Stanley Simpson

You Raise Me Up

The next song for my Blog was written by Brendan Graham and Rolf Lovland and was first released in 2002. A link to Josh Groban performing the song is at the bottom of this Blog entry.

You Raise Me Up

When I am down, and, oh, my soul, so weary
When troubles come, and my heart burdened me
Then, I am still and wait here in the silence
Until you come and sit awhile with me
You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains
You raise me up to walk on stormy seas
I am strong when I am on your shoulders
You raise me up to more than I can be
You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains
You raise me up to walk on stormy seas
I am strong when I am on your shoulders
You raise me up to more than I can be
You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains
You raise me up to walk on stormy seas
I am strong when I am on your shoulders
You raise me up to more than I can be
You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains
You raise me up to walk on stormy seas
I am strong when I am on your shoulders
You raise me up to more than I can be
You raise me up to more than I can be

I don’t normally write about songs that are primarily a repetition of a chorus and have very little verse, but this song is so powerful that I decided to add it to my Blog. As you listen to the song via the link below, listen without distraction to the building power each time the chorus is repeated. I was blown away by the power of the message of the song and the delivery by Josh Groban. The song doesn’t mention God or Jesus, but the words are about things only they could do and have done.

There are many times when we are down and feel as if nothing is going right in our lives. Maybe there are problems at home, at work, with family, with friends, money, and the list seems to go on and on. On some days, it just seems as if we are facing the perfect storm of problems that just seem to drag us down. On these bad days, we feel pain and misery to our very core, to our soul. We have trouble coming out of the pit and struggle to find any joy in our life. Does any of this seem to resonate with you and how your life just seems to sometimes fall apart?

The best thing we can do is try to stop the noise and the outside influences and open ourselves to our Savior. As we start blocking out the world, we start opening our heart and senses to the Holy Spirit, which resides within each of us once we have accepted Christ as our savior. I am not saying it is easy to find this quiet time or quiet space, but we can’t communicate effectively with God unless we allow ourselves to listen to that still small voice. He is always there, so the challenge is with us to open our hearts and minds to his guidance and peace. As we start to feel his presence in our heart and soul, we also start to feel his peace. How long he sits with us is really up to us, maybe it is a minute, a few minutes, or even longer; but it is this peace that helps us to win the battles each and every day. The less we communicate with God, the more difficult and challenging the battles become.

The chorus jumps in with how God can immediately raise us above the battles we face everyday. He can make us feel as if we have been taken to the highest mountain. Stop for a minute and think about being on a tall beautiful mountain. What can you see, what can you hear, who made the mountain anyway? Psalm 121 tells us who made the mountains: I lift up my eyes to the hills– where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. From my perspective, I see the beauty of the surrounding mountains and valleys, I don’t hear anything except maybe wind and birds, and I only feel peace. God can give us this feeling without leaving wherever we are, we just need to let him. God doesn’t need to actually take us to the top of a physical mountain for us to have the escape, but he showed many times in the bible that he can if necessary. Abraham, Moses, and Elijah were all called to a mountain by God. Jesus called Peter, John, and James to the mountain to witness the transfiguration.

The first line of the chorus tells how God can lead us to inner peace. The second line tells us how God can lead us through the most difficult times. Troubled waters is a good analogy for the bad days in our life. The waters, aka problems, become so scary that we do not want to even risk getting in a boat to get to escape and we certainly don’t want to get out of the boat in the midst of the storm. Jesus tried to show Peter that all it took was faith and trust in him and he could walk on the troubled waters; and Peter did walk until he took his eyes off of the savior. It is in quiet time with God when we get our strength and as soon as we break our quiet time, we are back in the midst of the storm. The longer we have our focus on God, the less time we have to spend navigating the troubled waters.

The third line of the chorus reminds me of the Footprints poem when the person asked Jesus why there was only one set of footprints in the sand when life was the most difficult; and Jesus replied that was when he carried us. This line references how strong we can be when on the shoulders of Christ. Basically we are invincible when we are relying completely on God. Yes, we will have tough days with challenging battles going on in our lives, but nothing can separate us from him, his love, and the peace only he can offer. He has guaranteed us an eternal life of peace and love once we leave this place. On the bad days, a good go-to verse for me is Isaiah 40:31 which says: but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. So basically he is giving us the strength and courage we need if we just rely on him. Every battle we face has already been won by God.

The last line of the chorus gives us the encouragement we need to take another step and take on another challenge. We can be spiritually lifted up higher than we can ever imagine. We can be stronger than we ever thought possible. We can have a peace that exceeds our highest expectations. God can raise us up to be more than we dreamed we could be and allow us to achieve far greater things than we ever envisioned.

Just stop and think about who you could really be and what you could really do if you allowed God to raise you up.

Click Here to View Josh Groban Perform You Raise Me Up

Why Me Lord

This Blog entry is for a song written and sung by Kris Kristofferson in 1972. Click on the link at the end of the Blog to hear the song performed by Kris Kristofferson.

Why Me

Why me Lord, what have I ever done
To deserve even one
Of the pleasures I’ve known
Tell me Lord, what did I ever do
That was worth loving you
Or the kindness you’ve shown.
Lord help me Jesus, I’ve wasted it so
Help me Jesus I know what I am
Now that I know that I’ve need you so
Help me Jesus, my soul’s in your hand.
Tell me Lord, if you think there’s a way
I can try to repay
All I’ve taken from you
Maybe Lord, I can show someone else
What I’ve been through myself
On my way back to you.
Lord help me Jesus, I’ve wasted it so
Help me Jesus I know what I am
Now that I know that I’ve need you so
Help me Jesus, my soul’s in your hand.

I believe this song poses a few questions that many of us may have asked over the course of our lives. There are perhaps many times we ask, “Why Me Lord” in times of anger, sadness, and disappointment, but this song focuses on the undeserved blessings we receive in our lives.

The writer starts by asking what has he ever done to deserve any blessings/pleasures from God. For this question to really resonate, we must first realize the blessings we have received. How often do you stop and think about those blessings, think about the timing, and also thank God for bestowing these blessings to you? The reality is we do not deserve anything from God since we constantly do things we should not do and we leave him out of our lives most of the time. If God was like many of us, he would have turned his back on us a long long time ago and never looked back. God loving us in spite of us ignoring him is yet another blessing.

The song addresses how our lives are wasted as we wander along our path in life without acknowledging God’s love for us or how he sacrificed his only son for us. Recognizing what we have done is truly devastating and it is true that our life before Christ was wasted. Yes, we may have done some good things, but we were perhaps doing them for the wrong reasons. What were we doing to help others secure eternal life through the sacrifice of the life of Jesus? It is true we may have helped others for a time, but did we help them for eternity? We realize where we failed when we turn our lives over to Christ and accept him as our Savior; we are then allowing him to mold us and shape us and not relying on ourselves.

The remorse of not knowing God shows as the writer seeks a way to repay God for everything he has done for us and his willingness to love us even though we ignored him. Although we can never repay God, the good news is that he never expects repayment; he only desires that we follow him the remaining days of our lives and ultimately spend eternity with him. Isn’t that an awesome thought, unquestionable love with no strings attached? All he wants is for us to accept Christ as our Lord and Savior.

Once we have given our hearts to him, then we will begin to understand the value of his love, what eternal life means, and to be eager to share this with everyone we come in contact with. Have you ever taken the time to write down your life story and how you came to know Christ? Once you have taken the time to write your story, then you can become prepared to share your story. God wants others to know your story and how you came to the point of giving your life to him. Others need to know the mistakes we have made and how God has loved us forever even when we did not include him in our life. We cannot repay God and he does not expect us to, but he does expect us to share our story and bring his children into the fold.

As the writer says, our soul is in his hand.

Click to Hear Kris Kristofferson Sing Why Me Lord

The King is Coming

We know that Jesus the King of Kings will be coming back as he promised. This song paints a picture of perhaps what it might be like if he came to your city. We don’t know when he is coming or exactly where we will see him, but we do know he will be taking the saved back home with him. As you read the lyrics and/or listen to the song, think about how you would feel and what he has done for you.

This next song for my Blog was written by: Gloria Gaither, Willam J. Gaither, and Charles Millhuff and first released in 1970. A link to the Gaither Vocal Band performing the song is at the bottom of this Blog entry.

The King Is Coming

The marketplace is empty
No more traffic in the streets
All the builders’ tools are silent
No more time to harvest wheat
Busy housewives cease their labors
In the courtroom no debate
Work on earth is all suspended
As the King comes thro’ the gate
O the King is coming
The King is coming
I just heard the trumpets sounding
And now His face I see
O the King is coming
The King is coming
Praise God, He’s coming for me
Happy faces line the hallways
Those whose lives have been redeemed
Broken homes that He has mended
Those from prison He has freed
Little children and the aged
Hand in hand stand all aglow
Who were crippled, broken, ruined
Clad in garments white as snow
O the King is coming
The King is coming
I just heard the trumpets sounding
And now His face I see
O the King is coming
The King is coming
Praise God, He’s coming for me
I can hear the chariots rumble
I can see the marching throng
The flurry of God’s trumpets
Spells the end of sin and wrong
Regal robes are now unfolding
Heaven’s grandstand’s all in place
Heaven’s choir now assembled
Start to sing “Amazing Grace”
O the King is coming
The King is coming
I just heard the trumpets sounding
And now His face I see
O the King is coming
The King is coming
Praise God, He’s coming for me

We know that the King will be coming back as he promised and this song paints a picture of perhaps what it might be like if he came to your city. We don’t know when he is coming, but we are told every eye will see him. As you read the lyrics and/or listen to the song, think about how you would feel and what he has done for you. This song is not about the theology of the rapture and the second coming, but about the impact Jesus might have if he arrived at an entrance to your city. I get excited as I think about the words in this song and the emotions it brings.

With today’s social media and news media, we can always be aware of everything going on around the world at any time. The word starts to spread that Jesus has been seen and is heading into the city. Of course everyone wants to see him, especially the believers. Non-believers, the majority of whom have probably heard about Jesus, want to see this curiosity, this person proclaiming to be the son of God.

The malls, shopping centers, schools, offices will all be vacated as the word of his coming spreads. As the traffic backs up, people get out of their vehicles to run to a location where they think they can see the King. The moms and dads who are at home are running out with their children, the sounds of all construction ceases, and all other activities cease. The only sounds are the whispers of “he is coming” and “can you see him yet.” Everyone is focused on this one event.

The trumpets start to sound, announcing his arrival, and the noise level in the crowd rises as they strain their necks to see him or perhaps seek higher ground as they try to see him. All of a sudden the first people see the King and the noise level rises among the crowd. Maybe some are just praising him at the top of their lungs, some may be dancing with joy, and some may just be standing in awe. I am sure that the crowd is pressing forward as people just want to be closer to him or to touch him. Each of the believers know that he has come to take them home. There will be many people with their faces plastered to the windows. Every floor with windows overlooking the arrival is packed with onlookers and their happy faces. The people who have accepted Christ have been redeemed and they are probably overwhelmed to see the man who died for them so they could join him in eternal life.

The people who survived broken homes, abuse, abandonment, infidelity are there because they found their way to Christ, perhaps the only love they have ever felt. The song references people who have been freed from prison and this could be the actual release from a physical prison or maybe a release from a prison of sin and despair. I am not sure it means that the person in the real prison was actually released, but it is someone who knows that they have spiritual freedom because of Christ and also have eternal life.

The little children who are probably looking on in awe and maybe not understanding all that is going on, but have heard about the King from their parents. The elderly or aged, are standing there with the children and perhaps reflecting back to the time they came to know Jesus, a good reason for their faces to be glowing. The elderly can sense that their aches, pains, and struggles in life are finally over and that they are nearing a reunion with their loved ones whom they have lost over the years.

The closer the King gets to us, the louder the rumbling of the chariots become. Our hearts are racing and we are filled with emotion as he draws closer. The crowds are getting bigger and the trumpets are getting louder and we can finally see his face. We are ready to be swept away from a sinful world that we battle every day. The angels are in their flowing robes and have formed their choir in the grandstands of heaven. Can you just imagine the sound of them singing Amazing Grace? I can feel the emotion just thinking about that time, that sound, and what is waiting for me.

We have run the race and fought the fight and we, as the redeemed, are finally coming home.

Click to hear the Gaither Vocal Band sing The King is Coming

In Remembrance of Me from Celebrate Life

The next song for my Blog was written by Ragan Courtney and Buryl Red and was first released in 1972 as part of the Celebrate Life Musical. A link to Cynthia Clawson performing the song is at the bottom of this Blog entry.

This song has a very special meaning to me. I was part of a church youth choir that toured various sites in Israel and we sang at each of the historical sites. Some of the sites included the Garden Tomb, Bethlehem Square on Christmas Eve, and the Upper Room. I can still remember walking up those worn steps to get to the Upper Room and then entering what is now an empty room with columns being the only items within the room. It was amazing to be where Jesus conducted the Last Supper and let his disciples know what was about to happen. We then sang this song. As we sang in this special place, I was filled with emotion as the sounds began reverberating off the walls and thought about what our Savior was preparing to do for each of us. My visit was many years ago, but the words of this song are even more powerful to me today.

In Remembrance

In remembrance of me eat this bread
In remembrance of me drink this wine
In remembrance of me pray for the time
When God’s own will is done

In remembrance of me heal the sick
In remembrance of me feed the poor
In remembrance of me open the door
And let your brother in, let him in

Take eat and be comforted
Drink and remember too
That this is my body and precious blood
Shed for you, shed for you

In remembrance of me search for truth
In remembrance of me always love
In remembrance of me don’t look above
But in your heart, in your heart
Look in your heart for God

Do this in remembrance of Me
Do this in remembrance of Me
In remembrance of Me

This entire song is about Jesus reminding us to remember the sacrifice he became to save all of us, remember his teachings, remember his love for others, and remember to follow the message he has placed in our hearts.

We have communion at church on a regular basis and it is intended to be a reminder for each of us in regards to what happened in that Upper Room long ago. Jesus gave his life so we could have eternal life. As we eat and drink from that communion table, that is what we are supposed to be remembering; nothing else in our lives is more important that the true meaning of communion. Along with remembering the sacrifice of Christ, we also need to pray that it is God’s will that needs to be done. It is not about us and our problems and our dreams, it is about what God wants. God has already promised us eternal life if we accept his sacrifice, so why wouldn’t we be willing to give our all to fulfill his will for us while on this earth?

Jesus was followed by people in need everywhere he went. He always took time to heal the sick, feed the hungry, and to share his message. He didn’t care what the people looked like, where they came from, why they were in the situation they were in, or even if they were potential enemies. He told us that everyone is our brother or sister in Christ and he has directed us to treat all of these people the same as he did. We should be opening the doors of our hearts to anyone in need. It seems as if too many people today only want to help those of the same nationality, same race, or same political beliefs. As the song implies and Jesus has stated, everyone is our brother and sister, we should be willing to help them regardless of whether they look or believe as we do.

The third verse reminds us that as we take our communion, we should feel the comfort and peace that comes through Christ. He wants us to remember his sacrifice, that was made just for us, so that we could spend eternity one day with him. He only reminds us to show us just how much he loved us, and that our focus needs to be on him and his plan for us. It is also so sad that Jesus had to die for me to gain eternal life.

Hopefully we all go to church on a regular basis, but it is also extremely important that we spend time in prayer and reading our bibles every day. We find truth and gain knowledge through all three of these avenues, we shouldn’t just depend on one of these. Jesus tells us that he is the way, the truth, and the life. To know truth is to strive everyday to be like Jesus. Jesus alone understood the essence of truth and the will of the father, and he was not distracted by the things of the world that influence us so deeply today. To seek truth is to follow the true path Jesus set before us. In addition to seeking the truth, we are also reminded in this fourth verse to always love. Some people hurt us, some people don’t like us, some consider us enemies; but Jesus commanded us to love everyone. No, we may not be happy with the way some people treat us, and we do not have to be their best friends; but we should still love them and pray for them. Sort of like the old adage, hate the sin but love the sinner.

The last couple of lines in the fourth verse may send the most powerful and thought-provoking message. The song essentially states that all of the guidance we need is already in our hearts. We can listen to sermons, we can do our own research, we can pray, and we should do all of these things; but Jesus via the Holy Spirit gave us everything we need. The Holy Spirit or Comforter dwells within us and is there to guide us every minute of every day.

As we go about our daily lives, are we truly remembering what Jesus has commanded us to do as his children? Please take the time to listen to this song and feel the impact of the message of Jesus in the Upper Room.

Click Here to Hear Cynthia Clawson Sing In Remembrance

Come As You Are – Entry #5 of 5

Today I wrap up my analysis of this song, with the focus being on the last complete verse. Most of the remainder is chorus.

There’s hope for the hopeless
And all those who’ve strayed
Come sit at the table
Come taste the grace
There’s rest for the weary
Rest that endures

When you stop and think about it, there are many times when you have a hopeless feeling. We start asking ourselves questions such as how did I get here, how could this happen, how can I ever get out of this feeling of hopelessness and helplessness? The normal tendency is to exhaust all of our own ideas, maybe then we turn to internet research, we then probably turn to friends for their guidance, and once we are completely overwhelmed with our challenge, we turn to God. What’s wrong with this picture? It doesn’t mean we won’t have challenging times in our life, but we can probably decrease the amount of time in which we have that feeling of hopelessness. We need to see God first for answers since he has given us hope through eternal life offered by the death of his Son.

We all wander away from God at some time. There are times when we feel really close to him and there are times when we feel distant. We stray from God when we sort of forget him or move him to the back of our thoughts, we are no longer walking beside him and listening to him; we have gone off on our own path. This happens when we turn our focus to other things and we don’t read our bibles as we should, we don’t pray as often as we should, we don’t go to church as we should, and we aren’t the light that he wants us to be. If we had others ignore us as we sometimes ignore God, we would probably lose friends and the closeness of family. The good news is that he is a loving father and is always waiting for his children to find their way back to him. Reading the parable of the prodigal son tells us how God still loves us, not matter how far we have strayed or how long we have forgotten or ignored him.

God has already set his table for all of the people described above. It is a table of not just great food and drink, but a table of love, fellowship, a time of rest and relaxation, and time with our father. There are no restrictions on who comes to his table, he only asks that we accept his son as our savior and the table is open to all who have. He doesn’t ask where we have been, why we did what we did, or why we seemed to have forgotten him; he merely says I love you, I missed you, and welcome back. All of our sins have already been forgiven and forgotten, all we need to be focused on is to stay on the path the son has prepared for us. We are surrounded by grace, we have eternal life, and we have a path that Jesus has laid out for each of us and is walking with us along that path.

I believe the title of the song, Come As You Are, tells the complete story when it comes to our relationship with Christ.

Come As You Are – Entry #4 of 5

Today I will focus on the following portion of the song,

All who are broken
Lift up your face
Oh wanderer come home
You’re not too far
So lay down your hurt
Lay down your heart
Come as you are

Are you broken? What does it even mean to be broken? These are difficult questions, but the reality is we are all broken. How we are broken differs for each of us. A person who is broken is someone who feels as if they are not worthy, they are undeserving, they have lost their way in life, and perhaps as if they are alone in a cold dark world. Maybe our brokenness comes from actual or perceived failures in our lives, the way others have treated us, where we live, or just the general environment around us. It is easy for the broken person to fall into a state of depression as they feel they loneliness and failure seeping in. I also believe we sometimes become broken due to a tragedy in our lives, such as a loss of a loved one. Not that we have done anything wrong, but there is now a hole in our heart that we are not sure how to mend.

With a defeated and broken spirit, we hang our heads, our demeanor changes, and the way we carry ourselves reflects how we feel. We essentially have a broken spirit and have given up on our life, we have become the prodigal son that the bible tells us about in Luke 15:11-32. It is during these times, in our darkest hours, that we need to lift up our hearts and faces to God. In this time of our greatest need, he alone can heal the pain and loneliness we are feeling. Psalms 34:18 reminds us that God is always there to take care of us: “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”

He feels our pain and he asks us to feel his love and open our hearts to his peace and his will for your life. He heals the brokenness and reminds us we are his children and nothing can take away his love for us or the plans he has for us. It doesn’t matter if we have wandered away from God and that we have not been opening our hearts to him as we should, he still loves us and has his hand open to us at all times. Yes it might be challenging for us to hold our head up again, to admit our failures, confess our sins, and admit how we have turned away from him. We just need to come back to him and put our pain, suffering, and brokenness at his feet. As he reaches out to us, we will feel his warm, his love, and I am sure a look of compassion and a smile would be on his face if we could see it.

All we need to do, is to humble ourselves before God and give him all our suffering and our pain and he will heal our broken heart and our broken spirit. We only need to come as we are.

Come As You Are – Entry #3 of 5

Today I will focus on the following part of the song, only a couple of lines but a lot to cover.

So lay down your burdens
Lay down your shame

Have you ever stopped to think about all of the burdens you might be carrying? The basic definition of a burden is that it is a heavy load that slows us down or drags us down in some way. Maybe we do not have a single massive burden such as an oxen might carry, but we have a lot of smaller things we carry that end up being a burden. We have a tendency to carry the past around with us, we carry worry about things we cannot change, we worry about our family, we are concerned about the future. Any one of these is a heavy load, but when combined they become a massive burden that none of us are able to manage. The end result is we make no progress on any of these because all of our time, energy, and spirit are spread across all of these worries. The only way we can make any progress and see that there is a future for us, is to take these burdens and drop them at the feet of Jesus.

Worry is the heaviest burden for most of us and Jesus addresses this for us in Matthew 6:25-34, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

I realize this is a long passage of scripture, but if our greatest burden is worry; then it seems appropriate.

Part of the burden of the past we carry is shame and is also a burden of the present. We have hurt someone, we have not helped someone when we know we should have, and we are ashamed of certain actions that we took that were not appropriate. Perhaps we are ashamed to face God in our prayers because we did not stand up for him when we should have. We encounter situations where we should have spoken up and called out the wrong that was taking place, but we kept quiet. I am not suggesting that we put ourselves in a threatening situation, sometimes we send a message by walking away or perhaps standing alone for what we believe is God’s direction for us. If you think of your earthly father, isn’t it hard to tell him that you did not stand up for him today when people were criticizing him, laughing at him, and maybe not being willing to say in public how much you love him? We would be ashamed of ourselves, and we should feel the same way when we do not support our heavenly father. But all we need to do is confess our sins to him and he will forgive them, he does not want a wall between us at any time. He knows we are ashamed and that we were weak, but he still forgives us and loves us unconditionally. Remember that even the Apostle Peter denied Christ openly three times, yet he was forgiven and ended up becoming a strong leader of the early church.

What burdens and shame are you carrying that you need to give to the father so you can feel the peace that passeth all understanding? What is keeping you from letting go?

Come As You Are – Entry #2 of 5

This Blog entry will cover the following lines:

Come find your mercy
Oh sinner come kneel
Earth has no sorrow
That heaven can’t heal
Earth has no sorrow
That heaven can’t heal

We all make mistakes. Some of our mistakes hurt us, some hurt others, and other mistakes may have some challenging consequences. One of the most difficult mistakes to overcome is when we hurt someone else and they have trouble forgiving us for our actions. Maybe we hurt them badly and they are not ready to forgive us, and that makes our own regret run deeper. The good news is that God is always there to accept us and forgive us, no matter what we have done; this is what mercy is all about. Hebrews 4:16 says “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” God doesn’t ask us why we did something wrong, he only asks that we confess our sins. Christ died for all of our sins of the past, the present, and the future; so all are forgiven. Even though our sins are forgiven, we are told to confess our sins. We need to confess to help us stay as close to the father as possible, he wants to know that we are truly sorry for our wrongs. The closer we stay to him and open our hearts to him, the more we feel his love and his forgiveness. It is hard to feel love and forgiveness if your heart is not tuned into God as it should be. So fall on your knees and pour out your heart to God and let him know how much you love him and how sorry you are for the things you have done; feel his love and his arms around you. Remember that mercy is when we don’t get what we deserve and grace is his absolute forgiveness.

Sometimes our sorrow is so deep and so devastating that it causes us to be depressed as we deal with the grief, loss, and failures. We often just want to be alone in our misery and sometimes believe we will never get out of this deep dark hole. This is what intense sorrow is all about. In the bible, David wrote about his sorrow, Jesus shared his sorrows before going to the cross, Paul wrote about suffering, and Isaiah 53:3 even referred to the coming Christ as a Man of Sorrows. God is all powerful and his love is never-ending; there is nothing that he cannot do. To believe that that he cannot heal any sorrow, is essentially saying he is not all powerful and that he has limitations. At some point, sooner rather than later, we need to give the sorrow and the grief to the father. This is always easier said than done, but the sooner we turn our hearts to God and ask him to take our sorrows away, the quicker we start the healing process. Paul tells us in Romans 8:18 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

Yes, our sorrow and grief run deep, but isn’t it fantastic to know that no matter how bad we feel in our time of despair, that the joy God will give us is beyond our wildest expectations.

Come As You Are – Entry #1 of 5

The next song for my Blog was written by Ben Glover, David Crowder, Matt Maher and was first released in 2014. A link to David Crowder performing the song is at the bottom of this Blog entry.

Come As You Are

Come out of sadness
From wherever you’ve been
Come broken hearted
Let rescue begin
Come find your mercy
Oh sinner come kneel
Earth has no sorrow
That heaven can’t heal
Earth has no sorrow
That heaven can’t heal

So lay down your burdens
Lay down your shame
All who are broken
Lift up your face
Oh wanderer come home
You’re not too far
So lay down your hurt
Lay down your heart
Come as you are

There’s hope for the hopeless
And all those who’ve strayed
Come sit at the table
Come taste the grace
There’s rest for the weary
Rest that endures
Earth has no sorrow
That heaven can’t cure

Fall in his arms
Come as you are
There’s joy for the morning
Oh sinner be still
Earth has no sorrow
That heaven can’t heal
Earth has no sorrow
That heaven can’t heal

I will begin the first entry in this Blog by analyzing the following lines.

Come out of sadness
From wherever you’ve been
Come broken hearted
Let rescue begin

We all go through times in our lives when we experience sadness to some degree. We lose loved ones, we lose pets, we lose a job, we hurt someone’s feelings, have a broken relationship; all of these types of occurrences cause us to be sad and maybe even feel very alone. In times like this, there are days when we feel that our lives are crumbling. We may in fact want people to leave us alone while we work through the difficult time; but the reality is we need someone to help us regardless of the source of our sadness. Too many times we delay getting that assistance to help bring joy back into our hearts and our sadness just continues to linger and the hole we are in gets deeper and deeper. Jesus left us with the Holy Spirit who is to be our constant companion and our comforter so we would never be alone and we would always have Jesus with us at all times.

Broken hearts can be devastating and it is so hard to heal a broken heart. Broken hearts can cause depression, may make us feel as if our lives are completely lost and there is no hope for the future. During a time of being broken hearted, we may doubt our own self-worth. I also believe that those we have loved the most are the ones who can give us a broken heart that we feel can never be healed. We are always told that only time can mend a broken heart and that is probably true from an earthly perspective, but that time and that pain can be decreased or eliminated by turning to God for help. We need to consider a couple of actions, one is to turn to God to ease our pain and the other is to think about the plan God has for us that will be the eternal plan for our life.

The rescue from our pain / the healing of our broken heart starts by putting our pain at the feet of Jesus. He tell us in John 14:27 that his peace is a peace that only he can give; it is a peace we cannot get from anyone in this world. I realize this is easier said than done, but it is the first step in the process of healing; let go and have faith that Jesus will take this burden away. The verse says: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” In Christ alone can we get the true peace, healing, and rescue that we need.

We need to remember that God has an eternal plan for our life, take a look at what Revelation 21:4 says about all of our suffering: “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” We are also told in Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” So, yes, God knows we will have suffering due to the sins of this world; but he also reminds us that our physical life is only a blip when looking at the eternal life scale. Things may be painful today, but God has a bright future planned for us and we cannot even begin to imagine what is in his glorious plan!

Click Here to See Crowder Perform Come as You Are

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.