Jonathon’s Blog

Starting the Year off right…or trying to at least

Well it is officially 2010, or as I will officially call it twenty-ten.  It seems as I get older the years go by faster.  It feels like it was just January 2009 and with a blink of an eye it is already January 2010.  Oh well I guess, such is life.

But looking back on the last year, it makes me realize how much we as the people of this world need God right now.  With the economic crisis, umemployment at alarming highs, homelessness and poverty a huge issue, and so much more shows us that we need to be looking towards a God that loves us and in turn show that love to those who are hurting.  A song that has really hit home with me is one written by John Mark McMillan entitled “How He Loves Us”.  It is an incredible song that is really a long song written to us from God.  I have the lyrics written below and the link to the video if you wish to hear it (performed by David Crowder Band) but the first couple verses are amazing.  “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 just how beaituful you are and how great your affections are for me.”  What an incredible love he has for us.  God is so jealous for our love, our affection, yet it is so easy for us to turn away knowing he will forgive us for it.  Why should we wander from his site.  Why should we even think of straying away.  He gives us all that we could ever want and need.  Erwin McManus writes in his book  Soul Cravings this:

“Have you found yourself face to face with God and felt is presence touch your soul like a gentle breeze against your face?  How will you respond to him?  To trust in God, you have to know that he loves you without condition.  This is the beauty of Jesus’ death on the cross.  It is God’s declaration of love for you.  His love embraces you wherever you are on your journey, and he does not leave you there.  He launches you on a quest to pursue the life you were created to live.  your soul knows there is a greater purpose for your life, a God sized dream waiting to unfold and become your future.  We’re all on a quest for intimacy, for meaning, for our destiny.  our souls crave love adn faith and hope.  wea re all searching for what our souls long for, and we will be satisfied only in God.  I guess it will never be easy, but Jesus has made it possible.  You don’t have to be afraid to commit your life to someone who gives his life for you.”

WOW!  Why are we so afraid to commit our lives to him?  My hope is that this new year you make just one new years resolution if you do any at all.  Commit yourself to Christ and his teachings.  If you look at the world we live in and think what went wrong, I have the answer for you.  We stopped looking at Jesus’ teachings and thought we can do things our own way and it will all work out.  We see the poverty issue in our country and do nothing about it.  A man was kicked out of an abandoned catholic church where he was seeking shelter from the cold outside.  He then asked how can we worship a homeless man on sundays and forget one on monday?  This is a new year with amazing opportunities to show God’s love to all that you encounter.  Jesus says in scriptures “what you have done for the least of these you have done for me”.  Is the life your living a true example of Christ?  If people had only your life to view, would they find Jesus?  My prayer for this year and for the rest of our lives together may we be the best Jesus someone sees and may they know by our actions our love for the Lord.

God bless you in this coming year and may you truly be an example of God’s unconditional love to all that you meet.

David Crowder Band- How He Loves Us

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 realise just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

Yeah, He loves us,
Oh! how He loves us,
Oh! how He loves us,
Oh! how He loves.

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.
And Heaven meets earth like an unforseen kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way…