Everlasting arms

Song of the month for me. Could potentially sound overly fuzzy/cheesy (and subject to the 'God is my boyfriend' critique), but I think it does capture my current sentiments fairly well. :>

Everlasting arms
Come all who are weary
Battle worn and weak
Come all of us broken, tired and in need
I for one am weary lonely and afraid
So let us run for shelter
In the Saviour's warm embrace

Come one and all
Let us fall into the
Everlasting Arms
I'm running into the everlasting arms
I'm falling into eternity's embrace
Where I'm safe
Here my heart has found its resting place

Here we find our healing
Here we find our peace
Wrapped in your unfailing love
Surrounded by your peace
So I for one am letting
All my walls fall down
In this place of safety
This child is finally found
So come one and all

And I am finally home
No longer alone
You surround me
All around me
With your love

Here in your everlasting arms
I'm running into your
Everlasting arms
I'm falling into
Eternity's embrace
Where I'm safe
Here my heart has found its resting place
Here my heart is found its resting place

Vicky Beeching

Your hand of mercy

An old Emu song that has been resonating with me these few days. (Hard to find the music for it though!)

Although we had no claim
you held Your hand of mercy to us.
What we receive for all our work
on earth is pain and death.
Your love we do not deserve.
We could not save ourselves.
And yet You gave a gift of life
through Jesus hanging,
bleeding on a cross.

In selfishness and sin we have been
blinded from Your truth.
We hate, we hurt, we hide from You
pretending we’re in control.
But please now open our eyes.
Replace this heart of stone.
Make us Your new creation and let
nothing keep us from
the love of God.

We praise you God our Father
for the gift of Your dear Son.
for Jesus Christ who shared our earth
and died that we might live.
And now You’ve opened our eyes,
Replaced this heart of stone,
Made us Your new creation
and now nothing keeps us from the love of God.


Although we had no claim
You held Your
hand of mercy to us.

Merry Christmas!

How sweet the day when Christ was born
When God Himself took human form
He came to wash our sins away
Our death to die, our debt to pay

How sweet the day when Hope appeared
The One who frees us from our fears
He came to break the power of sin
And give us power to follow Him

Oh sing for joy, lift up your voice
Let us sing for joy, the whole earth rejoice
Let us sing for joy to the Son
For Jesus our Savior has come

How sweet the day when Christ returns
We’ll see the One for whom we yearn
Then we’ll look full upon His face
Our hearts will burst with songs of praise

Come, Lord Jesus, come

© Stephen Altrogge / Sovereign Grace

(Sovereign Grace) Music

We Sing from the album Sons & Daughters - starts properly 45 seconds in

We’ve come together in Your name
We’ve come together to proclaim
How great You are
Once we were going our own ways
Now we’re a people for Your praise
How great You are

We sing as sons and daughters
Sing to God our Father
All because of Jesus
We sing, His blood has bought us
Sing, Your mercy called us
All because of Jesus we sing

Jesus, You’re powerful to save
Jesus, You’ve risen from the grave
How great You are
Your blood gave us peace with God
Your love has broken down our walls
How great You are

By grace we have been saved
To be Your dwelling place
You took our curse and made us one
It’s nothing we could do
Our only boast is You
So we rejoice in what You’ve done

© Joel Sczebel, Pat Sczebel, and Todd Twining

I really like what Sovereign Grace Music is doing - great lyrics with great congregational singability. I own and love Songs for the Cross-centered Life and Valley of Vision. Even their older album All We Long to See, which I listened to online, didn't quite sound as dated as I expected; enjoyed it too. Still, too little people know about them, so doing my little bit here to commend them. One song Malaysian Christians might recognise is written by a Sov Grace writer before they became Sov Grace: I stand in Awe (You are beautiful beyond description).

Some of their strongest songs: I Will Glory in my Redeemer, Jesus Thank You, The Glories of Calvary, O Great God, Let Your Kingdom Come, their reworking of the hymn Before the Throne of God Above.

Other recent music
My favourite British Christian musician Matt Redman
We Shall Not Be Shaken - Review, Interview

Paul Baloche, who is pretty popular I gather
Glorious - Review, Interview

Sara Groves, singer-songwriter; I should really own at least one of her albums!
Fireflies & Songs, Review, Interview

How to worship

Let us Love and Sing and Wonder

Weekend's here! Am happy after having had to do 8 days straight. Here's the song that's been stuck in my head for the last few days - John Newton set to new music by Laura Taylor, as featured on the album Indelible Grace III: For All the Saints. It was also covered by Jars of Clay on their Redemption Songs album. Band featured here is an Asian-American Christian group, I believe.


Let us love and sing and wonder
Let us praise the Savior's name
He has hushed the law's loud thunder
He has quenched Mount Sinai's flame

2. Let us love the Lord Who bought us
Pitied us when enemies
Called us by His grace and taught us
Gave us ears and gave us eyes
He has washed us with His blood
He has washed us with His blood
He has washed us with His blood
He presents our souls to God

3. Let us wonder grace and justice
Join and point to mercy's store
When through grace in Christ our trust is
Justice smiles and asks no more
He Who washed us with His blood
He Who washed us with His blood
He Who washed us with His blood
Has secured our way to God

4. Let us praise and join the chorus
Of the saints enthroned on high
Here they trusted Him before us
Now their praises fill the sky
Thou hast washed us with Thy blood
Thou hast washed us with Thy blood
Thou hast washed us with Thy blood
Thou art worthy Lamb of God

Words: John Newton
Music: Laura Taylor

Takeaways from the getaway: On Jesus Christ!

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. - 1 John 4:10

---

We didn't have a theme song on our retreat, but as the week went on, it became clear that this was the song that fit best with the messages we were hearing from 1 John. It was certainly the song that I personally found most arresting that week! And it's an appropriate response, I think, this Good Friday.

Consider Christ
Consider Christ, the source of our salvation
That he should take the penalty for me
Though he was pure, a lamb without a blemish;
He took my sins and nailed them to the tree

My Lord and God
You are so rich in mercy
Mere words alone are not sufficient thanks.
So take my life, transform, renew and change me
That I might be a living sacrifice

Consider Christ, that he could trust his Father
In the garden of Gethsemane
Though full of dread and fearful of the anguish;
He drank the cup that was reserved for me.

Consider Christ, for death he has defeated.
And he arose, appeared for all to see.
And now he sits at God’s right hand in heaven
Where he prepares a resting place for me.

©1996 Bryson Smith & Philip Percival

Listen here.

Am.so.tired.

Just clocked off after 7 consecutive days of work, and am really feeling it. Yesterday was particularly tough, and all I kept humming and singing this song to myself all day yesterday to help keep me going.



Because I'll never hold the picture
of the whole horizon in my view
Because I'll never rip the night in two
It makes me wonder
Who am I and great are You

O the deep deep love of Jesus

This song is fairly new to me, but my church family has apparently been singing it regularly for a year now. It's a hymn written in 1875 but someone (in fact, I've just discovered, more than one!) has reworked it to a modern tune. We've sung it twice in staff meetings, and I personally find it to be a huge encouragement and comfort. I've been unable to find the version we sing online - it's not the one reworked by Bob Kauflin of Sovereign Grace, who has also written new music for it. It's more upbeat and just such a great congregational song; I find that it's great not just for singing to God, but singing to each other as well.

O the deep, deep love of Jesus
Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free
Rolling as a mighty ocean
In its fullness over me
Underneath me, all around me
Is the current of Your love
Leading onward, leading homeward
To Your glorious rest above

O the deep, deep love of Jesus
Spread His praise from shore to shore
How He came to pay our ransom
Through the saving cross He bore
How He watches o’er His loved ones
Those He died to make His own
How for them He’s interceding
Pleading now before the throne

O the deep, deep love of Jesus
Far surpassing all the rest
It’s an ocean full of blessing
In the midst of every test
Oh the deep, deep love of Jesus
Mighty Savior, precious Friend
You will bring us home to glory
Where Your love will never end

Guglielmucci tragedy

I read with great sadness the tragic story of Mike Guglielmucci, having only heard about it thanks to Tim's post/links. Like it or not, Hillsong and Planetshakers are hugely influential, and I suppose you could even say they do more to shape the underlying beliefs and worldview of Christians around the world (including Malaysia) through their songs than most Bible teachers could ever hope to achieve. I had actually watched Guglielmucci tell the story of his song and the oxygen-tank performance a month or two back, and while frankly, I was hesitant about the song itself, I had no reason to doubt the authenticity and force of his testimony. In truth, I was quite moved myself. I suppose, to quote inexactly from J.I Packer, I simply thought that his experience was better than his theology.

And it wasn't.

And I do feel for many young people who are shaken by this turn of events. I saw comments along the lines of "How could such a song of truth come from such a pack of lies?" and "I'm feeling so hurt right now, this is a huge act of betrayal that my friends and I aren't sure we can recover from." And though sin is sin and we shouldn't downplay it, I do have some sympathy for Guglielmucci as well. I can see how his deception of others could conceivably have started with self-deception. I am willing to believe he truly wanted healing, just not from cancer; he truly wanted to will himself to trust in God, but the very act of doing so prevented him from doing so. And that we're all capable of self-deception as well. Nonetheless, people are right to question how this was all concealed from everyone, including his own family; the so-called "healings"; etc.

I'm sure there's more than enough commentary flying around and I don't want to add words unnecessarily. Mark Sayers, whom Tim linked to, has an excellent reflection, as does Eugene Cho. I hope people affected will benefit from reading both of them. I am a bit of a wimp, and partly because Hillsong was a big part of my youth and that many of my friends are part of the particular Hillsong/Planetshakers stream of charismatic Christianity, I have been loathe to critique them publicly here on my blog, but maybe this will help people reflect more critically on the shortcomings of that tradition.

Britain's Got Talent 2008

This show's been as compelling as ever. I have to say, after watching the initial auditions, I was underwhelmed. There didn't seem to be as many unique and outstanding acts as last year, and just as disappointingly, even fewer so-bad-they're good trainwrecks. But in the end, I actually thought the Final was stronger this year. The eventual winner George Sampson, a breakdancer, who was also on last year's show, won me over with his fighting spirit, which was even more impressive considering he was not considered a top-2 act going in. (The bookmakers, rather mystifyingly, had listed the contemporary-classical music act Escala as the favourites).

Faryl Smith, whom I shall lazily describe as the next Charlotte Church, was second-favourite to win, and her absence from the top three can only be put down to the British public's decision to opt for something different after Paul Potts' win last year. It seems to me that this show attracts quite a lot of strong classical music acts - apart from Smith and Escala, there was also Andrew Johnson this year.

Anyway, for your viewing pleasure:

There was one great trainwreck - an escape act gone wrong...


Faryl Smith's initial audition. Her family almost pulled her out before the semis over fears that the attention would be overwhelming. Simon Cowell was on the phone in a flash!


Signature, the eventual runners-up:


I can see why they didn't win, but I enjoyed them all the same - Kate and her dog Gin doing James Bond:


George Sampson, the winning act:


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Intermission: Your Love is Strong

From Jon Foreman's forthcoming EP Spring/Summer.



Thanks to Tim for drawing my attention to Foreman's solo project a few months back; Spring/Summer forms a double set with the already released Fall/Winter.

The wrap

Wrapping paper is often dyed, laminated and/or contains non-paper additives such as gold and silver coloured shapes, glitter, plastics etc which cannot be recycled. But wraps found on this blog are fully reusable and will surely please the carbon-conscious visitor. For instance, there is no reason why you can't repeatedly visit Infernal Ramblings, a blog devoted to socio-political issues of interest to Malaysians, by a Malaysian studying at Dartmouth (HT: DD), or Sola Panel, a group blog by a few Sydney Anglicans. Of course, being green can sometimes be too much of a good thing, for you could suffer something akin to Bono Fatigue. Don't laugh, it could happen to U2.

Two interesting and important pieces from two respected periodicals:

Nomads at Last (The Economist) on the connectedness of our world; how wireless communication is changing the way people live, work and relate to places.

The Post-American World (Newsweek) on the changing global realities of our world. It's an excerpt from Fareed Zakaria's forthcoming book of the same name.

Browse people's opinions on what books they'll put on a church's book table.

Great discussion on what preaching should achieve. Make sure to read the comment thread, that's where all the action is!

Russ Moore: Beyond a Veggietales Gospel - why we must preach Christ from every text. Spoiler alert, he gives away the ending of The Sixth Sense!

C.S Lewis scholar Devin Brown on Lewis's characters and looking at the world rightly.

What to do when your pastor (or anyone) offends you.

A Two-Way Street: Suffering, Free Will, and the Glory of God. Or, Reformed and non-Reformed views on theodicy ain't worlds apart, sir!

For the football obssessed: Stats galore on the recently concluded Premier League campaign. Did you know England's finest finisher is...Joleon Lescott?!?

Charlie Peacock on the future of Christian music.

Job interviews are like dates - don't get them mixed up. Funny.


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Good Friday

To the cross I look, to the cross I cling
Of its suffering I do drink
Of its work I do sing

For on it my Savior both bruised and crushed
Showed that God is love
And God is just

At the cross You beckon me
You draw me gently to my knees, and I am
Lost for words, so lost in love,
I’m sweetly broken, wholly surrendered

What a priceless gift, undeserved life
Have I been given
Through Christ crucified

You’ve called me out of death
You’ve called me into life
And I was under Your wrath
Now through the cross I’m reconciled

In awe of the cross I must confess
How wondrous Your redeeming love and
How great is Your faithfulness

© Jeremy Riddle

Music of the year

Well, this is going to be a short list. I almost never listen to Top 40 stuff, preferring to pursue whatever I'm interested in. I've never, not even once! listened to Lily Allen's Smile, which was the smash hit of last summer. To prove I'm not completely hopeless though, I have actually heard Amy Winehouse's Rehab, Plain White Ts Hey There Delilah and Leona Lewis' Bleeding Love. My tastes tend to be fairly eclectic. I like rock, especially the indie variety, folksy-rootsy-singer-songwriterish stuff, and emo, but I'm not averse to pop, jazz (although I'm not intelligent enough to talk about "improvisation" and what-not) et al. Heavy metal is probably the only genre I just don't get. I also grew up listening to "Christian" or CCM music, and while I obviously no longer buy into the sacred/secular divide, I still do listen to bands which are marketed to the Christian segment. Here are some songs and albums that I've come across this year.

Jars of Clay are too good to remain pigeonholed as such, and I really enjoyed their newest album, Good Monsters, a birthday gift. Oh My God is a candidate for song of the year. downhere have long been an underrated Christian band. Where else are you going to find lyrics such as "You wouldn't walk out on this tragedy / Never give up on your Iliad / You suffered for the victory / 'Cause it's always been your labor of love?" (Iliad)? Their newest album wide-eyed and mystified is their best and most accessible yet. They aren't quite as wordy as on No Place for Substitutes but they haven't dumbed down either.

Both Arcade Fire's Neon Bible and The National's Boxer have appeared on many top 10 lists and I am the proud owner of both of them. Obviously appeals to my elitist side! I remember the first time I listened to Arcade Fire's first album, Funeral. I thought, "What in the world have I bought?" On my second listen, I was going: "They're very interesting at the very least..." By my fourth listen I had fallen in love with them. Neon Bible is just as amazing and definitely more accessible. The National's last album, Alligator, got them plenty of attention and their follow-up is very good too. I thought the final third of the album sagged a little but until that point, it's utterly compelling. Fake Empire is another potential song of the year for me. Phil Campbell's Joy is good singer-songwriterish stuff, although not outstanding enough to make it a must-buy. I've never really listened much to Radiohead, but did not resist getting their latest In Rainbows. Again, they take some getting used to. The first half of the album sounds decidedly more experimental while the second half tend to be more about the melodies. Over the Rhine's Trumpet Child has a lovely big band/jazz vibe to it. And the best album of 2007 no one's heard about? Jeremy Casella and RCVRY. Christianity Today Music deservedly gave it 5 stars. It would not look out of place in any mainstream critic's Top 50. His music is suprisingly hard to describe, but I suppose orchestral pop with a hint of electronica comes closest.

I should talk about some of the more interesting songs I've sung in church this year. One that really stayed with me, although I've only ever sung it twice, is Two Sins Have We Committed. It's a song of lament and confession that is suitable for congregational use. When the chorus of a song goes: "What fools we are! How blind we are!", it catches your attention. The two sins alluded to in the title is really one, when we turn away from God and make something else an idol. It's a good song of response to sing especially after a hard-hitting sermon. (In case you're worried, the chorus ends with "Change our hearts that we might live /For you O Lord always"). I also hope in time that two new songs, written by Simon Pedley and based on Isaiah, will be widely known. They're Servant of God Most High and The Day is Soon. Philip Percival's Never Alone is already catching on, deservedly so. It'd be great too if many songs from Sovereign Grace's Songs for the Cross-Centered Life and Valley of Vision get sung in churches all over the globe. They're strong albums both lyrically and musically. Sovereign Grace's earlier albums did suffer from a rather dated sound but that's certainly not the case here. Would you believe me if I told you that one of the albums I enjoyed the most was a children's album? It's really hard to get that balance between music that's enjoyable for kids and adults alike, and to write good lyrics that are simple enough for children, but EMU Music's Get Ready! does just that. Hey, I even think Forever and a Day is one of the best songs I've heard all year. My nieces and nephews are going to enjoy it. I also got a chance to listen to Hillsong's Saviour King and contrary to some reviews, I thought it was quite a strong effort. Lyrically, as always with Hillsong, some of their songs leave me ambivalent, but on the whole, I liked it.

This year does seem like quite a good year for music. Other well-reviewed efforts that I've not had a chance to listen to, or at most just a little, include Patty Griffin's Children Running Through, The Shins Wincing the Night Away, Modest Mouse's We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, Band of Horses Cease to Begin, The White Stripes Icky Thump, Iron & Wine's Shepherd Dog and Caedmon Call's Overdressed.

Now, YouTube galore!

---

Arcade Fire's No Cars Go


The Frames' Falling Slowly, featured in the film Once


Oh To see the Dawn (The Power of the Cross) by Stuart Townend and Keith Getty


And for a Malaysian flavour, Evenstarr's Masih (and also a chance for me to casually mention that I know the lead singer!)


Master List of online "Best of 2007" music
Relevant Mag's list

Songs/albums of the year for you?


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In the Valley

When you lead me to the valley of vision
I can see you in the heights
And though my humbling wouldn't be my decision
It's here your glory shines so bright
So let me learn that the cross precedes the crown
To be low is to be high
That the valley's where you make me
more like Christ

Let me find Your grace in the valley
Let me find Your life in my death
Let me find Your joy in my sorrow
Your wealth in my need
That You're near with every breath
In the valley

In the daytime there are stars in the heavens
But they only shine at night
And the deeper that I go into darkness
The more I see their radiant light
So let me learn that my losses are my gain
To be broken is to heal
That the valley's where Your power is revealed

© Bob Kauflin 2006
based on the Puritan prayer 'Valley of Vision'

Intermission: Capa's Jump and To Start a War

Time for a little break.

If you were to ask me right now, which are the 3 best films I've seen this year, I'll probably say Ratatouille, The Lives of Others, and Little Children - the latter two technically 2006 releases. But if you were to ask me about my favourite films of 2007, then it'd have to be Ratatouille (again), Hot Fuzz and Sunshine.

In my review of Sunshine, I mentioned really enjoying the operatic score, and ever since then I've been waiting patiently for the soundtrack to come out. The release date isn't too far away apparently, but a couple of tracks have already made it onto Youtube. Here's Capa's Jump, played during the scene right before the climax of the film where everything just goes berserk. Still gives me the goosebumps.


(Don't worry, no spoilers in the video!)

I haven't actually bought many albums this year, but earlier this summer I did make a double swoop on Arcade Fire's new album Neon Bible and Boxer by the lesser-known band The National. I think both have the potential to make many top 10 lists at the end of the year. Here's the delightfully simple but tuneful To Start a War live.


Enjoy!

the difference between choruses and hymns

hahahaha....this is funny. (HT: Mark Conner)

An old farmer went to the city one weekend and attended the big city church. He came home and his wife asked him how it was. "Well," said the farmer, "It was good. They did something different, however. They sang praise choruses instead of hymns." "Praise choruses", said his wife, "What are those?"

"Oh, they're OK. They are sort of like hymns, only different," said the farmer. "Well, what's the difference?" asked his wife.

The farmer said, "Well, it's like this - If I were to say to you, "Martha the cows are in the corn" - well that would be a hymn. If on the other hand, I were to say to you, "Martha, Martha, Martha, Oh Martha, MARTHA, MARTHA, the cows, the big cows, the brown cows, the black cows the white cows, the black and white cows, the COWS, COWS, COWS are in the corn, are in the corn, are in the corn, are in the corn, the CORN, CORN, CORN." Then if I was to repeat the whole thing two or three times, well, that would be a praise chorus."

The next weekend, his nephew, a young, new Christian from the city came to visit and attended the local church of the small town. He went home and his mother asked him how it was. "Well," said the young man, "It was good. They did something different, however. They sang hymns instead of regular songs."

"Hymns," asked his mother, "What are those?" "Oh, they're OK. They are sort of like regular songs, only different," said the young man. "Well, what's the difference?" asked his mother. The young man said, "Well, it's like this - If I were to say to you, "Martha, the cows are in the corn," - well, that would be a regular song. If, on the other hand, I were to say to you:

'Oh Martha, dear Martha, hear thou my cry
Inclinest thine ear to the words of my mouth
Turn thou thy whole wondrous ear by and by
To the righteous, inimitable, glorious truth.
For the way of the animals who can explain
There in their heads is no shadow of sense
Hearkenest they in God's sun or His rain
Unless from the mild, tempting corn they are fenced
Yea those cows in glad bovine, rebellious delight
Have broke free their shackles, their warm pens eschewed
Then goaded by minions of darkness and night
They all my mild Chilliwack sweet corn have chewed
So look to that bright shining day by and by
Where all foul corruptions of earth are reborn
Where no vicious animals make my soul cry
And I no longer see those foul cows in the corn."

Then if I were to do only verses one, three and four and do a key change on the last verse, well, that would be a hymn."

Source Unknown


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Speak O Lord

This is a song we've been singing quite a lot recently in church just before the preaching of the word. It's written by the Gettys and Stuart Townend, who, when they colloborate, often produce pure gold. They're arguably the best modern hymn-writers in English today. It's a great help in preparing us to listen humbly and respond accordingly whenever we open the Bible. I like it a lot, so thought I'll promote it for use in the wider church! :)


Speak, O Lord

Speak, O Lord, as we come to You
To receive the food of Your Holy Word.
Take Your truth, plant it deep in us;
Shape and fashion us in Your likeness,
That the light of Christ might be seen today
In our acts of love and our deeds of faith.
Speak, O Lord, and fulfill in us
All Your purposes for Your glory.

Teach us, Lord, full obedience,
Holy reverence, true humility;
Test our thoughts and our attitudes
In the radiance of Your purity.
Cause our faith to rise; cause our eyes to see
Your majestic love and authority.
Words of pow'r that can never fail—
Let their truth prevail over unbelief.

Speak, O Lord, and renew our minds;
Help us grasp the heights of Your plans for us—
Truths unchanged from the dawn of time
That will echo down through eternity.
And by grace we'll stand on Your promises,
And by faith we'll walk as You walk with us.
Speak, O Lord, till Your church is built
And the earth is filled with Your glory.

If Fix You needed fixing...

An absolutely, absolutely lovely acapella rendering of Coldplay's Fix You, probably their best song off X&Y. I'm in love with this version. Couldn't not share.