Reckless Love – Song Dive

Reckless Love – Entry #4 of 4

Today’s focus will be on the final section of the song, note that these lines are repeated until the end of the song.

There’s no shadow You won’t light up
Mountain You won’t climb up
Coming after me
There’s no wall You won’t kick down
Lie You won’t tear down
Coming after me

As children, and sometimes as adults, we are afraid of what is lurking in the shadows. Maybe the shadow is caused by a cloud blocking off part of the sun, maybe there are some tall buildings that hide the light, or maybe we are in area that just doesn’t get much light and appears to always be in the shadows. You also have those shadows that you make with your body, that are exaggerated based on the time of the day and angle of the sun, makes us look sort of funny.

What about the shadows we don’t see, but yet they are there; such as hopelessness and depression? Do you sometimes feel that you are a shadow, that you never see light in your life? Maybe you feel as if every time you look around, you only see darkness and never see the brightness of the sun. These are the shadows that we need to take to God so he can take them away. John 8:12 tells us: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” The shadows/darkness in our life occur as we are overcome by the challenges of life. Jesus is the beautiful light that helps us to stay in the light, we just need to cast our eyes on him and he has the power to keep us in the light. There is no darkness or shadow that he cannot make disappear.

Maybe we are not struggling with the challenges of hopelessness or depression, but we are overcome by obstacles that we just cannot overcome. These challenges are like huge mountains we need to climb over to either get to the top or to the other side. We are looking at that mountain as if it is all twenty-nine thousand feet of Mt Everest. Our journey up the mountain has begun and we are already getting tired and realize we are ill prepared for the journey ahead. The goal should be to make the mountain of obstacles to go away, not to climb the mountain. To make this happen, we need to put the challenge in the hands of our Savior and have faith in him that he will take care of this for us. Matthew 17:20 states: “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” Basically we are being told by Jesus that he can help us overcome any mountain in our life, all he asks of us is for us to have faith in him.

Just as we sometimes live in shadows and stare up at seemingly insurmountable mountains, we also have walls that stand before us and block our way. Perhaps they are walls we created by our actions or maybe they were created by the actions of others. They are probably mental or emotional walls that we cannot see over or around, either way they block our way and we feel as if we have no way around them. Many of these walls are created due to differing religious beliefs, different races, and differing cultures. We often struggle to accept others and their differences and this wall impacts our relationship with God. When Jesus died on the cross, he died for everyone; so shouldn’t we do our best to accept those who are different from us? Ephesians 2:14 tells us how Christ destroyed this wall: “For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us.” So once again, Christ is telling us there is no wall he can’t completely obliterate, but we must put our faith in him to make it happen.

Satan and his legion create a world of lies. They tell us how we are unworthy in all aspects of our life, how Christ was just a good man, there is no eternal life, there is no one who loves or cares for us; the list of deceptions and lies appears to be never ending. Satan is such a good liar that we don’t even realize we are being deceived until it is too late. The good news is found in John 14:6, “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Essentially Jesus is the only source of absolute truth and he trumps the lies and deceit of Satan. If we believe if Christ and put our faith in him, we will be able to see through the lies of the world and of the great deceiver.

Jesus leads us when necessary, follows behind us if that is where he needs to be, walks beside us, carries us, and is always there when we need him. He is always there to break down any barrier that gets between us and him, we just have to put our faith in him and ask for his help. As we wander off our path and get distracted by the influences of the world, he always comes to get us.

We are so fortunate and so blessed to have a reckless God who will do anything to help us spend eternity with him.

This concludes the Blog for Reckless Love.

Reckless Love – Entry #3 of 4

Today’s focus will be on the second verse of the song.

When I was Your foe, still Your love fought for me
You have been so, so good to me
When I felt no worth, You paid it all for me
You have been so, so kind to me

Have you ever considered that you were or are an enemy of our Lord? My immediate thought is that I would never be his enemy, how could I be after all he has done for me? Yet, when I stop and think about “When I was Your foe”, I realize that I was an enemy of the one who saved me. In the world today, we are constantly bombarded by news and actions that are not acceptable to God and therefore should not be acceptable to those who are saved and truly love the Lord; the vast majority of the breaking news items are focused on sinful actions. To help put this in perspective, think about your views on these recurring top news items: abortion, the various components of LGBTQ, how we treat people of other races or nationalities, people who have different political views than we do, and the list goes on. As you think about your views on the above, are you truly acting the way God would want you to act or are you acting against what the bible reveals to us? Are we doing what is right and what God wants us to do or are we going along with the way the world wants us to be? Note that I am not advocating hatred, violence, or prejudice against anyone since I believe that we should love all people even if their beliefs and actions do not align with what we are taught to believe via the word of God.

By taking the stance that you support the sins and ways of the world, you are taking a stand against God; take a breath and think about this… I think we do a lot of things because we want to be accepted by those around us and build friendships, but James 4:4 tells us “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” When James refers to adulterers and adulteresses in this verse, I believe he is referring to those who want to be part of the beliefs of the world and also profess to be a child of God, but we must make a choice. If we work hard to be friends of the world and believe what the world wants us to believe, then we have become a foe of God and told him he is no longer our friend.

In spite of the influences of the world and despite the fact that we are sometimes an enemy of God, he loves us. He still sent Jesus to die for us, so we could have eternal life despite the influences of the world. He still gave us the Holy Spirit to help guide us. He still fights for us everyday and that still small voice reminds us who we really belong to and how we should cling to the love of Christ and not be drawn into a world that becomes more sinful every day. John 15:19 tells us “If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.” This is a great verse to remember when you struggle with the conflicts between what the world believes and what Jesus requires us to believe. Even though we do not deserve his love, even though we are constantly pulled away from him by the world, and even though we struggle to keep him first in our lives; he has erased all of our sin so we can live with him forever. As the old hymn states, Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe.

Are you a friend or foe, take some time to reflect on this and choose who or what you want to serve.

Reckless Love – Entry #2 of 4

This Blog entry will be focused on the incredible chorus of this song.

Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God
Oh, it chases me down, fights ’til I’m found, leaves the ninety-nine
I couldn’t earn it, and I don’t deserve it, still, You give Yourself away
Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God, yeah

The adjectives preceding “love” are amazing as I stop and digest this one line. I believe that being overwhelmed is usually, although not always, used in a somewhat negative context. We are overwhelmed with personal issues, overwhelmed with the amount of work we have to get completed in a specific period of time, overwhelmed due to health issues, overwhelmed with family demands, or perhaps just life in general. It is on these days that are overwhelming that we just want to hide somewhere, just to escape for a while! These are the times we need to stop and remember that God doesn’t immerse us in problems or battles, he immerses us in his love and in his power. Psalm 46:1-2 tells us “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.”

Though it is hard to let go and look for that peace we need, God is there to overwhelm us with his strength and his support. He is the peace in the midst of the storm. No matter what we have done, God’s arms are always open to us. He feels our pain and perhaps cries tears along with us as he comforts us. His love is eternal and unconditional. We are told in Psalm 136:1, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.”

I believe the most powerful and possibly most misunderstood word in the chorus is reckless as it relates to the love of God. When I think of reckless, I think of a person out of control, moving forward without a plan aka flying by the seat of our pants, maybe just being careless, or perhaps references to my driving. I would have never thought of this as an adjective to describe God’s love. Maybe in our eyes, God’s love is reckless and we haven’t really stopped to think about the things he does and the possible impacts.

He has a plan for our lives from birth to our physical death, so whatever he does is part of a plan. He died for everyone and loves everyone, even though many will never understand his death on the cross nor accept his love. He didn’t expect everyone to love him, but he was willing to put himself out there and suffer the rejection. We would probably not be willing to risk our love in this way since we are not willing to face the rejection. Jesus stated he was the way, the truth, and the life and that the only way to heaven is through him. This seems like sort of a reckless statement, since once again, he opened himself up to criticism from those who do not accept that he is the son of God; yet he put himself out there. God also does not fear guilt by association, he always loves us regardless of what we have done. Others may abandon us in times of need because they are afraid of being linked to us, but God never lets us stand alone and doesn’t care what people think of him. I am glad I have the reckless love of God.

Line two of the chorus has a few interesting aspects as well when it states that this reckless love chases down. I believe he committed to staying with us from the day we were conceived. We come to love God at different ages and sometimes never, but we find in 1 John 4:19,”We love, because he first loved us.” Since he first loved us and his love is eternal, it only makes sense that he will lead us, walk with us, or chase us; whatever we need to get us on the right path. He sees us when we wander off the path and because he loves us so much, he chases us down and helps steer us back to where we belong. He fights for us as he did for the Israelites as they left the bondage in Egypt. He is always there to fight for us or along side us as we face the battles we face with temptation, sin, and despair. He doesn’t give up on us even though we often give up on him. In the parable of the one-hundred sheep in Matthew 18:12-24, when one sheep goes missing, the shepherd goes to find that one sheep. Although ninety-nine sheep were safe and accounted for, the shepherd was concerned about his entire flock. Jesus, who is our shepherd, is there for all of us and is only happy when he has his arms around all of us. We may wander off, but he will be there to pull us back if we let him.

Of our own accord, we would have never been worthy of God’s love and therefore do not deserve his love; Romans 3:10 tells us that none of us are worthy. There is nothing we could do to earn his love, no actions we could take, and no sacrifices we could make; yet he still accepted us. By sending his son to die for us, we became the eternal children of God. He knew we would sin, he knew we would make mistakes, he knew we would sometimes ignore him; but the death of Jesus on the cross took away all of our sins from the day we were born to the day we die a physical death. Such is the reckless love of God.

Reckless Love – Entry #1 of 4

The next song for my Blog was written by Caleb Culver, Cory Asbury, and Ran Jackson and was first released in 2017. A link to Cory Asbury performing the song is at the bottom of this Blog entry.

Reckless Love

Before I spoke a word, You were singing over me
You have been so, so good to me
Before I took a breath, You breathed Your life in me
You have been so, so kind to me

When I was Your foe, still Your love fought for me
You have been so, so good to me
When I felt no worth, You paid it all for me
You have been so, so kind to me

And oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God
Oh, it chases me down, fights ’til I’m found, leaves the ninety-nine
And I couldn’t earn it, I don’t deserve it, still, You give Yourself away
Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God, yeah

There’s no shadow You won’t light up
Mountain You won’t climb up
Coming after me
There’s no wall You won’t kick down
Lie You won’t tear down
Coming after me
There’s no shadow You won’t light up
Mountain You won’t climb up
Coming after me
There’s no wall You won’t kick down
Lie You won’t tear down
Coming after me
There’s no shadow You won’t light up
Mountain You won’t climb up
Coming after me
There’s no wall You won’t kick down
Lie You won’t tear down
Coming after me
There’s no shadow You won’t light up
Mountain You won’t climb up
Coming after me
There’s no wall You won’t kick down
Lie You won’t tear down
Coming after me

Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God
Oh, it chases me down, fights ’til I’m found, leaves the ninety-nine
And I couldn’t earn it, I don’t deserve it, still, You give Yourself away
Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God, yeah

I will begin the first entry in this Blog by analyzing the first verse of the song.

Before I spoke a word, You were singing over me
You have been so, so good to me
Before I took a breath, You breathed Your life in me
You have been so, so kind to me

This is a song that covers a lot of ground, but the driving focus of the song is just how much God really loves us; he always has and he always will. Before we could even speak and perhaps before we were even born, God was singing how great we are and how even greater we would become. We were probably unaware of his joy at our conception, but he and the angels were already celebrating even if we could not hear or even understand if we did hear! God was creating a special time just for us with his thoughts of love and songs of joy for each of us individually. He knew about the world around us, the challenges we would face, and our future; he wanted us to start out knowing that someone loved us regardless of how our world would change as we left the womb. This line of the song takes me to Psalm 23 where we read, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters.” He is starting us out with the same peace he will offer us the rest of our days. He is so good to us, even before knew he even existed.

The next line of the song can be very controversial and brings a tremendous amount of conflict in our society today due to the varying opinions surrounding the morality of abortions. Putting the conflict aside for the moment, the entire birth process from conception to birth is an amazing event and process. Birth is truly a miracle that could not happen without a well-orchestrated plan. Yet another miracle of God. Our heart starts beating right after conception even before we are able to breathe on our own. We are not able to breathe on our own until we exit the womb. During the period of time in the womb, oxygen gets to the infant via the umbilical cord. Oxygen is necessary for the baby to live and since the baby is immersed in fluid and does not even have developed lungs for a while; the umbilical cord is the true lifeline. The lungs are fully formed around the thirty-two week mark and the baby has the ability to breathe air at around thirty-six weeks, which means the baby has a greater chance of survival outside the womb if it makes it to week thirty-six. The first true breath of air using the baby’s fully developed lungs comes shortly after leaving the womb. During our entire time in the womb, God was forming us. He already knew we were coming, even before conception, and he already knew the plan for our life. We read in Jeremiah that God knew us before we were formed and in Psalms that God made us and fashioned us into who we would become. The net is that he has been a part of our life long before we were that twinkle in our parent’s eyes. As we escaped that womb of safety and security into a new world, God gave us that first breath of air as we entered the next phase in our lives. Yes, he was and is so kind to us and just as he protected us in the womb and prepared us for our life outside the womb, he is with us for eternity. The world is a little scarier than the security of the womb, but we can always reach out and hold his hand and depend on him. We are never alone. I believe that if we stop and take the time to communicate with God, we may even hear the song in our heart that he has been singing for us since before we were conceived.

Click Here to Hear Cory Asbury Perform Reckless Love