You have bedded me down in lush meadows,
you find me quiet pools to drink from.
True to your word,
you let me catch my breath
and send me in the right direction.
4 Even when the way goes through
Death Valley,
I’m not afraid
when you walk at my side.
Your trusty shepherd’s crook
makes me feel secure.
5 You serve me a six-course dinner
right in front of my enemies.
You revive my drooping head;
my cup brims with blessing.
6 Your beauty and love chase after me
every day of my life.
I’m back home in the house of God
for the rest of my life.
As I prepare to fly to Jefferson City, MO to speak at “Set Apart” and event for “The Tower” I have been thinking and praying about the idea of being OVERCOME and all that can go with that. For my family and I it is the idea that we are overcome with the expectation that we are going to see people enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ because of the church that is being started. That we have been overcome with the knowledge that just like in the 23rd Psalm that God’s beauty and love chase after us. That we have been overcome at times with fear about being able to financially survive this starting of a church. That we have been overcome with God’s care, that just like in the 23rd Psalm that he revives my drooping head. That I have been overcome with the thought that I am a Son of the almighty God.
What are your being overcome with? What are you dealing with when it comes to your life and feeling discouraged and stressed out about? Share it hear in the comments so that I can be praying for you.
I love being on airplanes when the flight attendant gives the emergency exit speech. It amazes me at the different responses that people give to the flight attendant as they share with them probably at the time the most important information that they need. Some of the responses that I have seen are the following:
Go to sleep before the speech even begins.
Grab the exit information card and flip through it then put it away.
Pay attention and follow through with the card.
I even caught one lady praying as the speech was being given (I hoped she didn’t know something)
What I love thinking about is that these are the same reactions that you can probably see when you go to a church. There are those that show up for a good nap, some that give the bible a little look, then the others that are really there to pay attention and seeking to find out about what this important message is in their life. I challenge us to think is the reason that people react this way because of the message or the delivery.
“If you are going to bore people, don’t bore them with the Gospel. Bore them with calculus, bore them with earth science, bore them with world history. But it is a sin to bore them with the Gospel.” – Howard Hendricks
Have you ever had one of those moments where you read something and you read something that is different then what the writer intended. That is what happened to Tyler and I while in the doctor’s office. We read the above poster and began laughing because if you read with influence in the wrong places then you hear something different. What we read different was at the bottom of the page. Instead of reading the statements at the top with the seriousness that you should, we read the bottom as it where saying “Let us know about the problems above so that we can help in doing the above statements”. What I took away from this is if we do not read the words with the right intent we can totally mess up the message.
I thought of this poster after I went to a Bronco game at Invesco Field in Denver. I had taken the light rail to the stadium to watch the Bronco game and then when the game was over I made the short walk back to the station to get back on the light rail to head home. As we walked back to the station in the massive herd of people there was a man standing there with a huge poster that read”Trust Jesus or Go to Hell!” As we walked I just listened to people talk about what they read. ”That guy is weird!” ”Those people just freak me out!” “I would trust Jesus but His people are all jerks.” These are the statements that were going on around me. It made me want to yell out ” WE ARE ALL NOT LIKE THIS!” You see the message was true and but it was read with the wrong intent. I believe that this guy probably had the greatest intentions but because it was not read or presented in the right context it did more damage then good.
So what message are you delivering with your life? How are people reading you?
Have you ever had one of those moments where you read something and you read something that is different then what the writer intended. That is what happened to Tyler and I while in the doctor’s office. We read the above poster and began laughing because if you read with influence in the wrong places then you hear something different. What we read different was at the bottom of the page. Instead of reading the statements at the top with the seriousness that you should, we read the bottom as it where saying “Let us know about the problems above so that we can help in doing the above statements”. What I took away from this is if we do not read the words with the right intent we can totally mess up the message.
