This City

Sunday afternoon…boys napping on the couch together…how many times have I declared this time to be my favorite of the whole entire week? I wish I could take a picture of the two of them together, but I know the flash would wake the daddy (and without the flash, the pic just won’t be worth it)… and the daddy would not be happy anyway to hear of a photo like that posted online. But take it from me, or know yourself if you have a daddy and baby duo at your house---it’s the SWEETest thang. It just warms my whole heart.

And today I have the perfect background music…”All the Way My Savior Lead Me”, a new song off the latest Chris Tomlin project, Hello Love, which until this last Friday’s concert, I had never heard before. As I’ve said several times lately about various things, HOW COME NO ONE OUT THERE TOLD ME how INCREDIBLE this [album] is?!?! We had heard “Jesus, Messiah” and probably one or two others at Winter Retreat or the radio, but I can’t believe I hadn’t purchased or downloaded the rest of the album yet. So let me just be THAT FRIEND to you: If YOU have not heard the rest of the album, you need to get up off the computer and go out and get Hello Love before the weekend is over…or easier yet, stay at the computer and DOWNLOAD the whole thing off of iTunes. It is THAT good, people. You will thank me. And you will bless God because of it.

So that leads me to the concert on Friday…what a worship experience we had. It was literally the first worship-ful service Matt and I have gotten to be apart of for at least a month, (since Winter Retreat) because we’ve been upstairs with the teens on Sunday mornings—with plenty of praying and preaching, but no live music. And there is just something extra special about entering –yourself—into the Lord’s presence thru music, especially when surrounded by some 10,000 fellow worshipers. So cool. If I’ve ever gotten a glimpse of what Heaven might be like, I think this might just be it. And then, when Chris T. sang a newer song about heaven that I didn’t know yet, (I Will Rise,) as I sat back and actually just LISTENED for a second, I had this thought …that... Chris Tomlin will most definitely be one of God’s Worship Leaders up in Heaven one day. So serious. Him and Darlene Z! God has gifted that man with such talent, musically, but more specifically thru his song writing and his worship leading! I love going to a concert where the words to the songs are actually written on the screen so that everyone can sing along, and where this is done not because you love and adore the singing group so much, but because you love and adore who the songs are all about! My faves from the concert were Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone), Sing, Sing, Sing and God of This City. It was truly a great night, and it was so wonderful to be able to share with my wonderful husband--our first "date night" since before Thanksgiving! (The last few months have been a little...crazy...)

I hope everyone in Vero enjoyed the EverPraise concert this weekend as well. I was thinking about you all and praying for a good turnout and the presence of God to be with you as well. I can’t wait to hear, I know things have been really been “happening” around there lately!

So after all that, what Chris Tomlin lyrics do I leave with you? I’ve been going back and forth about this, but the song playing now has been really speaking to me this last month. I’m not sure when I heard it first, but I’ve been focusing on the verses of 1 Corinthians 2:9 and Isaiah 43:18 lately: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind can conceive what God has prepared for those who love him.” And “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up, do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and springs in the wasteland.” So I think the most appropriate lyrics are from God of this City. (Find it in the music box in my sidebar and play it!)

There is no one like our God
There is no one like our God
For greater things Have yet to come
And greater things Are still to be done in this city
For greater things Have yet to come
And greater things Are still to be done here.

I pray this over our church here in Houston and also “our” church in Vero. That in the cities that we live and work and play and worship—that we would never be content or satisfied with the good God has done for us in the past, but instead we would be constantly praying for a new touch, a new outpouring of His Spirit on our current ministry, and seeking daily opportunities to reach His World with the Good News. And I pray the same for this 29 year old body of mine, the Living Temple of the Holy Spirit that I live in, that THIS would be a Holy CITY on a hill, always shining with the light of Jesus.