Packed

 

Packed

 

There are times you read verses in the Bible a little too fast and then you have to read them again and again.  These are some of those verses.  

 

Psalm 65:1-3

 

“What mighty praise, O God, belongs to you in Zion.  We will fulfill our vows to you, for you answer our prayers.  All of us must come to you.  Though we are overwhelmed by our sins you forgive them all.”  

 

That one phrase “All of us must come to you.”  There’s not a person on planet earth that doesn’t need God and if you say you don’t, you’re lying to yourself.  How can I say that?  Because of the next part of this.  “Overwhelmed by our sins.”  See there come times in our lives where God lets us see and feel the weight and impact of our sins and we get left with choices.  1. Do we continue on that path of sin? 2.  Do we seek God’s forgiveness and turn away?  These verses are somewhat cause and effect too because he forgives us, and we see our need for him.   We do what he asks, and he deserves our praise for all he has done.  It’s like the old hymn At the Cross says 

 

“Was it for crimes that I had done

He groaned upon the tree

Amazing pity!  Grace unknown!

And love beyond degree!

 

At the cross, at the cross 

where I first saw the light 

And the burden of my heart rolled away 

It was there by faith I received my sight

And now I am happy all the day.”  

 

These next verses show where we are spiritually if we are a believer or unbeliever we fall in here somewhere.  

 

Ephesians 2:1-10

 

“Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins.  You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the Devil, the commander of the powers of the unseen world.  He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God.  All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature.  By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.  

But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. ( It is only by grace that you have been saved!). For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.  So, God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all who are united with Christ Jesus.  

God saved you by his grace when you believed.  And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.  Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so no one can boast about it.  For we are God’s masterpiece.  He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. “

 

Salvation is only found in Christ Jesus, and we can’t earn it.  We must turn to him for it when overwhelmed by our sin.  

 

 

 

People need the Lord by Steve Green 

We need Jesus by Petra 

For God so loved byJaci Velasquez

Remember to be thanful

 

Remember to be thankful 

 

This is one of those weeks where I feel I don’t have much to share but I’m going to anyway and trust that God will use this to help someone else.  

 

I’ve been slowly going through a series in the Youversion app called Hope First and it reminded me of something.  There are times in life where you become so fixated on things and you keep praying wondering if they will ever change and you start to question even what God is doing.  I’ve been there lately.  I get so focused on work, eat, sleep and repeat and unlike Brock Lesnar I’m not doing eat, sleep, conquer, repeat.   I forgot all I had to be thankful for.  God’s not done with me or you.  We need to remember that and step back and be thankful.  We need to pause and listen to King David.  

 

Psalm 57:7-11

 

“My heart is confident in you, O God; my heart is confident.  No wonder I can sing your praises!  Wake up my heart!  Wake up, O lyre and harp!  I will wake the dawn with my song.  I will thank you, Lord, among all the people. I will sing your praises among the nations.  For your unfailing love is as high as the heavens.  Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.  Be exalted, O God, above the highest heavens.  May your glory shine over all the earth.  

 

Psalm 59:16-17

 

“But as for me, I will sing about your power.  Each morning I will sing with joy about your unfailing love.  For you have been my refuge, a place of safety when I am in distress.  O my strength, to you I sing praises, for you O God, are my refuge the God who shows me unfailing love.”  

 

 

 

 

Your love O Lord by Third Day

Like incense/Sometimes by step by Hillsong 

Remember who you are by Geoff Moore and the Distance 

Praise the Lord by the Imperials

Certain Point of View

 

Certain point of view 

 

Some of you know me to be a huge Star Wars fan and they have a phrase in a New Hope of “from a Certain point of view “.  Thursday night I was watching the Sunday morning service for First Baptist Corpus Christi, and it has had me thinking a bit because Dr. Hill has been doing a series on the parables of Jesus Christ and there’s one he was mentioning about the Sower and the seed in Luke 8:4-15.  I’m 45 years old and I’m a preacher’s kid.  I’ve heard a lot of sermons through the years from my dad and other pastors but here’s the thing normally when I’ve heard this passage preached on the pastor will talk about the listening person and the types of soil.  Dr. Hill changed the whole point of view, and it has made me think about it a lot.  See I’ve been doing this Bible study blog thing for a while, and I have met a good amount of people who share God’s Word in various ways.  So, here’s the twist and I hope I do it Justice.  Anyone who shares God’s Word be it a teacher, pastor or ordinary person who is a Christian, a follower of God that shares his truth in some manner they’re the farmer in the story.  The person who hears it after interacting with the hearing of God’s Word is the different type of soil.  It then becomes more imperative that we are rightly sharing truth and not changing any part of the message because God’s Word is active and alive and is capable of changing people.  My former campus pastor and friend Greg and I have a saying about comic books and it’s this “Stories matter!”  There’s an exclamation mark there for a reason because we say that emphatically.  The things we share from the Bible matter 100 times more!  Here’s why.  

 

Hebrews 4:12-13

 

“For the Word of God is alive and powerful.  It is sharper than any two edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow.  It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.  Nothing in all creation is hidden from God.  Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable.”

 

Over the years I have had people ask me for advice and I don’t always get it right, but I honestly tell people this.  If you ask me for advice on anything and if I point you anywhere other than the cross of Christ and back to scripture, I have failed you.  I don’t have all the answers to life, and I fail often but I serve a Savior who has the answers. 

There have been so many times over the past years that I have done this blog thing that I have considered quitting.  Like the parable of the sower I can share things and I rarely see the results.  But I keep doing so because I know that God’s Word doesn’t go forth without accomplishing that which he set out for it to do.   My heart has been the soil and God has changed my heart because people were willing to sow his Word into it.  My dad had this sign up at a church he once pastored and at the exit  it said, “You are now entering your mission field.”  Wherever a Christian goes they are to be sharing God’s Word through word and deed.  I want my life to matter, and I want at the end of my days to hear God say “Well done.”  

 

For the Christian watching or reading this what you do and say matters and the Great Commission was a command not a suggestion.  There are people who need Jesus to change their lives and we need to share his hope.  I pray every time I’m about to share something asking God to give the participant hope and that He would draw them closer to Himself.  Doing this as a blog I don’t know who reads it or watches I get very little interaction, but I trust God to change people and keep sharing.  

 

Matthew 28:18-20

 

“Jesus came and told his disciples, ‘I have been given all authority in Heaven and on earth.  Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.    Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.  And be sure of this I am with you always even to the end of the age.’”  

 

“When we say what we say we’ve got to face the nations.”  

 

 

 

 

Until the whole world hears by Casting Crowns 

We need Jesus by Petra 

People need the Lord by Steve Green

Face the Nations by 4 Him  

 

Unfailing Love

 

Unfailing love 

 

We as humans have become so accustomed to love with conditions.  Geoff Moore calls it the “I love you if.   Love with strings attached.  If you perform, if you do what I ask.”  I want to instead show you the unconditional and unfailing love of God.  It’s a recurring theme through the book of Psalms and it’s sometimes easy to read and overlook because we don’t really know what to do with it.  I have mentioned before that I at times struggle with the fact that a human can love me and then it becomes more mind boggling to think that the very God who created it all could love me.  

 

Psalm 42:8 

“But each day the Lord pours his unfailing love upon me, and through each night I sing his songs, praying to God who gives me life.”

 

Psalm 48:9-10

 

“O God, we meditate on your unfailing love as we worship in your temple.  As your name deserves, O God, you will be praised to the ends of the earth.  Your strong right hand is filled with victory.”  

 

Lamentations 3:21-24

 

“Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this.  The faithful love of the Lord never ends!  His mercies never cease.  Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.  I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my inheritance; and therefore, I will hope in him!’”

 

I don’t quote secular singers too often in the blog but these verses mention mornings and evenings.  I work nights so I see earlier in the morning than most of you and Willie Nelson got this right in one of his songs.  “Each night begins a new day.”  These verses say God’s mercies are new every morning.  If you’re having a bad time with something, you can rest knowing God has mercy for you when things aren’t going right.  You can seek him day or night.  There’s someone who will watch this as a video or read the blog that needs to be reminded that they are loved by God.  I tell you often that this is a blog with an emphasis on Hope found in God’s Word and some days we need that more than others.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Defender by Francesca Battistelli

You are my rock by Petra

This love doesn’t run by Kerrie Roberts 

Wonder of wonders by Meredith Andrews 

When love calls your name by Kim Boyce

Speechless by Steven Curtis Chapman 

For the Love of God by Kenny Rogers 

Where

 Where

I read this passage on Friday morning then again on Saturday morning the second time I had to ask the question.  “Where’s your trust?”  It’s a question we all have to ask.  Five verses of hope in God and giving reasons to trust him.  

Psalm 40:1-5

“I waited patiently for the Lord to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry.  He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and mire.  He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along.  He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God.  Many will see what he has done and be amazed.  They will put their trust in the Lord.  Oh, the joys of those who trust in the Lord, who have no confidence in the proud or in those who worship idols.  O Lord my God, you have performed many wonders for us.  Your plans for us are too numerous to list.  You have no equal.  If I tried to recite all your wondrous deeds I would never come to the end of them.”  

King David gives reasons for trusting God.  

“So I’m walking by faith and not by sight

And I am trusting in invisible things 

For I have felt in my heart 

What I can’t see with my eyes

‘Cause the proof is living inside of me 

I’ve been set free 

And this is all the evidence I need

‘Cause I know your love reaches out to me

In my weakest of days

For I’ve felt your touch in my heart of hearts 

Though I’ve never ever seen your face”

God is trustworthy and even on the worst of days we need to remember that!

All the evidence by 4 Him

Trust and obey by Big Daddy Weave

Beautiful to Me

 

Beautiful to me

 

Not everyone had an upbringing quite like I have.  I grew up as a pastor’s kid and my dad introduced me to a lot of music.  As something different for the blog I’m going to share a passage and hen the song I think of every time I read it.  See I grew up listening to Don Francisco and if you’ve never heard his older music a lot of it comes straight from scripture and he is a storytelling master that gets you thinking.  Most people claim his song about the Resurrection called He’s Alive was originally done by Dolly Parton but it was not.  Anywho that last part was for my sister who heard Dolly’s version and like me thought she ruined it.  So, to set the scene let’s move right along to Luke 7:36-50 and meet a guy named Simon who just didn’t get it.  

 

“One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to have dinner with him, so Jesus went to his home and sat down to eat.  When a certain immoral woman from that city heard he was eating there, she brought a beautiful alabaster jar filled with expensive perfume.  Then she knelt behind him at his feet weeping.  Her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them off with her hair.  Then she kept kissing his feet and putting perfume on them.  When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, ‘If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him.  She’s a sinner!’  Then Jesus answered his thoughts.  ‘Simon,’.  He said to the Pharisee, ‘I have something to say to you.’  ‘Go ahead, teacher,’. Simon replied.  Then Jesus told him this story: ‘A man loaned money to two people—500 pieces of silver to one and 50 pieces to the other.  But neither of them could repay him, so he kindly forgave them both canceling their debts.  Who do you suppose loved him more after that?’  

Simon answered, ‘I suppose the one for whom he canceled the larger debt.’  

‘That’s right,’. Jesus said.  Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon,  ‘Look at this woman kneeling here.  When I entered your home, you didn’t offer me water to wash the dust from my feet, but she has washed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair.  You didn’t greet me with a kiss, but from the time I first came in, she has not stopped kissing my feet.  You neglected the courtesy of olive oil to anoint my head, but she has anointed my feet with rare perfume.  

I tell you her sins—and they are many— have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love.  But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.’  Then Jesus said to the woman, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’  

The men at the table said among themselves, ‘Who is this man, that he goes around forgiving sins?’  And Jesus said to the woman, ‘Your faith has saved you; go in peace.’  

 

Now before I get to the song lyrics, I want to say something.  Recently I heard a sermon on this passage by Dr. Brian Hill at First Baptist Corpus Christi and at the end of reading that passage he said something we often miss.  “We have been forgiven of much.”  We don’t always think we have but Romans 5:8 says while we were yet sinners or enemies of God; Christ died for us.  Nothing we did or ever can do will earn us salvation.  

 

Now let’s take a different look at Simon.

 

 

Don Francisco – Beautiful To Me Lyrics

The crowds were in the streets that day when Jesus came
To town
All the synagogue was there and more from miles around
So I asked him home to dinner just to see what I could
See
Of this famous local prophet from here in Galilee

And I don't know just how that woman got into the room
But you couldn't miss her gaudy clothes and her strong
And sweet perfume.
She went straight to Jesus' feet and stopped and stood
Right there
Then cried and wet His feet with tears and dried them
With her hair.

Now of all the women in my town none was more well
Known
For the flagrant sin she'd lived in and the wickedness
She'd sown.
But He didn't move to stop her -- seemed this prophet
Couldn't tell
That the woman who was touching Him was the kind they
Buy and sell.

And I had no idea just what this Jesus planned to do
When he said "Simon, there's something I need to say to
You. "
So I said "Teacher, if it's on your mind then tell me
What you will. "
But as He began to speak to me the room grew quickly
Still

He said "Take a good look at this woman now, in spite
Of all her fears
She's kissed me and anointed me and washed my feet with
Tears.
She's honored me and you've been only rude to me
Instead.
You gave no kiss of greeting, no anointing for my
Head. "

And her sins were red as scarlet and now they're washed
Away.
The love and faith she's shown is all the price she has
To pay
For the depth of God's forgiveness, it's more than you
Can see
And in spite of what you think of her, she's beautiful
To me

Now my anger flamed to hatred, I wanted nothing more
Than to take this prophet by the throat and throw Him
Out the door
To act like God, forgiving sins, and then speak so to
Me.
This itinerant from Nazareth in backwards Galilee.

But instead I sat and trembled, shaken to the core
The woman still was weeping as she knelt there on the
Floor
Jesus turned to her and said, "Your chains have been
Released
Your faith has saved you from your sins, rise -- walk
In peace. "

Your sins were red as scarlet but now they're washed
Away.
The love and faith you've shown is all the price you
Have to pay
For the depth of God's forgiveness, it's deeper than
The sea
And no matter what the world may think, you're
Beautiful to me.

 

 

Like Dr. Hill said “We have been forgiven of much.” 

 

Target Lock

 

Target lock

 

This past week has been very emotionally draining for me.  I’m not going to get into the awful mess except to say this.  In video games and WWE wrestling games in particular sometimes you focus on the wrong opponent.  You have to remember which buttons in the game change your target lock.  I got distracted and off-track last week.  Over the past few days, I can tell you I have poured through chapters in the Bible especially in the book of Psalms. I needed to adjust my target lock.  I needed my eyes fixed back on God.   I was driving back and forth to work, and my brain was becoming so occupied that I don’t remember coming and going.  I needed to refocus.   I’ve been on autopilot.   

 

Then I came to Psalm 33.

 

Psalm 33:20-22

 

“We put our hope in the Lord.  He is our help and our shield.  In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name.  Let your unfailing love surround us, Lord, for our hope is in you alone.”

 

 

That’s where our focus needs to be in emotionally draining times. You have to have a firm foundation.  

 

 

Twosets of Jones’s by Big Tent Revival

We trust in the name by Steve Green 

He never changes by 4 Him