About “Fullness of Joy”

2017-08-09 Devotional with Hymn One comment

I have written elsewhere about my search for joy after our son took his own life (see Unchanging Joy). God had directed me to focus, not on my grief, but on my unchanging joy in Christ – the joy that is always available to me in Him, no matter what the situation. I wrote the hymn Christ My Joy as a way of reconnecting with that joy.

But my hunger for unchanging joy continued. Once again I had come across the folk tune, “Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes” and had felt compelled to use it as a hymn tune. In searching for an idea for a text to go with it, I was brought back to my search for joy.

Writing this hymn text proved to be a very emotional experience for me. I shed more tears in the writing of this hymn than with all my other hymns combined. I struggled.

Throughout my grief, I had never wanted to lash out at God with bitter questions. But in writing this hymn, I sensed Him compelling me to ask the questions found in the first half of v.2:

How can Your path of tender care be
So rough and dark and steep?
How can Your loving wisdom lead us
To groan and grieve and weep?

I needed to verbalize the questions in order to get at the truth. God’s answers are found in the last half of verses 2 and 3.

Sometimes God won’t answer the questions on our hearts until we ask them. So ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you. But as you ask, continue to trust His wisdom and love. Otherwise your heart may be focused in the wrong direction, and you won’t hear the answers when they come.

Often when we ask the “Why?” questions, God will not explain Himself. But He will assure us of His presence. That’s the way it was with me. When I asked the “Why?” questions through this hymn, He gave me a new sense of Christ walking this road with me. And He has. He truly has walked every step with me. My grief has brought a deeper sharing with the suffering Christ.

He has showed me that I should seek, not joy, but Him. He Himself is the fullness of joy.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Fullness of Joy
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Focus on God

2017-08-07 Devotional with Hymn No comments

Lord, you have been our dwelling place
throughout all generations.
Before the mountains were born
or you brought forth the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God. 

You turn men back to dust…
You sweep men away in the sleep of death;
they are like the new grass of the morning—
though in the morning it springs up new,
by evening it is dry and withered. 

The length of our days is seventy years—
or eighty, if we have the strength;
yet their span is but trouble and sorrow,
for they quickly pass, and we fly away. 

Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
(Psalm 90:1-3, 5-6, 10, 12, NIV)

Do you want to spend your life wisely? Do you want to stay humble and not become the victim of foolish pride? Do you want to remember your true glory as a God-made individual? In short, do you want to maintain a true perspective in the constant push and pull and deception of daily life?

Keep your eyes on God. Practice simple prayer throughout the day. Turn to Him and trust Him in every need. Thank Him immediately for every blessing and every little joy. Nurture your relationship with Him.

For with You is the fountain of life.
When we see You,
we see everything else more clearly.
(Psalm 36:9, paraphrase)

Our past, our present, our future are all in Him. The only way to keep life in focus is to keep God in focus.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Always in You
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from Prepare Yourself for Worship

2017-08-04 Devotional with Hymn, Prepare Yourself for Worship No comments

Wholehearted Support
1 Chronicles 29:1-9

King David had deeply desired to build a temple for You, Father,
but You told him he was not Your person for the job.
His son, Solomon, would build the temple.

David didn’t sulk.
He didn’t complain.
He did everything he could to help Solomon prepare for this enormous task.
He supported Solomon wholeheartedly with all his
creative energy,
his resources,
his contacts,
his influence, and
his enthusiasm.
He poured himself as completely into his support position
as he would have into the leadership position.

Father, as we gather to worship, help me to
enthusiastically,
wholeheartedly
support those You have chosen for leadership.
Help me to get behind them with all the
help,
prayer, and
joyful involvement
that I owe You,
my Creator,
my Redeemer, and
my Lord. 

Listen and sing:
Hymn: We Will Be Your People
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Examine My Motives

2017-08-02 Devotional with Hymn No comments

Father, examine me.
When I share Your Word with people,
what are my motives?
When I speak in Your name,
what hopes truly drive me?

Am I hoping to feed my hungry ego?
Further my career?
Fatten my pocketbook?

Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as those sent from God. (2 Corinthians 2:17, NIV)

Am I hoping to gain from them, or
will I eagerly spend and be spent for them?

I will very gladly spend for you everything I have and expend myself as well. (2 Corinthians 12:15a, NASB)

Even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice. (Philippians 2:17, NASB)

Am I a smart business person seeking their money, or
am I a shepherd laying down my life for the sheep?

Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God bur our lives as well. (1 Thessalonians 2:8, NIV)

In my heart, are they a “market,” sources of profit, or
are they souls for whom Christ died?

I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory. (2 Timothy 2:10, NASB) 

Listen and sing:
Hymn: One in Purpose, One in Passion
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Unearned Love

2017-07-31 Devotional with Hymn No comments

Father, I cannot earn Your love for me.
I am unworthy.
I don’t deserve Your
deep, tender affection for me.

You love me,
not because I am lovely,
but because You are loving.
You are not repulsed by
my ignorance,
my immaturity, or
my imperfections.
You are my Father, and
I am only a child.
I have not earned Your love.
You love me
because of who You made me to be,
because of who You long for me to be,
because of who I am to You.

But Lord, because You love me,
I want to be lovely
as You are lovely.
Because You love me,
I want to be more like You.
Because You are so near to me,
I want to be pure and pleasing to You.

O Father, may Your love draw me
closer and closer to You!

Listen and sing:
Hymn: So Unworthy
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from Prepare Yourself for Worship

2017-07-28 Devotional with Hymn, Prepare Yourself for Worship No comments

You Are My Defining Reality

Father, when Your people were traveling through the wilderness,
out of bondage and toward the promised land,
they were engulfed in need of every kind.
The basic necessities of life were a constant concern.

But with all those needs pressing,
You devoted the entire tribe of Levi – the Levites –
to Your service alone.
Their duties were varied:
They cared for the tabernacle and its furnishings.
They assisted the priests, taught Your law, and acted as local judges.

In setting them apart to Yourself, You made it clear that
You cared deeply about the worship life of Your people.
Their living relationship with You –
their Creator,
their Source, and
their Savior –
was the key to their existence.
Trusting You and
worshiping You for all You are
was the key to that relationship.

Father, my relationship with You is
the breath of my existence as well.
You are my Creator.
You are my Source.
You are the defining reality of my life.
You are my entire reason for being.

Father, as I gather with Your people,
help me give You all the attention,
all the trust,
all the worship that You deserve.
You are my God.
Help me to wholeheartedly worship You as my God today.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Great Lord of All Reality
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A Thought about Congregational Singing

2017-07-27 Devotional with Hymn, Hymns No comments

Like everyone else, I have my own preferences for congregational singing.

But the people of God are to come from all
nations,
peoples,
ages,
classes, and
cultures.
If the Church is what Christ died to make her,
she will be beautifully, amazingly diverse.

Congregational singing is communal.
It is inclusive.
It is uniting.
Its goal, its dream, its aspiration is to connect
all that we are as God’s people to
all that He is.

The Church is bigger than me.
It is wonderfully vast and varied.
Father, don’t shrink her congregational song to my size.
Expand my mind and heart to
embrace everyone You embrace.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: The Reason We Sing
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Our Daily Bread

2017-07-24 Devotional with Hymn No comments

“Give us today our daily bread.”
(Matthew 6:11, NIV)

When the people of Israel were traveling through a vast desert and were hungry, God gave them “daily bread” (Exodus 16:11-31). It was a flake-like substance called manna. Each morning they had to gather a supply for that one day. If they tried to keep enough for the next day, it rotted. But on the day before the Sabbath, they were to gather enough for two days. God didn’t want them to have to work on the Sabbath.

Manna was a daily provision, sufficient for any need but impossible to hoard. God could have provided for their hunger any way He chose. Why would He choose this way? He was teaching them to depend on Him every day, one day at a time (see Deuteronomy 8:3).

Give us today our daily bread. Out of the entire Lord’s Prayer, only this one petition covers the wants that normally fill our prayers. Doesn’t this “one wish” seem small and unsatisfying? After all, most of us aren’t worried about starving, at least not today.

We want more. We want enough to feel secure. We want enough to relax a little in what we have. God wants the opposite. He wants to keep us resting in Him alone. He will not grant His children any security outside of Himself.

Why? He knows that a constant, close relationship with Him is the key to our happiness and well-being. Daily dependence teaches and forms that relationship. None of us ever graduate from His school of dependence. He will not let you hoard everything you need, and you cannot see the future. Any security you think you’ve grasped is only an illusion. He will always and forever be your only security and your only supply. Even in the wealth and abundance of heaven, He Himself will be the only source of every blessing.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Our Daily Bread
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from Prepare Yourself for Worship

2017-07-21 Devotional with Hymn, Prepare Yourself for Worship No comments

Your Chosen People

All-wise Father, You have chosen to reveal Yourself to me through
other people,
other believers,
deeply flawed as they are.

Through them, You teach me and
give me the privilege of teaching.

You encourage me and
give me the chance to encourage others.

You love me with
a human touch and
a human word
and give me the opportunity to love others the same way.

You enable me to
be who You want me to be and
enjoy all You want me to enjoy
through these
precious,
imperfect,
colorful,
wildly unpredictable, and
thoroughly human people all around me.

Father, help me to
always listen and
always speak to them with
gentleness,
love,
humility, and
gratitude. 

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Philippians 2:1-8
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Rejoicing in the Darkness

2017-07-19 Devotional with Hymn No comments

When our children were small, a severe ice storm struck Kansas City. Ice-laden branches fell across electric lines, killing power in much of the city. For three days we were without all electricity. Then it came on for a few hours, only to go out again for four more days. That was one full week in the dead of winter with no light, no heating, no cooking, no appliances – no anything.

Preparing meals was tricky. Keeping warm and entertained was difficult. But without question, darkness was the toughest part. I can’t adequately describe how oppressive were those long winter nights. They dragged on like months, and our whole frame of mind was affected. Even though we knew we’d eventually have power again, it didn’t feel that way.

Then, without warning, the lights came on. I’ll never forget our daughter, Kindra’s, reaction. Like someone had set her on fire, she spontaneously dashed through the house, waving her arms, laughing and yelling with hysterical joy. The rest of us felt the same but weren’t so uninhibited.

Darkness is the toughest part of many of our difficulties. We find a way to deal with the specific hardships and keep going, but the cloud of depression is the hardest to take. We go through long periods when all seems dead or dying, when we sense no encouragement and no hope of any kind. God seems the most distant in the areas that matter most.

Caught in such darkness, faced with an unknown future, our fears create their own version of reality. They imagine a world without God’s power and love. There we are forced to fend for ourselves against overwhelming troubles attacking us from every side. As we succumb to our fears, we live in that false reality, reacting to its imaginary circumstances.

During such times, I’ve discovered why the New Testament so strenuously and repeatedly urges us to rejoice in the Lord.

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!…The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything. (Philippians 4:4-6, NIV)

When pressures knock us out of focus and threaten our peace of mind, nothing helps like stopping to remember God. Look away from the imaginary world of your fears and from the grip of the temporary present. Look to Him. Recall out loud the unchanging truth about Him. Use your mind and your voice to rejoice in who He is and all He has done down through the ages. Recite in detail His many acts of love and faithfulness to you. Start, “Lord, I remember when . . .”

Say again, “Lord, I know You are with me. I know You are with me right now and always. And I will trust You.”

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases power to the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. (Isaiah 40:28-31, NIV)

Listen and sing:
Hymn: A Life of Thanksgiving
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