D-Now 2010 in the CLV

This past week, Wednesday night thru Sunday morning, was “disciple now”, or D-Now as some know it, for many of the churches here around Clarksville, Tennessee. The set up was new; pulling together all of the churches for two worship services, the first and last night. The theme was ID3NTITY, and knowing your identity in Christ, not the world. I enjoyed seeing Sam and Jonathan, as well as forming some new relationships with the rest of the band. For me, even though I was running sound and helping out all weekend, God was present and speaking to my heart.

Our speaker, for the city-wide sessions as well as ours here at First Baptist, was Jamey Crosson. We got to know him and his wife over the time this weekend. The message that God had to bring through him was impactful and deep. He talked about diagnosing the root problem of sin, that being, believing in lies that Satan puts in our heads. When we work so hard to combat a sin in our lives, we believe the lie that the sin has some type of power over us. Christ has paid the price, he has broken the power of sin, and if we are in Christ, sin has no hold over us. We must strive to glorify God as we are called, and created, to do, rather than continually trying not to sin. Don’t combat the sin because we can do nothing, but seek to glorify God, and Christ through you will overcome the sin. We must not only read, but believe what is stated in Galatians 5:1. Do not submit to the bondage of sin for in Christ it has no power over us.

“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” – Galatians 5:1

I could go on and on about the message that God brought through Jamey, but I fear I would run out of room, so I digress.

I enjoyed seeing some friends from back home, making some new ones, helping out with the fantastic students here, but most of all worshiping the Savior and being shown the truth in His word.

Wonder and Amazement

“Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love; here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.” – Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing; 1757

Man, I am continually in life amazed at the gift of music that God has bestowed upon us. Words of worship to pure and Holy Father are timeless. We have used music for centuries. Music is a medium by which we express emotion and adoration. Ever since we have harnessed this raw power of nature that God has given us, this set of melodic tones; we have used it as a means of expression.

There are so many things about music that amaze me. For starters, just the simple nature of sound frequency, or melodic tones, and how our ears and brain process those tones, carefully working so we understand the sounds. Our ears work as a super powered microphone, transducing the sound to electric signals to our brain. But, not to show too much of my nerdiness, I digress from that.

“When we arrive at eternity’s shore, where death is just a memory and tears are no more. We’ll enter in as the wedding bells ring, Your bride will come together and we’ll sing You’re beautiful!”- Beautiful; 2007

In worship we communicate to God. Like I said before, we communicate emotion, passion, and adoration through the songs of worship we sing. And again, the words we sing in worship are timeless. Worship of the Father is not constrained by our musical preference, and we too often our caught on that issue that it becomes sinful in the way our churches operate. Whether we are singing a song written in 1757, like “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”, or written in 2007, like “Beautiful” by Phil Wickham, the words exceed our preferences. Both songs are two of my favorites. Not because of the style of music they are played in, but because of the truth in the words that I sing.

“When we arrive at eternity’s shore, where death is just a memory and tears are no more,” or “…here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.” Two lines from different songs, written by different people, in two different millennia, are true regardless of time, style, preference, or any other worldly constriction we try to put on things. They are true then, now, and forever. Whether the songs are written by John Newton or Hillsong United, truth is just that, truth.

Music is such a brilliant gift and we sometimes overlook the miracle that it is. The physical side of it and the way we can somehow harness nature, by the grace of God, and put our emotion and feeling into a true art. My purpose in this post is not to debate musical styles of worship, but to step back, and see the beauty in the things God has given us. Music is great part of my life, and I praise God for the blessing.