Recently we started singing a brand new song by Matt Redman from his new album, "10,000 Reasons". The song, which is called 'Never Once', grabbed my ear immediately. As a song writer there are occasional times when you hear other songs and you feel as though that was the song you were trying to write. In other words, when I heard this song, I felt as though everything I have been feeling and trying to express for the last several years was finally summed up in a single thought. I felt like this song was my testimony.
I am incredibly grateful that God has used Matt Redman to be that voice for many of us. He has crafted songs that have summed up many of our thoughts, prayers, and praises, and I am extremely grateful for this new song. In his own words, here is the story of "Never Once".
Well, as many of you know, we are about to release our new worship project called "Comfort". This project is for and about the church, and so I thought I would share a thought about the church that I came across today.
I have been reading John MacArthur, Jr's book called 'The Ultimate Priority'. It is a fairly short but incredibly loaded book on what is true and acceptable worship. In a discussion about the location of worship and the idea of a temple, MacArthur states that both individual worship (we are each a temple of God) and corporate worship (the fellowship of believers is a temple of God) spur each other on.
Basically, the idea is that we need to come together as a fellowship of believers to stimulate each other towards love and good works. At the same time, the worship we bring to the body of believers means nothing if we are not individually worshiping God during the week. There is a lot of conversation that we could already have at this point, but here is what I really wanted to share…
MacArthur goes on to state that, “the source of most of the problems people have in their Christian lives relates to two things: either they are not worshiping six days a week with their life, or they are not worshiping one day a week with the assembly of the saints. We need both.
“If you go to church only when it is convenient, you will never be victorious and productive as a Christian. You can’t succeed on your own; you need to have the spiritual stimulation of fellow believers. We live in such an easy-come, easy-go, casual, flippant society that people don’t make consistent, faithful commitments, and then they wonder why they fail. The answer is clear. Spiritual (Christian) success requires commitment to others.” (105-106)
There are some pretty strong words here. In fact, even I, a lover of the church, found myself getting a little defensive as I read these paragraphs. Then I stepped back and realized that MacArthur is not discussing the excuses we may have for missing a Sunday. Of course life happens and sometimes we can’t make it. Rather he is discussing a mind-set that says that we can each make it without the church. I don’t think we can.
I also found myself convicted about attending church when it is convenient. Yes, if you know me you know that I work for the church. So it could be a little funny for me to feel convicted about this. However, I still had to ask myself about how often I might go to church just because I work there. Would I still go to church with the same consistency and dedication if I didn’t work there. I sure hope so.
I love the church and I do believe in it’s incredible value to our Christian walk. Now, once you have committed to being a part of the fellowship of believers, the next question becomes “do you come to church expecting to get, or ready to give?” Hmmmmmmm……
Last night I came across a new app for my ipod that I am really looking forward to using. The app is called Bible.is (http://bible.is/iphone/) and is created by Faith Comes Through Hearing. Yes, there are a number of Bible apps for our iphones, ipods, ipads, Androids, etc., but this one has a couple of different features that I am excited about.
First of all, this app is free. Again, yes there are other free bible apps but this one offers some more features. Unfortunately, like most free Bible apps, it is limited in the number of translations that it offers, but it is still the Bible so that is a minor setback.
Second, and most importantly, this app is actually an audio Bible. An audio Bible that fits into your pocket (unless you use an ipad) is an amazing thing. Just think, you could listen to God’s Word while you are working out or working around the house. Some of you could listen to God’s Word while you are at work or out enjoying God’s creation. You could listen to God’s Word while you are driving (which by the way many of us could use God’s Word while we are driving), riding your bike, or taking the bus to work. With a resource like this, you have the ability to clothe yourself in God’s Word all day long.
I will, however, admit that I did hesitate to share this post because I do have one worry. We all still need to be spending personal time with our God. A resource like this one should not take the place of a quiet moment with God. It could enhance your time with God. In fact, listening to the Word can even bring greater clarity to us regarding God’s Word. But God should not be the after thought in our life that get’s added when we are driving to the store because that is the only time we think we have. So I share this resource with you because I believe that if you add it to, and use it in, your own quiet times, God’s Word will continually be on your heart.
I will admit one other thing, like the majority of audio Bibles that I have come across, the voices can be a little cheesy. This audio Bible is read by different actors who play the different parts represented in Scripture and sometimes they just make me laugh. But I do think that the practice of listening to Scripture is important enough that I can get over the voices.
So, I have a number of ideas of how I will use this ‘app’ to enhance my daily walk with Christ, and maybe I will share some of those at a later time. But for now, I just wanted to let you all know about one of the many resources out there to help us move through each day as we strive to live life in view of God’s mercies.
(By the way, please let me know if there are other ‘apps’ that you have found helpful to your spiritual life.)
I am hoping to start bringing more options to this blog to help enhance your personal time of worship. So why not start with some new worship albums that are being released this spring. I have not had the chance yet to listen to these albums all the way through, so I can't really give you a review yet. But I have listened to some pieces that make me excited to hear the rest of these projects.
For now I am just going to give you a short list and I will come back and give you some specifics later. If you get a chance to listen to any of these please let me know what you think. Also, if you have any new albums that you are listening to let me know.
So here are a few that have been, are being, released this spring/summer...
