amazing grace – Song Dive

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

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

Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)

The next entry for my Blog is Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone), which was written by Giglio Louie. It was first released in 2006. A link to the Chris Tomlin singing the song is at the bottom of the Blog. The original version of Amazing Grace was written by John Newton in 1772.

Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)

Amazing grace how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now I’m found
Was blind, but now I see

‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed

My chains are gone, I’ve been set free
My God, my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy reigns
Unending love
Amazing grace

The Lord has promised good to me
His word my hope secures
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures

My chains are gone, I’ve been set free
My God, my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy reigns
Unending love
Amazing grace

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow
The sun forbear to shine
But God, who called me here below
Will be forever mine, will be forever mine
You are forever mine

Think of a word or phrase that carries the most powerful impact on someone’s life. I know this might be a challenging request, since there are so many great words and phrases that positively impact us in a special or powerful way. The title of this song doesn’t necessarily stand out as the answer to my request, but when you look at the true meaning of grace; you will hopefully agree that this is one of the most powerful songs ever written. I believe that, deep inside, we all want to be better people. We want to be better for ourselves as well as for others. We want to be liked, loved, and embraced as we greet other people; but what happens when we do things wrong and people can’t seem to get past our mistakes and errors in judgement? Depending on what we may have said or what we have done, people will not let us into or back into their lives nor will they forgive or forget what we have done. We put ourselves in a situation where we live in regret and then start trying to avoid others. We are seemingly stuck with our past and this guilt becomes the chains that hold us back. We want to be free, but are unsure of how to break through our bondage and move forward in our lives.

Now, let’s look at the title of this song, the word to focus on is grace. In looking at this through the lens of Christianity, grace is defined as the unmerited favor of God. More simply put, it is a free gift of forgiveness and mercy regardless of what we have done in our lives. All God asks of us is to accept his son Jesus Christ as our personal savior, we then receive God’s forgiveness for every mistake we have made in our lives; past, present, and future. God’s grace is immediate. No matter what we have done in our life, God is willing to forgive us. People may or may not forgive our flaws, but God is the one who controls our eternity and the one who should be the most important being in our lives. We all make mistakes, some big and some small, and we may not be leading a good life. Maybe we got off track with our lives a long time ago and perhaps we consider ourselves as being bad or even wretched, but he loves us anyway and is willing to wrap his arms around even the most evil among us; all he asks is to put our future in his hands. As we accept God, we start seeing the life he wants us to lead and the person he wants us to become. We are no longer oblivious to our own wrongs and the wrongs of others around us. God instills in us the desire to be better and to see what needs to change in our lives. As we feel his love and his strength, we no longer have the same fear regarding what lies ahead in our lives because we know he is there to lead us, to guide us, to love us, and to pick us up when we fall.

As the chorus tells us, we have been set free from our past and present and now have hope for our future. We are no longer encumbered by the invisible chains that have held us back from who we can be. We can now live, love, and dream knowing that we will never be alone again and that we have a guaranteed eternal home. God sent his only son to die on the cross for us, so we could have the bondage of our past replaced by the promises of God! It is amazing to me that God gave up his son so each of us could have an eternal life with him. Jesus paid the price for us with his life, the ultimate sacrifice. God’s mercy wiped the slate clean of all wrongdoings we have had in our lives and has made us a new creation, with his promise of never-ending love. It may be a while before people we know overlook our past, but in God’s eyes we have no past, only a future.

God promises eternity for us and that we can have a rewarding life. It doesn’t mean we will have a perfect life, but we can have a life filled with hope knowing that we ultimately have an eternal heavenly home. In the book of John 14:1-3, we find this promise given by Jesus as he prepared to die on the cross for us, “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.”

One day this world, as we know it, will be no more, the writer describes it as the earth melting away like snow. The bible, in the book of Revelation, also tells us that the world will be replaced by a new world. The good news is that God has already reserved our space in heaven, once we have accepted his son as our personal savior. This is grace: the gift of eternal life.

Click to Hear Chris Tomlin Sing Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)

Flawless

The next song for my Blog is a contemporary song released in April 2015. It was written by Barry Graul, Bart Millard, Ben Glover, David Garcia, Michael Scheuchzer, Nathan Cochran, Robby Shaffer, and Solomon Olds. A link to MercyMe performing the song is at the bottom of this Blog entry.

Flawless

There’s got to be more
Than going back and forth
From doing right to doing wrong
‘Cause we were taught that’s who we are
Come on get in line right behind me
You along with everybody
Thinking there’s worth in what you do

Then like a hero who takes the stage when
We’re on the edge of our seats saying it’s too late
Well let me introduce you to amazing grace

No matter the bumps
No matter the bruises
No matter the scars
Still the truth is
The cross has made
The cross has made you flawless
No matter the hurt
Or how deep the wound is
No matter the pain
Still the truth is
The cross has made
The cross has made you flawless

Could it possibly be
That we simply can’t believe
That this unconditional
Kind of love would be enough
To take a filthy wretch like this
And wrap him up in righteousness
But that’s exactly what He did

No matter the bumps
No matter the bruises
No matter the scars
Still the truth is
The cross has made
The cross has made you flawless
No matter the hurt
Or how deep the wound is
No matter the pain
Still the truth is
The cross has made
The cross has made you flawless

Take a breath smile and say
Right here right now I’m ok because
The cross was enough

Then like a hero who takes the stage when
We’re on the edge of our seats saying it’s too late
Well let me introduce you to grace grace
God’s grace

He made you flawless
He made you flawless

No matter the bumps
No matter the bruises
No matter the scars
Still the truth is
The cross has made
The cross has made you flawless

You ever feel as if you are the proverbial hamster on the wheel? Maybe you have had a hamster or a mouse in a cage with a wheel and they can seemingly run on these wheels for hours. Obviously, they are getting some good exercise, but once they get off the wheel; they are right back at the place they started and are probably exhausted. If you think about it, this does bear some resemblance to our lives. Some times in our life, we seem to making great progress in a lot of areas and other times we feel as if we are going backwards. I think this also applies to what we accomplish as Christians, sometimes we are on fire for the Lord and feel so close to him; but other times we are not so committed and seem to distance ourselves from him. We just keep going back and forth and people tell us that is just the normal nature of life and that we just need to get used to it. In other words, we are just like everyone else riding the human version of the hamster wheel and we sort of get used to it. We realize along the way that life has got to be more than this and that we are becoming more immersed in the sinful world instead of being transformed from this world. We also come to the realization that we need help to get off the wheel of sin and on the right path.

At some point, from out of nowhere, someone comes forward and helps set us on the right track again. The writer calls this the hero who comes to our rescue after we have given up hope and accepted our lot in life. For all of us, this hero can only be Jesus since he is the only one who can give us amazing grace. Grace is when God gives us what we don’t deserve and we certainly don’t deserve his love and his forgiveness; but he gives both to us freely. He is only one who can save us from the hamster wheel of sin and hopelessness and assure us that we have an eternity of heavenly peace ahead of us.

It doesn’t matter to him how or why we got our physical and emotional scars, bumps, heartaches, and bruises in life; all he asks us to do is accept his son as our personal savior and all of our sins of the past, present, and future are forgiven. When Jesus died on the cross, our sins went away. We became flawless forever. Take a few minutes and just dwell on that thought, we are completely freed from the bondage of sin. It doesn’t mean we won’t have any more pain or heartache; but it does mean these will all go away and not go with us to our heavenly home. In Hebrews 10:11-14 is the promise that all of our sins are taken away forever. ¹¹All Jewish religious leaders stand every day killing animals and giving gifts on the altar. They give the same gifts over and over again. These gifts cannot take away sins. ¹²But Christ gave Himself once for sins and that is good forever. After that He sat down at the right side of God. ¹³He is waiting there for God to make of those who have hated Him a place to rest His feet. ¹⁴And by one gift He has made perfect forever all those who are being set apart for God-like living.

The difficult part to digest is the fact that no matter how bad we have been or what sins we have committed, the unconditional love of Christ allows him to forgive and forget all of our sins. Maybe we as humans rank sins and believe some people are worse than others and from our human perspective this is probably true, but in God’s eyes, a sin is a sin. God is willing to forgive us of all sins, no matter how bad they are. He sent Jesus as the atonement for all of our sins and this atonement is for all of us; all we have to do is accept Christ as our Lord and savior. Keep in mind that he doesn’t rank sins, he only sees us as his creations who are imperfect in an imperfect world. As we accept Christ, we are wrapped in his arm of righteousness for eternity. We probably all ask the question, how can Jesus love me after everything I did; but as the writer states; we can just take a deep breath, smile, and say thank you with all of our heart because the cross was enough.

It is awesome that God sees us as his children and gives each of us his unconditional love. Isn’t that what being a father is all about?

Click Here to See MercyMe Performing Flawless

Hello My Name Is – Entry #1 of 2

The next song for my Blog was written by Matthew West and first released in 2012. A link to Matthew West performing the song is at the bottom of this Blog entry.

Hello, My Name Is

Hello, my name is regret
I’m pretty sure we have met
Every single day of your life
I’m the whisper inside
Won’t let you forget
Hello, my name is defeat
I know you recognize me
Just when you think you can win
I’ll drag you right back down again
‘Til you’ve lost all belief
These are the voices,
these are the lies
And I have believed them,
for the very last time
Hello, my name is child of the one true king
I’ve been saved, I’ve been changed, and I have been set free
Amazing grace is the song I sing
Hello, my name is child of the one true king
I am no longer defined
By all the wreckage behind
The one who makes all things new
Has proven it’s true
Just take a look at my life
Hello, my name is child of the one true king
I’ve been saved, I’ve been changed, and I have been set free
Amazing grace is the song I sing
Hello, my name is child of the one true king
What a love the Father has lavished upon us
That we should be called his children
I am a child of the one true King
What a love the Father has lavished upon us
That we should be called his children
Hello, my name is child of the one true king
I’ve been saved, I’ve been changed, and I have been set free
Amazing grace is the song I sing
Hello, my name is child of the one true king
I am a child of the one true king

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

Do you have those days in your life when you feel as if the whole world has come crashing down on top of you? All you can think about is the negative things in your life and perhaps the failures that got you to this point. As we focus on these regrets, we are where Satan wants us to be, focused on anything else but our Lord and our eternal life. Satan is the voice of regret whispering in our ear and is constantly reminding us of everything we have done wrong in our lives. We are letting him hold us back from who God wants us to be.

As if the flood of regrets is not enough, Satan also likes to remind us of all of our failures. Our failures could be the job we didn’t get and desperately need, a broken relationship, the loss of someone special in our lives whom we never told often enough how much we loved them, or perhaps a promotion we deserved that was given to someone else. Satan continues to whisper in our ear and reminds us of how unworthy we are. We all have struggles we battle every single day as we just try to keep our heads above water and it is at this weakest moment that Satan reminds us of our failures and we fall back into the rut and into the inner darkness that seems to overwhelm us. We just want to hang our heads in absolute dejection or throw our arms up and just say “I can’t do this anymore!”

Satan and his minions are always around us and we constantly hear their whisperings during our weakest moments and many times we believe what we are hearing. We start to believe we can do nothing right, nobody loves us, and we are destined for a miserable life on this earth. At some point, as we strengthen our relationship with Christ, the many voices of Satan get quieter as they are drowned out by the love of Jesus and the voice of the Holy Spirit. We start to realize that we have been hearing lies our whole life and have had Satan stealing away our joy and hope, but no more!!

The song shifts from the voice of Satan to our own voice. Once we have accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior, we become his child for eternity, we become a child of the only true king. We become secure in knowing we have eternal life, all of our sins have been forgiven, and we have been set free of our past. Satan still is and will always be talking to us, but he has no power over the one true king, Jesus. Yes, our past is still there, but all of our wrongs have been forgiven and we now have the opportunity to start on a new path with our Savior. We can now look to the path Jesus has planned for us as opposed to the path we have been trodding. Through the death of Christ on the cross, all of our sins have been forgiven, his grace truly is amazing. We spend our lives ignoring him, tackling our struggles on our own, letting Satan be our guide, and essentially ignoring him and his love for us. In spite of it all, he was still willing to die for us and through grace all of our sins are erased and forgotten. It is no doubt Amazing Grace that fills our heart and soul. Yes, we do have a new name, it is no longer regret, defeat, or hopelessness; it is child of the one true king!!!

Click Here to Hear Matthew West Performing Hello My Name Is