One of my favorite songs is completely in Japanese. Eventually I saw the subtitles and could relate also to the words, but even without the words, the music touched my heart. I cannot help but wonder if that is why worship is so important. Music touches us, moves us, changes us. I have heard of missionaries going to non English speaking countries, having church and having people break down in worship to words that they don’t understand because they understand the passion of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit moves in music, I have seen it and felt it and it is amazing! When the Holy Spirit moves your worship then you are truly touching Heaven.
Category: Devotional
No matter the squalls
When chasing a dream it is too easy to think the whole thing will be Cinderella. You are working hard under a horrible task master but you keep dreaming, and then one day all your wishes upon stars come true and it’s life in the palace from here on out. That’s a nice story but not a reality. Real dreams don’t just come up to you, take you by the hand and off you go together; you have to work for them. Take heart because the harder you work for a dream the sweeter it is when the dream comes to pass. However, while working I know it is all too easy to hit the ‘I hope this is worth it’ button. Because the minuet you start doubting your goal and start wondering if it’s realistic you easily start feeling like you are putting too much into it. You may even wonder if this is God’s will at all.
I once heard an evangelist say…’if God is putting something on your heart, something you long for and can’t let go of, be prepared, because He is setting you up for it to happen.’
Pray about your doubts because your longing dream may very well be God preparing you for what He has planned for your life. And don’t let go of the helm no matter the squalls that arise, because the light coming off you once you succeed will be the light of Heaven as God cheers you on.
Chaos
Out of the chaos come the best stories.
Think about the greats. Tolkien, Lewis, Dickens, Vern, Stevenson, so on. The main theme of most of their stories is chaos. War, poverty, destruction, and the aftermath of all of the above. And out of these horrors come stories that touch people’s hearts. Stories that soon become legends in their own right; stories that guide you down a path laden with dark, crumbling caverns and forests only to emerge at the entrance to magnificent palaces and lands filled with magic and faeries.
Most stories have at least a moment of chaos that leads the protagonist to the right place at the right time so they can be there when the world needs them, or at least when the author needs them.
If we allow God to lead us through the chaos times in our lives we will find ourselves in the right place, at the right time when the author of the world needs us. And we will find after all the struggles that the grand palace and the land of magic was worth every dark, crumbling cavern we had to climb through; because God knows the end of the last chapter and He is guiding us on the best path to reach the apex of our lives where we will stand undefeated and look behind us to see the gentle, powerful hand that was leading us all along.
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Enough light?
Stormie Omartan wrote a book titled ‘just enough light for the step I’m on.’
The book itself I have not yet read, but the title has clung in my mind.
How often do we go through times like that? Days when we feel like we only have the dull beam of a dying flashlight guiding us, just enough light to see directly in front of us and that is it. We may even feel like that has been our whole lives, just enough, never more, never less. The point of the very dark and invisible path ahead is Faith. Would we need an all knowing God if we were all knowing ourselves? God could have given us a complete outline of what our lives would be but He knew that if we knew all we would go through we couldn’t handle it. Our free will also comes into play here. If God had given us an exact road map the decisions we made ( good or bad) would not have happened because they were not part of our map.
We have only enough light so we step out trusting in God, and even when we fall He catches us and lets us learn from our mistakes.
We would not be people, with thought and choice, if we had an exact path. Yes God has a path for all of us and a destiny and an end result, but a lot of what gets us where we are going is our decisions. It may be a hard road or an easy road depending on our choices. Sometimes we may even not end up where God plans for us to be because our decisions lead us elsewhere, but He allows us to be real and to make our choices without dictation. Jesus directs us. Not controls us, directs. He lets us choose where we will go but He still guides us to keep us safe.
We have just enough light to see the path and to somewhat make out where each path may go when we reach a crossroads.
Walking a dim path with Jesus is the same as if we were walking in brilliant, full sunshine.
Walking a dim path without Jesus is simply a good way to get lost.
Still a slave
They say we are all prisoners of this world, but when we become Christians we are not; only through Christ are we free from this world so why do we refuse our freedom.
We are like slaves who get so used to their masters that they can’t leave them. This world abuses us, neglects us, starves us, beats us and yet we are so used to it that we refuse to be free from it.
Jesus is right there saying ‘follow me and I will show you how to be free.’ And yet we are sitting back, clinging to this familiar world, refusing to budge because freedom scares us. As soldiers say, true freedom you have to work for and fight for. We are constantly having to fight against the slave master of this world because he knows we are afraid and he knows it’s easy to seduce us into a sense of complacency where we fall into his clutches. But Jesus is stronger than the evil and He is fighting on our side.
No matter how long it takes no matter how hard we fight against Him Jesus will always be there with a nail scarred hand stretched out toward us, pulling us out of our prison and showing us the way of the free.
‘My chains are gone, I’ve been set free. My God, my savior has ransomed me and like a flood his mercy rains. Unending love, amazing grace.’-Casting Crowns
Do you love me?
How many people here love the play fiddler on the roof?
Okay. How many of you remember the song ‘do you love me’?
Tevye asks his wife if she loves him and she responds-
Golde: Do I love you? For twenty-five years, I’ve washed your clothes, Cooked your meals, cleaned your house, Given you children, milked the cow.
Tevye: But do you love me?
How often do we work for God, suffer for God, take great strains to please God but don’t actually love Him? When we think about it if God set us on a perverbial mountain top with everything we ever begged for, searched for and longed for and then He just left, would we miss Him? Would we miss our times talking with Him? Worshiping Him? Being His friend?
Jesus wants a relationship, not a dictatorship. We can’t sit on our throne and tell our king what we want from Him, then complain when He isn’t fast enough or doesn’t do exactly what we wanted and not exspect Him to begin to feel unloved. We need to give the throne back to Jesus and sit at His feet just loving His presence.
So, do we love Jesus or do we love what He offers? Heaven, blessings, so on. If He left today would you miss Him? Would we notice He was gone?
In a time when we need to be remembering love remember to love the one who loves you more than anyone else ever can.
Credit to owner for artwork
What is love?
Love is such a simple word for something so complex.
It is resounding passion and a simple promise.
Fear and courage all rolled into one. It’s the cold of winter and the brilliant, warm rays of a summer sun.
Is love a maid running from a ball, losing a shoe and having a prince fall in…love?
Is love flowing hair from a tower window up high?
Is love a secret meeting in the darkness of night?
Are any of these true love I ask?
Or is love not so easy, is true love a task?
When the troubles come and the cold winds blow, will this kind of love stay or will it go?
Love is an overused word and so it’s true meaning has been lost. Love is sacrifice, love has a cost.
Once upon a time as all great stories go a man came down from Heaven abandoning His royal throne. He dwelt among shepherds, fishermen and kings. Then He was crucified for saying the wrong things. If you assume He does not know love betrayed, then you have forgotten the garden and the kiss Judas gave.
True love rose again after three days and still loves us in every possible way.
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A caring touch
Why would the king, who has the finest flowers in His royal garden, care enough to climb through the forest to find a back woods rose like me and carry me home? He puts me in a crystal vase on His dresser and sets me in a place of honor among His royal flowers. He finds delight in me even though I am prickly and plain. He gives me special care because He sees my petals wilting and He makes sure that I always have enough of all I need. Why would a royal king dirty His hands to pack my roots with fresh soil? As He labours over all the flowers around me I see His sweat stained brow, I notice the mud smeared on His face and I see His hands bleeding from the thorns of the plants He loves. I feel unworthy to be sitting on His dresser as He works hard, but what can I do? I am simply a flower. He caresses my leaves as He walks by and smiles. What more is there for a flower to do but to bring joy to her master?
Perhaps sometimes that is all Jesus wants from us; for us to see all He is and to bring Him joy by honoring Him with all we can do. As a simple flower I can make someone smile with my sweet scent, as a common herb perhaps you can add flavour to a dish or become a healing medicine.
This is a fanciful way of saying we are all individuals, different and unique. Jesus loves us all for who we are and is brought joy when we use what we can do to honor Him.
How often do we feel we are going the wrong way when we are really going the only way?
How often do we feel we are going the wrong way when we are really going the only way?
I wonder how often we are truly following God and His plan and the devil comes up behind us and covers our eyes making us think we are going the wrong way. How often do we stop and change course because the devil has blinded us to the path?
God is fighting for us. That doesn’t just mean in our stead He is also fighting to keep us. As God is directing our paths we constantly have the devil telling us we are going the wrong way; that we aren’t following God but are following ourselves, even though we know that is not true.
Sometimes when God is quiet the devil gets very very loud and that can confuse us. But if we focus on God and pray, even if we don’t hear God He can send us a feeling to His direction. Sometimes in the heart racking sobs the unbelievable peace that hits you is God answering you. Sometimes in the wistful joy it’s the pang of uncertainty that is God saying, “be careful.” I have no answer to the question of, “what do I do God?” Because I am not you and only you can know what God is saying to you. It’s that still small voice; that impossible whisper that guides us. It can be so hard to hear, but don’t lose heart because Jesus knows what He is doing with you and He will show you the next safe place to put your foot.
Credit to owner for cover image
When the tears don’t cease
I once said that my guitar has seen less tears than my pillow, my pillow less tears than my dog and my dog far less tears than Jesus, because Jesus sees them all. For some reason we as people get it into our heads that the pain and stress and worn thin feelings we had last week should have been healed and cleared up by this one; That would be nice but that doesn’t always happen.
Last weeks troubles may very well have carried into this week, and you may feel that you have clung so tight for so long to Jesus that you are molded to Him and can never let go.
Bingo. That’s the point. To never let go. That realization is not going to fix your problems but now maybe you see that you have someone to help you through them. I saw a movie where the guy said he regretted letting go of the girl he was in love with so soon because he was enjoying holding her (in a hug). Jesus enjoys holding us; He enjoys taking care of us and I bet He regrets it when we let go of Him too soon, or at all, because He doesn’t want our moments together to end. Our moments do not have to end. If there is a place in our lives we can’t take Jesus with us then it is a place we need to get rid of. But even if we do, and I am sure we all have places we feel Jesus wouldn’t approve of, He would go there with us anyway; this is Jesus friend of sinners remember. Maybe taking Him there with you will help you see how to clean those places up.
Its nice to be able to hold Jesus’ hand no matter where you go or what you do in a day. Its nice to have that support, love and friendship.
Sometimes when you look around and ask “where is God in the midst of this?” He will send you a sign. It may be big or it may be so small that if you closed your eyes at the wrong moment you might have missed it. But it is there. Just a gentle reminder that He is right here in the midst of you and your circumstances. A reminder that He is still holding you up and is still holding your hand.
Jesus, thank you seems a hard word to say at times, but even in the struggles we can be thankful that you are there with us and that you are still God. Amen.
Credit to owner for cover image
Carried in the cross 