“For the Sake of My Heart” – Monday Musical Musings

May 26th, 2014 dsisler

I first heard today’s melody several months ago. As I listened to this tune and later when I read through the lyrics, I was yet again amazed at the length Jesus was willing to go for my salvation. And through the lyrics of this particular song, the condition of my heart is the reason Jesus was willing to go to Calvary.

 

IMAG1492I know the condition of my heart. Sometimes it’s not as valiant as it should be. Sometimes it holds grudges. Sometimes it’s weak. Sometimes it’s fragile. Sometimes it’s just plain ornery. And I’ve read Jeremiah 17:9 enough times to know that it is also deceitful.

 

Perhaps these are the exact reasons Jesus cares about my heart so much!

 

Knowing what I know about my heart, I know I can’t change my heart on my own. I need Jesus to help me as the weakness of my heart is revealed.

 

I believe King David knew this as well. He had a few things to say about the heart. Let’s see what He desired.

 

“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.” (Psalm 19:14 – NIV)

 

“Test me, O Lord, and try me, examine my heart and my mind.” (Psalm 26:2 – NIV)

 

“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10 – NIV)

 

“My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” (Psalm 73:26 – NIV)

 

Like David, I desire to have a heart that Jesus can use for His Kingdom. That’s exactly what Jesus wants too!

 

So today, take a look at the lyrics to “For the Sake of My Heart,” and see if you too aren’t touched by what Jesus was willing to go through.

 

If you were the king of a great and mighty kingdom,
would you give it all away for one like me?
Would you step down from your throne and all you’d ever known
to walk this earth in mere mortality?
Would you give up all your treasures beyond what could be measured
to live a life a simple common man?
Would you be born just to die, to save a worthless soul as I,
and shed your precious blood for who I am?

Chorus:
For the sake of my heart He was willing to go
all the way to an old rugged cross.
Where He took on my shame and banished my blame,
so that I no longer had to be lost.
There was no reason to die, but He knew
that death would never keep us apart,
And He loved me so much, He chose Calvary
for the sake of my heart.

He couldn’t bear the thought my sins left unforgiven.
His love was far too great to leave me alone.
And as the nails were driven in,
He cried Father please forgive them.
He showed the greatest love to me
this world has ever known.[i]
(CHORUS)

 

If you would like to listen to this beautiful reminder of Jesus’ love for you, click here for Gold City’s version.

 

With Jesus’ help, I plan to guard and monitor my heart much more closely than in the past. I want Jesus to be pleased with what He finds in my heart and I certainly don’t want to disappoint Him.

 

I leave you with one more passage of Scripture about the heart. “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” (Proverbs 4:23 – NIV) Wise words to live by!

 

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

 

Donna

 

[i] “For the Sake of My Heart,” Words and Music by Wayne Haun and Joel Lindsey, Bridge Building (a division of Brentwood-Benson Music Publishing), 2007.

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Worship and Rest

May 25th, 2014 dsisler

We’ve once again rounded the final column of the calendar and have found ourselves on Sunday. The beginning of the week. The day of the week to be devoted to worshiping God and rest. I pray that you may find these two elements in your day.

 

I also pray that you will be encouraged! Encouragement is an important piece to our Christian walk.

 

I wrote an eight-part series on encouragement in 2012 that I will be sharing over the next eight weeks. I pray that you will find something to keep in mind throughout your day. Have a blessed Sunday!

 

Encouragement – Part 1

 

As the SE Asia service team makes preparations for our upcoming journey, we have laid out some objectives. One of those objectives is to encourage the group we are going to visi???????????????????????????????t. We discussed a few things, but I wondered how the Apostle Paul was encouraged by others as he devoted his life to sharing God’s message with others.

 

So over the next few days I’m going to be doing some digging into the encouragement realm. How to encourage those who are sharing the Gospel and how Christians can be encouraged.

 

There are three elements to encouragement. First, is the idea to inspire with hope, courage, or confidence; to hearten. Second is to give support to; to foster. And third is to stimulate; to spur.[i]

 

Inspiration is a great concept to bring into encouragement. Sometimes if we don’t see the vision, we will not be encouraged to join into a project, or desire to be part of a team. When we are able to cast that vision, we will be able to draw others into seeing what God sees.

 

What are we to inspire with? Hope, courage, or confidence. As a Christian, there is no greater hope than to know one day I will see Jesus face to face. That hope gives me the courage and confidence to do what I am called to. Whether it’s writing a daily blog, going on a service trip, witnessing to a stranger, leading a women’s Bible study, or reading a Bible story to my grandchildren. The hope I have in Christ Jesus inspires me!

 

The second element to encouragement is giving support. I believe this includes several areas. For those in ministry, we must support them financially. The men and women who have dedicated their lives to serving a local congregation are to be compensated for their work. But it goes beyond that.

 

Providing appreciative, emotional, moral support to a person in ministry is an encouragement to them. Knowing that a group of people are behind them will drive them to follow the call that God has placed upon them. Doing the opposite is the fastest way to drive a minister from a church.

 

And third, we see that encouragement has an element of stimulation. To spur on. You’ve heard how yawns and laughter are contagious, right? Well encouragement is contagious as well. Being motivated to do better. To be better. To serve better. It will catch on.

 

Encouragement. There is a lot more to this word than meets the eye. This blog post is near completion and I haven’t even shared a Bible verse!

 

In Romans 12, Paul lists the different functions of the body of Christ. This is what he says. “We have different gifts, according to the grace given us, if a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.” (Romans 12:6-8 – NIV)

 

While I believe there are those who are truly gifted in the encouragement area, I believe each of us must be an encourager. There are so many other verses that say, “encourage one another.” And we’ll be discussing those over the next few days.

 

Take some time today to see how you are an encourager. To whom are you an encourager? When was the last time you were an encourager to your minister? Or to a missionary? Or to a co-worker?

 

Are you lacking in this area? If so, pray that God will open your heart to ways to add this wonderful gift into your life.

 

I must admit, I haven’t done as well with this as I should. I’m thankful for the eye-opening experience of going on a service trip to find these areas of my life that are lacking. I pray that the desire to be an encourager will pierce your heart as it has mine.

 

The SE Asia service team is training and preparing to go on this trip. We are now just 36 days from leaving. I have been encouraged by so many already and am so thankful for them. If you have the desire to be an encourager to me, please let me know.

 

I’d love to have you join my prayer partner team. You will receive emails from me before I leave sharing prayer requests and praises. And while I am gone, a lovely lady will be sending daily prayer requests by email, detailing what we will be doing on that day and how you can encourage us through prayer.

 

I’d love to have you join my financial partner team. I’ve been so blessed already. The costs are nearly covered. However, it still isn’t enough. If God is placing this on your heart, please feel free to contact me through this blog and I’ll get the information to you as to how you can help. Or you can click here for more information (Just a reminder, I went on this trip in 2012).

 

Encouragement. One word filled with so much meaning. Let’s be encouragers today. To whomever your path crosses. Don’t miss an opportunity to say a good, kind word. To do a kind deed. To be faithful to God’s mission. Through encouragement, you will be encouraged.

 

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

 

Donna

 

 

[i] http://www.thefreedictionary.com/encourage

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Mission Accomplished

May 24th, 2014 dsisler

If you recall, one day this week I told you about a pattern I needed to figure out. The directions were difficult to understand. The photos of the project didn’t help with figuring out what to do. I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to pull of this project.

 

snack bagsYesterday morning, I sat down with all my fabric, the poor directions and my sewing machine. I finally figured out how to make these little snack bags. I’m just a few steps away from having all 10 complete. I feel like I accomplished something spectacular yesterday!

 

I can’t even imagine how some of our biblical friends felt when they accomplished spectacular things in the Bible. Like Adam naming all of the animals (Genesis 2:20). That was a huge task. Or what about the widow at Zaraphath who was able to make bread for Elijah, her family and herself (1 Kings 17:7-16)?

 

Then there were some monumental accomplishments like Joseph being in charge of all of Egypt’s food before the famine (Genesis 41:41-57). Or when Moses led the people of Israel out of bondage in Egypt and crossed the sea (Exodus 13:17-14:31). After years of running from King Saul, David was finally anointed king over Israel (2 Samuel 2:4). Daniel must have felt a sense of accomplishment when he and his friends were in better shape at the end of the 10-day food trial (Daniel 1:6-20).

 

Poor Jonah must have felt relief and accomplishment after the fish vomited him onto dry ground (Jonah 2:10). What accomplishments the 70 must have felt when Jesus sent them out to share the Gospel (Luke 10:1-24). Peter preached before a great crowd saw many won to the Lord (Acts 2:14-41). Paul saw great accomplishments in the Kingdom of God through his mission work (the Book of Acts and Epistles).

 

What accomplishments! And who was at the heart of all of these accomplishments? God. His hand was upon each of these people and through ordinary human beings, God was able to do extraordinary things. Their accomplishments were only lived because of the One who is able to accomplish anything.

 

And here’s the good news. God desires to do great accomplishments through us as well. God has done some amazing things through me so I know He is able to do the same through you.

 

I love the verse in Ephesians that tells me exactly what God is able to do. “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20-21 – NIV)

 

I pray that you will know God’s power at work in you. I pray that you give God the glory for your accomplishments. I also pray that you will be bold in what you ask God to do through you. You will be amazed at what He does.

 

My little snack bags were my big accomplishment yesterday, but I wonder how much more God would have done had I asked. I can’t wait to see what God has in store for me today!

 

What about you? What has God accomplished through you? Why not share your story with me? I’d love to hear about it.

 

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

 

Donna

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Rain Delay

May 23rd, 2014 dsisler

We have had the rain in Colorado over the past few days. The ground is saturated in some areas. There’s standing water in some locations. Rivers are rising. And the days continue to bring rain each afternoon.

 

Heavy DownpourIn some cases, daily activities have come to a halt. Take my beloved Colorado Rockies baseball team for instance. They began a baseball game yesterday afternoon at 1:10 pm. They played a few innings and the weather turned bad. Game play was suspended. Then after a 45 minute rain delay, they picked up play again.

 

However, the game was delayed for yet another track of storms and heavy rain. During the 6th inning, this particular game was suspended for good. This game was the last game of the series and each team was headed out of Denver at the end. So a decision had to be made about when this game would resume.

 

The Colorado Rockies don’t meet the San Francisco Giants in Colorado again until September. This just might be the longest rain delay in history!

 

In September, these two teams will resume the game in the 6th inning with Troy Tulowitzki at the plate.

 

Perhaps you recall some delays in Scripture? The Hebrew nation was promised entrance to the Promised Land. But because of their disobedience to God, every male of military age when they left Egypt had died (Joshua 5:6). They wandered the wilderness for 40 years. That was a long delay.

 

Upon their return from captivity, the Jewish people rebuilt their own homes. They delayed in rebuilding God’s home. In Haggai, God made this statement. “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains in ruins?” (Haggai 1:4 – NIV)

 

God asked them to consider their ways. Their crops had not been plentiful. They were never satisfied with their food, drink, clothing, or wages. Their lives were wasting away. Why? Because they thought of themselves first. They had delayed the rebuilding of God’s temple. God asked them to rebuild His home so that He could “take pleasure in it and be honored.” (Haggai 1:8 – NIV) Their delay in rebuilding the temple caused great hardship for the Israelites.

 

In the New Testament, we find several instances of delay.

 

  • Lazarus became very ill and died. Jesus delayed His arrival so that God would be glorified through the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead (John 11:38-44).

 

  • Jesus’ beloved disciples uncertain of their fate due to a 3-day delay between Jesus’ death and resurrection (John 19:28-20:31).

 

  • Jesus asked the disciples to remain in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came upon them. It was 10 days after Jesus’ ascension before the Day of Pentecost when the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1-2).

 

Perhaps the ultimate delay has been Jesus’ promised return. It’s been 2,000 years since He left the disciples in Acts 1. Jesus’ followers have been waiting for the skies to open and the trumpets to sound. What a day that will be!

 

In our lives, we can expect delays for many reasons. Weather, health, traffic, natural disasters all bring elements we may not have control over. But perhaps the most important element to delay is what to do while we’re waiting.

 

For the baseball players, they can only continue to play ball each day to the best of their ability.

 

For Israel, they wandered and wondered why God was not blessing them through their disobedience.

 

For those in the New Testament, some were faithful while others grumbled about the delay.

 

What category do you fall in? While we wait for Jesus’ return, what are you doing? Are you grumbling? Are you striving to live a faithful life? Are you disobedient? Are you wandering and wondering?

 

Jesus calls us to be faithful to Him while we wait for His return. Don’t let His delay cause you to question His promise. He will be back. He said He would. Jesus always keeps His promise.

 

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

 

Donna

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A Storm is Brewing

May 22nd, 2014 dsisler

We’ve had a couple of days of bad weather here in Colorado and we’re not done with it yet. There have been crazy hail storms and tornadoes in nearby areas that have caused some damage.

 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAIn a newscast last evening, the reporter cautioned people of what they should do when storms hit. He mentioned things like stop taking video or pictures of the storm. Move to the lower level of your home or get into a bathtub. Cover yourself and your family with a mattress. Get out of a vehicle or mobile home and move to a stable structure. Move away from windows.

 

These are all good pieces of advice. Most people listen to words like these to keep themselves and family members safe. However, there were still pictures and video out there from some who decided not to listen to these words of wisdom.

 

The main idea in this reporter’s story was to stop. Stop what you’re doing and do something else. It’s the same in our spiritual lives.

 

There are times that we need to stop what we are doing, sometimes right in the middle of it. Words of discouragement flowing from our mouths. Improper thoughts. Actions that simply are not very Christ-like. In the moments we are caught up in sin, we must stop. Get away from the situation and head toward God.

 

In Scripture, we find some examples of when we are to stop. Let’s see what God has to say.

 

The first thing we must stop is sinning. Isaiah 1:16b-17a and 1 Corinthians 15:34a share the same thought. “Stop doing wrong, learn to do right.” (NIV) “Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning.” (NIV)

 

Let’s remember, if we are going to remove a behavior from our lives, we must replace it with something else. Isaiah says to learn to do right. Fill the void with good as you stop doing wrong.

 

1 Corinthians 14:20 (NIV) reminds us to “Stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults.” We need to grow up and stop acting like children when it comes to our spiritual lives! We need to put aside evil, sinful thoughts and get into God’s Word. Get to the “meat” and become spiritual adults. Learn what God has to say about all areas of your life. Then you will stop thinking like a child.

 

Then there are a few things we are to do in relation to others. Romans 14:13 (NIV) says to stop judging. “Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way.”

 

Judging. It’s something we’re good at. But God clearly states that it’s not our job. Our job is to keep others from stumbling by making sure our lives are following the path God has laid before us. Another great example of what we are to fill the emptiness with. God’s love for others.

 

And in John 6:43 (NIV), Jesus was speaking to a group of Jews, but His words speak to me. “Stop grumbling among yourselves.” I find myself falling into this trap over and over. Grumbling. Complaining. Believing that I could do better. Hah!

 

Perhaps I could do better, but guess what? I wasn’t asked to do it! Someone with more qualifications, more abilities, more anything was asked. My role is to support. Lift up. Encourage. Not grumble.

 

Finally I’d like to look at a verse that brings everything into perspective. In the book of Job, God’s faithful and eloquent servant, Elihu, presents God’s case to Job. Over and over, Elihu brings Job to an understanding of God’s goodness.

 

In Job 37:14 (NIV), Elihu asks Job to “Stop and consider God’s wonders.” When we adopt this view of life, we too, will not be able to contain the joy, love, or hope within us. These qualities, God’s qualities will flow from us.

 

God’s wonders. They are boundless. They are limitless. They are amazing.

 

I encourage you to stop. Right now. Stop and spend some time praising God for who He is. For what He has done. For what He is preparing to do. Then inquire what He desires for you. What He is asking you to do.

 

He might reply with “stop.” Stop sinning. Stop thinking like a child. Stop judging. Stop grumbling. Stop and consider. Stop.

 

Stop. Get out of the situation, way of thinking, or busyness of life. And then, run to God.

 

Now, you are prepared to do something for God’s Kingdom.

 

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,

 

Donna

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    "I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe." Ephesians 1:18-19


    I am a devoted wife, mother, and grandmother. I lived in the beautiful state of Colorado for 20 years where I found great inspiration for my novels and devotional writings. Currently living in southwest Ohio.

    I am passionate about helping women find their way to Jesus through Bible study, teaching, speaking, inspirational writing and creative Bible journaling.

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    In September 2012 I went to SE Asia on a service trip. For more information, check out preachitclearly.blogspot.com.

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