The Desert Song: Blesseings While Waiting

The Lord truly knows how to send encouragement your way! I am so thankful for those He uses to speak life to my soul. The past few days I've been feeling a little beaten up waiting on the Lord to open some doors in my life. Waiting on a perfectionist is never easy, especially when He is the Creator of all things. Even though I know the things He is going to do and is doing will be perfect for me, that doesn't make me any more patient.

In comparison though I believe the waiting periods we modern believers go through are no where as long as in ancient times. Noah waited 120 years for a flood to come. Abraham waited several decades for Isaac to be born. We American believers pare in comparison. We live in the moment. Everything is now. A quick fix. A rapid reply. We have express toll lanes so we don't have to wait in line.

Waiting is hard. It's is harder when God promised you something and it hasn't arrived yet. However, Psalm 119:49-50 give me great hope, and I can actually remind God of His promise to me. Yes, we have permission to remind God of His promises.

The verses say this:

Psalms 119: 49-50

"49 Don't forget your promise

to me, your servant.

I depend on it.

50 When I am hurting,

I find comfort in your promise

that leads to life. "

From the Contemporary English Version

To drive this point home, a precious sister in the Lord shared this song with me today and it so spoke into my life. It's called, "The Desert Song," bu Hillsong. Click on the title topic above (The Desert Song: Blessings While Waiting) and it will take you to a short video I know will bless you. Be Ye encouraged!

Funny Jokes from Joel Osteen

If not for commenter Peter, I would not have found some of these jokes. So in honor of Peter and to bring us all some fresh, clean humor. Here we go. Just click on the topic title above and it will bring your right to the youtube link. Get your funny bone ready!

How's Your Serve?

Every August on New York everyone starts playing tennis, whether they're amateurs, average or beyond. Doesn't matter if you're young or old. The courts are full of people mimicking their favorite professional players. In August every year in New York, the U.S. Open Tennis Championships are played. It tends to bring out the tennis player in everyone.

I have had the pleasure of teaching a Bible Study recently on the topic Serve as in service. Matthew 20:28 and Mark 10:45 tell us that Jesus did not come to be served or be a slave master, but to serve others. He has given us an example of a servant's heart. We, the followers of Jesus Christ are called to serve others, whether they are nice or not, believers or not, task masters or not. We are to serve others, period. Sorry to say, this is a lost concept in the American church. We go by the mantra, "It's all bout me and how comfortable I feel." Apathy.

As I thought about the word serve, tennis came to mind. The serve in tennis has purpose, it is done with energy, it has a specific aim, it is watched by others, it can cause others to be humbled, it can inspire others, it can be done as an individuals (singles matches), with another teammate (doubles), or as a team (team tournaments).

Serving others has a purpose, to please God, to encourage/bless the person being served, to win the lost. Serving others takes energy. Service is watched by others, whether they are see or unseen. Serving others may humble you or the person(s) being served. Acts of service can inspire others to serve or seek salvation in Christ. We can serve alone, with others, or in a group.

If you aren't serving, you're faith is not being lived out. Very few will notice your witness for Christ.
Get your serve going. The game is not yet over.

Praise Kills?

There was a movie out recently called something to the effect, "Snakes and Planes," which starred Samuel L. Jackson. I didn't see it but I believe the premise was that there was a killer snake on a plane which he was on. The idea was to kill the snake before it took down the plane. I've never really heard of snakes living tens of thousands feet above the earth in a pressurized plane. There comes a point that life ends at certain heights in the atmosphere. If snakes were meant to live at those heights, wouldn't they have wings?

Last year I had to take a Theology class as part of my curriculum in graduate school. So, I took a Systematic Theology class. I had a wonderful professor named Omar Ortiz. In one of the classes we were discussing how the devil tries to discourage us and how he uses worship in his fight. He told a story of a pilot and co-pilot taking off in a loaded 747. As they were lifting off the ground the co-pilot saw what he thought was a snake crawling in a nook above his head. He was right, it was a snake. He told the pilot. The pilot, who as relaxed as could be, simply said, "wait." The co-pilot couldn't understand, surely this thing will bite one of us or both of us, he thought. The pilot kept ascending upward as calm as sitting and watching a beautiful sunset. They've been flying about five minutes now still climbing upward. The co-pilot saw the snake now thrashing around and told the pilot in a shout, "Aren't you going to do something?!!!" The pilot calmly responded, "just wait, it'll be all right." Well, they were just about at their peak before they leveled off and the snake up and died in the blink of an eye. The pilot looked at the co-pilot and said, "see, I knew we'd be all right. Snakes can't survive at this height. The pressure is too much for them."

The next time that snake the devil keeps lying in your ear and bringing you down, take him for a ride. Let your praise arise to the heavens out of a heart of thanksgiving. Keep going higher and higher in your praise and watch him turn away. Higher praise kills the attempts of the enemy to keep us from being who God created us to be and live as His rightful child. Pressurize your life with praise.

Psalm 22:25a, "From you comes the theme of my praise."
Psalm 33:1, "Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise Him."
Psalm 42:11, "Why so downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God."
Psalm 52:9, "I will praise you forever for what you have done; in your name will I hope, for your name is good. I will praise you in the presence of your saints."
Hebrews 13:15, "Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise- the fruit of lips that confess His name."