Beauty from Ashes

Brokenness Aside

I came across a song the other day on the Relevant magazine website by the new band Sons and Daughters. They are a duo from Franklin, Tennessee with a newly released EP entitled “Brokenness Aside.” 

In the song, which happens to be the album’s namesake, the duo sings of the amazing forgiveness, faithfulness, and grace of God although we are so unfaithful, so “prone to wander,” as the great song “Come Thou Fount” says. 

They sing:

I am sinner/ if it’s not one thing, it’s another

Caught up in words/ Tangled in lies

But You are a Savior/ And You take brokenness aside

And make it beautiful, beautiful

Beauty Instead of Ashes

What an amazing truth that is. The Lord, through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ, took our brokenness, our ugliness of sin, and made us beautiful, reconciled to a holy God. In Isaiah 61:1-3 (NIV) it says: 

“The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,

because the LORD has anointed me to preach the Good News to the poor.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,

to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,

to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God,

to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—

to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes,

the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

In the Luke 4, after reading the beginning of this passage in a synagogue, Jesus says: “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). 

This is one of the first statements Luke records Jesus saying at the start of His ministry. What an incredible introduction to our Savior. Jesus fulfilled this Scripture written hundreds of years earlier, that He would be the one to set us free from all our chains of sin, death, and darkness. He meets us in the ashes of our brokenness and through the power of the beautiful gospel makes us whole in Him. 

And yet, while we are on this earth, we still struggle with sin. We, like Hosea’s wife, continuously fall into unfaithfulness. But that’s why the gospel is not just for nonbelievers. We desperately need the gospel every day, to cling to the wonder of the Cross and what Christ has done for us. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we can be convicted of our sin and repent, not standing condemned because Christ was the Ultimate Sacrifice!

He is Faithful

Brothers and sisters, rejoice in the truth of Jude 24-25. At all times “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.” (Hebrews 10:23, ESV). 

And check out Sons and Daughters live in the Relevant Studio: http://www.relevantmagazine.com/sons-daughters/songs/25400-brokenness-aside

 

Blessings,

Joanne Michelle

“God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”

-2 Corinthians 5:17-21 (NIV)