30 days of worship

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Day 30 In Christ Alone

July 30, 2024July 25, 2024 krisshetter

^“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. Psalm 62:1

Earlier this year I trained to be a discipleship coach for an online ministry. Anyone who searches the internet using certain, key words may encounter the link which offers a free course called Knowing Jesus. People from all over the world work through the free course seeking to grow closer to God through the truth of Christ, the Holy Spirit and the Bible.

I recently had a student who said Jesus was a very obedient servant of God. While that is true, I told her that limited view of Jesus doesn’t ensure we understand the full holiness and deity of Christ. I explained to her Jesus was fully man and fully God, a sometimes confusing concept. I asked if that information was new to her, a self-professed, occasionally attending church Christian. She replied, “Yes.”

That one word actually made me sad. Sad over how the “church,” meaning we, the body of believers have sometimes failed to make clear the place that Jesus sits in heaven. How we have failed to loudly celebrate that only Christ can be the one to cleanse us of our sins so we can, with His cloak of purity laden over our shoulders, come before the Father. And the way churches, fellow believers allow our friends and neighbors to remain in the dark about the love the Trinity has shown all humanity — when God humbled Himself to walk among us and give us the message of eternal life.

You see, without seeing Jesus in His rightful Holy position we also can’t look to Him for all hope and strength and peace. Because no average man can give us that. No, it takes a King of Kings, a Lord of Lords, a solid cornerstone. Christ alone.

Jesus, the man, was tender, strong, felt pain, and was ever obedient to His Father. At the same time, Jesus, the Word in flesh, was sinless, wise, merciful, a healer, a life-giver, prescient, could calm storms, and fill nets and endless food baskets. But most of all Jesus the Holy One was the required sacrifice for our forgiveness of sins.

He gave His all for us He suffered much for us. He loved tremendously for us.

When this same student mentioned she’s too tired on Sundays to regularly attend church, I told her I too used to think church was just another thing on my to-do list. But when I realized the amazing gift that He gave us in Christ I was compelled to worship Him in gratitude and submission. Instead of obligation, church became a soul-filler. When I lift my hands up to Him in love, He reaches back to me through the Holy Spirit and grabs hold of me. I know that nothing else in this world can ever pluck me from His hands. He will never let me go. He brings us home in victory.

If you don’t have this relationship with Christ, call on Him today. Give Him your all. And the Lord of All will give all eternity to you.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the past 30 days of Worship as much as I have! If you missed any posts, I’ve compiled the entire series here. Please share with your friends today to support this ministry and help be a light out into the darkness.

To listen to today’s song, click here: In Christ Alone

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Day 29 Good Day

July 29, 2024July 24, 2024 krisshetter

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. ⁴Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. ⁵If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. James 1:1-5

“The Lord bless you and keep you; ²⁵the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; ²⁶the Lordturn his face toward you and give you peace.”’ Numbers 6:24-26

I’ve heard a famous Christian teacher tell audiences this profound truth: “It’s one thing to see a miserable sinner but a miserable Christian is a tragic thing.” While we all, believers and non-believers, have heartbreaking or difficult events in our lives, we have to acknowledge that the majority of our lives run from fun and exciting to dull and average. Yet throughout it all Jesus followers should emulate the apostle Paul and be always searching and living gratefully for God’s ever presence in our lives.

This truth really hit home for me when I read Corrie Ten Boom’s famous book, “The Hiding Place.” Her sister Betsie could find joy in God’s provision even in the darkest moments of a Nazi concentration camp. Corrie, more of a like-mind with me, would roll her eyes when her sister would make joyous declarations such as, “Give thanks in all circumstances. It doesn’t say ‘in pleasant circumstances.’ Fleas are part of this place where God has put us.”

As lights of the Lord reflecting out God’s love and goodness to the world, we need to be especially mindful of our outward attitude and appearance when events go awry in our lives. Showing the world who we trust and who is working for our good. And when events turn to joy we need to give it all up to God in His bountiful mercy and glory.

I first heard this song about having a good day when I was visiting and caring for my two-year old grandson. My daughter had shared with me Owen’s Spotify playlist so we could listen to his pre-school songs in the car. You know, fun stuff like “icky sticky bubble gum” and the “wheels on the bus” played on repeat. When this bright and joyous song came on in the car he exclaimed, “Mommy’s song!” We sang along with vigor.

I asked my daughter about it later that day. She explained they play this song every morning on their way to work and daycare to set the tone for the day. To remember that with God in our lives it can always be a good day. Because while the Lord has blessed us with breath and we acknowledge that the creator of the universe knows our very name, we can have a great day in every single way.

Friend, I once thought this view of life was blind to the realities of the world. Until the scales were taken off my eyes and the truth was revealed. Emmanuel, God with Us, shines His beautiful light on us in all circumstances. So play it loud and sing it like ya mean it. Because today can and will be a good day.

Click here to listen to today’s song: Good Day

Day 27 Great Are You Lord

July 27, 2024July 9, 2024 krisshetter

“My soul glorifies the Lord  and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. Luke 1:46-48

When I said, “My foot is slipping,” your unfailing love, Lord, supported me.  When anxiety was great within me,your consolation brought me joy.  Psalm 94:18-19

In 2023, Psychotherapist Charlotte Fox Weber wrote an article for CNBC which revealed that, after 10 years of treating patients and being a patient herself, there are nine things humans universally desire in life:

To be loved
To be understood
To have power
To have and give attention
To have freedom
To create
To belong
To win
To connect

Well, I have great news for Dr. Weber and all humanity. Jesus will fulfill all these needs. Our great Lord will love you through all eternity. He knows every single thing about you – and experienced much of it Himself. Not only does He know you so well, He still loves you!

Through Jesus we have power to overcome our fears, anxieties, wrath from man, and more. He removes the chains of sins and calls us sons and daughters of the God Most High.

We become free to experience and create joy in our lives and in those around us. This joy connects us to a community of believers who support you and walk beside side you times of trouble.

And best of all as heirs to the Kingdom we stand in victory. Through His resurrection, Jesus has conquered death and sin. He holds out His hand for you to join Him in this glorious triumph.

He is the giver of all life, of breath, of light and hope. He is the provider of everything for which you long. Reach out to Him and pour out your praise Him today!

Click here to listen to today’s song: Great Are You Lord

Day 25 For All My Life

July 25, 2024July 8, 2024 krisshetter

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ³⁵For whoever wants to save their lifewill lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.  Mark 8:34-35

in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight  Proverbs 3:6

I’ll admit that for almost half of my life I relied on one person to resolve all my problems, to quell my fears, and to help me succeed in life. Myself. While I did a decent job of pulling myself up and around by my own boot straps, I also did a bang up job of living a life of stress, anxiety and worry. When I met my husband, he called me the queen of “woulda, coulda, shoulda.”

In other words, I would regret and worry about every single decision I made. If I “fixed it” and it didn’t turn out very good then I was also the one to take much of the blame. I leaned heavily on my own understanding. The burden became unbearable. I put the same pressure on friends, family and acquaintances to take on the same responsibility. When they didn’t, I would look on with annoyance that they weren’t doing life “right.”

That type of living doesn’t keep quality relationships. It definitely doesn’t bring joy and love and goodness.

The study I did this summer on being a slave to Christ (Slave by John MacArthur) has further revealed to me how being owned by Jesus is so much easier than being a slave to a sinful life outside His will. When we let Him take the lead and shine the light on our paths, we can take a deep breath of fresh air. We view troubles, challenges or even failures in a different light.

We may not always see our life with Christ as a straight and beautiful path of goodness. But that’s just the world trying to speak back into us. As long as we have our eyes always on Jesus it doesn’t matter what seems uncertain. The North Star is always where it should be even if the road is a bit squiggly. He will guide you right to Him.

Click here to listen: For All My Life

Day 23 All My Praise

July 23, 2024July 21, 2024 krisshetter

Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? ²⁴But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” Luke 5:23-24

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love, according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Psalm 51:1

I recently read about the Free Grace movement which started around the late 1980s. Their basic belief is that you need only to say you believe in Jesus to receive eternal life in the Kingdom of God. No repentance necessary. No change in your ways. You don’t even need to say you “follow” Jesus.

While you can find places in the New Testament where people received salvation from Jesus for believing, one has to ask in the modern world the question of what does “believing” mean?

Your definition of “believing” is important because if you believe Jesus was just a guy who lived a long time ago or a prophet who did some miracles then you won’t believe He forgives our sins and with compassion blots out our transgressions. You might think Jesus had some good life advice that may or may not apply to you. It certainly doesn’t lead you to get on your knees in submission and praise.

If you believe He is God but don’t seek through the Holy Spirit a repentant, changed life then you might find yourself facing a Jesus who says to you: “You say Lord, Lord but I didn’t know you.”

Easy “believism” doesn’t lead to a life of divine-given fruit through our act of acknowledging our sin nature. People Jesus encountered throughout His time here and believed were always told to go and do something. Sin no more, tell someone, worship differently, give up something.

The Lord Jesus wants not just our words, He wants all of us. He expects believers to see Him as the God who reigns over every single aspect of our lives. He wants the repentant not the unrepentant in His Kingdom. And it’s only Him that can forgive and transform. It’s that Jesus that causes us to be thankful, grateful for removing the scales from our eyes so we can see Him clearly.

And for that we should give Him all praise because in the end that’s truly the only thing we can offer back to the God of the Universe.

Click here to listen to today’s song: All My Praise

Day 22 Breathe S&S

July 22, 2024July 21, 2024 krisshetter

Again, Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”²²And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  John 20:22

Then the Lord God formed a manfrom the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,and the man became a living being.  Genesis 2:7

I recently finished the book Slave by John MacArthur with an amazing group of women. It was challenging, convicting and encouraging. He writes that when the King James version of the Bible was created, the word “slave” was softened to “servant” in many places. The ancient concept of slavery had evolved and caused people to become averse and sensitive to the word.

In Greco-Roman times, the average landowner, merchant, trader, politician, etc had their fair share slaves and bondservants. It was expected and universally accepted. Those folks performed every task imaginable for households and businesses including being a doctor, shopkeeper, accountant, farmer, maid and more. It was said that walking the streets of Roman towns you wouldn’t have known the difference between a slave or free person.

Opportunities for a poor person to be able to care for themselves financially were so limited many offered themselves up as slaves so that every need they had would be provided by their owner. As for the average Roman citizen? They were “Caesarians” or slaves to Caesar. Some scholars have proposed that the term “Christian” literally means “slave to Christ.”

When I listen to this song, which feels so much like a love song, I find myself collapsed in total submission to the Master. A slave to Christ. Bought for a hefty price. Loved and cared for by the Creator. A Master whom I never fear will treat me badly or forget about me. This Master has literally given me the breath of life.

Mr. MacArthur points out that we are all slaves to something. I prefer to turn my life over and be desperate for the One who breathed a peace in me that goes beyond any understanding.

Modern, worldly slavery is a terrible human disaster. Traffickers of people have no care for the people they destroy and toss aside. To be a slave to God, however, gives life, a life eternal. Who or what are you desperate to serve each and every day?

Click here to listen to today’s song: Breathe by Shane & Shane

Day 21 Breathe (MCM)

July 21, 2024July 21, 2024 krisshetter

The Lord is near. ⁶Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:5-7

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Psalm 150:6

What are you most worried about right now? What miracle are you waiting for? What frustrates you today that just won’t go away? Just breathe and praise the Lord.

A pastor I’ve heard a couple times starts out each sermon telling the congregation to first take a deep, deep breath. And slowly let it out. Re-focus on the Lord we came to hear about and worship. That’s the key – we may briefly take a deep breath but who or what do you turn back to? The same worry or fear? It reminds me of the old cartoons I used to watch as a kid. A mouse trying to run away from a cat but stays in one place with his feet moving a hundred miles and hour.

You may have heard that if you say the Hebrew name of God out loud it’s like taking a breath in and blowing it out. Try it – Yah…weh. God is pretty clever. It’s almost as though He wants to be an integral part of our lives. To be our very breath. He is the only God that lives inside His believers!

So, take that deep breath today. Say His name out loud. Praise Him that He is the Lord who provides. The Lord who reminds us He can guard our hearts from stress and thoughts that destroy. Release your burdens and don’t take them back. Praise God!

Click here to listen to today’s song: Breathe by Maverick City Music

Day 19 Stand In Faith

July 19, 2024July 9, 2024 krisshetter

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. ³¹But these are written that you may believethat Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.  John 20 30-31

This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. ¹¹For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:10-11

Yesterday, I shared about my illness and the brief but wonderous healing I experienced. I’ll be honest, when I started feeling all the same symptoms come back, I prayed like David so often did in the Psalms asking, “Why?” I didn’t and still don’t fully understand why He allowed me to feel so good for a time. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely appreciated it. But let’s be honest, we humans so easily can feel like God is punishing us when we go through trials.

Then I turned to the truth. The truth that God loves us and it pains Him to see us suffer the trials of this world. I also know it’s through those trials we can choose to hold on tighter to Him or turn away.

I look at this decision this way – to where would I turn? Worldly addictions that only make life worse? Or to a God who performs miracles? I prefer to stand in faith that my season of healing may be around the corner. If not soon, then I know it will be true one day.

My friend, the Lord has plans for you. Most likely you will have to cross a few alligator infested waters in faith. Those trials will be your testimony to give others hope. In fact, just the other day a friend of mine woke up with her shoulder mysteriously in so much pain she could barely bear it. After a trip to urgent care and pain medication, she was able to make it through the weekend. She said to me a few days later, “I thought of you. I don’t know how you have gotten through what you’ve been through for so long.” I smiled and said, “It’s all the Lord.” Nothing is impossible for Him.

Click here to listen to today’s song: Stand In Faith

Day 18 Gonna Be Alright

July 18, 2024July 9, 2024 krisshetter

And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”  Mark 5: 34

In my distress I called upon the Lord;
    to my God I cried for help.
From his temple he heard my voice,
    and my cry to him reached his ears. Psalm 18:6

My youngest daughter sent this beautiful song to me a little while back when I was having a particularly bad bout of the mysterious illness I’ve been suffering the last three years. My head felt as though it was being squeezed in a vise with needles being jammed in my ears. I could barely hear. And in just a few days we were to celebrate the birth of Jesus. I wanted more than anything to fully enjoy all the activities planned with my visiting family. Yet, I barely had the strength to get out of bed each day. I was exhausted from battling through the pain.

I wanted a miracle just as the bleeding woman received from Jesus. Healed of my disease to go about my life in peace. This song was Jesus’ vehicle to remind me that He is my strength when I am weak. He and He alone helped me push through the pain and be able to see the beauty of my life all around me. To see my daughters jump in and take care of anything needed. To feeling the joy of holding my baby granddaughter and the loving embrace of my grandson.

One week after Christmas every single one of my symptoms disappeared. My doctors have yet to determine why for a month and a half I lived completely free of pain. My hearing was restored. It was glorious. It was a beautiful gift.

While many of my symptoms eventually returned, those six weeks provided me with hope that there is a solution. That my hearing isn’t permanently damaged.

I’ve learned so much about suffering these past three years and what relying on the Lord really means. My symptoms may never permanently disappear but I know in my cries for help He hears my voice. I will keep crying out for Him to hold me in His arms. And I know everything is going to be all right.

Click here to listen to today’s song: Gonna Be Alright

Day 17 Goodness of God

July 17, 2024July 9, 2024 krisshetter

And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
    for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,  Luke 1:76

The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,  Lamentations 3:25

In one of my Bible study groups I asked what in our lives do we struggle to completely turn over to God. Being all women, it wasn’t surprising that most answered our children. We worry, we fear, we hover, we protect. We lay away at night thinking of their future. We pray continuously for those who aren’t yet saved.

For so many of us, however, that role becomes overwhelming and overbearing. It puts our relationships with our children and maybe even our spouses in peril. The solution? To see God as not only our father but the good father who loves our children even more than we do, which seems impossible. When I finally turned my adult children over to God, I first had to trust Him and know Him. I had to realize how good He is and how much He loves me too.

Now imagine the parents of John the Baptist. His father, Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied the enormous responsibility his just born son would be required to put on his shoulders. Both his mother and father seemed to understand the weight of the role in announcing the coming Messiah. A role I don’t think most parents would want for their children. A nice quiet life as a fisherman with a wife who bears him many children – yes, that’s what Elizabeth probably wanted for John.

But no. John became a bit odd. He wore strange clothes and ate bugs. He spoke to anyone who would listen about the Messiah. His message was sometimes confusing and almost heretical. Yet we don’t see in scripture his parents lamenting. They probably did. But I would surmise based on the prophecy and Elizabeth’s faithfulness that they lamented to God.

They lifted their son up to the God Most High for protection and direction. They trusted in His goodness. I’m sure if they were still alive when John sat in his final jail cell they wept. But they also knew their son had been faithful to God and the Messiah had been faithful to him. And as a parent, what more, truly should we ask.

Click here to listen to today’s song: Goodness of God