the Lord,
as the law requires of Israel.

New Living Translation (NLT)

Now, I want to do some research on that verse and law. Give me one moment...

This is where I'm doing my research--at Biblehub.com:

http://biblehub.com/psalms/122-4.htm (542)

Read what this source says:

Pulpit Commentary
Verse 4. - Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord. This points to a time before the dispersion of "the tribes," which rendered such regular "going up" impossible. Unto the testimony of Israel; rather,as a testimony unto Israel - a witness to the whole nation that all Israelites had covenant privileges at Jerusalem. To give thanks unto the Name of the Lord. The three great feasts whereto Israel was bound to "go up" were all of them seasons of thanksgiving. (Source: http://biblehub.com/psalms/122-4.htm) (543)

Three feasts of Thanksgiving were celebrated each year. Interesting.

We only celebrate one...

The three feasts of Thanksgiving were/are:

Deuteronomy 16:16 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

16 “All your males are to appear three times a year before the Lord your God in the place He chooses: at the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks, and the Festival of Booths. No one is to appear before the Lord empty-handed.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

Other sources for Psalm 122:4:

http://biblehub.com/commentaries/psalms/122-4.htm (551)

The next occasions for these feasts are:

The Feast of Booths (aka Sukkot or The Feast of Tabernacles) is October 08-15, 2014. See this link for more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukkot.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread (aka Passover) is April 03-11, 2015. See this link for more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passover.

The Feast of Weeks (aka Shavuot) is May 23-25, 2015. See this link for more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shavuot.

Those are blessings 552, 553, and 554.

Since that was a time the Hebrews were to go to Jerusalem to celebrate those feasts and offer thanksgiving to God, I think I will incorporate them into my life as well and dedicate myself to focusing all the more to giving thanks and counting my blessings at those times, plus the month of Thanksgiving (555). Then, December for giving thanks for Jesus (556) and to remember what He has done over the last year is another thing to focus on in December (557). January then marks a time to thank god and plan out the next year of giving thanks (558).

Why not take every occasion possible to mark a time of focusing on giving thanks? Can we ever do this enough? (2014-08-27 10:55:07)

Wow. What a neat concept.

Yearly Celebrations of Thanksgiving

The New Year
Valentine's Day

The Feast of Unleavened Bread (Passover)

Lent

Easter

The Feast of Weeks

Memorial Day

July 4th

The Feast of Booths

November in general with highlights of:

Veteran's Day

Thanksgiving

December in general with highlights of Pentecost, Advent, Christmas, and counting thanks for the last year)

Plus birthdays of family and anniversaries.

Wow. I want to think on this for a while.

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