Song of Joy and Comfort

I have this process of reading most mornings and things seem to come before me just as I need them. Recently I was reading about a Scottish Minister from the 1600s; Samuel Rutherford. His biography states that he went through many trials and great suffering losing his wife and two children, yet was transformed and used as a great comforter of people.

As I was reading I came across something Rutherford wrote and it just overwhelmed me with a sense of comfort.

“I creep under my Lord's wings in the great shower, and the waters cannot reach me. Let fools laugh the fools' laughter, and scorn Christ, and bid the weeping captives in Babylon to sing them one of the songs of Zion. We may sing, even in our winter's storm, in the expectation of a summer's sun at the turn of the year. No created powers in hell, or out of hell, can mar our Lord's work, or spoil our song of joy. Let us then, be glad and rejoice in the salvation of our Lord, for faith had never yet cause to have tearful eyes, or a saddened brow, or to droop or die.”

Nothing, not anything can spoil our song of joy! As such we can be glad and rejoice in the salvation of Jesus Christ. Amen!

This brings to mind Psalm 95:1-7:

1 Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. 2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. 3 For the LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods. 4 In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. 5 The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. 6 Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; 7 for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.

Lord Jesus, thank you that you are the Rock of our salvation and we are the flock under your care! How comforting is that…let us sing for joy!

Grace and Peace!

Don't Worry; Be Happy

You know most of us probably have a bunch going on in life; we may feel stretched thin; even overwhelmed with work, Church, economic issues, friends, family…and the list goes on. As I was contemplating this an old song from the 80’s popped into my mind; Don’t Worry, Be Happy.

Now that’s a great title and I don’t know if you know this, but this song; released in 1988, was the first a cappella song ever to reach number one on the billboard hot 100. This song also garnered Grammys for Song of the Year, Record of the Year and best Male Pop Vocal. Pretty amazing and it made me wonder if there were more to the title; so I did a little Google on it and found it was actually a quote from India Mystic; Meher Baba. It was actually a paraphrase from a longer quote that said “Do your best. Then, don’t worry; be happy in my love.”

Great thought which brought to mind Philippians 4:4; Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again; rejoice! Another translations says it like this; I want you to be happy, always happy in the Lord; I repeat what I want is your happiness. Notice in both translations Paul tells us where we will find our happiness; “in the Lord”! So no matter what is going on in this life it is only when we are living with a strong faith in God; only when we grasp onto the radical nature of God’s grace and love through Christ that we find true happiness.

So Don’t Worry; Be Happy has a lot of truth (at least in the title) when we find that happiness in the Lord. Now doesn’t that sound great? But the skeptic in me just has to ask how do you find yourself in the Lord?

I recently read a short bio on a Christian Evangelist named George Mueller. We was born in 1805 and lived most of the 19th century; he witnessed the great awakening of 1859, he worked with D. L. Moody, he preached for Charles Spurgeon and he also was the director of Ashley Down orphanage in England which cared for over 10,000 orphans in his life. He also established 117 schools which offered Christian education to over 120,000 kids. As much as he had on his plate, as busy as he was; as much as he had on his mind, I think Mueller figured out how to be happy in the Lord.

Mueller said; “the first and great primary business to which I ought to attend every day, was to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not, how much I might serve the Lord how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man may be nourished…I saw the most important thing I had to do was give myself to the reading of the Word of God and to meditation on it.”

Amazing – to delight in God’s word; to let it nourish us, and to ensure there is relationship by meditation, contemplation and prayer so that in our busy, busy lives, in our state of being overwhelmed we can rejoice in the Lord, we can always be happy in the Lord; we can Don’t Worry; Be Happy!

Grace and Peace!

Stirring the Pot

Have you ever heard the phrase “stirring the pot?” I have been thinking about that phrase lately, and guess what I did? I looked for a definition and found one online. The phrase stirring the pot means someone who loves to rapidly increase the tension and drama between two or more parties. Have you ever met someone like this?

I can tell you that I have been in places where stirring the pot is the rule rather than the exception. I have been in places where rumors are started and the pot stirrer stands back to admire the stirring. It may seem funny at the time, but when you consider the possibility of damaged relationships and hurt feelings, the results can be devastating.

You know life is tough enough without this kind of “help.” There are real challenges and opportunities to focus on rather than the wasteful actions of stirring things up. You know it just seems to me that it is so much better to build things up rather than tear them down. Doesn’t that make sense? Ephesians 4:29 tells us; “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”

The next time we encounter a stirring of the pot there is something we can do. There are ways to minimize the impact and build up.

First, we can try something called positive gossip – it is not really gossip at all, but is actually choosing to make a positive statement about the topic at hand. It is finding the silver lining, living the cup half full life. It is learning to be content by faith; to rejoice in all circumstances. Do you notice how people stirring the pot can never seem to stir enough? They feed off of the damage they create. What would happen if we were to feed off of positivity? Your positive words have an impact that goes beyond our expectations.

Second, we can communicate. If there is a stirring, ask someone about it, get the facts and don’t let unfounded information fester into something more serious.

Third, we can be forward looking. With vision we can see the potential, we can choose not to wallow in the muck and mire, but look up to the opportunity of our only true hope; Jesus Christ.

Finally, we can truly help to be kingdom builders. We can work together, pull together, and move together to make things better; we can spur and encourage. You if we really stop and think about it, isn’t that what Christ does for each of us?

Hebrews 10:23-25 shows us the way; “23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

Grace and Peace!