Believe Better Ministries

Psalms by RB 32

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PSALM 32

O God, You are my God,
I sing praise to Your holy name,

You are my Lord,
I will sing Your praise

When I wake in the morning,
Your praise shall be on my lips,

When I rest at mid day,
Your praise shall be on my tongue,

When I sit for the evening meal,
I will life my voice to praise You,

When I lay on my bed at night,
I shall praise You in the darkness,

You are my Lord,
I will sing Your praise

LORD, I will sing Your praise at all times,
My God what else can I do?

Who deserves my praise more than You?
What is there to worship other than You?

LORD, I offer all myself as sacrifice
My whole self to worship You,

You are my Lord,
I will sing Your praise

Father, I worship You
You are my God,

Jesus I worship You
You are my God,

Spirit I worship You
You are my God,

LORD, I will worship You at all times,
I will sing Your worship all the days of my life.

A New Year’s Thought – 2016

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2016 is upon us. A lot has happened to me over this last year. I have changed some goals in my life and made some important new ones, but really my thoughts at the New Year always turn to the past. I said the same thing last year. “Is the year really over?” I think to myself. Yes it is and I should glorify God in that not complain how fast the time is starting to go. Time speeds up as you get older because so much more of it is already in the past, but the Lord knows this and takes us through it.

We should be looking forward to His glorious return! That is where our eyes should be fixed. Maybe this year, maybe this very month or maybe, even, today He will return. This is where our focus should be. Otherwise the Lord said that the day shall come as a thief in the night. To that end I want to keep my focus not only on the future but on God. I want every iota of my focus on God throughout the whole day, every day.

A friend of mine challenged me with something that is apparently going around the Christian Blogosphere: “The 365 Prayer Challenge”. (For 2016 that will have to be “The 366 Prayer Challenge”.) The challenge is one that no blogger would misunderstand write 365 (or 366 this year) prayers out. One for each day. At the end of the year post them in either a PDF or some other downloadable format, or straight to the blog. This challenge is to keep your focus on God throughout the whole year of 2016.

I want to do it. I want to keep my focus on God 24/7/366 for the year of 2016. I am also challenging you out there in the Blogosphere and Podosphere. Write down a prayer every day, there is no length requirements, just pray. I will be posting mine as a PDF attached to my New Year’s thought for 2017.

Let’s make 2016 the year of Prayer!

Psalms by RB 31

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PSALM 31

LORD JESUS, the cry of my heart rings out
Father, God, I wish to have a strong relationship with You,

My Lord, my God, I yearn for You
My Father, my Savior, I long for Your presence in my life

O LORD, the God of my fathers this is my deepest desire
Only through You may I attain it,

Through the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, I may know You
Through Your Sacrifice I may stand before You,

Without Him, there could be no hope
Without Him, I would not know You,

LORD, I seek every day a closer relationship
You are my goal and my desire,

To walk after You
To seek after Your ways,

O LORD, the God of my fathers this is my deepest desire
Only through You may I attain it.

Psalms by RB 30

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PSALM 30

I stand in the midst of pain
But in the LORD I find refuge,

I live in the midst of struggle
But in Jesus I have strength,

The LORD is my refuge
God is my shelter,

In Him my soul finds rest
My body finds safety and sleep,

The LORD has placed His hand around me
Who can take anything from his grasp?

Through the blood of Christ Jesus
I have been declared righteous,

If God is for me
Who can stand against me?

The LORD, most high, has secured my way
Through conformation with the Son,

God has made the path
Through the sacrifice of Jesus,

He shall guide me
And my way shall be sure.

Psalms by RB 29

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PSALM 29

LORD, my God, I am drowning
The tide of life rushes over me,

The Things of this life are not under my control,
LORD, I have no power to control these circumstances,

But LORD, I know who is in control,
Father, I know who has the power in ever circumstance,

The great and mighty One,
The all powerful God of the universe,

The One who said the world “Be”
And the world became,

The One who made all things,
LORD, You are in control,

LORD, I fall before You,
I bow myself to the ground at Your feet,

I ask that you would pluck me out of my trouble
Lift me from the very midst of my strife

Yet, LORD, not my will be done,
But Your will be done,

LORD, I beg that You take this cup from me,
That You would take it from my hand,

LORD GOD, I pray not my will be done,
But Your will be done,

LORD JESUS, I seek that You would remove this burden,
Take this yoke from my shoulders

Father, not my will be done,
But Your will be done,

LORD, You are in control,
I will rest in You

Daily Bible Reading Adventure

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Well today I started an adventure, with my wife. We are reading The Daily Bible published by Harvest House. The layout was designed and a devotional commentary was written by F. Lagard Smith. I’ve my copy of it for a while and I read a good portion of it. The actual text of the Bible is NIV (1984 ed.) which I have read several times and had used (as it was the translation of my main Bible for a time before I started using the ESV more). So as far as the text of the Bible itself it is using a solid translation and I am not here to debate translation.

What I am here to write about is the journey of the way that this Bible is laid out. It is laid out without verse and chapter numbers in the text, as it is trying to encourage reading, and it is laid out in chronological order. This means that some books appear in different locations or the text of some books appears one after the other. This is most apparent in Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles where we have many books being woven together. The Prophets are placed at the time at which their prophecies were given and many of the Psalms are placed at the time that they were written.

It is also very apparent in the Gospels and Acts. In the Gospels we have the four Gospels being woven together into a Harmony (for more on Gospel Harmony click here). A Gospel Harmony is something that the Church has been trying to put together since the early days (about the second century with the Diatessaron) and this Bible presents one version of a harmony. Acts is a very interesting versions with the Epistles of Paul being laid out in their place in Paul’s life.

All of that really is beyond the point that I’m trying to make. I enjoy reading. I read a lot! This Bible lends itself to that very much. In the margins of next to the text it gives the references of the text that you are reading so that you can easily reference any passage that you are reading. The commentary devotional doesn’t take you out of the passage but it helps to bring your focus to what you are reading. Personally I really like the layout. I’m really enjoy the experience of reading this Bible and the experience is different. The books aren’t laid out in the typical manner (for any tradition) and so it makes a very good way to make the text new and fresh again.

I would highly recommend this to anyone who wants to make the Bible new again or to anyone who is just looking for a way to read the Bible and keep at it. As the title says the readings are broken up by day and it makes it easy to read through the Bible in a year. This is a great addition to anyone’s library and will reinvigorate anyone’s reading experience. I recommend it for anyone and everyone.

Christmas Thought – 2015

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Today is the day to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ. Christmas really is a weird time. It was chosen by the Roman Catholic Church to bring in all the pagans who were already practicing a festival on that day. So as we all know Jesus wasn’t really born on Christmas day. It really is as good a day to celebrate as any other, arbitrary, day.

But putting aside all this for a second I look at Christmas for Christmas’ sake. What is the purpose of Christmas? In all honesty I grew up in a household that, although Christian, did not celebrate Christmas. (No, we were not JWs.) So as something that I do celebrate now with my wife and daughter, I have to ask that question. In today’s Christianity what purpose does Christmas have?

Sadly, for a lot of people, it means they go to church (for the first time since Easter) hear all about the virgin birth and (maybe) a gospel message, then they go home. Later on Christmas day they open presents they’ve been worked all year to buy. In this hypothetical person’s life consumerism has obviously taken the lead in Christmas. Is this what Christmas is about? Blatant and unabated consumerism? For others it is all about balancing out their imaginary scales of right and wrong, the scales of karma, if you will. Volunteering, baking, helping others, giving gifts (consumerism again), and spending time (read putting up with) family top the list of things that add positive karma.

Is any of that Christmas? Pastors over the years have come up with many great sermons as to the “Biblical Christmas” or the “Message of Christmas” but I ask you to find in the Bible where it actually talks about Christmas. Yes the “Christmas Story” is there at or near the beginning of three of the four Gospels, but that is missing the point. The Bible is silent on all of our holidays.

Christmas’ purpose? We can read in Matthew of His birth and the visit of the wise men (which was not on the day of His birth). We can read another account of His birth and the visit of the shepherds (which disproves a winter date) in Luke. But these do not readily point out the purpose of Christmas. I think the Gospel that has a “Christmas Story” that points out its purpose the best is John’s Gospel. In the prologue to John’s Gospel (John 1:1–18) John gives a summary of the whole Gospel.

John shows us how God came to earth to take away the sin of the world and allow believers to become children of God. Some have said that the Gospel of John does not have a Christmas story, much like the Gospel of Mark. I, however, think it has one of the most complete Christmas stories, without having to read the whole Gospel through to figure it out. It even mentions His birth (“And the Word became flesh” verse 14).

We briefly touched on its purpose, but really Christmas has no meaning without the cross and resurrection. Jesus could have come all the same way He did and without the cross and resurrection it would mean nothing. That is what I am remembering this Christmas season and I hope you will too. As you spend time with family and give and receive gifts I pray you will remember Christmas’ purpose. That all the sin of the whole world was taken away once and for all and whoever believes in Jesus as their savior will have eternal life.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Quick Update for Newsletter – Prayer Requests

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I just have a quick update for the Newsletter. This update is about prayer, more specifically prayer requests. We, at Believe Better Ministries, are always open to praying for you when ever you want us to. That being said we would also like to open it up to the rest of the Community that has started following our Blog and those who have already signed up for the Newsletter.

If you ever have a prayer request feel free to e-mail it to us at BelieveBetter[dot]Ministries[at]gmail[dot]com we will always pray for you! If it is a more of a confidential prayer request, feel free to tell us so. If it is even more confidential but you still would like prayer you can always e-mail me, RB, and I will pray for you. You can e-mail me at BelieveBetter[dot]89[at]gmail[dot]com.

But again we want to open this up to the community and spread the prayer. If you haven’t signed up for the newsletter yet, you can do so by clicking the link on the right at the top of the sidebar. And over the next two months (because our first issue is coming out in January) we will be collecting prayer requests to go out to everyone who subscribes.

Thank You!

__
RB

Upcoming Plans

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Hello everyone, from Believe Better Ministries!

As we come up on Thanksgiving (in the United States) and Christmas there are a lot of things that I am currently working on. The first thing that comes to mind is the Christmas Thought for this year. I am planning on making it a tradition that I post a Thought (more information on exactly what that means later) for New Years, Easter and Christmas – at least – any other Thoughts will be posted but those three days will get special thoughts. (Some years they may not be thoughts but full essays, we’ll see.)

I am continuing through my punch list of things that I am working on. This includes Ruth, Jude and all the others on my list. I’ve also got a few new things in the pipes for the upcoming year. The first of which is the Believe Something Better Newsletter. This is the premier newsletter from Believe Better Ministries and will be coming out monthly. It will either be at the end or beginning of the month (that is to be decided later) and it will feature articles that have already been posted or new articles Thoughts as well as poems and other nuggets. One thing that is on my heart is prayer and I am hoping to have a section in the newsletter where we can include prayer requests. I will be praying for them and I hope other readers will be as well. The first issue of this will be coming out in January but you can sign up now by clicking the link over on the right had side of the page.

This links to the second new thing coming down the pipes for 2016 and that is the Believe Something Better Podcast. This will be a monthly podcast that will feature similar content to the Newsletter but will be rolled out more like a radio show. I plan to have as much content being put into your hands as possible. I have ideas going into the recording for the first episode already.

Finally on the agenda for this post is that Believe Better Ministries is looking for volunteers. We are looking for editors for works that will be coming down the pipes in the future, as well as (possibly) producers for the podcast, and we would are looking for someone to take over the formatting and publishing the newsletter. If you feel called to any of these positions – remember that they are volunteer positions – please don’t hesitate to get in touch with Believe Better Ministries through e-mail at BelieveBetter.Ministries@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you. (On a side note as I am connected with Breath of God Ministries I know that they are currently looking for volunteers as well you can e-mail them at TheBOGMinistries@gmail.com to find out more information.)

Finally: What is a Thought? A Thought is what I am calling a short writing (or micro essay) that I have made on any given subject. It could be something that I write a longer piece on later or it could be something that I’ve already written on but have a new idea. Really it is what I am calling my little ramblings and ideas that come to me as I study the word of the Lord.

Thanks!

––
RB May IV
Leader of Believe Better Ministries

Thoughts on a Father’s Love

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I have been contemplating a father’s love recently because my wife and I just recently welcomed our daughter into the world. It is truly amazing how much I love this little person that has done nothing for me but cried, kept me up at night, made it hard for me to get out of my door, and made a larger financial burden on me. I love her more than words can ever express, and yet this points out to me how much more the Lord loves us.

Verses like John 3:16 point it out in my mind. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16 BOGV) God loved us so much he gave up His one and only Son. We didn’t deserve for God to do this. We didn’t deserve it at all. This is the situation my little girl was in when she was born. She didn’t deserve anything from me. She hadn’t earned anything yet, but I loved her still. The emotions that went through me and struck me to the core couldn’t be changed.

It makes me think of the song How Deep the Father’s Love for Us. The words resonate in my spirit. “How deep the Father’s love for us, How vast beyond all measure, That He should give His only Son, To make a wretch His treasure” That is what the Lord thought of us. He loved us so much that He gave His only Son to redeem us. He didn’t do it because we deserved it, or had earned it but because He simply loved us that much. Our Triune God loved us so much that He fully gave His own life on the cross for our eternal destinies. That is what the Lord has been showing me in this brand new experience of becoming a father.