Rock Gardens In the Air

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.  (1 Thess. 4:16-17, NASB)

Toby Mac raps a song titled "In the Air" in which he has a lamenting dream about his friend not being part of the rapture:

I had a dream last night about the other side
And I must confess that it was quite the ride
I had a dream last night and the fact that you weren't there
Gave me quite the scare (Ah-huh)
You see people were afloat all around me
Yet their weightless state never seemed to astound me
Everything was grand 'til I noticed one thing
That you my friend weren't on the scene

William Fay had a dream too:

One night I had a dream.   A woman clutched a little girl, struggling to hold her child's head above the water.   Nearby, a wave plunged a man into its salty depths.  He choked for air as he thrashed his arms against a ceiling of water.  All around, the ocean churned with drowning people ...  

Then a huge rock appeared, and a voice called into the darkness.   People began crawling up the rock's craggy sides to safety.

But when they got to safety, something happened that drove me almost goofy.  The people who emerged from the waves got busy.  They got involved building rock gardens, rock lives, rock jobs, listening to their rock music and going to rock meetings where they talked about the people who were still drowing in the ocean.   But nobody went back to the water's edge to help. (Fay, p.5)

There may be a number of reasons why we don't fulfil the commission set by Jesus (going into all the world and making disciples):

Fear of rejection

The parable of the sower in Mark 4 and Luke 8 teaches us that the message will be rejected by some as the seed falls on the path; some will fall away as the seed falls on rocky ground; some will be unfruitful as the seed falls amongst the thorns; but some seed will fall on good soil and reproduce 30, 60 and 100-fold.

It's a biblical principle that Jesus' disciples will be rejected:

All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. (Mark 13:13 NIV)

But this rejection also brings with it a blessing:

Blessed are you when men hate you, and ostracize you, and insult you, and scorn your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man. (Luke 6:22 NASB)

Share the gospel first.  Build relationships later.   Remember, it is for His sake.

Fear of reproach

In Acts 5, Peter and the Apostles were investigated for speaking the name of Jesus:

"We gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this name, and yet, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and intend to bring this man's blood upon us." (v.28)

and Peter's reply should give us encouragement when we fear the reproach of man:

"We must obey God rather than men". (v.29)

and when they were flogged for preaching the name of Jesus, they rejoiced and continued with their task!

... after calling the apostles in, they flogged them and ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and then released them. So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name. And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. (vv. 40-42)

Don't know how to start?

It's the age of religious tolerance.  Whether you consider that is good or bad is a matter of perspective. The point is that religious tolerance is a topical contemporary discussion and it is reasonable to respectfully discuss religious matters and opinions with others.  William Fay suggests 5 questions that help to lead someone to a discussion about faith in Jesus Christ:

1. Do you have any kind of spiritual beliefs?
2. To you, who is Jesus Christ?
3. Do you think there is a heaven or hell?
4. If you died, where would you go?  If heaven, why?
5. If what you are believing is not true, would you want to know?  (Fay, p.33)

With this last question, the person gives you permission to share with them.

Fortunately William Fay's ocean and Toby Mac's In the Air are only dreams, but they serve as great reminders to us of our very real and current mission:

... Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.  Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."   (Matt. 28:18-20 NASB)

We are not alone in our mission.  Note Jesus' last words in the Gospel of Matthew:

"I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

He is with us!


(Toby Mac's plan to rectify the problem is seen in the latter part of his song, and Fay's strategy for sharing Jesus is spelled out through his book, but I won't spoil them for you...!)

References:

Fay, W. (1999). Share Jesus Without Fear. 1st ed. Nashville: B & H Publishing Group, pp.5, 33.

Damn the Absolute!

"Damn the Absolute!"   Please pardon the expression which is a quote of William James from Os Guinness in Fool's Talk, but it does take us straight to the jugular.

Why is the absolute so scary for some?

The Barna Research Group reports that 57% of Americans claim that knowledge of right and wrong is a matter of personal experience and a whopping 74% of Millennials (born 1984-2002) agree that “Whatever is right for your life or works best for you is the only truth you can know."   Sadly, in the same study under the category of "The Morality of Self-Fulfilment", 76% of practicing christians agree that "The best way to find yourself is by looking within yourself", and 61% (of practicing christians) agree that "People can believe whatever they want as long as those beliefs don't affect society."   Does this mean that they believe that what they've got (inside themselves) is better than that which Jesus Christ offers?   This is not okay.   The eternal destinity of every individual in the world depends on what they believe.

Ray Comfort addresses Relative Morality in his documentary-style movie Evolution Vs. God which you can stream at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0u3-2CGOMQ.  The Relative Morality part starts at the 21 minute time-mark.   In this video, Ray Comfort discusses the problem of failing to have moral absolutes.  That problem has a huge impact on the society around us.  A culture without absolutes can not survive.

Another problem with the absolute is its origin.   We can find absolutes in many areas:  time, morality, cultural norms... but each one of these absolutes has an impact on our belief system and our worldview. 

This brings us to the pointy end of the discussion:   if we can look within ourselves to find ourselves, then there is no need for any absolutes.   If we had no absolutes, we would have no crime, no sin, and no need for ... wait!   Did I say "No Sin"??   There's the answer.  If we do away with absolutes, then we will have no moral absolutes, no law of God and no sin.  Therefore we would not need to admit to our sin (because it wouldn't exist) and have no need for conviction of sin or salvation.   We would be unaccountable to any and every person (and God).   There, very simply, is the psychology of the rejection of absolutes.

In Romans 7:15-24, Paul eloquently describes the problem of the fleshly human nature and the desire to do that which is contrary to the law of God.   He says in Romans 1:20,

For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - His eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

Yet, we see excuses to disregard God, and one such excuse is the deliberate rejection of absolutes.   Rejection of absolutes means rejection of God's grace and offer of salvation, and the embracing of evil practices and acts.   So it gets worse...

Although they knew God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them (Rom. 1:32)

It sounds very much like the culture we live in, yet Paul's letter to the Romans was penned around 2,000 years ago.

On the flipside, the beauty of this problem is that the whole issue of absolutes and moral absolutes can be used in an apologetics sense to turn people to the truth which does in fact exist and is found in the Word of God.  

All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness (2 Tim. 3:16)

The Lord declares in Isaiah 55:11,

so is my word that goes out from my mouth: it will not return to me empty but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

 A discussion about the purpose of absolutes in God's plan for mankind must lead people to the sin problem: the separation of man from the intended perfect relationship with God, thus exposing the need for the Saviour, Jesus.




References:

Barna Group. (2016). The End of Absolutes: America's New Moral Code - Barna Group. [online] Available at: https://www.barna.com/research/the-end-of-absolutes-americas-new-moral-code/ [Accessed 18 Oct. 2016].

Guinness, O. (2016). Fool's Talk: Recovering the Art of Christian Persuasion. 1st ed. Downer's Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

Our Temporary Home

Looking around

Do you ever feel out of place?   That you don't belong?   That you don't fit in?   That's because we don't belong here on earth; at least, not in the long term.   This is our temporary home.

King David also wondered about the evil around him, and why wrongdoers seem to prosper, and wicked, violent men grow like a healthy tree, but he also recognised God's guiding hand on those who are righteous.   You can read more about these thoughts of David in Psalm 37.  

Jesus told his disciples, "If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own.  As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world."  Jn. 15:19a,b

Looking ahead

2 Peter 3:

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. v10 (NASB)

But according to His promise, we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. v13 (NASB)

 
In his book The Late Great Planet Earth, Hal Lindsey correctly interprets 2 Peter 3:13 when he says that we want to be in the new heaven and earth.   The NASB says we "are looking for" whereas the NIV says we "are looking forward to" (the new heavens and the new earth).   We should be looking forward to it because that is how God has programmed us - to desire righteous living, and perfect relationship with Him!

Then Christ will put the atoms back together to form a new heaven and earth, in which only glorified persons without their sinful natures will live.   There will be no more rebellion of man's will against God; only righteousness, peace, security, harmony and joy.   That's where we want to be!  (Lindsey, 179)

Chris Hadfield says in An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth,

"I am actually leaving the planet today", 

but we can't all be as sure as Hadfield about the day we will leave!   The fact is that we will leave. 

A day is coming when Jesus will return and take believers to be with Him.   We will spend eternity with Him in glorified form, in the new heaven and the new earth.   How are you preparing for His return?

 

Hadfield, Chris, 2013, An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth, Macmillan, London

Lindsey, Hal, 1970, The Late Great Planet Earth, Zondervan, Grand Rapids

The Cat Hunt

The Cat Hunt, or The Theology of the Seeker

Does the mouse hunt the cat?   Does the deer hunt the man?   Is a seeker really a seeker?  Why does Francis Thompson call God the "Hound of Heaven"?   A friend often says, "My wife chased me for years until I caught her":  I think he's giving us a clear and sound theological analogy of God's calling on our lives.  Why has "seeker" philosophy crept into our modern-church vocabularies?


God called to Adam and Eve, "Where are you?"   In their sin and shame, Adam and Eve hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden (Gen 3:8-9, NIV).  They did not seek him in their shame, but He sought and found them and confronted them in their sin.  About fleeing from God, Thompson wrote:

I fled Him down the nights and down the days...
I fled Him down the Labyrinthine ways...
I hid from Him, under running laughter...
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after...

Still with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbed pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
Came on the following Feet ...   (Thompson, Hound of Heaven, abridged)

In his autobiography Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life in the pentultimate chapter Checkmate, C.S. Lewis reflects on his philosophising as an athiest:

Amiable agnostics will talk cheerfully about "man's search for God".   To me, as I then was, they might as well have talked about the mouse's search for the cat.

You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet.

In his epic song Deathbed, band Reliant K's Matt Thiessen sings as a man lamenting his life at its end:

I was so scared of Jesus
But He sought me out
Like the cancer in my lungs
It's killing me now ...

After all, seeking (and saving, or seeking with a purpose) is Jesus' mission:  "The Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."  (Lk. 19:10)

I have two close friends who each know that God has called them to surrender their lives to His control.  One says in all seriousness, "God has been chasing me for years.  He'll catch me one day."  The other says, "God demands my all.  Until I'm prepared to surrender all to Him, I'm not going to say yes."   I hope and pray that they don't leave it too long and miss out.

God doesn't stop when He "catches us".  He provides ongoing care and relationship.  Take Psalm 139 as an example: 

"O Lord, you have searched me and you know me" ... "Where can I go from your Spirit?"   (vv. 1, 7)

This is a rhetorical question, answered by the writer David,

"If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there.  If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there your hand will lead me, and your right hand will lay hold of me."  (vv. 8-10)

So what's the application of this article?  If you're reading this as a believer, don't fall for the modern lie that the gospel has to be watered down for "seekers".   People have an eternal cancer that will separate them from the presence of God unless they recognise their desperate need of salvation, so take them directly to their sin and need of the Saviour, Jesus Christ.   If you are reading this as a non-believer, don't run from the Saviour, Jesus; rather surrender to Him and allow Him to save you from your sin.   He loves you so much that He died on the Cross to take the punishment for your sin, so that you don't have to make the payment with eternal death on judgment day.

PS:  The photograph is not included to make light of a very serious matter, but rather to provide a visual by which you may remember the truths in this article. 

Photo credit:  https://hrexach.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/shootfair.jpg?w=462&h=453

Who is this Jesus I worship?

Who is Jesus?  

His full title is The Lord Jesus Christ.

He is Lord

He is the Almighty Creator.   "In the beginnning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made."  Jn. 1:1-3.  "For by Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him.   He is before all things and in Him all things hold together."  Col. 1:16-17

Lord is defined as Authority or Master.  So, in His person, He is Lord.   That is, He has authority over all creation including created beings.   Even though not all creation acknowledges Him as Lord or gives Him Lordship, the fact remains that He is Lord over all.   Phil. 2:10-11 makes it clear that everyone will acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord, "Every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

Do you acknowledge His Lordship to the exclusion of all else?

He is God in the flesh, Jesus

"You shall give Him the name Jesus because he shall save his people from their sins."  Mt. 1:21

"He is the image of the invisible God", Col. 1:15.   Wow!  God made Himself visible to man and walked amongst us.   He was born as a baby, experienced all the trials and temptations, had feelings and compassion, yet was entirely God at the same time, "In Christ, all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form" Col. 2:9.

When He commenced His ministry, people were wondering who He was.  The account of Jesus healing the paralytic man can be seen in the parallel passages of Matt. 9, Mark 2 and Luke 5.   Jesus healed the paralytic man, but this was a 2-stage miracle:

In the first instance, Jesus healed the man's spiritual needs.   Clearly his spiritual needs were more important than his physical needs.  Jesus said, "Son, your sins are forgiven."

Mark and Luke report that the teachers of the law thought to themselves, "Who can forgive sins but God alone?", and accused Jesus of blasphemy, that is, claiming to be God.

Even though Jesus had already forgiven the paralytic man for his sin, and the forgiveness was complete, there was no physical and tangible evidence for the people who were present.   It is easy for people to use words, but the words can be empty and meaningless.   Jesus decided to demonstrate with physical evidence that He was indeed God Himself and had the power to forgive sin.  

Jesus then performed the second miracle, healing the man's physical problem, "Get up, take your mat and walk."   The physical healing demonstrated His authority and power over creation, an attribute belonging to God alone, thus defeating the allegation of blasphemy arising from the first miracle.

The paralytic man was saved from his sins and healed from his physical disability by God in the flesh, Jesus.

He is the Christ

Jesus asked His disciples, "Who do people say I am?"  (Mark 8:27)    Peter, the unskilled, unschooled fisherman, knew who He was, "You are the Christ."  But even with this special revelation, Peter was not able to grasp the full implications of Christ the Messiah's role in saving His people (Mt. 16:17, 22).  Peter was looking for a mighty warrior, not a servant-Messiah who would die for the sins of the people.  Yet at times, even His family did not recognise who he was and doubted his sanity when He started His teaching ministry:  "He is out of His mind."  (Mark 3:21)

For many hundreds of years, people were looking forward to the Messiah appearing and had many clues to His origin, (for example, Micah 5:2).   Everyone including the Samaritan woman knew that the Messiah was coming, "I know that the Messiah" (called Christ) "is coming", she said in John 4:25.   Then Jesus declared "I who speak to you am He".   What an exciting day for that woman and her village!  The long-awaited Messiah was amongst them in bodily form, healing their spiritual disease and teaching them.

Jesus will come to claim His bride, the church.   He will then return in great glory as the triumphant Messiah-King (Micah 2:12-13, Rev. 19:11-16 and others).   Many will mourn, so be ready and don't be amongst the mourners!  (Matt 24:30)

"Behold, I am coming soon!"  Rev. 22:7

"He who is coming will come and will not delay" Heb. 10:37


Credit:  The beautiful photograph is from https://www.lds.org/bible-videos/videos/jesus-forgives-sins-and-heals-a-man-stricken-with-palsy?lang=eng#gallery=img-3

What I'm Reading: Breakout Churches

Breakout Churches by Thom Rainer, published 2005, ePub Edition in January 2009

Thom Rainer as President of the Rainer Group is a church growth consultant who was inspired to write this book based on Jim Collins' book, Good to Great.

The book Breakout Churches tells the story of 13 local churches that did not accept the status quo.  These are not just 13 randomly selected churches - they had to meet a very strict set of criteria, and were measured against a control group.   The 13 churches were shortlisted from 50,000 churches researched.

The Rainer Group believes that any healthy church should be reaching one person with the gospel every 2 weeks.   They were looking for churches that had an annual conversion rate of 26 people; that is, it takes 20 members one year to reach one person.   There were other strict criteria too, including the requirement that the decline or slump, then the breakout, occured under the same Pastor.

Each of the 13 churches had a "Chrysalis factor" which was the trigger for growth.   The Chrysalis factor had some commonalities in the 13 churches that the control group did not have.

A common factor of breakout churches is that they have "Servant Leaders", which is a great study in itself and may feature as a blogspot in the future!

I am forever struck by Rainer's claim that

"It is a sin to be good if God has called us to be great".

Rainer quotes Bill Orr,

 "Churches do not remain plateaued.  They either begin to grow again or they begin to die."   

(That quote was a trigger for me to read the book "Autopsy of a Deceased Church", also by Rainer!)

Rainer provides some fascinating graphs of breakout church growth, and spends some time discussing leadership.  The key to Rainer's discussion of leadership focuses on the Acts 6/7 leader as a "Legacy Leader" (less than 1% of senior pastors according to his research).   He discloses that many of these legacy leaders (or Breakout Church Pastors) are reluctant leaders, and further, that there were no autocratic leaders in Breakout Churches.

Reinforcing the value of small groups, one of the Breakout Churches reported that most of their ministry occurs in small groups that meet in homes, and they have a strategy to plant a new church every time they reach 500 members.   This comes with a warning:

"Members who are involved in worship services alone tend to drift toward inactivity."   

Small groups provide opportunities to grow in spiritual health.

Growth will not occur unless local church leaders are willing to confront reality.  When you confront reality as a church leader, you will have what Rainer refers to as the "ABC moment" (Awareness, Belief and Crisis).   Rainer points out the risk of a church being inward looking, and the "deadly path" that follows as slow erosion.   The common factor in the ABC moment was that many of the leadership shared the experience, not just the senior pastor.

In his "how-to" or "where-to-from-here" chapter entitled "The Who/What Simultrack", Rainer quotes Collins emphasising:

'(the importance of getting) "the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus and the right people in the right seats" and then figuring out where to drive the bus'

Rainer describes the fascinating concept of the Freedom/Expectation Paradox and demonstrates why all Breakout Churches are alone in the High Expectation/High Freedom quadrant.

He describes how in some churches, the (program) becomes the tail wagging the dog, and some churches that don't have a vision even have the wagging tail, but no dog.   In speaking about innovation, he points out that innovation follows the growth of the church, unlike many churches where a new facility is constructed with the hope that it will engender growth itself.

Resilience is a key factor throughout the book.   Rainer says,

"The cost of becoming a breakout church, ironically, is most often the result of problems and conflicts with other believers.  Many of the comparison church leaders grew weary of the struggle with fellow Christians.  The breakout church leaders had no fewer conflicts, but they decided to persevere despite the pain and struggles."

Breakout Churches is a sound read and in my opinion is a good companion book for Becoming a Level 5 Multiplying Church by Todd Wilson and Dave Ferguson.   Breakout Churches is another quality book that can't be summed up adequately in a short article!

Breakout Churches is published by Zondervan.   I read the ePub version which I downloaded from iBooks.   At the time of publishing this article, it was on Amazon.com.au for $11.99.

Beware the Slow Fade

Are you a Master of Sin, or a Slave to Sin?   To ask another way, do you have mastery over sin or is sin your dictator?

Who (or what) is at the door of your heart?    Jesus says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me" (Rev. 3:20 NASB).   There's also a predator at the door:  "... if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door; it desires to have you but you must master it." (Gen. 4:7b NIV)

Notice the order of words in Gen. 4:7:  first is the attitude, then the attack.   The sin is not crouching waiting for you to open the door and make a decision, but in fact the decision of the heart is first, then the sin attack.   What is your heart attitude toward sin?   Cain's was already decided:  he had a bad attitude.  He knew the Lord and His commands, but due to his heart attitude, his offering was not accepted.   We see later in the OT that grain offerings were acceptable if made in the right attitude of heart, and that obedience is better than sacrifice:  "Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifice as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord?   To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams."  (1 Sam. 15:22 NIV).

"Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts" (CS Lewis, Screwtape Letters). 

Yes, the sin slide is a gradual one.   Jude gives a warning about this when he speaks of "The way of Cain" (Jude 11) and warns against ungodly men and their methods.   "These men speak abusively against whatever they do not understand; and what things they do understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals - these are the very things that destroy them" (v.10) "... they follow their own evil desires" (v.16)

Isn't it typical of God to give Cain another chance after his sacrifice was rejected?   We see this incredible grace of God as a scarlet thread throughout the entire scriptures, reinforced in the letter to the Church at Laodicea (Rev. 3:20).

Rom. 5:20, "The law was added so that the trespass might increase.  But where sin increased, grace increased all the more.

We are given the solution to the sin slavery problem:  Sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace (Rom. 6:14).  We are no longer powerless over sin because God sent His own Son ... to be a sin offering (Rom. 8:3).

There is certainly a conflict of the two natures, the old man and the new:  "The good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want." (Rom. 7:19)

CS Lewis has a lot to say about the conflict between the two natures in his brilliant book "Screwtape Letters":

"There is a subtle play of looks and tones and laughs by which a mortal can imply that he is of the same party as those to whom he is speaking.   That is the kind of betrayal you should specially encourage, because the man does not fully realise it himself; and by the time he does you will have made withdrawal difficult"

and then Screwtape offers a solution to man's sin-slide,

"The man who truly ... enjoys any one thing in the world, for its own sake, and without caring twopence about what other people say about it, is by that very fact fore-armed against some of our subtlest modes of attack."   

Do you single-mindedly desire to serve God and focus on Him to the exclusion of all else?

A rendering of Acts 1:8 shows us that as believers we have received power through the Holy Spirit to be God's witnesses, thus overcoming sin as we witness to the world.   What then is the application of this discussion?  Commit to live in the power of the Holy Spirit, desiring God and none other, being aware of the attitude of your heart and inclining your heart toward God more every day and resisting sin.   "Submit yourselves, then, to God.   Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." (James 4:7)

Slow Fade by Casting Crowns

Be careful little eyes what you see
It's the second glance that ties your hands
As darkness pulls the strings
Be careful little feet where you go
For it's the little feet behind you that are sure to follow

It's a slow fade when you give yourself away
It's a slow fade when black and white are turned to gray
And thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid
When you give yourself away
People never crumble in a day
It's a slow fade, it's a slow fade

Be careful little ears what you hear
When flattering leads to compromises, the end is always near
Be careful little lips what you say
For empty words and promises leave broken hearts astray

The journey from your mind to your hands
Is shorter than you're thinking
Be careful if you think you stand
You just might be sinking

People never crumble in a day

Daddies never crumble in a day
Families never crumble in a day

Oh, be careful little eyes what you see
For the Father up above is looking down in love
Oh, be careful little eyes what you see

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QASREBVDsLk

Songwriters: John Mark Hall

Slow Fade lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Drawing credit:  https://screwtapelettersjlams.wordpress.com/