Pride and Joy

I never really appreciated Stevie Ray Vaughn until after his tragic death in a helicopter crash in August, 1990.  He played a mean blues guitar; I'm talking wicked mean.  Not many folks could make a Fender sing like Stevie Ray, not even his brother Jimmy. 

One of my fave SRV tunes is Pride and Joy.  The last verse of this song is

Yeah I love my baby....heart and soul
Love like ours wont never grow old
Shes my sweet little thang....shes my pride and joy
Shes my sweet little baby....Im her little lover boy

Man, Stevie is proud of his girl!  The lyrics lead you to believe that she is, in return proud of him.  As much as Stevie and his girl love each other, though, they got nothin' on God and His love for us.  

You might think that I'm stretching here but did you know that God wants to be our pride and joy?  Isaiah 28:5 (NLT) tells us that after God's children have been exiled and returned to Him that

 

Then at last the Lord of Heaven’s Armies
      will himself be Israel’s glorious crown.
   He will be the pride and joy
      of the remnant of his people

 

God desires to be my pride and joy, your pride and joy?  He wants me to want Him more than I want any other person or thing in my world.  He wants to be my One desire, the One place where I place my hopes and dreams, more so in Him  than in my husband, my children, my friends, my job, or any other thing.  He wants me to take pride in Him, in being His child, in having the Creator of the Universe as my Father, and in knowing that all things come through Him and by Him.  

 

Don't be shy!  Let the whole world know that God is your pride and joy.  Let Him reign supreme in your life and watch others notice the change that is evident in your life.  Maybe you'll get to break out your blues guitar and put a little rhythm to your praise.  Something tells me that God (the ultimate creator of the Fender Stratocaster) loves a good blues guitar, too! 

Living with Abandon

Sunday Pastor Jeff talked about living with Abandon.  Abandon.  Merriam Webster describes the verb of abandon as to give up to the control or influence of another person or agent; to give oneself (over) unrestrainedly.  This definition brings to mind the following things:  

• To let go
• To forget that people are watching
• To live life fully according to my faith in God
  

Before you go and pass judgment on me or think that I'm too crazy with these ideas, try these scenarios on for size.  

• At the local knitting bee you let your cardigan drop carelessly to the floor, wave your yarn wildly over head, and chant "CA-BLE-NEED-LE! CA-BLE NEED-LE!"  
• At your child's school performance you run to the front of the auditorium with the video camera, knocking other parents out of the way to film your child while screaming "No one have ever been that good of a rock before!  You're gonna be a star!  Mama loves you, baby!!!"  
• On the front lines of the 0400 crowd at the after Thanksgiving sale you take your buggy (yes, buggy!) and plow over shoppers in front of you to get the very last $99.99 item.  

Those are all instances of living with abandon.  Absurd, maybe, but Abandon.  Jesus wants nothing less than having us live with Abandon for Him.  He did likewise for us.  He died a horrible death for our sins; He was perfection in the form of broken humanity, hanging on a cross, in humility, to save us.  He deserves at the minimum is for me to live each day for Him with Abandon and let the world see.  

Here Is Our King

Allow yourself to travel with me for a moment: 

You are in a crowded room with thousands of people; you all wait anxiously for the moment when everything will begin.  Suddenly a voice surrounds you and those around you; you hear thundering commands: 

"Come, everyone!  Clap your hands!" 

This sounds like the opening of something big, an introduction to a celebration or a revelation of something long anticipated.  More imperatives follow: 

"Shout!  Sing!" 

Descriptive words and phrases are also proclaimed loudly and with great confidence:  "Awesome . . . Bravo!  Bravissimo! . . . highly honored . . .  King of the mountain"

Where are you?  Are you at a rock concert?  A celebration for someone great?  A victory party?  I'm not sure where you went on this brief adventure but what I have described are words from  Psalm 47 (New Living & Message translations).  This Psalm is nothing but good, old fashioned praise to God. 

What's got you down today?  What is weighing on your shoulders like the weight of the world?  Put it down.  You cannot clap your hands and praise our God when they are full of sorrow and burden.  He will carry it for you (Matthew 11:29-30). 

Take a minute to praise our King.  When we focus on Him it changes our perspective on everything.  Just to get you started, I've included a link to one of my favorite David Crowder tunes: Here Is Our King

(Chorus:)
Here is our King
Here is our Love
Here is our God who's come to bring us back to him
He is the one,
He is Jesus

Praise Him today.  

My Father Loves Me

One of the things that I like to do when I have my quiet time is read the Psalms and pray them back to God as praise.  I do this because I am not a natural "praise-r" and the Psalms easily direct me to the good, no great, things about God that I tend to forget or take for granted. 

This morning I read Psalm 103, New Living Translation, and it simply overwhelmed me.  Let me share some of the highlights and my thoughts (in parentheses):   

• I will praise Him with my whole heart (not just part of me - first note to self)
• He forgives all my sin (enough said with this one)
• He heals all my disease
• He redeems me from death (this is a biggie!)
• He fills my life with good things (do I thank Him for these things every day or am I so busy looking at "the bad stuff" that I take these for granted???)
• My youth is renewed like the eagle's (maybe my constant battle with fatigue is because I don't let Him renew me?)
• He is slow to get angry and me and His love doesn't fail (thank God - I would be angry with me a lot if I were God)
• He doesn't punish me for my sin (big sigh of relief here)
• He is like a father to His children, tender and compassionate.  He knows that I am frail and come from dust (wow - He knows me and loves me even in my weakness)
• His love remains forever and  I should praise Him

These words may not have the same impact on you that they have had on me this morning.  This Psalm made me want to dance around the living room, coffee in hand, in the joy of the Lord.  Wow - with all of this goodness in my life why do I ever complain?

I challenge you:  take a look through the Bible and see what praises you can find that are already written and laid out for you to read back to God.  Let me know what they are and how you reacted.  I'm guessing that, like me, you will find that there is so much goodness in your life that you don't have time to be sad or downtrodden. 

I Wonder . . .

One of the things that I love about the fall is the revival of nature.  During the summer it seems to me as though everything outdoor is stagnant; nothing seems to move.  But in the autumn season everything comes to life.  Leaves sway and dance in the breezes that the season brings; flowers seem to perk up their colorful faces as they look for something.  Creeks sing a little louder and songs of the birds seems to be fresher. 

Why does nature seem more animated in the fall?  I'll give you my theory. 

Paul tells the Romans in 8:19 that the creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.  We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

Maybe what we're seeing in the fall breezes, crisp mornings, and autumn moons is God's creation singing His praises loudly and tell Him that they cannot wait for His return.  Maybe they are shouting out gratitude to the God of the universe.  And maybe, just maybe, that's why I always seem to get a little restless in the fall.  Maybe that stirring inside of me is the natural desire of my soul to join all creation in song as we sing, shout, dance, and lift praises on high to God Almighty. 

I just wonder.