More to life than silver and gold

I'm on my 3rd morning of sharing 'devotional notes'.

Every morning I've been writing a song to captivate the phrases I feel the Lord speaking to me from the scripture, or whatever He chooses to use.

I am thinking of it as a way to be 'unhindered' and 'unleashed'.

As a songwriter, it's so easy to get caught up in honing, rhyming, syllablizing (I know - that's probably not a word) and wondering if it could be a hit or not.  Just being honest.  And if I want to make a living doing this, I should think about those things I guess.

But I'm wanting to get back to just singing to the Lord without any of these hindrances.  Don't get me wrong, they still creep around the corners of my mind, but I must press on and put aside any hindrance!

So here's the one for today: (based on Prov. 22:1,2,4,9, 17-18)

There's more to life than silver and gold
The rich and poor, God made them both
True humility and fear of the Lord
Lead to riches, honor and more

     Listen to the words of the wise
     Apply your heart to the truth
     Keep it inside of your heart
     Keep it on the edge of your lips

There's more to life than silver and gold

The rich and poor, God made them both

Being held in high esteem

Gets you more than money could bring

There's more to life than silver and gold

The rich and poor, God made them both

Blessed are those who give away

Give to the poor it's the Kingdom way.

Listen to it here:

http://tinyurl.com/MoreToLifeThanSilverAndGold

Tap, Tap, Tap

I try to read a chapter from Proverbs every day.  I've done that for years because I find myself always in need of wisdom.

Today I read from Proverbs 20 (it's the 20th of April) and I came upon one of my favorite verses.

Proverbs 20:5 says "though good advice lies deep within the heart, a person with understanding will draw it out."

That tells me that deep within my heart wisdom sits, waiting to be drawn upon.  As I allow the Holy Spirit to fill me, He gives me an overflowing supply ready for me to tap into.

I began to play a pattern on the piano and sensed the 'tap tap tap' coming up from within.  As I focus on the words I hear, I find a haunting melody comes forth.

Maybe you will enjoy it too.  Remember, take time to tap into the well you have within you. Take a listen here ("Tap, Tap, Tap")

Watch the new video to "Wonderfully Created"

Wonderfully Created
Music and lyrics by Frances Drost
Video created by Grimestone Photography

The cup or the coffee?

Last night my husband served us our snack.  How nice!

Only one problem.  He didn't bring me my drink in one of my favorite mugs.  He brought the old chipped one that I keep for him to use out in his welding shop where it can get beaten, bruised, greased and chipped and it doesn't matter.

I have a few of my favorites and I was quite disappointed when he didn't bring one of those.  I bit my tongue.  I did't want to dampen his servant heart.  It's what's in the cup that matters anyway isn't it?

I have a bright flowered mug that is ugly, but I love it because it represents an argument I had with a friend when she wanted to 'buy' my CDs and I wanted to 'give' them to her.  So she went and bought a mug of flowers for me instead.

I have another favorite that is bright red and has a cat on it.  My sister gave me that one.  Say no more.

The next one has two pigs on it and is a gift I bought for my husband because he was a pig farmer and loves baby pigs.

Then there's the great big one for the really tough days.  It was a Christmas gift from a friend, complete with cocoa mix to go with it.  It has frosty the snowman on it and works in all seasons.

I partook of my cup that he gave me without complaining.  Even though there's a chip in it, irremovable grease stains on the bottom (from the shop) and a big ugly blue logo that says Discmakers on the outside. Reminds me of the company I used to use to manufacture my CDs.  It reminds me of work.  I want to rest while I sip my drink not think about work.


I knew I could pour a meaningful application out of this if I just brewed on it long enough.

Sure enough - "man looks on the outward appearance but God looks on the heart."  Too often I've been turned off by someone just because of how they looked.  I totally missed the inside of them and misjudged them by their cover or 'cup' in this case.

Sorry Lord.

Crud on our spoons

I just finished washing dishes.  If I had a dollar for every time I wash dishes, I would be pretty well off I think.  I don't have an automatic dishwasher, so it's up to me if I want clean dishes.  And believe me, I do want clean dishes!

I'm the kind who tries to wash up everything as I go when I'm cooking.  I don't like dirty dishes to sit real long.  They are obnoxious to clean!  Our food can be on the table, ready to eat, and I'm still washing up the last of the pots and pans.  I think I've become a bit over-the-top obsessed with this practice.

I had a spiritual moment this morning while I was trying to clean a spoon that had baked beans from overnight.....(crock-pot spoon - used to stir the baked beans occasionally).  I tried to clean it, but the beans just wouldn't be removed.  Time to soak.

Soaking is the best thing for hard to clean foods, like oatmeal, eggs, over-baked casseroles and baked bean spoons.

Ah yes.  Came right off after it had soaked a while.  I began to think.

I have some areas in my life that are getting a bit dried up these days.  I can feel it.  I've been here before.  It's time for some soaking.  Extra time praying, meditating in the Word, worshipping God for who He is, setting my mind on things above.  Eventually that dried up state is going to have to slip away from the washing of the Spirit.  It can't possibly stay as the soap-suds of the Word clean my heart.

I just came back from CA and the California Women's Retreat.  Dr. RoseAnne Coleman http://www.roseannecoleman.com/ and Margaret Feinberg http://www.margaretfeinberg.com/ were the main speakers.  Though I led the worship and did a concert I got to do some soaking of my own as these two amazing women spoke.

It rained the first 2 days I was there.  Kind of a disappointment.  I wanted to see sunny CA!  It never occurred to me until this morning (one week later) as I was washing dishes, that maybe the rain was symbolic of the 'soaking' we needed at this conference.

I think we often go to these kinds of things with lots of crud on our spoons.  The only way to remove it is to soak in God's presence, which can easily be done at get-away weekends such as this one.  Maybe the rain wasn't such a bad thing after all.

When I left the CA soil in my "Alaskan Airliner", the sun was bright.  The flowers were blooming and all was well.  Maybe for some, as they left the retreat, their flowers were blooming again and their spoons were cleansed from the soaking rain of God's love.

Maybe rain wasn't such a bad thing after all.  Soaking rain.


(picture) Dr. RoseAnne Coleman and myself.

What is a Podcast?

"The podcasting movement is actually a spin-off of another communications boom: personal Weblogs, commonly referred to as blogs."


Podcasting allows you to listen to stuff you want to hear, whenever and wherever you want.  Podcasts are transferred via the internet.  In their most simple form, they are a 'radio show' that is available whenever you choose to listen.


To listen to one, you need:

1. A computer
2. A power supply
3. An Internet connection
4. An aggregator/podcatching client to subscribe and automatically download the audio content. (such as iTunes).
5. An mp3 player on the computer for listening at home or a portable MP3 player for the road.

There are 2 ways to listen to my podcast, "Inside Things":


1)  Just click the play button in the media player at the top of this blog to listen.
2) Subscribe to it from iTunes by going to the iTunes store and typing in my name "Frances Drost" in the search box.  Listed under my albums will be the podcast.  If you subscribe through iTunes, you can store the episodes in an iTunes playlist under "podcasts"and listen to it whenever you choose.  

There are many educational and just plain interesting podcasts out there, so take a look around what's available under the podcast menu in iTunes.  


While you're there, please rate my podcast and write a review - this helps to give my podcast more exposure.


Enjoy!

Tips for Wisdom from Proverbs 2:1-12

In my never ending quest for wisdom I soak up these tips from Proverbs 2.

1)  tune your ears to wisdom
2)  concentrate on understanding
3)  cry out for insight
4)  cry out for understanding
5)  search for them as you would for lost money or hidden treasure

Then.......

• you will understand what it means to fear the Lord
• you will gain knowledge of God

How do you get wisdom?

1) (He gives it) The Lord grants wisdom
2) (Read the Word) From his mouth come knowledge and understanding
3) (He grants it) He grants a treasure of good sense to the godly 
4) (Walk with integrity) He is their shield, protecting those who walk with integrity
5) (Walk justly and faithfully) He guards the paths of justice and 
protects those who are faithful to Him. 

Then.....

• you will understand what is right, just and fair
• you will know how to find the right course of action every time
• wisdom will enter your heart
• knowledge will fill you with joy
• wise planning will watch over you
• understanding will keep you safe