04/25/10 Logan's Worship Blog

We're back! After a couple 20 hour drives across the country, and two weeks away from our home church family, I am finally blogging about another Dutton set list for The Heights. And I am glad to do so.

This week, we will be led to the Word by our good friend, Afshin Ziafat. If you don't know him, you are one of the few, and you should check out his website: http://www.afshinziafat.com/

Here are the songs we'll be singing together this week...

1. Our God (Tomlin)

Some of you have heard me talk about one of my best friends, Daniel Carson, who plays guitar for the Chris Tomlin band. Well, last friday I was able to be a good friend, when Chris Tomlin was playing in Dallas, and Daniel was in need of a guitar for an acoustic set Chris wanted to do in the middle of the show. I put my old chet atkins guitar in the back my old camry and headed out to Bent Tree Bible, where the guys were sound checking for the evening. Soon after I arrived, Chris and the guys started playing "Our God," which is still fairly new to everyone, as it was only written a few months ago. But, having played this song at The Heights several times, I was able to enjoy this sound check time as a worship experience. It was just me, sitting on the 5th row, amidst 3000 empty seats, but I was still singing with everything in me.

When Chris introduced "Our God" to the crowd that night, he said "This song is a new one, but it seems to be catching on quicker than I expected. During sound check today, there was some guy sitting out in the seats, singing every word. I was freaking out!"

When I went to see Daniel backstage after the show, I reprimanded Chris for referring to me as "some guy" instead of "a friend, named logan, who you can worship with at The Heights in Richardson every Sunday morning at 10:50, for more information visit http://1050worship.blogspot.com/." But then I forgave him.

Romans 8:31b (New International Version)

If God is for us, who can be against us?

2. Lead Me to the Cross (Fraser)

This Sunday we are going to recognize the Heights Youth Group's senior class, most of whom should be committed to attending the Lord's school, Baylor University, this fall. Yes, yes I know Ekpe Udoh left for the draft, but we will still have an elite eight caliber team coming back next year. And don't forget our healthy Heisman hopeful, Robert Griffin, will be tearing up the turf this fall. God Bless our football coach Art Briles. Anyway! Anyway. I was given the task of choosing a song to follow the time of prayer we will be having for our Seniors, and I can't think of a better declaration for our students to make than this:

Lead me to the cross, where your love poured out

Bring me to my knees, Lord I lay me down

Rid me of myself, I belong to you

Oh lead me, lead me to the cross

1 Corinthians 1:18 (New International Version)

¹⁸For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

3. You are Good (some guy)

I think it's important for worship leaders to spend consistent time in the Psalms. Read them every day. Read different translations. Read commentaries. Make your own commentaries! Pray the words! Put the words to music! Recently, I've been praying through five NIV psalms each day, and today I read through my favorite 5 psalm stretch: psalm 21-25. I try to highlight my favorite parts, and by the end of my reading time today, I realized that I had highlighted every last word of those five psalms. Yes, that may defeat the point of highlighting, but I love the smell of highlighters, so it was still a gratifying task.

I was not only blown away by the poetry of these five psalms, I was broken by their honesty. As much as any man in history, David experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, but he gave glory to God at every turn. That is the goal of this song. Honesty, brokenness, and trust. I would encourage you to spend some time with psalm 22 today. Everyone remembers psalm 23, but what is David going through in the previous prayer...

Psalm 22

For the director of music. To the tune of "The Doe of the Morning." A psalm of David.

¹ My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from the words of my groaning?

² O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, and am not silent.

³ Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
you are the praise of Israel.

⁴ In you our fathers put their trust;
they trusted and you delivered them.

⁵ They cried to you and were saved;
in you they trusted and were not disappointed.

⁶ But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by men and despised by the people.

⁷ All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads:

⁸ "He trusts in the LORD;
let the LORD rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
since he delights in him."

⁹ Yet you brought me out of the womb;
you made me trust in you
even at my mother's breast.

¹⁰ From birth I was cast upon you;
from my mother's womb you have been my God.

¹¹ Do not be far from me,
for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.

¹² Many bulls surround me;
strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.

¹³ Roaring lions tearing their prey
open their mouths wide against me.

¹⁴ I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint.
My heart has turned to wax;
it has melted away within me.

¹⁵ My strength is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
you lay me in the dust of death.

¹⁶ Dogs have surrounded me;
a band of evil men has encircled me,
they have pierced my hands and my feet.

¹⁷ I can count all my bones;
people stare and gloat over me.

¹⁸ They divide my garments among them
and cast lots for my clothing.

¹⁹ But you, O LORD, be not far off;
O my Strength, come quickly to help me.

²⁰ Deliver my life from the sword,
my precious life from the power of the dogs.

²¹ Rescue me from the mouth of the lions;
save me from the horns of the wild oxen.

²² I will declare your name to my brothers;
in the congregation I will praise you.

²³ You who fear the LORD, praise him!
All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!
Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!

²⁴ For he has not despised or disdained
the suffering of the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from him
but has listened to his cry for help.

²⁵ From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;
before those who fear you will I fulfill my vows.

²⁶ The poor will eat and be satisfied;
they who seek the LORD will praise him—
may your hearts live forever!

²⁷ All the ends of the earth
will remember and turn to the LORD,
and all the families of the nations
will bow down before him,

²⁸ for dominion belongs to the LORD
and he rules over the nations.

²⁹ All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;
all who go down to the dust will kneel before him—
those who cannot keep themselves alive.

³⁰ Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the Lord.

³¹ They will proclaim his righteousness
to a people yet unborn—
for he has done it.