The New Song

"Sing to the Lord a new song! Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless His name; proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day." Psalm 96:1-2

What is so important about singing a new song? We always sing great songs to the Lord written by anointed song writers, which is wonderful. But over and over, David and other psalmists urge all the people of the earth to sing a new song! This kind of new means brand new. And he says "from day to day." Sing the Lord a brand new song every single day?!

I think most of the time I see this as poetry, sort of figuratively speaking. That they are so excited about the Lord that these words just erupt out of their mouths. But I think they are literally imploring us to sing a new song, every day.

A new song, from an individual, is incredibly unique. It doesn't matter what musical background they have, if any; they please the Lord greatly with their personal song for one very important reason: a new song comes from the heart. We so easily fall into patterns and habbits. Oftentimes, I find myself struggling to concentrate on what I'm singing and keeping my heart involved. Not so with a new song.A new song requires a heart alive, awake, and engaged. And it awakens the heart as well.

The New Song...so important. More to come.

Follow Your Heart, Lead Your Heart

"We readjust the primary dream of our heart by choosing a radical shift in the way we picture our life and future and how we define success. We decide that the primary dream of our life is to walk in the anointing to live out the first commandment."

If I want to live a life of prayer, dedication, devotion to Jesus- a radical, extravagant, hold-nothing-back life- I have to adjust the primary dream of my heart to be to walk in the anointing to obey the first comandment: to Love Him, first and forever, wholly and only. I can't say I want one life and have a different dream in my heart. The one who does this will struggle constantly with themselves...and the heart will always prevail.

Adjust the primary dream of your heart to Love first, and you will follow your heart. We were made to.

Freedom

I think we get so stressed out trying to please God because we are actually looking at men, trying to please God. This doesn't work. Jesus only looked to the Father. And He was free. Free from social and religious constraints. Free to Love those around Him and Love His Father. Free from striving and stressing.

I'm praying for the freedom Jesus had because of looking at the Father only.

The Longing of Love

There is a part of Love that hurts, and it is not a small part nor is it a small pain. It is the longing, the missing. It hurts, and many times there is more of this right now than the joy of Love. And the greater the Love, the stronger the longing and the deeper the pain. It is inexabable. There's always someone you're longing to be with, even if you are experiencing joy of another's Love at the moment. I think this is why we Love holidays so much. We try to gather as many of those we Love as we can so that longing is decreased. But we cannot get rid of this longing.

When we Love Jesus- as a person, as the Man Jesus, fully God, fully man- we experience this longing...all the time. Things are not ok. We try to pretend they are, we try to numb this part of Love; but then this is not complete Love. Jesus is not with us, not like He was on earth. We pray to Him, we read about Him, but this is not enough for those who are in Love. No, I want Immanuel, God among us, with me. Jesus, looking at me with His human eyes, holding me with His human arms.

Things are not ok. And they won't be until He comes back. This is Love in its fullness.

The Measure of Dedication

How many times have I measured my dedication to Jesus based on what appears to be the level of dedication of those around me? If I seem to myself more dedicated...well, I must be so dedicated to Him. And if someone in their joy of fresh revelation begins to share with me, my heart sinks. They must be dedicated and what does that make my love. Dinky.

But dedication is not a measure based on others. It is completely a measure of our hearts. And only Jesus can really see the level of dedication. (2 Cor. 10:12). Jesus is the one who looks into our hearts and says, "I see the desire. I see the weak yes in your heart. I see your small love....and I am captivated by it." And He loves us and keeps loving us until we are captivated and consumed by Him and our love grows more and more and our yes grows stronger and stronger, not by our own strength but by His strong love.

Seeing the Invisible

To live with the endurance that we need, we must see Jesus. Moses gave up all the riches of Egypt because he saw the reward and Him who was invisible (Heb. 11:25-27). "Many see enough of Jesus to receive salvation but not enough to live with diligent endurance."

Keep looking!

First Things First

I think a lot of times we try to be well-pleasing to Jesus, but we do this through trying to earn His favor. We run around trying to do everything and be good enough at it that if we finally make it to a platform, Jesus must be pleased with us. 

However, we are making it complicated and this comes from a wrong view of the Father. We tend to do this with our human fathers as well. But the Father never said He wanted us doing all these things for Him. Actually, He laid it out quite simply: "For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off....See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the LORD your God" (Deuteronomy 30:11,15,16). Do the first commandment first, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. 

First things first. Simple. I want to spend my time Loving. 

Loving in Truth and in Fullness

We can't pick aspects of Jesus we like and build them together to make the Jesus we prefer to Love. When we do this, we are actually rejecting Jesus; we are not Loving because we are not really Loving Him. We are Loving our re-creation of Him. We must worship, adore, and Love in "spirit and in truth."

Loving is seeking Him out, discovering who He is- all the many aspects of Him- and embracing and Loving Him as a good, righteous, and just Man. Not an "I'll love you despite of these things" Love, but a Love that says "I agree with who You are. I Love You as the good, righteous, and just Man that You are."

Let there be no offense in our Love.

Many Waters Cannot Quench Love

I've always thought of this phrase in Song of Songs like "many bad things cannot overcome love; nothing can overtake love." A sort of "true love conquers all" line. However, I think it's something different. "Quench"? Like to quench thirst. Whit if it actually means "Nothing can quench to longing of Love"? No one, when they experience Love says "Ok, I've had my fill." No, when we truly taste of Love, we are simultaneously satisfied and long for more. Many waters cannot quench Love. Once you've tasted Love, you are ruined for anything else. Many waters cannot quench this Love, cannot quench this longing. Oh we try. We try to fill the longing  (after all, who likes to long?) but this powerful Love cannot be quenched.
When we come to Love Himself and encounter His beauty, it creates a beautiful and never-ending cycle of every being satisfied and ever longing for more.