Keep me from idols

My heart burns with hatred! Oh Lord!
Not of you and your magnificence.
Hatred of Sin!

The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. 

Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.  

Proverbs 8:13

With you there is only light,

with you only pure holiness and justice.

You can abide no evil.

You rage at unjust scales.

Your wrath is made ready,

the bowl about to pour,

man's sins about to receive rightful response.

The thrusting out into thick darkness,

distress and darkness,

the worm that never dies,

the fire forever full of lust.

Make ready your Glory Oh Lord!

Make it known through out the earth!

Who is holy, who is righteous!

The Lord Great and Mighty!

Mighty to save....

The Lord who holds out his hand of redemption.

The Lord who alone changes hearts.

The Lord the Savior of the lost.

The heart is an idol factory.

You give good gifts. 
Let not them be gods to me.

Let not my trust be in them.

Only let me be secure in you.

Only let me be strong in your might.

Only let me glory in your power.

Only let me find hope in you.

For only you are secure.

Only you are strong.

Only All things are from you

Only All things are  through you

Only All things are to you

All glory be to you oh Lord! Romans 11:36

Jesus, Oh Lord most Joyous! 

Be more beautiful to my imagination,

Be more attractive to my heart,

than any idol!

Let me not leave the giver to embrace the gift!

With your plentiful redemption there is abundant joy!

Though struggle comes,

though hardship is emminent,

though my wisdom will fail,

though my strength will give in the moment I need most,

we hope in you, 

for at this moment you and your grace shine all the brighter!

Then it is evident that you have held me all along.  

Strip me bare of idols Lord.

Use me to expose those of my culture.

Teach me to hate sin in my heart.

To hate sin around me as you hate it.

To hate sin with a love that reflects your love of your Glory!

Your love of your creation undistorted, 

your mercy on creation distorted.

Root out my idols.

Dig deep. 
Plow hard.

Remove all roots.

Replace all with Love for you that they may not return.

Increase my affections for you.

The Lord of Hosts, him you shall honor as holy.

Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.

And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense

and a rock of stumbling...

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;

...you have increased its joy;

they rejoice before you...

For to us a child is born, 

to us a son is given;

and the government shall be upon his shoulder,

and his name shall be called

Wonderful Counselor,

Mighty God,

Everlasting Father,

Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end,

on the throne of David and over his kingdom,

to establish it and to uphold it

with justice and with righteousness

from this time forth and forevermore.

The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

Isaiah 8-9

Keep us from idols.

Keep me from idols.

Do your work.
In my solitude, let it be you and you alone.

Let me not inwardly establish myself as "saviour"

Only you Lord! Only Jesus has satisfied Your righteous

requirement.

Only Jesus!

Amen

One of those nights...

Tonight was one of those nights. We had a double header against a couple of different teams. Well Little League didn't get over until our second game could have been started. It has been hot and still is hot!
Well, we have been having a very weird season this year. I wonder if this is what teams feel like when they say they have lost the hunger. We have most of our players that we have had for the last couple of years. And for the last 3 or 4 years we have been dominating the league. If we had a good night nobody could match us.
Well, this year we have been managing to play down to pretty much every opponent. Tonight was not an exception.
The team we played first had already beat us this year (we have had 1 loss in the last 2 years) and we managed to let a game that could have been put away in 6 innings last for 9. Then we played a team that we already mercied and went into the 4th inning with 3 runs. I mean that is ridiculous. We were just playing lazy and tired. Well that is pretty much when the wheels started coming off. We had only allowed a couple of runs with our typically good defense we have donned The Iron Fist. Well, then I started it off with an error with a dropped catch. Then that was the end of the inning. Well the next inning I managed to make 4 more errors (easy dropped catches like in my glove and back out). That is probably as many dropped catches as I have had in the last 5-10 years, (not bragging I just am pretty dependable playing left field). (Angela says she can't remember it ever happening were the ball has gone in my glove and popped out, not once, let alone 5 times in 2 innings) Well, this led to the rest of the team suddenly making a ton of errors. All told we probably ended the game with more than 15 errors, most of them resulting in a run for the other team. Well, we still were not hitting well managing a couple of runs most innings. We were the home team and got to our last at bats and made a run at. We started the inning down 11-19 and were hitting really well. But alas with 2 outs and our tying run at the plate, our lead off batter flew out to deep left field.
What can I say, other than we could, and should, and often do play like the last inning all game, but tonight was not one of those.
Reflections: Bad glare (been there done that), tired (same deal), Hot(usually is), sore (more so than usual) old (getting there at 28, but I know better, I feel fine), bad game (pretty much), having fun? (yep even when playing the worst in my life), who knows (yeh pretty much) humbling experience by God for my good and His Glory (definitely). Keep playing (smoke a smoke a)

Lets hope that never happens again!

On a side note both of my brothers that play (Andrew and Paul) had a pretty good night. Lu (Andrew) is turning into a pretty stinkin good player! Especially hitting (Angela says and throwing)!

Pride and I'm not talking lions 1

I was thinking today what an awesome thing it is that God would work in our lives to keep us humble. I have been doing a considerable amount of reading on the Kings of Israel and Judah lately and the result has been very sobering for me. Not that I would consider myself anywhere connected to being a king or even an important person in this world (I consider this a privilege). However, one thing that all of the Kings had in common was their inability to be sinless followers of Yahweh. It is amazing/frightening to read how one right after another would be devoted to God and very passionate about serving Him, and then one day BAM! they would be sinning like the pagans they hated. Without exception they did this to at least some extent. Even David, whom the kingdom was named after, and the star was named after. David was considered one of the most devote Jews ever, a heart after God, and yet in his fallen humanity he committed adultery, and then murders the woman's husband. Later in life he demanded that a census be taken against the pleading of his ad visors, and the result was the death of 70,000 men. That is about as many men dead as people that live in Kalamazoo. That number doesn't include women and children. If women and children died too, the number of total people that died was probably closer to the population of Grand Rapids. Those are staggering numbers of people dead for a man considered to have a heart after God.
I think the major difference comes from the reaction that resulted in these different kings being confronted with their sin. David and Hezekiah are to examples of kings who turned away from their pride and humbled themselves before the Lord...