Tag: Psalm 37:4

Posted in Family, food, friends, life, Scripture

Chocolate Delight

Posted on by Dewayne Taylor

 “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4

It is rapidly becoming one of my favorite desserts.  Before I retired, we had our annual deacon’s fellowship on Sunday evening.  While I was ordained a deacon a long time ago, I wasn’t there in that capacity. I was there because I had the privilege of working alongside this great group of men as the pastor of our church.  Our fellowship consists of a load of storytelling, some bordering on stretching the truth like a good fishing story, and of course a boatload of good food. Among that food was a smaller boatload of food called “desserts” and among those was something called chocolate delight. Mmmm.

What is chocolate delight, you ask?  Well, it is a layered masterpiece that starts with a crust (of some sort—and they’re all good). That is followed by two more layers of heaven, and I’ve seen them interchanged—cream cheese, whipped and sweetened, (someone say hallelujah) and a layer of chocolate pudding.  Then, there is an additional layer of cool whip or whipped cream and finally some sprinkling, like grated chocolate.  It is so cool, so light and oh so yummy.

Then, on a Wednesday during the season, we had a big fellowship at our church. It is called, “Extreme Christmas” and it consists of a wonderful meal and then some great homestyle entertainment—all provided by the church family. I love it because it reminds me of days gone by when the heart was more important than perfection. Well, before the show was the meal and there were three long tables of desserts—each one from someone’s kitchen and let me just tell you we had some fine kitchens and cooks in our church.  And there it was—not one but a couple of dishes of chocolate delight and they were delightful.

Now let me tell you another thing I like about this dessert. The flavor can be changed by simply changing one of the layers. You know, lemon instead of chocolate, butterscotch instead of lemon or maybe strawberry instead of butterscotch. It turns out the flavor of the delight can be changed anytime, and different flavors favor different people.  The beauty of this is you can choose your delight. Choose.Your.Delight!

What’s true in desserts is also true in life.  We can choose what delights our lives, our souls. I was read a devotion and the writer used one of my favorite verses.  Tucked away in the Old Testament part of the Bible in Psalms, it says, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” In other words, just like the chocolate flavors the dessert, let the flavor of your life be the Lord and trust me, when He is the flavor of your life, life will be sweeter.

When the verse says He will give you the desires of your heart, that doesn’t mean you have a blank check.  It does mean that when the Lord becomes your delight then His desires become your desires and His desires are always, always, best for us. So let me encourage you to find your delight in the Lord and I think you will find that He is better than the best dessert you have ever tasted. You will find out that His, “I’ve got this” is exactly what you need.  Bro. Dewayne

Posted in Family, friends, Grace, gratitude, life, love, loving others, missions, prayer, priorities, Scripture, sovereignty of God, thankful, travel, Trials

We Need Rain

Posted on by Dewayne Taylor

Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4

It was drier than two-month-old bread.  We are so dry here in Southern Illinois.  Word on the street is that we are in a severe drought.  But there is another word on the street—it is supposed to rain tonight.  It reminds me of another time and another rain. It’s been several years now, but the story is as fresh as today’s bread.  We were on our second trip to Niger, West Africa.  We would fly forever and finally arrive in the capital city of Niamey.  There were two things that were always the same.  It was always very late at night, and we were always totally exhausted.  After a day getting acclimated, we would load up and drive all day on one of the few paved roads in the entire country.

Niger is a sub-Saharan country in West Africa.  It was on the edge of the Saharan Desert—hot, dry, and dusty.  Our journey would take us to a small city in the middle of nowhere.  We would stay with a family there who were kind and filled with hospitality.  As is customary, we would settle in and then go see the “chief” of the village.  We would meet, greet, and thank him for allowing us to come and stay in the village.  On this particular trip we were distributing food to several dozen families in the area.  Because of the extreme dryness, food was always in short supply and because of a few years of drought—it was life-threatening.

As we met with the chief, we told him we were servants of the Creator God and asked him if there was anything that we could pray for.  Without hesitation, he said, “I want you to pray for rain. It hasn’t rained here in a very long time, and we are desperate.  We have prayed but no rain has come.”  We prayed there and then and told him we would pray more—even asking people in America to pray.  And we did, both.

What happened next is the things of legends—except it is not a legend—it is truth.  After immediately contacting some of our folks back in America and praying ourselves…again…we went to sleep.  Sometime in the middle of the night, the wind began to blow, and the temperature began to fall.  Soon, there was the sound of a distant thunder.  Then, as we stood in our doorway and watched, a heavy rain began to fall.  David, one of our team members, was soon out dancing in the rain.  All of us were dancing in our hearts.

We would later learn that our friends in America, watching the radar online, saw a storm develop from nothing and move across our area.  As we danced in Africa—they were dancing in America.  That very night, right at three inches of rain fell in that village on the edge of the desert.  It was unbelievable.  It rained for several hours and fell so hard that several walls, made of mud, straw, and manure, collapsed.  A couple of storage buildings lost walls too.  When light finally came, literally, small lakes of water were everywhere.  We would be using the four-wheel drive feature on our trucks for several days.

I can’t remember if the chief came to us or summoned us to go to him, but that day we had another conversation.  He thanked us for praying and said that our God did what their god did not do.  He was grateful for us coming to the village and invited us to stay as long we wanted—and to return as often as we wanted.  Such are the wonders and miracles of the one true God.  This would not be the last or only miracle we would witness in West Africa.  It is amazing what God can and will do if the primary focus is to glorify His name.  I sometimes wonder if the people there still speak of the night of the rain.  I know we do.

There is an intriguing scripture in the Psalms—a collection of Hebrew hymns in the Jewish and Christian Bibles.  It is found in Psalm 37:4. It says that if we are willing to delight ourselves in God, He will give us the desires of our heart.  At first that sounds like a “rub the bottle and a genie pops out” story.  Trust me…it is not.  You see the first part is key—when we delight ourselves in God—then our desires align with His desires and when that happens—miracles do too.

This year, let me encourage you in a couple of areas.  First, if you haven’t thought much about Creator God—Jehovah God—in a while—why not revisit Him?  I believe you will come to the same conclusion I did years ago.  He is amazing.  And then, as we journey through this these challenging days, let’s commit to making His desires, our desires.  Let’s get on the same page with Him and watch, in wonder, what He can and will do.  It may not be exactly what we want but it will be what is exactly right.  He doesn’t make mistakes.  Wrapped up in all of this is that powerful truth we end each story with.  It is good news for this day and every day.  We can have the confident assurance that, “He’s got this” and He does.  Bro. Dewayne

Posted in Family, Grace, gratitude, life, Scripture, thankful, travel

Mustang Sally

Posted on by Dewayne Taylor

Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you your heart’s desires.” Psalm 37:4

It was a dream come true.  Several years ago, I was invited to speak at a conference way up north in Illinois.  How far north?  Well just about as far as you can go.  It seems you could see the Artic circle from where we were going.  For some reason, it might have been the car was due an oil change or just because, I decided to rent a car for the trip. I checked the local Enterprise car rental and they had a great rate, so I booked one online.  About 4:00 pm I went to the car rental place to pick up my plain Jane little car and that’s when I found that God had sent a love note.

I went into the office and waited just a moment for the agent to help me.  She shuffled some papers around and said, “You know I don’t have a compact car to give you.  I’m going to have to give you a Mustang convertible instead.”  I couldn’t believe it.  I had wanted to drive a Mustang since I was 12. While I didn’t get to own it permanently, for three whole days it was mine. I felt like I had just won the lottery!

We finished up the paperwork and she handed me the keys.  I walked outside and there she sat.  A new Mustang convertible with all the bells and whistles!  I felt cool just holding the keys.  I mashed the button on the remote and lights came on and the doors unlocked.  I opened the door and slid into the seat and was pretty certain I had died and gone to heaven. One of the first things I noticed was the quality of this American made car. Things had certainly changed since the 70’s.

The Mustang had more incredibly cool gadgets than I had ever seen in one car.  Gadgets like an incredible audio system, totally cool wheels, auto/manual shift, backup camera, keyless entry and start and on and on.  It seemed that everything you could possibly want on a car was there. This thing was “tricked out”.  For those who don’t know what that term means, it is something like it was customized–loaded with options and believe me it was! Not only had God given me the car of my dreams for three whole days but He had sent one that was loaded!

Well, we made the trip and I played Mr. Cool the entire time.  Sunglasses, my best smile and the coy look that said, “Oh yeah, it’s mine.”  I just didn’t share that it was only mine for three days.  Just as all good things have to come to an end, on Monday my Cinderella Mustang had to go back to Enterprise. However, I will never forget the time that God sent me a Mustang to drive.  It gave new meaning to that place in the Bible where it says, “Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you your heart’s desires.”

Now imagine my surprise when I went to the Ford website and discovered that my Mustang wasn’t “tricked out” at all.  In fact, all those cool features were “standard.”  In other words, every Mustang had those features included with no extra charge.  How about that–buy the car and get the options–not some plain Jane, “let’s crawl to the next light Mustang”, but one that caused people to look…”a head turner.” Buy the car and get the cool throw in with the deal.  I can remember when the base price got you four wheels and engine. Not so anymore. Ford did a great job in the quality and what you got for the money–but not to the point I’m ready to go out and buy one.

Here’s the deal:  God trumps Ford hands down–not even in the ball park.   I sometimes wonder if we understand all that we get when we receive God’s amazing grace through His Son Jesus: unconditional love, peace beyond understanding, unlimited acceptance, an incredible purpose and reason to live, the opportunity to make a difference–to be a part of something so big that we can’t even understand it all.  And that is not just for the Billy Grahams of the world but rather for every believer, every follower of Christ.  Amazingly, that’s not even the tip of the iceberg!

Some people love to drop names—you know, they are talking and they will say how they know so and so.  Well, check this out.  If you know Jesus, you know the creator of it all.  And you just don’t know Him…you know Him up front and personal.  And His Father is your Father and He is your Dearest Father.  He just waits for you to talk with Him every day.  And He enjoys blessing you. Be sure and thank Him for the fact that the life He gives us is not barebones but loaded to the max.  You know, when God does something, He always does it well and does it big–how about that?

As you journey this week, how about spending some time celebrating and thanking God for His incredible, unbelievable salvation? And if you get just a tad overwhelmed—and honestly who doesn’t—just remember who you know and Who knows you.  You can rest in Him.  He’s got this.