Stories and Meditations from Webb's Mommy

The Most Beautiful Praise
Posted by Tammy on Saturday, January 21, 2012 at 8:51am
'Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness; come before His presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord He is God; it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise; be thankful unto Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good, His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endureth to all generations.' Psalm 100 At Agricola Baptist, we work hard and pray hard in the area of worship ministry. We truly want to lead our beloved brothers and sisters in worship to our wonderful Lord. It is a humbling, huge responsibility. We understand that if you do not worship the Lord with your life every day, chances are you are not truly going to worship on Sunday and some of that is out of our hands. That lies with the individual heart. But, for the part we are able to be responsible for, we take it very seriously but at the same time it is a great joy! Some of that joy comes not just from praising God because of who He is and His great love for us, but from seeing and hearing others do the same. There are a couple of instances of that I want to tell you about. I'm pretty sure I have mentioned sweet Grace (probably in this same context) before. I love, love to hear Grace sing! Her singing doesn't sound like what you have in your head right now - she doesn't sound like the famous gospel singers you're familiar with. No, she sounds better! Grace has Down Syndrome and her song is literally like nothing you've ever heard and I mean that in a very good way. I only hear her every now and then, usually when we're singing acapella. I'm not even sure if she's using words but it doesn't matter. That fact that someone who faces the chalenges that she does lifts her voice to the King never, ever fails to bless me and touch my heart. She helps lead me in worship. There is also an elderly man in our congregation who is just about 100% blind. He comes down the isle with his cane bumping the pews to help direct him, usually after church has already started. I hold my breath until he gets to his seat! Without fail, though, someone steps out to help guide him to 'his spot' where he always sits. Sometimes when we are singing, he doesn't join in I assume because some of the newer songs he just doesn't know and, of course, he can't read the screen. But, oh, when we hit a hymn that he knows, watch out! At Christmas time this really stood out to me because there were so many familiar songs in the services. It is a beautiful thing to watch as he lifts his chin, eyes closed and just sings with all his strength. I don't imagine he has any idea what a worship leader he is. So, if you're able, sing! Sing praises to our wonderful Lord and don't just wait until Sunday! Your praise is the most beautiful song to Him. As one of our all time favorite songs says, 'It's His favorite song of all!'
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Do Not Fear
Posted by Tammy on Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 7:50pm
The last couple of sessions of a ladies Bible study I attend, part of the lesson has been on fear. It is amazing and frustrating to me that I let fear get in the way of what the Lord leads me to do. We have all been told that 'do not fear' or some equivalent of that appears 365 times in Scripture - once for each day of the year. I have never counted them but I do know that we are told not to fear a LOT!! I believe God means it, don't you? Part of our lesson was on the rebuilding of the Temple. We looked at verses in Ezra, Haggai and Nehemiah. The people had been called to a huge job and besides the difficulty of the task itself, opposition arose. (Not a surprise - isn't a great work of God always opposed?) Haggai 2:4 reads, '...Be strong, all you people of the land,' declares the Lord, 'and work. For I am with you, declares the Lord Almighty.' In the King James, Lord Almighty appears as 'the Lord of hosts'. That title, we learned, is the word for 'Warrior God' - the leader of all the angel armies. What a great picture! Our God is the One warrior who has never, ever suffered a defeat - and He never will. Amen! No matter what the enemy throws at us, if we rely on Him, Satan is automatically a defeated foe. We talked about remembering that - keeping that vision in our minds - the Warrior God, commander of all the angel armies is with us always. Oh, and remember even though we can't see Him, Satan can. YES. Our teacher gave us one last illustration to carry with us. Have you seen the video on YouTube of the little three year old girl facing down a lion? You have to check it out! It took place at a zoo. A HUGE lion is behind glass so the little girl can walk right up to him. They are literally nose to nose. After a few seconds of looking each other over, the lion starts to furiously paw at the glass. The little girls flinches a bit but doesn't scream or run away. She stays right there, not afraid and just admiring the beauty of this majestic yet very dangerous animal. The scene repeats itself once more before the end of the video. Application? God is our glass. Our protector. Without the glass, the little girl surely would have been devoured. Without God, so would we. But, with the glass, the little girl faced down a lion. With God, we can face down anything the enemy throws our way. Anything. God never quakes or wonders if He will win the next battle. He will. Guaranteed. So, do not fear!
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Happy New Year
Posted by Tammy on Tuesday, January 3, 2012 at 6:53am
'For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are His very own, eager to do what is good.' Titus 2:11-14 This daily Bible reading was such a great one for a new year! Being reminded of God's grace and salvation is always a wonderful thing and reminds us even though this world is going crazy, we do have Hope. These verses also remind us we are not powerless to fall to the temptations and filthiness of this world. He does enable us to live godly lives, eager to do what is good if we are obedient and keep our eyes on Him. Jesus suffered so much to redeem us and literally took all the world's sin - past, present and future. My sin alone make for a horrible, shameful amount that only His blood can cover. The suffering here was unthinkable but the Christmas season we just came out of reminds us what He left to come to this sinful world. We'll never, ever come close to understanding it until we make it to our eternal home with Him. Even then, though, we'll never know perfect holiness becoming sin. The part of the above passage that really, really made my day was 'a people that are His very own'. Awesome. No matter how awful all of us are, He is still willing to purify us so that we can be His own. HIS OWN. No one can take us away from Him. There is no power that exists that can do that. If you have given your heart to Jesus, you belong to Him. Happy New Year.
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Christmas Thoughts
Posted by Tammy on Wednesday, December 28, 2011 at 6:11am
Wow, I've been away from 'blog town' for a while! Between computer trouble, seasonal celebrations and just plain ole busy-ness, I have neglected you and I apologize! I will say that being able to spend a lot of time with Steve while he had a few days off work was wonderful and I don't apologize for that :) I pray you were able to spend valuable, precious time with those you love most as well. As many people do, I read through the Christmas story again in this season. When you take time to really read it - not skim because it is so familiar, it blesses all over again. I love taking time to think of each person and try to imagine how they felt. They were ordinary people just like you and me, after all. I know God's Word is perfectly written but there is so much that went on that's not recorded just because that's how life is. Can you imagine how huge the Bible would be if every thought and event were recorded?!? For example, have you ever thought about Mary's conversation with her parents after Gabriel's visit? We know of Joseph's initial reaction and his eventual wonderful decision to continue his life with Mary but what about her mom and dad? In my mind, I feel mom was easier to convince that dad - that could be completely untrue but I'm a mom so that's just what I think. We don't know if they had to just go 'on faith' or if they were given a vision similar to Joseph's. I have read in other stories that initally, she most likely was not believed - that was part of the reason she went to Elizabeth's - an unwed mother in the family was such a scandal. She was sent away. How sad. But, in the end, truth triumphed and God's Covenant and promises were all fulfilled. Not a surprise to those of us who trust Him. The shepherds are so cool! I just think it's so great that God chose to tell the Greatest News ever to a humble, probably smelly group of regular guys. They were faithful, for sure, caring for their flocks but not who you would expect to be the audience for the most beautiful choir ever! Maybe if the angels had come to someone more 'deserving' they wouldn't have shared the News so excitedly and with such abandon being too dignified for that. Nope, that just wouldn't do. As always, God knows the heart and so He knew who was deserving of that honor. You can't think about the real Christmas story without thinking about Jesus! Even with my brain straining so hard smoke comes out of my ears, I can't begin to understand how He left Heaven and became an unborn baby. Did He still possess all the knowledge in His head even when He was in Mary's womb? Was He still able to communicate with His Father while waiting to be born? There are thousands of other questions I can't answer with my head so I use my heart, instead. I believe and trust, I have faith. It doesn't even matter that I don't know the answer to the questions because I know HIM. The 'hows' aren't important at all when you know the why - Love. His great love for you and me. That's really all we need to know. One last thing. This time of year always makes us think of those we love who are no longer with us. As many of you know, my dad passed away this year so this was our first Christmas without him. You know, it's funny how someone so quiet still leaves such a huge hole when everyone gathers and they are missing. We miss him and his sweetness terribly but are so thankful he is with his Savior. In thinking of him in recent days, I thought about how wonderful the rest from this old world has to be for him. Even though he loved working, I know some days it was hard to keep going. As the years go by, stuff doesn't work like it used to, strength starts to wane, and sometimes it just plain old hurts - like his feet. Daddy had probably 20 pairs of shoes in his closet trying to find some that helped his feet. As many of you know, he fought (and won, praise God!) a long battle with alcoholism but I'm sure everyday was still a struggle. I found myself being so very, very thankful this week that he no longer has to fight that battle. I guess that's one of many reasons it is called 'eternal rest'. I hope your Christmas season has brought times of joy, praise and thanksgiving. Much love to all.
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A Big Answer for a Big Question
Posted by Tammy on Monday, December 19, 2011 at 8:46pm
'How will this be,' Mary asked the angel, 'since I am a virgin?' 'The angel answered,'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month.' 'For nothing is impossible with God.' 'I am the Lord's servant,' Mary answered. 'May it be to me as you have said,' Then the angel left her.' Luke 1:34-38 Amazing how much happens in just these few words! Mary had just been told she was going to have a baby. Even though the one speaking to her was an angel sent by God, she still had a question. A very good question - how exactly is this going to work? I am a virgin. That was a big question and boy, did Gabriel have a big answer! I wonder if the answer was what Mary expected him to say? Trying to put myself in her spot, I believe I would have been assuming that my beloved Joseph was going to somehow be the father of the Son of God. How will this be, indeed? But the true answer must have been even more stunning, shocking and terrifying than the words she had already heard and even more wonderful at the same time! I still don't exactly understand how this miracle worked but the last thing Gabriel said takes care of that, 'For nothing is impossible with God.' Nobody except the One who has to perform the miracle has to know how to do it. As is always the case, when God promises something, He sees it through. Always. I love Mary's calm response. She is someone who knows His way is always best. In the days, months and even years to come, I think she probably wondered about the wisdom of including her in the most important plan in history but at this moment, she humbly tells Gabriel, 'I am the Lord's servant - may it be to me as you have said.' What faith!! She didn't argue, she didn't whine, she didn't object. She didn't say, 'Whoa, Gabe - you need to go back and tell God He's got the wrong girl!!' None of the things I could see myself saying. Mary said, 'I am the Lord's servant.' That should be what I say every day when I wake up and then prove it. The assurance she got is given to us, also. Nothing is impossible with God. That takes care of any question we have - no matter how big.
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