Tune-y Tuesday (My Beloved)

Let me introduce you to Tune-y Tuesday!

I love music. A lot. So much! Music, I think, has a beautiful way of leading us to Jesus or pulling us from Him (though it can also do many many other things). Over the past season of life, however long that has been, Jesus has been calling me to redeem some of the music I listen to.

See, I love my pop music. I love my Katy Perry and Justin Bieber, and even a bit of Flo Rider. (One of the youth I work with went through my iTunes music the other day and said I didn't take you as a Flo Rider type of girl . . . and . . . You like every kind of music don't you? Yes I do) I love them. I love catchy music.

That's not wrong. It's not wrong of me to love music and to let myself dance to it. But it is an issue when the words that float in my head aren't life giving.

Music sticks with us. It is powerful. I read an article recently on how our music (in churches) needs to be more theologically sound than our sermons since it's the songs we sing in church that resonate in our head for the rest of the day. (I think they said something along the lines of, 'do you ever catch yourself singing the sermon?') I think that's a bit harsh in the sense that our sermons had sure better be theologically (big word which to me mainly just means pointing us to Jesus and using Him as our springboard for truth) sound.

I still love love love pop music and listen to it. But I'm being a bit more consciencous about listening to music that points me to Jesus more often than I listen to the ones that just make me laugh and dance. (note - this doesn't mean I only listen to Christian music. I think a LOT of Christian music is awful - poorly written and far too often just speaks about changing our morals rather than turning our hearts over to Jesus - what I'm doing is listening to good music that point me to Jesus. Some of the time it means that I listen to music written by people who love Jesus - and have found a way to write good music - and some of the time it means I listen for Jesus in other songs. Either way I hear Jesus.)

So thus begins Tune-y Tuesday. It's not Music Monday (giggle giggle) - well, maybe it is just on a different day. But I have a plan for Monday's that should probably start next week so I needed music to go on Tuesday (hence the "tune"-y part. Get it? Oh no - shoot)

I want to share music that I find life-giving. The songs that bring me to Jesus and put truth on my lips and heart, mind and soul.

Okay - enough preamble, what's the song????.

Today's song is My Beloved by Kari Jobe. 

I love it! Take a listen. Seriously - let your heart hear the words that Jesus has for you today.

Read these lyrics as the song sings to you. The bold parts were my prayers as I listened to it today.

You're My Beloved
You're My Bride
To sing over you is My delight

Seriously?
Come away with Me My love
Okay, but only if you're sure.

You're Beautiful to Me

Really? Cause I'm not sure.
So beautiful to Me
Oh, you said it twice - okay I guess you mean it Jesus.

Under My mercy
Come and wait
Till we are standing face to face
I see no stain on you

There are too many stains to count. Jesus, thank you for not counting them.
My child

You're Beautiful to Me
So Beautiful to Me

I sing over you My song of peace

Well, that's good because you know how restless I get.
Cast all your care down at My feet

This I can do. Holding on to them gets me no where at all.
Come and find your rest in Me

At this point in the song, I was driving and trying not to cry.

These words are so beautiful.

So overwhelming.

Jesus is so good.

I'll breathe My life inside of you

Sweet.
I'll bear you up on eagle's wings

Are you sure?
And hide you in the shadow of My strength

Then that is where I will rest.
I'll take you to My quiet waters
I'll restore your soul

Well Jesus, if you're sure about this, I'm going to take you up on this.
Come rest in Me and be made whole

You're My beloved
You're My Bride
To sing over you is my delight
Come away with me my love

The fact that Jesus cares for me is incredible. I listened to this song three times in a row. The first time I was just singing along like normal, but I felt like Jesus told me to stop singing and just rest in it.

So I did. I'm so thankful.

On Saturday, a dear person pointed at the mountains and said something like,

"Look at those. God sees more beauty in us than in those".

Whoa.

Rest in that truth today.

God sees no stain.

God sees us in perfection.

Yes we sin and need Him.

Our need for Him and our going to Him leads us to this beautiful rest in Him.

Rest in Him.

He loves you something fierce.

Side note (which is why it's over here on this side)

I write for a lovely blog call the be.loved blog.

It's such an honour to get to write there.

If you haven't checked them out yet you certainly should.

Jesus is doing cool work there.

This song made me think about all the people who read that blog.

I pray that Jesus tells them in this very moment that they are His beloved.

Side note over. Yay!

a Secondary Heartbeat - new blog name

What's in a name? A lot or a little? I can't quite decide. I have decided, however, to change the name of this blog.

When I moved to Vancouver just over two years ago, I came here to find God. I was sick of a double life and moved here to change my surroundings and I began a slow surrender to Jesus. It took me a while to find my Jesus feet again but eventually He found me!

At the beginning I mostly wrote about all the things I did but these days I write (and want to write more) about what God is teaching me. 

Thus begins

a Secondary Heartbeat. 

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I've got two heartbeats in me. One is my own. The other is run by Jesus. He's working in me to live for Him. 

One is natural and beats just like any other 'ol heart. The other beats for Jesus. He's pushing that secondary heartbeat to beat different than culture, different than human nature, and to beat exactly the way He designed it to beat.

At my church, they talk often about "checking your heart". It's a beautiful reminder to make sure that your heart is aligned with your Saviour. It's typically said when checking motivation for why you might be doing something. I want Jesus to be checking my heart. 

As sinners, we gravitate to sin. By Jesus, we're pushed into grace.

I need Christ to be my secondary heartbeat.

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I'm often told by people that they love my heart. I think I should assume they mean the way I demonstrate my love for Jesus (or at least I hope that's what I should assume since it might be odd if they actually love my physical heart).

To me, those compliments are both surprising and exciting - if only they saw the sickly sinful state of my heart! I sin often, need grace more than I think, and am constantly messing things up. Time for more grace. I have pride issues, fear issues, and more sins than I care to admit. The exciting part is that maybe just maybe Jesus is working in me! Okay, not maybe - Christ is working and demonstrating grace daily in me. Wow.

Jesus forgives my sins. 

Jesus is my hope. 

Jesus is my joy. 

Jesus fills my heart with peace and reminds me that He's not through with me yet.

There are two verses that I have called life verses, however cliche and awful the term "life verse" may sound like, for several years.

Proverbs 3:3 says:

 "Let love and faithfulness never leave you;

      bind them around your neck,

  write them on the tablet of your heart."

Matthew 14:14 says: 

"When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and      healed their sick."

These verses help me live out my secondary heartbeat. I attempt to live with love and with faithfulness bounded around me. I attempt to live with compassion for whomever I meet regardless of my personal circumstance or emotion. All these things are based out of a love for Jesus, only known because of all He did on the cross and by raising up from the dead. Oh praise Him!

Let's journey together.

Welcome to a Secondary Heartbeat.

On a strictly practical note, I changed the name because "from the sight of a city girl" is sooooooo long. I myself can barely remember it. I wanted things to be easier and to reflect my heart for Jesus. 

The new url is similar to my twitter name which I've been using for months to try it out and see if it fit. The url is www.nadinewouldsay.com because these are my words - and I say them. Easy peasy. So much better than before.

Friday diy

I met with a lovely friend over coffee yesterday.

I shared the things I'm going through.

She spoke a lot of truth into my heart.

Something along the lines of:

Are you trying to fix yourself?

Made me realize something yesterday - something I've known for years but apparently forgot as of late.

Grace is not a DIY project. It's not a DO IT YOURSELF thing. In fact, it's nothing about "doing" or "self". It's about Jesus impacting our hearts. It's about Jesus taking our burdens and in His perfect time, working truth into our life so that we live in such a way that honours Him. Grace gives us what we don't deserve - salvation in Christ.

She reminded me that God loves who I am NOW not who I am once I fix everything.

I know that's so cliche. But lately God's bringing me back to the basics. Somewhere in the last few months, I got so caught up in the big stuff that I forgot about the core of my salvation.

That Jesus loves me.

Grace gets me every single stinking time.

This is what I picture when I think of myself trying to grace-ify myself:

Myself, holding a hammer, pushing nails into my head.

Useless.

Jesus does grace a far different way.

I'm oh so grateful.

Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

(2 Corinthians 12:8-10 ESV)

This is my version of "giving up on good". I'm giving up doing it myself, because I never get anywhere when I do it myself. I just end up in tears, emotional, falling-apart, or even worse - self righteous in my heart. Gross!

Jesus is taking over this project, and loving me all the way through until the end. The end being - eternity WITH HIM!

the Jesus Model

So did the blog title today make you wanna barf as much as I want to after writing it? Don't worry. This isn't a three hundred step guide to creating a Jesus. Or whatever else you thought it might be. It's just a conversation in print.


Last week I went for breakfast with a lovely friend Bethany. We enjoyed tasty benedicts, coffee, and conversation (a tasty conversation - yum)! We just recently started working together so it was fun to learn about where she's from and where she's going. It's always exciting to learn the passions of another and where God has placed their heartbeat.


We were talking about the ministry that we work in and the different joys and challenges that it brings. Oh non-profit life.


Do you ever have moments in conversation where you hear someones words and you realize that Jesus needs them to hear something? I call those Holy Spirit prompts. I love those moments. I'm also blown away by them because I'm not quite sure why God thinks I should be the one to share some truth.


Bethany was talking about the different people she models her life after and I just felt a little Holy Spirit prompt. I don't think I interupted her, because that would have been rude, but I did say something along the lines of,


We need to look to Jesus as our model because scripture shows us how it is we are meant to live in the life of Jesus. He served more than anyone. He cared for the poor and displaced more than anyone. He healed the broken, yet again, more than anyone. He also took time to rest. He got filled up and poured Himself out for everyone.


As I've been thinking about that conversation the past few days, I'm felt myself realize that there are a few people I need to stop modeling my life after.


I need to refocus my heart on Jesus and follow the Jesus model. It's not gross or cliche - it's true. Jesus is our model. We're called to be living in such a way that demonstrates our love for Him.


As much as there are many noble, honourable, and noteworthy people on earth, there is none like Jesus. He's the One! If we're looking anywhere but to Jesus as our model for how to live, we've largely missed the point of everything. He said "I AM the way".

Good Growth

From the Sight of a City Girl is about to get some changes!


I am very excited. I've been both wishfully and prayerfully considering making some changes for a while and have decided to bite the bullet (what does that even mean???)!


Some of what's to arrive is:


Blog Series!
Featured Blogs!
Consistent Posting! (only by HIS grace)
Navigation Bar! (woot woot!)
a New Template
and probably a new name!


I'm not quite sure what God's plan is for this blog and why He's putting it on my heart to make it a bigger aspect of my life, but His response to most of my questions is basically just one answer lately.


God, I'm not quite sure why this is the plan.


I know you don't Nadine. But I do.


Are you as excited (read:nervous, scared, not quite sure what God is doing) as I am?