Perspective shift

Perspective shift

I have told this story a few times but to me it never grows old some of you have read it some may have not.  See there’s this scene in the graphic novel Justice League/JSA: Virtue and Vice at the end where Superman and Sentinel are outside the Justice League Watchtower in space overlooking earth and Star Girl and Wonder Woman are talking and Star Girl asks why they come up there and look around like that and she’s answered with one phrase. “Perspective Courtney, Perspective.”  

A few nights ago my heart was heavy with a lot of things I was troubled by my job is changing and I could use a lot of prayer right now.  I needed a perspective shift.  Then I read Psalm 9 and I found it.  I was focused inward and not upward.  I have said it before what I learn from God I share in the blog and it is brutal and honest and someone other than me needs to read this too.  

Psalm 9:7-10

“The Lord reigns forever; he has established his throne for judgement. He will judge the world in righteousness; he will govern the peoples with justice.  The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.  Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, Lord have never forsaken those who seek you.”

I often tell you that the music I link to the blog lyrically goes with the verses.  So you’re going to see a bit of that.

“Back to the Rock that is higher than I 

Take me to the well that will never run dry

Take me, take me Lord

To the Rock that is higher than I”. 

“Sometimes when Hope is hard to find

We’ve got to walk by faith

Until we see the way

Hold tight for we are promised in time

Those who patiently wait 

Will never wait in vain

For we know God is faithful 

He’s a fortress to run into

In time of trouble 

He’ll cover us with the wings of his love”

 

Shelter in the rain by 4 Him 

Adonai/Back to the Rock/ Too big to fail by Petra 

I am on the Rock by Petra 

If we believe by Al Denson 

God is Faithful by Shelia Walsh

A mighty fortress by Shelia Walsh

Where you belong/ Turn your eyes by Newsboys 

Hope to which you are called

Hope to which you are called 

If you’ve read my blog at any time there is a goal to it and a prayer of the writer.  See I pray often that it not be about me but that it will glorify God.  I also pray that God will draw the reader closer to himself.  The blog is meant to Point the reader to hope found in God’s Word because he is the true source of hope.  I found this beautiful passage in Ephesians I wanted to share with you and part of it mentions “the hope to which he has called you.”

Ephesians 1:15-23

“For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you remembering you in my prayers.  I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, May give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.  I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.  That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.  And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”

Hope has a name and it is Jesus Christ and you have been called to his hope.  

Called to hope by Geoff Moore and the Distance 

Hope now by Addison Road

Glory be by Cheri Keaggy So here's your behind the scenes tidbit.  I was working on the blog and the word Hope kept bouncing around in my head and I spent about 15 minutes trying to figure out what song this was.  I knew who sang it and I had the first line in my head and google was failing me along with the internet connection.  Finally I put in her name and the song came up.  

I call him Love by Kathy Troccoli 

The Message by 4 Him

Love is what we’ve come here for by Michael w Smith 

May your wonders never cease by Third Day. Heard this for the first time yesterday.  

Stumbling Block

Stumbling block 

I love connectivity.  I’ve been reading a lot of older comics lately and finding minor things to some but they are key moments to me because I find where characters like Midnight connected with the original Spider-Man/ Punisher/ Moon Knight tale the Round Robin saga that got me into comics connect with one another but you know what’s even better is finding major things that connect in the Bible.  Like how Isaiah will say something many years before Christ and then later in the Gospels Jesus will quote it.

Isaiah 8:13-16

“The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread, and he will be a sanctuary; but for both houses of Israel he will be a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.  And for the people of Jerusalem he will be a trap and a snare.  Many of them will stumble; they will fall and be broken, they will be snared and captured.  

Matt 21:42-44

“Jesus said to them, ‘Have you never read the scriptures:

‘The Stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes?

Therefore I tell you that the the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.  He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.”

I’ve said this before when you are confronted by God with the weight of your sin and the power of his Word you either turn from your evil or you reject him.  He becomes your Savior or you stumble over Him.  

1 Corinthians 1:18

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to those who are being saved it is the Power of God.”  

This is why we keep sharing God’s Word. It’s not just the pastor, or Bible study teachers but every Christian.  People need the chance to face the truth of the gospel for themselves.  

Romans 1:16-17

“I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: First for the Jew, then for the Gentile.  For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from the first to the last, just as it is written the righteous will live by faith.”  

Greatest story ever told by 4 Him

What’s in a name by Petra 

What if by Nichole Nordman

Humble yourself by Mylon Lefevre

Upon this rock by Sandi Patty 

I am on the Rock by Petra

Rock of Ages/ I stand Amazed by Guy Penrod 

Remember Who you are

Remember who you are

It’s easy in this world of bills and business to get discouraged because it happens to me often but as Christians we need to remember who we are and who we belong to.  Christians have hope in God.  We have a future in heaven.  We have someone to call on in good and bad times.  God’s covenants toward us have meaning.  Not just in the future but now as well.  The time was right for the fulfillment of those covenants. Galatians 4:1-7 spells it out for us.

“What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate.  He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father.  So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world.  But when the time had fully come, God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.  Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘ABBA, Father’.  So you are no longer a slave, but a son; since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.”

Remember who you are by Geoff Moore and the Distance 

No longer slaves by Bethel music

ABBA by Rebecca St James

Good good Father/ no longer slaves by Caleb and Kelsey 

He holds the keys by Steve Green

Creed by Petra 

Glory of the King

I told ya'll I was taking a break from the blog and I hadn't really even done anything for a week with it.  My friend David told me a few weeks back he liked when I did a random kinda spontaneous blog like the one I did called Wide Open Spaces.  This blog you're about to read is spontaneous.  Marion and I had just parked at the Moore Plaza HEB and from the Chinese restaurant to the store this song lyric was in my head I couldn't name the song or the artist I just knew it was a guy who sang it.  We googled the lyric "Glory of the King."  Bugged me the whole time in the store because google failed us.  Then I get home I'm going through the music on my computer and suddenly I thought Live Like That by Sidewalk Prophets.  I looked up the song and then the lyrics.  Then I had the exact song.  Then I looked up what they based the song on.  So here's the verses and then I'll leave you this song.  Consider this a spontaneous start of the week bit of encouragement.  

Hebrews 12:1-2

"Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross,  despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

Live Like That by Sidewalk Prophets