A Babys Hug This is worth the read!

We were the only family with children in the restaurant. I sat Erik in a high chair and noticed everyone was quietly sitting and talking. Suddenly, Erik squealed with glee and said, 'Hi.' He pounded his fat baby hands on the high chair tray. His eyes were crinkled in laughter and his mouth was bared in a toothless grin, as he wriggled and giggled with merriment.

I looked around and saw the source of his merriment. It was a man whose pants were baggy with a zipper at half-mast and his toes poked out of would-be shoes. His shirt was dirty and his hair was uncombed and unwashed. His whiskers were too short to be called a beard and his nose was so varicose it looked like a road map.

We were too far from him to smell, but I was sure he smelled.. His hands waved and flapped on loose wrists. 'Hi there, baby; hi there, big boy. I see ya, buster,' the man said to Erik.

My husband and I exchanged looks,
'What do we do?'

Erik continued to laugh and answer, 'Hi.'

Everyone in the restaurant noticed and looked at us and then at the man. The old geezer was creating a nuisance with my beautiful baby. Our meal came and the man began shouting from across the room, 'Do ya patty cake? Do you know peek-a-boo? Hey, look, he knows peek- a-boo.'

Nobody thought the old man was cute. He was obviously drunk.

My husband and I were embarrassed. We ate in silence; all except for Erik, who was running through his repertoire for the admiring skid-row bum, who in turn, reciprocated with his cute comments.

We finally got through the meal and headed for the door. My husband went to pay the check and told me to meet him in the parking lot. The old man sat poised between me and the door. 'Lord, just let me out of here before he speaks to me or Erik,' I prayed. As I drew closer to the man, I turned my back trying to sidestep him and avoid any air he might be breathing. As I did, Erik leaned over my arm, reaching with both arms in a baby's 'pick-me-up' position. Before I could stop him, Erik had propelled himself from my arms to the man.
Suddenly a very old smelly man and a very young baby consummated their love and kinship. Erik in an act of total trust, love, and submission laid his tiny head upon the man's ragged shoulder. The man's eyes closed, and I saw tears hover beneath his lashes. His aged hands full of grime, pain, and hard labor, cradled my baby's bottom and stroked his back. No two beings have ever loved so deeply for so short a time.

I stood awestruck. The old man rocked and cradled Erik in his arms and his eyes opened and set squarely on mine. He said in a firm commanding voice, 'You take care of this baby.'

Somehow I managed, 'I will,' from a throat that contained a stone.

He pried Erik from his chest, lovingly and longingly, as though he were in pain. I received my baby, and the man said, 'God bless you, ma'am, you've given me my Christmas gift.'

I said nothing more than a muttered thanks. With Erik in my arms, I ran for the car. My husband was wondering why I was crying and holding Erik so tightly, and why I was saying, 'My God, my God, forgive me.'

I had just witnessed Christ's love shown through the innocence of a tiny child who saw no sin, who made no judgment; a child who saw a soul, and a mother who saw a suit of clothes. I was a Christian who was blind, holding a child who was not. I felt it was God asking, 'Are you willing to share your son for a moment?' when He shared His for all eternity. How did God feel when he put his baby in our arms 2000 years ago.

The ragged old man, unwittingly, had reminded me, 'To enter the Kingdom of God , we must become as little children.'

If this has blessed you, please bless others by sending it on. Sometimes, it takes a child to remind us of what is really important. We must always remember who we are, where we came from and, most importantly, how we feel about others. The clothes on your back or the car that you drive or the house that you live in does not define you at all; it is how you treat your fellow man that identifies who you are.

This one is a keeper.

A New Song Psalm 96:1

1O sing unto the LORD a new song: sing unto the LORD, all the earth.



Worship is a wonderful experience. To come to know God is the foundation of faith. Faith is believing that God is everything He says He is and that He will do everything that He says He will do. Worship is knowing Who God is and giving Him what He wants. Everyday that we live our lives in faith, trusting Him because of Who He is and What He wants to do in our lives, we worship Him. Worship is the expression of our faith. Every day that we live for Him, ought to be sweeter than the day before.

David tells us to sing unto the Lord. But, we are not to sing just any old song but rather a new song. Our worship is to be fresh and new because our experience of faith with the Lord is fresh and new. As we learn to walk with Him in absolute and uncompromising obedience, we will begin to experience God in ways that we could never imagine. The new song that David is referring to is a new and fresh testimony to what God is doing in our lives.

We are to worship Him in a new and vibrant way because He is doing a fresh work in our lives on a daily basis. God wants us to sing a new song. He wants our walk with Him to be fresh and new every day. He wants us to experience Him in new ways and enjoy the benefits of walking with Him.

If we could only trust Him enough to live our lives in His care and according to His instruction, we would discover a quality of life that is beyond our imagination. Hollywood cannot begin to compare with the joy and the happiness that a life surrendered to God would bring. Just imagine for a moment, how wonderful it would be to sing a new song because of God's goodness and His glory shining through in our lives. It is indeed amazing what God can and will do for us if we will just let Him.

Let go and let God have His way in your heart and in your life and sing that new song today!

Seeing is Not Believing Psalm 95:10

10Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:


The children of Israel saw God's mighty hand at work in Egypt and in the Exodus. However, they refused to see God in His potential through faith. They refused to trust Him in the days ahead even though they had experienced His power and provisions in the past. They erred in their heart, David wrote. The Children of Israel wanted to go back to Egypt. They wanted to go back to the bondage of sin that they were used to instead of forging forward in the power and presence of God.

Notice David says, "they saw My work" and then he wrote, "they have not known my ways." There is a difference between seeing God's work and believing God. Remembering the definition of faith, that faith is believing that God is everything He says He is and that He will do everything that He says He will do, God expects us to notice all that He is doing and has done so He can do even more things with us and for us. He wants us to see His mighty hand at work and He wants us to trust Him and walk in obedience to Him so He can continue to bless us.

We are too much like the children of Israel. We err in our hearts much like they did. We see the mighty hand of God and then just a short time later, we are right back in that same ole sin. We fail to "know His ways." To know His ways is to walk with Him in obedience and faith. To know His way is to trust Him because of all the He has already done for us. If we will allow Him to be God in our lives, He will continue to bless our lives and make our lives their absolute best!

Let us commit ourselves to seeing His work and knowing His ways!

Hear Him Today Psalm 95:7

7For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice,



We are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. He is our God and we are His people. His pasture is green and plenteous and His hand is both sure and strong. God is responsible for our lives. We are to hear His voice and we are to heed His voice. Sheep respond to the voice of their shepherd. They hear his voice and they know it and they follow that voice. God's voice is to be a familiar voice to us. We are to hear His voice and we are to follow His voice.

David give us a word of warning as he writes, "8Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: 9When your fathers tempted me, proved me." The day of provocation was a day when the children of Israel murmured and complained about not having water to drink when God had led then out of the evil hands of Pharaoh. God led the through the Red Sea; He had sent plagues on Pharaoh; He had delivered them from the death angel. God had fed them and given them water to drink every day that they had been in the wilderness and they still grumbled and complained at Moses as if God was not taking care of them, as He should have been.

As result of their complaining and disobedience, God caused them to wonder in the wilderness for 40 years until every adult make over the age of 12 died in the wilderness, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb. He did not want their disobedience to follow them into the land of promise. God does not like our disobedience today any more than He did then. I wonder how many people's lives are being held back in the wilderness because of their disobedience and the blessings of God are only a short trip away.

Just like the children of Israel, we have seen God's work. We know that He is capable of doing great and wonderful things. We know that His strong hand is there to provide for us as well as protect us. So, why would we choose any other direction than that the Lord has for us? Why would we even try to tempt the Lord in any way by refusing to be obedient to Him?

There is hope in this passage of scripture. The invitation to hear Him and heed Him is "today". When we make the decision to heed His instruction, the direction of our lives changes, immediately and that change is for the best every single time.

Rock of Our Salvation Psalm 95:1

1O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.



David refers to God as the Rock of our Salvation. He is not only our Creator; He is the solid rock foundation for our lives. As a child of God, Jesus is the Solid Rock upon which we are to stand. It is His gift at Calvary that secured our salvation and is our hope for the future. David wrote this before Jesus went to the cross. So what is it that David was trying to say to the people of his day?

God is the creator of life and He is the sustainer of life. Life began in Him and it continues to exist in Him. Not only is He the creator and sustainer of life, He is the source of life. Life has two aspects. First there is the quantitative aspect of life, which involves time. Life is a matter of time and existence. The second aspect of life is the qualitative aspect, which takes up time but has to do more with the quality of life that we experience. When David wrote that we must make a joyful noise to the Rock of our Salvation, he was referring to the God of the quality of life.

Jesus said, "I am come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly." As the Rock of our Salvation, God is the provider of our blessings, which enhance the quality of life as He originally planned for our lives to be. God wants our lives to be filled to overflowing. He wants us to experience life in all of its fullness. He does not want us to miss out on anything!

David wrote, "We are the sheep of His pastures." God wants to lead us and guide us to the green pastures where His abundant blessings can be found. He and He alone is the source of direction that we need. When we look to the lust of the flesh and the pride of life, we look away from His direction to follow the lure of the world that make great promises but never delivers. God is indeed the Great Shepherd.

His hand leads us, as Christians, into the green pastures. By Him we are protected and well provided for; to His honor and service we are entirely devoted as a peculiar people. We must therefore, seek to give Him glory and honor as we live our lives each and every day in the decisions that we make, one decision at a time.

He is indeed the Rock of our Salvation!

Sing a Joyful Noise Psalm 95:1

1O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.


David calls God the "Rock of our Salvation". He writes that we are to make a joyful noise to the Rock of our Salvation. God deserves our devotion and our dedication. He deserves to be the object of our praise and our thanksgiving. God has indeed done great and wonderful things for us.

Notice David says, "Come let us sing unto the Lord". This is an invitation, not a command. David is not saying that we should sing unto the Lord but rather come and join him in singing unto the Lord together. The issue of not coming together to sing unto the Lord is not even a question in the writers mind. The matter of worshipping God is not an option; the only question is where and when and with whom we choose to worship Him.

We are to make a joyful noise unto the Lord. God's delight is in the joyful and not the noise. Perhaps the most significant element missing in our worship services today is the "joyful" aspect of coming to God. So many times we come to the Lord out of duty or obligation. We mean well and our intentions are good but we fail to come to Him joyfully and as a result, we fail to worship Him and we miss out on the blessings that He has for us.

It does not matter what we do for God, we need to make sure we come to Him first and that will give us the joy that we need to find Him. We need to learn to seek His face instead of His hands. We need to learn to come to Him for Who He is and what HE has already done for us instead of what He can do for us. When we come to God and make a joyful noise unto Him, we will find God's joy becomes full and His joy overflows over into our lives and makes our lives all the more special and blessed!

God is interested in the joyful noise and the joyful giving to Him. It does not matter what we give to Him as long as it is our best both in our effort and in our motive. Story is told of a famous orator who was called to read Psalm 23. He came and so eloquently read the words, enunciating every syllable and so eloquently pronouncing every word. The audience sat quietly and heard every word and applauded his effort. An elderly man then stood up from the crowd and walked to the stage and asked if he could recite the same text. Reluctantly he was allowed to speak. His speech was slow and his grammar broken but when he finished there was not a dry eye in the house. Everyone stood on their feet applauding the old man's rendition that had been read just a few minutes earlier.

The orator was overcome by the response. He was the expert. This was His performance. Why was the crowd's response so overwhelmingly in favor of this inexperienced old man? The shows director stood crying and this was his answer, "You mastered the text; He knew the Master of the text."

Make a joyful noise to the Lord today. Let Him know that He is the Master of your life. Give Him your best so He can give you His best.

Thanksgiving in our Heart Psalms 95:1

1 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.


Come let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout to the Rock of our salvation. When is the last time that you had a song in your heart because you had been alone with God?

When is the last time that you came to God with thanksgiving in your heart? Thanksgiving is a gauge that tells us just how important God really is in our lives. The more thankful we are to God, the closer we come to Him and the more He is able to be at work in our lives, which brings us more blessings, which should make us more thankful. The more thankful we are, the more God is able to do for us, which makes us that much more thankful which brings us even more blessings and we find ourselves in an endless cycle of blessing God and being a blessing to God and getting blessings from God! Glory to God that is enough to make a backslidden Baptist shout!

God is the creator of all that we have and all that we are. We need to come to Him and worship Him and bow down before Him so that He can be our God and we can be His people! We need to let God be God in our lives! What a difference He can and will make in our lives if we will just give Him the opportunity to do so, today!

Remember, worship is knowing Who God is and giving Him what He wants. God wants us to be a blessing to us. He wants us to know the joy of His salvation. He wants us to know the fullness of His provisions and His power in His presence in our lives. As He is able to bless us, His joy is made full. God notices us when we come before Him and we bow down and we worship Him. That is good. The thing that God is most interested in is our coming to Him in obedience and living for Him. When we do that, we really worship Him and allow Him to be God in our lives, which is all that He wants from us in the first place.

Let's just praise the Lord today and live for Him one decision at a time.