derrickhurst.org

living for eternity today

Category: musicmonday (Page 2 of 28)

Faithful God

May 24, 2021 / / 0 Comments

After a couple of weeks to wrestle with the reality that my twin sons are graduating high school and are moving in different directions with their futures I’m bringing back the Music Monday posts. This week we’re going to look at a song by the group I Am They. An interesting name for a group but we can discuss that perhaps in a different post. The song is titled Faithful God.

How true is that statement! I mean really, how true is it that God is faithful in every possible way? He not only created a world he knew we’d mess up, but he also sent his Son to save us knowing it would cost his life. You don’t get much more faithful than that.

We often have a hard time seeing his faithfulness because we are clouded by the things we want in life that don’t have. And if we’re totally honest those things are all things we could have if we worked harder or spent less. We settle for prayers and requests that are materialistic and not eternal. God doesn’t promise to be faithful in giving us a new car or a new job. But he is faithful in caring for us in the way that’s best for us.

Today I hope as you start a new week that God shows you his faithfulness. I hope you can see it in the sunrise or sunset. I hope you can see it in the smile on your children’s faces or the laughter of a loved one. I hope you can see it in the roof over your head, even if it’s not the roof you wanted. I hope you can see it by the people who care for you.

God is faithful and all we have to do is look with a little intentionality and we’ll see it.

Say I Won’t

May 3, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Autopilot. It’s how most of us go through our lives. We get up and go through the same humdrum routine day in and day out. But there has to be more. There has to be more than just cruising through life, trapped in the prison of someone else’s dream.

We fall into autopilot when we seek something big and nothing happens. We nestle into autopilot when we compare our lives to those of someone else and feel we’ll never match up. We get stuck in autopilot when depression hits us and we just want to sleep life away.

There has to be a better way.

Today’s Music Monday is by MercyMe and it’s titled Say I Won’t. It’s a song that fights against the evils in our individual lives. The evils of what others say about us or how they treat us. The evils of being told we’re not good enough or that we’re a failure. The evils that tell us we’d be better off if we just threw in the towel and quit. And the message to all of these is I’m going to press on.

I’m going to rise above all of these. Not because I have it all together or even because I think I’m the best. I’m going to push through not because I have the strength or because I even believe I’m enough. I can do all of this because God says I’m enough. So I’m going to run and I’m going to fly.

Say I won’t. I dare you.

The message of this song is soft yet powerful. It’s a try me kind of message. Today I want you to stand in the confidence that the world can’t stop you. The people in your corner or opposed to you can’t hold you back. You will run. You will fly. You will succeed. I dare anyone to stop you when you have Jesus inside you.

Keep On Hoping

April 12, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Man, I don’t know about you but it seems like the good days aren’t quite as good lately and the bad days are seemingly a little worse. The distance between those good and bad days is growing shorter. Life just seems to be getting harder than I can remember it being.

How do we keep on going through the mess of life?

One of the most important things in life is to be careful what voices you let in your head. Be careful who you give room to occupy your thoughts. The more worry and fear and sadness take up space in your thinking, the more easily they’ll come out in your words and actions.

With all of the voices vying for space in our thinking we need to remember some pretty key things. Today’s Music Monday can help keep the main thing in the place of priority.

God is still in control. Just because you are out of control, doesn’t mean that God has lost control. Actually the opposite is very true. It’s often when we are totally and completely out of control that we are best positioned to let God do his most powerful work.

God shows up when we need him most. What if the trouble and struggle is meant to help us see when God shows up? What if God is right around the corner? What if the miracle you need right now is just a moment away? Don’t give up now! You’ll miss the best part!

Know where your strength comes from. It’s true. Whether we like it or not the truth is that God gave us life and since he gave us life, we can be certain that he will give us the strength to keep going through the challenges and struggles in life.

Check out today’s MusicMonday. It’s a song about hope. Never give up hope because God is just moments away from showing up in a big way.

Praise The King

April 5, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Easter for those of us who follow Jesus is about so many amazing things. While some try to shun the bunny and the eggs, some of us can fully embrace these fun parts of Easter with the real meaning of this great day. For followers of Jesus, Easter is about Jesus. It’s about his resurrection and how he conquered the darkness and all the powers of evil in the world.

At Living Word Galena this Easter we focused on Jesus as our King. We talked about how he is the one true king this world needs. Knowing that we serve a King who’s not like other kings is pretty freeing. Knowing that Jesus is kind and compassionate and selfless and is willing to put himself aside for the those who follow him makes this day known as Easter even that much more special.

Today I want to leave you with a song that pretty much summarizes what we talked about this Easter. It’s a song titled Praise the King. I just heard this for the first time a few days ago and was struck by the power of the words.

Nothing flashy. Nothing over the top. Just Jesus as your king but then again that’s all you really need.

Nailed To The Cross

April 2, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Today is Good Friday. It’s a day for people who believe in Jesus to pause and reflect for a minute. We take a day and set it aside for remembering. Remembering the person Jesus was. The life he lived. The death he died. And what it all means for me today.

Today isn’t Monday but this song spoke to me and I wanted to save it for today. So in this week’s Music Monday post we sit on Good Friday and consider the week behind us and the weekend in front of us.

Good Friday is the day all of my junk, pain, sadness, fear, frustration, wrongs, lies, betrayal, denial, every negative and evil thing I’ve ever done gets nailed to the cross. It’s when Jesus did what I could never do. It’s when he took my place and paid my price.

Take a listen to this song and enjoy Music Monday on a Friday and remember it may be Friday but Sunday is coming.

When We Fall Apart

March 23, 2021 / / 0 Comments

It’s no secret, we all hit that moment in life when we just fall apart. Maybe it’s an illness or a job loss. Sometimes it’s a death in the family or a child moving on and a piece of you seems to be missing. When we hit that place when all we can do is fall to the ground and cry we need to hear someone tell us that it’s going to be ok. Maybe not today or tomorrow but it will be ok.

Today’s MusicMonday is for those of you who are swimming in the quicksand of life. It’s for those of you who can’t seem to get on top of things in life. It’s for those of you who don’t know how you’re going to put food on the table for your family. It’s for those of you who are watching your mom or dad or grandparent slowly fade from your grip and you can’t do anything about it.

There are things in life that we know we can’t change but they’re just plain hard. For the past several years I’ve watched as two of my grandparents have struggle with the debilitating illness of alzheimer’s. They didn’t know who I was or why I was there. The illness drained every bit of recognizable life out of them. Grandma breathed her last over the summer of 2020 and grandpa is still fighting.

Sometimes we laugh about the memories we’ve made but most of the time we just stare and wonder why. We wonder will this ever be ok? We watch the fight and the struggle and while I’m not really a crying kind of guy something inside me breaks as I watch one the strongest men in my life not even be able to bear his own weight anymore.

Sometimes I just want to fall apart, and one day I likely will. But for now I want you to know that falling apart isn’t bad. It’s not a sign of weakness or shame. Falling apart and losing yourself in the moments of grief and pain brings healing. If my grandma were still here she’d tell me that it’s ok to cry. She’d hold me close and remind me that one day it will make sense. She’d tell me it’s ok to hurt but on the other side of hurt is healing.

Listen to this week’s song, even though it’s a day late. Find healing in your tears. Every drop that you let go will be a flood of healing for your soul. It’s ok to cry. It’s ok to fall apart.

Hurry Up And Wait

March 15, 2021 / / 0 Comments

We are a driven people aren’t we? We push and pull and drive and run and force our will in our time. We like to go 100 miles an hour in life, maybe not driving because that’s dangerous but in our decisions and our push to success. We pack our schedules with very little down time. We live in the margins of life. We need to hurry up and wait!

One of my many downfalls in life is that I am a very task oriented, type A, driven person who doesn’t like to sit still and always needs a project. I seem to always need to be doing something. Whether working around the house, going on a walk, working out at the gym, going to work to get a little extra done – for me it’s just hard to stop.

But we all need downtime. And we’ll take that downtime whether we do it voluntarily and mandated to do so. For so many the pandemic has been a forced pause moment. Well at least at first many of us slowed our lives for a bit and stopped virtually all of the extra things. This allowed for more rest, more suppers with family, more walks around the neighborhood with our spouse, more movie nights with the kids, more fires on the patio. Slowing down was a great and much needed relief from the pace of life.

But we’re starting to return to a more rapid pace in life. And if we’re not careful, we’ll soon end right back where we were a couple of years ago. We’ll be running 100 mph through life and miss so many great opportunities, all because we couldn’t rest and wait.

Today’s MusicMonday is titled Hurry Up and Wait. The idea is simple. If we don’t hurry up and find rest in our day to day lives, if we don’t get out of the margins of life and live at a more managable pace then we’re going to be forced to rest in a way we don’t really like or want.

I’m not saying the pandemic was God’s doing, but I am saying that I firmly believe he has used this slowing of our pace to work some good. So hurry up and find the place and time when you can rest before it’s too late!

Help Is On The Way

March 8, 2021 / / 0 Comments

When trouble hits we want help right here and right now. We don’t want to wait. We don’t want to look for our hero to come save us. We order our food expecting it to come out fast. We text someone and hope for a reply immediately. Everything about our world is immediate and expected on our timeline. We are very much an instant gratification society. Today’s MusicMonday is about knowing that help will be here just in time.

When I was in college I worked for the Honda Manufacturing plant in my hometown. I was amazed when I first toured the facility. I expected to see stacks of containers with extra parts for the cars and motorcycles they were building. I thought the factory would have had racks and racks of frames, fenders, door knobs, anything and everything needed to build these vehicles. But to my amazement there was nothing!

They didn’t have tall storage racks like you see in the pick up area of IKEA. They didn’t have stacks upon stacks of extras of anything. They operate as what’s called a just in time company. That means the parts arrive just in time to get a new batch of 60 parts to the line to keep things going.

Just in time. That’s what today’s song is all about. God shows up just in time. It might be at midnight or midday but he’ll always be there. He won’t be late and make you fall. He won’t be early to keep you from the challenges. He’ll be there. Help is on the way. But it will show up when the time is right.

Fresh Wind

March 1, 2021 / / 0 Comments

I’ve been working in my basement to make it more of a fun and livable area in our home. But one thing about a basement is that if there’s not adequate air flow and ventilation things can get a little stale and stagnant. In our home there are no air vents in the basement and no returns down there either, so the air just sits. One of the final steps I’ll take is to open up a couple of air exchange vents so that we can get some fresh air into what otherwise would be a stale air environment.

But it’s not just basements that need fresh air. Sometimes, if we’re honest, we need some fresh wind in our lives as well. We get so caught up in the way it’s been done and in the comforts of life that we kind of grow stale and stagnant. We need a fresh perspective and a new way of approaching things.

This may not be a popular opinion by any means, but I am starting to wonder if 2020 wasn’t the call for a fresh wind. I wonder if God didn’t see the need for us to stop doing things comfortably and start doing them in a new and fresh way. Could God be using the massive disruption that we all experienced in 2020 as a way to breathe some fresh wind into our lives?

We don’t always need pandemics and massive social uprisings to find new wind in our lives. We can find this very thing as we dive into the Scripture and spend time with fellow believers. Fresh wind comes when God breathes new insights into our current realities.

Today’s Music Monday is about realizing the need for this fresh wind perspective and then experiencing just that – the breath of God breathed into us all over again to revive us and wake us from our comfortable slumber.

Child of Love

February 22, 2021 / / 0 Comments

While digging around on Apple Music, I was able to find a few songs I haven’t heard so far. Today’s Music Monday focuses on the difference that being a follower should make on our lives. It’s far too easy to let Jesus be just another part of our day. It’s easy to compartmentalize our faith from the rest of our lives. But there has to be a better way.

When I listen to this song and read the lyrics, I’m reminded of my children. They aren’t just my children some days, when they want to be. They’re always going to be my children. Even when my one son heads off to the US Army or my other son pursues his dreams in the FBI, they’ll still be my children. No matter where they go or what they do, they will always be my children.

It’s the same way in our relationship with God. We’re His children. Not just on Sundays or when we want something from Him. We’re His children all the time. The world around us will tell us what we want to hear then snatch our dreams from us. There is no one in our lives who’s in our corner and always for us. But our Father is here. He may not agree with what we do. He may correct us or rebuke us or even let punishment come on us, but he never will leave us or forsake us.

My grandpa always used to say If you find yourself far from God, ask yourself who moved. As a child of God we are never going to experience a time when God runs from us. He is with us and for us even when He lets punishment come our way.

When we truly find the difference that comes in knowing Jesus and being known by Him, we’ll find a freedom in life that we’ve never before experienced. We’ll find joy in sadness, peace in conflict, provision in a season of want. Being a child of God makes all the difference. My prayer for you today is that you experience this reality and let it shape your life this week.

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2024 derrickhurst.org

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑