It is well with my soul

Do you ever have one of those times where you can't stop laughing?

It rises up in you.
That smile just tugs at the corners of your mouth and can't help but fill your soul.  This was my night last night as I talked with one of my best friends, Jessica, about the whirlwind of the past months and my life at the moment.

Looking back over my shoulder, at my very present moment, and into this coming year, I am overjoyed.

If I truly examine the core substance of my life, I find Christ.
I find the most beautiful and extravagant Love winding its way through my veins, uprooting broken pieces of me to make me more whole.  Pushing its way through my spreading roots is Love Himself, emerging with power and brilliance to touch the depths of my heart in ways I didn't dream of.

And as I glance back over the past few months, I stand awestruck with just how faithful God is in bringing me to know Him more through these experiences.  Knocked down in my frailty as a person and coming face to face with a wall of my own insecurities and limitations, I was brought to my knees before Him.  

And if you would have asked me in the midst of this summer if I felt this joy, I would say no.  I felt confused, misdirected, frustrated, and my continuous prayer was solely for clarity and a solid direction to move in as I questioned what He could possibly be doing...

And as the summer came to a close, I came to see why.  

Clearly spelling this out was a blog from Pastor Steven Furtick that I stumbled upon a few nights ago highlighting this verse which says, "It is the glory of God to conceal things..." (Proverbs 25:2).  

Furtick writes, "The point isn’t for God to make His will plain. His will isn’t the main objective. He is the main objective. He wants you to discover Him above all else."

In Philippians 3:12 Paul strips down his life calling, purpose, and reason being "to know Him and the power of his resurrection." 

And as I allow these words to blaze through my heart, I find myself desiring more of Christ. I find this deep yearning to know this incredible God, to give other people this Treasure of who He is, and ignite their hearts to live for something so much more glorious.

This was my summer. To understand that what I have been given in Christ is not a heap of spiritual blessings or a crutch to lean on, but Christ Himself. This incredible revelation of Christ crucified is meant to transform everything, driving your moments forward in purpose towards "the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:14).    

I sit here typing and am still in wonder at the incredible lessons I gained in Christ through seeking Him amidst the lack of clarity. 

Christ ignited my heart by teaching me to trust His leading. He taught me these things:

• to articulate the gospel and what it means to die to the self and allow Christ to reign (Galatians 2:20-21) 
• the power of intentionality with people and sharing the gospel (Colossians 4:2),
• the power of prayer and asking in faith (Matt. 21:22)
• to treasure the wisdom and seeking out insight as it comes (Proverbs 3:7-9)
• to abide solely in His arms (John 15:4)
• to see His wisdom will be lavished on us when we ask...just in a very different way than we desire through trials or being stretched (James 1:5)

And most important of all, I have been shown and brought to the beautiful truth that the sole purpose of my life is to know Him. Isn't there so much freedom in this? The purpose is not to hurdle forward in my life with a bunch of to-do lists and striving but to rest in the Savior's arms and find the highest joy in treasuring Him and sharing this gift with those around.

Knowing Christ intimately and deeply is the reason I have been created to walk this earth. It is the reason you reading this have been crafted and woven into the wonderful person that you are. It in knowing Christ more that our hearts are set ablaze by the Spirit because without Him we are nothing, can do nothing, and are aimlessly living for ourselves. Christ died to save you from that life.  He died to make your one true desire making Him known and exalted in your world because He knows it will be your highest joy above all else.  

Psalm 23:5 says, "...you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows." You will overflow  with joy and soul-filling purpose when you have Christ because He dwells within you. In Christ your Savior you find your meaning.

I joyfully pen this blog with deeper insight and confidence in a God who truly is faithful to fulfill His promises in perfect timing.  This summer, I always prayed for the answers to be clearly laid in my path in my timing as I overlooked the very person of Christ sharpening, teaching me, and emerging from within me to prepare me for the coming year. He knew I needed those very lessons I listed above for the call He has placed on my heart with Cru.  And in whatever manner this vision plays out, success or failure, I came to know Him more in the process and will continue to.

I will sing, "It is well with my soul" because every waking moment He is piecing together my brokenness until the day of Christ when it will be complete (Phil. 1:6)  I sing because He increasingly unveils Himself to me as I behold His glory within my heart to extend into the hearts of those around me (2 Cor. 3:18).

I praise this amazing God who inspires trust.
I praise Him who inspires risks in His name, not because they will always succeed or thrive but because of how all of us can be brought closer into an intimate relationship of knowing our beautiful Savior in the process.  I praise Him who chooses to hide our next step so that we may come to know and trust Him more. I step out in faith, holding His hand in joyful trust "in order that I may gain Christ" and share that with others (Phil. 3:8) 

And what more is life than this? 

To understand the anchor to my soul is Christ alone, 
to know I have the privilege to share His fullness in this coming year in incredible ways,
to know that the Creator of the universe knows the depths of my sinful heart and loves me all the same. 

Oh yes, I sing "It is well with my soul" because You are here, You are now, and You give me the most beautiful hope I could ever imagine simply in who You are to me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2xYMa6zA3c

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Was nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, It is well, with my soul

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Silence and rain

In silence and rain I sit.
Beneath skies of thick white clouds, silence blankets me, and my soul rests in the still of this moment. Cars hurdle onward,
streets blur with traffic,
rain blurs my efforts to write as ink runs, nearly erasing each word.

1899-1924

25 years old, the sharpest age, and the prime of life. Only 6 years more lived than myself.
An uneven bumpy cross sits atop this woman's headstone.  And now nearly a century later, does her name carry any weight?
A name engraved and etched into a stone long after she has pushed through the doors of this world.

Did she live for You Lord?
Is this a default cross to match the surrounding ones?

Drops fall upon this space,
Beating down upon this silence, this stagnant tick of the clock 88 years later.

This fierce love, this sacrifice You gave.
Did she seize hold of this purpose buried within her heart?
This breath You breathed into her, did she breathe it back out for You adoring, treasuring, admiring, and spending this life upon You?

Clothes soaked and drenched by drops steadily falling faster,
I find this deep rooted yearning for You in this moment.
For myself and beyond that, this world to come to grips with the freedom You offer at the cross.
For people whose eyes have been opened to step outside and dwell upon the emptied eyes craving Your beauty.
For my own selfish ambitions to die and for my soul to be further awakened to Christ's very life emerging and extending to touch hearts around me.

Rising up from sitting on the ground, I weave my way back to my car to sit beneath the covering of a car roof.
Opening my journal to continue without the batter of rain, I click on the on button for the radio and I know You were listening to my prayers. Blasting through the speakers is a song, the song, that fired my soul to spend this life upon you last year.

I want to live like that
And give it all I have
So that everything I say and do
Points to You
If love is who I am
Then this is where I'll stand
Recklessly abandoned
Never holding back.

And how could I choose to live differently? How could fear have a handle on any aspect of my life?
How could I allow minor things of the past overshadow the beauty of Christ that continues to enrich my heart, mind, and soul?

If this Truth I have felt awakening my soul is tangible and real, how could my life look the same as it did before? 
How could I not stand for You? 
No matter what people say, if I fail or succeed, whether the risks I take for You are torn to shreds or if they are part of Your plan to bring people home to You, if my life pans out exactly the way I believe is best or my path is diverted, if I find myself breaking at the seams and at the same time overflowing with the sweetest love of all at the core of my being?

"Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ." -Philippians 3:8

Through seeking You with my whole heart, I will have nothing to regret.  Burning away every distraction and all of the clutter, I have been created to know You so that others might come to know You.

Today, in this moment, You are calling us.
To be a living testament everyday to Your saving grace and saving love,
To be set ablaze by the Spirit.

To be used so they may see and understand, taste Your beauty and fall into Your arms.

A world looks on and marvels at this flame You have lit burning in our souls as they find themselves drawn into Your love, becoming alive in Your glory,
A world glances all around for a source to be grasped in their hands, but it is You.
Your love is all around,
in the air we breathe, the purpose igniting our hearts, the life blood pumping through our veins pushing us to persevere to that day.

I will stand before this God at the end of my life.
The purest vision of my God and King:
Hair flowing and white as snow,
Eyes the fiercest of flames,
swelling with the jealousy You had for me before time wrapped me in its arms.
Roaring like a lion is the voice of Truth to guard and protect my fragile heart all the days of my life,
A face blindingly bright and beaming with glory that stuns my soul.

In silence and rain I sit and meditate on Your glory, this mere glimpse of who You are offered to us.
I sit and meditate on the freedom in this gospel that releases my fears.
I dwell upon the riches of Your love already given to me and am propelled forward in passion:
To share, to spread, to proclaim, to teach, to live out, to pray to You in this very season of my life.

Nothing more to offer this beautiful Savior other than a life proclaiming Majesty.
No more to give of myself to this world than a life that both whispers and screams, "I adore You"

The cry of my heart, Jesus, is to simply say I love you.
From beginning to end, no matter what trials come my direction,
the amount of tears that pour out of the brokenness,
the times I jump for the soul-filling joy You place in my heart,
or the days I doubt Your plan for me,
may I constantly abide in Your love.

May every day that my feet hit the floor be one where the gospel reshapes and transforms me to be more like You and less like me.
May every moment be overflowing in joy and thankfulness so I may recognize the true gift of grace that it is to wake up every single morning.

I pray that your soul would be awakened to the truth you have been created for something so amazing, so glorious, and so wonderful in having an intimate relationship with the King of Kings. He so desperately wants for you to know Him right now to experience His presence and life, for it is in knowing Him you find His fullness pushing aside your brokenness to make you whole. Don't wait another day wondering why you are here on this earth.

Your purpose, reason, and desire is found in Christ alone.

I pray that the simple and blunt dash that will one day be etched on a stone will be a legacy solely proclaiming the majesty of Christ who brought me to be united with Him.

My prayer for each person who reads this is that the reality of how short your life is would hit you, wreck you, and change you. I pray you would find it within yourself to have the courage to look at your life and ask yourself in honesty if you would be okay with your life if you died tomorrow.

Would you be bolder?
Would you trust Him more with your story?
Would you take more risks in sharing your faith?
Would you pursue a new calling?
What would you do differently?

Today is the day for a new beginning.

"The dead do not praise the Lord 

nor do any who go down into silence...

But we will bless the Lord, 

from this time forth and forevermore, 

Praise the Lord!" 

{Psalm 115:18}

(Revelation 1 was used when I spoke of the vision of Christ. I highly recommend reading through all of  that chapter.)

To know Christ: Part I

To meet with Him on your knees, desiring at the latest hour through the aches and pains of life to lay your burdens and joy all the same at His feet, 
To hunger for His sweet wisdom to be crowned on your head and filling your thoughts despite the sting of discipline carried with it,
To incline your ears in eager anticipation for His leading whispers,
To dwell richly upon the gospel that resets your wayward heart,
To arise each morning to find a Savior who seizes your heart daily,
To struggle  and wrestle both in prayer and action for those who stumble so they may be set firmly on the path of truth you've found,
To breathe Love Himself into conservations instead of assuming and dancing around Him,
To increasingly understand His love completes your soul in a way no other relationship can,
To trust that through the tears and struggles, your heart grows steadfast and is refined by this flame,
To humble your standing as an unlovely creature made beautiful and lifted to reflect true glory
To whole heartedly believe His brilliant plan draws you to participate in redemption of the brokenness all around,
To confidently risk, believing His love will catch you thousandfold,
To embrace each season of your life with open arms as a chapter of your ministry to be fulfilled.

To know Him is more than motions,
more than a hollow song,
more than an empty fleeting prayer.

To know Him is to release the seen and tangible dying in your grip to obtain the fullness in the glory of the unseen
To know this God is to raise your hands for the depth of gratitude your heart now sings
To know this God is to continuously lift up your shattered shards of brokenness to the God who makes all things new
To consistently bring to light a sinful heart buried within to be made new by a Healer
To be wrecked on a daily basis so that He might increase within.

To know You, Jesus, is to never have enough, 
to never be satisfied, 
to press deeper into Your tender heart,
to catch the desperate and saving flame of Your name,
to allow this fire to burn so intimately and deeply that we choose to look outward and upward to your calling on us, beholding the glory of Your name and treasuring every moment we are gifted with to know You more.

"Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

Revelation

"Trust the sunrise."

Steadily rising, bleeding orange and scarlet, the sun gently sweeps across the clouds and time clicks forward.  Stretching into the heavens, the sun emerges from hiding to ignite a sky found in slumber, a revelation of unimaginable light.

Lying on the couch and staring up at the ceiling I began thinking through my life this past year.  If some of you are reading this and don't know a ton about my story, my first year at Hope College was one where my life was completely changed in the most incredible of ways.  Jesus became real to me for the first time since I had chosen to accept Him the summer going into my senior year. 

The definition of “revelation” refers to it as "something revealed or disclosed, especially a striking disclosure, as of something not before realized."

A revelation is just this...striking.

It is life changing, ground breaking, earth shattering.  It rocks your world and it transforms.  Thinking through this, I ponder why I am consistently so surprised by the consistent revelations that hit me about Him. He is CHRIST! He is the God of my salvation and the One who has lifted me from death into eternal life here and now and yet I am still shocked, so surprised by the way His love continues to tear down my walls to reveal His heart for me.

This summer I am finding my revelation is Christ.  Hillsong United sings, “This is my revelation: Christ Jesus crucified.” Clear and to the point, it is Christ alone.

Every day that I wake up and my feet hit the floor, I am finding the beautiful consequences of Christ sweeping through my life and bringing me to my knees.  In my weakness, He is glorified. I am changed by a God who is magnified when I honestly bring to light the sin that sits upon my heart.  My old life is being choked out and buried deeper as I find more of this fullness emerging and lighting my flaws to make Himself known.  Silencing the lies held above my head, the voice of Majesty is infusing the breath of new life, given a song of purpose that is unveiled more and more with each passing day.

I am discovering that this life is a consistent battle to maintain clarity on the purest vision of who He is because He has always been there.  It is me and you who loses sight of this in our limited perception

with our vision so easily muddied and blurred.  Having our eyes set on what’s “missing” from our stories, the empty chair beside us, who seems to have overlooked us, how many people we haven’t felt accepted by, the pain this world has rained down on us time after time or the overwhelming fears that claw at us as we strain to keep our eyes ahead.

Yet this is the one Truth that banishes the lies our tarnished and broken souls love to collect in excess. This is the Truth of our God that bends down into the dust to collect our lies like a deck of cards, whipping them into the air to fly in every direction.  In light of His presence, these flimsy lies stand no chance.  With His mighty hands gently placed upon the heaviness of our souls, freedom and life flow freely.  It is in this revelation we find our worth again and again.

Satisfied, redeemed, restored, beloved, worthy, and filled.

These are the truths encased around the heart of our Savior.

These are the truths wrapped inside the revelation of who He is. 

And because of Him, this is who we are now.

But why are they so hard to believe?

Without the revelation and continual recognition of who Christ is, these are empty encouraging words or labels. Tossing them out from a deadened heart simply desiring to be seen as 'good', they mean nothing if not flowing from a heart abiding in Him.

“Revelation” by Third Day sings, “Give me a revelation, show me what to do because I’ve been trying to find my way, I’m nothing without You.”

Looking through these lyrics, I find myself smiling. Crying out from a place of deep emptiness desperate for more than the fleeting, we cry out for the eternal fullness.

Give me more of Jesus: this is what our souls are desperate for.  Not for a boyfriend or girlfriend, more material things, more comfort, more popularity, or to be affirmed by everyone around us.

It is plain and simple.  He is the revelation. 

He is the treasure offered to us that we have the privilege and honor to offer this world on bended knee, the One this world unknowingly hungers to know.

The pained limp you are making along the roadside can end.  The striving can cease. The weight of sin that shifts from one leg to the other can be cast fully upon Him. You can finally find rest.  The person of Christ, in all His fullness, dwells within you. You have taken on the life of Christ. This is the revelation that must continually wreck us on a daily basis.

The fruits of the Spirit have been planted to flourish (Galatians

The mission of the cross has been placed to rest heavily upon your heart to spur you to move out into this world (Matt. 28:19)

The Spirit is upon you to proclaim the freedom found at the foot of the cross (Isaiah ’61)

Living in Him and He in you, this is the fruit that will emerge in fullness.

Standing to rise, it is now that we must shake off the heaviness of our own strained efforts.  It is in this we recognize with clarity the life You have already been offered because of what He has done on the cross.  Planting our feet firmly on the Rock and Redeemer who cannot be moved you will find your eyes on the cross of your Savior who has rescued you not because He needs you, but because He loved you enough to save you from yourself. 

It is out of our revelation of Christ and His undying love for us that our lives can be filled, our deck of lies can be cast into the wind, and we can be found.  In loving response, we can live our lives to the glory of our God who looks upon us as His beloved children.

To testify to who Christ is means acknowledging your life is no longer your own. Galatians  2:20 says, “It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.”  Our greatest revelation is Christ Himself and it is in Him we find the ground-breaking Truth that collides with our vain ambition. 

Crashing  into this heart moving in the opposing direction, I find myself at a standstill.  Torn down to be re-built into a dwelling place for the Spirit and to swell with the Spirit of our great God until my very last breath is the flame I have to offer this world. It is the flame being passed to you if you are willing to accept it and raise it high for those around you.

Christ crucified is the constant revelation we must all pray on our knees to have eyes to see.  Christ in all His fullness is here among us. In you and in me, He is here and now. 

Fullness

One step after the other, your legs in slow motion gather and muster the endurance to press off the smooth pavement, launching into the next step towards the benchmark.  Lungs exhale with every pained movement far beyond your comfort zone and quickly the frightening truth that you cannot finish this race grips you. Beating like a drum, this fear pounds in your chest, constricting and winding its way around your heart, bringing you to your knees.  Your eyes fall upon the stilled state of your hands clasped in your lap and defeat washes over every inch of you. The constant movement around you continues to hurdle and blur as tears well behind eyes that sense the weight of desperation for those surrounding you at every angle.

As some of you know, this summer I am a camp counselor.  As some of you also know, I said for the better part of this year that I would never be a camp counselor.  Funny, huh?

My plan was that I would go home, get a normal job, and be living in the good old Glenview, IL for the three and a half months of summer break.  Yet as I sit here typing this, I am in awe. He has done it once again.

As I packed my gigantic suitcase and duffle for Covenant Harbor, I had no idea what the heck I was entering into. Am I qualified to be a camp counselor? Will I fit in somewhere where the people have known each other for five years in community?  What if I fail in decision making and made a mistake applying?  What the heck am I doing!?

And to be honest as I look at these questions, some of them I still do not have the answer to. Some still press on my heart on those days when I find myself doubting. But I have come to see that these insecurities, fears, and doubts that have built upon each other are absolutely nothing in light of the cross.

As I look at the core of the vision for Covenant Harbor this summer, it is about giving kids the fullness of the person of Christ and nothing less than that.  It is not about modifying their behavior, making them "nicer", or shutting down the drama of middle schoolers but consistently handing them the only thing we have to give this world and each other...Jesus.  Colossians 3:1 says, "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above..." These kids cannot live a life glorifying their King if they have not been given the news of Christ to accept and be raised to new life in Him.

In Him, the treasure of this life is found.
In Him, we find our status shifted from wandering exiles to children of God born with a purpose (Ephesians 2:19-22).

Preaching this day in and day out at camp, I see now that I am not merely preaching this to kids...but to myself.  I have been continuously wrecked by the gospel and I could not be more thankful.
God is consistently striking me with every passing day the dark reality of sin that goes so far beyond lying or being selfish and into the disease the separated me from the presence of God in His holiness and causes Him to hide His face (Isaiah 59:2). This sin is so deeply ingrained in my broken nature that without Christ's sacrifice, I have no connection to the Father...but this is the incredible hope of the gospel. In God's infinite love for His children, He sent Jesus to die on the cross to save us from ourselves because sending a part of His perfect self was the only way to cancel the seemingly permanent record of debt that we owed.

Preaching this to friends since coming home, I find myself standing in awe of Christ.  Taking a nice clean leap backwards, I turn my eyes and lift my face to the beautiful mystery of the cross and what He has done on my behalf.  I have found myself on my knees simply for who He is.  Not for the blessings that have come from His hand but for the brilliant and beautiful treasure of knowing Christ in my life and what that has enabled me to live out in His glorious story.

I have been deeply blessed to be given the fullness of Christ.  As I find Him continuously emerging in my own life, the lives of my friends, and those I encounter, I am struck by His incredible power at work.  And though I have blessed to play a role in His story, this is nothing I could have ever done on my own.  The thing is that I find myself at times believing I can do this life on my own: faith, friends, family, a relationship one day. I think: surely, I know what is best.

Yet this is where I find myself heaving on the ground, legs outrunning my heart, failing to recognize I have a new life now in Christ and His fullness. This is how Satan has left me feeling at times over the past year and even this summer: the oxygen that swells in my lungs to carry me forward into the next step of this life is lost and I am brought to a screeching halt.  What if I preached the gospel more to this girl in my cabin? What if I gave this friend the wrong advice? What if I did more?

Feeling much like the beginning of Psalm 143, I have felt run dry and beaten into the ground.

Psalm 143:4,6 says, "Therefore my spirit faints with me: my heart is appalled...I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land." 


It is a bit humorous to me at times when I read across the line with the word "appalled". It's as if I am shocked that I ran dry. In my breaking and failures, I am surprisingly shocked when I come to those moments where the reality of my inadequacy hits me full on like a huge semi.

And as my mind then plays over the pain in those times of weakness, my hands are consistently lifted in praise to Him. As people, girls in my cabin, and friends in my life have come to me for counsel and I at times feel overwhelmed, I am learning to cling to the cross and the vine so that the fullness of Christ may shine and emerge in every word that I speak.

He is teaching me to turn to the Fortress of strength in my weakness. I am being broken down and drained of my strength so that my eyes can be widened to the truth that He alone is my hope, my wisdom, my strength, my treasure...the only thing I have to offer in this life.

I have been gently reminded in small and big ways how this life is not a battle to be won.  This new life in Christ is a battle of remembrance for who He is and what He has done.  It is a battle to rid ourselves of the pressing chains that constrict us from living in light of His freedom, to remember that He has already won on the cross.

Colossians 2:9-10 says, "In him, the fullness of deity dwells and you have been filled in him." 

The striving must end.  We must not sprint ahead relying on the faltering strength of faint hearts. We must pick ourselves up from the ground and recognize our failure on our own. We must recognize that the fullness of God is already present in our souls but we must remain connected to Him to pour into this world. We must allow the lies of insecurity, doubt, and shame to be buried with our old lives in light of His glorious presence.

On this day I choose to acknowledge my desperation for Jesus.
I have a deep thirst for the living water of Christ.
I desperately need Him to pour into the empty and broken cup I lift to Him with trembling hands.
I need to be found daily on my knees in thankfulness for the treasure that fills my life with glory and unspeakable hope.

In all that I do, both the comfortable and challenging, the hopeful and the hopeless times, my hands must remain outstretched to the God who has already filled my heart and hands with His fullness. Apart from Christ, I can do absolutely nothing of worth (John 15:5).  The desperation and cries of help rising from the depth of my own soul and the souls around me are not crying out for the healing of Taylor Ely. These cries are being lifted in hopes that the God of the Universe would hear and silence them with the healing they need. And this is where I need to turn to the only One who can replenish my dry bones, my weary spirit, and my heart to minister from a place of strength in Jesus Christ my Redeemer. 


Jesus, You are our fullness.
May our words be only those that You plant for us to speak.
May our hearts remain abiding in Your love.
May our hope be built on nothing less than the Rock that You are.
May we have the eyes to see the treasure that is continually unveiled more and more in our lives in You alone. 
We love You and worship You down on our knees for who You are. 


Christ is all we have to offer this world but in His fullness, He is more than enough.

http://hopecollegeworship.bandcamp.com/track/all-thy-fullness
"All Thy Fullness"

Fullness of Joy

Joy is a funny thing.

Uncontainable, invisible, elusive yet we try and wrap our arms around it, only to come up empty.

Fleeting as a laugh or a smile rising up without warning.

As quickly as it ignites, it can be put out.

Stolen by a glimpse of the past, and restored by a vision of the future, it can redirect our eyes to the wings of our soul or the weight of our sin. 

So easily shoved from a place of confidence, the voice of a condemning heart blurring through our mind echoes the fears of a heart shifting to shaky ground.

Yet You, Jesus, came so that we may have joy to the full.

Yet believing that this joy emanates from anything of this world to accomplish, use, or even see with our eyes is simply not true. 

Choosing fragmented pieces of our own design, we piece together our own version.

Jagged pieces of glass are scattered on the floor  yet we believe with the most cautious of movements we will not get hurt. 

Shoving people to fit into our story, jamming people to change and flourish into what we desire them to be, and believing that the achievement of a goal will bring satisfaction, we are incorrect.  We choose to dream of these rough patches being smoothed and paved over to perfection...but we are missing the core.

In Your heart our joy is found and made complete.  No where else.

The cornerstone of our lives, the anchor to our souls, the portion of our hearts You are.

And when this “joy” slips so easily through our loosening grips we finally see it was not what we believed it to be in the first place. 

Nothing more than a handful of dust tossed to the wind and lost to the endless sea in comparison to Your great love.

Binding my heart back to Yours, I am where I belong.

I am who I am meant to be, feeling the truest joy I was created to feel. I experience the completeness of the love of a Savior and King beyond any human relationship, and my weary eyes are lifted to rest upon the concreteness of the promise written upon my heart from the very beginning.

You are my joy Jesus and the brilliance of hope for my soul. 

You are the One whom I cling to in my weakness, You are the One I run to in times of elation, You are the One whose Spirit dwells within me and overwhelms me with peaces, You are my King whom I have fallen deeply in love with.

When my heart breathes lies, when storms bring darkness as a cover over my eyes, May I never forget. You are my love, my joy, my everything Jesus. 

“You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound (Psalm 4:7).”

Whitewashed

The radio really annoys me.

This might be a bit harsh but it is how I have come to feel with just about every other song shooting through the airwaves expelling a newly packaged mess of the exact same message. 

Have it your way! 
It's fun, go do it!
Follow the crowd!
Love is easy, go get some!

Yes, the beats are catchy, the musicians are usually quite attractive, the music videos can be entertaining, but dig a bit deeper at the very meat of the message that this music is radiating into the world and you will find nothing of substance.  So many lyrics emptied of their meaning and overflowing with cheap worldly wisdom on love, money, and how to live your life.  And like this, the words and efforts fall flat without the brilliance of love. 


For King & Country sings, 
"If I sing but don't have love I waste my breath with every song, I bring an empty voice, a hollow noise. If I speak with a silver tongue, convince a crowd but don't have love, I leave a bitter taste with every word I say." 

Along with this, 1 Corinthians 13:1 says, "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging symbol."

Mere boring elevator music, booming club music, and static noise fills up our minds to the very brim and our purpose shifts, becoming lost amidst the noise.  Recently, I have come to the frightening conclusion that our lives have come to parallel this picture.  Losing our own heart to the world, we forfeit it and gather in our hands nothing of worth.   We quickly swallow and internalize the advice of a society spinning on an axis rooted in sand in place of the solid cornerstone of Christ. It is all about your comfort, the culturally accepted, having a faith mirroring a society obsessed with following the norm. We silence any questions that arise in fear that we might be called to change something beyond the outer appearance of our lives. We come to spew out exactly what other people want to hear.We heap up empty words of praise instead of saying what is on our heart in fear of being challenged.

We allow the words of our mouth to be just that, words.
 
Like the catchy tune found at a night club or on 96.3, we allow for our words to come from a place of comfort and what has always been. Shutting up the potential for life-giving, fruit-bearing, and Spirit-led conversation in our souls, we lock His power up within us that is waiting to be unleashed. We skim past the depth of life in order to fit back into old relationships and ways of living in order to sail through our lives smoothly, instead of stopping to challenge those around us to look up at Jesus and look inward at the frightening state of their own hearts. 

Flipping this, we so often choose to accept the path we have always taken in order to sidestep the tension that comes with truly examining the state of our own hearts. In Romans 1:21 apostle Paul calls these people out saying,"...but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened." If I am honest with myself, this passage and Romans 7 comes to reflect more of my days than I would like, for I know that I do not always live by the Spirit. My heart shifts from standing in the light of the sun to darkness as I find selfish desires forcefully driving my steps instead of the King. My thinking twists me to believe I am in control of my days, my plans, my relationships, and this is where He sets me back in my rightful place far below Him on my knees. 

Wonderfully comfortable and dressed up exquisitely on the outside, our hearts are in danger of remaining unchanged.  We can feed our souls with sermons, books, and people that make us feel great about who we are, what we have done right, what fantastic Christians we are, being "good people" and allow us to fail to recognize that by our own power, we stand completely undeserving, unworthy, and empty. Without Jesus who died on our behalf, we stand condemned before the Father. 

We so easily fool ourselves into believing we can do it on our own. 
We can find the right person who will 'complete us' one day, we can raise a family by our own strength, we can spark a  change in our friends by planting the right words in conversation. Heck, we can change the whole world!...Yet how can we forget such a vital concept that we are the created not the Creator?

We are His workmanship not the Worker bringing us and this world to completion (Ephesians 2:10)
We are His children not the Father (Galatians 3:26)
We are a reflection of His furious Love not Love Himself (2 Corinthians 3:18)

Without the backing of the most High King, we are paupers.


In "Proof of Your Love" For King and Country sings, "If I give to a needy soul but don't have love then who is poor? It seems all the poverty is found in me."

We are spiritually, emotionally, and materially a mass of moving dry bones that speak on our own accord.  The expanse of our lives is a landscape of muted and silenced colors, stagnant and barely shifting.  Doesn't matter the pile of money heaped up in your bank account, the college or high school you attend, or how bright your future appears, you are a needy soul without Jesus.  

Passing a homeless person on the corner, they may not have much money, clothing, or food but if they have Jesus, they are the ones with the treasure of this life.  You might be the one laughing now but standing before God, He will be the one looked favorably upon. 


Matthew 23:27 speaks to the reality of this with the scribes and Pharisees labeling them "hypocrites" and calling them out as Jesus says,

"For you are like whitewashed tombs, 
which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness."

We are whitewashed tombs.
We are scrubbing at external nicks and scratches on each other's tombstones, failing to realize we may be living in this world but we are not truly alive without Him.  We may be able to trick the world into believing that we are just fine by slapping on a smile and a nice outfit, but the true state of our heart is something to be unveiled and handed over to the only One who has the power to heal its broken state in full.  We were bound to the old way of the law through the written code that held us captive, but now we can walk in the Spirit (Romans 7:6). 


Without Jesus, we are dead in a grave. Plain and simple.   


We can be blind to the One calling out our names to be awakened. 
We shovel truckloads of dirt onto our chest, unknowingly blinding our eyes, and suffocating, as we miss out on living our every moment for the glory of Jesus Christ whose glory outshines all things this world has to offer.


Dressing up the exterior, we can trick ourselves into believing that our heart will beat forevermore.  In reality, we are in desperate need of His furious love to sweep through our souls, bringing the breath of new life to our slowing heart beats.  By the Spirit that bears witness, we are called His children but by this comes the responsibility and duty to love others with the same sacrificial love He gave on the cross not simply resorting to the old ways.

You can commit your life to doing missions in Africa, sell your entire wardrobe to the local Salvation Army, volunteer every single day for the rest of your life at the soup kitchen in the inner city, but if Love Himself is not at the center, what do you have?


You have....nothing.


1 Corinthians 13:2 says, "If I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing." 


John 15:5 says, "...for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned." 

Wait...you mean all these 'good deeds', powers, knowledge, and faith don't mean anything? Nope.

Isaiah 64:6 “All our righteous acts are like filthy rags.” 

Romans 3:23 "For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus."

Jesus, Love Himself, is the justification we have gained.  
Out of His heart alone is where these things flow and are given true meaning and depth.  He is the One whose blood has covered our sin and raises us to new life. Without His Spirit within us, we are dry bones. We are empty shells stumbling and tripping over our own fumbled steps as we chase the passions of a heart chained to this life.


You will find yourself gasping for the true oxygen that fills your lungs once you have a taste of who He is. Without Him, you have dust slipping through your hands. 


Against a bloodshot sunset of gorgeous pinks and oranges, stands the contrasting white tombs of those He has created.  Stagnant and unchanging, these tombs sit atop a hill with their owners furiously scrubbing away at their tombstone, scratching away at dirt spots, modifying and changing the outside all the while in slumber to the deadened heart beating within.  Even in knowledge of Christ, their sight is momentarily blinded to the life awaiting them at the bottom of the hill, their eyes entranced by the world and its momentary glitter. 


Time is not on our side.
One day with a final breath given to the wind, we will pass on and what will remain of you?  
A life song of empty noise or one of praise to the King of Kings whom you will spend eternity with? A written story of your own making spent scrubbing the exterior of a box surrounding the desperate heart encased within? 


Singing out in the final curtain call, For King & Country sings, "When it's all said and done
When we sing our final song, Only love remains."


Hear that?
Love remains. He is the eternal One, we are the temporary.  One day we will no longer wake up, our heart shall not beat, and the clock will be silenced for our time has passed.
And this tune we choose to live our lives to will be telling of the state of our hearts and whether we chose to trust His holy name or lean on our own weak standing.  


May we be people who choose to take up our own cross for His sake.
To follow Truth and to stop scrubbing away at the mere surface of this life to find ourselves instead transfixed by the God who calls us to look inward.  To have the courage to look within our own fragmented soul and those around us to find hearts in incredible longing for Jesus and to take action.  The wholeness He offers through the cross is unveiled and tangible as we surrender our lives to making His glory known to this world. 


Shaking us from slumber, He is the only One to awaken us as this invisible cord is released that once bound us to our own tombstones shatter and wither in light of His glory.  Running down the hill, we are freed to embrace Life and Love Himself standing with open arms and mighty hands to heal our afflictions and points us to living life in such a way where we live in light of eternity and find the abundance of a life filled with more and more of Jesus.