HAPPY NEW YEAR and may your love walk with Jesus grow deeper as you follow hard after Him!
I was reading my devotional journal, My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. The first entry for the new year really struck a chord (again) so I wanted to share with others the thoughts and, more appropriately, the challenge of actually living a life of my utmost for His highest. Here is the entry:
January 1, 2009 LET US KEEP TO THE POINT "My eager desire and hope being that I may never feel ashamed, but that now as ever I may do honour to Christ in my own person by fearless courage. "Philippians 1:20 My Utmost for His Highest. "My eager desire and hope being that I may never feel ashamed." We shall all feel very much ashamed if we do not yield to Jesus on the point He has asked us to yield to Him. Paul says - "My determination is to be my utmost for His Highest." To get there is a question of will, not of debate nor of reasoning, but a surrender of will, an absolute and irrevocable surrender on that point. An overweening consideration for ourselves is the thing that keeps us from that decision, though we put it that we are considering others. When we consider what it will cost others if we obey the call of Jesus, we tell God He does not know what our obedience will mean.Keep to the point; He does know. Shut out every other consideration and keep yourself before God for this one thing only - My Utmost for His Highest. I am determined to be absolutely and entirely for Him and for Him alone. My undeterredness for His Holiness. "Whether that means life or death, no matter!" (v.21.) Paul is determined that nothing shall deter him from doing exactly what God wants. God's order has to workup to a crisis in our lives because we will not heed the gentler way. He brings us to the place where He asks us to be our utmost for Him,and we begin to debate; then He produces a providential crisis where we have to decide - for or against, and from that point the "Great Divide" begins. If the crisis has come to you on any line, surrender your will to Him absolutely and irrevocably.
I've never been the type of person who makes the proverbial "New Year's Resolutions". To me, they are simply empty promises we make either to ourselves or to others that we alone cannot keep. We tend to pursue these promises in our own feeble ability so, is it any wonder that we fail? We end up frustrated over falling short in our attempts to make good on promises to do better or be better and our flesh just will not allow it. It is imperative to allow Jesus to shape our every thought, action, reaction, plan and pursuit. When we do not, we are positioned to fail every time. Leaning on His word, His ability and trusting Him to bring His will to pass within our lives is the only way to true, everlasting victory.
Surrender of will is the utmost challenge of the flesh but it must be done in order to be His disciple. We cannot walk our own way and His as well. The Bible tells us we cannot serve two masters for we will love one and hate the other. This is true for pursuing our own plans verses those of the Lord. We will come to love one and despise the other. Sadly, we often covet our own life more so than the will of the Father. And scripture also reminds is that if we try to save our life here on earth, we will lose our eternal one. I can think of no better realization than that - choosing eternal life with Christ or keeping this temporal one, that is but a vapor.
Oh, help me Jesus to remain in hot pursuit of You. Help me to keep my eyes on the prize! Keep me undeterred in my love walk with You, Lord! Help me surrender my will daily to be my utmost for Your highest, to pursue Your will and not my own. Thank you, Lord, for being so patient with me and so faithful with Your forgiveness, mercy and grace. I love you, Jesus!
Friday, January 2, 2009
Monday, December 29, 2008
Simple Songs...
On Sunday, I went to see my mother-in-law at the assisted living facility. She had fallen the day before and was more of bruised feelings than of body (thankfully). When we saw her Christmas day, she wondered if I was going to play my guitar. At the last minute before leaving the house, I decided against it, thinking she would be more interested in her gift opening than me sputtering through some old hymns. Well, I was dead-wrong about that one! The first thing she asked me was, "Where's the guitar?" I had to laugh! I promised the next time I came over, I would bring it and play.
Now I must confess to you that learning these old hymns has not been of my choosing. Personally, I lean towards a more contemporary style of music when I'm listening. Lately, however, The Lord has really been working on my heart about "message". Do the songs I listen to point to Jesus or are they more of an entertainment to the ears? More often than not, it is the latter. :( I discovered recently that another description for the word "message" is "the messenger's mission". And I thought, WOW, that is really cool. Music always has a mission, whether we realize it (or want to admit it) or not.
So I began examining the content of the songs I listen to and found out a lot of popular Christian tunes talk more about how Jesus makes us feel rather than simply point to Christ Himself. I would not say God doesn't work through these songs but that He does stand alone quite well without needing our feelings to somehow justify the goodness of who He is. Doesn't scripture tell us through Jesus' own words "And, I, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto myself." John 12:32? Kind of makes sense that when we point ourselves and others towards Jesus, He takes care of the rest. We don't have to do anything or help God out along the way.
OK, now enter the hymns...so here I am practicing these old songs, sounding quite bluegrassy I must say but geez, it just kinda comes out that way so I'm going along with the flow. I get on Rockin' with the Cross and start looking up chords that I can play and sing in. Amazingly, I find a bunch of these classics: Amazing Grace, Just as I am, Have Thine Own Way, Lord, I Surrender All and so on. I can transpose them with a mouse click (thank you, technology) into a key I can play decently and off to practice I go. Just reading the words to these songs, blesses my soul. In a flash, I am transported back in time to my days growing up the Baptist churches where they played these old hymns. God refreshes my spirit with the simplicity of Himself and I must wonder why folks have tried so hard to make Him complicated.
When I decided I needed to take these songs over to the nursing home, God was the one who reminded me about taking 'the church' to those in need. Let others see Jesus in you (another hymn but I can't play it yet) is the heart of what Christians are supposed to being, right? It wasn't going to be anything I would do myself but, if I allowed Him, God Himself would work through me in ministering to these folks. And skipping my usual church service to do this was honestly what I sensed that I needed to do.
When I arrived, my mother-in-law was in the hallway with two of her friends and they were solving all the worlds problems. I didn't mean to interrupt their important task but none of them seemed to mind once they realized I had my guitar to play for them. I played songs until my fingers felt like they were going to fall off! In fact, I played every song I had at least once and some of them twice. Two folks had 'requests' but I didn't know how to play "Onward Christian Soldiers" or "If I could only hear my mother pray again". I vowed I would learn these and would attempt to play them the next trip.
After we went through the songs once, I asked each person if they had a song they liked to sing. It brought tears to my eyes when Judy wanted me to play "Jesus Loves Me". I had not put that song in the first round. My thought had been it would be too childish for them to want to sing. Fortunately, this was one of the first songs my guitar instructor had me to learn and I did have the music with me. It was a grand chorus of the folks there and myself singing our hearts out to Jesus Loves Me! We sang all of the verses I had in my music and sang the first verse a couple more times. There was such a heart-felt simplicity in their song to the Lord! It was with some correction I received from the Lord how I was not to regard any song as childish, for He can work through anything and everything. I saw first-hand God working in this precious group of people. His word also came to me:
For an answer Jesus called over a child, whom he stood in the middle of the room, and said, "I'm telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you're not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God's kingdom. What's more, when you receive the childlike on my account, it's the same as receiving me. Matthew 18:3 (The Message)
As I drove home, I thought about how much joy was revealed in their faces as they sang that song and how precious indeed those saints are to the Lord. Jesus' message of love, grace and mercy is so simple. My prayer today is that our hearts be made simple again, that we look to Him alone for answers and we learn to trust in Him rather than in ourselves. Oh Jesus, forgive us for being arrogant and proud, for thinking the modern ways or better than Your own; help us when we fail You, that we realize our desperate need for You - not just for salvation but for living the life You have given to us in following hard after You.
Now I must confess to you that learning these old hymns has not been of my choosing. Personally, I lean towards a more contemporary style of music when I'm listening. Lately, however, The Lord has really been working on my heart about "message". Do the songs I listen to point to Jesus or are they more of an entertainment to the ears? More often than not, it is the latter. :( I discovered recently that another description for the word "message" is "the messenger's mission". And I thought, WOW, that is really cool. Music always has a mission, whether we realize it (or want to admit it) or not.
So I began examining the content of the songs I listen to and found out a lot of popular Christian tunes talk more about how Jesus makes us feel rather than simply point to Christ Himself. I would not say God doesn't work through these songs but that He does stand alone quite well without needing our feelings to somehow justify the goodness of who He is. Doesn't scripture tell us through Jesus' own words "And, I, if I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto myself." John 12:32? Kind of makes sense that when we point ourselves and others towards Jesus, He takes care of the rest. We don't have to do anything or help God out along the way.
OK, now enter the hymns...so here I am practicing these old songs, sounding quite bluegrassy I must say but geez, it just kinda comes out that way so I'm going along with the flow. I get on Rockin' with the Cross and start looking up chords that I can play and sing in. Amazingly, I find a bunch of these classics: Amazing Grace, Just as I am, Have Thine Own Way, Lord, I Surrender All and so on. I can transpose them with a mouse click (thank you, technology) into a key I can play decently and off to practice I go. Just reading the words to these songs, blesses my soul. In a flash, I am transported back in time to my days growing up the Baptist churches where they played these old hymns. God refreshes my spirit with the simplicity of Himself and I must wonder why folks have tried so hard to make Him complicated.
When I decided I needed to take these songs over to the nursing home, God was the one who reminded me about taking 'the church' to those in need. Let others see Jesus in you (another hymn but I can't play it yet) is the heart of what Christians are supposed to being, right? It wasn't going to be anything I would do myself but, if I allowed Him, God Himself would work through me in ministering to these folks. And skipping my usual church service to do this was honestly what I sensed that I needed to do.
When I arrived, my mother-in-law was in the hallway with two of her friends and they were solving all the worlds problems. I didn't mean to interrupt their important task but none of them seemed to mind once they realized I had my guitar to play for them. I played songs until my fingers felt like they were going to fall off! In fact, I played every song I had at least once and some of them twice. Two folks had 'requests' but I didn't know how to play "Onward Christian Soldiers" or "If I could only hear my mother pray again". I vowed I would learn these and would attempt to play them the next trip.
After we went through the songs once, I asked each person if they had a song they liked to sing. It brought tears to my eyes when Judy wanted me to play "Jesus Loves Me". I had not put that song in the first round. My thought had been it would be too childish for them to want to sing. Fortunately, this was one of the first songs my guitar instructor had me to learn and I did have the music with me. It was a grand chorus of the folks there and myself singing our hearts out to Jesus Loves Me! We sang all of the verses I had in my music and sang the first verse a couple more times. There was such a heart-felt simplicity in their song to the Lord! It was with some correction I received from the Lord how I was not to regard any song as childish, for He can work through anything and everything. I saw first-hand God working in this precious group of people. His word also came to me:
For an answer Jesus called over a child, whom he stood in the middle of the room, and said, "I'm telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you're not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God's kingdom. What's more, when you receive the childlike on my account, it's the same as receiving me. Matthew 18:3 (The Message)
Jesus said, "Let the children come to me, and don't try to stop them! People who are like these children belong to God's kingdom." Matthew 19:14 (Contemporary English Version)
As I drove home, I thought about how much joy was revealed in their faces as they sang that song and how precious indeed those saints are to the Lord. Jesus' message of love, grace and mercy is so simple. My prayer today is that our hearts be made simple again, that we look to Him alone for answers and we learn to trust in Him rather than in ourselves. Oh Jesus, forgive us for being arrogant and proud, for thinking the modern ways or better than Your own; help us when we fail You, that we realize our desperate need for You - not just for salvation but for living the life You have given to us in following hard after You.
JESUS LOVES ME THIS I KNOW, FOR THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO.
LITTLE ONES TO HIM BELONG, THEY ARE WEAK BUT HE IS STRONG.
YES, JESUS LOVES ME. YES, JESUS LOVES ME.
YES, JESUS LOVES ME, THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO.
Monday, December 22, 2008
A Minor Chord...
In music theory, a minor chord is a chord having a root, a minor third and a perfect fifth. When a chord has these three notes alone, it is called a minor triad. In learning to play the acoustic guitar, I have come to love the minor chords. Over the past 5-6 weeks, God has so blessed me with learning this instrument and I pray my humble attempt to learn can, in some way, bring Him honor and glory. The callouses on my first three fingers have been quietly developing, which allows me to play longer! I so enjoy the learning process as well as the discovery of new things I never knew existed within me.
This love of the minor chords has me transposing what few songs I can play into different keys, just to get some of those minor notes. Three personal favorites thus far are Am, Dm and Em (A, D and E minor) with Em being the easiest to play. In learning some Christmas songs, I have found the tune, "O Holy Night" has A and E minor (along with B minor) when it is played in the key of G. I struggle about with my finger placement for that dreaded B minor. Fortunately, I learned a 3 finger version and playing the 1st four strings works, its just not as strong in sound as the traditional 4 finger version. I'm still learning but getting my fingers to stretch that way has proved challenging to say the least.
I don't know exactly what it is about these minor triads that has me so enthralled, perhaps it is just a different sound which I find quite soothing. Or maybe the tone itself is rather underpowering than overpowering. Is underpowering a real word? The major chords are great and all - strong, vibrant and full of sound; sometimes loud too. But I personally identify with the minor chords, one's that are a little more laid back, less showy but clearly effective. I looked up the word "showy" in Webster's Dictionary, which was pretty awesome reading. Perhaps the word I was looking for describing the major chords was pretentious, which (according to Webster's) implies "an appearance of importance not justified by the thing's value or the person's standing". Oh, how I do NOT want to be pretentious (or showy, ostentatious, etc.). OK, so I'm weird in identifying with the minor chords more so than the major ones - go talk to God about that, He created me! :)
As I was pondering the majors and minors, I couldn't help but see how we each are like a note on The Master's Instrument. He is the one who gently reproduces Himself in us, His sound is the footprint in our lives. When we walk with Him, in His song, it is a joyous melody to His ears. But when we venture off on our own, in our own ability, desire and effort, we find ourselves quite out of tune with the Father. Sometimes everyone else around us 'hears' it before we do. When a guitar gets out of tune, you have to turn the keys on the neck to bring it back into harmony with the rest of the instrument. Any single string on a guitar lies across the body and neck of the instrument, parallel with the other strings. Some strings are thicker than others but they are all level with one another and they are all traveling in the same direction. Tuning a string requires it to be stretched - sounds like the pains of maturity in our walk with the Lord. Once in tune, the song begins again...
Every aspect of my love walk with Jesus teaches me something. From the adventures in shepherding to learning this guitar thing, it all points to Him. I am in awe of just how totally ALL things do work together for those that love the Lord. This scripture comes to my mind frequently these days:
This love of the minor chords has me transposing what few songs I can play into different keys, just to get some of those minor notes. Three personal favorites thus far are Am, Dm and Em (A, D and E minor) with Em being the easiest to play. In learning some Christmas songs, I have found the tune, "O Holy Night" has A and E minor (along with B minor) when it is played in the key of G. I struggle about with my finger placement for that dreaded B minor. Fortunately, I learned a 3 finger version and playing the 1st four strings works, its just not as strong in sound as the traditional 4 finger version. I'm still learning but getting my fingers to stretch that way has proved challenging to say the least.
I don't know exactly what it is about these minor triads that has me so enthralled, perhaps it is just a different sound which I find quite soothing. Or maybe the tone itself is rather underpowering than overpowering. Is underpowering a real word? The major chords are great and all - strong, vibrant and full of sound; sometimes loud too. But I personally identify with the minor chords, one's that are a little more laid back, less showy but clearly effective. I looked up the word "showy" in Webster's Dictionary, which was pretty awesome reading. Perhaps the word I was looking for describing the major chords was pretentious, which (according to Webster's) implies "an appearance of importance not justified by the thing's value or the person's standing". Oh, how I do NOT want to be pretentious (or showy, ostentatious, etc.). OK, so I'm weird in identifying with the minor chords more so than the major ones - go talk to God about that, He created me! :)
As I was pondering the majors and minors, I couldn't help but see how we each are like a note on The Master's Instrument. He is the one who gently reproduces Himself in us, His sound is the footprint in our lives. When we walk with Him, in His song, it is a joyous melody to His ears. But when we venture off on our own, in our own ability, desire and effort, we find ourselves quite out of tune with the Father. Sometimes everyone else around us 'hears' it before we do. When a guitar gets out of tune, you have to turn the keys on the neck to bring it back into harmony with the rest of the instrument. Any single string on a guitar lies across the body and neck of the instrument, parallel with the other strings. Some strings are thicker than others but they are all level with one another and they are all traveling in the same direction. Tuning a string requires it to be stretched - sounds like the pains of maturity in our walk with the Lord. Once in tune, the song begins again...
Every aspect of my love walk with Jesus teaches me something. From the adventures in shepherding to learning this guitar thing, it all points to Him. I am in awe of just how totally ALL things do work together for those that love the Lord. This scripture comes to my mind frequently these days:
Romans 8:27-29 (Contemporary English Version)
All of our thoughts are known to God. He can understand what is in the mind of the Spirit, as the Spirit prays for God's people. We know that God is always at work for the good of everyone who loves Him. They are the ones God has chosen for His purpose, and He has always known who His chosen ones would be. He had decided to let them become like His own Son, so that His Son would be the first of many children.
All of our thoughts are known to God. He can understand what is in the mind of the Spirit, as the Spirit prays for God's people. We know that God is always at work for the good of everyone who loves Him. They are the ones God has chosen for His purpose, and He has always known who His chosen ones would be. He had decided to let them become like His own Son, so that His Son would be the first of many children.
Thank you, Lord, for your patience with me. In all of my ups and downs, with my being in tune with you and especially for those times when I am not. Thank you for choosing me as your own and for waiting for patiently for me when I run from Your purpose and plan. Keep me, Lord, close to Your heart and replace my own heart with Yours. You alone are worthy of Praise, of Honor and Glory!
JESUS, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!
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