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Over the past few years, I have been drawn to the music of Matthew West. His lyrics speak to my heart, and he touches on issues that many people will not even get near. Many of his songs are based on stories that he hears from his listeners. He just released a new album titled “Into the Light.” On our way to get Kaley from ballet last week, I plugged my phone into Kalon’s truck to be able to listen to all the songs on the album. As soon as “Hello, My Name Is” came on, I knew it was going to be my new favorite song. It speaks so much truth and connects to everything that has been on my heart to communicate to all of you beautiful ladies over the last three years. This song was based on the story of a young man named Jordan who was caught up in a web of addiction. When he wrote to Matthew West, he said he used to identify himself as a drug addict. He had been a star athlete in high school and college, but then he got injured. He got hooked on prescription pain medication. His life spiraled downward quickly to the point that he was kicked out of college and lost his scholarships for sports. He got involved with the Teen Challenge Recovery Program where he met Christ. He went back to school and earned his master’s degree from the same college that kicked him out. He is a teacher and a coach now. He finished telling Matthew West his story by saying “My name is Jordan, and I am a child of the one true king.”
This story could be told by many of us based on the individual web of circumstances we found ourselves tangled in during the course of our lives. I pray that we would all end by stating who we really are “Daughters of the One True King.” Below are the lyrics Matthew wrote based on Jordan’s story. Hello, my name is regret I’m pretty sure we have met Every single day of your life I’m the whisper inside That won’t let you forget Hello, my name is defeat I know you recognize me Just when you think you can win I’ll drag you right back down again ‘Til you’ve lost all belief These are the voices, these are the lies And I have believed them, for the very last time Hello, my name is child of the one true King I’ve been saved, I’ve been changed, and I have been set free “Amazing Grace” is the song I sing Hello, my name is child of the one true King I am no longer defined By all the wreckage behind The one who makes all things new Has proven it’s true Just take a look at my life What love the Father has lavished upon us That we should be called His children I am a child of the one true King Those of you who know me well know why this song speaks so much to me. We have all felt the burden of REGRET and DEFEAT. Matthew personified those words in the song in a way that shows what we give them the power to do. It’s the whisper that tries to tell us that we will never rise above our past that we will never ever amount to anything. It is a battle that we each fight, just as I relayed the battle that Kelley family is facing in last week’s blog. Those are lies….they are not TRUTH…..HIS TRUTH. We all have a choice. We can continue to get our identity from our past and our struggles or we can get our identity from Him. Do we still mess up??? Yes, but that is where grace and mercy comes in. Do we extend it to ourselves and keep walking or do we wallow back in the muck and mire of our past??? Admit to Father that you were wrong and then walk in freedom. Claim that you are a Saint who made a mistake. A saint is a holy one….one who is set apart. That is who you are. Around the same time that I heard this song, I also read a post from Tim Chalas, the youth pastor at Grace Life Fellowship in Baton Rouge. The senior pastor, Frank Friedmann, posted this on his Facebook page. Tim zeroed in on the problem we have with getting truth to come into our minds. It is often said, "I know it in my mind, but I have got to get it to my heart." According to that great modern day theologian Tim Chalas, that is not true. It is the wrong battle and that is why so few people win that battle. The truth is that God has already placed life, joy, peace, righteousness, goodness, love, mercy etc... IN MY HEART (Cf. Ezek 36, Jer 31)... The real issue is getting it from my heart to my mind. The battleground in the New Covenant economy is the mind. That is where the enemy seeks to defeat us, by placing thoughts in our minds that are contrary to truth. That is why the exhortations of the New Testament are ALWAYS to set the mind, fix the mind, renew the mind... NEVER to fix the heart, or set the heart. The key to victorious living in a New Covenant economy is NOT getting truth from our mind to our heart, but getting truth from our heart to our mind. Phil. 4 says to think on the things that are good, lovely, true, etc... and the God of peace shall be with you. The only way to win a battle is to fight the right battle... What more can I say after that??? We need to fight the right battle. On those days when you feel too weak to fight, call on your sisters in Christ who love all of you so much!! Fighting along with you, Suzanne
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Dear Sisters,
I am praying that you are walking in TRUTH, listening to the TRUTH, and speaking the TRUTH to others. I often find that when Father is trying to teach me something, He often uses others around me, books I am reading, and messages I am hearing to solidify that truth. Back when I wrote that prayer letter so many years ago, I was reading a book called You Gotta Keep Dancin’ by Tim Hansel. For those of you who know me well, I am sure the title made you smile because of the double meaning for me. This was a quote that really ministered to me back then and still does today: We may desire to bring to the Lord a perfect work. We would like to point when our work is done, to the beautiful ripened grain, and bound up sheaves, and yet the Lord frustrates our plans, shatters our purposes, lets us see the wreck of all our hopes, breaks the structure we thought we were building and catches us up in His arms and whispers to us, “It’s not your work I wanted, but YOU!!” It is funny that people back then looked at me and thought I was so confident, yet my confidence was based on what I had done or achieved, not on what HE had done. Tonight, I was reading to my son from the Story Bible and it talked about how in Jesus’ death, He came to refute the BIG LIE….the lie that we have been left alone. We are not alone. He is our strength, our peace, our wisdom….the list goes on and on. I had to get to a point where I let myself fall in His arms and let Him speak words of TRUTH and LIFE into me. It has been said that you cannot give what you do not have. At that point, I did not have confidence in Him. My confidence rested in myself. He will not rest until we rely on Him and Him alone. Another quote I want to share with you is from a sermon my pastor, Frank Friedmann gave back during this time in my life. “Where there is honesty, there is intimacy. Where there is intimacy, there is power. Where there is power, there is freedom from destruction.” At SHE, I challenged you to identify the lies that you believed about yourself, God, and others. That is just the beginning of this journey for you. Through that honesty you expressed that day, it began to build intimacy in your relationship with Father. That then turns into power….the power to stand up against the lies in HIS strength when they come to try and haunt you again. Ultimately, it leads to a relationship that is not shaken by the circumstances and storms that will come. Of course, this quote also applies to our relationship with others. I need to bring honesty into my marriage, into my friendships, into my relationships with family members. Being honest does not mean you strike out in your flesh (your coping mechanisms to survive apart from Father) and just tell people off. It means being honest with your feelings and thoughts about situations. It means admitting that you were wrong when you lost your temper when talking to your child. It means telling your spouse about your struggles instead of pretending you are doing fine. Then Jesus turned to the Jews who had claimed to believe in him. "If you stick with this, living out what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure. Then you will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you." John 8:31-32 (The Message) “God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love.” Ephesians 4:15, 16 (The Message) My prayer for you is that you continue to grow in truth. Read the Scripture below to see more of my prayers for you! “That's why, when I heard of the solid trust you have in the Master Jesus and your outpouring of love to all the followers of Jesus, I couldn't stop thanking God for you—every time I prayed, I'd think of you and give thanks. But I do more than thank. I ask—ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory—to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for his followers, oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him—endless energy, boundless strength!” Ephesians 1: 15-19 (The Message) I love you my sisters in Christ….I am praying for you! Suzanne |
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