Glory of God (song)

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          As part of a leadership training program at work recently, I was asked to write my personal mission statement. In thinking upon this directive, I wrote down the main goals I have long held dear. These are still my guiding principles for all of life and I want to be doing them all the more each day. Ultimately, as Colossians 3:1-4 talks about, my life is hidden with Christ in God. I wanted to present my personal mission statement here because it is a good summary of what this song is about as well. Though I wrote the parody song a few years ago in 2021, it lines up nicely with the statement I wrote towards the end of July 2024. It's essentially my personal mission statement in song form. Here's the one I wrote recently in prose form first though.

"I want to live my life for the glory of God above all. In doing this, by faith in Jesus Christ's death and Resurrection for salvation from sins and Hell, and through the power of The Holy Spirit, I seek to obey Christ's commands summarizing The Law.
 Love The Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, soul and strength. And love thy neighbour as thyself. I want to also always be speaking The Truth in Love. Thus, I am bold in being a witness for Christ in both how I speak and live and I share Truth with love and grace."
      
       Certainly, there are many other commands in The Bible that could be listed, along with warnings, admonitions, promises and so forth, et cetera. Yet Jesus summarized all The Law and Prophets with those two commands, so I just seek to hold to Him and ask His help in fulfilling His top two commands that govern our relationship with God and with man. Like Peter said in John 6:68, where else can we go? Jesus alone has the words of eternal life. And as I cling to Him for life in both this life and the next, I want to do it all for the glory of God.


"Glory of God"
(parody of "Glory of Love" by Peter Cetera; copyright by Nathan Ludwick 9/28/2021)
(2 Peter 3:14-18, Jude 1:24-25, Philippians 1:21, 1 Peter 1:15-25, Colossians 3:1-4, Galatians 2:20, Romans 12:1-2, Hebrews 13:8-16, Philippians 4:4-13, Philippians 3:7-21, 2 Corinthians 12:1-10, Hebrews 13:5-6, Hebrews 11:1-3, Hebrews 11:6, Hebrews 11:13-16, Habakkuk 2:4, 2 Corinthians 5:6-10, 1 Corinthians 15:50-58, 1 Corinthians 9:19-27, 1 Corinthians 10:31, Colossians 3:23-24, Psalms 19:14, 2 Timothy 2:8-13, 2 Timothy 4:1-8, 2 Corinthians 7:1, 1 John 2:1-6, 1 Corinthians 1:23-31, Hebrews 12:1-15)

In life it's very clear that we're all dying here
There's so many things I want post-haste
(A) wife to always love true
(And) have a family of my own

My life's not over yet- past things I might regret
That make it hard to see new growth then
I don't want to lose time
Can't recover- wasted time's gone

I'm just a man saved by Christ through His offer
He died and He rose for misdeeds I'd done
We'll live forever- (but) now until Heaven
Grant I'd give my all for the glory of God

Philippians 3 calls all else loss for Christ's call
I'm pressing on then toward Heavenlies
I have all I need in Christ
I'll forever praise Him alone

2 Galatians- crucified with Lord Christ there
Go read what He wrote- Colossians 3:3, bud
He lives instead there- old man's no longer
My life's hidden with for the glory of God

I live for Christ but sinning harbours
Cumbersome vines that hold
Run for prize- lay aside all weights
Looking to my Saviour all by faith

12 in Romans- sacrifice for God's honour 
Lord, keep me near You 'cause world leads me off
I wanna live for Jesus- only by His strength
19:14 Psalms- may I glorify God

I'll live for Christ- yeah- knowing that whether
Longings come or not- my life's work is for God

He gave His all for Love
I'm living all for God
City coming above
I'm living all for God

Undue Pressure (song)

(Note: I'm pulling a few more classics out of the archive. My last post referenced the lines I used in this parody so it only seemed fitting to post this next. I've included my original introduction from 2009 below. Since I had two others that seemed in a similar category of lyric-tweaking that already seemed to be such a good fit to talk about The Lord, I will post those other two soon too.)

   Okay, this one talks about the pressure people put on themselves in trying to live up to God's standards. This is what Martin Luther finally had to learn- no matter what penance we make or what we do trying to measure up- we never can. And we never have to for salvation- God has taken care of it already through Jesus' death and Resurrection. When we put our faith in Him, we are saved by grace and that's all there is to it! Nothing can ever change that! And nothing will ever change His love for us. So don't put undue pressure on yourself- Jesus has done the job. It is finished! :-)

"Undue Pressure" (parody of "Under Pressure" by David Bowie and Queen)
(parody copyright by Nathan Ludwick 9/13/2009)
(2 Corinthians 4:3-4, 6:2, Hebrews 10:1-18, Titus 3:4-9, Ephesians 2:8-9, Isaiah 1:18, Deuteronomy 26:12-19, Deuteronomy 28-30, 1 Corinthians 3:10-15, Matthew 25:1-13, Romans 2:1-4, Romans 10:1-13, Romans 8:1-17, Romans 5:8, John 3:3-16, John 14:6, Matthew 25:31-46, Matthew 10:32-39, Matthew 25:29-30, Isaiah 64:6, Jeremiah 29:13, 33:3)

Pressure- Deuteronomy
In the Pentateuch- Romans 10:4
And we're measured- that burns up kindling now
Splits a family in two
Means gnashing of teeth

(Well, OK)
It's real terror not knowing what this world is about
Watching some good friends scream, "Help me out"
Take the wrong road- get the fire
Pressure on people in their own strength

(OK)
Sticking around, take my blame the Cross affords
This is the Way- I never change but ignore

People's own strength- gnashing of teeth

It's real terror not knowing if good works are enough
Watch as five virgins scream, "Open up!"
Faith in God though- just read Titus 3:5 to 9!
Pressure off people and their own strength

Turned away from God's law like a blind man
Sat on a fence but it don't work
Keep coming up with God but He's so trashed and scorned
Why? Why? Why?
Love (x5)

Our vanity laughs- in 10 Hebrews- get cracking
Can't we give verse 12 one more glance?
We can't pull up by our bootstraps!
Why can't we
(let go, let God) (x4)?

'Cause trust's such an old-fashioned word
And God dares you to call forth and He will send (some) greatness in reply
And God dares you to change today from scarlet to snow- think now
Jesus, our slain Lamb
Death is now past tense
Jesus beat Hell- He's our Savior! - unearned favor- treasure!

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Hypocrisy, Honesty and Heavenly Father

"Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him He said, 'Do you believe in the Son of Man?' He answered, 'And who is He, Sir, that I may believe in Him?' Jesus said to him, 'You have seen Him, and it is He who is speaking to you.' He said, 'Lord, I believe', and he worshipped Him. Jesus said, 'For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.' Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to Him, 'Are we also blind?' Jesus said to them, 'If you were blind, you would have no guilt, but now that you say, 'We see', your guilt remains.' " (John 9:35-41)
I have been thinking on this passage in relation to a claim that is often levelled at Christians and one which I've seen brought up increasingly now, particularly due to the very sad and shameful Ashley Madison scandal. (That scandal being that such a service even exists and that anyone signed up for it- not that people have now been caught at it. Briefly on this point- for anyone involved with it, God forgives and so must we. See 1 Samuel 11 and Psalms 51 and 1 John 1:9 for great reminders of God's grace and forgiveness, as well as His judgment.)
      Non-Christians are quick to point to such incidents and label Christians as hypocrites whenever they fail in keeping Jesus' commands, especially in such a public way. However, assuming Christians are honest in admitting their faults and struggles and faithful to confess them and repent of sins, I don't see such failures of Christians as hypocrisy necessarily.
It would be hypocritical if any Christian claimed to be perfect and no longer susceptible to falling to sins after receiving Christ. (Though as my father would often say, after receiving Christ as Savior, we need not sin anymore because of the power of The Holy Spirit working in us. That doesn't mean that we won't sin anymore necessarily- we obviously have examples of the New Testament Christians that sinned and were forgiven. See Peter for instance in Acts 10-11 and Galatians 2:1-14.) I think public sins like this just demonstrate the main realization that Christians must come to first in order to receive Christ's forgiveness and love- we are all sinners and we all need God to forgive us of our sins. He has done this through Jesus' death and Resurrection- it is available to us by faith. We must place all our faith in Jesus' work and receive it. (Thus, Matthew 5:48 and Leviticus 11:45 are fulfilled- we are declared righteous because of Jesus' righteousness- not our own. We must be perfect as God is perfect- but we can't do that on our own. Christ had to do it for us- and He saves us, not because of anything we have done, but because of His grace. See Titus 3:5 and Ephesians 2:8-10.)
   Yes, such fallings definitely weaken our witness for Jesus- but they need not defeat it. As I alluded to earlier, King David not only entertained such notions as the members of the Ashley Madison site, but he also acted upon them and committed adultery with Uriah's wife. On top of that, he had Uriah killed and then took Bathsheba as his wife. God sent Nathan the prophet to bring God's judgment to David- the baby wound up dying and David's family life was a wreck ever since then. But God still forgave David and David still got listed in the hall of faith in Hebrews 11- he was a still a "man after God's own heart".
       We may not have such failings in these matters of sexual immorality, but we are just as equally susceptible and guilty in other sin matters. (Romans 2:1-11 and James 2:10) But as God reminds us and invites us in Isaiah 1:18, though our sins be like scarlet, He will make them white as snow- if we will let Him. Praise God! His grace is greater than all our sins.

Cut It Out!

[Note: Here's another one from the archives- August 28, 2008 or somewhere thereabouts. This is one of the times where I really felt The Holy Spirit showing me new cool stuff in Bible verses I'd read a million times before, and as someone who particularly struggles at times with knowing if God has really spoken to me and such- these kinds of moments are always very awesome to experience and a great reminder to me of Jesus' work in my life. So I hope it's helpful for you. And yes, I totally had to reference Joey Gladstone from "Full House" in the title, so you can imagine the appropriate snipping hand gestures with it too. :-)]

I want to segue a bit into a spiritual matter for a second. I want to post this because I was doing my quiet time on Sunday and I felt like the Holy Spirit had really shown me something new from some familiar verses (He's always doing stuff like that when I'm paying attention ;-)) and I wanted to share with someone- for the moment I wrote it down in my notebook.
     Anyway, I was reading Matthew 5, where Jesus is giving the Sermon on the Mount. I've read all these verses many times before, but Matthew 5:27-30 really hit me. Jesus tells us that to even look at a woman lustfully is the same as committing adultery with her in your heart. And then He goes on to say that if your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away. If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. (Which is really kind of significant in His Jewish culture there, because for most people in that area of the world, the right hand is their "good" hand. Not in the sense that it's necessarily the hand they write with- but typically the left hand was reserved for one duty only- wiping your butt. Seriously. Thus, the right hand was used for shaking hands and so forth.) Just interesting to note. But Jesus said it's better for you to lose one part of your body and get into Heaven than to have your whole body intact and be thrown into Hell. So yeah, even if you're left with just your poop-wiping hand, it's still better to be one-handed and get into Heaven than to get into Hell with your whole body intact.
         The point is that Jesus takes sin very seriously. I don't think He literally means body dismemberment here necessarily, but perhaps there's other things in our life that we need to cut off completely if they cause us to sin. This can range from movies, TV shows, videos, books, comic books, music- any of it. If it causes us to think impure things or dwell on sinful things- get rid of it! This definitely also applies to habits. It might mean to stop hanging out with certain people and to not go to places of temptation. Whatever you have to do to cut the sin out. (1 Thessalonians 5:22) "Avoid every appearance of evil."
 -Also, this ties in to what Jesus was saying about cutting off body parts because whatever a man dwells on, he becomes! (Proverbs 23:7 KJV- "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.") Thus, it becomes a part of his body when a man sins and since as Christians we are the body of Christ, we have to cut off whatever slows or hinders us or causes us to sin. (Hebrews 12:1-4) We must be perfect and holy because God is perfect and holy. (Matthew 5:48)
And we need to do Philippians 4:8 - think on the pure things of God alone.
       Anyway, I just thought that was a really practical way to put those verses into practice- and when I say all this, believe me- I'm preaching to myself too.