Brian "pb" Brijbag

Today’s QT – Psalm 78

Psalm 78 sums up 6 books of the Bible…Exodus-Judges. What would take 3 months to read if you spent 15 min. per day is summed up for us here in a brief, 3 minute overview.

 What we learn through the instruction of Asaph is truly that, anything God does thru us is in spite of who we are as sinful mankind…but He can do so much more than we allow Him to…we limit Him by not becoming 100% dedicated to the greatest life any Christian could ever hope to live, the life of building the church of the living God!

To do less is unthinkable, and limits God, and could spell the end of this place long before another generation comes and goes.

It’s time the people of God realize they are limiting the Father’s work here in the church. It’s time we stop praying, ‘God, use me’, and start praying, ‘God, make me usable’. This happens when we realize that He wants to do greater works than we can imagine, and He wants this place to become a saving refuge like no other in the area, full and overflowing!

That’s why He left us here…it’s why He led you here…you can do it, you can reach others w/ God’s help, if you’ll commit to the task, and take responsibility in your generation, and just believe it’s possible…to do less would be to limit God!

 I don’t like what I see in Israel. And often when we don’t like someone, it’s because they remind us of ourselves. Personality conflicts come when we butt heads w/ someone much like us. And so, we could point our fingers at Israel and ask them why they made such an easy task, such a short journey, into such a long, drawn out, impossible feat…but rather than do that, we should look in the mirror and say, how can I avoid doing the same thing.

The Bible says that the “dog returns to his vomit, and the pig to wallowing in the mud”
We need to stop the cycle of going in circles…constantly returning to the same sins over and over again, and get victory and go forward, doing greater things for God than we ever even considered we could do.

 How can we ever become conquerors when we’re constantly a casualty?

Today’s QT – Psalm 77

If you are singing the blues in your life it may help to know that the Psalmist understood and wrote about it in Psalm77. The man we meet in this Psalm bore all the marks that would today be diagnosed as depression. He was looking at life through dark colored glasses. He felt forgotten and forsaken by God. He couldn’t sleep. He couldn’t articulate his thoughts because of emotional exhaustion. He was tired all the time. He lived in the past longing for a day that had passed by. He remembered when he was happy and had a song in his heart, but no more, and he couldn’t seem to get back there no matter how hard he tried.

He became so depressed that he even began to question God (7-9). “Has God rejected his people?” “Does God no longer care?” “Has God lost his compassion?” These are sharp piercing questions, but they were the questions that came from the Psalmist as he wallowed in despair.

He hadn’t reached such a place over night. There is always progression in such emotional experiences. Despair begins with a disappointment that is not handled constructively. The pattern is this: disappointment leads to doubt; doubt leads to depression; and depression leads to despair. Simple disappointment is the father of despair.

Some of you may be like the psalmist and questioning whether God has left you without help in your time of trouble. But he made a startling insight that saved him from his despair. We see it in verse 10, “This is my infirmity,” he says. He recognized that the problem was with himself and not with God.

He saw that his doubts were due to his own weakness, not God’s negligence. It was at this point that he determined to do something about his problem. Four times in verses 10 and 11 he says, “I will ….”

That is significant. We are not helpless victims of our emotions. We do not have to be hijacked by our attitudes. We can take action. Our thoughts govern our moods, therefore if we think right we will feel right. Most depression arises from faulty thinking and we do have within our power to change or control our thoughts. To deal with these harmful emotions we must be mentally tough. If you don’t handle your emotions they will handle you. You must make up your mind that you are not going to allow your circumstances defeat you.

How do we have that victory?

Concentrate on God’s greatness (11-12)
Give thanks for His greatness (13-14)
And consider what He has done for you in the past (19-2)

Many times God is at work in our lives when we can’t see his footprints, but he is nonetheless at work. He will never leave us nor forsake us.

New Series at FX!

Showbread releases Fear of God

Excerpt from PB’s interview with Josh Dies:

“In our band things have changed a lot over the years.  The band started in 1997 when my brother just wanted to start a band so we could play in our church.  Over the years there’s been all kinds of people who have come and gone, there’s been all kinds of changes stylistically and musically and there’s been changes in our hearts and in our minds.  The thing is that we know, the people that are in this band know that God put them in this band for a reason and we know that reason is that He wants us to use this as a tool for His ministry.  God invented art and He invented creativity and originality and it only exists because of Him and He lets us be used to make something that we feel is special and that some other people think is special and good and the only reason is because of Him.  There’s been all kinds of things along the way conflicted with that, like if we ever got to a point where we were concerned with record sales or managers and booking agents and guarantees and money.  Not to say that we ever became corrupt in that sense, but as your job as well and God blesses us to let us be able to do this full time, those things have to occupy some place in your mind but they can never be the forefront and they can never be where your decisions are made.  So over the years and all the people that have come and gone and all the things that have changed, we are really, really happy with where we are at right now.  We feel like God has taken people out and brought people in and He’s made changes in our hearts and done all this stuff so that He can always be reinventing us to be completely focused on His purpose which is, I think, making something really special.  It’s music that I love, we’re my favorite band.  And doing it so that we can say, if there’s anything you like about this it’s not because of us.  We’ve been extremely blessed and humbled to have kids come up to us and say that these records that we just made, which we knew were going to be the most important thing we’ve done so far, that say that they made the kind of impact that we’ve been praying for, for a year now ever since the idea first came along.  So if you’re looking for your calling or you’re looking for whoever it is that you think God wants you to be, the only place to find it is in the center of God’s will.  We’re only here for a very fleeting moment, we’re just a vapor that’s here today and gone tomorrow.  The only thing important you can do is to seek a relationship with Christ and find out who God is and just revel in who God is and see what He wants you to do.  When you start worrying about other stuff, you’re worrying about something that you can’t take with you, that’s going to be gone.  God wants to give you the desire of your heart and He wants you to be happy.  He made you with a gift that He wants you to be able to use for Him and to be able to enjoy.  I say from experience to pursue God’s will and look for that absolute surrender that says, I’m not going to try to do anything anymore, just show me what to do and you will find the most joy and peace in that surrender.”