Uncover me O Lord

Yesterday I was talking with a good friend of mine at LU about the worship CD/DVD that he and his band recorded. The title track of the CD is called Uncover. This blog is not going to be one of the easiest blogs that I've written, just because of the questions that must be asked in it. As I was listening to the song yesterday and today, I was "uncovered" in my heart by the Lord in response to a passage that I had read yesterday in Romans Chapter 3. It was a hard day yesterday to go through, simply because when I was shown in all it's gritty reality just how dirty I am compared to a holy and loving God, it gave me no other option than to let God uncover the motives of my heart and realize how deep a rescue I needed when He saved me, and how much rescue I need on a daily basis as He saves me over and over from my selfish motivations. I wanted to share the song with you guys and some observations that I made from the Romans 3 passage:

Romans 3 vs 1-4-"Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written,"That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged."

When I read that passage, I found myself as a Christian living in modern America, are we any different than the Jews talked about in those verses ? The Jews back then considered themselves a spirtually elite group of people, and as verse 2 points out, they were entrusted with the very words of God to them, and that knowledge, coupled with their sin, made them a very arrogant, spiritually elite group of people. I ask, are we any different today ? We pour millions of dollars into things that don't matter, but when it comes to doing the right things in life, we're arrogant about it, in the way we talk to people who don't know Christ, as well as to others in the church who we deem to be "less a Christian". That broke my heart yesterday when I thought about how so many of us profess to worship the Lord and that we want to follow Him in our lives, but yet in my own life, and I'm sure in many others, the attitude of our heart and our actions just don't line up. I think God knows that too, because He puts His finger on that attitude of our hearts in the next set of verses.

11-18-"as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." "Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive." "The venom of asps is under their lips." "Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness." "Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known." "There is no fear of God before their eyes."

As i reflect on that portion of the passage, I'm reminded how so many times I'm no different from alot of LU students. It's generally accepted around here that there are alot of students here who don't want to be here, either because they don't like the rules, or their parents sent them here, or for whatever reason, it's easy to see the fruits of that attitude of that heart. I see and hear so much frustration, bitterness, anger and many other feelings on a regular basis that's it's so easy in my own life to not reflect on who God is. It's much easier alot of times to be just like many others, just disinterested in God, unmotivated, apatheic, and just trying to pass the time without really growing in their faith. I'm not offering that as an excuse, but I see the parallel again with the Jewish people talked about in this passage. They put on the church face and professed to be God-honoring Jews, but in all actuality they were putting on the facade that 1000s of us Christians put on every single day as we take more and more control of our lives. Thankfully, God has an antidote for that in the last passage:

23-26 "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."

As much as so many of us want to avoid it, the grace of God is real. Even though we were so dirty before a holy God, HE took the initiative to make a way for our hearts to be revealed to us to see how much we need rescue. As much as the holiness of God shines forth in the verses preceding, the grace of God comes through loud and clear in that last passage, but sadly, so many of us don't want to accept it. We'd rather be the typical Christian, who is so stressed out and frustrated and unhappy and unfulfilled that they don't even take the time to be "uncovered" before our God to get the healing and grace that we need.

The point I think of these thoughts I'm putting down is not to beat you up or to beat me up and just be left to be downtrodden and depressed. As real as it is how much we need rescuing on a daily basis from ourselves, the fact remains that God is ALWAYS there, everyday, ready to show you how much you need Him and how much He loves you and wants to save you and have intimate fellowship with Him. The hard part is that we have to allow Him to "uncover" the motives of our heart in order to truly accept that grace and healing, but hey, would you rather reveal yourself to Him and feel the best love you'll ever feel, or, will you be like countless Christians, who just go on and on with the facade everyday, never operating at peak capacity, never enjoying the love that you were meant to enjoy for all eternity. If you want to, listen to the words of the song Uncover, it's a perfect prayer for someone who is crying out to God to be rescued and loved on like the newborn child that you are to God.

Uncover

Break me, take me, make me new. Broken, surrendered, before You. When you meet me here I am found, in all my weakness. my gifts alone can't make a sound, that You are pleased with. The light of your presence reveals my heart. It's there in that moment, I'm set apart. Holy Father, uncover me. You, the truth that sets me free. Break my pride 'till all I see, is all of You uncovering me. Your gaze has brought me to my knees. Lord, I am broken, my heart alone is all you see, exposed and open. The light of your presence reveals my heart. It's there in that moment, I'm set apart. Holy Father, uncover me. You, the truth that sets me free. Break my pride 'till all I see, is all of You uncovering me.