{"id":18052,"date":"2018-03-14T07:34:38","date_gmt":"2018-03-14T11:34:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=18052"},"modified":"2018-03-14T07:35:57","modified_gmt":"2018-03-14T11:35:57","slug":"worship-wednesday-all-my-hope-is-in-jesus-with-david-crowder-and-tauren-wells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=18052","title":{"rendered":"Worship Wednesday – All My Hope Is In Jesus – with David Crowder and Tauren Wells"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Photo Credit: Twitter; The Promise FM<\/a><\/p>\n

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!\u00a0According to his great mercy,\u00a0he has caused us to be born again to a living hope\u00a0through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>to\u00a0an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and\u00a0unfading,\u00a0kept in heaven for you,\u00a0who by God\u2019s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation\u00a0ready to be revealed in the last time.\u00a0In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that\u00a0the tested genuineness of your faith\u2014more precious than gold that perishes\u00a0though it is tested by\u00a0fire\u2014may be found to result in\u00a0praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. – <\/em>1 Peter 1:3-6<\/a><\/p>\n

My family didn’t start our lives going to church. I was probably 6 years old before God even came into much of our conversation or routines at home. By then, my mom had long felt the weight of caring for four kids by herself. My father (not the sweet step-dad I write about but my biological father)…my father just couldn’t seem to get out of his own way. Unemployed and uncaring. By the time I started school, we had moved several times, and Mom finally divorced my dad (for my Mom at that point, weary and without hope, it was just “one less mouth to feed”).<\/p>\n

When neighbors persisted in inviting us to church, we finally accepted their invitation. It was then that we discovered something bigger than what we’d known before. A God who loved us…even more than our Mom did…and her love was fierce. A God who truly cared for us and who had been there all along for us…and we just didn’t see it.<\/p>\n

The church* through which we discovered God was a little congregation, situated between two small Southern towns. Those folks extended love to a wildish little family that had no upbringing in the whole God thing. We soaked it up – all the Bible stories, all the hymns about God’s character, and all the love.<\/p>\n

When David Crowder<\/a> sings, along with Tauren Wells<\/a>, I am reminded of those early days in that church. My older brother and I got saved the first summer we were there. We were also baptized together in a sawmill pond. I remember singing songs on Sunday nights or during protracted revival services<\/a>…songs that seemed to go on forever, or at least until the Spirit got hold of our hearts.<\/p>\n

Crowder’s song All My Hope Is In Jesus<\/em> reminds me of the songs of that day. The lyrics are full of sin and redemption…of where we once were, far from God, and need be no more…of lives changed when surrendered to the Savior. There’s a load of hope in those songs.\"\"<\/a>Photo Credit: YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n

Earlier this week, just driving back home from doing errands, some memories flashed back into my consciousness…memories of a rougher time in my life. A time when I had allowed myself to stray from the nearness of God and the hope He’d given me.<\/p>\n

Those memories of a wayward time wrapped tightly around me, in that moment, like the bondage of sin I knew in those days. It was so real…and terrifying. The shame of it…and the deceit. For a season, I had believed lies and chose the world over the One who had chosen me.<\/p>\n

Praise God…those memories, like the sins He forgave, are not today’s reality. Today, “all my sins are forgiven; I’ve been washed by the blood”.<\/p>\n

If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.<\/em> – 1 John 1:7<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

If you will, worship<\/a> with me the God who holds us, who forgives us, and forgets what separated us from Him. That yesterday is gone! Today we can be “born again to a living hope\u00a0through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>to\u00a0an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and\u00a0unfading,\u00a0kept in heaven for you”…<\/em>for us. [1 Peter 1:3-4<\/a>]<\/p>\n

I’ve been held by the Savior
\nI’ve felt fire from above
\nI’ve been down to that river
\nAnd I ain’t the same, a prodigal returned<\/p>\n

All my hope is in Jesus
\nThank God my yesterday’s gone
\nAll my sins are forgiven
\nI’ve been washed by the blood<\/p>\n

I’m no stranger to the prison
\nI’ve worn shackles and chains
\nI’ve been freed and forgiven (yes, I have)
\nI’m not going back, I’ll never be the same
\nThat’s why I sing<\/p>\n

All my hope is in Jesus
\nThank God my yesterday’s gone
\nAll my sins are forgiven
\nOh, I’ve been washed by the blood<\/p>\n

There’s a kind of thing that just breaks a man
\nBreak him down to his knees
\nGod, I’ve been broken more than a time or two
\nYes, Lord, but He picked me up and showed me
\nWhat it means to be a man<\/p>\n

So I sing
\nAll my hope is in Jesus
\nThank God my yesterday’s gone (it’s gone, yes)
\nAll my sins are forgiven
\nOh, I’ve been washed by the blood<\/p>\n

Oh I’ve been washed by the blood<\/p>\n

Thank You, Jesus**<\/p>\n