Over the weekend we had a special guest speaker at church, Rene Schlaepfer .  He’s the pastor at Twin Lakes Church in Aptos, California next door to  Santa Cruz.  What an amazing story teller he is.  My husband and I loved his message.  During our brief encounter with him we were inspired to intentionally use our iphones to capture pictures daily of beautiful things…things we’re grateful for…as a way to “frame” our life to focus on the positive and “notice” the amazing things we encounter DAILY because of our amazing God.

I innately peer through glasses as a “realist”…but really that means I naturally view things from a negative bent.  These marred lenses are something God has been redefining, adjusting and refocusing through the years.  For others I’ve always been able to see the silver lining on their situation, however when immersed in a difficult quagmiry mess, I look at the yuck…I mean…I used to only see the ugliness.  But, what I’ve noticed is there are new sproutings occurring within me…I’m LOOKING for the good in the darkness…the lessons being brought forth for new beginnings…a fresh perspective… a new song on my lips.  So, this concept of “framing” my life through my iphone will help me look for God’s beauty in everything on purpose.  Intentionally looking for good.  This treasure I will be incorporating into my everyday life!  I challenge you to do the same.

Another tidbit he reinvigorated and breathed fresh life into, is the concept of meditating on God’s word.  I’ve done this often throughout my walk of faith. However, he created a  picture that enlivened and awakened my desire to begin again.

Place God’s Scripture in a French Coffee Press, “slowly, reading God’s word, pressing gently down to steep on a word or two” gleaning what God had in store for me that day…working hard to get the “woodsy, aromatic, earthy, fruity, richness” of His word.  And…then…I can take that same verse and CROCKPOT it all day…meditating on what God was saying to me.

Funny how routine things that have taken on a form of staleness can take on a different appearance.  This isn’t anything new.  I’ve marinated in God’s word like this often, but God grabbed my heart through the picture of the French Coffee Press and Crockpot and said “Denise, I want you to do this more intentionally! There is a rich, warm, tenderness that you’re missing from My word.”

Rene gave us a weeks worth of Scriptures to start with and WOW! Loving it!

Psalm 145:2 is where we started:

“Every day I will bless you
    and praise your name forever and ever.

I read this slowly, pondered over each word.  Reading it again and again.  And then I started having questions…

“Wait. God HOW can I ‘bless’ You?”
“What does blessing You really mean?”
“Really God, even as I’ve been having trouble dragging myself out of bed the last 4 weeks after being sick…EVERY DAY I will ‘choose’ to bless you?”
“What does that look like?”
“God…is this what You’ve been speaking to my heart recently? Is this why I told people even in the ugly we can find things to be grateful for?  You’ve been spinning and transforming my perspective in the midst of the hard moments, weeks, months, years. I’ve been finding myself grateful in the hard experiences of losing our home, our diminishing finances, our loss of health, and destruction of many things we took for granted…Is this what you’re speaking of?”

I mean really…how do “I”, the created, bless God, the Creator?  The Maker of Heaven & Earth.  The Self-Existent One. The Everlasting God. The Beginning and the End. The Alpha and Omega.  The Almighty God.  Sitting quietly perplexed…

I eagerly swiped open my Blue Letter Bible app so I could research what “bless” meant in Hebrew.  Words in Hebrew and Greek usually mean so much more than the simple word we give them in English.  I know, you’re getting to see the “geeky” side of me, but this is where God meets me best.  Digging into His word, unwrapping what He said at it’s basic original meaning.  I LOVE doing word studies!  For all of you, maybe reading the Scripture seems so simplistic, “duh…Denise.” But for me to understand the simplistic, my brain requires me to research, dig, pick apart, digest for longer periods of time in order to get God’s simple words.  It helps me understand God better and what He’s asking me to do.

Just in case you have never used Blue Letter Bible, I want to give you step by step so if you’re intrigued and want to try this out for yourself…you’ve been given some simple guidance.

When you open up BLB, at the top of your screen, for  an iphone, there is a Bible that is displayed open, touch that icon. In the search bar type in your Scripture reference.  In this case it would be Psalm 145, then click search at the bottom.  I read the Bible typically in ESV (closest word for word translation) or NIV (easier version to understand). I believe the app default is New King James (NKJV).  If you’d like to switch, tap on the Psalm 145 header and it will bring up: the Books of the Bibles, OT & NT, and Bibles….click on Bibles, then Manage Bibles, and you can select different translations to read.

Now that you’re in the Bible version you desire, scroll down to the verse you desire to dive into deeper and tap that verse.  Our verse is Psalm 145:2, so tap on the #2 verse.  Now you will have many selections, but what you want for a word study is “Interlinear/Concordance.” This will take you to the Hebrew text for Old Testament (OT) and each word has a lexicon reference# and Hebrew word displayed.

Because I wanted to know what it meant to “Bless” God, I looked up “I will bless:”  #1288, “barak.” Tap that phrase and the meaning comes up.  Sometimes it’s exactly what the translators wrote in English and it supplies no additional meaning, but in this case I was able to see what God meant in a deeper fashion that helped my heart grasp what David was saying for God. *Even more can be read under the Strong’s Definition and under Gesenius’s Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon.

Bless – “Barak”
To kneel, adore, praise, salute, kneel before our Maker…Jehovah. Celebrate God.

Then I wanted to know what Praise meant, so I looked up “You, And I will praise:” #1984, “Halai.”

Praise – “Halai”
To shine, flash forth light, boast, glorify, to rave, show, celebrate

To make show – external appearance, grandiloquent words

To sing, praise, celebrate

Then I wanted to know what Name meant, so I looked up “Your Name:” #8034 – “Shem.”

Name – “Shem”
Name, reputation, glory, character

All of a sudden a beautiful picture was revealed to me on what God was saying to me in Psalm 145:2 — “Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever.”

Every day no matter whether I’m in a bad, hurtful, ugly, trying place or a wonderful, amazing, easy, joyful, time, I will choose to bless God.  I will kneel down and adore my faithful God.  I will praise and salute Him for His mighty ways.  I will kneel down before my Maker, Jehovah and CELEBRATE my sovereign GOD!  I will sing praises of His mightiness, I will shine a light on His unending love for me.  I will celebrate and boast over all the great deeds and works He has down throughout time and in my life.  I will boast, rave, glorify and show all in my midst how amazing my God is.  I will use grandiloquent words to speak of His Name, reputation, glory and character forever and ever.

Now after studying His word deeper, I was able to grasp a much crisper picture of what He was encouraging me to do through David’s words in this tiny verse in Psalm 145. For me, doing this takes a black and white verse that in basic form appears 2-dimensional and transforms it instantly before my eyes.  As I combine the additional understanding I’ve unearthed, brush strokes with vibrant rainbow colors are masterfully applied and brings to life a 3rd dimension so I can wrap my hands around His words. WOW! Right?!

Now I encourage you to take a moment to read through all 21 verses of this Psalm.  David provides specifics on what each item he refers to.  He clearly tells us how we are to bless Him and praise His name.  Below I’m recording everything I gleaned from this Psalm…write down what God whispered to your heart during this time in His word.

I can’t wait to get to tomorrows Coffee Press. What will God provide as I place His word in the crockpot all day to simmer…what tender meat will He provide for me to savor at the end of the day.

Thank  you Jesus for supplying faithful servants to remind us how your Word feeds us. How if we are obedient and read Your word as food for our soul, You will be faithful to fill us up.  We don’t survive on merely food alone, but on the word of the LORD. Amen.

Father, to my husband, to my children, to my brothers and sisters, to my parents, to my friends, to my acquaintances, to my readers, I will:

…speak of Your greatness
…exclaim how greatly You are to be praised
…shout from the mountains how Your greatness is unsearchable
…commend Your works
…declare Your mighty acts
…speak of and teach how to meditate on the splendor of Your majesty
…tell of Your wondrous works
…share Your awesome deeds
…declare Your greatness
…speak of the fame of Your goodness
…sing aloud of Your Righteousness
…share how Merciful and Gracious You are
…celebrate how You are slow to anger
…boast of Your abounding steadfast love
…exclaim how You’re good to all
…explain how Your mercy is over all You have made
…give thanks to You as on of Your works
…bless You as Your saint
…share the glory of Your Kingdom
…tell of Your power
…make known to the children Your mighty deeds
…teach them of the glorious splendor of Your kingdom
…share how Your kingdom is everlasting
…explain how Your dominion endures throughout generations
…speak of how faithful Your words are
…tell how kind You are in all Your works
…share how You uphold all those who fall
…speak of how you raise all those who bow down
…instruct how are eyes are to look to You
…remind how You give food to us in due season
…celebrate how You open Your hand
…bring focus to how You satisfy the desire of every living thing
…sing of how You are righteous in all Your ways
…remind them that You are kind in all Your works
…teach that You are near to all who call on You in truth
…share how You fulfill the desires of those who fear You in reverence
…shine a light on how You hear our cries
…joyously celebrate how You save us
…remind all that You preserve all who love You
…warn the wicked You will destroy them
…speak with my mouth and sing with my voice the praise and adoration of Your ways
…sing and praise Your reputation and character
…boast of Your name and glory
…glorify, shine a light on and celebrate Your ways forever and ever

After reading and journaling all God had for me, I found it interesting that in all 21 verses David spoke of POSITIVE words of affirmation and praise of God (43 praises to focus on.)  There was only half a verse at the very bottom that spoke of the negative that can be experienced from those who are against God.  That means in that 21 verses of Scripture 98% was focusing on God’s beautiful character and only 2% was reminding of the wrathful side.  Is that not a beautiful picture of how we, as Christians, are to fill our speech with an abundance of focusing on God’s goodness, mightiness and amazing ways.  Rather than getting stuck on the ugliness and beating lost ones with the terror of what awaits them because of x, y and z, we are to inundate them with praise and adoration of a Mighty God that has done miraculous things in the past for the Israelites and how He’s met us in our own life today.  God’s love, faithfulness, goodness, works and mighty deeds are what win people over for Him.  We need a God like You in a world that surrounds us with pain, fear and trials.  Father I pray that You will remind us daily how to do as You ask us to do…Love on the people You’ve created so they may see a clear and accurate painting of You.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.