This song is based on a passage from Augustine’s Confessions detailing part of his conversion experience.

“Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would not have been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace.” -Aurelius Augustine (Confessions, 5th cent. A.D.)

So check yourself, worship leader. Do you dream of one day making it “big?” Playing for crowds of thousands? Perhaps writing the next CCM hit? Dove award?

If your focus in on your own artistic success perhaps you are not as “far along” as you think you are. Remeber, God’s ways are not our ways, and what we deem valuable God often deems an abomination.

Let’s keep the main thing the main thing and draw our sense of accomplishment from Christ.

Click here for video and Casting Crowns’ new song “The Well.” 

“Grace Alone” is a new song written by Yours Truly. It is based on the poem “Broken” by Michelle Leuschner.

1 John 3:19-20 says:

By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him [God]; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.

Sometimes even our own hearts condemn us and cause us to worry and doubt. But Jesus is greater than our hearts, our doubts, or fears and in the worst of times we stand in his grace alone.

You will find the lyrics below. The updated lyrics are slightly different than the video, but at least the video will give you an idea of how the song goes. All you HCBCDS folks give it a listen in preparation for Sunday. I have also included a chord chart for those of you who have asked. I hope you are blessed by “Grace Alone.”

Sola Gratia! and Soli Deo Gloria . . .

Grace Alone lyrics

Grace Alone Chord Chart

Andrew, if you are reading this please know that I have no frame of reference for how to “deal” with you since you don’t return my calls or emails, and I have heard that you are no longer the Andrew that I once knew when we had fellowship together in Christ in Shreveport, Louisiana. I will simply respond as I would to anyone who has the balls to post something of their own opinion on the internet for all to see and publicly question the veracity of another’s doctrine.

For the rest of you I will give you some brief context for the situation.

A few years ago I led a taught at a Bible study which Andrew Axsom (the blogger mentioned above) hosted in his house. It was one of those long, 3-hour bible studies that we “young, restless, and reformed” kids like to participate in. It was a great night. My goal was to inspire an open discussion about the doctrine of God’s transcendence in relation to his intimate closeness with his people, a transcendence/immanence thing. We read the following passage from Isaiah:

For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite” (Is. 57:15, ESV).

The point of the entire study/discussion was the seeming paradox of God’s dwelling in “the high and holy place” and at the same time dwelling “with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit.” We spent hours completely enamored with the idea that this God of the universe who exists in such a holy, exalted state (this “consuming fire”) would stoop to live among us sinners, especially as revealed in the person of Jesus Christ.

I began the study by talking about the language we use when expressing our devotion to God. I referenced popular contemporary Christian songs such as “Love Song For A Savior” by Jars Of Clay, and Matt Redman’s “Let My Words Be Few” as examples. Both of those songs, as well as many others use the modern romantic language of “falling in love” to express devotion to God. The use of such romantic language to express devotion to Jesus, who is a real human being, a man, our brother, savior and king is what I was calling into question. Matt Redman himself has done a similar thing regarding his own song lyrics.**

My purpose in critiquing those songs as well as the use of romantic language in general was to show how some people relate to God when expressing devotion in relation to how I thought we “should” express our devotion to God in light of who he is and who he has made us to be.

That is the context of the following debate.

To Andrew Axsom:

Let me begin by saying that I never once stated that “love just isn’t a good word to use” when speaking of our relationship to God. I never said that. In fact one of my songs of worship is Psalm 18, which begins, “I love you, O Lord, my strength.” There are two places in all of Scripture where the phrase “I love you” is used by someone expressing devotion to God. One is Psalm 18 by King David. The other is in John 21 where Jesus was asking Peter if he loved him. Peter affirms, “Lord . . . you know I love you” (Jn. 21:17). Neither of these men could be accused of being effeminate. The word love is completely appropriate, even biblical to use when expressing one’s devotion to God.

However, there is a vast difference in the word love as understood by King David and Peter the Apostle and the modern, western concept of “falling in love.”

You say on your blog, ”Jesus said the greatest commandment in the law was to fall totally head over heels in love with him. He really did. Seriously.” Then to prove your point you cite Matthew 22:

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matt. 22:36-40, ESV).

You misunderstand the difference. I fear you misunderstand what it means to love God in the first place, especially as the idea of love relates to what Jesus said about loving God in the aforementioned passage.

Jesus never once told anyone to “fall in love with God.” He did, however tell us to “love” God. The word love in this passage is a verb denoting action on the part of the person expressing devotion to God, not a noun denoting a feeling felt toward the object of devotion.

I will refrain from arguing any point regarding the meaning of the various Greek words for love used in Scripture. What those words may or may not mean is not relevant to this conversation. What matters is how the word love is used. The word “love” is used in Scripture to express both an action-oriented, self-sacrificing, non-emotional kind of love for God or people that plays itself out in service, and a kind of central heart affection kind of emotion felt toward someone of something. It’s one thing for me to say to my wife, “I love you.” It’s a whole other thing for me to actually “love” her. The first tells her that I like being with her, that I see something desirable in her, and that I feel good when I’m around her. The other shows itself in the sacrificial way in which I serve her and honor her in our relationship.

Let me reiterate that I do not say that it is wrong to “feel” the emotion of love for God, or to express our love for God by saying the phrase “I love you.” Remember Psalm 18? However, neither of those kinds of love (mentioned in the above paragraph) is what I was talking about in the Bible study you cite. Neither of those kinds of love I have for my wife are consistent with the modern notion of being “in love.”

The idea of love I was calling into question is one born in the backseat of dad’s car, on the hollywood movie screen, and in the misplace, misguided, and misdirected sentiment of 14 year old girls making eyes at the cute boys in the hall. The phrase “I love you” is so overused it hardly retains any meaning whatsoever these days.

Now, if the Bible made use of the concept of “falling in love with God” then I would have to say we should work to take back our idea and not let the world redefine something that is essentially Christian. However, as it stands the idea is not essentially Christian, nor is it beneficial when seeking to express love and devotion to Jesus in a world rampant with the wrong kind of “love.” What I was saying then, and what I am saying now is that we must be wary of using love-language that speaks more of the fire in ones crotch than the devotion in one’s heart.

It is great to say to God with King David, “I love you.” It is great to affirm our affection for our redeemer, Jesus by telling him how much we love him. But it is not necessary to say that we are “in love” with him. I love my friend Kelly Carmichael. I love him with an affection that only exists among brothers of the highest degree. However, should I write a song screaming to the world how much I am “in love” with him it will certainly be misconstrued. When I say that I love my friend, or even that I have a deep-seated affection for him I am not saying anything at all romantic. Romantic love is for lovers. Real love is for friends.

Again, the expression of love in the biblical phrase “I love you” and the concept of love for God as expressed in passages like Matthew 22 are different than the modern romantic notion of being in love. To say that we are “in love” with Jesus is no different than a man saying he is “in love” with another man. We call that homosexuality! Jesus does not wish to be referred that way.

When you speak of love for God in your post you say on the one hand:

That is pretty serious love. ALL your heart. ALL your soul. ALL your mind. ALL your strength. Wow. Let’s be serious for a minute, what does it mean for me to say that I love my fiancé with all my heart? What would it mean if you said you loved someone with all your heart? (not to mention all your soul and all your mind) God is plainly saying that we are to love him with our all. Every fiber in our body. With everything we have.

Then you say:

Passion. Untamed passionate love for the amazingly, wonderful, incredible God who created us and then died to save us. That’s what he desires and even commands.

In the first instance I believe you succeed in expressing what Jesus was saying in the passage. In the second instance you leave the realm of biblical language and employ the notion of romantic, passionate love used by the world. To speak of passion in our world when referring to a person almost always brings to mind sexual love in normal, everyday discourse. Now, it is possible to express one’s devotion to a hobby by saying, “I have a passion for Golf,” or “I am passionate about sailing.” That is understood. The difference is that God is not a hobby. He is a person. The man, Jesus.

Jesus doesn’t want our sappy little love songs that can be sung to girlfriends and gods alike. What Jesus wants is real devotion, not hopeless romantic and sensually erotic expressions of emotional garbage.

Andrew, I don’t really believe you wish to relate to Jesus in a homoerotic fashion. I do, however believe you are confused regarding what our modern language of love actually means, the ideas associated with it, and what we should employ when speaking about our love for Christ. I do not believe that you would ever say (at least I hope), “The first thing I’m gonna do when I see Jesus is give him a great big, sloppy wet kiss on the lips.” That would be employing an romantic expression to express devotion to Jesus. I may say that about my wife after being apart for a few weeks, but never for Christ. In fact, I believe wholeheartedly that when I see my Lord for the first time with my own eyes my reaction will be no less humbling than was John’s in Revelation 1 when he “fell at his feet as though dead” (Rev. 1:17). I don’t think kisses or for that matter even high fives and guys hugs will be in order.

Perhaps it was just an “Axsom-dent!”

Grace & peace,

Chris.

* See Operation Focal Point blog, September 14th post, “I Want To Fall In Love.” http://www.operationfocalpoint.com/

** See Bob Kauflin’s discussion of the same topic for Redman’s comments regarding his lyrics: http://www.worshipmatters.com/2009/08/28/matt-redman-on-romantic-language-in-worship-songs/

Opening Song: Good Enough (F#)-Chris Gates (Apologies. No audio)

Call to Worship

May You be praised, Lord God of our father Israel, from eternity to eternity. Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the splendor and the majesty, for everything in the heavens and on earth belongs to You. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom, and You are exalted as head over all. Riches and honor come from You, and You are the ruler of everything. Power and might are in Your hand, and it is in Your hand to make great and to give strength to all. Now therefore, our God, we give You thanks and praise Your glorious name. 1 Chronicles 29:10-13 (HCSB)

Yahweh, our Lord, how magnificent is Your name throughout the earth! You have covered the heavens with Your majesty . . . When I observe Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You set in place, what is man that You remember him, the son of man that You look after him? Psalm 8:1-4 (HCSB)

We were eyewitnesses of His majesty. 2 Peter 1:16 (HCSB)

Majesty Of Heaven (F#)-Chris Tomlin

Your Love Never Fails (A)-Jesus Culture Band

Communion: The Jesus Song (C)-Chris Gates

Offering: Much Of You (B)-Steven Curtis Chapman

Closing Song: Our God/To The Only God (A)-Chris Tomlin/Glory Revealed

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. Jude 1:24-25 (ESV)

In New England, the progress of evangelical revival, especially as recorded in the defining accounts of Jonathan Edwards, was also a progress in song. Edwards was an early, if moderate, supporter of the reforms that from the early 1720s were replacing New England’s “Rsual” singing (psalms lined out and sung haphazardly with great local variation) with “Regular” singing (psalms and even hymns sung in harmony, sometimes with musical accompaniment). In his earliest account from May 1735 of the awakening that had begun in his Northampton, Massachusetts, parish late the previous year, Edwards reported that “no part of public worship has commonly [had] such an effect on [the people] as singing God’s praises.”

Check out the rest of this brief article at Worship Leader Magazine.

If you think that the “Worship Wars” are something new, think again. At one time in history the “old hymns” were new. They were also new and threatening to the traditions of the established church. Regarding the controversial nature of these “new” songs Noll states:

The hymnody of the evangelical revivals did, in fact, innovate in other matters also. Not surprisingly, innovation in metaphor, meter, and psychological fire encountered stiff opposition, some for scriptural reasons, some out of class resentment, and some because of what was perceived to be unacceptable style.

I’m pretty sure there’s something here for us all to learn . . .

Hello Hill Country Warriors! Please check out the songs that we will be singing together this coming Sunday. I don’t think there are any new ones this week, so we should all be able to sing them loudly to the Lord. God loves to hear his people praise him with song. In fact, some of you are confused as to who the worship leader really is at our church. It’s not me! It’s not any of the other band members, and it’s not you. The Bible says when there are two or more fellow believers gathered together in Jesus’ name he is also there with them (Matt. 18:20). That is true for anytime, anywhere. We certainly believe this is true on Sunday mornings at Hill Country. That being said, in Hebrews 2:12 Jesus calls us his brothers and sisters and declares,

“I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.”

So, Jesus is our worship leader. He comes and meets with us each Sunday morning at Hill Country and leads us in singing and shouting praises to the Father. Isn’t that an amazing thought? Jesus is our worship leader!

This weekend we are finishing up our “Warrior” series. 2 Timothy 2:4 says,

“No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.”

We hope that you (especially you men) have been both challenged and encouraged to take a stand as warriors in God’s kingdom. He is truly our Warrior King, and he deserves warriors that seek not to get “entangled in civilian pursuits,” but who aim at pleasing “the one who enlisted him [as a soldier].” Seek to please King Jesus in all you do. It is our hope that you will endeavor to “Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men (i.e. “be courageous”-NLT), be strong” (1 Corinthians 16:13, ESV).

I am encouraged each week by the way many of you men sing to the Lord (not just with your hearts, but with your mouths also!). Remember, the great warriors of old would sing songs of victory to their King. Some would even write their own songs (Moses, David, etc.). Singing to our Warrior King is a manly act, and as men it rests upon our shoulders to model joyful singing in the congregation of the saints. It is our responsibility to follow Jesus (the manliest man who ever lived!) in singing praises to the Father. We model this type of worship for our wives, our children, and for those around us who don’t know Jesus.

So, here are the songs we’ll be singing to our King this week (click on the song to hear it online):

1) God Of Wonders (Third Day)

2) Warrior Medley (How Great Is Our God [chorus only]/The Warrior’s Song/Warrior) -authors: Chris Tomlin, Chris Gates, Caedmon’s Call

3) Your Grace Is Enough (Matt Maher)

4) The Wonderful Cross (Chris Tomlin/Matt Redman) -communion song

5) To Know Your Name (Hillsong) -offering

6) Mighty To Save (Rueben Morgan)

Enjoy, warriors. See you on Sunday.

Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh—though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Lyrics:

Copyright © 2010 Christopher N. Gates

]]> http://vintageworship.wordpress.com/2010/01/15/new-song-good-enough/feed/ 0 Chris http://vintageworship.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/does-it-matter-what-i-play-in-church-testing-song-selection-in-light-of-ungodly-associations/ http://vintageworship.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/does-it-matter-what-i-play-in-church-testing-song-selection-in-light-of-ungodly-associations/#comments Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:43:24 +0000 vintageworship http://vintageworship.wordpress.com/?p=177 Continue reading →]]> There is a new post today on the Lifeway Worship Project blog, gently critiquing Ed Stetzer’s article on putting song selections through what Stetzer calls “The Association Test.” Lifeway asks the question, “How much is the worship leader responsible for others’ associations?” Great question! Should I, as a music director in a local church, be held responsible for someone connecting a certain song, or style of music with ungodly behavior? If so, to what degree? Should I avoid all “rock” music because of its historical (i.e. mig-late 20th century) association with sex, drugs, and rebellion? Is there something to be said for discriminately testing the music I play each Sunday to make sure it serves the purpose of leading others in worship and praise of Jesus, and not distracting from that purpose? Can I, as a worship pastor ensure that no one will ever make any negative associations with the music I play?

Stetzer’s argument:

No music exists in a vacuum. The association test asks the question, “Does the song unnecessarily identify with things, actions, or people that are contrary to Christianity?” An otherwise good song may be rejected because of its associations with ungodly people, or worldliness, etc.

The Lifeway article asserts:

My experience has been that you can drive yourself crazy trying to figure out such things [i.e. all of the associations that may surround a particular song or genre]. I’ve known folks who associate ungodliness with all sorts of artistic expression (from dance to instrumentation to the color of one’s shirt in the pulpit). How much is the worship leader responsible for others’ associations? The church I’m currently a part of uses contemporary worship music, but comes out of an a capella tradition. I don’t know how we could have ever plucked a note if we were bound to these seven tests.

Now, I wouldn’t want to go head to head with Ed, but I take his words with a grain of salt. First, although he plays guitar, he is not tasked with the challenges of routinely choosing musical material for worshipers. Second, as my friend Dave Durham likes to point out, Jesus came to restore all things (Colossians 1:15-20). Surely this includes art, music, and even culture itself. Our artistic palette with which to worship Him is vast, my friends. He has come to restore all things.

The following is my reply to both:

I think Ed is mainly speaking of “obvious” associations a song or tune may have with something ungodly (e.g. setting the lyrics of Amazing Grace to the tune of House Of The Rising Sun). I would not do that in our culture either. I do agree, however, that throwing out an entire genre of music b/c of its negative associations would be going too far (as in the case of the Jamaicans refusing to use Reggae for worship music b/c of its association with drug culture). The Jamaican church should seek to redeem Reggae (and the people of the drug culture-to which end this practice may help!). I once spoke with a pastor who hated singing contemporary worship songs because the chord progressions reminded him of the Beetles! A little more digging and I soon discovered that his dislike was based on a preference for the sort of country/rockabilly chord progressions that focus on the 3 major chords in a key and exclude any minor chords.

Third Day is a great example of a music style (i.e. Southern Rock/Alternative) that could conjure up thoughts of ungodly culture due to its association (and identification) with honky tonks, drukeness, drugs, sex, etc. However, in the case of Third Day, the lyrics to the songs are so blatantly Christian that my mind rarely (if ever) goes there. And I have, in my younger years, had a great deal of experience in the Southern Rock, good ole boy culture! Third Day was the first Christian band to be allowed to play for the U.S. troops stationed overseas. That’s awesome! I hardly think that would have happened if Third Day sounded less like Southern Rock and more like Sacred Church Choir music!

I also think about the more recent “invasion” of Christian rappers, seeking to redeem the hip hop and rap genres for the glory of God (e.g. Flame, Lacrae, Cross Movement, etc.). There are obvious ungodly associations with the Rap music genre. I would never (and I don’t think these artists would either) set Christian lyrics to Snoop Dogg’s Gin And Juice (just dated myself, I know!), or use the tune of a popular 50-Cent song in the musical worship life of the church I lead. But I also would not disqualify those musical genres from said worship life because the those ungodly artists! The Christian artists mentioned above are blatantly Christian, and their musical genre helps spread the gospel to people that otherwise may not take it seriously, or even hear it at all.

I agree with Stetzer in principle. Put your song selections through “the association test.” But don’t disqualify an entire genre based on its use by the devil. The church is tasked with taking the gospel to culture, not conforming every culture to our own.

Feel free to agree or disagree in the comments section.

© 2009 Chris Gates. Vintage Worship.