Worship Song Sunday -- After All, by David Crowder Band

Let them praise Your great and awesome name -- Your name is holy! ~ Psalm 99:3, NLT

Oh, my friends -- indeed it is! Indeed He is!! There is just no way for us to ever wrap our brains around how this awesome, majestic, Creator God -- our Abba Father -- could love and care about and intentionally, consistently pursue a people so small, so flawed, so often ignorant and rebellious towards Him.  

But He does.  And all we can do in response to that perfect love is fall to our knees and sing out to Him:

'You are Holy.  Oh, Holy!'

I can't comprehend Your infinitely beautiful and perfect love;

Oh, I've dreamed dreams of majesty as brilliant as a billion stars,

But they're never bright enough, after all.

You are Holy

Oh, Holy!

Holy, Holy, Holy!

I will sing a song for You, my God, with everything I have in me,

But it's never loud enough, after all.

You are Holy

Oh Holy!

Holy, Holy, Holy!

Heaven and earth are full, full of Your glory, glory,

My soul it overflows full of Your glory, Your glory;

Oh, blessed is He who reigns, full of Your glory, Your glory,

My cup, it can't contain all of Your glory, Your glory

Hosanna, we are found, after all, You are

Holy

Oh Holy

Holy, Holy, Holy

I can't comprehend

You're infinitely beautiful ~ lyrics by David Crowder Band

Prince of Peace, by Akiane Kramarik

For God So Loved The World

John 3:16.


It's the most well known and most quoted verse in the Bible and, according to good old Wikipedia, it has been called 'the Gospel in a nutshell.'  


Pastors preach sermons on it.

Kids learn to recite it in Sunday School, AWANA and Vacation Bible School.


The trendy fashion store, Forever 21, has it printed on the bottom of their bags.

Now, how cool is THIS??

People have written songs, books and Bible studies about it. 


Concert merchandise tables sell apparel, jewelry and key chains proclaiming it.

Fans at sports events hold up signs displaying it.

Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow even referenced it beneath his eyes during the 2009 BCS Championship game.

Wow! Now THAT'S pretty extreme, don't you think?

But that love -- God's Love -- for us is even more extreme.  So much more than we can even fathom.


And yet, for all the times we've heard it/memorized it/recited it/shared it, we could very easily gloss right over the extreme, intense and awesome love of God that this 26 word sentence declares.  


But let's not do that.  Ever.


'For God so loved the world, that He gave His One and Only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

It's so beautiful in its simplicity.


It's breathtaking in its awesome truth.


Yesterday, I came across this video put out by Focus On The Family and was so touched and delighted by it, I just had to share it here.


And yup -- I'm in total agreement with the little girl at the end of it, who breathlessly speaks one single word:


"Wow!"

When There Are No Words

"The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims His handiwork." ~Psalm 19:1

There are days when words just won’t come.

I don’t know what it is -- call it writer’s block or the less creative and much cruder term of a ‘brain fart.’

Or sometimes, there just aren’t the proper words to describe what I see, what I’m feeling and experiencing, what’s on my mind and heart.

It’s like that right now for me.  I currently have no humorous stories to share here.  No challenges to issue. No sage advice or wisdom-filled lessons to dispense here on my blog.  It feels a little odd to me, kind of weird.

So because I’m still ‘newly retired’ ( a mere 5 months), rather than trying to work through this dry spell by spending entire days attending to things like vacuuming, laundry, cleaning out the ‘fridge, purging and rearranging cabinets, closets, kitchen junk drawers and alphabetizing my book shelves, I’ve taken to going out driving and/or walking to places of beauty, quietness and serenity in my area (and with the cold, winter months looming on the horizon, soon I may not want or be able to go anywhere). 

But I can do it now.

I have the time and the availability; I have the good health and the ability.

And -- I’ve got a darn fine Canon PowerShot A590 camera to visually capture, the best that I can, the beauty and the loveliness of the Lord God’s creation in these places I often find on my drives and my walks.

Some of these spots are well known to me and to people from this area. Others are not. Some are places I’ve just ‘happened’ upon, places to which the Lord God has guided me. Places I had no idea even existed so close to me. They have become my 'hiding places', if you will.

I find comfort there
I find peace there
I find contentment there
I find joy there
I find the beauty and holiness and the nearness of my Lord God there

And so I’ve taken to carrying my little camera with me everywhere I go. Because I’ve found that, more often than not, when I’m not looking and I least expect it is when my Abba allows me to stumble upon some breathtaking, indescribably glorious or sweetly simplistic Kodak -- um, Canon -- moment in the sky or along the landscape:

A brilliant, Technicolor (almost double) rainbow

A show-stopping sunset or sunrise

Thick, swirling fog resting gently upon a lake or a pond in the early morning light

An astounding, eye-catching cloud formation

The surprise of colorful flowers in a drab spot

A sudden burst of autumnal brilliance in a grove of trees

Various winged, two and four-legged creatures and beings at work or at play or at rest

　
When I have no thoughts to share or I'm at a loss to verbally describe what I see--

There are pictures…..

Snapshots of life, visuals to share and to convey

The Awesomeness

The Beauty

The Holiness

The Sacredness

The Love

And the Glory of our amazing Father and Creator God!

From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea
Creation's revealing Your majesty
From the colors of fall to the fragrance of spring
Every creature unique in the song that it sings
All exclaiming

Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing God
All powerful, untameable,
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God  ~ Indescribable, by Chris Tomlin (lyrics by Laura Story)

True Value

Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. ~ Luke 12:7

True Value

No, I’m not referring to the hardware store chain. I’m talking about the worth of something…or of someone. Let’s say, for example, you come across what looks to be an old diamond brooch, hidden away in your family’s attic; a brooch you learn once belonged to your great-great-great grandmother. What would you do to find the true value of the piece? Would you ask your neighbor or your professor or your boss to assess it? Not unless that was their field of expertise. No, you’d take it to an authority on antique jewelry instead, someone who is knowledgeable about what to look for in order to find the piece’s true value. Same as if you found yourself the owner of a really old baseball card or comic book in mint condition. You wouldn’t take the word of just ANYBODY as to whether or not you had in your possession something of extreme worth. Again, you’d go straight to the expert to find the card’s or the comic book’s true value.

So how about us? To whom do we go and where do we look to find our true value? It seems to me that too many times, we go to the wrong people and look in the wrong places to find our worth. On the Forbes’ website, you can find lists of ‘ The World’s Richest Americans’ and ‘The World’s Top 20 Billionaires.’ Carlos Slim Helu` (chairman and CEO of Telmex) comes in at number one with a whopping $75 billion dollar net worth, making him the richest person on the planet, with Microsoft’s Bill Gates coming in at Number 2 with a cool $56 billion dollar net worth. Wow! Airbrushed supermodels grace the front covers and pages of magazines and parade before us on TV. We look at them and then at ourselves and wonder where we went wrong. We compare ourselves to other people, a damaging and deadly practice. I should know (and believe me, I’m NOT bragging) because I’ve been doing that for years. And each time, I come away feeling gravely disappointed with myself, worthless, with little or no esteem, ready to throw in the towel and call it quits.

All my life, I’ve looked to other people to validate me. I’ve become involved with or said and done things in the hope of gaining the attention, acknowledgment, accolades and approval of others, that I might be found to have great worth and value in the world’s eyes. But I come up short each time, feeling rejected, discarded, forgotten, worthless. Why? Because these people were not made to define me. They are not the experts on who I am and what I’m worth.

Recently, I submitted my blog to a Christian blog directory in the hopes that I would get more people to read it (completely forgetting that my reason for having this blog in the first place was to be obedient to the LORD and write only because of Him and when He inspires me). Well, after reviewing my blog, the powers-that-be emailed me and told me they’d rejected it for several reasons (which I found to be somewhat lame and didn‘t altogether understand). But the reason that hit me hardest was that the blog content had 'no true value' (their words). Ouch! The sting of rejection hurts and for a short while, boy, I was hurt. And angry. After all, my topics are very personal, coming from deep inside my soul. So naturally, I took it personally, latching onto their ‘no true value’ phrase and transferring onto myself. If my blog stories had no true value, then it stands to reason that I must have no true value, right? WRONG! Why? Because again, these people are not the experts on me. They don’t know me. They cannot and should not be able to define and validate me. And shame on me for once again allowing somebody to do so. There is only One to Whom I’m to look for my worth, for my true value in this life and that is the LORD, Jesus Christ and Him alone. He is indeed The Expert and Authority. No one else knows me, inside and out, like He does.

While I may be a difficult work in progress, a diamond in the rough, the LORD looks at me and sees something beautiful already, even if I don’t, even if no one else does. He knows what I’m worth as His treasured possession and His Word assures me that:
　
I am His Masterpiece (Ephesians 2:10)
I’m the apple of His eye (Psalm17:8)
I’m hidden and held safely in the shadow of His wings (Psalm 17:8)
He’s enthralled with my beauty (Psalm 45:11)
He knows me and calls me by name because I belong to Him (Isaiah 43:1)
My name is engraved (not just written…ENGRAVED!) on the palm of His hands (Isaiah 49:16)
He takes great delight in me and rejoices over me in singing! (Zephaniah 3:17)
He holds me in His hand and never lets go (John 10:28)
He loves me…so much that He willingly took on the brunt of God’s wrath against sin and sinners and gave His life for me…. and won’t allow me to be separated from His love (John 15:12-13; Romans 8:38-39)

Wow. It doesn’t get any better than this, does it? I may not be worth billions of dollars. To some, what I’m worth may only tally up to double digits on a good day. But to the LORD, I’m priceless!

So how about you? Will you join me in being determined to ditch what this world has to say about your worth and instead, let the LORD Jesus be the Expert Who appraises you and shows you what your true value is…in Him? Be encouraged!
　
The days will come when you don't have the strength
When all you hear is you're not worth anything
Wondering if you ever could be loved
And if they truly saw your heart they'd see too much
You're beautiful You're beautiful
You are made so much more than all of this
You're beautiful, You're beautiful
You are treasured, You are sacred, You are His
You're beautiful ~ Beautiful, by Mercy Me