Bob saw this on Facebook. I was so amazed I had to share it with all of you!
I hope it has not been photo shopped! Who can tell these days?
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord. Psalm 150:6 NIV
Category: Listen
There Was Jesus
Last spring our contemporary worship band made a point of learning this song. We sang it this week as our offertory hymn, noting the death of Dolly Parton. The song was written by Zach Williams. In an interview he stated that he just kept hearing Dolly Parton singing it with him. He eventually contacted her. After hearing the song, reading the lyrics she said yes she would be glad to record it with him.
According to Williams, Parton was looking for more faith-based projects when his team reached out regarding the song.
“We all knew it was a big ask and we were shooting for the moon to try to get her on the song,” Williams explained. “We originally heard that 90% of the stuff that comes her way, she turns down just because she has so many people asking to do songs with her.”
Williams recounted Parton telling him, the day she received the song, that she didn’t even make it through the first chorus, before she knew it was a special song and a “God-send.”
“She said ‘I wake up and I pray every day that God just gives me the opportunity that I need for that day…I felt like that was the one that He wanted me to do,’,” Williams noted Parton said, when in the process of creating the track. –from https://americansongwriter.com/there-was-jesus-dolly-parton-zach-williams-song-interview/
Yesterday is Not Today
I am delighted we have a new beginning every morning. I remember nursing my son and wondering when the first hour of each day occurred. You have to understand that he nursed every three hours around the clock. I had been taught that we should give the Lord the first hour of every day. In my exhaustion, I told the Lord I would gladly give Him the first hour if he would just tell me when my day ended and began!
Each day is a different one, each day brings a miracle of its own. It’s just a matter of paying attention to this miracle.
PAULO COELHO
Pay attention to this miracle. This day. Right here.
So let me ask you something. When you pray do you listen for an answer? If you do not hear an answer right then, do you keep on listening? Do you persist in answering?
I have found that sometimes the answer comes over hours, sometimes over days, even weeks. We have been pondering what to do about our planned vacation to the beach in North Carolina scheduled for September with our now adult granddaughter. This was planned and reserved before the foot surgery occurred. So now the question is, “Will I be able to walk on the beach and look for seashells?” That is one of my favorite things to do.
So I have been praying for wisdom regarding the decision should we cancel the trip or not? The miracle? I feel as if I have been getting answers to the prayer. Many times the answer comes in the form of a question. That is so like my Jesus!
If I cannot or should not walk on the beach could I be content? Content to be at the ocean? Hear the ocean? Feel the thunder of the waves resounding in the air?
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”25 The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul who seeks him. Lamentations 3: 22-25 ESV
New answers every morning. New strength each day. Perhaps a new ability to embrace any limitation I may have come mid-September. Help us decide, Lord.
Your Tomorrow ….
Starts tonight …NOOOOOO. We have a news channel that says this every day about their broadcast. I suppose they are saying they want us to be prepared, but it is not a good saying to me. “Your tomorrow starts tonight.” We do not even stay up late enough to hear their broadcast.
Guess that news channel never heard that one days trouble is enough for that day.
So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:34 AMP
Wise up TV slogan writers!
The Power of Maybe
Can you. Stop for a moment. View your situation through the lens of maybe? Maybe this is for the good. Perhaps this is going some place you had not imagined. Maybe you do not have all the facts. Could be you only understand in part?
Stop. Pause. Breathe.
Maybe is a powerful word. May – I am able. I am free to do.
Maybe shows uncertainty and also possibility.
Too often our minds decide a situation and close upon one conclusion like a steel trap.
There are many places we make major decisions in life and also the myriad decisions we make every day. Places where we can and ought to insert the word maybe.
It may be that I have misinterpreted something. This sort of thought dethrones the ego who wants to be God and by doing so invites the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to open the eyes of our heart to new insights, possibilities we might not have thought about.
Maybe this will give you food for thought. May Be.
Zing!!
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Romans 12:12 NIV
And God said, “Gotcha, Molly!” Indeed my attention was fully clasped upon that verse.
Yep, I have at times been less that patient in my afflictions. Not always joyful in hope. Trying to be faithful in prayer, but even there I often fall so short.
And where was I convicted? While watching a movie on the channel Great American Family. During recovery, I spend most afternoons watching a movie and trying to do a few rounds of crochet. This particular channel is showing Christmas movies and at commercial breaks they show a Scripture verse.
So there I was with foot elevated, coughing and being convicted that maybe I could live Romans 12:12 a bit better.
Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; persevere in prayer. Romans 12:12 NRSVUE
Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. Romans 12:12 NLT
Rejoice, be joyful – can you do that even when forced to stillness, Molly?
Patient in affliction, in trouble – healing is going to take almost every single day of this summer season. And then I will need to learn to walk with this new equipment in my toe, or as my friend Dan said, my own “hardware store” in my toe.
Persevere, keep on, be faithful in prayer – yes, those needs, Molly. There is the one across the street still battling cancer and now a widower. The church as we try to reach the hurting with the Good News and comfort of Jesus. There is Pete’s family as they prepare his house for the market and decide what to do with his belongings. The one who suffers from Parkinson’s. The two widows down the street. The other with the awful struggle with antisynthetase syndrome. She who is practically bedridden with back pain and a variety of other ailments. The needs for prayer are always there, Molly. Will you be faithful as the Holy Spirit leads you to pray?
Lord, forgive me I pray for falling short of this call from Paul. Help me to bring joy to your heart. Help me to hear you singing over me. Please do not stop encouraging me to do better as your child and daughter of the King of Kings. Amen.
Last Sunday
I finally made it back to church last Sunday! Bob, my trusty chauffeur, drove me there. I used the walker to get to my chair in the outdoor setting on the lower parking lot pavement. I was grateful for the breeze and the shade of the oak trees. The trees reminded us there had been rain the night before as the occasional drop from the leaf surfaces fell upon us. Just made us smile! It was good to be with my family of believers. I was so tired by the time we returned home!!
Rev. Alice Connor revised this service from “Sundays and Seasons, Setting 1. Here are portions.
" O God most mighty, O God most merciful, O God our rock and our salvation, hear us as we praise, call us o your table, grant us your life.
"O God, you are Breath:
send your Spirit on this meal.
O God, you are Bread:
feed us with yourself.
O God, you are wine:
warm our hearts and make us one.
O God, you are Fire:
transform us with hope.
O God most majestic,
O God most motherly,
O God our strength and our song,
you show us a vision of a tree of life with fruits for all
and leaves that heal the nations. Amen."
Ponder that for a while. Read the above again. God has promised that we have been given everything we need.
His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence. 2 Peter 1:3 NRSVUE
O God open our eyes and our hearts to see your mighty provisions for us. Help us to open our hands, our hearts and our eyes to receive your goodness.
Trinity Sunday
Last Sunday we celebrated the Trinity at church. “O Father; who with the Son and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” ends the collect for the day. The unfathomable, unknowable, ever present and loving God. We practice devotion and know some how that the Trinity is one.
Our Prayers of the People began with: “God who is unknowable and yet as close as our breath, help us to see you. ” Yes, God, open our physical eyes and the eyes of our heart to know and see and experience you.
I have been taken lately by tiny diagrams. The above was on our bulletin cover.
Using the Grateful Living challenge I have noticed that a tiny image is used in the corner of each daily practice. This little line drawing summarizes the challenge of the day. Oh I wish I could draw like that!
And perhaps that is how our Trinity one God does things. Simple line drawings, opening doors for us to share with others. As humans we complicate almost everything having to do with God. Jesus taught us simplicity. Will we cling to that simple way of knowing, being known, loving and loving others?
May you know the Trinity as One. May you see the path before you as well lit and as something you can follow. Look to the One who loves you best and take the next step!
Brad
Our church was gifted with a young priest for about 2-1/2 years. His name is Brad. He did all sorts of things that enlivened our faith and our walk. Recently it was time to tell him good-bye. He was given a job across the river in Northern Kentucky to be head rector at a church there.
On his last Sunday with us our Pastor, Roger, called all the kids up to lay hands on Brad and pray over him as he moves to his new church. Three of the kids are his very own children and one is a family friend.
It was a powerful moment. Have you ever had children pray over you? There is nothing quite like it!
I plan to forward the photos to Brad for his remembrance of that holy moment. By the way, folks at our church know that photos are taken during the service. There is not a problem posting these, especially since I am not naming the children.
Pray for the children. Pray for those moving into a new position of leadership in the churches. Pray for all church leaders. May the Lord bless us, his children and the sheep of his pasture.
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the lands!
2 Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!
3 Know that the Lord is God!
It is he that made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him, bless his name!
5 For the Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures for ever,
and his faithfulness to all generations. Psalm 100 RSV
Last week at church I kept thinking I could hear his voice among the congregation. Another parishioner told me she expected him to walk around the corner at any moment. We will miss him. We came to love him and that made letting go all the harder.
Abandoned
This has become to me a perennial song. Perennial typically describes things that are permanent, constant, or repeated. At times I am compelled to sing it. Sometimes multiple times in a row.
Me, too, Lord! I want what these lyrics speak. Here is the video followed by the lyrics (in case you don’t like jumpy words.)
Abandoned
Benjamin William Hastings
Somethin’ isn’t adding up
This wild exchange You offer us
I gave my worst, You gave Your blood
Seems hard to believe
You’re tellin’ me You chose the Cross?
You’re tellin’ me I’m worth that much?
Well, if that’s the measure of Your love
How else would I sing?
But completely, deeply, sold-out, sincerely abandoned
I’m completely, freely, hands-to-the-ceiling enamored
My one-life endeavor to match Your surrender
To mirror not my will, but Yours
Oh, I’m completely, deeply, don’t-care-who-sees-me abandoned
Oh, I surrender all
I just can’t get over it
What kind of self-control is this?
When You had angels at Your fingertips
But on the Cross You remained
And I can’t repay that kind of love
But I can praise with everything I’ve got
Since death had all of it’s power robbed
Then just like the grave
I’m completely, deeply, sold-out, sincerely abandoned
I’m completely, freely, hands-to-the-ceiling enamored
Oh, my one-life endeavor to match Your surrender
To mirror not my will, but Yours
Oh, I’m completely, deeply, don’t-care-who-sees-me abandoned
Oh, I surrender all
I surrender all
I surrender all
The whole of my heart, the best of my soul
Each phase of my life, each breath in my lungs
Consider it Yours, Lord
Consider it Yours, Lord
The failures I hide, the victories I don’t
The battles I fight, each crown that I hoard
Consider it Yours, Lord
Consider it Yours, Lord
All the glory forever, the grave that You won
The praise of the Heavens, the kingdom to come
Oh, consider it Yours, Lord
Consider it Yours
I’m completely, deeply, sold-out, sincerely abandoned (hey!)
I’m completely, freely, hands-to-the-ceiling enamored
Oh, my one-life endeavor to match Your surrender
To mirror not my will, but Yours
I’m completely, deeply, don’t-care-who-sees-me abandoned
Oh, I surrender all
No, You’ll never leave me abandoned
I surrender all
Written by: Cody Carnes, Benjamin William Hastings, Brandon Lake, Christopher Michael Davenport
I had to ask who is Christopher Michael Davenport?
“Grammy-nominated songwriter and worship leader Chris Davenport has been a quiet fixture within worship music for years.
“Through his contributions with UNITED like “Another In The Fire,” “Grace To Grace,” and “Seasons,” as well as collaborations with artists like Phil Wickham (Hymn Of Heaven), Brandon Lake (Too Good To Not Believe), and Cody Carnes (Be Glad), Chris has established himself as a unique, authentic, and influential voice within the worship community.” Now we all know more about him.
Make sure we never abandon God! “My one life endeavor to match your surrender…”
Treasures in Plain Sight, A Christian Blog 