Psalm 4

So it's been a while since I've been able to post any music. Who know that preparing for a baby would take so much work. Anyway, I found some old recordings I did about two years ago. I'll eventually re-record all of them but thought I'd upload them for some fun. This is one that we've played a lot in our Modern Service. A good full band song with lots of energy. Thanks to Rob McCreight for drumming.

Click here to listen

Lyrics:

Verse: Answer me when I call to You, O God
Give the peace I need to carry on
I offer a sacrifice of praise that's true
I put my trust, my faith, my hope in You

Pre-Chorus: You have filled my heart with greater joy
More than earthly things can do
I lay down and sleep in peace, O Lord
In a peace that comes from You.

Chorus: Let the light of Your face shine upon us
Let Your mercy and grace reign down
Let the light of Your face shine upon us
Let Your mercy and grace surround me

Psalm 4:1, 5, 7 & 8: "Answer me when I call to you, O my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; be merciful to me and hear my prayer. Offer right sacrifices and trust in the Lord. You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound. I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety."

God Knows Our Deepest Desires

Just a word of encouragement to anyone out there that might be experiencing some struggles.

 

I've been discovering lately that God has given me exactly what I have asked for. It has not been in the way that I expected, the way that I planned or the way that I desired. But He has been faithful to me and He will continue to bless me with what I need. It may not come in the neat little package that I've asked Him for, but it WILL come. Thank You Lord.

Integrity

Some of you might know that I am a huge sports fan, especially when it comes to college basketball. On Sunday, Pastor Ron taught about maintaining integrity. He used several sporting examples of a lack of integrity (Tennessee basketball coach Bruce Pearl, Auburn quarterback Cam Newton, NBA ref Tim Donaghy). I wanted to share a story about the BYU basketball program. Now I know that the people involved believe some very different things than I do, but I still think we can learn a lesson.

 

For those that don't follow college basketball, BYU has a very good team this year. They whooped up on the U of A when they played early in the season, they have a national player of the year candidate in Jimmer Fredette and recently reached #3 in the rankings. But a couple of days ago, they dismissed their leading rebounder for violation of the school's honor code. It was just announced today that it was because the player had premarital sex with his girlfriend. You see, BYU makes every student, athlete or not, sign a covenant stating they will be abstinent (students are also not allowed to do drugs, drink alcohol or caffeine among other things). The student owned up to it, apologized to his teammates and is not appealing any action by the school at this point.

 

The thing that struck me was the school's response to this whole ordeal. They immediately removed the player from the team...a player that could be argued was their second most important...no questions asked...in the middle of a national championship caliber season. The landscape of college basketball and sports in general currently is to kowtow to the athletes. DUIs, drug charges and domestic abuse occur frequently and teams continue to let their players play so their team's record is not affected. A college baseball player was recently allowed to continue his run at the consecutive game hit streak record even though he has rape charges currently in the Bahamas (I'm happy to say, he fell 2 games short).

 

What set BYU apart from all of this? It was Pastor Ron's second point in his conclusion. True integrity is not influenced by circumstances. Many other schools would have kept it internal and withheld disciplinary action or at least waited until season's end. But they didn't. They did the right thing even when it truly hurt. How do we apply that? Psalm 15:4b says that one of the criteria for those worthy to live in God's sanctuary is to keep his oath even when it hurts. It's easy to have integrity on a sunny day, but it means so much more when we maintain it through the storm.

 

Hoss