Song Talks

What's up Song Talkers!  Holy, Holy, Holy; Great is Thy Faithfulness with a new added chorus, Lion and the Lamb and maybe favorite newer song "Death Was Arrested" are just a few of the songs for this week's worship service. Have you ever walked through a cemetery? The senior pastor at my last church loved them. During a sabbatical a few years ago he and his wife took a tour of New England and visited the cemeteries of some of his preaching heroes buried there. Kinda creepy. This is what the writer of "Death was Arrested" was doing one day when he noticed an epitaph on a headstone that read "Death arrested his progress". He stored that phrase in the back of his mind and years later while writing songs for his youth group, recalled the phrase while writing a song on the resurrection.  "Death was Arrested" came rushing forth and has become a powerful worship anthem for the church. Check out this devotional by David Mathis on ...

So, okay…new songs. Not everyone loves them. Not everyone likes learning something new. Some people adore new songs and some churches sing new songs every week! We can't be one of those churches...exhausting. The primary idea behind corporate worship is that we gather together as the body and sing praise to God, be instructed in the Word of God and encouraged by the people of God, and it's hard to sing if you don't know the songs! So we strive to keep things familiar, but with some new nuggets occasionally.  This week at 9:30 is one of those new nuggets! In July, I introduced a song to the 9:30 crowd that the 11:00 crowd has been doing a bit called "Glorious Day".  This raucous rising piece of music introduced by Passion a few years ago has captured my heart. I think because it's my story, it's your story, it's our story. This song comes from two different spots in the Scripture.  The first is In John 11.  Jesus had heard that Lazarus was...

From Allen: One of the most important phrases I've ever heard in my life is that "vision leaks". Vision comes in many forms, and if the initial vision isn't routinely maintained it will begin to putter out. I think many of us have experienced this in things like workouts, diets, ambitious outdoor projects, and even school semesters. All of these things start out so strong, and then our passion begins to fade because life distracts us with other things. This is something that we need to be so aware of in our spiritual lives.  Songs like My Victory are pretty simple. I've heard reasons why people don't like simple worship songs, but the truth of the matter is that they serve a great purpose if the lyrics are right. "Oh Your love bled for me, Oh Your blood in crimson streams, Oh Your death is hell's defeat. A cross meant to kill is my victory." The gospel of Jesus Christ is a simple one, and I believe that we need to keep that simple gosp...