Wednesday, May 25, 2016

leaving this here

Psalm 90

1Lord, through all the generations
you have been our home!
2Before the mountains were born,
before you gave birth to the earth and the world,
from beginning to end, you are God.
3You turn people back to dust, saying,
“Return to dust, you mortals!”
4For you, a thousand years are as a passing day,
as brief as a few night hours.
5You sweep people away like dreams that disappear.
They are like grass that springs up in the morning.
6In the morning it blooms and flourishes,
but by evening it is dry and withered.
7We wither beneath your anger;
we are overwhelmed by your fury.
8You spread out our sins before you—
our secret sins—and you see them all.
9We live our lives beneath your wrath,
ending our years with a groan.
10Seventy years are given to us!
Some even live to eighty.
But even the best years are filled with pain and trouble;
soon they disappear, and we fly away.
11Who can comprehend the power of your anger?
Your wrath is as awesome as the fear you deserve.
12Teach us to realize the brevity of life,
so that we may grow in wisdom.
13O LORD, come back to us!
How long will you delay?
Take pity on your servants!
14Satisfy us each morning with your unfailing love,
so we may sing for joy to the end of our lives.
15Give us gladness in proportion to our former misery!
Replace the evil years with good.
16Let us, your servants, see you work again;
let our children see your glory.
17And may the Lord our God show us his approval
and make our efforts successful.
Yes, make our efforts successful!

Isaiah 1:16-18
16Wash yourselves and be clean!
Get your sins out of my sight.
Give up your evil ways.
17Learn to do good.
Seek justice.
Help the oppressed.
Defend the cause of orphans.
Fight for the rights of widows.
18“Come now, let’s settle this,”
says the LORD.
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
I will make them as white as snow.
Though they are red like crimson,
I will make them as white as wool.





If you have read down this far this was a collaboration between me and Chris Godoy.  We talked Sunday morning and I was telling him i had the thought to post Psalm 90 and say next to nothing.  he said keep the music.  I've always wanted to be the least important part of this and let God's word speak for itself so that's all I'm doing here.  Only me, Chris and Marion knew about this.  
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Wednesday, May 18, 2016

warning signs

I had most of this Bible study written up by last week and I thought I'd do only one per week even if I had two ready but as the week progressed I kept adding to this one.  I see it now as God saying not yet this isn't quite ready for you to post.  

  There's a line in the song Hard Way by Dc Talk and it says this.  "Warning signs are like flares in the night."  Sometimes we can be on a path and get that bright of a warning.  I was reading Second Kings 8 and part of this chapter just blew my mind because there have been times in my life where my parents, family and friends have warned me I was making huge mistakes and going the wrong way.  Look at this warning.  2 Kings 8:7-15  "Elisha went to Damascus, the capitol of Aram, where King Ben-hadad lay sick.  When someone told the king that the man of God had come, the king said to Hazael, `Take a gift to the man of God. Tell him to ask the Lord will I recover from this illness?'  So Hazael loaded down forty camels with the finest products of Damascus as a gift for Elisha.  He went to him and and said, `Your servant Ben-hadad, the King of Aram, has sent me to ask, `Will I recover from this illness?'"  This is where this passage is about to take a turn for the weird.  "And Elisha replied, `Go tell him, `You will surely recover.'  But actually the Lord has shown me that he will surely die!'  Elisha starred at Hazael with a fixed gaze until Hazael became uneasy.  Then the man of God started weeping.  `What's the matter my lord?'  Hazael asked him.  Elisha replied, `I know the terrible things you will do to the people of Israel.  You will burn their fortified cities, kill their young men with the sword, dash their children to the ground and rip open their pregnant women!'  Hazael responded, `How could a nobody like me ever accomplish such great things?'  Elisha answered `The Lord has shown me that you are going to be the king of Aram.'  When Hazael left Elisha and went back, the King asked him.  `What did Elisha tell you?'  And Hazael replied, `He told me that you will surely recover.'  But the next day Hazael took a blanket soaked it in water and held it over the king's face till he died.  Then Hazael became the next king of Aram."  
  People if someone who cares about you gives you a warning listen to it and change.  Hazael had every chance to change and he didn't.  To take a line from Rocky 4 "I guess what I'm trying to say is, if I can change, and you can change, everybody can change."  Pastor Micah once said, "All of us are just one step away from stupid."  In Exodus Moses was sent multiple times by God to say let my people go and Pharaoh wouldn't listen.  Hebrews 3:15 "Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion."  I have one final quote for you.  "Turn around bright eyes." 




 

DC Talk - The Hard Way (Official Music Video)

Music video by DC Talk performing The Hardway (Official Music Video).



 

Out of The Grey- "He Is Not Silent"

The song "He Is Not Silent" by Out of The Grey, from their 1991 self-titled debut album. Check out my ...



 

Susan Ashton Innocence Lost




 

Who You Are - Unspoken

I know that look you're given Like you got something to prove 'Cause I have walked for miles and miles i...
 
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Wednesday, May 11, 2016

stop looking down

This past week I was on Facebook and I'm not a twitter person but sometimes people I'm friends with post things that were on twitter.  Governor Greg Abbot is man who uses a wheelchair.  A professed atheist had sent him a message on twitter saying, "If your God existed you would be up walking around."  When it comes to abortion, people with disabilities and the elderly there's this mentality that humans are disposable.  Governor Abbot responded by saying, "I may not walk or run but God still uses me."  Genesis 1:26 Then God said. "Let us make human beings in our image to be like us.  They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground."  We're not accidents.  We're not worthless or disposable.  God made each of us with a purpose.  Psalm 139 takes us through the secret places where God makes us and we are considered wonderful and a masterpiece.  I was born with one leg shorter than the other and I limp I also have a growth hormone deficiency does that mean God messed up or doesn't exist?  No!  My wife was born with spina bifida does that make her less of a being created by God?  No!  Psalm 139:16 "You saw me before I was born.  Everyday of my life was recorded in your book.  Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed."  In 2 Samuel 4:4 we discover a man named Mephibosheth who was crippled as a child.  "Saul's son Jonathan had a son named Mephibosheth who was crippled as a child.  He was five years old when the report came from Israel that Saul and Jonathan had been killed in battle.  When the child's nurse heard the news, she picked him up and fled.  But as she hurried away, she dropped him and he became crippled."  In 2 Samuel 9 you find a whole 13 verses devoted to David searching out Mephibosheth to show him God's kindness.  Joni Earickson Tada is a quadripeligic and God has used her to transform many lives.  Exodu 4:10 But Moses pleaded with the Lord.  "O, Lord, I am not very good with words.  I have never been and I am not now, even though you have spoken to me.  I get tongue-tied, and my words get tangled."  God used him to lean an entire nation.  When I was in college the computer lab instructor was in a wheelchair and God used him to teach me how to interact with people in wheelchairs.  The day after i asked Marion to be my girlfriend she got hit by a car and had to relearn how to walk.  Because of my lab instructor Sal I knew how to interact with Marion being in a wheelchair.  Having a disability doesn't disprove God or his ability to use you.  Isaiah was a man of unclean lips see what God is looking for in Isaiah 6:8.  Then I heard the Lord asking , "Whom should I send as a messenger to this people?    Who will go for us?"  I said, "Here I am.  Send me."  I have a friend named Michaella I don't know a lot of her story but she has a disability and she goes online and uses it to glorify God.  There is a young lady at Real Life Corpus with Down Syndrome, and I will tell you God has used one Sunday to get my attention.  See every Sunday Pastor Greg makes a very bold statement.  "If you walked in this building you are welcome here.  Welcome home."  One Sunday after he said that we were instructed to greet people.  Sometimes this is one of the most uncomfortable things for me at church because I'm not always a people person.  This young lady Shaney walked up to me and wrapped me up in a hug.  I truly felt welcomed home.  My nephew Connor is autistic but I can tell you Connor teaches every member of our family different things and God uses that boy often.  
What I'm trying to get at here is this.  God can and will use any one of us in our uniqueness.  Don't let others look down on you.  


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Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Goal

  Yes the title of this is Goal but it has nothing to do with soccer thankfully.  I'm not a person who really sets goals or plans.  If a plan happens or succeeds I'm a little like Hannibal from the A-Team.  "I love it when a plan comes together."  I'm more like Dean Ambrose getting in a wrestling ring and going nuts being spontaneous kinda guy.  I do have some large overall goals.  I've been reading through First and Second Kings and Psalms a lot lately and discovered something new.  1 Kings 10:1  When the Queen of Sheba heard of Solomon's fame, which brought honor to the name of the Lord, she came to test him with hard questions."  That phrase "Which brought honor to the name of the Lord" that's what got my attention.  I often pray for myself and Marion that we would be the husband and wife that glorify God.  David is referred to as a man after God's own heart.  Acts 13:22 "But God removed Saul and replaced him with David, a man whom God said `I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, he will do everything I want him to do.'"  See I have goals of being the husband Marion needs, the father our dog Mara needs, the best writer I can, getting back to painting, the protector of my family but I desire to most be like David and Solomon and be said to have honored God and been a man after his own heart.  I want to be like the servants in Matthew 25 who were told by the Master "Well done my good and faithful servant."  
  This should be our goal as Christians.  If it's not it's time to take a serious look and ask why you don't want to glorify and honor God.  Acts 5:29 "But Peter and the apostles replied, `We must obey God rather than any human authority'."  

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