Guest Blogger: Rob Sharp

Rob Sharp, Worship Minister at Ellerbe Road Baptist Church, Shreveport, LA, is today’s guest blogger at DoYouKnowHowGodLovesYou.blogspot.com. I first met Rob – we called him Robby back then – when he was in high school. He and my daughter Christie became friends at band camps and district honor bands. Rob is a percussionist. When he attended Louisiana Tech, my husband, who taught trumpet there and directed the concert band, had the highest regard for him.

Rob says, “I was a band director for 4 years (LA, AR, TX) before surrendering to fulltime ministry. I then got my Masters from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and have been on staff at churches in Louisiana and Texas involved in worship ministry for the past 11 years.”

Mr.Cheatham shared a little story with me. “Anytime I get a chance I pass along the wisdom your husband passed down to me about being a successful professional musician, a lot of which could be described as how to be an effective and committed church musician/worship leader. It has seved me well as a professional and worship leader!”
•Be on time
•Be prepared
•Don’t make it about you
•Serve the song
•Be a good person and work well with others
•Remember where your talent comes from
•Be grateful

When Rob wrote the following, he was going through a difficult time in his life:

Hopelessness

Hopelessness is not a fun thing to experience. I would like to propose there may be times that we aren’t hopeless enough. That just doesn’t sound right, does it? Well, it all depends on who our hope is in. Even as believers we tend to feel hopeless about situations, because we cannot fix them.

If we are truly hopeless we would stop trusting in ourselves and start trusting Jesus and what he accomplished on the cross for us. Hopelessness stems from not being in control and we are not. But we know who is and there comes a time when we need to act like we know Him and place our trust in Him.

So how does one do that? The same way we grow in our relationship: we choose to praise Him, pray to Him, and press into His word deeper. I am not saying that is easy, but it is a choice! To praise Him in the midst of the storm is something even the disciples had trouble with.

If we are hearing His take on the situation, we know that He is control and we are letting Him guide us through it, we suddenly discover true hope. It’s not always about Him delivering us out of a situation; sometimes it about Him carrying us through it.

Faith, hope and love and the greatest of these is love. He is love; so get to know who love is and let Him be the finisher of your faith and give you hope beyond yourself. See He loves you enough to deliver you through situations instead of delivering you out of it because it develops perseverance, perseverance - character, and character – hope.

Romans 5:3-5
3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.





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Vonda Skelton's Blog

Noted author and inspirational speaker Vonda Skelton has given me the privilege of contributing as a guest blogger on her Christian Writer's Den Blog. Visit her blog here.

Guard My Ax by Mary Lou Cheatham

Grandpa Bud lived at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century in rural Mississippi. He had a loyal dog that he trained to help him with his work. Grandpa's land was a mixture of fields and forests of virgin timber. He cut trees for fuel and to build a new house. Often he worked alone or with one other relative. . . .