Tag: light of the world

Here I Am To Worship

The next entry for my Blog is Here I Am To Worship and was first released in 2001.  The original lyrics were written by Tim Hughes.  A link to Chris Tomlin performing the song is at the bottom of the Blog.

Here I Am to Worship

Light of the world
You stepped down into darkness
Opened my eyes, let me see
Beauty that made this heart adore You
Hope of a life spent with You

Here I am to worship
Here I am to bow down
Here I am to say that You’re my God

You’re altogether lovely
Altogether worthy
Altogether wonderful to me

King of all days
Oh so highly exalted
Glorious in heaven above
Humbly You came to the earth You created
All for love’s sake became poor

Here I am to worship
Here I am to bow down
Here I am to say that You’re my God

You’re altogether lovely
Altogether worthy
Altogether wonderful to me

Well, I’ll never know how much it cost
To see my sin upon that cross

Well, I’ll never know how much it cost
To see my sin upon that cross

Well, I’ll never know how much it cost
To see my sin upon that cross

Well, I’ll never know how much it cost
To see my sin upon that cross

Have you ever stopped for a while and just thought about all of the things going on around you, across the country, and around the world?  It is sort of scary living in a world that puts “ME” first.  It is almost as if people are shifting from a focus on family and others to an “It’s all about me” mentality.  The more we adopt this philosophy, the farther we get from God, what he wants and expects from us, and the blessings only he can provide; the darker the world becomes.   There is no true happiness in a dark world without the light and love of Jesus.

He showed us that light some 2000 years ago, when he humbly set foot on this earth and let us see him, touch him, and feel the light and love that no one else can offer.  Jesus gave up the perfect peace of heaven to come to this dark and troubled world. Imagine the shock if you had to give up everything and then sacrifice yourself for those who might even hate you.  He came as a simple man and walked in our sinful world and the people did not realize his true power until he arose from the grave and then ascended into heaven.  For those who believed then and believe now, we have his love and his promises inside us; we just have to reach out to him for peace.  Jesus is the only one who can show us the real beauty of what life can be and how he wanted it to be.  He only asks that we accept him as our Lord and Savior and he committed to giving us eternal life.  We just have to survive our few short years on earth to live an eternity with him.

With the above two paragraphs in mind, it is obvious that our priorities as a civilization are all out of whack.  The chorus of the song basically screams what we need to do.  We need to stop living the ways of the world and start worshipping our God again; make him first instead of an afterthought.  Our heads should be bowing in worship as we cry out to God for help, guidance, and forgiveness.  He is the only one who is worthy of our worship and he is the only one we can depend on every day of our lives.  No one else or anything else is worthy of our praise.  Philippians 2:9-11 delivers this message to us: Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  Do we spend more time focused on the events of the world than on the expectations of God?  In other words, who or what is your true god and can that god bring you the happiness you want?   The answer is we are all guilty of putting other things/gods before the one God.  We eventually lose our hope in the midst of the noise of the world around us and forget about the only God who loves us and can bring us light.

He is the owner and master of every day of our lives, and has been that way since the day he created us.  He is the almighty God that rules the universe, he is not limited to just our world.  The good news is that he is still in control, we just need to get onboard.  Now and forever is the time to worship, to honor his glory and to him above all else.  He doesn’t fit in an “It’s all about me” world.

We will never clearly understand the suffering and separation that Christ endured while on the cross; he never wants us to endure what he did and that is why he paid the price.  Where is your focus today, is it where it should be?  How long has it been since you have broken down in prayer while asking for forgiveness or for change in your world?  Take time to stop and sing this chorus with feeling and power and I believe you will understand.  Now is the time to worship, now is the time to bow down, and now is the time to tell God how much you love him and want to do what he has commanded.

Click to Hear Chris Tomlin Perform Here I am to Worship.

Reckless Love – Entry #4 of 4

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This concludes the Blog for Reckless Love.