Deliver Me

So right now my favorite author to read is Donald Miller, and my favorite artist to listen to is David Crowder. A couple nights ago before I fell asleep I had parts from a song running through my head…. “all of my life, I’ve been in hiding… wishing there was someone just like you…”

I couldn’t remember what song it was from or who had sung it, but I wrote it down to look up in the morning. Turned out it was by… guess who? Yep, David Crowder. Just thought I’d post the lyrics on here… the link to the Youtube video is in the title.

Deliver Me\\ David Crowder

Deliver me out of the sadness
Deliver me from all the madness
Deliver me courage to guide me
Deliver me Your strength inside me

All of my life
I’ve been in hiding
Wishing there was someone just like You
Now that You’re here
Now that I’ve found You
I know that You’re the One to pull me through

Deliver me loving and caring
Deliver me giving and sharing
Deliver me this cross that I’m bearing

Oh, deliver me

Jesus, Jesus how I trust You
How I’ve proved You o’er and o’er
Jesus, Jesus precious Jesus
Deliver me

Come and pull me through
Come pull me through

Only You – David Crowder

Let Your Kingdom Come!

In the new movie “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader”, one of my favorite scenes is near the end, when the crew of the Dawn Treader has finally reached the end of the world and is standing on the sand, talking to Aslan. Behind them billows up a bright blue wave that is in perpetual motion, forever threatening to crash down. Beyond this wave is Aslan’s country.

At first I thought this wave was something clever they put into the new movie, since I was used to the old one where the dragon was far from believable and Aslan’s mouth moved mechanically up and down (but I still loved him! ) and Reepicheep got into a little boat and floated up into the sky to go to Aslan’s country (I cried at that part, by the way…). But as it turned out, this wave was in the book! Here’s the excerpt:

“…when the third day dawned – with a brightness you or I could not bear even if we had dark glasses on – they saw a wonder ahead. It was as if a wall stood up between them and the sky, a greenish-grey, trembling, shimmering wall. Then up came the sun, and at its first rising they saw it through the wall and it turned into wonderful rainbow colours. Then they knew that the wall was really a long, tall wave – a wave endlessly fixed in one place as you may often see at the edge of a waterfall. It seemed to be about thirty feet high, and the current was gliding them swiftly towards it…

…and suddenly there came a breeze from the east, tossing the top of the wave into foamy shapes and ruffling the smooth water all round them. It lasted only a second or so but what it brought them in that second none of those three children will ever forget. It brought both a smell and a sound, a musical sound. Edmund and Eustace would never talk about it afterwards. Lucy could only say, “It would break your heart.” “Why,” said I, “was it so sad?” “Sad! No,” said Lucy.”

This perpetual wave is such a beautiful picture. It is power in restraint, poised to fall. Like a lion prepared to pounce. Or a soldier crouched with one hand on the hilt of his sword. Or a surprise party, a group waiting in a room for the birthday friend. Quiet. Suspense. Anticipation. Waiting.

For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope thatthe creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.  For in this hope we were saved.

Romans 8:19-24

There is a waiting in this world, a breath caught and held. And no, we’re not waiting for the apocalypse of December 21, 2012!

The trees around us tremble for their curse to be lifted. The mountains’ eyes are upturned, watching for the One that formed them.

Even more than we long to be made whole, He longs to make us whole.

One day the waiting will end. God’s glory will be undimmed and not only flood the skies for all to see, but descend into the earth, a holy fire and ringing call.

Come, Lord Jesus! Amen.

The Giver and the Gift

Went to a Christmas performance last night and one of the songs was called “The Giver and the Gift” by Point of Grace. I thought it was such a cool message, as the last line to the chorus said “I am both the Giver and the Gift” (God speaking). God loves to lavish gifts on us, even more so than earthly parents love to give gifts to their children!

When looking up “giving” in my bible, one thing I was struck by from the passage in Matthew 7 (:9-11) was how we have to ask God for His gifts to receive them. The son asks for bread, asks for a fish.

“…how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

And before that section, in verses 7 on,

“Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”

I’ll always remember a short story I read online – sadly I haven’t been able to find it since, but it’s always stuck with me. A woman is in heaven, watching a man pour these huge jars of blessings on people below. One person receives jars upon jars, while another person gets only a drop. Confused, the woman asks why some people didn’t get as much. “Because they didn’t ask for as many blessings,” the man answers, and points to the back of the room, where jars upon jars are waiting, full of glistening, golden blessings that have not been given as they had not been asked for.

What has God promised to give us?

• A new heart (Ezekiel 36:26)
• Good gifts (Matthew 7:11)
• The keys of the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 16:19)
• The Holy Spirit (Luke 11:13)
• Eternal life (John 10:28)
• Peace. His peace. (John 14:27)
• His Son (Romans 8:32)
• The earth (Psalms 115:16)
• The things we need (Matthew 6:33)
• Glorious grace (Ephesians 1:6)
• Strength to the weary (Isaiah 40:29
• The victory through Christ (1 Corinthians 15:57)
• Satisfaction in our work (Ecclesiastes 3:13)
• Songs in the night (Job 35:10)

And so much more!! Are any of these not good gifts? Hallelujah that our God is a great Giver! Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

But sorry, I got sidetracked from the point I was going to make. God is a great Giver. From 2 Timothy 2:13 – “If we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.” To be a Savior is God’s unchangeable nature. He epitomizes good, and through His very being teaches us what true giving is. God will never stop giving – and even better than a great parent, He knows the gift we need the most. Himself.

We cannot live without Him. Without Him our lives are broken, meaningless, empty, depressing cycles… shall I go on? We have all felt the darkness away from God – but in His presence is purest light and joy.

Back to asking for gifts. (I know, I should really edit this post when I’m done, as I’m simply rambling around on rabbit trails you will be forced to traverse , but did I mention I’m a terrible editor?) In a beautiful song by Kathryn Scott, it starts out “The more I seek you… the more I find you… the more I find you… the more I love you.” These words are pure truth. And the more we find and love God, the more we are happy and content, because we return home. The more we love God, the more we seek Him. But the cycle must begin with seeking. Now I could pull out my bible concordance again and shoot off a whole bunch of verses on “seeking”, but I’ll let you do that. Journey through God’s alive Word, there’s a lot of treasures to be found, that are new and can never grow old.

One thing I heard from a speaker, that will always stay with me, is always be honest with God. No masks. If you don’t desire God – maybe right now you’re in a dry spot and other appealing things in life are drawing your attention, or maybe you don’t understand Who God is and exactly why He’s so great – tell Him that. Do you want a desire for Him, that will start a cycle of seeking and fulfillment that will fill your life to heaping? “God, I don’t want you. But I want to want you.” This is a prayer that is often true for me, and that I pray if I am honest enough with myself to strip away all the false shows of devotion, when my mind is really somewhere else.

God is the Giver. And He is the Gift. He gives of Himself freely, only ask.

Bring us love, You who are love

Bring us peace, You who are peace

We need love, O divine love

We need Your peace, Your merciful peace

-David Crowder Band

“Your sins are forgiven,” Jesus told us, because He was the one we offend with our sins. He was the One we needed to forgive us, and before we even realized we needed His forgiveness, He had given it. Now, even before we have realized He’s the remedy to our brokenness – as C.S. Lewis put it, if we were cars, we have filled ourselves with everything but gasoline – God. We will not run smoothly ’til He is what fills us.

One pastor called God a “gentleman”. He will not intrude – He has given us free will, and desires for us to turn and at least begin seeking Him. Ask Him for strength – as Him for a desire for Him. Ask Him to fill you today. He has promised to do so.

Unconditional

One of the themes that I notice in the Bible is “unconditional”. We are to have unconditional love – as well as unconditional faith, trust, hope, joy – the list goes on and on. For me this is one of the most difficult things to learn. Some circumstances make it so difficult to be joyful and some people (sometimes) are just sooo difficult to LOVE. Yet that’s what God calls us to do out of obedience to Him.

All of these things become simpler, somehow, at a summer camp or large gathering of Christians or anything similar. The presence of God at those events simply cannot be denied – it’s so powerful! The speaker at Awana camp this year said that when you go to a camp, etc., you’re saying “God come and get me!”. Two things follow – the first is that God DOES come and get you, and your life is changed! But the second is that Satan takes notice. The fire of your faith has been kindled into a blaze, and he cannot tolerate that.

Have you ever returned from a life-changing event to be overwhelmed with the monotony of daily life? It’s as if Satan has carved grooves into our life that we fall into, again and again, no matter what resolutions we make to do something different!

Everything you learned that impacted you so powerfully, the tears you shed, the joy that filled you… it fades into the past.

Unconditional.

Whether God is “further than the moon or closer than your skin”*, you are called to believe.

I don’t know if You’re there, Father – but I still trust. You are still my hope. No matter what happens, I have given myself to You, and You I will follow, even when the darkness threatens to overwhelm.

Unconditional. God calls you to live unconditionally, in every aspect of obedience. Will you? All it takes is a choice. Write it down, speak it aloud, make a decision to love. To hope. To trust. To praise. To believe.

Unconditionally

(p.s. – on the subject of revivals, the series by Bill Bright are excellent)

*Obsession, by David Crowder