Phos Hilaron

Hail, gladdening Light, of his pure glory poured,
Who is the immortal Father, heavenly, blest,
Holiest of holies, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Now we are come to the sun's hour of rest,
The lights of evening round us shine,
We hymn the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit divine.

Worthiest art thou at all times to be sung
With undefiled tongue,
Son of our God, giver of life, alone:
Therefore in all the world they glories, Lord, they own.

His STEADFAST LOVE endures forever

I looked it up. . . isn't it intriguing that the first occurance of "steadfast love" is in Genesis 24 where God presents Rebekah to Isaac.



But it occurs so many times. . . like in my favorite verse.

Psalm 63.3
Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.

But, lately it seems like every time I got to church, read, talk with a friend, or do anything that is scripture related--there it is.

As it turns out, it occurs 202 times. That seems like it's a pretty important concept.

And I obviously don't get it!

For starters, He promises to keep His steadfast love to those who keep His commandments. He can take His steadfast love away, just like He did for King Saul; He keeps His steadfast love for those who walk before Him with all their hearts; I can enter His house because of His steadfast love; All His paths are steadfast love; His steadfast love surrounds those who trust in Him; Steadfast love belongs to Him; It is better than life; I should make it known to all generations; It goes before Him; My steadfast love is with Him; It will satisfy me in the morning; It upholds me; As high as the heavens are above the earth, so is His steadfast love towards those who fear Him; It is from everlasting to everlasting; My enemies will be cut off in His steadfast love; He is my steadfast love; It never ceases; He desires it more than sacrifice; HIS STEADFAST LOVE ENDURES FOREVER!

By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.
Psalm 42.8

Third Time Is A Charm?

You know when the Lord takes a verse you have never thought much about, and he puts it in your face several times within a short amount of time. That has happened to me lately, and now I have to ask--Lord am I seeking the water that does not satisfy.

Labor day weekend I went on a beach retreat and the speaker talked a lot about God's purpose for our lives. Not necessarily His purpose in our occupation--but His Grand Design. One of the sessions focused on some verses from Jeremiah chapter 2.
The "ironic" part is, several months ago as I was reading in Jeremiah, the Lord showed me this verse and I highlighted it and drew a big circle around it, but it obviously did not sink in.

Jeremiah 2:11-13
Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

So, I thought a lot about this verse that weekend. And then, exactly a week later, our Pastor was teaching on praying in depressing times and he referenced this same verse.

Then, my friends sent me this exerpt from Charles Spurgeon's Morning and Evening yesterday.

THE LORD IS A JEALOUS AND AVENGING GOD.
NAHUM 1:2
Believer, your Lord is very jealous of your love. Did He choose you? He cannot bear that you should choose another.
Did He buy you with His own blood? He cannot endure that you should think you are your own or that you belong to this world.
He loved you with such a love that He would not remain in heaven without you;
He would sooner die than have you perish, and He cannot endure that anything should stand between your heart's love and Himself.
He is very jealous of your trust. He will not permit you to trust in yourself. He cannot stand the thought of you hewing out broken cisterns and neglecting the overflowing fountain that is always free to you.
When we lean upon Him, He is glad; but when we transfer our dependence to another, when we rely upon our own wisdom or the wisdom of a friend-worst of all, when we trust in any works of our own-He is displeased and will chasten us, that He may bring us to Himself.
He is also very jealous of our company. There should be no one with whom we converse so much as with Jesus.
To remain in Him alone, this is true love; but to commune with the world, to find sufficient satisfaction in our earthly comforts, to even prefer the company of our fellow Christians to secret fellowship with Him, this grieves our jealous Lord.
He longs to have us abide in Him and enjoy constant fellowship with Himself; and many of the trials that He sends us are for the purpose of weaning our hearts from created things and fixing them more closely on Him who created everything. Let this jealousy that would keep us near to Christ also be a comfort to us, for if He loves us so much as to care about our love, we may be sure that He will allow nothing to harm us and will protect us from all our enemies. May we have grace today to keep our hearts in holy purity for Christ alone,
with sacred jealousy closing our eyes to all the fascinations of the world.

So, what does all this mean? Have I turned my back on the fountain of living water? May it never be! Have I hewn out for myself broken cisterns? I pray it isn't so. But Lord, what are you saying? You have promised that your Word does not return void--it accomplishes the purpose you sent it out for. All scripture is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness. . .

You Must Increase

I lift you high and bow down low
How high can You be?
How low can I go?

You must increase I must decrease Lord
I'll bow down and You will be adored

Matt Redman

SELF-Centered

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.
Philippians 2.3-7

And I'll Fall FACE DOWN. . .

I was blessed to spend my weekend at the Precept Ministries National Women's Convention. The theme was "Set apart. . . passionate for truth". The Lord spoke to me about so many things that it has been hard to take it all and figure out where to start. But I feel like He wants me to start on my face.
One speaker in particular focused on this and she talked about the clarity that comes when you humble yourself like that. Another mentioned that when we are face down before Him, arms spread wide, what can be seen from above is the cross-what a cool picture.
Our pastor started a sermon series on prayer yesterday. In true Baptist fashion, we had a "special song" during the offering called "Bow the Knee". I tried to find the lyrics to share with you, but no such luck.
I spent a lot of time yesterday trying to process all that I learned and the Lord gave me a couple physical examples that parallel the spiritual state of going face down before Him.
1. In a fire, they tell you to get as close to the floor as possible-the air is clearer there and you can breathe.
2. In bootcamp soldiers devote a large portion of their time crawling on their faces (preparing for battle) to avoid the onslought of the enemy.
All of this brought to mind song:

Too Tender by Caedmon's Call
Water water everywhere
And I complain about my thirst
The prescription's in my hand
While the pain I curse

I know the longer
I know the harder
The walk will be
With my calloused feet
And my too tender knees

Stumbled upon the truth
Wished it'd get out of my way
When I see the light
I pull down the shade

If I were as smart as Christopher
I'd find a closet
If I were as weak as Samson was
I'd make a prophet

And a last great word from Beth Moore, "if you don't humble yourself, the Lord will humble your behind!"

An Alabama Blessing

A friend sent this to me today. It's a perfect discription of what it is like to live in the south.

Note: If you are not a resident of ALABAMA or never have lived in the hot, humid Southeast, you may not understand the weight of this blessing!
Bless this house, oh Lord, we cry.
Please keep it cool in mid-July.
Bless the walls where termites dine,
While ants and roaches march in time.
Bless our yard where spiders pass
Fire ant castles in the grass.
Bless the garage, a home to please
Carpenter beetles, ticks and fleas.
Bless the love bugs, two by two,
the gnats and mosquitoes that feed on you.
Bless the towns of which we speak
Millions of creatures that fly or crawl,
in ALABAMA, Lord, you've put them all!!
But this is home, and here we'll stay,
So thank you Lord, for insect spray.

YOU KNOW YOU ARE IN ALABAMA IN JULY WHEN. . . . .
The birds have to use potholders to pull worms out of the ground.
The trees are whistling for the dogs.
The best parking place is determined by shade instead of distance.
Hot water now comes out of both taps.
You can make sun tea instantly.
You learn that a seat belt buckle makes a pretty good branding iron!
The temperature drops below 95 and you feel a little chilly.
You discover that in July it only takes 2 fingers to steer your car.
You discover that you can get sunburned through your car window.
You actually burn your hand opening the car door.
You break into a sweat the instant you step outside at 7:30 a.m.
Your biggest bicycle wreck fear is, "What if I get knocked out andend up lying on the pavement and cook to death?"
You realize that asphalt has a liquid state.
The potatoes cook underground, so all you have to do is pull one out andadd butter, salt and pepper.
Farmers are feeding their chickens crushed ice to keep them from layingboiled eggs.
The cows are giving evaporated milk.
Ah, what a place to call home.
God Bless Our State of ALABAMA !!

Lord Reign In Me!

Over all the earth,
You reign on high,
Every mountain stream,
Every Sunset Sky,
But my one request,
Lord my only aim,
Is that you'd reign in me again,

Lord Reign in me,
Reign in your power,
Over all my dreams,
In my darkest hour,
You are the Lord,
Of all I am,
So won't you reign in me again

Over every thought,
Over every word,
May my life reflect,
The beauty of my Lord,
Cause you mean more to me,
than any earthly thing,
So won't you reign in me again

Undignified

I will dance
I will sing
To be mad
For my King
Nothing Lord
Is hindering
This passion in my soul

And I'll become
Even more undignified than this
Some may say
It's foolishness
But I'll become
Even more undignified than this
Leave my pride
By my side
And I'll become
Even more undignified than this
Some may say
It's foolishness
But I'll become
Even more undignified than this
Than this

It's all for You my Lord!

David Crowder

A Call To Die

Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.
Matthew 16.24

The Lord put fasting on my heart a few months ago. I'm not quite sure where He is going with the whole thing, but I know He is going to ask me to give up something for a season. I'm learning a lot about how fasting expresses my complete dependance on Him and His word. But I know whatever it is, in the end it will be worth it--the reward will far outweigh the cost. He has already given me more of Himself than I could ever ask for.

"The rewards are great, but so is the cost. It costs us everything. Like the hymn says, "I surrender all," not "I surrender 10%." No one will tell you that it's and easy road. Jesus himself faced hardship on the cross. He wept. He sweat. He asked his friends to pray. The result of his obedience was that God is exalted above all and Crhist became the way for you and I to be forgiven. Man, I'm glad he didn't bail! You and I will face excruciating moments, too, when it seems God is asking too much and nobody is there for us. Those are the most painful, and the most important, times in our journey. We will feel alone, but we aren't. God is with us, and he has not forsaken us, especially in those times of need. Our obedience is worth it."
A Call to Die by David Nasser