Good Friday songs for reflection

I was listening to these songs thursday night while falling asleep and found them to convey the reflections I like to make as I think upon the death and resurrection of my Savior. I wanted to share them with you and invite you to reflect on these lyrics as well.

and i know it's not Good Friday anymore- but I wasn't home to post these yesterday.

How Deep the Father's Love
How deep the Father’s love for us
How vast beyond all measure
That he would give his only Son
To make a wretch his treasure

How great the pain of searing loss
The Father turns his face away
As wounds which mar the Chosen One
Bring many sons to glory

Behold the man upon a cross
My sin upon his shoulders
Ashamed I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that held him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection

Why should I gain from his reward
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom

In Christ Alone
In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This corner stone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm

What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, and strivings cease
My comforter, my all in all
Here in the love of Christ I stand

In Christ alone, who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless babe
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones he came to save

Till on that cross, as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
for every sin on him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live

Here in the ground, his body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious day
Up from the grave he rose again

And as he stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me
For I am his and he is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt in life no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life’s first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny

No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from his hand
Till he returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand

Top 5 Concerts

Having been to one of the best concerts i can remember, i have decided to do this post. First, i want to share some of the quality of memorable concerts.

first- sing-a-bility. the better i know the band, the better the concert can be. unknown bands can barely be given high marks because i don't know the music (and loudness usually makes it better, in general) and the enjoy-able factor is lessened usually. noteable exception to this is the band "Disciple" whom i've never heard of, and is a little heavier than my usual taste, but did a great concert regardless. not top 5 worthy, but good.

second- as noted above, volume. concerts that don't make my clothes vibrate on me, particularly from the bass or kick drum, are not worth my time. that is, if it's a rock concert. the "Shane & Shane" worship night at my college church calls to mind a different type of concert that was still great.

thirdly- blending of the old and new- especially on a concert tour when they're promoting a new disc- if they do too much old stuff, no one is enticed to listened to the new stuff and if they do only new stuff, everyone gets bored and goes home.

fourth- overall general feeling, including stage presence of the band. 'nuff said.

with all that said, i do want to mention this- this list excludes the music festivals i've been to- Creation, Purple Door, Kingdom Bound- they've had some GREAT concerts- some of them comparable to the best. but too many to remember between the many different years i've been to these festivals.

now the list:
1. Audio Adrenaline- venue- Messiah College. My favorite Christian band of all time. I cannot argue that, especially when considering the nostalgia factor. they were not on tour so their set list was whatever they wanted it to be- old, new, audience suggestions (Although they didn't listen to me yelling "scum sweetheart"). but they stuck to the best stuff and went out from there. excellent.

2. Switchfoot- Main1 Arts Center in Medford, OR. the concert described below. look at previous post to see why this one ranks up there.

3. Five Iron Frenzy- Performing Arts Center at Lancaster Mennonite High School. I went to this concert by myself- couldn't find anyone in my dorm to go with me, but ended up hanging out with the "Rock For Life" booth guys. this concert had some good lead up, but far and away, one of my favorite bands doing an excellent show. capped off by the ever excellent "Every New Day" song, but also by getting my picture taken with the band who was just hanging around afterward. also, them holding my sign saying they liked my band...

4. Supertones- Forum in Woodstock, New Brunswick. Getting harder to remember all the concerts that were far and above. However, the Supertones were one of my favorite bands from their first album. I have been disappointed of late, but this concert in 1999 was off the charts. my youth pastor, as i was a youth leader by then, was not taking a group so I took a group of kids from the group in my mom's van. it was worth all of it. And their "worship" set in the middle was totally novel then, and very visibly and extension of their hearts.

5. Third Day- Giant Center in Hershey PA. This concert was pretty decent. it's harder and harder for me to like Third Day, not for their music but due to other factors. But this was before that, and the concert, while it was good, would not be in the top 5 save for this one thing- the company was the best company i've ever had- Rachel. She and i went together and that made this concert.

noteable achievers- the Kutless concert i went to a year ago- "Hearts of the Innocent" Tour- where the band Disciple opened for them. Also, first Newsboys concert i went to- when i liked them and it was the first time (of 5) that i saw this particular concert. Audio Adrenaline at Cincy '98 was also quite good.

Switchfoot Concert review

tonight, i witnessed one of the best concerts i have ever been to. hands down. see my next post which will recount what makes a good concert and what my top 5 are. but here, i wanted to break down the concert a little.

first, the disappointment. the band opening for Switchfoot was named "Copeland" and they were ok. they were drummerless, making just two acoustic guitars. it was kinda Shane & Shane-esque, but not to their level. The voice was alright and i was pretty pleased with the guitar work of the 2nd player. But in general, a bit of a letdown and i'd really like to hear them with a drummer before making any final judgements.

2nd on the sad scale- the concert was supposed to start at 7- it didn't start till 7:25. and while Copeland only played for about 20 minutes, it was almost 8:20 till Switchfoot finally came on. that made for a lot of standing around. the venue was nice and all- like a large night club, but the floor was concrete so it was tough to stand on.

Switchfoot enters, people scream. sometimes, i wonder if the screaming is louder actually than the music. So they start to play and it's nice and loud, very peppy. I can't honestly remember the order of some of the songs, all i can say is that as far as concerts go, these guys know how to translate their good studio work onto the stage (something bands like Jars of Clay had a hard time doing early on). It sounds just like the "Nothing is Sound" and "OH! Gravity" albums from which the first few songs come.

I would honestly compare this concert to an Audio Adrenaline concert i've been to. They have an excellent album that is the standard by which everything else they do is compared. and so far, they're measuring up to "The Beautiful Letdown" pretty well, although I hardly know the albums since the same way. But, it's like Audio Adrenaline's "Bloom"- if they do a lot of songs from there and add a few here or there, they can't go wrong.

Well, that's the feeling I got. a good smattering of their albums, but in general, center it all around the best complete album they've done. They played well, had excellent stage presence and just in general, made the audience feel a part of the show and not simply spectators.

Notable things:
inclusions- "Learning to Breathe"- from their self-proclaimed early years album by the same title, this song apparently was voted on their website to be in the concert. good song, loved to play it on the radio when i was a DJ in college. ahhh... memories. also, "Twenty-Four", one of my favorite songs of theirs. done just with the acoustic and in such a way that you could hear the audience singing along loudly. excellent.

exclusions- almost "Dare You to Move" until they did it in the encore, which plays into the idea that they planned the encore. "Chem 6a", a classic song from the "Legend of Chin" album that seems to make its way around, even being joked around on the guitar by one of the "Copeland" guitarists... Also, "On Fire", a light song off "the Beautiful Letdown" that just sings of serenity and beauty.

other notes- one kid actually brought a lighter into the concert. i'm not sure how he got it past security and they appeared to take it from him, but for the early part of the slower songs, this kid was waving his lighter... i felt like i was in 80s heaven or something... (and the dragon comes in the niiiiiiight!)

This concert ranks an A+ on the concert-o-meter. with classics like "Gone", "This is Your Life", "Stars", "Meant to Live" and new classics like "OH! Gravity" along side the other songs you know you know but just can't put your finger on it- this concert was great.

oxymoron

I was thinking about this today as I was listening to a relatively new CD- new to me. I'd bought it for the worship ministry at church- resource not only for music we may play, but also to play in the background before and after service. it was a worship CD with a bunch of different groups and worship leaders.

And I got listening to a version on there that they had of the song "Rescue" from the CD Desperation. The original was done very well and was just in general, good. this newer (really other- the song is only 2 years old- and only popular the past year or so) version was, in my opinion, inferior. it was not only a cover, but a cover done with little to none of the band's own flavor in it.

the group who performed it, however, was what got me intrigued enough to write a blog. it's the band "Newsong"/

now fofgive me, but doesn't that sound weird? Newsong is performing a bad cover of someone else's song.

Christian Pop-culture

Rachel called me this morning. in a Christian bookstore catalogue, she notice this. Wow. that's all i can say. apparently the caption in the catalogue says "now your kids can dance for the Lord".

It really was a confirmation to me because the other day, i wrote down a question that I really wanted to get some discussion on. It was spurred on because I was reminded of this Christian comedian. After watching some of his stuff, I found him to be funny. But the people who told me about this guy, Brad Stine, are kinda sheltered kids. It made me really want to start a discussion about something that is becoming so huge now. A popular, christian sub-culture.

We've already got (and had for some years) Christian music. I remember that when I was in high school, I would only listen to Christian music. And while I firmly believed it was a matter of my own personal convictions, I would secretly wonder about how serious people were about their faith who listened to "the radio" or CDs from non-Christian artists. Obviously, this was wrong thinking on my part. While there are obviously some bands that promote sin or even simple immorality, there are many non-Christian groups that don't have anything specifically wrong with their music.

There have also been books for some time now, too- including popluar Christian novels. But even now, there are books that have reached "craze" status, regardless of if it's Christian or not.

Anyway, back to the point- it used to be just Christian music. But recently, there have been videos and movies (look at all the apocalypse movies), comedians, video games- seemingly everything. And it makes me wonder WHY. Can Veggie Tales DDR seriously be to help someone's spirituality?

I want to ask the question- does it make us more or less spiritual if we choose (or choose not) to engage ourselves in this sub-culture simply because it's Christian? should we not be disappointed at the poor quality some Christian bands display, but they get a contract because they're "Christian". should we not want good music, funny comedians and well written books?

I am reminded of the band Tree63 telling about being in South Africa (where there music is top-40 type stuff) and there's no Christian or non-Christian music. if a Christian band wants to get recorded, then they have to be GOOD- good enough to compete with non-Christian music.
so I ask the question that I have been wondering for a few days...

Does the popular Christian sub-culture of today reflect:

a)A positive alternative to the negative influences found in normal popular culture?

b)A way for Christian parents to shelter their children and teenagers (or for Christian teens and adults to shelter themselves) from the bad aspects of popular culture?

c)the honest desire of the hearts of Christians to use their gifts in ways to share the Gospel, or at least be a positive influence?

d)desire on the part of media corporations to make money off the segment of the population who designate themselves as Christians?

e)A true desire to be a people who are "set apart"?

f)some combination or these or something else entirely?

I would LOVE to entertain some thoughts.

do you sing?

I just took a call at the church from a woman asking about the time of our 2nd service on sunday mornings and after confirming that it was at 11am, she proceeded to ask if we sing hymns. I stated that we sing hymns during the 1st service, but our 2nd service does not typically have hymns. She asked me again the same question with the emphasis on hymns- "I asked, do you sing HYMNS??" So I responded again, with a sure tone, that our 1st service is a traditional service in which we sing hymns, however, our 2nd service (which she's inquired about) is our contemporary service and we do not sing hymns often. She responded with a quick thank you and then hung up.

I know that the Church in the United States has been through the "worship wars" and many churches are still in the midst of it. but i post this here now because i wanted to get a little discussion going- regarding this question. Is this a question that should be asked when looking for a church? what other questions should someone ask when they are looking for a church home? what should the primary determining factor be? And how do you get past the ambiguous questions/feelings like "I think God wants us here" for which there may be no proof except for our own feelings?

discuss.

Musical Theology

I was listening to a person the other day talking about something- and it really made me wonder something. Do we honestly get our theology from popular Christian music? and if so, WHY???

Christian music is somewhat of an anomaly. Many churches require their pastors to have some kind of degree and background/training in the Bible of theology. At the very least, a church will require a person to have felt some kind of "call" into ministry and evidence that God is at work in them and revealing the truth of His Word. Christian Colleges and seminaries require that you have an education.

Christian music, in like fashion, requires you to have a discernable amount of MUSICAL talent! The "anomaly", however, is that despite other "christian" occupations or passtimes, there is no required calling, training, or even background in theology or Christianity. All it requires is talent and putting together a few things for lyrics that make Christians feel good. I'm not saying that most bands just put words together, but there is no "theology" checker on music- someone could have bad doctrine in their music and no one wonders.

Case in point- Michael W. Smith had a song a few years ago- I used to own the CD, but gave it to a friend(actually, more that she borrowed it to do a mime to and never gave it back), so i had to look up the song on the "I'll Lead You Home" CD- it's called "Angels Unaware". He mentioned something in there about being "caught in a mental purgatory". the first time i heard it, i thought he said middle purgatory, and regardless of that- i wanted to know if he had some catholic doctrine or influence in his life.

Back in the days of AOL (the 10 hours/month for $10 and then $2/hour after that days- and before there was anything faster than 14.4k modem speeds), i logged onto a guest appearance with Michael W. Smith. People went into the "auditorium" and got seated in "rows" and you could talk as much as you wanted with people in your row. You could even create your row. You could ask Michael any question you wanted through a mediator- you just had to type it in the mediator box. I asked about this 3 or 4 times. They also, at the end of the time, picked one person to "come on stage" and ask any question they wanted to. I so despearately wanted to get up there to ask- most of the questions i saw were along the lines of what is your favorite way of wearing your facial hair, or what's your favorite hairstyle. The person who got to go on stage asked the following question- "do you like ketchup on your eggs?"

i guess there's not much of a market or desire out there for right theology in music. But I want to encourage you to think about this- look into it. Don't just take some band's music as right belief! It goes back to questioning and not simply accepting! And it's worse when some band tries to pass a song off as worship and it's got bad theology! It's bad enough trying to pass some song off as worship, but it's not REALLY worship (like the songs "Who am I" by Casting Crowns, or "I Can Only Imagine" by MercyMe- they aren't worshipping God! ask me about them if you wish). But worse when we've got bad theology in it!

think about it... process it. later.

the value of the frenzy

"Lord search my heart, create in me something clean
Dandelions- you see flowers in these weeds" (Dandelions)

I've had the words of this song running through my head for the past number of days. This used to be my favorite song when the album came out my senior year of high school- and it had slipped to the back of my mind. Then it came back to me as i began listening to music on my computer again for the first time in a while (i've got my entire library of cds on my pc). it came back to me, and then i used the album for something the other night and got listening to it through again.

I love it! and i remember how much i love the band! And i'm holding off saying the band name for my wife. Not because she won't like it, but i wonder if she'll be surprised to discover this band wrote a song with lyrics as profoud (I consider them to be that) as these are. It's Five Iron Frenzy. Hence, the value of the frenzy.

Now, I understand not everyone likes the music, but i must say that I honestly believe this is one of the greatest bands to dawn the Christian charts. For two main reasons- the first is that they are by no means the "same" as every other band. they were quite different, in all regards. The second is that they were not under the assumption that every song needed to say Jesus in it. And not every song with spiritual meaning had to say it directly. They valued the tongue in cheek (My Evil Plan to Save the World), and the flat out comedy (see the "Pants Opera").

I remember in the youth group i used to work with in college, there were a few brothers whose father didn't like the band. He didn't like any Christian band that didn't blatantly say Jesus. So he was very wary to let them buy the music, or listen to too much of it. But, he would have loved it if they got into some group like MercyMe, or... anyway- not remembering if i've said tis before, I'm going to bash most of Christian music. Although there is some decent quality, and some stuff that is just amazing in the lyrics department, there is generally something I dislike about most Christian music.

it is predictable, and it offers little for the brain. You can always, ALWAYS expect the word "love" to rhyme with "above", and for some bands, you can expect every album to sound like a duplicate of their previous one. the style is the same, and there is very little that offers new ideas, or new anything.

Five Iron Frenzy was not that. I was on this kick where I put all of their albums in a playlist and cycled through them randomly, and I could hear the differnces in songs from each album, and... They were just a great band, with great creativity, and they knew how to have fun. I'm convinced that there are still Christians who think that having fun is a sin. But I'm pretty sure it's not, cuz i'm pretty sure God had fun creating the universe.

I loved seeing these guys in concert, and I loved to listen to their albums. "They sang, they danced, they made me laugh. I really wanted to be like them" (modified quote from Superpowers)

i don't know if i had much more to say, but... Even though they've been gone for a while from the Christian music scene, i still miss them. you guys rock... and they weren't above posing in pictures with and a sign saying they like my band.

Conditioned Response

Back to the ol' blogging fun! for another week- then i'm a burried- i mean.. uh... married guy! yahoo.

Ok, so i've been thinking about this a lot recently- and I've thought about this for a long time now. Pavlov. A scientist. He had his dogs. you may have heard of his experiments. He would ring a bell every time he fed his dogs for a period of time. And then, he began to ring the bell, but not feed the dogs- the dogs would still salivate- expecting food. Their brains were triggered by the bell that food was coming soon.

Now bear with me- this will come in handy in a minute.

I used to be in a "mega-church" and work with a youth ministry that was usually anywhere between 150 and 200- yeah- bigger than the church i work at now. But, anyway- we had a really impressive worship band for a few years that I had the blessing of playing with- they even recorded an album (which i play on a little). Every time the band plays, student will come up to the front and join in worship- sometimes jumping up and down, or holding their hands up and whatever. And we thought- wow, our kids love to worship. And rightly so- I'm sure they do.

We would go on retreats and the same thing- and sometimes our students woudl have a really emotional experience- they would often times cry, or be happy, or- whatever. doesnt' matter. The big thing is- we observed our students really entering in.

Maybe.

huh? wha? maybe? whattya mean, maybe. Well, I am posing, that, just as Pavlov could condition his dogs to respond in a certain way, many of us are conditioned to respond in a certain way. We hear the type of music start and it triggers in our brains- dancing time, hand raising time- singing time- whatever. And then we go and "worship," but it makes no difference in our lives. I've seen students so touched emotionally at a retreat and then going back to the world and living in sin.

I pose to everyone that worship is NOT music- it is NOT a genre of music, it is NOT just singing songs- it is NOT JUST MUSIC! music is the prominent form that worship takes in our corporate setting, but, without getting into the specifics, worship is a lifestyle. So if you sing your song, and you go out and live wrong- there's a disconnect there! There is a disconnected wire- in the song, I sing that I love God, but then I go out and deny that by disobdience or not spending time with Him. I sing that I want to be holy, but then I never strive toward it- that does not make sense! Actions speak louder than words, and so true worship is sung and lived.

I believe that too many people are conditioned to respond to worship music in a certain way- especially musicians- because we are wired for music, we are automatically driven to give our all in a musical performance, or something like that... but we forget what we are singing. I can memorize songs so well, but sometimes that means that I don't know what I'm singing. Conditioned response- rote memorization.

I write this because i struggle with it, too. I was leading worship this morning, and the song that we did in closing after the message really tied in to the message- "How Deep the Father's Love" and I was singing it and for the first time in a while, I began to remember what the words really said, what they meant- and what that meant to me- and I could almost not finish singing because I was gettting bleary eyed. It all of a sudden hit me- and I don't think I can not be changed remembering what that song reminds us all of...

I'm not saying everyone doesn't worship, I'm just saying it bothers me that so many people "worship" on sunday morning, but we're not truly living it- we're not changed by it and it doesn't affect us. But we appear to be real on it.

My senior pastor and I struggle because there are many issues leading to this end- the people in our church do not often engage in real worship- sure they sing, but they stand there often times stock still and worship does not move them. But you know what- they're honest, at least. The ones who really aren't into it too much aren't paying lip service to it at least. Actions speak louder than words, but at least these actions are in syncronization with their words.

so when the music starts up on sunday morning again- don't be enticed into grooving because you feel like it- le the Holy Spirit work in you- let the music and the lyrics- the worship- really affect you. And let it be your lifestyle, not just a song on Sunday morning.