You're So Blessed (Song)

      What's really most important in life? What do we spend most of our time in pursuit of throughout our days? Are we focused on storing up our treasures on Earth or in Heaven? This song expounds on all those questions and offers some things to think on as well. It's kind of inspired by Jesus' parables of foolish rich farmer and the Pharisee and the tax collector at the temple. It's also a reminder that we can't live for both God and money. We will never find satisfaction in seeking to satisfy ourselves. It's ultimately a reminder that we should live life all for Jesus and His glory above all. His words hit like a karate chop to remind us that a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. As Rich Mullins said, "the stuff of earth competes for the allegiance I owe only to the Giver of all good things." (One of my favourite lines in his classic song, "If I Stand".) By God's grace, let's confess to Him the idols we have made of money, fame and things and find the true blessings that come from walking humbly with The Lord. He is truly all we need.


"You're So Blessed"
(parody of "You're The Best" by Joe Esposito; copyright by Nathan Ludwick 1/14/2022)
(1 Timothy 6:6-12, 1 Timothy 6:17-21, Job 1-2, Psalms 2, Psalms 73:23-28, Hebrews 13:5, Romans 14:10, 1 Corinthians 3, Philippians 3:1-14, 2 Corinthians 8:9, 2 Corinthians 5:5-10, 2 Corinthians 5:14-21, Luke 18:9-17, Luke 18:18-34, Luke 12:13-34, Matthew 6:19-24, Matthew 6:33, Matthew 16:24-28, Matthew 7:24-29, Ecclesiastes 1:9, Ecclesiastes 2:11, Ecclesiastes 9:11, Ecclesiastes 2:25, Ecclesiastes 5:5-10, Ecclesiastes chapter 12, Amos 4:1-3)


Try to please Self
'Cause you only live once
Solomon's got a Word to players
Ecclesiastes
12- we're going to dust
For our God, He will judge- obey Him!
History repeats itself
Nothing new sun sees
Allies rout Napoleon
And you stand wavering

You're the best!
Around!
Nothing's gonna ever keep you down
You've been blessed!
And how!
Nothing's gonna ever sweep you now
You're the best!
For now!
Someone's gonna one day beat you out

Midas, my friend
Pause your life for a min.
All the things that you have define you
(Of) what you got, you're so proud
Storing up- what about
When Lord God calls today? Read 12 Luke
Time and chance still whip us all
And one day fire will tell
1 Corinthians 3- Christians there
Unbelievers are in Hell

You're obsessed 
With clout!
None of that will even mean squat now
You invest
Cash cow!
Money's got your heart- it's fleeting now
Hedonists
Will bow
Something's humbled Epicurus now!

Job was best
Around!
Satan wanted to just bring him down
So he'd test
Him out
Nothing that Job had couldn't leave him now
He confessed
Faith now
Nothing come in or we'll leave with now

Christ said life's not
All made up
Of your stuff
Don't thrill to greed- keep guard! (Yikes!)
Pull the thread, camel (Eye!)
Rich men- Who'll save soul?
Forgive your sins?- Leave all to God
He favours meek, not proud

Beat your breasts!
And bow!
Nothing but a Pharisee, fat cow
4 Amos-
Read now!
Publican's cleared by Jesus now
Thorns were pressed
On crown
Blood has covered everything broke now

Lord Jesus
Paid out
Nothing's gonna ever keep us out
Just confess
Pray now!
Jewel's worth it-
Sell everything you've got
He's The Best!
I've found
Nothing but The Lord completes me now!

A Response to Grace

(Note: This was written in reaction to reading an excerpt from "Vanishing Grace" by Philip Yancey, so consider it a book report of sorts. :-))

Beautiful post here! What a great reminder of how The Gospel of Jesus Christ has so radically transformed individual people's lives and entire nations for the better!

   This is a very helpful reminder for me because I often have discussions with a friend who most often seems to see the ugly side of Christianity and rarely acknowledges any of the good. In having apologetics discussions with people about the reputation of Christianity in the world, I prefer to redirect people to Christ. I am well aware that there are people who may have been genuinely Christians while also being genuinely mistaken about interpretation of The Bible's commands who brought about much evil in the world. (It's hard to forget the large number of Christian American settlers who helped wipe out so many Native Americans and kidnapped Africans and enslaved them....and the examples can go on.)

   And some might combine history like this with the difficult passages in The Bible regarding slavery and laws regarding sexual behaviour and so forth and conclude that slavery and rape are acceptable practices in Christianity.

    Of course, the Christian church today steadfastly condemns such actions. And part of the reason why is because we look to the person of Jesus Christ as the ultimate model for human behaviour. And as you mentioned, we can see how Jesus embraced and empowered racial minorities and women and truly lived out His mission to preach Good News to the poor. And He ultimately fulfilled this mission on the cross of Calvary and in the empty tomb. The Good News Jesus brought us is that we can have forgiveness of sins and be reinstated in His family. All are welcome! The rich and poor are on equal footing in His kingdom. There are no races in Him- no slave or free- no male or female- we are all one in Christ Jesus. This is the way His kingdom operates in opposition to the world that assigns value to some things and people and decides others to be worthless. In a paradox described in Psalms 8, we are both utterly worthless and infinitely important and valuable at the same time. "What is man that You should think of us, Lord?" writes the Psalmist. "Yet You made us a little lower than the angels."

    Isaiah 53 says that Christ had nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him, yet our fallen state had nothing in it that He should desire us! But The Desire of nations desires all nations to come to repentance and into His kingdom! Of course, there is only one reason that explains the reason for this paradoxical pursuit- Love! Love all excelling- Love Divine! Love of course makes absolutely no sense and I think sometimes that may be the surest way to know we are truly acting in Love when our actions make absolutely no sense in the world's eyes. This is the power of The Gospel and truly the power of Love. Love pours abundant grace on us by absorbing our guilt and enduring our punishment. And of course, as Song of Songs 8:6-7 tells us, Love is stronger than death. So of course, Love conquered the final enemy and opened the way for us to enter His presence as we triumphantly ascend from death's sting into the presence of The One who took away death's power.

    Jesus Christ, Lover of my soul and body- the embodiment of Love (1 John 4:8-10), provides for both my soul and body. In John 10:10 He said He came to give us life and life abundant. I think it is His example exactly that moves us as His followers to bring comfort to the needy and afflicted and poor and poor in spirit in the world. We must freely give as we have freely received. Matthew 25 gives a practical way of soothing the hurts of this world with The Balm of Gilead. Give the hungry food. Give the thirsty water. Shelter the stranger. Clothe the naked. Visit and aid the sick. Go and comfort the prisoner.

    These are all ways we love our neighbour as ourselves and in so doing we demonstrate our love for God, Whom we love with all our hearts, souls, minds and strength. And we always speak The Truth (John 14:6) in Love. (Ephesians 4:15) May I ever do these three in tandem, reaching a hand out in Love to all and especially the least of these.

    Of course, the aid and Love is given despite the response. Jesus healed all 10 lepers who came to Him though only one returned to thank Him. We must do no less in offering help to all regardless of the response. The response is always the responsibility of The Holy Spirit in any case.

     That is the vision I want to see my life continuing to grow in every day I walk with Jesus. I trust that He is continuing to shape the saint out of the sinner. I trust that He is helping me to have the faithfulness of the elder brother without the judgment and bitterness as well as the penitance of the younger prodigal brother. I recognize that I am nothing more than a ragamuffin beggar at the door of God's grace. Praise God that He gives generously to those who don't deserve it, can never earn it or repay it and can only appropriately bow in gratitude and humbly share Grace with others.

I know I am far from perfect in doing that and I seek to be better by His power every day.

I believe God has been doing that work in me over the years of my walk with Him ultimately through the working of His Spirit in Scripture reading, prayer, church service and encouragement and rebuke of the brethren and sisters. I believe He has also used a variety of Christian people and the artistic gifts He's given them to help me in that process. I could name numerous writers and musicians and missionaries and pastors and other laymen and laywomen. Of course, I think it's most often the lowly of this world (by worldly standards) that have been some of my dearest friends who continue to remind me of God's heart for the vain things of this world. (1 Corinthians 1:18-31) They continue to soften my heart and make glad my heart.

Of my favourite artists though, I must say that among others like Brennan Manning, George MacDonald, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, A.W. Tozer, Henri Nouwen, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Corrie Ten Boom, Jim Elliott (the anniversary of his martyrdom and entry through Gates of Splendor is today, January 9, by the way), Joni Eareckson Tada, Watchman Nee, Voddie Baucham, Mister Rogers, Martin Luther, Charles Wesley, Keith Green, Larry Norman, Chris Rice, Carolyn Arends, Andrew Peterson, Rich Mullins and many others still- including many personal friends whose names are not known by the world at large (but of course God knows all these names quite well), Philip Yancey has quickly entered that pantheon and I am very grateful indeed for his writing. I appreciate the writing that acknowledges the reality of God's wrath and judgment without minimizing the incredible extent of His amazing grace! Fellow Christ followers like these and more have helped me realize more and more this truth. God is way more intolerant and punishing of our sin than we often realize and He's way more gracious and loving than we can fathom. It is both truths at once that we must embrace. And praise God that through Christ, mercy triumphs over judgment!

   Books like "Disappointment with God" and "The Question That Never Goes Away" and "What's So Amazing by Grace?" continue to remind me so often of these truths and bring me to my knees weeping in both grief for sin and in tears of joy for God's grace that is greater than all my sins! I feel sure "Vanishing Grace" will do the same when I read that next. So thank you again for letting God use you to bless, convict and encourage so many hard hearts and heads. (While I believe my head went soft ages ago ;-), I pray my heart will ever grow softer before The Lord as He keeps working.)

May The Lord continue to bless you and your family and use you for His glory richly. :-)

What Can Wash Away My Sin? (poem)

Okay- and now I want to present a poem I wrote the as kind of a follow up in some ways to a poem I wrote some years ago that I called “What Can Make Me Whole Again?” Both that poem and this one follows the same format- a series of questions. I hope that in them everyone can truly see The Answer who holds an exclamation point for every question mark. :-)

“What Can Wash Away My Sin?”
(original poem by Nathan Ludwick 9/6/2013)
(Romans 1, Hebrews 2:1-4, 2 Peter 3:8-18, Romans 5:8, Romans 10:9, 2 Corinthians 5:17, 1 Corinthians 6:12-20, 2 Corinthians 5:18-21)

When did sex become so casual?
When did we start having friends with benefits?
When did baby daddy become a family member?
When did partners and special friends get united in holy matrimony?
When did sexuality become our god?
When did we reinvent its meaning?
When did we begin experimenting with new sexual identities, partners and acts?
When did rape, lust, pornography and torture devices become aspects of love?
When did the world and life itself become our personal centerfold for masturbation?
When did clothing become optional?
When did streaking exhibitionism become inhibition freeing expressionism?
Why can’t we censor anything at all?
When did free speech become our excuse for any vulgarity?
When did our quest for natural and artificial highs trump everything else no matter how low we have to go?
When did it become me and not us?
When did hedony become our manifest destiny?
When did violence become our common expression of feelings?
When did murder become our aversion to boredom?
When did ridicule and sarcasm become our native tongue?
When did babies become an inconvenience to be disposed of instead of a gift?
When did life itself become ours to give and take, whether our own or those we’ve grown tired of caring for anymore?
When did our self-actualization become our empowerment to think, say and do as we please?
Who died and made us god?
Why do we assume the mantle and assume there is none higher to judge us?
Why do we do everything to avoid our funeral instead of prepare for it?
When did our barns become so full of stuff that we have to rent storage sheds to hold it all?
When did our wallets get so fat and our hearts become so small?
When did we trade discipline and responsibility for our perceived personality and personal freedom to do anything we can possibly think to do?
When did we reject all authority but our own?
When did we become such scoffers of truth, justice, love and redemption?
When did we exchange the truth for a lie?
When did we become cynical misers seeking only to save ourselves?
When did we fool ourselves into believing we have?
When did the love of God poured and flowing through a bloody cross and empty tomb become such an outdated and laughable story in a book of fairy tales to us?
Why do we tremble at we don’t even claim to believe?
How shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation?