Pondering Ecclesiastes

Posted on November 28, 2009 by Sarah

“What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.” ~Ecclesiastes 1:9

I have been pondering this verse. What does Solomon mean, “there is nothing new under the sun”? What about when telephones were invented? And tv? And computers? And Internet? All of these things were “new” at one time, right? Looking at verses 7-8, I was able to gain a little more insight: “All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again. All thing are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.”

So Solomon is not meaning that there will not be new inventions – but when you boil it all down, what you are left with are worldly objects in which we seek pleasure. None of these things satisfy. We could go through our entire lives gaining worldly knowledge, rising to a higher status, basking in the praise and adoration of men, succeeding in the world’s eyes…yet when we die, “There is no remembrance of former thing, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after” (vs. 11).

It sounds like a dismal and depressing message, but it should make us shift our focus to what does truly satisfy. This earth is not our permanent home, and anything done apart from Christ will not last. “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” ~Colossians 3:1-3

Categories: Character of God, Spiritual Growth | Leave a comment

Handmaiden of the Lord

Posted on November 25, 2009 by Sarah

Direct quotes from: The Remarkable Women of the Bible by Elizabeth George

When you receive a task from the Lord, how do you respond? In Luke 1 Mary received and incredible challenge – the role of being the mother of Jesus, God’s own Son. Her first reaction was a feeling of inadequacy. According to the world’s standards, we can often feel inadequate or unfit for the tasks the Lord calls us to. But for the all-powerful God, nothing is impossible. In fact, He often uses us when we feel the weakest and most inadequate.

Upon hearing the position God was calling Mary to fulfill, she responded, “Behold the handmaiden of the Lord!” Luke 1:38 “In the Bible, maidservant or handmaid refers to a female slave whose will was not her own. Instead, she was obligated to perform her master’s will without question or delay. A handmaiden would sit silently, watching for hand signals from her mistress (Psalm 123:2), which she would obey without question or hesitation.”

Mary responded to the Lord’s will and change in her life with the heart of a handmaiden, wholly committed to her God. “Her one purpose in life was to obey her Master’s will…Whatever God wanted, this humble handmaiden was willing to do, even though obedience meant that everything in her life changed forever.” Lord, give me the heart of a handmaiden.

Categories: Direction/Change, Spiritual Growth | Leave a comment

Shane&Shane…my favorite worship music

Posted on November 15, 2009 by Sarah

** taken from shaneandshane.com/bio **

Forged in the creatively charged atmosphere of musician feeding off musician “Everything Is Different” emerged as perhaps the most musically diverse album of Shane&Shane’s career. But lyrically, with a focus on teaching, training, and discipling students in the area of worship ministry, the duo believes it contains more word for word scripture than any album it has ever done.

Shane Barnard: “We always have a tendency to bring the scriptures into our songs. It happens naturally for us. It’s not like we have a game plan, but we’ve always spent a lot of time in the Word of God. The Word of God is just so good – if you don’t mess with it – it’s hard to mess it up. I think this album, probably more than any other album we’ve done, is the Word of God set to music.

“Every song on this album hinges on scripture. The chorus may be scripture, or the first verse may be scripture, then we will expound on that as the song progresses. We have found that, as we walk through life, it is imperative to have the scriptures before us. For me, personally, Psalms 73 has become a staple in my life. It is the summary of my heart, and where I want my heart to be. You’ll find themes from that Psalm in several songs on this CD – ‘Who have I in heaven but you?’ I want to live a life that shows Him off as my reward.

Categories: Just Life | Leave a comment

God’s Plan Is Not What We Expect

Posted on November 5, 2009 by Sarah

When I arrived at Thirst tonight, I did not want to lead worship. It has been an extremely overwhelming week (trying to adjust to teaching elementary music AND middle school GT), and by the end of the day I feel drained and exhausted. My energy and my confidence in my guitar playing and singing only decreased as we rehearsed. The songs “all sounded the same”–they were all in the same key with almost the same chord progression, “a poor choice of songs” (which I picked). I am not one of those amazing guitar players who can make each song sound unique by using variances of chords. When Paul came on stage to help me, I just about gave up, and in my heart I decided that this was the last time I would agree to lead worship. I’m just not good enough.

The funny thing is, God likes to teach us through circumstances like these. My voice was about shot from singing and teaching all week, and I was just hoping it would hold out long enough to get through the 5 songs we were singing. As Thirst started I noticed that our numbers seemed smaller than usual. There was so much empty space around the tables and chairs. But when we started singing, I was blown away by the worship. I don’t even think I could describe it. Once we started the songs, everyone was singing so loudly I didn’t even really have to sing! It was seriously like a wall of worship hitting me in the face, and it brought me to tears and humbled my heart in worship to God, who through His power can change hearts and accomplish the “impossible.”

One of the first things Dan said tonight in his message on Ephesians 3:7-13 was, “God does not use the kind of people we expect to fulfill His plan.” That is definitely how I felt tonight. I wanted someone else to lead–someone who has a stronger singing voice than I have, someone who can play guitar better than I can…but God wanted to use ME tonight to fulfill His plan and bring Him glory through worship.

Categories: Direction/Change, Spiritual Growth | Leave a comment

True Lasting Joy

Posted on November 1, 2009 by Sarah

I was encouraged by Ecclesiastes 11 and Nehemiah 9 this morning after church when I spent some quiet time in prayer and meditation.

Ecclesiastes 11:5-8 says, “As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything. In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good. Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun. So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many.”

God’s growing of babies in a mother’s womb is an amazing thing—in the same way, His work in our lives is amazing, even if we do not see or understand it. Our job is to continue working faithfully to the Lord—He is the one who blesses us with the fruit of our labor. And in rejoicing, we must remember that our joy in earthly things is temporal. The only lasting joy is in Christ. I kinda want to study Ecclesiastes and Philippians together…because Ecclesiastes talks about how to have a right perspective about life on earth and that earthly pleasures are temporal, and Philippians talks about the lasting joy we find in Christ.

Nehemiah 9 is an amazing prayer (that Jed encouraged me to read :). Today I noticed something new when I read it. Verse 5 (the first verse of the prayer) says, “Stand up and bless the LORD your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be Your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.”

God blesses us SO abundantly, and when you begin to see all the ways you are blessed, it can be overwhelming. But exalted above ALL blessings is the Lord Himself. Sometimes it is so easy to get distracted by the blessings—even when we are acknowledging that they are from the Lord—and we forget to worship the one and only God, Jehovah Jireh, who satisfies every longing of our hearts.

Categories: Character of God, Spiritual Growth | Leave a comment

He Allows Me to Hunger

Posted on October 27, 2009 by Sarah

“O God, You are my God, earnestly I seek You; my soul thirsts for You, my body longs for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water…My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise You.” Psalm 63:1, 5

Excerpt by Amy Carmichael:

The son found himself in a barren place. His Father said, “In this place I will give you the peace you are longing for. Here I will give you spiritual food that will nourish you. You are always with me–no matter what the circumstances–and all that I have is yours.”

Then the Father, with great gentleness, drew the son to Himself. Quietly, He said, “I am the one who allowed you to come into these humbling circumstances, and allowed you to hunger. I did this so that I might feed you with manna–My bread from heaven! Only in this way could I help you to know that you cannot live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of My mouth.”

The son said, “Give me this bread always!” And when he grew thirsty he learned to cry, “The light of Your face is my life!” …Later still, the son wondered why one like himself, who is so richly fed and cared for at times, should at other times feel so poor and needy and thirsty.

His Father replied by asking four questions:
1. “Can someone who has never thirsted know how precious is My living water?
2. “Can someone who has never discovered rivers of these living waters flowing on barren heights–can he ever lead his thirsty friends to those rivers?
3. “Can someone who has never walked the deep valleys of the spirit help a friend who is fainting–or lead this friend to the well-springs that will save the life of his soul?
4. “Can someone who has never seen burning sands in the wilderness turn into a refreshing pool–can he speak in praise of My marvels, or My power?

Categories: Perspective, Spiritual Growth | Leave a comment

Do Not Forget

Posted on October 27, 2009 by Sarah

How quickly we forget the things the Lord teaches us. In Mark 8, Jesus again provides food for the large crowd and there are 7 baskets left over. “And they ate and were satisfied” (vs. 8). Again, Jesus teaches through His actions that He will provide for our needs and that He is more than enough. But like the disciples, we soon forget and our trust in His provision for our needs disappears…

“‘Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousands, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?’ They said to Him, ‘Twelve.’ ‘And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?’ And they said to Him, ‘Seven.’ And He said to them, ‘Do you not yet understand?'” Mark 8:17-21

I will satisfy you; I will provide for your every need; I am more than enough. Why do you not trust Me?

Categories: Character of God, Spiritual Growth | Leave a comment