New Song: "All I Have is Christ"

Hey guys, we're learning a new song this week from Sovereign Grace ministries called "All I Have is Christ." The lyrics are honest and God-glorifying, and the melody is beautiful and soul stirring.

Here are the lyrics, and a video is below:

I once was lost in darkest night

Yet thought I new the way

The sin that brought this joy in life

Had led me to the grave

I had no hope that You would own

A rebel to Your will

And if You had not loved me first

I would refuse You still!

But as I ran my hell-bound race

Indifferent to the cost

You looked upon my helpless state

And led me to the cross

And I beheld God's love displayed

You suffered in my place

You bore the wrath reserved for me

Now all I know is grace!

Hallelujah! All I have is Christ!

Hallelujah! Jesus is my life!

Now Lord I would be Yours alone

And live so all might see

The strength to follow Your commands

Could never come from me

O Father use my ransomed life

In any way You choose

And let my song forever be

"My only boast is You!"

Preparing For Worship: December 20th, 2009

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

I can't believe 2009 is almost in the history books, and once again, we are poised to celebrate the birth of Christ. How time flies!

This is a year of firsts yet again at Crossroads, and we're excited to celebrate! It's the first Sunday that we will have THREE services! Yes, count them, THREE! This is just a special change for this Sunday, seeing that it's "Christmas Sunday." The times for our three services are 8:00am, 9:30am, and 11:00am, so you have three chances to join us for worship and celebration!

The second "first" is that it's the first time that we will have a CHOIR! The Crossroads Christmas Choir has been hard at work for the past seven weeks preparing to help lead worship with the worship band, and also preparing a special piece of their own for your enjoyment!

Our 8:00am service is for the "most godly" of you (as Pastor Todd would say), since it's the earliest, and most selfless service to attend (selfless because it opens up more seats in the 2nd and 3rd services). We'll be doing it a little bit "candle light" style as we sing carols, and celebrate the birth of the Savior.

The 9:30 and 11:00am services will be identical, and will also feature a short musical presentation from our Kids ministry featuring all of our Crossroads kids called "Come To The Manger!"

Here's what's in store:

All three services will start with a pair of carols: "Angels We Have Heard on High" and "Joy To The World." High energy, joy-filled carols that call us to celebrate the reality of God made man to live among us!

Then we'll celebrate the outreach that is taking place as I type this down at the Union Rescue Mission, with a short slide show presentation.

Pastor Todd will come up and welcome everyone and pray for the morning, and then during the second and third services, we'll enjoy "Come To The Manger" presented by our 1st-6th grade kids.

Todd will come back up and dismiss us to a short welcome and greeting time. There are sure to be visitors and visiting family, so use this time to minister to someone who may be there for the first time!

We'll pick up our carol-singing again after that with the first and last verses of "O Holy Night" as we let the majesty and wonder of the night affect us, and hopefully cause us to see the manger with fresh eyes and soft hearts.

The choir will then share their song with us entitled "Hope Has Come" which is a great tune from Sovereign Grace Ministries, which by-the-way has a good Christmas album called "Savior: Celebrating the Mystery of God Become Man" (Click the title to check it out at the Sovereign Grace store).

Then Pastor Todd will come and preach the final message in our Christmas 2009 series called "Looking For Something More?" from Luke 2.

We'll sing one more song together after the sermon "Go Tell It On The Mountain" which is a great way to close our meeting, and take the joy of Christ's birth out into the world.

Lots of really cool stuff happening, so prepare your hearts and minds, and come rejoice in the hope of the Savior with us!

See you there!

Preparing For Worship: December 13th, 2009

Once again, I fell off the blogging wagon, and failed to help you prepare for the last two weeks! My apologies!

This Sunday we go full force towards the celebration of the Savior's birth; I've been thinking of the phrase "savoring the Savior" as I plan and remind myself of the wondrous gift we were given in the babe in the manger.

Pastor Todd will continue his sermon series called "Looking For Something More" leading up to next Sunday, the 20th. This week he's talking about Joy, and unpacking the text of 1 John 1:1-4. CLICK HERE to read through the text as you prepare to come worship together with the saints.

We have a great group of Christmas carols to sing together this week, and we're going to start it off with "Hark the Herald Angels Sing." (the video's a really fun cover by Weezer!) Now, this may be something akin to when you first found out that Santa wasn't entirely real, but I can't, in good conscience, lead us in carols that talk about the angels without mentioning that the Bible never tells us that angels sing. It's true; when Christ was born, angels didn't span the night sky with songs and carols. They did spread the news that he'd been born, but Scripture tells us they "told" it, and didn't necessarily "sing" it.

That being said, Scripture doesn't tell us that angels DON'T sing, so we just need to be aware that our beloved carols are taking a bit of artistic license when we talk about angels singing.

We'll see one more video about the Union Rescue Mission as we gear up for our big outreach project there next month, and Pastor Todd will welcome everyone and lead us in prayer for the morning.

Then we'll sing "Angels From the Realms of Glory" which recounts the journey of the angels to the shepherds to tell them of Christ's birth, and to bid them to come and worship him. There are a number of YouTube videos that show this song, but I recorded my own that's closer to what we'll actually sing on Sunday, so enjoy! We'll finish off that set with "What Child is This?" as an intro to Pastor Todd's sermon.

I like the way those two songs fit together, because when the Jewish people were waiting and anticipating the birth of the Messiah, they would have been expecting something very different than a barn and a manger filled with hay. I think sometimes in our own lives, we expect God to look very different than what he really is, and when we come to worship him and respond to his own revelation of himself, we are forced to evaluate our own views and expectations. Coming to worship and really thinking through who we believe God is, is an important process as we come to know him and understand him better.

After Pastor Todd's message, we will sing "The First Noel." This is yet another carol about the proclamation of Christ's birth by the angels to the shepherds. As we respond to God's Word, and the joy that is to be found in proclaiming the gospel, we will more closely relate to the joy of that first Christmas when the angels shouted the good news.

We'll close with the song that Candace and I sang during communion last week: "Jesus Thank You" as we put in perspective that Jesus was born to go to the cross for our sins. His life is an example and a model for us, but more importantly, it was a life that perfectly satisfied the righteous standards of God, and was subsequently sacrificed for us. This is the true joy of Christmas, not just that Christ CAME, but WHY he came; to set us free from the curse of sin, and reconcile us to a restored relationship with the Father!

So that's what's going on; happy prep!