Lifehouse- Hanging by a Moment

Are you tired of what the world has to offer? Fed up with the lies and deception that it always brings? You need: George Foreman's Lean Grilling Machine! No, it's a new cell phone...wait, it's that outfit that's super-popular! Yeah, that's it. Or so the world would have us believe. We're so caught up with 'that new thing' that we take what we have for granted, while three billion people live on less than two dollars a day, literally. The average middle class American family is in the top 2.4% of the world when it comes to annual income (~46,000$).

What happens when what we do with our money fails to satisfy us? Move on to the next thing? And what happens when the 'next thing' fails us too? We can keep repeating this futile cycle of buying things in hopes of them making us happy forever and never truly get what we want. Then what can we do to fulfill that need? How about a moment with God? Perhaps by giving up a small bit of our day to talking with God and reading His word, we can take a step closer to finding that fulfillment. Rather than worry about all that we're lacking, we should focus on what we do have now: a God who loves us for who we are, not for what we have. We're completely incomplete with Him in our lives...He works through our shortcomings and weaknesses, not only our financial status, although He can certainly use that as well.

I think that these small moments each day with Christ are enough to keep us moving when we're failed by the pleasures of this world. When you're running blindly through this world's vain delights, turn instead and chase after Christ and the life He lived. There's nothing else you can find in this world that can give you pure and true joy.

Mikeschair - Let The Waters Rise

Does it sometimes feel like the whole world is against you at once? No matter what you do, no matter how brave a face you put on, it's killing you slowly from the inside. It's hard to want to pray and read the Bible when it seems like God doesn't hear you, or that maybe He doesn't care. Why should we put our trust in Christ if we don't feel like it's helping any?

It's when we're faced with the hard times like this that simple, trite answers aren't enough to keep our faith cemented. Maybe it isn't enough just to believe that He's there? Faith can only take you as far as you'll let it go. When our happy way of life gets challenged, do we just quit and say, "Oh, I guess God doesn't care about me because He's not doing enough to make me happy." Or perhaps we give up on God altogether. But what we too often don't do is look deeper into the hardships we think we have and see where God is really working in and around our lives through the circumstances.

Neither Jesus or the Bible ever said that we'd live an easy life as Christians. In fact, He told us in Matthew 24:9 that, "Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake." We will have to face those raging seas and deep waters of our life, but we're truly never alone through those times.

How can we know? Because Jesus knows exactly what it's like. During His life on earth, He faced all the same trials and temptations that we face today. And yet, He lived the perfect life, one without any sin. He is in the perfect position to be there to help us through those same difficulties today. He'll always be there with us, even if we can't see Him from time to time.

Owl City- In Christ Alone

(Recommended by Meghan) What more can I say than what this song already says? In Christ, and only in Christ can we continue on with our life here on earth. Without Him, we would simply exist to be. He is our Strength and solid ground in times of need. He is our Comforter and source of love and peace. When we were dead in our sins and trespasses, He came to this world, lived a perfect life both fully God and fully man. He was rejected by the ones that He loved, and He died on the cross by their hands to satisfy God's wrath on mankind for our sin. Because of His death, as well as His life, we live eternally.

How could a dead man pay for the cost of the sins of all humanity? The best part of this story is that Jesus didn't stay down. He rose from the grave, standing in victory over death. Sin's curse lost its grip on us that day. And once we accept His love and His salvation, we have the promise of Heavenly life. No power of hell or scheme of man, as the song says, can separate us from Christ. He's coming back for us, and right now our purpose is to share His message and His love with as many as we can. It's a battle for the souls of humanity, one they cannot afford for us to lose.

Manic Drive- Obvious

I thought this song was really interesting as I was playing one of my (several) Pandora stations today. Mainly because I feel that it's how a lot of people are today. Big, bold talk with no actions to back it up when it comes down to doing what you said you would do. As the cliche goes, it's not enough to talk the talk, you have to walk the walk as well. Put your money where your mouth is on this one, or don't speak up in the first place.

One of my classes here at Cedarville, Contemporary World Missions, has been particularly challenging for me in this way. How many missions conferences have you gone to where they put on a happy outlook on the missions field, make it seem exciting and look like an adventure? Sure, living a missionary's life can be an adventure, but not in the way that we might always think. Back between fifty to a hundred years ago, four out of of every five missionaries that went out to places like Africa and Asia were killed in service. What would you do if they told you that in a missions conference rather than the sugar-coated version of what it's like? Would you still be excited or interested in that lifestyle? This is where the rubber meets the road.

Rather than shy away in fear at the reality of this life, the church's response should be that for every one that is killed for His name, one will step up to take his or her place. This is the kind of reaction that attracts people in this self-centered world. One that puts the Kingdom of God ahead of our own plans. Even if we're not called to be missionaries, we can still find the same sorts of challenges in everyday life. So when you find these challenges, will you live your life in faith as God calls you? Or is it just another game?

The All-American Rejects - Move Along

Don't yell at me for 'tacking on' a spiritual message to a secular song here. It's my blog, and I can do what I want with it. :) Disclaimer over, I really like this song. Even though we deal with the hard times, and though life seems like it's not worth it sometimes, we have to keep moving along. We can't do this alone though. We need God's grace every day as we walk with Him. It won't help anything to fill our time with thinking about all the bad things. Today has its own challenges in store for us.

God meant for us to walk hand in hand with Him through the good times and the bad, not just one or the other. And that's often what happens with people. We either give God our thanks when things are going good and then curse Him when we go through the bad, or cry out to Him in pain and then forget about Him when He answers our prayers. We can't live a balanced life with only one of these aspects of dependence on Jesus. When everything that we can do on our own fails, we have to place trust in Christ and move along through the hardships.

Seventh Day Slumber - Surrender

You know how we tend to think about life in terms of "what's in it for me?", "does this make me look fat?", "I'll just die if I don't make it to that concert!", etc? Our culture is obsessed with self and our own needs, so much so that we witness unspeakable tragedies every Black Friday morning just so a few people can get what THEY want, when they want it. I'm not saying that it's wrong to tend to our own needs, because this is vital in being good stewards of the body and family God has given us. Rather, I'm saying that we need to surrender to God before all else can be in its proper place in our priorities.

All of the things of the world belong first to Jesus, not us. We need to be willing to surrender everything to Him, even if that sometimes means losing them. As Paul said and did, we should count our earthly possessions and accomplishments as loss, because they take away from our ability (and often the desire) to share Him with others. We are to lay down our rights, lay bare our heart and soul to Him, for His glory. Even though we may share in His pain, we can give up our 'right' to complain and show how different we are from the world. It's incredibly counter-culture, but maybe that's what it takes to reach those who don't understand His love.

Disciple - Remedy

Even though we're saved, we still fight the temptations of our sins. Christians aren't perfect, and we still make choices that displease God. Even though we've been cured of the disease (and born into a new Heavenly family), we still have to work out the symptoms that remain.

How can sin pollute our lives after we're saved? We will never lose the salvation that Christ gave us, but we can lose our testimony by not acting any differently than the world, in a way that is 'unchristian'. It's easy to lapse back into sin one step at a time. Thankfully, Jesus is our Remedy both for the initial salvation and for forgiveness of all our sins after that. No matter what it is we've done wrong, we're never so far away that He can't bring us back if we ask. He'll cleanse us from our unrighteousness, and He will never let us out of His hand. Where He stops (salvation) is where He'll pick right back up (forgiveness).

Group 1 Crew - The keys to the Kingdom [HQ]

This song is pretty awesome. It has such a great scope and depth, and I think it has a really cool challenge in it. Every human was born with a sin nature, which means that we are by nature inclined to put our desires and pursuits in front of those of others. We fight like activists to protect those interests, even though it sometimes means hurting people we love.

Because of our sin, Christ had to come to the world and give His life so that we could be rescued from our hopeless ways of life. Now, almost 2000 years later, we wait for Him to return and usher us into His eternal kingdom in Heaven. Because of His gift, each of us that are saved by His grace now have the ability to spread the news of that kingdom. We have to make the choice to share His good news, despite the problems this might bring up.

This song speaks it plainly. Even the good times can turn quickly. Sometimes we'll face challenges in sharing the Gospel. But it's not enough just to know that God has a plan and to wait for Him to move. We have to stand up for our faith with boldness that only comes by God's grace. He will never ask us to do anything that He won't provide us the strength for.

Matt Maher- Alive Again

In those times of darkness that we all face, Jesus is there to rescue us. Even though we can't see Him physically right now, we can see how He impacts the world. The light before the sunrise as this song says. Christ came and shattered the darkness of our world, replacing it with His light. This is the same light that every Christian now has, the light that we are charged to share with the nations. "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." (John 1:4-5)

I still find it amazing and incomprehensible that God would leave His throne in Heaven just to come and redeem His fallen creation. It would have been much easier to destroy this sinful world and start again, but He chose to send His own Son to restore our relationships with Him, even though it cost Him His life. He is actively searching for every person, because He came to save the world, not condemn it (John 3:17). And it's because of His sacrifice that we live and breathe today.

Kutless - I Do Not Belong

We don't belong here. We're foreigners in this world, merely journeying here for a time until we return home with Christ. Every day of our life, we take one step further from this broken world and toward the place of perfection that Jesus is preparing for us even now. We long to be in His redemptive arms, and that's why nothing on earth can satisfy our desires and needs fully.

Even though we don't belong in this place, we're ambassadors for God while we're here. It's our job to proclaim His message to the entire world. In fact, the Bible says that Jesus will not return until after all the nations have been reached with His good news of salvation. That's our mission in life, our purpose. To bring the saving grace of Christ to the world, so that they can join us in glorifying God. Even though the journey is long, and even if it comes at great cost to ourselves, we can rest in knowing that we will be completed when we see Christ.

Skillet- Hero

Do you have a hero? Someone you look up to and are inspired by? What is it about them that makes them worthy of being followed? Maybe it's because they do incredible athletic feats, or because they have that perfect voice, or maybe because they wear the right clothes and look 'worthy'. Maybe it's because they're there for us in a time of need. Regardless of why we consider them our heroes, we all need them to get through sometimes.

But who is our true hero? When there was nothing that we could possibly do to save ourselves from the judgment of death, Jesus stepped down from Heaven and took our place. He's the one that wasn't afraid to give His life for us, and He saved us when we couldn't do it on our own.

And the great thing is that Jesus didn't just do that one Heroic act. He saves us from an empty and unfulfilling life every day. When we're on the edge, broken and beaten down, He's always there to save us. He's the hero that lives within us.

Robin Mark- Days of Elijah

We sang this song in chapel today, and since we (almost) played it last August in Connecticut, it's been one of my favorites. (thanks Lizzie and Jenni) I particularly like it because it gives us examples from the Bible of how some of God's servants were bold in sharing their faith with those around them and how they served Him. And as the song says, even though they faced trials and days of famine, darkness and sword, they still served as 'the voice in the desert' declaring that the Lord was coming.

The Old Testament in general is full of incredible examples of how we can live a life of faith. Of course, it also has many examples of how NOT to live, but those are still good learning moments.

Right now, we're called to do the same thing that these men (Elijah, Moses, Ezekiel and David, in case you weren't paying attention) did by speaking up and sharing our faith with others. We might face trials because of it, but God is always faithful and will be with us. The fields are white to harvest, ready for someone to come and make a difference. Will that be you?

Pillar - Frontline

I think that this song is really accurate in telling about what daily life for Christians can be like. Even though we walk into the valley of the shadow of death every day, we're not alone. Many have other Christian friends to share the burden on their journey. For those that may not, Jesus walks alongside all of us anyway, and He is closer than even a brother. And if we don't back down on our journey, we will receive the Crown of Life in heaven, as Revelation 2:10 says. "Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life."

These verses aren't completely comforting, because they say that we will be persecuted and put on trial for our faith. That's what being on the frontline is all about. We're called to defend our faith before the nations, not hide behind our fear and lies. If we're not going to stand up for our faith, what's the point of being on those frontlines? We can't be afraid of what's going on in the world, of the times. Let your light shine before men (yes, and women too), so that they might give the glory to God.

Something Holy- Stellar Kart

Today's the conclusion on my 'love' series, and I thought I'd finish it up by summing up what I've been saying over the last week. Everything that we can do on our own falls short of what God's standard is, including love. Like this song says, we are incomplete without Christ, like a song with a broken beat or a heart with a hole in it. We were meant to be part of something holy, that being us serving under Christ's kingdom.

This love is bigger than anything we can find on our own, and we will never be truly satisfied until we find the love of Christ. It's true that earthly relationships are satisfying to an extent, but ultimately, they will crumble from pressure, temptation, and eventually time. Not so with God's love. It will withstand all time, even when this world is long gone. If only this kind of love were given the same share of time in our media.

Group 1 Crew - Walking On The Stars

The phrase 'steadfast love' occurs over 200 times in the Bible. Translated from the Hebrew word 'hesed', it is interpreted best as 'unfailing love'. 2 Chronicles 20:21 says, "Give thanks to the LORD, for his steadfast love endures forever." In our world of uncertainty, Christ's love is the one thing that we can always depend on, no matter the circumstance. He is worthy of our praise and honor because He loved us before we were even born, before we knew Him and even when we sin.

Christ's love is powerful. It saves us from our sinful natures and it fills us with the joy that surpasses worldly understanding. It lets us see the world from a different persepective, and it shows us how we ought to love others as well. His love is the perfect example of how we should live our lives. It's not an easy path, and the world will probably think that we're crazy, but that's just what this kind of love is. They don't have the joy that lets us walk on the stars, because their kind of love is ultimately insufficient and futile, ending in sorrow and bitterness. It's our job to show them the kind of love that enabled Jesus to pay the ultimate price.

Disciple - Dear X (You Don't Own Me) LYRICS!!! (read descipt.)

"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth." (1 Corinthians 13:4-6) This song pretty much describes all of the wrong ways to go about loving others. Pain, shame, hate, and anger will all destroy our ability to love properly. We have to guard both against letting ourselves get into relationships with people who do these things and against committing these trespasses ourselves.

This goes back to the verse in Philippians that I mentioned earlier (4:8). We need to dwell on the things that are pure and true, rather than the things that will lead us to (the dark side) anger and hate.

Fireflight - For Those Who Wait

Today, I want to talk about how love is patient, because I think this goes really well with yesterday's topic about how true love never ends, as Addison Road sang. It takes patience both for the other person in a relationship and with ourselves in order for true love to be able to endure through the bad times like it does the good ones. We need to learn to exercise patience in our relationships, rather than forcing our own agenda and wants on other people. 1 Corinthians 13:4 tells us that "love is patient and kind".

I think that this song can be applied to those not in 'exclusive' relationships (dating, marriage, etc) as well though. While it's true that all of us will have relationships with family and friends, and patience is needed in all of these, sometimes those of us not in an exclusive relationship can get weary of the single life journey. The temptation is to rush into a relationship with someone, which can often end up simply making things worse.

We know that God has a perfect plan for each of our lives (Romans 8:28), and that obviously includes the relationships He has in store for us. Patience comes into play even outside of a relationship here as well. Even when we're "fighting to believe in a love that we can't see" like this song says, we know that there's a purpose for what's going on. God has a plan, even if we can't see it and we grow weary of the waiting. He has a special purpose for those of us that wait. We grow from the pressure and the struggle, and the lessons we learn during these times can make the difference when we're in the right relationship that God has planned. So don't freak out about being single. Enjoy the ride, and be patient for God's perfect plan.

Addison Road- Always Love

1 Corinthians 13 is probably the best descriptor of love given to us in the Bible, and one that contains most of the challenging parts. Verse eight says, "Love never ends." It's that simple. True love will never die or fade away, unlike what we see so often in marriages that burn to the ground because of an argument or a fight, or because of unfaithfulness. True love looks past the other's faults and sees them through the eyes of God.

For those of you who aren't students here at Cedarville, the last three days in chapel have been our spring Missions Conference. We've been talking about the Lord's Prayer, and how Jesus was telling us to pray through that prayer. Mainly, He wants us to let Him control our lives, and for us to empty ourselves of everything that isn't worthy of thought (think Philippians 4:8 again). I think that when we do that, we will have a greater capacity to love others and forgive them, even if we think they don't deserve it. Forgiveness is the key to this kind of undying love, because without it, bitterness and hate will build up, and that will destroy us from the inside out.

MercyMe - The Generous Mr. Lovewell

One little kind deed can make a huge impact on someone's life. You never know when a kind word or just randomly doing something nice can make somebody's day. And as unfortunate as it is, this often gets overlooked because of how self-centered our world is. Love doesn't have to be a hard thing all the time, and it doesn't get much easier than this. This is the kind of love that we can show to anyone pretty much anytime.

Of course, it can work both ways. A simple negative comment that we don't think much about can have a negative affect on somebody. We can simply get caught up in thinking about ourselves and stop looking around at the people we are called to love. By putting our focus on Christ and his command to love others rather than on ourselves, we will begin to see ways to love others easier. We are told in Matthew 22:39, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Think about the selfish tendencies we all have for ourselves, and then picture treating those around us in the way that we would ourselves, even if that means sacrificing our needs sometimes. Is it really that much to ask, given how Jesus loved us?

Hawk Nelson - Crazy Love

Here's the first song in my 'love' series. The first aspect of love I want to touch on? Love doesn't have bias, nor does it play favorites. We're called to love everyone around us, regardless of who they are. That includes our enemies too. Jesus told us to love our enemies and to pray for the people that persecute us. It's not an easy thing to do, but love isn't supposed to be easy all the time.

John 15:13 says, "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." And 1 John 3:16 a says, "Hereby know we love, because he laid down his life for us..." If we are to follow in Christ's example, we should practice the kind of love that sacrifices our own wants and needs for those of people around us. The world sees this as foolishness, but that's what crazy love really means. It's much more than what you see in today's media.

Switchfoot- Only Hope

I think that this song almost perfectly sums up what I've been writing about the past week and a half now. No matter what we do in life, whether it be great accomplishments or lowly failures, we could not do it apart from Christ. As the lyrics state, we need to pray to God to devote ourselves fully to Him, and to Him alone. He is our only hope in this broken, sinful world.

Now that I'm back at Cedarville (and since I've pretty much wrapped up this area), I'm going to start a bit of a series of blog posts on the topic of 'love'. What the world says love is and what the Bible says about love are two very different things, and I want to help bridge that gap a little bit through some of my song choices. Hopefully this will prove to be helpful to you, regardless of where you are.

Lincoln Brewster - Love The Lord

Today in church, the message was about how we should love the lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We looked at Philippians 4:8, which says, "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."

How often do we actually stop and take a critical look at what's going on in our mind? Is it worthy of being thought of, or would we be ashamed if others could see into our thoughts? The only way we can truly love the Lord and obey His commands to us is to dwell on those things that are honorable, pure, and true. And that covers the whole breadth of our lives. By only thinking of pure things, we eliminate the temptations of the flesh. By thinking things that are honorable, we take away the prideful focus on ourselves. And by focusing only on truthful things, the trouble that comes from rumors and lies will be nonexistent.

How many problems could we solve simply by following these instructions?

Kutless - What Faith Can Do

What do you believe in? What things or people do you put your trust in? When the going gets tough, what do you depend on to get you through it? The answer to this question is one of the most important that you can give. It reflects your outlook on life, and it is an indicator of how you will act in hard spots. Unfortunately, many people will produce the wrong answer for this pop quiz. Today's stuff-centered culture pressures us to place our faith wrongly on how many toys we can afford or our social status.

None of these things can satisfy the deep needs we have or protect us from hardships. Only by placing our faith and hope in Christ can we see what faith can actually accomplish. Christ said to his disciples that "if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:20) And still the disciples continuously struggled with their faith in Jesus, even though they were with Him almost non-stop for three years. It's easy to let doubt, or even misplaced faith, take over our lives. But as this song tells us, we live a life more full and free when we place our faith in Christ.

Thousand Foot Krutch - Welcome To The Masquerade

As promised, here's something completely different than my last couple songs. I think this one has a bit of a double meaning. Our world is a masquerade, in which people hide their true emotions and feelings by putting up a mask of 'happy'. (See 'Stained Glass Masquerade' by Casting Crowns) We're afraid to let others into our personal space and bare our souls to them. At the same time, the song also points a finger at Christians hiding the truth about themselves out of fear of ridicule, isolation, etc. They're trying to hide their lights under bushels.

Just like this song, in order to really be the witnesses that Christ commands us to be (not suggests, commands), we need to step past our fear and take off the masks we hide behind. We need to let our light shine before those around us so they can see Jesus' love through us, rather than cower in the darkness. If you call yourself a Christian, you need to live the life, not just talk the talk. Your life needs to be different and set apart, not identical and indistinguishable.

Chasen - Castaway

Okay, one more song on forgiveness/redemption. I promise the next one'll be on another topic. I didn't really plan for there to be three in a row that way, I just pick the songs as I'm going. This one hones in on the fact that all of the plans we make for ourselves end up in failure if they're apart from God's will. We end up facedown on a beach, no better off than when we started. Okay, maybe that's just the video there. Point is, we can do nothing apart from His grace.

This is another one of the groups I got to see last year, along with Between the Trees and The Almost. That was one great concert.

Healing the scars...

Red- Start Again

Here's another song on the theme of forgiveness, I guess. This one talks more about the fact that no matter how bad we mess up, God will always be there to give us a chance to start again with a clean slate. Unfortunately, there will always be that 'one more time', since we are fallible humans and we live in a fallen world. We will not be perfected until the day we see Christ face to face. But we still have God's forgiveness, in spite of our weaknesses and failures.

I'm going to see this group play later on this month at the Winter Jam festival in Colombus with some of the guys from my unit at Cedarville. I'll have some pictures from the concert to show you hopefully. (Check out the ad on the side of my blog for more info on that) The band has an awesomely creepy sound to their music, and it wrestles with some really deep stuff. Check some of their other music out.

Rush Of Fools - Undo

These guys came to Cedarville a few months ago and did a concert with Finding Favour (amazing small-ish group, check them out at: http://www.findingfavourmusic.com ) and Downhere. I really enjoyed hearing these groups come, because all of their music was so uplifting and encouraging (not to mention really good). But this song was my favorite that Rush of Fools played.

I guess by now a theme's starting to come out in my writing here. I've been feeling like I need to place a greater focus on 'Soli Deo Gloria', or 'glory to God alone'. Everything we do is because of Him, through Him, and ultimately for Him. As this song tells us, He's the only one that can undo the wrongs we've done, the mistakes we've made. We can't do it for ourselves, the church can't do it for us, nothing apart from His blood.

And that's the great thing about God...no matter how often or how bad we mess up, He won't forsake or desert us. His forgiveness and mercy endures to all generations. He can undo the wrongs we've done, even if the consequences may still remain. He turns us around and sets us back on the right path.

Hawk Nelson - Live Life Loud

Our lives aren't just about temptations and suffering, of course. It's true that these occur, and they deserve due attention, but that doesn't mean that we can't live our lives and still have fun as long as we don't lose that focus on the One we thirst for. We're allowed to smile every once in a while. :) Yeah, like that.

The trick is to figure out what things are worth doing and which ones aren't, and leaving behind the ones that aren't. Philippians 4:9 says, "What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me- practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you." Jesus had a sense of humor, as can be seen many times throughout the Gospels. He knew how to live His life loud, but He also knew how to live life with purity and honor. We need to follow His example and live in such a way that anyone looking knows that we're different, that we have something inside of us that gives us the hope to continue in the face of our tribulation.

I love this song, just because it's a reminder of how free we are thanks to the truth of Christ. We can live our lives loud because of His gift, rather than be trapped by the shackles of our sins.

Skillet- Comatose

Comatose...this is very nearly my favorite song, one that I listened to a lot during the (frequent) rough moments of my last few months. For me, it's a reminder to cling to God no matter how hard things get, because He's the only one that can satisfy my true needs. He's the only thing that we should ultimately desire and thirst for, like John Cooper (the lead singer of Skillet) sings about. It doesn't really matter how important things may seem in life, they all 'grow strangely dim' in the light of Christ, the one who gave it all for our sakes. We could all use an overdose in this case.

This year, I want to go back to some basics that I've really overlooked in the past. Make the focus of my life simpler...bring it back to about God, and not my own desires. Bible meditation and prayer time every day. Basing my decisions on what will be pleasing in His sight. How different would our days seem if we took the focus off ourselves for a change? That's my challenge to you. Shock someone tomorrow...many are going back to work or school this week, what kind of impact will you make?

I hope you enjoy the song as much as I do. Personally, I'm coming to the place where I'd rather be comatose than live without the power Christ's love. He makes me feel alive when without Him, there would be no reason for existence.

Fireflight- What I've Overcome

Welcome to the new year, and thanks for checking out my blog. Starting today, I'm going to be posting a new song every other day or so along with some thoughts I have. Maybe if you're lucky, the two will actually be related or something...you never know. I'd love it if you took the time to play this song and read through my notes as I start out this adventure.

Today's song is "What I've Overcome" by Fireflight, one of my favorite Christian groups. I picked this song because I just finished reading the book "Kiss" by Ted Dekker and there was a particular phrase that stuck out to me as I got to the end. "He wants you to remember who delivered you from that time, Shauna. That's the point of holding on to memory: delivery, not darkness...Perspective, not pain."

We know from Romans 8 that all things work out for good to those that truly love God, but it can be hard to remember that when we're in the midst of hardships and trials. One way of dealing with our challenges is to recognize that we become stronger through them, and that who we are is made by what we overcome, like my song of the day says. By staying strong through these ordeals, we become better people for it. Like unrefined gold that goes through the furnace, our imperfections and blemishes are drawn to the surface through these trials, so we can deal with them as God would have us. Sometimes, it may take a few trials to take these steps, but if we trust in Christ through the ordeal, we become more like Him for it.

So, next time you're dealing with something you don't think you have the strength for, just remember that you're never alone through it, even if there's only one pair of footprints in your sand. He will always give you the strength to endure if you ask Him, and you will come out of it a stronger person.