I’ve posted this before, but it’s become a tradition for me to listen to this great video on Good Friday….by Dr. S.M. Lockridge! And if you haven’t listened to That’s My King by Lockridge….here’s 2 for the price of 1. Both POWERFUL videos.
For Christmas, my mother gave me a beautiful little leather devotional book with my name stamped in the leather – Jesus Calling by Sarah Young. So far, it’s confirming what I believe Jesus IS CALLING me to this year. Well, actually what’s He’s been calling me to for quite a while, but it seems to be more urgent, more focused….His timing + my readiness + my willingness = what He wants from me. Let me quote some sentences of what I’ve read so far this year (written in the First Person of Jesus….hence the book’s name Jesus Calling):
Do not cling to old ways as you step into the new year.
Give yourself fully to this adventure of increasing attentive to My Presence.
Relax in My Healing Presence. (more about this to come….)
I am your burden-bearer.
Try saying “I trust You, Jesus” in response to whatever happens to you.
I may infuse within you a dream that seems far beyond your reach.
It is a faith-walk, taken one step at a time…
This is not a path of continual success but of multiple failures. However, each failure is following by a growth spurt, nourished by increased reliance on Me.
Do not be discouraged by the fact that many of your prayers are yet unanswered. Time is a trainer, teaching you to wait upon Me, to trust Me in the dark.
Trust Me by relinquishing control into My Hands. Let go, and recognize that I am God.
Guard well this gift that I have planted in your heart.
I will not show you what is on the road ahead, but I will thoroughly equip you for the journey.
Try to view each day as an adventure, carefully planned out by your Guide.
Resist your tendency to search for the easiest route through the day. Be willing to follow wherever I lead. No matter how steep or treacherous the path before you, the safest place to be is by My Side.
I realize that there is nothing really new about any of those statements. But believe me, there are tons of GC’s in there for me. Including a Bible passage in the book that has come into my little world many times over the past month or two that I will be addressing later.
Two or three years ago, there was a popular secular song that had, unfortunately, a VERY catchy little tune with lyrics that certainly didn’t jibe with my beliefs. I didn’t even listen that much to radio stations that would play it, but it was everywhere….including my head! One night, as I lay awake with this song playing over and over in my head, like It’s a Small World After All (you’ll probably be cursing my name for the next couple of days HA!), I prayed “Please take this song out of my head. Give me a new song….”
Immediately, “Don’t Get Comfortable” by Brandon Heath came to me and I started singing it in my mind. I was floored when I “sang” the words “this is your new song. “
I’m reminded of this song this year. I really do feel that I am being called out of my comfort zone into a new adventure. A new path that I referred to in my previous post. I’m “standing on the edge” like Brandon sings. The lyrics “So afraid. But you don’t have to be afraid, even if you make mistakes” so speaks to my thoughts, my feelings. Even “Can you feel the call of love. Is it moving you to be a child of God, of love?”
I needed to post two Adjustments today to end the continuing celebration from Handel’s Messiah….His Yoke is Easy Matthew 11:30. And what a wonderful way to end this series….. Merry CHRISTmas everyone!
At the end of his manuscript, Handel wrote the letters “SDG”—Soli Deo Gloria, “To God alone the glory.”
A continuing celebration from Handel’s Messiah…For Unto Us a Son is Born Isaiah 9:6
Isaiah 9:6 has been our advent verse at church. What great words: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And just think….it was for US. For US a child was born. For US a son was given.
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
At the end of his manuscript, Handel wrote the letters “SDG”—Soli Deo Gloria, “To God alone the glory.”