Grits n' Grace

Life-saving song…

David — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 18:53:43 +0000

A dear friend of ours lost their son who was only 4 hours old. They held him knowing he was going to die. This song was played at his funeral. The infant’s father said this song saved his life…

Trust Him with your life and He WILL show you the way…

David — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 17:10:57 +0000

Great testimony from a man whose life was out of control and was running from God.

Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll Don’t Satisfy from Sound Of Truth on Vimeo.

David’s Prayer

David — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 04:56:18 +0000

I wrote this song a few years ago during a very dark time of my life. I was feeling very far away from God and wondering if I was ever going to feel His love again. I was wondering if I even wanted to feel His love again, because I felt like He was leaving me in the mire.

I prayed to Him.

I yelled at Him.

I cried to Him.

I even cursed at Him.

He.

Did.

Not.

Answer.

One late Summer evening, sitting out on the back porch, ready to give up…hot tears began streaming down my face. I did not know why, but I couldn’t stop them. I began speaking the words to the song and realized I was given a prayer. Those hot tears were very cleansing. I began to feel a warmth and comfort that I have never felt before and may never feel again. But, I knew the Holy Spirit was washing over me. How do I know? I just know.

If you are in the mire and feeling that God has forsaken you…He hasn’t. I don’t know why He let me wallow in my own pity. I don’t know why He allowed me to go through that dark time, but He did. I think maybe He knew it would draw me closer to Him…make me trust Him more…make me love Him more. The last thing I was thinking about was loving Him. Yet all the while, He was loving me.

Don’t give up on God. Trust me. He hasn’t, and never will, give up on you. Nothing you have done, or will ever do, can separate you from the love of God.

Blessings,
D.

David’s Prayer
(c) 2001

Hot tears streaming down my face again
World’s knocked me to my knees
Lord, I want to feel your love again
Hold me Father, please

You touched my heart
Took my tears and cried them for me
Burn the darkness from my soul
So I can see your face
Lord, I pray I’ll be a man
Who trusts you on the road before me
I’m reaching out to hold your hand
and trust the man who died for me

In your presence Lord I must be still
I can’t do this on my own
Help me Jesus to accept your will
And sacrifice my own

You touched my heart
Took my tears and cried them for me
Burn the darkness from my soul
So I can see your face
Lord, I pray I’ll be a man
Who trusts you on the road before me

Help me God to understand
How you love me as I am
I’m reaching out to hold your hand
And trust the man who died for me

I love the man who died for me…

(WordPress is charging for MP3 space now…send me an email if you’d like the MP3 of this song.)

What’s new?

David — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 18:43:35 +0000

I don’t make New Year resolutions. I think they are well-intended in most cases, but I can’t say I know anyone who has ever kept one. I certainly never have! Having said that, I want something new this year. I want to be different. I want to change. I started a stained glass business last year with every intention of making it my “exit plan” from my current career. Well, a year later not only did I not make an exit, I didn’t really get going on my goal at all! Oh sure, I registered the name and am all official, but I just never really got going. A friend of mine always says, “If you want what you have, keep doing what you’re doing.” There’s nothing wrong with what I have. I am very blessed. But if I want things to change, then I’ve got to do something about it. One thing I’ve done is started telling people about my business goals. It puts the word out, but it also puts a certain amount of accountability on me. As a result, I have my first commission designing and constructing some windows for a friend who is having a house built. I will also have a panel up as an item for a silent auction next month. So…things are starting to change. All I have to do is keep the wheels in motion.

I thank God for the many blessings I have. I thank Him for the talents and gifts He has given me. I pray that I will be a good steward of those talents and gifts and use them for His glory.

What’s new with you?

Is this thing on?

David — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 17:12:47 +0000

Boy…it sure is dusty ’round here! To all that are still around, “howdy”! Haven’t decided yet, but I might start peeking in again from time to time.

Hope everyone had a blessed Christmas.

Happy New Year!

e-Books: Free & LEGAL

David — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 19:56:54 +0000

I came across a site that offers free legal e-Books for download.

From the WOWIO website:

WOWIO is a new kind of online bookstore that enables readers to download ebooks for free, using commercial sponsorships to compensate authors and publishers. Readers get free ebooks. Sponsors get a powerful new channel to communicate their message to precisely the people they want to reach. Publishers get a new means of distributing their books, expanding their readership, and monetizing their intellectual property.

Auschwitz Through the Lens of the SS

David — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 21:07:39 +0000

I was browsing through some old links today and came across one that I had visited some time ago. It’s called Auschwitz Through the Lens of the SS. It’s a stunning piece of work and shows a side of Auschwitz you may have never seen. Of course, some of the images are very disturbing.

Courtesy of Yahoo! picks:

In 1944, a German SS officer named Karl Höcker was stationed at Auschwitz as an adjutant to the camp’s commandant. During the time he was there, the Nazi official kept a scrapbook. But this isn’t like any Auschwitz documentation you’ve seen before. In these images, Höcker and other camp leadership and staff relax at a wooded retreat, hold sing-alongs, and smoke cigars. Josef Mengele, the camp’s monstrous doctor, smiles and socializes. SS auxiliary women lounge on deck chairs, snack on berries, and get caught in a rain storm. Höcker lights a Christmas tree.

In January of this year, these rare, unnerving photographs were donated to the U.S. Holocaust Museum. Now, the museum has made them available online, along with background on Höcker and a moving comparison with the “Auschwitz album,” the one other known photographic collection from the camp. The contrast between the two is terrifying, and unforgettable.

“Here I am, Lord. Entertain me…”

David — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 22:10:46 +0000

I love attending different churches and experiencing the various liturgies and forms of congregational worship. I attend where I attend not because it is a particular denomination (although it is denominational), but because the congregation actively participates in the liturgy. That is not the case in many other churches I’ve visited where the congregation is more of an observer than participant. I am not judging or criticizing. It’s just an observation, but it’s not for me.

A recent visit to such a church is what prompted this post. As soon as I walked in I was immediately impressed with the elaborate setting and prominent placement of the “stage”. Great lights, state of the art sound system, not to mention the well-stocked merchandise and media center I had to walk through before entering the auditorium. Jesus at the temple came to mind almost immediately. OK, cutting to the chase, the music was fabulous, the sound was awesome and ranked up there with some of the best concerts I’ve ever attended. I left feeling very entertained. Most of the comments I heard were about how great the music was, the guitar player’s chops, the choreography and videos were amazing and how disappointing it was that the praise team didn’t come out for an encore. Huh?

I love music. I love music during worship. Heck, I’m a geetar-totin’ worship leader myself. But what I had just experienced was a concert, not a worship service. Call it what you want, but from the forced walk through the merchandise, the coffee bar, the multi-media ads, etc. the focus was clearly not on God. Having said that, I’ve been to churches with similar set ups where the focus was indeed God, but it is not the norm.

I had a discussion with a friend of mine who is also a geetar-totin’ worship leader and he shares my sentiments. He also passed along this article. Not sure of the source, so if you know, please let me know so I can give proper credit.

Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to write about a condition that I believe is endemic in our Western churches.

There is an erroneous idea today that the main reason we attend worship is to “get something out of the service”, rather than going there to give our worship to God. This is a selfish motive on our part. This is the reason people cannot be satisfied with the worship service when their emphasis is not on the proper object of worship, God. People want to “do their own thing” in the worship of the church. What the Bible has to say about worship for many people is of little consequence as long as they are happy and feel good. We must be concerned with what God says on how He is to be worshipped instead of what we might want to offer Him.

The United States has produced the most entertainment-oriented people the world has ever known. We have more forms of amusement than has ever been know to man, but we still want more. In our age everything is designed to appeal to our emotions and to entertain us. We seem to have forgotten our worship service is to bring glory and honor to God, and not to entertain ourselves. When we have choirs to sing to us and concerts to entertain us, we are not worshipping God; but we have become the spectators who are being entertained. Worship is not a spectator event. We dare not become spectators, because in worship it is God who is the spectator. People have the roles reversed. People expect divine will to conform to what seems right in their own eyes. Proverbs 12:15 says, “The way of the fool is right in his own eyes.” The emphasis is how can the worship service be made more entertaining to people to please themselves and not God.

Worship to God is holy and sacred. To pervert and corrupt it with entertainment and what we can “get out of the service” in trying to please and gratify ourselves is nothing short of blasphemy! The sacredness of true worship must not be sacrificed on altars of entertainment-oriented quartets, choirs, and other entertainment groups. We are as Hebrews 13:15 says to “Offer the sacrifice of praise to God, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.” In worship we must be the participants, not the observers. We want to please and entertain ourselves. In Galatians 1:10 the question is asked, “Do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a servant of Christ.” Worship is God-centered not man-centered. When our worship is to please God instead of ourselves, then and only then will our worship be much more meaningful and spiritually uplifting to us and acceptable to God.

When people seek an “emotional high” from worship and don’t get it, they are disappointed and start blaming the song service, the preacher, etc. The world wants their worship service to be “more entertaining”, thus they are failing to worship God in spirit and in truth. Where in the Bible can we go to show that our worship is designed to please the worshipper. The desire to have an experience or an encounter along the lines of mysticism also gives little regard to what God says in the Bible.

Our worship to God requires commitment on our part. People had rather worship Christ as a babe in a manger than Christ as their crucified savior. Their worshipping Christ as a babe in a manger requires no commitment on their part. They feel they can put Him in a box and live the rest of the year as they please. But worshipping Christ as our crucified savior requires commitment, a complete change of our life, and a willingness to do all that He says. Jesus says in Matthew 10:37, “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.” God and Christ must be first in our lives, and this requires that we be committed to them.

Thankfully challenged?

David — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 22:10:49 +0000

Blessed1 has challenged her fellow blog-mates to post thanksgivings on Fridays. Well, since I haven’t had much worth saying lately, I thought I’d take her up on that challenge. I am thankful for so many things: family, friends, food, shelter, a job. But for this installment of Blessed1′s Thankful Friday’s, I thought I’d offer up a prayer to ask the Lord to help us to remember to be thankful. After all, it’s so easy to forget, isn’t it?

Lord, there are so many things for which we are thankful. So many things you have given us and done for us. Help us remember the many blessings you have given. The world offers so many distractions that steal our time away from our loved-ones and from you, the real life giver. Help us see when get so caught up in ourselves that we are blind to the joy and beauty of your creation that surrounds us. Help us show our thankfulness by giving when we are tempted to take. Help us pray with a thankful heart. Help us to be thankful for the smallest acts of kindness shown to us by showing kindness to others. Help us be thankful for what we have and not moan for what we want. Most of all, help us never take for granted the birth, death and resurrection of your son our savior Jesus Christ. Through him we are given the gift and promise of eternal life with you. Thank you. It is in his holy name I pray. Amen.

Bacon, bacon, bacon!

David — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 22:21:00 +0000

I found this on my desk this morning. A friend of mine knows about my genetic disposition to high cholesterol and how much I like bacon! It was a great way to start my day with a laugh! (Click the image…)

Oh, I’m pleased to report my HDL is 60 and my LDL is 92 (thanks to Zocor, diet and excercise). Time for a greasy bacon cheeseburger!