Podcast

Make the Call

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-5yrfs-16c01a9

Let everyone call urgently on God ~ Jonah 3:8

 

When is a time where you have urgently called on God? Urgently meaning you required immediate action or attention. It certainly would’ve been a serious, and probably even a life threatening moment. I mean we’re not gonna urgently call on God to shine on tomorrow’s day at the beach.

 

In Jonah 3 we find the king of Nineveh, the most powerful man in the city, an arrogant villain, putting on sackcloth, and sitting in the dust because he’s heard a message from God (through Jonah).

 

He leaves his seat of authority and  power, and takes off his royal clothes of pride… and he sits down in the dust where we all came from, and will return someday.

 

The king who allowed and  commanded violence and oppression for so many years has humbled himself and commanded a fast, telling everyone to urgently call on God.

 

Why? Because this non-believer heard from God.

The heart of the answer lies right here…  change begins when a person believes God!

Not just believing in God, but believing God!

 

O’ Lord, that you hear our urgent prayer for the world…

That all nations!

That all peoples!

would know and embrace You!

 

Pray on…

Song: Where Heaven Touches Earth

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Podcast

Fleeing, The Opposite of Following

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-hp2gy-16c01a0

But Jonah ran away… ~ Jonah 1:3

Have you ever run away from something? I’m sure you have …we all have, and hindsight usually reveals just how foolish and wasteful the behavior was.

 

But imagine running from God …as if that’s even a possibility. What foolishness to think that the omnipresent God would not be able to track us down, that he’d somehow lose us in the world’s mass of humanity. Silly, I know!

 

The book of Jonah reveals that Jonah’s not running from the danger of Nineveh, the city he’s been sent to preach in, but that’s he’s running from God. He knows God’s compassion,  and he doesn’t want to see God forgive the Ninevites.

 

What we’re asked to consider is this –

What if God’s word reveals something about God that we don’t like?

What if he calls us to people we don’t like?

 

We can talk about the fish at another time, but for today, let’s consider the idea that we can’t turn and run away from God’s work and expect not to be exposed.

Lord, help us to remember that following is our calling, and that fleeing is the opposite of following.

 

Pray on…

Song: Sittin’ in a Belly

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Mannerism, music, Poetry, Video

The Bestowing


I gave my daughter away last Saturday. Now that statement by itself sounds awful, but then we read in Genesis 3:24 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” And that brings me comfort, that warms my heart, because over the past few years I’ve seen my daughter, and my son-in-law act as one through some highs and some lows.

In Eph 5:33 Paul writes, “Let each one of you men, love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.” All any father can hope for, pray for, is a man who puts his daughter above himself, and commits to a lifetime of loving her, and that prayer’s been answered in the affirmative.

Yes, last Saturday I gave my daughter away, but today I’m a peaceful and contented father, and father-in-law. Lord, bless them with happiness and a healthy and long journey together.

The Bestowing
As I sit by the window, coffee in hand
And the sun begins to shadow the sound
My mind drifts to memories, of a little girl
That will later be clothed in a gown
Her smile will be the same as it ever was
Reflecting on all that it greets
As later today we’ll make that walk together
Where I’ll give my daughter away for keeps

He loves her as much as I could expect
Maybe a little more
And it gives my heart solace, as a piece breaks off
To know that he’ll catch it before it hits the floor
Her smile will be the same as it ever was
Reflecting on all that it greets
As later today we’ll make that walk together
When I give my daughter away for keeps

She’s waited what seems like all of her life
To arrive at this moment in time
A moment that’ll be covered with tears of joy
And no doubt some will be mine
Her smile will be the same as it ever was
Reflecting on all that it greets
As later today we’ll make that walk together
When I give my daughter away for keeps

~ E.M.
September 14, 2024

She’s Me (Album: The Consequence)
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Podcast

His Word is Good

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-s7agv-16c0192

A library is a house of  hope (we could stop there) …

It’s a place where we all, whatever our situation,

can feed our ideas and developed our dreams.

 

A cartoon showed (a father handing a child a book to his teen-age son):

“It’s a book you say, ..uh, what do I plug it into?” You mind!

 

Apart from the word of God, human life knows only chaos. It is the word that speaks order into creation and that sustains all the processes of nature. It is the word that motivates all history and brings it to fulfillment. It is the word alone that gives guidance, and forgiveness, and blessing, and fruitful life. It is in the word that God draws near to his chosen people and abides with them.

 

I share this because just as in (the Minor Prophet), Amos’ time…

(a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. ~ Amos 8:11)

There are many today who are tragically ignorant of their Bible.

…and some are weekly church goers!

They don’t’t know scripture, they don’t read it, or study it.

…I heard it said that those that do dabble with commentaries

are guilty of not creating their own.

The Biblical illiteracy among Christians is epidemic.

 

Father, our land is ripe for the hearing of your word

Let each and everyone of us begin a disciplined approach to your word

Reading it, studying it, digging deeper into it,

questioning what it means, praying on its application…

and then sharing with those around us the riches of doing so

sharing it in a way that excites others to join us

In your Son’s name we pray…

 

Pray on…

Song: His Word is Good

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Podcast

Tilling For Love

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-ggxdt-16c0172

…break up your unplowed ground ~ Hosea 10:12

One of my daughters was a stubborn child. She knew what she wanted, and wasn’t going to have it any other way. Her will was strong, her heart could turn hard during such an exercise, her upsetment occurred because she wasn’t getting what she wanted …much like many adults, like many unhappy souls in the world …dare I say much like our politicians …their stubbornness, their inability to see past their hard hearts, is the cause for much turmoil in their world and ours.

In Hosea 10:12, God uses metaphors from agriculture to set forth his requirements. Sandy Adams shares, We need to prepare the ground before we plant a garden. The strongest plants grow in the worked, and softened soil. The barren spots were the ones that were unworked.

Repentance does to our spirit, what a tiller does to the hard ground. A repentant heart sees its sin’s true ugliness. True repentance turns my life over and over breaking up my hardness. It allows the seeds of God to take root and create spiritual growth. But if the heart is not prepared the seed won’t take root. This why we need to turn up the soil of our heart. We need to work over that soil with a thorough repentance.

Tilling ground is laborious, hard, backbreaking, agonizing work …and so  is real repentance …the results though are worth the effort. The strongest stands of spiritual fruit, will grow where you have worked the ground.

Pray on…

Song: Once Again Lord

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Podcast

In the Flow

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-pks4q-16c01b2

and peoples will flow to it ~ Micah 4:1

 

Have you ever been caught up in a moment when time didn’t exist? A moment when your mind was so occupied that the passing of time was oblivious to you. That’s to say at some point you stopped to realized a large portion of it had passed without your recognition. That’s being in the flow.

 

As a musician I get to experience (flow) it in those special improvisational instances, the ones that we can’t really explain, but that inspire us and make us want to return again and again.

 

Here in Micah 4 we read that the people will flow to it, it being Mt Zion; to the house of the Lord, to worship …and here let me share that I’ve also experience the flow in worship. What a glorious experience to get lost so in worship that time doesn’t exist; that seconds, minutes, and hours can pass without notice.

 

Both Isaiah and Micah echo this piece of scripture. I’d like to believe that the Holy Spirit thought it was that important, that it needed to be mentioned twice. As they use it, it means spontaneous movement; you’re not compelled to do it, but you want to do it.

 

Skip Heitzig shares that, “There’s coming a day when the nations of the world will want to go to flow to Jerusalem. Because the Messiah will reign and rule from there for a thousand years, and the world will be at peace.”

 

What a prayer for our world, that all nations would flow to the house of the Lord …to worship him.

 

Pray on…

Song: In the House of the Lord

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Mannerism, music, Poetry, Video

We Belong to the Day

What are your thoughts on the concept of living a very long life?

There are no throw away days. There are no days that don’t count for something. There are no days where you aren’t being held accountable. There just aren’t! You see, each day is yours, It’s yours to fulfill His plan in your life. It’s yours to make a difference in the world. Each and every day is numbered and carefully planned for you to prosper. So get up, you belong to the day. Linger in His presence, and be saved! Be free! Be healed!

Pray on…
E.M.

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Mannerism, music, Poetry, Video

Dig Love!

If you had a freeway billboard, what would it say?

Oh, without a doubt, it would say Dig Love! It’s my belief that above all, that’s what’s wanting in our world, we just don’t seem to care about each other anymore, we have discounted the value of human life.

With just one voice, love can be heard
With just one hand, love can be felt
With just one smile, love can be seen
With just one heart, change can begin
Dig love
~ E.M.

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Mannerism, music, Video

Someday

Do you spend more time thinking about the future or the past? Why?

I spend the majority of my time attempting to live in the moment. It’s an outgrowth of trying to be more mindful. I can’t change the past, and I have little to no control of the future, so it’s the minute at hand that has the most to offer me.

The future is a very fragile and unpredictable thing. We have no way of assuring how each day, let alone our week, or year, will turn out with any certainty. I was reflecting on this and the use of the word someday when I wrote this song. I was thinking about how we often refer to someday in describing our future dreams and endeavors. My parents always spoke of someday as in my future, down the road, and spiritually God also does, but life has an uncanny way of sneaking up on us when we least expect it.
Someday was oh so later
Someday was down the road
But someday just happened to me now
~ E.M.

Album: Stars Under My Feet
Video Credit: E.M.
Available at http://www.eddymann.com
© 2017 Eddy Mann
Hissongs | ASCAP

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