What a marvelous promise verse to carry with us throughout this day!  The Scriptures promise us that if we are planted in the house of the Lord we SHALL flourish in the courts of our God.  Years ago, I had a philodendron plant given to me when we moved to my husband’s first church staff position in California.  I placed it in front of the sliding glass doors of my new home.  Within one year, I had repotted the plant twice and it had grown tremendously.  When we had to leave for seminary in another state, I transported that plant over the mountain to my mother’s home.  Several years later, when we returned to visit my parents, I was amazed.  That plant had so flourished in front of her sliding glass door that it reached almost to the ceiling of her dining room.  It was lush and green and nearly ten times its original size.  When we received the Lord Jesus as our Savior and were given His marvelous gift of salvation, God planted us into the household of faith.  There He nourished us and set us to bask in the sunlight of His love and watered our souls with His living Word.  If we receive that nourishment and delight in His love and care, we will certainly grow in the Lord.  We will be given the privilege of gracing His earthly home and ministering in His church where He has planted us.  Then one day the summons will be given for us to move on just over the mountain top, into His celestial home where all the family of God will gather someday.  Here is the wonderful promise: there we shall (absolutely will) flourish!  As much as we can grow here on earth, we will not know our full growth until we are in the courts of Heaven.  There we will be everything God intended for us to be.  There life will be perfect, the sunlight of His love will constantly warm us and all conditions will be beyond our every dream.  The promise is real and it is sure.  God has planted us into His household of faith and we will flourish in the courts of Heaven.  Wouldn’t it be exciting if we could so please our Heavenly Father while here on earth that we would flourish where we have been planted!  The original Hebrew word for flourish in this verse means to "break forth as a bud, to bloom and spread."  One of the beautiful sights of Spring is the blossoming of certain trees.  The blossoms are fragrant and lovely, but part of their beauty is the promise they bring of the spreading forth of the tree with new growth and the harvest of fruit to follow.  Our Christian lives begin as lovely unfolding buds of blossom.  Our flowering should give a fragrance of grace and joy to all who behold our Christian walk.  Let us pray that we will be fruit bearing Christians, spreading forth our testimonies and lives to affect others for Christ.  May there be growth in our lives and in the lives of others because we are willing to be fruitful boughs for Christ.  God will constantly make available for us everything we need for growth.  It is our decision whether to take it all in and then stretch forth our branches and grow to our fullest potential here on earth.  Another emphasis of meaning in the Hebrew word for flourish is to "make fly, as extending the wings."  What a lovely analogy!  God wants us to spread our spiritual wings and fly above the ordinary walk of life!  That philodendron plant years ago always gave me pleasure.  Let us give our Father pleasure today!

Sometimes it seems that our mind is so filled with thoughts that we are weighed down with a multitude of thoughts.  Perhaps we have so much to do at once that our mind seems to run to and fro.  Perhaps we are concerned about a loved one and every moment is occupied with thoughts of that person.  Perhaps a major problem has filled our minds and we think of all the solutions and all the consequences.  Perhaps it is business or a project and all the hundred and one details that we need to accomplish.  The list could go on and on.  When I was in college, we used to study so much for finals that we said we had a "brainache."  Today they might call it a power over load.  Think of all the consequences a multitude of thoughts could bring: depression, anxiety, fear, loneliness, despair, confusion, total preoccupation with thoughts and not reality.  While it is good and proper to have our minds active and filled with thoughts, without the Holy Spirit’s control we would be in trouble.  When the thoughts build up, ready to overwhelm us, how wonderful it is to have the Holy Comforter to give delight to our soul.  He will set all the thoughts in order, He will help us see solutions, He will direct our prayers of concern, He will give us peace in the midst of turmoil, He will keep us in touch with reality.  All the different responsibilities of life should never overwhelm us if we stop in the midst of our thoughts and recognize God’s comforts.  One of His amazing comforts is the realization He gives to us that when something is just too much for us, we can give it to God.  If the problem seems to get bigger and bigger and occupies your every thought, give it to Jesus, cast it on His care.  He can handle it much better than we ever could anyway.  With that giving, as a truly unequal exchange, God will flood our soul with sweet comfort.  I can remember a problem I had to face once that nearly overwhelmed me.  Even though I said I was trusting the Lord with it, my every moment was filled with a multitude of thoughts concerning the problem and I was becoming physically ill.  Then, finally, I realized that I had not totally abandoned the problem to the Lord.  In much tears and prayers, I laid it at His feet.  Then with sweet relief His comfort flooded my soul.  The problem was still there, but now I had given the controls and authority over to the One with all authority.  It was the same problem, but I was changed.  Life went on and, amazingly, I gained new insights and victories in that very situation.  My soul was delighted as I realized the truth I had professed all along: my God is real, real in my soul!  Is something filling your mind with a multitude of thoughts today?  Is it concern for a loved one or a problem, things you need to accomplish or just too much to do at once?  Give it to Jesus, He is the only One who can change hearts, solve problems correctly and order our priorities.  Let His sweet comforts delight your soul as you allow Him to be your Master and Lord.  He made our minds and He delights to use them aright.  Let Him direct your thoughts so that they are a delight to Him!

When we are saved, our lives are to be lived as an honor to the Lord.  Not only is it because The Lord is great and greatly to be praised (Psalm 96:4), but it is because of what He has done for us.  Our gratitude should impel service and reverence.  It is also true that we need to honor the Lord just because of who He is.  All of Psalm 96 speaks of this important responsibility we have of showing forth praise to the Lord from day to day (verse 2).  We are to declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people (verse 3).  It is our privilege to declare the wonders of the Almighty God because we know Him!  Think of the magnificence of it all!  You and I, just humble little people, acquainted with the Creator of all the Earth and given the responsibility of being His ambassadors to the world!  Now that is shouting ground!  Least we take the responsibility lightly, we are reminded to pause and consider who this God is and what He is like.  The Psalmist tells us: He is great, to be feared, He shall reign and judge the earth and its people, and He has all honor, majesty, strength, beauty and glory.  We need to be constantly aware of Who we serve!  Our verse for today specifically tells us to bring an offering into God’s courts and give Him the glory due to His name.  The Lord does not require us to bring offerings of animals or other sacrifices.  What He does want is the offering of our lives.  Romans 12:1 says: I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.  God wants His children to give their all to Him.  He wants us to lay ourselves at His heavenly altar, in the courts of prayer, for His use and glory.  Only when we do that can our lives bring honor and glory to His name.  To so live our lives for the glory of the Lord should help us to make those important life decisions that will determine the quality of the "life" offering we have to make to Him.  Many families have a "black sheep," someone who just does not live up to the honor of their family name.  They are still a part of the family and doubtless the others love them, but they have lived their lives in such a way as to bring disgrace on themselves and in so doing, often disgrace their family name.  Let us not be "black sheep" of God’s family in any way.  Let us live our lives in such a way that everything we do will bring honor unto the name of Jesus.  Next time we are tempted, let us remember Whose name and Whose reputation we are representing.  Lord, may I never cease to remember Who You are and what You have done for me.  I want to live my life in such a way that it will honor Your holy name.  Truly You deserve all glory.  Help me to give You myself as an offering.  And, Lord, don’t let it just be a one time offering, but a day to day giving of myself, my thoughts, my love, my plans, my time.  Let me give it all to you.  Lord, I give You "today" as a starter.  Make my "today" an offering acceptable to You.  And, Lord, please remind me of my commitment tomorrow.

How often do we tell our children, "Say no to sin and yes to God!"  Now, in this verse, God the Father is telling us the same thing.  We need to read the first phrase of the verse as a command: "You that say you love the Lord, you are to hate evil."  It is a holy command, it is a requirement of discipleship.  If we say that we love the Lord, we must hate evil.  We are not just to dislike evil, not just be frightened of its consequences, but we must truly HATE evil.  Does evil sometimes tempt you?  The answer is probably, and most truthfully, "Yes, sometimes it does."  Don’t feel strange, all we who are called Christian have the same problem.  We know that all sin is evil and are reminded by the Apostle John that if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (I John 1:8)  We are all tempted, we all sin, all sin is evil, we are all in the same boat.  We need to strengthen ourselves against sin’s evil temptations.  We need to HATE sin and everything connected with it to such an extent that we will not listen to its tempting voice.  If someone that you did not trust, someone of shady character came and whispered to you to come away with him, you would not listen.  But if your husband or best friend asked the same thing, you would gladly go.  Why do we often listen to the shady character called Satan, when he asks us to go with him, even if just for a few blocks.  How is it we can so easily ignore the clear callings of the Lord when He prompts us to walk in His ways.  We need to HATE evil and LOVE the Lord.  If we do both, then we will be able to more readily follow the Lord’s sweet callings that are always there even as the devil whispers his invitations.  Our verse also implies that if you do not hate evil, your love for the Lord is not what it should be.  How much of evil should we hate?  Every hint of evil, every outworking, every manifestation.  That would extend even to hating the evil in our own lives.  It is often easy to see the evil in the world in general or even in the actions of others, but it takes real humility and honest evaluation to see it in ourselves.  We must be so in love with the Lord that we are willing to be objective with our own lives.  If there is any root of bitterness, we must ask God to dig it out of our hearts.  If there is any envy, we must forsake it.  If there is any habit that is not pure, lovely and of a good report, we must replace it with that which is altogether of virtue.  We must be careful not to rationalize sin and give it other names.  The modern world will always give us an excuse or label for that which God calls sin.  Their names are candy coated and full of justifications.  They let us tell ourselves, "I can’t help the way I am," or "This won’t really harm me."  We need to hate evil and love the Lord so much that we will ask Him to let us view ourselves with His eyes of pure judgment.  It is only in that way that we will be able to confess and forsake sin and be cleansed vessels meet for the Master’s service.  Likewise, we need to ask His compassion to be able to view the evil in others and yet love them with a broken heart.  God knows that we are sometimes weak, so this verse gives us a tremendous dual promise.  God will preserve our souls and He will deliver us out of the hand of the wicked, whether they be men or the devil.  At the moment of salvation, God absolutely preserves our soul.  He is the keeper of our soul and we need not fear that it will be lost, even if we do temporarily "slip."  As the devil and his emissaries try to tighten their grip on us, the Lord promises to be the One to deliver us out of their hands.  Sweet Christian friend, resolve in your heart today to hate all evil, even "socially accepted" evil, and love the Lord with all your heart.

Isn’t this a wonderful verse to start off the day!  What wonderful promises are in God’s Word!  God plants His marvelous light for the righteous, like a farmer plants a seed.  In the spring, many of us like to plant seeds in a flower bed.  First, we dig up that area that has lain all winter long, usually as barren ground.  Then we enrich the soil and sow the seeds that we have carefully selected.  As we see the little green plants sprout, we are glad, not just for the greenery, but for the promise of the beautiful flowers to come.  Then, when the blooms are at their fullest, we can stand back and admire their beauty, often using them to grace our homes or to share joy with others.  Our lives are like that garden bed.  We laid cold and barren sometimes for years, until we felt the hand of the Lord, working in our deepest heart to break up the fallow ground.  He enriched us with His Word and then as we were saved, planted His Word and His light into our hearts.  The seeds of His light make us useful in His service, they allow us to bear fruit for His pleasure.  That light springs up in our hearts to show us the way to go and to grow.  God’s light, warming us, nourishing us for growth, is planted so deep that the winds and storms of life can never drown it out!  We need to "bloom where we are planted."  We need to grace God’s flower bed, with not just the first shoots of greenery, but with full blown and lovely flowers to please Him and to bless others.  This verse also gave me another mental picture.  I thought of a dark forest path, the pathway of life, and I, as the Christian pilgrim, walking along the path.  With the meager light the world could give, I could hardly see the way, and I knew for certain that I would trip along the ruts in the path.  Then ahead on the pathway I saw rays of light set one after the other and knew I could walk that pilgrim pathway.  One had gone before me and planted those rays of light in just the right places, eternal rays that nothing could ever put out.  The Lord had sown His light for me.  The verse also tells us that gladness is sown for the upright in heart.  We are righteous in Christ as a result of our salvation, the Light is for all the redeemed.  But being upright in heart has to do with the conscious decisions we make after salvation.  When we choose to walk God’s way, to obey Him and to follow His righteousness, He gives us gladness.  It is as if He has sown the fruit of gladness (pure joy) into our hearts, but we can only reap the full harvest if we are upright in heart.  Otherwise, the weeds of sin will choke out the harvest, or give us a smaller yield.  The fruit of the Spirit is given (sown) in our lives at the moment of salvation, but we can only enjoy its fruition in and through our lives as we submit to the Lord and are filled with the Spirit everyday.  Gladness is a wonderful gift, it can make our lives worth living.  We need to remember our verse has these two parts: one unconditional and available to all the born again children of God, the other only for those that choose to be upright.  Lord, help me to be a complete harvest field for You.

When I was a small child this Psalm may have been one of the first passages of Scripture that I ever memorized.  It is doubtful if I even knew that it was from the Bible, because it was a recited part of the religious ceremony that I attended every Sunday.  But from early in my life I can remember how very beautiful I thought the words were.  I could easily recall the entire Psalm week after week, as the congregation recited it together.  While I knew every word by heart, it was not until I was saved, as a young adult, that I could know their full beauty, because then I heard them with spiritual ears and understood with spiritual understanding reserved for those who are born again.  Let’s stop and read the entire Psalm 100.  Read it out loud and hear the beauty of it in your spiritual ears this morning:

What a difference being born again makes in our lives.  Before salvation, we were truly dead to the things of the Spirit.  Even Psalm 100 was just a beautiful sounding recitation with no personal basis in fact.  With the understanding of the redeemed of God, we can know what we could not have known before: how to be joyful, how to serve the Lord, the assurance of the presence of His gladness within.  Since salvation, we can come where we could not have entered before: into His presence, into His gates (where we will dwell forever more), and into His courts.  Now we have a reason for praise!  He made us!  We have been created, not only physically like the rest of creation, but spiritually as new creations in Christ Jesus.  He has saved our souls!  Now, with salvation, we ARE His people and the sheep of His pasture...He is our Shepherd and He is our God.  All this was not possible before, but is a reality now that we are saved.  Verse five is certainly true: The LORD is good!  We will certainly know now and in eternity that His mercy is everlasting.  Thank You, Lord, that Your truth not only endured to all generations, but that it endured to my generation and to me personally.  Thank You that it reached out to my children’s generation and saved each one of my precious sons and daughter.  Thank You, Lord, that it will reach to my grandchildren in their generation.  I ask that as they see Your truth beckoning to them that they will also become part of Your fold.  Thank You that You allowed me to see this all as a reality and not just a song of memory.  You truly are so GOOD, precious Lord!

As I recall, this verse was one of the first verses that Amy Carmichael, one of my favorite missionaries of years gone by, ever memorized as a child.  Think of the deep spiritual concern of her mother, who taught her this important verse.  She wanted her daughter to know the presence of the Lord in her every day life.  Can’t you just hear the little girl sweetly repeating: I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way.  This verse is also just as significant for us as adult women and for all that believe in the Lord.  We need to make commitments to the Lord concerning our behavior.  We need to be aware of His presence in our lives.  We need to walk in His steps that He has prepared for us with a perfect heart no matter where we are.  This is a wonderful verse to memorize for ourselves and to teach to each of our children and grandchildren.  There is a very strong word found twice in this verse: perfect.  Think of what that word means.  The dictionary defines perfect as: "carried through to completion in every detail...in a state of complete excellence...correct in every detail...pure or unmixed..."  To behave myself wisely in a perfect way means then that my adherence to godly behavior must be carried through in every detail, it must be pure, excellent and correct in every way!  My heart must have undivided loyalty, its intents must be pure and of godly excellence.  What an astounding meaning to this verse we now can understand.  Even more astounding is the fact that instead of these characteristics of perfection being unobtainable for us, with the Holy Spirit dwelling within, they can be a reality.  We must not be discouraged by that word perfect but encouraged by its possibility in our lives now that we are saved.  As a housewife, this verse has special meaning to me.  Within my house, I need to covet to walk with the Lord with a perfect heart.  I will strive to have an undivided life.  While many people can "turn on" their public face and act completely different when they think others are not looking, in the privacy of their home, they forget that God sees them there.  We would be surprised at those that act sweet and lovely in public, yet yell at their children, engage in harmful habits and act quite differently at home.  Perhaps to walk perfectly in our home is the most important place of all.  Our private life is the real indicator of who we really are as a Christian.  It is in this private life that our most important lessons are taught: the lessons of life to our children.  If they see something different than what we profess publicly, they will decide that Christianity is not real.  If we are constantly aware that the Lord could come at any time, then we ought to be more aware of our behavior: And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself... (I John 3:3).  But we ought also to remember that the Lord does come to us in actuality every day, every moment, into our innermost thoughts and being!  We ought to live our lives perfectly knowing this!  Lord, help me to behave myself wisely and walk, even within my house, in a perfect way and with a perfect heart.  Help this to be a real goal in my life.