Hi Brian!

The word for this week is "bless". We will be looking at several verses in the Psalms that speak to our blessing HIM! 

Ps 16:7 I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons. KJV

Ps 26:12 My foot standeth in an even place: in the congregations will I bless the Lord. KJV

Ps 34:1 I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth. KJV

Ps 63:4 Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name. KJV

Ps 96:2 Sing unto the Lord, bless his name; shew forth his salvation from day to day. KJV

Ps 103:2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: KJV

Ps 115:18 But we will bless the Lord from this time forth and for evermore. Praise the Lord. KJV

Ps 145:1 I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever. 2 Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever. KJV

Ps 145:1 I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever. 2 Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever. KJV

These are all the Hebrew word "barak". Strong's Concordance says: to kneel, to bless God as an act of adoration. Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon says: to bless, to kneel. The Theological Wordbook of the Old testament says: to kneel, bless, praise, salute. We know that He is worthy of and deserves all of our praise and worship. We also know that we CAN BE a blessing to Him by doing so. 1 John 4:19 tells us this:

19 We love Him, because He first loved us.

We love HIM with the LOVE that HE has put inside of us! We also can BLESS Him because He has already BLESSED us! Isn't that just like GOD to already provide inside of us what He desires to receive back FROM us? He has given us SO much, even what we give back to Him has first come FROM Him! I am feeling REALLY BLESSED today! I hope that you are, too! I see so many great BLESSINGS coming to you and your beautiful family in the coming moonths because of how you have honored HIM and been a BLESSING TO Him! So hear is another new song from Brooke Ligertwood's "Eight" album called, of course, "Bless God":along with "Every Chance I Get":

Love and Shalom from the Swoveys!

Hi Brian!

The word for this week is "stronghold". It's actually two words and we'll be looking at Nahum 1:7:

7 The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him. KJV

This is the Hebrew word "ma'owz". Strong's Concordance says: a fortified place, a defence. Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon says: a place or means of safety, a protection, a refuge, a stronghold, a harbor. THIS type of stronghold is of God for our benefit. The enemy also tries to put up 'strongholds' against us, BUT GOD! HE ALWAYS has a 'stronghold' FOR us!  A way of escape. We can count on it! We can count on HIM! This song from Brooke Ligertwood's new album 'Eight' called "Authority" speaks to that! 

Love and Shalom from the Swoveys!

Hi Brian!

The word for this week is "heritage". We'll be looking at one verse in the Old Testament. 

Ps 119:111 Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever: for they are the rejoicing of my heart. KJV

This is the Hebrew word "nachal". Strong's Concordance says: to inherit, to occupy, to bequeath. Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Lexicon says: to get as a possesion, to acquire, to inherit, to possess, to have or take possession. We can receive an inheritance from a relative or friend who has passed from this life into the next by order of their Last Will and Testament. THEY have given, but WE must do the receiving or possessing! Our Heavenly Father sent Jesus, the LIVING WORD OF GOD, to us, and JESUS gave Himself, and His Word, to us when He rose into Heaven with the instructions to take the Gospel into all the world. His 'testimonies' are HIS WORD! All of Psalm 91 refers to the WORD of GOD! WE possess that Word by taking it and meditating on it (Johsua 1:8 AMPC) until it becomes real to us and we believe it! That is how we TAKE our heritage, or inheritance, of the WORD. When we do that, everything else in our lives will fall into the proper place that HE has planned and purposed for us. I know that I have shared this song recently, but it is one of my favorites and it fits with this post! "Brooke Ligertwood" with Like Incense -  Sometimes By Step":

Love and Shalom from the Swoveys!

Hi Brian!

The word for this week is "enough". We used it once before (10 years ago!) from the Old Testament. This time we will be looking at the New Testament. Matthew 10:24-25a:

24 The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. 25 It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. KJV

This is the Greek word "arketos". Strong's Concordance says: satisfactory. Thayer's Greek Lexicon says: Sufficient. Vine's Expository Dictionary says: Suffice. The thought in this verse is that God desires for us to get to know Him by spending time in the Word and in fellowship with Holy Spirit so that we can be like Him! The Amplified Bible says this in Ephesians 5:1:

1 THEREFORE BE imitators of God [copy Him and follow His example], as well-beloved children [imitate their father]. AMP

The really powerful TRUTH about this is that we don't have to TRY to 'imitate' Him, as we continue to grow up in the Word, we DO become LIKE Him! Others see it and it is 'enough'! It is exactly what HE expects of us and delights in! Now for something else that is POWERFULLY "ENOUGH", here is Brooke Ligertwood from her new album with "Calvary Is Enough"! 

Love and Shalom from the Swoveys!

Hi Brian!

For this week I want to share Charles Spurgeon's devotional from my PC Study Bible! I LOVE this and the Scripture  made me think of you!

"A man greatly beloved." — Daniel 10:11

Child of God, do you hesitate to appropriate this title? Ah! has your unbelief made you forget that you are greatly beloved too? Must you not have been greatly beloved, to have been bought with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot? When God smote His only begotten Son for you, what was this but being greatly beloved? You were called by grace and led to a Saviour, and made a child of God and an heir of heaven. All this proves, does it not, a very great and superabounding love? Since that time, whether your path has been rough with troubles, or smooth with mercies, it has been full of proofs that you are a man greatly beloved. If the Lord has chastened you, yet not in anger; if He has made you poor, yet in grace you have been rich. The more unworthy you feel yourself to be, the more evidence have you that nothing but unspeakable love could have led the Lord Jesus to save such a soul as yours. The more demerit you feel, the clearer is the display of the abounding love of God in having chosen you, and called you, and made you an heir of bliss. Now, if there be such love between God and us let us live in the influence and sweetness of it, and use the privilege of our position. Do not let us approach our Lord as though we were strangers, or as though He were unwilling to hear us—for we are greatly beloved by our loving Father. "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" Come boldly, O believer, for despite the whisperings of Satan and the doubtings of thine own heart, thou art greatly beloved. Meditate on the exceeding greatness and faithfulness of divine love this evening, and so go to thy bed in peace.

YOU are a man greatly beloved!!! First of all by GOD, and then by family, friends, acquaintences and US! From the first time that we met you, and I saw the peace, joy and confidence returned to my precious Goddaughter's face, you became beloved! I hope that you have never felt unworthy, as he says above, or doubted the Father's extreme LOVE for YOU! Here is an older song from Hillsong UNITED that could be you singing to God or Him singing to you! "Deepy Loved":

Love and Shalom from the Swoveys!