Psalm 63:3

Wow, God is so good. Last night as I was reading and trying to find a scripture for our blog, the Lord brought me to Psalm 63:3 "Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you." That is such the desire of my heart right now and I thought it was very fitting and even named our blog, "Better Than Life" from that very scripture. Then this morning as I woke up to spend time with the Lord, I was reading out of Pierced By The Word by John Piper (which is excellent by the way) and the title was "Wilderness, Worship, Treason and God" which was a meditation of Psalm 63. It was oh so good and such food to a hungry soul. Psalm 63 was written by David as he was in the wilderness of Judah after he was driven out by his own son, Absalom, who was out to kill his own father. Not only was he in mortal danger but was dealing with his own son hating him and wanting his death in his own hands! I had never noticed this before now, but in the midst of a life-threatening situation and a very emotional moment I am sure, what does he pray for??? Not protection or victory, but God himself! Piper states, "There are seasons of pain and loss and grief and darkness when nothing is worth asking for but GOD. Everything else seems trivial, even life." Oh!!!! I was there just a month ago when my best friend was taken into heaven to be with the Lord. "Life" just seems trivial and nothing matters except the Lord. Oh to know God like David did!

"Would this not be more than all the riches and fame and success and health, indeed all the world can offer? God himself coming near and making our souls drink from His love until all else fades from view, and fear is swallowed up in the unshakable security of everlasting enjoyment at the right hand of God. Oh, that we would come to this place in our walk with God!"

It doesn't end here...the devotion continues and talks about how corporate worship is so important and how it should be a place to meet God. He asks us to join him in praying for our church leaders and to pray for our congregations that we would be so full of the Spirit and truth of God that we would taste and see the fullness of God and to see that the beauty of the Lord is "better than life." So I did that and experienced God this morning in worship in a beautiful way. The last song we sang before the sermon (not really sure of the name) states, "Your kindness Lord leads us to repentance, Your faithfulness is our desire, Your beauty LORD makes us stand in silence, YOUR LOVE...IS BETTER THAN LIFE! The Lord filled me with a hunger for Him like David had in Psalm 63. What about you? Can you say that His love is "better than life" to you?

Old Friends

Recently a friend of mine, Candace Williams Echols had her first baby and his name is Robert Towne Echols and they will call him "Bo." It is so fun to see how the Lord is blessing us with children and what a responsibilty!

Yesterday we got the fun privilege of seeing an old friend, Carey Dunn Willems, who I have known since birth. She currently lives in Louisville, KY and has two children, Karis and Jack. Our "Karis'" had so much fun playing together and they thought it was so cool that they had the same name! It was great to see her.