Strength4Fear
Psalms for All SeasonsHave Compassion: Help Haiti
Haiku for Haiti
skies like blue water
peaceful and calmly watching
the shaking and the breaking
The catastrophic earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12 has resulted in unfathomable chaos and devastation for hundreds of thousands of children and families.
Compassion sponsors and donors serve more than 65,000 children in Haiti. At least a third of them live in the areas that were hardest hit.
The people of Haiti desperately need our help and hope.
Please reach out in the name of Jesus to bring relief, comfort, love and restoration to precious children and families whose lives have been devastated by this crisis.
HOW CAN I HELP?
1. You can provide immediate relief today. Click on the words “Haiti Earthquake” or go to http://bit.ly/HelpHaitiCI.
- $35 helps provide a relief pack filled with enough food and water to sustain a family for one week.
- $70 gift helps care for their needs for two weeks.
- $105 helps provide relief packs filled with enough food and water to sustain two families for two weeks.
- $210 gift helps care for two families’ needs.
- $525 helps provide relief packs filled with enough food and water to sustain 10 families for two weeks.
- $1,050 gift helps care for 10 families’ needs.
- $1,500 helps rebuild a home.
- $2,100 helps supply 20 families with the basics for three weeks.
2. You can pray. To see the prayer requests from the Haiti Country Office of Compassion International, click on the words “Pray for Haiti“.
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me” ~ John 17:20-21
3. Spread the word via email, your Facebook account, your blog, or any other means available to you.
Promise of Spring
Pouring autumn rain
Annoyed when “time-savers” don’t work properly
Wasting even more precious time
Efforts lost with no fruit to show.
Thunder rumbles overhead
Deadlines looming
Stripping my branches
For what?
Piercing winds scatter dead leaves
False expectations
Friendships shatter
It’s You and me.
Yet promises stand
Tall, unyielding, strong as an oak
More enduring than time
Or our colorful surroundings.
Prepare for new growth
Once the chaff has blown
And I’m ground to powder
Sifted and refined.
Fill me with Your Spirit
Knead me with Your hands
Once the fire is past
May I burst forth
Renewed and pure as an apple blossom.
Your Love, Oh Lord (Psalm 36)
Buy THIRD DAY
From the album
Chronology 1
by THIRD DAY
(Click to listen)
Your love, oh Lord, reaches to the heavens
Your faithfulness stretches to the sky
Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains
Your justice flows like the ocean’s tide
I will lift my voice
To worship You, my King
I will find my strength
In the shadow of your wings
Psalm 73
Buy Barlow Girl
Psalm 73 – My God’s Enough
(Click on Title to listen)
From the album Another Journal Entry
By Barlow Girl (featuring Todd Agnew)
I’ve had enough of living life for only me
And reaching just for the things that keep destroying me
So sick of envying the lives of so many I see
Somehow believing that they have what I need
My God’s enough for me
This world has nothing I need
In this whole life I’ve seen
My God’s enough, enough for me
I can’t explain why I suffer though I live for You
Those who deny You they have it better than I do
Cover my eyes now so that my heart can finally see
That in the end only You mean anything
Who have I in heaven but You
Nothing I desire but You
My heart may fail but not You
You are mine forever
My God’s enough for me
This world has nothing I need
In this whole life I’ve seen
My God’s enough, enough for me
I can’t explain why I suffer though I live for You
Those who deny You they have it better than I do
Cover my eyes now so that my heart can finally see
That in the end only You mean anything
Reflection: Psalm 37
As you see unbelievers prospering and evil ones doing whatever they please, don’t worry about it; they are here today, and gone tomorrow.
Be confident that God is on your side, and invest all your hopes in Him.
Consider the faithfulness of the LORD, and the depth of His love; be assured that you can count on Him.
Dawn’s glory will seem dim beside your righteousness in Christ; like the Son, your justice and mercy will shine. Read the rest of this entry »
Then.
Honesty that beckons fear.
Tracing steps that led me here.
Washed away in strings of years.
There’s no way back. No way back.
Yesterday was not my home.
In Egypt’s desert where I roamed.
As manna’s taste is too well-known.
There’s no way back. No way back.
Urgently pressed, gather my load.
Wrath and fire, the skies unfold.
Left behind, both friends and foes.
There’s no way back. No way back.
Betrayal marks the heated trail.
The bond of blood was made for sale.
Threshing through this fragile bale.
There’s no way back. No way back.
Sweat and blood and tears congealed.
Time slowed down across this field.
Penning new words; fates are sealed.
There’s no way back. No way back.
When I arrive where I can stay.
With gold terrain and endless play.
There will be no more talk of this yesterday.
And no way back. No way back.
Beautiful Savior
Here is another song by one of my favorite songwriters, Stuart Townend. Casting Crowns featured it on their 2004 release, Live From Atlanta, and the lyrics are below. I pray that this tribute to our Beautiful Savior blesses your heart as much as it has mine.
This Cup.
It’s a bitter cup I’m handed.
I am David. Sleeping in the caves awaiting justice. Awaiting freedom. Awaiting friendship.
I am Joseph. Back against the wall of the pit. The wall of the prison. The wall of opposition.
I am Jonah. My heart wants to run to the shadows of comfort. But I find myself in the belly of a whale.
I am Peter. Just beyond Gethsemane. Just beyond the fire. Just beyond the cross.
Always watching from afar.
Running one hundred directions.
Every second consumed with a difficult obedience that carries weighted questions.
Unanswered questions.
Deep down I know that it is not answers I need, but Your presence.
I’m weary with feeling alone on this journey.
It’s a bitter cup I’m handed.
Deeper Still.
When I was overlooked and ignored,
Expectations fell to the middle school floor,
I was handed the traditional lore:
“It’s not about you.”
Watching others dream and aspire,
Their wealth overflows, accolades pile higher,
While I’m perpetually in the fire.
“It’s not about you.” Read the rest of this entry »
The Power of a Choice: Commentary ~ Psalm 1
June 9, 2009 at 11:03 PM · Filed under Choices, Darkness, Death, Free Will, Power, Star Wars, blindness and tagged: Commentary, Psalm 1, Spamwarrior
Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.
But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. ~ Psalm 1:1-6
My youth pastor, many years ago, used Star Wars to illustrate this passage. He showed clips of Revenge of the Sith, while using the main character, Anakin Skywalker, as an example.
Anakim Skywalker
When you look at Skywalker, he seems to have everything, at least at first glance. He has a beautiful wife, is good-looking, has fulfilled his dream of becoming a Jedi Knight, and is the most talented Jedi ever. Anakin fights for democracy, for truth, and for justice. He is the person who speaks up for the oppressed, and uses his talents to help those in need. In a nutshell, Anakin seems to have everything going for him. Somewhere along the way, this Jedi went wrong.
Why? Read the rest of this entry »
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