Not about us

 

For as long as I’ve done this blog thing, I’ve tried to do something the mentor of my dad taught him and that was “to put the cookies on the bottom shelf”.  You keep things simple so others can understand them.  I’ve sat under preaching where the person speaking has so much learning he has forgotten his audience.  I don’t mean that as an insult to anyone.   I want to speak and write clearly in a way that people understand.  Some of you know I used to do fictional stories as well and I’ve been told before that I write in a way that the reader can see what’s in my head.  That’s a great compliment.  I wish I still had that ability.  I can’t seem to finish my stories anymore.  That’s a problem for another day.  When you present God’s Word you have to remember it’s not about you it’s about bringing glory to Him.  I never want to be the important part.  If you ever see me do this as a video, I don’t care that someone sees I’m looking down reading what I’ve written.  I have to write this out because it is also a written blog and I also lose my train of thought easily. 

  So, onto Paige really quick.  She’s a singer I discovered by shopping at Half Price Books, and I found a cd of hers and there’s a song she does called So Not About Me.  I’m going to share some of the lyrics and then the scripture that goes with this blog.  See we’re to be all about giving glory to God and not taking it for ourselves.  

 

“Every good and perfect gift comes from you Lord

Yet I receive the credit for these things 

I’ll place my mind and focus on you

And take the stupid spotlight off of me

Someone take this stupid spotlight off of me

 

It’s all about you, who you are, what you’ve done  

What you’re gonna do 

It’s all about your holiness 

It’s so not about me”

 

2 Corinthians 4:3-6

 

“If the good news we preach is hidden behind a veil, it is hidden only from people who are perishing.  Satan, the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe.  They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News.  They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.  You see, we don’t go around preaching about ourselves.  We preach that Jesus Christ is Lord and we ourselves are your servants for Jesus’ sake.  For God who said, ‘Let there be light in the darkness’ has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.”  

 

We have to be clearly understood when sharing God’s Word.   I saw a thing on Facebook recently that was so true.  “When God put his calling on your life he already figured in your stupidity.”  I get things so messed up and wrong, but God called me to share his love and hope and somehow he uses a flawed human like me.  He can use you too.  

 

 

Sadly there is no video on You Tube for the song by Paige.  

Declaration by Geoff Moore and the Distance

Seed to sow by Michael W Smith 

People need the Lord by Steve Green

 

So I can thank you

 

So I can thank you.

 

I’ve had a long stressful week at work. Physically and mentally, it has been exhausting.  My thoughts have been scattered.  There’s a phrase in this short chapter I’m about to share that when we are stressed out, we all need.  Driving back and forth to work has been a blur and I listen to a lot of music on the way and sometimes you need that to get your thoughts fixed back on God.   Psalm 142 is short, but it reminds us where to turn.  

 

“I cry out to the Lord; I plead for the Lord’s mercy.  I pour out my complaints before him and tell him all my troubles.  When I am overwhelmed, you alone know the way I should turn.  Wherever I go my enemies have set traps for me.  I look for someone to come help me, but no one gives me a passing thought!  No one will help me; no one cares a bit what happens to me.  Then I pray to you, O Lord.  I say ‘You are my place of refuge.  You are all I really want in life.  Hear my cry for I am very low.  Rescue me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me.  Bring me out of prison so I can thank you.  The godly crowd around me, for you are good to me.’”

 

Part of the chapter says, “Bring me out of prison so I can thank you.”  Maybe we aren’t in a physical prison but sometimes our thoughts can be, and we need to get focused back on God more than we realize.  I almost didn’t even do a blog this week because my thoughts have been so messed up.  

I mentioned music and there is an old hymn that got my attention on my way to work.  

 

“Great is thy faithfulness,

Great is thy faithfulness 

Morning by morning new mercies I see

All I have needed thy hand has provided 

Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me”

 

Time to shift your focus back on God.

 

 

Great is thy faithfulness by Carrie Underwood and CeCe Winans

We don’t need it by Rebecca St James

Weak days by Steven Curtis Chapman 

In Heaven’s eyes by Sheila Walsh 

Dependence Math

 

Dependence Math

 

I’ve said many times before “We as humans talk a lot of garbage for people who nearly fall over simply putting on underwear.”  If you don’t believe me next time you get out of the shower, see how good your balance really is.  We depend on God for so much including our breath.  Don’t believe me hold your breath and see how long before you’re gasping for the very air he provides.   Psalm 130 is dependence math, and I just coined that term.  It is a short chapter that breaks down how much we truly depend on God.  I call it dependence math because it brings it all down to the lowest common denominator.  What do you as a person need and why do you need it?  We are sinful creatures we need hope and forgiveness.  It’s as basic as that.  

 

Psalm 130

 

“From the depths of despair, O Lord, I call for your help.  Hear my cry, O Lord.  Pay attention to my prayer.  Lord if you kept a record of our sins, who, O Lord, could ever survive?  But you offer forgiveness, that we might learn to fear you.  I am counting on the Lord; yes I am counting on Him.  I have put my hope in his word.  I long for the Lord more than the sentries long for the Dawn, yes, more than the sentries long for the Dawn.  O, Israel hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is unfailing love.  His redemption overflows.  He himself will redeem Israel from every kind of sin.”

 

Only through the blood of Jesus Christ can we ever be worthy in God’s eyes.  

 

It’s exactly like these two passages from songs by Chris Tomlin and Casting Crowns.

 

“We fall down

We lay our crowns

At the feet of Jesus 

The greatness of mercy and love

At the feet of Jesus.

 

And we cry holy, holy, holy 

We cry holy, holy, holy 

Is the Lamb.”

 

“Your mercy saved me 

Mercy made me whole

Your mercy found me

called me as your own.”

 

 

 

 

I need by Sierra 

Mercy by Casting Crowns 

At your feet by Casting Crowns 

We Fall Down by Shelia Walsh

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