Psalms

I Wish My Life Would Change

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You want a better life than you have right now.

I may not know you personally, but I am sure of that fact. You want more money in your bank account. You wish your boss saw you were deserving of a promotion. If you are married, you wish your wife saw that you were right all the time. If you have children, you would jump for joy if they just obeyed you the first time you gave directions. You may be somewhat pleased with your life right now, but you deeply wish it was better. You earnestly desire a blessed life.

We all desired to be blessed, but are we willing to receive the blessing?

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Consistently Inconsistent

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Psalm 92:10 You have lifted up my horn

like that of a wild ox;

I have been anointed with oil.

11 My eyes look down on my enemies;

my ears hear evildoers when they attack me.

12 The righteous thrive like a palm tree

and grow like a cedar tree in Lebanon.

13 Planted in the house of the Lord,

they thrive in the courts of our God.

14 They will still bear fruit in old age,

healthy and green,

15 to declare: “The Lord is just;

He is my rock,

and there is no unrighteousness in Him.”

Consistently Inconsistent

I am one of the most inconsistent people you will ever meet.  I will bowl great for three frames, and then I will reside in the gutter the rest of the game.  That’s not entirely true.  I will reside in the gutter of the lane next to me for the rest of the game.  At New Years, I will begin a steady diet and exercise routine that lasts until someone brings out the meatballs.  I will start a span of regularly responding to emails, and then I will have a setback and not reply to anyone for six weeks.  I crave consistency.

In my spiritual life, I am even worse.  On a mission trip, I will turn into super-evangelistic boy on the field only to revert to an unashamed coward when I return home.  My devotional life will get intense after a convicting sermon only to last until the guilt finally wears off.  An answered prayer turns me into an intercessory advocate until I stop seeing immediate results to my prayers.  I want to do better.  I honestly do crave consistency.

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How to Fix Lethargic Worship

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(Whenever I am trying to remember how big God is and if he can handle my current problems, I look at this picture and remember: God is good.)

1 Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good;
His faithful love endures forever.
2 Let the redeemed of the Lord proclaim
that He has redeemed them from the hand of the foe

3 and has gathered them from the lands-
from the east and the west,
from the north and the south.  – Psalm 107:1-3

How to Fix Lethargic Worship

The cure for lethargic worship is a good memory.

In Psalm 107, the psalmist expresses praise to God based upon his faithfulness in the past. He reminds the worshipers that God is always good and deserves our gratitude.  He had rescued them from the hands of their enemies.  He had rescued them from their circumstances and gathered them back together again.

Have you ever felt in worship that you were just going through the motions?  You stood up and sat down when you were instructed.  You mouthed the words to some songs on a screen or in a hymnal.  You left the same way in which you entered.  The best way to describe your worship was lethargic.

The cure for lethargic worship is a good memory.  God has shown up all throughout your life. When you have called on God, every time he delivers.  The only proper response is worship.  Each new day is a reminder of God’s faithfulness to us.

When we were in the middle of our adoption process, I was forced to remember this fact often.

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Revival Through Worship

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Tonight, we brought our Revival summer services to a close.  These services have been a wonderful chance for our church body to unite together in worship and study the psalms.  We finished up with a hoedown.  Great times!  Jeff’s message on Psalm 150 is one I wish every believer could hear on what biblical worship is supposed to be.  Incredible!

Tonight, we worshiped to:

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Revival Through Intimacy

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Had another great worship experience last night at North Side!  It was wonderful to watch our team lead without me there!  They are so talented and have such wonderful hearts, they didn’t miss a beat!  Loved it! Jeff’s message walking through Psalm 139 was fantastic!  Listen to it online if you didn’t get to hear it!  So good!  My time

A Healthy Fear of the Lord

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Psalm 86:15-16

15 But You, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God,
slow to anger and rich in faithful love and truth.
16 Turn to me and be gracious to me.
Give Your strength to Your servant;
save the son of Your female servant.

Our fatherless society is killing our perception of God.

Whether you like to admit it or not, your relationship with your father often alters the way you view God.  If your father was absent, you might find difficulty accepting that God is near and cares for your smallest concerns.  If your father was a temperamental dictator, you might view God as the angry deity in the sky waiting to pummel you with lightning bolts whenever you step out of line.  If your father was a softy and a pushover, you might find yourself living more loosely because God would never really punish you for breaking his rules.  If your father was simply a detached provider, you might find yourself accepting God’s blessing without ever desiring his company.

Most likely, God is a lot different than you father.  God’s plan is that your father imitate him (Eph. 3:14), but unfortunately, that rarely happens.  We rarely see a combination of both love and holiness.  While God has many attributes, theologians categorize all attributes under those two headings – love and holiness.

This description of God, first mentioned in Exodus, is repeated many times throughout Scripture.  The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and rich in faithful love and truth.  What is so shocking to us modern readers is that someone can be both compassionate and angry.

A common misconception is that Jesus of the New Testament was compassionate and the God of the Old Testament was angry.  How do you explain God’s constant rescuing of idolatrous Israel and how do you explain Jesus chasing religious people out of the temple with a whip?

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The Walmart Dilemma

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We have all experienced the Walmart dilemma.  You enter into the massive store full of your city’s most eclectic citizens with the intention of buying one needed item.  As the greeter wishes you a good day, you coach yourself that you don’t need anything else except that one item.  As you return to your car, you are unaware of how you just spent $50 on drive-by items.

What’s even worse is when you have bags full but have forgotten that one item for which you came.  The Walmart dilemma is that you lose focus on what you came for because you are overwhelmed with all the other items clamoring for you attention.

The psalmist is in a similar position.  Other gods are present and vying for his worship.  The world powers claim they need not to swear their allegiance to the Lord.  Circumstances are apparent that distract his focus.  So, what does the psalmist pray?  He prays for an “undivided mind” in order to fear God’s name (v.11).  He is acknowledging the presence of distractions, and he is asking for God’s help to leave the store with solely the one item.

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Revival Through the Word

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We had another great Revival service tonight!  We focused on Psalm 119 and saw how powerful the Word of God is yet again!  The band, singers, choir, tech team, and host team did a fantastic job tonight!  It was a powerful time of worship as we celebrated together.

Tonight, we worshiped to:

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Revival Through Worship

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We had a great night last night at our Revival service!  We had a great time worshiping together.  I pulled out one of my favorites (“Shout to the Lord”) and some other great songs.  Our band worked out some intricate “Amens” at the end of a new arrangement to “All Creatures.”  The above picture is a snapshot of some of

Revival Through Adversity

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Last night, we picked up our Revival series during the summer months.  It was July 4th eve, a storm was brewing, and we still had a great turnout of worshipers!  I have loved this time together. We worshiped to: All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name – North Side Worship Blessed Be Your Name – Travis Agnew Band Made Me

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