Thursday, January 8, 2009, 6:30 a.m. – A medley of these two songs is in my head first thing this morning:
Oh Lord, You're Beautiful / Keith Green
Oh Lord, you're beautiful,
Your face is all I seek,
For when your eyes are on this child,
Your grace abounds to me.
(Repeat Stanza)
I want to take your word and shine it all around.
But first help me just to live it Lord.
And when I'm doing well, help me to never seek a crown.
For my reward is giving glory to you.
Oh Lord, please light the fire,
That once burned bright and clear.
Replace the lamp of my first love,
That burns with Holy fear.
To Seek Your Face / Chris Machan and Mike Harland / Arr. Daniel Smith
Psalm 27:8 (NKJV)
We have not come to ask You for Your goodness;
Though ev’ry good and perfect gift has come from You.
We have not come to ask You for Your mercy;
For ev’ry morning Your tender mercies are new.
We have not come to ask You for direction;
For You have ordered ev’ry step that we take.
We have come today, before You now to say,
Oh Lord, we want to seek Your face.
To seek Your face, to seek Your face;
To know the deep abiding presence of Your grace.
We’ve been invited by Your Spirit into Your holy place
To give You praise, and to seek Your face.
Now, in Your presence there is peace and calm assurance
That nothing separates us from Your love and grace.
So before You now we stand, not just to seek Your hand,
Oh Lord, we want to seek Your face.
I spent some time in prayer, as lead by the Holy Spirit, for the family of my aunt who died on Saturday and whose funeral is this morning (1/08/09) at 11 a.m. The Lord has been so good to me in encouraging me and strengthening me in my prayer life – to God be the glory, great things He has done! Prayer is the foundation for everything we do, so it is essential that we bathe everything we do in prayer and that we inquire of the Lord about every aspect of our lives.
“Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxious thoughts. See what wicked way is in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read James 1:19-27:
Listening and Doing
19My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. 21Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
22Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.
26If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. 27Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
My cousins are now essentially “orphans” in distress as they have now lost both father and mother to death.
“Lord Jesus, love them through me and Rick today. Let your ministering Spirit anoint us from on high that we may be “angels of mercy” to those who are hurting. Use me today, Lord, for your glory. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.”
Update: I shared earlier how I had no voice. Whenever I had tried to sing for the past month, my voice was airy, cracking, squeaking and weak. Yet, the Lord had assured me that he wanted us to sing at the funeral. When I had asked him specifically about singing, he gave me verse after verse from the Bible about praising him in the assembly and singing praises to His name. So, this was a major step of faith. I knew that if I was to stand in front of all those people and sing that it would have to be the Lord singing through me, so I gave my voice to the Lord and trusted Him to give me the voice he wanted me to have.
When Rick and I stood up to sing at the funeral and we opened our mouths, all of a sudden we both had strong, clear voices that blended beautifully together. There was no question; no doubt in my mind that God had performed a miracle of His grace in both of our voices and that it was indeed the Lord singing through us the words he wanted sung to the hearts of those who were hurting because they had lost a mom, a sister, an aunt, a grandmother, a great-grandmother and a friend.
When people came up to us afterwards to thank us for singing, I gave all the praise and honor to the Lord for I knew that it was not me singing, but it was the Lord singing through me and through us. Now, as I read back over the words of the two songs the Lord gave me that morning, I see why he gave me those songs about seeking His face, about giving him praise, and never seeking a crown, for my reward is giving glory to God – great things He has done! Praise His Holy Name!!
Oh Lord, You're Beautiful / Keith Green
Oh Lord, you're beautiful,
Your face is all I seek,
For when your eyes are on this child,
Your grace abounds to me.
(Repeat Stanza)
I want to take your word and shine it all around.
But first help me just to live it Lord.
And when I'm doing well, help me to never seek a crown.
For my reward is giving glory to you.
Oh Lord, please light the fire,
That once burned bright and clear.
Replace the lamp of my first love,
That burns with Holy fear.
To Seek Your Face / Chris Machan and Mike Harland / Arr. Daniel Smith
Psalm 27:8 (NKJV)
We have not come to ask You for Your goodness;
Though ev’ry good and perfect gift has come from You.
We have not come to ask You for Your mercy;
For ev’ry morning Your tender mercies are new.
We have not come to ask You for direction;
For You have ordered ev’ry step that we take.
We have come today, before You now to say,
Oh Lord, we want to seek Your face.
To seek Your face, to seek Your face;
To know the deep abiding presence of Your grace.
We’ve been invited by Your Spirit into Your holy place
To give You praise, and to seek Your face.
Now, in Your presence there is peace and calm assurance
That nothing separates us from Your love and grace.
So before You now we stand, not just to seek Your hand,
Oh Lord, we want to seek Your face.
I spent some time in prayer, as lead by the Holy Spirit, for the family of my aunt who died on Saturday and whose funeral is this morning (1/08/09) at 11 a.m. The Lord has been so good to me in encouraging me and strengthening me in my prayer life – to God be the glory, great things He has done! Prayer is the foundation for everything we do, so it is essential that we bathe everything we do in prayer and that we inquire of the Lord about every aspect of our lives.
“Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxious thoughts. See what wicked way is in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read James 1:19-27:
Listening and Doing
19My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. 21Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
22Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.
26If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. 27Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
My cousins are now essentially “orphans” in distress as they have now lost both father and mother to death.
“Lord Jesus, love them through me and Rick today. Let your ministering Spirit anoint us from on high that we may be “angels of mercy” to those who are hurting. Use me today, Lord, for your glory. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.”
Update: I shared earlier how I had no voice. Whenever I had tried to sing for the past month, my voice was airy, cracking, squeaking and weak. Yet, the Lord had assured me that he wanted us to sing at the funeral. When I had asked him specifically about singing, he gave me verse after verse from the Bible about praising him in the assembly and singing praises to His name. So, this was a major step of faith. I knew that if I was to stand in front of all those people and sing that it would have to be the Lord singing through me, so I gave my voice to the Lord and trusted Him to give me the voice he wanted me to have.
When Rick and I stood up to sing at the funeral and we opened our mouths, all of a sudden we both had strong, clear voices that blended beautifully together. There was no question; no doubt in my mind that God had performed a miracle of His grace in both of our voices and that it was indeed the Lord singing through us the words he wanted sung to the hearts of those who were hurting because they had lost a mom, a sister, an aunt, a grandmother, a great-grandmother and a friend.
When people came up to us afterwards to thank us for singing, I gave all the praise and honor to the Lord for I knew that it was not me singing, but it was the Lord singing through me and through us. Now, as I read back over the words of the two songs the Lord gave me that morning, I see why he gave me those songs about seeking His face, about giving him praise, and never seeking a crown, for my reward is giving glory to God – great things He has done! Praise His Holy Name!!
