God knows this! Jesus knew it when He spoke those words. While I don’t believe He expects perfection from us—we are human after all—I think we can learn about His character when we seek to apply this truth to our lives.

He LOVES us! He loved us first. The Bible says even when we were still wallowing in our sin, Jesus died for us. God so LOVED the world (US and ALL the other people He calls us to love) that He gave us Jesus, to die for our sins, to redeem us, to restore us!

THAT is LOVE!!! He says when we love each other, we are obeying and honoring and worshipping HIM.

This practice helps create awareness that we are each unique, with differing gifts. The nice thing you say about one person will be different from the nice thing you say about another. By doing so, we are reminded that we’re each made in the image of God and worth HIS love. When we love, forgive, speak kindly to and, are generous with each other, we are honoring and worshipping God.

We can do it because we trust that WE are LOVED by HIM. Every day this month, as an act of worship, find a time to affirm each other. Remind your family how much God loves each one of them. Share with them that Jesus died for them.

Then, encourage family members to look each other in the eye and speak loving words of truth. After practicing this within your home, begin to look outside your family for others who might be encouraged by your loving words. Remind them that showing love to others is how the world will know we are disciples of Jesus.

[ctt template=”6″ link=”7Pl1I” via=”no” ]“… everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:35[/ctt]  

Interview with Crystal Lewis on Today’s Christian Music

How will people know I’m a Christian?” Crystal Lewis asks me. It’s a rhetorical question. Just because she’s been a recording artist in Christian music since she was 15 doesn’t mean her faith is automatically visible to everyone she meets. Yet recently she has come to understand the practicality of revealing and sharing her faith more than ever before.

Maybe Lewis’ new album had something to do with it. Although Holy, Holy, Holy (Metro1) is her second hymns collection, incorporating hymns that were not used on 1995’s Hymns: My Life (also Metro1) prompted a new revelation for her. “Even way back [when these hymns were written],” Lewis ponders, “[the hymnwriters] felt this way. They struggled with temptation, doubt, fear.”

Identifying with the struggles of Christians from the past has given her more freedom to accept her own struggles, to not fear transparency. “It’s the same today,” she admits. “The answer [to these struggles] remains the same.” Lewis has always loved these old songs; she grew up with them. But she hasn’t always fully understood their message. “It took me a really long time to get worship,” she explains, “to really feel free worshiping. I did feel something as a kid, listening to hymns with just the organ.

But it wasn’t until later in life that I allowed that music to touch and affect me.” To Lewis, true worship is about change—and music is a catalyst. “I could listen to all these songs,” she continues, “and I could let it turn my focus to Christ. Or I could take it with a grain of salt and not let it drastically affect me. It’s up to the individual to allow God to make those changes.”

The catalyst that has changed Lewis most in the past year is not music but a book. Brennan Manning’s The Wisdom of Tenderness (HarperSanFrancisco) was the inspiration for the only original song on her new release. After reading the book three times through, “The point of the book got across to me,” Lewis says. She summarizes what she learned in the book simply: “We are adored by Jesus. We can’t even fathom what He has done to win our love. He stopped at nothing to convince us of His love.

Regardless of what we look like, regardless of who we are, regardless of our faults, regardless of anything, we are adored by Him.”  

[ctt template=”6″ link=”7Pl1I” via=”no” ] “God doesn’t say to love Him as He loved us; He says to love others.” Crystal Lewis[/ctt]

They Will Know Us By Our Love

The more real that love becomes to Lewis, the more sure she is of what it means to live out her faith. Going back to her original question of, “How will people know I’m a Christian?” Lewis surmises, “Jesus says to love people.

When we are able to put it in perspective, to realize that we don’t have to worry what anyone else thinks because we are already totally adored by Him, then we can take what we’ve been given and give it to others.

God doesn’t say to love Him as He loved us; He says to love others. We are loved; therefore, we can love each other.”

©Copyright 2017 Todays Christian Music and CCMMagazine. All rights reserved.


@thecrystallewis @BranonDempsey @worshiptt @WorshipTTU

Time – the continuum of experience in which events pass from the past through the present to the future. In one respect, time does not seem to define the career of critically acclaimed singer/songwriter, multi-Dove Award winner, and Grammy nominee Crystal Lewis. In a day and age where so many artists come and go, Crystal’s voice has withstood the test of time.

Over the course of nearly 3 decades Crystal has appeared on Nickelodeon’s acclaimed musical/comedy show ROUNDHOUSE, singing the catchy theme song as well as being a cast member, released more than 20 English albums (including two live albums, two Christmas albums and a children’s album) as well as 7 albums in Spanish…and at 46 years of age, does not show any signs of slowing down.  Most recently Lewis has released a Kickstarter-funded, self-titled album of all new songs…  Crystal is ready to charge into this next chapter with gusto. 

A favorite among A-List pop artists, from Katy Perry to Tori Kelly, Crystal has performed in front of millions world-wide. And having worked with, and sung alongside, some of her musical heroes (including Bono, Mary J. Blige, Kirk Franklin, Donnie McClurkin, Yolanda Adams, CeCe Winans, Andrae Crouch, David Foster, Donna Summer, and Michael Omartian) there’s not much left for her to prove. 

Not that Lewis has ever been out to prove anything, she’s always been more about expressing the joy of life through song than building a life in the limelight. The fact remains, however, that her life has been lived in said limelight… where she lets her light shine bright.

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