New Hope Church of Christ
11025-131st Street
Largo, FL 33774
(727) 517-7517
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13
Beautiful sunset over the Gulf of Mexico Singing at the beach
KEEPING THINGS IN PROPER PERSPECTIVE!
I came across a video this week that uses one of the most powerful Christian praise songs I’ve heard. The song, "Arise, My Love" by the group NewSong has both a gorgeous melody and a wonderful message. A word of warning about the video. The first site listed uses clips from the movie, The Passion, so it is very graphic and not for children. I enlarged it on my computer and it’s still pretty good quality. I’m giving you a second site that has the same song but the video presentation is not as graphic as The Passion. I wanted to show you these videos, especially the first one (if you can watch it) as I discuss the topic, Putting Things Into Their Proper Perspective." Each week I listen to hours of Christian music and praise songs. It’s my way of ‘connecting’ in a very powerful way to God. During the songs I pray, meditate and just focus on God and the spiritual world. I search the Internet for spiritually related videos and music so I always have a fresh and new perspective during my devotional times. The song, "Arise, My Love," has been a favorite of mine for a some time. As I listen to the song I picture God saying those very words to His Son as he has been in the depths of darkness and death for three days. "ARISE- MY LOVE!" What a beautiful picture of the relationship the Father has with the Son. As I watch the video with actual scenes from The Passion and listen to that song, it helps me put things in perspective. The life I live and the so-called ‘troubles’ I occasionally have are nothing compared to what Jesus did for me. It’s almost embarrassing to think, "Woe is me, look how bad things are," and then look at Jesus. The few ‘issues’ I might have in this life have yet to beat me down to the pavement, my blood spilling on the ground like an open faucet and pain beyond anything I can imagine. And why did all that happen to Jesus? Because he wanted you and me to go to Heaven! There can be no doubt that, for some, this life has included some very difficult situations. Serious illness to ourselves or loved ones and the death of a loved one are the hardest of all life’s issues. (Not far behind those is divorce.) But perspective must still be considered. Even in death, Christians live on. Even in illness, Christians have hope. Even in divorce, God is there and HIS LOVE never fails. But the torture and pain Jesus endured so we could live is still beyond comparison. No matter how hard life becomes, I don’t believe any of us will ever have to go through that. (At least I pray we don’t.) Let’s put life in its proper perspective. Take a look, if you can, at the first video, listen to the words of the song and be thankful that God, through the power of the resurrection, said to His son, "Arise, My Love!" When you watch this video you can really put things into perspective. Now we have hope no matter how tough life gets- and life is seldom as ‘tough’ as we make it out to be. Just look at Jesus. It’s all about: Perspective. (First video with clips from The Passion) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOAlmLDi3m0&feature=related
(This video contains minimal graphic scenes of the torture and crucifixion of Jesus.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFn8FVU56xs&feature=related