Things that amaze me!

THINGS THAT AMAZE ME


Have you ever sat down and thought about things that amaze you - things that don’t seem like they should make sense or even work, but they do? Here are a couple of things that amaze me:

- Technology and time zones: computers, email, cell phones, all those things. It just blows my mind that I was sitting at dinner Sunday night and I got a text message from my friend in Australia. I was ending my Sunday and he was just beginning his Monday…in Australia, they are 14 hours ahead of us - so when it’s still today here, it’s already tomorrow there. He sent me a text this morning and was on his way to bed while I was on my way to work.


- The Memory: It amazes me what the mind can remember and forget…what memories stick and what things go away never to be retrieved. It amazes me that I write songs and then have to look at the words when I sing in public, yet Saturday I put on a record album I hadn’t
listened to in at least 10 years and remembered every word on it (it was a live album and I even remembered the talking parts!). What did you say…what’s a record album?

There’s one thing that amazes me more than anything…and that’s God’s grace. You ask most people to define grace and they have a hard time answering it. It’s hard to put into words for most people. But it wasn’t hard for God to put into words…look in the Bible at all of the references to God’s grace.


Have you ever thought that there is one word that can define grace? That word is Jesus. God’s love for us doesn’t seem like it should make sense - that He loved us so much that He gave His only Son to die so that we might not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16). We were destined for Hell, and God sent His very best from Heaven so we might live our lives for Him while here, and live with Him eternally when our earthly lives are over. The Mercer Dictionary of the Bible defines grace as “the sheer, self-giving love of God toward suffering and sinful humanity. It has no cause outside the love of God Himself; it is not dependent on any merit or worth in the recipient. The Hebrew root of the word translated ‘grace‘ means ‘to bend down to‘, suggesting a loving parent bending over a suffering child, or a good Samaritan bending over a wounded man on the Jericho Road“.


God’s grace came to us in the form of Jesus Christ dying on the Cross “while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8). Who understood grace more than Paul? Christ died for Paul while Paul was still in his sin of persecuting and killing Christians. Paul called himself the “chief of sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15). And Paul suffered for his faith, but was able to say:
“And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” 2 Corinthians 12:9

Grace doesn’t seem like it should make sense - a perfect God sending His perfect Son to die for a sinful world. But it works. I deserve Hell, but God has given me Heaven through His Son…through His amazing grace.


Don’t forget His sacrifice for our sins…don’t forget to live in His grace…and don’t forget to extend His grace to others.


“Moreover the law entered, that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” Romans 5:20


Don’t forget to love each other.
Be God’s
Melissa

How Long Does It Take?

This is a long posting…

How long does it take us to get it?

It takes me awhile. I’m hard headed (or as a good friend of mine says, strong-willed).
But when I get it, I get it…

For the past few emails, you have heard me talk about pride and lessons learned…and it’s easy to sit at a computer screen and say a lesson is learned. It’s easy to hide behind the keyboard and empty words, which is what I so often do. What matters, as someone older and wiser in the Lord has told me time after time, is those words leaping off the page and showing in my life. And they haven’t been…I mean what I say, but I haven’t believed it.

Three years ago next month, I got saved after running from God. Two years ago I started the music ministry after running from God. He has found me, yet I still try to keep running. And you know what? I’m tired. God has truly been cleansing my heart of lots of things - things that are ugly and I don’t like it one bit. I fight it tooth and nail. But God has told me the condition of my heart (The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart , I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings - Jeremiah 17:9-10) and He knows me better than I know myself. He made me - and He knows me.

When the music ministry started, I asked God to make my heart the heart of a minister. I’m here to tell you, you better make sure you really want what you pray for - because God is serious. So, God started working on my heart…He had to heal me of bitterness and anger towards others. And I fell many times…but God put people in my life to show me His Ways, and to be there for me to help me back up again.

But again, my heart needed more purging. And I continued to grow and learn, but still harbored many of these feelings in my heart. My dependence went where it didn’t need to be…I began learning this lesson when we did the “Quieting The Noisy Soul” (www.quietanoisysoul.com) at my church (www.ridgecrest-baptist.com). I learned that my behaviors were rooted in my unbelief - not believing that God is enough for me. And in my heart, even though I was listening and learning from the study, I held on tighter to the things that caused my soul to be noisy - and I did not believe that there was nothing I could do to make God love me any more, and nothing I could do to make Him love me any less. Even through the end of the study, I thought I had let go, but my heart was holding on tight out of fear - and the fear came from unbelief. This has been a struggle for me my whole life, but God is showing me where I am wrong.

I love my brothers and sisters in Christ - I thank Him everyday for the people He has given me, to love and support me, and to pray for me and with me. But I made a huge mistake. I placed my dependence in the people God had put in my life instead of God Himself. And in putting that dependence in the wrong place, I put those people in a place they didn’t need to be. And I put pressures and expectations on them that they didn’t deserve - my heart was being selfish. I did things to make sure I got my way. And that caused stress and tension that didn’t need to be there…and that caused NOISE. Did God create that for me? Not at all - I did it myself. See the pattern? I didn’t, but I do now…I didn’t even see it for what it really was until today. And when it hit me as hard as it did, it made me sick. I listened to everything people had to say to me…but today I understood that listening and hearing are two different things. You listen with your ears. You hear with your heart.

Today my heart finally got what my ears had been listening to. I said with my mouth that I understood, and I did to a point, but today I passed understanding. I came face to face with my sinfulness. And it hurt more than I think anything ever has…and I poured it out to God. I know that struggles will still come, but my dependence needs to be on God. He gives us friends and family to support us and love us and pray for us, but our dependence needs to be on Him. I hate who I have been, but I know I have to depend on God to show me who He wants me to become. I need to let everyone in my life off the hook (off my hook) and love them for what God has given them to me for…but not put them in a place they don’t belong and create so much tension…and noise…and sinfulness.

This past weekend, I went on a spiritual retreat. I had the blessing of house-sitting for some new Christian friends, and I took the opportunity to spend some time in the Word. God led me to Psalm 121 and spent some time in there studying what those verses mean. God opened my eyes to the need for dependence on Him…as I sat on the front porch early that Saturday morning, I saw the beauty in God’s creation…the sun that had just made it over the mountain to wake up the day, and the mist that blanketed the trees reminded me of how close God is to us each day. It reminded me of something I wrote awhile back…that we should be so close to Him that every time we breathe, we say His name…Jesus. The notes in my KJV say that this Psalm “fits well against the backdrop of a pilgrimage for it is concerned with the uncertainties one faces on such a journey”. My help comes from the Lord - in my journey, my help comes from the Lord. My faith, my hope, my belief, and my strength comes from the Lord.

Philippians 4:11-13 says: “Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased , and I know how to abound: every where and in all things am I instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me”.
I know now where my help comes from…where my strength comes from…where my hope comes from. I know where I have been wrong…and now I see it. So many things can get in the way - we put so many things in the way. But He is the source of everything we need. And now I more than get it - I believe it.

I am a Christian today not because someone explained the nuts and bolts of Christianity to me, but because there were people willing to be nuts and bolts - Rich Mullins.

Be God’s,
Melissa

God's Heart

One day back in the winter, I was really going through a phase of truly believing that there is nothing I could do to make God love me more and nothing I could do to make God love me less...I could not get my head or my heart around that....

When I went out to the car to go to work one morning, this was on my car window...the frost had formed into a heart...to me, this was one of those things that God uses to remind you that His love is true, and real, and permanent.

I believe that now...and I pray you believe it too.

More to come about the weekend retreat...need to have more time to write...hope all is well with everyone!

Be God's,

Melissa

The Weekend

Thanks to Kirsten for signing up and leaving a message!
You mentioned the CD project - those of you who know me know that this has been a desire of my heart, not to have a CD for my own glory, but to have an avenue of offering the songs that God has given me to others...so that these songs may touch their hearts as God has moved my heart to write them. As of right now, I have almost completed my "studio" at home...and instead of going through a commercial process, I have been praying about doing an independent project and am looking at purchasing the needed equipment. So, this is committed to prayer and I know God will lead in the right direction.
As I head towards the weekend, I am looking forward to my spiritual retreat - a weekend alone with God for prayer, study, and meditation. I have longed to do this, and through God's planning, He has given me the opportunity to spend some time alone with Him.
When I return, I hope to make a longer post and explain more about the ministry and where things might be headed. Until then...
Be God's,
Melissa

Hi!! Welcome to my blog wow that sounds weird sounds like "what all the kids are doing now".

I had been trying to update through email and through my website, but that got kind of cumbersome so I thought I'd try this route and now I can send out emails about new posts

I'm excited about Jesus I'm excited about His amazing love and I want to share that with everyone so welcome to my thoughts those who know me know that my brain is a scary place to be

Please check out the ministry website at http://www.melissamorrisministries.com/ and let me know what you think my calendar is on there and I am available to come to your church or organization to share my songs and testimony

Bye for now and remember, Be God's
Melissa