From the Inside Out

Jul 05

servantGod Thoughts , , 1 Comment

I am often prone to dark mood swings, and in those times there are a few songs that really lift me up. As opposed to listening to music that further darkens my mood, I’ve been listening to praise music instead, and what an awesome transformation it makes! Instead of feeding the mood, I can overcome it by worship and prayer, and just abandoning and losing myself in God. So the lyrics to this song really speak to me, particularly “The art of losing myself in bringing you praise“… and it is an art! It’s so easy to just get swept up in the mood and the feelings, but for the past few months I’ve decided to take a stand against that and just lose myself in offering praise.

This song is called “From the Inside Out” by Hillsong United and can be found on the United We Stand album (I have it from the iWorship 24/7 album, which is a compilation of some really great worship songs).

If you were like me and fed the mood, try breaking through with worship. Guaranteed it works. Lose yourself in worshipping God. You might as well get used to it now… if you are a Christian, this is what we’ll be doing for eternity. Get some practice in!


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Helping the Homeless

Mar 25

servantStories , , , , 1 Comment

I just felt like I needed to share how God is opening my eyes and growing me. I am most definitely an unfinished work, more coal than diamond, but the Lord is revealing things to me and impressing things upon my heart — particularly the other night. My wife and I are part of a Bible study that for three weeks does a regular Bible study, then on the fourth week go out and do what we’ve been reading about. So we’ve been in Matthew, and as a result we pooled some money and put together some small bags of items for homeless people with the idea that we would wander around downtown and hand them out, witnessing to people.

The bags were quite modest: toothpaste, toothbrush, soap, a comb, shampoo, a pair of socks, some candies and a few other assorted hygiene things, and a business card sized print out of Jeremiah 29:11-13. We chose this because people on the streets need hope (well, we all need hope, but I think they need it in particular), and we wanted to share the fact that God does have good thoughts towards us, and that He wants us to have a future, and hope.

Now, I have to be honest here. I’m not a people person. I’m about as close to an anti-social hermit as you can get while having a family and going to church three times a week. I’m not generally a fan of people — I’m not outgoing, I don’t talk a lot, and I’m quite shy. My appearance probably doesn’t help matters much because I tend to intimidate people (or so I’m told), and my “style” of dress and skin adornments probably doesn’t help either. My wife, on the other hand, is the complete opposite — she talks a lot, she’s bubbly and outgoing, very animated and excited. As you can imagine, this is where God is growing me. Witnessing to street people sounds great, until you actually do it. And, if you’re like me, you’re fervently praying for strength and courage before heading out because this is _WAY_ out of my comfort zone.
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