How He Loves

The other night I downloaded a song called "How He Loves" by John Mark McMillan. The musician in me wanted to dissect it and learn how John wrote it since he is the original author. As I was looking for it in iTunes I saw that the single version came with a video on the story behind this song. I was excited because my sister had shown this to me a few weeks prior and now I was anxious to watch it again (I'll add the video to the end of this post). As I watched it again yesterday afternoon and again with my wife last night my heart was reminded of just how much God loves us.

Often times we think that God's love is just a fact. We think of His love as something that we know of and not something we can experience. I grew up hearing that God loves me but not how much He loves me. The kind of love God has for His people was never fully explained to me, or at least i don't remember hearing it. John's video blew the doors off the the hinges of my heart. God is not a distant Father who only says He loves us. He is a Father who wants to interact with us and spend time with us. As John said, it's a "messy love." We don't deserve it. We are so minuscule and filthy in the eyes of God because of our sin but He still wants to be with us. He still dares to reach out to us and be close to us. In our sins, our guilt, our anger, shame, confusion, or whatever it might be, He takes the first step towards us and desires that we cling to Him in all matters of life.

There is a line in the second verse that has hit me hard, "Heaven meets earth like a sloppy, wet kiss." I've sung an alternate version that says "unforeseen kiss", but that just doesn't seem to do justice to the original meaning and intention of the song. Can you imagine God reaching out to pull you close and laying a big ol' sloppy, wet kiss on you because He loves you? In spite of your filthy sinfulness and putrid depravity God wants you to be His.

I can only picture the story of the prodigal son. A man has two sons. One decides he wants his inheritance early and demands it from his father so his father gave it to him. The son went out squandered it all in utter sinfulness and ended up being the poorest of the poor. He was so poor that he hung out in pig pens. He was so hungry that even pig food looked good to him. One day he humbled himself and decided he would go back to his father and beg to be a servant in his house. As he approached the house his father saw him at a distance and went sprinting after him! I can imaging how his father planted that sloppy, wet kiss right on his son's cheeks. The father rejoiced saying "That which was lost has been found!" That is exactly what I hope you feel when you think of your own salvation: that when you humbled yourself and put your faith in Christ's payment of your sin on the cross God met you with a sloppy, wet kiss in spite of your sinful state before Him.

God's love is an affectionate, passionate, tender-hearted love towards His people. Oh, how I wish this was taught more in our churches and believed by Christians! We have such a twisted view of God's love. We think that God only does good to us when we are good. We think we have to be on God's good side for Him to love us. It's true that we should be doing the things that please God, but that is not the criteria for His love to reach out to us. We don't have to reach out for it first either. It is already on us, over us, under us, inside of us! Do you believe that? He loves you already! Did you hear that?? He loves you already!

I ask that you think about this and let it sink in. It is such a life-changing experience to know that God's love is active in your life no matter what you do. Whether it be though blessings, chastening (yes, God disciplines those whom He loves), or even just being with you, God loves you. Embrace that. Embrace His love with all your heart. He will never break it. He is your Father who loves you infinitely. He bought you with His own blood, paying the infinite fine for your sins, all so He could call you His own.

This kind of love is only available through faith in Jesus. If you haven't trusted Christ's payment for your sin on the cross, you must do so! You don't know when your last breath may be. You don't know when you'll die and be presented before God in judgment. If you haven't trusted Christ before you die, you will have no other choice but to pay for your own sin in hell for eternity, separated from God's loving presence. Infinite sins call for infinite punishment. God loves you, yes,
but He hates sin. He is a just God that must do right. That is why Christ had to die: so that sinners can cling to Him for salvation, not their own works, to escape the right punishment for their sins. Trust Christ now! Tomorrow may be too late.

Blessings,
Nick

He is jealous for me
Loves like a hurricane
I am a tree
Bending beneath
The weight of his wind and mercy
When all of a sudden
I am unaware of these
Afflictions eclipsed by glory
And I realize how beautiful you are
And how great your affections are for me

Oh how he loves us so
Oh how he loves us
How he loves us so

Yea He loves us
Oh how

We are his portion
And he is our prize
Drawn to redemption by the grace in his eyes
If grace is an ocean we're all sinking
So heaven meats earth like a sloppy wet kiss
And my heart burns violently inside of my chest
I don't have time to maintain these regrets
When I think about the way
He loves us

http://youtu.be/axpgjJzfl54

Battle Cry

It's your battle cry
A declaration of war against your Enemy
Who you think has given you no choice
But to pick up your sword
And defend everything
In this war you think you are on the defense
After all He's the one who you think declared war on you first
Without letting you explain yourself
Or perhaps it's because you think He's invading your life and telling you what you can and can't do
So your response is to get rid of Him with anything you can do

If you haven't figured it out yet,
Your Enemy is God
Not Allah, Mohammad, Krishna, or Buddha
But Yahweh, Maker and Namer of the stars
He has not declared war against you without reason
Nah, He's declaring war against you
Because of your treason
Your lies, thefts, adultery and hate
Has given Him no choice but to seal your fate
Into the fiery depths of hell is your sentence
Because there's no other way you can pay your recompense

Do you not see it?
You've taken this God and thrown Him in the dirt
Trampled Him, slandered Him with your words
Don't you see it was you who declared war first?
As a matter of fact, He's been your Enemy since birth
Your every cry since that day has been "Me! Me! Me!"
But you've never stopped to sing praise to the King of kings
You'd rather say to Him "Hey! Come bow Your knee to me!"

Too many times you've blamed Him for whatever you deem as unfair
And yet turn your back on those who are in despair
Thinking you're too good to be bothered with their affairs
Hypocrite! Don't you see?
You can't even keep your own moral code you boldly preach!
I pray your conscience comes to life and breathes!

Your Enemy is a God of justice
Dealing out judgment to whom it belongs
Never looking over anything
He turns over every stone
But God, your Enemy, doesn't wish to seal your fate to fire
Instead He offers a treaty of peace to anyone who would inquire into His terms and humbly wave their white flag of surrender to His words

Two thousand years ago He took on flesh like His enemy
He walked amongst them, worked miracles, and even taught good things
He was loved and adored by many
But to some He was a burden and they turned the love of that many into a desire to hurt Him
They gave Him up on false charges
And requested that He be put to death immediately

It was there that God, Jesus, your Enemy, was sentenced to be your sin
To pay for your treason in His own flesh as if you were His friend
He took on your hate while His back was torn open
And every punch to the face was every lie that you've spoken
His arms were spread wide for every embrace that should have been for your spouse
And He was lifted high for every sin you thought you could keep inside and hide so you could pretend to have a clean house

This God, your Enemy, offers peace to be His friend
To have every treasonous act be wiped clean
Never to be seen again
So wave your stained white flag of surrender
Turn from your sinfulness
And put all your trust in Him
And the complete sacrifice for your sins

This is when your all-out war against God comes to a halt
And ironically turns you to a new enemy
Who you once claimed all alliance to:
Yourself
So your battle cry is no longer "Death to Him!"
It is now "Death to me!"
Against every impulse and desire that would turn your desire from the King of kings

But until your surrender comes
He is waiting at the door
Ready to take from you all that you owe
Be mindful, my friend
Your Enemy is swift
So think on these things
Because you do not know how much time you have left