Music Mondays: “Jesus, Thank You” by Pat Sczebel

Music Monday posts highlight the music which touched my heart on Sunday. I pray the message of these songs will help us all to live in the spirit of Worship all week long.

This Sunday one song in particular blessed my heart. The words “Once Your enemy, now seated at Your table” always send chills down my spine as I think about how glorious it is that God saves us sinners who were His enemies. He saves us and also bestows on us incredible honors and blessings.

I found myself also thinking of Mephibosheth, a potential rival to David’s throne, who was welcomed to his table in a place of honor. Mephibosheth’s own servant had left him alone and vulnerable.   He was lame. A normal king would have killed him to ensure his place as king. But David, prefiguring Jesus, accepted him into his house, and set him at his table. The same has been done for me by my Lord Jesus. (The story can be found in 2 Samuel 9).

Enjoy the words of this song today as you seek to worship Christ throughout the work week.

Jesus, Thank You

Words and music by Pat Sczebel

The mystery of the cross I cannot comprehend
The agonies of Calvary
You the perfect Holy One, crushed Your Son
Who drank the bitter cup reserved for me

Your blood has washed away my sin
Jesus, thank You
The Father’s wrath completely satisfied
Jesus, thank You
Once Your enemy, now seated at Your table
Jesus, thank You

By Your perfect sacrifice I’ve been brought near
Your enemy You’ve made Your friend
Pouring out the riches of Your glorious grace
Your mercy and Your kindness know no end

Lover of my soul
I want to live for You

 © 2003 Integrity’s Hosanna! Music (ASCAP)/Sovereign Grace Worship (ASCAP).

Listen to a sample of this song, or hear the whole thing for free on rhapsody.com. You can download guitar sheets or a simple score of the song for free. You can purchase an mp3 download of the song, or purchase either of these albums which include the song: Worship God Live, and Cover the Earth.

Music Mondays: “Jesus Paid It All” (arranged by Alex Nifong)

Jesus Paid it All is on the Everything Glorious CD by the Passion bandMusic Monday posts highlight the music which touched my heart on Sunday. I pray the message of these songs will help us all to live in the spirit of Worship all week long.

For a while now, I’ve really enjoyed a new arrangement of Jesus Paid It All. This hymn has always been one of my favorites. The only change the new arrangement makes (besides the contemporary orchestration) is adding a line on the final chorus. The ending words bring the song to a climax as we give praise to Jesus for paying our debt. This makes the song more personal and encourages a worshipful response to the wonderful theology that is being sung. I hope you are blessed by this song as much as I am.

Jesus Paid It All
by Elvina Hall and John Grape
additional words / arrangement by Alex Nifong

I hear the Savior say,
“Thy strength indeed is small;
Child of weakness, watch and pray,
Find in Me thine all in all.”

Chorus:
Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.

Lord, now indeed I find
Thy pow’r, and Thine alone,
Can change the leper’s spots
And melt the heart of stone.

And when before the throne
I stand in Him complete,
I’ll lay my trophies down,
All down at Jesus’ feet.

Ending Chorus:
Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.
Oh Praise the One who paid my debt
and raised this life up from the dead
(continued repeat)
 ©2006 worshiptogether.com songs (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing) sixsteps Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing).

Free guitar chord sheets can be found here [pdf] and here [html]. You can listen to the song for free at Rhapsody.com (from the Passion band’s Everything Glorious CD), or you can watch a Youtube video clip of the song. If you like the song, consider purchasing the Everything Glorious CD through Amazon.

The story behind the song (explained in this post), basically consists of Alex Nifong using the song in prayer to God, and spontaneously praising God with those words. Eventually he shared the line with all of us through his arrangement. Check out Alex’s website for more info on him and his songs.

Other great songs we sang Sunday were:

  • Rejoice the Lord Is King (hymn)
  • You are God Alone (Billy & Cindy Foote)
  • The Lord Is (Pat Sczebel & Bob Kauflin)
  • Lord, I Remember (Jason French)
  • O the Deep Deep Love of Jesus (hymn)

Why Do We Say "Legalism"

A friend of mine just posted an interesting list of definitions by John Piper on a variety of topics. He linked to the online sermon or article from which the definition was taken, and gave a summary of the definition.

One of those definitions was legalism. Let me give Piper’s definition here.

(1) Treating biblical standards of conduct as regulations to be kept by our own power in order to earn God’s favor. . . .(2): The erecting of specific requirements of conduct beyond the teaching of Scripture and making adherence to them the means by which a person is qualified for full participation in the local family of God, the church; This is where unbiblical exclusivism arises.

I think this is an excellent definition, but of course not everyone will be happy with it. Someone commented on the original post about this definition, taking issue with it. As I typed an answer to it, I thought maybe my answer could serve as a post here. His basic objection was to the first part of Piper’s answer. Why shouldn’t people treat biblical standards of conduct as personal regulations? Why is it that such actions are construed as legalism or as “earning favor with God”?

Here then is my answer, minus a few introductory statements:

Chris…. you bring up some valid points. But look at Piper’s definition a little more closely: “Treating biblical standards of conduct as regulations to be kept by our own power in order to earn God’s favor.” Piper has many personal rules of conduct that he keeps out of a desire to please God. He does so from love for God, not a sense of rigorous duty. What’s important I think is “by our own power” . For years I was in a system that taught us to “just do it” . If we were really serious about God we would keep these rules and regulations, most of which went way beyond what was spelled out in Scripture. It was hard to toe the line, and we were encouraged to have character and resolve. Yes we were told to depend on the spirit, but the emphasis was on personal effort.

In keeping those rules we felt that we were truly obeying God. And when we saw others who didn’t keep those same rules, part of us, deep inside, thought we were better than them. We felt we were in a sense earning status with God. Our group was more serious about God then other groups. Why? Because we did this, and that. The emphasis was on us. And we didn’t truly have a perspective of God’s grace and a genuine love for all the brothers and sisters we have in Christ.

This is what Piper is arguing against. And while I often bristled against the term “legalism” too. After I came out of the system and thought more objectively, I realized that legalism really did fit. The focus was externals. Not that those aren’t important, but the very nature of the environment we were in promoted the idea of making sure we look good to others by keeping the community’s rules. Since we judged each other on externals so much, and since externals were harped on in the pulpit so often, it became natural to think this way. We were all, to one degree or another, earning favor and status with God. Yes the Gospel was preached but it was presented as a thing to accept mentally and assent to once, and after that you pay God back, in a sense, by keeping His rules. It was not really presented as something you can live by.

What is missing is that in our own strength we are sure to fall. The rules are hard. And when that was acknowledged we were encouraged to vow to do better, to clench our teeth and determine not to give up, to go forward and recommit ourselves to God during the public invitation. To seek accountability and force ourselves to do it. Often manipulative, human-oriented schemes were used to try to belittle those who didn’t persevere. It was a method to try to encourage them to keep on keeping on. In all of this a focus on Christ was lost. The Gospel is all about the fact we can’t keep God’s rules. We need help. And we have a glorious Savior. From the love He’s given me, and in light of the glorious grace of God giving me what I do not deserve, I can have a Spirit-wrought desire to please Him. With that motivation, the rules of what I do or don’t do, are not burdensome. They don’t even really matter. What matters is my love for Jesus and desire to please Him. If I fall, I know I have an advocate, and I am saddened since I displease Him. And I’m again amazed that He picks me up and helps me keep going.

I hope you can see how this “legalism” can be harmful. It can take our focus off of Christ and onto ourselves. And the 2nd kind of legalism points us to our neighbors. We assess whether they are qualified for me to even consider them part of our church. This is doubly harmful because the standards we’re measuring them by are not even entirely Biblical. They are more often a particular application of a Biblical principle.

I hope this helps explain where we are coming from. Terms like this are inflammatory I know. There’s not much we can do about that. But if you see where our objection is to this kind of thing, maybe it helps you understand why we label it “legalism” and why we are against it.

I’d encourage you to check out C.J. Mahaney’s book The Cross-Centered Life, it has an excellent chapter on legalism.

Blessings,

Bob Hayton

Music Mondays: “How Deep” by Stephen Altrogge

I recommend many modern hymns & contemporary songs for corporate worship. While the old hymns are certainly grand, the new songs God is giving to the church, are worthy of respect too.

~~~~~~

I plan on highlighting some more praise music again.   Every Monday, I will try to post on one of the songs we sang in church the day before.   It’s so easy to leave the spirit of worship at the church on Sunday, and endure the week without it.   Hopefully these posts will help keep us in the spirit of worship all week long.

Today’s song is “How Deep” by Stephen Altrogge (son of Mark Altrogge, whose music I’ve previously highlighted).   Songs like this one, cause us to contemplate more deeply just how great it is that Jesus suffered and died in our place.   The song encourages a genuine heart-felt and knowledgable pouring out of thanks and love to our Savior.   It is a wonderful worship song.

How Deep
Stephen Altrogge

You were broken that I might be healed
You were cast off that I might draw near
You were thirsty that I might come drink
Cried out in anguish that I might sing

How deep is Your love
How high and how wide is Your mercy
How deep is Your grace
Our hearts overflow with praise to You

You knew darkness that I might know light
Wept great tears that mine might be dried
Stripped of glory that I might be clothed
Crushed by Your Father to call me Your own

(repeat chorus)

Words and Music by Stephen Altrogge  ©2006 Sovereign Grace Praise (BMI). Sovereign Grace Music, a division of Sovereign Grace Ministries.

You can see a guitar sheet  with words and chords of the song here.   Or you can download a free copy of the basic piano score (lead sheet), or guitar sheet (as well as purchase a fuller piano score) here.   You can hear a sample of the song for free here.   And I’d encourage you to buy the cd it is on: Valley of Vision.

Football Hall of Famer Art Monk Boasts in the Lord

Recently, Art Monk (along with fellow Washington Redskin Darrell Green) was inducted into the Football Hall of Fame. Instead of boasting in his achievements, however, Art Monk took the opportunity to boast in Jesus. Here is an excerpt from his Hall of Fame induction speech (HT: CJ Mahaney).

…as great as this honor is, it’s not what really defines who I am or the things that I’ve been able to accomplish in my life. …

And even now as a Hall of Famer, the one thing I want to make very clear is that my identity and my security is found in the Lord. And what defines me and my validation comes in having accepted his son Jesus Christ as my personal savior. And what defines me is the Word of God, and it’s the Word of God that will continue to shape and mold me into the person that I know he’s called me to be.

So I’ve learned a long time ago never to put my faith or trust in man, for man will always fail you. Man will always disappoint you. But the Word of God says that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. And He will never fail you.

And that is what I live by and what I stand on….

There’s a scripture that I think about almost every day and I’ve come to personalize it to my life. It says: “Lord, who am I that you are mindful of me?” [Psalm 8:4]. And the Apostle Paul says, “Think of what you were when you were called. Not many were wise by human standards. Not many were influential. Not many were born of noble birth” [1 Corinthians 1:26]. And when I look at my life and how I grew up, I certainly had none of those qualities or benefits.

But I understand and I know that I’m here not by, in, and of my own strength””but it’s by the grace and the power of God upon my life, who I know gave me favor along the way, and who provided opportunity and room for me to use my gifts.

So I am very grateful to receive this honor, and I can stand here before you and say, “Hey, look at me, look at what I did.” But if I’m going to boast, I’m going to boast today in the Lord, for it’s because of him that I’m here and I give him thanks and glory and honor for all that he has done for me.

A pretty good message. And its from a NFL football player! Art Monk was one of the game’s great receivers, but from the looks of it, he also has a great testimony of following Jesus Christ. Check out the full post with more excerpts from the speech, at C.J. Mahaney’s blog.