my rendition of psalm 23

 

The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not look for any other guide. He makes me rest when my body, mind and soul have been worn down. He leads me to the waters that will not sweep, my tired body away. There He satisfies my thirst and restores what’s been taken by all the cares of the world. He leads me along the paths that are right before His eyes, and that bring glory to His name; where I’m challenged to be more like Him.
Though, I may walk in places of trouble and danger that the devil may be hiding and waiting in, I shall not fear his evil ways. For my God walks in front, behind and beside me. Your discipline, O Lord, Your protection, Your power, they bring me peace.
You place me in front of those may hate and despise me, and then You anoint me. Showing all that I am Yours, sealed, and equipped to fight, with Your Holy Spirit alive in me, and my heart overflows with joy for all the works You have for me.
Surely Your goodness and Your mercy will pursue me for the rest of my life, wherever I go, and I will dwell one day in Your house, O Lord, FOREVER.

Hallelujah

 

sometimes it’s nice poetry to rewrite psalms or certain parts of scripture into your own interpretation. it helps you look deeper into the passage, and make it more relevant.

I used to always overlook Psalm 23, because it was so common, and so quoted. But now that I’m older, and looking back on all these truths and scriptures, I absolutely love this Psalm. I love that the LORD truly is my Shepherd, and how good He is, and how He leads me. I love the idea of a shepherd and his sheep and the relationship there. and I love that that’s the relationship Christ chooses to illustrate our relationship with Him in John. We are His. He is not just going to leave us…He cares for us, and will take care of us. Better care than anyone could ever imagine!

The LORD, God, is my Shepherd.

really?!

 

How legalistic can one become?!

I literally was just reading in John 5, and read this passage…on where Jesus heals a lame man on the sabbath and this is the Pharisee’s response to the man…

”so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, ‘It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed."’” (John 5:10)

As I read that, my thought process was…”really?!?” They were so concerned with keeping the law, that they wouldnt even permit a lame man, who had just been healed, to take up his bed…
Now i realize there is much more to this, for instance, that the Jews hated Jesus…therefore the fact that this lame man was healed on a Sabbath is quite a big deal to them…

But the relevant point I am trying to make…the Jews of Jesus’ time, are modern day legalistics. We all can be legalistic about certain things. I’m not gonna lie, sometimes I wish I could be legalistic about things, and more often than I like, find myself fighting it in my head… but being legalistic about the things I want to be legalistic about would cause much dissension and it wouldn’t allow people to learn from mistakes and it would make people to become just like me…which we really do not want. We want people to become more like Christ.

Jesus is LORD over the Sabbath. Jesus is LORD over the law. May our focus be on JESUS and not on rules, or the law, or how we think something should be happening. Focus your attention on Jesus.

 

“…looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith…”
Hebrews 12:2

Jesus was a modern day celebrity

 

This past weekend I had the privilege to attend The Struggle Tour with 10th Ave North, Audrey Assad, and Rend Collective. And the day after I was reading in Mark 9, and was just struck by how often Jesus attracted crowds…very much like today’s ‘spotlight people'.’

A few things I notice, is that Jesus never turns the crowds away and that He always gives them what they are in need of…truth, encouragment(which also can mean challenges), and HIMSELF!

and that’s exactly what anyone in the spotlight (musicians, speakers, pastors, authors, actors…) are supposed to do. (Especially those who proclaim Jesus as LORD). Is to give the crowds what they need, truth, encouragement and of course, Jesus!

My challenge is to pray for those who are constantly in the spotlight and have people look at them from such a high viewpoint in their minds. Pride can quickly sweep in and take over, and they need to be covered in prayers by anyone who is willing. Because they are attacked, and they always need to be pointing people to The Father, just like Jesus did.

 

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in His love.”
John 15:9-10

Wisdom from James

 

Sometimes, whenever I read the Word of God, and grasp a truth and the depth of what it is saying…I wish the whole body of Christ could grasp it in that moment. I guess this is where Intercession and prayer comes in play. as well as teacher’s and preacher’s.

A group of us girls tonight were reading in James 3, about taming the tongue. and I was just reminded at how much power there is in the tongue. It builds up and it tears down.

“…the tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell…but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poision. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brother’s these things ought not to be so…Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water…”

Our words/tongue carry so much weight…and i cant help but think, how often do we bathe our words in prayers? Do we devote our words to God?! Each morning do we offer our words to God? Do we think before speak, do we pray before we share something with someone? Whether its in deep conversation, surface conversation, confrontation….in everything we say…are we submitting it to God?

Romans 12:1 tells us to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice; our tongue is a part of our body. It is a small part, but like the passage says, ‘sets on the fire the entire course of life.’

Devote your words to God.
I heard a father ask a son today, “did you do anything edifying today?”
and I think that is such a great question to ask ourselves every night before our days end. Did we do anything edifying? Did the words we say edify or tear down someone?

So my challenge to whoever in the world may read this, and my prayer for God’s children, is that we give our tongues over to the power of Christ and not go about our days without thinking or praying about the words we say.

Annabelle

 

Today was a day where i just want to sit in the LORD’s presence all day long. and the great thing is..that I am able to.

Tonight after church, i went and got myself dinner (Mcdonalds) and the sun was starting to set so Ive been in this reflective mode, so I decided to sit outside on the front steps and watch the sky and eat and listen to my favorite musician, and of course watch my spastic kitten run around. and whilst all of these things, I was watching little miss annabelle (the kitten) climb a tree near me, and I just had to be so so grateful for her. and I’ve been telling people this, because its just so true i’m realizing, but I truly believe that she is a gift to me from my Heavenly Father. For someone who has never liked cats…I now have become a decent cat lover because of her.
If i would have not had her this summer to talk to (yes, i talk to her), to take care of her, to cuddle with her, to laugh at her, to get annoyed with her (very often) I would have been extremely lonely. It was a different/weird/rough summer in the first place, but I really believe that without her, it could have been worse. She helped keep me sane and most importantly, make me laugh- which is a necessity in my life.

It’s funny how God works in our lives, and how He provides. I love it. Jehovah Jireh.

Bless The LORD, O my soul.

 

I love that throughout the Bible, often, okay, a lot, you find these themes. Themes that go on through the whole Old and New testaments. One reason why I can believe the Bible to be truth!

So ive been reading the psalms and have noticed that it often talks about remembering of old, and telling from generation to genereation what God has done for the Israelites. and Psalm 119 talks a lot about telling the testimonies of God! and its so reflective in our own lives…

when we have our break downs, our hard times, our trials and even our great times in our lives…we need to REMEMBER who God is, and what He has done and TELL of who He is and all He has done and through that, we BLESS Him and others and our focus gets placed where it should be, on Christ!

This is so key to every believer. to remember, and to tell, and to bless whenever we are struggling and whenever we are thrilled!

thinking about recently

 

Having a kitten, has taught me a few things. and something that i have been finding myself being reminded of and thinking about recently, is our need of being saved, or rescued.

For instance, a kitten who cannot figure out how to climb down a tree,  or who falls into a deep basement window opening,cries out for help, because they need rescued.
We often, cry out for help to, but we also, don’t cry out for help enough soemtimes. We think that we can handle things on our own, that we are strong enough. But reality is, we all need saving. We all need rescued from something. and the good news is, that God is right there to save us.

Jesus has saved us from eternal damnation, and has clothed us with His righteousness by His blood. But each day, we need rescueing as well in our daily fight to live for Him. because we can’t do things in our own strength, we need the strength of the one who raised Christ from the dead!

Jesus is our deliverer. Our rescuer. Our Savior.
and we need to humble ourselves and realize that we need saving.

Sealed

 

I said I was going to blog about the amazement of being SEALED, so here I am! I still don’t know a ton, but what I do know, it just amazes me. I love when we just sit and meditate on what one word can mean for us, spiritually and relationally.

Being sealed, is a huge deal. You see it OFTEN in the bible, old and new testaments. Obviously the new testament is more of how we are sealed by the Holy Spirit, He is our seal that we belong to God. Our stamp, so to speak.

it’s quite a historic thing, this whole ‘sealing’ deal. You saw it often historically with Kings and Nations and all kinds of dealings of nobility, in writing letters and going back and forth, it was stamped, or sealed with a specific ‘signature ring’ or initials or something so that you knew who sent it, or who’s ship or army or anything belonged to.

Christ does that for us. In reality, we belong to Him. He has sealed us.

One of my favorite songs that just always connects to my heart is “You Won’t Relent” and it takes a verse from Song of Songs that I love..

“Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.”

I love this, Song of Songs obviously is between two lovers. But this verse can ring so true with our relationship with Christ, for He is love and we can only love by being IN HIM. sealed with Him and by His love. We are like a seal upon His heart. and when Jesus died on the cross, and God sent His Holy Spirit, and we accepted Him, we were sealed.

I am grateful to be sealed, to belong to Christ.

2 Corinthians 5 Medley

 

“For the love of Christ controls us…”
  Not the lust of the world, or a love for ourselves, but the love of Christ must control us to a lost world.
”and he died for all so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh…”

“entrusting us with the ministry of reconciliation. therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ. God making his appeal through us.”

“for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Value

 

value: to consider with respect to worth, excellence, usefulness, or importance;
to regard or esteem highly

I find it interesting as follower’s of Jesus Christ how often we devalue people, especially fellow brothers and sisters. We are not one’s who tend to give people second chances or third chances, or we are quick to judge based on what we’ve heard, or what we’ve seen, or we just can’t be bother because someone may not be our favorite person, or we don’t want to take the time out to really get to know someone….and so many other things.

Since when do we have a right to do as we please with people?! To treat them with such disrespect? To not value people who are placed before us. To not keep in touch with those who may have moved on. We really are, that self-focused. We really are, that bad of an example.

When do you ever see Jesus not giving someone a chance? When do you ever see Jesus being quick to judge off of what He had heard or a reputation. When do you see Jesus turning away the one’s who are hard to love? When do you see Jesus forgetting about the one’s who have moved on? When do you see Jesus taking advantage of people?

never. Jesus welcomed all. He gave up Himself, for the sake of others. When do you ever see His follower’s doing that (especially in the Western World)? when we are called to follow in His example, and He tells us that we will do greater things than He……what kind of witness or gospel are we preaching to the world by the way we treat and think about others.

We need to learn to really value people. Because frankly, we all deserve hell. Not one of us are more special than another. and I think selfishness, is the biggest sin beleiver’s struggle with, and yet I think we don’t tend to take it very seriously, but we make up excuses for it.

People should be seeing Christ in us, should be being built up by our love which comes from Christ, not being tore down or hurt because no one believed in them, or took time for them, but just shrugged them off.

Where is the agape love Christians? Where is the example of Christ in the western world?!

 

“But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” Hebrews 4:13

“For the body does not consist of one member but of many.” 1 Corinthians 12:14

“For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.” 2 Corinthians 4:11

My King

 

I love hearing people refer to Jesus at their King.
  this is surprisingly new to me, to actually really hear. and it makes my heart smile. a lot.

and today, as I received a tweet that someone posted, to their King, I happened to be listening to a beautiful song by rend collective called alabaster. and there are trumpets and other instruments in the song, and it sounded so Kingly and Royal…and the words were saying

”I will bow my life At Your feet
At Your feet My lips So lost for words
Will kiss Your feet Kiss Your feet.”

the idea of bowing down to someone, and kissing their feet struck me and got me thinking. of the old days, with Kings and Queens how servants and peasants and all people had to bow down, and i thought of the lady in the bible who poured perfume on Jesus’ feet and I believe she kissed His feet too. Which His feet would have been dirty! But i just got this incredibly beautiful image and desire in my head. to bow before my King and to kiss His feet. To show my humility and my servanthood to Him. To honor Him. To be in awe of Him.

We have the greatest King whom has ever lived. and May we continue to have moments when we see Him as our King, for that is who He is. and May we bow down before Him, and kiss His feet. In adoration and humility and service.

i love devotionals

 

I was blessed yesterday for Valentine’s Day, in numerous ways! But one way, was that I was given a devotional book by wonderful godly woman! and This morning when I read what today’s devotional was, it was exactly what I needed to hear. so I thought I would share it. It is written as if it were God speaking directly to you.

“Come to me with all your weaknesses: physical, emotional, and spiritual. Rest in  the comfort of My Presence, remembering that nothing is impossible with Me.
Pry your mind away from your problems  so you can focus your attention on Me. Recall that I am able to do immeasurably more than all you ask or imagine. Instead of trying to direct me to do this and that, seek to attune yourself to what I am already doing.
When anxiety attemps to wedge its way into your thoughts, remind yourself that I am your Shepherd. The bottom line is that I am taking care of you; therefore, you needn’t be afraid of anything. Rather than trying to maintain control over your life, abandon yourself to My will. Though this may feel frightening—even dangerous, the safest place to be is in My Will.”

Luke 1:37
“For nothing will be impossible with God.”

Ephesians 3:20-21
”Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

Psalm 23:1-4
”The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me. “

writing gets me fired up

 

“…whatever you do…do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus…” Colossians 3:17

If you are working, work hard, give it your all.
Obey rules and leaders and bosses as if your obeying Christ’s commands and laws.
If your serving, serve as if it is the Lord Jesus in front of you.
Respect people, as if it is Jesus you are respecting.
Speak to people, as you would want to spoken to.
Honor people, as if it is God you are honoring…
           by all of these things, God is highly exalted and honored and glorified IN YOU.

We have no right to look down on anyone, to not love someone, to disrespect someone, to disobey those in leadership over us, to put people down….we are no better or greater than anyone.
“Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all.” (Colossians 3:11)
We have a standard, as children of God and heirs with Christ to live by. We MUST, i repeat, MUST be holy as Christ is Holy.
“…he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct…’You shall be holy, for I am holy.’” (1 Peter 1:15-16)
We MUST live godly lives, bringing glory to God in all we say and do and we must love Jesus and worship Him with our lives…heart, mind, soul, and strength. We need to each day, take our call to be holy, seriously and ask the Holy Spirit to help us and to continue to sanctify us so that we can be holy. We must check ourselves, hourly, maybe more sometimes. We must be open and obedient to the Spirit’s convictions and rebukes and urgings in our lives. If we are to be holy, we MUST take up our cross daily, and deny ourselves and follow Christ.

Forsake all your freaks, reputation, insecurities, unbelief, doubt, selfish thoughts and ambitions, dreams, desires, passions, cares, frustrations…and the list could go on. Just do what God has told you to do. plain and simple.
You are FREE from your past, free from the sin that entangles you, free dome condemnation, free from judgment of the world…so STOP living bound, because you are not. You are FREE.
In Christ, your chains are gone, so start living in His victory and forsake yourself.

This life is not about your and if you are comfortable. God is sanctifying you, (never comfortable!), be okay and willing to endure pain, turmoil, for Christ endured more than you can imagine. Be okay to be rebuked and challenged. Stop being stubborn, it’s not a godly trait.
God does not want you to stay where you are, that’s why we go through sanctification.
REMEMBER, that you are to be holy. Every ounce of you. For God’s glory.

get it. grasp it. understand it. live it.

“…and He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who for their sake died and was raised.”
2 Corinthians 5:15

Unity

 

I think that every believer should read about martyr’s, or the persecuted church, or those who are experience persecution. Especially western believer’s. Iw as thinking about this on sunday, because we are all so spoiled, and complain about everything and I hate it. we need perspective, we need to really know and believe and understand that this life is not about our comfort…and reading about all Paul went through in the epistles, and reading about believer’s from other parts of the world today…i feel is so good for us, to recognize that there is persecution, and that we are promised to suffer for Christ and we need to consider that a privelage.

I love reading from Brother Yun (The Heavenly Man). In his book Living Water, in one of the chapter’s he is talking about the unity of believer’s, in Christ. So often, we are so caught up in Doctrine, and who believes what and what denomination people are a part of and what they believe that is different than what other’s believe…which is not necessarily wrong to want to know these things, but sometimes i think we make this so much more of a bigger deal than it is, and it only disunifies the church of Christ. and I like what Brother Yun was saying about this, and parts of it acually broke my heart and kinda makes me a bit sick…so I just want to share this…;

“…For most of the 1980s, the house churches in China were unified. We all served Jesus together and didn’t care what kind of group we belonged to. We all belonged to Jesus, and that was all that mattered. Things started to change in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Many Western Christians had heard about the tremendous revival going on in China, and they wanted to be a part of it. They sent representatives to China to meet with house church leaders. They told us we weren’t educated enough and that our greatest need was for more theological training. They assured us ,’our denomination has the best training program. We will bless you with it.’ For years believer’s had come to Hong Kong and carried Bibles across the border to us in China, and we were very grateful. Now, however, thousands of teaching books were also being carried across, promoting certain favorite doctrines of each denomination.

Before this happened, things had been much simpler. Jesus was our teacher and professor. We didn’t ask one another what school we had atteneded. Rather, we asked, ‘in which prison have you been receiving your higher education from the Lord?’ ….
After I was released from prison, I recommenced preaching the gospel. Things were different, however, and everywhere I went I was asked, ‘brother, what church do you belong to?’ I replied, ‘I just belong to Jesus. I am called to be a witness for Jesus.’ The answer did not satisfy those who asked me…’

I guess it just makes me sad, that westerner’s…(which America is included in this), of course did some good, but really, built barrier’s between some church’s in China simply because of different doctrinal beliefs. We are a body.

We will never come to a complete agreeance on Doctrine with numerous people. but we must be careful not to impose and to build barrier’s between the body of Christ. We are all here for one purpose, to serve Christ. We focus to much of our attention sometimes on Doctrine (which, I do believer doctrine is important, do not get me wrong), rather than on just serving and loving Jesus and being obedient to what He has asked us to do.

I know this can be kind of a hot topic for some people, this is just where my heart lies. I pray for unity for all those who truly love and follow Jesus Christ, no matter what denomination, or church, or doctrinal belief.

“Therefore, let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, and laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.” Hebrews 6;1-3

Freedom

“Prison is mostly a state of mind rather than a physical place.” Brother Yun

We talk about freedom a lot as believers. We know we have been set free. We sing about it often. we read about it. we hear it. But does it really penetrate our hearts and minds…FREEDOM.

 

I was reading ‘Living Water’ by Brother Yun (The Heavenly Man), and I would love to just type the whole chapter on here. This guy was in prison before, numerous times, for numerous years all together in His journey with the LORD. and He is talking about freedom, and how for humans, prison really is much more of a mental state than a physical state. and I would have to agree.

How often do we even see Believer’s living in bondage, to sin, in chains to fear, lies, unbelief, doubt…?! (the list could go on)
   Christ has set us free. Do we really know what it means to walk in this freedom that Christ has bought with His precious blood?!
   There are so many out there too, that don’t even realize that they are living in a prison, or are bound to sin or to something.

Brother Yun says in His book, “…I have seen that many people’s lives in the ‘free’ world are bound and tormented. Millions of people’s hearts are tightly chained with sin and addictions, and even though they go to work each day and look like normal people, they are prisoners within. It doesn’t matter what they do or where they go, they continue to walk around in a bound and desperate state. Multitudes of people who attend churches are also prisoners. They need the truth of Jesus to set them free!”

He is so right, we all are prisoner’s to something. and the best way to get out of prison, is to cry out to Jesus as well as to praise Him no matter the circumstance.

“…where the Spirit of the LORD is there is freedom.” 2 Corinthians 3:17

“…if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.” John 8:36

I guess it just struck me how bound all of us are. We can’t be afraid of this freedom in Christ. Freedom is life giving, yes it bears are weaknesses and insecurities at times i think, but in Christ we are free from those! They don’t define us, they don’t control us. We have the Spirit, we are free. In our weakness, Christ is our strength.

We need to fight. To set the captives free, like Christ has done. We need to fight for the freedom that we already have attained but don’t seem to live in.

Ask God what you are bound to, the sin that so easily entangles you, and ask Him to help you live and walk in His freedom. and to strip away all that binds you. to leave you bare, so that all you can do is rely on Him and walk in Him, by Him, freely! :) and know the joy and peace and love and life that comes in Freedom!