The VIDEO and SONG are below….but first….a story….of how it came to be…

I was leading worship for a Disciple Now Student event in Alabama last year…was having an awesome time with the students and seeing God move, when a cool thing happened.

The speaker that weekend was leading a kind of free time in worship and really challenging the students…outside of the normal schedule that was planned for that night.  I was playing behind him, preparing to “maybe” close the night with a time of worship and response to the challenge…when a song began to flood my heart.  

And when I say flooded…I mean like a rushing water consuming all my thoughts and emotions and leaving me thinking one thing - “If we really grab hold of the reality that Jesus gave His life for us, showed us the greatest love we could ever know, how could we ever be ashamed of that, and how would it affect the way we live?”

I began to really meditate on and repent of this in my heart, praying this for these students as they went back to their schools and home lives…that they would NOT be ashamed of the Love of Jesus, a love that gave it’s life away.

 

In the next moment the speaker turned it over to me, and there I was with mabye 500 kids going before God and really searching their hearts in what seemed to be a serious time of confession and worship taking place…and I had nothing planned to sing yet…I was so caught up in it, I hadn’t thought that threw yet.

I remember sensing brokeness and feeling the pulse of that room, and in the next moment God formed what I was praying and meditating on into a song….and I began to sing it over these kids.

 

No Greater Love (Not Ashamed)

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I remember the night being one of those moments you walk away from, fully believing you were with God and He was with you in a BIG way.

It was an awesome night.

Later, several people came to me asking me about “that song”…and I suddenly realized, I had forgotten it. The song had come and gone and I hadn’t thought more about it.  I tried to recall it, but to no avail….and though I kinda knew the content of what I was singing, I couldn’t remember the flow or the melody or anything else.

 

A month later when I was nearing the end of the record I was working on…in a private worship time…just me and the guitar and God’s word….the song came back to me.

Again like a flood.  I started singing it and really proclaiming the truth of it in my heart.  

My wife was listening somewhere in the house and chimed in…”I like that song Case…it’s convicting” -- which is often how I gage if a song is good or not

I invited her into this time I was having and we just sat and worshipped with it (after hitting record on my computer in quicktime “just in case”).  What I heard back later was something I felt compelled to put on the record.  

I played that “rough” recording in the studio and the guys agreed it was a necessity…and oddly enough it went perfectly after another song and fit right in with no awkwardness or trying to force the moment.

The result was the song “No greater love”  or “Not ashamed”…..i still dont know what to call it…so i kinda went with both.   It’s really just a response…a declaration to take hold of that love and live it out in a life that’s NOT ashamed!

 

:: ROMANS 1:16 -- “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes”

:: JOHN 15:13 -- “Greater love has no one than this, that he would lay down his life for his friends”

 

At the end of the day, I love that this song was not a planned or forced writing moment…nothing wrong with those…but this came un-intentionally through private worship.

 

I think God had that in mind for me before He let this song come out.  Saying the statements this song makes are fairly serious and I think need to be a personal conviction before it’s proclaimed publicly.

This doesn’t always happen like this, so I’m not pointing a finger at the process that happens otherwise, but in this case, I’m grateful that God brought it back to me and gave this song to me like He did.

I’m grateful for the response to it so far, and that it speaks to the hearts of others.  Again, not me….God!

 

THE VIDEO:

 

I had the chance recently to lead it at Elevation Church in N.C. (the video above, THANKS WES WATSON!!!)

It was an awesome time of worship, as a painting took place and we engaged the people their to the reality that Jesus IS the REAL change were all longing for and is the only REAL hope we have in this life.  

And no matter what happens in our world around us, we are secure in HIM.  

That kind of love: Jesus giving His life for us, isn’t the kind that offers it and doesnt plan to see it through in ultimate faithfulness and provision, and in every good thing He knows we need.

 

Lyrics:

How great is your love for me (repeat)

There is no greater love than this

That You would give your life, for your friends (repeat)

I am not ashamed, I will not be ashamed, How could I be ashamed

Of a love that gives It’s life away

 

 

CASE