He guides me along right paths

I was reading Psalm 23 and I came across verse 3 and it says "He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name." This got me thinking, so many times we ask the question, "what should I do here?" We run into a fork in the road so often in our lives. It happens monthly, weekly, even daily when we ask ourselves "What should I do here?". Our lives are made up of millions of decisions that guide our path in life. They are the banks along the river we are; bouncing us around back and forth. The trouble is knowing which choice is right. How do we see the big picture in all of our crazy life circumstances?
We weigh out our needs, wants, preference, family, friends, benefits, and a tons of other variables. The bottom line is that our will is the tree and God's will is the forest and if we don't allow God to guide us then we will never see the big picture... God's will. He wants great things for us, not to settle for good or okay. He has great things for us and by resting in Jesus we find as David found in the Psalms that "He guides us along right paths, bringing honor to his name." Wisdom from above is first peaceable so we get to walk in the decision with peace and joy, feeling as if God were smiling upon the direction we went.
What a good God we serve.
Blessings,
Pastor Ben
Ground Zero Youth

Are you beautiful?

This last Sunday at Rhapsody Church Pastor Brandon preached on heaven as inspiration, incentive, and a reward for the pain we go through today. While preaching he read Revelation  chapters 21 and 22; when he passed through 21:2 it rocked me a little. The Holy Spirit started giving me word pictures. The verse goes as such "I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband." All I could think about is the bride of Christ! The bride is the church... God's people... us. I remember my wedding day and how relaxing it was all morning and even that day. I didn't have to worry about a thing, just showing up for my bride (a beautiful one at that). However, my wife recalls a different experience that day. Her day was a mess of crazy! Running here and there, making it to appointments, getting the dress on right, the hair, nails, make-up; it had to be just right. She wanted to be beautiful for her future husband. The bride has got tremendous pressure on her to be right. The groom just has to show up. Christ is coming for His bride, He will show up. However will he find a bride that tried to make every appointment? One that gave it her all? One that is spotless and without stain? Untarnished and beautiful? A pure bride is what He seeks, and all I could think of on Sunday was how WORTHY WORTHY WORTHY He is! Are you beautiful?
I wasn't until I met Him.
Check out the sermon on the web www.rhapsodychurch.com

Wisdom from above

In James 3:13-18 James is speaking about wisdom of the earth and man compared to wisdom from above.  Sadly I can identify with both. Wisdom is the ability to discern or judge what is true, right, or lasting. Wisdom that is earthly has selfish ambition and jealousy as well, it also creates disorder (I have caused plenty of disorder with my own wisdom in my lifetime).  James 3:13 says let him show his works in wisdom, this implying that wisdom isn’t just in our speech but also in our actions. How we live will show our wisdom as much as our speech.  “Wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. “ (James 3:17) First its pure, then peaceable – wisdom to be pure and peaceable has to follow the truth. We know that the word of God is truth so it’s got to line up with that. We have a God of peace, so naturally wisdom from above will provide the peace we need in our decisions. When making a decision I want to have peace about it. Nothing more frustrating than deciding something and then feeling no peace about it. Wisdom from above gives us just that, peace.  

We can rely on our own strength and it will get us only so far; but when we allow God to have say in our choices and actions they become wise.

He already did it! (Pastor Ben)

Have you ever been in a place where you felt like your past were over taking who you were? I have been in this place. The past seems to dig its claws into you not allowing you to move forward, not allowing you to be free from the sin that once plagued you. There is something about the past that is determined not to be walked away from. It doesn’t want to accept the inevitable that we are always moving farther from it, making it more irrelevant with every passing minuet.

Being free from the sin that occurred in our past shouldn't be as hard as it sometimes seems. Jesus did a mighty work on the cross. One that will reverberate throughout history, shaking the sin of our past off of our backs forever. "For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God." (Hebrews 9:13,14).

Hebrews 9:28 gives an implicit message that is powerful, "so Christ having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him." He's coming back not to deal with sin! The implicit message is that it's already been dealt with! How cool is that?. We don't have to be burdened with a sin from the past for the Lord has already dealt with it. It’s his and the blameless sacrifice he did shakes us free of it.

Walking in freedom is what he designed for us, and it allows for a great impact on the kingdom when my attention is not on my sin but the reaching of others for the one truth... Jesus.

A cool thought from Psalms 80 "who are we"

Hey blog has been on a brief hiatus but is returning shortly. In the mean time I am blogging cool thoughts that I come across.

"Who are we"
Psalm 80:8-11 "You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared the ground for it; it took deep root and filled the land. The mountains were covered with it's shade, the mighty cedars with it's branches. It sent out it's branches to the sea and it's shoots to the river."

What an awesome thing! The vine is the Church, and God brought his people out of Egypt. At His hand he cleared the ground of the enemy or weeds that wouldn't allow the vine to grow. The deep root is Christ, He's the one who makes us strong and sturdy. He's the one who provides what we need just as the root for a vine. The branches being the believers (you and me) and because we don't rest, we are able to spread far and wide from mountain to sea to river with the news that brings rest for the tired, with living water for the thirsty.

God has made us what we are, placed us where we are, and is the root or foundation that allows us to BE who we are! We have a mighty calling on our lives to be the vine/branches rooted by Christ planted by God. Now lets walk it out and continue to grow the way He intended us to.

Pastor Ben Rushing

Devos for may 24th (by Jordan W.)

“His mercy endures forever” (Psalms 136)

Some songs get stuck in your head and others get stuck in your heart.  This was the case for Israel in Psalms chapter 136.  Stubborn Israel, whose unfaithfulness was at times legendary, takes to heart the great mercy that God had shown them.  And, they don’t just sing it, they proclaim it over and over again.

The song describes every significant event in their history and after each event, they proclaim, “His mercy endures forever”.   But, was it really necessary for them to say it 26 times in 26 verses?  To them it was, because the mercy of God trailed their every step.  His mercy defined them as a nation.

It was mercy that compelled Him to strike Egypt and lead his people out of bondage.

It was in mercy that He divided the waters of the red sea so that Israel could cross safely.

It was His mercy that provided His people a land that they could call their own.

But, that was all in the past and they were not just talking about the past.  They said that “His mercy endures forever”.  And long after this song was written, the world saw His enduring mercy again.  They saw it when He opened the eyes of the blind man, touched the leper, befriended the outcast, restored the cripple, raised the dead, and died alone on a cross for you and for me.  Mercy, always mercy and it endures forever…  Even now.

There are times when our feet tread in places so dark that we are ashamed to admit that we have been… “ His mercy endures forever”.

There are times when our temptations consume us and the enemy wins…  “His mercy endures forever”.

There are times when we are no better than the Romans who struck him or Peter who denied him, and for all of these times and more… “His mercy endures forever”.

No matter where we find ourselves and no matter what mess we got ourselves into, we need to hear these words, we need to cling onto them and know that He is not willing to give up on us.  Let these words get stuck in your head like the chorus to your favorite song.  “His mercy endures forever”.  And as you cling onto these words for this moment, know that after you are gone they will still trail off into eternity.

Prayer:

Please remind us daily that your mercy goes deeper than our deepest, darkest sin.

Devos special friday the 13th edition (by Hannah)

1 Thessalonians 1:2-9
In this part of Scripture the author who is the apostle Paul was encouraging a group of believers and sharing with them how their strong faith in the Lord is shining bright for all of those around them and people all around the city have heard of this mighty Savior. He tells them they live godly lives and are a great example to other believers. After I read these verses I thought what Paul was saying could be used to set standards in my own life. Not that I need to live my life so I can be better than people but with the mindset of with strong faith and actions that speak louder than my words I could be a warrior for Christ and make a difference in my sphere of influence. I need to be a good example for my friends that don’t know this awesome Jesus that I know.
Prayer:
Father I am so thankful for all that you do for me and my family. I would be lost and hurting without you. I pray for strength to stand tall even when the enemy tries pushing me over. I pray for boldness to speak your words to my lost friends and family. I ask that you would guide me in my every day decisions. I love you with all of my heart and I want to be a better person for you. Amen.