FORGIVEN: Now Is The Time

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Listen to FORGIVEN by Crowder:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUiwA1JNDig

As I drove to my Bible Study Fellowship this morning, this song slammed into my heart. My responses to the John 19 lesson fresh in my mind, I listened to these lyrics, picturing Jesus's Crucifixion with a fresh perspective.

SLAM! Right between the eyes. Crowder's lyrics hit me with the facts:

I held the nails.
I pounded MY SIN upon His flesh hanging from the Cross.
I fell to the ground with a hammer in my hands.
My lips once denied God, even in their silence.

My mind returned to that time, to that season of life, when God came down to me in the middle of a massive mess created by disobedience and unbelief. He lifted up my chin to gaze upon HIM on that very Cross where He hung, bearing every one of my horrible sins. Bearing the sins of others who hurt and shamed me. Bearing the sins of the broken world that could care less about Him hanging there, beaten and bloodied for their cause. Jesus looked down upon me from that cross, arms open wide, and cried: FORGIVEN! IT IS FINISHED!

I felt His Spirit take up residence inside me, and my life has not been the same since--no turning back! A fire burns inside of me to know and love God more and more every single day. The fire heats up my testimony and sparks me to share God's love everywhere I go. I know how much I have been forgiven, and the weight of it overshadows any intellectual doubts that arise. Even when I wrestle with my finite ability to grasp the infinite grace, goodness, and mercy of God, the reality of the knowledge I cannot escape pins me to the solid ground of faith in Jesus Christ.

Girlfriends, if you have not nailed your sin to the Cross, not crucified your fleshly and worldly desires, not asked God for freedom by His gift of forgiveness, THIS IS THE WEEK! Wait no longer!

Give it all up, Girlfriends; all the striving, all the searching, all the seeking. Give up the appearances, the appeals, the aspirations to conquer the world. Jesus already did the work. He conquered and brought His Kingdom down so He can give it you without worry and with peace. He suffered and died so YOU DON'T HAVE TO! He wants to give you freedom and new life, one without fear, guilt, shame, or lies. Yes, you will have to give up your sin, but what you gain is eternal glory and the unconditional love of the Father. You join forever the family of God, the Creator of the Universe and Sustainer of all life.

Do not be fooled into believing you are without sin. Do not think you have it all together and don't need God. Nor should you believe you need to have it all together before you can go to God. We all have fallen short of the holiness and glory of God--successful or struggling, solid or shaky, shining brightly or silently suffering--it does not matter. The only place your life matters is in God's economy, in His Kingdom. This world and all you have or have done will fade away. You will die. But will you LIVE? Girlfriends, CHOOSE LIFE NOW! Jesus conquered death on the Cross and rose from the tomb so that we can start eternal life now. Right now. Today.

I pray you will listen to this song and feel the conviction I felt this morning. Yes, I want you to feel guilty so that you can be set free! I want you to pick up that hammer and nail your sin to the cross. I want you to fall down in submission at the foot of the Cross, then look up and see His arms open wide for you. I want you to die with Him and come back to life with His Spirit living inside you, so that all of us Girlfriends can enjoy eternal life together, now and forever.

Girlfriends, what are you waiting for?

He is Risen. He is Risen Indeed!

Lyrics to Crowder's Forgiven:

I am the one who held the nail
It was cold between my fingertips
I have hidden in the garden
I have denied you with my very lips

God I fall down to my knees
with a hammer in my hands
You look at me
Arms Open

FORGIVEN. FORGIVEN. Child there is freedom from all of it.
SAY GOODBYE.
TO EVERY SIN.
YOU ARE FORGIVEN!

I have done things I wish I hadn't done
I have seen things I wish I hadn't seen
Just the thought of your AMAZING GRACE
I cry JESUS, FORGIVE ME.

God I fall down to my knees
with a hammer in my hands
You look at me
ARMS OPEN

FORGIVEN. FORGIVEN. Child there is freedom from all of it.
SAY GOODBYE.
TO EVERY SIN.
YOU ARE FORGIVEN!

I could've been six feet under
I could've been lost forever
Yeah I should be in that fire
But now there's fire inside of me

Here I am a dead man walking
No grave gonna hold God's people
All the weight of all our evil
Lifted away, Forever Free.

Who could believe? Who could believe?
FORGIVEN. FORGIVEN.
You love me even when I don't deserve it.
FORGIVEN. I'M FORGIVEN.

JESUS, YOUR BLOOD makes me INNOCENT
So I will say goodbye
to every sin
I AM FORGIVEN.
I AM FORGIVEN.

Who Am I?

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“I’m coming back to the heart of worship, and it’s all about You, it’s all about You, Jesus. I’m sorry, Lord, for the thing I’ve made it when it’s all about You,

It’s all about You, Jesus.”

-Heart of Worship, sung by Matt Redman

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

2 Corinthians 5:17

As I prepared for church this morning, the song Heart of Worship came on the radio. I literally just mentioned this song to my daughter last night as we face-timed, talking about her Catalyst Leadership Conference last week with her church. The conference theme was Leading From Who You Are: Identity, Calling, Legacy.  She relayed a story to me about one of the worship singers, Phil Wickham, who is injured and cannot talk, let alone sing. He wrote a letter to the attendees explaining how this time of silence left him thinking about his identity as a singer and his worth without a voice. I referred her to this song, Heart of Worship, because the point the lyrics make is that Jesus is the heart of our worship first and foremost. Our voices, our words, our notes, our melodies, our harmonies—none of those are the heart of our worship. Without them, our worship of Jesus does not stop, and if it does, then we have identified the wrong things as the heart of our worship. 

The identity portion of the conference struck a chord in my daughter that has been plucked over and over and over since her accident nearly three years ago.  When an event happens in this life that completely alters who you think you are, what you are able to do, and how others perceive you, what do you do? Where do you turn? How do you begin to redefine yourself according to the “new normal”? From whom do draw guidance and strength?

The world says these answers will vary depending upon who “you” are, but what God’s Word relays to us is that the answer is no different from beginning to event to post-event to the end: Your identity is found in the Lord, in Jesus Christ. You were, are, and ever-will-be a redeemed and beloved child of God regardless of who you think your are, what you can or cannot do, or who others perceive or claim you are.  You must come back to the heart of worship every single day and let Jesus be the One to remind you of who you are in Him. You are more precious than silver or gold. You are more important than the flowers in the field or the birds in the sky. You are worth dying for…and He did.

So why do we keep searching? I am not just talking about our unsaved friends who have not heard, or have failed to recognize, who they are in Christ, but I am also referring to every single professed Christian who has intentionally given their life to Christ, including me. Why do we make everything except Christ the heart of our worship? Why do we think that our great ideas, our hard labor, our efforts, our abilities, and our achievements are the basis of our identity?

My daughter’s conference topic somehow “mysteriously” coincided with the message from our pastor at Gateway Church today regarding identity. Jesus is my foundation and anchor. All that I am, all that I do, and all that I want others to know of me is rooted in Christ who strengthens and guides me daily. And when I bring myself back to this point of reality, the rest of my thoughts, my feelings, my actions, and my subconscious activity come in line with God’s plan and purpose. Then I am at the heart of worship in every circumstance because Jesus lives in me and I abide in Him. My identity is so closely bound to Him that all joy, all struggle and pain, even the mundane, cannot change my identity.  Fear, sorrow, agony, and sadness may scratch my surface but they cannot penetrate nor alter my core.  I won’t give up because He did not give up on me.

I read this blog to my son, and he told me I was not talking in real enough terms for him and “normal people” to understand. So I asked myself, what does identity in Christ look like in real life here on earth? For me, I can say God wants me to know this: I am loved when I feel like no one around me cares or notices I exist. I am a daughter when my parents are far away.  I am a sister to more than one. I am still valued and needed when my children are grown and living on their own.  I am worthy and respected even when I get it wrong or make mistakes. I am MVP of dusting and cleaning. I have citizenship in heaven no matter which state I reside in. I am a Pulitzer Prize winner with every journal or blog entry. I am funny when no one laughs.  I am perfectly designed and built just right to host the Holy Spirit within “my temple.”  I am a light in dark places. I am more beautiful than a Hawaiian sunset.  I am strong in my weakest moments. I can love the unlovable and forgive the unforgivable because I am loved and forgiven. I am a leader and a follower. I am a part of the whole and wholly a part.  I am heard among a thousand screaming voices drowning out my own.  I am a work in progress but progressing according to a grand design.

My friends, I do not know every aspect of your identity in Christ, but I believe we are not so very different. God engineers your circumstances and environment to make you uniquely His child, but His promises are universally applicable to you and to me. My prayer for you this week is that you will take some time in solitude to consider your identity. Write down all the names/titles you have been called or call yourself, and then take them away. Who are you now when all of those identifiers are gone? Examine each one in the light of Christ and the Word. Learn who God says you are to Him. Share some here if you wish.  You may or may not like who you are in this world, but I promise you will LOVE who you are in Christ eternally.

Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Romans 10:9