The Gospel According To U2: "Breathe"

From the 2005 book, Conversations with Bono:


"Assayas: I think I am beginning to understand religion because I have started acting and thinking like a father. What do you make of that?

Bono: Yes, I think that's normal. It's a mind-blowing concept that the God who created the universe might be looking for company, a real relationship with people, but the thing that keeps me on my knees is the difference between Grace and Karma.

Assayas: I haven't heard you talk about that.

Bono: I really believe we've moved out of the realm of Karma into one of Grace.

Assayas: Well, that doesn't make it clearer for me.

Bono: You see, at the center of all religions is the idea of Karma. You know, what you put out comes back to you: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, or in physics—in physical laws—every action is met by an equal or an opposite one. It's clear to me that Karma is at the very heart of the universe. I'm absolutely sure of it. And yet, along comes this idea called Grace to upend all that "as you reap, so you will sow" stuff. Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions, which in my case is very good news indeed, because I've done a lot of stupid stuff.

Assayas: I'd be interested to hear that.

Bono: That's between me and God. But I'd be in big trouble if Karma was going to finally be my judge. I'd be in deep s---. It doesn't excuse my mistakes, but I'm holding out for Grace. I'm holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the Cross, because I know who I am, and I hope I don't have to depend on my own religiosity.

Assayas: The Son of God who takes away the sins of the world. I wish I could believe in that.

Bono: But I love the idea of the Sacrificial Lamb. I love the idea that God says: Look, you cretins, there are certain results to the way we are, to selfishness, and there's a mortality as part of your very sinful nature, and, let's face it, you're not living a very good life, are you? There are consequences to actions. The point of the death of Christ is that Christ took on the sins of the world, so that what we put out did not come back to us, and that our sinful nature does not reap the obvious death. That's the point. It should keep us humbled… . It's not our own good works that get us through the gates of heaven.

Assayas: That's a great idea, no denying it. Such great hope is wonderful, even though it's close to lunacy, in my view. Christ has his rank among the world's great thinkers. But Son of God, isn't that farfetched?

Bono: No, it's not farfetched to me. Look, the secular response to the Christ story always goes like this: he was a great prophet, obviously a very interesting guy, had a lot to say along the lines of other great prophets, be they Elijah, Muhammad, Buddha, or Confucius. But actually Christ doesn't allow you that. He doesn't let you off that hook. Christ says: No. I'm not saying I'm a teacher, don't call me teacher. I'm not saying I'm a prophet. I'm saying: "I'm the Messiah." I'm saying: "I am God incarnate." And people say: No, no, please, just be a prophet. A prophet, we can take. You're a bit eccentric. We've had John the Baptist eating locusts and wild honey, we can handle that. But don't mention the "M" word! Because, you know, we're gonna have to crucify you. And he goes: No, no. I know you're expecting me to come back with an army, and set you free from these creeps, but actually I am the Messiah. At this point, everyone starts staring at their shoes, and says: Oh, my God, he's gonna keep saying this. So what you're left with is: either Christ was who He said He was—the Messiah—or a complete nutcase. I mean, we're talking nutcase on the level of Charles Manson. This man was like some of the people we've been talking about earlier. This man was strapping himself to a bomb, and had "King of the Jews" on his head, and, as they were putting him up on the Cross, was going: OK, martyrdom, here we go. Bring on the pain! I can take it. I'm not joking here. The idea that the entire course of civilization for over half of the globe could have its fate changed and turned upside-down by a nutcase, for me, that's farfetched …"

I've been a U2 fan for years.  The appeal has never been that they merely sound good, but that there is something so much deeper beneath it all.  An incredible gift of the rock and roll era has been the fusion of the two great artforms: poetry and music.  I don't mean to take away from visual artists, who certainly can be immensely gifted.  Yet a painting or a sculpture doesn't have the potential to speak to our souls like music or the written word can.  The visual representation also is much more static and far less organic while music and the written word actually enable the creativity of the listener or the reader.

Think of a novel.  The creativity in the description and in the story can be incredible and exhibit an author's idea, but they are also creative enablers.  You, as the reader, visualize the descriptions.  The chair you see will not be the chair the author sees nor will it be the chair I see.  So it is with characters as well - right down to how you visualize their tone of voice.  Music can accomplish the same feat, stirring different feelings in each person.  Combined, the two are powerful allies.

This is where U2 come in for me.  Their work is infused with Biblical reference and deep, thoughtful observation concerning it.  A single post tackling all of this would be book length.  It begins with their first album from 1980, Boy, and continues through their most recent album, No Line On The Horizon.  Not a single U2 record comes without Biblical subtext - not one.  It's woven into the fabric of the music and when you read the excerpt from above, you can understand why.  Some has not been as bright - their work in the 1990s was their darkest, examining what happens when despair creeps in and torments faith.

Their last album represents a faith journey itself, going from despair to outright praise while challenging those of faith to get out from under our beds and stand up for faith - literally, some of the lyrics state that unequivocally.

Yet the crescendo of the album comes towards the end, the penultimate song that comes before a warning closes out the record.  I must admit, this was my least favorite song on the album at first but has since become one of my favorite U2 tracks.  It is a challenge to the listener and a paradigm for sharing the Gospel.

This song now gets me charged up like few others have.  It is a call to live out your faith, but not through any kind of showmanship.  Instead, it is a call to face the fear which keeps us from loving one another and bearing each other's burdens.  It is brilliant.  

So I'm going to share the song with you and then go verse by verse through it.

 16th of June, nine-oh-five, door bell rings
Man at the door says if I want to stay alive a bit longer
There's a few things I need you to know
Three

It's not odd to find Bono embedding scriptural references in his lyrics.  The cover on their 2001 album, All The You Can't Leave Behind, was altered to reflect Jeremiah 33:3 and that number was inverted earlier in this album in quite an ingenious manner when God came calling the singer in Unknown Caller.  

Jeremiah 33:3 - "Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know." (NIV)

Here we do not see a direct scripture reference, instead it is a subtle reference to Revelation.  People often associate the number of the Beast with 666, but there is a common textual variant - 616.  Notice the date is June 16 in the American form?  We'll find a reference to John later in the song too.  Bono is setting a timeframe here, possibly merely referring to the Last Days which are the time we've actually been in since Jesus' ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

That leads us to the guy at the door, who is clearly a door-to-door evangelist.  A few things you need to know - three - is a reference to him telling the singer about the Trinity.

Coming from a long line of
Traveling sales people on my mother's side
I wasn't gonna buy just anyone's cockatoo
So why would I invite a complete stranger into my home
Would you

These days are better than that
These days are better than that 

Here comes the criticism of treating the Gospel as nothing more than a sales pitch - it causes people to be skeptical.  The man is a stranger sharing this with him.  There's no relationship here.  Why would you listen to this man when the first thing he speaks of is this - when he's more interested in selling you the Gospel than knowing you or caring for you?

These days are better than that - these final days.  This is a time when God's Spirit dwells in believers and empowers them.  It is not the time prior to the coming of Jesus - it is a time when a personal relationship is possible, where restoration has occurred through Christ's work on the cross and the man at the door is treating this as nothing more than a sales pitch.  

Every day I die again, and again I'm reborn
Every day I have to find the courage
To walk out into the street
With arms out
Got a love you can't defeat
Neither down nor out
There's nothing you have that I need
I can breathe
Breathe now

The chorus presents us with a different paradigm.  The concept of being born again daily is one that has been in U2's work for a long time.  I think the first time we see it crop up is on 1983's New Year's Day off the War album.  It is not an idea that salvation can be lost or anything like that, but instead it is the concept of having to lay yourself down every day.  There's a constant battle with the flesh going on that we have to be aware of and we will not always be able to claim victory at every moment.

Instead of going door to door, the idea here is finding the courage to reach out to people in the street.  I think the arms out is more an expression of loving others as opposed to the wordy sales pitch at the door.  He reaches out with love that cannot be defeated because he understands the world can offer him nothing - there is no need to fear because this love does not come form ourselves.  

But a key here is realizing that the world has nothing to offer instead of clinging to the things it offers.  When we cling to it we find it much more difficult to breathe.

16th of June, Chinese stocks are going up
And I'm coming down with some new Asian virus
Ju Ju man, Ju Ju man
Doc says you're fine, or dying
Please
Nine-oh-nine, St. John Divine on the line, my pulse is fine
But I'm running down the road like loose electricity
While the band in my head plays a striptease

So many things to be fearful of.  A shift in world power, a bird flu, and thinking that the events described by John are here - yet the pulse is fine.  No worry, no fear.

Yet there is still some conflict as he goes out.  He's out there, running around, but there is the temptation in his mind, the band playing the striptease.  There is always the temptation of the flesh.

The roar that lies on the other side of silence
The forest fire that is fear so deny it

This is one of my favorite lines anywhere.  Fear and silence so often combine to allow evil to continue.  The first image that comes to mind when I see the roar is to think of C.S. Lewis' Aslan, who is representative of Jesus, the Lion of Judah.  The roar is always there, but fear keeps us from seeing it.  That earthly fire is no match for His roar, so we must deny it and refuse to be silent.  When we speak in His power it becomes His roar, does it not?

Walk out into the street
Sing your heart out
The people we meet
Will not be drowned out
There's nothing you have that I need
I can breathe
Breathe now
Yeah, yeah

A line of encouragement here - walk out and sing (we'll get to what the means explicitly in the next verse), but to also listen and care.  These people you meet are not just numbers - no person is a number.  Everyone has an eternal destination, either with God through Jesus' sacrifice or separated from Him.  The call to share with others is far more important than mere obedience and if we don't care for them in earnest and see them as only people to make a sales pitch too then we've got a problem.

There's no reason to be fearful of loving others, caring about them, and sharing with them.

We are people borne of sound
The songs are in our eyes
Gonna wear them like a crown 

This line is far more profound than you may think at first glance.  It is not a mere reference to our propensity to enjoy song, but instead a reference to the Creation account in Genesis and its elaboration in The Gospel Of John.  

We are people borne of sound, spoken into existence by The Word of God.  Speech and song are in us because of this, so there's no need to muzzle them.  

The source of the crowns are also apparent here, coming from the sound itself - not from ourselves.

Walk out, into the sunburst street
Sing your heart out, sing my heart out
I've found grace inside a sound
I found grace, it's all that I found
And I can breathe
Breathe now 

A final note of encouragement.  We see the reference to the sound again, the originator of grace.  And the idea that the song does not come from us that we share is here to.

This is a very joyful rendering of evangelism through reaching out and caring, not through superficial means.  It's not about selling something or inviting someone to church - it's about denying fear and reaching out, building relationships with others by finding a love that is not our own through Christ.  

The world is not transformed through pot lucks, car washes, and Easter altar calls, it is transformed by laying ourselves down and surrendering to Jesus daily so that we may hear His voice and show His love. 

And I find this song to be a great encouragement in that regard.

Event Christianity and Cheap Grace

“Discipleship is not an offer that man makes to Christ.”

“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”

--Dietrich Bonhoeffer--

I've been thinking about a lot of things lately.  That is not odd in and of itself.  I'm usually thinking, delving deeper into things and seeking understanding.  To understand - that is at the core of my being.  I'm not sure what triggered it, but over the past several weeks I have been reading Bonhoeffer.  I had always heard of his work, but had never actually engaged it.

For those who don't know, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German theologian who lived during the early part of the 20th century.  He came from an aristocratic family and was quite gifted, a skilled pianist and a top intellectual.  His father was a leading neurologist in Germany.  His mother came from nobility.  Bonhoeffer shocked his family, choosing to become a theologian.  

When Hitler rose to power in Germany, he spoke out against him publicly.  When the Nazis were able to get the Lutheran Church to look the other way, Bonhoeffer called them out.  He was able to move his family out of Germany and began teaching in New York.  

God had other plans.  He was called to return to Germany where he continued to work against the Nazis and preach the Gospel.  Bonhoeffer became a double agent with the Abwehr, the German secret police, and used information obtained their to save Jews being targeted by the Nazis.  It was Bonhoeffer's firm belief that Christ calls us to live for others, not ourselves.  

Deitrich Bonhoeffer could have sat out the war.  He could have survived.  Instead he went back and preached the Gospel.  He went into the darkness to be a light.  His fight against Nazism was discovered and, after the Abwehr attempted to killed Hitler, he was sentenced to death.  

Three weeks before Hitler killed himself, Bonhoeffer went to the gallows.  As he left his companions on that day to face death he said, "This is the end, for me the beginning of life."

----

Bonhoeffer's Discipleship is challenging and it begins bluntly.  "Cheap Grace is the mortal enemy of our church.  Our struggle today is for costly grace."

What is cheap grace?  It is the grace we bestow upon ourselves.  It is justification of sin instead of justification of the sinner.  It is license for believers to keep living as they have always lived, never being transformed into the one we are meant to be like - Jesus Himself.  

"Cheap grace is preaching forgiveness without repentance; it is baptism without the discipline of community; it is the Lord's Supper without confession of sin; it is absolution without personal confession.  Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without the living, incarnate Jesus Christ."

But what is it we should be seeking?  What is this costly grace?

"Costly grace is the hidden treasure in the field, for the sake of which people go and sell with joy everything they have.  It is the costly pearl, for whose price the merchant sells all he has; it is Christ's sovereignty, for the sake of which you tear out an eye if it causes you to stumble.  It is the call of Jesus Christ which causes a disciple to leave his nets and follow him.  

Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which has to be asked for, the door at which one has to knock.

It is costly, because it calls us to discipleship; it is grace, because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ.  It is costly, because it costs people their lives; it is grace, because it thereby makes them live.  It is costly, because it condemns sin; it is grace, because it justifies the sinner.  Above all, grace is costly because it was costly to God, because it costs the life of God's Son--"you were bought with a price"--and because nothing can be cheap to us which is costly to God.  Above all, it is grace because the life of God's Son was not too costly for God to give in order to make us live.  God did, indeed, give him up for us.  Costly grace is the incarnation of God.

Costly grace is grace as God's holy treasure which must be protected from the world and which must not be thrown to the dogs.  Thus, it is grace as living word, word of God, which God speaks as God pleases.  It comes to us as a gracious call to follow Jesus; it comes as a forgiving word to the fearful spirit and the broken heart.  Grace is costly, because it forces people under the yoke of following Jesus Christ; it is grace when Jesus says, "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

How easy it is to forget how much grace does cost.  We use it as an excuse to refuse to grow, to stagnate, and to keep drinking milk when we need to eat meat.

And we certainly tend to forget about Jesus' yoke.  How often does church become work?  How often does it become a list of pious activities we perform to somehow prove our worthiness?  We go to service, go to small group, go to accountability, work at the church, serve at the church, but we still feel empty.  These things are not inherently bad, but they are worthless when we do not surrender ourselves to Jesus and be obedient to Him.

Too often the church - and we as believers - think that obedience and obligation are the same thing.  They are not.  Obligation breeds guilt and fear.  It creates unhealthy attachment and imprisons the obliged.  Obedience is about freedom in Christ.  It is about hearing His call and responding to it without question.  Why do we need to think if Jesus, the Word of God, is in charge?

That's not what the world wants us to do.  And the church has been infected by the world.  So many programs that churches put on today encourage believers to "be themselves" - yet this is an un-Biblical concept.  We are told to surrender ourselves and conform to Christ because He is like what we are supposed to be like.  Caution is often encouraged nowadays, but Jesus never preached a cautious faith.  

Jesus called and Levi followed.  Jesus called and Peter left his boat.  A striking thing about so much of the discipleship training I've been engaged in over the years is how little the training actually looks at the disciples to see how we should be disciples.  Bonhoeffer was the first that I have read to use The Beatitudes as the foundation for discipleship.  I can understand why many discipleship training courses steer away from that - you'll find far fewer takers.

That's why cheap grace is so appealing.  It's easy.  You don't really have to give up anything.  But there's no depth.  Instead of a committed walk, we get to leave the road Jesus is on whenever we feel like it.  Instead of real community, we get to all wear the same t-shirts and call it community.  We get pithy messages from our preacher, but those that have been called will so often feel empty.  They will not be filled because so many churches are not about walking with Jesus.  They are about being good people and having a nice group to hang out with.  Or, more insidiously, they can be about misguided pastors who are just looking to have a group of followers to inflate their egos.  This is where the cult of personality becomes a problem.  How many people would still be at the church if the pastor left?  

Christianity is so often boiled down to a series of events nowadays instead of a serious walk.  It is conferences, groups, meetings, gatherings, dinners, etc.  As I said above, these things are not bad in and of themselves, but they become empty when the church becomes the center instead of Jesus.  

I'll admit, when I hear people declare how much they love their church, I can cringe a bit.  Not always when it's deeper than that (such as, I love my church because it truly preaches God's Word and encourages real discipleship and a real walk with Jesus), but so often I've heard people declare that they love their church and no mention of Jesus comes out.  

Event Christianity is a social club.  It is a replacement for the gatherings that we found so alluring in school.  It is a church that only feeds milk.  It is a church that doesn't encourage confession of sin and repentance.  It is a church that doesn't realize that grace has a high price.  It is a church that doesn't encourage us to surrender ourselves to Jesus.

You see, Jesus' way doesn't make sense to the world - and doesn't make sense to a lot of churches.  

To be victorious, you must surrender.  How crazy does that sound?  Yet it is the truth.  But we avoid it.  We hold onto our fear.  We hold onto our pain.  We hold onto our bitterness.  We hold onto all the things that bring us down and prevent us from fully embracing Jesus' joy.  They also prevent us from having Jesus' heart - a true compassion for others.

A startling point Bonhoeffer makes is that when we surrender to Jesus, He not only becomes mediator in our relationship with God, but also in all of our other relationships.  Our friendships go through Jesus.  Our work goes through Jesus.  And our marriages are with three people, not just two, because Jesus is supposed to be the mediator between man and wife.  In this way we attain Jesus' heart through His grace, but only through surrender.

My own surrender is not complete and I know it will not be in this lifetime, but I pray for God to reveal to me those aspects in my life that prevent me from following Him truly.  I don't want the "feel goods" at my church or in my life - I want the truth.

And that is where it all begins.  Truth and honesty.  Jesus calls us individually before He calls us into community.  But we must first know who we are and that means we must first be honest with ourselves.  If we are not honest with ourselves then how can honesty permeate all of our other relationships?  We acknowledge who we are.  We see what drags us down - maybe it's trying to win affection, to please others.  Maybe it's the fear in our hearts which prevents us from taking steps forward in faith.  But in honesty we can surrender those things and God can work in us to create victory.  

Confession, repentance, and surrender are hallmarks of authentic Christian community.  They lead to true service (true service does not come out of obligation, but out of compassion through Christ's own heart), true fellowship, and a joy that the world could never know.  It is this type of community that transformed the world during and after the time of the Apostles.  We prefer the Event Christianity over the Transformative Christianity nowadays.  We like to wear the same t-shirts and chat over lunch.  We don't want to surrender, we just want to be good people.

When Jesus calls, He wants us to get out of the boat and leave our nets behind.  He wants us to walk without fear and to love one another - but we only find real love in Him.  

Let us stand for real community and a real walk with Jesus, not a walk where we dictate the terms.  Let us begin with confessing our sins before God, repenting of them, and following Him - even if it makes us or others around us uncomfortable.  Let us listen for His voice and stop listening to the ones in our heads that distract us.     

Heart For The Captive

From Isaiah (and Luke): "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind,to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”

A revolutionary part of the Gospel is the liberation of the captive.  All men ultimately are captives to sin, to those things we hold so tightly to ourselves.  We are captive to our greed, to our shame, to our guilt, to our imperfection.  It can be overwhelming.

Yet Jesus came to set the captives free.  We see it in the healing of lepers, in His encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well, and even in His appearance to Saul on the road to Damascus.  Jesus had a heart for the captive - a spirit that reached out to those in need and met them where they were.  We as believers can forget this, especially when we lose focus about who Jesus' ministry was truly about - the poor and downtrodden.  It was about us, because ultimately we are all poor in spirit.  

I've been in the place where I've been full of myself, but when we're in that place we are actually hiding.  It is when we meet God and He shows us who we truly are - and we are open to what He shows us - that we can move forward in His power.

The following is another piece I wrote.  It's about eight years old and personal, addressing feelings of worthlessness that I've had in my life, doubting that I could ever be loved.  

I wanted to write a love song

Wanted to lay it all bare

I just wanted to write a love song

But when I opened my heart

Nothing was there

Lamenting broken childhood

Never trusting anyone one I’d see

A head mixed up with the question

“What is wrong with me?”

Told so many stories to myself

Never knew which was true

About the one who came into my heart

Picked me up so high

Pulled me down so low when she was through

So I’m crying out again

And my tears fall like rain

So I’m crying out again

Unable to escape my shame

Looking for the answers I never seem to find

This elusive “peace of mind”

To be or not to be?

What is wrong with me?

Could I believe that someone loved me

After all I’ve been through?

I touched the fire when I saw it

But was burned by this light that fills the rooms

A wretched pain has been uncovered

That time alone could never heal

This agony I’ve held in my heart’s cupboard

Upon my own deceit it is revealed

And I’m crying out for someone to hear my plea

What is wrong with me?

I heard your name somehow

From the branches of the trees

I felt your pain somehow

And it set me free

So let me write this love song

About a man who held me near

Even though I never saw your face

You were upon a hill

Nailed upon a tree

And You shed a tear for me…

Someone shed a tear for me   

Confession

Been going through my poetry lately.  I have a lot that I've typed up over the years and much that I haven't.  There are a couple of hundred poems littered throughout notebooks that I've kept from high school to the present.  Some are long, some are short, some are good, some are bad.  The strange thing is that I remember the circumstances surrounding the writing of each of them.  Many were written in the margins as I was taking notes for classes, seminars, sermons, and other things.  I tend to prefer doing more than one thing at once, so I'll be listening and writing simultaneously quite often - one part of my brain working on a poem, outline, etc while the other part pays attention and urges my hand to write down pertinent notes. 

This one, entitled "Confession", was written around a decade ago:

Oh this pale reflection of my withered soul

Oh this fragile communion struggling to grow

Whilst staring into the eyes of who I’ve been, what I’ve done, who I am

Stubborn and selfish, adhering to my own plans

Take these hands

Take these feet

Make them clean once again

Take the eyes and let them see

All the wonders of your hand

Oh this unholy cloak of righteousness I wear

Barren but sturdy, now showing a tear

It’s just so hard to break free of who I am

Upon my own power it is impossible to stand

Take these hands

Take these feet

Let them be made holy

Take my eyes

Take my ears

So all of my senses are driven by You only

Oh this pale reflection of my withered soul

Oh this empty heart looking for the pieces to be made whole

Who I’ve been is not who I want to be

I now look to You, to become like Thee

Take these hands

Take these feet

Let them bear the burdens you send

Take my eyes

Take my ears

This fragile body I can no longer tend

Studying Hebrews: Don't Turn Back

"Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift

away from it.  For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable

and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall

we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?"  Hebrews 2:1-3 (ESV)

Studying Hebrews for a small group has led me to much thought, prayer, and reflection.  In this book, the writer is encouraging a group of believers to stand fast and not return to the old way of The Law.  He makes a great argument, showing how much better it is to have revelation directly from God instead of through His intermediaries, the angels and prophets.  The person of Christ is the fulfillment of The Law, the one to whom the Old Testament pointed to.  He was made perfect in His suffering and, in doing so, can sympathize with us in our own suffering and temptation.  What a great Savior!

In thinking about this, I not only reflected on The Law and returning to it, but also in how I (and I'm sure others) can be tempted to return to old ways in our own lives.  While we are saved through Jesus' work on the cross, the flesh is not fully dead.  

I'm someone who has had a lot of work done, but I still need A LOT of work.  Even so, I realize how God has changed me over time, delivering me from things such as anger, lying, manipulation, and a long list of many other things.  At one point, however, I felt that each of those things was a part of me and I didn't want to let go.  I was just made that way, so why should I need to change?  Yet real freedom was found in releasing them; I have become more myself as God has worked in me over time - and there is still a long way to go.

This doesn't mean there's not temptation to return to old habits.  It's easy and comfortable to sink into the old ways, to feel those old feelings, but it's not as good as freedom that comes as we surrender ourselves to God, piece by piece, and He releases us from our burdens.  I've found that the more I give to Him, the less anxious I am.  He gives us peace, even in strenuous circumstances.

It is important to move forward, claiming Christ's victory and surrendering to Him daily.  We will all do it imperfectly, but His plan for us is so much greater than anything we can try to will for ourselves.

If you know me, you'll not be shocked that I'll reference a piece of music at this point.  If you REALLY know me, you'll not be surprised that it is by a band called U2.  Maybe you've heard of them.  It's called "Walk On".  

Lord, show us what we have held back from You in our lives and give us the strength, faith, and courage to hand it over to you.  All that we see, all that we feel, all that we build, all that we break.  Show us what we can leave behind.  Amen.

And love is not the easy thing
The only baggage you can bring
And love is not the easy thing
The only baggage you can bring
Is all that you can't leave behind

And if the darkness is to keep us apart
And if the daylight feels like it's a long way off
And if your glass heart should crack
And for one second you turn back
Oh no, be strong

Walk on, walk on
What you got they can't steal it
No, they can't even feel it
Walk on, walk on
Stay safe tonight

You're packing a suitcase for a place none of us has been
A place that has to be believed to be seen
You could have flown away
A singing bird in an open cage
Who will only fly, only fly for freedom

Walk on, walk on
What you've got they can't deny it
Can't sell it or buy it
Walk on, walk on
You stay safe tonight

And I know it aches, how your heart it breaks
You can only take so much
Walk on, walk on

Home, hard to know what it is if you've never had one
Home, I can't say where it is but I know I'm going home
That's where the hurt is

And I know it aches and your heart it breaks
And you can only take so much
Walk on

Leave it behind
You've got to leave it behind
All that you fashion
All that you make
All that you build
All that you break
All that you measure
All that you feel
All this you can leave behind
All that you reason
It's only time
All that you bear
No more than a feeling on my mind
All that you see
All that you wear
All that you sense
All that you scheme
All you dress up
All that you've seen
All you create
And all that you wreck
All that you hate

Hebrews Small Group - Safety Harbor Covenant Church

SMALL GROUP BIBLE STUDY:

HEBREWS

WEEK 1    January 10, 2012     Introduction and Background

          Reading:                  None             

Discussion:                       Examining the context of Hebrews while discussing its origins,

                                     potential writers, etc.        

                                   

WEEK 2    January 17, 2012     The Finality of Christianity

          Reading:               Hebrews 1:1-2:18    

Discussion:           The end of God's revelation

                                    Christ's supremacy

                                    The relationship between the Gospel and the Law

                                    The Savior and High Priest

WEEK 3    January 24, 2012     Our True Home

Reading:               Hebrews 3:1-4:13

          Discussion:              Jesus greater than Moses

                                                The seriousness of rejecting Christ

                                                The True Rest of God                     

                                               

WEEK 4    January 31, 2012     The High Priesthood of Christ

Reading:               Hebrews 4:14-6:20

          Discussion:              Jesus' Priesthood as encouragement

                                                Jesus' qualifications for High Priesthood

                                                Spiritual immaturity

                                                Dead works and falling away

                                                God's steadfast promise

WEEK 5    February 7, 2012     The Order of Melchizidek

Reading:               Hebrews 7:1-28

          Discussion:              The Priest-King and His Greatness

                                                Imperfection of Aaron's Priesthood

                                                Superiority of Christ's Priesthood

WEEK 6    February 14, 2012   Covenant, Sanctuary, and Sacrifice

Reading:               Hebrews 8:1-10:18

          Discussion:              Priesthood and Promise

                                                The Old Covenant Surpassed

                                                The Old Sanctuary

                                                Eternal redemption

                                                Christ as mediator

                                                Jesus' perfection

                                                Shadows from the past

                                                The New Order

WEEK 7    February 21, 2012   Call To Worship, Faith, and Perseverance

Reading:               Hebrews 10:19-12:29

          Discussion:              Direct access to God through Jesus' sacrifice

                                                Apostasy an act of will

                                                Perseverance

                                                What is faith, past and present?

                                                The City of God

                                                Jesus, Pioneer and Perfecter of Faith

                                                Acting on our Faith

WEEK 8    February 28, 2012   Conclusion Of The Argument

Reading:               Hebrews 13:1-25

          Discussion:              Christian ethics

                                                Examples to follow

                                                Christian sacrifice

                                                Submission to Guides

                                                Overview of Hebrews and what we've examined