Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
(Isaiah 40:28-31)
A Psalm of David
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
(Psalms 23:1-6)
THE LOVE OF GOD
The love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star,
And reaches to the lowest hell;
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled,
And pardoned from his sin.
Refrain:
Oh, love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—
The saints’ and angels’ song.
When hoary time shall pass away,
And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall,
When men who here refuse to pray,
On rocks and hills and mountains call,
God’s love so sure, shall still endure,
All measureless and strong;
Redeeming grace to Adam’s race—
The saints’ and angels’ song.
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.
Verse 3 was penciled on the wall of a narrow room in an insane asylum by a man said to have been demented. The profound lines were discovered when they laid him in his coffin.
You can listen to the song below, enjoy!
Thanks to http://library.timelesstruths.org/
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Church: Team or Family?
What you call the church determines how you will relate to it. Some of the newer terms we have used to market the local church, and even solicit involvement and participation are the use of the common term “team.” It gets printed on t-shirts, banners and baseball caps, whatever necessary to both foster morale and to esteem cooperation, it seems a “team” spirit works thematically for a missions project, an evangelistic endeavor or even an annual call to practical service.
But when we begin to call ourselves a team and not a family, too much shifts, and often too much is lost. A team is a group of people banded together for the express purpose of achievement, winning a game, accomplishing a goal, or completing a project. The Chargers are a team, so are the marines, and United Airlines. A team usually has a coach, an owner, and of course players, all trained to accomplish a task.
If the right guard keeps missing blocks, the coach is obligated to the owner and the other team members to bench him and even eventually replace or trade him. Sometimes when churches operate as teams, the leader (lead pastor) acts as a captain or a coach, sets up goals, and then initiates the action to achieve those goals. If someone gets in the way, misses a catch, sprains an ankle or is just plain too slow, he gets let go, dismissed from his charge, is asked to leave the game and is dropped from the team.
However, if the right guard is married to the coach’s daughter, or is the son of the owner, that becomes a different subject. Now the team is a mixture of team and family and families operate on a different level……Read the rest of this
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I found this artist on a blog I follow, he is quite good!
“His Wings” – Josh Garrels from Josh Garrels on Vimeo.
