What walls will you tear down?

So this past weekend Tim, myself and the girls got the chance to get away one last time before school starts. For those of you who don't know my husband, Tim, is a school teacher. We went to Albertville, MN to visit his brother and sister-in-law. It was a great time just to get away, be with family, and spend some time enjoying each other.

Monday we took off to come home at about 3pm. With various stops to see some more relatives, filling up on gas, and keeping a newly potty trained toddler from having an accident, we didn't get home until about 2:30 a.m. While we were traveling home we were listening to some of the music that I downloaded from iTunes which included the new Hillsong United album Tear Down the Walls. Every once in a while with a new album there is a particular song that resonate with where I am at in my walk with Christ and become my theme. This happened Monday night while listening to the title track "Tear Down the Walls."

Take a moment to read and meditate on this wonderful message so eloquently portrayed:

Verse 1
Tear down the walls see the world
Is there something we have missed
Turn from ourselves Look beyond
There is so much more than this

Pre-chorus
And I don’t need to see it to believe it
I don’t need to see it to believe it
Cause I can’t shake this
Fire deep inside my heart

Verse 2
Look to the skies hope arise
See His majesty revealed
More than this life there is love
There is hope and this is real

Chorus
This life is Yours and hope is rising
As Your glory floods our hearts
Let love tear down these walls
That all creation would
Come back to You
It’s all for You

Your Name is glorious , Glorious
Your love is changing us, Calling us
To worship in spirit and in truth
As all creation returns to You

Bridge
Oh for all the sons and daughters
Who are walking in the darkness
You are calling us to lead them back to You
We will see Your spirit rising
As the lost come out of hiding
Every heart will see this hope we have in You

So often as Christians we don't realize how much our love has to do with leading people to God. People are watching us. Especially if they know that we are Christians they watch us even more. Are we living lives that show Christ's love? Are we showing them Christ's love? There is an old worship chorus that says, "they will know we are Christians by our love by our love...and they'll know we are Christians by our love." Yet so often when you ask people about Christians the last word they would use to describe us is love. They would say we are hypocrites, judgemental, self-righteous, preachy and many other negative things. We've all hear it said that actions speak louder than words.

I was convicted and challenged by the message in this song. Reminded that Jesus commanded us of this in John 15:12-13, "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. " My prayer is that God will help me tear down the walls I've built in my own life that keep people at a distance--that keep them from seeing the hope that is within me, and that I will love people like He did.