Quotes that make me think....

Do you ever hear something that makes you stop and think?

Today I saw a quoted posted on Facebook. It said, "Do you know that nothing you do in your life will ever matter, unless it is about loving God and loving the people He has made" (Francis Chan).

 That one struck me hard as such a profound and truth filled statement. We are busy people. With jobs, careers and homes and families. We rush around every day trying to do the normal thing and often forget one simple truth. Unless we do it for God (or serve Him by serving others), it didn't matter. It won't last in eternity. I just wasted my time. Phooey.


I think the entire American mindset goes against this. We are all about making ourselves better. We want a better house, car, education, or chance than those around us. We work day and night and sometimes weekends making ourselves richer and richer. We don't know how to be content with simple housing and basic food. We have homes, and we have more food than we possibly need. But we still don't dedicate our time to the Lord.

 I saw a couple minutes of professional bowling on a TV at a restaurant today. A thought came to my mind, in eternity he is going to really regret all the time he spent throwing a ball at pins. And it is true. I think we will all look back at some point and wonder why we wasted our time serving ourselves or our own little personal idols. What a waste.

 So today stop and think about that quote. Evaluate your life. Are you loving God and people with everything? Or do they just get a little bit of your time?
 Where is your treasure? God called us to "go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." Are you doing it? Are you looking at the world around you as your personal mission field? That grocery clerk, or mom next door, or co-worker that drives you nuts. God put you into their lives for a reason. Be a light, not just with your actions because actions don't tell them the gospel. We are to be bold with our words. We are to be witnesses and tell the world of the great things God has done. Make an eternal impact in this world. Live with a heart completely dedicated to your God. That is a life filled with no regrets.

What are some quotes that have made you think in the past few months?

Musical Musings

Those of you who know me know I am a musician. I was raised with a rich heritage of appreciation for music, specifically sacred and classical. One of the things I find very unique about myself is the wide range of music that I enjoy and appreciate. I am mostly speaking of Christian music, but different styles. To be honest I very rarely listen to anything but Christian music. Recently when speaking with a teen from our church I told them they could bring their Ipod and sinc it with our new radio transmitter as long as it was Christian stuff. They told me they only had about 5 Christian songs. That honestly concerned me. I know of massive amounts of Christian artists from all different genre's. There are great theologians and a lot of fluffy stuff so you have to be discerning, but there is a lot of amazing stuff out there. My concern is that we fill our minds with good stuff.

When I listen to Christian music.... it is a lot more difficult to be stressed or sin. When I hear words that challenge my heart and direct my thoughts toward God my life pattern adjusts as well. Philippians tells us to think on things that are good, lovely, of good report etc. When I listen to Godly music I am filling my mind and heart with these things.

I want to give you a picture of some of the wonderful music I have been filling my life with the past few years. Like I said I have a huge spectrum of stuff I love, so not all of it may be for you. But my preferences are strongly driven by rich doctrine and beautiful music or powerful writing.

My first favorite is by Sovereign Grace Music, they include rich doctrine with upbeat music and they also do a ton of hymns, some in original forms and some with re-written scores. My favorite songs from them are tied between Oh the Deep Deep Love listen here amp;amp;lt;/p>

(purchase below)and a song called The Father's Love- listen here:

 I love listening to my children sing The Father's Love. I hope they understand and appreciate its meaning.


 One thing that I have had to work to appreciate is Christian rap. Several men in recent years have made it their mission to teach young people deep theological truths through rhythmic verse. It is astounding to me what teens can learn in minutes of listening to this stuff. Some of my kids would never sing a hymn through, but if you give them one of these they will have it memorized in a day. I know some may argue that rap isn't an acceptable method, but I have seen people who fill their minds with this good stuff instead of what they were listening to, and I have seen it highly helpful and instructive. If you want to hear an idea of what I am talking about check out Shai Linne and his expository of Jesus as our High Priest.Listen here
or purchase at amazon below.
 

And I am saving my favorite for last. I absolutely love the Getty's. Their song The Power of the Cross is truly the gospel in a song.

 I have many other favorites of theirs but honestly you would get tired of checking out all the links....so just go buy all their albums. It is worth the money!

Who are you listening to? Are you listening to Christ exalting, God focused music? Who are your favorite artists? Lets share our favorites and encourage each other together to fix our minds on Christ. This is just one of many ways to do exactly that.

You want me to pray for how long?!

So recently my dear hubby challenged us to pray for one hour uninterrupted. In my mind I thought no big deal. To be honest I pray a lot. Constantly if you count the frantic cries upwards as I try to deal with my busy and often challenging children. (who will remain nameless in this post!) If you don't count those desperate cries for help, (which often involve asking God to help me spare their lives) then I still would say I pray a lot. I'm constantly getting calls, texts, and Facebook posts from friends, family and church members asking for prayer, support and advise. Which means I go to the Lord a lot in response.

So my prideful, crazy, unwise self thought that one hour of prayer was an easy task. I tried 3 times. Things came up. Phone emergencies arose. Children kept getting out of bed. I felt ill. Go. Figure. I finally got a chance to really pray. I prayed through every family of our church. I prayed for each issue and person involved and prayed specifically. I prayed for my hubby and my children and my teens. I thanked God and praised him. Oh yeah, and I confessed my sin.

And then I peeked at the clock. It had been 20 minutes. WOAH.

Man that seemed like a long time. I got a little concerned. What more could I pray for? I remembered a few more things and got right back to it. Those things reminded me of a few more and I got a pattern going. Honestly it was the most ADD prayer ever. I wondered if I was the dog in the UP movie. SQUIRREL! (ok only some of you will get that....but those of you who do are CRACKING up right now!)

I peeked at the clock again.

6 more minutes had passed. I almost groaned aloud. Not because I didn't want to pray. I did. I just didn't know it would be so hard to pray for one hour. No wonder those disciples fell asleep. I wondered if I would make it.

Then I remembered Facebook. Ok I know that sounds weird. But I have 600 Facebook friends and I know each one. Many of them are believers or in ministry. And the ones that aren't need prayer even more! So I started thinking through all my Facebook friends. I was able to think of a ton of serious needs that many of them had been asking for prayer for.

The time finally flew by. Apparently God wanted me praying for someone on FB this time. This was a good exercise in godliness for me. It was harder than I thought it was and helped me see how much praying I could get done in just one sitting.

So here is my challenge. Pray for one hour uninterrupted. Tell me how it went! :) Let me know if you need prayer here too....I will make sure I cover it the next time I sit down for my long prayer session.