The Rusty Nail

August 20, 2013August 22, 2013 ~ Suzanne Davis Harden

Detail, Worshiper, Painting by S.D. Harden © 2013 All Rights Reserved

The Rusty Nail

A few weeks ago I posted a blog and music video based on Psalm 51:10, the Psalm King David wrote after he’d committed adultery with Bathsheba, gotten her pregnant, and then murdered her husband to cover up his sin.
God sent Nathan the prophet to confront the king and David repented, praying, “Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me.” ~ (Psalm 51:10-11)

For those readers who did not have an opportunity to read my original post about this beautiful psalm and how David repented of his sin, I encourage you to take a moment to do so.
I took down my music video a few days after posting it with the promise that I would repost it again for you soon.
I created my original music video for my prayer song “Create in Me a Clean Heart” as a worship aid for a special prayer night at our church. The Lord gave me the song the day of the prayer service!
Our Lord is very generous with His gifts! I had not asked Him for the song; in fact the worship leader and I were planning to do a different music video I had already created. But the Holy Spirit had a different plan so I got busy preparing the song and video the Lord gave me. I had only 3 hours in which to record the song and create the video that day.
I am not a trained videographer. All my training is in art and writing. I never sought to be a musician, a singer, or to create videos. One day a few years ago, I went to the altar at church to pray about some burden I had. The Lord spoke to my heart and asked me if I would sing for Him.
“My Suzy, will you sing for Me?”
This request had nothing to do with my issue I was praying about. And besides that, to sing for anyone was the LAST thing I wanted to do, having a terrible phobia of public performance of any sort.
I didn’t want to be disrespectful of the Almighty, but I couldn’t help but think He HAD to be joking. I like to draw cute little dressed up animals. If I were to draw myself as an animal I would be a shy little, timid mole hiding behind her little art desk painting and writing and drawing. Never singing.
“Lord,” I said, to Him, “not to be disrespectful, but I don’t think You are remembering who I am…I can’t sing, I’m an artist.”
He only said, “My Suzy, won’t you sing for Me?”
I peeped around as I knelt at the altar wondering if anyone could see how exasperated I was.
“Lord,” I said, “Have You forgotten how bad a singer I am…so bad that when I sang “Jesus Loves Me” to My child when he was 6 years old he HOWLED?!”
I felt like crying because I had once sung praises to The Lord in my quiet times up until that had happened. Many years had passed and I no longer sang to Jesus because of that incident with my little boy. The enemy used it to make me think I had a terrible voice and I kept silent after that.
When Christian grew up he said, “Mama, I only howled because the dog across the street was howling with the wind that night. I was howling with him. I loved your singing.”
But when I was at the altar that day I didn’t know that.
I only knew that I believed I had a terrible voice and that there was no way I wanted to sing for God because I was so ashamed of my voice ever since that day.
“My Suzy, will you sing for Me?” Jesus asked me for the third time.
I knew it was God’s voice. And I could not say no if I loved Him.
Then He said, “My Suzy, will you trust Me?”
I knew I had to lay down something. I had to lay down my fear, my pride, and give God my will and allow Him to make me what He wanted me to be.
Singing was the last thing I wanted to do because I never believed I could be good enough.
Though I never trained to be a musician, nor did I ever sing until I became a Christian and then only in my quiet times, yet God has blessed me with many beautiful songs inspired by His word. Whether piano solos or prayer songs, The Lord continues, ever since that day at the altar when I reluctantly said yes, (though I was terrified) He has given me over 350 pieces of music for His glory. I have recorded them all.
My new video includes my worship painting based on Luke 7 that I’ve been working on for the last several months. It was not finished yet when I made the first video. That video made heavy use of a lot of images pulled from the Internet that may have been copyrighted and I did not have time to get permission or check the copyright status of all those images I used.
My new video includes more original content and makes use of some classical works of several great artists from the past and present whose works are in the public domain.
I’ve always believed that God can anoint a rusty old nail if He chooses to use it for His glory. So it does not matter what I have to give Him, as long as I give it by faith in humble obedience to His will, He can bless it and use it to bless others.
My prayer is that this music video will bless and inspire you, and draw you closer to the God who died on the cross for each of us in order to create in us a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within us.

Heavenly Father, Help us know that you do not desire perfection from us in what we give You, just trust & obedience. You will supply all the rest.
Create in us clean hearts that serve You & worship You in sincerity & truth. Thank You Lord. In Jesus name. Amen

My Ezekiel Prayer

August 3, 2013 ~ Suzanne Davis Harden

“Ezekiel’s First Vision” Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (1794-1872)

My Ezekiel Prayer

Ezekiel was one of the captives of Judah who had been taken to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar. His name means “God Strengthens.”

He was the son of a priest and was himself a priest. But since he was exiled from his homeland, he was jobless, for in Babylon he had no temple to take care of.

Yet God still had a job for Ezekiel to do. Though it was not what he’d trained all his life to do for the Lord, nevertheless, it was what God had created him to do. He called Ezekiel to be His prophet to speak to a nation that had broken faith with Him. The Lord wanted to use Ezekiel to vindicate the “holiness of His great name.”

When Ezekiel was around thirty years old, as he sat with the other captives by the Kebar river, he wrote, “The heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.” (Ezekiel 1:1)

Nuremberg (1702) “Ezekiel’s Vision” Wikipedia Commons

If you are a highly visual person like me and read Ezekiel’s visions you may long for an illustrated bible because they are quite surreal. But even if we have a literal picture of these visions right before us we soon realize that just like a website without the correct password is impossible to enter, so is a vision without the right interpretation.

God has a very good reason for everything He does. He chooses to speak to us in certain ways based on what He is going to do in our lives and how He wants to use us for the work He is calling us to carry out for Him. He chose to speak to Ezekiel in visions. In fact, they play a very prominent role throughout his book.

Typically, visions from God are not meant to be taken literally. They are visual metaphors illustrating spiritual realities. They are a kind of picture language from God sent to tell us something very important or to reflect obliquely future glories that await us to encourage our faith.

When Paul, who had been taken in a vision up into what he called “the third heaven” wrote about spiritual things He said, ^”For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12)

If we try to understand Ezekiel’s vision literally we may as well knock our heads together. Jesus said to those who would try to understand spiritual things in a literal way, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” (John 6:63)

God gave Ezekiel this amazing inaugural vision to prepare him for a very difficult calling. When we read the succeeding chapters of his book we understand just how challenging his work for God would be.

Ezekiel was asked to shut himself inside his house, isolate himself from his community, he would be bound with cords; was afflicted by God so that he could not speak temporarily, he had to lie on one side for 390 days and then the other for 40 more days and cook his food over a dung pile.

How many of us would think it was God’s voice we were hearing if the Lord asked us to cook our food over a pile of feces every day for 390 days? Uh huh..I am confessing right now that I would probably rebuke “that voice“ in Jesus’ name. Alas. I just wonder sometimes how many times a day the Lord gets rebuked in His own name because we just don’t recognize His voice as we should. And I wonder how often He gets exasperated with His own sheep who are supposed to know their Good Shepherd’s voice!

You might think to yourself, “Well, that was in the bible days, God would never ask us to do anything like that in this day and age!”

Don’t ever think that God is any different now than He was in Ezekiel’s day because His word says, “For I am the Lord, I do not change…” (Malachi 3:6)

And Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

It often occurs to me after studying the bible that God does not usually ask His servants to do what is convenient, comfortable, or easy. In fact, Jesus said we must be willing to take up our cross and follow Him.

I believe God spoke to Ezekiel in visions, (symbolic language) because He was going to make Ezekiel’s life a living metaphor to communicate His Truth to His people. Everything God asked Ezekiel to do was like a living illustration to His people, a picture of His message to go along with the words the prophet was asked to communicate.

I have studied and prayed over Ezekiel’s vision and made it into a prayer in the hopes that the Lord will use it somehow to transform my life the way He did Ezekiel’s into a person who could fearlessly communicate His truths to our world without complaining about the cost. (And when I do fuss about the cross the Lord has asked me to bear, I pray He will remind me that at least He has never asked me to cook my food over a dung pile and to help me to be thankful!)

My Ezekiel Prayer

(Inspired by Ezekiel’s Vision & Matthew Henry’s Interpretation)

Heavenly Father, I pray for divine wisdom and understanding,

To excel in strength and boldness like that of a lion, even as the angels who serve You and who are never afraid;

I ask that You help me to excel in diligence and patience like an ox, and to be unwearied in the discharge of the work You give me to do for You, even as those angels are who serve In Your holy court.

I ask for quick and piercing insight, like that of an eagle’s sight, to soar high even as the angels who serve You soar, spiritually close to You, quick to hear Your voice in my heart, quick to respond obediently to do all You ask of me without complaining; and always thankful, always humble.

I ask for willing hands and feet to do Your will, to walk Your paths wherever You call me to go, whatever You ask me to do.

Help me go straight forward like Your angels who serve in Your holy courts, with one heart, one soul, one mind, one purpose: to love You with ALL MY HEART, ALL MY SOUL, ALL MY MIND, ALL MY BEING.

Lord, like Your angels, let me turn not back, nor aside from serving You. Help me keep my eyes focused firmly on You. Let me not turn from my work to trifle with what is not Your will for me.

Help me go wherever Your Holy Spirit would have me go, to accomplish whatever You have chosen for me to do.

Oh dearest Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus, Holy Spirit, though I am no angel, please fill my heart with a burning zeal to serve You as those angels at Your court must have. Fill my heart with a burning love, a holy passion that grows only more intense for You like a flame that is eternal and grows deeper and higher and hotter day by day.

Let my love for You be like the eternal flame in the lamps of the temple of old Jerusalem; may it never wane, may it never die, but grow stronger and brighter each moment day by day by the power of Your Holy Spirit, in Jesus name, thank You, I love You, Lord,

Trusting God’s Guidance

July 26, 2013July 27, 2013 ~ Suzanne Davis Harden

From the Painting “The Good Shepherd” © S.D. Harden 2013 All Rights Reserved.

Trusting in God’s Guidance

Psalm 23 is known as The Shepherd Psalm. It’s one of my favorite Psalms in the Bible.

Jesus Christ is our Good Shepherd. He said, “My sheep respond to my voice, and I know who they are. They follow me, and I give them eternal life. They will never be lost, and no one will tear them away from me.” ~ John 10:27,28

Sometimes our Good Shepherd may ask us to go down a path we may be afraid to follow. Yet God’s word assures us that Christ always leads us in paths of righteousness. (Psalm 23:3).

The dictionary defines the word “righteousness” as “justice, decency, honesty, blamelessness, virtue, and morality.”

The NIV bible translates Psalm 23:3: “He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.”

The way I understand it, God won’t ever guide us to do something that is contrary to His word.

In my painting above, I have illustrated the idea of our Good Shepherd inviting His child to go with Him on a journey. He looks gently into her eyes and she gazes back at Him as He holds her hand suggesting that they are good friends.

Jesus said, “You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.” (John 15:14) Jesus loves His child deeply. Because He is the Good Shepherd as well as her Creator, He knows what is best for her. He encourages her to do what He knows is the right path for her.

Yet the child hesitates to go with Her Master. There is that tiny sense that she does not fully trust the Good Shepherd.

She stands just behind him in the painting. Her feet seem paralyzed and rooted into the sand like some sort of petrified tree as her Shepherd lovingly assures her that He will always be with her throughout the journey and that His rod and staff will comfort her.

Though she has given one of her hands to her Lord in partial submission to His will, she holds the other behind her back, symbolizing her reluctance to step out in faith with Him on their journey and her inner fears. Yet He lovingly smiles at her. He knows every weakness, every fear. He neither judges, nor condemns her.

How often do we, when presented with new unsettling challenges to our faith, or a new dark journey in life, question the wisdom of God? How often do we hold back from fully trusting our Lord when He asks us to follow Him down a new unfamiliar path?

Like the little child in the painting, we have given Jesus one of our hands, but we reluctantly hold the other behind our back and stand with our feet rooted in the ground when He asks us to please trust Him though we may not understand the way He is asking us to follow Him.

Jesus once told His disciples on the cusp of His crucifixion:“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.” ~John 16:12

He then said that the Holy Spirit would come to them and lead them into all truth.

Our Lord asks us to walk by faith, to trust Him and to listen for His voice every day, one day at a time, with our hands in the hands of our Good Shepherd.

Just as the little child in this painting is walking with her Shepherd, so we must walk. And though like her we are often afraid, despite our fears, like her we must keep our hand in our Shepherd’s hand and our eyes on Him, abiding in Him in our hearts daily if we are to hear His voice.

^“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth.” ~John 16:13

Detail: “The Good Shepherd” © S.D. Harden All Rights Reserved.

*Lord Jesus please help me give You both my hands in total surrender when You ask me to journey with You down the road You have prepared for me before the foundation of this world. Help me not doubt but believe all of your promises to me and live by faith. In Thy holy name I ask. Amen.

A copy of this painting is reproduced on my greeting card called, “The Good Shepherd.”

If you would like to purchase a copy of this card please visit my Etsy store at http://www.etsy.com/shop/WingsPublications

Create In Me A Clean Heart

July 20, 2013July 21, 2013 ~ Suzanne Davis Harden

Jesus Christ Suffered and died on the cross so that all could be forgiven.

CREATE IN ME A CLEAN HEART

Psalm 51:10-12

^”Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit.”

King David penned Psalm 51 after the prophet Nathan confronted him with the terrible sin he had committed against God. In the Bible, 2 Samuel 11 & 12 tells the sad story of how David, the man after God’s own heart committed adultery with a woman named Bathsheba. She became pregnant and then David had her husband Uriah murdered to try to cover up his sin. God was very grieved with what David had done. He sent Nathan the prophet to confront the king with his sin and to tell him what his punishment would be.

David did not foolishly try to deny what he’d done, or hide his sin. Instead, he immediately confessed and repented. He asked God to forgive him. He wrote:

“Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin.For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night. Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just.” ~ Psalm 51:1-4

Though David repented sincerely from the heart and God forgave him, he still had to bear the consequences of his sin. The child that Bathsheba bore to him became sick and died, and God told David that from that time on “your family will live by the sword because you have despised Me by taking Uriah’s wife to your own.” ~2 Samuel 12:10

David loved God with all his heart, but there came a time when he got his eyes off the Lord and onto the things of this world. And that is how he became so vulnerable to the temptations that brought his downfall. The story of his family becomes very sad after this time. Nathan’s prophecy against David proved all too true. David’s own son Absalom committed treason and tried to kill him. His son Amnon committed incest by raping his sister Tamar. Then Tamar’s brother Absolom murdered Amnon. All these were David’s kids.

All of David’s bitterest family troubles might have been prevented had he kept his eyes on God and his heart loyal to him. And he knew this when he wrote Psalm 51.

“Create in me a clean heart, Oh God, renew a steadfast spirit within me…Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.” ~Psalm 51:10,12

Though our sins may be different from David’s, still there is not one of us who cannot identify with this beautiful prayer he wrote!

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“The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men, To see if there are any who understand, who seek God. They have all turned aside, They have together become corrupt; There is none who does good, No, not one.” ~Psalm 14:2-3

Long ago the prophet Isaiah wrote: “All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.” ~Isaiah 53:6

The “him” Isaiah wrote about is Jesus Christ, our sin bearer.

Isaiah was prophesying about his coming. And when He at last came into the world, Jesus said:

“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.” ~John 3:16-17

God knew that not one of us could ever be perfect, even David who was “the man after his own heart.” Even that man stumbled and fell into sin, though he loved God so much.

That is why we needed a Savior who would bear our sins, become the righteousness of the Law that we could never measure up to because of our imperfections.

Jesus Christ shed His spotless, sinless blood for all people so that whoever believes in Him could become cleansed through His holy sacrifice for their sins.

He once said that He would never reject the person who came to Him seeking forgiveness. ^“Those the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never reject them.” ~John 6:37

We may not have committed the kind of sins David committed, but according to God’s word, we have all sinned and need for God to cleanse our hearts.

“If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth.But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.” ~1 John 1:8-10

Today if we pray that beautiful prayer David wrote, “Create in me a clean heart, Oh God, renew a steadfast spirit within me…” God will honor that prayer.

“The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit.
You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.” ~Psalm 51:17

And may we all remember that there is not one human soul on this planet that is without sin. Only Christ was without sin and He bore all our sins so that we could be forgiven for our sins and live forever in eternity with Him.

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for sending Your one and only Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for my sins. May you create in me a clean heart and renew a steadfast spirit within me today. Please give me a heart that is willing to abide in You and obey You always. In Jesus’ holy name. Thank You, Lord. Amen.

*Prayer Song/Video: “Create in Me a Clean Heart”: I have temporarily removed my prayer song/video so that I can remake it. The original video that I posted here was created for our church Prayer Night in only 3 hours! I will re-post the video as soon as I finish making it again. I apologize for any inconvenience. Thank you for your patience, my friends! God bless! ~Suzanne