Need You Now

I watched “I’m Not Ashamed” yesterday for like the 4th or 5th time. And as always, I bawled like a baby at the end.

I don’t know why I’m so drawn to Rachel Scott’s story but it really intrigues me.

In the movie there is a song called  “Need You Now (How Many Times)” by Plumb.  It’s a great song.  I urge you to listen to it when you can. And if you get a chance, watch “I’m Not Ashamed” It’s a great testimony to who Rachel was and what she stood for.

It will be 19 years on April 20th that Rachel went to be with her Lord and Savior. Her story continues to inspire many, myself included. Her love for Christ was evident. Here is an excerpt from her journals that were published not long after her death. She wanted to be different from her peers. A God fearing Christian. Not a “worldly Christian”

Reading this posts the question: What kind of Christian do I want to be?

Need You Now (How Many Times)–Plumb

Well, everybody’s got a story to tell
And everybody’s got a wound to be healed
I want to believe there’s beauty here
‘Cause oh, I get so tired of holding on
I can’t let go, I can’t move on
I want to believe there’s meaning here

How many times have you heard me cry out
“God please take this”?
How many times have you given me strength to
Just keep breathing?
Oh I need you
God, I need you now.

Standing on a road I didn’t plan
Wondering how I got to where I am
I’m trying to hear that still small voice
I’m trying to hear above the noise

How many times have you heard me cry out
God please take this?
How many times have you given me strength to
Just keep breathing?
Oh I need you
God, I need you now.

Though I walk,
Though I walk through the shadows
And I, I am so afraid
Please stay, please stay right beside me
With every single step I take

How many times have you heard me cry out?
And how many times have you given me strength?

How many times have you heard me cry out
“God please take this”?
How many times have you given me strength to
Just keep breathing?
Oh I need you
God, I need you now.

I need you now
Oh I need you
God, I need you now.
I need you now
I need you now

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Fix My Eyes

Have you ever just stopped and listened to this song? I hear it all the time but never truly paid attention to it until today. The message is a powerful one. We need to fix our eyes on our Creator who gave us life and longs for a relationship with us.

He loves us that much! So much that He sent His only Son to die for us. To die so that we might have life! That’s LOVE, y’all!

I especially love the line, “Find faith in the battle, Stand tall but above it all, Fix my eyes on You.”

Life is going to hand us trials and tribulations. We’re going to meet hardships throughout our life. But through it all, we must fix our eyes on Jesus! He knows what’s best for us and He is the only One who can get you through life’s trials. You may think you can handle it all on your own but you can’t. Only Jesus can and will carry you through life’s storms if you will just surrender to Him!

We can be confident that if Jesus did not leave us in HIS darkest hour, He won’t leave us in OUR darkest hours.

J. D Greear, Not God Enough

So when condemnation whispers “You are finished”, we need only look to the cross to hear Jesus’s triumphant answer: “No! IT is finished!”

J.D Greear, Not God Enough

(Y’all, I really recommend this book by J.D Greear. It’s AWESOME!)

For King and Country—Fix My Eyes

Hit rewind
Click delete
Stand face to face with the younger me
All of the mistakes
All of the heartbreak
Here’s what I’d do differently

I’d love like I’m not scared
Give when it’s not fair
Live life for another
Take time for a brother
Fight for the weak ones
Speak out for freedom
Find faith in the battle
Stand tall but above it all
Fix my eyes on you, on you

I learned the lines and talked the talk (Everybody knows that, everybody knows that)
But the road less traveled is hard to walk (Everybody knows that, everybody knows)
It takes a soldier
Who knows his orders
To walk the walk I’m supposed to walk

And love like I’m not scared
Give when it’s not fair
Live life for another
Take time for a brother
Fight for the weak ones
Speak out for freedom
Find faith in the battle
Stand tall but above it all
Fix my eyes on you, on you

The things of Earth are dimming
In the light of Your glory and grace
I’ll set my sights upon Heaven
I’m fixing my eyes on you, on you
I’m fixing my eyes on you, on you
I’m fixing my eyes

Love like I’m not scared
Give when it’s not fair
Live life for another
Take time for a brother
Fight for the weak ones
Speak out for freedom
Find faith in the battle
Stand tall but above it all
Fix my eyes on you, on you
I fix my eyes on you, on you
I fix my eyes on you, on you

Stop Remembering What God Has Forgotten

Do you have a tendency to remember your past sins that the Lord has already forgiven? Do you tend to harp on them?

I know I do. Sometimes I will harp on them, wondering how in the world God could forgive me. But here’s the thing: HE HAS!

If you have asked God to forgive you of your sins…..He has and He forgets them!

Psalm 103:12 says,

As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgression from us.

And look at Isaiah 43:25!

I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake and remembers your sins no more.

Why harp on something that has already been forgotten?

I tend to harp on my past sins, thinking to myself “how could God forgive that?” I’m slowly learning to stop doing this. I’m slowly learning that when God has forgiven me of a sin, I am to do what he does: put it in the past and forget about it.

Is it hard? Well, yes, of course. It’s in our human nature to dwell on things. At least it is for me! 

But once God has forgiven our sins, we are FREE! Free from the bondage of sin. There is NO condemnation!

Romans 8:1-2 says:

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you FREE from the law of sin and death.

What can separate us from Christ once we become a believer?

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?……….No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8:35, 37-39

Simply put, God loves you. And He longs to have a relationship with you. But until you confess your sins and become a believer, that sin you are harboring is separating you from Him.

Won’t you come to Him today?

 

Daily Exercise

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. 

James 4:7-8a

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

John 8:12

Are you walking with the Lord daily? Are you getting your exercise in? 

*Reblog* Reasons Some Will Not Come To Christ

Excellent points made in this article!

A Ruby In The Rough

This article struck a chord with me since I know some young people who will not come to Christ because they do not wish to leave their sins. May God grant them true repentance before it is too  late.

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Reasons Why Some Will Not Come to Christ

Albert N. Martin

Jerusalem was buzzing with activity during one of the high Jewish feast days. And now at the pool of Bethesda the controversial young rabbi from Galilee had astounded everyone by healing a man paralyzed for thirty-eight years! But instead of rejoicing, the Jewish leaders first confronted the healed man for carrying his bed on the Sabbath—this was work, they said, and God had forbidden all work on the Sabbath—and then condemned Jesus for His “work” of healing on the Sabbath day! Chapter Five of the Gospel of John records Jesus’ simple response: “My Father has been working until now, and…

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You Say…God Says…

When you are struggling and don’t know what to do…..turn to God and His Word. He will direct your paths!

 

Weird, Chapter 15: Just One Thing

Often he who does too much does too little

—-Italian Proverb

This is the final chapter in Weird: Because Normal Isn’t Working by Craig Groeschel. I have enjoyed reading it and I hope you have enjoyed “reading” it!

Chapter 15 opens up with Groeschel talking about New Years and the many resolutions that are made then broken.

By the end of January he says that “40 percent of people who made New Year’s resolutions break them.  By Valentine’s Day, the number of people who cannot sustain what they started jumps up to 75 percent.”

Groeschel adds that in the last few years he has changed his New Years ritual in a “positively weird way.”

Instead of making a long list of resolutions for myself, I make only one resolution that’s chosen by someone else.

The problem, Groeschel tells us, is that “many of us try to imagine all the things we’d like to be different about our lives and we try to tackle them all at once.”

Usually, though, we spend more time making those lists than we do actually following up and doing the items on them.

Many people have a lot of unfinished ideas–myself included

So several years ago, Groeschel began a “personal discipline to limit (his) life’s focus.” He will pray in the months leading up to a new year, asking God to reveal to him “What is the one thing you want to be different in my life next year?”

One thing may not sound like a big deal to you…..but think about it. If you set out to change several things in one year and you don’t fully accomplish any of them, what was the point?

So consider the weird alternative: if you can change just one thing in your life and you change that one thing entirely, fully, completely–then over the course of a decade, the landscape of your life will look dramatically different.

Ten cumulative one things. Ten major changes. Ten disciplines. Ten steps closer to who God wants you to be. A decade of one things adds up to a changed life.

Paved With God Intentions

We all have good intentions when it comes to making new years resolutions. But as Groeschel tells us “good intentions can’t change us or improve our lives without action.”

If we want to be better than normal, we must move from good intentions to what I call God intentions.”

Groeschel tells us that good intentions are our ideas we have that motivate us to set and achieve the goals that we genuinely want to accomplish. God intentions go “way beyond this, because they rely on discovering and acting on what HE wants us to do.”

Whereas good intentions are what we come up with, God intentions are our Father’s ideas.

So how do we find out God’s intentions? We simply ask Him. “If you’ll listen to the Spirit of God, I believe he’ll speak directly to you and show you that ONE thing that he wants for you and from you.”

Good intentions are me-centered.

God intentions are God-centered.

And when God puts something into you, you can be certain it will come to pass.

Maybe God wants to do a new thing for you. Something different. Something weird. Maybe he isn’t waiting until New Year’s to reveal it to you–maybe he’s starting right now.

Isaiah 43:18-19 says “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up, do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.”

U + 4 = 1

Groeschel gives us 4 questions that can help provide clarity if we’re serious about wanting to know what God wants us to focus on.

1. What One Thing Do You Desire From God?  “If God were to offer you, ‘I’ll do any one thing that you ask’ what would you ask for?  In the Bible, throughout his lifetime, David asked God for many different things–strength, courage, victory over enemies, help for his children, forgiveness. However, there is ONE prayer that David focused on that seemingly put all his desires into a singular request. “One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple (Psalm 27:4)  David was a man after God’s own heart. If he could have ONE thing, he chose to want to be with God, in his presence always.
2. What One Thing Do You Lack?  In your relationship with God, what one thing is missing?  Remember the rich young ruler? He asks Jesus “What do I need to do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus tells him “You need to obey the commandments.” The rich young ruler confirms that he has done all these things. However Jesus can see through to this man’s heart, seeing a problem that the young rule didn’t even know he had. So he tells him to go sell everything he had and to sell it to the poor. “Then come follow me.” The rich young ruler became sad and walked away because he was very rich and had very many material items. “For many of us, it’s just one thing standing in our way of completely following Jesus.”
3. What One Thing Do You Need To Let Go?  Normal people hold on to just about everything–busyness, money, possessions, grudges. It’s time to get weird and do something different–let one big thing go.  Philippians 3:14-15 says “Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But ONE THING, I do: Forgetting what is behind  and straining toward what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Forget the past. Forge into the future. Let go. “If you’re not moving forward, not headed where God wants you to be, maybe it’s because you’re holding on to something from the past.”
4. What One Promise Do You Need to Claim? “We mustn’t lose the hope of a specific promise that God has given us. It may not look like we expect it to look, or arrive when we want it to arrive but God is always faithful to His word.” 2 Corinthians 12:9 tells us that God’s grace is “sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

One For All

Normal people attempt countless goals with limited success. Weird people focus on just one God-given objective with tremendous results.

Let God create you in his masterpiece. “He will make you truly different and joyfully weird.”