Is this what you have to offer me?

"A thousand times I've failed
Still your mercy remains
And should I stumble again
I'm caught in your grace
Everlasting
Your light will shine when all else fails
Never ending
Your glory goes beyond all fame
Your will above all else
My purpose remains
The art of losing myself
In bringing you praise
Everlasting
Your light will shine when all else fails
Never ending
Your glory goes beyond all fame
In my heart and my soul
Lord I give you control
Consume me from the inside out
Lord let justice and praise
Become my embrace
To love you from the inside out"

Some of you will see the words above and automatically go to a worship song that is very well known around the world...and you would be right.  I was listening to the radio several months back and during an interview with a local radio personality, the writer of this song explained where the song came from and the story touched my life as I listened to it.  This man had been through some rough times in his life with drugs and things that were pretty far from God.  He turned his life over to Jesus in the back of an Ambulance on the way to the hospital.  He was later in a room- writing a new song that he was going to bring to his record company to put on a CD and release to radio.  He had opened his bible to the book of Palms and had written this catchy tune from some words he found in there...it was a very marketable song that could have easily been released quickly to public radio.  He had packed up his stuff and was on his way out the door when God stopped him dead in his tracks.  Is this what you have to offer me?  I saved your life...and this is what you have to bring to me.  You came from a dark moment in your life where you were on drugs and very far from me and I saved you from all that...and this is what you bring to me?  The song writer sat back down and pulled his guitar out- the song above is what ended up coming out.  You can't fool God!  He knows when you are giving Him your best...and He knows when you are not!  There was a time when I was a social drinker- about four and a half years ago.  I mean...after all...nowhere in the bible does it say that you can't drink alchohol- I rationalized to myself each time I did it.  The friends who really know us now would probably be very surprized by this piece of knowledge, but it's true.  I was in training with Humana in Phoenix, Arizona and was talking to a person there who was a non-christian and he saw me with the drink in my hand.  What he said stunned me and made me think about what I was doing...who I was really following.  He said, "I know you say that you are a follower of Christ, but how are you any different than I am?"  It was at this moment that God stopped me dead in my tracks and presented the same question to me that He presented to the song writer, "Is this what you have to offer me?  I have saved you from some pretty horrible things; and this is the life you bring to me?  This is the Thanks you give me?"  Nowhere in the bible does it talk about the social drinking of alchohol being wrong, I said to myself...over and over and over again.  The real question I was asking was this: How much can I live for myself and still make it into Heaven.  It may not be alchohol with you- or even the writing of a song...it may be something else all together...but I am wondering if God is tugging at your heart...asking you the question about the life you are living: "Is this what you have to offer me?"