Worship Wednesday – Give My Life To You

 

i love elevation churches worship.  and i love this song.  i so love the musicality and style of their worship band.  i give my life to you – such a good heart cry.  even on my worst days, this is the underlying beat of my core.

 

i can hear you

calling my name

ocean between us erased

this salvation

it pours down like rain

 

i give my life to you

my heart to you

you’re all i need

come and make me new

 

i abandon

the weight of my sin

the weight of my loss and my pain

and freedom releases my shame

my shame

 

i give my life to you

my heart to you

you’re all i need

come and make me new

 

and Jesus Christ

take our life

we wont waste another day

holy God

fill our heart

we wont ever be the same

In Colossians 1

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,  because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people – the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world – just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace.  Colossians 1:3-6

 

as a housegroup leader i know this feeling.  i thank God often for our housegroupies and for the work that God is doing in and through their lives.  its such a privilege to be a part of their lives and an honour to be their housegroup leader.  the greatest thing, apart from that they’re awesome spunky fun cool people, is seeing them grow closer to God and step out into the plans and purposes that He has for them.  reading this it encourages me and challenges me to pray more for those i lead, expectant that God will do incredible things in their life, that they will be fruitful and mature, and know Him and make Him known.

 

i’m so glad for the people in my life that have prayed for me, that have believed in me and extended grace to me in the times when i was “learning to walk.” 

i’m so grateful for the people that came alongside me and helped me to grow and bear fruit, and bore with me in my seasons of rebellion and ignorance. 

 

what a fantastic commendation Paul gives the Colossian Christians – that they are known by their love and faith.  the hallmark of their lives is their tangible practical real love and tangible real practical faith.   

 

 

 

For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus [the leaning of your entire human personality on Him in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness] and of the love which you [have and show] for all the saints (God’s consecrated ones), Colossians 1:3 AMP

 

i love the way the AMP describes faith – the leaning of your entire human personality on Him in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness – i always say FAITH ISNT A WHAT BUT IT IS IN A WHO – faith is IN God, in His goodness, in His greatness, in His ableness and power and wisdom and glory

its not about us.  but its about HIM. 

He saves us, He rescues us, He restores us, He transforms us.

and i put my hand up and say YES PLEASE.  and even in that my response is usually because He has opened my eyes to His wonderfulness and stirred my spirit towards Him. 

 

the one universal unchangeable Gospel which was made known to you, even as it was carried throughout the world, approving itself by its fruits wherever it is planted. For, as elsewhere, so also in you, these fruits were manifested from the first day when you received your lessons in, and apprehended the power of, the genuine Gospel, which is not a law of ordinances but a dispensation of grace, not a device of men but a truth of God. LIGHTFOOT

which is present with you even as also it is in all the world constantly bearing fruit and increasing, just as it is also among you from the day when you heard it and came to know experientially the grace of God in the sphere of truth  WEUST

 

faith and love and Christian living is all about experience – experientially knowing the grace of God – more than a mental assent or head knowledge, but a heart level knowledge that is then translated and expressed in the very way we live our lives

It is important to remember that the gospel is not a stagnant system of ethics but is living, dynamic and growing truth. The living gospel is the power that transforms lives. As it does so, the witness of those transformed lives produces fruit, including new converts. So as the gospel produces fruit in individual lives, its influence spreads.  Perceptastim

 

i so like the last part of verse 6 – the day you truly understood God’s grace.  there is a difference b/w understanding and, how do i put it, thinking we understand.  true understanding results in change and response and love and transformation and fruit.  it permeates who we are and what we do.  so often we have a checklist in our head of what things good Christians do and what things good Christians don’t.  but underlying that all, the reality is that God loves us with an everlasting love and He sees not our own righteousness but Christ’s righteousness.

 

“God’s perspective on us is remarkable, almost unbelievable.  He delights in us and loves us as a caring Father.  He’s running toward us, ready to embrace and forgive us.  He’s for us in all the pain of life and can sustain us in every challenge.  as i learn to see from God’s perspective, my perspective on everything else shifts.  i realize that my failures don’t disqualify me.  i’m aware of the security i already have in God’s grace.  i trust that nothing will separate me from the love of God in Christ.”  Jud Wilhite

awesome eh.  that’s what grace is.  that’s what living by grace is.  when we understand it we’re free.  we can fly (okay i’m watching how to tame your dragon at the same time as doing this and totally inspired by the flying dragon!) and really live.  we live in response to God’s great love and abundant grace, lavished upon us.  that’s what inspires us to change, motivates us, from the inside out.  because God is awesome and worth it.

 

 

 

* colossians has been one of my most favourite books for a few years now.  i quote from colossians 1 usually every time i preach.  yes seriously.  so thought i would dig in a bit more…

Totally Love Tuesday

this popped onto my radar just now, and thought it was so worth sharing.  its about motherhood and the joys and the hardships.  the hardest job, and the best job.  while my kids may not be aiming for Olympic glory, they are living and dreaming and i’m there, behind them, serving them, loving them, growing them.  yesterday my son had an altercation with an escalator.  while he was out with granny.  my heart lept when my husband, after talking to her on the phone, said “i’m off to the a&e to meet caleb there, he’s gashed his leg and needs stitches.” i cried when caleb called me on his dads phone to tell me what happened and that he needed injections and stitches.  quiet cry, but still tears.  that i wasnt with him and that he was hurt.  motherhood takes a big heart, and i’m glad we have a big God.

 

 

 

loving this book by jud wilhite – lori, his wife, is one of the wonderful Leading & Loving It ladies and so when i saw it at the christian bookshop I JUST HAD TO HAVE IT.  plus it has an orange cover.  awesomeness. this book is crammed through with stuff that is so relevant for me right now, and for some of my housegroupies.  so much so i went back and got a few more copies to lend away.  my highlighter is having a fest.  it oozes the grace and love of God, that THAT is the most important way about seeing who we are.

“I had it all backwards. The main thing was not my love for God, but his love for me. And from that love I respond to God as one deeply flawed, yet loved. I’m not looking to prove my worth. I’m not searching for acceptance. I’m living out of the worth God already declares I have. I’m embracing his view of me and in the process discovering the person he created me to be.

In Eyes Wide Open, Jud Wilhite invites you to discover the real you. Not the you who pretends to be perfect to satisfy everyone’s expectations. Not the you who always feels guilty before God. Not the you who secretly feels God forgives everyone else but only tolerates you. Not the you who looks in the mirror and sees a failure. The real you, loved and forgiven by God, living out of your identity in Christ.”

 

 

 

 

  seriously loving the LOVE CAKE biscuit mix.  GF, egg free, diary free, nut free BUT NOT TASTE FREE!  they are amazing.  like scoff them all amazing.  i have been restrained though!  they taste delish and normal.  impressed!  the top picture are how the turned out…

 

did the washing today.   thats always a good thing to do on a sunny day.  but thats not what i love.  its the 4 river tshirts hanging in a row.  they’re our church tshirts and they’re awesome, but most importantly, our church is awesome.  best church in the world.

 

 

kidnaped the kids and took them to the lorax at the movies last week and loved it!  colourful and cute it even had a “message” in there (not the save the planet one) about if you want to reap you’ve got to sow and let it grow…  such a good lesson for life.  loved the larger in life characters and did i mention the cuteness factor???

 

 

and as always.  i love Jesus with all i am and all my heart and all my soul and all my days. For His glory and the building of His kingdom and the rescue of the lost.

 

so what are you totally loving this week?

 

… check out what other peeps are loving whatever day of the week it is over at Paisley Jade