Enjoy His grace; extend His glory.

How He Loves--David Crowder Band

He is jealous for me, Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree, 
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy. 
When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory, 
And I realize just how beautiful You are, 
And how great Your affections are for me. 

And oh, how He loves us so 
Oh how He loves us, 
How He loves us so 

He loves us, 
Oh how He loves us, 
Oh how He loves us, 
Oh how He loves. 

We are His portion and He is our prize 
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes 
If grace is an ocean, we're all sinking 
So Heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss 
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest 
I don't have time to maintain these regrets 
When I think about the way 

And oh, how He loves us 
Oh how He loves us, 
How He loves us so 


Yeah, He loves us, 
Oh how He loves us, 
Oh how He loves us, 
Oh how He loves.

Here is a version of the song. It has two different testimony bits added into the song and I think it adds a lot to the song and message in the song.

This will forever be one of my absolute most favorite songs. I like songs with really deep meanings, and this one definitely fits the description. It’s one of those songs that give you goose bumps every time you hear it. I just feel like God is speaking immeasurable amounts of wise advice through the David Crowder Band in the lyrics to this song. The opening lines, “He is jealous for me, Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree, bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy,” showcase the depth of lyrics the rest of the song will pursue. It simply states that Jesus loves us so much, His love is comparable to a hurricane and we are mere trees. No matter how hard we can fight against His love, it will always be there and it’s undeniable. Once it gets started working in our bodies, it’s like a hurricane. When we accept Him into our hearts as our savior His grace comes upon us and He gives us mercy for all our sins we have committed as sinners. We can’t control what it does in our bodies, like the trees in the lyrics. They can’t control what the hurricane will do to them. God gave His only son up for us, so that we were given eternal life in Christ. 
The next lines,” When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory, and I realize just how beautiful You are, and how great Your affections are for me,” describes exactly what He did for us in such beautiful words. His afflictions are His pain, because Jesus suffered dying on the cross to save us from our sins. Although it was such gory fate, the outcome of it made us become “eclipsed by glory”, because the glory of the crucifixion was everlasting life and Heaven. How couldn’t we not be in awe by the fact that Jesus died for every single one of us? I can’t think of a more moving deed to make someone more beautiful or make me love them anymore than the fact that He died for me. Not just me, but for you, and your friends, and your families, and every single stranger you don’t happen to meet in your lifetime. That is how much He loves us. 
When I think of the next lines, “We are His portion and He is our prize, drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes; if grace is an ocean, we're all sinking,” I think of how He looks at us as His treasure, because we are. We are the only species that is capable of spreading His word and testimony over this planet. He created us that way for a reason, therefore we are His portion. He is our ticket to Heaven; therefore He is our prize, because without Him we are destined to Hell. His grace is inevitable. These lyrics paint the picture of being stranded out in the middle of an ocean. If you’re out there alone, you will drown eventually. Although the lyrics aren’t meant in a morbid way, I think they are meant to show that everyone will be overcome with His grace on Judgment Day. 
The remaining lines, “So Heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss, and my heart turns violently inside of my chest. I don't have time to maintain these regrets when I think about the way, and oh, how He loves us,” makes me think about humans and how we are destined to sin. Believers feel guilty when they sin, because they know Jesus paid the ultimate price by dying on the cross, but He loves us anyways. I think this is a song that can be interpreted a million different ways , and all the ways make sense, but these were just my thoughts on it.

Seven Days in Utopia: Two Hours Well Spent

I am not much of a movie-watcher. Not because I don't enjoy them, but because it is hard for me to sit still, not doing anything for a couple of hours at once. However, when my parents talked me into watching Seven Days in Utopia, I was far from disappointed. 


Seven Days in Utopia is based on the book, Golf's Sacred Journey: Seven Days at the Links of Utopia. Luke Chisolm, a young golfer, with a big ego and even larger temper gets stranded due to a wreck in Utopia, Texas after a humiliating and self-esteem blowing golf tournament. This was the first thing that caught my interest. Not only is this movie based in Texas, it is based in the middle of the hill country, which happens to be my favorite part of Texas. A rancher finds the golfer in his field, where he has ran off the road in his car. The rancher, Johnny Crawford, played by Robert Duvall, is the next thing that sold me on this movie since Duvall is one of my favorite actors. The movie has a lot of christian undertones, even though they don't promote it as a christian movie. To me, it makes it so much better though. It's a very insightful movie in the means that it's kind of like talking to a wise old man that has seen a lot in his day. As a young adult there is nothing I love more than listening to someone who knows what they're talking about and gaining little snip-its of useful info I can reflect back onto my life. Luke is stuck in the small town of Utopia for a week while his car is getting fixed. At first, he doesn't like being stuck in this podunk, far from civilization town, but Johnny soon convinces him otherwise. When Luke's dad walks out on him, Johnny takes Luke under his wing and teaches him very valuable life lessons, not just from past mistakes, but to prevent future ones from happening. The movies is made by Disney and rated "G", so there are no worries about anything vulgar or inappropriate. As for the ending, you'll have to find out for yourself... I don't want to give anything away, but this is a movie you won't regret seeing.