PTL!

Through a set of seemingly unrelated experiences over the last few weeks, I've been drawn back to a very special scripture that both empowered and enlightened Piper and I through some ups and downs in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s.  At the time we were a part of the leadership team of a small Foursquare church that was meeting at the local YMCA.  We were in the early stages of developing our Children’s ministry, leading the Praise and Worship and holding a youth Bible Study on Saturday mornings at a low rent housing development in western Santa Rosa.

Psalm 40:3 just seemed to capture the essence of Piper’s and my Christian walk and family life at that time.  The Psalmist wrote, “And He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; many will see and revere, and put their trust in the Lord.” (NASB)  We spent a lot of time singing our praises unto the Lord, writing children’s songs of praise and just simply doing much praising around the house, the church and most everywhere else we found ourselves! 

Whenever something unexpected occurred, you could just about bet that our first response was an automatic “Praise the Lord!”  I would say it unknowingly at work and get some of the weirdest looks from my co-workers, while Piper would do the same around her fellow homeschool teachers… many times with the same results as mine!

When I quit my secular job at Hewlett Packard in 1991, we started a business called… you guessed it… “The Praise Works!”  Within the format of that company we put on Christian Book Fairs at Christian schools as well as marketing our original songs, plays, bookmarks, a children’s devotional, scripture confession cards and I even wrote a children’s adventure novel.  And yes…  just about everything we wrote had a lot to do with the simple but powerful act of praising the Lord. 

We ended up putting “The Praise Works!” business on the back burner when I went back to work for Hewlett Packard in the mid-1990’s and with everything that happened since then… never got back to it!  But lately… well, I keep finding myself being drawn back to that particular verse of scripture.  I watched a powerful live teaching seminar by Dr. Jerry Savelle a couple of Friday’s ago where he used Psalm 40:1-4 as his topic scripture… and WOW!  Did it ever excite me!

It got me to thinking that even though we may have put “The Praise Works!” business plan away some twenty plus years ago… that we never quite put the lifestyle of praise on the back burner, but kept it somewhat alive and healthy in the midst of the roughest time in our lives.  At the very onslaught of Piper’s physical deterioration, when my head and heart were spinning as I tried to make some rhyme or reason about what was happening, I surprised myself one night at work when I accidently dropped a pallet of loosely packed slate flooring while unloading a Home Depot freight truck.

What popped out of my mouth that night not only surprised me… but scared me!  That shocking event got me to repent very quickly while I stood alone in the receiving department.  I realized immediately that I needed to get myself fully back to where the proper thoughts came to my thinking in the stressful times ahead and that the right and uplifting words of God’s truth, praise and honor unto the Lord were the first things I found coming out of my mouth!

As I listened to Dr. Savelle, I could see how the Lord used that eventful and sort-of-reality-TV night back in 2008 to make the necessary heart, head and determination adjustments in me.  I was reminded of how those automatic words of praise were… many times… the only thing that got me off the road to giving up and self-pity and back into the same lane as the road our stand of faith was on!

I like the way the modern Passion Translation declares Psalm 40:3, as it perfectly describes how I’ve learned to live my life in this new day, two years after Piper’s homegoing.  The Psalmist states “A new song for a new day rises up in me every time I think about how he breaks through for me! Ecstatic praise pours out of my mouth until everyone hears how God has set me free. Many will see his miracles; they’ll stand in awe of God and fall in love with him!” 

I find myself praising the Lord a lot more lately, while I ponder all that He did for Piper and I throughout the 48 years of our time together and then especially in the last two years without her.  Sure, it’s hard… definitely the hardest thing that I have ever had to deal with in my 67 years… but I can’t help but somehow KNOW that He still has a plan in motion for me and that His best is still yet to come!

Is that the way that you feel about your life today?  If not, then I would encourage you to pick up your Bible, turn to Psalm 40 and then repeatedly read and study verses 1-5… until you see that the Psalmist is talking all about you!  Once you see yourself in these verses you won’t be able to stop yourself from praising the Lord aloud throughout the day and realize the new song of expectancy that is building up in you!

Have a great new week!