Category: Song

Fixed Eyes

On By vickleaIn Scripture, Song3 Comments

Have you ever watched a new infant and how intently he/she watches you? The eyes are fixed on you, following the sound of your voice as you move around them. As the child grows older, their attention may be momentarily called away to another object, something shinier or more interesting to them. But if you say the child’s name, like magic, their focus returns to you. At least that is the way I have noticed things happening until the child is about six or so and then all bets are off about whether you can get and hold their attention or not.

What is our focus when we are talking about our spiritual walk? As a new Christian, I was eager to learn all I could about God and His love for me. I didn’t want to miss a single minute of His guidance or plan for my life, so my eyes were fixed on him. Then, as a child maturing, my focus was captured by other “shiny” things, this pastor or that evangelist and a new message that they were giving. Or sometimes, my focus was captured by friends, family, trials and sicknesses. In other words, as I aged, I took my eyes off the One who created me and started paying more attention to the creation. God has reprimanded me and let me know that is the wrong path to take and I am working on forming new habits.

Another reason to come to the Lord as a child is the total trust we have in Him and the way we don’t let Him out of our sight. No matter what room I moved to when my children were young, they were right there beside me. I called them my shadows because they kept their eyes on me and when I moved, they did, too. That is the way I think we should keep our eyes on God. A steady looking at Him for our guidance and for direction for what our next steps should be. When we keep our eyes on Him, all of the problems we have seem to fade into insignificance because we know that they are temporary but He is eternal.

Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus-Hillsong Worship

May your day be blessed and your eyes be fixed on Him, the one who knows and loves you best.

Disciple and Teacher

On By vickleaIn Scripture, Song2 Comments

For many years, actually about forty, I was a classroom teacher. I taught in eleven different states and over twenty different schools. I taught in public schools, Christian schools and even a private school for the children of diplomats. I wanted to be a teacher since I was a child and I worked hard to make that dream come true. But it not come without sacrifice, just as all things worth having require some kind of sacrifice. I am grateful to my high school Spanish teacher, Señora Mary Smith, who encouraged me in pursuing my gift with language. She became my model and I became her disciple. A disciple is another word for a student. I was her student for all four years of high school and was happy to be able to tell her that I was majoring in Spanish in college in order to become a Spanish teacher. I know for sure that many of the methods that she used so successfully became part of my routine with my own students, but none more so than constant encouragement and pointing out what was right with their work first, then gently leading them to correct errors. I think that is the way that Jesus deals with me, too.

In spite of my age, I do not consider myself fully trained yet. I am not like Jesus, but I am a work in progress, becoming like Jesus. Note that “becoming” is a progressive verb and that’s what I am, a work in progress. In turn, I have tried to be a role model for others to follow so that they, too, can learn to be disciples of the Lord. One of the songs that I sang to encourage myself is “He’s Still Working on Me.” It is as true today as the first time I sang it many decades ago. In my impatience, I thought sometimes that I would arrive at the station, get off the train and continue with the rest of my life. But I’m still on the train of being made into His image, and I don’t want off until He is totally done with me. That day will come when I stand in His presence, but in the meantime, I am still a willing disciple, ready to learn the new lesson that He has for me each day. Just as I did not learn Spanish overnight, I have not learned all that God has to teach me in one or two lessons or devotionals or even years of them. There is always something new that He can teach me, some new way that I need to learn, some new path to take and something about me that needs to change to be better.

Yes, I am a disciple, but I am also a teacher and so is each of you who proclaims to be a Christian. We are not saved to hold the message in our hearts and minds and be quiet about the wonderful gift we have. We are saved to tell others, to teach them the way that they should go so that they can also celebrate a new life in Christ with us. We are each a disciple and each a teacher. Each one teach one, then two, then three until the world knows the Gospel and Jesus returns.

May each of you fulfill your roles as disciple of the Lord and teacher for those who seek Him. Have a blessed and wonderfully fruitful day!

He’s Still Working On Me by Nashville Digital

When you listen to the song, please listen to each verse and not each chorus. This song has a lot of wisdom and encouragement in it.

Not by Works

On By vickleaIn Scripture, Song2 Comments

I am and always have been a person who seeks the approval of others. I want people to like me, to appreciate what I have done and to notice that I am helping. I don’t think that I am alone in this desire, but I do know that this need to work towards acceptance isn’t necessary with my relationship with God.

I have read these verses, memorized them, taken notes from numerous sermons about them. But they are now settling into my heart. I spent years trying to please my mother, but there was nothing I could do to make her happy with me. I just was never good enough. I had straight A’s on my report card, but my mom brought up the fact that I had gotten a C on a test recently. I was just not good enough. I knew from a young age that my mother cried when she had me, stated repeatedly that she never wanted me and even refused to name me. (My dad names me, ironically, for my mother.) In spite of a less than welcoming childhood and all kinds of physical problems, I grew and matured and at the age of twenty-one, I became a Christian. I didn’t have to do anything special for God to love me. I just had to be me…a sinner saved by grace. There was and is absolutely nothing I can do to make myself more acceptable to God. He loves me just the way I am. That has been a freeing truth in my life. I still like to please people, but if I don’t, I’m not totally devastated. I just keep trying to please God instead by serving others. Not because He requires it, but because He doesn’t require anything of me except for me to believe and accept Him as my Lord and Savior. I have been changed from the inside out and it’s freeing to know that I can’t earn grace!

May you, too, find the freedom that comes only from accepting God’s free gift of salvation. And may your day be blessed with finding others to tell about His love, mercy and grace!

Just As I Am-The Vagle Brothers

Our Amazing God

On By vickleaIn Scripture, Song4 Comments

After the man who was paralyzed was healed, the people’s reaction was amazement. Daily, God walked among them because Jesus came to earth as a man. But when miracles began to happen, they were amazed. Should we not be constantly amazed at what God has done and is doing? All we have to do is look around us at all He has already created for us to enjoy, look at our own health and well-being and the blessings of family He has given us. We see remarkable things daily, if we just open our eyes.

No one is like our God, the God who sees us, hears us and answers us. He is holy and is to be praised, not just for performing miracles, but for who He is and always has been.

God speaks and things happen. I have difficulty getting my grandchildren to even hear me when I speak because they are so attentive to their television shows. Yet, God spoke and the whole earth was created. Amazing God!

Indescribable-Chris Tomlin

The Mother of the Savior

On By vickleaIn Scripture, Song1 Comment

One of my favorite Christmas songs is “Mary, Did You Know?” I think that is because I am a mother and I can only imagine how hard it must have been to be pregnant as a teen, giving birth to God’s Son and knowing that His mission on earth would be a short one since His destiny was to be the Messiah for all mankind. I recall when I was pregnant with my children, all the imaginings and hopes and wishes I had for each child. I cherished the moments with them when they were growing up, watching carefully to see the choices each would make and allowing them more freedom as they matured. What must it have been like for Mary, the woman who knew she was giving birth to the One who would sacrifice His life for all of us?

This verse gives us insight into Mary’s character as a mom. She, like many of us, treasure our children’s childhood, knowing that one day they will grow up, leave home and establish a life for themselves apart from us. Mary was a human mother who had all of the love of a regular mother for her beloved son, and like most mothers, she treasured the preciousness of her time with her child.

Unlike most mothers, though, Mary received a prophecy from Simeon when she and Joseph took Jesus to the temple to be consecrated to the Lord. The prophecy included the fact that she would one day suffer tremendous sorrow because her firstborn son would die. It is not the “natural way” of things that a child should predecease a parent, but that was part of Jesus’s destiny and God’s plan of salvation. How much did Mary know? Enough. But she still was willing to be obedient and give birth to the Messiah. She didn’t cower and say, “No, not me. Choose someone else to do this hard thing.” Knowing that the road ahead would be hard, she chose to be the mother to the Man who was also God, the One who would one day die on a cross with her watching beneath it. I admire Mary’s sacrifice and fortitude, but I don’t worship her because she is not God. She was a human whom God chose to use to fulfill His plan for all of mankind and her willingness is to be remembered by us all as the ultimate sacrifice of a loving mother and obedient servant of the Most High God.

Mary, Did You Know by Pentatonix

Have a blessed day as you ponder the real meaning of the season and the sacrifice that Jesus and Mary knew that He was going to make.

Overcomer

On By vickleaIn Scripture, Song2 Comments

I am an overcomer, and so are you if you are a Christian. Following in the path that the Lord has prepared for us, we cannot always expect the way to be easy. But we can know without a doubt that Jesus goes before us. Since He overcame all that life on earth and Satan threw at Him, we can, too. It takes faith, perseverance and steadfastness, but we can do it!

Overcomer-Mandisa

Have a blessed and glorious day in the Lord!

We Are Dust

On By vickleaIn Scripture, Song1 Comment

The Lord who created us knows that we are but dust from the earth and one day our human bodies will return to the ground from which it was created. But our breath, our soul, the inner part of us came from the very breath of God. That is why I believe that life is sacred and not to be dismissed as not valuable. Today, mankind is generally led around by the current beliefs, whatever they may be. The current term is a being ”woke” but I actually think that the people of the earth are more asleep to the mighty power of God and His judgment that is coming than they have ever been.

Like dust, we are blown around by the winds of change, the opinions of man mattering more to many of us than the truth of God’s Word. My prayer and hope is that there will be a fresh wind of the Holy Spirit that blows into each life of each Christian. If I must be blown around, God grant that it will be with the wind of the Holy Spirit and not the hot air that man produces with his own ideas of right and wrong.

What settles dust blowing around? Rain! The refreshing rain of the Word of God that showers us with His truth about His love, grace, mercy and, yes, the judgment to come. I desire to be refreshed daily so I spend time in God’s Word allowing Him to speak to me. It’s amazing to me that some people never spend time with God and yet they think they have all of the answers to life’s problems. It’s not a possibility for them to have answers since they don’t even know what the questions are. Who made us? God. To whom do we owe everything we are and all that we have? God. Who decides our ultimate fate for eternity? God. I am praying that God will intervene in the sinfulness of our world and send His wind and His rain. But, whether he chooses to continue to strive with mankind or not, I do know that my life in Him is secure and I can trust Him to send His Holy Spirit to guide me and His rain to teach me.

It’s Beginning to Rain by The Gaither Trio

In Everything Give Thanks

On By vickleaIn Scripture, SongLeave a comment

No matter what the circumstance is, there is always something to be thankful for. Notice that the Scripture says IN every situation, not after you have made it through to the other side. I am facing a mountain right now and God spoke clearly to me this morning to give thanks to Him. After all, I have spent the last few weeks with posts about thankfulness and then a challenge comes around and I started whining and thinking of all of the negatives. It seems that my husband and I came to Maryland to visit family for Thanksgiving, but he will be leaving to go home without me because my son needs me to care for the youngest as I did last year. That was a vague possibility in the back of my mind since his normal caregiver is a family member who lives here in Maryland, and just as she did last year, she took another job. And, of course, gave the family no notice about her plans. Just a text that said, “On my way home from my new job.” I was angry at first at the numerous hardships this causes me, the inconvenience of not having enough warm clothes here or all of my extra meds. But I quickly calmed down, got my husband to pick up my OTC meds that I don’t have here and have become resigned to the fact that I will be here for most of the next two months. That may not seem like a mountain to most people, but the little one is now a very active toddler, and I am a very slow-moving Nanna who stays in pain from arthritis. That being said, God is always full of mercy and loving kindness and had helped me to make it through the days so far that I have been caring for him this week. God even put this verse into my mind this morning first thing when I awakened and emphasized the word “in” for me as His Spirit whispered soft words of encouragement for me. So, I’m facing a mountain but I won’t be alone because God is there. He knows my physical shortcomings and He promises to strengthen me and to keep me (and the little one) safe. I need to look at it as an opportunity to be a good witness and to be helpful during my aged years. Inconvenient? Yes, but a lot of opportunities are.

Give Thanks by Don Moen

Since today is Thanksgiving, I will cease my current theme unless the Lord leads me in this direction more. I just want to say to each of you that I am thankful for your taking the time to read, to comment and to share my blog. You are nameless and faceless friends, but you are important to me and you matter a great deal to the Lord.

May your Thanksgiving Day be filled with blessings that overflow from your heart to the hearts of those you love. Be blessed to be a blessing!