The Church's One Foundation

I took communion at the church I visited while I was away from home last week, and it struck me as never before that we are all saved by one body and one blood. This morning I saw an Assyrian Christian man speaking on a U.S. Christian television program about the long-tradition of Assyrian (or Syrian?) Christianity. As He spoke I thought about the difference between his traditions and mine, and yet again, how we were connected through Christ. I read the words to this hymn this morning after listening to the tune, and I think it says it all.

The church's one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord
She is His new creation, by Spirit and the Word:
From heav'n He came and sought her to be His holy bride,
With His own blood He bought her, And for her life He died.

Elect from ev'ry nation, yet one o'er all the earth,
Her charter of salvation, One Lord, one faith, one birth;
One holy name she blesses, partakes one holy food,
And to one hope she presses, with ev'ry grace endued.

'Mid toil and tribulation, and tumult of her war,
She waits the consummation of peace forevermore;
Till with the vision glorious, her longing eyes are blest,
And the great church victorious shall be the church at rest.

Hooray! Peace to my brothers and sisters around the world in tumult and tribulation.

"The Churc's One Foundation," Words: Samuel J. Stone; Music: Samuel S. Wesley

Beautiful Letdown, part one?

Meant to Live

I don't know whether I'll write several posts over this album or not, but it sure deserves it. I've just begun to really listen to the Switchfoot Beautiful Letdown album, and it really speaks to me. Every other song lifts me, hauntingly, beyond my mundane thoughts. Let me start with the first one - "Meant to Live."

Fumbling his confidence and wondering
Why the world has passed him by
Hoping that he's bent for more
Than arguments and failed attempts to fly

We were made to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
Somewhere we live inside.

Yowza! These California surfers have their finger on the pulse of what's going on in the world and its effects on the human heart. How about this, from "This is Your Life"?

This is your life, are you who you want to be?
This is your life, is it everything that you dreamed that it would be when the world was younger,
And you had everything to lose?

Whoa! I find myself trying to answer those questions. They answers would generally be, "I don't know," but that's the point; they're getting me thinking about stuff.

For another example of having their finger on the pulse of counterculture, here's a sample from "Dare You to Move":

Welcome to the fallout
Welcome to resistance
The tension is here
Between who you are and who you could be
Between how it is and how it should be.

These guys have thought about it and lived to tell about it, and I'm so glad to know there's someone else who feels like really living is resistance. Even though this album is two years old, it seems new to me and it really renews me. Thanks, dudes.

I must say a word about their musicianship; I think the main guy responsible is Jon Foreman, but there are four guys who are, like I said, surfer dudes (Switchfoot being a surfing term, I think). Anyway, Jon has a great voice and the music has a great kick to it; it's so good you'd almost ignore what they're saying, but ah, if you don't, you find that there's inspiration in the words as well as the music.

I must also say I have an automatic softspot for this band for two reasons: one, my husband has always really liked them (I'm just slow to get it) and two, they remind me of my California friends, who are really cool and love Jesus in a fresh way.

"Meant to Live," W&M by Jonathan Foreman and Tim Foreman; "This is Your Life" and "Dare You to Move" W&M by Jonathan Foreman. Beautiful Letdown, 2003, Sony/Columbia.

Emmanuel, God With Us

It has been an interesting Christmas shock. I'm not sure whether it was school shellshock or the state of global affairs or something even bigger - I'm not sure what that would be - or something smaller, like my metabolism, but I was just not into it this year the way I normally am. I normally love Christmas and just want the whole world to perk up to hear the angels songs again for a little while, knowing they might be listening, I usually sing louder. This year, I don't know - I guess I was just listening, listening, and didn't hear much.

So strange.

I thought of this song - it always makes me get a little choked up, and it's funny because usually this is not a band that makes me think much, but it's Point of Grace's song, "Emmanuel, God With Us." The lyrics talk about a woman left alone after her family is gone, spending a lonely christmas, when someone else invites her to become part of their christmas gathering. Simple, really. The chorus says this:

Oh, Emmanuel, God with us
Spirit revealed in us
That we may be your hope to the world
Oh Emmanuel, God with us
With a light to break the darkness
That we may share your hope to the world
Emmanuel, be God with us
Be God in us.

Selah.

Advent pt. 2

We actually got snow yesterday, and some of it is still on the ground. Everyone I talked to yesterday was at least a little bit enchanted by the snow. Speaking of enchantment, the Narnia film opens this weekend, and I'm planning to go see it with friends.

Today's song has been on my mind a lot. It's simple, not sacred, but special. "The Happiest Christmas" by Michael W. Smith has just this many words:

Oh the happiest Christmas
Is a homecoming Christmas
With the snow flutering down 'til the world seems new

Bright candles burning
Old friends returning
The wishes of children coming true.

And the happiest wishes
Are just old fashioned wishes
May your days be merry, your sorrows be small.

May the ones you love be near you;
That's the happiest Christmas of all.

I celebrate Christmas as Christ's birth, and I love a lot of the things that orbit around that celebration - wishes, candles, snow, homecomings, friends, merry-making. I am already enjoying it. To anyone reading this, I wish you a merry Christmas, too.

KMM

"The Happiest Christmas," by Myles Rudge and Ted Dicks.

Advent pt. 1

Christmas music is a comforting and catalyzing part of the Christmas season for me. I find it interesting to reflect on the words and imagine the circumstances that led to particular lyrics. For the first time, this year, I thought about "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear." I'd never realized how much the song talked about peace and hearing God's message. It seems I hear so much about the Iraq "war" that my mind is distracted from the good news, and when I heard these lines, I felt that someone else had thought the same thing

Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long,
Beneath the angel strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong.
And man, at war with man, hears not
The love song which they bring
O hush the noise, ye men of strife
And hear the angels sing.

The third and fourth verses of the song alude to some kind of prophetic hope - I don't entirely understand it, but I want it, and I want to be able to extend that kind of hope to those who toil "with painful steps and slow." What are those "glad and golden hours"?

There's more great Christmas music and more yet to be written. I love the rich stuff.

"It Came Upon a Midnight Clear." Words by Edmund H. Sears, music by Richard Storrs Willis.

Freedom

Listening to Darrell Evans' Freedom album is kind of like getting a glimpse into heaven - you want to go there but you're kind of ashamed at your unreadiness. That's how I feel right now, anyway. I'm encouraged by what he has to say, and yet walking in that freedom and liberty are something of a mystery to me in the path I'm on right now. The title track is a joyous celebration of the freedom we have in Christ - a freedom, I think, is from shame, legalism, and sin. All of the lyrics assume a closeness to God that I believe but want to experience more in my daily life.

Great Light of the World

Bebo Norman's "Great Light of the World" talks about both God's greatness in relationship to the world and His goodness to fill up something so small as a human heart. I know my human heart doesn't feel small - it feels big to me - yet it takes some gumption and the right amount of perspective to acknowledge God's bigness and yet ask Him to "fill up my soul."

I especially like what Bebo writes about nighttime - it is at night that he feels shame and loneliness, and in the dark when he calls on the Lord's grace. I'm reminded of the saying, "In the dark night of the soul, it is always two o'clock in the morning." Those who know the Lord still have those dark nights. Those who don't know the Lord need to know - there is someone to call on.

Untitled Hymn (Come to Jesus)

This song caught me this morning, as it did the first time I heard it, in the shame of failure. I most appreciated its message of forgiveness. The forgiveness of Jesus is the most complete thing I know, and when it is put simply, well, it still says a lot.

Weak and wounded sinner
Lost and left to die
O, raise your head, for Love is passing by
Come to Jesus,
Come to Jesus,
Come to Jesus and live!

Now your burden's lifted
And carried far away
And precious blood has washed away the stain... so
Sing to Jesus
Sing to Jesus
Sing to Jesus and live!

Singing to Him - my privilege, my necessity, and my last resort.

Indescribable

I started to think about God this morning, trying not to think about His gifts, or His house, and I just got this image of a great God, above the round, blue earth. And the words came to me:

From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea...

Then I thought more about how superior God is, and I realized I could hardly talk about it. That's a challenge, since I feel like in some way I'm meant to spread the knowledge of Him.

The more I think about the songs Chris Tomlin writes, the more I see where he's coming from. This morning, when I was searching for expression, I thought of words he's written that I have sung -

Indescribable, uncontainable, you placed the stars in the sky and you called them by name.
You are amazing, God.
All powerful, unstoppable, awestruck we fall to our knees and we humbly proclaim
You are amazing, God.

It's true - He is amazing. I don't often give any sort of charge, but today will be different. If you're reading this, I urge you to spend sixty seconds just thinking about God, and see if in doing so you remember what life is all about.

"Indescribable," written by Chris Tomlin.

Never Been Unloved

I work in an environment where it seems intellect is everything. Both pride and discouragement come very easily and sometimes in sudden turns, challenging my faith and testing my character. This summer I participated in a study on the life of John, the beloved disciple (Beloved Disciple by Beth Moore), knowing even without doing the study that I'd need to be convinced of God's love for me if I was going to complete the task to which God appointed me. The words "forsaking ambition for affection" really resonated with me. I know ambition has motivated me but it's a fuel that runs out when I get discouraged. Love is a more powerful motivation because it doesn't give up easily. The love of God is, I think, a river in which I occasionally wet my feet. Well, earlier this week I felt like the Lord invited me for a swim, and He reminded me of these words from the Michael W. Smith song "Never Been Unloved."

I have been unfaithful
I have been unworthy
I have been unrighteous
And I have been unmerciful
I have been unreachable
I have been unteachable
I have been unwilling
And I have been undesirable
And sometimes I have been unwise
I've been undone by what I'm unsure of
But because of you
And all that you went through
I know that I have never been unloved.

I must admit I've been all of these things - some of them at the the same time and some of them recently. To know that God loves me keeps me going even when I feel utterly unworthy by any standard. It is that knowledge that reminds me that my God is different - there is none like Him.

Holy Is the Lord

We stand and lift up our hands
For the joy of the Lord is our strength

... and my only strength, sometimes. Last night I felt musically weak, but even in the midst of the messy harmonies, I couldn't help but notice that the lyrics were saying there was more to it than the music, anyway.

We bow down and worship Him now
How great, how awesome is He!

I read something kind of bleak yesterday about a preacher - Bellamy, his last name was, a disciple of Jonathan Edwards, that preached in such a way that, as one congregation member put it, made God "SO GREAT!" The bleakness was that his preaching was frightening, of the soul-searing, insanity-producing brand of Calvinism, and that the author of what I was reading said that such preaching gave worshippers a definite purpose/goal/end - an intense, sublimely powerful God. Well, that made me think. See, I don't think we create God, and I think that emphasizing something about Him so that people can worship Him could in some sense be manipulative. However - He is sublimely powerful and awesome. If worship is an experience of the sublime, it could be because it is an experience of God.

I've also been reading about the watering down of theology in the late victorian period in the U.S. - overemphasizing the love part of God. Why do these two extremes seem to be at odds? In beautiful music, we can say, "We bow down and worship Him now - how great, how awesome is He!"

I don't know the answers to these things. That is perhaps why I love to sing His praises - for a moment, I acknowledge and exult in what I know to be true.

Brethren, We Have Met to Worship

My pastor preached a really encouraging sermon on Sunday, based on Ephesians 5:18-19, which talk about being filled with the spirit and singing songs, hymns and spiritual songs. Not coincidentally, I'm sure, I woke up that morning with the hymn, "Brethren, We Have Met to Worship" on my mind. As I prepared for worship, I thought particularly of the lines that say:

All is vain unless the spirit
Of the Holy One comes down.

As I prepared, I desired that the Holy Spirit would empower our worship - would work in each heart, activate and release praise to Him. I'm not sure how that works, but I know that a redeemed heart longs to worship its redeemer, a creature longs to worship its creator, and that it is a spiritual act. I know that if it's just a show, regardless of how big or small, it's in vain. The song is a good reminder to people like me who feel like 'part of the show' because we're on stage on Sunday morning. It's all about you, Jesus.

This Day

I have had hard days this past week, and I have had really good ones. I want the good ones to last, but they don't. There's only enough grace yesterday for yesterday, as much as I want to stretch it out. I know God doesn't think in 24-hour time periods and is not regulated by a clock, but I know that the rythm of life makes a pattern from one day to the next, and that within that pattern, God chooses to act.

Legacy

In my weak pride, I have a hard time taking a compliment. In my strong pride, I want people to say I'm awesome - a prime example of what a human woman was meant to be.

Then, when I get real, when I get humble, I start to think about all the things I spend my time on and how much they matter. And all the things I want to be said about me. And most of it doesn't matter at all.

That's the point of Nicole Nordeman's song, "Legacy." The chorus says:

I want to leave a legacy
How will they remember me?
Did I choose to love?
Did I point to You enough to leave a mark on things?

It's a question I've been asking myself as I get into the prime of my life. I mean, what am I gonna do with myself? What will my life say? I think being well-fashioned in the eyes of the world, in many ways, is not bad - being well-read, being multiculturally literate, and having good manners are all good things. But at the end of my life -

I just wanna hear instead
"Well done, good and faithful one."

That will mean more to me than, "smart," "pretty," or "engaging." It's fairly easy for me to impress people if I want to, and it's somewhat meaningful. But to earn a commendation from my God, well, I don't think that's easy, and it is indeed meaningful.

In, Not Of

So, honestly, I really wanted to write about the Cheat Commandoes today (homestarrunner.com) because it is so funny - the good old laugh-out-loud funny that originally made me like homestarrunner.com.

However, in this blog I talk about songs. So, I'm going to talk about "In Not Of," by Avalon. It's based on the verse that says, though we are in the world, we are not of the world. That's a difficult position to negotiate. How to be in the world, but not of it, especially when it is so seductive an alluring?

This is a beautiful song - highly singable - in fact, I want to sing it in church someday. I think it speaks not so much to how hard it is to be in the world but, for starters, the importance of being in it. I know a lot of Christians are in the world, but some hide out. I sympathize, as did whoever wrote this song, which says,

I hide me far away from trouble
The world outside me grows darker by the day
And so I promise to stay here close beside you
Surely God would want His children safe.

I feel like that sometimes, and fear keeps me from taking the land. In fact, fear of explaining 'taking the land' is going to keep me from talking about it here. It's the concept by which I feel comfortable in the world at all. I hope I make a difference there. I know He's growing His love in me so that I can actually love the world, so even as this song challenges me, it encourages me that something is going right. Here's the chorus:

Come take the light to darker parts
Share His truth with hardened hearts
We are not like the world, but we can love it
Come take the hope to hopeless men
'Til the lost are found in Him
He came to save the world, so let us be
In and not of it.

I know being in the world can go too far, and there are people who've developed really complex ways of addressing how far too far is. I do want to find out more about that, but I know I also need courage to engage with my world.

(I can't tell who this song was written by; here's what the CD jacket says: "Vocal Arrangement: Chris Harris (Nick Gonzales, Grant Cunningham)". )

Lord of All Creation

A moment ago, a hummingbird sipped nectar from an upturned crimson star outside my window. My cat is sitting on the back porch, and even though I can't see him right now, I know he is watching the other cat that is prowling in our backyard. He and I both have our eyes on nature this morning.

For I have chosen no particular song, but rather a subject, about which to write: God's revelation through creation. It seems that since I read a few pages on the subject in Charles Ryrie's Basic Theology that I've heard and sang half a dozen songs about the glory of the Lord and His creation.

I confess it's not something about which I've actively thought much, but I know that when I look out and see the bright magenta of a crepe myrtle against the dark evergreen, and the sunlight dappled through the Georgia pine, or when I see a squirel scuttle across the phone lines, spinning his tail like he's winding up to smack one out of the park, I get happy. In fact, I get a little blessed, and that's what I think Creation is supposed to do for a person.

As Ryrie points out, creation itself is not alone to bring about salvation - only the very specific revelation about the atoning death of Christ is sufficient for that. A person can't get saved by looking at crepe myrtle, but they can get inspired. Something in their heart dilates, and that dilation, I think, is an expansion that gets a heart ready to receive something really big - the awesome revelation of Christ.

On another point, Ryrie points out that creation itself helps to support the argument that there is an eternal creator, which in turn can lead individuals to believe Him by faith. He points more to the complexity of nature than to the beauty of it as a useful proof. From the little I know about science, the beauty that emerges from the complexity of biology is wondrous to me, so I think we're really talking about the same thing from different angles of experience and knowledge.

Creation has been pouring forth speech about the Lord's majesty since before there was writing, before there was math, before there was science. And certainly before there was a formalized cosmology that explained God out of all existence. I have a book sitting next to me on my desk called One Long Argument: Charles Darwin and the Genesis of Modern Evolutionary Thought. The book by Ernst Mayr, published in 1991, won the Phi Beta Kappa award for science. I haven't read it and may not, but I picked it up because it was free and I was intrigued by the title: One Long Argument. What intrigues me is that Darwin's argument, and of course not Darwin alone (and surely I misunderstand or underestimate Darwin and surely, given the wealth of information available and the poverty of my reading on the subject, I am unitiated in such things) but his ideas, in effect, are an argument that invalidates one of the proofs of the argument for an eternal Creator.

It seems like a morbid and defeatist note on which to end, but let me frame it this way: I had never until this morning really thought about how Darwin could affects one's very heart and soul - stealing those rapturous, blessed moments that nature provides, that dilate the soul and prepare me for what I could not naturally understand. Even as a non-scientist, I am affected and a little stirred up by this.

Breathe

Week 2 of my new degree program is underway. I'm getting a little beaten down. In fact, I'm writing on a Tuesday because I didn't really have much to say yesterday, the day I'd normally write. I couldn't even express my frustration. This morning, I decided to share the song that's been going through my head in response to that frustration in case it may speak to someone who reads this. It's by the Newsboys, and it goes like this:

Tuesday the first
I'll call this entry 'Mistake'
Cheap imitation, my life feels like a fake
A people person, some days people annoy me.
I'm growing edgy
Wednesday's title: 'Avoid Me.'

I hope that the title for my tomorrow is not 'avoid me.' Here's the chorus, and what I was praying under my breath and somewhat below my consciousness:

Breathe on me
Breathe oh breath of God
Breathe on me
'til my heart is new
Breathe on me
Breathe oh Breath of Life
Breathe on me
'till I love like you do

The second verse is worth a reprint, too.

Thursday, the fifth
I title 'Drivers Beware'
Tempered-a-mental
and I don't really care
I gave 'till I bled
You laughed when I fainted
Don't want to live this life
bitter and tainted.

I'll start writing on Tuesdays now, I think.

"Breathe," music by Peter Furler, lyrics by Philip Urry and Peter Furler, from the album Take Me To Your Leader

How Great is Our God

At 5:26 this morning, I was awakened by the most powerful peal of thunder I have ever heard. It was so loud and sounded so directly above my roof that my heart started racing before I even knew I was awake. I figured it was a wake-up call, so I've been up since then, and I'm grateful for the early alarm. It made it easy for me to think of God's greatness today. There are people who think that experiencing greatness is just a way of escaping one's own smallness for a little while. Personally, need the reminder of my own smallness, and of His power to keep me in a proper follower's position.

Today's song: "How Great is Our God," by Chris Tomlin. I won't repeat many lyrics here. They repeat the title several times and they express God's completeness through several title phrases like "beginning and the end" and "the Lion and the Lamb." My favorite lines of all say, "He wraps Himself in light/ and darkness tries to hide/ and trembles at His voice." Amen. This morning, He awoke me before dawn so that even in the darkness I could ponder and be assured of His greatness. How awesome is He!

The Masses

Today was a big day. We saw Claude Monet, Mr. (first name unknown) Degas, Whistler, Botticelli, and Frank Lloyd Wright at the Art Institute of Chicago Museum. It was free day so there were throngs of people there. Then we saw Rick Bayless 0f Mexico, One Plate at a Time fame, at his restaurant, where we had dinner. He's a bit of a hero to us, and there he was, in our midst - how very Mexican - like the wrestling heroes that walk in the midst of their fans in Mexico City. Then we got together with thousands of others in Grant park and watched Paul Newman in The Hustler. The park is situated in the elbow curve of high-rises that face Lake Superior, so the movie was framed by the beautiful, gently but definitely lit skycrapers. I looked at them and thought - it's all people. The big buildings and businesses - it's all made up of lots and lots of people. Then I caught the eye of someone seated in front of me, then another person, and I wasn't afraid, instead, I felt warmth. And I thought, Jesus looked at them, and had compassion on the masses. And I was impressed by Jesus' liberality.

Beautiful One

You've opened my eyes to your wonders anew

You've captured my heart with this love

Cause nothing on earth is as beautiful as you.

I'm away from home. There is a fortune cookie message taped to the monitor of the computer on which I work as a guest. It says: "Beautiful things await you." That's a fortune worth keeping!

We sang this song at church yesterday. I'd only ever heard it on the radio before.

Beautiful one, I love (you)
Beautiful one, I adore
Beautiful one, my soul must sing!

The thing is, He really did open my eyes to his wonders anew, and He has been capturing my heart for quite a while. I thought more about the fact that He is beautiful. My friend played a song for our church that said "I will go... because there is none so lovely."

The fact that Jesus is so beautiful is hard to miss, and it does cause my soul to sing. And when things are hard, when I feel like I've given up what I most feared to lose, I remember His worth and surrender. When my soul is downcast because I miss what I've given up, I remember His beauty and my soul is glad again.

O my soul, praise Him!