Jesus, Me, and an iPod

I bought a nano. So now I can listen to bible teachings and music anywhere. Currently I am listening to the teachings from the Calvary Chapel 2005 Missions Conference held in Murrietta, California last January. Next in line is the 2005 Pastor's Conference. While I use it mostly for teachings, here's some of the songs on my iPod: Deeper by Delirious, the Comfort CD by Calvary Chapel Philadelphia, several songs by Selah, Who Am I by Casting Crowns.

I've learned that it's a worthwhile investment to spend money on my walk with God. I'm obviously not advocating being wasteful. But if $20.00 will buy a CD that has songs that will help me worship the Lord, that's a good buy in my opinion. So I bought an iPod. When it all comes down, the most important thing in life is to spend time developing a deep relationship with the Lord.

I'm trying to help Genesis, our two-year-old, with this as well. I love buying her things. Recently, I was in line to pay for a DVD for her. I had let Genesis hold the DVD and she starting unwrapping it. A friend of ours who was in front of us in line took the DVD and proceeded to hand it to the cashier. Before I knew what was happening, our friend had paid for the DVD, it was bagged and in my hand. This friend of ours was making an investment in the spiritual life of our daughter. This is a great point - let's spend money on other people's relationship with the Lord as well.

Generosity is the way of the Kingdom. A pastor friend of mine took me to a Christian bookstore one time and helped me pick out a bunch of CD's and paid for them. That's the Jesus style. There is so much freedom in being generous. In fact, the wise apostle Paul writes, "He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully." All of 2 Corinthians 9 teaches us to be generous.

Worship Music

One of the best worship songs I have ever experienced is called "Breathing The Breath," by Matt Redman. It's a song that is impossible to sing without being drawn into the presence of the Lord. In fact, a pastor friend of mine told me that when he heard the song he bought the CD it was on, Facedown. This is truly a great song.
Part of the lyric is "Who has given to you that it should be paid back to him. Who has given to you as if you needed anything....All we do is give back to You what always has been yours." I love this song; it helps me spend time with Jesus. In a culture of me-centered Christianity, it is appropriately God-centered.
I bought the Facedown DVD because it was recommended by a friend. (Thanks, Andy.) By the way, it's not the only great song on the project.

Why not respond to this post with some other songs that you could recommend as great worship music?

Birthday Wishes Are Due

She reads the Bible every night. Actually, being two, I guess she's just looking at the pictures. Sometimes during our nightly routine of story-time, prayer, tucking-in and kiss good night, she asks for her bible. She then sits in her crib and flips through the pages as I tell her about the story behind the picture. (We pray that the Lord would always give her a love for the Word of God.)
A few nights ago, when she flipped to the picture of the tongues of fire upon the apostles at Pentecost, she started singing, "Happy Birthday," thinking the tongues of fire were candles on a birthday cake. I said, "No, no honey, those aren't candles, that's the Holy Spirit descending on each of the apostles."
Yesterday she saw the picture again and said, "Cake." Then, I realized that all along she was right. It was a birthday party - the birth of the church, Pentecost!
I wonder if angels in heaven were singing, "Happy Birthday to you" on that wonderful day that the church was born!

Questions We All Face

What big questions about your life are churning in your mind right now? Perhaps they keep you awake at night. Maybe you journal about them. It could be that you are scared to answer them or talk about them, and yet they occupy a great amount of your mental energy. As we go through life, the issues that we deal with change.

If we know the questions corresponding to each decade of life we can be well equipped to help the people that are asking the questions. Do you know what your eighty year old neighbor (or parent) is concerned about? What questions are in the minds of the 22 year old co-worker? If you're pastoring a group of people who are younger or older than you, do you understand your audience? I think that we should take the time to ask ourselves some serious questions and prayerfully work out the answers. Perhaps this is part of the process of working out your own salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that it is God working in us. (Philippians 2:12-13)

Regarding life's questions, Gordon MacDonald, author of A Resilient Life, offers the following

If you're in your twenties, you're probably asking questions like this: What kind of man or woman am I becoming? How am I different from my father and mother? Where can I find a few friends who will welcome me as I am and who will offer the familylike connections that I need? Can I love, and am I lovable? What will I do with my life? What is it that I really want in exchange for my life's labors? What parts of me and my life need correction? Around what person or conviction will I organize my life?

Those in their thirties deal with different issues. They ask: How do I prioritize the demands being made on my life? How far can I go in fulfilling my sense of purpose? Who are the people with whom I know I will walk through life? What does my spiritual life look like? Do I even have time for one? Why am I not a better person?

I'm almost forty. These are the questions that people like me are starting to ask: Who was I as a child, and what powers back then influence the kind of person I am today? Why do some people seem to be doing better than I? Why am I often disappointed in myself and others? Why are limitations beginning to outnumber options? Why do I seem to face so many uncertainties? What can I do to make a greater contribution to my generation? What would it take to pick up a whole new calling in life and do the thing I've always wanted to do?

The fifty-somethings wonder: Why is time moving so fast? Why is my body becoming unreliable? How do I deal with my failures and my successes? How can my spouse and I reinvigorate our relationship now that the children are gone? Who are these young people who want to replace me? What do I do with my doubts and fears? Will we have enough money for the retirement years if there are health problems and economic downturns?

Those in the decade of their sixties ask: When do I stop doing the things that have always defined me? Why do I feel ignored by a large part of the younger population? Why am I curious about who is listed in the obituary column of the papers, how they died, and what kind of lives they lived? Do I have enough time to do all the things I've dreamed about the past? Who will be around me when I die? Will I die before or after my spouse? What is it like to say good-bye to someone with whom you have shared so many years of life? Are the things I've believed in capable of taking me to the end? Is there really life after death? What do I regret? What are the chief satisfactions of these many years of living? What have I done that will outlive me?

Seventy and eighty year olds share several questions: Does anyone realize, or even care, who I once was? Is anyone aware that I once owned (or managed) a business, threw a mean curveball, taught school, possessed a beautiful solo voice, had an attractive face? Is my story important to anyone? How much of my life can I still control? Is there anything I can still contribute? Why this anger and irritability? Is God really there for me? Am I ready to face death? And when I die (how will it happen). will I be missed, or will the news of my death bring relief? Heaven, what is it like?

It's good to know Jesus. Psalm 71:6 says, "By You, I have been upheld from birth; You are He who took me out of my mother's womb." Then, in verse 18, it reads, "Now also, when I am old and grayheaded, O God, do not forsake me, until I declare Your strength to this generation, Your power to everyone who is to come." Let's examine ourselves, and then make disciples of all around us!