Know God. Love Others. Live the Gospel.

 A song I find encouraging as I walk through life as both a reminder when I am low, struggling with the challenges, sorrows, and disappointments in life as well as a great reminder when I’m riding high, feeling great about my life circumstances and enjoying the many blessings that God bestows is “Christ My Hope in Life and Death” by Keith Getty, Matt Boswell, Jordan Kauflin, Matt Merker, and Matt Papa. You can find the official music video sung by Keith and Kristyn Getty here . If you’d like to see the lyrics and more on the background on how the song came to be, check out the official webpage for the song found on the Getty Music website here . The song is largely based on the first question of Heidelberg Catechism, an early catechism of the Reformation. Question: “What is your only comfort in life and in death? Answer: “That I am not my own but belong — body and soul in life and death — to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ...” (1 Cor 6:19-20; Rom 14:7-9; 1 Cor 3:23; Titus 2:14) (For

I was introduced to “He Will Hold Me Fast” when I visited First Irving one Sunday while visiting my kids in Dallas (ok...they’re adults now, but they’re still my kids). As is my habit when I hear a new song I’ve never heard before, I listened and mulled on the words before I sang. (I know...I’m a worship leaders nightmare: “Just sing already!”)  Before I sing, which is an act of proclamation, confession, and affirmation, I want to know what I’m singing. And when I considered the words of “He Will Hold Me Fast” they impacted me deeply. Originally written by Ada Habershon back in 1908, it was updated and expanded on by Matt Merker in 2013. It is a confession and affirmation that even in moments of failing faith, even when sin prevails in my life (not just once but over and over), even when fear reigns over faith in my life, Christ will hold me fast; I and my salvation are utterly secure in Christ. It is not my loveliness but Christ’s love for me, it is not my faith but his faithfulne

 Part of my devotional life is listening to songs I find helpful to my walk with Christ, helpful in transforming me into the image of my Savior. In an on-going series of posts, from time-to-time I will post songs that I find helpful in my walk with Christ, songs I find encouraging, songs I find that express my own struggles, songs that express my own longings, songs that express my own lament. Many of these songs are songs that we as a body sing together, confessing our own communal longings, desires, laments, and encouragements for God, for Christ, for the gospel, for His glory. As we approach Easter I wanted to share a new song from City Alight ( https://www.cityalight.com/ ): “It was finished upon that cross.” The song glories in the finished work of Christ on the cross “that we would be free indeed...free from every plan of darkness, free to live and free to love.” It glories in and reflects upon the final of the seven sayings of Christ on the cross found in John 19:30, “It is fini