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Examining Our Hearts Following Jesus Struggles

Count the Towers

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“Walk about Zion, and go around her; 
Count her towers; 
Consider her ramparts; 
Go through her palaces; 
That you may tell it to the next generation.  
For such is God, 
Our God forever and ever; 

He will guide us until death.”  ~Psalm 48:12-14

 

I really loved what Tai had to say in her post about Psalm 84 and the highways to Zion.  It was on my mind when I read the above passage.  We have such a great blessing in the history that has gone before us.

Sometimes it can be easy to look back on the heroes of the Bible and think they had it easy, but can you imagine what it was like for Abram to hear from a God no one knew, and simply obey the call to leave everything he did know?  Perhaps, even Abram fell back on the story of Noah.  Noah’s son, Shem, was still alive when Abram left Ur, after all.  It wasn’t a story; even if it was nearly a thousand years later, it was recent history to Abram.  What about Noah?  What did he have to fall back on when God told him to build an ark in order to survive a weather phenomenon that had never happened before?  Well, Noah’s father was born before Adam died.  Even the first people to put faith in God with radical results were not operating on blind faith.  They faced great opposition, but they could see that putting their trust in God was trusting in a stronghold that has never yet been taken by the enemy.

We are very small people.  God’s work will never be undone, but sometimes it is the easiest thing in the world for the enemy to convince us that we are not allowed into the stronghold of Zion.  We have trusted the Lord this far, but we get to thinking that maybe next time our luck will run out, or that we will fail Him, and He will be right in leaving us in a situation for which we blame ourselves.

In times like these, I have found that my greatest comfort and encouragement comes from going about Zion, and counting her towers.  Often, that means going into Scripture and reading of all of the faithful who have gone before me with the Lord.  Hebrews eleven is wonderful on this point.  Who was Abraham?  Just a man who trusted enough to leave his home when God called.  Who was Moses?  Just a man who trusted enough to return to the nation that had wanted him dead, in order to bring over a million people out of slavery and into a desert with no food and hardly any water, all because God told him to do it.  Who was Rahab?  Just a woman who had heard of what the Lord God had done, and trusted the safety of her family to Him.  None of these people are very shining examples of natural trust or skill.  Don’t be afraid if you’re not either.  Consider the ramparts.  A castle is meant to hold the weak inside it.

One of the other ways in which I love to walk about Zion is to recount the ways God has worked in my life, particularly within the past year.  There have been circumstances that would have made me feel like a colossal failure if I had not already seen my brothers and sisters go through the same things, and seen what God had done for them through those situations.  Recently, I received a strong reminder that I am not at all naturally good at the job God has called me to do.  I grew up believing that the best way to be a better person is through militant perfectionism that never shows any weakness.  It has been something that the Lord has been lovingly addressing in my life, but I realized recently what an influence that mindset can still have on the way that I act.  It was a cause of distress, but I have seen the Lord soften my heart so much before now.
“I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in [me] will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” ~Philippians 1:6

 Our strongest faith comes when we believe that God is more real than our fears and circumstances, and that Zion is a stronghold that is greater than the weapons of the enemy.

We are just one small piece of the history of God’s faithfulness.  We rely heavily on those who have gone before us, but there are also those who will see what God has done in our lives and find strength to trust in Him because of it.  Count the towers to strengthen your faith, and to tell it to the next generation.  Faith takes us out on limbs when God calls us to live in deserts with no water, and to receive our daily bread from ravens.

Sound crazy?  Excellent.  That is when others will see that it is the Lord who can be trusted, and not our own worldly wisdom.  It is in the against-all-odds circumstances that He shows Himself so that we may shout “Such is God!  Our God forever and ever!  Who is like our God?  Just wait and see what He will do!”  And such is God.  Our God forever and ever.  And He will guide us even until death.  Keep counting the towers.  Keep considering the ramparts.  Keep going through Zion’s palaces, until you finally enter the throne room in person.

by Stephanie

January 31, 2017
Written by: Stephanie
Art Culture Fruitfulness Reviews

Pure & Holy Passion: Album Review

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It is a special bond when you find someone who loves the same music that you do.  I discovered one such kindred spirit recently in a dear friend and prayer buddy.  I’m the kind of person who discovers that I like a song, and then proceeds to listen to that same song for the rest of the month.  Well, my friend happened to venture into conversation with me during one of these fateful moods, and was hopelessly barraged with links.

What a blessing that she rose to the occasion!

We ended up having a really sweet conversation about our mutual love for the old-fashioned Jesus music.  Of course, there is plenty of more recent music that we both love, but there is just something about the older music, the ones that speak Scripture, that just speaks straight to the heart.  We talked about Petra, I shared with her some of my favorites from Chuck Girard, and she mentioned really enjoying GLAD.  I had some of their albums in my library already, but hadn’t gotten around to listening yet, so on the next available opportunity, I picked out an album called Pure and Holy Passion for a listen.

Even in the midst of a road-trip, when I can listen to hours of music in a single day, it was a few weeks before I listened to anything else.  Here are just a few of the reasons I quickly became so fond of this album:

Style

I love the depth of hymns, and the simplicity of learning to sing or play them.  I often prefer them to the more energetic contemporary Christian music that is popular now.  Pure and Holy Passion offers a pleasant mix of energy and the draw into the presence of the Lord.  How Firm a Foundation is exactly the combination of a hymn and modern pop/jazz accompaniment.  The other songs are more contemporary in origin, but easily parallel this sweet hymn, so that it is very difficult for me to choose just one favorite song.

Tone

Some of the music I tend to keep closest is that which I can use in my prayer time.  Each ends up having its own mood that best suits praise prayers, comfort prayers, or “be still and know” prayers.  Pure and Holy Passion is well designed for active participation.  Some vocalists are very talented, but it may be more easy to listen to them than to join them in praising the Lord.  This album is more like having time to dance with Jesus.  The melody is easy to follow, but the music and the message can turn suddenly, and offer sweet reminders of the character of God that I seemed not to have noticed in the song before.  It can draw me to joyful laughter and tears in the same musical phrase.  It isn’t something to which I listen for my “be still and know” prayers, but I love to be reminded of the wild nature of the Lord.

Skill

The talent displayed on this album is amazing.  I love it when I can just sit and listen to music, picking out the different voices of background instruments, or explore singing different parts of a harmony.  While the melodies of these songs are wonderfully easy to follow in worship, the layers of music to explore are rich and deep.  GLAD also does a great deal of a cappella music, so their voices function just as well as one whole as they do individually, and the result is wonderful to behold.  That doesn’t stop the instruments from having a chance to shine, though.  Every voice, string, and cymbal is given a purposeful role in this symphonic offering to the Lord.

Message

I enjoy a variety of musical styles, but what always makes or breaks it for me is the lyrical content.  The music I love most always has some way with its words to make the truths of God a little bit more real to me than they were before.  This is the biggest reason I’ve been coming back to Pure and Holy Passion again and again for the past two months.  Some of these lines just stick with me in a powerful way.

“The wisdom of a sovereign God,

Whose greatness will be shown,

When those who crucified Your Son,

Rejoice around Your throne.”

—

“Now from your dungeon a rumor is stirring,

You have heard it again and again,

Ah, but this time your cell keys are turning,

And outside are the faces of friends.”

—

“As long as I have breath I will praise You,

As long as my heart beats, I will sing.”

—

“And our voices join with the thousands who

Know mercy because of the cross.

All sinners washed in Your precious blood.

Forever we will sing!”

Even the order of songs is interesting to me.  Many albums begin with the most energetic songs and progressively transition to those that are slow, deep, and personal.  Pure and Holy Passion seems to do the opposite.  Most of the songs are energetic, but the first half mainly comprises the songs that sing of our offerings of praise to God.  Progressively, whatever we may do for God ebbs into the background as the music builds into crescendos of the eternal greatness of our Lord.

It is such a blessing to be able to share praise to the Lord through music, and to know that it will be our greatest joy to share again for eternity with thousands before and after us.  I hope that this music may be as much a blessing to your time with the Lord as it has been to me.

Here is a link to the album on YouTube.  I would love to hear your thoughts!

by Stephanie
January 24, 2017
Written by: Stephanie
Broken Girl Culture Fruitfulness

“Please Weep.”

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weepblog

 

As I was half asleep today, my mind began racing, filling with heart-wrenching scenes of utter depravity and hopelessness which I have observed as we have traversed the continent.

Hollow eyes, desperate faces, bodies marred by sin.

Many kids see the idols of music and film living lives of sin, and yet, with their perfect bodies, glistening hair, designer clothes…and everything their hearts could ever desire handed to them on a silver platter. And they think, “I wouldn’t mind being like that. I’d like to have that level of comfort and the ability to live in those appealing sins, without people criticizing me. And of course, being adored by everyone would be an awesome bonus too!”

But…that is not reality. Those stars are the “pets” of the corrupt men and women who are really at the top, making money off of the kids who have become America’s idols. Of course they will be pampered, and groomed, and doted upon…and the devil is all too glad to give them every earthly pleasure, as long as they lead the Nation’s children down the path to destruction with them. They are tools of the devil. Tools to get impressionable souls to turn from what is pure and good, and to set their feet instead upon the ways of sin. This is the way of the devil: he makes sin to seem attractive. He puts up a sparkling front to lure in the naive. But when the lure is swallowed, the pit of darkness opens below to engulf its victim.

The reality is, the sunken eyes and matted hair of the homeless girl we met, sleeping under a sun-frayed tarp on the sidewalk.

Reality is the man – skin and bones, and face aged by sin, who made his way to the “recreational marijuana shop” because he had nothing more to live for. The scruffy beard, and bag strapped to his bike bespoke of a man, most likely homeless, who was now in bondage to his vice, giving every last bit of money he could beg, borrow, or steal, to keep the unquenchable fire fed.

Reality is the natives, some so very young, who know little more than that liquor numbs the pain. Many of whom wander their dirty, destitute streets, with no hope for the future – in bondage to sin, and to the native spirits that are welcome there…which have no mercy upon their victims.

Sin does not beautify. It does not satisfy. It does not fulfill. It numbs, hardens, causes fear, and strips away all that was sweet, lovely, or innocent. It destroys. It cripples. It enslaves.

And as I thought of these things, there came a voice, “It is right to weep for these desolate ones. Please weep. It is fitting.”

If we are not weeping for these souls, we do not have our eyes open. We need to wake up, look around at the desolation, and cry out to God to rescue these who have been ensnared by sin’s deceitful call, and seek for ways to give them hope, and to hold them back from death.

If you think there’s nothing you can do, just look around you. Even the smallest town is filled with desolate, hopeless ones.

Ask God what He would have you do.

 

(P.S. It is not me trying to get you to cry that is the point of these thoughts. The point is, when we care enough about those around us, and when God fills us with His love and concern for them, crying over their desolation simply shows that we can see clearly, and our hearts are not hardened to the reality of what sin does to us. It shows that we have not gotten “used to” the pain around us. It shows that we are ready to be used by God to reach out to them.)

 

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January 3, 2017
Written by: TAI

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