in christ alone

This song beautifully conveys the fullness of who Jesus has been for me over the past twelve months -

In Christ Alone

In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This Cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand

In Christ alone, who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless babe
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save
‘Til on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again
And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life’s first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
‘Til He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand

- Keith Getty and Stuart Townend

Live free! Live in Father's love!

extravagant love

This is the heart of the Father - extravagant love. Love that is lavish, boundless, limitless. Love as a mighty, rushing river and a gently flowing stream. Love that energizes and exhilarates. Love that liberates and empowers. The Father delights to lavish His extravagant love on us!

- Lindsay

Live free! Live in Father's love!

revolution

Last week in Los Angeles, I came across an interesting marquee on Hollywood Boulevard, just across from the famed Grauman's Chinese Theater. As I read the message, I couldn't help but think of the revolution the Holy Spirit is bringing on the earth - a revolution birthed in the Father's heart - a revolution of love. What are the foundational precepts of this revolution?

1. Our love for God and others originates in the Father's loving heart for us! (1 John 4:19)

2. As we embrace the Father's loving heart for us, we are empowered to love as He loves! (Luke 10:27)

3. As we love with the Father's love, our world WILL be changed! (1 Corinthians 13:8)

- Lindsay

Live free! Live in Father's love!

freedom

"Jesus was truly free. His freedom was rooted in his spiritual awareness that he was the Beloved Child of God. He knew in the depth of his being that he belonged to God before he was born, that he was sent into the world to proclaim God's love, and that he would return to God after his mission was fulfilled. This knowledge gave him the freedom to speak and act without having to please the world and the power to respond to people's pains with the healing love of God."

- Henri Nouwen

Live free! Live in Father's love!

father's blessing

This "blessing" was prayed over Henri Nouwen by his spiritual mentor:

"May all your expectations be frustrated,
May all your plans be thwarted,
May all your desires be withered into nothingness,
That you may experience the powerlessness and the poverty of a child, and sing and dance in the love of God the Father, the Son and the Spirit."

What an apt description of the blessing I have received from the Father over the past 12 months. What a stark constrast to the blessings we often seek from the Father. Thanks to Wayne Jacobsen for sharing this on The God Journey podcast - my favorite!

- Lindsay

Live free! Live in Father's love!

father's gift

"Uncommon love is the Father's gift to us in Christ. We are to be loved in a way that is healing, releasing and uplifting. In His love we see ourselves as the Father sees us. He sees the best in us. He loves our potential. He has a plan for our freedom and our welfare that is wrapped in His goodness and kindness. He has dealt with our past and He owns our future. Today while it is still called today let us live in the present moment, filled and surrounded by uncommon love."

- Graham Cooke, "Uncommon Love"

Live free! Live in Father's love!

living relationally

"I love the term ‘relational’ when it speaks of how we live this walk. To me, it means to live out of relationships—the first one with the community of Father, Son and Spirit, and then to share that experience of community with people in our lives.

"I notice the term, however, is now being used by people to describe house church, small groups, or even large congregations that set to be more focused on relationships. People even write me telling me they want to be more relational so they are going to start a small group in their home.

"Living relationally is not about whether or not you go to a specific group. Living relationally means you recognize that God is a God of relationships and works through our relationship with him and our relationships with others. Those who are relational make room in their lives for relationships. They get to know their colleagues at work, their neighbors down the street and find time to encourage other believers, whether they are or are not on a similar journey. And when they find brothers and sisters who share their passion and hunger for the kingdom they take time to let those relationships grow, whether it is through face-to-face contact if that is possible, or even on discussion boards and email if it isn’t.

"Being relational is an active lifestyle, looking to engage relationships, even at the most rudimentary level to anyone that crosses their path. It may only be a greeting in passing at an airport, or a conversation in the grocery store line, but it says that people are important to Father and to me and I’m going to make room in my lives for others, and watch what God does with the relationships he gives me…

"Don’t go this alone, or wait quietly in your home for fellowship to break out. Just live each day open-handed and gracious to everyone you can, without any agenda, and watch what God will do through you to bless others, and through others to encourage you."

- Wayne Jacobsen, Living the Relational Journey

Live free! Live in Father's love!

endless love

“'Love one another as I have loved you.' Not just a command but a glorious possibility. It tells us the extent of our freedom. Such love makes God glorious. He shines with love. He radiates with the splendor of His love and when we are touched by the magnificence of such love our selfishness is burned away. It is wonderful to be loved in return but our hearts are no longer defined by what we receive. Love is who God is and who we are becoming in Him.

"Think of it. A life full of possibilities in the endless love of the Father. His love is enthralling. It captures us, ravishes our heart and then joyfully commands us to do the same. We have permission to love outrageously.

"In God, all things are possible."

- Graham Cooke, "Uncommon Love"

Live free! Live in Father's love!

boundless love

"In our failures the depth of God's love compels us to see ourselves as the Beloved. Our hearts are broken by kindness, and we weep our way into romance. We love as the bride; powerfully, beautifully, unconditionally. We give ourselves to intimate love without fear because the love of the Bridegroom is stronger than death. We become charged by His love; energized towards a loving disposition to others. Love knows no bounds. We are fully loved and therefore loving."

- Graham Cooke, "Uncommon Love"

Live free! Live in Father's love!

steadfast love

"His grace is the empowering presence within that enables us to feel good about ourselves. We are learning to live as much loved children before the Father. Grace sets us up to succeed at loving God with all our hearts.

"Grace empowers us to receive love and return it to the father heart of God.

"His mercy is His total favor given gladly to the undeserving heart. Jesus stands with us in our struggles. He never leaves us nor forsakes us. He knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. He is not ashamed to call us His brethren. He is not embarrassed by our failures. His mercy makes us clean because His blood washes over us continuously. Jesus stands in the credibility gap between our capacity for sin and our hunger for God. He weans us off the former and establishes the latter as He daily occupies Himself with our growth and development.

"He is the kindest person I have ever known. His goodness is so outrageous and shocking… it is actually disreputable to the religious minded. Only Pharisees would distance themselves from human failure. When we need Him the most, Jesus steps in close. Loving kindness is a hard thing to learn. All our conditioning leans us towards rewards and punishment which often means we withhold love when it is most needed. Uncommon love never ceases, it is steadfast. It endures to the end of all our circumstances no matter how recalcitrant we can be. Love never fails.

"Because uncommon love is continuously present and fully available, we may become saved to the uttermost. Uncommon love is the Father intentionally doing His utmost to empower us to be loved and to respond to love by loving."

- Graham Cooke, "Uncommon Love"

Live free! Live in Father's love!

scandalous love

"Jesus has an immense, immeasurable and eternal compassion. His compassion is always greater than my sin. He is scandalously forgiving. His mercy burns as He destroys shame. There is not an ounce of condemnation within Him. He loves the fact that He has bought our freedom, paid the price for our sin nature to be redeemed.

"He has unbounded patience. He is full of unending goodness. The glory of God is His goodness. He will cause His goodness to pass before us all the days of our life. The good News is that He is eternally good. His goodness stretches beyond infinity. What He is; He is forever.

"His love is so compelling… it heals us. It strips away all of our pretense and restores us to happiness. Only God can love God effectively. The First Commandment came from God not as a command only, but as a revelation of His own intention toward us. He will love us with all His mind, heart, soul and strength. God does not measure His love to us; He does not mete it out according to our performance. His love is not a reward. It is not based on a loyalty program like frequent flyer miles.

"God’s love is scandalous and disreputable to Pharisees.

"It is poured out in the context of grace, mercy and loving kindness. It is lavished upon us gladly. A price has been paid and now we are free to be fully loved by the One who knows that love covers a multitude of sins."

- Graham Cooke, "Uncommon Love"

Live free! Live in Father's love!

uncommon love

"Life is funny, often sweet, and occasionally deadly. It comes at us real fast or painfully slowly. It rains, it snows, it’s cold, it’s warm, it’s too hot, it’s nice and cool; it’s wonderful.

"It’s lovely because of who we have with us on the journey. I AM is with us. Smiling, laughing, embracing, nodding, shaking His head at us in merriment. He is comforting, patient, faithful when we don’t get it; optimistic, full of possibilities.

"He is strong, fierce and immoveable, implacable against the enemy. He is stern, holy and unapproachable in His purity. Only His mercy enables us to stand before Him on the ground of grace. He is sovereign, supreme and unknowable except by the Holy Spirit. He is imminent and transcendent. You don’t mess with the Father. You obey. You surrender. You don’t take liberties. You live in the paradox of delight and reverent fear.

"You come before Him with open faced joy as a child to a beloved Father, and you also stand before Him trembling as a fully mature son. Grateful for Jesus. Always grateful for Jesus. That you can stand in Him; be included in Him; live your life in Him. Because of Christ, the Father comes to us and breathes life into our seeking heart.

"Always truthful, He imparts a grace that is frankly astonishing. His mercy has no place for judgment. Jesus has been punished (thank God!) so I can find clemency. The sheer beauty of God is marvelous to behold. This is the Christ that I have personally encountered these past few years of my journey into Uncommon Love."

- Graham Cooke, "Uncommon Love"

Live free! Live in Father's love!

his glory

Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" (John 11:40)

"Then the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all flesh will see it together; For the mouth of the LORD has spoken." (Isaiah 40:5)

Do you believe?

Live free! Live in Father's love!

surrounded

When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. "Oh, my lord, what shall we do?" the servant asked.

"Don't be afraid," the prophet answered. "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them."

And Elisha prayed, "O LORD, open his eyes so he may see." Then the LORD opened the servant's eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. (2 Kings 6:15-17)

Over the past weeks, I’ve experienced some of the same emotions as Elisha’s servant must have felt in being surrounded by the enemy. Each time I've begun to feel overwhelmed, the Holy Spirit has faithfully reminded me to lift my eyes heavenward for a fresh glimpse of the Father's wondrous glory. In the light of His glory, all of my fears are dispelled.

Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then will I be confident. (Psalm 27:3)

Live free! Live in Father's love!

gentle power

See, the Sovereign LORD comes with power,
and his arm rules for him.
See, his reward is with him,
and his recompense accompanies him.

He tends his flock like a shepherd:
He gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart;
he gently leads those that have young. (Isaiah 40:10,11)

I love these two verses in Isaiah 40 because they so beautifully illustrate how two seemingly incompatible characteristics, gentleness and power, are perfectly united in the Father's loving heart. Over the past months, the Father has gently gathered me in His arms and carried me close to His heart while manifesting His power in the midst of some very painful circumstances. In my weakness, His power has truly been perfected. As David said, "Your right hand upholds me, and Your gentleness makes me great." (Psalm 18:35)

Live free! Live in Father's love!

passion hunger desire

Excerpts from an email I sent to a friend this week -

At the beginning of last week, three words started resonating in my spirit - "Passion, hunger, desire!" As I sought the Lord, I sensed that these words represented His heart longings over His bride. I also sensed that just as we love because He first loved us, we have passion, hunger, and desire for Him because He first has these longings for us. When we see and receive these heart longings from Him, we will in turn have them towards Him.

Live free! Live in Father's love!

tender kiss

Jesus, your tender kiss
- has ravished me
- has captured my heart
- has changed everything

Fantasy and reality have become One!

ravish: to fill with delight
capture: to attract and hold
change: to make different

"May he kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!" (Song of Solomon 1:2)

Live free! Live in Father's love!

exhilarated

"Exhilarated: feeling God’s affection brings pleasure and exhilaration to our hearts. The inheritance of every believer in Christ, includes being exhilarated by feeling God’s affection and pleasure for us and in feeling it back for Him. We were created to delight in the feeling of being loved by God. Our spirit craves this. God desires to release this to us. We are too often content with a Christianity that is devoid of feeling, or a Christianity that is mostly an intellectual exercise and not a heart experience. He wants our hearts ravished because His heart is ravished. He feels such intense feelings towards us and desires that we have intense feelings for Him. We do not base our experience on feeling, but they do enhance our experience of Jesus. God is glorified in us when we are exhilarated with Him (His emotions, wisdom and power)."

- Mike Bickle, "Beholding God's Beauty - Encountering God's Personality"

Live free! Live in Father's love!

immeasurable

Excerpts from an email I sent to a friend today -

This thought keeps coming to me - "I don't even begin to grasp the full grandeur of who He is." I have a very dim glimpse. When He pulls back the veil of our human frailty and gives us the smallest little peek into who He is, we'll be blown away. He's just so enormous and expansive in who He is that He completely swallows up everything. We can't even begin to imagine because we have no reference point with which to adequately compare Him or measure Him.

And yet, this infinite, immeasurable God is my Father - the one who loves me intimately and delights in every part of me. I, Lindsay, am His constant joy and delight, and He is mine! This is simply too good to be true - it's the fantasy of all fantasies, the epic of all epics. Such knowledge is truly too great for me! And yet He continually confirms the reality of it all by the sweetness of His presence within.

Live free! Live in Father's love!