a thread

Stay on the path that the Lord your God has commanded you to follow. Deuteronomy 5:33a



Psalm 128

1 How joyful are those who fear the LORD;

  all who follow his ways!

2 You will enjoy the fruit of your labor.

  How joyful and prosperous you will be!

3 Your wife will be like a fruitful grapevine,

  flourishing within your home.

Your children will be like vigorous young olive trees

  as they sit around your table.

4 That is the LORD's blessing

  for those who fear him.


5 May the LORD continually bless you from Zion.

  May you see Jerusalem prosper as long as you live.

6 May you live to enjoy your grandchildren.

  May Israel have peace!



2 John

vs 5b ...we should love one another.

This is not a new commandment,

     but one we had from the beginning.

6 Love means doing what God has commanded us,

     & He has commanded us to love one another...


8 Watch out, so you do not lose the prize for which you have been working so hard.

     Be diligent so that you will receive your full reward.



It was on January 1, 2003 that God started waking me up early each day - 12 years ago.

It took me two weeks to finally ask if He was trying to say something to me.

(I'm a slow learner!)

He very clearly dropped this thought into my head - "Get up & read."

I did, & have been ever since. I don't remember the last time I didn't.

After about 6 weeks I discovered I could not NOT get up - reading every day had become the most vital, vibrant lifeline to God of anything - ANYTHING - I'd experienced with Him.

Of course, reading every day has wrecked my life.

God continues to put His finger on the very last parts of my life I want Him to call attention to.

He's gotten me to do things, & NOT do things, I would NEVER have dreamed I would do or not do.

Many people in my life complain about not knowing what to do & God never telling them anything.

I can't seem to get Him to shut up! ;-)

Since I'm going to be cremated when I die - no, I'm not making an announcement! - & have my ashes scattered in various places, I won't be needing a tombstone.

But if I was going to have one, I'd have carved in there these words...

"Read the Bible every day, without fail."


Today is the last day of 2014 - a crazy year.

I've been reading the Bible every day now for 12 years. I know the places I read today were not just a coincidence.

In the first place I read today, the last verse of the OT book came the direct mandate: "Stay on the path..."

Then in the psalm I'm scheduled to read it says, "Those who follow will be joyful & fruitful".

And then in the NT reading comes "doing what God commands us means loving people" & "watch out! don't screw this up or you'll lose what you've been working toward."


Mere coincidence I read all that on one morning?

     which also happened to be on New Year's Eve, as we face another new year?


I don't think so.


I know those passages were specifically for me today. I've been at this too long to believe otherwise.

They also might be for you.


Stay on the path, & joy & fruitfulness will follow, but be on guard bc if we don't, that which we've been working toward will slip away.


Not a coincidence I read that this morning, not a coincidence you're reading this now.

Think about it today...