Matt Wertz In Concert

Friday night, Brian and I and a few others headed up near Baltimore to hear Matt Wertz perform a concert to benefit Young Lives. Brian first introduced me to Matt Wertz when we started dating. I fell...in love with his music. Matt Wertz is that kind of acoustic, beachy, Jack Johnson kind of feel. But, get this...he is a Christian artist. He doesn't do a lot of Christian songs, but he is a Christian nonetheless. He is one of those artists who just sounds better live. Seriously, you should definitely go see him live. For those of you who live around the DC area, he'll be playing again in Vienna, VA on March 28 (I think). I love artists that get inspired to write music based on their life experiences and that's exactly what Matt does. It was such a blast and blessing to hear his music live.

The first song Brian introduced me to was the song titled "I Will Not Take My Love Away". This song is all I could think of during our Sunday morning message at church. CJ Mahaney came to be a guest preacher and his sermon spoke right to my heart. You see, I have a legalistic background. I think that if I don't do something (like serving every week in church or going to a Sunday night's service or putting off my devotions for a while) then God will not love me as much as he'll love the faithful servant, the devoted one to their devotions, the non-complaining. Instead of living in grace and knowing what God's love really looks like, I tend to live in fear that God is just looking for a way to discipline me or teach me a lesson. I live as though I should be making every effort to do things so that God will be pleased with me. But that's not what CJ reminded us of on Sunday morning through the book of Jude. He reminded us that we are loved, called, and kept. He said that if we don't have a right view of God's love then we will be prone to legalism. I sat in my chair contemplating that for a minute and well, yeah that's me. I greatly want to encourage you to check out the sermon by clicking here at the Capitol Hill Baptist Church website. I think I will listen to it again. :)

Anyway, this ties in with Matt Wertz, I promise. Like I mentioned, Matt has a song called
"I Will Not Take My Love Away". This is true! No matter what I do or don't do, God loves me because I am his and he called me.

"I will not take my love away

When praises cease and seasons change

While the world turns the other way

I will not take my love away

I will not leave you all alone

When striving leads you far from home

And there's no yeild for what you've sown

I will not leave you all alone


I will give you what you need

In plenty or in poverty

Forever, always, look to me

I will give you what you need.

I will not take my love away."