Greetings all, just quickly want to share an album I’m now playing on repeat. It is based on CS Lewis’ writings, with overtones of Narnia! There is so much to explore. Enjoy!
power of the holy spirit
The One and Only God (new song!)
“Like a warrior in battle he will lead his people home . . . “
Here is a new song from Navigate Worship – a song written and performed by a collaboration of musicians at my church! Lyrics below the Spotify link. Had a great time adding some harmonies along the way. Enjoy!
(Ps. Lyric video coming soon – will post once available).
The One and Only God
Lord we lift our hearts to you
Lord we recommit our hearts and minds anew
Lord teach us of your ways and let us look upon your face
And fill us with your words
The God who sits above it all
The God whose kingdom shall remain and never fall
The God whose name is worthier than any other name
The God we call our own
Servant King, light of all the earth
Shout his praises and endless worth
Like a warrior in battle he will lead his people home
The one and only God
Oh our one and only God
Lord you lead us through the flames
And you promise we will not be set ablaze
Through waters and through rivers we will not be swept away
For by our side you’ll stay
The God whose word defines all things
The God whose mightier than any earthly king
Who stretches out the heavens giving breath to everything
We kneel before you Lord
Chorus
Almighty, who is there like him
Holy, no other rock, the one and only God
Oh our one and only God
Lift our voices, praise his precious name
Holy, and all fall short of the one and only God
Oh our one and only God
(chorus x2)
Performed by Navigate Worship, Written by Ashleigh Willett, Ross Tenni; Source: 2241884 Records DK
Defender
Defender
You go before I know
That You’ve even gone to win my war
You come back with the head of my enemy
You come back and You call it my victory, oh ooh
You come back and You call it my victory, oh ooh
You go before I know
That You’ve even gone to win my war
Your love becomes my greatest defense
It leads me from the dry wilderness
That You’ve even gone to win my war
Your love becomes my greatest defense
It leads me from the dry wilderness
And all I did was praise
All I did was worship
All I did was bow down, oh
All I did was stay still
All I did was worship
All I did was bow down, oh
All I did was stay still
Hallelujah, You have saved me
So much better Your way
Hallelujah, great Defender
So much better Your way
So much better Your way
Hallelujah, great Defender
So much better Your way
You know before I do
Where my heart can seek to find Your truth
Your mercy is the shade I’m living in
And You restore my faith and hope again
Where my heart can seek to find Your truth
Your mercy is the shade I’m living in
And You restore my faith and hope again
And all I did was praise, oh, oh ooh
All I did was worship
All I did was bow down, oh
All I did was stay still, stay still
All I did was worship
All I did was bow down, oh
All I did was stay still, stay still
Hallelujah, You have saved me
So much better Your way
Hallelujah, great Defender
So much better Your way
So much better Your way
Hallelujah, great Defender
So much better Your way
When I thought I lost me
You knew where I left me
You reintroduced me to Your love
You picked up all my pieces
Put me back together
You are the defender of my heart
When I thought I lost me
You knew where I left me
You reintroduced me to Your love
You picked up all my pieces
Put me back together
You are the defender of my heart
You knew where I left me
You reintroduced me to Your love
You picked up all my pieces
Put me back together
You are the defender of my heart
When I thought I lost me
You knew where I left me
You reintroduced me to Your love
You picked up all my pieces
Put me back together
You are the defender of my heart
Hallelujah, You have saved me
So much better this way
Hallelujah, great Defender
So much better Your way
So much better Your way (I know it’s so much better)
So much better Your way (I know it, I know it)
So much better this way
Hallelujah, great Defender
So much better Your way
So much better Your way (I know it’s so much better)
So much better Your way (I know it, I know it)
And all I did was praise
All I need to do is worship
Lord, I will just bow down
I’m just gonna stay still
All I need to do is worship
Lord, I will just bow down
I’m just gonna stay still
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Steffany Dawn Gretzinger / John-Paul Gentile / Rita E. Springer
Defender lyrics © Bethel Music Publishing, Music Services, Inc
Gracefully Broken
Enjoying this new Matt Redman song, from his latest album “Glory Song”
The power is in the Gospel
“When our musicians, instruments, lighting, and technology aren’t impressive, we can wonder why people would come to our church. They come because we have something the world doesn’t: the amazing news that Jesus Christ died in the place of lost, rebellious sinners to reconcile them to God. Music, no matter how great it is, can’t raise a dead soul to life. The gospel can and does. Your church may never come close musically to what the church down the street does or what people listen to on their iPhones. That’s okay. Faithfully preach, sing, and explain the gospel and you’ll see lives changed.“
Standing your ground in hope – Lauren Daigle’s “O’Lord”
“This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary.” (Hebrews 6:19 NLT)
There is a unique perspective offered in this song, sung by Lauren Daigle: that we stand in and on our hope in the Rock of Christ. It is all about Him. He is the source of our hope, the anchor of hope. The grace that comes to us in Him, both in what He has done and will do, provides an unshifting hope, more valuable than any material thing the world offers. We can stand our ground and maintain our hope only because Christ gives us the strength to do so. This strength comes in His Spirit, living in us. He is completely trustworthy – our salvation is complete in the Cross of Christ. I trust this song will be a blessing to you today!
O’ Lord
Verse 1
Though times it seems like I’m coming undone
This walk can often feel lonely
No matter what until this race is won
Pre-Chorus
I will stand my ground Where hope can be found
I will stand my ground Where hope can be found
Chorus
O Lord O Lord I know you hear my cry
Your love is lifting me above all the lies
No matter what I face this I know in time
You’ll take all that is wrong and make it right
You’ll take all that is wrong and make it right
Verse 2
Your strength is found at the end of my rope
Your grace it reaches to the hurting
Still through the tears and the questioning why
Bridge
Make it right, Make it right right
I will stand my ground
I will stand my ground
CCLI Song # 7023302
Joe Williams | Paul Mabury © 2014 Flychild Publishing
The truth that rescues, renovates and restores
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 36:26 ESV)
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved. (Ephesians 2:4-5 ESV)
I just love the grace and truth of these two favourite passages (of mine) from God’s word. They sum up the compassionate heart of a God who would send his own son to die in order to make alive those dead in their rebellion against himself! They explain that the abundant new life we have in Christ is in no way something we have dreamed up. This is the intervention of an all-powerful God into the hearts of mortal men and women!
I also love the way the band Tenth Avenue North have described this rescue and restoration plan of our loving God (album: Light Meets the Dark). He came to bring us truth, which is his very substance. He came to bring us back to the start, to a relationship with him unhindered by our sin. He came to touch our hard hearts, to soften and make them tender and alive toward him. I trust you will enjoy meditating on the truth of these verses, particularly the grace of God which they reveal, grace which comes to us by no merit of our own.
“The Truth Is Who You Are”
It would be easier if You were just a thought in my head
Simply something that I once read
A belief needing my defense
And it would be easier if You were something I once knew
A hope just to hold on
But You’re holding out Your hands
You came to take us back to the start
You came to touch the hardness of our hearts
You gave us truth, that truth is who You are, it’s who You are
And it’s not enough to just say, “I believe”
‘Cause truth is that talk is cheap
So grace give me eyes to see
You came to take us back to the start
You came to touch the hardness of our hearts
You gave us truth, that truth is who You are
It’s who You are
Flesh and blood You offer us
Oh, to eat the bread and drink the cup
Oh, to taste, to see, to feel, to touch
Emmanuel, God with us
Emmanuel, God with us
‘Cause You came to break the chains apart
To wake the dead and the sleeping of our hearts
You gave us truth that truth is who You are
It’s who You are
It’s who You are
It’s who You are
Here is a video commentary by the lead singer, explaining more about the meaning of the song:
http://vimeo.com/11339654
Greater is the One living inside of me
‘Cause I hear a voice and He calls me redeemed
When others say I’ll never be enough
And greater is the One living inside of me
Than he who is living in the world
These lines are the chorus of a really lively and encouraging song on the latest Mercy Me album. The song is titled Greater. It explores the fact that the Great One – Jesus Christ himself – lives in us by grace, through faith! From His perspective we are redeemed, we are fully accepted by Him, with all our guilt and pain. Though there are days we lose the battle, “grace says it doesn’t matter”. He is living in us and He is greater than the world that would condemn and discourage, and call us fools. I pray that your joy and strength may be renewed in the Lord as you sing along. Below you will find the lyric video, the story behind the song and the lyrics themselves. (If you don’t have a copy of the latest Mercy Me Album, this site says it is just 5.99 on iTunes for a limited time: http://mercyme.org/) Blessings to you!
GREATER (Mercy Me, Album: Welcome to the New)
Bring your tired and bring your shame
Bring your guilt and bring your pain
Don’t you know that’s not your name
You will always be much more to me
Every day I wrestle with the voices
That keep telling me I’m not right
But that’s alright
‘Cause I hear a voice and He calls me redeemed
When others say I’ll never be enough
And greater is the One living inside of me
Than he who is living in the world
In the world, In the world
And greater is the One living inside of me
Than he who is living in the world
Bring your doubts and bring your fears
Bring your hurt and bring your tears
There’ll be no condemnation here
You are holy, righteous and redeemed
Every time I fall
There’ll be those who will call me
A mistake, Well that’s OK
Chorus:
There’ll be days I lose the battle
Grace says that it doesn’t matter
‘Cause the cross already won the war
He’s Greater, He’s Greater
I am learning to run freely
Understanding just how He sees me
And it makes me love Him more and more
He’s Greater, He’s Greater
Songwriters: Barry Graul, Bart Millard, Ben Glover, David Garcia, James Bryson, Jim Bryson, Michael John Scheuchzer, Mike Scheuchzer, Nathan Cochran, Robby Shaffer
You would probably also like this song from the same album: Flawless
Reflections on effective Preaching: “A view from the pew”
For a preacher to have mastery of a passage, the passage ought to have mastery over him.- Preachers who preach God’s truth into life (births, deaths, marriages, job losses, debts, breakins, car accidents, cancers etc.) give me the equipment to fight and survive as God’s child in the real world.
- Good preachers obliterate the divide between lofty grandeur of God and the messiness of real life, so that I see and do something about the constant rub of idolatry against the call to discipleship in my own life.
- I love it when preachers tell me what arrests, intrigues, amazes and captivates them from God’s word. A preacher’s delighted, wide-eyed insight is a massive aid to engagement.
- Preachers with a humble conviction about the authority of preaching pack more punch.
- “Unpacking a passage” is much less exciting than releasing a wild lion into our midst.
- I sense when a preacher’s preparation has included preparation of his own heart, because he preaches not only to me but to himself.
- I find preachers who walk boldly into a passage hungry for vital truth, fearless of apparent exegetical, theological or pastoral difficulty are far more compelling for their courage.
- I like to hear a preacher’s certainty born of a thoroughness of preparation and theological conviction.
- It is frustrating when a sermon has no application.
- I am discouraged when applications are effectively an exercise in heaping guilt on the listener. Rhetorical questions are a cheap way out! It is different from being challenged by gospel. My guilt has been taken by Christ!
- I’m captivated when I get sense that the preacher’s hardest fight has been the fight for his own soul, obedience, understanding and submission to the truth.
- Only after taking God’s word to his own heart is a preacher able to cleverly, sensitively, wisely, boldly craft a sermon that has the hearts of others as its goal. Pastors make good preachers – they are students of their own heart and other’s. They anticipate my questions.
- Laughter opens hearts and minds and helps me stay awake.
- Listeners lose interest when the preacher has lost interest first. (Boredom is the new morality – if it is boring it is more than wrong!)
- Every preacher must ask himself at the end of every sermon, “So what!?”
- God-breathed scriptures are full of risk, danger, opportunity, drama and daring – not like a stuffed lion in a museum. Tame sermons turn the living Word of God into a lifeless museum exhibit.
- Preachers shouldn’t be afraid of deep truths that average mortals have to take time and thought to comprehend. It isn’t bad that a listener doesn’t understand something this time round.
- I feel secure when preacher shares his sermon structure/aim for his sermon with me.
- Passion in preaching is by product of love for God.
- Preachers who tell me how to feel – or how they feel – leave my feelings unstirred. Challenge is to so use their words and their insight into the text and people to add the weight of all their energies to the Spirit’s sovereign work.
- Choose someone interesting if you are going to copy another preacher!
- Poetry and art are the preacher’s friends – they move hearts and stir affections…that my life would be warm to God!
- Biblical theses and models are helpful in my understanding and recall of breadth, theme and unity of the bible.
- Biblical theses and models can suck the life out of sermons when they become wheel ruts.
- Good preachers don’t take themselves too seriously, but take God’s truth seriously enough to die for.
- A sermon must be personal, passionate and pleading – not just a talk.
- A truth known intellectually may not be a truth truly comprehended, believed and obeyed. (It’s helpful when a preacher knows I believe it, but that I haven’t acted on it or truly comprehended it. It’s great when a preacher probes, personally, from pulpit!)
- You may never say anything really new, but that’s no excuse for not saying it in a fresh way.
- My obedience (thought, word, deed) completes God’s purpose for preaching.(These points were taken from a talk given at the QTC Preaching Conference 2012 by musician Colin Buchanan)
Pursuing Unity in the Spirit of grace
“Unity is unique because it relies on the Holy Spirit. While uniformity is built upon the preference of the individual, unity is built on the foundation of Christ. The same Lord that dwells in my soul is the same Lord that dwells in your soul, and the Spirit of God will literally agree with itself inside two believers when we put aside personal preferences and insignificant differences.
The church can and should be a motley group of believers working together for the gospel, but this kind of unity is counterintuitive to sinners. It requires love, patience and self-control – all character qualities we don’t naturally have.
If you and I ever want to experience true unity with one another, we need to take advantage of the abundant grace in Christ so that we can give that same grace to our brothers and sisters. And because of the Cross, that grace is made available to you every morning.”
Paul David Tripp
sevennotesofgrace 