Good Morning from the Bitterroot Valley;

It is a beautiful, clear morning and a doe and buck Blacktail deer just walked past my window heading across our front lawn.  The buck had four points all in velvet.  God has created so many things in nature to appreciate.  Speaking of God, usually I sit down in the morning and within a short time have a definite direction that I believe he is leading me in for a devotional.  I don’t know why, but today I am not getting a message.  Why are there times when the Lord doesn’t seem to communicate with us?  Or is he communicating and we are not tuning in?  Hard questions that I certainly don’t have an easy answer for.  I am including some verses from Proverbs today but I will let you read them and God can speak to you through them.

Proverbs 10:16-22

16 The wages of the righteous bring them life, but the income of the wicked brings them punishment.

17 He who heeds discipline shows the way to life, but whoever ignores correction leads others astray.

18 He who conceals his hatred has lying lips, and whoever spreads slander is a fool.

19 When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise.

20 The tongue of the righteous is choice silver, but the heart of the wicked is of little value.

21 The lips of the righteous nourish many, but fools die for lack of judgment.

22 The blessing of the LORD brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it.

I am onto the final stages of the house remodel I have been working on.  A partial residing of the home, new windows and doors, and a new coat of paint.   The owner was very excited when she got home, to see her home all painted in a new color!  I had just begun painting the trim on the front of the house.  She said, in her excitement she had a new home.  That did make me happy but I was thinking on the way home that it really was the same house on the inside.  Those thoughts lead me to think about spiritual applications, (I think God was speaking).  Any way, often we try to dress up our outside appearances to people around us through clothes, or putting on ‘airs’.  We are struggling with problems in our life but when we see someone at church or the store that asks how we are we say;  ”Oh I’m doing fine”.

The person who doesn’t know Christ as personal savior can put on any clothes, have any amount of money and do all sorts of  ’good deeds’ living an exemplary life to the world; but still be lost in sin on the inside.  It is kind of like that new coat of paint that I put on the outside of that house; the inside is still the same.

Which brings me to a question that people have asked me before; “How do you know that God exists?”  My answer is that when I asked him into my life I felt internally changed.  I had a peace that I did not have before.  When I am driving down the road in my truck I am not alone.  I have the “Comforter” with me.  Now people may say that it is all in my imagination, but not if they have shared a similar life experience.  To those who have not accepted Jesus Christ as personal savior and Lord of their lives they can not understand and may think that it is all ‘foolishness’.

I am heading out to finish painting trim today.  I hope and pray that you have the “Comforter” with you today as you go out into the world.

Regular Joe

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