verse 26: Rise up and help us; redeem us because of your unfailing love.
Sopping Wet November 12, 2009
Coming out of stormy waters . . . we are tired . . . we almost drowned . . . we’re afraid the tide will come and snare us again. But we live with a promise. Songwriter Christa Wells (sung by Natalie Grant) eloquently reminds me that the promise takes it’s full hold when we are sopping wet and worn down to the bone from our fight with the sea.
Who told us we’d be rescued?
What has changed and why should we be saved from nightmares?
We’re asking why this happens
To us who have died to live?
It’s unfair.This is what it means to be held.
How it feels when the sacred is torn from your life
And you survive.
This is what it is to be loved.
And to know that the promise was
When everything fell we’d be held.This hand is bitterness.
We want to taste it, let the hatred know our sorrow.
The wise hands opens slowly to lilies of the valley and tomorrow.This is what it means to be held.
How it feels when the sacred is torn from your life
And you survive.
This is what it is to be loved.
And to know that the promise was
When everything fell we’d be held.If hope is born of suffering.
If this is only the beginning.
Can we not wait for one hour watching for our Savior?
2 Timothy 4:17-18
But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen
Solitude July 19, 2009
Oh Lord – Thank You for spending time with me. I know You are always available for me and yet I stay away too often. But alas, I loved our time together – You and me. You taught me so much again. I am forgiven, I am clean, You are the Restorer, You have plans for me, In You there is Hope, You will strengthen my inner-self, You alone are worthy of my praise.
I came across this note . . . June 30, 2009
South Africa 2007
“From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose.” Isaiah 46:11
Lead Me To the Cross June 3, 2009
In Brooke Fraser’s song she sings . . . “lead me tot he cross.” As I was preparing for musical worship this week I was thinking about what that meant. The cross an agent of death – a method of execution. It was the place that Jesus died the final death. So we come to the cross with our sins so that they can die. It is a place that we rid ourselves from our human error and accept the grace of God in his resurrection and his victory over sin and death. When I am on my knees in of Christ I am letting go of the “prison of me” and taking on the “freedom of God”.
Savior I come, quiet my soul, remember
Redemption’s hill, where Your blood was spilled or my ransom
Everything I once held dear I count it all as lossLead me to the cross where Your love poured out
Bring me to my knees Lord I lay me down
Rid me of myself, I belong to You
Oh lead me, lead me to the crossYou were as I, tempted and tried, human
The Word became flesh, bore my sin in death, Now Your risen
Everything I once held dear, I count it all as lossTo Your Heart
To Your Heart
Lead me to Your Heart
Lead me to Your HeartBrooke Fraser
No Place For Fear May 27, 2009
There is no place for fear. In the Esther study last night, Beth Moore, reminded us that God isn’t going to give us strength in our fear because there is no place for our fear. We have a God who is fighting our battles for us. We need to lift up our hands and give our fears and our battles over to God.
He shall say to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, you are approchaing the battle against your enemies today. Do not be fainthearted. Do not be afraid, or panic, or tremble before them, for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.’ Deuteronomy 20:3-4
Surely there is victory in Him.
Take Me All The Way May 19, 2009
This is my deep desire – to go all the way, like Matthew West asks in his chorus.
How do we take the step? How do we jump without letting worry getting in our way?
I don’t wanna go through the motions
I don’t wanna go one more day
Without your all consuming passion inside of me
I don’t wanna spend my whole life asking
What if i had given everything
Instead of going through the motions
God – Develop in me a faith and trust so deep that I take the leap. I can’t do it on my own – I need you.
and then I remembered . . . the Good News May 10, 2009
that I have to keep writing in this little space . . . for it centers me back on my Greatest Love – my Lord . . . even in the middle of the day.
Today we were reminded at church by Caren that there is a difference between Good Advice and Good News. Good Advice doesn’t take affect until it is put into action and therefore is only good as our intentions are . . . and well you know how good intentions can be when we really have to do them. Good News however has been done – it is news – a report out of what has been accomplished and what God has done for us is a miracle. He has clothed us in righteousness and made us presentable to Himself. His Power – His Sacrifice – His Love has SET US FREE. This is undeniably Good News. It makes me what to shout out the Good News of Jesus – His Power and Love have set us free . . .
oh yes . . . I feel a song welling up inside of me.
Set my heart Free March 20, 2009
Psalm 119:32
I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free.
Valley of Dry Bones November 13, 2008
Ezekiel 37
1 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”
I said, “O Sovereign LORD, you alone know.”4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! 5 This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath [a] enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’ “
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’ ” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.
11 Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.’ “
