July 28
18He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner among you, giving them food and clothing. 19And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt. (Deuteronomy 10:18-19, The Jesus Bible)
Happy Friday Y’all. I am steadily trying to push through as much of the Old Testament as I can in the next five-to-six weeks. I am reading The Jesus Bible out loud to our baby, SGZ3, in the hopes that reading the Word of God over her will bless her life. I did this with our first born, the original SGZ, and two days ago we celebrated her turning 12-years-old.
Twelve was a difficult birthday for me. I took the night off from work to be home for the small little gathering we had for her. SGZ1 stopped wanting parties when she turned nine, but last year we surprised her with a pool party, inviting a small group of her best friends. This year, our trip to Helen was part of her birthday celebration as we were supposed to make that trip two years earlier for her tenth birthday, but she caught COVID, and it ran through the household. So on Wednesday, SGZ1 had her two best friends over all day. They went to the pool, hung out in her room, went exploring around the pond our yard backs up to, and wanted nothing to do with Dad. So begins the teenage years, a year earlier than I hoped, when I will have to fight for her attention to stay relevant in her life.
As I wrote this, all three of our children were sitting on our sectional, the baby attacking both of the older two. Above their heads, decorating our wall is the Bible verse: “A cord of three strands is not easily broken (Ecclesiastes 4:12)”. Having three children all six years apart from each other is extremely challenging, but extremely fun as well. In five days we will have a seventh grader, a first grader, and a soon to be one-year-old. Mrs. Z and I pour our hearts into these kids and we pray that the end result is that they are God-loving, Jesus-following, Kingdom-building, responsible, productive members of society. We try to teach them the greatest truths from the Bible, such as Love God, and Love others as you love yourself. Important truths like the guidance in the verses above, where Moses stresses to the Israelites that the second greatest commandment after loving God with all your heart and soul is treating the orphan, widow, and foreigner with great love and compassion. As you all know, Jesus built on these fundamental truths to be the cornerstone of Christianity. So the cord of three strands that we are weaving together is rooted in the teachings of Christ, forming a bond we pray is never broken.
Three days ago I blindly shared Pastor Steven Furtick’s sermon from last week without listening to more than three minutes of the message. Well, since then, I have listened to the full sermon twice now (it is that good) and I wanted to share it again, in case you missed it back on Tuesday.
Finally, to recap the three wonderful new albums released last Friday, I had already mentioned Jesus Culture’s new work. Joining them is another fun, upbeat album from Planetshakers. Click here to listen to a preview of that collection. But my favorite release from last week is the extremely unique blend of sounds on Dante Bowe’s third full length record. Mr. Bowe has such a soulful voice, and he delivers that talent in fourteen wonderfully different sounds on his self-titled album. Click here to experience this masterful artistry for yourself. Below is one of my favorite tracks. I hope you all have a blessed weekend! I will try my best to share more verses with y’all in the next few days. God bless you all.
Common Sense Reborn 