Back again ...

It’s been a while since I blogged.  In reading some of my earlier posts, I see that a lot of the things I planned on doing (regarding the blog) didn’t get done.

But God is faithful, and continues to call me back to this when I would probably just shake my head in failure, disappointed with myself in my lack of commitment and follow-through, and go on to something else. 

Isaiah 30:15 (AMP)

¹⁵ For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: In returning [to Me] and resting [in Me] you shall be saved; in quietness and in [trusting] confidence shall be your strength. …

So in response to His call, humbled by His grace and patient lovingkindness towards me, His mercy and goodness shown again and again … here I am again.  And the reason I am here, on this blog, is the reason I am here, on this earth: to bring God glory.  That’s been my lesson lately, that that is my part in God’s plan – to bring Him glory. 

1 Corinthians 10:23-24, 31-33 (NKJV)

²³ All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful; all things are lawful for me, but not all things edify. ²⁴ Let no one seek his own, but each one the other’s well-being.

³¹ Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. ³² Give no offense, either to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the church of God, ³³ just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.

Not sure why, but thinking of these verses:

Zechariah 9:16 (AMP)

¹⁶ And the Lord their God will save them on that day as the flock of His people, for they shall be as the [precious] jewels of a crown, lifted high over and shining glitteringly upon His land.

Isaiah 62:1-3 (NKJV)

For Zion’s sake I will not hold My peace,
And for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest,
Until her righteousness goes forth as brightness,
And her salvation as a lamp that burns.
The Gentiles shall see your righteousness,
And all kings your glory.
You shall be called by a new name,
Which the mouth of the Lord will name.
You shall also be a crown of glory
In the hand of the Lord,
And a royal diadem
In the hand of your God.

… and my journey with Him continues …

Cruel to be Kind

[...this is really a continuation from prior blog post, Correcting Rebuke...]

On the same day that I was awakened with the insect bite, I was making a phone call and was put on hold.  An “oldie but goodie” song came on briefly and quickly went off as I was switched to another extension – I don’t remember what it was but I was surprised to hear it instead of classical or other instrumental music. My foot began to itch where I had been bitten, and to hurt where it was swelling inside of my shoe.  I was asking the Lord if that had really been necessary to get me up, though I conceded with a smile that it was certainly effective.

Psalm 141:1-5, New King James Version (NKJV)

            Prayer for Safekeeping from Wickedness
            A Psalm of David.

Lord, I cry out to You;
Make haste to me!
Give ear to my voice when I cry out to You.
² Let my prayer be set before You as incense,
The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.

³ Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth;
Keep watch over the door of my lips.
⁴ Do not incline my heart to any evil thing,
To practice wicked works
With men who work iniquity;
And do not let me eat of their delicacies.

⁵ Let the righteous strike me;
It shall be a kindness.
And let him rebuke me;
It shall be as excellent oil;
Let my head not refuse it.

Proverbs 27:5-6, 9 New King James Version (NKJV)

            ⁵ Open rebuke is better
             Than love carefully concealed.

⁶ Faithful are the wounds of a friend,
But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

⁹ Ointment and perfume delight the heart,
And the sweetness of a man’s friend gives delight by hearty counsel.

Immediately I was put back on hold and the song “Cruel to be kind” came on.  I cracked up laughing.  As soon as I got off of the phone, I got on the internet and looked up the song on youtube.

I found the original, but then a more current version that I liked more:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a30Uo5sJWSQ – this was done as part of a show (Live from Daryl’s House) that was new to me.  I looked at some other episodes of these, choosing some for the guest artist and some for the song being performed.  In all of them that I watched, I was so thankful to God for His gift of music, of sound, of hearing, and for the joy of making and sharing in the music that seemed so evident on these shows.  I heard some “old” (i.e. familiar) songs performed by “new” people (people I didn’t know or hadn’t heard perform these particular songs) and some “new” (previously unknown to me) songs performed by artists with which I was familiar.

Matthew 13:52, New King James Version (NKJV)
52 Then He said to them, “Therefore every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old.”

 So I’m just sharing in this joy, in this music, in this gracious gift of God, and hear the song, “That’s the Way I Feel About Cha” performed by Daryl Hall and band with Monte Montgomery, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7izBLEoZHs.  Monte’s vocals (from 3:51 to 4:17), had a harmony that struck me differently at that moment, and it was just like the Lord was affirming ... to me ... yet again His love ... for me.

Romans 5:6-8, New King James Version (NKJV)
 Christ in Our Place
6 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

… and He says, “That’s the way I feel about cha” …

John 14:6, New King James Version (NKJV)
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

Romans 8:31-32, New King James Version (NKJV)
God’s Everlasting Love
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

… and He says, “That’s the way I feel about cha” …

Romans 8:33-37, New King James Version (NKJV)
33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written:
 “For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

… and He says, “That’s the way I feel about cha” …

Romans 8:38-39, New King James Version (NKJV)
38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 Jeremiah 31:3, New King James Version (NKJV)
The LORD has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.

… and He says, “That’s the way I feel about cha” …

1 John 4:10, King James Version (KJV)
Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

… and He says, “That’s the way I feel about you” …

SONG: How He Loves, by David Crowder Band - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCunuL58odQ&ob=av2e

… and my journey with Him continues …

Correcting Rebuke

So, I was still having trouble maintaining consistency with my morning devotional time.  Then I read this in The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges, in the chapter on “Habits of Holiness”:

“…don’t be discouraged by failure.  There is a vast difference between failing and becoming a failure.  We become a failure when we give up – when we stop trying.  But as long as we are working on those sinful habits, regardless of how often we fail, we have not become a failure, and we can expect to see progress.”

Encouraging words.  Thinking about Proverbs 24:16:

For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again, But the wicked shall fall by calamity.

I used to think the seven times was the limit to fail, to fall.  But then I heard some preaching and read some things about when Peter asked Jesus if seven times was the limit of forgiveness to be given, and Jesus replied (in Matthew 18:22) not seven, but seventy times seven – meaning a greater amount than what we would think.  So I needn’t give up, even  if it’s been seven times that I’ve missed my devotional appointment – I can just persevere. 

The other day, despondent at bedtime, fearful that I wouldn’t wake up enough to “make an intelligent decision” the next morning to actually get up for my special time with God, I asked Him to help me get up (something that I often ask).  The next morning, more than 2 hours before my appointment time, I awoke scratching my toes where something had bitten me.  God had answered my prayer as there was no going back to sleep after that.  So, with some things that were going on regarding my schedule and relationships, I was thanking God during my devotional time for answering my prayer, albeit not in the way I would have thought  (per Isaiah 55:6-9).  It was then that He revealed that there was unforgiveness, sadness and disappointment in my heart that could have contributed to my lack of follow-through in my plans to stay committed in my part of keeping our appointed time.

Psalm 50:21, King James Version (KJV)

           ²¹ These things hast thou done, and I kept silence;
            thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself:
            but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.

 Psalm 39:11, New King James Version (NKJV)

            ¹¹ When with rebukes You correct man for iniquity,
               You make his beauty melt away like a moth;
               Surely every man is vapor. Selah

  I was able to repent (humbly, “in dust and ashes” like in Job 42:6b) and accept God’s forgiveness, and extend it in my heart to those I felt had slighted me.

Isaiah 61:1, New King James Version (NKJV)

            The Good News of Salvation
            “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me,
            Because the Lord has anointed Me
            To preach good tidings to the poor;
            He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
            To proclaim liberty to the captives,
            And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;

 Thanking God for delivering me from this instance of bondage in the pride, hard-heartedness and self-centeredness which was manifest in my harboring of unforgiveness, I thought of the song “I am Free” by Newsboys (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MbcYyOsF50 ).

(looking for that song on youtube today, I found this one with 3 songs that have me going, thanking God anew – right now! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crhPJ7V4m0o)

                                  ... and my journey with Him continues ...

Abhor sin - Pursue holiness

At a Good Friday service a few years ago, when a huge wooden cross was being carried from the back of the venue through the crowd to the stage area, I heard in my spirit, “I abhor sin.”  I had been (softly) crying, thinking of Jesus’ sacrifice for me, what He went through (as close as I can wrap my mind around it) – but this thought caught me off guard.  “Abhor? Where did that come from?” of course, this was a rhetorical question.  Although I don’t use the term” abhor” in normal conversation, I do know of the word from the Bible.  My crying was quieted as I realized that something deeper than I knew was going on within me.

I later looked to see if I could find a verse in the Bible where the phrase “abhor sin” was used.  The closest I got was in Romans 12:9: “…Abhor what is evil…” – I figured sin was evil, so there you go, right?  In my head, what I had heard seemed reasonable and to be in agreement with Scripture.  Like Mary after Jesus’ birth, who, upon hearing the shepherds make “… widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child…pondered … in her heart” – so I “pondered” what I had heard. (I looked up “abhor” today in dictionary.com, and got this definition:  to regard with extreme repugnance or aversion; detest utterly; loathe; abominate.)

In March, I attended a class (via teleconference call) on The Power of a Sanctified Time, Place, and Person of Prayer.  Through this class and several other confirming messages from sermons, songs,  books, etc., I was made aware of how lax I had become lately with my devotional prayer times and was convicted to “do better.”  It has been much harder than I had imagined it would be to be as committed to this discipline as I should.  But the Lord has been gracious, and continually speaks to me from His Word about the need for discipline in my life:

Job 5:17 (NKJV)
“Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects; Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty.

Proverbs 3:11-12 (NKJV)
My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, Nor detest His correction; For whom the Lord loves He corrects,
Just as a father the son in whom he delights.

1 Corinthians 9:27 (NKJV)
But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.

Hebrews 12:5-11 (NKJV)
[ The Discipline of God ]

⁵ And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons:

“My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord,
Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;
⁶ For whom the Lord loves He chastens,
And scourges every son whom He receives.”

⁷ If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? ⁸ But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. ⁹ Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? ¹⁰ For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. ¹¹ Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

During the March class mentioned above, a recommendation was given for the book The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges.  I was just reading along when I came to this paragraph at the beginning of a chapter on The Battle for Holiness:

Through our union with Christ in His death we are delivered from the dominion of sin.  But we still find sin struggling to gain mastery over us, as Paul depicted so vividly: “When I want to do good, evil is right there with me” (Romans 7:21).  We may not like the fact that we have this lifelong struggle with sin, but the more we realize and accept it, the better equipped we will be to deal with it.  The more we discover about the strength of indwelling sin, the less we feel its effects.  To the extent that we discover this law of sin within ourselves, we will abhor and fight against it.

Wow … there it is, to “abhor sin.”  I see God's providence in my reading this book such that I will have additional instruction and be more motivated to apply the principles laid forth therein – to pursue holiness.

                                    ... and my journey with Him continues ... 

Radiant Bride / Church

Hmmm ... seems to be on my screen lately about problems in marriages.  So i paid attention when i got an email devotional talking about it - specifically about the man's role. (The Radical Side of "I Do" - #6590, http://www.hutchcraft.com/a-word-with-you/your-relationships/the-radical-side-of-i-do-6590?utm_campaign=bd594d9bbc-AWWY+6590&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Ron+Hutchcraft+Ministries%2C+Inc.)

A couple of things stuck out to me, the first of which i'll discuss in this blog.  It is the truth about Christ's work to present the Church to Himself as "...a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless."  (Ephesians 5:27, NIV, emphasis mine) When i read "radiant", i thought about Psalm 34 (emphasis mine):

Psalm 34:4-6, (NIV)

⁴ I sought the LORD, and he answered me;

he delivered me from all my fears.

⁵ Those who look to him are radiant;

their faces are never covered with shame.

⁶ This poor man called, and the LORD heard him;

he saved him out of all his troubles.

i'm sooooooooooooooo grateful for what God has done - for me, for all of us:

2 Corinthians 4:6

For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 2:9
But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

Again, it is such a precious thing, the LORD's doing which is marvelous in our eyes:

Isaiah 60

New King James Version (NKJV)

The Gentiles Bless Zion

Arise, shine;
For your light has come!
And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.
² For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth,
And deep darkness the people;
But the Lord will arise over you,
And His glory will be seen upon you.
³ The Gentiles shall come to your light,
And kings to the brightness of your rising.

⁴ “Lift up your eyes all around, and see:
They all gather together, they come to you;
Your sons shall come from afar,
And your daughters shall be nursed at your side.
⁵ Then you shall see and become radiant,
And your heart shall swell with joy;
Because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you,
The wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you.
⁶ The multitude of camels shall cover your land,
The dromedaries of Midian and Ephah;
All those from Sheba shall come;
They shall bring gold and incense,
And they shall proclaim the praises of the Lord.
⁷ All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together to you,
The rams of Nebaioth shall minister to you;
They shall ascend with acceptance on My altar,
And I will glorify the house of My glory.

Jude 1:24-25

New Living Translation (NLT)

A Prayer of Praise

²⁴ Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into his glorious presence without a single fault. ²⁵ All glory to him who alone is God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power, and authority are his before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time! Amen.

... and my journey with Him continues ...

Ending up at grace, again

I had a dream last night … at some point, I was talking to a man (I think) as we were sitting at a table on the beach.  The discussion was about the things of God, although I can’t remember specifics.  But at one point, I was telling him something like I had been walking alone by the water along the beach, looking for God in the silence (or to be with God in the silence).

I happened to mention this part of my dream to a friend, who immediately became excited, telling me about the God Calling devotionals for the last few days.  While I do have the book, and occasionally look up the daily devotional on the internet, I hadn’t seen any of them lately.  The February 27^th entry really seemed to be on the same track as what I was saying / doing in the dream. (http://twolisteners.org/February%2016%20-%2028.htm#February 26) hmmmm...

I’ve been reading Ephesians daily, and thinking about what Jesus accomplished for us, for me, on the cross.  (That is also mentioned somewhat in that devotional.)  I so thought of all that He has done, and of how it is so a gift of grace today, thinking of how my Lord patiently allows me to see in His light the darkness from which He is cleansing me.  And I have to cling to Him, to His truth, to not be overwhelmed with guilt for my shortcomings, my mistakes, my disobedience which feels like a betrayal of His goodness and kindness extended to me.  (Thought of this hearing song by Kem, “Why would you stay?” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK0pgd0k5js&ob=av2e).

 I end up, always, amazed at His love, His mercy, His forgiveness, His patience, His grace, His power, His majesty.

Song: If Not For Your Grace, by Israel and New Breed (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ei_aO4a52MM)

Jude 1:24-25

New Living Translation (NLT)

A Prayer of Praise

²⁴ Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into his glorious presence without a single fault. ²⁵ All glory to him who alone is God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power, and authority are his before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time! Amen.

Song: Your Great Name, by Natalie Grant (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuuLBPOYcI8&feature=related)

… and my journey with Him continues …

Full of Thanks ...

Songs: Constantly, Rev. Clay Evans and AARC Mass Choir (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gdGovxWkak)
Praise on the Inside, J Moss (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMyfAL6KoK8&feature=related)

Scripture: New Living Testament translation from biblegateway.com
1 Thessalonians 5:18
Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.


I was just lying in bed the other day, drifting in and out of sleep, thinking about a lot of stuff. More and more things just kept coming to my mind and I just lay there, thinking about nothing in particular, but receiving and mulling over thoughts about a lot of different topics.

After a while of my mind racing in this way, I suddenly became aware of another train of thought flowing as an undercurrent in my mind, and this thought was simply, “Thank You.” As I became aware of this thought, it soon overwhelmed and expelled all other thoughts. Before I even knew it, I was wide awake and praying my thanks to God. Thanking Him for His revelation of Himself. Thanking Him for salvation. Thanking Him for His Son, my Savior, and the price that was paid to redeem me. Thanking Him for His Spirit within me, to lead and guide even my thoughts to a place of thanksgiving. Thanking Him for His mercy, thanking Him for His grace.


I am just so grateful ...

…and my journey with Him continues…