Category: abide

The Sacrifice of Praise

Posted on by Dorci

 

Well hello there. You might have noticed I’ve been mostly absent the past year. I’ve been dealing with more health issues than I can tell you, and I’m still trudging through it all. It would be easy for me to say it was a wasted year, but in God’s hands I know nothing is wasted. Sometimes the Lord calls us to go with Him outside the camp, outside the comforts we know, die to ourselves and share in His sufferings so that even in the middle of the pain, the grief, the suffering, we will come to know He is still good and faithful and worthy and offer our Great High Priest a sacrifice of eternal praise.

“The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to Him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.

Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.”
Hebrews 13:11-15

I don’t understand it all, but God does. Instead of trying to explain it, I thought I’d let Brandon Lake say it for me.

May the Lord bless you all with enduring faith.

(please scroll down)

 

Hard Fought Hallelujah
by Brandon Lake

Yeah, I don’t always feel it
Yeah, but that’s when I need it the most
So, I’ma keep on singing
‘Til my soul catches up with my song

There’s times when my hands go up freely
And times that it costs, oh-oh
There’s days when a praise comes out easy
Days when it takes all the strength I got

I’ll bring my hard-fought, heartfelt
Been-through-hell hallelujah (ooh, ooh)
And I’ll bring my storm-tossed, torn-sail
Story-to-tell hallelujah, oh
‘Cause God, You’ve been patient
God, You’ve been gracious
Faithful, whatever I’m feeling or facing
So I’ll bring my hard-fought, heartfelt, it-is-well hallelujah, whoa-oh
Hallelujah (ooh, ooh), hallelujah

I’ve wrestled with the darkness
But I’m tryin’ to reach for the light
Yeah, the struggle keeps me honest
And it breaks down the walls of my pride

‘Cause faith isn’t proven like gold
‘Til it’s been through the fire, eh-eh
My head, heart, and hands are feeling heavy
But that’s when I lift them just a little higher

I’ll bring my hard-fought, heartfelt
Been-through-hell hallelujah (ooh, ooh)
I’ll bring my storm-tossed, torn-sail
Story-to-tell hallelujah, whoa-oh
God, You’ve been patient
God, You’ve been gracious
Faithful, whatever I’m feeling or facing
I’ll bring my hard-fought, heartfelt, it-is-well hallelujah, oh
Hallelujah, hallelujah (ah, ah, ah, ah, ah)

I’ll bring my hard-fought, heartfelt
Been-through-hell hallelujah (hallelujah)
I’ll bring my storm-tossed, torn-sail
Story-to-tell hallelujah, whoa-oh
God, You’ve been patient
And God, You’ve been gracious
Faithful, whatever I’m feeling or facing
I’ll bring my hard-fought, heartfelt, it-is-well hallelujah (ooh)
Oh, hallelujah (mm, eh-ah, eh)
Hallelujah

Oh-oh, oh, oh-oh-oh
Hallelujah, hallelujah, halle-
Halle-, mm-mm
Hallelujah

 

Martha, Martha

Posted on by Dorci

“As they went, He (Jesus) entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. She had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and listened to His teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she came to Him and said, ‘Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Then tell her to help me.’

Jesus answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed. And Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken from her.’” Luke 10:38-42

Ouch. As a fellow Marthaian, reading these words of Jesus have always made me cringe a little bit.

Have you ever had thirteen people, or more, (including the Son of God) show up at your house unannounced to hang out for a while? What do you do? Maybe you start by running to the fridge to scrounge up something to drink. And what about food? Are they staying for dinner? What could you put together? You start pulling all the food you can find from every shelf and drawer, you think as fast as you’re sweating, taking out pots and pans, plates and cups, you run around the table setting it…  And you’re getting more and more frustrated by the minute.

But maybe it doesn’t end there. Maybe you’re busy finding enough chairs and cleaning the bathroom and washing the dishes and sweeping the floor, and on and on and on.

That was Martha. (And yes, I may have been known to exhibit this kind of behavior.) And then she stops, out of breath.  She can’t take the stress of it all anymore, and she marches herself over to Jesus.

“Don’t you care?”

In other words, aren’t you paying any attention? Haven’t you noticed that I’m doing all this work by myself and I’m stressed out?

Jesus’ answer to Martha was “you are worried and upset about many things.”

He had noticed, and He did care. He saw all Martha was trying to do. He saw she was trying to serve, and while that’s a good thing, He also saw she was doing it with an anxious and frustrated heart. And so He waited until she got to the end of herself and came to Him. I can imagine Him holding out His hand to her, inviting her to join them.

I know how hard it is to stop worrying and racing around trying to do all the things that need to be done in a day, a month, a lifetime, and just sit at Jesus’ feet.

Yes, some things need to be done, but some things can be left for a day, a month, or altogether. There are always things to be done, but Jesus calls us to come sit with Him.  

Martha was worried about giving them temporal food for their bodies but Jesus wanted to give her and the rest of them eternal spiritual food for their souls.

He knows we can do nothing without Him. Anything He calls us to do He wants us to do, not with anxiety, but in His strength, with His wisdom, His knowledge, and most of all, His love. Our first and greatest need is always to sit at His feet and learn from Him.

Who knows, if Martha had joined the rest of them, maybe afterward Jesus would have set a meal before them a la “wine at the wedding in Cana.”

I think we all have at least a little bit of Martha in us sometimes. We can get so stressed about life that we wonder if God even sees what’s going on in our lives. Doesn’t He care?

He sees and He cares, more than we can imagine. He knows that’s why we need Him. In the midst of it all He wants to give us His wisdom, to prepare us for things to come, to show us His will, to give us rest for our weary souls.

Sometimes God has ways of making us sit. When He has something to show us He will hold out His hand to us, one way or another, inviting us to come sit at His feet. And when we do, He’ll make a provision for all those things we are worried and upset about.

For weeks after my stroke He made a way for us to have dinner first by our church family and then for six months by our gracious neighbors. My husband took over many of the responsibilities I’d always had, and my job was to heal and to seek Him, to read His Word, and to write what He’d show me.

It’s been a hard road of frustration and sweat and venting. And every now and then I try to get up and run around, worried and upset about many things. But He keeps “double-naming” me like He did Martha, not in a condescending way, but with love and compassion, and He pulls me back to the thing that’s needed most: sitting with Him and letting Him feed my soul.

 

 

Heavenly Father, we know this life is short and you have much to teach us. Help us not get sidetracked and instead do the most important thing: spend time with Jesus. As we do, please give us His mind and heart and transform us by the power and love of your Holy Spirit. We trust you to provide and make a way and we give you all the glory for what you’re going to do. In Jesus’ precious name I pray, amen.

A Prayer to the Lord of the Harvest

Posted on by Dorci

“Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field.’”
Matthew 9:35-38

 

Dear Heavenly Father,

We praise you, Lord, that you are a God of compassion. Your compassion for the world caused you to send your Son to die on the cross for our sins. Then it was your compassion for each one of us that caused you to draw us out of the world to Yourself that we might live as your children, reflecting your bright light of love and truth to those around us.

Lord of the harvest, we ask you to send out workers into Your harvest field. As the world grows darker and evil becomes more apparent every day, we pray you would equip us with your eyes of compassion that we might see people around us as you see them: lost and in need of a Shepherd. Give us your heart of love, grace, and mercy, and let our words be the words of your Holy Spirit, filled with His power to soften hearts and open eyes to the truth so that there will be a harvest of righteousness in abundance.

Give us wisdom, discernment, and boldness as we walk in faith to whatever harvest field you call us, whether it’s to our next door neighbors, our friends, our family, across town or across the world, to share your truth in love with anyone you would have us. Prepare their hearts, Lord, and ours.

May you bind the work of the enemy, and keep us in prayer, as you open eyes, hearts, and doors for us, Lord, and give us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  

In His mighty name we pray, amen.