I Know That You're Alive

There is a great church in South Carolina called New Spring Church. I don’t personally know anybody there but I have watched several of their services online and have read a bit of their Senior Pastors Blog. Can’t be too bad of a guy. He is a runner and I read that he attempted his first marathon this past year. Didn’t quite make it but made a declaration that he was going to try again. I love that in a person. Somebody who is willing to attempt something that may be a bit bigger than them…and even though they might not make it they immediately are willing to declare that they will go out and tackle it again.

Anyways…while watching one of the services online…I was listening to their praise and worship and they did a song that had the words in the chorus… “I know that you’re alive…you came to fix my broken life.” Seemingly good words but…I have learned to analyze all that I speak. And maybe I am being a little over-analytical…but my thoughts went to this; is our life really ever broken? Is this how we know that Jesus is alive?

I haven’t studied this completely but I am just kind of wondering aloud here. Is our life ever really broken? Our God is the giver of our life. He creates us with a purpose. He also gives us the option of following that purpose or the option to not follow that purpose. I don’t think our life is ever really broken. But rather we make a decision to follow that purpose or to pursue our own purpose and desires. And it isn’t just a decision to follow a purpose but rather to also accept our position in Christ. We are given a position of dominion over the Earth. A position that allows us to call the shots…to write our future…to be in control…second only to God Himself. The only time we should find ourselves in trouble is when we decide to act and move outside the will of God for our lives. All of the other problems and stress that exists in our lives is because we have either decided to pursue our own purpose instead of God’s or to follow our own desires rather than accept the inheritance we have in Christ Jesus. Our life is never really broken. So to speak out loud that we have a broken life really is a knock against what God created.

Remember these are just my thoughts as I sit on my front porch on Sunday afternoon enjoying an incredibly beautiful summer afternoon in Wisconsin. Believe me…I totally understand the premise of the song. I get what it is saying. But like I have said before…the enemy does not hear our thoughts…he hears what we speak and what we say aloud and when we say that we have a broken life he hears that, and he will use those words…those thoughts and that type of thinking against us. Because when we speak it…it becomes real to us. And if we are thinking that we have this broken life that we somehow have to fix and we are praying that God fixes it for us…the enemy realizes this and he will bring thoughts and things to us that plays into that thinking.

But…if we come from the point of view that we are created perfect in Him…and that our heritage is a life of prosperity and a life with a hope and a future…then what does the enemy have to work with?

We must approach all we do and all we say with the approach of what is in the spirit realm. This is what the Bible tells us. When we sign along with a worship song simply because that is what is being sung and that is what is on the screens…even though we don’t agree with what it says….then we aren’t worshipping our Lord, instead we are singing along to please the worship leader and those around us. In other words we are worshipping those around us and singing to please the worship leaders. That changes things doesn’t it? But that is what it is.

Worship songs are great…as long as they are correct. But we must realize they are still just songs written by men or women. And they are made popular not by what they say…but rather by their appeal to the masses and by their melodic interpretation, the chord changes, and the chorus and the bridges. Basically by how they sound. I am fairly certain that there isn’t a department that approves worship songs by their theological correctness. Oh, they will give a brief overview of it to make sure it isn’t total blasphemy…but as long as it basically appears theologically sound it will pass.

This isn’t a knock on the Christian music industry, but what I am saying is that we are the ones who must take responsibility for what we say and what we sing. We are the ones who must guard our mouths.

Watch every word that comes out of your mouth. Everything you say.

Matthew 12:34 – “For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.”

Have a blessed day,

RodZ

© 2008 – Rodney Zimmerman – All rights reserved