This morning I got up early and felt pretty tired as I started my day. On the way to work, a couple hymns came into my mind and before long I found myself singing them out loud in the car. It was a great way to wake up and wake my soul up to the beauty of the gospel that I need so desperately. Here’s a couple lines that really stayed with me from the hymn, Crown Him With Many Crowns:
Crown him with many crowns
The Lamb upon his throne
Hark how the heavenly anthem drowns
All music but its own Awake my soul and sing
Of him who died for thee
And hail him as thy matchless king
Throughout eternity
This is beautiful. Apparently, Carlos Whittaker was recording a video in a bad part of town when a homeless man named Danny began to spontaneously worship with him.
As we approach the season of Advent, I encourage you to check out Sojourn’s Advent Songs. Available now for free or pay-what-you-want. Here’s a description from the website:
The emphasis here is on the already/ not-yet tension of Advent, the season of waiting and anticipation before Christmas. Advent comes to us in the darkest season of the year — a season when the nights are long, the days are cold, and we look with anticipation for the return of the warmth in the spring. The songs have both a dark sense of anticipation and glimpses of light dawning in the face of the Christ child.
As we celebrate this season, we celebrate that our Messiah has come, and we look with longing to the day when he comes again. As St. John says, “Amen! Come Lord Jesus.”
How many of our thoughts about music and worship revolve around what we like, what we prefer, what interests us, and what we find appealing? And how often is that attitude passed on to the next generation, who then focus on what appeals to them?
I suspect this may be one of the reasons churches develop separate meetings for different musical tastes. In the short run it may bring more people to your church. But in the long run it keeps us stuck in the mindset that musical styles have more power to divide us than the gospel has to unite us. (my emphasis)
How do we pass on biblical values of worship to coming generations when we can’t even sing in the same room with them?
We have to look beyond our own generation, both past and future, if we’re to clearly understand what God wants us to do now. Otherwise we can be guilty of a chronological narcissism that always views our generation as the most important one. As Winston Churchill insightfully wrote, “The further back you can look, the further forward you can see.”
Enough thinking about ourselves and what kind of music we like to use to worship God. God wants us to have an eye on our children, our grandchildren, and even our great grandchildren. We have a message to proclaim: “God is good, for His steadfast love endures forever.”
Let’s not allow shortsightedness or selfish preferences keep us from proclaiming it together.
Tonight at 6:30 is our SEEDS Family Worship Night at LBC! Come and join us for a great time of worship together! And bring your friends and neighbors with you! If you haven’t heard of Seeds, go here to listen to their music. Very high quality, taken straight from Scripture, enjoyable for the whole family.
We’re getting excited about launching our new ministry to families called SEEDS! Check out our new website and blog. And if you’re in the area, join us at LaGrange Baptist Church on Wednesday, September 2nd from 6:30 – 7:45 PM. This will be our opening night with a free concert for the whole family put on by the folks at Seeds Family Worship Live. Take a look at this video below to get a taste of what the night will look like!
Did you watch the Teen Choice Awards on Monday night? Every year I try to watch some of it to see what it reveals about our youth culture today. But usually I find myself having to turn it off before the show is over. This year was no exception.
I watched for awhile until Miley Cyrus came on and looked like she was doing some kind of pole-dancing performance to her song, “Party in the USA.” That’s enough to click off the T.V. But what made me most angry and sad for Miley is how her actions are openly betraying her public belief in Jesus Christ.
Last year, she was the emcee of the show and also took home a few awards. After accepting one of them, Miley told the audience, “First, I want to thank the one man in my life, Jesus Christ,” (pointing up to the sky as she said it). Interesting, huh?!
Many of you know that it hasn’t taken long for Miley to become a pop music icon among teens across the country. Knowing the pitfalls of many girls who have entered superstardom at such a young age, Miley has promised to pursue a different path. But people are watching and this is what they are saying about Miley and her recent performance.
“She already has this risque image, so it really wasn’t much of a stretch,” says Us magazine senior editor Ian Drew. “That’s how Britney took off. She was the good girl gone bad, and it looks to be working for Miley as well.”
It would be easy to condemn Miley, but let’s pause and pray for her instead. She is only 16, making millions of dollars, and influencing teens and tweens all over the world.
There are two things to say about him. He was a musical genius; and he was an abused child. By abuse, I do not mean sexual abuse; I mean he was used brutally and callously for money, and clearly imprisoned by a tyrannical father. He had no real childhood and spent much of his later life struggling to get one. He was spiritually and psychologically raped at a very early age – and never recovered. Watching him change his race, his age, and almost his gender, you saw a tortured soul seeking what the rest of us take for granted: a normal life.
But he had no compass to find one; no real friends to support and advise him; and money and fame imprisoned him in the delusions of narcissism and self-indulgence. Of course, he bears responsibility for his bizarre life. But the damage done to him by his own family and then by all those motivated more by money and power than by faith and love was irreparable in the end. He died a while ago. He remained for so long a walking human shell.
I loved his music. His young voice was almost a miracle, his poise in retrospect eery, his joy, tempered by pain, often unbearably uplifting. He made the greatest music video of all time; and he made some of the greatest records of all time. He was everything our culture worships; and yet he was obviously desperately unhappy, tortured, afraid and alone.
I grieve for him; but I also grieve for the culture that created and destroyed him. That culture is ours’ and it is a lethal and brutal one: with fame and celebrity as its core values, with money as its sole motive, it chewed this child up and spat him out.
If you haven’t checked out any of the Seeds Family Worship CD’s you’re missing out. Their mission is to “plant the seeds of God’s Word in the hearts of families.” I encourage you to go to their on-line store and purchase the Power of Encouragement CD (my favorite) and try this “doable devotion” at home with your family–provided by the folks at Seeds.
Listen to the song “Heavenly Lights” from the Power of Encouragement CD.
Go outside and find a place on the pavement where you can all see your shadows. Stand still and trace each other’s shadows. Also trace where your feet are standing. Let the younger children help trace the shadows of the parents. This gives them a special sense of accomplishment and connectedness.
Sit down outside and read James 1:17 from your Bible.
Ask your family to list out the “good and perfect gifts” they know. For younger family members, have them draw these gifts in chalk on the pavement.
Talk about what it means for God to be the Father of the heavenly lights.
Now, take some time to be active. Observe your shadows as you jump up and down, move from side to side, and wave your arms. Laugh and talk with your family about what they notice about their shadows.
If you want, take some more time to allow the kids to color in their shadows with chalk. The whole time, continue talking about light, dark, and their shadows.
Now, have everyone go back and place their feet in the chalk outlines. Look to see how the shadows have now moved.
Ask why the Scripture says God doesn’t “change like shifting shadows.” Talk about how good it is that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). What would it look like if we displayed the consistency of Christ?
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