Today's song and poem, a very personal challenge!!
Ps.130:1-4
Out of the depths
I cry to You, O LORD!
2O Lord, hear my voice;
let Your ears be attentive to my plea for mercy.
3If You, O LORD, kept track of iniquities,
then who, O Lord, could stand?
4But with You there is forgiveness,
so that You may be feared.
Am I equipped with the Full Armor, (that without, none can endure)
Where an unscrupulous charmer tosses many a lovely lure
Am I prepared to be reviled, rejected, ridiculed, loathed, jeered
Am I willing to be accused falsely, yet answer not a word
While I am spit upon, abused, will love suffer long, for my Lord
Am I devoted to God's calling for His glory, by His grace
Am I committed to take up the cross of Christ with heart and limb
Ready, no matter what the cost, self-sacrificed, to follow Him
Knowing, for all who truly love Him, God works out all things for good
Oh, am I ready to portray Him, with faith all but Jesus-blind
© Janet Martin
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing,
but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
Eph.5:1-17
Therefore be imitators of God as dear children.
2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us,
an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.
3 But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness,
let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints;
4 neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting,
which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.
5 For [a]this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man,
who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things
the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
7 Therefore do not be partakers with them.
Walk in Light
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.
Walk as children of light
9 (for the fruit of the [b]Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth),
10 finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.
11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness,
but rather [c]expose them.
12 For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.
13 But all things that are [d]exposed are made manifest by the light,
for whatever makes manifest is light. 14 Therefore He says:
“Awake, you who sleep,
Arise from the dead,
And Christ will give you light.”
Walk in Wisdom
15 See then that you walk [e]circumspectly, not as fools but as wise,
16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
17 Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is...