The Saturday Song – Remind Me Who I Am

“…beloved of God, called to be saints:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Romans 1:7

Many times in my life I’ve watched the genuine friendship and love among others and wondered what that must be like. Just this morning as I was thinking about dear Ravi Zacharias who will soon be hearing those words from the Lord “Well done, good and faithful servant,” I thought about the love pouring out to him from so many, and was thinking, he’s not only loved, he is beloved. What must that be like?

And not two hours later, the Lord led me to this song and reminded me that I am beloved.  And so are you. 

 

Sunday Praise and a Mother’s Day Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father, we praise you. We praise you for your goodness and love, for your heart full of grace and mercy.  Thank you for showing us your character in the love of a mom. That in her we see your unconditional love, your tender nurturing, your amazing grace. I pray for moms everywhere, that no matter what situation they’re in today, they would feel your love. I pray you would continue to strengthen them and give them wisdom. I pray you would comfort those who are grieving. I pray for all of us, that no matter what stage of motherhood we’re in, we would look to you and draw on your character that we might be moms who give you glory, and leave a godly legacy for our children.  In Jesus’ name we pray, amen. 

Deep Calls to Deep

“Deep calls to deep
in the roar of your waterfalls;
All your waves and breakers
Have swept over me.”
Psalm 42:7

 

 

There is something about an 80 foot swell that can get our attention. That’s how it can feel when the trials of life come over us, one, after another, after another.  We feel almost as if we could drown under the weight of it, so we stop, lift up our hands, and call on the Lord to save us.

He calls to us in the trial, and from the depths, we call back. Spirit calls to spirit, deep calls to deep. 

On this National Day of Prayer, let’s lift up our hands to worship in spirit and in truth. Let’s come boldly before the throne, lay our hearts bare, and call to Him to is able.

Let’s let the Holy Spirit speak to our hearts, reveal our sins for confession, and intercede on behalf of our country, our leaders, our neighbors, our business owners, our pastors, our brothers and sisters in the Lord, and for those who are still lost. 

Let’s stop, and hear the calling of the Lord in the trial, in the waves of suffering, and let Him have His glorious way in and through us. 

 

Oh Heavenly Father, please forgive us for wandering so far from you and for our many sins. Thank you for sending your Son to the cross in our place to take the judgment we deserve. 

Lord, we lift up our country, and every country, and pray for your mercy. We pray you would bind the enemy, that you would allow spiritual eyes to be opened, repentance of sin granted, and that multitudes would believe on your Son as Lord and Savior for the conversion of their souls. 

We pray for revival, for salvation and the filling and power of your Holy Spirit, in and out of the church. We pray for your wisdom for our leaders, we pray for healing from this virus that has caused loss of life, inundated the healthcare system, and shut down the livelihood for so many.

We pray you would comfort those who are grieving, heal those who are sick, strengthen those who are working so hard, provide for those who are out of work, and we pray for every business to be open and fully functioning again.

We pray you would strengthen and speak through our pastors. We pray we would be mindful to be witnesses and examples of your love wherever we go, that the world would know we are your disciples by our love for one another, and that love would draw people who are thirsty for love to your fountain of grace.

We pray our trials are never wasted, Lord, and that your will is done through it all. In the midst of all the chaos that can so easily grab our attention, help us to focus on you and to be about your business, functioning in the gifts you’ve given each of us for the benefit of the Body and to bring you glory. In Jesus’ holy and precious name we pray, amen.

The Saturday Song – Blessed Be Your Name

I love the old songs we used to sing, and this was one of my favorites. And for some reason, when I thought of it today, I thought of my friend Matt, who loved music and played it beautifully from the depths of his heart.  He went to be with Jesus it seems like a lifetime ago, and so many of us still miss his smile, and his kind and loving and gentle spirit.  So, I want to dedicate this song to our dear friend, Matt.  We can’t wait to see you again, friend.  What a glorious day it will be when we’re all there, worshipping our precious Lord together again.  

 

By This Everyone Will Know

Jesus is reclining at the Passover table with His disciples after Judas leaves. He gives His beloved friends some parting words to prepare them for what’s about to come, and He tells them this:

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
John 13: 34-35

He doesn’t tell them everyone will know they are His disciples if they go to church, or memorize scripture, or carry a Bible, or be nice, or any of a million other things. 

He says everyone will know if they love one another as He had loved them. Agape love.  Sacrificial love. All-encompassing, forgiving, loving-kindness love. 

And He didn’t just say other believers will know they are His disciples, but everyone will know.  The world will know. 

He tells them to love one another so profoundly, so boldly, so much so that the world sits up and takes notice and says “Hey, there go those Christians, loving each other again.”

Why does Jesus tell His disciples that?

Well, one, because that’s just how much Christ loves. He loved those around Him so much that everyone knew who He was.  He loved all the way to the cross.  And by extension, through the power of the Holy Spirit living in us, that is how much we’ll love when we’re following Him.

When we’re loving God, we’ll love one another.

And two, because that’s our witness. He says “everyone will know…” We are His ambassadors, and our witness to the world is our love for one another.  The gospel message that lives in and through us is that we have a love that goes beyond a worldly love. We have a divine, supernaturally given, godly love. 

And as that love drew multitudes to Him, that love lived out through us will draw the world to Him.

We want revival, we pray for revival, but are we living out the love Christ called us to in such a way that would be noticed by the world, that would draw them to Him, and lead to revival?

Let’s take a look. Is that what believers are known by? What is our reputation? Does the world look at us and talk about the love we have for one another?  Or do they talk about the way we judge, and criticize, and live hypocritically? 

I would tend to say the latter. Now, I know not all those criticisms are deserved, but maybe if the world doesn’t see who Jesus truly is, the all-encompassing love He offers them, it’s because we haven’t shown them. I know that after walking with Christ for 30 years and experienced what I have, even I don’t always have that view of believers.  And I know I’m not alone.

There are entire books written on how to heal after being hurt by those in the church, by people who have chosen to treat their brothers and sisters in ways that are far from loving.  Even Anne Graham Lotz talks about her own experience being hurt by Christians in her book Wounded by God’s People. And she also freely admits at times she’s been the one to wound. 

We all have. 

What we need to do right now, though, is regroup, repent, claim Christ’s commandment, and start loving one another. 

Jesus tell us in Matthew 5, “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.”

And in Mark 11, “And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”

We don’t know how long we have here before Christ returns.  Right now we may be experiencing a time when God is speaking to us, desiring that revival among His people first, preparing us, completing us, fully maturing us before He takes us up with Him, and also desiring revival throughout the world, the salvation of as many souls as possible before that time.  

We need to start the revival through our own repentance, forgiveness, and commitment, through Christ, to love one another as Christ loves the Church.

And then maybe, just maybe, the world will sit up and take notice of our love for one another. And in their desperate need for that kind of love, will be drawn to Christ, and repent, and forgive, be saved, and through Him, begin loving one another. 

Sunday Praise and a Prayer for More and More…and More Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father, we praise your holy and precious name.  We give you glory for all you’ve done for us and all you will do for and in us and through us.  We praise you for your grace and mercy, for your forgiveness, and for your loving kindness. 

Lord, help us remember that you already know our thoughts and what’s in our hearts, and to remember and believe that nothing can separate us from your love so we will keep coming to you with our anxious thoughts, with our unforgiveness, with our anger, and with anything and everything we struggle with so we can let you into the midst of it to speak to our hearts and heal and deliver us from those things that will keep us from following you wholeheartedly. 

Help us approach your throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.  Thank you, Lord, for keeping us and showing us the way, all the way home.  In Jesus’ name we pray, amen. 

Let’s Make Like a Tree…

I love trees, and today in the U.S. it’s Arbor Day, a day marked for celebration of trees (traditionally by planting a tree) and all the good they do for the environment around them. 

God uses trees throughout His Word, beginning and ending with the Tree of Life, and many other references throughout.

Today, though, I thought about how God tells us, in the Psalms and in Jeremiah, how we can be like a tree, sustained and fruitful even in hard times. 

Jeremiah records God’s word to His people:

“This is what the Lord says:

‘Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
who draws strength from mere flesh
and whose heart turns away from the Lord.
That person will be like a bush in the wastelands;
they will not see prosperity when it comes.
They will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
in a salt land where no one lives.

But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in Him.
They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.’”
Jeremiah 17:5-8

At one point in history, God’s people demanded Samuel appoint them a king instead of looking to God as their King. The first king they put their trust in was Saul, and we know how that ended.  And for hundreds of years God’s people put their trust in, and were ruled by kings.

Even today, a lot of people (sometimes even God’s people) are trusting in men and women in office to fix things, to make bad situations good, to make wrong situations right.  And there seems to be no shortage of people willing to promise to do those things. 

But that never ends as well as we’d like because people are just people, and the world’s system is not God’s. Let the world have the world.

We have God, a Savior, a Lord, who can do much more – He can make our hearts right.

Jesus tells us “’Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.’ By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive.” John 7:37-39

So, we might not be able to plant a tree today, but let’s be a tree and leave the world’s ways (sorry, I couldn’t help it!).

Let’s plant ourselves by the living water by putting our faith in Christ and Him alone and receive from Him rivers of living water, the Holy Spirit, continually moving through us, nourishing us, sustaining us, and producing in us fruit and all kinds of good things to benefit us and those around us, no matter the circumstances, with no end to its abundance.

Friday Funnies – Mean Baby

It’s Friday!  Okay, that probably doesn’t mean a whole lot these days, but trust me, it is. And it’s time for a laugh or two. Leanne Morgan is one of my favorite comedians.  That accent alone – hilarious.  Enjoy!  

 

 

 

 

Thankful Thursday – Pie

Isolation can give us a lot of time to think, and sometimes there’s nothing more dangerous than being inside our own heads.

We can start looking around, comparing our situation, our lives, to others and feel like we’re coming up short. Our piece of the pie seems like a sliver, and other’s a whopping piece with ice cream, or whipped cream, or both, slathered all over it.

And the truth is, we all have things in our lives we wish were different.  

There is much that others enjoy as a given part of life that I will never know.

At the beginning of Psalm 73, Asaph ponders the prosperity of those who are wicked. Though they live foolishly, they enjoy good health, they have no troubles, they aren’t plagued by common human burdens (he thinks).

And here he was, he thought, keeping his heart pure and his hands innocent, and yet every day brings a fresh round of pain and affliction.

Until, he says, he entered the sanctuary of God.

We he got his focus off himself and onto God, then he understood the final destiny of the wicked. Ultimately, all they had gained will come to absolutely nothing when they face God at the final judgment.

And finally Asaph writes, “My flesh and my heart may fail…”

There is much discussion about what Asaph meant by this. Did he mean his flesh and heart failed him when he fell into bitterness and envy of others? Or did he mean that eventually his flesh and heart will fail when he dies and moves on from this life? Maybe both.

“… but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Psalm 73:26

Asaph is finally able to take a wide and godly perspective and realize that because he has God in his life, he doesn’t have just a sliver of pie, or even a big piece. He actually has the whole pie. 

Yes, his own heart may fail, but God is His strength, and His portion, his inheritance, in this life and in the next.

Forever.

Yes, I may have missed out on a lot in this life, and maybe that’s a good thing because it showed me how much I needed God.

But God (Elohiym – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) is my portion. And when everything in this life is gone, I will still have my Portion. I will have my relationship with God through Christ, and the faith and character and everything else He’s built on that Foundation through the many years I’ve walked with Him.

And it will last forever.

So the reality is, I haven’t missed out on one bit. I have God and all He is! And if you know Jesus, so do you. We have the Creator of the universe, our heavenly Father, the keeper of our souls and the One is able to make all grace abound toward us and bless us abundantly, our Lord and Savior and Friend and Brother and Co-Heir in the faith, Jesus, and our Comforter and Peace Giver, the One who seals us for eternal life, the Holy Spirit.

We can never come to the end of the list of His blessings. And anything we missed in this life that He deems important He will more than make up for in the next. 

So instead of focusing inward or outward, let’s look up.  We have more pie than we could ever eat.

Easter Sunday Praise and a Prayer

 

 

Dear Heavenly Father, we praise you!  We praise you for your amazing grace and mercy, for your steadfast faithfulness and goodness, . We are eternally grateful for the gift of salvation you’ve given us through your Son. Thank you for allowing Him to be sacrificed so He could shed His precious blood and die for my sins. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for being obedient to death, even death on a cross. Thank you for enduring the punishment and suffering that should be ours, and then overcoming death, and applying your victory to us. We can never thank you enough. You rescued us from the pit, freed us from sin, gave us life, and changed our lives forever. Our hearts are yours. May our lives always glorify you.  In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.