This video may well be old for many people, but this a celebration event that Oprah Winfrey put on for African-American women in 2005. She desired to honor the lives of those who have paved a way for others to come behind. Honor was given, love was displayed, and then in the words of Oprah herself, “Jesus showed up.”

Bebe Winans took the stage pulled in legendary singers from the crowd to piece together a wonderful menagerie of praise. “Not one note was planned or rehearsed,” but the effect was felt by all that was there. Diane Sawyer said, “For the rest of my life I think that may be the most transcendently spiritual moment I’ve ever been part of.”

Sometimes as believers we are so caught up in trying to convince people of the Gospel that we forget to give people a chance to experience Jesus for themselves. It is possible that not one person there placed their faith in Jesus that day, but all of them there had an opportunity to experience Jesus that will contradict any negative feelings they have ever encountered with Christians.

I love this video, and I hope you are encouraged by it.

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“I am powerful, and what I believe changes the world!
So today I declare:
God is in a good mood.
He loves me all the time.
Nothing can separate me from His love.
Jesus’ blood paid for everything
I will tell nations of what He has done.
I am important.
How He made me is amazing.
I was designed for worship.
My mouth establishes praise to silence the enemy.
Everywhere I go becomes a perfect health zone.
And… with God
Nothing is impossible!”

Throughout the centuries the Church has been practicing corporate readings as a part of worship. Nowadays apart from corporate singing, this practice has waned.  Recenlty I found that my daughter has been reciting the above creed during her children’s church, and I couldn’t be happier. She is being trained to believe things about herself and God that is opposite to what I believed about myself as I grew up.

I grew up without much direction into who I was. I remember words that I was embarrassment and that I never do anything helpful. There were also circumstances that I didn’t know how to interpret, which spoke words that I was messed up, that I was unimportant, and that I was a burden. O, how imporant are the words that we say of ourselves. (My parents were not bad. I’ve made some poor choices in my words to my kids as well. The point is that words are powerful.)

God spoke creation into being. And having been made in His image our words create new realities. If we speak words that are in agreement with our enemy, then we create greater bondages for ourselves. I still have to work at releasing myself to enjoy things for fear that I may be an embarrassment to someone. I know successful people that are still trying to overcome statements of being stupid or being a failure. Our words create our realities.

One of people’s favorite characteristics of the Psalms is the raw honesty. In it you can find the highs and lows of human emotions to match however you are feeling. What I love about these writings is how the Psalmist allows his feeling to draw him to God and never away.

Psalm 13 was the place this first stood out to me. When you read the first 4 verses, you see David bemoaning his situation. How long, LORD? Did you hide from me? Have you forgotten me? Don’t you care that my enemy is beating me? You quickly feel David’s honest approach to God. He had no problem getting in touch with his feelings.

Then in my Bible, I have to turn the page to get to the next two verses. But I trust you. My heart is happy with you. I will sing for you are good to me.

The first time I read this, I had to check to make sure I did not skip a page. What happened? Where did this sudden change come from? Did God answer? Was everything better?

It seems that nothing changed, except David chose to trust God instead of his situation. Sure I feel crappy, but I know that God is good.

So often this is what we need to do. We need to choose that God is good over all our circumstances, so we can rejoice in His goodness even when things seem bad. There is a line in the song Love Comes Down by Brian Johnson, which says, “I sing out to remind my soul. I am Yours.” The world is trying to steal our attention from God, and we need to remind ourselves that God is trustworthy, that He is good, that He is exactly what we need. Review the goodness of God in your life. Don’t forget. God is good.

The Opera Company of Philadelphia brought culture and God’s praise to the Macy’s Department Store in Philadelphia last month. Over 650 joined the angles choir in singing the Hallelujah chorus from Handel’s Messiah. It would have been nice to be there, but the video is still something to behold. Enjoy.

• Prayer is the divine equalizer. Some preach, other teach, a few sing publicly, but all can pray.
  
• The greatest blow sent Satan-ward is made by weeping warriors of prayer.
  
• The greatest hindrance to effective prayer is sin. Satan’s greatest goal is to keep us from our knees.
  
• The heartbeat of intercession is servanthood.
  
• To pray with bitterness toward fellowmen nullifies hours on our knees.

Here is another thought sequence from Sunday worship. We were singing Phil Wickham’s Always Forever. It was the first I had heard the song but was loving it. I’m not a musician, but it sounds like a waltz. We had a girl up front dancing to the song, and I just imagined Jesus coming and dancing with her. It was sweet and beautiful at the same time. The thing that really got me was the chorus. As I had this mental image of the Jesus and the girl dancing, I thought that as I sung the chorus, Jesus was singing it back to me.

Jesus is so in love with us. We are His bride. We are His helpmate. We are His companion. He loves us.

At the end of the song, the words go into a repetition of hallelujahs. My heart just wanted to sing out, “How He loves us, How He loves us, How He loves us, forever.” We don’t earn God’s love. We receive it.

As we later came back to the hallelujahs, my heart was ready to respond with, “How I love Him, How I love Him, How I love Him, forever.” Once we get a hold of how we are loved, then we freely give back to Him. And, once we get a hold of how we are loved, we come before the throne with confidence because we know that as Jesus sees us coming His heart says there’s the one I love. Why would we ever hide our desires from the One who loves us so much?

Always Forever
Phil Wickham

You are the hand that catches my fall
You are the friend that answers my call
You are my day, You are my night
You are my love and all of my life

While in college I read a booklet by Robert Boyd Munger called My Heart Christ’s Home. It had you imagine taking Jesus through different rooms of your heart. Jesus would ask about certain rooms or closets to show His interests were all of you. He never pushed His way in, but you knew His desires.

I was reminded of this in worship the other day. There was this song that had an invitation for the Holy Spirit to make His home in us. As I sang I thought about the house guest that my wife and I have staying with us. I thought about how different it would be if they not only guests but if our house was truly their home.

• They would be able to trash it if they wanted.
• they could invite people over they wanted to have.
• They could empty the fridge eating whatever and then fill it with things they liked.
• They could hang pictures up of things they were interested in.

Then I thought, does the Holy Spirit have this open invitation in my heart? Can He invite the people over He wants to be with? Sure He would invite Jesus and God the Father over some, but He would probably also invite over some who are needy and emotionally draining.

Can He spend the resources of my heart on the plans He has? Or, do I tell Him what I have time and energy for? What if He schedules something over the big game? What if I was saving something for myself?

My mental dialogue with this idea ended with me thinking of the Holy Spirit hanging up pictures in the “living room” of my heart. And, in the focal point of the room, He hung up an 8×10 picture of Jesus. I laughed and then the worship team transitioned to another song.

Tuesday night, December 29th at the Onething09 conference, Allyson Prior brought forth this beautiful song describing the desire and hunger of a Christ-follower to stay true to Jesus. It also describes the motivation and encouragement to keep coming back to Jesus. This song has had a great effect stirring up deeper devotion and love in me personally as I have listened to it repeatedly and have given it to many friends. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

Love You Rightly

You will not despise I my weak love
You will not deny me
You will not despise my weak love
You will not despise it

Cause You love me / Just as I am
You love me / Just as I am
You created me / in my mother’s womb
Just as I am

Even though my love is weak
You will not deny it
For You will not
No, You will not
Turn away a broken and a contrite heart
Cause Jesus, You died for me
And, Jesus, You shed Your blood for me

And I believe that prayer You prayed
“Father, I desire that those You gave Me
My bride will be with Me forever”

I believe it
I believe that prayer
I believe this is Your desire

So I’ll keep coming back to You
Even in my weakness
I’ll keep coming back to You
Even in my brokenness
Even in my weak frame
I am weak, but my spirit is willing
My spirit is willing to follow You
To follow You
So come awaken love
Within my heart tonight
Come, awaken love in my heart tonight