Unredeemed

One of the perks I enjoy best about serving God is getting to watch Him work miracles. Every time I see Him work one it just reminds me how much He loves us and how His love is limitless. Thankfully I have been blessed to get to see quite a few miracles lately...some in my own life, others in those of my friends and acquaintances.

Recently I have had the privilege of watching God begin to restore a family to which I am quite close. A while back I wrote a blog entitled "The Battlefield". In this blog I referenced my dear friend and the guilt and misery she was feeling at the time. Shortly after on Facebook I posted a video to a song that I felt very strongly to share with her. What to many would look like an impossible situation, God could and is redeeming. Below are the lyrics to this beautiful song. "But when anything that's shattered is laid before the Lord"---This is the key. God HAS TO be in it for redemption to come...and because of grace it WILL come. The catch? You must ALWAYS keep God the center of your universe. He's only going to show off for those who will give Him the praise He alone deserves!

Redeem: to release from blame or debt

Grace: unmerited (undeserved) favor from God

Unredeemed
The cruelest word
The coldest heart
The deepest wound
The endless dark
The lonely ache
The burning tears
The bitter nights
The wasted years

Life breaks and falls apart
But we know these are
Places where grace is soon to be so amazing
It may be unfulfilled
It may be unrestored
But when anything that's shattered is laid before the Lord
Just watch and see
It will not be unredeemed

For every choice that led to shame
And all the love that never came
For every vow that someone broke
And every life that gave up hope
We live in the shadow of the fall
But the cross says these are all
Places where grace is soon to be so amazing
It may be unfulfilled
It may be unrestored
But when anything that's shattered is laid before the Lord
Just watch and see
It will not be unredeemed

Places where grace is soon to be so amazing
It may be unfulfilled
It may be unrestored
But you never know the miracle the Father has in store
Just watch and see
It will not be
Just watch and see
It will not be unredeemed

In a Moment...

I've been thinking about the story in John 9 lately...There's a man who has been blind his whole life. Jesus heals him. Immediately the Pharisees begin to interrogate him and his parents, asking them questions about Jesus, questioning whether His healing power really came from God,etc. He stands up for Jesus and then is cast out from them...Then the following happens:

Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him. ~John 9:35-38

In John 4, the longest conversation with Jesus recorded in the Bible occurs..with an outcast Samaritan lady who is living in sin. Jesus is sitting at the well. She's in the process of drawing water from it. She's there for the type of water that evaporates. He's there to share with her living, eternal water. As their conversation continues, eventually the following ensues:

The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her,I that speak unto thee am he. And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her? The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men,Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ? John 4:25-29

"Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee."

"I that speak unto thee am he."

What must it have been like to have been standing face to face with Jesus and heard him say these words?! In a moment their lives were completely changed. In just one single moment.

The formerly blind man worshiped. The ex-adulterer left the water pot she may have been taking back to "her man" and instead began to witness about the amazingness of God.

In a moment.

Just. One. Moment.

Anything can happen in a moment. Good or bad. The point is though..it only takes a moment. A moment to make a decision to choose God. A moment to make a decision to follow that calling. A moment to make things right with that family member or friend. A moment to give that item or money to the poor. A moment to open your mouth and tell someone about Jesus. Just one moment.

Life is full of moments. They all add up and we need to be sure to make them count. Eventually our moments will all be used up...

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. ~1 Corinthians 15:52

In preparation for THAT moment, let's be sure to use our moments wisely.

Blessings

O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him. ~Psalm 34:8

Today I was sitting in my car, just watching passing traffic, waiting for an opportunity to pull out on the main road. As I was sitting I saw in a passing vehicle a father signing to his teenage daughter....when I saw this I felt a check in my spirit. I immediately thanked God for something many of us take for granted..the ability to simply hear voices..the ability to be able to enjoy beautiful music...the list could go on & on. It is easy to take things for granted, especially when everyone else seems to enjoy the same blessing. There is no blessing that everyone else enjoys, other than the opportunity to experience salvation. No matter what the case, someone somewhere is less privileged in some way than you.

Lately I have been trying to adjust to the fact that I will soon be saying goodbye for a long time to many of my favorite people. The goodbyes that are hardest for me to think about are the ones with my twin niece & nephew and my father. Goodbyes have never been all that hard for me; this time though is a bit harder...

This time I am going on a mission trip for longer than I have ever went on one before...and this time I have no intentions to come back and finish school, etc like I have done in the past...my intentions are simply to do whatever it takes to continue following God's will for my life and my home town is not where God has called me, but rather one of the places He has prepared me.

This time I have a niece & nephew who are two and who have completely stolen my heart. This time I have a father who is in his 70s and who had three silent strokes last year. This time is different.

While talking with God earlier this week about this and asking him how best to cope, I felt Him speak to me, "Thank me for the blessings." So, I began to think about what God meant. It didn't take long to realize exactly what he'd meant....

1) My niece & nephew are miracle babies..the babies we prayed for for 10 years...they are an answer to prayer. Beautiful. Healthy. Great personalities. I'm proud & thankful to be their "Aunt Rachel".

2)When I got the phone call while living in Tupelo, MS last year that my Dad had experienced a minor stroke, I could have arrived home and found him in a much worse condition...I had a grandma who was paralyzed on one side for over 10 years. That's the only way I ever knew her. I automatically thought of her when I received the voicemail from my sister-in-law. But God saw to heal my Dad from ninety percent of the damage that had been caused from the strokes within weeks of them occurring.

3) I've grown up with a father who has always been there for us and always shown love to my Mom & us.
4) My father is a very godly man whom I've never heard a negative word spoken about...a true example of Christ.
5) Him & my Mom have brought me up to know & love God as well and to always follow His will.

Sometimes it's important to stop and count our blessings...The specific blessing that God was talking about to me? The blessing of simply having an awesome niece & nephew and a loving, godly father to whom to even be able to say goodbye. It's easy to take for granted how blessed we really are.

So....as I was sitting in that car earlier today thinking about thanking God for things I take for granted, this song (see link at bottom) came on the radio.
Sometimes we take obviously good things for granted...but sometimes things we think are bad, are actually good...blessings in disguise. Some of these we may never realize until we get to heaven. As the old song goes, "We'll understand it better by and by."

Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some. ~Charles Dickens

I hope this song touches you as it did me. God bless!

Blessings

What if You're Wrong?

I was thinking about the song "What if You're Wrong?" today, and then while listening to my mp3 player I heard a sermon Rev. David Bernard had preached recently. At one point in his message he made a reference to a quote by a theologeon who lived in the 1600s, Blaise Pascal. Rev. Bernard referred to a wager Pascal once proposed...

"If you think of your life as a wager, should you bet that there is a God or should you bet that there is not a God?...Now think about this. What's the worst that could happen if you bet that there's a God and He's really not there? What's the worst that could happen? The worst that could happen is that you could die and never know that you were wrong. That's it. So you live your life. Your dead and your gone. That's the worst that could happen. You don't lose anything. You'd die and that'd be it, no matter what. But what if there really is a God and you bet that there isn't? Whether you become an atheist or rather you theoretically believe in God but you live according to your own will without consulting God, in effect you're betting that God doesn't matter. What if you bet that there isn't a God...and there really is. What's the worst that could happen? Well,you lose eternal life and you have eternal damnation."

Pascal went on to say, "So, from a purely practical point of view, what's the smart thing to do?... BET ON GOD! If you bet on God and He's not there, you haven't lost anything. But if you don't bet on Him and He is there, you've lost everything...for now and for eternity.

In reference to Pascal's quote, Rev. Bernard said, "Act as if He is real and you will find that He is real!" Once you take that step to open up your heart to God He WILL reveal Himself to you. Whether or not you believe in Him or love Him, He loves you. And He's simply waiting for you to take that first step. Like a loving Father toward His child, His arms are outstretched. The choice is yours.

I encourage you to read the lyrics to this song and watch the video link at the top.

What if you're right?
And he was just another nice guy
What if you're right?
What if it's true?
They say the cross will only make a fool of you
And what if it's true?

What if he takes his place in history
With all the prophets and the kings
Who taught us love and came in peace
But then the story ends
What then?

But what if you're wrong?
What if there's more?
What if there's hope you never dreamed of hoping for?
What if you jump?
And just close your eyes?
What if the arms that catch you, catch you by surprise?
What if He's more than enough?
What if it's love?

What if you dig
Way down deeper than your simple-minded friends
What if you dig?
What if you find
A thousand more unanswered questions down inside
That's all you find?

What if you pick apart the logic
And begin to poke the holes
What if the crown of thorns is no more
Than folklore that must be told and retold?

But what if you're wrong?
What if there's more?
What if there's hope you never dreamed of hoping for?
What if you jump?
And just close your eyes?
What if the arms that catch you, catch you by surprise?
What if He's more than enough?
What if it's love?

You've been running as fast as you can
You've been looking for a place you can land for so long
But what if you're wrong?

What if you're wrong?
What if there's more?
What if there's hope you never dreamed of hoping for?
What if you jump?
And just close your eyes?
What if the arms that catch you, catch you by surprise?
What if He's more than enough?
What if it's love?

Hope

This morning I woke up in quite a good mood....with the lyrics to this song in my head:

Precious Lord, take my hand
Lead me on, help me stand
I am tired
I am weak
I am worn
Through the storm,
Through the night
Lead me on to the light
Take my hand, precious lord
Lead me home

My first thought was "I'm feeling just fine right now..so why am I waking up with lyrics to a song about feeling tired,weak,and worn? This was definitely not the song of choice I wanted stuck in my head all day.

Then, as I was reading my Bible this same morning, I read the following verse:

If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.~1 Cor.15:19

Paul, the writer of the above scripture, experienced ALOT of bad things in his life, much of which is recorded in 2 Corinthians 11:22-33. As shown in the verse above though, he realized that in the big picture of things it just didn't matter. He admitted that if he was just thinking about the present, the life he had experienced here on earth, and not the glorious eternity God has promised those who serve him, he would be most miserable. Not just miserable, but the most miserable of ALL men.....and after reading 2 Corinthians 11, who can blame him?!!! (On a side note, I have decided that from now on when I'm having a "bad day" I'm reading this chapter to keep things in perspective. :-)

The point:
It's ok to sometimes feel tired, weak, and worn. We are all human. We all sometimes wake up "on the wrong side of the bed" for what seems like absolutely no reason. The important thing is that our focus is right and that it never changes---

70 years vs. eternity....

Where and with whom have you placed your hope?

I remember many years ago as a Bible quizzer sitting on the bed in my grandma's house in the mountains of West Virginia late on Christmas Eve night memorizing verses for the soon starting season..... I remember this particular moment because I remember how quickened in my Spirit I felt as I memorized the verses below:

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. ~1 Thess. 4:16-18

It's like I felt God saying "Hope in this. Remember this. Focus on this...This is what it's all about. Don't forget it."

This morning when I was thinking about how Paul said he would be "of all men most miserable", I began to think about "When am I the most miserable?" I am the most miserable when I take the blinders off..when I choose judgement or justice toward others over mercy...when I begin to look at people or circumstances through the world's eyes, rather than through Gods. I am the most miserable when I take my eyes off Christ and the promise of eternity in Heaven and turn my focus towards anything that is not eternal.

Thankfully we do not have hope in Christ in this life only. We have an eternal hope!

Through the storm,
Through the night
Lead me on to the light
Take my hand, precious lord
Lead me home!