Thanks to Erlene for suggesting this worship song to start the day–I Surrender All, sung by Brian Littrell.
The message may seem counter-intuitive, maybe even a little bit crazy, in an age of me-first self-esteem. But we can’t possibly give to Jesus as much as He gives to us: He gives us our very selves, and we are never more truly us than when we know that we belong to Him.
As Steve Brown says, you think about that!
Among the wisest things I’ve ever heard in my life was a very crisp one-liner delivered by a woman on a Christian panel talk show, many years ago on our local Christian radio station.
Asked “What do you do?” when days are dark, your faith is tested constantly and you can just feel it being worn away, when you just don’t seem to know much anymore, what do you do–
“Sing louder,” she said. I’ve never forgotten it.
Our God is an Awesome God is one of those things you may wish to sing louder. It’s been in my head all morning, and I’m glad.
This is the hymn that I had to hear today, after my daily Bible reading landed me in Job, Jeremiah, and Revelation in succession (I’ll say more about that in the next post)–the immortal Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s The Messiah, performed by the Royal Choral Society. You might want to turn up the volume for this one!
Really, if this can’t crank you over, your soul needs a new battery.
At Erlene’s request, here is Carroll Roberson with In the Middle of Tomorrow, at the Agape Garden in Tennessee.
I hope nobody minds my posting another bit of worship music before I tackle the news tidbits Linda has sent me–if I tackle them at all. Judah the Maccabee kept a custom of refusing to make war on the Sabbath day, unless his army was actually attacked and forced to defend itself. I have tried to keep that custom, too: it was Judah’s way of proclaiming the Lordship of Almighty God.
But then if I were an ordained minister, I would have a duty to preach about these subjects during Sunday services. Either way, to do or not do, as long as it’s to the glory of God, we’re covered.
Does anyone mind another worship song today? This is For Your Name is Holy, sung by Paul Wilbur, suggested my Linda.
The accompanying video is from a 2000 film, The Apocalypse (also presented as The Book of Revelation), starring Richard Harris as St. John the Evangelist.
Some Christians don’t approve of movies based on Scripture. That’s no idle objection: it’s so very easy for a movie to get it wrong, and that’s something you don’t want to do with the truth of God’s word.
But there’s also something to be said for a work of art that moves the viewer to see Revelation as if for the first time, and to feel something of what the old apostle must have experienced, alone and exiled to a tiny island, when he was given such a vision of Christ’s glory. Even more of a vision than the one received by the prophet in Isaiah 6. These are things very, very hard to capture in words alone–and do we not greatly desire to capture them?
Thank you, Erlene, for pointing us to this–Barch Haba B’shem Adonai: meaning, “Bless is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.”
The movie clips are from The Gospel of John.
The line of scripture is from the prophets and the Gospels, in various places.
The message is God-breathed.
I’m not very hip to music, so when Erlene pointed me to Josh Groban, I’d never heard of him, so I went to youtube and found this: You Raise Me Up.
I read the lyrics. I’m not sure that this is a hymn–but it could be. I don’t think God would mind at all if we were to sing this to Him.
At Linda’s request, here’s Chris Christian with Praise the Lord.
When things are going well, praise God.
When they’re not going so well, praise God anyway. (Easy for me to say, hard for me to do; but I hope I know good sense when I hear it.)
Erlene suggested this hymn to start the day, and I hope you all don’t mind if I go again with this rendition by Alan Jackson–not ordinarily my kind of music, but this I like: There’s a Power in the Blood.
This is the hymn I woke up with today, which I sang to myself this morning on my bike–a song to strengthen the soul, and give courage: Our God is an Awesome God, here performed by Michael Smith in concert with the whole audience joining in.
Youtube says “comments have been disabled” for this page. Probably it’s because this video makes atheists gnash their teeth and levitate.
But this is what it makes me think of:
God is sovereign over all of His creation, and everything in it.
The wicked are exalted in this age. They walk and talk and do whatever they please, in great pride and power.
But they are only grown as great and proud as God Himself has permitted, and they will endure not one minute longer than He has ordained.
The day and hour of their destruction is already marked on God’s calendar.
For our God is indeed an awesome God.