I wrote in my last post about moving from complacency to joy. It brought to mind the book I’m reading now. It’s actually a new book, Journey to Joy: The Psalms of Ascent, that’s being released officially on April 30.
Our pastor preached through the Psalms of Ascent in early 2011, and this book was based on that series. It’s 15 chapters that walk through the 15 Psalms of Ascent (Psalms 120-134) as 15 steps on a journey to joy. Not only does it provide meaningful commentary on each psalm, but it also gives practical application for much of what we face in daily life, from when we need help or face injustice or are looking for peace. The book gives insight into family life and church life and touches on all kinds of practical matters in life, taking us to God to find true joy and meaning for it all. This book would be great to use for a Bible study or to give to a friend.
I can so highly recommend it because of the work God did in my life through hearing the sermon series two years ago. Week by week, the Lord used these psalms to walk me through a time of transition in my life. It was actually quite extraordinary how God used these messages to speak to my heart and so directly to my present circumstances. You don’t have to be sensing a lack of joy in your life to enjoy this book. It’s beneficial for anyone and has a very devotional quality about it. I’m personally being challenged and encouraged again as I read through it.
Through today, you can take advantage of a great deal on the Kindle edition which is only 99 cents!
Have you ever battled complacency? If I admit it, I am very content and thankful with life. I love the Lord, my family, my home, my church, my town, my job. It’s easy when things are going along so well to find myself wondering what else God would have me be doing. Am I doing the things He wants? He has given so much. Am I praising Him, thanking Him, daily seeking Him?
There’s nothing I can point to that should cause me to be complacent. But I often wonder, “What else? Am I missing anything?” I am often haunted by time that I waste on meaningless things instead of things I could have done instead.
I think this is because I know the difference with living with less wasted time and more intentionality than I am now. I think about the work the Lord has done in my life, and how after that time my heart longed daily to know what He had for me that day. I know the difference in wasting time on a TV show (a struggle in my past) or Facebook (a current struggle) instead of writing a note of encouragement to a friend or taking time to read my Bible or a book or praying. How many moments and hours am I wasting?
Tonight I was refreshed in the Lord. This is the 8 year anniversary of me bowing on my knees by my bed and surrendering my life to the Lord. I’ve written about it before here. It was life-changing. The things the Lord showed me over a two-day period were that He is my Rock and He is my Strength. Many times over these 8 years, this day, April 28, turns out to be a really special day. One year, I met Beth Moore on this day. She has had a huge impact on my walk with the Lord through her Bible studies.
I don’t want to make too much out of certain days, but I do love to celebrate this one! And tonight at church, the Lord met me. We sang a song about Christ the Cornerstone, the “weak made strong,” the theme of 8 years ago. I wasn’t going to make too much out of phrases in songs.
But then the preacher started preaching from Phil. 4:4-8. During his message, he went to 2 Corinthians 11 talking about Paul boasting in weakness. And then before I knew it, he was in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10:
And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
These were the very verses God used back in 2005!
The preacher gave the benediction from Psalm 40, how God lifted us from the miry clay and set our feet upon the Rock!
God is my Rock and my Strength, and He used tonight to confirm these truths and remind me of 8 years ago and fill my heart and stir me again with the conviction that He has purpose and plans for me to know Him and to trust Him and to walk with Him.
During the next to the last song, God brought to mind a couple that I felt like He had been prompting me to reach out to about a month ago when I was praying. I had dismissed it later, thinking it might seem silly to them. But God brought them to mind. We then went to sing the last song, and it was the song that I have for this family! A Chris Tomlin song from 2009, a song I have never sung in church. I was just amazed that as God brought them to mind again, He brought this song. Maybe this is the next step I’m looking for, the step to break out of some of my complacency and reach out beyond myself.
He’s shown me that He puts people in my path, and there are several now that I know I need to act on. So I pray for wisdom to know how and when and ask that God would move me from complacency back to joy and a heart filled with Him!
I’m not sure how else to title this post! It’s been a week with all kinds of events and reflections and conclusions!
My husband and I celebrated 20 years of marriage! 20 YEARS! I’m so thankful for these 20 years and all that God has done.
We had crazy weather! School was closed Thursday for the enormous rains and flooding in the area. I woke up that morning thinking about Noah when those rains came, wondering what he must have felt like knowing what was to come!
The week then ended last night with snow! SNOW!
We saw news of the Boston Marathon bombing and the fertilizer plant explosion in Texas, and were saddened by human suffering and evil acts. We heard of the death of one of the Boston suspects and the capture of the other.
We passed by April 19, a day which carries difficult memories in our country: Waco and Oklahoma City. On April 19, 1995, I was caught in a tornado system and hail storm, having my car demolish around me.
A few short years later on April 19, my mom and step-dad were involved in a major car accident on the highway when a woman came across the median into traffic and spun them out of control. They were cut from the car, and my step-father had a broken neck and was airlifted to the hospital. He wore a halo for 8 weeks and recovered amazingly.
Our good friend was diagnosed April 19 two years ago with the glioblastoma that would take his life less than a year later.
My daughter tells me, and I confirmed, that the Revolutionary War began on April 19.
What a crazy date in history at large, but in our personal history, as well.
I was glad to spend time with the Lord yesterday morning and be reminded of His sovereign control over all things and that this day is His day, and to place my trust and hope in Him, to pray that this date could become known for good things as well.
I received a call yesterday evening on April 19 from a friend with some good news, something about which I had prayed for months for my friend, and it had been answered. When my friend began reading me an email, my friend began, “April 19, 2013.” It struck me. My friend didn’t have to read the date on the email. I knew the date. A reminder. Today has brought good. And peace in this situation, though perhaps not yet fully in the hearts of those involved. But I was thankful that the Lord in His prefect timing had answered this on this date.
I’ve thought about this song this week, so I’ll include it here at the end. I like the hope in God it expresses, “whatever may come our way, through fire or pouring rain, we will trust in You and we won’t be shaken.” Praise You, Lord! We can trust in You!
We had a wonderful Spring Break! My friend who lost her husband to cancer last year came to visit with her two daughters. We took the girls downtown to a hotel with an American Girl package. Our three girls had so much fun shopping, swimming, eating Chicago pizza, and spending time together. Then they came out and spent a couple of nights here. It was such a relaxing few days!
Thankfully, my daughter ended a weeklong fever virus a couple of days before they came! I was so thankful we were all well to enjoy the visit.
Easter was wonderful at our church. The Good Friday and Easter services are always such special ones, definitely my favorites of the year, and it’s always amazing to end Easter singing In Christ Alone and the Hallelujah Chorus! It was a special day, too, with family, and I’ve been so happy to have my mom here this year for days like these.
Easter Sunday
I’ve had lots of ideas for blog posts, but am keeping this one simple tonight. I’ll just give a couple of books I’ve been reading.
I read this book last week in less than 24 hours. I knew it would be a quick read and something I would enjoy. I actually bought it for my daughter after we heard about Katie Davis’ ministry at a girls’ conference a few weeks back. I’m not sure what words would even accurately capture it: inspiring? challenging? It was exactly what I expected, and I was blessed by her story.
I’m also reading now Carolyn Mahaney’s book Feminine Appeal which was a “book of the month” at church last month. I didn’t know what to expect, and I sometimes pre-judge a book like this thinking I won’t like it. So far, I’ve been surprised by her straightforward, simple encouragement from Titus 2. She’s stating some things that I suppose should be fairly obvious, but to be honest, things I’ve lacked a vision for in my life (a mentoring relationship, mentoring others, etc.)
I couldn’t sleep in the middle of the night (do you ever wake up anxious for no reason?), so I came downstairs to pray and read. At the end of praying, I was about to go back to bed but checked Facebook. Do I really need to do that at 3:00 a.m.? But I saw a post from a friend that linked to a blog of a Christian woman writing about Titus 2, the exact same verses I read about in Mahaney’s book before I went to bed last night.
Since I don’t believe in coincidence, I’m memorizing Titus 2:3-5 now, and I’ll continue to pursue some of this reading and the new thoughts that are flowing through my mind. So with that, I may go read a bit before bed.
Titus 2:3-5:
Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored.
I’ve been reading through the Old Testament in my yearly Bible reading and am currently in Deuteronomy. At the same time, our church is going through a series on the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew chapters 5-7.
I have been trying to memorize the Sermon on the Mount in short sections as they are preached each week. This gives me from January – June to learn the three chapters, using weeks where we have our Missions Festival or Easter services to review and catch up. Many of these verses are familiar, so it hasn’t been too hard to memorize, and it’s been such a beneficial exercise to have these verses being written in my heart and called to mind during the activities of daily life.
It is interesting to be reading about the Law in the Old Testament and then studying Jesus’ teaching to His disciples in the New Testament. Jesus gives us a higher standard in our personal relationships in His Sermon on the Mount. “You have heard that it was said…” [giving some command from the law, such as “you shall not murder” or “you shall not commit adultery,” etc.], “but I say to you…” [a new and higher way for that law is given, such as likening anger with murder or lust with adultery, etc.].
As I’ve read through the Old Testament Law, with its many details, and about the sacrificial system in place then, how thankful it makes me for Jesus! Through the Law, we see that we are sinners, that we could never keep it perfectly! We sin, intentionally and unintentionally. And Jesus became our single sacrifice for sin (Hebrews 10:1-18)! He came to earth, took our punishment for sin in His death on the cross, and rose again that we might have new life in Him. It was a complete and finished work that He did on our behalf. Through faith in Jesus, we can be born into new life in Him.
Jesus not only provided salvation from sin and death through His death on the cross and His resurrection, but He also gives His Holy Spirit to those who believe to help them know how to live and follow Him. We obey, not out of sheer commands to do so, but out of the joy and delight in Who He is and what He has done for us!
I’m also reading a parenting book right now called Give Them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids with the Love of Jesus. It contrasts the law and grace and our children’s need to understand grace and the gospel of Jesus Christ as the way through which they find life. It shows how rules can build a law-based method of parenting that keeps our children from understanding this lavish love and grace of God by which we are saved. I’m only 80 pages into it, but it echoes so much of what I believe, and challenges how much I act otherwise with my own children at times!
So these are some thoughts I’ve been pondering as I read lately. They are not too well developed here. I’m finding when I read several chapters of the Bible at a time (as when reading through the Bible in a year), I don’t spend as much time meditating on small portions of Scripture, but I do love getting the overall themes and tracing different concepts through the Bible as I read. What a beautiful Word God has given to us in the Scriptures! Thank you, Jesus.
Romans 3:19-20 “Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.”
Romans 3:23-24 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.“
Galatians 3:24-26 “Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”
Praise Proclaimer 