February 2015 Archives
Fruit of the Spirit (Part 2): Joy
I have several friends who are battling depression right now so I know it is no coincidence that the next Fruit of the Spirit is Joy.
It was only a few years ago that I went through a long period of depression. Prior to that time, I saw depression as a spiritual issue, and I still believe it is. I saw another side, however, and that is that no matter how much I made myself look at the positive, it did not make me feel better inside. I fervently prayed for God to restore my joy or take me Home. Thankfully He answered that prayer by filling me once again with joy and a sense of His presence. Sure, there are still bad times but God’s grace is there, walking with me every step of the way.
I do not know how people who don’t have the Lord get through life because truly it is often the joy of the Lord which is my strength. If you do not have that joy right now, don’t stop asking for it and fighting to receive this important fruit. Once you receive this joy unspeakable and full of glory, you will be able to share it with others.
In closing, let me remind you that tears may endure for the night but joy comes in the morning. Don’t give up hope. Everything happens for a purpose to those who love God. He will complete the work He’s begun in you if you will surrender and allow Him to do so.
CD Review: HYMNS: the A Cappella Sessions (The Nelons)
I am not typically a fan of a cappella recordings but this CD from the Nelons is a keeper.
They did a brave move by starting the CD with The Hallelujah Chorus but it does the job in capturing your attention so you desire to hear the rest of the project.
It may grow on me but I am not particularly fond of their rendition of There is a Fountain. I expect some will like it though because it is different. It does showcase their tight harmony.
I hadn’t heard Do Unto Others before but they put a lot of soul into this arrangement.
Then the tempo slows down for a medley of Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior and Just as I Am.
They did a rousing rendition of Keep On the Firing Line/Onward Christian Soldiers.
Other songs include: Tis So Sweet; Hallelujah, What a Savior; Since Jesus Passed By; and I Need Thee Every Hour.
Mosie Lister is With the Master
The first time I saw Mosie Lister in person was at the National Quartet Convention. The Booth Brothers were singing on the main stage, and Mosie joined them in singing, “Still Feeling Fine.”
I believe it was the next year that I attended the convention with my grandparents and had the blessing of working it out for them to meet him. They were absolutely thrilled, as they had sung his songs for years. Grandma said he was the most humble person to work with.
I did not have the opportunity to spend a lot of time with him but he seemed to be very genuine and caring. That speaks more loudly than anything he could have said to me.
I know he will be missed by all who knew him but I’ve no doubt that he is with the Master that he wrote about for years. One day, I will meet him and maybe we’ll have some time to talk.
Fruit of the Spirit (Part 1): Love
For a couple weeks now, I have been planning to write a series on the fruits of the Spirit. As I was reading Galatians 5:22-23 and thinking about what I would write, I found it fitting that I start this week with the first fruit mentioned, which is Love.
There is so much I could say on this topic, as there are different types of love which we show to different people; however, I would like to focus on the greatest commandments: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength; and love your neighbor as yourself.
These two really go hand in hand. John tells us in 1 John 4:20: “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.”
One of the most popular passages of Scripture which talks about love is 1 Corinthians 13: “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.“
It can be easy to “sacrifice” in the name of “love” and, yet, real love is giving of ourselves on behalf of others–loving them in tangible ways. We need to know our friends and family so well that we know what will bless them. They will be able to tell if our actions are token or if they come from the heart.
Not everyone is easy to love but Jesus went so far as to tell us to love our enemies and do good to those who persecute us. Love is not an option. Jesus gave us the greatest example of love, and we are to follow that example: “Greater love has no man (or woman) than this, that he (or she) lay down his (or her) life for a friend.”
Truly, friend, if you don’t have Love, you don’t have anything. Everyone wants to receive love but we also need to be willing to give it: to those we like and to those we don’t.
It bothers me that many never know how much they are loved. Once a person dies, people line up to share how much that person means to them but the person being talked about never hears the kind words that are spoken. How much more important is it to tell our friends and loved ones how much they mean to us now, while we are still walking this road of life together. If you’re not used to saying, “I love you,” it can be really hard at first but I encourage you to begin to tell people. As you do, it will be easier, and you may find yourself loving more deeply and better able to genuinely serve because it is no longer about yourself but about those you love.
God Resists the Proud
One sin that I am convinced almost every human on the planet deals with to some degree or another is the sin of pride. It may exhibit itself in different ways but the root is there just the same. Years ago, I thought of pride as arrogance, and I did not think that described me, so it was easy to feel pretty good about myself. It wasn’t until I read Irresistible to God that I was reminded just how much God hates pride and exactly how one can begin to see the proud areas of his or her life in order to change into the humble son or daughter that God requires.
First Peter 5:5 tells us that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. I don’t know about you but the thought of God resisting me makes me tremble. I can’t imagine kneeling before His throne to make my petition known just to see Him turn His face and refuse to even look at me. That’s at best. Resisting also means turning against. That is even more scary! I need God on my side so I must endeavor to become humble.
In Proverbs 6, you will find a list of things God hates. Pride is the first thing in that list, along with “hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked imaginations,” and several other things. If God hates it that badly, I want nothing to do with it.
Unfortunately, after 40+ years, it is not easy to just be humble and get rid of all pride. I have a lot of habits and patterns that are a part of me, which I must rely on God to help uncover bit by bit. As I see my pride flare up, I do have the responsibility to kill it though. I do not want that to define my life.
If you have never considered pride as a bad thing, I encourage you to do a study and see what else God has to say about it. My prayer tonight is:
Change my heart, O God
Make it ever true
Change my heart, O God
May I be like You
CD Review: Here Comes Sunday (Wilburn & Wilburn)
Wilburn & Wilburn has become a group that I look forward to hearing as soon as a new CD is released. If you have heard their previous releases, this one is just as good vocally, musically, and lyrically. Unfortunately, the type is too small and the color too light to read who wrote the songs but the songs are good and well-written.
This CD begins with the title track, which is a song of hope. No matter what you’re going through, Here Comes Sunday.
Jonathan Wilburn sings Funeral Plans. This song is about a man who is dying but he’s not worried. His house is in order, he’s been faithful, and now he plans to die praising the Lord.
Joseph is a song about Mary’s husband–the one who raised Jesus as his own son. What must it have been like for him to have married a woman who was with child by the Holy Spirit? Yet he bore it admirably, obeying God’s command to take Mary as his wife regardless what others thought.
Nobody Like Jesus reminds us that we’ve never seen anybody like Jesus. If you haven’t received Him into your heart, I hope you will do so today.
“Every Scar has a story to tell.” This song begins with describing scars a boy may have and the stories behind them. It moves on to the scars that Jesus bore on our behalf.
Help Me reminds us that there are people with much worse needs than our own. We need God to show us how to help those people.
If These Old Walls Could Talk is the story of a man who went back to the church he grew up in. He imagines all the stories that would be told if those walls could talk.
The tempo slows down as Jordan Wilburn sings A Man Like Me. “If he can use some rugged wood and those three old rusty nails, … the fallen walls inside a pagan Roman jail, … a storm-tossed fishing boat on the Sea of Galilee, he can use a simple, searching, wounded, hurting, broken man like me.”
When you come to the Lord, Everything’s New. A great reminder.
Across the Miles is one of my favorite songs right now. Not a new song but the older I get, the more it means to me to know that people who love me are praying for me.
They also included two classics on this CD: I’m Bound for That City and Heaven’s Jubilee.
