December 23, 2024

Washed by the Water

psalmshymnsspiritualsongskjv

Daddy was a preacher
She was his wife
Just trying to make the world a little better
You know, shine a light

People started talking
Trying to hear their own voice
Those people tried to accuse my father
Said he made the wrong choice

Though it might be painful
You know that time will always tell
Those people have long since gone
My father never failed

Even when the rain falls
Even when the flood starts rising
Even when the storm comes
I am washed by the water

Even if the earth crumbles under my feet
Even if the ones I love turn around and crucify me
I won’t never ever let You down
I won’t fall, I won’t fall, I won’t fall
As long as You’re around me

NeedToBreathe
William Rinehart, Nathaniel Rinehart

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School started in our home last week with three little ones off to learn and grow.  I try to find teachable moments with my children that will help them face the trials and lessons that come in elementary and middle school—and there are more than I would like to count.  Daily it seems as if the kids come home with a story of a situation (not always involving them) that they have knowledge of.  Because of the amount of negative stuff around them I always try to teach them that God is always with us.  And that He never leaves us. But, driving to work listening to this song, I realized that this is not just a lesson for my kids…it is a lesson for all of us.

Whether we work inside the home, outside of the home, are retired, or whatever situation we find ourselves in, we are surrounded with an overwhelming amount of stuff, that we need to be reminded that ‘even when the rain falls, even when the flood starts rising, even when the storm comes, I am washed by the water’.  And that despite how overwhelmed we may feel, that we will never fail as long as God is on our side.

So as I remind my kids (and as I remind myself, and as I remind you):

  • despite what the world may look like
  • despite who is talking to hear themselves talk
  • despite the attempts Satan makes to stop us…

God is on our side.   He is our strength.   He is our Living Water.

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Dear Heavenly Father, You are our Strength and You are the Living Water, with You we can never fail.  The world may try to tell us one thing but Your promises tell us another.  Let us take comfort in You and in Your Word.  In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Difference Maker

psalmshymnsspiritualsongskjv

Yeah, isn’t it amazing how a man can find himself alone
Call into the darkness for an answer that’s he’s never known
Yeah, isn’t it amazing how God can take a broken man
Yeah, let him find a fortune, let him ruin it with his own two hands
And he climbs on up the hill on the rock on which he stands

He looks back at the crowd
He looks down at his hands and he says
I am a difference maker

Oh, I am the difference maker
Oh, I am the only one who speaks to him
And I am the friendliest of friends of God 

I am on the fence about nearly everything I’ve seen
And I have felt the fire be put out by too much gasoline
And we’re all strangers passing through a place and time afternoon
Life is but a vision in a window that we’re peeking throughA helpless conversation with a man who says he cares a lot
It’s a passive confrontation about who might throw a punch or not
We are all transgressors, we’re all sinners, we’re all astronauts
So if you’re beating death then raise your hand but shut up if you’re not

‘Cause I am the difference maker
Oh, I am the only one that speaks to him
And I am the friendliest of friends of God

     ~  Sing this song with me as our prayer and worship today.  ~

~  Songwriters: Bo and Bear Rineheart / Performed by NEEDTOBREATHE  ~

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Easter is an event we all look forward to each year with much anticipation, wonder, and awe.  The women look forward to being able to buy and wear new clothes and shoes.  Children look forward to the basket that bunny person leaves every year and being able to find all of those lost eggs.  Probably the best thing about Easter for me, though, is to tell the kids at church about how our Lord and Savior went to the Cross and died for all of our sins.  While we use a DVD curriculum we also have the ability to tell our kids how God has impacted our lives.

Difference Maker is about how some of us think that God only talks to us and that these are the only ones that make a difference.  Just as Paul says we are all members of one body and each of us have certain tasks to perform, we should not make others feel inferior.  Rather we are to build them up and tell God of their good deeds.  Even when those who serve alongside us might get hurt.  We are to love unconditionally…first in the church and then we will have a better ability to love outside the church.

For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.  For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.  For the body is not one member, but many.  If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?  And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?  If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing?  If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?  But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.  And if they were all one member, where were the body?  But now are they many members, yet but one body.  And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.  Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary:  And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness.  For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked:  That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.  And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.
1 Corinthians 12:12-26 KJV

Could you imagine if we followed Paul’s advice, how much better we would be?  I want to strive to be more attuned to the needs of my brothers and sisters (members) of the church and love on them the way God intended.

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Father, I know that You speak to others and work through them.  I have seen it in my walk through life.  How You have put people in my life to help me grow and mature.  Help me, inspire me by Your Holy Spirit to seek You in all that I do and say.  Help me to remember to include others in what could be a great blessing in their life.  In Jesus’ name, amen.