Make It Count...

This is a re-post from 2015 that I felt needed to be put out there again.  I am still asking God to make my burdens count, help me to see His glory as I walked through a trial, give me peace and wisdom as I have to make decisions everyday that affect others. 

Lately I've had a burden that seems to put me in a downtrodden state because  my focus is the burden.  Needing a lift I turned  to a song by Gordon Mote.  I am going to miss His glory that surrounds this  burden if my perspective is self centered.   

One thing for sure, my burden is not going to go away over night, in fact there is no guarantee it will ever go away.   A friend sent me a great post yesterday containing three words that kept rattling around in my mind.  Powerful words that lifted my spirit as I reverted back to them in the middle of my burden.  "Make it count".

As I listen the to the words in the song, I begin to pray those three words combined with the title of the song.   God, make it count, this burden that I carry, make it count and please don't let me miss your glory in the midst of it.                             

1. If you don’t see the greatness of God then all the things that money can buy become very exciting. If you can’t see the sun you will be impressed with a street light. If you’ve never felt thunder and lightning you’ll be impressed with fireworks. And if you turn your back on the greatness and majesty of God you’ll fall in love with a world of shadows and short-lived pleasures.

John Piper

Tone it down....

Do you think we should live bold for the Lord the way Peter and John did?

 My personality has been pretty bold all my life so when I got saved at 35 that boldness went into my journey with the Lord.  I talked to everyone about Him and it was mostly my religious friends who told me to "tone it down, I was going to offend".  A couple of them  were Sunday School teachers at different churches. 

Oh, I know it important to live right before others so hopefully they can tell I am different,  but while I am living right I want to let my light shine with the words that come out of my mouth.  God did not leave the task of telling others about Jesus to the rock and trees or animals, He left it to those of us who claim to be His. 

Boldness about Jesus is not red faced passion or impenetrable extroversion. Rather, it has to do with speaking--which is not so much about how we speak, but in what we say about Jesus, even when we presume our hearers won't be happy with it.

In Acts 4: the Jewish leaders were disturbed because this Jesus who they killed proclaimed to be the long awaited Messiah.   Peter and John boldly carried on with that truth,  Jesus was the long awaiting Messiah who  was crucified, died and resurrected and any one who believes that will  have the same blessing of being resurrected from the dead. Oh, that made those religious leaders furious. 

What made it worst  in the Jewish leaders eyes was the ones teaching this were fishermen, uneducated, not leaders in the Temple, common men and they were doing it boldly without fear.

Peter and John continued to heal people, preached the gospel and were arrested and escorted to stand trial before the same court that condemned Jesus, better known as the professionals of that day. 

The religious leaders fired one after another questions at Peter and John.  At one point, (Acts 4:11-12 Peter answered, "hear me loud and clear, Jesus is behind this work."  This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you the builders, which has become the cornerstone . and there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.  

I love this short video clip  and re-watch it often because it gives me courage to be bold and clear about my Savior, Jesus Christ.



                 
                   

Anybody need a pair of sunglasses???