Eternal God, all praise is yours,
All glory, honor, power, and might!
What wisdom adorns your worthy crown!
You are love, and you are light. Continue reading “Why Should You Take Note of Me?”
Beyond a Life of Self
Move us beyond a life of self
To your most glorious kingdom reign,
Where words are spoken on Christ’s behalf,
And deeper meaning is given to pain.
I think too much of me and mine —
Let Jesus occupy my thoughts —
Let life be engaged around your throne,
And heart embrace the enduring Cross.
The World Is Large, and I Am Small
The world is large, and I am small,
What can one person do?
It seems to be an order too tall
To pull just myself through!
How, then, to bring another soul
To love and serve the Lord,
Much less to make the world my goal?
For that, how small’s my sword!
O God eternal, open my eyes
To power beyond my mind,
To love where saving deeds arise,
To words that seek and find.
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I’d ask one thing
Of all the prayers that I could pray,
Requests that I could make,
I’d ask one thing: my dying day
At Jesus’ feet to wake.
We Will Not Live Only Once
O God eternal, it is not true, you know,
That we only live once.
We shall live again.
We will be raised from the dead.
We will appear before your judgment throne.
We will enter eternity.
We will suffer horribly or enjoy every rich blessing from your hand.
And our choices here and now will determine our destiny.
O God of all goodness, help me choose this day to love and serve you.
Strengthen my heart to be a person of integrity.
Put steel in my will, that I might do your will.
Clear my mind of all distractions, in order to learn from Jesus
And follow him in all things.
I want to go to heaven.
Make this not to be a mere wish, but a reality.
Because Jesus is mine, and I am his.
He is a New Creation
As the road is wide that leads to destruction, much of mankind are caterpillars concerned with things below. It’s when one realizes a need, turns, and obeys the gospel that he enters Christ through baptism and changes to be born a member of Christ’s body the church. From there the butterfly … erm, Christian … walks (or flies–to keep the illustration consistent) as Jesus did upon that narrow road that leads to eternal life.
I. Romans 5:18-21. Sin marred the image of God that we were created in, but Christ was the perfect image of God who lived perfectly and then died so that in Him we could be restored to that perfection (Romans 6:1-14). When we enter the chrysalis of Christ, we become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17-19).
II. Colossians 3:1-17. God’s ways and thoughts are so much above our own (Isaiah 55:8-9), yet in Him we are united with him and change to live differently. Our minds and hearts need to be set on things above, not on earthly things. After all, butterflies have wings and do not have the concerns of caterpillars.
III. Ephesians 2:4-10. The flutter (collective noun for a group of butterflies) that make up the bride of Christ works (obedient living) for the Bridegroom, walks as the Bridegroom (1 John 2:3-6) does, watches for the Bridegroom (Luke 21:34-36), and waits for the Bridegroom (Hebrews 9:27-28).
Jesus has made us to be a new creation as we enter the chrysalis of His body, the church, and are reborn as something entirely different. Why live as if we don’t have wings?
Show Your Power
Revelation 1
Father, in all affliction, show
your glorious presence, show your power
that shines like the sun at noon, with feet
of flowing bronze, moving quickly,
stars in hand, the mouth of judgment,
the First and Last, who died and arose,
who Was and Is and Ever will Be!
To me bring comfort, Vision of love,
O Flow of freedom, Blood of man;
bring courage to meet the arm of sin,
oppressor of soul; bring faith to win
in face of death, your name confess,
O Holder of keys to Hades’ prison —
open to me the gate of Heaven.
The Evil Slippery Slope
The gospel brings salvation for mankind,
The only power to save the maimed and blind;
O Lord, keep me from ever feeling shame,
But always offer to all the blessed Name.
For saving grace obedient faith’s required;
By Christ confessed is righteousness acquired.
In him, O God, resides my glorious hope —
Preserve me from the evil slippery slope.
If the Lord is With Us
In the midst of a culture that was reaping the consequences of sin and turning away from God, God calls Gideon and declares that He is with them. Citing the great ways of the past in which God showed Himself to truly be with them, Gideon asks a question that Christians could certainly ask today, “If the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us?”
I. Matthew 14:28-33. We have the same reassurance that Gideon received–that God is with us (Matthew 28:20) and that He will never forsake us (Hebrews 13:5-6), yet we, like Peter stepping out of boat, take our eyes off Jesus because the winds around us are so fierce. Our circumstances and situation in a dark world are going to rage (2 Corinthians 4:16-18). This doesn’t mean that God is not there. We must fix our eyes on Him (Hebrews 12:1-3) to not grow weary or fainthearted.
II. Judges 6:11-32. More than just his circumstances, Gideon was overwhelmed because he saw his weaknesses and helplessness in the midst of the culture he was a part of. Most Christians feel this way today. We, like Gideon, can take great reassurance that this is exactly the situation in which God works (1 Corinthians 1:25-29) so we may not boast. Paul, in pleading for the ‘thorn’ to be removed from him, was told that God’s power in his life was made perfect in Paul’s weakness (2 Corinthians 12:8-10).
III. Judges 6:33-40. Jesus said if we had faith as small as a mustard seed, then nothing would be impossible for us (Matthew 17:20). God readies Gideon to take on His people’s enemies by first taking a ‘smaller’ step at home. After he tears down his father’s altar to Baal and burns his Asherah pole, Gideon is defended by his earthly father and his heavenly Father sends him an army. We too need our faith tested if we are to become mature and complete (James 1:2-4). Are you willing to take that step?
Are circumstances or weakness coloring your perspective? Or, are you seeing clearly through faith?
She Gave Him Milk
To ‘fight like a man’ is to overtly confront a problem with brute strength. Somehow to ‘fight like a woman’ has come to mean that the fighting is weaker–but only if compared to how men physically fight. Women fight in subtler ways–we often call them ‘wiles’–that are just as strong or perhaps stronger than a man’s way–and they learn young!
My wife likes to tell the story of how our youngest at two years of age came to me with her blond pigtails and big, pleading eyes upset because her favorite pink nightgown was in the dirty clothes hamper. I reassured her that when it was washed she could have it back. She replied with a cute smile, “That would make me happy!” A minute later I had to explain to my wife why I was doing laundry in the middle of the week.
I. Judges 4:17-22. Sisera failed to understand this. After Barak did not have the courage to ‘fight like a man’ and do what God had told him to do in defeating Sisera, Israel’s judge, Deborah, told him that a woman would claim credit for the victory over the Canaanites. Although the Kenites were part of Israel, Sisera had no doubt found hospitality in Heber and Jael’s tent before. Running from Barak, Sisera begs Jael for water, but she gave him milk and a place to sleep. Then she put a tent peg through his head! That was not what he expected, but Jael was praised for fighting like this (Judges 5:24-30).
II. 2 Corinthians 2:10-11. Satan, the father of lies (John 8:44) fights through deception. Failing to ensnare God-in-the-flesh in the normal way he trapped men (Luke 4:1-13) and losing Jesus’ followers to the gospel, he really tries to outwit us with his schemes. A lion seeking to devour at any opening (1 Peter 5:8), Christians must truly take up the armor of God against Satan’s ‘wiles’ (Ephesians 6:10-11).
III. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5. Jesus, however, fights like God–through obedience, truth, and sacrifice found in the gospel. Through these ways and because He was made like us in every way, He has defeated the devil and death (Hebrews 2:12-14). Now we, in Him and through Him, are able to fight like Him–if we can clearly see through Satan’s deceptions that would keep us blind to how powerful we truly are when restored to the image of God that we were created in through the gospel.
How do you fight: Like a man? Like a woman? Or like God?