Note: Due to family travel we are not podcasting this week. This morning we are in Goshen, Indiana near Shipshewanna where we visited the Amish settlement yesterday and attended a concert at the Blue Gate Theater with a singing group called the Craguns. The Shipshewanna area is similar to Lancaster County, being the most prominent of Amish settlements in Indiana. We enjoyed just walking about the town and found some interesting places to shop including E&S Sales, an Amish owned grocery store. Our plan is to get up early this morning and make the long drive home. In our current hotel we have a very slow internet connection! We did not post a message yesterday, 8/4.

Message Summary: Today we urge you to "make it your goal to please Him" and "find out what pleases the Lord". That indeed is a worthy goal.

"So we make it our goal to please Him" (2 Corinthians 5:9). “Find out what pleases the Lord" (Ephesians 5:10).

Today the Olympics begin in Brazil. When I was younger I enjoyed watching the Olympics but with all the controversy this year and politics of the Games I don't expect to pay much attention.

But I do enjoy sports and a common word used in many sports is goal. Of course the overall "goal" is to win whether in individual sports or in team sports. But "goal" is also used in many for a score such as the goal line in football, field goal in basketball, goal keeper in hockey and soccer, which of course is a defensive position with the goal of preventing the opposing team from scoring a goal.

Today let us consider life's greatest goal. That goal is to finish well and hear our Lord's commendation, "Well done, good and faithful servant" (see Matthew 25).

But all through life we should have a goal of pleasing the Lord in all we do. "So we make it our goal to please Him."

A great pursuit in life for the redeemed is finding out what pleases the Lord. When we consider Christ's love for us, we'll want to live for Him. The apostle Paul testified, "We make it our goal to please Him" (2 Corinthians 5:9). That was one of the first verses of Scripture I memorized.

By God's grace it remains a simple expression of my outlook on life and the quest to find out what pleases the Lord is ongoing. Although God's written revelation about that which pleases Him is unchangeable, new challenges are always set before us that require discernment from the solid foundation of that which He prohibits and that which pleases Him.

David prayed a prayer that he would be pleasing to the Lord, "May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer" (Psalm 19:14).

Pastor Steven Cole shares this insight about what pleases the Lord: "We do not determine what pleases the Lord by our own feelings, which fluctuate, or by what the world or other Christians say or think. We don’t even determine it by our own conscience, in that our conscience may be improperly informed. Rather, we learn what pleases the Lord through growing to understand His Word. We now evaluate everything we do by the question, “Does this please the Lord, who loved me and gave Himself for me?” So, the first requirement for living in this dark world is to be children of light and to walk as children of light, doing everything to please the Lord."

Today we urge you to "make it your goal to please Him" and "find out what pleases the Lord". That indeed is a worthy goal.


Be encouraged today,


Stephen & Brooksyne Weber

Daily prayer: Father, I want to find out what pleases You and make it my goal to honor You with my life. I want the affections of my heart, the thoughts of my mind, the expression of my emotions, the words voiced from my lips and the actions from my works to please you. May my understanding grow as I read and apply Your written revelation and as I learn from my brothers and sisters in Christ. Since my life may be the only Bible that some people read, may it reflect the person of Christ and that which You teach about Your people being set apart for holy living. I love You, Father, with all my heart and I want to show it with all my life. Amen.

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"The Power Of Praise Sample Video"  Video  The Craguns This is the group we heard last night at the Blue Gate in Shipshewanna, Indiana. I had not heard of them prior to checking for shows but we had an evening and thought we would check them out and we enjoyed the concert.