Skip to main content

A Morning View By the Wood Stove

Do you remember? 
What are some of the best moments in your walk with God? 
Where have you had the best mountain top experience? 

I remember going to a Promise Keeper event and there was this band called The Katinas. I had never heard of them and thought it would be a good time to take a break during the conference. Guess what, the next thing I know was that my friends and I were all the way down on the floor right in the front of the stage dancing and jumping around like a bunch of little kids without a worry in the world. It was a spiritual high moment of uninhibited worship before God.

Yesterday, I preached about Job. A very important point I did not spend much time in was that after Job had lost all of his human wealth, property and his children Job WORSHIPED! It was easy for me to jump into worship at Promise Keeper's because the setting was set for worship. Everyone around me was in worship. But Job worshiped in the worst possible moment in his life on earth. Job lost almost everything and he worshiped. 

I wonder during the season of life we are in, what would happen if we just worshiped? It is easier to wallow in the pity of the struggles we face. It is easier to have a pitty party and honestly for awhile it might feel better to wallow than worship. But in the long run God will be in the center of our worship and stay on the fringes of the selfishness of wallowing in sin. 

“Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you’re on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute!

Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies..” - Philippians 4:4-9 The Message


Peace,

PB

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Morning View By the Wood Stove

If you proclaim Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then I must ask you a question. Are you seeking the deepest possible intimate relationship with God that you can ever experience on this earth? Because I know what I am about to say to be absolutely true. If you are not and if you are pursuing anything other than God you will not ever be satisfied and ultimately any other relationship will fail. It does not matter how deeply connected with another person you are without God it will fail. Failure may not mean completely walk away, failure can mean that a relationship will not be what it is intended to be and you settle for it because at least it is there, it's the best I can do, it could be worse and for many other reasons.  We are created to be in relationship with one another. We have many relationships and many depths within those relationships. We have social relationships. We have relationship with many forms of addiction and substitution. We have friends and we have FRIENDS...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Morning View From the Balcony at OBX

So far the weather has not been at its best for us. It is a very cloudy morning. It is rainy with a good chance of clearing up later in the day. But as I sit here this morning I noticed that it does not matter if it is sunny and clear, partly cloudy or even ugly storm cloudy, the sun comes up. We just need to decide how to navigate the day!  Our lives are the same. We need to decide how to navigate each and every day we face. It does not matter what we face, if it is sunny and clear, partly cloudy or even ugly storm cloudy, we still have another day to live and the Son is with us.  I know to some of you this sounds like a no brainer message. Well of course PB, this is the day the Lord has made! Everyday is a great day. To others this is such a difficult message to swallow. It becomes a difficult task to simply tie your shoes. We are all different in our view and response and it is alright to be different.  But please recognize that the sun does come up no matter what. Als...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Morning View By the Wood Stove

I really struggle with what I see and experience in our world today. I say this and am really not sure it is the world as much as it is our country.  I guess it is not so much our country, but with those who proclaim and profess Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. I realize in my setting I am making blanket statements, so this is not intended as an attack on anyone, but as a thought provoking moment for everyone.  My heart has been impressed with proclaiming what it means to be a Christian. I grew up with a checklist and if I did not check the proper blanks, I was not a good Christian. I have found out that living that way is full of a bunch of lies and a dangerous understanding of perceived salvation. I believed that there was no way God could ever forgive me for what I have done and who I have been. Again a dangerous lie. I see and read comments people make about issues, government, religion and their faith in Jesus Christ and I cross reference what is said with how Jesus l...
Post a Comment
Read more