1.25.2005

Basking in the Son

Matthew West - More
From the album Happy
Take a look at the mountain
Stretching a mile high
Take a look at the ocean
Far as your eye can see
And think of me

Take a look at the desert
Do you feel like a grain of sand?
I am with you wherever
Where you go is where I am

And I'm always thinking of you
Take a look round you
I'm spelling it out one by one

I love you more than the sun
And the stars that I taught how to shine
You are mine, and you shine for me too
I love you yesterday and today and tomorrow
I'll say it again and again
I love you more

Just a face in the city
Just a tear on a crowded street
But you are one in a million
And you belong to me

And I want you to know
That I'm not letting go
Even when you come undone

I love you more than the sun
And the stars that I taught how to shine
You are mine, and you shine for me too
I love you yesterday and today and tomorrow
I'll say it again and again
I love you more

I love you more, yeah
Shine for me
Shine for me
Shine, you shine, you shine for me

I love you more than the sun
And the stars that I taught how to shine
You are mine, and you shine for me too
I love you yesterday and today and tomorrow
I'll say it again and again

I love you more than the sun
And the stars that I taught how to shine
You are mine, and you shine for me too
I love you yesterday and today through the joy and the pain,
I'll say it again and again
I love you moreI love you more
I see you, and I made you
And I love you more than you can imagine
More than you can fathom
I love you more than the sun
And you shine for me


I was talking with someone recently, and they made the point that songs are not scripture, and once he conceded that those with lyrics lifter directly out of scripture would be the exception there, I agreed with him. But music need not be Scripture to speak great, life-changing truths, truths that can be found in Scripture. I cry when I sing along with this song. I lived a large part of my life believing that I had to earn the right to be loved, that, in myself, I was either inherently unlovable, or loved only for what I do or had done. I spent a good part of last year learning better.

I have known for a long time now that the Bible is a love letter from start to finish, and I have an unfinished work that seeks to highlight that fact. Every word ever spoken from the mouth of God rang with love. Every step His Son took was motivated by love, and perhaps none more than the steps to the cross and then out of the tomb. All of eternity is painted in love in shades we can’t even begin to fathom. This is tender love, the love of a parent and child, of siblings, of a master and his servants, of man and woman delighting in each other.

Perhaps you’ve heard the relationship of Christ and the church likened to a marriage. Perhaps you’ve learned that Song of Solomon is a portrait of marital love between the Lamb of God and His ransomed bride. Have you ever stopped and recognised your face in those verses? It’s there; Christ carved them into His hands Himself, the living Word of God. In Psalm 45, we hear of the marriage of the King and his bride. It is true of the historical King David...but more than that, it is messianic...meaning it applied to Christ, as well, the Messiah God provided for His people. In verse 11, the bride is told “The king in enthralled by your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord.”. If the King in Psalm 45 is understood to be Christ, then his bride is the church, it is you and I. Stop what you are doing right now and go look in the mirror. Study your face. You back? Did you see the Bride of Christ in that mirror? Did you see a bride whose beauty enthralls her king? Did you see the face Your Loving King longed to see in Song of Solomon? Go look again. It doesn’t matter how you think you look. The God who created you, who knit your inmost parts (Psalm 139:13) calls you out from the place he tucked you for safety: “My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places on the mountainside, show me your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.” Did you catch that? “Show me your face....your face is lovely.” I was tormented in high-school. In addition to believing I was unlovable, all the “pretty people” shunned me. I came to believe I was ugly. I am overweight, I have pimples, I wear glasses, and I can’t bring myself to bother with tweezing my eyebrows or wearing makeup most of the time. But the God who formed me calls me lovely! He is enthralled with my beauty. He catches a glimpse of me, and my beauty captivates Him!

So what is my beauty secret? I was made by a God who does GREAT work. I have learned who I am, I have learned to bask in His love like lizards bask in the sun, and I am so overwhelmed at the love He shows me that I can do nothing but thank Him and love Him in return. And when I am completely surrounded in His love, when I am most aware of how great His love for me is...I have only scratched the surface. He loves me on bad days and good. Look at what Paul says in Ephesians 3:17-19: And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge..
He loves me. He sees me, He made me, and He loves me more than I can imagine, more than I can fathom, through the joy and the pain of my yesterdays, todays, and tomorrows, He loves me more than anything He has made. He loves you the same way. Join me, here where I bask. The love is GREAT.

1.15.2005

Musical Musings: "Idescribable", Chris Tomlin

Chris Tomlin - Indescribable
From the album Arriving

From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea,
Creation's revealing Your majesty.
From the colors of fall to the fragrance of spring,
Every creature unique in the song that it sings. All exclaiming...

(Chorus)
Indescribable, Uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing God.
All powerful, Untameable,
Awestruck we fall to our knees and we humbly proclaim,
You are amazing God.

Who has told every lightning bolt where it should go,
Or seen heavenly storehouses laden with snow?
Who imagined the sun and gives source to its light,
Yet conceals it to give us the coolness of night?
None can fathom...

(Chorus)

Incomparable, Unchangeable,
You see the depths of my heart and You love me the same.
You are amazing God.



I bought the "Arriving" CD for this song. When I read the lyrics to my husband, he commented that it sounds like the poetry I write, and perhaps why this peice resonates within me the way it does. Friday night, on the way home from a girls night out (went to go see Andrew Lloyd Weber's Phantom of the Opera), I heard KLOVE play it, and as I meditated on the lyrics, I was moved to tears...concerning, for a moment, my companions, until I explained myself. So what is my deal with this song?

Psalms, written by David, the flawed king of Isreal, described as a man after God's own heart, speaks of the glories of God repeatedly. In Job, God's answer concerns itself with the glories of His creation. In Genesis, from the first words of the Bible, we are confronted with the great and awesome power of God, who spoke all of creation into being. The uncaused cause, the unmade maker, the pre-existant existance that is our God, created space and time with a word. Without sitting down and sketching out a rough draft, God reached into non-existance and called forth existance. He created the universe we inhabit, ingnited the stars, and set the galaxies in motion. God formed the sun, and the moon to reflect it. He formed the earth, and then he made it a haven for his greatest creation. Having spoken everything in all of the universe into being, God Almighty reached down and formed man with His own hands. He breathed a living soul into us, making us to be like Him. He who is love desired to express His love in ways our minds cannot even begin to fathom, and He formed us to love us, even if we never loved Him back. He formed us to love us. The amazing thing about it, though, is the fact that, since He exists outside of the confines of time and space as we understand it, He could see all of eternity stretched out before Him before it was set into motion. Even as He contemplated the way He would love us, He could see the fall of Adam and Eve, the flood and Noah's ark, the crucifixion, and even you and I today. He made humanity to love humanity even as He knew we would betray Him. Knowing we would fail Him, knowing we would reject Him, still He loved us so much that He formed us anyway. He made us, He promised to love us just as we are, and asked us to choose to return His love, allowing us to refuse Him.
And this is the God who loves us. This is the God that, according to Zephaniah 3:17, will sing in joy over us. You and I delight our maker, and the love song He has prepared for us is far greater than any mind has imagined. I am certain that there is not a single thing outside of the all-mighty, all-powerful, grasp and control of my God. Not a wave, not a wind, not the smallest sub-atomic particle or force, nor the largest body in space. If there was anything outside of his reach, outside of His ability, He would be nothing remarkable, nothing to worship. But that is not the case, and no bolt of lightning strikes the earth without His direction or His permission.
That might seem hard to imagine. If God is so good, so powerful, why do we have the horrors we do on earth? Why would a loving God allow a hell to exist, much less condemn these people He loves so much to an eternity there? I know that these, and other questions are rolling about within you. They troubled me, too, for a long time. But see, when you begin to understand the nature of love, of holiness, of justice, of these things that God is, in His very nature, they begin to make sense. True love never obliges its own return. Love is at it purest when its object is free to reject it. If the one loved cannot choose to willingly love in return, than anything it returns is a mockery. So God, who is Love, made us so that we could reject Him, so that we could choose whether or not to return His love, so that when we do, it can be Love. However, when we see all things clearly, after death, choice is stripped away. In that moment, when we realise the true nature of God and His amazing love for us, we can do nothing but acknowledge Him. So if we are to be truly free, if our love for Him is to be pure, it must be sealed at the time we die. If, when we die, we have chosed to reject Him, to refuse Him, to reject His love and refuse to return it, that choice must be sealed at death if it is to be a choice at all. If you refuse Him, then He loves you enough to allow you to be seperated from Him...and Hell is born. No one is sent to Hell...they choose it, whether by comission or omission. He loves us enough to let us refuse Him. And what of holiness and justice? God is perfect, set apart, without flaw or failure. That is who and what He is. He is, by definition, seperated from imperfection. Justice requires an answer for failure, and Holiness demands perfection. But God is merciful, also, and He provided for His justice out of love. He gave us His son, the second who in the what that is our Triune God. Perfection, in the form of a man, in the body of the Christ, was made to become every imperfection in humanity, seperating Him from Holy God. He took all imperfection into death, defeating Satan's planned coup on the kingdom of God, and left it in death when He rose Himself from death's grip. Then He offered to allow us to claim His sacrifice for the Justice God demands.
This is the God who loves us. Seeing our failure, seeing our hearts and our imperfection, God created the universe and us. Seeing the cross and the price He would pay for our redemption, still He formed us to love us. The God who knows EVERY STAR by name, who has counted every hair on every head through eternity, who created us, knows us, and loves us anyway. You are amazing, God. You are truly amazing!

1.01.2005

Musical Musings: "Show You Love", Jars of Clay

SHOW YOU LOVE
speak
and say the words that no one else will ever say
love
love like the world we know is over in a day

i'm gonna show you love in every language
i'm gonna speak with words that need no form
i'm gonna give you what you never had before

and you're beautiful
and i am weakened by the force of your eyes
so shine bright
to separate the truth from the lies
i'm gonna show you love

i'm gonna show you love in every language
i'm gonna speak with words that need no form
i'm gonna give you what you never had before

what you never had before
had before
so tie me to a tree and let the smoke and ash collect
no, i won't regret to let love do what love will let
and you can drown in mixed emotions and walk across an angry sea
this is the cost of being free

i'm gonna show you love in every language
i'm gonna speak with words that need no form
i'm gonna give you what you never had before

i'm gonna show you love in every language
i'm gonna speak with words that need no form
i'm gonna give you what you never had before

i'm gonna show you love, love in every language
i'm gonna show you love you never had before
i'm gonna show you love, love in every language
i'm gonna show you love you never had before
i'm gonna show you love

Words and music by Dan Haseltine, Charlie Lowell,Stephen Mason, Matt Odmark© 2003 Bridge Building Music, Inc.Pogostick Music / BMI / All rights administered byBrentwood-Benson Music Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
(From the jarchives)

As told by Dan Haseltine:
Show You Love -In the last couple of years, through our work with Africans affected by HIV/AIDS and through brushes with the watching world, I have come to believe that love serves no end but to love. As Christians we have forgotten the concept, "They will know we are Christians by our love." This is such a statement of freedom! We do not need to preoccupy ourselves with the battle plan of witnessing or evangelizing to people. We do not need to find other means to let people know about the God we serve. We simply love. We love and God shows up. We love and we give, without any agenda. And thus our love becomes genuine and not simply a stepping-stone toward converting the lost. The act of loving without agenda is foreign to this world, and is how Christ is made manifest to those searching and to those running the other way. Our acts of love, kindness, and mercy will be our testimony about the way God has acted toward us. This is our response to worship, as well as our continual act of worship.

I LOVE this song.
It caught me at first with the lyric "I'm gonna show you love in every language, I'm gonna speak with words that need no form..." As one who is competent in speaking 4 languages and knows bits of several more, I am enticed by the idea of something that trancends language. There is a truth that is greater than any words or any language that tries to explain it. I truly believe that God, being omniscient, "speaks" every language spoken by every person who has ever lived on this earth. When we cry out to Him, He hears us, no matter what language we speak. And though we are taught that there are different languages because God confused the tongues of man at Babel, though the difference in language may come as a result of sin, all languages are fluently spoken and understood in Heaven. Paul may be speaking Koine Greek while Abraham speeks Ancient Hebrew, and Moses speaks some Egyptian dialect, and saints from every age of man speak whatever their native tongue was in life...in Heaven, all understand and all is understood.

I started learning languages in middle school. I continue to study them from a desire to do what this song suggests. When Jesus walked the soil of Israel 2000 years ago, He did not command people to clean up their lives. He proclaimed that a doctor comes to the sick, for the healthy need no healing. He calls people to Him just as they are, and He meets us at our point of greatest need...not in our self-suffiencies. I want to do the same. I want to reach people where they are, not where I want them to be. How can I tell a hungry world that Jesus loves them, just as they are, no more, no less, if I first expect them to change who they are and what language they speak.

The desire of my heart is to learn to live "Show you love". I want to love people by learning their language. I want to love them where they are, how they are, and for who they are. I want to show you love in every language, and to speak with words that need no form. I want to give you what you may never have had before...the incredible love of God, in all its depth, height, length, breadth, that surpasses all of our understandings and is greater than all we can ever hope or imagine. I'm gonna show you Love.