Luke 5:26

Everyone was amazed and gave praise to God. They were filled with awe and said, "We have seen remarkable things today."

found

Surely then you will find delight in the Almighty and will lift up your face to God. Job 22:26

Has the commonplace ever become just that to you? Commonplace. I'm afraid that's what happened to me over the course of time. I stopped seeing God in everything and experiencing Him in everything. How it happened, I'm not sure, but it did.

Then today God found me...once again.

Donald had downloaded some music on my iPod shuffle. I was listening today and found this song. I had no idea who it was other than she sounded a bit like Leah Nash. Ben came in and I pulled the earplug out and asked, "WHO is this?" He told me her name is Kari Jobe; she is awesome~! I played this one song again and again and am still playing it. Once again God has used His gift of music to draw me to experience His love for me.




Sanctuary / Kari Jobe


People, places
names and faces
they come and they go, leaving traces
sometimes my world gets filled with so much noise
that my heart gets pulled away
but i find my peace in you

and if i seek, i will find.
a treasure in you that time can't take away

(chorus)
sanctuary
pure and holy
in a secret place i'll find you there
sanctuary
pure and holy
in a secret place i'll find you there.
i'll find you there

oh to be washed in the water of your holy words
and oh to be healed by the touch of your hands

in your sanctuary
pure and holy
in a secret room i'll find you there.
sanctuary
pure and holy
in the secret room i'll find you there
i'll find you there

amen and amen or thought for the day

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You and I need to FOCUS on the WHO and not the HOW!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(from Pastor Kevin Kinchen's 09/17/08 Equip Devotion)
http://www.e-quip.org/

never before now

I come to the garden alone

While the dew is still on the roses

And the voice I hear, falling on my ear

The Son of God discloses

And He walks with me

And He talks with me

And He tells me I am His own

And the joy we share as we tarry there

None other has ever known

(Words and Music by Charles Austin Miles, 1913)

I have sang this hymn many times, but it was never a hymn of worship for me until this morning. A friend commented on my blog that she feels closer to God in the garden than anywhere else. Now I knew I love being in my yard and I go there every time I get the chance. I love just walking there along the stepping stones I've placed for my enjoyment, I love pulling weeds, and I love enjoying my plants that God causes to grow. I love talking to God there, but I don't think I realized that the reason I love it so much is because of what Shirley said. I do feel close to God there and that is why I escape to it every chance I get. His presence is everywhere I am, but I feel especially close to him in my yard. It's my miracle that He gave me. He provided this for me because I am His and He loves me. Many of you have had a part in "my miracle" and I thank you and love you.

God is so incredible!

Exquisiteness

How exquisite your love, O God! (Psalms 36:7a, The Message)

Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see - how good God is. Blessed are you who run to him. Worship God if you want the best; worship opens doors to all his goodness. (Psalms 34:8-9, The Message)

(Photo credits belong to Rebekah and were taken in the Orchid Garden in Singapore last spring.)

Nonnegotiable

"God's love for you is not dependent on how you look, how you think, how you act, or how perfect you are. His love is absolutely nonnegotiable and nonreturnable. Ours is a faithful God." (taken from "Everyday Blessings" by Max Lucado)

"His love has taken over our lives; God's faithful ways are eternal." Psalm 117:2 (The Message)

Isn't this wonderful? I'm not anywhere close to being perfect, I don't always act the way I should or think the way I should, and my looks certainly won't get me very far. I'm glad I'm His.

No ram for God

We are going through this book in Sunday School. Sunday's lesson was about Abraham and Isaac and their trip up the mountain where Abraham was going to sacrifice his son. John Fischer told the story and you could envision the father and his son on their trek and just about see the expressions on their faces. It was almost as if I were hearing this story for the first time. That's a good thing in my opinion. Sometimes when going over something we've already read we just see it the way we've always seen it in the past.

He made a comment that there was "no ram for God." He was referring to the ram He provided for Abraham to sacrifice in place of Isaac. Then he reminded us there was "no ram for God." When God's only Son, Jesus, was sacrificed for our sins, there was no ram to take His place. All of this was planned by God's before the foundation of the world. How it must have grieved God for His Son to have to suffer.

Ephesians 2
4 But God is rich in mercy because of his great love for us. 5 We were dead because of our failures, but he made us alive together with Christ. (It is God's kindness that saved you.) 6 God has brought us back to life together with Christ Jesus and has given us a position in heaven with him. 7 He did this through Christ Jesus out of his generosity to us in order to show his extremely rich kindness in the world to come. 8 God saved you through faith as an act of kindness. You had nothing to do with it. Being saved is a gift from God. 9 It's not the result of anything you've done, so no one can brag about it. (God's Word Version)

No ram for God, but a Saviour for us.

Forever God is Faithful

If you are a parent do you ever feel that God uses your children to teach you His ways? It's like we do/say all these things to make an impression on our children when they are small and yet God uses something we least expect to get the point across.



When Rebekah was little we had some Kid's Praise music that she listened to a lot. One series was Psalty the singing songbook and Charity Churchmouse. I never realized what an impact these songs had on her until I read her blog.


http://bekasthoughts.blogspot.com/


I know that God can use whatever He desires to touch our children's hearts and make an impression on them. I never knew at the time that He was doing that very thing. I am forever grateful to Him for continuing to work in our children's hearts. He is faithful!

Excellent Advice

I signed up for an E-quip Devotional from Kevin Kinchen quite some time ago. I have mentioned him before I believe. The devotional I received today says this. It is so true and so awesome!
(Pastor Kevin Kinchen / pastorkevin@e-quip.org)

"Folks, the bottom line is Jesus wants to be your PEACE! He wants to be your COMFORT. He wants to be your PATIENCE. He wants to be your STRENGTH. He wants to be your POWER. So, STOP trying to make it on your own. STOP being so stubborn and set on figuring it all out by yourself. You simply will NOT succeed that way. CAST ALL YOUR CARES ON HIM......because HE CARES FOR YOU! That means HE will do "the caring" for you! You don't have to stay awake all night "caring" about all your problems. Let the Lord "care" about them! Let HIM handle them! Amen? Amen! Dive into the Lord and into His Word and His Presence and let Him infuse you with His STRENGTH and His POWER. Let Him take that thing you have been so frustrated and confused about and watch as He turns it into PEACE and PATIENCE. Ooooooh I hope you are catching this! I will leave you with this last sobering thought. I came to this incredible revelation the other day. No matter how tough your situation is you are going through, no matter how hard it is, and no matter how impossible it may seem that you will make it, GOD IS ENOUGH. And the other part of that is the fact that you can either TRUST HIM and go through this thing HAPPY and FULL OF JOY, or you can TRUST YOURSELF and go through it FRUSTRATED AND FRAZZLED. But you know what? Either way, you are going to go through it. That is just LIFE. You have to go through some STUFF, everybody does. I figure, you and I might as well go through it HAPPY and FULL OF JOY, amen? Amen! It sure beats the alternative, that's for sure."

Alert Expectancy

And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. Romans 5:5 (NIV)

In alert expectancy such as this, we're never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary - we can't round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit! Romans 5:5 (The Message)

Awesome God

"Our God is Awesome."

This was the title of Pastor Paul's message yesterday. He asked us some questions about this statement.

Do you Believe it?

Do you Speak it?

Do you Walk in it?

Little did I know while I was listening and taking notes that God was about to show me how incredibly awesome He is~! (And give me an opportunity to show Pastor Paul that I was listening, and to also walk in it. Why am I always surprised when God does this?)

I did something after hearing that message that I am still in awe of. You see, it wasn't me............definitely not~! It was my incredibly awesome God.

Even though it was done without emotion that is a good thing. For the emotions I've felt in the past weren't pleasing to God; they were just flat out wrong. I have struggled with this particular issue for such a long time. I know it's not behind me. Said person has a way of bringing out the worst in me. Now I know it's my choosing, but times past I haven't chosen to stop my ugliness because of all the emotions involved. So not having my emotions involved was a positive thing this time.

My God IS an awesome God~!

Clouds are Breaking

Hallelujah for a song~! I didn't have one yesterday. The day turned kind of sour for me. At least that is the way I perceived it. It was a wonderful day; however I looked at it from my own perspective instead of God's perspective. Will I ever learn to stop doing that? However there is no condemnation, and today is a new day with a new opportunity to see God in all my circumstances. His mercies are new every morning, new every day, great is His faithfulness.

The world's shaking with the love of God

Great and glorious, let the whole earth sing
And all you ever do is change the old for new

People we believe that
God is bigger than the air I breathe

The world we'll leave

God will save the day and all will say

My glorious!
Clouds are breaking, heaven's come to earth

Hearts awakening let the church bells ring

And all you ever do is change the old for new

People we believe that

God is bigger than the air I breathe

The world we'll leave

God will save the day and all will say

My glorious~!

(Delirious, My Glorious)

I love the part about changing the old for new. With God there is always hope~!

My Glorious

I love it when God gives me a song. I was thinking about something concerning one of our children and God put this phrase in my heart: "God will save the day." It is from a song called "My Glorious" by Delirious. Here are the words.

The world's shaking with the love of God
Great and glorious, let the whole earth sing

And all you ever do is change the old for new

People we believe that

God is bigger than the air I breathe

The world we'll leave

God will save the day and all will say

My glorious!

Clouds are breaking, heaven's come to earth

Hearts awakening let the church bells ring

And all you ever do is change the old for new

People we believe that

God is bigger than the air I breathe
The world we'll leave

God will save the day and all will say

My glorious!

More Grace

It is not our love for God; it is God's love for us in sending his Son to be the way to take
away our sins. 1John 4:10

Pursue Love

1 Corinthians 14:1 says, "Pursue love......"

Merriam-Webster's online thesaurus defines pursue as........Function: verb; to go in search of.

"The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love." (1John 4:8)

1Corinthians16: 13 "Keep your eyes open, hold tight to your convictions, give it all you've got, be resolute, 14 and love without stopping." (The Message)

1 Corinthians13:2 "If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing." (The Message)

I can't truly love if I don't know God, because God is love. God speaks much about love. Mark 12:28 "One of the religion scholars came up. Hearing the lively exchanges of question and answer and seeing how sharp Jesus was in his answers, he put in his question: "Which is most important of all the commandments?" 29 Jesus said, "The first in importance is, 'Listen, Israel: The Lord your God is one; 30 so love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy.' 31 And here is the second: 'Love others as well as you love yourself.' There is no other commandment that ranks with these." 32 The religion scholar said, "A wonderful answer, Teacher! So lucid and accurate - that God is one and there is no other. 33 And loving him with all passion and intelligence and energy, and loving others as well as you love yourself. Why, that's better than all offerings and sacrifices put together!" 34 When Jesus realized how insightful he was, he said, "You're almost there, right on the border of God's kingdom." After that, no one else dared ask a question."

I think he was right on the mark when he realized that kind of love is better than all offerings and sacrifices put together. I'm going to pursue love.

Green Hope

I have been trying to make my requests known to God and trust Him with the outcome. I had an opportunity with the window in my van not working; it was on the driver's side no less. Several times I would start to drive through someplace and remember it wouldn't come down. It's rather awkward to drive through McDonald's and have to open your door to pay and then again to get your food. Or to drive through the ATM to buy stamps and actually get out of your car only for it not to be dispensing stamps at that particular time. Now I realize this doesn't constitute an emergency or world crisis, but it is my world and did put me in a pinch at times.

I decided it would be nice to have it fixed. Usually when we've had a problem with automatic windows it ended up being rather costly. I needed it fixed, but didn't need it to cost an arm and a leg. After analyzing my situation I decided I would take it to our auto collision repair shop and get an estimate. That estimate would determine my future so to speak, at least where my window was concerned. On the way I decided to let my request be made known to God, but to be okay with whatever the outcome. So I told Him that I really would like to have the window fixed, but to do that I needed it to be something small and not too expensive. I also told Him that I knew I could trust Him regardless of the verdict.

Now to make a long story a bit longer, it was just the switch and not the motor or other more expensive part. So I was able to get my window fixed for $106 and I already know what I can't do. I can't make this a "formula" for my next request. For example, I prayed and let God know what I wanted and He let me have it. So next time I want/need something I'll do the same thing and maybe it'll work again. WRONG~! So not true.

I do have another request I am talking to God about, but I also know that what I want may not be what He wants or what He thinks is best for someone I love. I do know, however, that I can trust Him and the outcome.

Romans 15:13 in The Message says: "Oh! May the God of green hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope!" I'm not sure what green hope is, but I sure like the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit part. That is an apt description of the Holy Spirit as far as I am concerned.

Longings from my heart

Our pastor has been teaching us oh so many things. It has been an incredible journey for me. I get waylaid at times, but God says in James 1:2-4 .......

Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides.
You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors.
So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way. (The Message)

I'm afraid my true colors aren't very pleasant to look upon at times. This verse is certainly true in my life. Life has been a challenge lately to say the least. However I'm not discouraged; at least not today. Nothing is really wrong except me and the way I look at and react to circumstances.

Our pastor has talked about making our requests known to God. Phil. 4:6-7 says...

Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. 7 Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life. (The Message)

How I long for God to settle me. I have walked in this at times; I want to walk in it consistently. I think that's why I've been struggling lately. I'm really not sure that "worry" is the correct word to describe my battle though. I am trying to make my requests known to God and trust Him for the outcome. There are no better hands than His to leave myself in.