Our Cane in Christ

I made an observation in church on Sunday.....there were many who arrived with canes.
So I made mention that I thought it was interesting 5 canes had come in (one being my mother)... seemed a high ratio to me and I chuckled as I made the observation to a very sweet lady, who was one of the cane bearers....
Then realized I should say, apologetically..."Not that it is funny, you have to use a cane!"
Not funny at all! Those who are using a cane have had circumstances that have left them weaker, more unsteady than they had been previously...that isn't funny.

But it made me think ..the cane, and the need for it, can symbolize so much more!
How many of us are weak, unsteady, in need of support??

The cane is used to prop a person up, to stabilize, to assist, to lean on....see where I am going?!
Jesus Christ can be...should be...that to all of us.

He can "prop" us up when we need strength and support....

📖 Even to your old age and gray hairs
    I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you;    I will sustain you and I will rescue you. Isaiah 46:4 

📖 He gives strength to the weary    and increases the power of the weak. Isiah 40:29

He can stabilize us...

📖 He will not let your foot slip—  Psalm 121:3a

📖 “Cast your burden on the Lord—
    he will support you!    God will never let the righteous be shaken!”  Psalm 55:22 (CEB)

He will assist us.....

📖 So do not fear, for I am with you;
    do not be dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you and  help you;    I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.   Isaiah 41:10

📖 For I am the Lord your God
    who takes hold of your right hand
and says to you, Do not fear;    I will help you.  Isaiah 41:13

He calls on us to lean on Him...

^📖  “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

I know that the reality of having to use a cane, for anyone, not just those in our congregation, doesn't usually bring a smile.  It means they have become dependent, some how, on needing that assistance...but I pray, that maybe, they can look at it differently...that we can ALL look at it differently!
Because we ALL need our Cane in the shape of Christ....those who have to use one just happen to be our living reminder of that!  And for that I am grateful! ❤ You each inspire me!

Beauty in the Dying

Working on last week's blog...getting the song Better Than A Hallelujah video correct...I wondered if the pictures were the right ones for the song?...appropriate to convey what I was feeling when I listened?
And then it struck me....the absolutely gorgeous fall colors that we have been experiencing, the beautiful scenery....is actually the result of the foliage on the trees dying!  And then I thought ...those pictures are perfect for that song!
"Beautiful the mess were are..."
Because in our brokenness and mess...God can be and is glorified!
We are all dying....we were not meant to live on this earth forever.
📖  As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; Romans 3:10
📖 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23

He brings life even in the dying....because the life He brings isn't a life lived in our earthly bodies forever, it is an eternal life for our souls in His presence.
So no matter what physical age we are or what circumstances we find ourselves ...we are all dying....but in that...shouldn't we live it out beautifully!?

📖But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.  We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;  persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body.  So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.  It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself.  All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.  2 Corinthians 4:7-15

"Even in our misery....God just hears a melody"

📖 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Shouldn't our lives be a "hallelujah" to our Creator?!
📖 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Romans 12:1

We need to let "the honest cries of our broken hearts" become Hallelujahs in our Lord's ears....and let our limitless and boundless God give us joy in our limitations!
God gave us today!  For His purpose!  I pray you find that purpose today!  Even if it is just to lift a thank you; for the scenery around you, for the day before you, for the people around you, for the breath you are taking....
come on!  You have MORE Hallelujahs, I am sure of it!

Better Than a Hallelujah Amy Grant

Me and the Music

Music speaks to me often and conveys much to me and for me.
Our Praise Team leaders were both under the weather and unable to come a few Sundays ago.  I was asked to put together some songs...(I have a few times over the summer; YouTube videos of the original artist doing songs we have sung, familiar songs put to power point lyrics I have done before, and sometimes I am inspired to introduce a new song.) But everytime...I try to allow God to direct where the play list goes and that  Sunday was no different.
So you....(unless you were at church with me that Sunday and have already heard these)...get to experience my thoughts as we go through the music! (All songs are shared via YouTube, only one is my creation with  Amy Grant's song Better Than a Hallelujah)

I had a few songs in mind but once I sat down and started working on things….the list was inspired! Here are the songs, (please click on the links to listen) and the thread of thoughts that were woven through them:

🎵 Fear Is a Liar. Zach Williams 

FEAR seeks to destroy.  The first part of  John 10:10    Jesus said ^📖 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy;

Satan will use fear to steal whatever he can…our joy, our confidence, our peace, with lies.  We let him destroy even our very lives.

So no matter where fear has taken you, to what desperate place….the rest of John 10:10
📖  I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

Romans 5:3-5

^📖 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;  perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

📖 “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

🎵 Let It Rain - Crowder

 I don’t know about you….but let troubles RAIN down on ME!!  “..let it rain, whatever You want, You are God and I am not!"

"The same God
Who brought the sunshine
Is the same One who brings the rain

Yeah, the same God
Who made the sunshine
Is the same One who knows my name"

 We have hope in the rain that He will bring us through the storm.

And when we cry out to Him in our weakness 
….sometimes it is better than a Hallelujah,
🎵 Better Than a Hallelujah - Amy Grant

….sometimes it is better than a Hallelujah, because....

 📖 ...he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.  2 Corinthians 12:9-10

And in those times He is making us stronger, when we feel there is nothing left but a pile of ashes, He will raise a diamond out of the dust!

🎵 Diamonds - Hawk Nelson

 In James 1:2-4 it says
 ^📖 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

 With the next song we gave our offerings and sang with joy…..” I’ve got a sweet salvation that is beautiful, I have a heart overflowing that has been restored!

🎵 Old Church Choir - Zach Williams

Through our fear, our suffering, our pain, He has made our faith stronger...we have been restored, made new
📖 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:The old has gone, the new is here! 1 Corinthians 5:17

It was communion Sunday and we approached the altar knowing what Christ came to do, what He did for us, so that we can have Life, and life to the full.
And now as you listen to this last song....remembering what He did for you....I pray you fall into His open arms.
🎵 O Come To the Altar - Elavation Worship


Maybe you didn't get any of my thread!  BUT my prayer is 
🙏you were blessed by the music, however God used it! 

I would love to hear what song "spoke"your to your heart, or touched you the most.❤️

Homelessless

There is a song....(of course)...that has a line
"this world is not my home,"....

Does it make us feel worried or concerned to hear those words?...does that make us feel or think we are homeless wanderers here on earth?
 I saw person walking the street the other day, I believe she was carrying everything she owned with her in about 4 grocery sacks.

It made me think... what if I was homeless?....or needed to leave the home I have with only what I could carry??

📖  The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran.  He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there. Genesis 12:1, 4-5

Though it says he took "all the possessions they had accumulated"  They still had to be able to travel with these...and no moving vans or trucks, what they could carry in their hands or on the animals they had.  

Still,  what would it be like if I needed to go? What would I take in my bags that I could carry? I would need necessities like...toothbrush? I maybe could do without the paste? soap? clothes?....food?...what about my memories?, important papers?  
Phones today house much of our information and DO make it easier to carry much with us in  a small package.....but...

What if we had to walk away and leave it all behind?? Would it be hard? Sad? Would we even be willing to? or able to?

BUT, is it what should be most important?...should it tie us to this world? Should it throw us off course as we make our way toward our destination?

📖  “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  Matthew 6:19-21

📖   But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6:33

God blesses us with so much, but He has something far better in store!

📖 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.” John 14:2-4

Our end goal....even in building and establishing our homes here on earth ...should be for the glory of heaven.

I pray, that when you "log into your "spiritual GPS", Heaven is your destination.

There are NOT alternate routes....that give you different travel times, and different types of roadways.  (WE may cause twists and bends in the ONE right road....but know that only ONE road leads to our destination.)

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

That road IS Jesus Christ....
the belief in Who HE is....Son of God

what HE has done ...came to save; through death on the cross and resurrection from the grave

that He did it for you...
📖  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,  and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith..  Romans 3:23-25a

that we choose to follow His footsteps while here on earth...

that all we do gives others direction to Him.

This is just our temporary home...for however long He wants us to be here serving Him

and then...on that Glad Morning!  we will meet in heaven!

The world is not my home, I am just passing through!

I have a dear friend who would not say good bye but....."until we meet again; here, there or in the air!"

🎵 This World Is Not My Home - Jim Reeves