O Love That Will Not Let Me Go

   Are you familiar with the old hymn "O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go?" I've heard a few different recordings of it in my life, but I'd never sung it in a congregational setting. Lyrically it is a song that speaks to me. In recognizing God's love that never lets us go, and then responding by giving ourselves back to God, I feel like it is a song of hope that recognizes God's centrality to our hope. I also love the imagery of giving our weak and weary selves to God and allowing Him to make something more. 

   Anyway, I was recently reintroduced to this song through a book I read and I decided that I wanted to sing it for my congregation. For whatever reason, the music in the hymnal wasn't my favorite so I decided to try my hand at re-arranging things a bit. So here for your listening pleasure (or maybe not) is my rendition of "O Love That Will Not Let Me Go". I hope the lyrics touch your heart as they have mine.

Making the World Flat...

I just an article in the most recent issue of Worship Leader Magazine about multicultural worship.  Within the article (written by Vaughn Thompson Jr.) are these words...
"The world is not the same as it was 20 years ago. Cultural lines are becoming blurred and less  definitive as globalization and the booming technology age makes the world smaller and flatter than ever before."
What do you think this means? As we gain more opportunities to interact with more and more people, are we truly connecting more? Or are we simply setting ourselves up for more chances to set sail for new horizons and finding ourselves falling off the edge of the world.  As much as I love the internet and social media, I wonder sometimes if we are losing the art of communication. How much longer will it be before we lose the ability to have compassionate debate and considerate sharing of ideas. Maybe it's not just the internet age that has contributed to this loss, but we seem to be losing ground faster everyday.
What do you think? Is this shrinking of the world leading to more opportunities to learn and share, or more building of walls to fend of the ideas coming at us from all sides.

New Post and New Music

     So...it has been exactly 1 month since I have blogged anything. Summertime has been a crazy hectic time. Great ministry has taken place. Great songs have been sung. Life has flown by while at times I have felt like I was standing still. While I have considered blogging on several occasions, it seems like there is always something to distract me from sitting down long enough to put words to this digital page. So you might be wondering what broke me out of my blogging stupor...it was a new CD.

   I pre-ordered Andrew Peterson's new album "Light for the Lost Boy." I mainly pre-ordered it because I was on his page buying something else and to be honest I tend to enjoy his music. I received my package with the new CD a day earlier than it was supposed to release and opened it excitedly (I mean all you digital only folks couldn't hear it until today.) Upon putting this disc into the player I think i literally stopped everything I was doing for several tracks. I won't go so far as to say that every track is amazing, but some of them simply should not be missed. The opening track "Come Back Soon" speaks poignantly about the longing each of us has in our hearts for Christ's return. The track "Shine Your Light on Me" made me literally catch my breath. These two are the highlights for me, but there isn't a bad track on the CD. And in actuality, there are most awesome songs here. This is musical and lyrical poetry like I've seldom enjoyed. I would encourage everyone who reads this (all 15-20 of you) to go check it out. We serve an awesome God, and Peterson knows how to poetically express many thoughts on about that awesome God. It is honestly a beautiful expression of worship and awe. I hope you enjoy.
   I'll try to get back to being regular with my blog posts now...so hasta la vista.

Book Review of "Spirit Fighter"

   I received a free copy of “Spirit Fighter” by Jerel Law from the booksneeze book reviewer program in exchange for an objective review. I wasn’t sure what to think about this book when I read the description. Anytime someone writes a fictional story based on an obscure and seldom understood passage of scripture, I tend to be skeptical. However, I was pleasantly surprised by this story. Make no mistake…I’m still not sure that I’m ok with basing a story off of a passage of scripture that scholars don’t truly understand themselves. Thus the fact that Jonah and his family have powers because they are descended from fallen angels is a bit far-fetched. That being said, the actual story being told here is very enjoyable.

   Jonah and his sister are thrust into an age old struggle when Jonah begins to exhibit super strength. As his power begins to develop, his parents explain that his mother is a child of an angel and human, meaning she is half angel. This means that Jonah and his siblings are a quarter angel. When Jonah’s mother is kidnapped by a demon, Jonah and his sister are called upon by God to go and rescue her. While it seemed strange to imagine that God would send a couple of angels to your house to tell you about your mother’s kidnapping and to give you a wristwatch from God to direct you to your next coordinates. However if you can suspend your inclination to put the book down just because it seems a bit far-fetched, the story picks up very nicely. The pacing is good, the characters are decently fleshed out and believable, and the action is well-written.

   So, all things considered, this is a pretty good story for kids and young adults. The biggest drawback is that the scriptural references sometimes seem out of place in a fantasy story. 

Book Review Behemoth by Jonathan C. Leight

Behemoth was a very enjoyable book.  As a fan of the Jurassic Park books, I was excited to pick up a book written by a Christian dealing with dinosaurs. While Behemoth was not nearly as action packed as Jurassic Park, the action that is here is fun and believable. The creationist belief system is very strongly represented throughout the book. While I agree with this belief system, it did feel a bit heavy handed at times. Some of the dialogue felt like a creationist vs. evolutionist debate forum more than an actual conversation. There is a lot of dialogue that feels academic as well. I got used to it, and it didn’t bother me nor did it distract from the story greatly. Once I got used to how the dialogue flowed it felt fairly natural.

In conclusion, if you are looking for a rip-roaring adventure story in the vein of Jurassic Park, you might get bored at times. If you are looking for a well told story with a Christian creationist base point, some fun action, and dinosaur adventure, then I would highly recommend this book. I would even buy and read a sequel if one is written.

I was provided a digital copy of the book “Behemoth” by Jonathan C. Leicht by booksneeze.com. In return for the copy, I was asked to provided an honest review of the book.

Easter Part 2

   Last time I posted about a couple of my thoughts when it came to Easter. I had another thought while writing that post that was connected but didn't really fit in with what I had already written. So, here is Easter part 2.
   Have you ever read the book of Leviticus? I am attempting to read through the Bible this year and while I was reading Leviticus, I was amazed at how much the people of Israel had to do in order to make themselves clean and presentable before God. There are rules upon rules upon rules for everything from which type of animal to bring for each different type of sacrifice, to an extensive list of actions that will make you unclean and thus require you to be apart from the rest of the people for a specified amount of time followed by specific actions to purify yourself and thus be allowed back into camp. Then a thought hit me...since the crucifixion, we don't have to do any of that.
   As a matter of fact, since the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on the cross to pay for my sin, my first coming before God to offer my life to Him is as a broken and filthy sinner. No sacrifice was required on my part, because the sacrifice was given by Jesus. As Christians on this side of the crucifixion, we can come before God any time we desire and lift up our praises, concerns, struggles and victories to Him. As I thought about this, a third thought struck me...what do we do with this freedom?
   When we go to church, do we revel in the freedom from the law and freely give ourselves in passionate praise and pursuit of our Lord and Savior? Sometimes... However, we also do a whole lot of thinking about ourselves. We design worship centers with great acoustics and hire worship leaders who will play the style of music we like (complain if they don't). We buy padded chairs to sit in and expect the thermostat to read 73 degrees anytime we are there (if it is too hot or too cold, or if we have to stand too much we complain). We create Sunday School classes that will cater to various age groups and interests so that we can study what we want with people we are comfortable with. We do all this and more in the name of reaching the lost, but then we refuse to invite people to come; and if visitors do come we are often to busy talking to the people we know to notice them much less welcome them.
   I know that this is not true of all Christians all the time, but so often we take our freedom in Christ for granted. Rather than going to church for the purpose of loving and passionately pursuing the God who sent His son to give us freedom, we have made church about us and our desires. May I challenge you with something? This Easter as you go to church to contemplate the crucifixion and celebrate the resurrection, ask God to remind you of Jesus' sacrifice. Then if the pastor preaches 10, 15, or even 30 minutes past noon, thank God for the opportunity to enjoy that padded seat and climate controlled air and focus in on that which was given so that you could enjoy God and look forward to the day when you will join Him in heaven.  We are extremely blessed, we should live like it.

Easter 2012 Part 1

It’s Easter! Well, almost. April 8^th is rapidly approaching. What does Easter mean to you? There are two things that stand out to me when I think about Easter. First, Easter calls us to contemplate the crucifixion. We ought to think about the fact that we no longer have to bring an animal to the priest in the temple and sacrifice it in order to be made right in God’s eyes. We are no longer under the law because Christ has freed us from that bondage. As one old saying goes, “He paid the price I could not pay, to pay a debt He did not owe.” Does this thought affect your day-to-day decision making? Do you live differently because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ? Easter calls us to contemplate the crucifixion.

Second, Easter calls us to celebrate the resurrection! Our atoning sacrifice, our Lord and Savior is not rotting in a tomb somewhere. He is alive and desires that we have new life. Lives that are noticeably different from our lives before we knew Him. Do you desire to know Christ and the power of His resurrection? Do you live your life in such a way that people can see the change? Easter calls us to celebrate the resurrection! When we allow Christ’s sacrifice for our sins to change the way we live our lives, our lives become lives of worship to our Lord and Savior.