Our God Reigns - Delirious?

40 million babies lost to Gods great orphanage,
It’s a modern day genocide and a modern day disgrace
If this is a human right then why aren’t we free?
The only freedom we have is in a man nailed to a tree.

100 million faces, staring at the sky,
Wondering if this HIV will ever pass us by.
The devil stole the rain and hope trickles down the plug,
But still my Chinese take away could pay for someone’s drugs.

Our God reigns, Our God reigns,
Forever your kingdom reigns.

The west has found a gun and it’s loaded with ‘unsure’
Nip and tuck if you have the bucks in a race to find a cure.
Psalm one hundred and thirty nine is the conscience to our selfish crime,
God didn’t screw up when he made you,
He’s a father who loves to parade you.

Yes he reigns, yes you reign, yes you reign,
For there is only one true God,
But we’ve lost the reins on this world,
Forgive us all, forgive us please,
As we fight for this broken world on our knees.

"Our God Reigns" is a familiar phrase with anyone who has grown up in church. There was an old song from the 1970s that we used to sing by the same title, and in those days it was one of a batch of modern-day "Choruses," as we used to call them then. I can remember summer camps i'd go on, and a guy with an accordion would lead songs like this. Then we'd all sing along, football-crowd style. What struck me even then is that the great thing about the phrase is that it's and absolute- it's true, it cannot be contested, It's truth with a capital T.

When i read that revelation 19.6 shouts, "Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns," it felt like a great time to bring this ancient truth into modern-day Delirious? song. I remember having had the chorus written for some time and singing one night in my home group with about 20 people there. Everybody sang along, and it immediately felt like it worked.

All i needed was some great catchy church verses and we'd be on our way. I was looking for something easy, not too challenging-and we'd have another church hit on our hands! Then months went by... and nothing. I tried every way imaginable to write something, but it just wouldn't come- it was like the pen was angry with me!

I put the song on the shelf and forgot about it for months, wondering whether it would ever see the light of day.Then a very important conversation happened that turned the whole thing on its head. Our friends Matt and Beth Redman were over for a meal, and we got to chatting about the horrific genocide that happened in Rwanda in 1994. To believe that we in the West knew what was going on and yet did virtually nothing disgusted us and made us ashamed of ourselves.

Matt then brought up the issue of abortion and how we know that the lives of millions of babies are extinguished every year and we do nothing about it. We go on with our lives, as though powerless and unaffected. Yet surely abortion is a modern - day genocide happening right under our noses. Just because it's culturally acceptable doesn't mean it's right. For example, for years people have smoked in their places of work, but now we know that you will get lung cancer from second-hand smoking. Society has changed it's perspective due to the sad reality painted by historical facts. It's now not permissible or cool to smoke in an office with nonsmokers. Which gives us hope that maybe on a grander scale that will happen to people's views on the sanctity of unborn life.

I'm not a politician and do not stand in judgment, but in a flash the words started coming. Verses full of pain and social dysfunction married to a chorus of truth and dulation. It didn't work on paper, and yet we knew we were on to something.

The songs covers THREE main areas of life that we commonly talk about these days. Abortion, HIV, and cosmetic surgery. There are other equally important subjects but not enough verses!

The first verse puts forward the notion that it's our "right" as a human race to decide the future of unborn children, the notion that Freedom comes if we have the freedom to choose. Yet research has shown that our actions have led us to emotional imprisonment the exact opposite of the freedom we thought choice would bring.

Then the second verse paints an image of twenty-first-century man looking up to heaven and wondering whether this HIV Pandemic will ever pass. it's frightening and alarming to know that the price of a Chinese takeout can pay for antiretroviral drugs that can change someone's life. Have i stopped having take out? No. Has my heart changed with regard to this issue? yes. First our heads gets enlightened by the knowledge of these things, then our hearts begins to experience the pain of it and then ultimately we take out hands down from "worship position number one," and we put them in our pockets to pay the price for a solution- sometimes with time, sometimes influence, but mostly with our money.

The third verse talks about something less obvious but in some ways more sinister- our obsession with image. No one wants to be boring and God loves flare, creativity, design and individuality-but we have another problem in our culture and that's the obsession with self. Now again i don't stand in judgment of anyone as i'm greatly flawed myself in this area, since doing the job i do requires a certain amount of self-care-and that's a good thing to a certain extent. But it's something i've not fully figured out and never will in our world of self-promotion. What is wrong is our cultural obsession with "fixing" ourselves which springs from the destruction of the family and the absence of real love or affirmation in our lives. In one sense there's nothing wrong with having a nose job, but there's everything wrong about believing it will change how you feel on the inside. Psalm 139 talks about how God knit us together in our mother's womb. he didn't make mistakes when he made us, but our modern world tells us that he did- that lie is to be abhorred.

This song is a celebration of God's love, love for hi9s planet and His people, a chorus of truth amid the confusion of life. The church at times has kept silent on a lot of social issues, backed away, not rocked the boat, and has subsequently lost its influence. I am a lover of Jesus and His Church and completely believe that our God reigns. It's now up to the saints to take the reins back and be world changers for the glory of our God. We can only do it together.

Martin Smith
Delirious?

What inspires me is the dedication this guy Martin Smith puts into the world. He thinks of how to improve the world. Approaching Operation DHL and the missions theme coming along, i think we as Christians should step up and think more about the world issues happening and how we can help. In this way, we can improve ourselves and at the same time, serve with a serving heart because it will always be a reminder of how much the world is suffering now.