The Pathway

The Pathway 

Following God doesn’t always make sense but it’s worth it.  

If you’ve read my blog for a long or short time you may have discovered it kinda starts with scripture and song lyrics sometimes in that order or reversed.  The verses came first this time.  

Proverbs 14:26-27

“He who fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and for his children it will be a refuge.  The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, turning a man from the snares of death.”  

This brought my mind to the song If You Want Me To by Ginny Owens.  Ginny is not like most Christian artists.  She is blind physically but not spiritually.  Her song is about our journey.  

“It may not be the way I would have chosen

When you lead me through a world that’s not my home 

But you never said it would be easy

You only said I’d never go alone

So when the whole world turns against me

And I’m all by myself 

And I can’t hear you answer my cries for help 

I’ll remember your suffering that your love put you through 

And I will go through the darkness if you want me to

When I cross over Jordan I’m gonna sing, gonna shout

Gonna look into your eyes and see you never let me down 

So take me on the pathway that leads me home to you

And I will walk through the valley if you want me to.”

We’re going to have good and bad days but the verses in Proverbs 14:26-27 are promises of hope for us and our future generations if we continue to follow God it will be worth it in the end.  It doesn’t always make sense and it doesn’t have to.  God is still on his throne and we take comfort and hope in that.  He hasn’t left us and he won’t.  

Hebrews 12:1-3

“Therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

If you want me to by Ginny Owens 

Your love never fails by Newsboys

 

One thing remains by Kristian Stanfill

Never look back by DeGarmo and Key

In the End by Natalie Grant 

Through it all by Selah 

Finally Home by Kerrie Roberts 

Hurricane by Natalie Grant 

Light up the sky by The Afters

To boldly go and receive

To boldly go and receive

For years we have heard these words.  

“Space the final frontier 

These are the voyages 

Of the Starship Enterprise 

It’s five year mission 

To explore strange new worlds

To seek out new civilizations 

And to boldly go where no man has gone before.”

There is a better place for us to boldly go.  

As Christians we have an open invitation to receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.  One may ask “well what do you mean by that”?  

I want you to look at your invitation in Hebrews 4:14-16

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, Let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.  For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are— yet without sin.  Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

Unlimited access to seek God’s face.  Think about that for a second because in the human world if you want time with a President, CEO, a king or anyone important you have to wait.  You have to schedule appointments with doctors.  Any person who thinks they are important in any way shape or form.  If you have a title well to see them in the words of Chris Jericho “You just made the list.”  But Jesus paved the way for us to have access in our time of need. Our time of need can be day or night.  To me that gives me hope because God wants to spend time in communication with us anytime, and any place.  He wants us.  The God of all creation wants to listen to the most feeble, accident prone creatures ever.  He made all that exists and still has time for me.  To boldly go in confidence to ask for mercy and grace and too often we get busy and don’t pray.  We need to pray more often people!  

Audience of one by Big Daddy Weave

Prayer by Petra

Life is hard but God is Good by Pam Thum

Powerhouse by Whiteheart 

Great Expectations by Steven Curtis Chapman 

Shepherd of my heart by Sandi Patty 

I will not fear

I was going to send a blog like normal this week that I had prepared and I still may but I read a section from Five Minutes with Jesus by Shelia Walsh and I thought others besides just me needed to read this so I’m sharing this. 

I will not fear

Allen Emery was in the wool business, and once when he was on a business trip, he actually spent the night in the fields with a shepherd and his flock.  When the frightening howls of wolves filled the air, the shepherd’s dogs growled, the sheep stirred anxiously and the shepherd threw some more wood on the fire.  When the flames leapt up, Mr. Emery saw thousands of points of lights in the fields beyond him.  He was surprised to realize that he was seeing the eyes of the sheep: each one turned not toward the danger that threatened them, but toward the source of their protection the shepherd. 

            The Twenty-third psalm, the most beloved and well known in the psalter, is rich with imagery of a good shepherd’s care for his sheep.  Verse 4 says.  “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.  I will fear no evil, for you are with me; for your rod and your staff, they will comfort me.” 

            The “valley of the shadow of death” was not simply allegorical for the psalmist.  The phrase referred to a very real place in Israel, know as the Wadi Qelt today.  The Wadi Qelt is a deep ravine along the travel route between Jericho and Jerusalem.  In antiquity, it was notoriously dangerous, pocketed with bandits and, like many wadis in Israel, prone to flash flooding.  (This treacherous route was most likele the setting for Jesus’ parable about the good Samaritan.)  Is it any wonder the Wadi Qelt earned the nickname “The valley of the Shadow of Death”? 

            But the psalmist said that even when he travels through this, the most dangerous of places, he does not fear because his Good Shepherd is always with him.  The psalmist proclaimed that, although he faced very real and imminent dangers, his heart was at peace.  He knew his loving Shepherd, the source of his protection. 

Where is your focus today?  On the terrors that stalk you, or the only One who has the power to save you?

Keep your eyes on the Good Shepherd, and your heart will be at peace.

Five minutes in the Word

“I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.  He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.  He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.  I am the good shepherd.  I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.” 

John 10:11-15

When Jesus went ashore, he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.  And he began to teach them many things. 

Mark 6:34

Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. 

Psalm 95:6-7

There is no fear in love.  But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.  The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 

1 John 4:18

“Do not fear for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand”

Isaiah 41:10

Times

Times

I was reading a few nights ago in the book Five minutes with Jesus by Sheila Walsh and she brought up Psalm 31:14-15 and was talking about how we can trust God because of these verses.

Psalm 31:14-15

“But I trust in you O Lord; I say ‘You are my God.’  My times are in your hands; deliver me from my enemies and from those who pursue me.  

After looking it up the verses brought me to Job 14:5 thanks to reference notes in my Bible.  “Man’s days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed.”  

If you spend any time at all with any form of science fiction you learn we as humans are consumed by an obsession with time.  Look at how many clocks and microwaves and TVs that all have some form of a timepiece on it.  But if you look at these verses it reminds us God is still in control and exists outside of the constraints of what we think of as being controlled by aspects of time.  It’s a comfort really to know there’s one less thing to worry about.  God’s already taken care of your problems and mine in times past, present and future.  In the meantime he wants our focus on him.  Fix your eyes on the One who holds all of time and eternity in his hands.  

Psalm 139:1-12 

“O Lord, you have searched me and know me.  You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.  You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.  Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely O Lord.  You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me.  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.  Where can I go from your spirit?  Where can I flee from your presence?  If I go up to the heavens you are there; if I make my bed in the depths , you are there.  If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.  If I say ‘Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,' even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.”  

That last part about darkness becoming as light as day I can relate to.  I work as a security guard and I used to patrol the site I work on at night.  We are right near the Valero refinery so I see a lot of flare ups when they burn off stuff.  One night in particular I was halfway down the parking lot it was pitch black and all I had was my flashlight and walking stick.  The refinery flared up so bright I could see clearly for miles.  It looked like instead of midnight it had suddenly become 12 noon!  Nothing hides from God’s view.  Not time not sin not anything he sees it all.  Your times are in his hands.  Are you wasting time or seeking Him?

Whole world in His hands by Christy Nockels

You love me/ Jesus loves me by Sandi Patty 

Nothing is beyond you by Amy Grant 

Psalm 139 by Rebeca St James

I choose to follow by Al Denson 

Rest of my life by DeGarmo and Key 

Clay and Water

Clay and water

Jeremiah 18:1-5 

“This is the word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah from the Lord ‘Go down to the Potter’s house and there I will give you my message.’  So I went down to the Potter’s House and I saw him working at the wheel but the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as it seemed best to him.  Then the word of the Lord came to me.  ‘O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this Potter does?’ Declares the Lord.  ‘Like clay in the hand of the potter so are you in my hand O house of Israel.’”

Last week I posted this observation on my Facebook page.  I wanted to share it as a blog so I looked up the above verses.  

Sometimes I listen to a song many times and then like this morning one part of it just grabbed my attention.  There’s this song called Clay and Water by Margaret Becker and to me it has always been one of the most humbling songs.  This got me today.  “Like a beggar blessed I stumble in the Grace Reaching out my hand for what awaits.  I am Clay and I am Water falling forward in this order while the world spins round so fast slowly I’m becoming who I am.”  The Bible talks about God being the potter and we’re the clay.  The human body is mostly water we’re simply clay and water becoming what he makes us.  When we’re around his grace we stumble we don’t know what to do with it because we are overwhelmed.

According to Nestle Waters company the human adult body is composed of 60% water.  

In the times of Queen Esther she was asked to go before the king yet it was at the risk of her own life Esther 4:11 says this “All the king’s officials and the people of the royal provinces know that for any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned the king has but one law: that he be put to death.  The only exception to this is for the king to extend the gold scepter to him and spare his life. “  Queen Esther was spared.  We who are Christians are shown God’s grace and mercy and he is a more kind and loving king.  He is the King of Kings.    He is shaping us and making us like a master potter into the people he wants us to be.  

Mrs.  Becker in her song talked about us being like a beggar blessed.  David Crowder describes us as “stumbling in like a prodigal child”.  We are overwhelmed by God’s mercy and grace.  In Hebrews 10:19-22 we read about a different kind of King that we serve.  Not a king who will kill us if we approach the throne without permission but a King who has invited us in.  We serve a King who loved us so much he sent his own son to pay the price to redeem us.  We are both a beggar blessed and a prodigal child.  It’s God’s love and grace that causes us to fall to our knees and cry Holy is the Lord and how undeserving am I.  

I’m going to give you a little in depth look at how God works preparing this blog.  I woke up several times Monday night and I kept having this song called In His presence by Sandi Patty running through my head.  So Tuesday morning I was heading to work and I was listening to the words to the song and I came to near the end of it and was stunned by how much the words fit with this blog.  See there was a reason God brought it to my mind.  I want you to read this.  

“We’re surrounded by his grace when we seek his face

In your presence there is comfort

In your presence there is peace

When we seek the Father’s heart 

We will find such blessed assurance 

An ever open door 

To know our Savior more 

In the presence of the Lord.”

That’s where our hearts need to be.  

Like Kerrie Roberts said “Challenge your future to a fight.”  Because you have to make time for God’s Word!!!!!

Lift your head weary sinner by David Crowder

The River by Meredith Andrews 

Clay and Water by Margaret Becker

Change my heart O God by Vineyard 

The invitation by Steven Curtis Chapman 

I bowed on my knees and cried Holy by Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir

In His presence by Sandi Patty 

Unstoppable by Kerrie Roberts