Day 366 Year 2, Day 1

So, here I am starting off my second year of writing this journal and sharing my thoughts through this journey.  To date, there have been over 7600 pages read and some of my most faithful readers are in Germany and Russia.  I am grateful and encouraged to continue to write as my journey has come to include a study of the Bible unlike any I've done before.  I have come to realize that I have to know and understand the Old Testament before I can truly know and understand the New Testament. 

I did not sleep well last night and woke very early this morning so I moved from the bed to the couch with a blanket and my Bible and Chipper.  My golden retriever, Chipper, has been with me for over 14 years and it is getting more and more difficult every day for him to get up and to lay down.  He often stumbles and falls but, no matter how difficult or how painful, he makes every step I make.  When I am at the computer, he's at my side.  When I'm in the studio, he's at my side.  When I go to bed, he's at my side.  When I'm at the table, he's under my feet.  When I'm on the couch, he's under my feet.  Now, I also have a little alpha cat in my household and she likes me when it's cold and she really really likes me when she can see the bottom of her food bowl.  But my Chipper...... well, he worships me.   Worship from Chipper is unconditional and will never end as long as he draws a breath.  If I scold him for something, he still worships me.  If I leave him behind, he still worships me.  He is a shining example of what the word worship should mean.

As I was reading in Exodus this morning, I realized something for the first time.  I guess I always thought that God led the Israelites out of Egypt simply because of the covenants He had made with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob to give them Canaan.  But in reading more closely this morning, I came to understand that He led them out of Egypt so that they could worship Him.  Their worship of God was distasteful to the Egyptians.  And when Pharoah finally offered to let the men go alone to worship,  God said no.  He wanted to be worshiped by entire families.   The lesson I learned is that God wants to be worshiped.  He created us to worship Him.  And He wants to be worshiped by not just one member of a family but by His families.  And we should worship Him unconditionally.  We should worship Him with the same fervor when we're down in the desert as when we're up on the mountain.  We should worship Him with the same fervor when we're fighting cancer as when we're enjoying perfect health.  He wants to be worshiped in word and in deed and in prose and in song.

"Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name; worship the Lord in the splendor of His Holiness."  Psalm 29:1-3

"Worship the Lord with gladness; come before Him with joyful song."  Psalm 100:1-3

Precious Lord, Jehovah Rapha,
I thank You for the honor of being counted one of Your children.  I love You, I praise You and I honor You because You are worthy.
Thank You for Your word and the instruction it gives me daily to live a better and more fulfilled life.  I just couldn't have made it through this last year without You.  The healing of my body may have come regardless but the healing of my soul and spirit is only through You and Your word.
I ask today that You heap that same healing on every person out there fighting cancer so that they can come out of the fire a better person, a stronger person and one that loves, honors, and worships You as never before.
In Jesus' loving name.
Amen