Slow Fade

Hey guys!
One of the songs that we're performing at our next concert (which is coming REAL soon) is called "Slow Fade." This song is about how some people (who are Christians) have made little compromises in life (little "white" lies, going the next step in a relationship, etc.), and all of a sudden, those people are in a place where they'd never go, doing things that they'd never do...

I have a friend who was like a sister to me. She was my best friend in elementary and middle school. We were so close to each other...Then I started homeschooling in the middle of the seventh grade. The first day of school without me there with her, she told me she had a boyfriend..I didn't think much about it, until she broke up with him and hooked up with another boy...and then another...then another...until finally two years later, she told me she was ENGAGED to her new boyfriend...who does things she would never have approved of several years ago. That woke me up. I tried to explain to her what that means, but she was stubborn about it and kept saying, "I love him, and I'll do anything in the world for him."

Woah. That's a big deal. What she just said, has said, "I'll do ANYTHING for him." What would he want her to do in the future? Basically, what she just did, was give her whole self up to him.

Now hold up. Aren't we supposed to do that with GOD? And NOT with a person (until marriage)?

Going on to say, she was (and still is) becoming more like the world. See, she fell for little compromises and it drug her lower and lower, to a place that I KNOW she wouldn't have gone two years ago...which makes me really sad, because she was my best friend, and I hate to see her going through this.

In Psalm 1:1-2, it says: "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the seat of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night."

Have you ever heard of the saying, "You are what you eat"? It's the same thing with "You are who you hang out with."

When I saw the lyrics to this song, I immediately thought of my friend.

Mark Hall, singer and songwriter for Casting Crowns, says, "Imagine the man in these verses totally breaking down, but just a little at a time. First, he's walking, then standing, and eventually sitting, just slowly shutting down. He doesn't crash suddenly-there's no sudden crash in the Christian life. The 'crash' is just the fruit of a slow fade."

"Be careful if you think you stand, you just might be sinking."

In 1 Corinthians 10:12-13, it says, "So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall! No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."

What about you? Have you made little compromises and started to sink down? Or have you sunk down the farthest that you could possibly go?

I encourage you to read Psalm 103. It tells of our loving and compassionate God, who redeems us from the pits of life. He is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

God bless!
~Lauren

Why the Cross? Because sinners have no other hope. Why the Cross? Because it is the unassailable proof that we can be forgiven.--The Great Rescue