If God was not as loving and wonderful as He is, I would probably still try to please Him, because it is my nature to try and please. A beggar at heart, I would approach even a dour God as my only hope and serve Him with all of my heart.
However, He is not a dour God. He loves, He favors, he also judges and chastens. I don't know why God is so good to me, but I know that knowing who He is changes the way I respond to Him. I do not have to fear. I am lifted beyond childish attempts to curry favor to experience the breadth of a personality and a goodness I cannot comprehend but will never cease to amaze me.
Saturday, July 23, 2005
Thursday, July 14, 2005
The Emptiest Days
I'm looking for the well that won't run dry
The rest the weary soul cannot deny
When you wrap your arms around me,
I can walk away or face the emptiest days.
When I first heard this song in Derek Webb's soulful voice it seemed a little whiny to me, but something struck me about it. There was a grown-up honesty with which I longed to identify. There are empty days, and on one of them, when I couldn't think of another praise song, this one was in my memory. That's the power of a song to bring you to your maker and help you rest in His truth there.
I read these verses this morning, which I feel are a corrollary to "The Emptiest Days":
Thou hast put gladness in my heart,
More than when their grain and new wine abound.
In peace I will both lie down and sleep,
For Thou alone, O LORD, dost make me to dwell in safety.
Psalm 4:7-8
Selah
The rest the weary soul cannot deny
When you wrap your arms around me,
I can walk away or face the emptiest days.
When I first heard this song in Derek Webb's soulful voice it seemed a little whiny to me, but something struck me about it. There was a grown-up honesty with which I longed to identify. There are empty days, and on one of them, when I couldn't think of another praise song, this one was in my memory. That's the power of a song to bring you to your maker and help you rest in His truth there.
I read these verses this morning, which I feel are a corrollary to "The Emptiest Days":
Thou hast put gladness in my heart,
More than when their grain and new wine abound.
In peace I will both lie down and sleep,
For Thou alone, O LORD, dost make me to dwell in safety.
Psalm 4:7-8
Selah
Monday, July 04, 2005
Second Verse
We sing the first verse of the Star Spangled Banner, which looks back to the creation of our nation. The second verse speaks of our sustenance, and since we rarely sing it, I wanted to present all of the lyrics here. I hope you'll agree that they speak for themselves, and I also hope you enjoy reading them.
And thus be it ever, when free men shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation;
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just;
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust!"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
- Francis Scott Key
And thus be it ever, when free men shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation;
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just;
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust!"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
- Francis Scott Key
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