friendship

What a Friend I have in Jesus

Worship the Lord.

I woke up the other day with such an impression on my heart that the way to victory is worship. But it dawned on me in that moment that it isn’t worship or praise as we know it. It is more intense. It is deeper. It is knowing the Lord and trusting him with a thankful heart. And yet, it is more than that. I cannot seem to even put it into words. It is becoming so close to his heart that your worship opens locked doors, breaks chains of bondage, and tears down walls. In its place is open heavens. I am speaking of it in a spiritual sense. Although I don’t believe we can limit the Lord. It was through worship that he made the walls of Jericho fall and opened the prison doors and broke the chains that bound Paul and Silas.

It is a lifestyle. It is a lifestyle of quietly listening to the Lord. It is a lifestyle of obeying his words. It is a lifestyle of trusting the Lord with a thankful heart. It is rejoicing in the Lord, always, as stated in Philippians.

“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Phil 4:4-7

Freedom is found in rejoicing and in worship. Behind it comes peace that passes understanding.

I have shared this in the past, but it is relevant to what I want to share today.

Several years ago, as I was driving to church, I was listening to the radio. News came up regarding Christians in another country (including children) who were being murdered. It sickened me and I felt guilty for the freedom I had in my country to openly worship my Lord. I thought of course it is easy for me, life is so much easier here in America. Although lately I see an uneasiness revealing itself.

Anyway, while worshiping him at church that day, with many other believers, guilt rose up again. How could I freely worship him while others were suffering for their faith? I heard the Lord whisper to my heart.

“Do not stop worshiping. IT is the very thing that brings victory. In fact, the more you worship, the more you push the enemy’s forces back.”

I believe it is the very act of worship in our country that has allowed the open heavens over America. It was the avenue that has pushed back darkness and brought in HIS light. The enemy knows the power of believers, gathering together in worship.

Some American Christians today have forgotten the freedom we have had to celebrate our Lord in a public place. The pandemic has opened many eyes. Some still worship, whether at home or in a church, but many have settled for second best, for simply going through the motions. I have done that. It is called complacency. We have become guilty of worshiping with our mouth, but our hearts are no longer committed to our Lord.

The Lord says,

“These people worship me with their mouths
and honor me with their lips.
But their hearts are far from me,
and their worship of me is based on rules made by humans. Isaiah 29:13

It is the Lord who opens the windows of heaven. It is he that covers a nation with his blessings. And it is he that said that the greatest commandment is to love him with all our hearts, souls, and minds. (Matthew 22:37) He didn’t say those things because he was selfish or because he wanted glory. BUT he knew that expressing our love for him through worship would bring blessings to each of us as individuals and to a nation. It is the tool that pushes back darkness.

We can’t always understand the Lords ways. One day we will, but for now we only know in part. That is why trust is so important. One of my life verses have been,

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” Proverbs 3:5

Remember the disciple who called himself the one whom the Lord loved? Why? Because he was the one who LOVED HIS Lord. He was the one who leaned up to him during the last supper and asked who would betray him. He was the one who walked with him so closely that he walked with him into the courtyard and stood beside him during his last breath. He KNEW him. He TRUSTED him. He didn’t put his faith in what he saw…but in whom he trusted.

He learned what it meant to lean not unto his own understanding. He “leaned” on the Lord, totally and completely.

Jesus trusted John as well. As he was sacrificing his life for all of us, he said to John, take care of my mother. Jesus trusted John with the most important person in his earthly life.

John had learned the art of worship and though he was tortured for his faith, he pushed back the power of darkness through worshiping with all of his heart, soul, and mind. It brought him the peace that passes all understanding. The Lord trusted John so much he gave him visions of what was to come in the end of time. It was John, the one whom Jesus loved, who wrote the book of Revelation.

Worshiping the Lord through song and dance is amazing. You can truly connect with him.

Worshiping the Lord through prayer is powerful. It can set angels into action.

Worshiping him through acts of ministry to others either physically, emotionally, or spiritually can bring breakthrough for others, as well as ourselves.

But worshiping him through obedience, by leaning on him and trusting him brings FRIENDSHIP with your maker.

The friendship we understand today in our world is not the same. It can be muddled and backstabbing and broken. But to be called a friend of our Lord is intense and intimate. It is the intimate intensity that I spoke of earlier. It is a trust not only with our hearts towards our Lord, but a trust of HIS heart toward us. Friends share secrets. The Lord wants to share his secrets with us. It is incredible that the Lord would choose to call anyone his friend.

Very few people from the Bible were called a friend of God, yet Abraham was known as God’s friend and Moses spoke with him face to face as friends would talk.

Jesus described friendship as this:

“You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” John 15:14 &15

Worshiping the Lord is all the acts above…singing, praying, sharing the Lord. But it is also knowing him intimately and obeying him completely.

Worship is being God’s friend.

That is the kind of worship that came to my mind as I woke up. As you worship him, in a bond of friendship, victory like you have never witnessed before will follow.

Remember the hymn,

What a Friend we have in Jesus.
All our sins and griefs to bear
And what a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer.

What if he would sing it back to you with these words:

What a friend I have in (insert your name)
All my secrets and dreams I share
I will trust you (insert your name) completely
Because I know you really care.

God bless.

 

 

 

 

 

 

        

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reaching Out

I once knew a man
Named Johnny McGee.
He lived down the road
A couple houses from me.

He worked hard in the week,
But weekend parties didn’t end.
He had so much money
That he was eager to spend.

His house was quite grand;
His car was the best,
On his property: a boat and more
Grown-up toys filled the rest.

He was that man
That men wanted to be,
And women loved to be with
To live frivolously.

After a few years
Watching this week after week,
I noticed action was gone.
Things seemed to look bleak.

I wondered what happened;
Why the house had no noise.
Where were the people
Who played with the toys.

The grass grew tall
Around the house in the lawn.
The boat no longer moved.
The parties were gone.

The quiet was quite nice
But yet unsettling too.
Were things going okay
For Johnny and his crew?

I prayed for my neighbor,
Then I wanted to see
What may have happened
To Johnny McGee.

I took a deep breath
And walked to his place.
I knocked on the door
To see him face to face.

A grouchy voice hollered,
“What?” through the screen door.
I entered into darkness
And saw him sitting on the floor.

“What do YOU want?”
He asked without thought.
“No one comes here anymore!”
He seemed angry and distraught.

He looked thin and sad.
This couldn’t be the same man.
He wasn’t laughing anymore,
And had lost his golden tan.

“I live a few houses down,” I said.
“We’ve met a time or two before,
I wondered if you were ok?
I hadn’t seen you anymore.”

“I know who you are,”
He said with some pride
“You’re that pastor that prays.
We all hear you outside”

He grumbled, ” Why do you care?
All my friends have all gone.
Nothing matters anymore
And everything’s gone wrong.”

Suddenly he began to ramble
Like he hadn’t spoken for years.
And as he shared about his life
I noticed his eyes fill with tears.

“I thought I had it all,” he began,
“The joy that money can bring.
But now it doesn’t have a spark,
It doesn’t mean a thing.

One day I lost it all.
I made a wrong choice.
Lost all of my hope.”
He began to clear his voice.

“I don’t know why I’m saying this
I don’t really know you well.
But I feel I need to speak,
I need someone to tell.

I was driving too fast
Around the bend down the way.
And I lost control of the car
And I crashed it that day.”

He stared in the air
Perhaps remembering the minute
When he rolled his car
And his girlfriend was in it.

I had heard about that crash
Someone told me the next day.
I didn’t think on it more
Now I didn’t know what to say.

“I lost the girl I wanted to marry
The girl who brought me life.
What was my purpose now?
I killed my future wife.”

Silence entered into the room
I struggled with words to say
Suddenly a thought hit me
And I began it this way,

“I’m sorry for your loss.
I’m sorry for your pain.
I’m sorry nothing seems right,
And your life seems insane.

But the Lord loves you dearly.
He knew how this would end.
He knew that you needed hope.
He knew you would need a friend.”

I reached my hand out to him.
He got onto his feet.
He hugged me in tears,
Expressing his hurt and defeat.

That was ONE moment
Of many times we would share.
He opened up more each time
Realizing someone did care.

One day he met someone
Who knew him better than me.
That someone was the Lord
Who eventually set him free.

And in time he met another
Who shared his hopes and life.
That was the time I married them
And they became husband and wife.

Take the time to listen,
Take the time for prayer.
Someone might need to know
They are worthy enough for you to care.

I now know a family
Whose last name is McGee
They live down the road
A couple houses from me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who Do You Call Friend?

A friend is a person that laughs with you about nothing in particular, hands you money when you forget yours, stands by you when you’re having a tough day and believes the best in you.  A friend will overlook your faults, encourage you in your strengths and can sit in silence doing absolutely nothing. And even if you haven’t seen each other in years you can continue where you left off as if it was only moments ago.

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John 15:13 states: “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friend.(ASV)

That is intense love; intense friendship. Though laying down one’s life is friendship to the extreme, what about laying down one’s wants or one’s “right” to be right for the sake of a friend? It’s called selflessness. It’s called sacrifice. It’s called friendship.

Because the word is so loosely used I am sure many people who call one another friends don’t come under that description. It’s because none of us are perfect; therefore, our version of friendship is tainted. It can be vibrant one day but dark the next. Do you remember hearing, “you’re not my friend anymore” on the playground when you were a kid? It was because a child didn’t get their way and didn’t understand the meaning of friendship.

But being a friend to someone sometimes means preferring another before you. Consider David and Jonathan. Jonathan was the son of King Saul but preferred David above his own status, even as far as saving David’s life. He partnered with him, following his lead knowing that David was the one who was anointed to be king instead of him.

True friendship is necessary for our well-being. We need each other.

“Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work; if one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!” Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

The Bible even mentions one person from the Old Testament whom the Lord considered to be HIS friend. This person believed God’s word regardless of what he saw. He trusted God. Friendship involves trust.

“And so it happened just as the Scriptures say. ‘Abraham believed God and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.’ He was even called the friend of God.” James 2:23 (NLT)

We tend to use the term so lightly. How many Facebook or social media friends do you have? Do you really know them or are some of them just friends of friends? Some people in our lives are acquaintances, while other people have a closer relationship with us. Those are the people that we might share our personal life experiences with. Finally there is that one person or maybe a couple people who will stick closer than a brother.

“One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” Proverb 18:24 (NIV)

Jesus can be that friend. He HAD those friends. During his time on this earth many people followed him, as we would follow a famous person today. His name had become well-known. People wanted to see the miracles they had heard about.

Then there were those who actually believed his words, got baptized and got to know him. Of that group he surely had some trusted friends. I believe a few of those may have included Mary, Martha and their brother, Lazarus.

Jesus handpicked twelve people he called his disciples who followed him closer than the others. I find it interesting that one so close to him could betray him. Perhaps he never considered Jesus to be a friend and perhaps he didn’t even believe his words.

Then there were three people of whom he entrusted his deepest secrets and experiences; Peter, James and John. Finally we come across one who seemed to be Jesus’ closest friend, John, who the Bible describes as the one whom Jesus loved.

I often wonder if it was John’s love and surrender to his savior and HIS desire to get closer to the Lord that gave the appearance of Jesus loving him more. If John did write the well-known Gospel of John did he write “the one whom Jesus loved” because of HIS own commitment to Christ? Was it that sacrificial friendship that John had for Jesus that drew Christ to him? Jesus must have understood his heart as he trusted John even at the cross, asking him to take care of his mother in his absence.

John was the only disciple (other than Judas Iscariot who took his own life) who was not martyred for Christ. But John did not escape trials or even torture for his Lord. As Christ died for his disciples, they also gave their lives up for him, which makes the verse, “giving your life for a friend,” even more meaningful. And people give their lives daily for Jesus today, through their life and even to their death.

Jesus did not take friendship lightly and stated, “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” John 15:15 (ESV)

He not only was he calling the people of that era friends, he was saying the same thing to us today. He says in John 17:20, “I’m not praying only for them. I’m also praying for those who will believe in me through their message.” (GWT)

He sacrificed his life for each of us before we even knew him, before we would consider the fact that we were lost in sin, or that the God of creation cared about us individually.

He calls us friends because he loves us with undying love. And he never changes. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. He loved us before we first love him. He will stand by us, support us, cheer for us, encourage us, pray for us, think the best about us (even when we mess up) and has already died for us, rose again for us and one day is coming back for us.

Can there be a better friend than that? Who is that friend that sticks closer than a brother? His name is Jesus. And he chooses YOU to be his friend.

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