Author: Stanley Simpson

Give Thanks

The next entry for my Blog is Give Thanks, which was written by Henry Smith and was first published in 1978.  A link to Janella Salvador singing the song is at the bottom of the Blog.

Give Thanks

Give thanks with a grateful heart
Give thanks to the Holy One
Give thanks because He’s given Jesus Christ, His Son

Give thanks with a grateful heart
Give thanks to the Holy One
Give thanks because He’s given Jesus Christ, His Son

And now let the weak say, “I am strong”
Let the poor say, “I am rich
Because of what the Lord has done for us”

And now let the weak say, “I am strong”
Let the poor say, “I am rich
Because of what the Lord has done for us”

Give thanks with a grateful heart (with a grateful heart)
Give thanks to the Holy One (to the Holy One)
Give thanks because He’s given Jesus Christ, His Son

Give thanks with a grateful heart (with a grateful heart)
Give thanks to the Holy One (to the Holy One)
Give thanks because He’s given Jesus Christ, His Son

And now let the weak say, “I am strong”
Let the poor say, “I am rich
Because of what the Lord has done for us”

And now let the weak say, “I am strong”
Let the poor say, “I am rich (I am rich)
Because of what the Lord has done for us”
Give thanks

Many times, over the course of my life, I find myself asking God for answers and solutions to my needs.  I may need help with some issues at home, I may need help with my job, I may be having some family issues, and sometimes it seems as if I am living in quicksand and that every step takes me deeper in the pit.  Do you sometimes have these days or periods of time in your life?  God is there to hear our requests and to bring us hope and peace.  He is there to comfort us as we traverse the challenging path of life.  Isn’t it great to have someone such as God to talk to, someone who will listen to us twenty-four hours a day seven days a week?

Think about all of those times God has been there for you; and now think about all of the times you thanked him for what he has done.  Did you find out that you do a lot more requesting than you do thanking and praising? A key question for you is, are you having a one-way conversation with God?  In other words, are you thanking God every day for the things he has done for you?  I believe that most of us spend more time asking God than we do thanking him.  This song is reminding us to give thanks everyday for the things God has done or is doing in our lives.  We should always be grateful for everything he has done and we should thank him from our heart, not just from our lips.  He alone is holy and he alone gave up his only son, Jesus, so that each and every one of us could have eternal life if we accept the sacrifice God made for us. 

I have watched young children as they opened presents and witnessed the joy that the present brings.  Our hearts should be filled with that same joy and gratefulness as we talk to God every day.  It will probably take some time to get in a routine, but try to communicate with God everyday and not only tell him your needs, but thank him for everything you have in your life.  In the book 1 Thessalonians 5:17-18, we find the following guidance, “Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” 

As you strengthen your relationship and communication with God, you become a much stronger person.  With his strength, you are able to overcome anything this life throws your way.  We may not have a lot of money, but God will provide all that we need if we follow his guidance and put our trust in him.  What can be greater than eternal life with our heavenly father and savior?  We will also spend eternity with our friends and family who accepted Christ, what a glorious reunion that will be!  You learn that God is always there reaching out his hand to guide you, to pick you up when you fall, and to carry you when you believe you can’t take another step.  God promises that he will never abandon us, this scripture is found in the book of Deuteronomy 31:6, “Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.”

As we begin to realize each day how much God has done for us, we become more grateful of his love.  We become stronger as we begin to understand that we never stand alone as we fight through life.  We become richer because we now understand we have been given the greatest reward ever, eternal life.

Have you thanked God today for all he has done for you?

Click to See Janella Salvador Perform Give Thanks

Love Lifted Me

The next entry for my BLOG is Love Lifted Me, a well-known hymn written by James Rowe in 1912.  The melody is by Howard E. Smith.  A link to Alan Jackson singing the song is at the bottom of the Blog.

Love Lifted Me

I was sinking deep in sin
Far from the peaceful shore
Very deeply stained within
Sinking to rise no more
But the Master of the sea
Heard my despairing cry
From the waters lifted me
Now safe am I

Love lifted me
Love lifted me
When nothing else could help
Love lifted me
Love lifted me
Love lifted me
When nothing else could help
Love lifted me

All my heart to Him I give
Ever to Him I’ll cling
In His blessed presence live
Ever His praises sing
Love so mighty and so true
Merits my soul’s best songs
Faithful loving service too
To Him belongs

Love lifted me
Love lifted me
When nothing else could help
Love lifted me
Love lifted me
Love lifted me
When nothing else could help
Love lifted me

Souls in danger look above
Jesus completely saves
He will lift you by His love
Out of the angry waves
He’s the Master of the sea
Billows His will obey
He your Savior wants to be
Be saved today

Have you ever been out on a boat or ship and went so far out that you could no longer see any land?  This can be a very frightening situation for most people, especially if the wind starts blowing harder and waves start getting higher.  No matter how intensely we look, the shoreline is nowhere to be seen.  Sometimes our life feels as if we are a long way from that peaceful shore, even though we are standing on dry land.  It still feels as if we are either swimming around in circles or just stuck in the mud.  We all get caught up in life and we gradually get overwhelmed with everything going on around us.  Eventually we lose sight of that solid ground and peaceful shore

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Our life has become quicksand and the more we struggle, the more we sink.  The real problem is that the quicksand in our life is actually made up of the poor choices we have made over the years.  These poor choices, accumulated over time, gradually lead us to a sense of hopelessness.  We lose all inner peace and can no longer see the peaceful shore that we struggle so hard to find.  As we continue to struggle, sink, and drift farther from that shore; we realize there is a master of life and the sea.  The master always hears our cries, but waits for us to reach out to him from our heart.  Why does he wait?   He waits because we have not reached out to him.  We have a tendency to ignore the master until a time of desperation and despair.  In spite of us neglecting him day in and day out, he is still there to answer our call.  Our master is Jesus Christ, the son of God.  He alone can calm the seas we are drowning in as well as our own internal strife and pain.  We have a tendency to ignore him when things are good and then yell for him or at him when things are bad.  He still loves us unconditionally in spite of how we treat him.  He is the only one who can truly lift us up.  He alone can give us eternal life, he alone can bring us happiness in a dark dark world, and he alone has that unconditional love.  Not only do we have his love, but our faith in him secures our eternal home.

The way to make him the master of your life is to give him your heart.  By giving him your heart, you put him above all else in life.  Your family and friends are important and you should love them dearly, but the only way you can have eternal life is to make Jesus number one and accept him as your personal savior.  Giving your heart to him and making him first, does not diminish your love for your family in any way.  In fact, if you really love your family and friends; you will tell them about Jesus and how all of you can spend eternity together instead of just the few short years we have on earth.  Never lose sight of his love and you will feel his presence wherever you are.  You will also feel his presence and guidance in every step you take and every decision you make.  His love is powerful and everlasting, he is eternal, and there is nothing that can defeat him.  The song tells us to sing his praises from deep inside and that we should sing songs to him of love and praise.  He doesn’t care which song you sing, which book you sing from, or from where you are singing; he just wants you to sing with joy from your heart.  As you think about what God has done in your life and how he can pull you out of the deepest ocean of darkness, doesn’t he deserve our faithfulness?  Who else can do what he does for us?

The song references our soul being in danger as the angry waves of life take their toll on us.  Is your soul in danger; how do you know?  We all make our choices, if we accept Christ as our personal savior then we have a guarantee of eternal life with him in heaven.  If we do not accept him, which by default means we reject him, then we spend eternity with the devil in hell.  So we have the choice and we choose where we want to spend eternity.  Jesus in the master who wants us to spend eternity with him.  He is the one who controls the wind and the waves, nothing can stand up to him.

In the book of Mark 4:34-41, we find the story of how Jesus calmed the storm when his disciples were afraid their boat was going to capsize.  Although this was something that I believe occurred, I also believe this is the same situation we face as we fight the battles in life.  We become overwhelmed and fail to put our faith in the only one who can take us out of the darkness.  “That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him.  A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?  He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.  He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”  They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

He wants you to be saved today, to give your soul to him, don’t wait until it is too late. 

Click to Hear Alan Jackson Sing Love Lifted Me

That’s Enough

The next entry for my Blog is That’s Enough, which was written by Brandon Heath, Mallary Hope, and Molly Reed.  It was first released April 22, 2022.  A link to Brandon Heath singing the song is at the bottom of the Blog.

That’s Enough

Mind if I tell you a secret
A few simple truths about me
Might be hard to believe
Guess I’m just trying to come clean

Sometimes I don’t know where I’m going
It’s hard to admit where I’ve been
When I come to the end of myself
This is where I begin, again

I am here
I am loved
God is good
And that’s enough

I don’t know your situation
What kind of story you’re in
If you’re high on that mountain
Or down in the valley again

You might be holding your baby
You might be holding a drink
You might be holding a secret
That’s getting harder to keep

But you are here
You are loved
God is good
And that’s enough

And I am here
I am loved
God is good
And that’s enough

It’s okay if I don’t have the answers
It’s okay to be right where you are
It was patience and kindness and love
That got us this far

You are here
And you are loved
God is good

And I am here
I am loved
God is good
And that’s enough

He is here
He is love
God is good
And that’s enough

How many of us have secrets?  My guess is that all of us have something deep inside of us that we have never shared or have only shared with a select few people.  Sometimes, we just need to share one or more of these closely guarded secrets because they are tearing us apart inside.  People who are close to us and people who are casual acquaintances may know us only by our exterior persona, but they have no idea what we may be struggling with deep inside.  My wife accuses me of hiding things in various vaults in my head, where they can never be found.  With all of this being said, most of us reach a time where we just need to bare our soul regarding some of the things going on in our lives and our past that we have been reluctant to share. 

In this song, I believe the singer has reached the point where he just has to talk to someone, because it is tearing him up on the inside and has been hidden by that façade we many times hide behind.  I believe all of us are in this situation and the time comes where we just need to come clean.  Maybe you invite someone or a few friends to grab a cup or coffee or a drink with you.  As you sit there, you start to explain how you are not the person you appear to be.  The person or people you are talking to have always viewed you as someone who has it all together.  Perhaps you are the one seemingly always loving life, with everything going your way.  Perhaps it is your demeanor, maybe it is how many friends you have, your successful career, how much money you appear to have, or perhaps your perfect family.  As you start to tell your true story, the people with you become speechless as they hear what has really been going on inside of you.  They start to understand that maybe your entire life has been a trainwreck and you have kept it hidden behind a well-developed façade.  Your best friends start hearing about your childhood as part of a broken family, how your marriages have failed, how you are deep in debt, and that your entire life has been a failure.  For you, success has been temporary and fleeting as your inner secrets continue to take over your mind and distract from the life you want to live.  It is almost as if you have been hanging off of a cliff, were able to pull yourself back up; and then start hanging off a different cliff as life beats you down again.  I realize I have painted a picture of gloom and doom, but I truly believe there is a little bit of this in all of us and a lot of this in many of us.  I believe that the people who just heard you bear your soul were handpicked by God for this point of time in your life.

It is in our weakest moments when we turn to the only place where we have unconditional love and this is from God and his son Jesus; he never leaves our side.  In our darkest moments as we reach out to him, he is with us.  He tells us this in Matthew 28:20, “And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”  As the singer of this song tells his sad sad story, God stops him and says “I am here”, you are never alone.  Note that God does not say he is there for a period of time, he says he will be there always.  The bible also tells in the book of John 3:16, “that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son to die for us.”  How much more can someone love you, than to give up their only child for you?  Yes, God is good and he has made sacrifices for us and promises to us that will last for eternity.  God has to remind us sometimes that he is here, that he loves us, and that we will care for us.  With God saying he is with us always and then he gave the life of his son for us, I say that’s enough.

We never know or even completely understand someone else’s story or situation, but I believe everyone has their own personal challenges in life.  All of us probably get on that mountain top from time to time, only to slide back down into the valley; but God is always there with his hand out ready to pick us up yet one more time.  We all have something to hide, maybe it is something associated with your family, maybe you have a problem with drinking or drugs, you can never keep a job, or maybe you just feel as if your entire life is coming unraveled and your secrets are becoming more and more difficult to keep within your façade.  The real question the song seems to ask, is where does God fit into your life?  The answer is to let him into your heart, he is waiting for you to invite him in. Once you allow God into your life, you start to put your trust in him since you should know that he holds the future.  We don’t have to always understand why things have happened to us, but God only focuses on our future; he is not concerned about our past.  Once we accept his son Jesus as our personal savior, our past is forgotten and we become white as snow on the inside.  We may never understand why we have had these challenges in our life, but it is important to understand that God puts the right people by our side at various stages in our life for a purpose.  These are people we can talk to about our burdens and maybe help us to find our way out of the darkness.  He is simply waiting for us to reach out our hand and place it into his and feel his power, his glory, and peace that only he can bring. 

It is really ok not to know all of the answers and God will be with us regardless of where we go in our lives.  The song says it is God’s patience, kindness, and love that has gotten us this far.  God is good, God is here, and that is enough.

Click to Hear Brandon Heath Sing That’s Enough

Hymn of Heaven

The next entry for my Blog is Hymn of Heaven, which was written Brian Johnson, Phil Wickham, Bill Johnson, and Chris Davenport.  It was first released June 25, 2021.  A link to Phil Wickham singing the song is at the bottom of the Blog.

Hymn of Heaven

How I long to breathe the air of Heaven

Where pain is gone and mercy fills the streets
To look upon the One who bled to save me
And walk with Him for all eternity

There will be a day when all will bow before Him
There will be a day when death will be no more
Standing face to face with He who died and rose again
Holy, holy is the Lord

And every prayer we prayed in desperation
The songs of faith we sang through doubt and fear
In the end, we’ll see that it was worth it
When He returns to wipe away our tears

Oh, there will be a day when all will bow before Him
There will be a day when death will be no more
Standing face to face with He who died and rose again
Holy, holy is the Lord

And on that day, we join the resurrection
And stand beside the heroes of the faith
With one voice, a thousand generations
Sing, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain”

And on that day, we join the resurrection
And stand beside the heroes of the faith
With one voice, a thousand generations
Sing, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain”
“Forever He shall reign”

So let it be today we shout the hymn of Heaven
With angels and the saints, we raise a mighty roar
Glory to our God who gave us life beyond the grave
Holy, holy is the Lord

So let it be today we shout the hymn of Heaven
With angels and the saints, we raise a mighty roar
Glory to our God who gave us life beyond the grave
Holy, holy is the Lord

Holy, holy is the Lord
Holy, holy is the Lord

Many times, I have heard people say, that person is such a breath of fresh air; meaning the person brings light into a challenging situation.  The writer of this song starts by saying they long for the breath of fresh air that only heaven can bring.  No matter how good or bad things are for us today, heaven will far surpass all of our hopes and dreams.  It is a place where there is no pain or sorrow and everywhere we look is perfection.  We get to spend time with Jesus, who is the one who died for us so we could spend forever with him.  That day will come when we will bow down to him in reverence as well as thankfulness for what he did for us.  Some of the greatest things in heaven, other than time with our savior, will be that there will be no more death, no more sadness, no more suffering, no more tears of sadness, and we will be reunited with friends and family who had accepted Christ and passed on before us.  Every time we experience this joy, we will be thanking Jesus for dying for us and reuniting us with  our loved ones.

It is challenging to talk about anything after thinking about the above, it all will be so so wonderful.  The problem is that we let the challenges of our life take over our daily thoughts again and again.  It all seems to be an act of desperation.  Part of the problem is that we do no pray enough, which leads us to forget about God and his role in our lives.  We are told in 1st Thessalonians 5:16-17, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you”.  We need to thank God for everything he has done for us in our lives.  We should also pray for the needs of our families, our friends, our enemies, our country, and the entire world.  All of these are God’s creations, he put all of us here.   We sometimes give up hope after praying for so long, it is almost as if our desperate pleas are not being heard.  We maybe go to church and sing the songs of glory, and hear the strong message of God’s promises.  I love to listen to songs about Jesus and faith on the radio and I sing my heart out.  After I leave the church building and after I get out of my car, I seem to lose some of that joy I was just experiencing; I let life take away my joy.  As the song says, it will all be worth our pain, our suffering, and our frustration with life.  The day will come when Jesus, the one who died for us, will wipe away all of our tears and fill our hearts with joy as we begin life in our new home.  We are told this in the book of Revelation 21:4, “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.”  This promise is for those who have accepted Jesus as their personal savior.

The day that Jesus comes in the clouds, the people who have accepted him will rise into heaven to join all others who accepted him and died before us.  We will be part of the resurrection of millions of others.  We will all of a sudden be side by side with some of the greatest people of faith who ever lived.   Many of these will be people we have read about in our bibles, others will be some of the great leaders of faith that came after the time of Jesus, and most will be people who are regular everyday people who accepted Christ as their personal savior.  We will be standing with people who might have lived since mankind was first created, all of the God’s faithful will be together for the first time.  This entire gathering of the saved, which will be larger than we could ever imagine, will start singing Worthy is the Lamb who was slain.  Jesus, the sacrificial lamb, finally gets to hear all of his family sing praises to him and the father.

Wow, I am not sure I can even imagine the billions of voices from people of all eras of time and representing the entire earth singing at one time.  The angels will be also be joining in as the music reaches a crescendo that we ever thought possible.  What better way to honor our savior, who is the definition of holiness.  Holy, holy is the Lord indeed.

Click to See Phil Wickham Perform Hymn of Heaven

Lion and the Lamb

The next entry for my Blog is Lion and the Lamb, which was written by Brenton Brown, Brian Mark Johnson, and Leeland Mooring.  It was first released March 25, 2016.  A link to Leeland Mooring singing the song is at the bottom of the Blog.

Lion and the Lamb

He’s coming on the clouds

He’s coming on the clouds
Kings and kingdoms will bow down
And every chain will break
As broken hearts declare His praise
For who can stop the Lord Almighty

And our God is the lion
The Lion of Judah
He’s roaring with power
And fighting our battles
And every knee will bow before Him
Our God is the lamb
The lamb that was slain
For the sins of the world
His blood breaks the chains
And every knee will bow before the lion and the lamb
Every knee will bow before Him (yeah)

So, open up the gates

So, open up the gates
Make way before the King of Kings
The God who comes to save
Is here to set the captives free
For who can stop the Lord Almighty

Our God is the lion
The Lion of Judah
He’s roaring with power
And fighting our battles
And every knee will bow before Him
Our God is the lamb
The lamb that was slain
For the sin of the world
His blood breaks the chains
And every knee will bow before the lion and the lamb
Every knee will bow before Him

“How many here believe
Every knee will bow
Every tongue will confess
And then”

For who can stop the Lord Almighty
Who can stop the Lord Almighty
Who can stop the Lord Almighty
No one
Who can stop
Sing it over the battle

“Yeah, that’s it”

Who can stop the Lord Almighty
There is no one
Who can stop the Lord Almighty
Who can stop the Lord (yeah)

And our God is the lion
The Lion of Judah
He’s roaring with power
And fighting our battles
And every knee will bow before Him
Our God is the lamb
The lamb that was slain
For the sins of the world
His blood breaks the chains
And every knee will bow before the lion and the lamb
Every knee will bow before Him (yeah)

Every knee will bow
Tongue confess

Take a quick second to imagine hearing the sounds of rapidly forming throngs of people suddenly gathering outside where you are and the emergency alert system going off on your phone, your TV, and your radio.  You, like everyone else, run to your window or go outside to see what is causing this disturbance.  As you start looking around, you see everyone pointing their fingers into the sky.  Many are taking pictures and videos as quickly as they can.  You look up and immediately start falling to your knees as you quickly realize the son of God is descending from the sky.  The bible tells us in Revelation1:7, “Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all peoples on earth will mourn because of him.  So shall it be! Amen.”  For those of us who have already accepted Christ as our personal savior, we will immediately be taken into heaven to begin our eternal life with God the father.  Those who have not accepted Jesus as their personal savior, will remain on earth regardless of who they are and the titles they hold.  All will bow down before him as he returns, some in awe, some in respect, and some in fear.  The poor, the rich, as well as world leaders will all bow down to the king of all kings.  The world, for those left behind, will be changed forever.  I can’t even begin to imagine how many people will be taken up with Christ and the impact on the entire world for those who are left behind.

Jesus, also known as the Lion of Judah in the bible, has come back with all of his power and glory.  Up until that time, people mostly remember Jesus hanging on the cross, or perhaps coming out of the tomb in sort of a quiet way.  While on the cross, Jesus was the sacrificial lamb, he was giving his life for us so that we could have eternal life.  Because of him, all of our sins had been forgiven as long as we accepted him as our sacrifice.  He has always been known as the son of God, but a lot of people really don’t think about the power he wields.  He has power greater than any of us can begin to imagine and he is returning to earth to take his believers to their final home in heaven.  He is known as the lion of Judah because he descended from the lineage of Judah and King David.  He comes back with the ferociousness and power of a lion to free us from our world of turmoil, destruction, war, and societal decay.  He comes to take us home as well as to fulfill the promise of his 2nd coming promised thousands of years ago.  Even the greatest despots and evil people in our world will bow before him.  They will not necessarily bow with adoration or acceptance, but they will see him wielding a power that they cannot control.  Philippians 2:10-11 tells us “That at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  Note this does not mean that everyone will accept Christ as their savior and be allowed to go to heaven, it merely means they recognize that he is a being of great power.  People do not get to heaven without accepting Christ as their personal savior.

All who have accepted him in the past, no longer have to fight the temptations of sin, every tear of earthly sadness will be wiped away, and they will feel a peace they have never felt before.  Every person on earth will finally realize that life is not all about them, it is about their relationship with Jesus.

So, if Jesus comes tomorrow, will you be rising up in the clouds with him and announcing to the world that nothing and no one can stop the Lord Almighty?

Click to Hear Leeland Mooring Sing Lion and the Lamb

Battle Belongs

The next entry for my Blog is Battle Belongs, which was written by Brian Johnson and Phil Wickham.  It was first released September 4, 2020.  A link to Phil Wickham singing the song is at the bottom of the Blog.

Battle Belongs


When all I see is the battle, You see my victory
When all I see is the mountain, You see a mountain moved
And as I walk through the shadow, Your love surrounds me
There’s nothing to fear now for I am safe with You

So when I fight, I’ll fight on my knees
With my hands lifted high
Oh God, the battle belongs to You
And every fear I lay at Your feet
I’ll sing through the night
Oh God, the battle belongs to You

And if You are for me, who can be against me? Yeah
For Jesus, there’s nothing impossible for You
When all I see are the ashes, You see the beauty
Thank You God
When all I see is a cross, God, You see the empty tomb

So when I fight, I’ll fight on my knees
With my hands lifted high
Oh God, the battle belongs to You
And every fear I lay at Your feet
I’ll sing through the night
Oh God, the battle belongs to You

Almighty fortress, You go before us
Nothing can stand against the power of our God
You shine in the shadow, You win every battle
Nothing can stand against the power of our God

An almighty fortress, You go before us
Nothing can stand against the power of our God
You shine in the shadow, You win every battle
Nothing can stand against the power of our God

An almighty fortress, You go before us
Nothing can stand against the power of our God
You shine in the shadows, You win every battle
Nothing can stand against the power of our God

So when I fight, I’ll fight on my knees
With my hands lifted high
Oh God, the battle belongs to You
And every fear I lay at Your feet
I’ll sing through the night
Oh God, the battle belongs to You

Oh God, the battle belongs to You

Do you often have those days when you just want to pull the covers over your head and shut out the world?  I think most of us have this happen to us from time to time.  So many days, from the moment we open our eyes, we see the battles ahead and we are just not ready to engage.  It may be a daily battle or a seemingly forever battle, but either way; we are just weary of all of the challenges that life throws our way.  Instead of thinking about the upcoming challenges, how often do you wake up and the first thing you do is to thank God for giving you another day and ask him to walk with you every step of the day?  Think about the fact from the perspective that there are many people who never see tomorrow.  I believe that one of the biggest issues we face in life is we believe we are always fighting these battles alone; but that is where we are making our mistake.  God is always there to help us face the challenges in front of us and he has a very different view than we do, he already knows how today’s battle will end and he knows what lies before us.  We are too focused on the challenges of today, where we failed yesterday, and what we will face tomorrow.  Yes, there are daily battles, mountains to climb, and darkness that will overwhelm us; but our focus is to remember who holds the future and what the future holds for each of us.  We are told in II Corinthians 4:17-18, “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.   So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 

The writer of this song has taken an approach that is drastically different from our normal way of doing things, he is telling us to fight from our knees.  Interestingly enough, this is the strongest position when preparing for battle or while we are in the midst of battle.  This is indeed a powerful challenge for us, and we wonder, how can this be possible?  We are so used to depending on ourselves to fight the battle that we forget about the presence of God.  In this song, the writer tells us to fall on our knees as we prepare to face the battle, raise up our hands, pray to our heavenly father and give the battle to him.  In 2 Chronicles 20:15, we find this promise from God, “Do not be afraid or discouraged… For the battle is not yours, but God’s.”  The most important battle, the fight for eternal life, has already been won for us.  Christ died on the cross for each of us so that we would never be alone, we would never fight our battles alone, and we would spend eternity with him.  Once we accept Christ as our personal savior, we are guaranteed that eternal life.  He is our fortress, his light destroys the darkness, he makes beauty from ashes, and where we see Jesus dying on the cross, he sees the empty tomb.

We serve an all-powerful invincible God who never leaves our side, why should we  ever be afraid?  The best way to feel the power, love, and support of God is to begin every day with prayer, pray whenever you can during the day, and end every day in prayer.  God is always watching us and wants to talk to us through prayer.  We are told in 1 Thessalonian 5:17, “Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.”

It is time for each of us to learn this new way of fighting our battles, it is the only way we can win.

Click to Hear Phil Wickham Sing Battle Belongs

Glorious Day

The next entry for my Blog is Glorious Day, which was written by Jason Ingram, Jonathan Smith, Kristian Stanfill, and Sean Curran.  It was first released 2017.  A link to Passion singing the song is at the bottom of the Blog.

Glorious Day


I was buried beneath my shame
Who could carry that kind of weight?
It was my tomb
‘Til I met You

I was breathing, but not alive
All my failures I tried to hide
It was my tomb
‘Til I met You

You called my name
Then I ran out of that grave
Out of the darkness
Into Your glorious day
You called my name
And I ran out of that grave
Out of the darkness
Into Your glorious day

Now Your mercy has saved my soul
Now Your freedom is all that I know
The old made new
Jesus, when I met You, whoa, what a day

When you called my name
And I ran out of that grave
Out of the darkness
Into Your glorious day
You called my name
Then I ran out of that grave
Out of the darkness
Into Your glorious day

I needed rescue
My sin was heavy
But chains break at the weight of Your glory
I needed shelter
I was an orphan
But You call me a citizen of Heaven
When I was broken
You were my healing
Now Your love is the air that I’m breathing
I have a future
My eyes are open

‘Cause when you called my name
I ran out of that grave
Out of the darkness
Into Your glorious day
You called my name
And I ran out of that grave
Out of the darkness
Into Your glorious day

Have you ever felt completely overwhelmed and ashamed of some of the things you have done?   Maybe you hurt a friend or a loved one, perhaps they forgave you; but the shame of the hurt you caused just seems to stay with you.  Perhaps you have a storied past due your poor decisions or involvement in activities you knew were wrong.  Some of these past actions may cross your mind as you first wake up and start your day; you think about what you did to others as well as what you have done to yourself.  Where can you run, hide, and just escape your past?  This entire scenario has become your tomb.  We know from the bible that Christ was in a tomb with a very large stone rolled across the opening so that no one could get in and it was thought he couldn’t get out especially with two Roman guards standing outside the tomb.  Maybe your guilt and your shame has become just like the tomb Christ was in.  One of the big differences is that Christ was dead and placed in his tomb, but you are alive and living in your own self-created tomb.  Everything that has happened to put you in this situation was caused by your actions.  Take a few minutes and think about that analogy.  Yours is a self-created tomb, and although you are breathing, you are not really alive; you are mentally locked up and have no way to move that massive stone in front of your tomb.  Then, something happened that changed your whole world, the stone began to roll away.

The something that happened is that you heard about the man called Jesus, the son of God.  You heard about how he forgave sins and gave people new life; even those locked up in their own self-made tombs.  Here are the words Jesus said about the burdens we carry that led us into our tomb, it is from Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”  Once you have accepted Jesus as your personal savior, he is there to take away your burdens.  Not only does he take them away, he forgives you from every wrong you have committed your entire life.  Once this happened, you ran out of your tomb and were able to face the world again.  You run out of that tomb as fast as you can into the waiting arms of Jesus.  You no longer have the darkness in your soul that light could never penetrate.  Jesus had been there all of the time, calling your name, and you finally heard him.  It is truly a glorious day as you feel the joy that only he can bring.

God could have let all of us live without the hope of salvation or spending eternity with him, but he loved us enough to send his only son to die for all of our wrongdoings.   Even as he knew his son was dying on the cross, he still loved us and was willing to forgive us for everything we had done wrong in our lives, as well as any transgressions we would commit in the future.  This is what mercy is all about.  He gave his only son to die so that we could have eternal life with him.  Jesus gave his physical life for us and all God asks of us is that we accept this offering of love so that we can spend eternity with him.   There is no greater gift than the gift of eternal life.  As the song says, we are now a brand-new person with a fresh start once we have Jesus.  We walk out of a world of despair into a world of hope and a life with a future.  I think the phrase in the song “whoa, what a day”, is such a simple way to describe what happens when Jesus enters our life; it is hard to put the emotion into words.

The first step in finding the light and love of Jesus is recognizing that you indeed need to be rescued; he can’t rescue us if we are not ready to be rescued.  The heavy chains of our sinful past get heavier and heavier every passing day, and we reach what we believe is the point of no return in our lives.  The chains have become too heavy to bear and we fall into a sense of hopelessness and despair. We finally reach out to Jesus and he frees us from our bondage and brings us into the light of his glory.  Maybe we felt as if we were alone during our misery and that we had no home and no family.  Jesus takes us in as part of his family and he introduces us to our eternal heavenly father.  He has healed our broken spirit, he has brought light into our world again, and you feel his love wrapped around you.  In addition to all of these amazing things he has done, he makes a promise/commitment to us, we find this in John 14:1-4; “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

As you stop and reflect on all of the above, I hope you have taken the opportunity to run out of that grave you have been living in and that you have begun rejoicing in that Glorious Day.  It is never too late.

Click to Hear Passion Sing Glorious Day

Red Letters

The next entry for my Blog is Red Letters, which was written by David Crowder and Ed Cash.  It was first released in September 19, 2018.  A link to Crowder singing the song is at the bottom of the Blog.

Red Letters


There I was on death row
Guilty in the first degree
Son of God hanging on a hill
Hell was my destiny

The crowd was shouting crucify
Could’ve come from these lips of mine
The dirty shame was killing me
It would take a miracle to wash me clean

Then I read the red letters
And the ground began to shake
The prison walls started falling
And I became a free man that day

Felt like lightning hit my veins
My dead heart began to beat
Breath of God filled my lungs
And the Holy Ghost awakened me
Yeah, the Holy Ghost awakened me

When I read the red letters
And the ground began to shake
The prison walls started falling
And I became a free man that day

For God so loved the whole wide world
Sent His only Son to die for me
Arms spread wide for the whole wide world
His arms spread wide where mine should be
Jesus changed my destiny

Thank You, God, for red letters
When the ground began to shake
The grace of God started falling
And I became a free man that day
The prison walls started falling
And I am a free man today

The title of this song is kind of interesting, especially without context.  Probably most of the Christian bibles bought today have the standard black print, but there are bibles you can buy that show all of the words of Jesus in red. 

Have you ever thought about the fact that without Jesus coming and dying on the cross, it would be extremely difficult to get into heaven?  Before the coming of Christ and his death, people could still have the promise of heaven, but it required a lot more work and dedication.  The people had to make sacrifices on a regular basis; since there was no bible the people had to go to the temples just to hear God’s word and his promises that were made over the thousands of years since the time of creation.  So many people had no hope because they felt as if they had failed God and they did not know where to turn.  It is true there were great leaders and that God’s word and promises had been passed down for thousands of years; but that isn’t the same as hearing from those who saw and touched the hand of God’s only son.

All of the above is basically a lead into the song.  Imagine that you were sitting home reading your bible, even though you were not a Christian and dreamed you were teleported back in time; to the time of Jesus walking around the streets of Jerusalem.  As you look up on that mount called Calvary, you start to realize the things you had done wrong all your life.  You see the stories you had heard at church suddenly come true.  The savior, who you have maybe heard about in church or read about in your bible, is hanging on the cross.  You had heard about him and his teachings and you had heard people talking about how he was just another false prophet, but you suddenly realize you were one of them.  In the process, you have become yet another conspirator contributing to the death of God’s only son.  For this, you are guilty of murder and should be behind bars.  You were so caught up in the actions of the crowd that you may have been one of the ones yelling to crucify him.  Shame takes its toll on you and you begin to believe there is no hope for you; how could there be since your own rejection of Christ contributed to him dying on the cross.

As you take the time to reflect on the above, it starts to hurt deep inside when you begin to understand that you have rejected the love of Christ all of your life and perhaps led others to do the same.  Suddenly you come out of your nightmarish dream and your bible is still in your lap, but it suddenly has new meaning as you see the words of Christ written in red letters. It is almost as if the words are jumping off the page at you.  You are suddenly aware that you have been in a walled prison your entire life, constrained by your own words and actions.  As the reality of the life Christ is offering in those red letters sinks in, your world crumbles and you finally understand that Christ died for you so you could spend eternity with him.  There is no wall of sin separating you from him any longer and you are no longer burdened by your past.  You are finally a free man, your shackles of sin, guilt, and despair have been taken away.  As you begin to let the fact that Jesus erased all of your sins sink in, it is as if you have been given a brand new start in life.  It is true that the memories and pain of your past may never go away, but Jesus forgives all of our past and gives us a future.  Jesus never focuses on who we were, he only looks at who we will become.  All you had to do was accept him as your personal savior.  You have now taken your first breath of true freedom and clean slate in the eyes of Jesus.

John 3:16 tells us, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  Can you imagine giving up your own son for a world full of sinners and unbelievers?  I agree that it should have been us stretching our arms and dying on that cross, we are the sinners; not Jesus.  But God loved us so much that he gave the only perfect being we will ever know to die in agony on the cross.  It took the perfect to die to enable the imperfect to gain eternal life.  With his death, our future can be changed forever; all we have to do is accept his sacrifice.   Thanks to God’s grace and his willingness to forgive every wrong we have committed or are yet to commit; we will spend eternity with Jesus.

Have you ever closely looked for the red letters, the words of Jesus in your bible?

Click to Hear Crowder Perform Red Letters

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I Stand Amazed in the Presence

The next entry for my Blog is I Stand Amazed in the Presence, which was written by Charles H. Gabriel in 1905.  It was first released in April 9, 2021.  A link to Extended Life Fellowship singing the song is at the bottom of the Blog.

I Stand Amazed in the Presence


I stand amazed in the presence
Of Jesus the Nazarene,
And wonder how He could love me,
A sinner, condemned, unclean.

Oh, how marvelous! Oh, how wonderful!
And my song shall ever be;
Oh, how marvelous! Oh, how wonderful!
Is my Savior’s love for me!

For me it was in the garden
He prayed, “Not My will but Thine;”
He had no tears for His own griefs,
But sweat drops of blood for mine.

Oh, how marvelous! Oh, how wonderful!
And my song shall ever be;
Oh, how marvelous! Oh, how wonderful!
Is my Savior’s love for me!

He took my sins and my sorrows,
He made them His very own;
He bore the burden on Calv’ry,
And suffered and died alone.

Oh, how marvelous! Oh, how wonderful!
And my song shall ever be;
Oh, how marvelous! Oh, how wonderful!
Is my Savior’s love for me!

When with the ransomed in glory
His face I at last shall see,
‘Twill be my joy thro’ the ages
To sing of His love for me.

Oh, how marvelous! Oh, how wonderful!
And my song shall ever be;
Oh, how marvelous! Oh, how wonderful!
Is my Savior’s love for me!

There are a lot of songs which are focused on the trials we face in our lives and how God is there to lift us up and get our lives back on the right track.  This is a song about coming face to face with Jesus and what it might be like.  This hymn has been around for over 100 years, but the truth and hope still ring out with power and promise.  When we get our first chance to stand face to face with Jesus, I am thinking I will be completely awestruck and speechless.  Just imagine that feeling as you look into his eyes and see and feel an undying love for you.  It is so hard to understand why he would die for someone who is a sinner such as I.  We have all sinned, but Jesus forgave those sins when we accepted him as our personal savior.  Even though I am sinless in his eyes, I still have to wonder how he could love me unconditionally.  I was a sinner, I am a sinner, and will always be a sinner; but he no longer sees any of that.  I can’t help but believe that I will fall on my knees and weep uncontrollably since it was because of people like me that he had to die on the cross.

The chorus puts words into the feelings of our heart as we stand before our savior.  I believe this is the type of chorus that will be with us for eternity.  We will continue to offer up our praise to Jesus for the never-ending love he has for us.

The garden referenced in the lyrics is the Garden of Gethsemane in Israel.  This is a garden where Jesus went to pray the night of his betrayal.  We find this in Mark 14:32-36.  “They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, sit here while I pray.  He took Peter, James, and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled.  My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death, he said to them. Stay here and keep watch. Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that, if possible, the hour might pass from him.  Abba, Father, he said, everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”  In another scripture passage in the book of Luke, we find that Jesus prayed so hard that he sweated drops of blood.  He knew what was coming, he knew he was going to be crucified.  The man in him asked God to not let this happen, but the faith he had through the love of his father allowed him to accept his fate.  He didn’t cry tears for his own fate, he knew he was going back home to heaven; but he cried the tears for us so we could also go to our heavenly home.  He was willing to die for us, regardless of the pain he would incur; he loved us so much that on the night he accepted his death as a trade for us getting eternal life.

Jesus knew what he was facing when he accepted God’s will for him.  He did not resist his arrest nor did he make any excuses for his message of salvation to everyone he encountered.  He had seen people hanging from crosses, since that was a common form of execution by the Romans.  He saw their pain, the blood flowing from their wounds, heard their screaming, and saw their tears; but he willingly accepted his fate knowing that he would soon be joining them.  Jesus knew he was bearing the sins of the world and that the burden he was carrying at this moment was greater than any of us can begin to fathom.  He also knew, that if he did not fulfill his mission, we would be unable to spend eternity in heaven and would end up in the fiery pit of hell.  Instead, our lives would end at the time of our physical death and the grave, there would be no eternal life in heaven.  As he was dying on that cross, he became encumbered with the sins of the world; and in that brief time he was separated from God the father by the sins he was now bearing.  Imagine being separated from your child or your father; then think about how you would feel if this separation was not your fault.  Jesus essentially died alone, due to the darkness of the sins he took upon himself.  The day he died on the cross on the mount called Calvary, was one of the worst physical days anyone could endure, but it was also the most wonderful day for all of us who have accepted him as the son of God.

For those of us who have accepted the sacrifice of Christ and for those who will accept him in the future, our eternal home is secured.  We are ransomed by his death on the cross, we are no longer prisoners of our sins.  What a joy that will be, to see the one who died so I could spend eternity with my family and friends who also accepted his sacrifice.  It will for sure be a time of singing, praise, and fellowship with the one who made this happen.  I know that I will stand amazed in the presence of Jesus.   This one man, who grew up in Nazareth, a town of under 500 people, gave hope to the entire world.

Keep this verse in your heart always, from John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Click to Hear Extended Life Worship Sing I Stand Amazed in the Presence

Woman at the Well

The next entry for my Blog is Woman at the Well, which was written Jesse Reeves, Olivia Lane, and Steve Fee.  It was first released in April 9, 2021.  A link to Olivia Lane singing the song is at the bottom of the Blog.   The link also includes a film clip from the TV Series “The Chosen.”

Woman at the Well

I heard a story from the Bible
When I was just a little girl
About a broken-hearted woman
Who met the Savior of the world

Thought it was just another story
One that the preacher man would read
But as I’m sitting here at home
Drinking red wine all alone
I think that woman might be me

‘Cause tonight I feel just like
The woman at the well
Wondering how someone could love me
When I can’t love myself
But You want me as I am and that sounds crazy
I guess maybe that’s why grace is so amazing

Staring at that empty bottle
I swear I caught a glimpse of Him
He met me right there at the bottom
And turned that wine to living water
And taught me how to love again

Yeah, tonight I feel just like
The woman at the well
Wondering how someone could love me
When I can’t love myself
But You want me as I am and that sounds crazy
I guess maybe that’s why grace is so amazing

It’s no longer just a story when I read it (when I read it)
‘Cause I’ve seen Him for myself and I believe it

‘Cause tonight I feel just like
The woman at the well
Wondering how someone could love me
When I can’t love myself
But You want me as I am and that sounds crazy
I guess maybe that’s why grace is so amazing

Just like the story from the Bible
I heard when I was just a girl
I’m the broken-hearted woman
Who met the Savior of the world

This is a song that brought tears of sadness and tears of joy in my heart as I recalled the story in the bible, then listened to the words of this song, and then saw it come to life on TV when I watched an episode of The Chosen.  It is amazing when you read the scripture, feel the pain of the woman at the well, the empathy of Jesus, followed by the great joy he has brought to this woman who has been living a life of hopelessness.

The bible has many passages that describe Jesus, the son of God and savior of the world, interacting with people and explaining who he is and his mission upon coming to earth.  One of these passages, which is in the book of Matthew chapter 9, tells us about Jesus meeting with a woman at the well.  This woman had a life that was in turmoil, she had already been through multiple marriages, and never seemed to find happiness.  When you sit in church and hear these stories, they don’t always seem real because they are not necessarily hitting close to home.  Even though the message is true, maybe it doesn’t seem to apply to us at the time and is someone else’s story, not yours or mine.  We hear the message, perhaps we retain it, and then we go on with our lives.

As we journey down the road in our lives, we perhaps start struggling with seemingly everything going on in our life, and gradually our world starts falling apart.  Maybe we are feeling alone and the deeper in despair we fall, we start believing there is no hope.  In this song, the individual is sitting home all alone, drinking some wine, and dwelling on all of the times she has failed in her life.  The realization comes that perhaps she is just like the woman at the well from the story she heard in church long ago; a totally messed up life with no escape in sight.  Maybe she hasn’t gone through the same type of travails as the woman, but she feels she has failed in her decisions and has lost all hope as her despair rages on.  She has trouble loving herself, so how could anyone else ever love her.  Perhaps she, just as the woman at the well, has gone through multiple relationships, marriages, or failures in life.  She feels as if she will never be loved again and that she is unworthy of love.

At just the right time, this example of Jesus’ love in the bible has finally grabbed the singer’s attention, she finally understands that Jesus accepts us just as we are.  All he asks is that we accept him and the eternal life he offers each of us.  He knows we will change once we accept him, but he doesn’t hold any of our past against us.  We are told about his grace and forgiveness in Romans 4:7. “Oh, what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sins are put out of sight.”  

As the singer sits there alone and looks down into the bottom of the empty wine bottle, she suddenly catches a fleeting glimpse of the face of Jesus.  It sounds sort of odd to catch a glimpse of our savior in the bottom of a wine bottle, but it is his way of saying I am with you wherever you go and ready to pull you up when you are ready to leave your misery.  It is so much easier when we finally understand that we don’t look up to find Jesus, we look beside us and to the outreached hand.  He is ready to give us eternal life, that living water, whenever we are ready to accept his hand. We find this passage in John 4:13-14, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” 

I believe that all of us, at some point in our lives, have the hopeless feeling felt by the woman at the well.  Some of the mistakes we made were our own fault, and some were probably caused by others.  The woman at the well struggled with marriages and relationships, some of the issues were perhaps hers and some not.  Whatever the situation, Jesus is not concerned about who is at fault.  He doesn’t judge us by our past; his eyes are only focused on eternity.  I hope you have partaken of the holy water.

Click to Hear Olivia Lane Sing Woman at the Well, Includes Film Clip from the TV Series – The Chosen