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A love song leading to hope and peace

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It’s devastating to realize we placed our hope in an unworthy person. Eve felt it. Real life Anastasia Steeles feel it in Fifty Shades of Grey-style relationships. The discovery can be painful, terrifying, and maddening. It can leave us wounded, mistrusting, and fearful. In romance, in your family, or in your church? Maybe you’ve felt it, for a woman’s hope follows where her love leads. You believed, you loved, you followed, but you were used.

We all have the potential to let our own desires drive us so we run right over other people. Fear is the tool of a manipulative heart. It’s a weapon wielded by abusive lovers, controlling leaders, and insecure parents. If we all have the capacity to sin, is there a fail-safe place to love? Can we find real love?

“Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, On those who hope for His lovingkindness.” Psalm 33:18

There is One completely deserving of our hope. He desires reverence, not dread, so He looks for “those who fear Him.” He reaches to us with truth, because He is truth itself. There’s no manipulation, only grace. His holiness makes Him wholly worthy of our love and, thus, our hope. We can hope in His lovingkindness.

True love

Women worldwide put their hope in the ones they love. If the one they love is wholly worthy, their hope brings life. If they love one who is wholly unworthy, their hope brings death. Aaron Shust wrote a love song with declaration words, that the Lord is the One worthy of our hope. Nothing shakes His worthy ways, even painful circumstances or the unknown. It’s safe to love Him. It’s safe to hope in Him. To love Him is to hope in Him, and to hope in Him is to know His peace.

To love Him is to hope in Him. #LoveSongs

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  • My hope is in You, Lord, all the day long.
  • I won’t be shaken by drought or storm.
  • My hope is in You, Lord,
  • All the day long I won’t be shaken by drought or storm.
  • A peace that passes understanding is my song,
  • And I sing my hope is in You, Lord.
  • My hope is in You, Lord.
  • My hope is in You, Lord.

Do the loves in your life lead you to hope and peace? Do your passions produce a heart full of hope and a peace-filled perspective? God watches for those who reverence Him, loving Him enough to hope in His authentic lovingkindness.  Does He see you reverencing Him and putting your hope in His fail-safe intents for you? Does He see you making Him the love of your life? If our love is well placed, our hope will follow and fill us with peace.

True love leads to holy hope and holy hope leads to peace.

Would you say you’re experiencing a hope-filled outlook and heart of peace?

Have you ever misplaced your love and ended up hopeless and without peace?

Dedicated to daily difference making: Susanna Wesley

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How can a woman be sure her life will impact people for good? No one starts out planning to be Elizabeth Elliot, Harriet Tubman, or Monica of Hippo. What path does a women choose if she wants to be among those who make a difference?

By the time she married at 20 years of age, Susanna Wesley had already been schooled in the principles of maximizing life. The youngest of 25 children, she was the daughter of a pastor who planted an appreciation for learning in her heart, and her future course was clearly aimed. She’s known for declaring, “I am content to fill a little space if God be glorified.” This attitude served Susanna well, for she was destined to face a life of hardships, providing a laboratory of faith for her own family. A life aimed at glorifying God will succeed at impacting people.

We can overcome

Susanna Wesley’s Daily Dedication

Apathy and Antagonism

When Susanna married a pastor, the couple began their gospel partnership in a time of religious apathy in England. Not only had worship become dull and faith disconnected, but parishioners lashed out in personal attacks on the Wesley family whenever sermons or opinions weren’t to their liking.

Pain and Poverty

Susanna bore 19 children, grieving the loss of 9 of them. Rather than providing support and encouragement we should expect in the church, antagonistic members once harassed the family throughout the night. Taking advantage of husband Samuel’s absence and Susanna’s recent delivery of their 16th child, trouble makers assaulted and antagonized the family all night long. One church member demanded immediate payment of a debt, putting Samuel into debtors prison, leaving Susanna to bear the load alone. Twice the family suffered burning of their home, once losing nearly everything and scattering to be housed.

Humility and Home

No doubt Susanna learned the essentials of discipline, routine, and hard work in her well populated family of origin. Because of their poverty, the family lived a plain life, but Susanna led her children in times of worship and teaching. She authored 3 religious texts in order to provide education for her brewd. Her household school produced learned children, and her home based worship drew crowds that ultimately drew criticism from jealous clergy.

Discipline and Dedication

How did Susanna respond to life’s hardships so her faith rose to the surface and her children followed? The disciplines of her life served her well; she spent two hours in prayer daily. This was possible because she managed her large home with regularity, routine, and discipline. Her example set the pace. Instead of creating a regimented atmosphere, she was dedicated to nurturing relationships with each child, making it a priority to spend time with each individual.

She was impoverished, grieved, antagonized, misunderstood, threatened, stretched, and undermined, but she did not let temporal things keep her from the eternal.  “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31) Many women today would be overcome by such a host of obstacles, but in Susanna we see an example of doing the right thing, the godly thing, the faithful thing. Are we content to fill the space God gives us, if only He is glorified?

We can be overcome or we can overcome.

Susanna’s investment into the people in her life bore great fruit. Her son John, along with his brother Charles, led in a great spiritual awakening and establishment of the Methodist Church.  Charles penned thousands of hymns, giving voice to generations of followers of Christ. Perhaps the habits and tunes of faith were first taught, stirred, and fanned into flame by the prayerful mother who managed her home so well that her sons went on to impact lives around the world.

No condemnation now I dread; Jesus, and all in him, is mine; alive in him, my living Head, and clothed in righteousness divine, bold I approach th’ eternal throne, and claim the crown, through Christ my own.
Bold I approach th’ eternal throne, and claim the crown, through Christ my own
.

A life aimed at glorifying God will succeed at impacting people.

 

Godly Women: Stories of Faithful Daughters

Uncommon Gifts Wrap-Up and Review

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Were the Christmas gifts given and received in your life all you hoped for? Sometimes earthly gift leave us feeling surprisingly … disappointed. Not so with #UncommonGifts. The best gifts are uncommon, given out of sacrifice for the love of giving. They outweigh the love of self, loving both to be given and received.

Uncommon gifts wrap-up and review

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” (James 1:17)

The Do Not Depart team prays that you have been encouraged by this month of celebrating our Savior and reflecting on the uncommon gifts we each have to offer Him. As we peer into the dawn of a new year, let’s give Jesus our best.  Our #UncommonGifts.

A Wrap-up of Uncommon Gifts

The best gifts are #UncommonGifts

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Uncommon Gifts Christmas

Uncommon gifts: A December celebration

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Do you know what gifts are trending this year? Some new gadget or toy, creation or product rises to the top in popularity each holiday season. Cabbage Patch dolls of the 80s, Tickle Me Elmo of the 90s, Ugg boots of 2000, and Turduckens (no one can agree on their year) have gone down in the holiday hall of fame as winners. But sometimes so many are sold that the novel items become, sadly, common. Once the market is flooded with a more-than-adequate supply, the too-typical gifts lose their value simply by virtue of how common they are.

The best gifts are uncommon. Gifts carved out sacrificially by one who felt the cost, but gladly gave anyway. Gifts crafted uniquely when inspired by love for the receiver, outweighing the love of self.

Uncommon gifts can’t be held back, for they long to be offered and love more to be received.

As the Do Not Depart team celebrates the birth of our Savior with you, we want to be known by our uncommon gifts. We’re taking this December to learn from those who gladly gave at the first coming of Christ to earth. This month, will you reflect with us on what makes our earthly offerings truly uncommon? #UncommonGifts

Uncommon Gifts Christmas

Uncommon gifts can’t be held back #UncommonGifts

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Encouragement for when you long for healing

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I showed up with her favorite lunch, which we shared while chatting at her bedside. She sat in her wheelchair while I perched where her roommate could keep a jealous eye on me. I asked about her bruising and her wrapped foot, her therapy and her progress. We talked and remembered and planned for a future drive to her childhood homeplace and an Autumn trip to the mountains. But inside, where I could not see, her illness was gaining ground.

Encouragement healing

Illness takes time to take hold, so it’s rarely defeated instantly. Often unseen, its progress lurks under a familiar smile, toss of the head, or sparkle in the eye, until the day of diagnosis. That’s the day when a disease declares its unwelcome presence, making it known that a battle is underway. And then we fight and hope and pray for healing to come. Just as physical or emotional illnesses progress over time, so too restoration often comes with the slow passage of days or weeks or years.

God is identified as the Healer: Jehovah Rapha. He may use wisdom He gives to man or the resources of earth transformed through technology, but no healing happens apart from Him. His plan includes conquering death physically and spiritually. When we or our loved ones suffer pain, we join in God’s grand plan by engaging in prayer for healing. Since our grief and concern may make it hard to know where to begin, use these words from scripture to call on the name of Jehovah Rapha, the God who heals.

ENCOURAGING verses for when you long for healing

  • “I am the LORD, your healer.” (from Exodus 15:26) ~ God, You have an actual NAME that means you are the healer. Would you intervene in the life of _______ to bring healing at the best time and in the best way?
  • “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you …” (Isaiah 43:2a) ~ Thank you, Jehovah Rapha, for staying with us in the most difficult times of life, even in the times when we are at our weakest, physically and emotionally.
  • “My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh.”(Proverbs 4:20-22) ~ Dear Lord who made __________, help us absorb your truths in our hearts and minds during this time of sickness. Use your words to bring energy, restoration, and healing to _________ emotionally and physically.
  • “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” (James 5:16) ~ Show us if there’s any sin eating away at us, and help us to uphold one another well.
  • “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:4) ~ Jehovah Rapha, we look forward to the day when there will be no more pain or disease leading to physical death. Would you comfort ____________? We want and need Your comfort!

Sometimes healing is reserved for heaven. We don’t always have the chance to see it with our earthly eyes, though we long for it on our timetable. Instead, some pain waits for fuller, more glorious, restoration.

Death is swallowed up in victory when healing finally comes.

Before I could drive my frail friend to her old Tennessee homeplace or make our trip to the mountains, she passed from this world to heaven. Illness was her means of escape, but complete healing awaited her in heaven. She is well. Very well.

Click here for 10 Ways to Pray for Sick Friends, including a printable version with scripture to pray.

Sometimes healing is reserved for heaven #EncouragingWord

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WRAP UP of Purity for Today’s Christian Woman

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Does purity really matter? That’s the question we considered this month. As we said when August was just getting started, “If we’re going to talk about God’s truth, we have to talk about Purity for Today’s Christian Woman.”Wrap Up Purity for Today's Christian Woman

We hope the Bible study tools this month have challenged and helped you as they have us. Before the month slips away and we turn the page on the calendar, let’s wrap up with a look back at resources to help us apply truth to our need for living pure, holy lives.

Purity for Today’s Christian Woman WRAP UP

We hope this month helped you know what God has to say about our purity. Our team loves to share tools and resources for personal growth and for use with others in your circle of influence.

May God be glorified as we live more holy lives to reflect Him to the watching world in our homes, places of work, neighborhoods, and communities!

Check out this WRAP UP of tools & resources for Purity for Today’s Christian Woman

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15 Verses to Pray for Personal Purity

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Our personal purity has a purpose.  To live God’s way in an ungodly world, we need to engage the power of prayer in our lives. Not only do we need help to resist temptation, but we need God’s work in us to give us a truly pure heart. We only have to look to God’s own Word to find powerful verses to pray for Personal Purity.  At the end of this post you’ll find an easy printable list to make these verses part of your prayer time.

Purity for Today's Christian Woman

  1. I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless. (Psalm 101:3a) ~ Help me choose things of value for my learning and entertainment.
  2. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14) ~ May my words & thoughts please You.
  3. Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting! (Psalm 139:23, 24) ~ Please show the true condition of my heart and lead me to being pure of heart.
  4. How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. (Psalm 119:9,11) ~ Help me to know, remember, and obey the truth of Your word.
  5. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. (Ephesians 4:19) ~ Keep me from becoming callous to sensuality and impurity.
  6. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
    (Romans 12:2) ~ Renew my mind daily so I will know what is acceptable to You.
  7. Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways.
    (Psalm 119:37) ~ When I am tempted to look at worthless things, help me turn away and find life in Your ways.
  8. All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirit.
    (Proverbs 16:2) ~ Please weigh my spirit and show me how to be pure in Your eyes.
  9. So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.
    (2 Timothy 2:22) ~ Help me flee temptation & pursue righteousness, faith, love & peace.
  10. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. (Psalm 51:10) ~ Create a clean heart in me.
  11. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) ~ Give me a desire to glorify You with my body.
  12. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.
    (Romans 6:12) ~ Help me to be obedient with my passions.
  13. A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls. (Proverbs 25:28) ~ Teach me to have self-control that comes from your Spirit.
  14. Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. (Matthew 16:41) ~ Give me a desire to be a person of prayer so I will refuse temptation.
  15. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. (1 Corinthians 10:13) ~ When I am tempted, show me clear ways of escape and show me Your faithfulness.

Download your printable copy of 15 Verses to Pray for Personal Purity

Purity for Today’s Christian Woman

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In June we looked at the call to holiness for anyone who follows Jesus. The world doesn’t talk or stress much about being holy. In fact, most people chuckle at the suggestion that being holy is still relevant today. “Does holiness really matter?“

Is it just me, or are Christians becoming less holy? This summer, Do Not Depart team member Kathy Howard released a new Bible study called Embraced by Holiness, in which she shares a summary of a Barna Group nationwide study about moral convictions. The study compared busters (in their 20s & 30s) to pre-busters (over 40). In 25 of the 32 factors surveyed, it’s apparent busters are becoming less concerned about issues of morality. Kathy reports that “the biggest area of change is ‘Americans’ perspectives and behaviors related to sexuality.'”  Most of the 20/30 somethings, for example, don’t have a problem with sex outside of marriage, cohabitation without marriage, and pornography viewing. Going a step further, “statistics showed only slight distinction between busters in general and born-again busters.” Christians are becoming less holy.

If we’re going to talk about holiness for followers of Christ today, we can’t leave out our sexuality. Holiness may not be trendy or popular, but our team is committed to sharing God’s truth for relevant needs today. We will focus on what scripture says and  strive to address this personal, but necessary, issue with grace and dignity. If we’re going to talk about God’s truth, we have to talk about Purity for Today’s Christian Woman.

Purity for Today's Christian Woman

Rahab: common woman, uncommon faith

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How does a common woman who makes a living using her sensual skills end up in the faith chapter of Hebrews? If there’s hope for Rahab to be praised for living by faith and to end up in the family line of Jesus,  there’s hope for women today.  Common women can live by uncommon faith.

If you’ve ever wondered if Rahab’s deal with the two spies was really an act of faith or simply good business, you’re not alone. As a woman of the night who strategically lived on the city wall, she was no stranger to transient men.  After all, even the King knew Rahab provided lodging for the two young men. But, she willingly deceived him when he commanded her to give them up. So where does faith emerge in the lustful, lying ways of Rahab from idol-loving Jericho? We find the answer in the book of Joshua.

Rahab’s simple Faith

Rahab didn’t know of God’s plans for Israel, His promise of a redeemer, or His holy character, but what she knew was enough to produce simple faith and boldness.  She declared her new faith to the two spies as they lay hidden on her rooftop. “I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you.”   She had heard about Yahweh, and she believed He was all-powerful. Unlike the gods of Jericho, He has the authority to give land and remove nations, and she admitted her fear of Him. “And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath,” (Joshua 2:8-11).

When confronted with God’s actions, Rahab had the uncommon faith to believe in God’s supremacy.

But believing is common, since “Even the demons believe,” (James 2:19).

Rahab’s uncommon faith

Choosing to actively put our faith in what we believe is uncommon. Before she had all of her questions about Yahweh answered, before she knew what would happen after the defeat, before she knew if she would be accepted by the people of God, before she knew how anyone could have such power … she chose to believe. She didn’t have to know it all to put her faith in God. It was enough to know “he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.” True faith is demonstrated by the works we do, “And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?” (James 2:25)

When confronted with what God has done, Rahab had the uncommon faith to act on who He is.

Rahab Uncommon Faith

She put the survival of those she loved in God’s hands.  As Rahab stood with all of her relatives “outside the camp of Israel,” (Joshua 6:23) watching the dust settle from the fallen walls of her hometown Jericho, she must’ve had no doubt that she had chosen the right side.  “By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.” (Hebrews 11:31)

Is your faith uncommon?

God used the uncommon faith of a once-common woman to accomplish His story of bringing grace through faith to mankind. Hers is a story of redemption, born out of simple belief, resulting in bold action. Oh, that we would be uncommon women today! Common women can live by uncommon faith.

Who do you believe God is? Are you boldly acting on who you believe He is?

Holy habits for everyday life

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We’re already practicing holiness, to one degree or another. People might say you’re “all in” when it comes to letting God’s holiness drive your habits.  Others might say you’re one of those who keeps God’s holiness and your habits in separate categories.

But what does God say? Does He leave it up to us to decide how holy we want to be, practically speaking? Or does He gives us any kind of a picture to show us how holiness looks in the everyday life of His followers?

The first part of Ephesians spells out our identity in Christ; the second illustrates how that identity matters. As we change who we were, contrast who we are, and imitate who the Father will always be, our new holiness in Jesus changes everything.

Holy habits everyday life

Holy habits due to change

Do you describe your dietary choices with words like “vegan, gluten free, dairy free, vegetarian, or sugar free?” A lifestyle change impacts how we spend, what we talk about, what decisions we make, and how we think. A lifestyle change is no small choice … if it’s authentic.

True followers seek “to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Ephesians 4:22-24)

No one follows Christ without making a genuine change. Ephesians 4:22-32 shows us how a life of loving the Holy One requires putting off our old self and putting on the new. Old habits like lying, sinful anger, stealing, corrupt talk, and unforgiveness have to be put away. Like cleaning out Twinkies when we choose to go sugar free, past routines fall away as we take on holy habits in their place. True followers of Christ Jesus change.

Holy habits due to contrast

Sports seasons inspire fans to bring out team flags, wear jerseys, do cheers, and follow players. Devotees don’t follow every team; just their own. They may be aware of others, but they don’t buy into others. Real followers want their loyalty to be known. It’s the same for real Christ followers, “for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” (Ephesians 5:8)

Instead of continuing to let darkness reign in our practical life, new life in Christ means the light of the Lord shines into every area of our personal everyday. The fruit of the Spirit within us comes out in how we talk to customers, discipline of our children, respond to hardships, solve financial problems, react to our mate, view our computer screen, deal with family relationships, see our culture, choose reading material, conduct our sexual life, participate in our local church, and get dressed daily. God’s light where darkness once reigned shines into every crack of our lifestyles.

The contrast brought by Christ can’t help but create holy habits where darkness once reigned.

Holy habits due to imitation

Reflection reveals the authenticity of our admiration. After all, isn’t imitation the highest form of flattery? A child’s mimicry on Fathers Day shows how much they watch, idolize, and strive to follow dad … or not. God’s unchanging holiness only requires a change in those who call Him “Abba,” Father. Our imitation brings Him praise.

For the children of God, holiness in practical living is the only believable response to the Father. “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God,” (Ephesians 5:1-2).  Our growth in practicing holy living reveals the genuine nature of our adoption as sons of God.

Before we joined God’s family through Christ’s holy sacrifice, we were “sons of disobedience.“  When our father was the Devil, we imitated him. Once we’re adopted into God’s holy family, covered in a righteousness not our own, our Father is God, and we imitate Him through obedience. Like a child who grows older, revealing more and more of their father’s nature in the way they look, talk, walk, smile, laugh, and do life, so a child of God imitates the heavenly Father in holiness more and more.

A child of God has changed, lives in contrast to the world, and imitates the Father through holy habits in practical ways in everyday life.

Would you be willing to pray this prayer?

Father, You are my Father. I want to imitate You, like a genuine child who reflects Your nature. Would you make me alert to practical areas of my life where I need to mimic You more? Help me see where I’m acting more like the old me than the new me. Show me how to apply holiness in all of my life habits.

A call to all & the gift of hospitality

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When she opened the door to her humble home, warmth flooded into the night. A quick scan revealed simple furnishings and few decorations. Aromas wafted out of a small collection of dishes, exposing the time she spent preparing for our arrival. The only richness was the joy at our arrival, though we were strangers just days before. The scene would never be on glossy magazine pages or a network home show, but I’d never felt more cherished and comfortable in the home of a host. Her life said, “Welcome” as she graciously displayed the gift of hospitality.

What is hospitality?

If spiritual gifts are for the common good of the body of Christ, hospitality is the tray upon which they are served. Like other qualities of Christ followers, an hospitable spirit is not only expected of those so uniquely gifted. All followers of Christ are called on to, “Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality,” (Romans 12:13). While the expression of welcome impacts those in the Church, the word for “hospitality” is “philozenia,” a combination of two words that mean:  affection + strangers. If only offered to our church, family, and friends, hospitality is incomplete.

Hospitality Do Not Depart

How does hospitality look?

Hospitality overflows from a heart of genuine love. We love others because we were first loved by God (1 John 4:19). The Romans 12 passage explains that sincere love results in an enthusiastic desire to serve the Lord, motivation to work hard, and inspiration to practice a lifestyle of hospitality. “Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace,” (1 Peter 4:9-10). All believers should practice being open to receive others into their lives and homes, but some are uniquely gifted with a divine measure and ability to host and serve others.

You might have the spiritual gift of hospitality if:

  1. You want to bring people into your home for fellowship and food.
  2. You create an atmosphere where people feel valued and welcomed.
  3. Your home/environment feels comfortable and safe to guests.
  4. You put people at ease when meeting them or hosting them.
  5. You enjoy sharing your home, relationships, food, and resources.
  6. You take initiative to plan events to bring people together.
  7. You extend yourself to others and find they are drawn to you.
  8. You overcome challenges of cleaning, budget limits, or cooking to host.
  9. You use appropriate etiquette and planning as tools to care for people.
  10. You delight in having people in your space, especially your home.

Why we’re starved for hospitality

Sadly, as cultures become more affluent, people tend to raise expectations, retreat in privacy, and to put up invisible barriers around their homes. Images of perfectly coiffed living rooms and camera-ready meals have us believing we need to be professionals before we open our lives and homes to church members, family, friends, or strangers.  Let’s not hold back. We are stewards of our homes, to be used for welcome.  Hospitality does not pause or cease because we have little or because aren’t winning cooking awards. A life of welcome has nothing to do with riches or comfort. People today are starved for the ministry of hospitality.

  • I remember the night I discovered pure hospitality.
  • I don’t remember the food; maybe we ate pizza.
  • I don’t remember the dishes; maybe we used paper plates.
  • I don’t remember a centerpiece; maybe there was none.
  • I don’t remember a seasonal wreath; I only know it was an open door.
  • I remember the beautiful fragrance of a life that says, “Welcome.”

If you want to cultivate hospitality in your life, do a quick clean up, get some simple food (cheese & crackers & fruit?), and ask the Lord to show you who needs a welcome.

If you’re an introvert and find hospitality challenging, you might like to read this.

If you’d like to read an example of a woman with the spiritual gift of hospitality, and read applications for using it in the workplace, church, and family, you would enjoy this short overview.

Click to TWEET This >>  Hospitality is the tray upon which spiritual gifts are served http://wp.me/p1Su7F-2Xy #Hospitality #SpiritualGifts via @DoNotDepart

Songs, hymns & spiritual songs Recap

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Recap
I sat at the stop light with a full heart. Thoughts about family needs, news about friends in Tornado Alley, upcoming challenges, and truths from my morning Bible reading all collided there at the intersection. As if to provide a way to let the waves break, the words on the CD gave voice to my tangled thoughts:

  I need Thee every hour, most gracious Lord. No tender voice like Thine, can peace afford.
I need Thee, oh, I need Thee. Every hour I need Thee.
Oh, bless me now my Savior. I come to Thee.

The tones and lyrics lifted my thoughts from the mire of the earthly and turned the pressure and anxiety to a peaceful kind of praise there under the red light. Old words still relevant. Fresh music in a new arrangement of young voices.  I wondered if the woman in the sedan beside me noticed I was in the middle of being blessed by a song. I was alone with the Lord in a concert of praise, listening to a spiritual song full of  truth that fed my soul. I had to hold myself back when the light turned green!

This month we’ve taken a listen to music as a tool for Bible study and as a vehicle for our walk with God.  The words that speak to you and the arrangement that resonates with you may be different from day to day, from friend to friend, from need to need, from culture to culture, or from prayer to prayer.

God gifted us with music to give voice to our worship of  Him, our worry about earthly things, and our wonder in the journey.

Songs, hymns & spiritual songs RECAP

  Songs Recap

Click to TWEET >  Check out this Recap of the songs, hymns & spiritual songs series on @DoNotDepart http://wp.me/p1Su7F-2Ui

Click to TWEET > God gifted us with music to give voice to our worship of  Him, our worry about earthly things, & our wonder in the journey.

Come thou Fount: a song for wanderers

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Mighty truths and stirring melodies often meld in the forge of pain. Englishman Robert Robinson wasn’t the first boy to habitually wander from the narrow path. He only went to a meeting to hear George Whitefield so he could mock it, but instead, he changed. As a young adult trying to etch out a new path for life, he wrote down the anthem of his heart. It’s an invitation, a declaration, and a confession that resonates with anyone likely to drift off course and long to return.

Invitation to COMECome Thou Fount of Every Blessing

Having learned Jesus is the Fountain of every blessing and the changer of hearts, Robert invites Him to “Come” tune his heart to produce a song of God’s grace and mercy. Though writing in the 18th century, Robert recognized that God’s character calls “for songs of loudest praise.” This is the chorus of those who want more Jesus, who long to have the Living Water fill them to an overflow of praise. Robert longed to produce a song of praise.

“Come, Thou Fount of ev’ry blessing, tune my heart to sing Thy grace.”

Declaration of FAITH

“Jesus sought me when a stranger,” Robert admitted, but he declared recognition of how God helped him in his times of trouble. He had been wandering and in danger, but the blood of Jesus rescued him. In the Old Testament, Samuel set up an “Ebenezer stone” after God delivered the nation of Israel. Robert’s hymn was an “Ebenezer stone” of God’s rescue in his life. If you’ve experienced personal rescue, the words to this song may give your heart the voice of expression you long for.

“Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, “Till now the Lord has helped us.” (1 Samuel 7:12)

Confession of NEED

Truth and music often meld in the forge of pain. This hymn is no different, revealing the writer’s desperate need for grace and his struggle not to wander from His Lord. No matter how much I want to cling to the Fount of every blessing, I know that I have a tendency to leave the Lord I love, to wander from the close fellowship I’m meant to have with Him.

“Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it; prone to leave the God I love,” he wrote.
Robert Robinson did stray from the Fount of every blessing after he wrote this hymn. He later recognized his folly, and in reflecting on the words he once penned, he confessed, “I would give a thousand worlds to enjoy the feelings I had then.”

Mighty truths and stirring melodies often meld in the forge of pain.

  • Every day must bring a fresh invitation for the Fount to “Come” tune our hearts to his praise.
  • Every day must resound with a declaration of our faith in God’s help for our trouble.
  • Every day must bring us down on a bended knee, where we beg God to come.

“Let that grace, Lord, like a fetter, bind my wand’ring heart to Thee. Here’s my heart; Lord, take and seal it; seal it for thy courts above.”

Download a printable Worship Worksheet: Come Thou Fount  Bible Study Tool.

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Songs, hymns & spiritual songs as Bible study tools

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So many events in our lives are accompanied by a background track. Songs speak to our hearts when only music can be heard above the noise, the pain, the questions, or the confusion. God uses worship music to help us grow. Has God used a song to help you find Him, know Him, follow Him, or worship Him?

Songs Hymns Spiritual Songs

The Do Not Depart team knows what it is to experience songs, hymns, and spiritual songs as powerful tools for truth in our lives. Our Bible study is better because of the faith-filled music playing in our lives.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (Colossians 3:16)

This month join us as we look at how God uses music to richly plant His word in us. We’ll share songs that teach and admonish us through the depth of their true messages. We’ll talk about the lyrics and sounds that have given gratitude a means of expression in our own lives. As we do, we pray you will be inspired to use songs, hymns, and spiritual songs as Bible study tools in your own life.

#BibleStudy is better because of faith-filled music playing in our lives. http://bit.ly/1i1mgzk @DoNotDepart #SingPraise < Click to TWEET & share!

Understanding God’s Ways

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I don’t understand the pattern Lisa talked about last week, but I’m so grateful for it, just the same. “We need; God provides. That’s the gospel.” I want that, even if I can’t grasp it all. 

Understanding God’s WaysIsaiah 558-9

  • How could the holy God doze away barriers to make way for ever-fallen, failing me?
  • How could the One who delights to give rain down grace on ever-receiving me?
  • How could the Father give the Son for the orphans who didn’t love back … yet?

How?

To demonstrate His intimate knowledge of us, God anticipated our bewilderment. He tenderly sheds light on our confusion in the verses following the crazy declaration that if we seek Him, “He will abundantly pardon.”  ( from Isaiah 55:7) Not just adequately forgiven, but abundantly forgiven. The only right response is to worship Him.

How?

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)

  • His thoughts are His purposes, His plans, and His intentions. And His thoughts are so unlike ours. I wouldn’t pardon abundantly, but that’s His plan.
  • His ways are His path, His direction, His journey, and His manner.  And His manner is so unlike ours. I wouldn’t invite opposers to seek me out, but that’s His manner.

Our ways and our thoughts are so different from God’s that we can compare the contrast to the distance of heaven to earth. There are many ways to define how far space is from earth, but the International Space Station orbits at 400 km from earth; a constant boost is necessary since it is constantly “scraping” the atmosphere of the world.  From earth to heaven is higher than high. But “higher” here exceeds an earthly sense of distance. Instead, it refers to lofty in deserving exaltation.

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. (1 Corinthians 13:12)

There will be a day when God reveals how He could extend His abundant pardon to us. For now, His lofty plans and His higher manner is to be exalted above my small understanding.  I don’t understand His great mercy that invites those far off to “Seek the Lord while He may be found,” but I’m so glad He invites. You?

New beginnings start with history

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Based on reliable information, I was destined to be a real hell-raiser. But before I could grow up to write a long, empty, broken history, God spared me and drew me to Himself. Like many others who began a relationship with Jesus as a child, I don’t have many sordid tales to convince you I was on the path of destruction. Maybe you have a testimony of early salvation and you’ve struggled with how to tell a story of life change and new beginnings that seems rather dull compared to those of dramatic transformation.

Look no further than your own family history for the answer to your dull dilemma.new beginnings start with history

With the ease of accessing information, there has been a resurgence of interest in genealogy and family history. God can use this to reach people! Online sources like Ancestry.com have taken away the barriers of discovering our ancestors. Author George Orwell spoke truth when he said,  “The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”  Without looking at our history, both recent and far, we fail to shape a solid case for sin. As we uncover our lineage, we trace the pathway of the footsteps we were destined to follow.

Who were you on track to become before you began a new life in Christ?

Out of a love for history and a longing to connect with family, I began a search for my history, hoping to find something noble and redeeming.  What I found was evidence left to me by generations back to the late 1500’s. Instead of a long line of saints, I found a yearbook of lost, empty, broken, lives. I needed a new beginning.

I was not only born to “look” like them, but to LIVE like them.

“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11, emphasis mine)

I know we’re all born as sinners and destined to die because of it, but my family history proves I was born onto a trajectory that set me on a course for vices like alcohol, anger, and abuse. I had no hope of being a fine, upstanding citizen on my own. You?
When God intervened in the life of my parents and then in my life, He saved me from a future that was as sure as my history. He washed me, changed me, and declared me righteous because of what Jesus did. He is the God of new beginnings. Only Jesus can change the course of a life.

Praise God He can and does change the course of lives every day!

So, what’s in your story? Who were you destined to become?

New Beginnings Series - donotdepart.com

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