New Song: Let Your Kingdom Come

Hey everyone,

I'm sorry I didn't post a Preparing For Worship blog last Friday! I've been waging a war with Spring in my sinuses, and last Friday the lack of airflow was cutting off the oxygen to my brain, so I took a sick day and started a strict regimen of Advil Allergy Sinus.

SO yeah, this week, Pastor Todd will be preaching from Ephesians 5:15-18 where the apostle Paul talks about how to walk with wisdom in the light of life. He says to "understand what the will of the Lord is..." and I kept thinking about the line in The Lord's Prayer where Jesus prays "Thy will be done."

Knowing what the will of the Lord is for your life is a spiritual wisdom that comes with prayer and submission. We can't know God's will if we are so determined to fulfill our own!

This song is called "Let Your Kingdom Come" and it is about God's will for man to be saved from sin through faith in Jesus. There is plenty we may never know about God's perfect will, but we know that he has called us to be vessels to share the good news of the gospel with the lost, and this song reflects that!

It's by Bob Kauflin from Sovereign Grace Ministries.

Check out the lyrics and then sing along with the video underneath!

Let Your Kingdom Come

Your glorious cause O God

Engages our hearts

May Jesus Christ be known

Wherever we are

We ask not for ourselves

But for Your renown

The cross has saved us so we pray

Your kingdom come!

Let Your kingdom come

Let Your will be done

So that everyone might know Your name!

Let Your song be heard

Everywhere on earth

'Till Your sovereign work on earth is done!

Let Your kingdom come!

Give us Your strength O God

And courage to speak

Perform Your wondrous deeds

Through those who are weak

Lord use us as You want

Whatever the test

By grace we'll preach Your gospel

'Till our dying breath

New Song: We Will Remember

Hey guys, I know we just learned "Jesus Messiah" a couple of weeks ago, but there is a song I want to teach you that will work so well with the sermon text this Sunday!

Pastor Todd is in Joshua 4 this week, in which Joshua has each tribe take a big ol' rock from the bed of the Jordan River, over which they've just passed. He mentions a number of times that these stones are to be a memorial to God's great work:

And [Joshua] said to the people of Israel, "When your children ask their fathers in times to come, 'What do these stones mean?' then you shall let your children know 'Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground.' For the Lord your God dried up the waters of teh Jordan for you until you passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over, so that all the peoples of the earth my know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever." (Joshua 4:21-24)

The song is called "We Will Remember" by Tommy Walker, and here is a video with the music and the lyrics so you can learn how it goes! This song has been a favorite of mine for a long time (kind of a newer "Great is Thy Faithfulness"), and I'm excited to share it with you!

New Song: Psalm 62

Time to ring in the new year!

I'm excited to be back with you this week as we celebrate our first service of 2009, and I want to do it with a new song.

It's called "Psalm 62," and amazingly, it is based off of the Psalm of the same name!

I love the words that resound with hope and resolve to trust God in the face of uncertainty, trials, and everything under the sun.

Here are the lyrics:

Verse 1

My soul finds rest in God alone
My rock and my salvation
A fortress strong against my foes
And I will not be shaken
Though lips may bless and hearts may curse
And lies like arrows pierce me
I'll fix my heart on righteousness
I'll look to Him who hears me

Chorus
O praise Him hallelujah
My Delight and my Reward
Everlasting never failing
My Redeemer my God

Verse 2
Find rest my soul in God alone
Amid the world's temptations
When evil seeks to take a hold
I'll cling to my salvation
Though riches come and riches go
Don't set your heart upon them
The fields of hope in which I sow
Are harvested in heaven

Bridge:
O praise Him O praise Him
Hallelujah hallelujah
O praise Him O praise Him
Hallelujah Hallelujah
O praise Him O praise Him
Hallelujah hallelujah

Verse 3

I'll set my gaze on God alone
And trust in Him completely
With ev'ry day pour out my soul
And He will prove His mercy
Though life is but a fleeting breath
A sigh too deep to measure
My King has crushed the curse of death
And I am His forever

This song was written by Aaron Keys and Stuart Townend, and I think it's one we'll really enjoy singing together as we reflect on it, and grasp its truth.

Here's how the song goes:

Special Song from Christmas Sunday

Hi guys,

Sorry I didn't post a preparing for worship for this last week!

I did have some of you ask me about the song I sang after the sermon, and I wanted to post the info for it so you could get a hold of it if you wanted.

It's called "How He Loves" by John Mark McMillan

Here's a video of the song performed by Kim Walker of JesusCulture.org as I prefer this performance to McMillan's.

Fellowship Church: New Creation

So cool!

New Creation from Pace Hartfield on Vimeo.

Spontaneous Ministry of the Spirit

Bob Kauflin posted this powerful video from the recent Worship God conference.

Click HERE to go to the post, but here's the gist:

Pastor Jon Payne was leading worship during this session, and felt the leading of the Spirit to minister to those who had experienced the death of a child. He spontaneously came up with the song in the video, which was extremely powerful (even to me, despite the fact that I neither have children, nor have lost one).

This is a great example of being sensitive to the leading of the Spirit to edify fellow believers in the corporate setting, which is one of the primary reasons we gather together each week to worship (1 Cor. 14:26-33).

Keith Cooper Comes To Crossroads November 16th!

Guitarist Keith Cooper will be coming to Crossroads on November 16th! He will lead worship in our morning service, and play some of his spectacular music for us Sunday night at a Coffeehouse Concert Night.

If you haven't heard of Keith before, check these videos out! Praise God for the good gifts he gives to his children that they can use to encourage each other!

Why Does God Want Us To Sing??

Bob Kauflin talks about why God commands us not only to praise him, but to do it with singing. This video is a teaser for the Desiring God 2008 National Conference.

How Does Music "Work" in Worship

Here's Bob Kauflin and Mars Hill music Pastor Tim Smith talking about music in worship:

John Piper and the Prosperity Gospel

I'm sure many of you are familiar with what is called the "Prosperity Gospel." In case you aren't, it's what is being preached from many pulpits in America, and from many "Christian Living" bestsellers over at Barnes and Noble. It's a message that says "if you accept Jesus, you'll be healthy, you'll be wealthy, and you'll have great relationships" etc.

Here's John Piper telling us what God's Word says the gospel is:

Contentment

Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment
For we brought nothing into the world
And we can take nothing out of the world
But if we have food and clothing
With these we will be content

But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation
Into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires
That plunge people into ruin and destruction
-1 Timothy 6:6-9

Pastor Todd spoke to us about how we can misplace our affections in men, having more stuff, and money itself.

I was reminded of a video that one of my old college roommates had posted on his blog.

Tom Brady is the quarterback for the New England Patriots, and according to our world's standards of success, he has made it. Big.

At the 2:25 mark of the video, he makes an interesting and unexpected observation...

Click HERE to go to the video.

Harold Best at Mars Hill

Here's a link to video of a lecture Harold Best did at Mars Hill Church at the Continuous Worship Conference. I've mentioned Harold's book "Unceasing Worship: Biblical Perspectives on Worship and the Arts" on this blog before. As with his writing, it took me about 1/3 way through the lecture to really be able to follow his style of teaching, and a couple times I had to do the same thing I did with his book (replay the given section 2-3 times before I caught it) but you can get some really good sections at:

0:23:44 ("limping and brokenness...")

0:28:25 ("there is no escape from the word worship...," and "the reason why Christians are free to use the things of the world without borrowing the intent of the world")

0:38:00 ("intercessory prayer and it's results..." and "when the Holy Spirit really comes in, style goes out the window...")

0:40:40 ("Jesus wants us to say 'something' about him..." and "you are not of the short-attention-span-generation..." and "relevant as all hell...")

0:50:45 ("God's glory through my wife's death...")

0:54:25 ("worship as continuous outpouring..." [the theme of his book])

Hope this is profitable for you!

Worship On YouTube?

This is not a "Christian" song. Radiohead is not a "Christian" band. The film footage shown here is not a "Christian" film.

Can it move me to worship our almighty Creator God? Absolutely.

This is a music video a Radiohead fan made for one of the songs from their latest album, paired with footage from a 1996 French film called "Microcosmos."

The guy who did the editing said this:

"The sensual pace and delicate melody of the song reminded me of a world much smaller than ours, with all the love and violence we experience."

I say that this blend of music and images of nature points us to the common grace and unbelievable creativity of our Lord.