"pardon for sin and a peace that endureth....Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide...."
every once in a while the "ordinary" becomes "extraordinary". The "natural" becomes "supernatural".
Every once in a while, while worshiping, even using a song that I've worshiped with 100 times before, a line will jump off the page and take on new life to me. Like a tall, refreshing drink of water, normal words will refresh my whole being.
That's what happened this past Sunday for me. As I was leading the congregation in the song "Great is Thy Faithfulness"....I got to the part that says, "Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide..."
As I sang that line I was reminded of what had just happened that morning in my quiet time. There had been a couple of things in my life that were disturbing my peace. Greatly. There, in my quiet time, I prayed about those two things, I talked to God about what was bothering me, and then I opened up my Bible and began to read the scripture that went with that days devotion. Lo and behold, God dealt with the two things that were bothering me in the passages of scripture that were opened before me.
How does He do that?
It was seriously as if I asked Him a question....and He answered.
"call to Me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things that you do not know." Jeremiah 33:3
As I sang the line "Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide." I had a renewed gratefulness for his faithfulness. And I thought, "why do we skip quiet time? why do we NOT stop and call upon the Lord?" He offers His very own presence to cheer and to guide us.
So many times while reading HIS Word, it become more than just words on a page, it becomes His embrace.
Give Him the chance to embrace YOU through His word today.
AND, when you worship Him through song, think about what you're singing about, and let Him meet you in the midst of the song.
He inhabits our praises. (Psalm 22:3)
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Friday, April 20, 2012
but can He calm MY storm?
Mark 4:39He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.40He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
The disciples walked with Jesus, talked with Jesus, lived with Jesus and yet still had trouble understanding just exactly who Jesus was. They certainly didn't understand what having Jesus in their daily lives meant to them. How He could provide and comfort and....
And we forget too.
Even now, after having the Holy Spirit to help us as we study the Word to learn who He is, we still forget, and/or fail to have faith that having Jesus in our lives can beautifully effect our daily lives. That He can also calm the storms in our life as we call on Him.
A few years ago there was a popular Christian song that said, "sometimes He calms the storm, and sometimes He calms the child". That's my prayer in my life as I face storms...
Jesus, either calm this storm, or calm me...and for anyone who reads this today, I pray this for you.
So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the LORD your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you. Deut. 31:6
So we will not fear when earthquakes come and the mountains crumble into the sea. psalm 46:2
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
How do I live this life?
I grabbed my coffee, my devotional book, my bible, and I sat down on the couch, closed my eyes and with quiet desperation asked...
"How do I live this life?"
My own negative thoughts rose up within me and answered my own question with these words,
"not very well."
I had been up since 3:37am EST. Worried about everything. I don't typically wake up worried, but due to some current life circumstances, that's where i found myself this morning. Worried.
I opened up my devotional book (currently reading Jesus Calling by Sarah Young) and read this line...
"Peace is my continual gift to you..."
In the stillness of the moment and with my unsettled brain still stirring, I thought,
"You, Lord, offer peace, and yet I choose worry...why is that?"
My brain processed the things that had kept me up and stirring this morning. Mostly worried about how my decisions I'm making today will affect my/our future. Not necessarily bad space to be thinking through, but what i was primarily worried about was...
the future...
I continued reading my devotion....
"Peace flows abundantly from my throne of grace. Just as the Israelites could not store up manna for the future but had to gather it daily, so it is with My peace. The day to day collecting of manna kept My people aware of their dependence on Me. Similarly, I give you sufficient Peace for the present, when you come to me by prayer and petition with thanksgiving. If I gave you permanent Peace, independent of My presence, you might fall into the trap of self-sufficiency. May that never be! I have designed you to need Me moment by moment."
When the Israelites were in the desert, God gave them enough food (manna) for each day. They had to depend/trust Him to give it again the next day. And so it is with peace. I don't have peace for future days yet because those days aren't here yet. So, I accept His peace for today, I trust Him for today, and I know that I can trust Him for tomorrow, and therein lies my peace.
Perhaps worry is a struggle for you too, robbing you of peace.
Trust Him for today. Accept His peace for today. And then do it again tomorrow.
Matthew 6:34 (MSG)
Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.
"How do I live this life?"
My own negative thoughts rose up within me and answered my own question with these words,
"not very well."
I had been up since 3:37am EST. Worried about everything. I don't typically wake up worried, but due to some current life circumstances, that's where i found myself this morning. Worried.
I opened up my devotional book (currently reading Jesus Calling by Sarah Young) and read this line...
"Peace is my continual gift to you..."
In the stillness of the moment and with my unsettled brain still stirring, I thought,
"You, Lord, offer peace, and yet I choose worry...why is that?"
My brain processed the things that had kept me up and stirring this morning. Mostly worried about how my decisions I'm making today will affect my/our future. Not necessarily bad space to be thinking through, but what i was primarily worried about was...
the future...
I continued reading my devotion....
"Peace flows abundantly from my throne of grace. Just as the Israelites could not store up manna for the future but had to gather it daily, so it is with My peace. The day to day collecting of manna kept My people aware of their dependence on Me. Similarly, I give you sufficient Peace for the present, when you come to me by prayer and petition with thanksgiving. If I gave you permanent Peace, independent of My presence, you might fall into the trap of self-sufficiency. May that never be! I have designed you to need Me moment by moment."
When the Israelites were in the desert, God gave them enough food (manna) for each day. They had to depend/trust Him to give it again the next day. And so it is with peace. I don't have peace for future days yet because those days aren't here yet. So, I accept His peace for today, I trust Him for today, and I know that I can trust Him for tomorrow, and therein lies my peace.
Perhaps worry is a struggle for you too, robbing you of peace.
Trust Him for today. Accept His peace for today. And then do it again tomorrow.
Matthew 6:34 (MSG)
Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
So Long World
No, I'm not ending it all. How could I? For even if my body dies, I would live on somewhere. Heaven or Hell.
If I'm going to spend eternity with HIM, then I want to know Him. I want to know who I will be spending the rest of all time with. Yes, I know Him now. But I want to know Him even better!
Which is exactly why I'm saying "so long world". At least for a time. The most important time. My quiet time.
You see, I love techno gadgets. I have a tablet, a 11.6 in cute 'lil laptop (that I love!), and my droid. And I love my Bible app. For a while now I have been doing quiet time with my Bible app, and I love it. I love the ease of looking things up and taking notes and all the things the app offers. The bad part of it is, when I use that, the Lord never has my full attention. If an email comes in, I check it. Or I'm tempted to go on Facebook and see what you all are doing. Or i respond to a text message, or FB chat, or one of the other millions of things out there via the world wide web, that are able to gain my attention.
So, it's back to the basics for me. My Coffee. My devotional book. My Bible. My Jesus.
I will kiss the rest of the world goodbye for this precious quiet time in order to fully embrace the One I love more than any other.
The One who gets me through this life, and hopefully not just enduring it, but living it to the full abundance that He promises when He says, "I came that you might have life, and have it more abundantly."
John 10:10 The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.
How about you? Does He have your full attention? Ever? Those are questions I've been asking myself lately, and am vowing to spend some one on one time with just Jesus and no one else.
So from now on, for my quiet time, it's so long world, Hello Jesus.
If I'm going to spend eternity with HIM, then I want to know Him. I want to know who I will be spending the rest of all time with. Yes, I know Him now. But I want to know Him even better!
Which is exactly why I'm saying "so long world". At least for a time. The most important time. My quiet time.
You see, I love techno gadgets. I have a tablet, a 11.6 in cute 'lil laptop (that I love!), and my droid. And I love my Bible app. For a while now I have been doing quiet time with my Bible app, and I love it. I love the ease of looking things up and taking notes and all the things the app offers. The bad part of it is, when I use that, the Lord never has my full attention. If an email comes in, I check it. Or I'm tempted to go on Facebook and see what you all are doing. Or i respond to a text message, or FB chat, or one of the other millions of things out there via the world wide web, that are able to gain my attention.
So, it's back to the basics for me. My Coffee. My devotional book. My Bible. My Jesus.
I will kiss the rest of the world goodbye for this precious quiet time in order to fully embrace the One I love more than any other.
The One who gets me through this life, and hopefully not just enduring it, but living it to the full abundance that He promises when He says, "I came that you might have life, and have it more abundantly."
John 10:10 The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.
How about you? Does He have your full attention? Ever? Those are questions I've been asking myself lately, and am vowing to spend some one on one time with just Jesus and no one else.
So from now on, for my quiet time, it's so long world, Hello Jesus.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Scriptures for Trusting God from Romans 4
I'm learning, once again, from Abraham as I read through the scriptures this morning, and I'm so thankful that I don't have to try to put God's plan for my life in place by my own actions and efforts, but can trust God to fulfill His plan for my life. As I've heard Sheila Walsh say, it is the Shepherds job to lead me home, it is my job to follow the shepherd.
The following passages are all from Romans 4:
That famous promise God gave Abraham—that he and his children would possess the earth—was not given because of something Abraham did or would do. It was based on God's decision to put everything together for him, which Abraham then entered when he believed.
Abraham was first named "father" and then became a father because he dared to trust God to do what only God could do: raise the dead to life, with a word make something out of nothing.
When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn't do but on what God said he would do. And so he was made father of a multitude of peoples.
Abraham didn't focus on his own impotence and say, "It's hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never father a child." Nor did he survey Sarah's decades of infertility and give up. He didn't tiptoe around God's promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God, sure that God would make good on what he had said. That's why it is said, "Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him right."
The following passages are all from Romans 4:
That famous promise God gave Abraham—that he and his children would possess the earth—was not given because of something Abraham did or would do. It was based on God's decision to put everything together for him, which Abraham then entered when he believed.
Abraham was first named "father" and then became a father because he dared to trust God to do what only God could do: raise the dead to life, with a word make something out of nothing.
When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn't do but on what God said he would do. And so he was made father of a multitude of peoples.
Abraham didn't focus on his own impotence and say, "It's hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could never father a child." Nor did he survey Sarah's decades of infertility and give up. He didn't tiptoe around God's promise asking cautiously skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready for God, sure that God would make good on what he had said. That's why it is said, "Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him right."
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