The Time of the Season

It's October! The world around us is getting ready for pumpkins, hayrides, and Halloween. I see costumes and decorations. And I hear the question, "Who ya gonna be for Halloween?" A superhero, a pirate, a zombie? And that's the question, isn't it? "Who are we?"  

What's your name? Who's your daddy?   

Well, one thing I know for sure, we were all once zombies. You know…the walking dead, an imitation of life, driven to fill the gnawing need inside. Before Jesus we were all zombies…But then we received His call.. 

Hidden in the 60s song "Time of the Season" by the Zombies we hear the Father's sovereign call to intimacy, to relationship. We also hear the call to learn of our new identity (Who is our Daddy?) and how to walk in that identity. And we actually hear this in the right order, in an order that we don't always her in church, in the order that brings life. I find that completely amazing..

 
To show you every one  It's the time of the season for loving

 
This call is amazing, this call to relationship, to intimacy. In our Christian walk we so often frame our redemption as God saving us, changing us, fixing our problems, but it is so much more. In fact, if all we see is God saving us from our sin, we are missing something integral to who He is and how He views us. Our God desires US, deep intimate relationship with you, with me. There's passion here.  


And let me try With pleasured hands To take you and the sun to Promised lands   


The passion of the Lover for His Bride. We need to experience this intimacy, this passion, know it deep down in our soul, our being. It is out of this intimacy with the Father, with the Son, that ALL else flows.

 
What's your name? Who's your daddy?  
 

But after we receive His call, if you're anything like me, we jump right in to "how do I live this new life?" We don't give ourselves time, a chance to discover who this God is and how He loves us with such a passion. It is so much easier to 'do' than to 'be'.  


What's your name? Who's your daddy?   He rich? Is he rich like me? 


I need to get to know Him and I need to know my identity in Him before I can begin to understand who I truly am. Because who He sees me as, who He's made me to be, is radically different from what the world has declared me to be. I was once rejected, now I am accepted. I was once labeled a Misfit, now I am named Beloved. I was once spiritually poor, now I am rich in Him, because He is rich in goodness towards me. It's a whole paradigm shift. If I don't understand who I am, who He knows me to be, how will I be able to walk in my new identity and see His will for my life fulfilled? 


Has he taken Any time To show you what you need to live?


When we enter into intimacy and begin to understand who we are, then we are ready to learn how to walk in our new identity…because I can't fully walk in it until I know who I am. And there is a tremendous amount of comfort in knowing how thoroughly He loves me. When it's not just a theory; when I experience His perfect love for me, it drives out fear. And let me tell you, that is very freeing!   

Now that we are secure in who He is and how He loves us, now that we know who we really are in Him, we can begin to walk out our lives as He wants us to, lead and empowered by His Spirit resident in us.


Tell it to me slowly 
Tell you what? I really want to know


So often in the church we have it all backwards. We think if we obey His instruction, then we will know who we are and only then will He take us to that intimate place. But then along comes a song by the Zombies with a beautiful truth hidden inside. He loves you, He loves me. And He has called us by name. When we, as His Body, get the truth of His love, this identity, seated deep down in our spirit, our soul, it will change us forever. And it will free us to take the truth of His love to the world around us, no longer merely an act of obedience but as a natural outflow of His life in us! We'll do it because it's who we are..

Do you hear it? Do you hear Him calling you?

 
It's the time of the season 
When the love runs high

It's the time of the season for love…




It's the time of the season 
When the love runs high 
In this time, give it to me easy 
And let me try With pleasured hands 
To take you and the sun to Promised lands 
To show you every one 
It's the time of the season for loving

What's your name? (What's your name?) 
Who's your daddy? (Who's your daddy? He rich?) 
Is he rich like me?

Has he taken (Has he taken) 
Any time (Any time to show) 
To show you what you need to live? 
Tell it to me slowly 
Tell you what? I really want to know 
It's the time of the season for loving

Time of the Season
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBxK3CcOQD8

There's A Song In There

"There's a song in there" I say and I hear my son groan softly in the seat beside me. He knows what's coming, my singing some snippet of a song to punctuate a point I'm making, he having to endure my off-key rendition of some '60s tune he's never heard before. And I chuckle…But that tune reinforces my point, which is why I love to sing it. Somehow the lyrical melody and the message of the words meld together into something meaningful, memorable. There's insight and truth in the songs we sing.

I first came to know the reality of God and felt His loving embrace in the early 80s. It was a time of backward masking and breaking "secular records", of eschewing the world's music and finding the wonder of Christian rock. (Hey man, I still love Petra!) But I've since learned that if we listen, we can hear Him speaking in the world around us, communicating His love, His longing for us, His truth, in a most surprising place, the songs of our generation. Because ultimately He desires relationship with us. He calls to our heart, He woos us, He speaks our language in the songs of our life.

He hides Himself in plain site for us to find. And He invites us to discover Him. To discover His infinite love and beauty, His redemption and His grace and in the process, we discover our true selves. How He loves us, who He created us to be. It might be a bumpy road. We might find ourselves in unfamiliar territory. We may walk down low valley roads or climb mountain highs, we might cross rivers wide. But He's worth it. Will you take the journey with me?

Ain't No Mountain High Enough
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGBXIK5TZjs&feature=related