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.

God, contentment, and me

So, last night was the ladies fellowship and Kelly shared her testimony.  It was so good if you weren't able to be there.  But I wanted to share some things that really convicted and encouraged me for those of you who weren't able to attend last night.

This is a poem from her notes--It is taken from the devotional Steams in the Desert.

My goal is God Himself, not joy, nor peace,

Nor even blessing, but Himself, my God;

Tis His to lead me there, not mine, but His-

At any cost, dear Lord, by any road!

So faith abounds forward to its goal in God,

And love can trust her Lord to lead her there;

Upheld by Him, my soul is following hard

Til God hath full fulfilled my deepest prayer.

No matter if the way be sometimes dark,

No matter though the cost be oft times great,

He knoweth how I best shall reach the mark,

The way that leads to Him must needs be straight.

One thing I know, I cannot say Him nay;

One thing I do, I press towards my Lord;

My God, my glory here, from day to day,

And in the glory there my great Reward.

So good, so convicting in whatever trial or storm you are going through right now.  God should be our ultimate joy and goal.  He is all we need--and even if we lose everything we hold dear He is enough, He will always be enough.  God is doing a work in your life and making you look more like Him.  He is fulfilling your "deepest prayer" and it is beautiful, though sometimes hard.  Trust in Him during this time, He is good and gracious and loving.  He promises to give us the strength to get through anything and everything that comes our way.

Psalm 57 says,

Be merciful to me O God, be merciful to me, for in You my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of Your wings I will take refuge, til the storms of destruction pass by.  I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills His purpose for me.  He will send from Heaven and save me; He will put to shame him who tramples on me.  God will send out His steadfast love and His faithfulness..... (vs 10) for Your steadfast love is great to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds.  Be exalted I God above the heavens!  Let Your glory be over all the earth.

God is merciful and He is our refuge.  We should run to Him in time of need or hurt.  He is our comforter.  He has began a good work in you and He will complete it (Phil. 1:6).

This is a quote from John Piper, from the book Future Grace,

Answers to prayer can come inside the circle of a prayer denied.  God gives us trouble, but in the midst of a grace denied we got a grace supplied.  I am learning to trust God's wisdom in giving the grace that is best for me.  We should not be surprised that God gives us wonderful graces in the midst of suffering that we had asked Him to spare us.  He knows best how to apportion His grace for our good and for His glory.

SO GOOD!  Sometimes God empties our hands of something so that He can fill it with something even better--usually Himself.  We are called to trust Him... and know that He knows best.  He is our Creator and He knows what we need. He knows what will be best for us and make us look more like Him.  What a wonderful truth to cling to in times of struggle and hardship.

Another poem from Streams in the Desert that Kelly shared last night,

I had a tiny box, a precious box

Of human love - my spikenard of great price;

I kept it close within my heart of hearts

And scarce would lift the lid lest it should waste

Its perfume on the air.  One day a strange

Deep sorrow came with crushing weight, and fell

Upon my costly treasure, sweet and rare

And broke the box to atoms.  All my heart

Rose in dismay and sorrow at this waste,

But as I mourned, behold a miracle

Of grace Divine.  My human love was changed

To Heaven's own, and poured in healing streams

On other broken hearts, while soft and clear

A voice above me whispered, "Child of Mine,

With comfort wherewith thou are comforted,

From this time forth, go comfort others,

And thou shalt know the blest fellowship with Me,

Whose broken heart of love hath healed the world."

Give your treasure to Him.  Surrender it all.  He will use it in ways you could never imagine, to glorify Himself and to bring you more joy.

1 Peter 5 says,

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you...And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

Have hope, trust God, and be comforted.  God is at work... cast all your burdens at the foot of the cross.  In His own perfect timing He will restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.  He promises it, so He will do it.  Wait on the Lord.  Wait patiently and find your joy in Him.

~Praying that God is honored and worshiped more.

God, His plan, and me

A poem from tonights Bible Study.  It was so good and very convicting.  When circumstances come our way and we are disappointed when things don't turn out how we want them too, remember that God has a perfect plan and all of it is good for you.  He is working in your life to make you more like Him and it is all bringing Him more glory.  So when life disappoints remember that God is in control--yesterday, today, and forever more.

"Disappointment-His appointment";

"Disappointment-His appointment";

change one letter, then I see

that the thwarting of my purpose

is God's better choice for me.

His appointment must be blessing

though it may come in disguise;

for the end, from the beginning,

open to His vision lies.

"Disappointment-His appointment";

Whose? The Lord who loves me best,

understands and knows me fully,

who my faith and love would test.

For like loving parents

He rejoices when He knows

that His child accepts unquestioned

all that from His wisdom flows.

"Disappointment-His appointment";

no good thing will He withhold.

From denials oft we gather

treasure of His love untold.

Well He knows each broken purpose

leads to a fuller, deeper trust,

and the end of all His dealings

proves our God is wise and just.

"Disappointment-His appointment";

Lord can I take is then as such,

like clay in the hands of the potter

yielding wholly to His touch.

My life's plan is all His molding;

not one single choice be mine.

Let me answer unrepining,

"FATHER, NOT MY WILL,

BUT THINE."

~Praying that God is honored and worshiped more.

God, His Goodness, and me

So, the purpose of this blog update is to try and encourage those of you that read this... that you would remember God's  goodness and all that He has done for you, and remember to trust Him in all things.


God IS GOOD!  Yesterday, today, and forever more.  He is always good and He is the source of all good things.  When you are standing in the midst of trials, suffering, or even momentary peace we must remember that God is good.  If we forget this truth then our world will shake and we will lose our grasp on the one thing that is stationary--God.  We cannot doubt God's goodness one second of the day... it is what we cling to in this world, when evil is swirling all around us.  God is the rock, stronghold, and refuge in the midst of a fallen world (Psalm 18:1-3).  He is the Light and we must remember that.


Luke 18:19 says, "And Jesus said to him, 'Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.'"


God alone is good and we, as fellow heirs with Christ, need to be looking more and more like Him daily.  We need to be reflecting Him--that is why we were created.


`Genesis 1:27, "God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them."


We are to reflect Him to a fallen world now, we are to reflect His goodness.  That is a whole different discussion though... I am going to talk about how we should lean on the fact that God is good, in the midst of trials and suffering.


Psalm 16:2 says, "I said to the Lord, 'You are my Lord; I have no good besides You.'"


So, we need to remember in the midst of our trials that God is good and we have no good besides Him.  So when the Lord takes something away, we need to be content and rest in the fact that He is our goodness and nothing else matters.


Jeremiah Burroughs said, "Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delight's in God's wise and fatherly disposal in every condition."


We are called to be content in Christ in whatever situations He brings our way.  We need to submit to and delight in all the work He is doing in your life, even if it hurts, knowing that it is God's goodness toward you.


Psalm 84:11 says, "The Lord God is a sun and a shield; the Lord gives grace and glory; no good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly."


So, everything that comes our way, if we are following Christ, is good to us.  It is what is best for you, whether it feels like it or not.  Ground yourself in that truth!  Ground yourself in God's Word!  It is the only thing that will not move, will not let you down, or disappoint.  Our God is good, loving, and immutable (unchanging)--what an awesome God He is.  =]  We need to continually remind ourselves of this, especially in hard times when our flesh tells us otherwise.


Another thing to remember in times of struggle is that God might be taking things out of your life (idols) so that He can fill that space of your heart with Himself.  This is a quote from a man at our church who was teaching Sunday School yesterday; teaching on Ruth, talking about Naomi.


"She did not realize that God was emptying her hands so that He could fill them with something much better."


If you are in the midst of struggle and hardship, I suggest reading Lamentations 3.  I will type just a section of it here...


"This I recall to mind, therefore I have hope. The Lord's lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning, great is Your faithfulness. 'The Lord  is my portion,' says my soul, 'therefore I have hope in Him.' The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him. It is good that he waits silently for the salvation of the Lord."  (verses 21-26)


We need to recall to mind that God is good.  Lovingkindnesses, in this text, encompasses nine different things in the Hebrew--love, grace, mercy, goodness, forgiveness, truth, compassion, and faithfulness.  This verse says that all of these never cease.  They never cease!  What an encouraging truth that we can cling to.


I challenge you to remember God's lovingkindnesses all the day long.  To remember His goodness with every breath you take.  All that God is doing in your life is shaping you into a better tool that He can use for His glory. It is making you to look more like Christ, which should be our greatest goal in life--to glorify God, serve Him, and look more like Him.  May God be blessed by each of us and receive more glory through us all.  Live for Him and love Him in the easy times and the hard times--His hand is in it all and wherever you are right now is absolute best for you.  Praise Him, people!  Praise Him for His great goodness!


~Praying that God is honored and worshiped more.