O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
Yes, I have searched you and known you.
Now I want you to search me and know Me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
I want you to know when I sit down and rise up.
You understand my thought from afar.
I want you to understand my thoughts,
even in the places that seem distant.
You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
I want you to search Me like that.
And are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
I can be found!
I can make you intimately acquainted with all My ways. [click to continue…]
The men who were guarding Jesus began mocking and beating him. They blindfolded him and demanded, “Prophesy! Who hit you?” And they said many other insulting things to him (Luke 22:63-65, NIV).
Making fun.
Something we all do, to ourselves or to somebody else. Sometimes good-natured, sometimes amazingly insensitive.
But here it’s different. Here the “fun” is at the expense of the Son of God, and particularly His very nature. Verse 65 says they were blaspheming.
There is only one reason these men were able to do this – [click to continue…]
You wouldn’t have wanted to trade places with George. But bad as it was, when all was said and done, I don’t know that he’d have wanted to trade places with you, either. Years ago George Matheson was ushered into new dimensions of faith, understanding, and intimacy with the Lord. But the price he paid was beyond expensive.
It all began with the brutality of rejection.
George had his future shining in front of him. He was engaged to be married, and was pursuing a career and calling in ministry. But that bright future began to dim – literally – when George began going blind. When his fiancé learned that the doctors gave him no hope for a cure, she ended the engagement, saying she couldn’t go through life taking care of a blind man.
I don’t know of a loneliness more devastating and bitter than that of rejection. Matheson had to learn to do without a woman he had come to feel he couldn’t live without. What’s more, he had to live with the piercing thoughts that taunted him incessantly: [click to continue…]
How’s this for a welcome to a pastor’s study?
NOTICE
The Pastor of Calvary Church Receives Sinners and Eats With Them.
Any Questions?
Now there’s a guy who’s either long on courage or short on brains! But he knows his New Testament. And if he does it in the right spirit, he also understands something about the searching heart of God.
In answer to the question hanging on the pastor’s door, Jesus once told a story. [click to continue…]
(Rachel Brown and her husband, Pat, are dear friends who live in Atlanta, where Pat is on staff at Buckhead Church. She’s also the daughter of Michael and June Carter, two of our dearest friends. Michael is one of our elders at TPCC, and June is our office manager. Rachel wrote the following beautiful account of an amazing experience she had in worship with her son, Ethan. I think you’ll be as touched as I was. Enjoy! Then check out the song at the bottom.)
Right now my spirit is welling up with great joy, gratitude, and praise. My mother’s heart is proud, humble, and completely blessed by my four year old son, Ethan. Over the past few weeks, I’ve tried to be more intentional with my three precious kids, teaching them about Jesus and how they can be a lover of God and worship him. Several times this week I’ve resisted the temptation to allow my kids to watch TV in the morning. Instead we decided to turn on our worship music. We have had a great time jumping around spinning and singing songs. Honestly, it’s a great break from Bunny Town songs on Disney Channel. If you have kids you will know what I’m talking about.
We are a family deeply moved by music and have a love for all different genres. My three precious kids didn’t have a choice to love music! God has created their daddy with the love of music and great musical gifts.
We were deeply moved by “How He Loves,” a song we sang at Buckhead a few Sunday’s ago. I couldn’t wait to download this song on my IPod and plug it into my ears and just worship. Pat and I both had eyes welling up with tears and hearts full of unexplainable emotions when we heard this song. For Pat it was a mixture of emotion; he has not led worship for almost two years, now, and such a great love is deeply missed. His heart was moved by the love of God; for me, a funny moment with God. I humorously asked God why I have such a heart of worship but such a horrible voice. My humorous prayer is that all the people on earth that can’t sing will be HIS most gifted singers in heaven. If I can’t sing beautifully on earth, I’d better be able to sing in heaven! I think that you get the picture. We love worship!
[click to continue…]
