26/11/2013 by sevennotesofgrace

Joy Radiators for Christmas – and all year long!

Sharing a post today on the challenge of cheerfulness, from The Blazing Center. We are to do everything without grumbling or complaining or arguing, says Paul in his letter to the Philippians (2:14). But sometimes the pressures of the Christmas season, which we are soon to embrace, make being cheerful all the more challenging. Can we be ‘joy radiators’ at Christmas – and all year round?

“Christmas is the season of joy. Yeah right.

As Paul McCartney sings, “Simply having a wonderful Christmas time,” I see haggard looking parents pushing their gift-laden baskets through the aisles of stores yelling at their kids, “If you ask one more time we’re going home and never coming back ever again. And you will eat oatmeal from now on. Without sugar. And we’re never going to McDonald’s again either!” (I once threatened to never take my kids to McDonald’s again. Empty threat #302).

Would people describe you as joyful?

Would your co-workers and neighbors? Would your classmates and roommates say you’re cheerful? If your friends knew no other Christians but you what would their impression of Christianity be? Would little kids describe you as happy or fun? This quote by D Martin Lloyd Jones challenges me:

“Nothing is more important, therefore, than that we should be delivered from the condition which gives other people, looking at us, the impression that to be a Christian means to be unhappy, to be sad, to be morbid, and that the Christian is one who ‘scorns delights and lives laborious days’…..It behooves us, therefore, not only for our own sakes, but also for the sake of the Kingdom of God and the glory of the Christ in whom we believe, to represent Him and His cause, His message and His power in such a way that men and women, far from being antagonized, will be drawn and attracted as they observe us, whatever our circumstances or condition. We must so live that they will be compelled to say: would to God I could be like that, would to God I could live in this world and go through this world as that person does.”

Christians should be joy radiators. And not just at Christmas. This doesn’t mean we’re rosy-eyed Pollyannas who wear pasted on fake smiles all the time. This doesn’t even necessarily mean we feel happy. But there’s a joy in Christ that’s deep and lasting and real. And others should see something of it in us.

And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. (Luke 2:10)

Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15:11)

Think about it. God has freely forgiven our multitudes of sins, counted us righteous in Christ, adopted as his own children, and given us the hope of eternally gazing on Christ’s beauty. His mercies are new every morning and he has promised to never cease doing good to us. Are you feeling joyful yet? No? Ok, he redeems your life from the pit, crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s (Psalm 103:4-5). I hope you are at least smiling a little.

The somber, depressed looking Jesus portrayed in movies wouldn’t attract anyone, much less children, as he mutters in a flat Shakesperian accent, “Suffuh the little children to come unto to me,” with about as much delight as an annoyed junior high school principal talking to a troublemaker for the hundredth time.

Let’s ask Jesus to fill us with so much of his joy that people say, “Would to God I could be like that, would to God I could live in this world and go through this world as that person does.”

– See more at: http://www.theblazingcenter.com/2011/12/are-you-a-joy-radiator.html#sthash.lURUxDS3.dpuf

You may also enjoy:
Looking for good Christmas songs?

25/11/2013 by sevennotesofgrace

Heaven Everywhere

Another great lyric video for your Christmas services! This one was made to order by my daughter. Thanks Megan!!
You can visit her new photo blog here: http://wonderintheordinary.wordpress.com/
or her book blog Just a Story.

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Why wouldn’t we remember Christmas? December 25 in Song!

22/11/2013 by sevennotesofgrace

The hope of redemption behind prison bars

This is a great clip – it is a remarkable story of redemption: “Timothy made a horrible choice when he was just a kid, but God is using him for some serious kingdom good.” It is also a testimony to the power of music to impact the hardest of hearts. You can read more about Timothy’s gift here: http://timothysgift.com/

You may also enjoy:
What’s so Amazing about Amazing Grace?

13/11/2013 by sevennotesofgrace

Watch “COME ONE AND ALL” Christmas Clip

This is a lovely song with an interesting clip, recorded by Garage Hymnal.
It would make a lovely addition to any upcoming Christmas service.

COME ONE AND ALL

Come, oh come one and all
To Bethlehem’s stable, to Bethlehem’s stall
The star, it beams on this sight
The father in heaven sent us this glorious light.

More lovely than the angels
Than the stars, this holy child!
Lying here before us, sent here for us Jesus Christ!

Come, oh come one and all
The shepherds are kneeling, bowing before him in awe
Angels sing from above
Mary and Joseph smile at their baby with love

More lovely than the angels
Than the stars, this holy child!
Lying here before us, sent here for us Jesus Christ!

Music by Garage Hymnal, words by Alanna Rodgers with adaptations from Christoph Von Schmid’s German Folk Song, “Oh Come Little Children”
Animation by Taste Media http://www.tastemedia.com.au

08/11/2013 by sevennotesofgrace

How effective is your music ministry?

Sometimes we musicians get so caught up with organising and making music happen for our church gatherings that we forget to take stock of how things are going. Are we really achieving any of the goals of our ministry? Or is it just a lot of hard work?
For me, music ministry goals are:
* to engage people in enthusiastic praise of our great God who alone is worthy of our praise,
* to provide encouragement for the gathered Body of believers, and
* to declare/teach the great truths that God has revealed of himself and the gospel in His Word.

So how do you measure whether or not we are achieving that, at all?
Like many areas of ministry such results cannot be quantified. God doesn’t keep a score card and send us a report!
However by talking to people and allowing them the freedom to give encouragement and criticism, they can help you know how you are going with your goals. (It is, afterall, God’s people we are serving.) Thick skin is always required in the music department, so give grace to those who are willing to share their views. You need to hear them, whether they be “right” or “wrong” or somewhere inbetween. Godly insights, shared in a loving manner, can lead to greater effectiveness.

One way to measure the engagement of your congregation is simply by joining with them in the praise times during your service. This Sunday, for the first time in a long time, I was able to simply be a member of the congregation, with the opportunity to listen carefully to the most important voices – the voices of the gathered body of Christ. I could easily hear which songs were being sung with enthusiasm, and which were still probably too difficult for the non-musical person to catch on to. It helped me realise which songs needed to be retired, better than if I was actually leading or playing on team.

Speaking of singability I find it really helpful (in the planning stage) to play potential new songs to people who aren’t on the music team. If you find they can sing along by the second hearing (and they think the song is truthful and encouraging) then you probably have something most people in your church can sing, and sing well together (which is, afterall, the whole point).

In King David’s time, the musicians were clothed in white and stood apart from the assembled worshipers: “All the Levites who were musicians—Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun and their sons and relatives—stood on the east side of the altar, dressed in fine linen and playing cymbals, harps and lyres. They were accompanied by 120 priests sounding trumpets.” (2 Chronicles 5:12)
Unlike these musicians we need to see ourselves as part of the gathered body, not removed from, more important or better than them. Often we are the last to know when something isn’t working to encourage people in corporate praise. We must be willing to listen, review and change and adapt to meet our goals – and not be too proud or stubborn to change.

For more help thinking through congregational singing, check out these posts:

10 Principles for Church Singing

Working for those moments of Joy

Sharing the Rich Indwelling Word (Colossians 3:16)

The Synchonicity of Singers

Worship through Congregational singing (a post from Christ Our Hope Church)

02/11/2013 by sevennotesofgrace

Watch “The World Without Mobile” on YouTube

This is lots of fun….love the Tweet birds!

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Is your Smart phone making you dumb?

29/10/2013 by sevennotesofgrace

One word: Grace

Image courtesy of http://www.facebook.com/timewarpwife

26/10/2013 by sevennotesofgrace

Corporate worship is a serious gift!

Being responsible for organising church music is a challenging task and not for the faint of heart. Yet music has a vital pastoral role in the church community. The songs we choose will either teach our people great bible truths, and build them up in the confidence of salvation in Christ – or not! Here is a great explanation of why and how our songs can effectively pastor the Body of Christ:

“Cross-centered songs affect our souls. You’ve heard the Martyn Lloyd-Jones quote about how most of our unhappiness comes from listening to ourselves more than we talk to ourselves. In light of this, corporate worship is a serious gift! Singing in corporate worship is a means of talking to yourself. This provides us an opportunity to stop listening to ourselves, to stop listening to sin, legalism, condemnation, and to begin singing and talking to ourselves. And by the end of corporate worship there is a good chance that we will experience the joy of the gospel. Not very often in our noisy world do we have such an opportunity to talk to ourselves. So what your church is saying in these moments of corporate singing is very important. And what a unique opportunity worship leaders have to transfer the hope of the gospel to people in corporate worship. And to think, you can do this each and every Sunday!”
(Bob Kauflin at Worship Matters)

Don’t ever give up on the pursuit of engaging people in corporate worship – they need it! And that’s why God calls us to the task. It works for His glory, and simultaneously for our good.

It is interesting to note that this is the very thing that sustains music leaders and musicians in their work. When we practice the songs of faith, speaking them to ourselves over and over as we practice at home, and again with a team before the service – all this practice allows the words of the cross, the glory of grace, to sink in more deeply. While some may see it as a big sacrifice to get out of bed early, or give up hours at home preparing music, this is the very thing that renews us in the Lord!

If you are not part of music leading at your church, please encourage those who are to keep working at it, and thank them for their efforts. Our musicians help us to give wise counsel to ourselves through song. This is precisely what David was doing as he penned the Psalms. Psalm 103 contains some of David’s most famous direct counsel to his own soul – and ours:

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity,
    who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit,
    who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
    who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

God’s Word leads us in prayer

Sometimes we can feel like our prayers are going unanswered, or that our feeble efforts to be consistent and persistent in prayer mean God probably doesn’t even want to answer! But God is not like us. He is compassionate and gracious. His grace is new every morning.

“Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live.” (Psalm 116:2)

If you need help to get praying again there are plenty of books to read on the topic. There is also journalling, prayer partners and other methods to try. But today I’d like to suggest a few simple points (courtesy of John Piper) to remind you that the greatest help for the practice of prayer is probably God’s Word itself. Consider the following reasons why:

Much of the Bible is prayer (most of the Psalms especially).
The Bible is full of commands and encouragements for us to pray (1 Thessalonians 5:17).
We are told to pray according to the will of God (1 John 5:14 ), and the Bible is the revealed will of God.
The Word of God cannot be truly desired (Psalm 119:36) or spiritually comprehended (Psalm 119:18) or savingly spoken (2 Thessalonians 3:1) without the work of the Holy Spirit, whom we ask for by prayer.
Being saturated with the Word of God produces an effective prayer life: “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you , ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” (John 15:7).

The Bible’s Songbook

I’ve been thinking lately about the way many churches (including mine) have let the practice of Psalm-singing slip away. I also wonder why. Why do we neglect singing from the Bible’s songbook together? Surely there is much to be gained by singing directly from God’s word, especially when it is written in the form of song. So I’ve decided to embark on an epic journey to find some great arrangements of Psalms with a more with contemporary style. (I would LOVE to hear your suggestions! Please comment if you know some.) In the meantime, consider some of these thoughts on the Psalms from MERE INKLING’s robstroud:

. . . the Psalms are the foundation and epitome of worship music for Jews and Christians alike. One could read a Psalm each day and since there are one hundred and fifty, when you returned to the first psalm five months after beginning, it would be utterly fresh. C.S. Lewis enjoyed the Psalms. The following passage comes from a letter written in 1940.

“My enjoyment of the Psalms has been greatly increased lately. The point has been made before, but let me make it again: what an admirable thing it is in the divine economy that the sacred literature of the world should have been entrusted to a people whose poetry, depending largely on parallelism, should remain poetry in any language you translate it into. And glorious poetry it is. The beauty of the songs extends far beyond the family “Lord is my shepherd . . .” And yet, it would be impossible to comprehend the number of grieving souls that have been comforted with the words “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”

Most Christian traditions greatly value the Psalms, and many include them as a portion of the regular service or liturgy. And individuals who include them in the personal devotions are never disappointed. C.S. Lewis included them in his prayer and devotion. In fact, he enjoyed the Psalms so much that in 1958 he wrote a book entitled Reflections on the Psalms. There he proclaims, “The most valuable thing the Psalms do for me is to express that same delight in God which made David dance.”

The Church has added an immense repertoire to the Psalms during the past two millennia, but they will never be replaced. In fact, many inspired songs owe a major debt to the Psalms themselves. This includes the Odes of Solomon, the first (post-Psalms) Christian hymnal (composed circa 100 A.D.). Speaking of the Odes, I wrote a thesis on them many years ago, and have been considering writing a book about these treasures. Perhaps I’ll share more about them in the future. (Nb. The lovely window pictured above is from a church in Fringford, England. David was likely a bit younger when most of the psalms he composed were written.)”

http://mereinkling.wordpress.com/2013/10/10/the-bibles-songbook/