Thursday, March 30, 2006

For the last six weeks or so God has had a very heavy burden on my heart. A particular song repeats itself in my brain. It's by Third Day called, "Cry Out to Jesus". The lyrics are pretty simple, yet hold such power.

Two weeks ago I found out I was scheduled to sing during our morning worship at church. I knew without a doubt which song to do. It's a fairly new song so I was concerned I wouldn't be able to find the performance track for it. I prayed about it and knew if I was to do this song, God would provide. He did.

I'm almost shaking with emotion right now. While practicing for Sunday I have cried through the song more times than not. I've had to have such a tight control on my voice that I wonder how in the world I'll make it through without completely breaking down.

You see, the words say this:

Cry Out To Jesus - Third Day (2005)

To everyone who's lost someone they love
long before it was their time.
You feel like the days you had were not enough
when you said goodbye.

And to all of the people with burdens and pains
keepin' you back from your life.
You believe that there's nothing
and there is no one who can make it right.

There is hope for the helpless, rest for the weary,
and love for the broken hearts.
There is grace and forgiveness, mercy and healing
He'll meet you wherever you are.

Cry out to Jesus. Cry out to Jesus.

For the marriage that's struggling just to hang on
have lost all of their faith in love.
and they've done all they can to make it right again
still it's not enough.

For the ones who can't break the addictions and chains
you try to give up but you come back again.
Just remember that you're not alone
in your shame and your suffering.

There is hope for the helpless, rest for the weary,
and love for the broken hearts.
There is grace and forgiveness, mercy and healing
He'll meet you wherever you are.

Cry out to Jesus.

When you're lonely and it feels like the whole world is falling on you
you just reach out, you just cry out to Jesus

Cry to Jesus.

To the widow who suffers from being alone,
wipin' the tears from her eyes.
For the children around the world without a home,
say a prayer tonight.

There is hope for the helpless, rest for the weary,
and love for the broken hearts.
There is grace and forgiveness, mercy and healing
that meets you wherever you are.
There is hope for the helpless, rest for the weary,
and love for the broken hearts.
There is grace and forgiveness, mercy and healing
that meets you wherever you are.

Cry out to Jesus. Cry out to Jesus.

Cry out to Jesus. Cry out to Jesus.

I know SO many people with these exact struggles, pains and burdens. And, though it seems so simple and so hard at the same time, the answer TRULY is just to cry out to Jesus.

On Sunday, April 2nd at around 10:45 or so, I covet your prayers. Not only am I going to sing the song, but God has burdened my heart to address my congregation with a challenge. Now, for anyone who knows me well you know I challenge people on a minutely basis. :-) That's not an issue. I just feel so passionately burdened by this I'm on the verge of crying every time I think about it.

The masks we wear have GOT to come off. We have GOT to start being open and vulnerable enough to let those around us know we struggle. How can God work through us to help others if those people don't KNOW we have the same problems? How can He use our past hurts and troubles, when He's brought us the victory and Himself the glory, if we don't SHARE them?

There are those who have been in adultery in our congregation yet have the shame of thinking they are still covered in that sin even though they've been forgiven and healed. Those who struggle everyday with just believing there IS a God who loves us or with how to have faith in every day life. Same thing with addictions. God has given them the victory yet they hide it for whatever reason. Pride mostly, I think.

How much would satan suffer if we dropped our masks and were real with each other about our lives? I'm not saying I've got this down to a science. There are things I haven't felt God tell me to share with every person I meet. On the other hand, He's used everything in my life to help someone else through their struggles.

I used to wear masks. I tried for a long time to be whatever anyone wanted me to be. It didn't work. In fact, it was one of the worst experiences of my life. But now that I've learned that lesson, I'm FREE. I'm free to be who He made me to be without apology. I'm free to love on people when they are hurting, sad, desperate in their struggles. I'm free to speak the words He gives me knowing I'm in HIS will and that's all that matters.

So, as I share my heart with our congregation, I deeply covet your prayers. I also ask that you be praying for yourself. What masks are you wearing? Are you trying to be something or someone you were not meant to be? Is it working? I doubt it. Take off the mask!!!! BE who God intended you to be when He knit you in your mother's womb. He knows you! He knows every cell in your body and what He wanted for you. Seek His face and He will show you a freedom and peace you cannot imagine.

Colossians 2:1-17

For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen my face, that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery, that is, Christ Himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

I say this so that no one will delude you with persuasive argument. For even though I am absent in body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ. Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.

See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.

When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him. Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day -- things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.
NASU


May we all be able to show the face God made to everyone we meet, rather than the mask the enemy would try to make us hide behind.

IN Christ,

A