God, His provision, and me

Okay, so I am done with Nehemiah and I have moved on to Ester!  :)  I was very excited to finally be at Ester in my venture through the Old Testament.  I have always loved the story of Ester growing up, but it's been a while since I read it.  Well, today I was reading chapter 2-3 and something really cool got me thinking.  So I am going to share it with y'all.  :)


`Ester 2:17
"The king loved Ester more than all the women, and she found favor and kindness with him more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti."


So, Ester becomes queen--end of story, right... wrong.  This is where you really start to see God at work in providing for the Jews.  He has molded Ester for this her whole life, she is chosen as queen so that God can work through her for His glory.  Cool, right?  Well, the thing that really stuck out to me is Haman doesn't even decide to strike out against the Jews until chapter 3 verse 6...


"...therefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews, the people of Mordecai, who where throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus."


God was already preparing a way of escape for His people back in chapter 2 (and really way before that).  Such a cool picture of how God knows all, before it happens, and He is protecting His people.  It made me think of those people that say that God is just a really good chess player and just counter acts with what humans do.  Well, this scripture clearly shows that God knows all before it happens.  He had already made His counter move before Haman even started playing the game.  Truly awesome to see our God at work--in the Bible and all around us.  How He is working perfectly to bring Him more glory.  :)  Such comfort, knowing that He knows exactly what is not only going on in our lives today, but already knows about tomorrow and has that all planned out as well.  He has every one of our days planned out perfectly, whether we have 20 or 20,000 left.  He is protecting us from the bad and giving us all that is good for us... whether it seems good or not.  Trust Him.  He's got in all under control.  He made you, He knows what is best for you, and He is protecting you from evil, before you even know there is evil sometimes.


~Praying that God is honored and worshiped more.

God, worship, and me

So, I am in Nehemiah during my quiet times and the other day I was reading chapter 8 and it really got me thinking the rest of the day.  Chapter 8 of Nehemiah is about Ezra reading the Law to the people.  Verse 5 and 6 say,
"Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up. Then Ezra blessed the LORD the great God. And all the people answered, 'Amen, Amen!' while lifting up their hands; then they bowed low and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground."


Wouldn't you have loved to be apart of this worship service?  What a wonderful picture.  :)  Verse 3 says that Ezra was reading from early morning until midday, yet the people stood.  This is such an amazing picture of the people praising and worshiping the Lord--shouting Amen and bowing low, faces to the ground and hands raised high.  What if for one service we all stopped thinking about what other people will think of us if we raise our hand while singing before the Lord or say "Amen" out loud during the sermon.  Who cares what they think... you are worshiping God Most High.


Later in the day I heard the song, "I Can Only Imagine" by MercyMe.  The chorus goes like this...


Surrounded by Your glory, what will my heart feel
Will I dance for You Jesus or in awe of You be still
Will I stand in Your presence or to my knees will I fall
Will I sing hallelujah, will I be able to speak at all
I can only imagine, I can only imagine


I love this song because it gets me thinking about how awesome and holy our God truly is... what will we do when we are in His presence?  Who knows, but I know one thing--it will be a perfect, awesome, God honoring worship service for the rest of eternity.  I cannot wait.  To worship God without your sin getting in the way.  To stand before Him unashamed because Christ died for you.  What will it be like to worship the one true God, surrounded by His glory, all of it?  And then I started to think about this chunk of scripture--Isaiah 6:1-7.  Take a moment and read this slowly.  Let it all sink in and picture what Isaiah is trying to explain to us, and then imagine if you were Isaiah.  Let this passage of scripture help you to stand in awe of God and who He is today.


"In the year of King Uzziah's death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple.  Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, 'Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory.'  And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of his who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke.  Then I said, 'Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.'  The one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs.  He touched my mouth with it and said, 'Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.'"


Can you imagine?


~Praying that God is honored and worshiped more.

God, our comfort, and me

Well, I was reading Psalm 23 this morning in my quiet time and it was one of those moments were you had to stop and ask God to help you learn something new.  To help you not to just read the verses that you have read a million times before. To help you to stand in awe of Him just a little bit more because of what you read that morning.  As I said, this was one of those mornings as I began to read Psalm 23.  Memories of memorizing it as a kid and not really know what it meant ran through my head.  So I decided to lay all of the memories aside and all of my presuppositions about these verses aside and try to read it like I am doing so for the very first time.  So I am reading along and it isn't working too well because they are all just the same words (bad, right? we should always be able to come away with something new. it is God's word.).  Well, then I start to read MacArthur's study notes... we by no means need study notes, we only need the written word of God, but in this case the notes helped me to look into the wording of one of the verse...


Verse 4 (one that has been used so many times) says, "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me."


So, I go down to the study notes and MacArthur starts to talk about how the rod and staff are means of protection and direction, respectively.  It really got me to go back through the verse and think it through again, as I am going to do with you now.  :)  Let's start at the beginning...


"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death..."
When things get hard, when everything around you is difficult, tough, demanding, testing, and challenging; that is when you are in your own "valley of the shadow of death".


"I fear no evil..."
So even when things are at what seems like the absolute worse, we are not to fear evil.  Why?  Let's continue...


"for (because) You are with me..."
We need not fear any evil because God is with us always.  He is by our side through it all.


And now for the part that was so encouraging to me... 

"Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me."

His rod is an instrument of protection.  God protects us from evil and anything that is not good for us.  So we need not fear walking through the valley of the shadow because God will protect us and it is good for us (Ps. 84:11).

His staff is an instrument of direction.  He is leading us.  He led us into the valley of the shadow of death for a reason, which should bring comfort in it's self.  He is working in us through it all.  But also, He is leading us now through that valley.  We are not left to walk the journey alone, God is giving us the strength and the grace for every step.

This should be a great encouragement and comfort to believers.  He is with us even when things are hard and testing; and He is protecting us and leading us through it all.  What an awesome God, who only does what is absolute best for us, even if it is what is hard on us.  He loves us enough to not leave us where we are.  He is shaping us to look more like Him through every situation in life.  It is all an instrument in His hand to future His work in us until the day it is made perfect.  :)

I encourage you to look deeper into those verses you know by heart, but that maybe you don't know the proper context or maybe there is truth in there that you never knew before--a comforting or a challenging thought.  Dig a little deeper in His word.  It after all has all that we need to know about life and godliness.  Don't just read over the passages you know by heart, or the ones that don't seem necessary (like genealogies).  They are all profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training (2 Tim. 3:16-17).

~Praying that God is honored and worshiped more.

God, Sidewalk Prophets, and me

So, this update is nothing major, but I was listening to this song and it so made me re-focus on God and really what it means to give my life to Him wholly.  Hope you enjoy.

You Can Have Me

If I saw You on the street

And You said come and follow me

But I had to give up everything

All I once held dear and all of my dreams

Would I love You enough to let go

Or would my love run dry

When You asked for my life

When did love become unmoving?

When did love become unconsuming?

Forgetting what the world has told me

Father of love, You can have me

You can have me

If You’re all You claim to be

Then I’m not losing anything

So I will crawl upon my knees

Just to know the joy of suffering

I will love You enough to let go

Lord, I give you my life

I give you my life

When did love become unmoving?

When did love become unconsuming?

Forgetting what the world has told me

Father of love, You can have me

You can have me

I want to be where You are

I’m running into Your arms

And I will never look back

So Jesus, here is my heart

Father of love, You can have me

My Father, my love

You can have me

~Praying that God is honored and worshiped more.