01/09/11: 40 (U2), Mighty to Save, He is Exalted, Stronger, Christ is Risen, You are My King (Amazing Love)

40 (U2)

Psalm 40

¹ I waited patiently for the LORD;
he turned to me and heard my cry.
² He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.
³ He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear the LORD
and put their trust in him.

This song was written directly from Psalm 40, which Gary will be quoting in his sermon this Sunday. Click here to see a clip of U2 playing it at RedRocks back in the glory days. Then, click forward to about 3:45 to see Bono leading the "congregation" like a worship leader.

Mighty to Save

Our catalogue can be divided into three sections: originals, hymns, and familiar songs (leaving out, for the most part, the idea of playing new, unfamiliar songs that weren't written by someone in the band). "Mighty to Save" is at the top our "familiar" list. It is, by most accounts, the most sung worship song in the world today. And it's good to see a worship video with almost 10 million hits. 420 million more and we will have caught up with Justin Bieber. Click Here to view the video ("Mighty to Save", not "Baby ft. Ludacris")

He is Exalted

If you didn't grow up singing this song: 1. God has rescued you from a non-Christian background, or 2. You are young. Either way, you should be informed that "He is Exalted" was the hottest worship jam of 1992, and its lyrics are as simple, singable, biblical, and vertical as a song can get. Sorry Twila, but I set out to find the most dated, embarrassing video of this tune on YouTube, and I succeeded. Click Here and click forward to about 3:00

Stronger

I am amazed every time I see a live clip from the Hillsong conference in Australia. Like "Mighty to Save," this video has the propensity to throw its viewers into a state of worship, right there in front of the computer screen: Click here

Christ is Risen

I love it when this happens. I don't need to tell the story behind the song, because the songwriter has already done it for me. In this video, Matt Maher explains how this song was inspired by John Chrysostom's third century sermon, which details how "Christ used death to destroy death": Click Here

You are My King (Amazing Love)

Chris Tomlin led worship at my church's youth camp, when I was in high school, and I remember always showing up, anxious to hear what new songs Chris had written that year. He wrote songs like "Famous One" and "We Fall Down" while he was at our particular camp, so it was always a thrilling week, especially for the aspiring worship songwriters in the crowd. But Chris is a worship leader first, and a songwriter second. No matter how many new, fresh original songs he had up his sleeve, he always left room for the familiar.

By my senior year of high school, You are My King (Amazing Love) had run its course in youth groups across the country in much the same way that "Lord, I life your name on high" had done in the mid-90s. We hadn't sung it at our youth group for a couple of years, and Chris hadn't sung it at camp since I was a freshman. But one night, after all the new songs had been sung, and it was clear that the Spirit was still moving, Chris began singing this song.

It was like the place had been filled with a breath of fresh air.

Now, if we had been singing "Amazing Love" during the invitation, every night of camp, every year since the song was written (as many Churches did), it wouldn't have had the same impact on the room. But every once in a while, we need to be reminded of the songs that God used to draw us closer to Him at a former stage of life. My prayer is that God will press these lyrics upon your heart in a fresh way, as we sing them together tomorrow morning.

01/02/11: Our God, When Heaven Came Down, In Christ Alone, Holy Holy Holy, Share

Our God (Chris Tomlin)

Click here to see a video of Chris Tomlin and Matt Redman telling the story behind this song.

When Heaven Came Down (Logan Walter)

I finally put the chords and lyrics to this song on YouTube. Click here to learn how to play it!

In Christ Alone (Keith Getty and Stuart Townend)

Click Here to read an interview with Keith Getty, in which he discusses the hard work of avoiding clichés in worship songwriting and explains how his melodies are influenced by Irish folk music

Holy Holy Holy (Words: Reginald Heber, Music: John B. Dykes)

Two centuries ago, most churches sang psalms straight from scripture with no two people in the room singing the same melody. According to most reports, congregational worship music across the world was uninspired and chaotic. Reginald Heber wrote this beautiful song to help his congregation sing passionately to their maker. Click here to read the entire hymn story

Share (Logan Walter)

We have four core values at The Heights: Worship, Grow, Serve, Share. In 2008-2009, we put a special emphasis on Serve, and I wrote "Call to Action" for our push to "not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth" (1 John 3:18). In 2010-2011, we are focussing on Share, and the church has been charged with the call to engage in spiritual conversations with strangers at least once per week. This may sound simple, but how often do we engage strangers in any kind of conversation whatsoever? The first week, I shared with my TV repairman, Julio. The second week, a pipe conveniently broke in our house, giving me the opportunity to share my faith with the plumber, Jesus. Ironically, he was not a church goer. The third week, I found myself in a predicament. We were in Houston, playing for a week long event at an all-Christian, conservative private school. Everyone was a Christian. No one was a stranger. It was hopeless. But on the last night of the event, the band decided to take a trip to Barnes & Noble, where I always hang out in the Christian Literature section. Come to think of it, the bible section probably wasn't the best place to look for a lost soul, but God made it happen.

The following is a summary of an hour long conversation I had with an Iranian man, named Hamed, who spotted me reading a Bible in B&N:

Hamed: "Are you Christian?"

Me: "Yes, are you?"

Hamed: "No."

Me (silent prayer): Thank You, Jesus (the carpenter)

Hamed: "My wife is a Christian. My kids go to Christian church. But I am Baha'i. Are you familiar with Baha'i?"

Me: "No, are you?"

Hamed: "Yes. I am Baha'i."

Me: "Ah yes."

Hamed: "I believe there are many paths to God. The Baha'i embrace all major world religions as Truth." (this was actually a twenty minute explanation. I just listened and learned and waited to ask the only question on my mind.)

Me: "Who do you say Jesus is?"

Hamed: "Oh, I love Jesus. Jesus is my prophet, Jesus is my lord."

Me: "What do you mean when you say that Jesus is your lord?"

Hamed: "Jesus is my lord, Budah is my lord, Mohammed is my lord. I have many lords."

Me: "But Christians believe that Jesus is God."

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Up to this point, Hamed had been talking 100 miles per hour with 100% conviction and an air of certainty about everything he was saying. But nobody had ever told him that Jesus is God. His wife claims to be a "Christian." His kids attend church on Sunday mornings. He, himself, attends every Christmas and Easter service with his family, yet the Divinity of Christ was a completely foreign concept to him.

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Hamed: (confused) "What do you mean 'Jesus is God'?"

Me: "I mean that Jesus was both fully man and fully God. If I had a Bible with me, I could show you several passages that point straight to Christ's divinity."

Hamed: "There's like a hundred Bibles right behind you."

Me: "Ah yes."

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I then pointed Hamed to John 1:1-14, which is the passage Neil McClendon will be preaching from in his sermon this Sunday at The Heights.

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Me: "See here it says 'in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God,' and then in verse 14 it says 'the Word became flesh," that's talking about Jesus. Jesus was the Word, and the Word was God. Then if you flip over a few pages to chapter 8, Jesus says in verse 58, 'before Abraham was, I AM.' And everybody in the crowd would've known that 'I AM' was the name God gave to Himself in the Old Testament. When Jesus says "I AM," He is claiming to be God.

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Hamed and I talked for another twenty minutes, then I went to his house and met his Christian wife, who was verbally abusive to their children (Hamed was clearly the more Christ-like parent). Hamed gave me several Baha'i books and wrote down my recommendations, before I said goodbye. And though he didn't convert to Christianity that night, a seed of truth was planted. That's what happens when we share our faith with others. We become seed planters. And, eventually, many of these seeds will grow and bear fruit. So "let us not grow weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." We all have "seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of Grace and Truth" (John 1:14). So let us be witnesses to what we have seen. Let us be witnesses to the light (John 1:8).