Tag: John 3

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

I Wish We’d All Been Ready

The next entry for my Blog is I Wish We’d All Been Ready, which was written by Larry Norman.  The song was initially released May 6, 2019.  A link to DC Talk performing the song is at the bottom of the Blog.

I Wish We’d All Been Ready

Life was filled with guns and war
And everyone got trampled on the floor
I wish we’d all been ready

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Children died, the days grew cold
A piece of bread could buy a bag of gold
I wish we’d all been ready

There’s no time to change your mind
The Son has come and you’ve been left behind

A man and wife asleep in bed
She hears a noise and turns her head
He’s gone
I wish we’d all been ready

Two men walking up a hill
One disappears and one’s left standing still
I wish we’d all been ready

There’s no time to change your mind
The Son has come and you’ve been left behind

Life was filled with guns and war
And everyone got trampled on the floor
I wish we’d all been ready

Children died, the days grew cold
A piece of bread could buy a bag of gold
I wish we’d all been ready

There’s no time to change your mind
How could you have been so blind?
The Father spoke, the demons dined
The Son has come and you’ve been left behind

You’ve been left behind
You’ve been left behind
You’ve been left behind
You’ve been left behind

This song is a little different from the ones I normally write about.  The song itself is a little slower, even though it was performed by a usually upbeat group.  As I perform my search for songs every week, I look for the one that really impacts me the most.  This song is a little out of character for me, but I believe it sends a powerful message that everyone needs to hear.

Are there times when you see things or hear things that are going on in the world that really bother or upset you?  I supposed this has happened to me a few times in my life, but as I get older; I seem to pay more attention to what is going on in the world around me.  It seems as if there are more wars going on all over the world.  There seem to be more starving people as well as more homeless people.  The churches around the world seem to be fighting more and more battles every day to keep the word of God alive.  Many people no longer go to church and don’t believe in God or his promises.  People continue to turn their back on God because they do not believe the bible and the fact that it is the word of God.

 I am a Christian and believe that I must accept Jesus Christ as my personal savior to have eternal life in heaven.  God’s promise was that he would send his son to die on the cross and that whoever accepted him as their personal savior would spend eternity with him.  Christ showed that we truly could rise from the dead since he himself died on the cross, then walked again on this earth, and then rose into heaven.  There were eyewitnesses to all of these events.  Christ also promised that he will come again and that every living person on earth who had accepted him and his promise, will go to heaven with him to begin their eternal life.  On the day Christ returns, people who are still alive, will ascend with him in the clouds; this event is called the rapture.  So far, all I have done is set the background for the song.

Now I will give you my analysis on the song, but I thought the background would be helpful since the lyrics jump right into the event.  As the wars go on around us, hunger keeps growing, and homelessness is taking over cities; people hear the story about this man coming down to earth from the heavens and taking people back with him spreads like wildfire.  I can just imagine people running all over each other to get outside and see what is happening.  Maybe to put into a perspective, imagine the issues if a massive sports stadium had to be suddenly evacuated; think of people getting crushed and even killed due to the mass of humanity running over them if they fell.  Those who had accepted Christ were ready and are ascending into the clouds, those who have not accepted Christ are those who are getting trampled or perhaps falling to the ground when they realize they are left behind.

As millions of people around the world rise up in the clouds, our earthly population diminishes.  The believers in Christ are gone and those left behind now have to determine how to keep food, supplies, medicine flowing since so many people will be gone in the blink of an eye.  Food dwindles since many of the farmers will be gone, many truckers who carry the food to market will be gone, grocery stores will keep running out of food.  Maybe people have money, but there is no food to buy. Children are dying perhaps because of not enough food, not enough medical care, and perhaps their parents are now gone and they are alone.  In cold weather climates, children and others, may freeze to death if there is no readily available heat or the ability to build fires for warmth.  I believe all young children will ascend into the clouds with Jesus, but those who were old enough to make a decision to accept Christ, yet rejected him, will be in the same situation as all of the rest of the people left behind.

How many times had many of these people heard the word of God and the promise of eternal life; but rejected the word.  It is now too late for these people; they have been left behind.  The song has been talking about generalities, but then it starts to give some examples of loss and heartbreak.  Image you are asleep in bed with your spouse and you hear a sudden noise.  You turn over to see if your spouse is ok, but your spouse is no longer there.  Your loved one had accepted Christ and you did not, now you have been left behind.  Maybe you were the one who refused to go to church because you didn’t believe in the word of God and his promises and your spouse went alone to church.  This is referenced in the book of Luke 17:34, “I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left.”  Another person mentioned is walking up a hill, perhaps with a friend, and he turns around and his friend is gone.   Maybe the friend who disappeared is the same one who used to try and tell you about Christ, but you never wanted to hear it.  Now you have been left behind.  In the book of Matthew 24:40-41, we are told “Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.”

You have probably had chances to hear about Christ your entire life and you ignored those chances.  Maybe you thought you were too busy, you were not willing to change your life, perhaps your friends would no longer accept you, or maybe you just thought the Bible and Christianity were nonsense.  So perhaps you are the one now thinking, how could I have been so blind?  The son of God has come and you have been left behind.  John 3:16 tells us what we need to do to ensure eternity in heaven, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

All of the above can be sort of depressing.  I am a very upbeat person, but I think it is important to share my opinions via these blogs and then you can draw your own conclusions.  I would not want to be a contributor to you being left behind, my hope would be that none of us get left.  The good news is that you can accept Christ up until the day you die, so it is never too late.  Maybe you miss the rapture and you don’t go to heaven right away, but Christ’s offer to accept him is always there; don’t run the risk of running out of time.

Are you ready?

Click to Hear DC Talk Sing I Wish We’d All Been Ready

Fear is a Liar

The next entry for my Blog is Fear is a Liar, which was written by Jason Ingram, Jonathan Smith, and Zach Williams.  It was first released January 19, 2018.  A link to the Zach Williams singing the song is at the bottom of the Blog. 

Fear is a Liar

When he told you you’re not good enough
When he told you you’re not right
When he told you you’re not strong enough
To put up a good fight
When he told you you’re not worthy
When he told you you’re not loved
When he told you you’re not beautiful
That you’ll never be enough

Fear, he is a liar
He will take your breath
Stop you in your steps
Fear, he is a liar
He will rob your rest
Steal your happiness
Cast your fear in the fire
‘Cause fear he is a liar

When he told you were troubled
You’ll forever be alone
When he told you Cause should run away
You’ll never find a home
When he told you you were dirty
And you should be ashamed
When he told you you could be the one
That grace could never change

Fear, he is a liar
He will take your breath
Stop you in your steps
Fear, he is a liar
He will rob your rest
Steal your happiness
Cast your fear in the fire
‘Cause fear he is a liar

Let Your fire fall and cast out all my fears
Let Your fire fall Your love is all I feel

Let Your fire fall and cast out all my fears
Let Your fire fall Your love is all I feel

Let Your fire fall and cast out all my fears
Let Your fire fall Your love is all I feel

Oh, let Your fire fall and cast out all my fears
Let Your fire fall Your love is all I feel

Oh, fear he is a liar
He will take your breath
Stop you in your steps
Fear he is a liar
He will rob your rest
Steal your happiness
Cast your fear in the fire
‘Cause fear he is a liar

‘Cause fear he is a liar

Do you ever feel as if you are in a deep dark hole with no way out?  It seems as if there is some sort of roadblock in every direction.  Eventually, we tend to lose our confidence and sometimes withdraw into ourselves and keep everyone else out of our lives.  I believe this song does a good job of describing this situation.  It is as if there is someone else inside our mind or body who is always telling us that we will never succeed in anything we do, we are just a total failure at everything.  Are there times when you have felt as if you are were not good enough?  Maybe you felt as if you were not good enough for someone else to love and are afraid to express your feelings to that special someone.  This special person fell in love with someone else and you never even told them how you felt about them because you were afraid of rejection or ridicule.  Everywhere we turn, we feel rejected and become afraid in every aspect of our lives.  We are not as intelligent as others, we are not as beautiful as others, we begin to wonder why anyone would fall in love with us since we are not worthy of love and respect.  Wow, this is really depressing and may not seem real but it really happens to many people.  Maybe it leads to a life filled with “what ifs” or even worse, results in suicide.

Now that have I painted a gloomy picture; it is time to identify where these feelings come from; they are the results of fear.  Satan, the devil, the evil one; is constantly whispering in our ear and getting into our heads.  Satan’s goal is to disrupt and destroy our lives.  The bible in 1 Peter 5:8 says, “the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”  He can stop us dead in our tracks, he can destroy our confidence, and take away our hopes and dreams.  The bad news is that Satan and his minions are always after us and lie to us about who we are.  The more we listen to him, the deeper into the abyss we fall.  As the chorus tells us, we need to take this fear of gloom and doom that he whispers in our ear and kick him out of our lives.  He is a liar, a cheat, and a failure.  He is the one that was not good enough to defeat the almighty God in the battle for heaven and was banished to this earth.  All of these bad things you are thinking about yourself are a direct result of trusting in these voices as opposed to turning your heart and mind over to God.

The first verse depicts Satan, via fear, attacking our personal qualities.  The next verse is how Satan tries to negate the possible actions of God in our lives.  Not only does our view of our own self-image affect us emotionally, but it also impacts how we interact with other people.  Since we are so afraid to engage with others due to our lack of confidence and self-esteem and fear of rejection, we resign ourselves to the feeling that we will always be alone and lonely.  We wish we could run away from it all, but where can we run when there is no one who is willing to hold us and bring us peace?  Our lives are ruined and worthless and we are convinced that we are sentenced to a life of shame and sadness.  The even worse news is that we have the feeling there is absolutely nothing that even God can do for us; we are too far gone to be brought back to the light of hope.

The writers do a good job depicting how much impact fear and Satan have on our lives and some of you may believe this is your life today.  The good news is that although we all may have many of the feelings portrayed in this song, we have a way out.  The path from this darkness to the bright and shining light is accepting Jesus, the son of God, as your personal savior.  God sent his son to die for all of us and to forgive all of the wrongs in our lives and guarantee us an eternal home with him.  The song references grace; in the Christian bible, grace is defined as getting a gift we don’t deserve.  A word also used frequently with the word grace is the word mercy.  Mercy is not getting the punishment we deserve.  When Jesus died for us, God essentially forgave us for everything we have ever done wrong and there will be no punishment from him.  The only requirement is you must accept his son Jesus as your own personal savior.   We are told this in the book of John 3:16-17, “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.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”  As you take this step, all of the wrongs in your life are forgiven by God and you have a father who loves you.  Yes, we will still have our moments where we do things we shouldn’t, but he is always with us to offer us encouragement and forgiveness and to get us back on the right path. 

As you get closer to God and farther away from the great deceiver, your life begins to change.  You start to feel a love and comfort you have never felt before.  Perhaps the greatest thing is the feeling that you are never alone.  God made you as one of his creations and he made each of us as individuals.  He loves us even more than we can even imagine.  There is an old hymn, “In the Garden”, that talks about how God walks with us and talks with us and reminds us of how we belong to him.  It is a song that can bring joy to your heart and reinforces the fact that we are never alone.  As you realize that God is part of your life and that his love can never be taken away, you have a new hope in your life.  It is almost as if you are able to see that bright sunshine on your face whenever you think of him.  Every time you see a rainbow, you will remember that God gave us the rainbow as a promise of his love.  If you are someone who has been losing the battle to the devil and now realize you have God’s power over him; go out and face your new world.  A world filled with love, hope, friendship, and a bright new future.  You will no longer be afraid to open your heart to friends, loved ones, that special someone, and you might start looking at new adventures in your life.  If you have some time available, listen to the song I mentioned above or even take a look at my Blog entry for the song.

The devil and fear are absolutely the best liars, but God is love and offers us eternity and is with always with us.  The book of Joshua 1:9 reminds us of God’s promise of faithfulness, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Click to Hear Zach Williams Sing Fear is a Liar