“Across the Lands” by Keith Getty & Stuart Townend

Here is another great song from the authors of “In Christ Alone”. Keith Getty and Stuart Townend are producing what has been called modern hymns. I discuss their work in my post, “The Rise of the Modern Hymn Movement”.

We sang this song in church Sunday. It is a wonderful, God-centered song focused on the global mission of the Gospel. It works well as a congregational song. I hope you are encouraged spiritually by the lyrics of this song, and that if possible, you will aim to incorporate some of these modern hymns into your own church’s corporate worship.

Across the Lands

Words & Music by Keith Getty & Stuart Townend

Verse 1
You’re the Word of God the Father
From before the world began.
Ev’ry star and ev’ry planet
Has been fashioned by Your hand.
All creation holds together
By the power of Your voice.
Let the skies declare Your glory;
Let the land and seas rejoice!

Chorus
You’re the Author of creation;
You’re the Lord of ev’ry man;
And Your cry of love rings out across the lands.

Verse 2
Yet You left the gaze of angels,
Came to seek and save the lost,
And exchanged the joy of heaven
For the anguish of a cross.
With a prayer You fed the hungry;
With a word You calmed the sea;
Yet how silently You suffered
That the guilty may go free!

Verse 3
With a shout You rose victorious,
Wresting vict’ry from the grave,
And ascended into heaven,
Leading captives in Your way.
Now You stand before the Father,
Interceding for Your own;
From each tribe and tongue and nation,
You are leading sinners home!

 © 2003 Thankyou Music.

You can listen to a sample of the song here, or you can listen to 2 versions of the entire song for free on Rhapsody.com: this one from Keith & Kristyn Getty’s CD In Christ Alone & this one from Stuart Townend’s CD Lord of Every Heart. If you would like, you can also purchase sheet music for this song here.

Hope of My Heart by Ken Boer

Beautiful is the best description for this song. The melody is lovely and the words are hope filled. Ken Boer is serving as director of music for Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, MD, and works closely with Bob Kauflin. He has made the words and entire song (mp3) available for this song here.

Be blessed by the message of this song. And if you are, consider doing what you can to get songs like this sung by your church.

Hope of My Heart

by Ken Boer

Verse 1
Hope of my heart
Rock in my shaking world
Shelter through every storm
Tower of strength
Harbor in stormy seas
Light for my journey home

Chorus
You are the hope of my heart
You are the joy of my soul
You are my helper, my strength and delight
O how I love You, Lord
You are the hope of my heart

Verse 2
Saved by the blood
You spilled on Calvary
Giving your life for me
Held by Your power
Lavished with endless grace
Loved for eternity

Verse 3
In every path
You’re working all for good
Through joy or deepest pain
With every step
Your grace will carry me
Until my final day
 © 2004 Sovereign Grace Worship (ASCAP).

I’m hoping that Sovereign Grace Music will include this song in their free chord charts and musical scores. Currently for $5.00 you can download mp3s of this song with 5 others along with sheet music here. It is not available for individual purchase.

"You Are My King (Amazing Love)"

It seems lately that I’m always highlighting another Keith Getty or Bob Kauflin song. I don’t want to make it seem that only GettyMusic and Sovereign Grace Ministries are producing good songs!

Before I introduce “You Are My King”, let me encourage you to check out my recently updated Music page. You’ll see 26 other songs I’ve highlighted, as well as links to important discussions concerning the music debate.

The song for today is simple, yet it speaks volumes. It is arranged in such a way to encourage an exclamatory joyful praise. I’m always struck by the first few lines. Christ suffered so I wouldn’t have to. He died so I could live. Praise the Lord! I hope this song is a blessing to you.

 

You Are My King (Amazing Love)

by Billy James Foote

I’m forgiven, because You were forsaken
I’m accepted, You were condemned
I’m alive and well, Your spirit lives within me
Because you died and rose again

Amazing love, how can it be
That You my king would die for me?
Amazing love, I know it’s true
And it’s my joy to honor You
In all I do I honor You

You are my king, You are my king,
Jesus, You are my king,
Jesus, You are my king

If the Son has set you free
You are free indeed.
If the Son has set you free
You are free indeed.

 © 1997 worshiptogether.com Songs (admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing, Inc.) CCLI# 130553.

To hear a sample of the melody click here for the verse and here for the chorus. Or listen to the entire song (for free) at rhapsody.com. You may also be interested in the guitar chord sheet, or the musical score for the song.

Also don’t forget to check out my music page!

***Oh, I should mention something else. If you’re like me, you’re a sucker for free music. You might enjoy downloading a free album of the Robbie Seay Band’s new album Give Yourself Away (it is Christian music and so far I like it, although I haven’t listened too carefully to it, yet).

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"Here Is Love" by Steve & Vikki Cook

It’s been a while since I featured a modern praise song here. As regular readers of my blog know, from time to time, I share a particularly good song. I stick to modern praise songs because they are so often spurned or ignored among fundamentalists and other conservative evangelicals. Yes there is a lot of fluff out there, but there are some excellent and worthy songs which we should not hesitate to use. Many of these songs are suitable in a variety of accompaniments or styles, too.

Many of my favorite modern worship songs are produced by the folks at Sovereign Grace Ministries. Apparently, in the intervening months since the last time I highlighted one of their songs, SGM has updated their website. This makes it easier to find songs and music samples, etc. But this means I have to update all my old links. 🙁

If you aren’t familiar with SGM’s music, you really need to be! They are producing some of the finest, Christ-centered, doctrinally rich, tasteful music out there. Sometimes they simply rework an old hymn. I have highlighted songs from Sovereign Grace Ministries here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. (Hover your cursor over the “here”s to distinguish which “here” it is!)

Steve and Vikki Cook did a wonderful job in reviving the old and forgotten hymn “Before the Throne of God Above“. And they struck gold again with “Here Is Love”. They added a chorus, changed some of the words, and melded parts of the third and fourth stanzas into a single third stanza. They wrote a new melody, and the result is a beautiful song.

Here Is Love

music and extra lyrics by Steve & Vikki Cook
lyrics by William Rees

Here is love wide as the ocean
Loving kindness as a flood
When the Prince of Life, our ransom
Shed for us His precious blood
Who His love will not remember?
Who can cease to sing His praise?
He can never be forgotten
Throughout Heaven’s eternal days

On the mount of crucifixion
Fountains opened deep and wide
Through the floodgates of God’s mercy
Flowed a vast and gracious tide
Grace and love like mighty rivers
Poured incessant from above
And Heaven’s peace and perfect justice
Kissed a guilty world in love

Oh how marvelous, oh how glorious
Is my Savior’s love for me!
Oh how marvelous, oh how glorious
Is my Savior’s love for me!

Of Your fullness You are pouring
Your great love on me anew
Without measure, full and boundless
Drawing out my heart to You
You alone will be my glory
Nothing in the world I see
You have cleansed and sanctified me
You Yourself have set me free

 © 2002 Sovereign Grace Worship (ASCAP). Sovereign Grace Music, a division of Sovereign Grace Ministries. From the CD All We Long to See.

To hear a sample of how the song sounds, click here. To download a free guitar sheet, transparency sheet, or even the musical score (“lead sheet” is actually a free musical score with the words included), click here. To hear an original tune and learn more about the original hymn, click here. To order the CD from Amazon (and support my site) click the image to the right. To learn more about the CD and to sample it, click here.AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Almost Back

I’m back, but not quite back to blogging full steam. I hope to catch up on comments and etc. later today.

For now, the Calvinist debate continues at Contend Earnestly. I’m sure that they’re going to forever solve the age old dilemma 😛 . Seriously, though, it is a charitable debate with lots of Scripture. So any of you who are still figuring out where you stand on this subject, or for those trying to understand those on either position, check it out! Oh, and check out a great post over there on why Calvinists evangelize.

And if you really like debates, you could find the the discussion on music over at Jackhammer interesting. I don’t like to jump into the fray over there all that much, the hammers can be deadly. But they like to counter my points on music over here. For now, the comments here are full enough on this topic. If others want to interact with me on the subject feel free to add comments on one of these recent posts: “Music, Morality & The Bible” and “10 Points on the Music Issue“.
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