You’d think I’d be in high spirits since turning 40-plus last Saturday… But for some reason since the 26th I haven’t been feeling so up to speed. The numbers are in – as of yesterday, I’ve only done around 48 thousand steps, a little more than half the number I’ve been churning out consistently for the past month, at least.
Through it all I’ve been holding off on doing this particular writing venture – elaborating on verses that have popped up last Saturday – and I’m still not sure why that is.
But here we are. It’s the 2nd of May, Saturday. I’m in my office ‘base’ with a flat, lukewarm cup of coffee, dressed up as I wait for folks to get ready before we head out to a family event. I’m not usually up at this time, I could do other things to pass the actually short period of time I do have, but, well, here we are.
It seems right, right now.
Indeed, let no one who waits on You be ashamed;
Let those be ashamed who deal treacherously without cause.
Psalm 25:3
Show me Your ways, O LORD; Teach me Your paths.
Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation; On You I wait all the day.
All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth, To such as keep His covenant and His testimonies.
Psalm 25:4-5, 11
Who is the man that fears the LORD? Him shall He teach in the way He chooses.
He himself shall dwell in prosperity, And his descendants shall inherit the earth.
The secret of the LORD is with those who fear Him, And He will show them His covenant.
Psalm 25:12-14
Not rightly sure why these verses made their way to my notebook… but hey, let’s take them in now, around ~4 days later… shall we?
I wait on the Lord, and indeed, I shall not be ashamed – no, it is those with chaos in mind, those who only have violence and deal deceitfully and treacherously without a semblance of direction or cause… I have a mind to believe that it’s these folks who will be ashamed.
But not that I would wish shame on them – no, my focus is on the Lord and on His Word, as our focus should be in the body of Christ. We meditate on His Word through the day and in the night, and, yes – the Lord shall not allow us to be ashamed.
We wait on the Lord. We dwell on His word, and we allow Him to lead us in His truth – we are led to stay open to the ways He shows us, and to the paths He teaches us.
We wait on the God of our salvation; We meditate on His Word, and allow His Spirit to teach us; We celebrate in honor of the covenant Christ has established, and take up our testimonies made solid by His resurrection – and sure as He leads us to paths of righteousness, so His paths are adorned with mercy, and established in truth.
We call upon the Lord and He shall reveal to us things that we do not know. We live and move and have our being in Christ, operating in this life always in the strong presence of the Holy Spirit, speaking and writing as we have the Word as Spirit and Life, alive in us;
We meditate on the Word. We are taught by the Spirit. As such, we are taught. We dwell in prosperity.
Descendants shall be my inheritance, and my descendants shall inherit the earth.
As I am in awe of God’s greatness and glory, so I am shown into the deeper Truths of His Covenant… and His revelations are poured into my mind, body, soul and spirit.
What a glorious day. I know I thought something else when I had these verses pasted here, but, well, this is good too.
Thank You, Father, for the continued reading of Your Word.
TL;DR So much is going on, but continue to give thanks. I’m thankful for you! Onward and upward!
Psalm 84
The Blessedness of Dwelling in the House of God
To the Chief Musician. On an instrument of Gath. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.
How lovely is Your tabernacle, O LORD of hosts!
My soul longs, yes, even faints For the courts of the LORD;
My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
Even the sparrow has found a home, And the swallow a nest for herself,
Where she may lay her young— Even Your altars, O LORD of hosts, My King and my God.
Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; They will still be praising You.
Selah
There’s a word – Dwell. Through all that’s been going on this week, this month, and the month before; Heck, we’re still feeling the ripples of what’s been going on Q4 2025, on top of all that’s happening recently.
There’re the world events not only in the Middle East, but in Asia, in Europe, and in the Americas. Zoom in, and see stuff happening in our specific region of Southeast Asia; Also those going on in our country, then our province, and around our city (I mean, really, a bit of rain sets up back for hours without electricity??)…
Then we have what we’re struggling with at present, plus the consequences of our decisions from days, months, and even years earlier, plus what we have before us in the days, months, and years to come…
…and the impact of ALL of these are making their way into our homes, and into our heads.
Looking at all of it from this perspective sort of eases my mind from the immediate shock that comes with the rapid-fire of events happening as of late, but this relief lasts a literal second before seeing all that’s REALLY happening – and it doesn’t stop there because, bad as that is, there’s also that terrible void of all that we aren’t aware of.
Sure, I’m sharing all of this to just emphasize a truth that’s been made perfectly clear to me through these very sorrowful past days; Simply, the more you know, the more you don’t know.
It’s something that’s actually been prophesied by Daniel during his time: Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase. We think all this intelligence we have at the click of a button is convenience, until the moment it renders us as confused as headless chickens, brain-dead yet overstimulated.
I think the call for us in the coming days is to dwell. To settle, to sit down, knowing that through all of this, we have our God; the Creator of all things seen and unseen, the Maker of the heavens and the earth.
We have God – the maker of time and space, omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent, as much with us here as He is with our brothers and sisters in the mountains and valleys, the tropics and the tundra, the caves and the conference halls; He causes all in our past, present, and future to work for the good.
A certain astrophysicist who shares surnames with a certain legendary boxer mentioned that he didn’t believe in God because he realized that the entire universe was out to kill him. Well, we aren’t denying the overwhelming presence of evil in all of its forms – but it’s in darkness that we see how bright the light is. It’s in the sea of lies where we see the lighthouse of truth. It’s in sheer evil that we are reminded all the more of the infinite superiority of our Father’s goodness and grace.
So, yes. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.
But ‘in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus’
Lengthy introduction notwithstanding, I’m not here to preach, more than to say that in a world that’s full of reasons for us to complain, I’m choosing to believe that there are so many more reasons to give thanks to God.
And so I give thanks to Him for the peace that goes beyond all understanding, that keeps me sane in this absolutely rotten existence.
I give thanks to God for the hope that serves as an anchor for our souls, for my brothers and sisters who recently had loved ones pass away.
Oh, indeed, I give thanks! For even in these sudden tragedies, our God is a good Father who remains fully faithful and true, holding us together even as the rest of the world screams at us to give up.
Thank You, Father, for every breath we take, and every beat of our hearts. For safety as we travel and transact. For provision even as prices go up. For having compassion on us, that we would express true compassion to our fellow man.
Thank You, Father, for lives of our loved ones, and for extending Your salvation upon them, surely as You continue to project it upon us; Life, and life in abundance overflowing from us and through us, to our families, and to all we’re concerned about.
Thank You, Lord, for everyone who happens to be reading up to this point. I thank You for their patience and the huge surplus of time you’ve given to them to endure my rambling here; but seriously, I thank You for their lives, and I pray that as they spoke blessings to me, You would bless them ten times, a hundred times over.
Truly and indeed, You are good, and You are good all the time, till the end of time. Blessed be Your name, forever and ever. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
As we keep going through 2026, let’s continue to dwell with Him; Let’s continue to give thanks in all things.
Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; They will still be praising You.
Selah
***And that part, I posted on Facebook. But, see here, we have so much more to take in.***
Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, Whose heart is set on pilgrimage.
As they pass through the Valley of Baca, They make it a spring;
The rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength;
Each one appears before God in Zion. O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer; Give ear, O God of Jacob!
Selah
Christ is the Word and the Word is as Water; We have the mind of Christ, and we have the Word in our minds; We have Christ in our mind. Christ thinks with us just as we think with Him. Every thought we have is thought in His presence, just as His thoughts are our thoughts.
The Word is as Water, and in our travails, Valleys are turned into springs, and we are as strengthened as we are refreshed.
O God, behold our shield, And look upon the face of Your anointed.
For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand.
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God Than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
For the LORD God is a sun and shield; The LORD will give grace and glory;
No good thing will He withhold From those who walk uprightly.
O LORD of hosts, Blessed is the man who trusts in You!
Our trust is in the Lord. This may sound like weakness. This may sound shallow and foolish. The world is as the Jew or the Greek – seeking power, and seeking wisdom; our trust is on Christ and His cross, weakness to the Jew and foolishness to the Greek.
But, behold – we move refreshed, from strength to strength; Yet not our strength but the power of the Lord, not our knowledge but by the wisdom of God.
By the Gospel of Christ, by the Word alive in us and the Water bursting forth from us, we shine in strength, knowing that it is the Lord who is our Sun and our Shield.
He shall not withhold grace, glory, and any other good thing from us, because He is our Righteousness.
As the year progresses, and as we move from year to year, and glory to glory – it is clear that our trust shall continue to be upon our Father; Our hope shall always be in our Lord.
We shall continue to abide in Him, we shall continue to dwell on His Word.
He shall not put us to shame. We shall not be ashamed.
We shall delight in Him, knowing He delights in us.
Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You;
And let those who love Your salvation say continually, “Let God be magnified!”
But I am poor and needy; Make haste to me, O God!
You are my help and my deliverer; O LORD, do not delay.
Psalm 70:4-5
Here’s a nice reminder.
I’ve been catching myself, especially as of late, sharing to one and all who would hear me that we trust in the Lord, and He will not allow us to be put to shame.
The reminder I speak of is that the Lord is also responsible for our rejoicing and our gladness. If we trust Him not to put us to shame, the other side of the coin is that we trust Him to be our source of rejoicing and being glad.
I’m clarifying, especially to myself: It’s not a change in circumstances, or ultimately not according to my preferences (which are still laced by the unrenewed mind) that serve as the basis for my rejoicing and my gladness – No, Christ is our all in all, and sure as He is the One who delivers us, so He is the one who encourages us.
Salvation belongs to our God, indeed; and with all this in mind, we join in the chorus: ‘Let God be magnified‘.
I may be poor in all aspects I could think of, and as such am ashamed of myself – but let God be magnified. He is our Help. He is our Deliverer. He makes haste and does not delay.
It’s not a convenient way of thinking – this is a broken man leaning on the perfection of our Father, who loves us with an everlasting love.
Psalm 7
Prayer and Praise for Deliverance from Enemies
A Meditation of David, which he sang to the LORD concerning the words of Cush, a Benjamite.
O LORD my God, in You I put my trust; Save me from all those who persecute me;
And deliver me, Lest they tear me like a lion, Rending me in pieces, while there is none to deliver.
O LORD my God, if I have done this: If there is iniquity in my hands,
If I have repaid evil to him who was at peace with me, Or have plundered my enemy without cause,
Let the enemy pursue me and overtake me; Yes, let him trample my life to the earth, And lay my honor in the dust.
Selah
Arise, O LORD, in Your anger; Lift Yourself up because of the rage of my enemies; Rise up for me to the judgment You have commanded!
So the congregation of the peoples shall surround You; For their sakes, therefore, return on high.
The LORD shall judge the peoples; Judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness, And according to my integrity within me.
Oh, let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, But establish the just; For the righteous God tests the hearts and minds.
My defense is of God, Who saves the upright in heart.
God is a just judge, And God is angry with the wicked every day.
If he does not turn back, He will sharpen His sword; He bends His bow and makes it ready.
He also prepares for Himself instruments of death; He makes His arrows into fiery shafts.
Behold, the wicked brings forth iniquity; Yes, he conceives trouble and brings forth falsehood.
He made a pit and dug it out, And has fallen into the ditch which he made.
His trouble shall return upon his own head, And his violent dealing shall come down on his own crown.
I will praise the LORD according to His righteousness, And will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High.
They had me read this in the men’s fellowship I quickly swung by in the morning of the 25th. Now that I’m going through it (technically hours before calling it exactly a week later) a whole bevy of people come to mind when I see the ‘wicked‘;
…and they aren’t necessarily ‘wicked’. No, I think some of these folks are outright decent. Hell, I could be one of them in a sense. I’m not thinking about evil people – just bear with me here.
It started off with folks we’re in actual conflict with – regarding disputes involving extended family, folks who have actually gone out of their way to take from us from the core root of the love of money, and perhaps other folks who don’t immediately come to mind but have openly declared war against us.
Then, for some reason, I’m reminded of people (and really, a certain someone) who have abandoned us. I’m also now reminded of the critical importance of disassociating our mental composition of a person from who she actually is; Of the pain we inflict on ourselves and on the other person, by insisting on the former being fact.
I’m reminded of folks – and, boy, there’s a bunch of them as of late – who have, plain and simple, passed away. I’m reminded of our mortality, and of the grievous facts behind the words of Daniel: ‘Many will run to and fro, and knowledge will increase‘; Knowledge increases, and many are caught unaware by how it can so quickly cause our hearts to fail.
So, you see – not necessarily evil people. Not even seeing them as ‘good’ or ‘evil’ at this point – just all people who, like me, Christ died and rose again for.
I’m reminded of how, as David did, we could write and compose so much about how this world and this reality comes against us, how it brings folks to hurt us, how it brings us to hurt ourselves… But, in the end, we’re brought to setting our eyes upon the Lord.
Yes, now that I think about it, it’s the Holy Spirit who is responsible for David, and for all of us, to see the sheer awful facts of our situations down to the people who are involved, and for us to say:
My defense is of God, Who saves the upright in heart.
O LORD my God, in You I put my trust; I will praise the LORD according to His righteousness, And will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High.
42 years, and by the grace of our Lord, I’ve been brought to this: To trust in the Lord.
By the finished work of Christ, I have no choice in the matter – my understanding has been made new, infused with the presence of the Godhead – that my understanding is Christ’s understanding, surely as I have the mind of Christ; That when I lean upon my understanding, I am leaning on Christ, for better or for worse.
By the power of the Holy Spirit, I have no choice in the matter, but all of my ways and all of my paths are established, because the grace and glory of the Lord is automatically acknowledged.
I thought the verse concerning trusting in chariots was Psalm 37:4, but I was pleasantly mistaken:
Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
I’m pulling up the entire Psalm containing the words I had in mind, and closing with that.
Psalm 20
1 May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble; May the name of the God of Jacob defend you;
2 May He send you help from the sanctuary, And strengthen you out of Zion;
3 May He remember all your offerings, And accept your burnt sacrifice.
Selah
4 May He grant you according to your heart’s desire, And fulfill all your purpose.
5 We will rejoice in your salvation, And in the name of our God we will set up our banners! May the LORD fulfill all your petitions.
6 Now I know that the LORD saves His anointed; He will answer him from His holy heaven With the saving strength of His right hand.
7 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; But we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
8 They have bowed down and fallen; But we have risen and stand upright.
9 Save, LORD! May the King answer us when we call.
And these are all ‘gifts’. Words I’ve received and digested throughout this week and through all that’s happened. Much as they are wonderful to me, I declare ten times the goodness of God towards the the body of Christ.
Sure, that’s out of benevolence, but, it’s also from an observation of an increase in violence; In the increase of knowledge, we humbly receive an increase in God’s faithfulness and trustworthiness.
I’ll end with THAT. Halleluyah.
God bless us all.
167940/365000
JB's Personal Brain Defragmenter 
Leave a comment