Tag: Peace

Walking By Faith

~ Suzanne Davis Harden
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Peace, said the Angel to the Shepherds. Source/Internet

Sometimes it’s difficult to walk by faith. God’s word says that He “calls
things that are not as though they are” and He asks us to trust Him. He asks us to see beyond what our eyes can perceive, beyond what our ears can hear, or our minds can comprehend as real.
God gives us promises that seem impossible to come true yet it is impossible for a holy God to lie. His word declares, “For no word of God will ever fail.” Luke 1:37

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Angel Choir Sings to the Shepherds/Source:Internet

 As Christmas approaches I think about the people to whom God chose to reveal His Son more than 2000 years ago on a starry night in the hills of Bethlehem.
Shepherds were among the lowest ranking groups in society yet God opened up the heavens and gave them a concert led by a host of angels from His own royal courts. The world may not have thought much of those shepherds, but God highly favored them.

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Angels sing to the shepherds/Source:Internet

They were so important to God that they have been forever engraved in His holy scriptures, while the lives of almost everyone else who lived back then have been written in the dust.
Every year almost since the church began children and adults have dressed up as those shepherds to re-enact the Christmas story. The drama has been played out in movies, operas, plays, pageants, songs, stories, and sermons.
There is no end to the references to the common shepherds whom God elevated that night on the Judean Hills when He opened up the heavens and sent an angel choir to sing the announcement of the birth of His Son to them.

Those humble shepherds had a choice to believe the angelic vision or
disbelieve. Filled with the glory of Heaven they followed the shining star over the
humble manger and found everything the angels sang about to be true.

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Shepherds Find Baby Messiah

Everyone was looking out for a Savior to deliver Israel from her oppressors. But an infant born into poverty was not the type of Savior King they expected. The shepherds, Mary, Joseph, even the Magi who were to enter the Christmas story later all had to accept by faith God’s word that this Baby was God’s Messiah.

What is faith? The author of Hebrews 11:1 writes, “Faith is what makes real the things we hope for. It is proof of what we cannot see.” The bible says of Mary that “she treasured all these things up in her heart.” And Jesus later asked His disciples to hide His word in their hearts. Why? Because “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.”

Mary, Joseph and the shepherds would have to wait 33 long years for the angel’s promise to bear any fruit. For Jesus had to grow up before He could become the Messiah. Then He would again defy appearances and challenge their faith because He was not going to be the kind of Messiah they expected.

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Bethlehem Star/Source:Internet

 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men,”
~was the song the angels had sung to the shepherds that first Christmas night. (Luke 2:14) Jesus was not just going to save Israel but the Gentiles too. He was going to save people spiritually not deliver in a political way. When Their Promised Messiah was sacrificed on the cross don’t you know their faith had to be severely challenged!

The people God chose to bear His Son were normal people like us with fears and doubts who struggled to believe God’s promises just like we so often do. But God gave them the grace to keep going forward because they kept saying “yes” to God. They kept trusting Him despite appearances. They kept choosing to walk by faith even when all hope seemed lost, even when it posed a risk to their very lives and reputations. They never gave up.

Elizabeth said to Mary when she came to her, “Great blessings are yours because you believed what the Lord said to you! You believed this would happen.” (Luke 1:45)

It is not easy to walk by faith. That is why God downloads a portion of Himself in the Person of His Holy Spirit into our hearts when we accept Jesus as our Savior. The minute we say “Yes” to Him, Christ gives Himself to us and then helps us to believe one day at a time. We just have to keep on choosing to say, “Yes, Lord, I believe, help Thou my unbelief.”

Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for understanding us so well, and for giving us Thy own Holy Spirit to help us in our weakness. Help us to walk by faith, knowing that You will never leave or forsake us, nor fail to keep every promise You make to us. We love You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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Shepherds on Judean Hills/Source:Internet

 Merry Christmas to all my readers! I’ve made a Christmas video just for you from one of the songs from my Christmas album, “*Christmas Joy.” I hope you will enjoy & be encouraged by “The Shepherds’ Song”! God Bless you with a Beautiful Christmas!
I love you all! ~Suzanne ♥

*All profits from the sales of my albums “Christmas Joy” & “God’s
Rainbow Promise” go to ministries that benefit the homeless & survivors
of Abuse. Thank You for your support of my music & for these
ministries. God Bless You Always!

AngelSong: Walking by Faith: © 2013 Suzanne Davis Harden, All Rights Reserved. “The Shepherds’ Song Music Video created by Suzanne Davis Harden, Music & Lyrics © 2013 Suzanne Davis Harden, All Rights Reserved. / Picture credits: Internet

The Rusty Nail

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

Christ Holds You In The Storm

~ Suzanne Davis Harden ~ 1 Comment

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Last Thursday I had an appointment in town. The sky was cloudy and the wind had picked up when I left my house that afternoon so I remembered to bring my umbrella thinking it might rain. I don’t usually listen to the radio or check the weather forecasts so I had no idea what kind of storms were brewing in the area.
I asked God to watch over me and to protect my little dog while I was gone and to please keep any lightning or thunder away till I could get back home since Miss Phee, my little Yorkie, is so scared of storms.

The wind gusts grew stronger as I drove down the highway into town.
Ominous clouds gathered overhead but still I did not think I had anything to worry about.
And the sky didn’t seem too threatening and there was no rain, no thunder or lightning.

My head hurt dreadfully, but it always hurt whenever a storm came remotely near. I went to my appointment and just as it was time to leave, the employee got a strange expression on her face and ran out to the lobby. When I went to pay my bill she looked at me with that same odd expression. She seemed very worried. “You be careful going home, you hear..I’m gonna call and make sure you make it home safely..”
The receptionist glanced outside nervously and said the same thing to me. I wondered why they were fretting so much. Then I looked out the window.
The sky was dark and heavy with the most ominous looking clouds I have ever seen. The wind was raging. Someone mentioned that there had been terrible tornado like storms already passing through one of our neighboring towns.
I paid my bill and said, “I’ll be okay, I will pray my way home.”
The receptionist laughed nervously.
I looked out the window. It never occurred to me before I stepped out the door of the building that day that a storm could harm me.

I went to open the door to leave but the wind was so fierce I could barely get it to open.
Although my vehicle was only about 15 feet away, the wind threatened to knock me off my feet and blow me away. I prayed all the way to my car–it was as if I was in a battle with a force that was determined to destroy me.
When I finally got to my car and managed somehow to get the door open despite the gale fighting against me, suddenly I was thrown up into my SUV and the door slammed shut after me and all 4 doors automatically locked on their own! This was amazing since the battery for the remote for my keys has been dead for over a year now.
Then my vehicle started rocking back and forth by the force of the wind as if it was going to turn over.
I was terrified!

No one was in sight. Everyone else had been smart enough to stay inside the building.
So I did the only thing I could do– I cried out to Jesus to stop the wind just as He did on the Sea of Galilee for His terrified disciples 2000 years ago. I cried, “Jesus, Your word says You are the same yesterday, today, and forever! I told those people in there I was going to trust You to get me home safely! Please show them You are going to do just that! GOD, Don’t let this wind destroy me in this car! Please calm this wind to a whisper in the mighty name of Jesus, at whose name ALL THINGS MUST BOW, even the wind!!!”

I was so glad no one could see me yelling and praying for my life because I am sure I must have looked like~~who knows what!!! ~ but it does not matter.
God HEARD my prayer! That awful wind DID obey the Lord’s name; Jesus calmed that mighty wind to a whisper. Suddenly my car stopped rocking, and His Spirit calmed me down.
I glanced around and saw people slowly coming out of their  hiding places. I could not stop thanking the Lord for His faithfulness as I prayed my way home. The Lord kept me safe though it was still raining cats and dogs. Our house never lost power and not one tree lost a limb. God kept kept His word to me.

According to News reports our area suffered from something called a Derecho Storm System last week. We had sustained winds of up to 70  mph. Our area and surrounding counties suffered extensive damage with 10,000 homes in the NRV alone without power. On Sunday when I wrote this, some people were still without electricity due to those fierce storms.

We serve a mighty, LIVING God.  God’s word says that at the name of Jesus Christ all things must bow, in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. I saw living proof of that last week when The Lord calmed the mighty wind to a whisper before my eyes and kept me safe in the storm.
God never promises we won’t experience storms in our life. Nor does He promise that we won’t sometimes have to experience suffering as a result of those storms.
But if we will have faith and trust in Him, His word assures us that He will be with us in every storm and guide us safely home.

Romans 8:35-36, 37, 38-39
“Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”
No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love.
Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”