I know everybody doesn’t think in pictures and doodles and words climbing over words. Sometimes, I try to imagine what it would be like to think like someone walking in a straight line… and I usually get distracted or shake myself out of it before I start to feel claustrophobic. I am thankful for the linear thinkers in my life (God knows I need them), but I’m also glad God seems to have put me together by the holy knit-in-the-womb equivalent of upending a toy box.
Sometimes my thoughts are similarly scattered – making sense of things is like walking into the play room after several toddlers have had a good romp. There’s really nothing much one can do but sit down in the middle and take it all in.
Scripture, God’s inspired and living Word, sometimes illustrates itself thus in my mind. I’m connecting dots, drawing arrows, and doodling imaginative symbols to make God’s orderly message sensible to my disorderly mind.
If ever I get too wrapped up in my own interpretation or too distracted by someone else’s, the Lord presses in with a beautiful rule: Christ.
Christ – the One against whom all can be measured.
Today, I am reveling in the freedom of life set free by the blood of Christ. Today, I am rejoicing because Christ is my righteousness. Today, I am enjoying God’s presence because Christ has made it possible to behold Him as He sits on the throne. Today, I am trusting in the Lord’s power, demonstrated in Christ’s victory over the grave and my sin.
Today, the Lord is reigning and ruling and I have an eternal invitation to sit at His feet, sealed by the blood of a sinless Savior.
I just had a conversation recently about when is an appropriate time to start listening to Christmas music. I have an opinion and you’ll have a hard time convincing me otherwise (you can try, of course!).
Now.
That’s my opinion.
When I was talking about it with friends, I actually said, “Whenever my heart wants it.” Generally, this sounds like bad reasoning because it can lend itself unfortunately well to being swayed by emotion. But, in this case, I mean I will turn on “O Come Let Us Adore Him” whenever my heart wants a musical backdrop for the anticipation I feel for the coming of my Savior. I love imagining myself in the Before Christ place, where I am desperately hopeful (as beautifully as the Jews) for a Messiah.
Christmas music is not about chestnuts roasting or twinkling lights for me (although there is a time and a place for those tunes as well). Christmas music always ushers in that knotted up anticipation that refuses to stay locked up in my chest.
It is always a good time, in my opinion, to anticipate my Savior (whether imagining myself in the land of pre-Jesus or understanding myself now in the pre-second coming).
Enjoy (only if you want) some such music here and please let me know your thoughts!
let LOVE fly like cRaZy (regardless of your Christmas music timeline)
I just wanted to post something that might hit you right in the Sabbath sweet spot. John Mark McMillan just put out a new album on November 1 and this song is on it. I think it speaks to that fearful place in us – when we can see our depravity (our hearts’ shallow grave) and our immense need for the Love of our Savior. We can be almost fearful of our great need – and what that means about God’s mighty power to overcome it. What a mighty, mighty Love God possesses to have conquered death in the cross of Jesus Christ. What a mighty, mighty Love that allows us to love Him back.
Be encouraged, this morning to let the LOVE OF CHRIST fly like cRaZy – hold on to it in the eye of storm!
Chase me down like a lion
Like a bird of prey
Lift me up from the ashes
Of my hearts own shallow grave
Cause I know that I love you
But sometimes I’m afraid
Whoa oh…
Spare my body from the wolves, God
That crouch down at my door
Lift me up above the waters
And the sharks that guard your shore
Cause I know that I need you
But sometimes I know it more
Whoa oh…
Harbor me in the eye of the storm
I’m holding on to love you swore
This song has found it’s way onto so many playlists. One of the many wise mentors in my life used to encourage me to read Scripture and then ask, “What does this say about God?” Now, I’m passing along this advice to others in need of this same reminder. When we have a right view of God, we have a right view of ourselves in relation to Him. This song, to me, is a beautiful illustration of that relationship. Just beautiful.
Before the throne of God above
I have a strong and perfect plea.
A great high Priest whose Name is Love
Who ever lives and pleads for me.
My name is graven on His hands,
My name is written on His heart.
I know that while in Heaven He stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart.
When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end of all my sin.
Because the sinless Savior died
My sinful soul is counted free.
For God the just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me.
Behold Him there the risen Lamb,
My perfect spotless righteousness,
The great unchangeable I AM,
The King of glory and of grace,
One in Himself I cannot die.
My soul is purchased by His blood,
My life is hid with Christ on high,
With Christ my Savior and my God!
I sing that middle part over and over and over again, “Because the sinless Savior died, My sinful soul is counted free. For God the just is satisfied, To look on Him and pardon me.”
It’s such a ‘hip’ thing to say, “I like all kinds of music.” I just read a great post by Brett McCracken where he explains the Coldplay Effect. Hipsters and indies liked Coldplay when they were obscure, claiming they “just liked good music.” But when Coldplay got big, they dumped them for artists less well-known. It’s just a funny little cycle and McCracken turns it inside out in a way that makes so much sense. I’m really not trying to be hip when I say I like a lot of different styles, because I’ll add that there is definitely music I don’t like. I try to be indifferent about whether it is popular or not. It just seems like once music gets popular it all starts to sound the same. (Yikes, I hope I’m not a hipster in denial!)
Today, I decided to download music from iTunes.
This is worth sharing only because I never do. I am a pretty good internet sleuth for free (legal) music. Artists are sharing their music in return for our free publicity. This situation works out well for me, unless someone asks me to make a mix for a party… I don’t have what runs on the radios these days. So, I really can’t remember the last time I used my iTunes account.
That’s the first reason I mention I downloaded music from iTunes.
The second reason is the dissimilarity in the two albums.
The first is from a rap/hip hop artist who has gained crazy popularity with people like John Piper, CJ Mahaney, and Randy Alcorn. I love what Shai Linne said about the album in an interview when asked why rap is a good platform for his message,
“In many ways, I think hip-hop is actually an ideal genre for a project like this, because the format allows for so many more words to be used than in other genres. Because of this, the potential for transfer of ideas is much greater. Hip-hop lends itself to exposition. The challenge was finding suitable musical backdrops to properly convey the emotional depth of such a glorious topic.”
I like rap. I like to rap freestyle and roll out someone else’s rhythm. This kind of rap, though, the kind expositing Truth, has got me like a cup of hot coffee on the first day of snow (today).
The second comes from the guy who wrote, “How He Loves,” which you might know from several other artists who have recorded since. I like the way this guy thinks. “Genuine” is one of those terms people like to manipulate these days, but I believe John Mark McMillan. I’m a person who likes poetry and beauty and simplicity and purpose… and revealing a stronger, redemptive thread running through the tapestry of tragedy.
I’m so glad Truth has no genre.
My heart is happy that God created us in His image with a desire to create beautiful things. My heart is even more happy when people do this and it inspires me to return to my First Love.
Late night in the field. I thought I would crash when I caught sight of my pillow… turns out a Diet Coke at 11 pm keeps me rocking it until right around 2 am.
I wanted to post this quote before I forgot. I think it gives us some needed perspective about hope. “Hope has to do with the knowledge of the age to come.” What, my friend, do you know of the coming age? If it gives you hope, go ahead and SHARE that with someone today!
Christian hope is not about wishing things will get better. It is not about hoping that emptiness will go away, meaning return, and life will be stripped of its uncertainties, aches, and anxieties. Nor does it have anything to do with techniques for improving fallen human life, be those therapeutic, spiritual, or even religious.
Hope has to do with the knowledge of ‘the age to come.’ This redemption is already penetrating ‘this age.’ The sin, death, and meaninglessness of the one age are being transformed by the righteousness, life and meaning of the other. What has emptied out life, what has scarred and blackened it, is being displaced by what is rejuvenating and transforming it.
More than that, hope is hope because it knows it has become part of a realm, a kingdom, that endures. It knows that evil is doomed, that it will be banished. This kind of hope has left behind it the ship of ‘this age,’ which is sinking.
– David F. Wells
What a blessed hope we have! In the moments before I slip into dreamland, I’m loving this song by Sojourn Music.
We could be reveling forever in the love You bring and we could be wasted on You and not count it lossÂ
Like fools in love we’re bound to make a scene
Our hearts bleed for you, whoa
What beautiful way to usher in a Monday (fyi – John Mark McMillan comes out with a new album tomorrow).
Especially after such a blessed weekend, I love this.
Like fools in love, we’re bound to make scene. Isn’t that the truth.
Do your days feel like this? Like you can’t HELP but make a scene? If we are reveling in the love of Christ – wasting everything else and not counting a loss, then our lives will speak (maybe even shout) like crazy that there is something greater!
We might be the people that get pointed at or the people that get ignored, but the bottom line is that the scene bound to happen is for an audience of One.
The Lord welcomes His sons and daughters into worship, where our hearts bleed for the Creator of the Universe. I’m so thankful that God also knows, as we endeavor to worship with our very lives, that there are bound to be scenes.
Our love can look near foolish, but if anyone deserves a scene it is certainly our Lord and Savior!
Most people know the tension between living salvation on this earth and living eternal salvation in heaven as the “already, not yet.” To reflect on this tension after Easter seems fitting, because all of history points to Christ’s victory over the grave yet all of creation is still groaning for the completion of salvation (Romans 8). Today I am calling it post-Easter, pre-Eternity.
I spent yesterday almost entirely in laughter. The day felt bathed with it. I am convinced there is something beautiful to be found in abandoning yourself to a good fit of ridiculous laughter. Yesterday, with friendships too new to feel so “old,” I scrunched up my face and held my sides in a crazy fit of full body laughter. This, too, seems fitting to follow my Easter celebration. In fact, I imagine (call me a fool) that some people let out awkward laughter when they saw Jesus after news of the empty tomb got around. Everyone stood gawking and pointing (I imagine) and then there were those few whose laughter could be heard spilling all over the silence. Sometimes awe, wonder, joy, mischief, and glee can be communicated no other way.
So, there’s this tension. Salvation is here, but salvation is coming.
We are wrapped up in the glory of what Christ gained in his victory over the grave. We are bathing in it like I imagine joyful laughter bathed Christ’s post-resurrection steps. Tim Keller says, “The happy ending of the Resurrection is so enormous that it swallows up even the sorrow of the Cross.” Even our sorrows drown in the ocean of joy called Christ’s resurrection.
Yet, we all know we’re living on this side of eternity. We recognize black-clad funerals and cold, gray gravestones as the painful pattern of our mortality. We are certain no one has found or ever will find the secret to living forever. We are (in our most honest moments) more certain of the fact that living forever in this present world would be filled only with anguish and affliction.
Today, I am claiming a common denominator. For those of you who know me, I am in no place to use a mathematical reference and even further from qualified to stretch it into something helpful for my ideas. Yet, here I go. A “denominator” is the bottom number of a fraction (like 2 in 1/2). A “common denominator” is when the bottom numbers of fractions are the same (like 3 in 1/3 and 2/3). In other words, I think post-Easter, pre-Eternity is kind of like 1/2 and 1/2 – two parts of a whole redemption story. The common denominator? I wonder if it is glory. I believe Christ’s death and resurrection is all about bringing glory to God. I also believe our anticipation for Eternity is about bringing glory to God. This whole beautiful mess of a redemption story, from start to eternal finish is about glory going in the right direction – toward a most Awesome, Merciful, Compassionate, Just King.
In our (especially recent) post-Easter state, we are giving God the glory for the magnificent and finished work of Christ. In our pre-Eternity state, we are giving God the glory for a secure future in His presence. Whew! Here are two songs that come to mind when I think post-Easter, pre-Eternity. Sing along with them and let God’s glory fill the skies! Join the angels in this forever song! Please don’t miss the rich references to the Old Testament and how God is glorified in the ways His sovereign plan was revealed and His name praised long before it came to pass.
Skeleton Bones by John Mark McMillan
Peel back our ribs again
and stand inside of our chest.
We just wanna’ love you
We just wanna’ love you
Peel back the veil of time
And let us see You with our naked eyes
We just wanna’ love you
We just wanna’ love you
We want your blood to flow inside our body
We want your wind inside our lungs
We just wanna’ love you
We just wanna’ love you
Skeleton bones stand at the sound of eternity
On the lips of the found
And gravestones roll
To the rhythm of the sound of you
Skeleton bones stand at the sound of eternity
On the lips of the found
So separate those doors
And let the son of resurrection in.
Oh let us adore the
Son of Glory drenched in love
Open up your gates before him
Crown Him, stand Him up
Holy is the Lamb by Coffey Anderson
Lyrics:
I saw the Lord, seated on the throne
And the train of His robe filled the temple
And angels sing all around me
And the song that they sang was so simple
All they cried was:
Holy, holy is the Lamb
Holy, holy is the Lamb
Holy, holy is the Lamb
Holy, holy is the Lamb of God
MUSINGS IN THE MIDST 