Blog - Do Not Depart

Love Sees Opportunities

February 19, 2015 by Caroline 7 Comments

I keep saying that my children are teaching me more about life and love than I think I’ll ever be able to teach them.

They notice things.

They notice to wonder at birds in the trees,

or flowers peeking through the snow,

or even that the same word appears three times on one page, and how amazing is that.

They notice when someone feels happy, and they get happy too.

They notice when someone worked hard, and they celebrate too.

They notice when someone feels sad, and they work to ease, comfort, and feel it too.

I think they notice all these things because they love.

Because they’ve been taught to love by their father (my husband) and their mother (me), yes. But more because God put hearts inside them that feel love, know love, and want to give love.

So because they love, **they see.**

And that’s what love does. It sees opportunities to love more.

That’s what I want to do. I want to always see opportunities to show more love.

“Now about your love for one another we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other…Yet we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more…“ – 1 Thessalonians 4:9-10 (NIV, emphasis added)

But, I don’t always see those opportunities.

What happens when I don’t see?

I forget to see. That’s what it is. My too-busy brain and human heart forgets love and therefore forgets to see.

But… (don’t I say this in almost every post here?)… that’s where grace comes in.

Love and grace are good partners. Grace reminds me and renews me to remember love. Love is what offered us grace in the first place.

A day before I even sat down to write this post, I wrote down a prayer I want to pray every morning:

God, help me see opportunities to show love and grace today. Help me choose Your purposes over my own every minute and renew quickly when I forget. Help me to see and love in your name.

Jason Gray (a superb musician and songwriter) wrote a song called With Every Act of Love. This song touches on how love sees opportunities to show more love and what those acts of love do. (We are His kingdom!) Please listen and read his lyrics.

“As heaven touches earth

We bring the kingdom come

with every act of love

Jesus help us carry you

Alive in us, your light shines through

With every act of love

We bring the kingdom come”

– With Every Act of Love by Jason Gray

(If you can’t see the video above, click here to view the video. Also, click here to watch a video about the background of the song.)

Ever think what you see doesn’t make a difference?

One of my favorite parts in this song are these lyrics:

“God put a million million doors

in the world for His love to walk through

one of those doors is you“

– With Every Act of Love by Jason Gray (emphasis added)

We are His hands. His love works through us. What we do matters.

“Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.”

-St. Teresa of Avila

So, tell me: What can you see today? What opportunities is love showing you? Please share in the comments!

Ever think what you see or do doesn’t make a difference? Read here:

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Love sees opportunities to show more love. #RealLoveSongs

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A love song leading to hope and peace

February 17, 2015 by Julie 2 Comments

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.

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?

Believe you’ll see it – Psalm 27:13 {Memory verse}

February 16, 2015 by Lisa Burgess Leave a Comment

We know that heaven will be awesome. The full presence of the Lord will be so good. But what about here? What about now?

We may not always see His constant wonders with our eyes here, but we have seen some. And as long as we’re alive here, we will see more.

Believe it. Look for it. See it. The Lord is good.

Memorize Psalm 27:13 with us this week as we anticipate discovering more of the Lord’s goodness.

I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living!
Psalm 27:13

Look for it. See it. The Lord is good. Memorize Psalm 27:13 with us. #HideHisWord

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How to be brave

February 12, 2015 by Lisa Burgess 17 Comments

If you could substitute your fear today with love, how differently would you live?

I’ve seen it; you have too. The shy, in-the-background woman suddenly can keep quiet no longer. Someone she loves is threatened, and she has to speak up.

That’s what love can do to us.
It makes us brave.

The world can be a hard place. It often requires things of us and ways from us that we don’t feel equipped to give—time, energy, money.

And courage.

The world needs our courage.

It needs us to speak up for the powerless.
It needs us to create peace in chaotic places.
It needs us to love those who don’t love back.

I received a short supply of courage by nature. I’ve always wanted more. And now that I’m an adult, I’ve seen the need for more.

But there’s only one way my human tendencies toward worry and timidity can be overcome: By love.

Specifically, the love of God.

We need a safe home base because it can go bad for us out there. We can be betrayed, knocked down, and even have our physical life ended by other people or circumstances. It’s the risk we take when we choose to step out in love.

It’s the risk Jesus took when He loved. Look where it got Him: He was betrayed, knocked down, and even allowed His life to be snuffed out.

But because Love is always stronger, He arose. And because His love now lives in us, we, too, can rise up to be brave.

God’s love is the only unshakable foundation that can’t be moved. No one can take away our safe place in God. Only through Him can we be truly brave. To go. To do. To love. Even to die.

Because we are loved, we can look reality eye-to-eye and keep moving forward.
Because we are loved, we can take chances to love others who are hard to love.
Because we are loved, we can give ourselves away trusting God will replenish us.

To err on the side of love is the brave thing to do. In God’s love, we are safe.

Stay in His love today and do the next thing He’s calling you to do. Even if you have knocking knees, a fast-beating heart, and a mind that says, “I’m scared!”.

Fear says, “What if . . . ?”
Love says, “What can be . . . ?”

His love is bigger than our fear. May He make us brave.

Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever! . . . The LORD is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?
Psalm 118:1,6

What do you need courage for today? Let’s talk in the comments.

Click here if you can’t see the song video “You Make Me Brave”

Click here for the backstory of “You Make Me Brave”

The world needs your courage. God’s love is bigger than your fear. “How to be brave”

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Hearing God’s Love Song in Hard Times

February 10, 2015 by Kathy Howard 2 Comments

Have you ever wondered if God had forgotten you? Had stopped loving you? Perhaps you’ve thought your sorrow, grief, fear, loneliness, fear, or (you fill in the blank), would never end. In times like those, it’s not always easy to trust in God’s unfailing love.

Like a violent storm at sea, life is filled with circumstances that toss us around and threaten to pull us under. The psalmist David intimately knew about these storms of life. The 13^th psalm expresses his feelings during one such time:

¹How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
²How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?

³Look on me and answer, Lord my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
⁴and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

⁵But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
⁶I will sing the Lord’s praise,
for he has been good to me.

Four times David asks “how long?” How long must I struggle? How long, oh God, must I wait for your answer?

He calls out to God for help. “Look, answer, give.” Then David makes a choice.

In the midst of his despair, David purposefully chose to trust God and lean on His unfailing love. David chose to anticipate God’s coming deliverance. (Check out Ali’s post from last Thursday for a great explanation of chesed, the Hebrew word used for God’s unfailing love.)

There will be days. Days when evil appears to win… when God seems absent… when the circumstances of life feel unbearable… Days that make us question God’s love for us. “If God loved me then…”

Circumstances do not define God’s love

But our circumstances do not define the depth or quality of God’s love for us. God loves us in and through every circumstance.

Our circumstances do not define the depth or quality of God’s love for us.

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Even when our circumstances have left us hopeless, our hope can begin anew in the God of unfailing love. Trust in His faithful love is not misplaced. This firmly placed trust will birth confidence that God will act on our behalf. And as this confidence grows, joy in our good and gracious God will take root and bloom.

Truths to cling to

Cling to the truths about God and His love even when you don’t see it.

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Sweet believer, when we don’t hear God or we don’t see His activity, we can still choose to trust in His love for us because He is faithful and His love is unfailing. We can choose to cling to the truths about Him we see in Scripture even though our circumstances might seem to indicate something different.

God is always there. Even when we don’t sense His presence.

God is always working. Even when we don’t see His activity.

God always loves us. Even when we don’t hear Him say it.

Will you choose to trust in Him and cling to His unfailing love today? If so, listen to “Oceans” and let it be a prayer of your heart. “Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders… I will call upon your name… My soul will rest in your embrace, for I am Yours and You are mine.”

When they huff and puff – Psalm 27:12 {Memory verse}

February 9, 2015 by Lisa Burgess 2 Comments

We’re memorizing Psalm 27:12 this week. It’ll remind you of Psalm 27:2 that we memorized earlier about our adversaries and foes.

Whatever “false witnesses” rise up against you this week in real life or just in your spirit (I’m not good enough; this is too much for me; no one really cares about me; etc.), ask God for His help against them.

Your adversaries can huff and they can puff, but they can’t blow your house down. Be confident of this (Psalm 27:3). You live in the house of the Lord, every day, all day (Psalm 27:4). He always takes you in (Psalm 27:10).

Re-read all the verses we’ve learned so far in Psalm 27, and look ahead to the remaining two verses. See how they all are coming together and be encouraged!

Give me not up to the will of my adversaries; for false witnesses have risen against me, and they breathe out violence.
Psalm 27:12

The lies can huff and puff, but they can’t blow your house down. Ps 27:12 #HideHisWord

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God’s Chesed… How He Loves

February 5, 2015 by Ali Shaw 6 Comments

Each February it seems one can’t escape the topic of love. I love it that we’re focusing on God’s love in our Love Song series this month! In Kathy’s introduction post, she got us thinking about what real love really is. She reminded us that the Bible tells us that God is love. (1 John 4:16)

Yes, God is love and His love is illustrated in every single action toward mankind.

In the last post, we learned about the New Testament Greek word agape. And there’s another word that describes God’s love that’s used about 250 times in the Old Testament. There, the Hebrew word transliterated chesed is used to identify the type of love God has toward us.

Chesed has no direct translation in English but it’s defined as favor (toward man), lovingkindness, steadfast love, loyalty, and mercy. Chesed is a love that involves action and great depth. It implies that those in the love relationship belong together. It’s a love that rescues and forgives. It eclipses the noise of the world around us, the noise inside ourselves, and our afflictions. It lifts us up because of its beauty.

It is love that values its prize… And its prize is you!

Are you in need of that kind of love? I know I am!

Jeremiah the Prophet suffered much as he not only prophesied (much to the Jews’ anger) about the coming destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, but also lived to see it. Though emotionally hurt over what he knew, witnessed, and experienced Jeremiah tells us about the hope he had (and we can have) in The Lord.

He had this hope because he knew of God’s chesed love.

Remember my affliction and my wanderings,
the wormwood and the gall!
My soul continually remembers it
and is bowed down within me.
But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”

The LORD is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul who seeks him.
It is good that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD. ~ Lam 3:19-26

Like Jeremiah, we too can know and therefore have hope in the “steadfast love” and “mercy” (both chesed) of the Lord! God’s mercies never, ever come to an end! They are new every single morning! God’s loving faithfulness to you is great, dear Christian sister. That, my friend, is truth. And that’s what real love looks like. You have freedom from bondage because of that rescuing, soul-loving chesed! You may safely place all your hope and trust in His goodness and unwavering love for you.

He loves you so much. After all… He is love!

When I think about God’s great chesed love for me, the love song that comes to my mind is David Crowder’s How He Loves… Here’s a video for you that shows all the lyrics. I pray that you’ll sit back, watch, listen, and meet with God over the melody and lyrics and be reminded of His great faithfulness, and His steadfast love, and tender mercy. His chesed.

{Wanting a few more verses that tell you about God’s chesed love? Look up Psa 23:6. The word “mercy” in the ESV is chesed. David could place all his trust in the Good Shepherd because he knew God’s chesed. Also look at Hos 2:19 where God longs to betroth Israel in chesed love. And also, Psalm 136, which is a beautiful illustration of God’s hope and mercy and mentions a form of chesed love in each verse.}

How does your heart respond to the depth of God’s chesed love for you? Has His love ever surprised you? We’d love to hear about it in the comments.

Do you know about God’s “chesed” love for you? Oh, How He Loves! #RealLoveSongs

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You can hope and trust! God loves you with an unwavering, steadfast love. How He Loves! #RealLoveSongs

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Love Songs – What is Real Love?

February 3, 2015 by Kathy Howard 1 Comment

What is real love?

At it’s best, the world’s concept of love is warped and self-centered. At it’s worst, the world’s “love” is harmful and destructive. One recent example of the latter is the upcoming release of the movie version of “Fifty Shades of Grey.” Which, sadly, is sure to be a block-buster.

This month at Do Not Depart, we will explore real love. God’s love.

W cannot fully know real love apart from knowing God. Because “God is love” (1 John 4:16). God is the source and initiator of true love.

Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God.We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. 1 John 4:14-16, NLT

When we come into a saving relationship with Jesus, God takes up residence within us. Real love comes to live inside us! Without a relationship with Jesus, we cannot experience or give true love because we are disconnected from God.

I don’t mean that non-Christians can’t give and experience tremendous “love.” While there is a huge range of emotions and behavior we call “love” – much of it wonderful! – we cannot have true “agape” love apart from knowing Jesus.

The Greek word used to describe the love of God and the love He calls His children to express is agape. Here’s a quick description of agape:

Agape is the love God has for His Son and for us
Agape is love expressed it deliberate action (See Romans 5:8)
Agape seeks the welfare of others
Agape is a choice; it’s love of volition, not emotion
Agape is based on the giver’s character and not the merit of the receiver

This month, we’ll discover more about the scope and depth of God’s love for us. We’ll see the glorious effects of His love in our lives. And we’ll learn how we can love like He loves.

Today, let’s reflect on the mind-boggling truth that God has chosen us as the object of His great love. Listen to “Only Your Love,” performed by Kari Jobe, worship our God, and praise Him for His amazing love.

Let’s talk: How is God’s love different from the way the world understands and expresses “love?”

A prayer for level paths – Psalm 27:11 {Memory verse}

February 2, 2015 by Lisa Burgess 4 Comments

As you read and memorize in Psalm 27 this week, pay special attention to David’s prayer in verse 11. May you make it your own.

Lord,
Let your guidance flow through me like water down a well-worn path. There are stumbling blocks on either side of me. Steady my feet to stay level on this course, giving no reason for any to gloat over a slip-up.

Teach me your way, O LORD, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies.
Psalm 27:11

Pray like David for level paths this week. Psalm 27:11 #HideHisWord

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Godly Women: A Recap

January 29, 2015 by Patti Brown

We hope you have enjoyed our stories of inspirational and godly women this month. The testimonies and lives of fellow believers can be so encouraging as we walk the narrow path that is Jesus’ way!

Here are the precious sisters whose stories we have shared with you:

We started our series with Monica of Hippo, mother of Augustine, whose quiet faith and perseverance in prayer was instrumental in the conversion of one of Christianity’s great theologians.
For two decades Helen Roseveare served in the Belgian Congo as a medical missionary before civil war broke out. Despite a brutal attack and being kidnapped for 5 months, Helen insisted on returning to the Congo after her rescue to continue to serve because she kept an eternal perspective.
The steady faith of Harriet Tubman gave her courage to help a huge number of slaves find their way to freedom through the Underground Railroad.
Elisabeth Eliot was a missionary wife who served the very people who murdered her husband. She lived out the forgiveness of Christ.
The faith and perseverance of Susanna Wesley, despite extremely challenging circumstances, laid a foundation for godly living for her ten children, including sons John and Charles who would become, respectively, the founder of the Methodist church, and a great hymn writer.
Corrie ten Boom was a middle aged Dutch woman when the Nazis arrived in her town. Her work hiding Jews led to her imprisonment in a concentration camp with her father and sister. Corrie’s life is a beautiful story of grace, forgiveness and hope.
Born blind, Fanny Crosby composed over 8000 hymns. Instead of complaining about her blindness she thanked God for it and saw His providential hand in all aspects of her life. She was fruitful in her affliction.