Before the Throne of God Above

Before the throne of God above.
I have a strong and perfect plea.
A great high Priest who’s name is Love.
Who ever lives and pleads for me:

My name is graven on His hand.
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 a sinless Savior died my sinful soul is counted free.
For God the just is satisfied to look on Him and pardon me.

Hallelujah
Praise the One Risen Son of God.

Behold Him the risen Lamb.
My perfect spotless righteousness.
The great unchangable 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.

As we sang this song last night it began to hit me that I don’t think I often let the weight of these words overwhelm me as much as they should. I think often when we sing it is easy for us to get caught up in the movement of the music and miss the depths of the words. But yesterday these words hit me like a flood. The build into the lyrics of verse two which ends in the triumph of the great exchange is just magnificent. One of my favorite lines is at the end when it says “for God the just is satisfied to look on Him and pardon me.” I love how the writer puts the emphasis on God the Just. I think sometimes we think of God as so merciful (which He completely is) that we forget about the just side, when it is precisely because of his righteousness and justice that he is able to declare us righteous through His Son. This just leads me into the chorus where we exalt God, praising the risen Son. May this week we continue to praise our Lord and Savior because of the very fact that He has conquered sin and death and declared us righteous before our God. 

HALLELUJAH! Praise the One! The Risen Son of God!

Prayer

Remember to pray for Caleb over the next few weeks as he travels on a missions trip.

Your Love Oh Lord (Psalm 36)

This is one of my favorite Psalms. The psalmist uses some beautiful imagery when describing God.

For example: Your love oh Lord, reaches to the heavens.

I love what that set of words brings to mind. Because in a way, Jesus is the embodiment of God’s love. He served as our intermediary so that God’s plan for our lives, reconciliation through salvation, could happen. Grace is an amazing concept, and throughout this series of Romans, we’ve been looking at that picture of Grace being our only key to our fallen nature.

This song is a  description and an example of a way to pray to God, which we here at the chapel have created an acrostic in order to  illustrate it: P   R   A   Y

The P is for Praise, the R for Repent, the A for Ask, and the Y for Yield. This week as we lead worship, let’s remember how we we’re commanded to worship God, and if we don’t, then everything else in nature will shout in praise to God.

True Love…

So we’re doing an awesome tune this Sunday. Not only is the instrumentation powerful, but the words are much farther beyond. I’m not going to include all of the words, as Jeff did in the previous post, but a few that have really spoke to my heart and have stopped me in my tracks this week to think of how awesome our God really is! The song is called “True Love” by Phil Wickman. The words that really stuck out were “…we were free and made alive, the day True Love died…” It’s amazing to me how much I take those words for granted and how so very often I water down Christ’s death on  the cross in my mind. When I think of the word free…that word is so huge. I thought to myself this week in depth as to what Christ has really freed us from. Not only has He freed us from death itself, but He freely takes us in His arms without thinking that we are selfish beings that find it so hard at times to just trust Him. When I think of the words made alive, all that comes to mind is wow! I think of His never ending faithfulness even when circumstances don’t change in my life.He not only saved us from the ultimate punishment, but He restored us and renewed us to live for Him. He gave us “new life” that we might one day reign again with Him. All I can say about that is what a day that will be…to stand in front of my Father and sing praise and worship to Him forever! What an awesome God we serve, for Christ to come to this earth and give up Himself so that we live! That truly is True Love! My challenge for us this week and from now on is to not minimalize Christ’s sacrifice in our minds and live selflessly instead of selfishly knowing that Christ is alive in us! As we worship this Sunday, let’s put everything aside in our minds and give Christ all the praise that He deserves and then some!!!

Indescribable by Chris Tomlin

This song speaks to the wonder and awesomeness of God. He is uncontainable, awesome, all powerful. The word omnipotent means “there is nothing that (HE) cannot do, is not capable of thinking, and rules supreme over all creation. Wow…

So, to the lyrics:

From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea
Creation’s revealing Your majesty
From the colors of fall to the fragrance of spring
Every creature unique in the song that it sings
All exclaiming

Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing God
All powerful, untamable,
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God

Who has told every lightning bolt where it should go
Or seen heavenly storehouses laden with snow
Who imagined the sun and gives source to its light
Yet conceals it to bring us the coolness of night
None can fathom

Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name
You are amazing God
All powerful, untamable,
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God
You are amazing God

Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing God
All powerful, untamable,
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God
Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing God
INCOMPARABLE, unchangeable
You see the depths of my heart and You love me the same
You are amazing God
You are amazing God

link to the lyrics

I’m always just blown away by these lyrics. Paul is talking about the wide open spaces of God’s glory, and the free access to His grace. The words convey that power, and remind us that we need to be moved, that we need to be in awe of God and also that we should be in awe of the remarkable gift that we’ve been given that no one on earth could ever produce. Only through God’s gift can we have this access…Praise to the Lord!