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!

Jesus Alone Above All

"Christ did not die to forgive sinners who go on treasuring anything above seeing and savoring God. And people who would be happy in Heaven if Christ were not there, will not be there. The Gospel is not a way to get people to Heaven; it is a way to get people to God. It's a way of overcoming every obstacle to everlasting joy in God. If we don't want God above all things, we have not been converted by the Gospel."- John Piper

Wow- challenging indeed, but so true. It brings Psalms 137 to mind for me- it's about the Israelites lamenting being able to rejoice and sing The Lord's song while in captivity in Babylon- and longing for Jerusalem. Of course, what a perfect picture of our residence on Earth, as we long for New Jerusalem. (Revelation 21:2)

"How shall we sing The Lord's song in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill! Let my tongue stick to the roof of

my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy!" (Psalms 137:4-6) Oh, may that be true of me, Lord Jesus. You are the Pearl of Great Price, the Jewel that the merchant sells everything to own. "Whom have I in Heaven but You? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." (Psalms 73:25-26) "For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness." (Psalms 84:10) Lord, forgive me for making an idol of anything and for desiring anything more than You. Help me to want You and seek You and love You and follow You all the more. You alone are worthy, Lord Christ. You deserve all attention and praise.
You are the hidden treasure in a field. You are the Pearl of Great Price. You are the Prize, the Treasure, the Dream- You alone are above all. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of all! (Philippians 2:9-11)
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.  Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it." (Matthew 13:44-46)

All to Jesus, I surrender- all to Him I freely give. ("I Surrender All" by Judson W. Van DeVenter)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K2yuZtVfLg

 

Who have I in Heaven but You, Jesus? And what better could I hope to find down here on earth? I could search the most distant reaches of this world but I'd just be wasting my time 'cause I'm certain already I'm sure I'd find You're my one thing! ("My One Thing" by Rich Mullins)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aqP-A4tKCA

"Blessed are the pure in heart."- Jesus
"Purity of heart is to will one thing."- Kierkegaard

Jesus, You're my one thing.

 

It is Well with my Soul

Yep- in the Well of Souls [where The Ark of the Covenant was kept, according to the Indiana Jones movies ;-)], it is well with my soul because my soul is well into the Mercy Seat through Christ's death and Resurrection. :-)
Here's another [slightly updated] archival entry for the blog; from July 22, 2007.

........................................................................

"Then we'll both die."
"My soul's prepared, Dr. Jones. How's yours?"
(A scene from "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" that just came to mind.)
Of course, I'm not totally sure that the dude from the Brotherhood of the Crucified Sword or something like that was really prepared-but anyway.....

Good question though.  How's your soul doing?  As we sing in church, "It is well with my soul".
I visited at Clearview Baptist Church this morning.  It was a pretty nice service and I enjoyed singing some of the hymns and all that we sang there.  We also sang "Oh God, Our Help in Ages Past", which is almost directly lifted from Psalms 90.  And that was the main Scripture for the sermon today too.  Every day is a gift from God- make the most of all of them.  But apart from belief in God, the world is a cemetery!  It is well with my soul because I know Whom I have believed in.  Jesus died on the cross to pay for all the bad, wrong stupid things we've done (which many times feels like 99.99% of them have been done by me!) and He rose again from the dead!!! He's alive forevermore!  And He's coming back one day!  And I know that through asking Him to be my Savior and Lord, I know that I have eternal life with Him in Heaven!  And that makes every day worth living and death is nothing to be scared of.  "Death's not so scary.  I don't think it's the end of anything- more like, just another step along the way."- MacGyver in "Passages"  And MacGyver's right- for a Christian, death is just the step along the narrow way to Heaven! :-)
"My sin- O the bliss of this glorious thought- my sin, not in part, but the whole is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more- Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord- O my soul!"  Amen!!! :-)

And I just finished reading a devotional type book by David Wilkerson called "I'm Not Mad at God".  (He's the guy who wrote "The Cross and the Switchblade", about his experiences as a country preacher that God sent to reach the gangs of 1960s New York- and one gang leader in particular became a Christian through his preaching- his name is Nicky Cruz and he currently pastors a church himself! Wow- God rocks! :-))  This is a 1967 book I picked up for free from the tons of donations the library gets that they wind up throwing out and thereby leaving up for grabs.  It's actually really good and still very current for 2007!  God's Word never changes! But I must say, I don't know what's up with the cover.  I guess they're trying to reach the hippie generation of that day, but why is that so many of these books from the late 60s and early 70s (and I'm talking about Christian books, that is)- have these covers with fonts and colors and drawings that look like the artist was high on LSD or something?!!!?  - I mean, I feel like the cover should read "I'm Not Mad at God (But I am high!)" - I mean, really! LOL ;-)  (j/k- I'm sure that was just meant to get people's attention...but there are definitely some rather psychedelic book covers out there from this time period....)
Anyway- here's one entry that I thought was pretty dead on target (reference to The Hardy Boys Casefiles 1 totally unintended, but quite cool  nonetheless!) ;-)
.....
"Our Golden Calf?"
Can you imagine a archaeologist of 2000 years hence digging up the ruins of this barren materialistic age? What would they point to as representing the God we worshipped? The formless art? The meaningless steeple crosses? The gigantic rockets stored in deep silos underground? Would they be far wrong?
    This is a generation with few real values.  An age of phonies, cheap politics and insincere Christians.  An age that seeks movement without grace and calls it music, money without purpose and calls it security, sex without sympathy and calls it love.
    Let us not act bewildered by the apparent ignorance of those who danced around Aaron's golden calf. History will expose us for our ignorance and for falling at the feet of idols and golden calves far more ridiculous.
Lesson:  Spend all your time developing true values.  Compromise and conformity form the base upon which golden calves are built.

.........

WOW!- like I said, this is still very much current to our society (though I gather the reference to "movement without grace" is probably referring to rock and roll music- which is NOT evil, by the way- though there are plenty of evil lyrics.  But that's a whole 'nother debate right there.)  See Exodus 32 for more on the golden calf, if you're wondering.  But this is something to ponder.  I might post a few other entries from this book later on that especially hit me hard.

"Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring Word of God. For, 'All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of the Lord stands forever.' And this is the Word that was preached to you." (1 Peter 1:22-25)
Have a great week walking with Jesus!  And remember the words of the psalmist- (in this case, Moses- being inspired by God!)
"Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." (Psalms 90:12)