• God demands gratitude from the heart—“In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” [I Thes. 5:18]
• God demands obedience—“Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter.” [Matt. 7:21]
• God demands prayer–“Pray without ceasing.” [I Thes. 5:17]
• God demands all the glory—“I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not give my glory to anyone else, nor share my praise with carved idols.” [Isa. 42:8]

What the LORD wanted was thankful hearts, obedience to His word, reliance upon Him for every need and a sincere desire to honor Him. What the LORD was getting from the Jews were meaningless offerings, disobedience to his word [they hated His instructions], and they were condoning and participating in sin. The two Asaph mentions are stealing and adultery. Dr. Wiersbe says, “Their thinking was so confused that they projected their fallen humanity on God and created a false image of His person. They were fashioning a god in their own image. They did not want God to interfere with their lifestyle.” Sounds a lot like our present generation.

After breaking God’s law, they would go to the sanctuary with a sacrifice and pretend to be devoted to Yahweh. They did all this to cover their sins. Thus they made the sanctuary a den [hideout] for thieves. Jesus made the same accusation to the Jews of His day. [Matthew 21:13] I am absolutely convinced that we too are guilty of half-hearted worship. We do not worship with all our heart. We simply go through the motions. I pray and I will continue to pray for a break through. At some point, we need to be overshadowed by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. One thing is sure; I can’t make it happen. Send us a Revival LORD, please.

• Did the blog Sunday night as I normally do and then forgot to post it. I go to bed late and get up late and it was late when I posted. Sorry about that! As I finish this one up, Joe David are finally headed to Atlanta. Their flight was delayed about 6 hours. I think Anthony got them a room in Atlanta so they would not have drive in the wee hours of the morning. Thank you Anthony.
• Got me a dog yesterday. He is a blue healer and has a great attitude. I think he is a puppy. He is standing watch over our corn by night. He’ll have some company about mid-night. We don’t have a single coon, they are all married with children.
• Big Mama feed the entire clan last night with garden vegetables: we had fried tators, Mexican cornbread with peppers from the garden, squash, peas and corn.
• Block Party offering was great Sunday and it wasn’t me who put the chunks in: we gave a little some others gave a lot. Praise Jesus. Mandy told me yesterday morning that our BLOCK PARTY balance is now $10,128.00 and we have two or three more offerings. She would like to have 12-14 thousand. Jim Tanners men’s class is going to do the grand prize [70 inch TV], if I can find one on sale. Willard and Gregg, the two bankers I mentioned Sunday morning always help us with the stage prizes. I have not talked to Ronald about the fire works but I will try to get that done this week.