Day 14 - "My heart is set on a pilgrimage to heaven's own bright King"

For those just joining us, read Day 1's caveat.

Yes, I needed a 2 day break. :)

I don't know how to explain the large amount of things God is teaching me right now. I will say, however, that God is good, He is holy, and sometimes to get to God we have to wade through a lot of junk. It's funny, because many of the same scriptures that spoke to me early in my encounter with Christ still hit me between the eyes now, just in a different way. The same way with music.

Charlie Hall seems to be a musician that God uses consistently. As my friend Chris pointed out yesterday, I am a very emotional person and I seem to get crazy joy from some of the truths that are in Charlie Hall's lyrics. That sentence may not make sense considering the song below

And on the road to beautiful
My seasons always change
But my life is spent on loving You
To know You in Your power and pain

For most people, a somber song would pull them down. Now, for me, it does in some settings. However! Think about how true these lyrics ring out! They may be very Ecclesiastical, but there are times for weeping, for singing, for dancing, for mourning. There are different seasons, and with each one brings a very unique perspective to God!

They who sow in tears shall reap in joy and singing. He who goes forth bearing seed and weeping [at needing his precious supply of grain for sowing] shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. - Psalm 126:5-6 (AMP)

I'm not sure that I would say there can't be joy without tears, but there certainly can't be reaping without sowing. I just said to my friend Andy today that in my finite mind, good and evil have to exist to understand either. Regardless if that is true or not, I know that I know the joy of God from the pain I have experienced. The title of this post speaks of a focus on higher things. The subsequent line says "So in faltering or victory, I will always sing!"

I hope that while you're reaping or sowing, you're singing. And sing loudly.

Day 6 - "And you are breathtaking and breath giving!"

For those just joining us, read Day 1's caveat.

I am sad to say I could not find this song anywhere on Youtube, so I had to resort to Yahoo! Music.

There is not a lot to today, except that this song has been stuck in my head since ~8:45 this morning. We talked about pride this morning and we discussed 1 Corinthians 4:7:

For who separates you from the others [as a faction leader]? [Who makes you superior and sets you apart from another, giving you the preeminence?] What have you that was not given to you? If then you received it [from someone], why do you boast as if you had not received [but had gained it by your own efforts]? (AMP)

As a culture, we ask the questions like "What makes you better than everyone else?", "What makes you stand out?", or "What makes you so different". The change needs to come in the W word. Who makes you so different?

God is not only the source of preeminence, authority, and majesty but he is also the giver of these things. Since we talked about that this morning, Charlie Hall's "Bravery" has been stuck in my head. Check it out!!

http://new.music.yahoo.com/charlie-hall/tracks/bravery--28827811

Day 3 - "Cause we have all we need in you"

For those just joining us, read Day 1's caveat.

For those who have not heard this idiom before, "The Refiner's Fire" suggests trial, stretching and pressure that someone endures in hopes of refining them to be better. The hard part is that as Christians, we all want to be better but we don't want to be improved. We want to be refined, but we don't want to go through being refined.

Whether it is trying to calculate how you will pay $100 more in bills than you have money, feeling like one of your best friends is mad at you (or even feeling like you're losing one of your best friends), feeling like you are a corporate pawn, feeling completely alone or looking at your life and having no idea where it is going, there seems to be something always in our way (and those are specific examples from my life and others this week).

I don't do well when friends and I aren't on the same page. So when this song came on directly after 2 different people either said or showed that my input in their life was neither wanted nor appreciated, it immediately penetrated my heart.

The main reason it penetrated my heart is how much faith I put in people. We don't think of ministry, "Christian music", or people who point us towards God of idols. We think, "I trust this person's opinion because they point me to God". We eventually get to the point, however, where we turn to that person for comfort, advice, or solace and not God. We think that we cannot get through the fire without that person. In all reality, we cannot get through the fire with anything but God.

My biggest prayer is that I would trust that I am taken care of. That He is truly ALL I need. After all, Jesus is better than the waves.

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? - Matthew 6:25-27 (NIV)