OzThoughts Tuesday 25th August 2009

OzThoughts Tuesday 25th August 2009

Some years ago I had the misfortune of being at a Corps (church) with a man who, he said, had been commissioned by God to take a blessing to people by playing the violin. Now, don’t get me wrong I like violins and they make beautiful music. Well, they can. It depends on the skill of the player.

This man was judged by most as a terrible violin player. He had good intentions but even the best intentions do not render a good tune. Many tried to discourage him. I might say a badly tuned violin playing wrong notes is bad enough but when it is loudly amplified and played in the residential streets, it is quite something else. He called this noise ‘street evangelism’.

When people tried to discourage him, he took strength in the words of Jesus:

10Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
12Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5).

God had commissioned him and no one could stop him. He even shared with us once in church sharing time that he played his violin to his doctor and told him he had taught himself to play and the doctor told him “well, you have done a good job”. I think the implication was that if the doctor approved why should we discourage him. I don think he understood “irony” in the doctors statement.

The persecution Jesus spoke about was real. It wasn’t amplified violin. As the early church suffered persecution (Acts 5 to 7) it led to the death of Stephen. They had crucified Jesus now they were seeking to stop his followers in what ever way they could.

PRAYER:

My heavenly Father God, I pray for people who suffer persecution today. Across the world, people are losing their homes, families, jobs and even their freedom and life itself because of their active faith for you. I pray that you will be with them and give them courage and strength through your Holy Spirit. Help me to stand for you, whenever I am called to do so. Amen.

[Listen: Band: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music/mus_1600.mp3 ]

I bring to thee my heart to fill;
I feel how weak I am, but still
To thee for help I call.
In joy or grief, to live or die,
For earth or Heaven, this is my cry,
Be thou my all in all.

Chorus
Christ is all, yes, all in all.
My Christ is all in all.

Around me in the world I see
No joy that turns my soul from thee;
Its honours fade and fall;
But with thee, though I mount the cross,
I count it gain to suffer loss,
For thou art all in all.

I've little strength to call my own,
And what I've done, before thy throne
I here confess, is small;
But on thy strength. O God, I lean,
And through the blood that makes me clean,
Thou art my all in all.

No tempest can my courage shake,
My love from thee no pain can take,
No fear my heart appal;
And where I cannot see I'll trust,
For then I know thou surely must
Be still my all in all.
Authors: Herbert Howard Booth (1862-1926) (verses), W.H. Williams (chorus)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 489

Psalm 37 (The Message – selected verses).

A David psalm
1Don't bother your head with braggarts
or wish you could succeed like the wicked.
2In no time they'll shrivel like grass clippings
and wilt like cut flowers in the sun.

3Get insurance with GOD and do a good deed,
settle down and stick to your last.
4Keep company with GOD,
get in on the best.

5Open up before GOD, keep nothing back;
he'll do whatever needs to be done:
6He'll validate your life in the clear light of day
and stamp you with approval at high noon.

7Quiet down before GOD,
be prayerful before him.
Don't bother with those who climb the ladder,
who elbow their way to the top.

8Bridle your anger, trash your wrath,
cool your pipes--it only makes things worse.
9Before long the crooks will be bankrupt;
GOD-investors will soon own the store.

10Before you know it, the wicked will have had it;
you'll stare at his once famous place and--nothing!
11Down-to-earth people will move in and take over,
relishing a huge bonanza.

12Bad guys have it in for the good guys,
obsessed with doing them in.
13But GOD isn't losing any sleep; to him
they're a joke with no punch line.

14Bullies brandish their swords,
pull back on their bows with a flourish.
They're out to beat up on the harmless,
or mug that nice man out walking his dog.
15A banana peel lands them flat on their faces--
slapstick figures in a moral circus.

16Less is more and more is less.
One righteous will outclass fifty wicked,
17For the wicked are moral weaklings
but the righteous are GOD-strong.

18GOD keeps track of the decent folk;
what they do won't soon be forgotten.
19In hard times, they'll hold their heads high;
when the shelves are bare, they'll be full.

20God--despisers have had it;
GOD's enemies are finished--
Stripped bare like vineyards at harvest time,
vanished like smoke in thin air.

21Wicked borrows and never returns;
Righteous gives and gives.
22Generous gets it all in the end;
Stingy is cut off at the pass.

23Stalwart walks in step with GOD;
his path blazed by GOD, he's happy.
24If he stumbles, he's not down for long;
GOD has a grip on his hand.

25I once was young, now I'm a graybeard--
not once have I seen an abandoned believer,
or his kids out roaming the streets.
26Every day he's out giving and lending,
his children making him proud.

27Turn your back on evil,
work for the good and don't quit.
28GOD loves this kind of thing,
never turns away from his friends.

Live this way and you've got it made,
but bad eggs will be tossed out.
29The good get planted on good land
and put down healthy roots.
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34Wait passionately for GOD,
don't leave the path.
He'll give you your place in the sun
while you watch the wicked lose it.
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37Keep your eye on the healthy soul,
scrutinize the straight life;
There's a future
in strenuous wholeness.
38But the willful will soon be discarded;
insolent souls are on a dead-end street.

39The spacious, free life is from GOD,
it's also protected and safe.
40GOD-strengthened, we're delivered from evil--
when we run to him, he saves us.



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