Psalm 98

'Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things.: his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. 2 The Lord has made his salvation known and revealed his righteousness to the nations. 3 He has remembered his love and his faithfulness to the house of Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. 4 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music; 5 make music to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and the sound of singing, 6 with trumpets and the blast of the ram's horn- shout for joy before the Lord, the King. 7 Let the sea resound, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. 8 Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy; 9 let them sing before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity.'

Okay, today was one of those beautiful break-through type days. Gosh, thank you Lord!

Here's the deal: (I say that alot, but I'm not gonna stop)

Pretend this is the beginning of the post, because Psalm 98 is actually the end part where things just come together beautifully.

I'm on the road with a worship band. And it's hard. And we all see each others' everything. There's 8 of us total (usually- these two weeks in Orange Beach we are down to 7), including one girl (Taylor- Nick's wife), so you can imagine the amount of stress when we are on the road for hours together in a van and setting up gear for 12 hours or so on Sunday nights and tearing down until 3 or 4 am on Friday mornings.

Doing this 12 hours after landing from Africa has made it even harder, because it's just not 'how it should be' as a worship band tour. We're supposed to be praying over each other, worshiping as a band while off stage, etc., right? not necessarily.

God has a crazy way of doing things. And it's ALWAYS to get to our hearts. He wants us to be completely His. No, some aren't called to give everything up physically (although I'd argue that many more are called to that than are doing that at the moment), but EVERYONE is called to be found in Jesus. We are all called to be living in mind-blowing intimacy with Him EVERYDAY.

So today was one of those days where a ton of things that were disjointed all of a sudden fell together. And a lot of it is thanks to a penny I found on the ground. (Some of you who are close to me are smiling right now). God does a weird thing with me and pennies. And I know a few people who have it too. But it's awesome. God puts pennies on the ground for me to find at beautiful times. The penny was 1998 and I just for some reason knew I had to read Psalm 98 because of it. And it couldn't have been more perfect. The last few days I've received news of things being stirred in the Kingdom as I've known it. There's a lot of change and movement happening. Not to be vague or anything (wink. sorry.) In the midst of that, I've had people talk to me from some very vulnerable and intimate places too. Basically, as I've said before- the Enemy is so pissed. And I love it.

Sorry, whoever reads this. This is so jumbled up. Anyway, I'll just wrap this up. We had some ridiculous worship tonight in spite of what felt like some confusing, frustrating few days slash weeks slash month. We saw many saved and a cross covered in things the Enemy were binding people by. The theme was FREEDOM: something that's been prophesied over me a lot lately.

HERE'S WHERE PSALM 98 TIES IN:

v. 1: Tonight's worship was ground breaking for our band. I was running sound, and I got to pray over the band as we played through the talkback mic in the midst of some spiritual warfare.

v. 2: We just got back from seeing God make his salvation known to the 'nations' (Mozambique).

v. 3: Some things I've been hearing about (the movements, changes, confusing developments, etc.) are just reminding me of God remembering His covenant with me that He will never leave me, and that He will continue to be intimately involved in my life, allowing me to keep falling in love with Him.

v. 4-6: Tonight's worship again. I wish you could have been there. Very Sigur Ros- like, completely the Lord's notes coming through the speakers, literally shaking everyone's chests.

v. 7-8: I can see the sea from where I'm sitting. And hear it clapping for the Lord. It will never stop.

v.9: Again, beautiful, joyous worship in awe of the Most Terrifyingly Awesome.

So here we go- this is kinda what I wrote in my journal during worship:

I don't give a crap what happens to me- where I end up living, how 'comfortable' I am, how in control I am, how much money I have or need, if people leave me or stay around me, if You give or take away. I belong to You. (just looked at the clock- 12:31- my birthday, and a very personal number that pops up when I'm being given identity) I'm yours, Jesus. Do whatever you want with me. Wreck my life. Make me look like Job if you want to. I really don't care. Whatever means more of you in my life. And for those times when I wish I hadn't prayed this- disregard them. This is my hearts desire. This is you inside me coming out, interceding for me. I don't need anything from anyone except you. You really are everything I will ever need.

I love you, Lord. Bless the people who read this, and despite my jumbled writing right now, allow your words to stick.