Song Break Down-East To West

The next song I'm going to do in this series is "East to West. This is another one of my go to songs that I love to listen to when I'm down. There is one line in the song that I think really sets the theme for the whole song which goes, "I know You've cast my sin as far as the east is from the west" Psalms 103:12 says, "He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west." This line talks to this verse about how our sins are separated from us as far as the east is from the west. The chorus then explains this line even more and it shows the hope that comes when Jesus died for us and separated us from our sins. The chorus goes, "Jesus, can You show me just how far the east is from the west / 'cause I can't bear to see the man I've been come rising up in me again / In the arms of Your mercy I find rest / 'cause You know just how far the east is from the west / From one scarred hand to the other" When Jesus died on the cross He separated our sins from us which is mentioned in the last line of the song.

The line that I love the best is, "And I stand before You now as though I've never sinned / But today I feel like I'm just one mistake away from You leaving me this way" So many times we feel that if we make one more mistake and God will abandon us where we are. Well the good news is Hebrews 13:5b says "For he has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.'" No matter how many mistakes you make or how many times you mess up God will never leave or forsake you. The rest of the song is about finding peace in God and knowing that you have been made clean.

I just painted a simple picture to go along with this song. In the middle you have the cross and where each scarred hand of Jesus would be, there is the directions east and west. On the east side I drew a representation of your sins. I chose dark colors and I drew them randomly to show how dark sin is and how it can mess up your life. On the west side the is a purple blob representing you. I chose purple because it is a royal color and as believers we will inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. The line blob isn't perfect, but then as humans we are not perfect either. That is my visual, and I pray that it helped you understand the song a little more.

Song Break Down-Praise You In This Storm

I'm starting a new series called "Song Break Down." What I'm going to be doing is taking Casting Crowns songs and breaking them down to get the meaning behind it. I chose Casting Crowns because they are my favorite band, and because they write down the bible verses that goes alone with each song, which I think is really cool. I am also going to try to include a visual representation, whether it is a video from YouTube, or a picture I drew.

So the first song I'm going to break down is "Praise You in This Storm." This song is one of my go to songs when ever I'm feeling down. It doesn't matter what kind of storm I'm going through, because Casting Crowns left it a little opened ended so you could make the song your own. If you listen to the reason to why Casting Crowns wrote the song, you can tell that even through Casting Crowns wrote the song is for a girl with cancer, the song is based on every case for everybody. It just goes to show that God can do wonderful things with things that you don't think He can use. Just that piece of behind the scene look into the reason why they wrote the song makes the song that much more special.

If you listen to the song, the first five lines really can strike a cord with anyone. We all have those days when nothing goes right, and in the back of our heads we think, "Why aren't you doing anything, Lord?" That is the basic of the first five lines of the song, "I was sure by now / God, You would have reached down /And wiped our tears away / Stepped in and saved the day / But once again, I say "Amen", and it's still raining."  There are many times where we would have liked God to have stepped in and make everything better but God does everything according to His time. Daniel 3:16-18 says, "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescues us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold that you have set up." Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were about to be thrown in to a burning furnace for praising their God of the gods of Nebuchadnezzar. They wouldn't denounce God just to get out of going into the furnace. God could have saved them before they went into the furnace, but God waited until they were in the burning furnace to save Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Now being saved from a burning furnace is more impressive then being saved from going in it. God had the right time when He would save Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and they when along with God's plan know that they were being used for God's glory. God may not be asking you to walk into a burning furnace, but we each have our own fires in our lives. We have to go into them knowing that God is there and He has the right time when He will step in and save the day.

The second verse shows some hope, but not much, "I remember when / I stumbled in the wind / You heard my cry / You raised me up again / My strength is almost gone / How can I carry on / If I can't find You" It's that feeling you get when you remember a time when God did help you out of the storm, and you are sitting in this new storm and you wonder where is God now. 2 Corinthians says, "So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." We may not be able to see what God is doing, but he is there and he loves us. If you set our eyes to the things of this world, we will continuously be let down over and over again. But if we set our eyes on what we can't see, which is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we will have eternal glory which out weighs any thing on this world.

The pre-chorus and chorus of the song is the hard part of the song, "As the thunder rolls / I barely hear You whisper through the rain / "I'm with You" / And as Your mercy falls / I raise my hands and praise the God who gives / And takes away / I'll praise You in this storm / And I will lift my hands / For You are who You are / No matter where I am / Every tear I've cried / You hold in Your hand / You never left my side / And though my heart is torn / I will praise You in this storm" It is where you sing that you will rise your hands, but sometimes life is to hard for you to do that. Some times we don't want to praise God because of the storm we are in. But the line that sticks out to me is "You never left my side." Sure I may be going through a storm, but God never left my side. A person that I look to in the Bible that went through a lot is Job. Job was tested in everyway possible, yet Job never stopped trusting or praising the Lord. Job 1:20-22 says, "At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said: 'Naked I came from my mothers womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away; may the name of the Lord be praised.' In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing." Job could have easily called God out for letting him go through what he was going through, but instead Job got down on his knees and worshipped the Lord. Job knew that God was in control of his life and he trusted God. And just like Job, God is in control of your life. There is nothing that God can't handle in your life.

Out of the whole song, my favorite part by far is the bridge which brings so much hope, "I lift my eyes unto the hills / Where does my help come from? / My help comes from the Lord / The Maker of Heaven and Earth" I know that my help does come from the Lord. The one who made the Heavens and the Earth, is with me in the storm and He will help me. It may not always seem like it, but God will help you if you just turn your eyes to Him and not your own understanding. I love the bridge because it also comes straight out of the Bible. In my Bible, Psalms 121:1-2 says "I'll lift up my eyes to the hills-where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of Heaven and Earth." When singing this, we aren't singing words, but we are singing words that are in God's book, and God is pleased when you say or sing what He wrote back to Him.

I hope that you will think of this the next time you are in a storm. And know, God is always with you.

Reason For The Song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNnF7FjZ5po
Live Version of This Song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ype1xE0wzsg

Day of Thanks

As Thanksgiving is arriving, we tend to say what we thankful for. And after we say our thanks, we stuff our selves full with turkey. A trend that I see is when it comes to Thanksgiving, we are often thankful for the material things that we have. We often forget to the Lord, and Jesus, and the Spirit for what they did for us that we don't deserve. I'm not asking you to give a big, long speech on Thanksgivings Day, but just writing down that you are thank for the Trinity. It doesn't have to be long are filled with big words, but it needs to come from the hearts. For this week I just found a simple verse about thanksgiving. Psalms 107:1 says, "Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!" Every thing that happens is because of the Lord, and everything is for the good for you. So around thanksgiving, take some time to thank God for what he has done.

Here is a short little poem I wrote, to help you get inspired.

Give thanks to the Lord,
For His love never ending,
And His grace is new everyday.

Give thanks to Jesus,
For He took my sin,
And separated it from me,
As far as the east is from the west.

Give thanks to the Spirit,
For He leads me everyday,
He is my guidance in my life.

Give thanks for the clothes on my back,
For the food on my plate,
For the cash in my wallet,
For the family who supports me.
Give thanks to the Lord,
Because without Him,
I don't know where I would be.
 

Serving

So last night, a couple of the kids from my church and I went to go volunteer at the Children's Hospital. It was amazing to sit with some of the kids that were in the hospital, and to give them something to do that allowed them to get out of their rooms. There was one girl I remember well, and on her T-Shirt she wrote down a quote which said, 'Life isn't measured in the number of breaths that we take, but the number of breaths that take our breath away." This girl was so positive even through all that she was going through.
It is just an amazing experience to be able to step outside of our own problems and to help someone get through theirs. James 2 17-18 says, "In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds." As it is written in James, faith without action is dead. It's one thing to say your a Christian, it's another thing to go out in the world and live like Jesus. We can learn so much from someone else by serving and you could learning something about yourself.  And when you get the attention off of yourself, you tend to forget your worries, and pain. I didn't even think about my super low math grade once, because that wasn't important to these kids. They could care less what grade in math I had, they just cared that I was there. So go out into the world and serve someone else, to show that your faith isn't dead, and to be a light to someone who might need it. 
 

Stumbling

A big part of schooling is our grades. Some teachers say that the grades aren't important, as long as you are learning you will be fine. Now let's get real here. Grades are important. They help you get into college, and get scholarships. Many of us are stressed out just about our grades because we need them to be as high as possible. For me, I have been a straight A student all my life. Right now in Calculus, my grade is a C, and it is killing me. Then I was reading my bible and I found this verse. Psalms 37: 23-24 says, "The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand." I found comfort in this because while I'm stumbling on the path of trying to get my math grade up, I know that I am not alone, and I won't completely lose my grip. Slowly I can get my grade up, but it takes trusting God, and not my own understanding to do it. But through all of this, God is doing this for his glory, and I have to surrender and let God take over my life. So what ever your grades are, just give them up to God because he can handle it. Matthew 11:28-30 says, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." If you let God carry your yoke* and you carry his, your burdens would be on God and not yourself, and it is a lot easier to go throughout the day. God doesn't want you to fall flat on your face, but he can't help you if you don't give him an opportunity to. So are you going to give God your burdens today, whatever it may be?

* Yoke-a wooden beam that goes around the neck to join two or more animals.

Finding God-Role Models

So growing up, we tend to look up to someone who is older then us or who is more advanced then us for help. We call these people "Role Models." You may have a role model for many different reasons, but whatever the reasons are, the influence our lives. Sometimes the influences are good, sometimes they aren't as good. There is still a way though, to find God in our role models.
One of the people that I look up to is Ross Lynch. There are many things that I like about Ross, but one thing I like is how close his family is. He has three brothers and one sister and they are all very close. This is an influence for me, because me and my brother are that close and it's good to know that I'm not the only one with my brother as my best friend. As I was looking for a verse about family and I found 1 Timothy 5:8 which says, "Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." When you have a best friend, you will tend to do what ever you can for them. Not only are Ross and his family are close, but they also form a band. And with the band they are still close, and they provide for each other. It helps to show me that no matter what me and my brother go through, we can still be friends, and provide for each other.
So this concludes the mini series I have been writing about Find God, and I hope that it helped you find God more in your everyday life.

Finding God-Music

So in my post on Wednesday, I talked about finding God in the things we watch everyday. So as you can assume from the tittle of this post, I'm going to write about finding God in the music we listen to. While listening to Christian music is a great thing to do, it is really hard to just listen to Christian music. There are songs out there that aren't Christian songs, but they don't have a curse word every line they sing. So how can you find God in the songs we listen to.
So one of my favorite non-Christian song is "As Long As You Love Me" by Justin Bieber, and I love that song for many reasons. One reason is that I really love the chorus. It goes "As long as you love me, we could be starving, we can be homeless, we can be broke. As long as you love me I'll be your platinum, I'll be your silver, I'll be your gold." Now if I have learned anything about song writing from Casting Crowns, it is that your can change the pronouns to get a whole new meaning. So in the first line, if we change "We" to "I" you get, "As long as you love me, I could be staving, I could be homeless, I can be broke." Now some would ask, "How does that relate back to God?"  I say that it can. When we have God in our lives, the material things start to fade away, to the point that we could be homeless and have enough trust in God that he will provide what we need to survive. Another thing I have learned from Casting Crowns is that you can flip two words to get a new meaning. So the second line would go, "As long as I love you, you'll be my platinum, you'll be my silver, you'll be my gold." Proverbs 8:19 says, "My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold, and my yield than choice silver" What God produces in us is better then any amount of silver or gold. So instead of looking material gold, we look for the gold of God which is all that is needed to survive.
Another reason I like "As Long As You Love Me," is because of the line, "7 billion people in this world trying to fit in." Isaiah 43:1 says, "But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: 'Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.'" There are over 7 billion people in this world and God knows your name personally, and you are God's. I really can't think of anything better then that.
So as you listen to your music, keep God in mind, and think about how the lyrics can relate back to God. Not every single lyric you hear will be able to easily relate back to God, but you just need to find on lyric per song, because every time you hear that lyric, your mind will turn back to God. Every time I hear "As Long As You Love Me" and I hear the chorus of that one line, I think of God. So give it a try! Find a song that you love and see how you can get it to relate back to God.

Finding God-T.V.

Many of us watch, listen, and hang out with things that aren't necessarily Godly. I'm not saying that you need to give all up, but you need to find God in it. So I am going to give an example how you can find God while watching T.V.
So over fall break, I ended up watching a lot of T.V., and it was one show in particular. It was my mom's favorite show growing up as a teen, and now I'm in love with it. It is a show set in the western times of the United States, which is a time period I love. It is Alias Smith and Jones. To give a brief over view of the show. It is about two outlaws, Hannibal Heyes (Alias name: Joshua Smith) and Kid Curry (Alias name: Thaddeus Jones), who are trying to reform to get the government's amnesty. There is a episode I like called "The Wrong Train to Brimstone," where Heyes and Curry are on a train with people are trying to kill the Devil's Hole Gang which is the gang that Heyes and Curry were leaders of. So Heyes and Curry were going to risk their chance of getting amnesty, to save their gang. They put everything on the line that they want, to do what needed to be done. In the end, Heyes and Curry found a way to save their amnesty, and protect their gangs.
Now some after you are wondering how does this relate to God. Genesis 22:6-18 says, "Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”
“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.
“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.
When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.  But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”
 The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time and said, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies,
 and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”
Now Abraham was willing to sacrifice everything he had For God, like how Heyes and Curry was willing to sacrifice their amnesty for their friends. God may call us to do something that we don't want to do, but if we trust in the Lord and do what he says, then he will reward us for our trust. Abraham trusted God and he got to keep his son, and be the father to God's people, while Heyes and Curry saved their friends from a massacre and was able to keep the amnesty.
I also like connecting T.V. shows to the bible, because it is a modern take on the versus. Somethings happened so long ago, that it is hard to see how it fits with our life, but if you can connect it to T.V. shows, then you can make the connection on how it can fit in your life. So try sitting down with your favorite T.V. show and just search for God, and he might just find you.

P.S. If you haven't seen Alias Smith and Jones, I suggest you give it a try because it is really good.:)

The Fog

So I was driving my brother to driver's ed class, and it was really foggy during the drive. To get to the class, we have to cross the dam that is over the lake, by our house. As we were driving over the dam, all that could be seen was white, and the car in front of you. So after I dropped my brother off I went back over the dam, and I started thinking. The drive is a good representation of walking with Jesus. All you can see is what Jesus has provided for you, nothing more, nothing less. Jesus knows how easily distracted we can get. If it wasn't as foggy, then I could have easily been looking around and cause an accident on the dam. Jesus doesn't want us to crash on purpose. He limits our view sometimes because He knows that if we could see a little more, we would actually cause more harm to ourselves. Proverbs 3:5 says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding." We don't understand what God has planned for us, or how we will get there. But there is so much going on in the fog that we can't see or even begin to understand. When we try to lean on our own understanding, we tend to fall. We have to trust that God has a plan for us, no matter what you are going through. So are you on God's path, or are you heading into the fog?