When I remember

When I remember 

So if you watch enough pro wrestling you learn that a wrestler will often use what is called a promo to remind the viewer of what took place before.     In the words of Hulk Hogan “When I slammed Andre the Giant the slam heard round the world....”  Comic books use transitional phrases.  The Fresh Prince of Bel Air would say “What had happened was.” The Highlander movies and series rely heavily on flashbacks.   The Bible brings up history of things God has done that he wants his people to remember.  Now before I get too far into remembering things I want to give you something you can hang onto because they were passed onto me by my dad.  Three life principles.  

1. There is a God
2. You are not him
3. There is no vacancy 

Now the Psalmist is about to enforce these truths.  

Psalm 77:11-15

“I shall remember the deeds of the Lord; Surely I will remember your wonders of old.

I will meditate on all your work and muse on your deeds.  

Your way, O God, is holy;

What god is great like our God?

You are the God who works wonders; You have made known your strength among the people’s.  

You have by your power redeemed your people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph.”  

The reason we need to remember who God is and what he has done is because it causes us to seek and praise him.  

I want to conclude with this song I discovered this week that functions also as the title of the blog. 

“And I will bless your name, I will give you all my praise for the finest hour of history, it will always be the cross. You know the finest hour of my history it will always be the cross.  When I remember what you’ve done when I remember the shedding of your blood I can’t help but worship you.”  

When I remember by Kim Hill

Reminders of you by Geoff Moore and the Distance 

God of Wonders/ Agnus Dei by Third Day and more

Beautiful Name

Beautiful Name

I’ve mentioned before that often a blog starts with a song.  There has been a song I keep listening to a lot lately.  Before we get too far into this. My question is this are you proclaiming God’s truth and his beautiful Name every chance you get.  I want to show you the passion of the women of the group ZoeGirl and then part of Psalm 71.  I keep finding so much amazing stuff in this one Psalm.  

Beautiful Name by Zoegirl

“Your heart I seek to find
With Your hands You fashioned mine
Let me be used by You
To carry out the truth

To the ends of the earth
'Til everyone's heard
My mended heart will share Your words
I will tell the world that You are God

I will run, I will fly
I will live to be a sacrifice
Through it all I'll rise above
Unafraid I will face what comes

I will run, I will fly
And for my faith I'll live and die
I'll be strong, I will press on
For the sake of Your beautiful name
Your beautiful name

Should all life cease to grow
Should chaos take control
The only hope we know is
You will save us

It's worth the cost
To take up my cross
As You take back what's been lost
Until all who don't know You are God

I will run, I will fly
I will live to be a sacrifice
Through it all I'll rise above
Unafraid I will face what comes

I will run, I will fly
And for my faith I'll live and die
I'll be strong, I will press on
For the sake of Your beautiful name
Your beautiful name, Your beautiful name

I'm not a captive anymore
I'm gonna soar to a new place
Take on a new pace
I know what my life is for

I will run, I will fly
I will live to be a sacrifice
Through it all I'll rise above
Unafraid I will face what comes

I will run, I will fly
And for my faith I'll live and die
I'll be strong, I will press on
For the sake of Your beautiful name
Your beautiful name, Your beautiful name

I will run, I will fly
I'll be strong, I will press on
For the sake of Your beautiful name
(Your beautiful name)
Your beautiful name”

Psalm 71:7-24

”    7I have become a marvel to many,
            For You are my strong refuge.

      8My mouth is filled with Your praise
            And with Your glory all day long.

      9Do not cast me off in the time of old age;
            Do not forsake me when my strength fails.

      10For my enemies have spoken against me;
            And those who watch for my life have consulted together,

      11Saying, “God has forsaken him;
            Pursue and seize him, for there is no one to deliver.”

      12O God, do not be far from me;
            O my God, hasten to my help!

      13Let those who are adversaries of my soul be ashamed and consumed;
            Let them be covered with reproach and dishonor, who seek to injure me.

      14But as for me, I will hope continually,
            And will praise You yet more and more.

      15My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness
            And of Your salvation all day long;
            For I do not know the sum of them.

      16I will come with the mighty deeds of the Lord GOD;
            I will make mention of Your righteousness, Yours alone.

      17O God, You have taught me from my youth,
            And I still declare Your wondrous deeds.

      18And even when I am old and gray, O God, do not forsake me,
            Until I declare Your strength to this generation,
            Your power to all who are to come.

      19For Your righteousness, O God, reaches to the heavens,
            You who have done great things;
            O God, who is like You?

      20You who have shown me many troubles and distresses
            Will revive me again,
            And will bring me up again from the depths of the earth.

      21May You increase my greatness
            And turn to comfort me.

      22I will also praise You with a harp,
            Even Your truth, O my God;
            To You I will sing praises with the lyre,
            O Holy One of Israel.

      23My lips will shout for joy when I sing praises to You;
            And my soul, which You have redeemed.

      24My tongue also will utter Your righteousness all day long;
            For they are ashamed, for they are humiliated who seek my hurt.”

Beautiful Name by ZoeGirl

Let There be praise by Sandi Patty

Already all I need by Christy Nockels

Only You by Adie

Judgement choice

This blog will be very personal.  I have been both the victim and the guilty party.  

Ephesians 4:29

“Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.  

James chapter 2:1-6

“My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.  For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, ‘You sit here in a good place,’ and you say to the poor man.  ‘You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool.”  Have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil motives?  Listen my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him?  But you have dishonored the poor man.  Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court?

1 Samuel 16:7

“But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature because I have rejected him; for God sees not as a man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.’”

I spent 13 years at a call center and was judged often for what I wore and the things I liked.  Because I am a wrestling, comic book, cartoon character fan I was treated like I had some sort of mental illness.  I grew up with growth hormone deficiency and as a result one leg grew longer than the other I walk with a limp due to it.  I’m only five foot three.  At one point I was told by another kid “Why don’t you go stand in the corner and talk to yourself.”  I began to realize it was not really me that was the problem but other people’s preconceived notions of who and what I was supposed to be..

God looks at the heart not the apparel or shade of melanin(Skin pigmentation's saved  you from googling).  How do you judge the people you meet and choose who you interact with because everyone you meet is a person Christ Jesus died for and they need him whether they will admit it or not.  We are to reach them with God’s love. Be careful how you judge people and what you say to them.  We need to change the way we do things.  It’s been said “God doesn’t waste a hurt.  If I can use mine to help someone else I will.  

If someone has ever spoken Ill of you and hurt you and you need to know your worth look at the cross of Christ and know that he died for you. If you want further homework read Psalm 18 and Psalm 139

Colossians 4:5

“Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of every opportunity.”

You are more by Tenth Avenue North

Through his eyes by 4Him

Love one another by Michael W Smith

Colored people by Dc Talk

Love me for me by Zoe Girl

Love by Petra 

My World View by Audio Adrenaline 

God help Me

God help me

A wise cartoon once said “Life is like a hurricane here in Duckburg, race cars, lasers, aero planes it’s a duck blur.”  I don’t live in Duckburg myself but life lately has been nuts.  I’ve experienced a lot of changes this week and the last and they haven’t really been that great but that’s not my point.  As I drove home from work Wednesday night my MP3 player started playing God help me by Plumb and I want you to consider these lyrics because we don’t always understand what’s going on but we can still have hope and trust God.  

“There is a wrestling in my heart and mind

A disturbance and a tension I cannot seem to drive

And if I’m honest, there’s quite a bit of fear

To sit here in this silence and really hear you

What will you ask of me

Will I listen to your voice when you speak 

Help me to move

Help me to see 

Help me to do whatever you would ask of me

Help me to go

God help me to stay

I’m feeling so alone here

And I know that you’re faithful but I can barely breathe 

God help me 

Sometimes things, they are black and white 

Sometimes they are not and it leaves us torn inside 

And in the middle we are left to wonder 

Who we are and what you want and where we’re going 

I don’t always understand 

But I believe.

 

I don’t know the future 

It’s one day at a time 

But I know I’ll be okay with your hand holding mine

So take all my resistance 

Oh God I need your grace 

One step and then the other show me the way 

Show me the way”

There’s a line at the end of First Blood part two where Colonel Trautman asks Rambo “How will you live John?” And his response was.   “Day by day.”

Like Tiffany Arbuckle Lee said in her song things will not always make sense.  But God is faithful and can be trusted.  And we need to turn to him.  

Psalm 71:1-6

“In you, O Lord, I have taken refuge; let me never be ashamed.  In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; Incline your ear and save me.  Be to me a rock of habitation to which I may continually come; you have given a commandment to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.  Rescue me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the grasp of the wrongdoer and ruthless man, for you are my hope; O Lord God, you are my confidence from my youth.  By you I have been sustained from my birth; you are He who took me from my mother’s womb; my praise is continually of You.”

 God knows who you are and what you struggle with and longs for you to turn to Him and cast your cares on Him.

To those who read the blog or watch the videos I want you to know I appreciate you all.  I pray that God will draw you closer to himself and that you will find hope in Him.  He is always faithful.  I play a game where I lead an alliance and it has caused me to be more appreciative of people on that alliance.  Some of you have been part of this blog a short and a long time but you invested time in it and maybe a kind word or prayer and I want to say Thank you to all of you.  

Numbers 6:24-26

“The Lord bless you ,and keep you; The Lord make his face shine on you, and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you peace.”

Keep breathing by Kerrie Roberts 

God Help me by Plumb

God of all of me by Sandi Patty 

One thing remains/ How He loves by Caleb and Kelsey

 

Your love never fails by Newsboys 

Light of your face by Misty Edwards