Decision Time...

I have a small group of scriptures that I read aloud or ‘confess’ over me and our family first thing every morning… and in fact, have done so for going on five years now!  I use my small leather-bound Passion Translation Bible as my foundation and have the portions of scripture highlighted, underlined and surrounded by personal notes and insights that I have added along the way.

This translation has become one of my personal favorites and has seen a lot of usage since I purchased it five years ago.  Over that time a few pictures of Piper have also found their way to be inserted between the pages of the book… Gee… I wonder how that happened!

One picture in particular seems to have found a permanent place as an extra bookmark for one of the last verses I look at each morning… not too surprisingly, it’s found next to the LOVE chapter in I Corinthains 13.  It is a simple picture that some of you will recognize as one I’ve previously posted in past blog posts. 

I took the photo of Piper standing in the entrance to our big 12-person tent on a summer vacation we took in July of 1999.  We had traveled six hours from home to our favorite campgrounds located about 5500 feet up a mountain in the Sierra Nevada’s within Plumas Eureka State Park, located in northeastern California near the Nevada border.

To many who look at the picture it looks to be a normal, cute picture of Piper taken as she was exiting the tent after straightening it up before we embarked upon our morning adventures that day.  And they would be right… but there is also SOOOO much more that is physically unseen in the frame that comes alive to me each and every day as I observe the photo while reading the verse it is sitting next to in my Bible!

Along with what was physically captured in my click of the shutter that day, is a whole lifetime of memories associated with our 48 years of life together.  And each morning, the Lord seems to pull out one from the immense pool of memories in my heart and allow me to reflect on and enjoy that special moment from our past.

Today… for whatever reason… I found myself thinking about all the miles… probably thousands… in which we held hands and walked together, from the hollowed halls of Montgomery High School, to the neighborhoods surrounding Chico State University, to the different neighborhoods we lived in …in three different states… over the years!

I have many reflections of Piper and I purchasing various new pairs of walking and exercise shoes for her at Big Five Sporting goods in Santa Rosa as well as at Academy Sports and Outdoors here in Oklahoma… But that is just the tip of the iceberg of the memories of things we saw on the walks, the discussions we had and the love that seemed to flow like electricity between the grip of our hands!

The point of this personal story is about the different things that people see when they look upon a picture, observe or experience a physical event or even when told a set of facts about most any subject matter.  Our scripture verse from the Old Testament book of Psalms, chapter 40, verse 3 graphically defines this phenomenon.  If you’ll recall, David describes his response to a personal hardship in his life when the Lord rescued him from a traumatic series of events, and declared with great enthusiasm,

“A new song for a new day rises up in me every time I think about how God breaks through for me! Ecstatic praise pours out of my mouth until everyone HEARS how God has set me free & (1) Many will SEE His miracles & (2) they’ll ‘STAND’ in awe of God & (3) ‘FALL’ in love with him!” (The Passion Translation)  

I took the liberty to add some study aids to the verse in order to help differentiate parts of the statement and be of assistance to you in case you wanted to do some studying on your own, before our continuing blog post next week.  Each one of the three ‘&’s’ are potential DECISION points for the listener and/or reader of this verse of scripture.  In this teaching, David details a supernatural event that occurred in his life… with the expressed desire that it would act as a point of DECISION for those who hear it.

First of all, he joyfully tells of the fresh new song of joy that overtakes him whenever he thinks about the goodness of God with His intervention into his situation.  Then he describes how different people will personally respond to his heart-felt, joy-filled, miracle-filled, singing of praise to God.

He begins by declaring the obvious… that everyone around him will ‘HEAR’ the message he is delivering… but then he goes on to point out… that not everyone will (1) ‘SEE’ from their heart and discern the super-natural miracle of God that occurred and submit to and/or allow themselves to let go of whatever would hold them back and (2) ‘STAND’ in AWE of God and then (3) ‘FALL’ in love with Him (and eagerly pursue the new, close-knit and personal relationship that will develop and grow between them).

The word ‘SEE’ among other things, talks of the ability “to perceive, have the vision of, to discern (the spiritual significance for their lives), to be able to distinguish what they are seeing apart from the world’s view, and to desire to present themselves to God!” (Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Definitions)  So, therefore it describes an interpretation that goes beyond what one is physically observing with their eyes alone.

Just like with my example of the photo of Piper at camp.  People who look at the picture have to make the DECISION to just ‘SEE’ what their eyes observe or to take an extra moment or two and allow their hearts to perceive or discern beyond the context of what the frame displays.  And to be honest… from my personal experience… it doesn’t really matter if the people knew her or not.  When she got sick… I was surprised at how many of the individuals who regularly interacted with her… really did not have an accurate picture of who she was or what she really stood for (or they just simply refused to accept it… because it didn’t necessarily agree with their narrative or viewpoint).

David seems to be telling us that when those DECISION points come around in our lives… that we need to DECIDE if we are going to open ourselves up to God’s personal influence in order to potentially expand and enrich our self-worth, outlook on life and the way with interact with others… or just keep the status quo! 

Each one of the three DECISION points in David’s teaching opens the door for the next DECISION we need to make and helps to keep a fresh and ever-increasing place of Christian maturity in our daily walk with God… as well as with our family, friends, neighbors and those strangers we see in the course of our daily lives.

So… What DECISION will you make when those decision- making situations arrive in your life?  I know for myself… that I want to KNOW more, SEE more and DO more for the kingdom of God… HOW ABOUT YOU?

In NEXT WEEK’S BLOG POST, I’ll share some thoughts on what actually happens with us when we make the right DECISIONS to seek and follow through on God’s directions for us.

In the meantime… keep a sharp eye out for the opportunities for DECISIONS that God presents along the way…  & Have a great weekend!

Exercising a New Song...

For as long as I remember, I have always had a close connection with music.  It probably couldn’t have been helped since my mom was very musical.  I have fond memories of our big Silvertone Hi-Fi console radio/turntable sounding throughout the house with tunes and news from her favorite local radio station (KSRO) as well as records… both 33 rpm LP’s or 78 rpms from her old 1940’s big band and Frank Sinatra record collection (which I inherited).  She also loved to sing and play the piano, having been part of a popular girl’s trio in High School and a founding member of the St Eugene’s Cathedral Choir.

My dad also loved to sing but… as some would say… “couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket!”  But that didn’t stop him from singing his heart out at church or around the piano during the holidays when my mom would play our family’s Christmas Carol favorites.

She tried for years to teach me the piano, only except I was more interested in singing the words of the song than learning the notes to play.  But I did learn to become somewhat proficient in playing the guitar in Jr High and started a band with my talented brother and a couple of my friends that I kept together in various forms throughout High School.

And speaking of High School, I fell in love with a cute and talented gal who could play just about anything she picked up… but her real passion was the piano.  She was classically trained from her early elementary years and continued through High School and Jr College.  She also, like my mom, loved to sit down at her piano and play.  Piper though, was much more proficient in her piano training and would easily play different styles of music, ranging from rock and roll tunes when she sang with my band a few times, to funny kid’s songs, to both the old hymns and the contemporary praise and worship songs of the church, and of course, the classical masterpieces, that she would occasionally learn just for me as personal gifts to me!

Music therefore became a major part of who Piper and I were in our homelife and ministry.  As an adult I have wonderful memories of standing and holding one of the church Hymnals and singing in the service at Piper’s Baptist church that we attended for many years before moving and actively participating in the Charismatic/Pentecostal realm of Christianity. 

In these churches, I have a multitude of personal experiences where the Holy Spirit moved during the praise and worship part of the service.  In the midst of these moves I have seen phenomenal signs, wonders and miracles happening throughout the congregation.  It was during some of these times when I received many of my most meaningful revelations from the Lord, directions for life and personal healings and restoration.

I firmly believe that those wonderful times in singing and worshipping the Lord are exactly the type of events that David wrote of in Psalm 40:3 where he stated from personal experience that,

“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, and many will see His miracles; and they’ll stand in awe of God and fall in love with Him!” (TPT) 

I have also come to learn that these mountain-moving and extraordinary times of the touch of the Holy Spirit are not limited to community church gatherings, where all the participants are flowing in one accord, as they did in the upper room on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2:1-41.  They are also available to individuals who take the time in personal acts and words of praise and worship in thanksgiving unto God for His miraculous interventions in their lives.

The Apostolic Bible Polyglot Interlineal Greek Old and New Testament Bible translates Psalm 40:3 into English as,

“And He put a new song into my mouth, a hymn to our God, and many shall see and shall fear (be in awe of and revere) and shall hope (or rather: put their expectations) upon the Lord.”

It is interesting to note, that the word “SONG” is defined as “a leather bag used as a bottle or container in which water and wine was kept.”  Water and wine in the Bible are many times associated with the Holy Spirit in both the Old and New Testaments.  Therefore this “New Song” David talked about from his personal experience, is seen as a vessel through which the Holy Spirit is present and then honored and worshipped as an act of thanksgiving to God for specific interventions in our lives.

Albert Barnes in his Notes on the Bible explains that “The idea (of the New Song) is, that God had given a new or fresh OCCASION (or vessel) for praise… for an act of surpassing intervention on the part of God that the language used on former OCCASIONS and which were adapted to express the mercies then received, WOULD NOT be sufficient to convey the sense of gratitude felt for the present deliverance (or miracle-filled, wonder-filled events in your life).

“…And So…” as one of Piper’s and my Sociology professors would say at the beginning of every lecture… Just how do we do this… or achieve this level of high praise where the Holy Spirit is drawn into our presence?  Well… the answer, once again, is also found in the definition of the base word from which our word “SONG” is taken from… meaning, “to exercise one’s self” or “to attempt something by exerting effort.”

Therefore, by putting the two definitions together you could say that “The New Song” is a vessel or occasion from which to exert energy in giving our whole self in praise and worship… with thanksgiving, to God for His joyfully miraculous interventions into our lives.”   So… Yes Folks!  It takes effort and commitment to spend the time necessary to achieve this place in your worship to God! 

But you know?  It is worth the time, the effort and the whole-hearted yielding of ourselves to Him!  I would also venture to say… at least as far and Piper’s and my experiences went… It was very rewarding as well as quite fun and enjoyable!

You will NEVER catch me saying that my Christian Walk is dull and boring!  Just the OPPOSITE to be sure!

We’ll be discussing many more exciting aspects of this Psalm in the weeks to come!  So, stay with me and keep your seatbelts cinched up tight!

Have a terrific weekend.  It’s getting cold around these parts with another Arctic Blast presenting itself over the next few days.  Fiver and I just came back from our afternoon walk… and while Fiver enjoyed it… my face felt like shards of ice were hitting it with the freezing cold northern winds!  Whew!  Stay warm my friends…

SEARS, WORDS and WEAPONS…

I would consider my first ‘real’ job to be as a sales associate at the old Sears store in downtown Santa Rosa, California.  I had mowed lawns since my junior high school days and worked for a print shop for a couple of hours a day after school throughout high school, but Sears is where I really entered into the reality of a regular, decent paying job, with steady hours, opportunity for advancement and the ability to become part of a team working together to achieve corporate goals and serve the public at the same time!

I worked there from the summer of 1971 and well into 1977 when I quit to manage the apartments we lived in, pursue my photography business aspirations and to follow the recent ministry call as the on-staff Youth Minister at our church.  While there, I spent my entire time at Sears working in the sales departments located in the basement of that store.  Mostly part-time in Sporting Goods while attending Junior College and later as a full-time associate in Hardware… but I knew the entire floor pretty well and could and did help out in the other departments like Paint and Electrical.  The only area I never worked in was the Catalog desk… although I did spend many a quiet evening talking to the gals who worked behind the counter!  (Don’t worry… Piper knew them all and they saw her around enough to know that I was well spoken for!)

My point in all this is that over the years, I got to know many of the regular customers who considered Sears to be their go-to store.  Most of the customers were friendly and approachable… except for one older gentleman that most of the associates tended to avoid!  It turned out that the man was a retired Deputy Sheriff and always made it a point to let that fact be known.

He had a flamboyant way of flipping open his wallet so that his big, shiny gold badge always tended to get in your face while he fished for his credit card and swung back his jacket in such a way so that the hand gun he carried on his belt could be clearly seen.  He had an attitude about him that tended to leave me with great concern for the way he had treated people while on the job and made me worry about how easily it might be for him to draw his revolver now that he seemed to live in the hyped-up stories of his past.

I hadn’t thought about that man for many, many years… until this morning when I was reading about the power behind the words that you and I speak on a daily basis.  Psalm 40:3 in The Passion Translation tells us,

“A new song for a new day rises up in me every time I think about how God 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!” 

While pursuing a Hebrew and Greek word study on various words within this verse, I was a little stunned when I looked up the original language’s meanings behind the word “MOUTH.”  Both the Hebrew and Greek translations agree that the usage of “MOUTH” is defined as our “speech or language” and “specifically as the edge of a WEAPON or the edge of a sword.” (Strong’s and Thayer’s)

That definition immediately reminded me of a very familiar scripture where the Apostle Paul specifically taught about the WEAPONS that we as Christians are to use in our daily lives.  2 Corinthians 10:4 clearly informs us that,

“The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;”

So… while that older gentleman from the early days of my adult work history, carried a WEAPON at his side and tended to make all of us around him anxious by the way he spoke and paraded his gun and badge in public… we Christians… according to Paul… carry around just as powerful a weapon… one that does “not pertain to the flesh, or is under the control of the animal appetites nor governed by mere human nature, instead of by the Spirit of God” (Strongs)!   The powerful WEAPONS of our daily warfare are the very WORDS that we SPEAK each and every day!

As I began to study these verses within the context of both King David’s and the Apostle Paul’s understanding concerning the importance of the words we speak… I immediately… among other thoughts on the subject… had to sit back at my desk and wonder if the words that I speak in this current season of my life (as I have come a long way and learned a lot more in my Christian walk since those days in the early to mid-1970’s) ever cause people that I am interacting with… to feel uncomfortable or even anxious to be around me!

On that same subject matter, Jesus Himself declared that,  “The words you speak reveal the true condition of your heart…” (Matthew 12:37 – The Remedy),  while Peter distinctly taught that “Whoever speaks must speak God's words.” (I Peter 4:11 God’s Word ©)

Are the words that I speak in the course of my daily life God’s words or words that agree with the truth of His Word as found within the pages of my Bible?

How About You… and the WORDS that you speak when conversing with others in public, at home or at church… are they God’s Words… or words that line up with His truth as written in your Bible?

If God considers MY WORDS as the WEAPONS of my or HIS warfare in my walk on this earth… then I’d best make sure that every word I speak hits its target and that I don’t waste valuable ammunition by talking without thought of the harm that my words may inflict on someone else!

What do YOU think about that?

There is a lot more to these verses that I’ll be sharing over the next few weeks… but in the meantime… STAY ALERT to what comes out of your mouth!  I like the saying to engage our minds and, in this case… our spirits… in connection with HIS Spirit… BEFORE engaging our mouths!

Have a terrific weekend!  Our winter weather storm that blew through over the last few days has left us with the beautiful sights of bright blue skies and (a little) warmer weather that is quite welcome!  The snow is quickly melting and the icy morning and evening streets are quickly fading away! PTL!

So… Stay ALERT to your Godly filled WORDS and expect God’s BEST when you do!

Fresh and New!

With this being our very first blog post for the New Year of 2025, I would like to wish everyone a blessed, prosperous, diligent and healthy New Year!

I can’t help but to get excited at the beginning of every New Year.  Even as I look outside the big window here in my study and observe the dreary, overcast skies and the brown (dormant) lawns in my neighborhood, as well as those covering the golf course just a few short steps away… I am enthusiastic about what is ahead for me in this New Year of 2025.

As far as the immediate future goes, we here in the central states of America are gearing up for the first winter storm of the season.  It promises to bring Arctic conditions complete with snow, strong northern winds, and chill factors into the single digit numbers for some of us and below zero for most north of our location.  But after this weather front moves on through, toward the end of the week… I am excited with a FRESH NEW anticipation of what good, gracious and WONDER-FILLED experiences that the Lord has in store for me and my family in the months ahead.

I always like to seek the Lord to discover a special verse or verses of Scripture as a foundation for each New Year.   And this year was no different.  An old familiar verse from the book of Psalms came to my remembrance a few weeks ago that seemed to ignite a FRESH NEW fire of EXPECTANCY within me for the New Year.

In Psalm 40, David wrote of a situation in his life from which he had sought the Lord in a time of deep trouble and despondency and described how the Lord heard his cry, pulled him out of the pit of destruction and set his feet upon a rock, making his footsteps firm.* And then with the great JOY of EXPECTANCY, he told of the NEW SONG that God had placed in his mouth declaring,

“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!” (Psalm 40:3 - The Passion Translation)

The word NEW in this verse literally describes “a FRESH, NEW THING”** and while I am not sure about you… the thought of FRESH NEW THINGS happening in the course of my life in 2025… thoroughly invigorates and excites me!  I already have plans set in motion for this NEW Year that center around a springtime move to Tennessee to be near my older two kids and their families… AND to be near the wonderful landscape of tall mountains complete with rivers, lakes and tall pines that reach up into the sky… that all contribute to their state’s larger than life, overflow of American history that pre-dates the Revolutionary War!

So, yea… I’m excited for the NEW Year, but more importantly… of how the good Lord is going to put it all together for me, each and every step of the way!  This move is NOT like the others I’ve made in the past and I am thoroughly EXCITED and Highly EXPECTANT of the FRESH NEW THINGS that He has up HIS sleeve for me!

So, HOW ABOUT YOU in 2025?  You may not have a major move in your upcoming plans, but I am pretty sure that you have goals, hopes and dreams that you are looking forward to seeing completed in the NEW Year ahead… Am I right?

David tells us in PSALM 40:1-3 that when we go to the Lord in prayer and cry out our heartfelt thoughts, concerns and hopeful plans to Him… that… no matter how BAD the situation seems to be… that He will hear our cries, bring us out of the pit of destruction, place our feet on the solid ROCK of JESUS and thereby make our footsteps firm AND:

“Put a (fresh) NEW SONG in our mouths, a (fresh NEW) SONG of praise to our God” so that “Many will see and revere (HIM) and (through our acts of faith-based praise) put their trust in the Lord” (Psalm 40:3 – NASB)

So… What do you think?  Are you READY and EXPECTANT for the NEW SONG for the NEW DAY that He wants to place in you for 2025?  I sure am… So… Let’s go for it together!  Have a great weekend… and get ready to SING for Him!

 

*Psalm 40:1-2 NASB

**Strong’s Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries