Then Sings My Soul Saturday - Every Season

Along with Amy who hosts this meme, I am posting a song that ministers to me. Please pop by Amy's to hear more songs that minister.

This song by Nichole Nordeman, Every Season, speaks of the changing seasons, the cycle of change in Nature that mirrors our own lives.

Today, for some of us, it is summer, life is good, we are warm inside and out....
then for some, it is spring, a new start, a new life, buds of hope are springing eternal...
then again, it may be Fall or autumn for some of us, the quality of life is waning...
and finally, it may be a wintry time for some of us, the dying, the death of self, our old 'normal'...

but, whatever the season...in joy or pain, let us remember:

Deuteronomy 31:8 (Amplified Bible)
It is the Lord Who goes before you; He will [march] with you; He will not fail you or let you go or forsake you; [let there be no cowardice or flinching, but] fear not, neither become broken [in spirit--depressed, dismayed, and unnerved with alarm].

^{Lamentations 3:21-26 (NIV)}

²¹ Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:

²² Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.

²³ They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

²⁴ I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him."

²⁵ The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;

²⁶ it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD.

Every Season
by Nichole Nordeman

Every evening sky, an invitation
To trace the patterned stars
And early in July, a celebration
For freedom that is ours
And I notice You
In children’s games
In those who watch them from the shade
Every drop of sun is full of fun and wonder
You are summer

And even when the trees have just surrendered
To the harvest time
Forfeiting their leaves in late September
And sending us inside
Still I notice You when change begins
And I am braced for colder winds
I will offer thanks for what has been and was to come
You are autumn

And everything in time and under heaven
Finally falls asleep
Wrapped in blankets white, all creation
Shivers underneath
And still I notice you
When branches crack
And in my breath on frosted glass
Even now in death, You open doors for life to enter
You are winter

And everything that’s new has bravely surfaced
Teaching us to breathe
What was frozen through is newly purposed
Turning all things green
So it is with You
And how You make me new
With every season’s change
And so it will be
As You are re-creating me
Summer, autumn, winter, spring

A 16-yr-old declares his faith....

OK, I have to confess that the day felt like my son was getting married...well, like how I think I might feel...(-; . It was totally surreal. When my son stepped out the door to descend into the baptistry, I started shaking, I was in awe. Wow, my little prince. The day I have been waiting for. That picture is forever etched in my memory.
Thank You, Lord. All glory and praise is Yours.

With his permission, I share my son's journey in faith thus far...[my comments are in red]

My life hasn’t been very long, but there’s been a lot of stuff, I have to say.
Life began for me in July of 1993. I was born into a Christian family, and was raised as such. I have a great family, one who raised me in the church, and reinforced its values at home.

I’ve got a loving mom, a caring dad, and a brother that I can’t properly describe,
[at this remark, the whole church erupted in laughter when his undescribable brother yelled out "thanks!"] ...but he’s good too.
And yes, there's my aunt..can't properly describe her either. [another eruption of laughter as my sister is rather well-known for umm...eccentricities]

I’ve been going to Rexdale [our church-Rexdale Alliance Church] since I was really small. There’s never really been another church that I’ve gone to. Rexdale is like a second home to me. Here, I’ve learnt a lot of what it means to be a Christian. I accepted Christ at the age of four. But from then on till about grade seven, I never went to God unless I felt I wanted something.

I was a sort of sentimental Christian, only going to God when I felt I needed him. Nothing more. It wasn’t a relationship. It was more like me mooching off of someone who loved me a lot. [I thought this was really insightful]
And I gave nothing back.

Time went on. I gained many friends from church. I had a community there.
All my Jam and Roots [Jam is Gr.7-8 and Roots is Gr.9-12] people out there, I’m talking to you.
It was a place I loved to be. But something different happened when I came to Jam. Here, I saw leaders who in many ways were like me. They were young, older than me obviously, but still young enough to be considered young in my books.

There was also Pastor Steevens. [Our youth pastor and the person who baptised him] What a guy. All I have to say. Also, that he’s great, and has been a big and godly influence in my life. Here I saw a different kind of life. A life lived with Christ. With Christ. That’s something pretty important.

Christ was active in their lives. They prayed to him all the time. They had a relationship with him. That’s the thing that kept me coming to Jam, along with the fellowship and the games. I made it my ultimate purpose, every Friday – besides the first Friday of the month of course – to be there.

Time continued on. I passed from grade eight and into the Roots stage. The moment I came to the first one, I realized there was something different. There were games, yes. But that ended quickly. That was the big difference.
It was a lot more teaching than I used to, so young as I was, I was slightly annoyed. [laughter...so genuine] I loved the games. A lot. What was wrong with the games? Why weren’t there more?

The teaching was something I valued, but it seemed to be, I valued it a bit less than the games. I became a bit dissatisfied with Roots. Then Blizzard came around.[the winter youth retreat]

It really hit home here, how important a relationship is with God. Because he can transform you. He will work in you, and do things you can’t do, “for nothing is impossible with God.”

A guy who had previously never been to youth group before gave his life to Christ that weekend. I didn’t show it, but I was deeply moved inside. I realized, on the Saturday night session, just what being a Christian is all about.

It’s about a constant relationship with him. I re-gave my life to him that night, this time for real, I have not looked back since.

I never really considered baptism until a few months ago. It never really crossed my mind. But I’ve realized over the past months that baptism is an act of obedience. It’s not a choice. You’re obeying God when you show the world that you’ve chosen to follow him and that you are free in his salvation and grace.

I knew, ever since the last baptism, that I would be going to the next baptism class, because I’ve decided that for the rest of my life, through all of my shortcomings and flaws, I’m going to do my best to follow him in all that I do, and run the good race. Through all the troubles I see, I will cling to the fact that my life is in his hands, for "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him."

===========

After he shared, his encourager, his small group leader, spoke of my son's 'special' gift as a person who influences those around him by his very nature. And as I remembered what one of his teachers had said about him, that 'the other students got quiet and listened to my son as he shared his insights on faith, ...that they gravitated towards him'...and then looked around and saw that 5 of his high school friends had come, I just thanked God. Now I know that my work in prayer is increasing as warfare is a given when anyone advances the kingdom of God. But how I thank God.

"Given of God" is getting baptized!

This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it!

Today, my 16-year-old, "Given-of-God", will make a public profession of his faith in the waters of baptism. Five of high school friends will come, along with many of the church family friends. The following song describes my son. He is indeed a spark, a bright spark, who plunges headlong into life, loving, laughing, sharing his faith. I am so proud this day, and at the same time sobered, knowing he is in a spiritual battle. I would appreciate prayers for him. Thank you!

May you pass on God's love and God's hope to everyone around you... it only takes a spark to keep the fire going,
And, Dude, You definitely got that spark going!!
You are my spark!

With Gratitude to God for you.
With love, thoughts and prayers,
Mom.

Pass It On

It only takes a spark to get a fire going.

And soon all those around, can warm up in glowing.

That's how it is with God's love,

Once you've experienced it, you spread His love to everyone;

You want to pass it on.

What a wondrous time is spring, when all the trees are budding;

The birds begin to sing, the flowers start their blooming.

That's how it is with God's love;

Once you've experienced it, you want to sing

"It's fresh like spring"; you want to pass it on.

I wish for you my friend, this happiness that I've found.

You can depend on Him, it matters not where you're bound.

I'll shout it from the mountain top - PRAISE GOD

I want the world to know; the Lord of love has come to me,

I want to pass it on.

©1969 Bud John Songs, Inc

Words and Music by Kurt Kaiser

Then Sings My Soul Saturday

I recently saw this song performed at a wedding. I absolutely fell in love with the jazzy quirky melody. Makes the words even more poignant. Hope you enjoy this love song, remembering that Jesus' love is the only completely unconditional love. He loved us "while we were yet sinners."
Then please drop by Amy's to hear more songs that minister.

Romans 5:7-9 (Amplified Bible)

⁷Now it is an extraordinary thing for one to give his life even for an upright man, though perhaps for a noble and lovable and generous benefactor someone might even dare to die.

⁸But God shows and clearly proves His [own] love for us by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) died for us.

⁹Therefore, since we are now justified, (acquitted, made righteous, and brought into right relationship with God) by Christ's blood, how much more [certain is it that] we shall be saved by Him from the indignation and wrath of God.

Romans 5:7-9 (The Message)

^6-8Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn't, and doesn't, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn't been so weak, we wouldn't have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.

^9-11Now that we are set right with God by means of this sacrificial death, the consummate blood sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we're at our best, just think of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God, we are no longer content to simply say it in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to God through Jesus, the Messiah!

(Ingrid Michaelson) - The Way I Am

If you were falling, then I would catch you
You need a light, I'd find a match

Cuz I love the way you say good morning
And you take me the way I am

If you are chilly, here take my sweater
Your head is aching; I'll make it better

Cuz I love the way you call me baby
And you take me the way I am

I'd buy you Rogaine when you start losing all your hair
Sew on patches to all you tear

Cuz I love you more than I could ever promise
And you take me the way I am
You take me the way I am
You take me the way I am

Then Sings My Soul Saturday

[My 400th post!]

Last night I could not sleep and picked up a book by Will Davis Jr., Pray Big: The Power of Pinpoint Prayers. Wow, was I ever glad, because even as the wee hours of the morning approached and sleep still would not come, I found myself praying those pinpoint prayers using the 2 basic principles he pointed out: be specific and be biblical. I would love to share more later, but for now, I found this quote quite helpful to start with, following Jesus' response to his disciples request to teach them how to pray:

Matt. 6:9-13 (The Holy Bible, NIV)

⁹"This, then, is how you should pray:
" 'Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
¹⁰your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹Give us today our daily bread.
¹²Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
¹³And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.'

Will breaks this down into pinpoint prayers:

Target: God's glory.
Pinpoint Prayer: Let Your Name be honored and exalted.
Target: God's Agenda.
Pinpoint Prayer: Let Your kingdom and will function in my life today with the same efficiency and ease as they do in heaven.

Target: God's Provision.
Pinpoint Prayer: Please give me today everything that I need.
Target: Relational Health.
Pinpoint Prayer: Please forgive me and help me to be forgiving.
Target: God's protection.
Pinpoint Prayer: Keep me free from temptation and rescue me when I am assaulted by evil.

So in line with what I have been learning, let us sing, He Never Sleeps by Don Moen. Isn't it great He's always up with us? Please pop by Amy's to hear more songs that minister.

He Never Sleeps (Don Moen)

When you've prayed every prayer
that you know how to pray.
Just remember the Lord will hear
and the answer is on it's way.

Our God is able.
He is mighty.
He is faithful.

And He never sleeps, He never slumbers.
He never tires of hearing our prayer.
When we are weak He becomes stronger.
So rest in His love and cast all of your cares on Him.

Do you feel that the Lord
has forgotten your need.
Just remember that God is always
working in ways you cannot see.

Our God is able.
He is mighty.
He is faithful.

Then Sings My Soul Saturday

Here is an excerpt of my Utmost For His Highest devotional
this morning. I would say it goes quite well with the song
God brought to my attention.

Confidence Not Misplaced

"The LORD God will help me"   (Isaiah 50:7).

...O my soul, thy sorrows are as the small dust of the balance
compared with thy LORD's!
Canst thou not believe that the LORD God will help thee?
Thy LORD was in a peculiar position;
for as the representative of sinful men
-- their substitute and sacrifice
-- it was needful that the Father should leave Him
and cause Him to come under desertion of soul.
No such necessity is laid upon thee:
thou art not bound to cry, "Why hast thou forsaken me?"
Did thy Savior even in such a case still rely upon God,
and canst not thou?
He died for thee and thus made it impossible
that thou shouldst be left alone;
wherefore, be of good cheer.

In this day's labors or trials say,
 "The LORD God will help me." 
Go forth boldly.
Set your face like a flint
and resolve that no faintness or shamefacedness
shall come near you.
If God helps, who can hinder?
If you are sure of omnipotent aid,
what can be too heavy for you?
Begin the day joyously,
and let no shade of doubt come between thee
and the eternal sunshine...

Today I am posting an old favorite artist of mine, Randy Stonehill, with a new song from his album Edge of the World, Dare To Believe. He is edgy and relevant like Larry Norman. The words to this song resonate with my struggle in recent times. I pray that you will dare to believe with me. Please drop by Amy's to hear more songs that minister.

DARE TO BELIEVE

(Stonehill/Kilpatrick)


I admit my faith is small and I’m easily distracted

My imitation of myself is poorly overacted

And the mirror shows the lines upon my face

I get to wondering if I’m one more hopeless case

It’s just so hard to wrap my heart and mind around,

This thing called grace (you’ve got to)

Chorus:

Turn off your television, shut off the radio

Listen to your own heart beating

Listen to the wind blow and

Feel the sun on your face

Feel the tears in your eyes and

Dare to believe that Jesus loves you

Dare to believe He really loves you


At times I think my prayers are some kind of delusion

And even if God’s listening, my words are an intrusion

My failures make up such a lengthy list

I think of all the chances I have missed

This penchant for self-loathing is a hard one to resist

(you’ve got to)

Chorus

Bridge:

It’s as easy and as hard as this

To accept that Love is living and real

You’ve got to step out off the edge into the great unknown

If you want to feel God’s hand beneath your heel

Praying with Moses

Psalm 90 (The Amplified Bible)

A Prayer of Moses the man of God.

¹LORD, YOU have been our dwelling place and our refuge in all generations [says Moses].

²Before the mountains were brought forth or ever You had formed and given birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting You are God.

³You turn man back to dust and corruption, and say, Return, O sons of the earthborn [to the earth]!

⁴For a thousand years in Your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.

⁵You carry away [these disobedient people, doomed to die within forty years] as with a flood; they are as a sleep [vague and forgotten as soon as they are gone]. In the morning they are like grass which grows up--

⁶In the morning it flourishes and springs up; in the evening it is mown down and withers.

⁷For we [the Israelites in the wilderness] are consumed by Your anger, and by Your wrath are we troubled, overwhelmed, and frightened away.

⁸Our iniquities, our secret heart and its sins [which we would so like to conceal even from ourselves], You have set in the [revealing] light of Your countenance.

⁹For all our days [out here in this wilderness, says Moses] pass away in Your wrath; we spend our years as a tale that is told [for we adults know we are doomed to die soon, without reaching Canaan].

¹⁰The days of our years are threescore years and ten (seventy years)--or even, if by reason of strength, fourscore years (eighty years); yet is their pride [in additional years] only labor and sorrow, for it is soon gone, and we fly away.

¹¹Who knows the power of Your anger? [Who worthily connects this brevity of life with Your recognition of sin?] And Your wrath, who connects it with the reverent and worshipful fear that is due You?

¹²So teach us to number our days, that we may get us a heart of wisdom.

¹³Turn, O Lord [from Your fierce anger]! How long--? Revoke Your sentence and be compassionate and at ease toward Your servants.

¹⁴O satisfy us with Your mercy and loving-kindness in the morning [now, before we are older], that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

¹⁵Make us glad in proportion to the days in which You have afflicted us and to the years in which we have suffered evil.

¹⁶Let Your work [the signs of Your power] be revealed to Your servants, and Your [glorious] majesty to their children.

¹⁷And let the beauty and delightfulness and favor of the Lord our God be upon us; confirm and establish the work of our hands--yes, the work of our hands, confirm and establish it.

Psalm 91

¹HE WHO dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall remain stable and fixed under the shadow of the Almighty [Whose power no foe can withstand].

²I will say of the Lord, He is my Refuge and my Fortress, my God; on Him I lean and rely, and in Him I [confidently] trust!

³For [then] He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence.

⁴[Then] He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings shall you trust and find refuge; His truth and His faithfulness are a shield and a buckler.

⁵You shall not be afraid of the terror of the night, nor of the arrow (the evil plots and slanders of the wicked) that flies by day,

⁶Nor of the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor of the destruction and sudden death that surprise and lay waste at noonday.

⁷A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you.

⁸Only a spectator shall you be [yourself inaccessible in the secret place of the Most High] as you witness the reward of the wicked.

⁹Because you have made the Lord your refuge, and the Most High your dwelling place,

¹⁰There shall no evil befall you, nor any plague or calamity come near your tent.

¹¹For He will give His angels [especial] charge over you to accompany and defend and preserve you in all your ways [of obedience and service].

¹²They shall bear you up on their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone.

¹³You shall tread upon the lion and adder; the young lion and the serpent shall you trample underfoot.

¹⁴Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him; I will set him on high, because he knows and understands My name [has a personal knowledge of My mercy, love, and kindness--trusts and relies on Me, knowing I will never forsake him, no, never].

¹⁵He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.

¹⁶With long life will I satisfy him and show him My salvation.