We Dance

You steady me
Slow and sweet, we sway
Take the lead and I will follow

Finally ready now
To close my eyes and just believe
That You won't lead me where You don't go

When my faith gets tired 
And my hope seems lost
You spin me round and round
And remind me of that song
The one You wrote for me
And we dance

I've been told

To pick up my sword and fight for love,

Little did I know, that love had won for me

Here in Your arms

You still my heart again

And I breathe You in like I've never breathed till now

When my faith gets tired 
And my hope seems lost

You spin me round and round

And remind me of that song

The one You wrote for me

And we dance

Just You and me

And I will lock eyes

With the one who's ransomed me

The one who gave me joy for mourning

And I will lock eyes

With the one who's chosen me

The one who set my feet to dancing

We dance, Just You and me

It's nice to know,

I'm not alone

I've found my home here in Your arms.

Just You and me

Bethel Music

Salvation

When Jesus died on the cross, a divine exchange took place.

Jesus was punished so that we could be forgiven.

He was wounded so that we could be healed.

He was made sin with our sin, so that we could be made righteous with His righteousness.

He died a death that He did not deserve, to give you and I a life that we could never earn.

He was made a curse that we might receive the blessing.

He endured our poverty that we might share in His abundance.

He bore our shame that we might share His glory.

He endured rejection that we might be accepted.

Our old man died with Christ that our new man could resurrect with Him.

And that is Salvation.

In Greek, the word salvation means SOZO and is used over a hundred times in the New Testament. When you get to the root of the word, you realize that Salvation is more than just to be saved.. It means to be forgiven, delivered and healed. It means to be made whole. It means to have overflow. Not necessarily material wealth, but spiritual wealth. A fullness of body, mind and spirit.

Salvation is not a one time thing. It is a progressive work that God does in us to bring us to perfection in the image of Christ. Our problem is not that we reject salvation. It is that we neglect it. We do not honor that sacrifice. We doubt our God and put limits on Him, on His forgiveness, on His strength, on His promises. We lean on our own understanding. We need to make a decision every day, to bring our flesh under submission to God and let Him do a deep work in us. Because the flesh wants what is contrary to the Spirit. We are spiritual beings having a human experience. Our carnal man and our Spirit man are constantly battling with each other and often it is the carnal desires that win. As Paul put it in Romans 7:15 "For I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate, I do... Although I want to do good, evil is right here with me. For in my inner being I delight in Gods law: but i see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me  prisoner of the law of sin at work in me. So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin." There are two laws at work in us. And we are a slave to both. The Spirit of God that came into us when we confessed and accepted Jesus Christ gives us the strength to overcome the law of sin. For we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. But we must take responsibility because it is a progressive work in us. God can do anything. He is not limited by the laws of nature. The only thing that can limit Him is us. Through doubt, through negligence, through fear, through rebellion. God cannot move unless we move. He will do His part, but will you do yours? Its not enough to just have faith. Because Faith without works is dead.

We need to wake up every day and be willing to die to our flesh. "For those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires. And the mind governed by the flesh is death." Romans 8

And as Paul put it so eloquently, we need self discipline. "I beat my body and bring it into subjection... lest I become disqualified." The present tense clearly speaks of this as a continual practice. It speaks of the oppressive treatment of the body, not merely in physicality, but a rigid self denial of fleshly desires. Jesus presented a similar instruction to those who truly wanted to be His disciples. “Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must DENY himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it." Matthew 16:24 Its clearly a difficult feat. A feat we cannot overcome in our own strength. And just as Paul is not going to force us into self discipline, neither is Jesus. It is our prerogative, our choice. Our free will. Will I follow Jesus today? A question we need to ask ourselves every morning. We are more than conquerors through Christ. The Spirit that lives within us gives us the strength to carry that cross. And our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. Romans 8:18

"Continue to work out YOUR salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose." Philippians 2:12-13

 We are dead to sin and Alive in Christ. He is working salvation in us, and we need to meet Him half way.  

Brother

Ramblers in the wilderness we can’t find what we need

Get a little restless from the searching 

Get a little worn down in between

Like a bull chasing the matador is the man left to his own schemes

Everybody needs someone beside em’ shining like a lighthouse from the sea

Brother let me be your shelter

I’ll never leave you all alone

I can be the one you call

When you’re low

Brother let me be your fortress

When the night winds are driving on

Be the one to light the way

Bring you home

Face down in the desert now there’s a cage locked around my heart

I found a way to drop the keys where my failures were 

Now my hands can’t reach that far

I ain’t made for a rivalry I could never take the world alone

I know that in my weakness I am strong, but

It’s your love that brings me home

Brother let me be your shelter

I’ll never leave you all alone

I can be the one you call

When you’re low

Brother let me be your fortress

When the night winds are driving on

Be the one to light the way

Bring you home

And when you call and need me near

Sayin' where'd you go?

Brother I'm right here

And on those days when the sky begins to fall

You're the blood of my blood

We can get through it all

Brother let me be your shelter

I’ll never leave you all alone

I can be the one you call

When you’re feelin' low

Brother let me be your fortress

When the night winds are driving on

Be the one to light the way

Bring you home

Brother let me be your shelter

I’ll never leave you all alone

I can be the one you call

When you’re low

Brother let me be your fortress

When the night winds are driving on

Be the one to light the way

Bring you home

Be the one to light the way

Bring you home

NeedToBreathe & Gavin DeGraw

Broken Strings

You can't play on broken strings

Lamentation

And the rain fell like an incessant cascade of tears,

Almost as if it were an extension of his pain

The moon and stars seemingly snuffed out of existence

His beating heart a fading chord

Drowned out by the blaring noise in his head,

Noise thick with thought, thick with emotion

Noise thick as the thunder that rolls through his being

Casting its dark arms forth

With a presence that demands to be felt

Noise that swells with the heavy beat of the rain against the earth

Beating, beating, beating

A tormented uproar

 A fragmented hue and cry

The sun that once warmed the ground beneath his feet

So easily forgotten in the din of the downpour

A distant memory that he struggles to hold on to

The warmth that had seeped deep within his bones

Slowly being sucked out by the bitter wet cold

A raging war of fire and ice

Beating, beating, beating

The drenching deluge that taunts him

Drumming a derisive beat over his head

Filling him up, closing him in

Threatening to consume, threatening to flood

How easy it would be to just let go

To become one with the mud

He heaves up a broken sigh

The heaviness of it all weighing down his anguished, aching soul

But a glowing ember keeps him awake

Keeps the darkness at bay

Like a dull lamp that only lets him see an inch ahead

Anything further is swathed in inky blackness

The glowing ember that struggles to breathe with him

And then, suddenly

A gulp of air that feeds the fire

The lightning that cuts through dark obsidian

Lightning that splits the sky with a glaring jolt

Bringing abrupt illumination to all the things he yearns to see

But lasting only a moment

For light cannot exist without darkness

The same lightning that gives birth to thunder

The sinuous stridency that pierces his heart

The despairing discord that engulfs once more

Beating, beating, beating

Who knew noise could bring so much pain

Turmoil and confusion, swirling over the surface of the deep

Swirling over the formless murky waters pooling at his feet

The reflection that he once saw so clearly, now marred by the ripples

Blurred by the vibrations cast by the tumultuous torrent of rain

‘Will the waters ever be still’ he pleads

But noise never lasts forever,

The suffering it brings, brings forth perseverance,

A moulding of the strength that has always been within him,

And ultimately brings forth hope,

Rain lasts only a season,

Darkness lasts only for the night and light comes forth in the morning,

The Spirit that hovers over those waters,

The one voice that speaks above the thunder,

The one voice that moves at one with the force of lightning,

“Let There Be Light!”

The one voice that will separate the light from the darkness,

And it will be good.

Written By Wilhelmine Wachter

Spoken Word

Click on the video below to watch Kari Jobe and Isaac Wimberley perform Forever/Spoken Word

If there are words for Him then I don’t have them

You see my brain has not yet reached a point
Where it could form a thought
That could adequately describe the greatness of my God

And my lungs have not yet developed the ability
To release a breath with enough agility
To breathe out the greatness of His love

And my voice, my voice is so inhibited
Restrained by human limits
That it’s hard to even send a praise up

If there are words for Him then I don’t have them

My God

His grace is remarkable
Mercies are innumerable
Strength is impenetrable

He is honourable, accountable, and favourable
Unsearchable yet knowable
Indefinable yet approachable
Indescribable yet personal

He is beyond comprehension
Further than imagination
Constant through generations
King of every nation

But
If there are words for Him then I don’t have them

You see my words are few
And to try and capture the one TRUE God
Using my vocabulary will never do

But I use my words as an expression
An expression of worship to a Saviour
A Saviour who is both worthy and deserving of my praise

So I use words

My heart extols the Lord
Blesses His name forever
He has won my heart, captured my mind
And has bound them both together

He has defeated me in my rebellion
Conquered me in my sin
He has welcomed me into His presence
Completely invited me in

He has made Himself the object of my sight
Flooding me with mercies in the morning
Drowning me with grace in the night

But
If there are words for Him then I don’t have them

But what I do have…Is Good News
For my God knew that man-made words would never do
For words are just tools that we use
To point to the Truth
So He sent his son Jesus Christ as THE WORD
Living proof

He is the image of the invisible God
The firstborn of all creation
For by Him all things were created
Giving nothingness formation

And by His word He sustains, in the power of His name
For He is before all things and over all things He reigns
HOLY IS HIS NAME!!

Praise Him for His life
The way He persevered in strife
The humble Son of God becoming the perfect sacrifice

Praise Him for His death
That He willingly stood in our place
That He lovingly endured the grave
That He battled our enemy
And on the third day rose in victory

Praise Him because He rose!!
Hallelujah He rose!!
He is everything that was promised

Praise Him as the risen King
Lift your voice and sing
For one day He will return for us and we will finally be
United with our Saviour for eternity

So it’s not just words that I proclaim
For my words point to the WORD
And the WORD has a name
Hope has a name
Joy as a name
Peace has a name
Love has a name
And that name is Jesus Christ
Praise His name FOREVER!

Written By Isaac Wimberley

Blue Like Jazz

What great gravity is this that drew my soul toward yours? What
great force, that though I went falsely, went kicking, went disguising
myself to earn your love, also disguised, to earn your
keeping, your resting, your staying, your will fleshed into mine
rasped by a slowly revealed truth, the barter of my soul, the soul
that I fear, the soul that I loathe, the soul that: if you will love
I will love. I will redeem you, if you will redeem me? Is this our
purpose, you and I together to pacify each other, to lead each
other toward the lie that we are good, that we are noble, that
we need not redemption, save the one that you and I invented
of our own clay?

I am not scared of you, my love, I am scared of me.
I went looking, I wrote out a list, I drew an image, I bled
a poem of you. You were pretty, and my friends believed I was
worthy of you. You were clever, but I was smarter, perhaps the
only one smarter, the only one able to lead you. You see, love,
I did not love you, I loved me. And you were only a tool that
I used to fix myself, to fool myself, to redeem myself. And
though I have taught you to lay your lily hand in mine, I walk
alone, for I cannot talk to you, lest you talk it back to me, lest
I believe that I am not worthy, not deserving, not redeemed.
I want desperately for you to be my friend. But you are not
my friend; you have slid up warmly to the man I wanted to be,
the man I pretended to be, and I was your Jesus and, you were
mine. Should I show you who I am, we may crumble. I am not
scared of you, my love, I am scared of me.

I want to be known and loved anyway. Can you do this? I
trust by your easy breathing that you are human like me, that
you are fallen like me, that you are lonely, like me. My love,
do I know you? What is this great gravity that pulls us so
painfully toward each other? Why do we not connect? Will we
be forever in fleshing this out? And how will we with words,
narrow words, come into the knowing of each other? Is this
God's way of meriting grace, of teaching us of the labyrinth
of His love for us, teaching us, in degrees, that which He is
sacrificing to join ourselves to Him? Or better yet, has He
formed our being fractional so that we might conclude one
great hope, plodding and sighing and breathing into one
another in such a great push that we might break through
into the known and being loved, only to cave into a greater
perdition and fall down at His throne still begging for our
acceptance? Begging for our completion?

We were fools to believe that we would redeem each other.
Were I some sleeping Adam, to wake and find you resting
at my rib, to share these things that God has done, to walk you
through the garden, to counsel your timid steps, your bewildered
eye, your heart so slow to love, so careful to love, so
sheepish that I stepped up my aim and became a man. Is this
what God intended? That though He made you from my rib,
it is you who is making me, humbling me, destroying me, and
in so doing revealing Him.
Will we be in ashes before we are one?
What great gravity is this that drew my heart toward yours?
What great force collapsed my orbit, my lonesome state? What
is this that wants in me the want in you? Don't we go at each
other with yielded eyes, with cumbered hands and feet, with
clunky tongues? This deed is unattainable! We cannot know
each other!

I am quitting this thing, but not what you think. I am not
going away.
I will give you this, my love, and I will not bargain or barter
any longer. I will love you, as sure as He has loved me. I will
discover what I can discover and though you remain a mystery,
save God's own knowledge, what I disclose of you I will
keep in the warmest chamber of my heart, the very chamber
where God has stowed Himself in me. And I will do this to my
death, and to death it may bring me.

I will love you like God, because of God, mighted by the
power of God. I will stop expecting your love, demanding
your love, trading for your love, gaming for your love. I will
simply love. I am giving myself to you, and tomorrow I will do
it again. I suppose the clock itself will wear thin its time before
I am ended at this altar of dying and dying again.
God risked Himself on me. I will risk myself on you. And
together, we will learn to love, and perhaps then, and only
then, understand this gravity that drew Him, unto us.

-An excerpt from Blue Like Jazz By Donald Miller