Altering the Deal

 

Altering the deal

 

There’s a scene in the Empire Strikes Back where Lando Calrissian and Darth Vader are talking and Vader says, “I have altered the deal, pray I don’t alter it any further.”  To change that thought sometimes we need to instead take our lives to God and strike up a better deal.  Here’s what I mean by that.  

 

Psalm 119: 124-125

 

“I am your servant; deal with me in unfailing love and teach me your decrees.  Give discernment to me, your servant; then I will understand your laws.”  

 

We need what God wants for our lives and not what we want.  

 

Psalm 123

 

“I lift my eyes to you, O God, enthroned in heaven.  We keep looking to the Lord our God for his mercy, just as servants keep their eyes on their master, as a slave girl watches her mistress for the slightest signal.  Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy for we have had our fill of contempt.  We have had more than our fill of the scoffing of the proud and the contempt of the arrogant.”

 

We need God’s Grace for our lives.

 

I had been working on this blog and a lot of times I will use scripture along with Christian music.  This week I went solely with scripture.  I will be the first to tell you I am a very flawed person.   I am such a mess if left on my own.  If I point you to anywhere other than the Bible or the Cross of Christ, I have failed you and done you a great disservice.  I could blog about anything on any weird subject, but I choose to do so with a Bible study blog.  I do so with the intention that if just one person draws closer to God then I have accomplished what I set out to do.  

 

 

Let the Kingdom Come by Whiteheart 

When his Kingdom comes by Steve Green

He showed me love by Kenny Rogers 

Made Day

 

Made day

 

 

As some of you know I was homeschooled by my mom from 4th grade on to high school.  We used curriculum from a school called Christian Liberty Academy and they would mail everything for a school year to us.  One of the things my sister and I often had to do was memorize scripture and I’m going to share with you one of the first I remember my mom making us learn.  

 

Psalm 118:24 

 

“This is the day that the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.”  

 

Now at this point someone may say why is this blog worthy.  Well, it’s a special verse to me because I had to learn it as a kid.  Another reason is there was a guy I met over the years named David Moody.  If you ever met Mr. Moody back when he helped at Faith Temple, he had a thing he would do at the college services called the Moody Minute.  I remember this well.  He would give you a short Bible study in a minute or less.  He has been my friend on Facebook for years and he shares scripture a lot.  One day with this one verse he dropped a truth bomb.  When I read it well it made me think.  He broke down the verse piece by piece.  “This is the day that the Lord has made.”  Doesn’t matter if you’re having a good or bad day.  It’s 24 hrs. and God made it and its still reason enough for you and me to “Rejoice and be glad in it.”  We still have breath and life.  God provided it.  Sure, the water bill is still waiting to be paid but it’s still a day that God has made.  Like I said it stopped me and made me think.  Even on the day that you’re about to embark on a colonoscopy it’s still a day that God has made and somehow there’s something you can rejoice about.  I’ve done some horrible jobs in my lifetime and even on my worst days I can still be thankful I’m no longer picking up paint chips off the ground, I no longer make sausage, I’m not and never will be a proctologist, and I don’t have to clean port a potties.  I don’t always get it right but you can be thankful for something.  

 

Philippians 4:4

 

“Always be full of joy in the Lord, I say it again— rejoice!”  

 

So, in the immortal words of Jennifer Love Hewitt “What are you waiting for huh?”  

 

 

Joy of the Lord by Twila Paris

Praise forevermore by Point ofGrace 

Here in America by Rich Mullins 

In a little While by Amy Grant

He Hears

 

He hears

 

 

Sometimes you pray and pray for certain things to change and maybe you aren’t quite getting the answer you’re seeking because God is moving things in a different manner.  I just posted a blog on prayer Saturday morning but sometimes God gets my attention to start another.  Not only do we need to be reminded that when we have a problem, we very much should pray we also need to remember He hears us.  I’ve heard it said that sometimes it feels like our prayers aren’t even going past the ceiling.  The good news is they do.  Therein lies the Hope.  Why because Hope is a person named Jesus Christ who is alive, and active.  

 

If you have been hurt at any time and we all have Psalm 56:8 is the start of something, you need to remember.

 

King David said this of God.

 

“You keep track of all my sorrows.  You have collected all my tears in your bottle.  You have recorded each one in your book.”  

 

God has seen those tears you cried.  Every one!  I need that reminder as much as you do.  

 

Psalm 55:16-17

 

“But I will call on God, and the Lord will rescue me.  Morning, noon, and night I cry out in my distress, and the Lord hears my voice.”

 

Next, I’m going to share with you what started this whole blog.  Get ready for 9 powerful verses.  

 

Psalm 116:1-9

 

“I love the Lord because he hears my voice and my prayer for mercy.  Because he bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath!  Death wrapped its ropes around me; the terrors of the grave overtook me.  I saw only trouble and sorrow.  Then I called on the name of the Lord: ‘Please, Lord, save me!’  How kind the Lord is!  How good He is!  So merciful, this God of ours!  The Lord protects those of childlike faith.  I was facing death and he saved me.  Let my soul be at rest again, for the Lord has been good to me.  He has saved me from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.  And so, I walk in the Lord’s presence as I live here on earth!  “. 

 

I don’t know what problem you’re facing but that should give you hope!  

 

I want to conclude with the words to the Sandi Patty song In Heaven’s Eyes because we need to remember that God is listening and is actively at work even when we can’t see it.  

 

“When life goes by and no one bothers 

Heaven feels the pain

Looking down, God sees each heartache 

And looking up we’ll see compassion’s fire 

Ablaze in Heaven’s eyes

 

 

In Heaven’s eyes there are no losers 

In Heaven’s eyes no hopeless cause

Only people like you with feelings like me

And we’re Amazed by the grace we can find

In Heaven’s eyes.”

 

I’m counting on all of this and trusting God.  

 

 

 

 

In Heaven’s eyes by Sandi Patty 

Hope for the hopeless by Sierra 

Hope Now by Addison Road 

Still listening by Steven Curtis Chapman 

Waymaker by Michael W Smith

 

Not Easy

 

Not easy

 

It’s never easy to admit we need help.  Our human pride and stupidity gets in the way.  I was driving to work listening to this older song Shepherd of my Heart by Sandi Patty and I got to thinking about prayer.  The song says, “I’ll trust in you Shepherd of my Heart.”  It brought my mind to this passage, and I honestly had nothing for a blog, but I kept thinking about this.  See to pray we first must admit to God we need help.  

 

1 Peter 5:6-7 

 

“So, humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor.  Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.”

 

We’re simply not good at that humble part.  I have problems and I need help and God is bigger than any problems I face.  

 

Psalm 115:1

 

“Not to us, O Lord, not to us but to your name goes all the glory for your unfailing love and faithfulness.”  

 

 

 

 

 

Humble yourselves by Mylon LeFevre and Broken Heart

Not to us O Lord by the Imperials

Shepherd of my heart by Sandi Patty

Timing

Timing 

 

God’s timing will never be the same as ours.  We try to get ahead of him and just mess things up.  Point Of Grace got it right in their song Steady On.

 

“We run ahead, we lag behind you

It’s hard to wait when Heaven’s on our mind.

Teach our restless feet to walk beside you 

‘Cause in our hearts we’re already gone

Will you walk with us 

Steady On.”

 

See the Pharisees thought there was a right and wrong time for everything.  They aren’t the only ones that get that mindset.  When Jesus dealt with them, he liked to “Flip the script.”  I’m going to show you some verses because we need to be reminded it’s never the wrong time when doing the right thing is concerned.  

 

Luke 14:1-6

 

“One sabbath day Jesus went to eat dinner in the home of a leader of the Pharisees and the people were watching him closely.  There was a man there whose arms and legs were swollen.  Jesus asked the Pharisees and experts in religious law.  ‘Is it permitted in the law to heal people on the sabbath day or not?’  When they refused to answer, Jesus touched the sick man and healed him and sent him away.  Then he turned to them and said, ‘Which of you doesn’t work on the sabbath?  If your son or your cow falls into a pit, don’t you rush to get him out?’  Again, they could not answer.”

 

When you have the chance to help someone else don’t hesitate.  God, has you involved in people’s lives for a reason.  

 

Galatians 6:9-10

 

“So, let’s not get tired of doing what is good.  At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.  Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith.”

 

The rewrite.  Yeah, I’m adding to a blog I thought was ready to post.  Some of you know that Marion was a volunteer at this year’s Corpus Christi Comic Con.  I got to go and enjoy the event and I had some things happen that showed me and a few people that kindness can help others and I wanted to share some of that because it was little things.  Because she was a volunteer, she got in for free leaving us with an extra ticket.  My friend and former coworker Nancy was asking about tickets on Facebook so I messaged her and invited her to join us.  I’ll get back to that.  I decided to get an extra ticket for Saturday because I was off work with nothing to do.  This worked to my advantage because my friend Will was meeting us there the following day.  This is where this kindness thing is about to fall in place.  So, my favorite place at a comic con is what is known as artist’s alley.   Comic book artists hang out in booths selling their art.  I met this guy named Vo Nguyen and he would draw you a picture of any character you wanted and sell you a comic for a price.  Well, I asked for She-Hulk and these two ladies were there when he was working on the picture.  He had no water and couldn’t paint the picture green for me.  One lady heard that and so she went to a concession stand got him water and small cups.  Then he couldn’t get any WiFi to charge my card.  So, I go to the atm and came back and he finished my picture.  Next to him was another artist named Julia Mann and I bought artwork from her.  I walked maybe 10 feet away and saw this young lady in a costume of Sabine from Star Wars Rebels I showed her my artwork I had just bought of the character from Julia because she asked where I got it.  I walked 10 feet away and turned the girl in the costume had gone to Julia’s booth because I said something.  Now things went even crazier with kindness the next day.  See I told you earlier in the blog you will never know just how God is connecting you to others.  Next day I go back and kinda became a tour guide for Nancy because it was her first time at a comic con.  It’s a strange place for your first visit.  Later, she repaid us for the ticket by taking Marion and I to lunch.  Connect the dots there.  But this last part and this is so cool.  When my friend Will finally met up with me I knew he had been looking for specific artwork of Batman vs Superman and I had been all over the day before trying to find some for him.   I told him.  I have an idea I know a guy.  I took him back to Vo and he was out of comics to sell and only had his artwork.  So, they strike up a monetary deal.  My friend got unique one of a kind piece of artwork. So Vo had added me as a friend on Facebook and that night I get home and he told me I had been the highlight of his weekend experience.  Here’s a guy already famous for his artwork and somehow, I made his weekend better.  I was just in the moment.  He humbled me with his words.  Sometimes God will use you in tiny ways to impact someone else that you will never expect.  

 

Your mission should you choose to accept it is to be kind to others because it’s always the right time.  

 

Steady On by Point of Grace 

Meant to be by Steven Curtis Chapman 

Who God is gonna use by RichMullins 

Sheepish

 

Sheepish 

 

I keep reading this one chapter in Psalms over and over again.  It’s only 5 verses.  I need to remember who I serve and whose pasture I’m being a sheep in.   

 

Psalm 100

 

“Shout with joy to the Lord all the earth!  Worship the Lord with gladness.  Come before him, singing with joy.  Acknowledge that the Lord is God!  He made us and we are his.  We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.  Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise.  Give thanks to Him and praise his name.  For the Lord is good.  His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation.”  

 

1.  There is a God

2.  You are not Him

3.  There is no Vacancy 

 

I choose you by Point of Grace

Psalm 100 by Chris Tomlin 

Rescue Plan

 

Rescue plan

 

Gonna start this blog with a quote most normal sci fi fans are familiar with.  “I’m Luke Skywalker I’m to rescue you.”  

 

I’ve got a better rescue plan to share with you.

 

Psalm 91:14-16

 

“The Lord says , ‘I will rescue those who love me.  I will protect those who trust in my name.  When they call on me , I will answer; I will be with them in trouble.  I will rescue and honor them.  I will reward them with a long life and give them my salvation.’”

 

Psalm 3:3-4 

 

“But you, O Lord, are a shield around me; you are my glory, the one who holds my head high.  I cried out to the Lord, and he answered me from His holy mountain.”  

 

Psalm 18:19

 

“He led me to a place of safety; he rescued me because he delights in me.”

 

These verses reminded me of the song Right Place by Petra 

 

“When you’re sinking fast- taking water in your boat 

No one to bail you out- you think it’s all she wrote

 The odds are against you- your chances slim to none

A hopeless situation- you’ve got no place to run

 

No one has a rescue plan 

Waiting in the wings

Now’s the time to call His name

He can do all things

When your self-reliance fails

You still have a prayer 

You will have to trust his grace

 

When you abide, he will provide 

Never shorthanded 

When you will pray, he’ll make a way

He won’t leave you stranded.”  

 

 

 

 

Right place by Petra 

Rescue me by Geoff Moore and the Distance 

Amazing Grace by Darlene Zschech, Kari Jobe and Mandisa

What a Beautiful Name by Point of Grace