Songs for life
Casting Crowns is an award-winning Christian band and youth ministry team whose music has inspired and encouraged me greatly over the past ten years. Their authenticity and ability to marry biblical values and stories with contemporary issues are both examples and spurs to me. Songs like ‘Who Am I?’ and ‘Voice of Truth’ tackle basic questions of our identity in God; others like ‘Lifesong‘ call us to wholehearted discipleship in every area of our lives. Many of their songs tackle the difficulties of life (‘Slow Fade’, ‘Broken Together’, ‘East To West’) and even more question how to bring together zeal and everyday living (‘Somewhere In the Middle’, ‘The Altar and the Door’), reminding us that discipleship is not always the ‘easy ride’ we would like it to be whilst also reminding us there is ‘joy unspeakable, faith unsinkable, love unstoppable, anything is possible’ in God. (‘Thrive‘)
A new Casting Crowns’ album is always eagerly anticipated by me, and this one (‘The Very Next Thing’) all the more so, since lead singer Mark Hall had had a serious operation to remove a cancerous kidney last year, and I wanted to know how that experience would be reflected in song (as he says, writing a song is what he does when faced with hard situations!) The song ‘Oh My Soul’, based on Psalm 42, continues his ongoing acknowledgment that we have to speak to ourselves as we wobble between faith and fear, allowing God to work in us so that we can lay our burdens down at the cross and not take them up again!
The album contains songs which bring Bible stories to life (‘When The God-Man Passes By’ tells us the stories of Zacchaeus and the woman taken in adultery and ‘Hallelujah’ tackles, with profound simplicity, the three sunrises of creation, Easter Sunday and the Second Coming) as well as songs that tackle our fears (‘What If I Gave Everything’ being described as the prequel to ‘Voice of Truth’ and looking at our tendency to say in safe, shallow waters instead of plunging into all God has for us) and sense of shame (‘One Step Away’ is a fantastic call to repentance and return to God.) ‘Loving My Jesus’ is a very personal call to be real in our discipleship (‘loving my Jesus, showing my scars, telling my story of how mercy can reach you where you are‘), not believing the enemy’s whisper to ‘keep all your pain inside, ’cause no one will understand‘). Other songs sing of the divine exchange we can receive (‘For All You Are‘) and how God is able to restore and heal (‘God of All My Days’) and of the awesome gift of salvation God gives us (‘Song That The Angels Can’t Sing’) and of the need for us to be a river, not a stagnant sea (‘Make Me A River’).
For me, Casting Crowns bring life issues to light and then shine God’s light onto those situations (‘The Very Next Thing’ looks at our tendency to spend our lives always looking at the future instead of walking with God right now, for example.) Their insistence, however, that all we face in life can be brought to God (including our guilt, shame, fear and brokenness) and is woven by Him into a beautiful tapestry is refreshing in its honesty and lack of pretence. These are not necessarily songs you would sing in a church service (though ‘No Other Name’ certainly could be!), but they are, indeed, ‘life songs’, identifiable by all who walk with Jesus through the valley of dry bones to find resurrection follows death. It’s easier to listen to them than to read my descriptions, but in listening, I find the relief of discovering my own experiences and emotions articulated in music which can then become part of my offering to God.
[Click on highlighted song titles to hear the song.]
October birthday
We also had a birthday to celebrate:
The Strength of Stillness
Yan Hadley spoke last night on the ‘strength of stillness in a stressed society’, looking at Psalm 46. God urges us to ‘be still and know that I am God’ (rather as He told Moses before the parting of the Red Sea to ‘stand still and see the salvation of God.‘ ) So often, we focus on the problems we face rather than fixing our attention on God and watching Him work.
God is our refuge and help in the storms of life. When we look away and try to solve problems in our own strength, we will reap further problems (see Gal 6:7), but as we wait on God, He will reveal Himself to us and give us fresh direction and help. A. W. Tozer once said, ‘We can have as much of God as we want’; like Mary, we have to choose the better thing, for our decisions determine destiny.
Choosing stillness requires:
- honesty. We can’t have any masks on with God; He desires us to worship Him in spirit and in truth.
- sacrifice. We have to make time for God, deliberately decluttering our lives and re-arranging our schedules to give time and space for God to move.
- a determination to shut out distractions (both external and internal, ignoring the negative voices which often plague us and taking captive every thought which sets itself up against God.) We need that ‘secret place’ of prayer with God (Matt 6:6)
- a determination and whole-heartedness in our pursuit of God. We have to seek God with all our hearts (Jer 29:13).
- setting our focus on God (see Is 26:3, 2 Chron 20:12)
As we are still before God, we find He renews our strength (Is 40:1, Matt 11:28) and reveals His majesty and plans to us. He restores us in the inward places (Ps 23:3) and enables us to rejoice in Him.
Judah’s Blessings
Mark continued his series on Joseph this morning, looking again at the blessings Jacob gave to his sons before his death. Gen 49:8-12 looks at Jacob’s prophecy to Judah, and unlike the chastening words he pronounced to Reuben, Simeon and Levi, the words he spoke to Judah are positive and encouraging. The name itself means ‘praise’ and Judah was reminded that all his brothers would praise him. Clearly, he was an able communicator (his words had saved Joseph’s life many years before when some brothers wanted to kill him: see Gen 37:26-27) and had influence with his brothers; he had even spoken out to his father, reminding him of the fate that would befall them if they returned to Pharaoh without Benjamin (see Gen 43:1-5) The prophecy Jacob gave spoke of increase and blessing, and certainly, by the time of the second census in Israel, Judah was the largest of all the tribes. When Israel conquered Canaan, Judah’s portion was a third of the whole territory claimed, giving us further indication as to their growth and size.
Judah was clearly chosen by God (see Judges 1:1-4) and in the comments about being a ‘lion’s cub’ or ‘whelp’, we see something of Judah’s strength of character, determination and fighting skill. This association with a lion was reflected on the tribe’s flag in later years and, of course, in the lineage of Jesus, described as ‘the Lion of the Tribe of Judah‘ in Rev 5:5:
God saw Judah’s potential and developed that potential, giving him strength and vision. God can make us into whatever He wants, giving us strength and ability beyond ourselves. Even though Judah’s history was not always favourable (the conception of Perez and Zerah, told in Genesis 38, does not reflect well on Judah), God was still able to use him and from that lineage chose to bring Jesus the Messiah. We can be reassured that even though we make mistakes and mess up so often, God is able to use every circumstance for good; we can’t derail God’s plans!
Gen 49:11-12 speaks in poetic terms of the prosperity Jacob prophesied over Judah. God has plans to prosper us too (see Jer 29:11) and we can move forward, assured of our part in God’s plans (which span generations!) and of the blessing God has for us.
Arts festival
If you’re interested in any aspects of the arts – baking, cake decorating, painting, collage, knitting, crocheting, sculpture, drama, music, video, photography or anything else not listed – you might be interested in this Arts festival at Hope House Church on Wellington Street in Barnsley on Friday 18th November (11 a.m. until 8 p.m.) and Saturday 19th November (10 a.m. until 3 p.m.)
Burrowing
Rabbits love to burrow. They dig holes or tunnels into the ground to create a space suitable for habitation or to create temporary refuge, or (in the case of pets) to escape into the wide, open world…! (This happened to Thumper when he was left in his grass run for a very short space of time and decided the bigger lawn had much more grass to eat… Fortunately, his love of grass meant he did not venture far and he was returned to his cage safe and sound!)
Burrows provide a form of shelter against predators and exposure to the elements:
They are, in essence, protection for the rabbit, providing shelter and safety, but it takes some effort to create this place: effort which, however, seems completely natural and even enjoyable to a rabbit. To burrow is its natural instinct, and because rabbits are sociable creatures, burrows often lead to a complex series of underground chambers known as warrens.
The Bible says that God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. (Ps 46:1) He shields all who take refuge in Him (2 Sam 22:31); He saves us from traps and snares (Ps 31:4). We can hide in Him until the disaster has passed (Ps 57:1, see also Ps 61:3, Ps 62:8, Ps 71:3). Sometimes it can seem that it takes a lot of effort to find this refuge; God can seem very distant to us in times of trouble and desperation. But as we burrow deeper, straining towards God, we find that His arms are there to receive us, to protect us and to shield us from harm. He covers us with His feathers and under His wings we find refuge; His faithfulness become our shield and rampart. (Ps 91:4) When trouble and storms come, as they inevitably do, let us burrow further into God – ‘ever further and deeper into the heart of God’ – rather than allowing them to draw us away from His presence.