Do I Delight?

Pastor & songwriter, Pat Sczebel,spoke at our church this past Sunday. Pat is close friends with my boss and it was a joy to have him at SGC for the weekend. His sermon text was Psalm 84. It was an incredible sermon that left me thinking…Do I delight in God’s presence? Do I yearn, long, and get really excited to be with my Father? Commenting on Psalm 84, the ESV Study Bible states:

This is a psalm celebrating pilgrimage to Jerusalem in order to worship at the temple…this one especially focuses on the delight of going to worship there. The purpose of singing this psalm is to cultivate that delight, to open the eyes and hearts of God’s people to the staggering privilege of being a welcome guest in God’s own house, and to write deep into their souls the conviction that wickedness offers no reward that can even remotely compare to the joy and pleasure of God’s house.

Pat had three points in his sermon. As I re-read this passage, three questions (or groups of questions) came to mind:

1. In love with the house of God – Am I so in love with my Savior, that it is pure joy to be with Him and His people, my local church?
2. En route to the house of God – Do I delight in my God so much that I yearn for Heaven? Do I remember I’m en route? Do I delight so much in my Savior that even the dry or difficult seasons in my life are a joy?
3. At home in the house of God – Are my affections so set upon the Holy Trinity, that there is no other place I’d prefer than to be in His presence? Do I find joy, peace, and rest in God’s presence? Do I yearn to be with my Savior?

I often get stuck in my duty. What I should be doing to obey my loving Savior. But, it struck me that if I’m delighting in my God, then I’ll automatically obey my God. If I delight in Him, His presence, and His people, my desires will be bent towards obeying Him.

On a side note, if I delight in God, than I should get pretty excited about Him. And that should affect the way I physically express myself during worship (singing). Yes, use self-control and do not draw undue attention to yourself. But, isn’t it natural (and I would suggest how God made us) to express delight and affection through physical expression? If someone blesses me and gives me a brand new car, folks, you’d see some excitement. (Ad if you have seen my current car, you’d say I have reason to be excited.) I deserve Hell. I deserve wrath. I’ve been redeemed and adopted. I’m forgiven and God’s child. I’m an heir with Jesus Christ. I have an ongoing, never-ending relationship with the God of the Universe. I have unlimited access to the presence of God. Shouldn’t that produce just a little delight? And shouldn’t that delight display itself not only in my obedience to God, but in my physical being? Shouldn’t songs about the gospel and God’s majesty (for example) move me to dance, clap, raise my hands, kneel, etc?

To get back to the beginning…do I delight in my God? Yes, but I want to delight much more than I do!

Just As Wonderful

We tend to have a very superficial appreciation of what God has done for us. When it dawns on us that we have entered into brotherhood with the risen Lord Jesus Christ, that we now participate in the power of his resurrection, that the glory of God’s image is being restored in our lives – then everyone who has been born again will rejoice in the grandeur of the change that God has accomplished in us through his Spirit! We will not (as some mistakenly do) wish we had a more spectacular ‘experience of conversion’, because we will realise that the grace of God is just as wonderful in our lives as in the lives of those whose conversions make headline news in the Christian media. It is no easier for God to give you a new birth than it is for him to give it to the worse man who ever lived!

Sinclair Ferguson, Children of the Living God

Singing Baby

Saw this and thought it was cute…

Murals

Apparently, I can paint better than I thought. I got together with my Events Staff last weekend to begin Christmas party decorations. We had less help than we had planned, so I was forced be be a little more creative than I thought I could be. I did not do it all, but I did one of the trees, the mountains, and parts of the cabin.

 

 

How Good It Is

O God of love I come to You again
Knowing Iʼll find mercy
I canʼt explain all the things I see
But Iʼll trust in You

In every moment You are there
Watching over You hear my prayer
You go before me, Youʼre behind me
Nothingʼs hidden from You

How good it is to be loved by You
How good it is

O God of strength Your hand is on my life
Bringing peace to me
You know my frame, You know how I am made
You planned all my days
Hand of mercy, hand of love
Giving power to overcome
If all beneath me falls away
I know that You are God

Who can stand against us?
In my weakness You are strong
Your Word is everlasting
I will praise You faithful One

O God of Love words & Music by, Louise and Nathan Fellingham. Copyright © 2000 Kingswayʼs Thankyou Music/MCPS. All Rights Reserved.

Trials By Faith

Faith untried may be true faith, but it is sure to be little faith, and it is likely to remain dwarfish so long as it is without trials. Faith never prospers so well as when all things are against her: tempests are her trainers, and lightnings are her illuminators.

When a calm reigns on the sea, spread the sails as you will, the ship moves not to its harbour; for on a slumbering ocean the keel sleeps too. Let the winds rush howling forth, and let the waters lift up themselves, then, though the vessel may rock, and her deck may be washed with waves, and her mast may creak under the pressure of the full and swelling sail, it is then that she makes headway towards her desired haven.
No flowers wear so lovely a blue as those which grow at the foot of the frozen glacier; no stars gleam so brightly as those which glisten in the polar sky; no water tastes so sweet as that which springs amid the desert sand; and no faith is so precious as that which lives and triumphs in adversity.

Tried faith brings experience. You could not have believed your own weakness had you not been compelled to pass through the rivers; and you would never have known God’s strength had you not been supported amid the water-floods. Faith increases in solidity, assurance, and intensity, the more it is exercised with tribulation. Faith is precious, and its trial is precious too.

Let not this, however, discourage those who are young in faith. You will have trials enough without seeking them: the full portion will be measured out to you in due season. Meanwhile, if you cannot yet claim the result of long experience, thank God for what grace you have; praise him for that degree of holy confidence whereunto you have attained: walk according to that rule, and you shall yet have more and more of the blessing of God, till your faith shall remove mountains and conquer impossibilities.

-Charles Spurgeon

Orange, Muddy Mess

We are now supplementing some of the puppies feedings with Puppy Chow. Feedings aren’t put on pause, even when it rains. It rained all day yesterday. We brought the puppies onto the porch for their feeding. They were an orange, muddy mess!

Cody, he’s my favorite!

Mudzy getting a bath.