He'll love till the world ends

Life's been crazy, as usual, but I can't say that I would change that for anything.  Sometimes I think that crazy is good, and other times that good is crazy... it gets complicated. 

 But no matter what, I want to talk about something that I've been relearning lately:  God won't give up on you.  It doesn't matter what you do, how horrible you've been, what your past is like.  God simply won't give up.  He won't let go.  I'm listening to a song by Disciple right now, an older one called After the World.  You've probably heard it before...

 "Was I there for the worst of all your pain?
And was I there when your blue skies ran away?
Was I there when the rains were flooding you off of your feet?
Those were my tears falling down for you, falling down for you

(chorus)
I'm the one that you've been looking for
I'm the one that you've been waiting for
I've had my eyes on you ever since you were born
I will love you after the rain falls down
I will love you after the sun goes out
I'll have my eyes on you after the world is no more

Did I arrange the light of your first day?
Did I create the rhythm your heart makes?
Could you believe when your candle starts to fade
I want to be the one that you believe
could take it all away, take your heart away"

This song is a direct letter from God to me—this is when I love music so much, when the lyrics stands out among the beat and teach me something that I wasn't even looking for.  In this case, it's teaching me that life, however horrible, however hard, is lived with a certain SomeOne at my side.  And that SomeOne has loved me since I was born, and He'll love me until the world ends. 

 That's true for us all—God will never, never let us go or stop loving us.  He is there for the worst of our life, just standing there next to us, waiting for us to talk to Him.  Waiting for us to recognize Him, to let Him help us through.  He won't let you go.

The Relationship of a Lifetime

I went to the Rock and Worship Roadshow over the weekend and Bart Millard, the lead singer of MercyMe, said something that really struck me. He was talking about our relationship with God and how our lives shouldn't be the same after we accept Jesus into our lives as before. He said, "is there ever one of those times when all of a sudden, when you're praying or reading the Bible or just thinking about the Lord, that all of a sudden He's just all over you, dripping from your beard [for those of you who have one!], so close to you that He's inside of you, and you know, you just know that life will never be the same?" That's the relationship between you and God. And your life is going to be different. There's no way around it.Mary knew about this relationship when she sang the song recorded in Luke chapter 1:

“My soul glorifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
to Abraham and his descendants forever,
just as he promised our ancestors.”

When you read this song of adoration you can see the joy and peace that lies behind it. When Mary sang it she was so exultant to the Lord that the words most likely poured out, almost on their own, trying to let the wonderful joy Mary had stored up inside her out to the world, to show it a little bit of the love the Lord had for His people. David, in many of the Psalms, shows this same spirit of exultation in Psalm 111, when he says,

"Praise the LORD.
I will extol the LORD with all my heart
in the council of the upright and in the assembly.
Great are the works of the LORD;
they are pondered by all who delight in them.
Glorious and majestic are his deeds,
and his righteousness endures forever.
He has caused his wonders to be remembered;
the LORD is gracious and compassionate.
He provides food for those who fear him;
he remembers his covenant forever.
He has shown his people the power of his works,
giving them the lands of other nations.
The works of his hands are faithful and just;
all his precepts are trustworthy.
They are established for ever and ever,
enacted in faithfulness and uprightness.
He provided redemption for his people;
he ordained his covenant forever—
holy and awesome is his name.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom;
all who follow his precepts have good understanding.
To him belongs eternal praise."

I can just picture the people of Israel dancing to such a song of glorification and joy, dancing a wild dance of raw beauty and love for their wonderful Lord and true King. That's what I think of when I look back on listening to Bart from MercyMe that night—that's what true joy and adoration are, what it really means to have a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Footsteps

This is the video "Footsteps" by New Tribes Mission, featuring the Bible Translator Lisa Kappeler.  It's an amazing look into the lives of the people serving the Lord on the mission field.

When life gives you lemons...

Have you ever heard the phrase, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade?"   My understanding of the sentence is that when bad things come your way, you should simply make something good out of them, or at least look at them in the most positive manner possible.  I struggle with that one, with being happy despite the circumstances, and I think that a lot of other people do, too.  Sometimes other people become down about something that we think isn't a big deal, and we think that they just need to lighten up a bit and then life'll go on just fine.  Other times, it's the opposite—we make a big deal out of a seemingly small thing, and other people start avoiding us because we're complaining and upset about something that's really out of our control.  That's where we need to look to God.
I did a study on the will of God and how we should react to it today, just so I can understand why "bad things" happen in our lives, and what we should do when things don't exactly go our way.  1 Peter 4:19 sums up the whole matter really well:

So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.

That passage is really hard to comprehend, even though it reads easily enough.  Some people may say that the summery of the verse is "if you're suffering or hurting, it's according to God's will and you should respond to his will by doing good."  I disagree.  I think that the summery should go something like this: "Our faithful and loving Lord will at times make us suffer by His will; during these times we must commit ourselves to His faithfulness and continue to grow and mature in Him."  We need to trust Jesus in the times of our suffering, rejection, pain, or frustration—this is the only way that we are able to grow and do good.  If we chose instead to turn away from God and vent our frustration and anger against other people, all it does is cause more hurt, but God's made a way for us to grow through it instead—by keeping close to Him.
So the next time "life's giving you lemons," don't give them back or act like they don't exist.  Make a big pitcher of lemonade—something sweet from the pain—and share it with family, friends, and most importantly, God!

My Hero

I was listening to the radio today and heard the song Hero by Abandon.  The song has a really neat chorus in it—

There he goes—a hero

A savior to the world
Here he stands with scars in his hands
With love he gave his life so we could be free
The savior of the world

The song really made me stop and think—it's truly about what trusting, believing, and living in God is all about—the Savior of the world, the One who stands watching us with love in His eyes as He is nailed to a tree.  This is the One who let men beat Him, women spit on Him, carried His own cross up the hill until He collapsed under the weight and pain.  He gave Himself to us to be killed, and He let us kill Him without mercy.  And then we watched Him die.
Acts 3:14-15 says exactly what I'm trying to get across here: "You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you.  You killed the author of life, but God raised Him from the dead." (emphasis added)

We, (you, me, everyone) in this crazy, broken, hurting, dead world we live in killed that Man.  And it wasn't just a man—it was the Lord, God, the One and Only, the Beginning and the End.  The Author of Life.  Our Creator.

He died, we live.  He rose, we'll rot.  How do we explain this?  Christ the Lord died, we killed him, but then He rose.  And here we are—alive in the body, moving, living, breathing, but when we die, we don't ascend into heaven, we get tossed into the ground.  As I read my Bible during school today I came across some other people who were wondering about this—why the Savior of the world died, and why we killed Him—and why He rose and we die.  The people of Acts were sort of concerned about the whole confusing thing, so Peter began explaining it to them.  They were "cut to the heart" and scared, unsure of how they would enter heaven if they were simply going to die.  They asked Peter and his friends,

"'Brothers, what shall we do?'

Peter replied, 'Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.  And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.'"  (Acts 2:37-38, emphasis added)

That's what the song makes me think off—here's this guy with blood running off his hands, his head, his feet, with bruises and cuts all over his body, and yet he endures it without complaint.  For us.  He wants us to understand that a true hero is one who loves above all else, who doesn't mind ridicule, who is willing to forgive.  He is the hero, the Savior of the world.