Worship Songs

first things first - after almost a month of inactivity, I have gone back to the old name... for now.

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Ok so 2011 is approaching. I love New Year's Day and new years. I like to think about resolutions and hopes for the upcoming year, whether it's for church, work, Lindsey, or myself.

These are four GREAT songs that I hope to bring around in the next few months (no particular order, links are to YouTube):

- "You Are" by Josh Jeter: This song has clear praise of the Lord and clear response to Him. Here's a snippet:

"Sovereign Lord, Righteous One, Gracious Savior, Living Word, ...

We come to praise, we come to raise our hands in worship, ...

We love you, we need you..."

- "Where the Spirit Of The Lord Is" by Chris Tomlin and Christy Nockels: CHeck out 2 Corinthians 3:17, "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." This song has a cool male/female trade off in the chorus (yes COOL trade off, not early 90's cool. Now cool):

male: "We know where the spirit of the Lord is..."

female: "Where the spirit of Lord is there is liberty!"

- "Glorious" by Paul Baloche: Resurrection song #1 on this list.

"Look inside the mystery, see the empty cross, ...

"Look beyond the tombstone, see the Living God, ...

"no one is above Him, none to match His worth, ...

"Glorious, He stands above the rulers of the earth, ..."

- "Christ Is Risen" by Matt Maher: Resurrection song #2. The first line alone is quite powerful.

"Let no one caught in sin remain inside the lie of inward shame, ..."

The chorus references Ephesians 5, that those in Christ might come awake, rise up, and have Him shine upon us:

"Christ is risen from the dead, trampling over death, by death, come awake come awake, come and rise up from the grave."

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Rock (bible church) on!

You Alone Can Rescue

Genesis 4:26 - "...And at that time, people began to call upon the name of the Lord."

So much to unpack here... what hope! what faith! Before the covenants to Abraham, before the law to Moses, before the judges and before the kings, "people began to call upon the name of the Lord."

What does this look like? What does it mean for us? Scott had somethings to say about last Sunday: here.

I asked myself this last week and now I ask you, what do you think "call upon the name of the Lord" sounds like? We'd each have a different answer. The bible gives us many Psalms of how King David and other psalmists called upon the name of the Lord. In the context of Genesis, there are a few things that pointed me to the new song You Alone Can Rescue. To call upon His name is to recognize that He is greater than I. That we need Him. In Genesis 3, we see that the fruit of death ("for in the day you eat of it, you shall surely die..." Gen 2:17) is consumed. Separation from God, aka death, now exists. In Genesis 4, we are introduced to physical death (Cain killing Abel). Without the Lord's provision and intervention, we shall surely die. Last week, when dwelling on this and "calling upon the name of the Lord," I routinely came to this:

(partial first verse)

Who, O Lord, could save themselves?

Their own soul could heal?

(chorus)

You alone can rescue

You alone can save

You alone can lift us from the grave

You came down to find us

Led us out of death

To You alone belongs the highest praise

(bridge)

We lift up our eyes

Lift up our eyes

You're the giver of life.

With tremendous grace, the Lord came down to gather His lost sheep, us, to Himself. As Paul details in Romans 5, sin came to world through one man, but also through one man, Jesus Christ, came abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness.

(second verse)

You, O Lord, have made a way

The great divide You healed

For when our hearts were far away

Your love went further still

Yes, Your love goes further still

Check out the song on iTunes (open iTunes Store).

...To Him alone truly belongs the highest praise. Amen? Amen.

Rock Bible Church - 11-7-2010

How's your evening?

I tried to plan a relaxing evening and so far, so good. These nights are so important. I've found that with engineering, worship leading, the girlfriend, some kind of social life, etc. I need to be intentional about taking some time to relax, reflect, and replenish. Writing here is great way for me to relax, but moreso to reflect, particularly on worship at RBC. Replenishing generally comes from two places: 1) talking with Lindsey or my close college friends (who are also worship leaders) about God, worship, anything or 2) Reading the Bible and/or other books that simultaneously encourage and challenge me to better lead my heart and the RBC congregation in praise of the Lord. Recently, these books have been:

Worship Matters - Bob Kauflin: www.worshipmatters.com

Doctrine - Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears: www.relit.org

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We (band) had planned and even practiced for this Sunday, but Devin (drummer) was in a bike accident at 1pm that afternoon. His leg was pretty beat up and swolen; drumming wasnt an option. I spoke with him today and thankfully, his leg has already healed so much! Praise the Lord.

This past Sunday's set was a black and white of old and new. Hosanna and Wholly Yours are both relatively new songs (last 5 years), while Come Thou Fount, Doxology, and Jesus Paid It all are "oldies but goodies"... emphasis on goodies. I wrote about Wholly Yours here (last week) and I that description is applicable to this week. Hosanna was the opening song for Rock Bible Church back on 10/10/10. He is the God who saves us; "Hosanna" means "Save, I pray!". With a discussion on the introduction of sin and our disobedience of the Lord, it's important to elevate our Savior as exactly that - Savior.

I could dedicate an entire post to the truth in Come Thou Fount, but I'll try to keep it simple here. First verse (partial):

Come thou fount of every blessing

Tune my hear to sing Thy grace

Streams of mercy, never ceasing

Call for songs of loudest praise...

The Lord blesses. He is worthy of praise. This verse highlights some of his (most defining, in my opinion) attributes: grace, mercy, and love.

Here I raise my Ebenezer,

Hither by Thy help I've come

And I hope by Thy good pleasure

Safely to arrive at home

Jesus sought me when a stranger...

I sang this song for years (many as a member of a congregation (a congregette?) and a little over a year as a worship leader) without know what "...raise my Ebenezer" meant. I eventually stumbled upon it's meaning in 1 Samuel 7, where Samuel erects an "Ebenezer" (meaning: Stone of help) to remind himself and the people of Israel that it was the Lord who helped them to this place. Likewise, we too must remind ourselves that Christ sought us when strangers to God, and that it is by His ultimate stream of mercy, death on a cross, we are considered righteous and enabled to return to community with God.

...Let thy goodness, like a fetter

Bind my wandering heart to Thee

Prone to wander Lord I feel it

Prone to leave the God I love

Here's my heart Lord...

What great confession: "Lord, I am prone to wander." Do we admit this to the Lord? To ourselves? Sometimes I wish could fetter, aka "bind" or "fasten", my heart to Lord. Since this physically cannot happen, we need to ground and root our hearts in ways the Lord has provided for us. Isaiah 40 tells us that strength will rise for those "who wait on the Lord". Moses, before he passed away, told the people of Israel to write "Love the Lord your God..." on the doorposts and on your hands and to teach it diligently! Those are two examples. ...I say it like I have it down, I certainly do not. I need these words as much or more than the next.

(ok i tried to keep it short, emphasis on try.) As you can see, I really dig Come Thou Fount; it's safe to say we'll be singing it again.

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Without totally dragging on, I'll stop here. Maybe (read: most likely) a little more later this week to touch on Doxology and Jesus Paid It All.

Rock Bible Church - 10-31-2010

Hello!

It's been a bit of a busy week, but I wanted to take a moment and talk a bit about the songs from this past Sunday.

Holy Is The Lord by Chris Tomlin - His anthem is rising up from our lips and our hearts: "Holy Is the Lord, God almighty". The earth, His creation, is full of His glory!

Forever by Chris Tomlin - The Lord is faithful. Psalm 136 lists many of the ways the Lord was good to the people of Israel and after each one, they proclaim "His love endures forever" (depending on the translation). I recognize that this song (and Holy Is the Lord) are sung often by churches around the country and I don't want to overplay them, but there is a powerful reason these songs are so common. They are so straight to the point with praise of the Lord and His kindness and holiness. (Related to this: I wrote earlier (here) about the need for these songs and for more metaphorical, imagery driven songs.)

Wholly Yours by David Crowder - I try not to say this about every song, but this one is truly one of my favorites. Great chorus, so honest and so praise-ful! "You are holy, holy / All heaven cries "holy, holy God!" / You are holy, holy / I want to be holy like You are." The last line may seem a little odd or out of place, but the bridge drives it home. Consider the bridge an extension of the chorus like this: "I want to be holy like You are. But the harder I try, the more clearly can I, see the depth of our fall and the weight of it all. So this might could be the most impossible thing: your grandness is me, making me clean!" What a great confession! "Lord, I try so hard to be holy like You, but I always find myself more fallen and more burdened. I truly could never reach You by my own works or strength. But what grace and kindness: You see my sin, yet love me! You see my sin, yet You have made my heart Your dwelling place, perfecting it - making it holy. Glory, glory, halleluiah...." Amen.

The Solid Rock - Hebrews chapter 6 begins to detail that Christ is the perfect High Priest. He is "anchor of the soul" (Hebrews 6:19). That on our behalf, as a high priest does but once and for all, Christ entered the Holy of Holies behind the veil - where the presence of God dwelt. In addition to this great biblical truth, this song also touches on the vision and heart that the Lord gave Scott when steering him to start Rock Bible Church. In Matthew 7:24-27, Christ talks about the importance of a firm foundation on the solid rock verses a weak foundation of sand. Christ is our solid rock and all other ground is sinking sand. Amen. (again).

Center by Charlie Hall - Colossians 1:17 says that Christ holds all things together. This is right after Paul says that all things were made by, for and through Christ. This song is a great prayer to Lord, that we might fix our eyes upon Him and place Him, rightfully, at the center of our lives. I hope that as we sing to the Lord the words of this song, that we internalize them as well. Be encouraged that "everything was made in Him". Be strengthened that he "holds everything together"!

....I hope you're able to join us this Sunday as we explore Genesis 3. 5pm at Centerpointe.

Blessings!

Rock Bible Church - 10-24-2010

Ahoy!

Three weeks now... pretty cool! As is the pattern so far, a few neat things from last Sunday:

1) Baptisms. Acts says that as the church began and grew, people were being baptized. So rad to see people hearing the call to publicly declare that Christ has saved them... on a cold rainy day.

2) Scott brought it from Genesis 1. His main point, simply, was centered around what the Lord chose to tell us about creation and what He chose to not tell us. When, how, what, who, why? The first two, "when" and "how", aren't that detailed. And really, these are secondary to "what" and "who". The Lord (Elohim!) made everything.

Those of you who were there know that Scott didn't touch on the "why". That's ok, I was trying a capture that a little with the music for the evening. The Lord created everything for His glory and His praise - everything is for Him. Let Everything That Has Breath and All Creatures Of Our God And King, the bookends of our worship together, truly capture this. Let every creature and created thing praise our Creator! David Crowder (to my knowledge) wrote the "Alleluia" outro to All Creatures, and I think it is so fitting. What would the praise of all creatures be? If everything the Lord gave breath to started praising, what would that be? "Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia...." isn't a bad guess. Christians have been praising the Lord with "Alleluia" since the beginning.

I was hoping to explain a little bit of my thought process with Indescribable, Wonderful Maker and I Stand Amazed during service, but my head was pounding. To be honest, I was a little distracted by it too. Colossians makes it clear that all things were created by, through and for Christ (1:16). I found myself in such awe when I thought about the fact that our creator God came down to save us by dying. Indescribable is one of my all time favorites: great imagery, great biblical lyrics (Job 38:22 for example), and great praise of the Lord's love for us. After 3 minutes of praising the Lord's power, majesty and creativity, we get to this: "You see the depths of my heart and You love me the same." wow. How truly marvelous and wonderful is that?

Colossians 1:16 -> New Song

"For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things were created through Him and for Him."

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Separated dark and light,

Placed the sun and moon

And it was good.

Set aside aside Your dwelling place,

Formed the earth from empty space;

it was good.

By You all the earth was made.

By You all the people saved.

"Holy" is its praise;

"Holy" is our praise

You created man,

Placed Him on the earth

And it was good.

Every living thing

A purpose and place

And it was good.

By You all the earth was made.

By You all the people saved.

"Holy" is its praise;

"Holy" is our praise.

For You all the earth was made.

For You all the people saved.

"Holy" is its praise;

"Holy" is our praise.

Father in heaven,

Christ who died,

Spirit who came now dwells inside:

It's by Your power,

Through Your grace,

We approach You face to face.

Creator in heaven - face to face.

By You, all the earth was made.

By You, all the people saved.

"Holy, holy" is our praise to You.

For You, all the earth was made.

For You, all the people saved.

"Holy, holy" is our praise to You.

By You all the earth was made.

By You all the people saved.

"Holy" is its praise;

"Holy" is our praise.

For You all the earth was made.

For You all the people saved.

"Holy" is its praise;

"Holy" is our praise.

Youtube soon (days, not hours)

Rock Bible Church: 10-17-2010

I thought last night was a great follow-up to launch day! A couple cool things:

1) Similar to last week, a local pastor (Jim Meek, Trinity Baptist in Livermore) came to pray for us and dedicate our church to the Lord and His work. It's such an encouragement to see local pastors come and stand by Scott and what the Lord has called him to do.

2) I have never shared my story about worship leading to a congregation before; I apologize for being a little scattered! ...His grace is enough. I am continually humbled that He allows and chooses me to lead His people in songs of praise. Thank you for extending me grace as your leader.

3) Podcasts are up for launch night and last night. www.rockbiblechurch.com.

4) I thought Scott nailed it last night. Our God is 3-in-1, 1-in-3. He is all powerful, creating all things from nothing. He is active, moving always. He's not done either. Amen.

As for the music, I was pretty excited about the truth we proclaimed in our song time. Here is Our King by David Crowder Band is one of my favorites. I went into some detail about this song at the beginning of the year (here). Briefly, He came for us. He is here. He is here with the fullness of His majesty and beauty. The verses, metaphorically, drive this home. From wherever spring arrives, there is our King. From wherever searching comes, the act of looking itself - there in it is our King.

I want to take a moment and talk a little about simple and clear lyrics vs. abstract and metaphorical lyrics. Take a song like Here is Our King and compare it to How Great Is Our God by Chris Tomlin. What do you notice? How Great is Our God lays is out so clearly: "Age to age He stands / Time is in His hands / Beginning and the end / Beginning and the end." We need songs like this. (and thankfully, we have them!). Our faith and our knowledge of God is confirmed and strengthened by these words. Here Is Our King takes a more abstract approach. Imagery of spring and the unfolding rose are created to depict a parallel of the beauty and majesty the Lord has given nature, and what He has done for us. Our winter is now spring. Our night is now light. Our bud is now blossoming (He is continually perfecting us. Philippians 1:6). We need these songs too. To close this section, I will say two things: a) we need balance of these types of songs. We need to balance a song like Here Is Our King with an In Christ Alone. And (much) more importantly b) these songs need to praise the Lord. The metaphor needs to resolve to a fundamental truth about Him (He is here to bring us back to Him). (ok that was more than a moment. sorry).

As I mentioned above, I believe abstract and imagery driven songs need to be balanced by straight-forward, more clear ones. Your Grace is Enough (by Matt Maher) and In Christ Alone (by Stuart Townsend) are definitely the latter. Going through Genesis makes the "Heaven reaching down to us" (from Your Grace is Enough) even more powerful and astounding to me. Him who by, through and for all things were made (Colossians 1:16) came down to us! In Christ Alone proclaims His coming down and His rising up. The truth is chilling: "There in the ground His body lay / Light of the world by darkness slain," and the truth is triumphant "Then bursting forth in glorious day / Up from the grave He rose again." I will not to over-play this beautiful song.

I felt that Jesus Lord of Heaven by Phil Wickham was a fitting close to learning about our creator King of heaven, who freely brought grace to all. His love cannot be measured in depth, width, height, or greatness; it simply is deep, wide, high and great.

My "theme" for the evening, if you will, was this: Heaven's creator King came down to us with undeserved, yet perfectly sufficient grace. Through Him alone we can have community with God.

...As I'm sure will be the normal case, I'm already getting excited for this upcoming Sunday. We will go deeper into what the Lord created and praise Him because and for it. All of creation was made to praise Him. Since the fall, the deep longing and hope of creation is for the Lord to redeem it. (Romans 8). We will proclaim His glory and His grace this Sunday. Hope to see you there!

PB (Post-Blog?): Read and take in Colossians 1 this week as you prepare for corporate worship (singing and hearing His word).

Looking forward to this Sunday

Just worked on this Sunday for a little bit (order of service, band emails...). I'm hoping to see the momentum that began last Sunday continue through this weekend. Scott will be returning to Genesis 1:1 and continuing through creation. I previously mentioned (last post) I was aiming for clear and simple exaltation of God with our music last week. This week we will zero-in on exaltation of Christ - that He was there at the beginning and all was created through Him. Not only that, He came with bountiful, undeserving grace for sinners like you and me.

We aren't singing this song this weekend (sad-day) but I hope to soon. It touches on this topic so well and so poetically.

"Oh The Glory of It all" by the David Crowder*Band (lyrics in video):







Have a great night - See you Sunday!

10-10-10

Awesome.

That's my one word for RBC last night. It's overused I know, but it fits. I dont know how people were there, but it felt pretty full at Centerpointe around say 5:10pm. A few sweet non-worship things:

1) Centerpointe Pastor Mike Barris (we lease their building) prayed for us, during the serice. Their tech guru has been helping us twice a month in the soundbooth since June. These guys have lived the Gospel to us. Church A helping start Church B... in the same town.... at the same place... these are guys who understand what is important to God, not man.

2) Pastors Leron Heath and Gino Cunninghman led us in prayers of dedication and for our offering (respectively). I know these guys have been and are very close to Scott. Really neat to see that many godly men are affirming Scott and Rock Bible Church.

As for worship, I went for exalting. I hope that was clear. I wanted to start our worship as a church with Hosanna (Praise Is Rising) "You are the God who saves us / .... / Come have Your way among us / We welcome You here Lord Jesus". After that, Holy Is The Lord, How Great Thou Art and Agnus Dei rounded out the evening. My thought process: "....the anthem of the Lord's renown" is "How Great Thou Art".

It's hard to think about yesterday - I'm already looking forward to this Sunday!

See you then...


www.rockbiblechurch.com

Lift-Off is coming!

How can you have a "launch day" without a lift-off?

Rock Bible Church, the Tri-valley's newest church officially begins (lifts-off!!) THIS SUNDAY 10/10/10 at 5pm. www.rockbiblechurch.com

Personally, this is a day I have been looking forward to dating back to November of last year. Since then, we have moved from (grown out of, really) a living room to a space leased to us by Centerpointe in Pleasanton. Unplugged, solo-led worship has become a 4-piece rock-tastic experience (slight exaggeration). We have sung songs that I have led for years (Here Is Our King, Holy Is The Lord, etc.) and a few new ones for me (Hosanna, Awesome is Lord Most High, etc.).

In the coming weeks and months we will be exploring the Beginning. Scott Berglin (Senior Pastor) will teach from Genesis and I will (attempt to) lead praise of our great, eternal and creating God.

More to come soon!

Song of the week: Constant by Charlie Hall from his latest album "The Rising".

...I love that bridge: "God, You are here with us, constantly here with us!"

Happy Blogtober (haha).

A poorly updated blog gets updated, poorly.

My october resolution is to blog more. (sound familiar? ...one day it will stick and I wont be a liar anymore)

http://www.rockbiblechurch.com/ is coming and I want to use this place as an outlet of thought and insight into God, music, Rock Bible Church and more importantly, how they fit together.

Rock Bible Church: 5-23-2010

Yes.... another post! I'm sure one day I'll stick with it.

Anyway, tonight was great. So great in fact, I deemed it worthy of blogging about. Tonight Pastor Scott defined to us what Rock Bible Church is currently and what we will strive toward. Acts 2:42 says, "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers." Luke (the writer of Acts) goes on to say, "they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God..." (v46/47ish).

We are a church that gathers together to hear the word of God, be together in fellowship, eat meals together and pray together/for one another. I love our gatherings. There's a simple joy that is in our group; I think we gather with "glad and generous hearts."

Our Sunday evenings, though relaxed, have Acts 2:42 all over them. We begin with praise and prayer to our Lord (more on that below). Pastor Scott has been teaching from Acts (appropriate, no?). There is a unique vibe right now between him and us in the congregation; our proximity allows for questions and comments and interaction. After teaching, we break bread together. Food is fun! (No shame, I know). I've been fighting allergies and I'm a wuss when it comes to being sick so I was being a little anti-social tonight, but I got to kinda sit back and observe. It was a joy to watch the fellowship at our church tonight. I'm excited to keep this vibe going for our transition to having our evening service at Centerpointe here in Pleasanton. The pastor and his church have been so kind to us. We will still break bread together and have community afterwards.

More will come about RBC in the coming weeks/months. We are looking toward a formal "launch" at Centerpointe in the fall and thanking God for His provisions - past, present and to come.

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As for worship, an unamplified setting is tricky. I'm looking forward to having some better volume control and lyrics on a projector. There are some great songs I'm looking forward to introduce to RBC. Appropriateness and timing, of course, apply to this however. I won't show up on June 27th at Centerpointe with 5 new songs :p ...no worries. (For those interested, go to youtube and check out "Glorious" and "Our God Saves" by Paul Baloche, "Our God (is Greater)" by Chris Tomlin and "How He Loves" by David Crowder.)

Tonight, we sang Everlasting God and Oh Praise Him (by Brenton Brown and David Crowder, respectively)- an appropriate follow up to last weeks' Holy Is The Lord and Forever (both by Chris Tomlin). Everlasting God is straight from Isaiah 40:28-31. Praising the Lord by singing His word up to Him, in my opinion, can't be topped. It's the bible. It's the truth. It's His praise. Oh Praise Him is a song I could sing every Sunday (don't worry, I won't). I've probably said this before, dear blog, but oh well - There are two themes in worship that I just love. One is praising the height, depth, and width of the Lord's love for us (see Jesus, Lord of Heaven below in the previous post). The other theme is joining the angels. After reading Revelation over a few weeks a few years ago in college, I was struck by the role of the angels in praising our Lord. They were unrelenting. They were loud. And, they wasted no words. Oh Praise Him, to me, captures this.

"For who is God, but the Lord? And who is a rock, except our God?" - 2 Samuel 22:32

Rock Bible Church: 3-15-2010

So, I owe the blog a post about Rock Bible Church (RBC). Whoops. This blog is like that part of the room I always neglect to clean, yet think about it all the time. Meh, once every 2 months is better than never!

Following the theme of the previous post, I want to share some of the "method behind the madness" if you will, of these sets I "throw" together. Also, I want to provide a semi-easy way us to recall what we are singing and by whom so you, if you want, can go to iTunes (or equivalent) and download the track for your own worshiping pleasure!

We started singing at our every-other-week prayer and planning meeting for the RBC two weeks ago. Last time, we sang: Holy Is the Lord, Hosanna (by Paul Baloche), God of this City, and The Solid Rock. I will talk about these songs later, I'll definitely be leading them again. Tonight's set was:

Indescribable by Laura Story / Chris Tomlin

Our God (Is Greater) by Chris Tomlin (now to be honest, I'm not sure he wrote this one)

Jesus, Lord of Heaven by Phil Wickham

Indescribable is one of my favorites. Come worship with me for a few weeks and you'll hear it, at least once. It captures a beautiful picture of worship: all creation (not just man!) worships the Lord, their creator. The chorus' lead-in lines really get me: "All exclaiming: " and "None can fathom: ". Creation yearns (as we do, perhaps?) for the Lord and has, like us, been redeemed by Christ! (Romans 8:19ff). No man can fathom the magnitude of the Lord, nor the heights of His grace and love (more to come later on this). All creation too cannot comprehend this; we join their praise and their song to the indescribable, untamable, all powerful, uncontainable, unchangeable, incomparable God.

Our God (Is Greater) is from the latest Passion CD, "Awakening." What a proclamation: "Our God is greater / Our God is stronger"! I think about 1 John 5:21 when I sing this. It says "Little children, keep yourselves from idols." This is John's warning that idols and their lure and their "promise" can negate what we the body are called to do: share and be the love of Christ. When I hear this song I think, "My God (read: our God!) is greater and stronger than any idol the world can offer me." I need this truth. The song doesn't stop there however, it firmly (and defiantly) declares Romans 8:31. "...and if our God is for us / then who could ever stop us? / and if our God is with us / then what could stand against (us)?"

(side note, i kinda butchered the lyrics tonight, sorry... I'll get it next time :p )

Lastly, after a brief message on Acts 1:12-26, Jesus Lord of Heaven. I've mentioned this to a few people, but one of my favorite themes in worship is the unfathomable love and grace of the Lord. Paul prays that the Ephesians (read: we) would know "the breadth, length, height and depth" of His love. (3:14ff). I deeply enjoy the creativity of this truth as found in this song: "Your love has no bounds." When I lead this song, we sing this line alot. Honestly, I want to sing it more. I want to believe deeper and deeper in my mind and heart and soul that His love for me, for us, has no bounds.

Worship in song is a beautiful form of preaching the gospel to ourselves - proclaiming the truth of His word, from our mouths to Him. Sometimes it's truth we have held and will continue hold dear in our hearts and other times it's truth we must digest further. These songs, are praises to our Lord, and they truly are prayers too. "Lord, teach me more of Your love! Thank you for seeing the depths of my heart and loving me the same (from Indescribable). Praise You for being greater and stronger than all of and in the world and being accessible through the saving work of Your Son, in whom we are more than conquerers (Rom. 8:37). Amen"

A New Year, Resolution, and Church

Blog-town - been awhile, I apologize.

I have made a New Year's resolution to blog more and given that about 4% of the year is over, I better get started in order to secure an 'A'.

I am helping plant a new church: Rock Bible Church (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=182241546809). Many blogs will (hopefully) be written about this. I am going to be leading worship and helping with main services. The feelings of joy, excitement, anxiety and unpreparedness have taken (and will continue to take) their turns dominating my psyche. My old youth pastor and soccer coach, Scott Berglin, has the vision for this church. We have been holding planning/prayer meetings, men's bible study and soon a women's study as well.

One of the reasons specifically I want to blog again is to share about worship. My thoughts on leadership, song choice and whatever else comes up. That being said:

Here Is Our King

by David Crowder

Big surprise: a song by the guy in my profile picture. Well let me share a bit (story time). There was actually a 15-month period where I played this song only once with the college band - yeah, once. I had gotten "over" it. It wasn't new or cool anymore to me. I didn't take the time to ask myself "What's it about? Why play it in the first place? What's the purpose of the song? ...etc." During my last year of college and again a few weeks ago (but deeper), I got so struck by the declarative nature of the chorus, given the verses. Let me explain.

From where ever Spring arrives, to heal the ground

From where ever searching comes, the look itself - a trace of what we're looking for

So be quiet now and wait

Spring. Blossoms. New Life. (See an earlier post "Spring"). Faith is a journey. We take faith because there is an unsatisfied longing in us for something yet to come, but the beauty of this is in this journey to find Him, who is our longing, we encounter Him (well, He encounters us). "Be still and know that I am God." (Psalm 46:10). That power and glory and beauty that makes healing Spring come is here and with us. Here is our King....

And what was said unto the rose, to make in unfold,

Was said to me here in my chest,

So be quiet now, and rest.

My dad is a tree doctor (seriously, Ph.D. in trees) and my mom runs her own garden business. Needless to say, I have been surrounded by plants my whole life; I love them and their beauty. The rose unfolding is breathtaking. There is a reason that for Valentine's day that the ladies like roses, not pansies, iris', or even daffodils. The rose is majestic, and the creator of the rose - the whole world - similarly unfolds and perfects (Phil 1:6) the human heart. He is with us (Emmanuel, Isaiah 7:14). Here is our King.

Lastly, the bridge, is simply "Majesty, Finally." Though not fully perfected and with Him in heaven, He is here with us! Not leaving us nor forsaking us (Deut 3:16), He leads us and grows us in faith. His eternal Majesty is here. Psalm 8. Finally.

Peace, love and rock'n'roll.