“Courage is fear that has said its prayers and decided to go forward anyway.” Joyce Meyer

What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. Among the sins to which the human heart is prone, hardly any other is more hateful to God than idolatry, for idolatry is at bottom a libel on His character. The idolatrous heart assumes that God is other than He is – in itself a monstrous sin – and substitutes for the true God one made after its own likeness. Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God. For this reason, the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like. “The Knowledge of the Holy” by A. W. Tozer

Here is an article from an online magazine by Steven Curtis Chapman that you may enjoy reading

Worship and Believe-SCC

Be sure to read this interview done by CCLI (Christian Copyright Licensing Inc.) with Chris Tomlin who writes so many of the songs of worship we sing.  The interview can be found here

Matthew 6: 25-34 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”

My fears these days lie in the area of Motherhood.  I’m a mother to a newborn (who by the way is the cutest baby on the planet).  The insecurities and questions about my ability to really sustain his life rattle me to my inner core.  This reality, and the fear that resides in my heart surprise me, and I’ve been trying to calm my anxious heart for weeks now.  This uneasiness I know is not from the Lord, and it has been on my mind to meditate on it and continue to ask the Lord to remove it.   Journey together with me as I meditate on fear.

Fear after all is evidence that the created has taken the place of the creator.  When did fear enter the garden?  What was Adam and Eve afraid of?  Genesis 3:10 says that Adam replied to God that he was afraid.  Fear enters the heart of man for the very first time.  Sin had occurred, Adam had broken the promise he made to the Lord, and fear rushed in.  When created things set themselves up as Creator in their lives fear rushes in.  We were not designed to bear the weight of the Divine, and when we try, we are crushed under its weight, fear reigns and our hearts are miserable.

In Contrast Matthew mentions the lilies of the field.  The created blissfully trust their Maker for the provision of just the right combination of sun & rain.  The birds of the air, they never worry about storing up provisions and making sure their 401 K’s are fully funded.  There is no fear when we realize we are created, that we have a Maker who is moving heaven and earth and can control what comes in (and what goes out) of our lives.

What fears lurk in the back of your mind?  Do you fear where the resources will come to provide for your family? Do you fear not obtaining that promotion, that degree, that accolade?  Do you fear the past, or the future?  Where does your desire to be the Creator reside? Is it in controlling those who you work with, your children’s scholastic path, your own destiny?

In my mothering can I trust the Lord to be faithful to provide for Jeremiah?  He is after all is the Lord’s.  Can I trust the Lord to ensure his nutrition, to sustain his health all the days of his life?  I can when I stop being the Creator in Jeremiah’s life.  When I stop owning the responsibility of his every breath.  When I can lay down my fear, when I can focus on the good God of Heaven who has given his own Son for my ransom, when I know that His Hand ultimately has shaped the universe and given the lilies of the field life, then… and only then will my fear subside.

Pray for me friends, as I pray for you that the fears of this life will be silenced and overwhelmed by joy as we worship our God as the created, and lay down our obsession to be Creator in our lives and the lives of those the Lord has placed around us.

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

As anyone from the East Coast knows, heading to central or western Canada via the Trans-Canada always involves “getting through Montreal.” Highway 40’s weird off-ramps, hairpin twists, and an oddly high percentage of vehicles without signal lights make this an hour of white-knuckle driving in each direction. We’ve made the Ontario-PEI trip at least once yearly for the past 25 years, and although we’ve never had any accidents or mishaps, this is always the part of the trip we just wish was over — or even better, that we could avoid entirely.

When we arrived in PEI this past summer someone said, “Why don’t you try the new bypass?”

“NEW BYPASS?” we asked, wide-eyed. Yes, the newly-completed Highway 30 now goes completely around Montreal to the south, connecting 20 on the west side to 20 on the east, allowing east-west drivers to completely avoid the dreaded Highway 40.

On our return journey, we eagerly awaited the exit to Highway 30. “Follow that car!” I said when we reached Exit 98 … and suddenly our whole travel experience changed. Highway 30 was quiet, taking a long, actually fairly boring loop around the south end of the city. Did I say boring? Bring it on! It was great: an hour of relaxed, calm travel compared to an hour of white-knuckle lane changes. And the toll: one dollar and fifty cents. We’d probably have paid twenty dollars without hesitation. It looks like our trips to and from PEI will be quite different from now on without the dreaded Montreal Factor.

This got me thinking about the journey of life. I wondered what would happen if someone told me, “All those stressful, painful parts of life? Guess what? You don’t have to go through those! You can just take The Bypass; it’s quiet, inexpensive, and stress-free.”

Sometimes it looks, from the outside, as if some people actually do get that kind of offer — and take it!  Some people’s lives look more like smooth, relaxing Highway 30’s while others are more like tense, white-knuckle 40’s. I don’t know why that is — and I expect that if I saw more deeply below the surface, I’d realize that the easy-seeming lives are not what they appear — but I know that Jesus made it very clear that being His follower was not a “free pass” to a trouble-free life.  “In this world you WILL have trouble,” He said. It’s a given. We all suffer, we all grieve, we all struggle. But that’s not the whole story: He assured His disciples, and He assures us, that peace and joy are possible because He has “overcome the world.” By dying and rising again He conquered the power of death, and now no suffering that we experience here on earth can have the last word. Jesus has that.

I wasn’t given any choice in the most challenging aspects of my life:  such as having a daughter with Asperger Syndrome and a son with developmental disabilities, seizures, and Autism Spectrum Disorder. No one offered me the bypass, and even if they had I’m not sure I’d have had the wisdom to decide whether to take it or not.  So I’m glad that it’s not all up to me — and that Jesus promises His presence and strength no matter what road I’m facing.

Are you anxious about the next stage of your own journey?  Let Jesus’ words encourage you:  “In me you may have peace.”

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

^{Hebrews 10:19} Therefore, brothers,^[c] since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus,²⁰ by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh,²¹ and since we have a great priest over the house of God, ²² let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. ²³ Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. ²⁴ And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, ²⁵ not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

We invite you to check out the following sites which have a daily thought to help you on your way!  Blessings today!

My Utmost For His Highest – Oswald Chambers

In Touch Daily Devotional – Charles Stanley

Campus Crusade Daily Devo for Youth

“Beautiful Things”
song lyrics by Lisa Gungor & Michael Gungor