God is Still God and God is still good

About a year ago I shared a video of Zac Smith, a man who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer [God is God, God is Good] and his testimony of life, cancer, the lessons God was teaching him.

Now a year after his death, his wife shares her encouraging testimony of hope through her husband's death and the promises of God

A Story | Tears of Hope from Adam Kring on Vimeo.

"God is not a God of chaos, he doesn't just throw stuff to us in our lives then walk away. He has a plan for us, we might not always understand that plan, but we know it is good."

"I do know that I will praise God because through cancer, and death, and grief, God is still God and God is still good. To God be the Glory"

Edwards' Resolutions - 6,7,8

The more I read over Edward's resolutions, the more humbled I am. I realize how much more vile I am than what I thought. I know I am a sinner, but these have really helped me to see myself for what really is inside.

Allow these to sink in:

6. Resolved, to live with all my might, while I do live.

7. Resolved, never to do any thing which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life. (I am resolved to never to do anything I wouldn't be doing if I knew it were the last hour of my life) How many times have I done something and thought of this afterward?

8. Resolved, to act, in all respects, both speaking and doing, as if nobody had been so vile as I, and as if I had committed the same sins, or had the same infirmities or failings as others; and that I will let the knowledge of their failings promote nothing but shame in myself, and prove only an occasion of my confessing my own sins and misery to God. How often and how easy is it to look at another individual and say their sins are worse than ours. They might be a murderer, rapist, thief, adulterer, etc and we say I have never done any of those things. But for the grace of God I would have done all those things and worse. Lord, may I be continually drawn to repentance, convict me of sin, and change my selfish heart.

Free Audiobook - Adopted for Life

Just an FYI: This month at Christianaudio.com the book Adopted for Life by Dr. Russell Moore is available for free download. I haven't read the book yet; I can't wait to listen to it.

Edwards' Resolutions - 3,4,5

As humbling as it is to examine myself, it's been good. Our God is forgiving and I am grateful. Oh how short I fall of His standards outlined in the Bible. Lord thank you for forgiveness, for your grace, and mercy. Help me to live my life in a manner glorifying.

Jonathan Edwards' Resolutions 3, 4, & 5.

3. Resolved, if ever I shall fall and grow dull, so as to neglect to keep any part of these Resolutions, to repent of all I can remember, when I come to myself again.

4. Resolved, never to do any manner of thing, whether in soul or body, less or more, but what tends to the glory of God; nor be, nor suffer it, if I can avoid it.

5. Resolved, never to lose one moment of time; but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can.

Of these three I think it's easiest to see the area covered by resolution 5. How much time do I waste, losing moments of time? How can I make my time more profitable? I fail epically when it comes to resolution number 5. I can't tell you how many moments pass, wasted. Times where I could be doing something profitable. In all honesty this is one area that is a struggle for me.

I have recognized this recently and have begun doing things that are more profitable, though still I struggle with making the most of my free moments. One way I've tried to make the most of some of the quiet time has been by working to memorize the book of Philippians. I've joined the thousands of people around the nation and world who are working to memorizing the book by Easter. (Partnering to Remember) .

Hymns for Sunday - Our God Our Help in Ages Past

A hymn that is not sung often enough, yet is one of my favorite hymns would have to be Our God Our Help in Ages Past. Written in 1719 by Isaac Watts it is a paraphrase of Psalm 90. Watts was an author who believed Christians should sing about the doctrine of their religion. He definitely did not shy away from that in this particular hymn. This is just one of his over 600 hymns.

One interesting fact about the history of this song is in 1738 Methodist John Wesley published the hymn in his Collection of Psalms and Hymns. However, before publishing Wesley altered some of the text. The most noticeable was changing the "Our" in the opening line to "O". It is said "Wesley felt that “Our” was a possessive adjective referring to the Calvinist doctrine of election. The Wesleyan all-inclusive perspective was satisfied by changing “Our” to the more ambiguous “O.” "1

Our God, Our Help in Ages Past

Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home.

Under the shadow of Thy throne
Thy saints have dwelt secure;
Sufficient is Thine arm alone,
And our defense is sure.

Before the hills in order stood,
Or earth received her frame,
From everlasting Thou art God,
To endless years the same.

Thy Word commands our flesh to dust,
“Return, ye sons of men:”
All nations rose from earth at first,
And turn to earth again.

A thousand ages in Thy sight
Are like an evening gone;
Short as the watch that ends the night
Before the rising sun.

The busy tribes of flesh and blood,
With all their lives and cares,
Are carried downwards by the flood,
And lost in following years.

Time, like an ever rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away;
They fly, forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day.

Like flowery fields the nations stand
Pleased with the morning light;
The flowers beneath the mower’s hand
Lie withering ere ‘tis night.

Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Be Thou our guard while troubles last,
And our eternal home.

1 http://www.umportal.org/article.asp?id=7576

Learning to Pray.

Tim Challies post today was quite convicting, simple, yet has really made me consider my time in prayer. He posts a few nuggets resonating in his mind and the Lord is using that to convict me of my lack of prayer, my belief in prayer, and the power of the One whom I am praying to.

Quickly from Challies post:

Pray within your capacity to believe. One pastor said that we often pray beyond our capacity to believe. He used the example of praying for the salvation of his wife’s parents. He and his wife would pray that the Lord would save them, but they were praying without faith; though they knew God could, in theory, do this, they doubted that he actually would. What they decided to do was to pray within their capacity to believe, and so they began to pray smaller, incremental prayers for things they truly could ask in faith. In a similar situation you might pray that the Lord would bring your parents just one Christian friend, or that they would hear the gospel just one time, and so on. And once that prayer is answered, you can then pray for the next, slightly bigger thing. All the while you are ratcheting up your prayers while acknowledging God’s incremental answers to them.

AND

Pray in Jesus’ name. To pray in the name of Jesus is to pray with his authority in a way that claims his power. In prayer I should always be asking, “In whose interest am I praying? What is God’s agenda in this?” In other words, I need to make sure that I have a conscience sense of praying to the Lord, the King, the Sovereign One. I pray not only to this God, but I also pray in his power and with his authority. That merits a “wow!”