Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim his greatness. Let the whole world know what he has done. Sing to him; yes, sing his praises. Tell everyone about his wonderful deeds. Exult in his holy name; rejoice, you who worship the Lord. Search for the Lord and for his strength; continually seek him. (I Chronicles 16:8-11) Let the whole world know what he has done. Those words struck me today as I was doing my morning reading. When we 'proclaim' the greatness of our God, we do it with a 'filled heart'. In Hebrew, 'qara' holds the meaning to call out or summon; in Greek, 'kerusso' holds the meaning to announce or preach. Either way, we are instructed to both call out and announce the greatness of our God. There is a sense of urgency in either term - so when we call out or proclaim the greatness of our God, it is to be done with a heart eager to bring forth the message. Exult in his holy name. The term 'exult' means we will do so with a sense of extrem...
Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end. (Seneca) “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland." (Isaiah 43:18-19) When we 'begin' we seldom think of the ending. We imagine it will go one way, but when all is said and done, we really had no idea what we'd encounter along the way. When a beginning must come to an end, it is because something new is about to begin. To some, the idea of 'beginning again' is kind of frightening. The imagination plays out all kinds of scenarios, some grand and others worse than what just ended. God's words to us: "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past." The past is gone - we cannot get it back, nor can we recover any of the moments that are already past. We can look forward, seeing that God is about to do a 'new thing' and trust that...