150 short devotions on the psalms

I can't believe I did it, but over the past months, I recorded 150(!)🤩short (two-minute) video devotions, one on each psalm, and posted them on my YouTube channel and IGTV.

As I mentioned before, my one word for 2021 is connect, and to make that practical I started this project, #apsalmaday. The thoughts in the back of my mind were: 'We all need encouragement and we need to stay connected to avoid isolation. The Word both encourages and connects.'

So, I began taping short messages on the psalms. Unedited, raw, spontaneous, and simple thoughts, encouraging the viewer to read the psalms for themselves and to ask the Holy Spirit for fresh insights. My friend Martin Podolák provided English (and Slovak) subtitles👌which made it easier to follow for people who have English as their second or third language.

I can highly recommend a journey 👣through the psalms, especially in this time we live in. You will be able to relate to so many thoughts, prayers, and emotions. You will be blessed, your faith will rise, I promise! And the best thing is, you can start any day or just pick a random psalm, however you want to do it.

📌Link to the playlist

All this talk about parallel societies

Oh, this world we live in! Amazingly beautiful but quite tiresome and frustrating lately, right? It is no wonder people are seeking ways to escape the harsh reality of inhumane measures and restrictions that are still putting limits on our daily lives.

We can read about parallel societies where minorities are trying to seek freedom and at the same time, shelter. A parallel society, it may be a fashionable word nowadays, but in reality, God invented it. Yep.

It is called the Kingdom of God. It is the supernatural realm where His will is being done, His principles reign, and Jesus is honored as the highest power and authority. Two thousand years ago the people in Israel were waiting for the establishment of a free society, no longer ruled by Roman oppressors.

The scholars asked Jesus about it. His answer then is still the answer today: The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst (Luke 17:20). Some translations say the Kingdom is near you or within you. Well, that must have left them speechless. The Kingdom of God, His will on earth as it is in heaven, living amongst and inside of people?!

And yes, the Bible makes it clear, as believers we are not of this world, we belong to another world. We might be in this world, but we are not of it. Jesus said to His followers: If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you (John 15;19).

The world will hate you. Okay, so be it. Being a citizen of Gods Kingdom also means we can have joy amidst pain, peace amidst trouble, and love amidst hatred. It is the only true parallel society while we are here on earth. 

How can we see this Kingdom, how can we become part of this Kingdom? Jesus gives the answer: No one can see the Kingdom of God unless he is born again (John 3:3).

You might want to read my blogseries about the Kingdom.

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Do we keep on blogging in 2021?

Google announced that the Feedburner service will stop as of July 1st. That is the service that takes care of sending your blog posts to people's email addresses (well, to the ones that have signed up for it.)

When I read that, I thought 'what now?' 😕Is this the moment to stop blogging? Getting my blog posts to readers by email is a quite reliable way to stay connected, especially now that readers are leaving Facebook, Twitter, and other social media because of censorship.

I wanted to know whether writing blogs was still worth the effort, so I began to search the internet for news and statistics on blogging and found some interesting facts. For example, marketing consultant and speaker Neal Schaffer writes on his website:

"Blogging is absolutely still relevant in 2021. In fact, roughly 409 million internet users read about 20 billion blog pages monthly. People undeniably still read blogs. As a matter of fact, 77% of internet users worldwide like reading them. People in the United States alone read blogs 3 times more than emails. Blogging is not dead, blogs are powerful and it is the 5th most reliable source of information on the internet. Blogging will always be worth it especially if you find a niche you are passionate about."

So, I decided to keep on blogging 💚and I hope you will do the same (if you are a blogger)! I have added a new feed service to my blogs. So, please sign up for your favorite blog in the sidebar (on a laptop or desktop). I post about once a week:

Fresh Insights on Ancient Blogs: sacredsabbath.blogspot.com 

Frisse Kijk op Oude Waarheden: frisse-kijk.blogspot.com 

Non-profit Traveling Light: janandmarja.blogspot.com 

Stichting Traveling Light: janenmarja.blogspot.com 

The fear of the Lord (5)

As we have seen in the previous posts the Bible calls for believers to fear the Lord, which means to have respect and reverence for Him. First of all, because He is worthy of respect, and second because it will bring many blessings!

There is one more benefit that I like to highlight. Fearing God brings health to our bodies!

Say what?

Let's read Proverbs 3:7-8 where it says: Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones. Amen! I want that, I need that. Who doesn't?

Maybe you have read this blog series and you wonder how exactly do we make this practical? How do we fear the Lord on a daily basis?

The Bible teaches us how to fear the Lord in Psalm 34:12-14: Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD. Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days,

• keep your tongue from evil and
• your lips from speaking lies.
• Turn from evil
• and do good;
• seek peace
• and pursue it.

Hello! If that isn't clear, I don't know what is. Fearing the Lord has a lot to do with our words, our actions, and our pursuit. Now this is truly the foundation of wisdom. Let's go back to the basics, as believers, as a church, as a worldwide movement. Sometimes we have made God's Word too complicated if you ask me.

Let's speak truth, do good, and pursue peace!