Don't Interrupt My Song To God!

I can't sing. I can't read music. I do not know what the notes are in the music scale. I can't go up or down in a lyric until I've heard someone else sing it. I sing mostly in monotone. After I have learned a song by mimicry, I can then do a good rendition of it from whomever I have learned the song.

For all of that, I enjoy singing to God.

I am not sure if I would say I have a handicap to the singing part of worship, but it means I need the Song Leader to sing the songs the same way each time. I need the Song Leader to sing what is written in the Hymnal, the Chorus Book, on the overhead screen, or on the song sheet I have been given. If the song is going to be sung differently, the Song Leader needs to tell me at the beginning and lead me in the new set-up. Don't change it in the middle of the song.

I am singing to God. My voice is lifting to God. My mind is on God. I am worshiping God.

When I sing in a church service, or where God is worshiped, I am following the written lyrics, or memorized lyrics, word for word. Because of this, when the Song Leader's voice breaks in to say something not on the page or screen, suddenly I am interrupted. My mind is stolen from God because I have to stop to find out what the person wants me to do.

They've stolen my worship when they break into the lyrics to say something.

There have been issues where older congregations have failed to embrace the new music of worship. I tend to enjoy the older hymns and choruses also but on examining what I dislike is what I am explaining here. I can sing along with the 'contemporary' music on the radio with no difficulty lifting my voice to God with the newer style. I don't mind singing with a guitar, drums, horns, or any instrument but I need that instrument to be helping me to sing my worship to my Lord and Savior. I've discovered it's not the music, so that leaves the presentation.

What I need in a church service is for the Song Leader to lead me in singing of praise to God.

Please, if you are a Song Leader, simply do that for those of us who haven't your musical skills.

Singing the same verse/chorus repeatedly does little to help me worship. I end up wondering how many times we're going to repeat this after the first five or six times. That means I've been stolen from God.

If I have the words in front of me, I don't need to be reminded what verse I'm on. An instrumental solo isn't necessary either.

I can sing with a full orchestra in church but they need only help me in worship of God. I like good music, and I like all sorts of music but when I'm singing to God that's what I am doing. The Song Leader is just that---The Song Leader, leading me in singing to Almighty God.

When it's time to sing to God, lead the singing. Don't interrupt my worship.

Don't interrupt my song to God!

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I Challenge Your Faith!

These are some question that I ask in the workbook section of my EBook Squished! Why God Seemingly Destroys Our Fruit. I had to answer these questions for myself when my home church went through a difficult time. I had to ask myself who or what was my I basing my faith in or on? Was my faith real?

How strong is your faith in Christ Jesus, the Lord? I want to challenge you right now to think about the consequences of sudden disasters like those that hit Job. These may sound gloomy but I want you to focus on the joy of the Lord; the joy that we are to have because we are pilgrims looking for the country where we are going. With these scenarios I challenge you to think about how close your personal walk is with Jesus and how much is just earthly baggage.

 What if your house burned down today? Everything in it is now ashes, not one thing survives. Mentally walk through your house right now and look at the things you have. Right now it is gone! It no longer exists!
1. What are you feeling the loss of most?
2. What is going to substitute for that loss?
3. Who are you going to trust to relieve the loss?
4. What is it you are afraid of facing the most at the loss of your house?


What if your spouse died today? Are you walking close enough to the Lord to accept it? If the person you love never comes back to you alive today, what do you think about?
1. Do they know I love them?
2. Have they trusted the Lord as their savior?
3. Have I prayed for them lately? Really prayed for their safety, well being, love, strength, spiritual growth? That they are walking close to the Lord daily?
4. Are they ready to meet the Lord Jesus today?


       If the scenario was your children died today, ask the previous questions for this also.

What if your home church burned, there is not a shred of anything left; to what do you associate the building?
1. What constitutes as loss when the building is no longer available?
2. How does this affect your worship?
3. How strong is your feeling toward the activities that you attended?
4. How much were you accustomed to what was available inside the building?
5. If how you served depended on the material inside the building; how will you serve now?


 What does the pastor mean to you in terms of your church attendance and service?
1. Do you come to church to hear him or God?
2. Do you feel uncomfortable when someone unfamiliar speaks?
3. Do you think this is the proper way you are to listen to sermons?
4. Are you reluctant to listen to the Holy Spirit speaking to your heart through a different speaker?

What if you died today?

1. Are you ready today to meet Jesus?
2. Is your daily desire to meet Jesus face to face?
3. Is your family strong enough to walk with Jesus after your death?
4. Is there someone you need to tell about Jesus? 

     Examine your daily spiritual life.
1. How much of your life since your salvation has been building with straw, hay and stubble?
2.. How much of your life was building with gold, silver and precious stones?

Where are your values? Is it your stuff, your people, your

activities? Today, can you walk through your house and say to Jesus, I throw it all away. I challenge you to do just that.
1. Where have your thoughts been lately?
2. Where are they right now?
3. Do these scenarios hurt?
4. Why? Or why not?

Be Real!

Ask Jesus to clean your house, to show you where your stuff is hindering your service to Him. 

Do you love Him enough to let Him have everything?

Do you fear Him that much?

Think about these scenarios and pray about your thoughts daily.

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A Few Thoughts From the Gospel of John

The Apostle John frequently referred to himself as 'the disciple whom Jesus loved'. Which is a wonderful way all of us can relate to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

John also is the apostle who penned 1 John, the book that says God is love and that we love Him because He first loved us. (1 John 4:8 & 19)

John heard Jesus say that, (Christians), will be known for our love of one another. (John 13:35)

By saying he's 'the disciple Jesus loved' is not taking a high title. It is recognition that the relationship we each have with Jesus is special because He loves us.

There is a very fascinating short statement in the gospel of John.
"Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus" John 11:5.

Knowing that John says he is 'the disciple that Jesus loved' it is a great testimony to his knowledge of Jesus that he willingly shared that distinction with another.

Let us each share the awesomeness of the love of God for each of us, and recognize that Jesus loves all Christians as equals.

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John 10:40,41."And He (Jesus) went away again beyond the Jordan to the place where John was baptizing at first, and there He stayed. Then many came to Him and said, "John preformed no sign, but all the things that John spoke about this Man were true."

Quiet, orderly, consistent witness brings people to know Jesus' saving grace.

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Jesus prayed for me 2000+ years ago! 

John 17, the Lord's Prayer: (Jesus praying) "I do not pray for these alone, (the disciples), but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me" John 17: 20,21.

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John 10:16. (Jesus said) "Other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there shall be one flock and one shepherd"

Jesus included me in His word about 'other' sheep. Seeing down through time, Jesus knew I would become a sheep in His sheepfold.

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Christianity is not a man-made religion--it is a God-originated faith in Himself which He gives to the world to receive. (Ephesians 2:8-10)
I have received this faith! And I have accepted this faith that Jesus saved me from my sin, is saving me from my sin, and will save me out of this world of sin. Praise the Lord for His Grace, Love and Mercy on me.

"Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me."

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Motivating Peter

God wants to show us His great grace and mercy apart from what we already know.

We often talk of Paul's missionary journeys, but Peter did some remarkable things also while out in the field.

"Now it came to pass, as Peter went through all parts of the country, that he also came down to the saints who dwelt in Lydda" Acts 9:32

&

"So it was that he stayed many days in Joppa with Simon, a tanner" Acts 9:43

Peter was someplace he'd never been before, yet God knew exactly what He was going to show Peter about His awesome power to save anyone, anywhere.

God told the early Christians that in the power of the Holy Spirit, the church is to go everywhere preaching the salvation of Jesus.

"But you shall receive power when

the Holy Spirit has come upon you;

and you shall be witnesses to Me in

Jerusalem, and in all Judea and

Samaria, and to the end of the earth"

Acts 1:8.

But the first century church stayed in Jerusalem until after Stephen was killed and the persecution began in earnest. Then they scattered but they took their faith with them everywhere.

Whether Peter was moving around a bit because of the persecution the Bible doesn't say, but we do know that while Peter was not in Jerusalem, God showed him the great expansion of the church.

God does record in Acts that Peter, in his new faith and boldness in Jesus, speaks to a sick person whom God healed, prays for a dead person and sees God bring them to life, and stays with a tanner, (Acts 9:33, 40, & 43).

We're not told if Peter had traveling companions. And the fact it says he was staying at Simon the tanner's house, we can assume no one from Jerusalem was with him. It seems Peter was stepping out of his comfort zone by traveling alone.

Peter's expressions of faith while apart from his fellow Christians is culminated in the salvation of Cornelius, the Centurion. Peter hadn't personally thought about going to the Gentiles before that time. But now, with God's prompting, Peter's submission to do things in faith as he had ever done before revealed to him God 's love for all peoples, everywhere.

Maybe Peter was reluctant at first,

but the more he saw God work,

the easier his obedience became.

Which thing is true in our witness. Even when it is out of our comfort zone, the Holy Spirit may wait until we're in a place where He can do something amazing. This new thing God uses us for will glorify God and grow us in our faith and knowledge of God, (2 Peter 3:18).

Our small steps of obedience can be the very thing God uses to bless all those with which we come in contact. We step out in faith that God is with us and our obedience to that is God's door to His grace.

"(Jesus) answered and said to them, "Because it has been given to you to know the mystery of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him" Matthew 13:11,12

& repeated in the parable of the talents (money)

"For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken from him" Matthew 25:29.

Peter didn't have to do anything. Yet, if he hadn't trusted God at His word, Peter would have missed out on seeing God's miracles.

Sometimes God waits to use us after we leave our familiar territory.

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Is Your Life Manna?

And they asked "What is it?"

When the children of Israel needed food in the wilderness, God supplied them with a heavenly substance. It tasted sweet and it sustained their lives.

"So when the layer of dew lifted, there, on the surface of the wilderness, was a small round substance, as fine as the frost on the ground. So when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, 'What is it?' For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, 'This is the bread which the LORD has given you to eat."" Exodus 16:14,15

"And the house of Israel called its name Manna. And it was like coriander seed, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey" Exodus 16:31.

"What is it?"

Good question.

Simply, it was something only God could supply.

In the wilderness, the Israelites were certainly going to starve if they had to fend for themselves. Moses, the man of God in their midst, interceded, asking God to provide for the people's lives. Through His infinite grace, God gave them Manna, which was like a sweet pastry and it nourished them completely, though they had no idea what it was.

"The children of Israel....gathered, some more, some less. So when they measured it by omers, he who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack. Every man had gathered according to each one's need" Exodus 16:17,18.

No one, throughout the entire camp, went without. The excess was distributed to all as each family needed.

Today, God has given to the world bread from heaven which gives a better, everlasting life. Jesus, as a symbol of the God-given Manna, is our source for eternal life.

Jesus said "I am the bread of life...This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread, which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world" John 6:48 &50,51.

While we cannot and do not physically eat Jesus, we do have Him in ourselves through faith. And because of our faith that He died for us, in our place on the cross, He lives in each believer in the Holy Spirit. We do not fully understand this, but we know He gives us eternal life.

Among the Christian church today, for those in Christ:

"...There is one body and one Spirit, just as you

were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord,

one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all,

who is above all, and through all and in you all.

But to each one of us grace was given according

to the measure of Christ's gift" Ephesians 4:4-7.

But around the world some gather none, while others gather much of Jesus.

Are we, the people of God, interceding for those who are starving for Jesus?

Are we willing to share Christ Jesus with those who have little of Him, or none at all?

Are we giving Christ Jesus away from the abundance He has supplied of Himself to us?

If Christ Jesus lives in born again Christians, giving us sweet, wonderful, eternal life, are people asking "What is it?"

Is your life Manna?

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