November 20, 2011
The Heart of Worship – Lyrics, Michael W. Smith
Verse 1:
When the music fades
All is stripped away
And I simply come
Longing just to bring
Something that’s of worth
That will bless Your heart
Bridge:
I’ll bring You more than a song
For a song in itself
Is not what You have required
You search much deeper within
Through the way things appear
You’re looking into my heart
Chorus:
I’m coming back to the heart of worship
And it’s all about You,
It’s all about You, Jesus
I’m sorry, Lord, for the thing I’ve made it
When it’s all about You,
It’s all about You, Jesus
Verse 2:
King of endless worth
No one could express
How much You deserve
Though I’m weak and poor
All I have is Yours
Every single breath
Bridge:
I’ll bring You more than a song
For a song in itself
Is not what You have required
You search much deeper within
Through the way things appear
You’re looking into my heart
Chorus:
I’m coming back to the heart of worship
And it’s all about You,
It’s all about You, Jesus
I’m sorry, Lord, for the thing I’ve made it
And it’s all about You,
It’s all about You, Jesus
Just read the lyrics. You probably already know the tune if you’re reading it here on my blog. So just slow down for 120 seconds and really READ the lyrics. Doesn’t this song resonate with many of us? We get so busy sometimes and forget that it’s not about the music and the noise…its something simpler, yet more profound, that God is after – a heart that loves Him.
Lord, help us to love you more. Let there be more of You, less of us. It is all about You. Everything we have is Yours. We love you, Lord.
August 17, 2011
My Bible Swallowed Up My Food Journal! :D
This post is about applying the Bible to real-life problems. Here’s how I did it this week…
My G.I. psychologist gave me some homework last time I saw him, which was our first meeting. He wanted me to start yet another food journal. But the journal he wanted had some different questions to answer each day than the normal journal that I am used to using for tracking the food I eat and what symptoms I have. This one asks me what I ate when having GI symtpoms, what I was doing, what I was thinking about and how much I believed the thoughts (on a scale from 0 to 10), a description of my symptoms (again, with a scale of 0 to 10), and a description of how I felt (and 0 to 10).
Being me, and having large handwriting, there is absolutely no way that I was going to fit all of that on the one piece of paper he gave me, so I added it to my pH notebook. Like any journal I start, I have been painfully honest when I write. For several days, I literally felt like poop (but I used a more colorful word for it). On the days when I was so exhausted that I felt like I might pass out, my mood was about equally bad, and I had several days where I just wanted the day to be over – make it go away! On Sunday I have a pity party, and again God was not in the picture. On Monday I did get a few things done around my home, but my mind was wrapped up around food food food food food.
I tend to see food is the enemy rather than recognizing that Satan and my own flesh is my enemy, though they may take every opportunity to whisper to me that it is actually the food and not them against which I wage this battle. Sounds like deception’s clarion voice to me. It’s time for me to bring the Bible into the most frustrating parts of my life, not only the most painful. Perhaps my Bible will eat up my food journal like Moses’ snake ate the Egyptian’s serpents? …maybe?…
Please forgive the lack of formatting to differentiate Bible verses from my babble in between. In my personal journal on my computer it’s color coded, but WordPress wouldn’t allow me to copy and paste any text formatting. Go figure.
Psalm 139:1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
In light of my distrust of verses 13-16, this takes on more meaning – cleanse me of my anxious thoughts, my fears, expose my ways and thoughts because they are already known to You. There’s an interesting use of tense here. The psalmist says that God HAS ALREADY searched him and known him – in the PAST. But by the end of the psalm, you can see the psalmist ASKING for God to search him and know him in the present, and to reveal such things to him for his growth in spiritual maturity.
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
You know when I stay in bed too long, when I wear out and have to rest, when I rise and how I use my limited energy for YOU (not just me).
you discern my thoughts from afar.
My thoughts matter to You. They either glorify or dishonor You.
3 You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Because You know all my ways, all my habits, all my thoughts, all my fears…and You know all things in my life (past, present, future) and how they will work out in the end (Rom 8:28), You are in the unique position of guiding me.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
You know the full measure of my words both spoken and silenced.
5 You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
Even when I feel sick, Your hand is upon me; even when I’m worn out, You are behind and before me, protecting me and guiding me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.
But it is the glory of kings to seek out a matter (Prov 25), and I’m honored to be able to try to understand even a part of these truths.
7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I am sick in bed, You are there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
If I am lonely and alone, unable even to be around other people for weariness…
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
You can find me there – it’s not dark to You, so I’m not lost – You still see me even when I cannot see anything and I’m blinded by weariness and/or depression.
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.
13 For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
Am I to be angry at You for how you made me? Is the clay to complain to the potter because the potter didn’t give it a long handle? Is not some for honorable and other for dishonorable use? What should my response be to knowing that God Himself made me for His glory, even when it hurts? I will praise Him…
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
And when my soul doesn’t know it very well, that’s where faith comes in and trusts.
15 My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
I imagine You smiling as You carefully, “intricately,” form one You love, as you enjoy the secrecy of it, the inability of man to imitate Your works which You have kept for Yourself.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
That’s the days of pain, joy, sorrow, gratitude, a time for every season under the sun. You already knew them and how my life would play out before I was born.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
If He thinks so many thoughts that I cannot fathom, how likely is it that He’s worked out all these things (written about my life) so that they will glorify Him even when I don’t understand HOW – the He DOES comprehend what I see as a mystery? Very likely!
I awake, and I am still with you. ….
Doesn’t matter if I’m awake or asleep. Night terrors can’t separate us.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
Do I really want Him to “try me”? Sure feels like that’s what He has been doing lately. I feel stretched thin in so many directions. The psalmist is actually ASKING for this, so that He might know God more and Honor Him more and be Lead in the way everlasting – it’s an exercise of growth for the psalmist and me too. *Wink to self.*
24 And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!
God’s way is the only everlasting way, the only way that will have a glorious eternity.
Romans 8: 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, When I am thinking about my challenges, I’m thinking about the flesh, about things that will end and pass away, and I am not looking to spiritual realities but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit I need to trust God for His purposes and seek to glorify Him through my attitude about suffering in light of the cross and the suffering Jesus bore for me. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace Life and peace sounds better to me and definitely a better gift to others!. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God I don’t want to be hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you Yay!. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him L. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness Whose righteousness? Christ’s Righteousness!. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you The ability, through the Spirit, to do what in the body (mind included) is impossible due to weakness and the flesh.
8:23b we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons It drives me to the cross and the Word of God, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Am I being patient and exercising faith and trust in the promise? Am I claiming the promise as my own? Am I seeing this suffering as temporary and God’s glorification through my attitude as eternal? 26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. Thank Goodness! For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. Thank You, God, for praying for me.
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? If God is for me, what disease can be against me? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?…35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Do I doubt the love of God when the list below is dished out in my life? I have no Biblical reason to, yet there have been many times that I’ve accused God of not loving me BECAUSE He allowed the following. I often forget about verses 37-39. Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword, or weariness, or depression, or fear, or sickness, or difficult relationships, or lack of finances, or malnutrition, or hunger…? 36 As it is written,37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. I am a conqueror BECAUSE He loved (and loves) me. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, (not ONLY all the things in the previous list (verse 35), but also all the other things listed here!…can separate me from the love of God) nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
It Hurts, But He Has Not Forgotten.
August 6, 2011
I Don’t Feel No Ways Tired – Lyrics – Rev. James Cleveland
After fighting a terrible bout of nausea since this morning (it's what woke me up) and which has been my miserable companion all day, I really really needed to hear this. Maybe you do too? I Don't Feel No Ways Tired Lyrics Performed by- Rev. James Cleveland Written by- Curtis Burrell Chorus I don't feel no ways tired, I've come too far from where I started from. Nobody told me that the road would be easy, I don't believe He brought me this far to leave me. Vamp I don't believe He brought me this far (repeat as desired) I've been sick (I don't believe), but God brought me (He brought me this far). I've been in trouble (I don't believe), but God brought me (He brought me this far). I've been friendless (I don't believe), but God brought me (He brought me this far). I've been lonely (I don't believe), but God brought me (He brought me this far). Please don't leave me (I don't believe), don't leave me Jesus (He brought me this far). Don't leave (I don't believe), don't leave me Lord (He brought me this far). I don't believe (I don't believe) that God would bring me (would bring me this far). I don't believe (I don't believe) that God would bring me (would bring me this far). I don't believe (I don't believe) that God would bring me (would bring me this far just to leave me).
May 27, 2011
Lord, Thou hast won, at length I yield – Lyrics – John Newton
Lord, Thou hast won, at length I yield
Lord, Thou hast won, at length I yield;
My heart by mighty grace compelled
Surrenders all to Thee;
Against Thy terrors long I strove,
But who can stand against Thy love?
Love conquers even me.
If Thou hadst bid Thy thunders roll,
And light’nings flash, to blast my soul,
I still had stubborn been;
But mercy has my heart subdued,
A bleeding Savior I have viewed,
And now I hate my sin.
Now, Lord, I would be Thine alone,
Come, take possession of Thine own,
For Thou hast set me free;
Released from Satan’s hard command,
See all my powers waiting stand,
To be employed by Thee.
May 26, 2011
I Think I’m Trippin’ Y’all!
May 25, 2011
Marvelous Light – Charlie Hall – Lyrics – Out of darkness, out of shame.
One of the themes that have been going through my mind of late has been the theme of light. Especially, God’s light and its place in the Christian life. Following a word study I did on every occurrence of the word “light” in the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit reminded me of this song that I had not heard or sung since probably 2006. I remember singing that song at a singles group I was attending, but the meaning of the song just didn’t really impact me. Perhaps I didn’t feel that my sin was real enough, or that God’s grace was needed enough. But certainly now, his love is awakened me from my sleep and it beckons me to come and die so that he may take my life and use it for his glory. The darkness and the shame are very real, but Christ’s victory over death, over sin and darkness and shame, is even more real. And it informs my new life in Christ. I know that I am not the same person I was before Christ became my recognized Savior in 2005. And God has brought, and is bringing, the freedom that I long for. But when one has stood in a dark room for a long time, one’s eyes will hurt when first exposed to the light of the noon day.
The lyrics of this song are now alive to me, when once they made little sense and I didn’t have the interest to try to understand. God’s light is like that sometimes. We don’t always invite it and seek out God, but he is faithful to bring his light nonetheless, so that we may be sanctified and walk around, as during the day, rather than groping around in the dark and fearful of hidden things.
Marvelous Light – Charlie Hall
Into marvelous light I’m running,
Out of darkness, out of shame.
By the cross you are the truth,
You are the life, you are the way!
I once was fatherless,
a stranger with no hope;
Your kindness wakened me,
Awakened me, from my sleep
Your love it beckons deeply,
a call to come and die.
By grace now I will come
And take this life, take your life.
Sin has lost it’s power,
death has lost it’s sting.
From the grave you’ve risen
VICTORIOUSLY!
Chorus
Into marvelous light I’m running,
Out of darkness, out of shame.
By the cross you are the truth,
You are the life, you are the way!
My dead heart now is beating,
My deepest stains now clean.
Your breath fills up my lungs.
Now I’m free. now I’m free!
“It Is Well With My Soul” and the sea billows of brokenness and restoration
I’m walking through an intense journey right now where God is shining light on many hidden, locked-away areas in my life. What’s being made known is often painful just by its nature, other times the result of sin – my own sin and/or the sin(s) of others, filled with guilt and shame. And the whole process is, at times, both humbling and bewildering.
Hopefully, in time, I will find it to be comforting as well – that the God who calls for my personal sanctification brings about the means of its accomplishment through the Holy Spirit, and that He is the One at the root of it all. My friend asked me today if I was saying, “Ouch, Hallelujah!” to the Lord yet. At the moment, I think I’m still in the “Ouch” stage.
But I am encouraged to see how the Holy Spirit speaks to me as I bring my sin, my guilt, my pain, to the Throne of God. One of the ways God often encourages me is through hymns and music. My mind is like a perpetual tape player, always recording soundbites (if only I could remember when your birthday was or what you told me to do 30 seconds ago!), especially music and commercials (one reason I don’t watch TV – I don’t want to be singing “Like a good neighbor State Farm is there” insurance jingles for 36 hours straight in my mind). So songs I sang or heard 10, 20 years ago, are lodged in the deep sulci of my brain. Some of those, however, require the Holy Spirit to retrieve.
Anyways, “It Is Well With My Soul” has always been one of my favorites. It’s helped me weather so many storms, both physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. But now I hear a few more notes and melodies ring true through these beloved verses that I’ve never heard before.
I often saw the sea billows and sorrows as external circumstances, which they very well may also be. But now they take on a new meaning to me. They may be sea billows of grief or pain, sorrows for sins committed and the effects of the sins on God, others, and myself. And these waves and sorrows may be as deep or deeper than any external circumstances. Satan’s buffet’s attack God’s character and my identity in Christ. The trials are doubts. How will I stand? Firm, in God’s grace, in faith, despite fears and doubts, in the armor of God? God’s word is available and it really does teach me that my soul’s security is sure and as steadfast as the Lord’s own faithfulness (as it is rooted in the same).
Regardless of the Enemy’s arrows and the pains I have taken to add to my own life through sin, there is a blessed assurance that Jesus is mine and that he knew me fully from the Beginning, in my wretchedness, in my inability to help myself or improve my situation in the slightest. And knowing all of this fully, from the Beginning (before He created me or anything which He has created), He planned and then actually did spill His blood for me until death. (Isn’t it amazing that BEFORE I was created in 1980-something, He loved me so much that He died before I was even born, for me?…and you?) And being helpless, as I am, He paid for every bit of my rebellion.
It is no longer mine to bear. Indeed, if there is not one thing in all creation over which God does not cry “MINE!” then that absolutely includes my sin, because Jesus BECAME sin who knew no sin — He became MY sin. And it is his to keep.
But rather than keeping it, rather than holding onto my sin as a token of my idolatry and asking me to pity the God I hated; ….oh! instead! He PAID for it, then CAST IT AWAY as far as the East is from the West, and in its place He established a covenant of love and protection over my soul, a promise that I may enter into the most holy place and be in the presence of my King. Therefore, it is truly WELL with my soul and I can praise the Lord, O my soul!
It Is Well With My Soul
When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
Refrain:
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life,
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.
But Lord, ’tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord!
Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul.
And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.
Horatio Spafford
What Is Repentance?
What Is Repentance? Copied and pasted from http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/what-is-repentance
Charles Spurgeon writes:
Repentance is a discovery of the evil of sin, a mourning that we have committed it, a resolution to forsake it. It is, in fact, a change of mind of a very deep and practical character, which makes the man love what once he hated, and hate what once he loved.
J. I. Packer writes:
Repentance means turning from as much as you know of your sin to give as much as you know of yourself to as much as you know of your God, and as our knowledge grows at these three points so our practice of repentance has to be enlarged.
John Piper writes:
Repenting means experiencing a change of mind that now sees God as true and beautiful and worthy of all our praise and all our obedience.
February 21, 2011
I’ve Got The Victory in Jesus! “Victory” by Yolanda Adams – Lyrics
[Chorus]
I’ve got, got the victory
I’ve got the sweet, sweet victory in Jesus,
Yes I do!
He is our mighty conquerer,
In Him I will trust, all my battles He’ll fight.
I’ve got, got the victory
I’ve got the sweet, sweet victory in Jesus.
For me He died but He rose on the third day
That’s why I have true victory everyday!
[Verse 1]
Truly I’ve been through the storm and rain.
I know everything about heartache and pain.
But God carried me through it all
Without His protection I’d surely fall.
I’ve been broke without a dime to my name.
But all my bills got paid ‘cause I called on Jesus name.
You can’t tell me that God isnt real ’cause I’ve got the victory and that’s why I’m still here.
[Chorus]
[Verse 2]
I’m not worried about material things I dont have
I just rest cause I’m sure in my Savior’s care
Because I know my blessing is on the way
I can’t see it right now but I stand by faith.
I’ve fought many, many battles in His name
I held up the blood-stained banner and proclaimed
That Jesus is the truth and the light:
Believe me when I say He will make it all right!
[Chorus]
[Bridge]
Yeah I got the victory yeah
I got the victory yeah yeah yeah
[And if you have the victory sing it with me]
Yeah I got the victory yeah I got the victory
Yeah yeah yeah
[I’ve got the victory Sing it with me]
[Chorus out]