There Is None Like You/ You Are (The Love Of My Life) Medley- Jared Reynolds
Tag: Jesus
Jesus I Come – Awaken Generation Music (feat. Alarice)
Verse 1
If you’re calling me, I will answer
If you’re bidding me to come, I will come
If you’re leading me into deeper waters
May I not refuse
Chorus
Jesus I come, I surrender
All for your glory, I give my life
Here in this moment
I’m marked forever
I am yours
Verse 2
If you’re drawing me… closer
If you’re lifting me… higher
If you’re bringing me into greater purpose
May I not refuse
Chorus
Bridge
Just a glimpse of your glory
And in my heart I know
That I won’t let go
No, I won’t let go
Just a taste of your goodness
And in my heart I know
I’m not letting go
I’m not letting go
According To Your Word
Where will you be when God reveals to you what you are here for? What will you say? Will you be ready to say anything at all?
30Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. 32He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. 33And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”
34Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”
35And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. 36Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. 37For with God nothing will be impossible.”
38Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
Luke 1:30-38 NKJV
Where will you be when God reveals to you what you are here for? What will you say? Will you be ready to say anything at all?
I think Mary’s experience is typical of many people who seek to do God’s will but are not waiting for God to speak. We pray, we plead, and we seek to know what God is going to do with us and yet we are stunned when he speaks. If we believe God speaks, we should not be so surprised when he actually does.
Where were you when he spoke the first time? Or are you still waiting?
I find that most people have become jaded with the notion that God is going to use us to do his will. We say it, but we don’t believe it anymore. We are sitting in our homes, offices, cars, and maybe in our churches and we want to believe. We want it to be true for us.
We see it in others and we desire to be an instrument of his will. His perfect will for us, but the notion that it will ever come to pass has become nothing but a dream for the foolish, the wishful thinking of the immature dreamer.
We have become “realistic” about God’s will for our lives. But we have actually done is given up on God we have lost a sense of expectation that God will speak. In a way, we have become disappointed with God. We wonder if we can trust him at all.
What at one time was a deep passion has become bitter and stagnant. It is a lingering resentment at God.
We don’t tell anybody, we don’t want anyone else to know the truth of it. We want to be God’s servant, but instead, we have become hatred’s slaves. What else could it be? We are festering inside wishing that we could know what God is going to do with us. But all we hear is that painful silence.
Where were you? Were you in the pit of some confusion? In the midst of circumstances beyond your control?
Or did you find yourself broken and bruised hiding in the shadows of a church despising God and trying your best to be rid of him, or maybe that was just me. But he just would not let me go.
Or was it that I just could not afford to let him go and so I recanted. I repented and found myself at the feet of Jesus.
There are so many names that the scriptures ascribe to the Messiah, but the one that really touches my heart is the one that the prophet gave to him—Immanuel, God with us. The eternal God chose to come down and enter time and to be one of us.
God in his eternal power and magnificence poured himself into the frail and limited body of a man? And for what? To take that which he created out for a test run? No. He came to understand us and to provide a way back to the Father. But how was this to be done? How was God going to make it here to this earth? He would come as all other men had come. He came as a baby. And like every babe born to men, there was the need for a mother.
I love Christmas because it is a continual reminder of that fact, the truth, that God came to dwell among us. He came to show us what it really means to be human beings.
Where will you be when God comes through the door of your heart and asks for a favor? The angel came into Mary and said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one…”
Rejoice? Are we the kind of people that when God comes he commends us for the way that we have lived our lives? Will God be able to say of us that we are blessed because of the righteousness and faithfulness that is present in our hearts? Because I have to believe that God would not have picked just anybody to be the mother of His Son.
I know that there are some within the Christian faith that elevates Mary much further than is necessary, but I have to concede that Mary was not just anybody. Of all the women, in all the world, through all of history, God chose her. That makes her special. That makes her unique. And even though no one else will ever have that opportunity extended to them again, we should strive to be the kind of people that God would trust His son with.
But in a way he has. Any man or woman who has believed in faith has taken a similar step, as Mary did. By saying yes to Jesus we are accepting the responsibility to care for Jesus. We have accepted the responsibility to love him and share our lives with him. We are in a way like Mary carrying him with us because he lives in us and through us. With each passing day, with each opportunity to share our witness and testimony we give him life in a world that is lost and in need of him.
There is Mary finishing the chores of the day, thinking of the wedding that is only months away now, when all of a sudden an angel comes bearing strange news. “You are going to have a son and you will call Him Jesus.”
Where will you be?
Mary was minding her own business and all of a sudden she must make a choice. There was no time to think about it. There is no time to make him wait. Mary is stunned and asks the only question that comes to her mind, “How can I have a son when I am still a virgin.” The angel answers that there is nothing that God can’t do. And the most remarkable thing happens, that response is sufficient for Mary and she makes her own faith-filled statement, “Behold, the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.”
Where will you be when your faith is required of you? What will you do? How will you respond? The Christmas story is more than just the miracle of the incarnation. The Christmas story is a miracle of faith. It is a story of a young lady, struggling to make sense of life and marriage and without asking for it is chosen to bring the son of God into this world. Faith, whenever it is expressed, is a miracle because faith is the audacity to say, “According to your word.”
“According to your word” is the kind of faith that can move mountains.
“According to your word” is the kind of faith that can make kings come crashing to their knees.
“According to your word” is the kind of faith that touches the heart of God.
Let me tell you something, “according to your word” is the kind of faith that Mary taught to Jesus as he toddled around the house so that when Jesus stayed in the temple the teachers marveled at him. When Mary and Joseph came back to get him, Jesus responded that he was about his father’s business. We see a shadow of Mary’s faith in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus says to the father, “not my will, but thine be done.” Yes, he was a man, a man with a mama that taught him about faith. A man who understood that in order to live a life that is pleasing to God He must live “according to your word.”
Christmas is such a wonderful time of year. Enjoy the lights and the family. Enjoy the gifts and the tree. Enjoy the festive nature of the year, but let us not forget the babe. Let us not forget that the joy we have comes and stays when our lives are lived “according to [His] word.”
Some people in this world may be frustrated with God because he has not said anything to them and they are waiting. Could it be that we have not said what God is waiting to hear? Where will you be when God sends his angel? I’ll be waiting. May you have a Merry Christmas.
Originally Delivered: December 19, 2004. It has been edited and expanded.
Becoming More Christlike Than American: Part 7
Part 7: Answers about who
“Paul replied, “Whether quickly or not, I pray to God that both you and everyone here in this audience might become the same as I am, except for these chains.” Acts 26:29 NLT
If you’ve never read Acts 21-28, where Paul defends the faith in front of Jewish and Roman government officials, first go read it. Especially read Acts 26:1-29.
This blog series started with a focus on “Why?” questions. And acknowledged that currently a lot of questions are being asked – especially “Why?” questions and especially by young Christians – within the church today.
And this series will end where all of our “Why?” questions should really end: with a focus on “Who.”
Questions are an important part of spiritual growth. They allow for the testing of our mind, heart, and even soul.
But the answers to the questions in and of themselves are not the goal. They are a means to an end. That is a vital differentiation between how the rest of the world asks questions, and how Christians do. It requires knowing the end in order to not lose yourself in the process of asking questions…
And for Christians, the end is an actual person. Not the answers to the questions. But the answer to all the questions. The end is a “Who.” It is God the Father, Son, and Spirit.
It’s God the Father.
It’s Jesus.
It’s Holy Spirit.
And in discovering God as the end, it also ultimately helps you find out who you are – your true self in Christ – as well.
The personal discovery of a relationship with God that we each have the opportunity to experience happens fully within the context of a spiritual family. It’s amazing how Acts unfolds in such a way to emphasize this reality all along the way.
A personal experience with God’s presence. Which leads to communities that form Christlike character. Which are based upon a resilience only produced in relationships that form thru difficulty. Which happens as people advocate for the kingdom of heaven here on earth. And which ultimately leads to the experience of spiritual family with those who are personally living out a relationship with God.
All of this is ultimately centered upon not the answers to “Why?” questions, but the foundation of “Who” – the person of God and the personhood of each believer as the family of God is formed here on earth.
This is why Paul’s testimony in Acts 26:1-29 shows such extreme confidence. And why Paul does not lack confidence in any of his interactions with any of the officials throughout Acts 21-28.
It’s not because of some generalized version of self-worth. It’s not because he talked himself into showing confidence. It’s not a “fake it ’til you make it” approach to life.
It is because he knows exactly who he is in light of who he personally knows God to be, as a part of a family of God here on earth that He has been welcome into.
In Acts 26:8, he asks the Roman official: “Why does it seem incredible to any of you that God can raise the dead?”
Paul knows God, and he’s saying if they truly knew God too they would not be surprised by what the Christians are telling them is true.
When questioned about his faith, Paul is giving clear answers about Who. Who God is. Who Paul is. Because he knows the answer to all life’s questions personally – and that answer is Jesus.
And thus we should find ourselves coming to that same sort of place. Having clarity and thus confidence about who God is and who we are thru our relationship with Jesus and journey to become like Jesus as the Spirit lives within us.
It may take starting with “Why?” questions to get there (Jesus mostly asked questions during His ministry as opposed to giving answers). But the only worthwhile destination for those “Why?” questions must be the answer about “Who.”
By the time we get to the end of the book of Acts, and at the same time on our own journey toward Christlikeness, what we find is that the faith we may have started with in part has become much more wholistic. God has become much more personal. And our lives have become very much centered around a personal relationship with Him that directly impacts our personal relationships with everyone else around us.
Instead of Acts leaving us with a continued “strategy for church growth,” or a “model for ministry,” it leaves us the same way it starts: Jesus.
Acts 28:30-31: “For the next two years, Paul lived in Rome at his own expense. He welcomed all who visited him, boldly proclaiming the Kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ. And no one tried to stop him.”
Our Christlikeness really is just all about a personal relationship with God, with others. We welcome God to make His home in us. And we welcome others into our home.
The simplicity of it is almost scary. But it’s truly what we see at the core of what it means to be like Christ.
Just as God came and dwelt among us in the mystery of the incarnation of Jesus, He desires to continue to be incarnate in the world thru the body of Christ – in us, “the church,” as we are led and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
May we fully give ourselves to this simple vision of the kingdom of God.
May we fully receive into our midst the fullness of God’s presence.
And may we together reach full maturity into the likeness of Christ, so that the whole world (obviously including America) may know the love of God – as displayed thru the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.
Previous Posts:
- Becoming More Christlike than American, Pt. 1
- Becoming More Christlike than American, Pt. 2
- Becoming More Christlike than American, Pt. 3
- Becoming More Christlike than American, Pt. 4
- Becoming More Christlike than American, Pt. 5
- Becoming More Christlike than American, Pt. 6
- Becoming More Christlike than American, Pt. 7
Lent 2020 | Day 17: “Revealed”
The prestige of every trick is the part of the trick that the audience is anticipating but has doubts of its achievement.
Our focus for today is the “revealed.”
One of my favorite moved is “The Prestige.” It is an interesting movie about two magicians who are vying to become the best in the world. What makes the movie compelling is that you don’t quite know what is going on. You see what they want you to see, but the “trick” that is being played against us (the audience) is not easy to pick up on.
In one of the early scenes, we are given a hint at what the movie is really about. The three acts of a magic trick are explained.
“Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called “The Pledge”. The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course… it probably isn’t. The second act is called “The Turn”. The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you’re looking for the secret… but you won’t find it, because of course you’re not really looking. You don’t really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn’t clap yet. Because making something disappear isn’t enough; you have to bring it back. That’s why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call “The Prestige”.” [Source]
The prestige of every trick is the part of the trick that the audience is anticipating but has doubts of its achievement. This is the part that causes the awe in those watching.
I don’t want to conflate a movie with the Word of God. I do want to say that when I think about the miracle of Jesus being born and dying for the redemption of the world is like the prestige of a trick. The reason being that when we consider what the Scriptures claim Jesus actually did, not merely pretended to do, we all struggle to believe our eyes.
But that is exactly what we are called to do.
There are two passages of scripture that point to truthfulness of this revelation: Romans 5:6 and Galatians 4:4a.
“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.”
“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son…”
Both of these passages speak of a moment in time. A point in history when God exploded through the veil of eternity and made himself known in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. God had to wait for the right time to make his entrance. Why? Because God was working something out that required perfect time.
In Jesus, the fullness of God was revealed to the world (Colossian 2:9).
In Jesus, the power of God’s grace was finally demonstrated.
In Jesus, the wonder of God’s mercy was finally made available.
In Jesus, the God of the universe was revealed.
As we continue our steady march toward Resurrection Sunday, we must ask ourselves: have we seen what God has revealed? If so, can others see it in us?
Lent 2020 | Day 8: “Teacher”
The focus of today is on the idea of a “teacher.”
Over the course of my life, I have realized that my parents were a lot wiser and smarter than I gave them credit for. One of the realities that dawned on me when I became a parent was when I saw how many of the lessons that I had learned. Whether I acknowledge them or not, a lot of what I had been taught had become a part of who I was as an adult, and now as a father.
What I realized was that we don’t really know how well we have learned the lessons until we have to actually apply them. We might have the best teacher, and Jesus is the best teacher of all things that God requires of us, but until we begin to apply those lessons, until we see those lessons as necessary for how we live our lives, we will struggle to determine if we can trust this teacher.
I don’t know when it happened, but I do know that the moment I began to accept that my parents knew more than I did about how to live in this world, the easier it became for me to accept what they were teaching. And I think the same is true of our faith. The faster we can get to the place where we trust what the Scripture teaches us, when we trust what God has revealed in and through Jesus, and when we allow the Holy Spirit to take those lessons and implant them in our hearts and in our minds, we will find ourselves able to live out that which we find throughout Scripture.
We have the world’s greatest teacher. The question is, how well are we at being students?
Lent 2020 | Day 6: “Enter”
The Apostle John records Jesus saying these words in John 10:9, “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.”
One of the great promises of the gospel, and one of the great promises of Jesus Himself, is that God genuinely desires for all to be saved. But he places an important condition on this salvation. It is not a condition of works or self-righteousness. It is a condition of surrender. It is a condition that says that if we desire to have the blessings which God promises, we must enter in, by the way he has ordained.
This is not designed to be a rigid situation. Or even an impossible one. It is designed to help us see that in order for us to attain that which our heart and soul long for, we must go to the one who has given us access to the one who can fulfill that longing.
The image of a shepherd is one that is very familiar to us as believers. It is something that calls our attention to King David, the great Shepherd King. But more importantly, it reminds us that we all require leading, as we saw last week, and we’re all in need of surrendering ourselves to the call of God to enter into His pasture.
One of the things that happens in life is that we sometimes forget that in spite of ourselves, we truly need God to lead us. And so God calls us to Jesus and says, “Trust in him, look to him as your final and ultimate hope.” And when we do, we will receive that which he has promised from the beginning, our eternal salvation.
Do We Look More American than Christian? Part 1
Part 1: How we’ve become more like Jonah than Jesus.
Christian, say these words with me, directed to yourself:
Repent, and believe the Gospel.
These are a part of the historic words of the Ash Wednesday liturgy. And yet most people don’t hear them anymore (since most of our churches have jettisoned the traditions for a shinier, modern version of Christianity where they pretend they have no liturgy when, in fact, they do – they just have bad liturgy they’ve never thought through – see Simon Chan’s book Spiritual Theology).
And even if a churchgoer does hear those words once a year, they typically do not take them to heart. I truly believe God desires to do things in our generation that He has not done in generations in America. However, it will require us to humbly respond to this invitation:
Repent, and believe the Gospel.
Jesus or Jonah
If we were to assess our lives as Christians today, and the modern American church; and then contrast our lives and our churches to the life of Jonah and the ministry of Jesus, I think we would find ourselves looking far more like Jonah than Jesus. [If you don’t know the story of Jonah, it’s a quick read – go read it. And then, Click Here to go watch this Bible Project video.]
We have perpetuated a version of the Christian life and of church that essentially says to someone: “If you don’t fit into our version of church, then you don’t deserve the Gospel.”
I can hear the push back now… “Whoa, whoa, we are not exclusive. In fact, we are highly inclusive. Everyone is welcome at our church.” And those words reveal the very disease that has made us more like Jonah than Jesus – the expectation that those “nonbelievers” out there should come to us “believers” in here.
While we have traded cathedrals and stained glass windows for metal buildings and technology (still wasting money on earthy things we think will “please God” or “draw people”), we have continued the idea that somehow God is “in here” with us and not “out there” with you. And thus have communicated to the world around us the same thing Jonah was at least brave enough to own up to: “I don’t think you deserve the grace of God enough to bring the message of the Gospel to you – you’re going to have to ‘get your life together’ and make the decision to come to me if you want it.”
It’s not you, It’s me
And lest you are quick to point the finger at the “other person” who you determine is more guilty of this than you: When’s the last time you shared the good news of the Gospel with anyone?
I mean anyone.
Literally anyone.
Even yourself.
Christian: Repent, and believe the Gospel.
Here’s the harsh truth: we have not truly believed the full Gospel ourselves or we would not find ourselves in this situation. Myself included. Because if we really believed the full Gospel for ourselves, then it would passionately propel us to those around us displaying it with our actions and speaking it with our words.
Our family members, our coworkers, our classmates, our friends, our neighbors, and even the strangers we meet would see walking stories of the Gospel and we would be ever ready to share the hope that we now have.
We wouldn’t be the stuck-up, judgmental Christians bemoaning how “sinful” everyone else is and how our world’s going to “hell in a hand-basket.” We wouldn’t be the showy, cool Christians who try to “attract” people to Jesus with all of our trendiness. We wouldn’t be the “worried to offend someone” Christians who basically communicate that as long as you love Jesus all the sin you’re willfully embracing and not being transformed out of can be overlooked. And we wouldn’t be some combination of all of those things (which many American Christians today are).
Church: Repent, and believe the Gospel.
Re-Lent
As we start this season of Lent, it is meant as a time of dying to self that leads to (hopefully) spiritual resurrection at the end. How are you more like Jonah than Jesus? How is the church you are a part of or lead displaying a Jonah attitude more than a Jesus one? Are you willing to die to an American version of Christianity that assumes the world should come to us to hear the Gospel and instead be raised up into the original version of Christianity that involved you taking the Gospel to the world?
American Christian. American Church. Why do we look more American than Christian? And why are we more like Jonah than Jesus? May we hear afresh the words of the Ash Wednesday liturgy this year, and then act upon them appropriately:
Repent, and believe the Gospel.
*This is Part 1 of a 7-part series of posts on the American Church. Be looking for a new post each week as we participate in Lent and reflect on the things we need to let go of, or need to take hold of, as Christians in America.
Read the Rest of Series
Lent 2019 | Day 31: Satisfied
The only perfection God expects he has found in his Son.
There are two ways that I think about this word in the Christian context. First, the penalty for sin has been satisfied by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Second, as believers, we can be satisfied with the new life we have in Christ.
On the first point. The fullness of sin has been dealt with by the abundance of Jesus’s righteousness. And God, through his grace, has applied that righteousness to our account. We are no longer under condemnation because the holy wrath of God has been propitiated by the blood. This is what it means for God to be satisfied by Jesus’s sacrifice for my sin.
On the second point. Now that I have been born again through repentance and faith, adopted into the family of God, and the righteousness of Christ covers my sin, I can live a satisfied life. This is not a complacent life. It is not a careless life. It is not a hesitant life. I don’t have to live in fear, but I do have to live for God. It is an intentional approach to life. My satisfaction is not in trying to do what Jesus has already done. My satisfaction comes when I live my life in accordance with God’s character. The only perfection God expects he has found in his Son. What he wants from me, from you, is a commitment to faithfully obey his commands.
Lent 2019 | Day 2: The Mystery of Grace
Whenever I think about God’s grace I tend to alternate between thankfulness and confusion. I am thankful that God’s love has made a way for us to have fellowship with him. I am thankful that when I heard the Gospel I believed and now have the hope of eternal life. I am thankful that God has given grace and mercy when what I deserved were judgment and wrath.
But I am also confused. Why would God do this? Why would God be gracious to me, a sinner? Why would God provide a way of escape to those who most often make selfish choices? I am not qualified to answer these questions. They are mysteries that reside within the person of God. Only God can answer why he has afforded a fallen humanity grace for eternal life.
But the mystery does give me hope. It gives me hope because, in spite of my insecurities and fallen nature, I have come to know that I have been born again. Sure, there I days when I struggle to hold onto that hope. But, most days I remember that it was not by any works of righteousness I have done that salvation was gifted to me. God has given me the gift of salvation by his gracious love and mercy. He knows I am incapable of ascending to him, but he has already proven that he is willing and able to descend to us.
Jesus is proof of God’s love and grace. Jesus is the fulfillment of every promise God ever made. When Jesus walked on the earth, he was a living, physical, perfect representation of everything God had said he was going to do in and for sinners. The mystery is difficult to explain, but it is not too difficult that it can’t be experienced.
We may be tempted to ask a plethora of “why” questions and never quite be satisfied with the answer for why God is gracious. But when we ask the “how” question of grace—How have we received God’s grace?—the answer is quite simple. We have received grace because of Jesus.