What's In A Song

In June one of my blogs was in reference to a song; Good Good Father. [Good Good Father  words by Pat Barrett and Tony Brown]
I heard that song sung by our pastor a week ago at Bible Camp...and I have found myself listening  to it every day..at least once, by Chris Tomlin or Casting Crowns.  It is a good song... But not sure why I have been so drawn to it of late.
I want to share with you a couple of the things, truths if you will, that have jumped out and grabbed me while listening this week.

"You're a Good Good Father, it's who You are....who You are."
It IS who He is.  He IS goodness.  There is no evil or bad in Him.  Everything good and perfect comes from Him who is...good and perfect.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17

 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?  If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! Matthew 7:9-11


 “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off?  And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off.  In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish. Matthew 18:12-14

It is just WHO. HE. IS!

"I am loved by You. It's who I am ...who I am."
Now make sure you notice it isn't "and I am in love with You...it's who I am."
We are LOVED by God....regardless of whether or not we deserve it or even if we love Him back.  We are LOVED by Him.....and that is who we are whether we like it or choose it...we were created by Him and LOVED by Him and it IS who we are!
No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. John 16:27

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. 1 John 3:1-3

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

 We love because he first loved us  1 John 4:19

The next thing that struck me was 

"You are perfect in all of Your ways......to us."
It is US that need His perfection.

He is perfection, but to those in the heavenly realms....the Holy Spirit, His Son Jesus...who are also perfect....His perfection doesn't need to be "proven or shown"   He doesn't need to "show" His perfection in heaven, because it IS perfection.  Because we are not perfect we NEED His perfection to redeem us!  To US He is perfect in ALL of his ways!

It just comes down to believing and trusting He is Good, and Loving and Perfect!

I pray that you have acknowledged His Goodness,  Perfection and Love for you!!

 You can click here and listen
Good Good Father  by Casting Crowns   Or go to YouTube and find your favorite version!

The Cross

My intention wasn't to have the last several devotions be connected...but that seems to be how God has been showing me things.  Bridge Work sort of followed the Road Signs.  And today's is about the Cross...which is basically how I left it with Bridge Work! 

In my reading today a question was asked "when you hear the word 'cross' what does it mean to you?" "To you, is the meaning of the cross ...historical?...religious?...personal?"
At the end of the reading it wanted me to complete a sentence "For me the cross of Christ means..
[Do You Believe? 40-day Devotional by Robert Noland]

So of  course the song that I included in my last blog by Point of Grace plays in my head!  "There's a cross to bridge the great divide!"

The CROSS that Christ died on was more than an instrument of execution...as they were in history.

It is more than a scene of Christ dying on the cross depicted in all forms of artwork.

Or at least I hope it is more than these things to you. 

For me the Cross is personal.  Yes, it is historical, because it was God's design to save us from sin...to have His only Son die upon that cross.

BUT if it just stays historical fact, which isn't disputed by too many historians, then personally, spiritually we miss the point of the Cross of Christ!

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1 Corinthians 1:17-18

Also, if it remains a religious symbol. There is the image of Christ suffering on the cross....hanging by His hands and feet. OR an empty cross, which symbolizes the risen Savior...One who was not defeated by death, or the cross!  Something that hangs in our churches or around our necks or off our ears or tattooed on our bodies, but has no personal meaning...again we have missed the point.

We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a cross, but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. Acts 10:39-40

I pray that the historical and religious meaning of the cross are extremely personal to you today, that the message of the cross is not foolishness to you, but it defines who you are!

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant. Colossians 1:15-23

My answer?

"For me the cross of Christ means...

that moment when Christ took MY sins, saw MY face and died...for ME. 

Photo by Rachel Ramsdell

Bridge Work

I was traveling around our country side the other day with my daughter.  We had to travel through several small and not so small towns. And of course there was road construction and also several areas where there was "bridge work" going on....which made me grin 😁 ..."there should be a set of dentures on the sign!" (get it...BRIDGE work!" 😂) okay, okay
After that brief, silly thought came a post script to my Road Signs blog 2 weeks ago.
Rather than it being a pain, an inconvenience, an irritation, we should be grateful!  Without the repair work the under pinning and support of that bridge could be in disrepair in a short time.
And bridge construction is necessary to cross a divide, to close the gap so that we can reach the other side and our destination.
AND as it is with us!
The only bridge that can cross the chasm of sin that gapes between  God and us is Jesus Christ!

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6

 The Lord said in the book of Ezekiel that He could find no one....at that time to stand before Him in the gap.
“I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one. Ezekiel 22:30

But He sent Christ to do that for us! 
For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time. 1 Timothy 2:5-6
Can I get an AMEN!

All it takes is our first step in asking for Christ to come into our life, forgive our sins and bridge that gap! and unlike the bridge work around here....it will be done in the blink of an eye!  Your sins will be covered and the chasm between you and God no longer present!  Amazing!
BUT just as actual bridges ...ours need to be tended to and not just periodically....daily!
We must spend time with the "Project Engineer"  the designer of our bridge.  We must maintain its structural integrity.  The "blueprints are right in God's Word! 


The chorus to a song by Point of Grace just keeps running through my head...and sums up what I am trying to say;

There's a bridge to cross the great divide
A way was made to reach the other side
The mercy of the father, cost his son
His life
His love is deep, his love is wide
There's a cross to bridge the great divide

click on this link to listen to the whole song!

The Great Divide. Point of Grace


My prayer is that you have taken that step and asked Christ to bridge that gap, and that chasm of sin is covered, forgiven....and that you are doing "bridge work" daily!!

God is in the Discouragement

We all have discouraging times, don't we?
In this world you will have trouble. a section of John 16:33

Times that dont go as we have planned, when things don't go our way.  Not major tragedies, but smaller things that just make us angry, grumpy, discontent.

I want to tell you a little story, about someone who went through just that.
He had planned a hike, no small hiking trip..
It took a year to plan; schedules, food, how they would divide up the 133 miles into 8 doable days. All the gear they would need, but make sure they could actually carry it.  Dates were set...vacation time taken, rides and food drops arranged.
He had even worked at strengthening his back, as that had been causing him pain and issues, but back was doing well!
The time had arrived and the hike began!
And within a couple hours something was wrong...his hip was causing him so much pain he could barely lift a leg to step over anything on the trail.  They realized they had been dropped at (want they believed) to be the wrong starting point...so instead of  7 miles to the first lean-to...it was going to be over 11.  By 530pm, after just over 7 miles they got to a point on the trail where a sign said 5 more miles to the lean-to...there was also a sign that said "Road 1.5 miles". He knew he could not make it, couldn't take another step, not in the pain he was in...his fellow hikers agreed. And even with no lean-to they made camp for the night.
In the morning after discussing the possibility of the other 2 continuing on and just Kevin heading out, they all agreed that all of them would be done.  They felt they really needed to lighten packs and were concerned at their current weight they might not have been able to finish either.
So out to the road and to find a house.  There was one home, the resident was home and let his phone be used.  He left immediately after the call was made, he had been heading out.  If they had been 5 minutes longer, he would not have been home for the phone to be used.  Remember there is no cell service where they were, actually so much over growth that the GPS satellite  tracker wouldn't even send out signals. Kevin's brother in-law was reached....he usually is out on a bike ride in areas where there is no cell service, but didn't feel up to riding that morning....so was home to get the call to come pick them up.  He was about an hour and a half away.  Once he got there and they had loaded up and driven far enough to get phone service I was called.  I wasn't working and the plans I had were flexible enough that several hours later I was able to meet them half way in Keene to retrieve Kevin and bring him home!
Now I don't know if I wrote this in such a way as for you to see..... a MAJOR disappointment, but I see God's hand at every turn!  And so do they!  IF they had been dropped off at the location they wanted they would have made it in to the 1st lean-to....then have to decide to do 7 miles back out....or continue on, neither of which Kevin's hip was up to.  That the gentleman was home for them to call.
That his brother-in-law was home and able to come right away.
AND the orthopedic got Kevin in Monday and told him tendonitis and gave him a cortisone shot....so that by the time he has to work Sunday he should be okay!


 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

In this world we are going to be discouraged, BUT Christ himself said "TAKE HEART!"  He is there in it!

I can do all this through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13

My prayer is that you find strength in HIM today....no matter what discouragement or obstacles are in your way!