Everything

I saw something very powerful yesterday. I got an email with a link to a video clip. Some days I look at them right away and some days I wait a bit - just depends on how busy I am, who's in the room at the time, who it's from - things like that. This particular clip was prefaced with a hope that it would strengthen my relationship with Christ.

The clip is of a skit done at an apparent youth rally called Winterfest, last winter in Knoxville, Tennessee. It's performed with the song Everything by Lifehouse. I'd never heard of them - but I enjoyed their sound.

After viewing the clip I looked up the lyrics on the web.

Everything by Lifehouse.

Find Me Here

Speak To Me

I want to feel you

I need to hear you

You are the light that's leading me

To the place where I find peace again.

You are the strength that keeps me walking.

You are the hope that keeps me trusting.

You are the light to my soul.

You are my purpose...you're everything.

How can I stand here with you and not be moved by you?

Would you tell me how could it be any better than this?

You calm the storms, and you give me rest.

You hold me in your hands, you won't let me fall.

You steal my heart, and you take my breath away.

Would you take me in? Take me deeper now?

How can I stand here with you and not be moved by you?

Would you tell me how could it be any better than this?

And how can I stand here with you and not be moved by you?

Would you tell me how could it be any better than this?

'Cause you're all I want, You're all I need

You're everything, everything

You're all I want you're all I need

You're everything, everything.

And How can I stand here with you and not be moved by you?

Would you tell me how could it be any better than this?

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Now - YOU should watch the clip. It appears right above this post (Oct. 3) and always at the bottom of the page.

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I received a slightly different message than was probably intended when I watched. My original viewing was a little choppy, so I went looking for another one online. I found MANY more clips. The original clip on You Tube has been viewed well over 1.1 million times. And that's just this particular one. The skit has be "copied" by youth groups all over - wanting the share the important message. It seems the goal is to bring an awareness to the things that are out there attacking our kids.

• Sexual promiscuity - or self worth found in a relationship (physical or not) with someone else.
• The want of money
• Drugs like alcohol - giving the promise popularity, release and "fun"
• Self worth found in our physical appearance. The need to be like "everybody" else and do whatever it takes (including forcing ourselves to purge)
• Self injury (like "cutting") - which has affected more of the youth in America than we care to admit and of course the end all beat all
• Suicide - Giving in to the lie that there is no Hope.

But there is a Hope.

It starts out pretty much like a lot of skits do - it's nice. Looks like there will be a nice moral at the end.

We have a Creator that provides everything for us. He started the beating of our hearts. We were so close to Him that we could move in harmony with Him. He provided food, water, beauty in the things He's made only for our pleasure like the flowers and birds. He gave us everything we needed - and we were happy. We danced. How could it be any better than this?

Then we become distracted - something comes between us and Christ. The affection or flattery of someone else, perhaps. Our feeling of inadequacy (thrown at us by satan - telling us we were unfulfilled and need something, or someone, more) begins and we turn to be fulfilled elsewhere. We turn our focus from Jesus and now we dance somewhere else. Now there's a distance.

But He's still there.

Maybe it was money. Who couldn't use a little more money? As I viewed this I wasn't thinking of doing something immoral to get money - just the pursuit of it. If I just worked a little harder or a little longer. If I had a better degree... What's wrong with wanting to better yourself and make life a little "easier"? But now that has become a distraction and pulled us farther away. Now there is something else between us and Jesus.

But He's still there.

Maybe now we need a break - we need to forget or need the feeling of just not worrying about the stuff of life for awhile. We need to escape. The quick fix is drugs or alcohol. Ultimately it just exponentially multiplies the problems. And we're farther away now. It's hard to even see Jesus any more.

But He's still there.

We let the world tell us how we should feel about ourselves. We're just never good enough. Not pretty enough or talented enough. We're not smart enough or thin enough. If we were, then everything would be OK again. So to fix this we shove our fingers down our throats - to make things better? We're farther away again - and we're losing Hope.

But He's still right there. Begging us to come back - calling to us and holding out His open arms.

Our feelings of inadequacy have overtaken us. We hate ourselves and what we've become. There are a lot of things we can do - a lot of red flags we can raise - trying to get someones attention. Some (more than I realized) use self injury. Of course this only makes things worse again. Then satan comes in and tells us we're hopeless. We've gotten so far away we can never get back - and even if we did we've screwed things up so badly there's no point. No point in even going on.

This is the oldest battle. Good and evil. Jesus won it though. The outcome has already been determined. The only thing satan can do now is take God's children from Him. That's the absolute worst thing he can do to hurt God. Take them. Distract them. Put as much distance between them and God as possible and then kill them before they hear Jesus voice calling them back and return to the safety of His arms.

satan doesn't care WHAT it is that keeps us from Christ. I've told my kids - if the devil's not after you trying to discourage you or distract you from your relationship with Jesus - you gotta wonder if that's not because he's not worried about you. He feels like you're already in his back pocket. He'll use whatever tools he needs to get you. It could be drugs, alcohol, pride, fame, flattery, success or doing good for others even. It doesn't matter what it is... it just needs to distract us from Jesus. Just long enough.

And Jesus is still there. He's never moved - WE'RE the ones that have moved farther and farther away. He's still there with wide open arms.

But what if we hear God's voice calling to us? And we throw down whatever gun is about to destroy us and run back to Him? Is that it?

NO. satan won't let go that easily. Every hook will be put into our flesh, every road block will come down - every distraction is thrown in our path - anything to keep us from getting back to where we NEED to be. Every force of darkness is pushing us back telling us we'll never make it, we'll never be good enough and it's too late.

And this is where I started sobbing.

She wants to get back. She feels the tug - the pull - Jesus is pulling her back, fighting for her life. And she's fighting and doing everything in her power to get back what she had. But it's not enough. There's no way that she can ever defeat satan and break his hold on her.

But when she calls out to be saved Jesus steps in and shields her. She's broken free and HE takes on everything that was keeping her from Him. She relies on Him for protection and safety. She can finally feel peace and restoration. She has accepted the gift. Jesus said He'd fight for her if she'd just give up her own fight and accept His victory. And that battle is over. The power of darkness is defeated and cast off.

He picks her up and brushes her off. Their relationship is restored. Hope is restored.

And they dance again.

It wasn't too late for her.

It moves me to tears every time I view it. And I've lost count of how many times I've seen it now. What a powerful witness. Not only for teens - but for any of us that have let anything come between us and Christ.

Praise God - He fights for us. Fights to reach us and then fights our battles for us. If we'll let Him.

My Mom sent me this quote taken from the book Thoughts From the Mount of Blessings on page 71.

"The Father's presence encircled Christ, and nothing befell
Him but that which infinite love permitted for the blessing of the world. Here
was His source of comfort, and it is for us. He who is imbued with the Spirit of
Christ, abides in Christ. The blow that is aimed at him falls upon the Savior
who surrounds him with His presence. Whatever comes to him comes from Christ. He has no need to resist evil for Christ is his defense. Nothing can touch him
except by our Lord's permission, and 'all things' that are permitted 'work
together for good to them that love God. '" Romans 8:28

There is another good version of this video here. Share it - give someone Hope. Since I started writing this a couple of hours ago there have been another 20,000 hits on the version that I originally viewed.

Another side story... Yesterday I was so moved by this that I immediately wanted to share it on my blog. I cleaned up the blog - reduced the number of posts on the page - and tried to add the code of the video.

My computer locked up. Wouldn't move.

Every time I tried to log back in to You Tube to get the code IE would just disappear and my email program would shut down.

I re-booted my puter twice. Same results. I'd never seen it do this before. I'd type the first "w" of the web address and IE would disappear again and the email would shut down.

My 7 year old said, "satan doesn't want you to put that on your blog mom."

So we anointed the computer through prayer!!! And there you have it. Praise the Lord!