The Lord Is My Shepherd Forever

May 5, 2020 Gracie

Why The Lord Is My Shepherd Forever

My defender, my protector, the Lord is my shepherd forever

Psalm 23 has always been dear to my heart.

The entire psalm talks about trusting our Savior – as an illustration that we can rest in Him, no matter what life brings.

“The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.”– Psalm 23, (NASB).¹

In fact, history tells us that a shepherd will do anything to protect his sheep, even lay down his life against a predator.

The Lord is my shepherd

The Lord Is My Shepherd Song

With the comforting picture of Jesus as our Savior in mind, I recently found a beautiful Christian song to share that I have literally listened to over and over.

Turn it up if you can.

The song is from Nashville Life Music and it’s called, “Shepherd.”

It really blessed me, and I hope you find it as uplifting as I do for the days ahead.

Make sure you check out their new album, “Here For Jesus” that will release May 15, 2020. In addition, the Nashville Life Music group is nominated for a GMA Dove Award for their song, “My God.”

Furthermore, here’s a fun fact you may not know: The group started out nine years ago in gospel legend, CeCe Winan’s living room.

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*Opening Shepherd photo is free to use, licensed under under a Creative Commons CC0 License.

² Quotation from M.G. Easton M.A., D.D., Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Third Edition, published by Thomas Nelson, 1897. Public Domain, Web. Accessed 29, April, 2020. Retrieved from https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/shepherd/. Sheep photo is free to use, licensed under a Creative Commons CC0 License.

Our Exceptional God

Seeing 20/20 In 2020

April 28, 2020 Gracie

The Eyes of Faith – Seeing 20/20 In The Year 2020

having clear vision 20/20 in 2020

We used to love watching hawks fly around at our old house.

Have you ever seen a hawk up close?

They are truly fascinating birds of prey.

Fascinating, but take it from me, they don’t pick up after themselves.

Seriously.

Once we saw a hawk with a snake in its mouth land directly on our back fence.

We quickly grabbed our binoculars to see what cool thing it would do next.

It didn’t take long.

It dropped the snake in our yard, and then flew off.

Hey, not cool.

You can see one of our frequent hawk visitors in the center of the picture below.

seeing clearly in 2020

Did you know that hawks can see eight times better than we can? That works out to about a 20/2 on the vision chart.

That’s pretty amazing.

My 20/20 pales in comparison.

I want to always see the world around me through the eyes of faith.

Seeing 20/20 in 2020

The other day, I came across the following verse in my Bible reading, located in 1 Samuel 16:7.

God is with the prophet Samuel in Bethlehem. God had a clear message for what Samuel was to look for in the search for a new king over Israel.

Check this out.

through God's eyes

The Lord looks at the heart

He sees us, not just for what we are on the outside, but more importantly, who we are on the inside.

Have you ever noticed in your Bible readings whom God chooses to use for His glory?

Did He always choose the most attractive, richest, strongest, and powerful people?

God often chooses unlikely people to do His work, so that all know the work is God’s work, not man’s work. He wants to work in a way so that people regard His servants as they regarded Samson: they wondered at the secret of his strength. (Judges 16:5). – David Guzik, Christian pastor and author. ²

Don’t you love that?

The Eyes of Faith

Delight yourself in the Lord, take shelter in Him, and see everything going on in the world with a Godly perspective.

Things may appear impossible right now, but through the eyes of faith, we know that, in God’s timing, everything will fall into place.

And then it will all start to make sense.

As hard as it can be sometimes, we have to try and look beyond our circumstances.

Choose to view life through God’s eyes. This will not be easy because it doesn’t come naturally to us. We cannot do this on our own. We have to allow God to elevate our vantage point. Start by reading His Word, the Bible…Pray and ask God to transform your thinking. Let Him do what you cannot. Ask Him to give you an eternal, divine perspective. – Chuck Swindoll, Christian pastor and author.³

Amen!

If you feel any of my posts would be helpful to someone else, please feel free to use the sharing buttons.

God bless.

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² Quotation from Christian pastor David Guzik. “1 Samuel 16. God Chooses David.” n.d., Web. Accessed 26 April, 2020. Retrieved from https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/1-samuel-16/

³ Chuck Swindoll, influential Christian pastor and author. Swindoll quotation, courtesy of AZquotes.com.

Our Exceptional God

Testing “Positive” For Faith

April 21, 2020 Gracie

There’s Power On Our Knees

faith testing

There’s something so powerful about getting on our knees to pray.

As COVID-19 continues to dominate the headlines, urgent prayer requests for God’s mercy and healing continue to ring out across America.

Lord, please stop this virus in its tracks

Keep my loved ones safe and healthy

Have mercy on America, Lord

I am so thankful that we have direct access to the throne of grace through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Aren’t you?

“For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous,
And His ears attend to their prayer,
But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” – 1 Peter 3:12, (NASB).¹

Testing Positive For Faith

If we’re going to test “positive” for anything, may it be our unwavering faith.

By His grace and providential will, I believe there will be an end to COVID-19.

An arrogant governor and other pompous politicians know nothing about the power of our faith and our God who hears us.

The real power over all of this lies at the feet of Jesus.

As we pray, and I’m including myself in this gentle reminder, we can’t forget to be thankful – as odd as that may sound during a time like this pandemic.

testing positive for faith

While the future may seem hopeless, God is faithful. Psalm 77:11-12

Knowing Him, we can face tomorrow with the confidence that He will work everything for our good.

So I want to leave us all with a Matt Maher song, covered beautifully by the West Baptist College Choir.

Remember: We, not the politicians, know Who holds the future.

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Our Exceptional God

No Time To Pause

April 15, 2020 Gracie

We Have No Time To Pause

Easter (or more accurately, Resurrection Sunday) just wasn’t the same this year, was it?

Several Christians I’ve spoken to have described it as:

Strange

Surreal

Different

Heartbreaking

Whether you were watching a service online, or sitting in your car at an outdoor church service, all of us had to face the reality that we are not in control.

The world is temporarily on hold, but Christians, we have no time to pause . . . in faith matters, that is.

The time is now.

There are hurting people out there who don’t know the Lord. All they’re hearing about is a seemingly out-of-control virus, and what the media tells them every night.

This is an opportunity for us to shine the light of the gospel in the midst of a global panic.

What We Know About God

Christians – we have the answer for lost people.

Although this pandemic may have temporarily caught us off guard, the fact is, the Bible speaks to us about calamities and pestilence.

But, I never thought I would see something like this in my lifetime.

I sooooo get it.

I’ve had my own moments of tears and frustration.

But, our Sovereign God already knew about this virus.

He will accomplish His will through this.

As this virus continues to attack our sense of peace, please try to take comfort in the fact that there are lost people coming to Christ all over the world through this awful contagion.

Shelter in His Wings

At a time like this, many Christians are turning to Psalm 91.

When you read through it, you can trust the reassuring words that God is our refuge and we need not be afraid.

Psalm 91

The Lord has graciously given medical experts the knowledge to work towards a cure, He has given a heart of compassion and skillful hands to all of our brave emergency responders to help the afflicted, and He has given us (the people of God) the ability to add to this fight with fervent prayer.

no time to pause

I love Charles Spurgeon’s expository lesson on Psalm 91, a small portion below.

Upon the child of the Lord’s own heart, pestilence has no destroying power, and calamity no wasting influence: pestilence walks in darkness, but he dwells in light; destruction wastes at noonday, but upon him another sun has risen whose beams bring restoration. – Charles H. Spurgeon, influential pastor and author.²

Every day is a day that the Lord has made.

A Wake-Up Call To Reach The Lost

This pandemic is a global wake-up call for each and every one of us.

Dr. Michael Youssef quotation

The Great Commission has not gone away.

The best way we can delight in God is to take the truth of His Word to the lukewarm and to the lost.

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Photo source credits:
– Window photo by Kristina Tripkovic on Unsplash.
– Oswald Chambers meme regarding Prayer, released into the public domain , via pixabay. It is an allowed derivative work of the original, and is licensed under a Creative Commons CC0 License by Gracie Jane.

² Quotation from Charles Spurgeon, influential Christian preacher and author, (1834-1892). Taken from The Treasury of David by Charles H. Spurgeon. “Psalm 91. Exposition.” n.d., para. 10. Web. Accessed 8 April, 2020. Retrieved from https://archive.spurgeon.org/treasury/ps091.php

³ Quotation from Dr. Michael Youssef, influential Christian pastor and author. Taken from The Christian Post. “2 Things God is calling us to do in the age of COVID-19.” n.d., para. 11. Web. Accessed 14 April, 2020. retrieved from https://www.christianpost.com/voices/2-things-god-is-calling-us-to-do-in-the-age-of-covid-19.html