{"id":21370,"date":"2014-08-20T00:15:05","date_gmt":"2014-08-20T04:15:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=21370"},"modified":"2014-08-19T23:03:43","modified_gmt":"2014-08-20T03:03:43","slug":"beautiful-exchange","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2014\/08\/20\/beautiful-exchange\/","title":{"rendered":"A Beautiful Exchange"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/psalmshymnsspiritualsongskjv.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-16629\" src=\"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/psalmshymnsspiritualsongskjv.jpg\" alt=\"psalmshymnsspiritualsongskjv\" width=\"341\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/psalmshymnsspiritualsongskjv.jpg 341w, https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/psalmshymnsspiritualsongskjv-300x175.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 341px) 100vw, 341px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800080;\">You were near though I was distant<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\"> Disillusioned I was lost and insecure<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\"> Still mercy fought for my intention<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\"> You were waiting at the door, then I let You in<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800080;\">Trading Your life for my offenses<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\"> For my redemption<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\"> You carried all the blame breaking the curse<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\"> Of our condition<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\"> Perfection took our place<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800080;\">When only love could make a way<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\"> You gave Your life in a beautiful exchange<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\"> When only love could break these chains<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\"> You gave Your life in a beautiful exchange<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800080;\">My burden erased, my life forgiven<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\"> There is nothing that could take this love away<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\"> And my only desire, and my sole ambition<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\"> Is to love You just the same<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800080;\">Holy are You, God, Holy is Your name<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\"> With everything I&#8217;ve got my heart will sing<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800080;\"> How I love You<\/span><\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/r-bUZj1bkoE?rel=0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Songwriter &#8211; Joel Houston \/ Performed by Hillsong United<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #800080;\">* ~ \u2665 ~ \u271e ~ \u2665 ~ *<\/span><\/p>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: center;\">Thank You, Lord, that You were near even when I was distant&#8230;.<\/h4>\n<p>Sometimes, there\u2019s so much going on in your life that, God fades from the picture&#8230;creating distance. \u00a0In other words, your relationship with God may be weakened because your focus is not on Him. \u00a0Not spending as much time with God can create distance because your mind becomes occupied by other things&#8230;thus shutting God out. \u00a0If you are a person who spiritually feels God&#8217;s Presence and Love\u2014and then you don&#8217;t feel it anymore\u2014that can mean you are becoming distant from God.<\/p>\n<p>But even if there are things going on and you are distant from God, <strong>He is still <em>always<\/em> there <\/strong>and<strong> He will <em>never<\/em> fail you,<\/strong> even if you don&#8217;t feel His presence. \u00a0All you have to do is close the distance, and put your trust and focus back on Him.<\/p>\n<p>The problem lies within us. \u00a0God is the same, yesterday, today, and forever; He never changes.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.<br \/>\nHebrews 13:8 ESV<\/p>\n<p>We must return our focus back to Him the One who is Faithful\u2026<\/p>\n<p>What a beautiful exchange&#8212;Jesus\u2019 life for mine! \u00a0He freely laid His life down for you and me. \u00a0Therefore, all thanks, praise, and honor should go directly to Him!<\/p>\n<p>Jesus said in John 15:13 that there is &#8220;No greater love that a man can have than this: that he lay his life down for his friends!&#8221; \u00a0How can we <em>not<\/em> place our main focus on Him and allow Him time in our lives when He laid down His life for ours?!? \u00a0We must not let the distractions in our lives take precedence over our time with Him.<\/p>\n<p><em>My burden erased&#8230;my life forgiven&#8230;there is NOTHING that could take this love away<\/em> for you and for me. \u00a0Our sole ambition should be to love Him the same!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u00a0<span style=\"color: #800080;\">* ~ \u2665 ~ \u271e ~ \u2665 ~ *<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Heavenly Father, I come to You today with a grateful, thankful heart. Forgive me for the times I have let the distractions of my life take away from my time spent with You. Thank You for the beautiful exchange of laying down Your life for mine&#8230;and that, no matter what, nothing could ever take away from Your love for me\u2026 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!!!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You were near though I was distant Disillusioned I was lost and insecure Still mercy fought for my intention You were waiting at the door, then I let You in Trading Your life for my offenses For my redemption You carried all the blame breaking the curse Of our condition Perfection took our place When [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":159,"featured_media":16629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4937],"tags":[7101,7102,1287,425,495,5234,7099,1832,4654,7100,4932],"class_list":["post-21370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psalms-hymns-and-spiritual-songs","tag-a-beautiful-exchange","tag-focus-on-him","tag-gch","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-hebrews-138","tag-hillsong","tag-jesus-always-faithful","tag-john-1513","tag-kim-golds","tag-nothing-can-take-his-love-away","tag-psalms-hymns-spiritual-songs","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/psalmshymnsspiritualsongskjv.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-5yG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/159"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21370"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21374,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21370\/revisions\/21374"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}